Disclaimer: again, if you recognize it, it's not mine!

Chapter 2—Bella P.o.V.

Bella woke up on the first day of her junior year with a major headache. She groaned as she rolled out of bed and made her way to the bathroom. She showered, brushed her teeth, changed, and ran the comb through her hair. Once she deemed herself adequately presentable she made her way downstairs. Waiting in the kitchen was a tray of warm muffins (they were still smoking!), a pot of coffee, orange juice, and apples. Sitting on the counter were three lunch boxes, each with a name inscribed beautifully on the side. Bella let out a contented sigh and sat down to have her breakfast.

Just as Bella finished up her breakfast, a teenage boy came running down the stairs, muttering something about being late on his first day of school. Bella laughed as she put her dishes in the dishwasher. She grabbed the lunchbox with her name on it, put it by the door, next to her backpack, and went back to the kitchen, to sit by the blond boy who'd descended the stairs so loudly.

"Jazz, are you OK? You look like you are going to choke on your coffee!"

The boy, Jasper, set down his mug, made a rather rude gesture at Bella, and proceeded to grabbing a muffin and biting into it. His mouth instantly fell open and he spat it out when he realized just how hot it was. Bella snickered while she handed him a glass of cold milk; she had seen that coming.

"Come on, Muffin-Boy. We have to leave soon. Is Rosalie up yet? If she doesn't come down seen we'll have to leave without her, and I'd rather not face her if we did that."

But before the words were all out of Bella's mouth, the beautiful blonde she had just been talking about came down the stairs, graceful as ever. For the millionth time, Bella sighed in jealousness. Rosalie had everything, in her eyes. She was tall, beautiful, graceful, smart, good at sports… Bella looked down at her long brown hair, small frame (she was only five foot four!), and many, many bruises. To say Bella was clumsy was an understatement.

"Morning, Bella. Did I just hear you suggest you leave without me?"

Bella shivered under Rosalie's gaze. Rosalie was very scary when she got angry, and it was very, very, very hard to gain her trust and friendship. For years, Bella had been deathly afraid of Rosalie. It was only recently that the older girl had warmed up to her and had accepted her.

"Of course not. I was just telling Jasper to go make sure you were awake. Now that we're all here, shall we go?"

Rosalie shrugged, grabbed her lunchbox, her backpack, and her purse and made her way towards the garage. Bella followed, and Jasper brought up the rear. He locked the door as he left and then proceeded to throwing his backpack in the trunk of Rosalie's red convertible. That instantly earned him a few choice expletives from Rosalie, whose car was the most important thing in her life (quickly followed by her boyfriend, Emmett McCarty), and from Bella, who had been so startled by the noise the bag made as it fell in the trunk that she had tripped and fallen flat on the ground.

"Aw, Bella, I'm sorry," Jasper said, offering her a hand to help her up. She took it and pulled herself up, frowning at him. She got in the car, taking the passenger seat, leaving Jasper to sit in the back.

"Fine, be that way! I'll take shotgun on the way back home, though!"

Neither Bella nor Rosalie answered, both simply rolling their eyes. Rosalie turned on the radio to a station playing the song of the summer. Appeased, she finally pulled out of the garage, getting them to the school by the time the song was coming to an end. Bella would never understand why Rosalie always turned on the radio before going to school if the ride only took two minutes.

"OK, guys, here's the deal. I have a date with Emmett tonight, to celebrate that we're finally back from Alaska. This means I have to get home as soon as possible to get dressed. Unless you are here by the time I get to the car, you are walking home. Got it?"

Bella and Jasper nodded. The Hales had family up in Alaska, and every summer they went to visit them for the whole summer. They had only gotten in the previous evening, and Rosalie could not wait one more second to see the love of her life. As soon as she saw his Jeep pull into the parking lot she ran towards him. Bella watched with fascination, as she did every time, as the six foot five tower of muscle that had half the school population scared to death was reduced to a puddle of goo simply by the appearance of the fearsome Rosalie.

"Come on, Bells. Didn't you have to go to the office about your schedule?" asked Jasper, pulling her along, towards the school building. Bella's eyes widened as she remembered.

"That's right! I still can't believe they put me in Phys. Ed. again. Did the fact that I broke three different bones last year, just in the first semester, not teach them that I cannot do sports? Seriously."

Jasper did his best to hide his laughter, but he could not help himself.

"I do recall more than three broken bones last year, Bells."

"Yes," replied Bella, suddenly somber and quiet, "but those were not from school."

Jasper's eyes widened and he instantly paled, making him appear almost translucent. He put a hand on Bella's shoulder and, when she did not pull away, pulled her in for a hug. She held him tightly for a few seconds before pulling away, a smile on her face once again.

"Well, come on! Do you want me to go to the office with you? Maybe I could testify for your clumsiness."

"No, that's OK," answered Bella lightly, "I don't think they'll require evidence. They are the ones that have to call the doctor one a week because of me, remember?"

Shaking his head in amusement, Jasper squeezed her hand before letting go to go find his homeroom. Along the way, he saw Lauren Mallory standing in the middle of the hallway with two new students. They were good looking, and, from their clothes, were probably rather well off, so it made sense that Lauren would want to talk to them. What did not match Lauren's usual course of action was that the girl—she was a pretty little thing, short and pixie looking—was signing to the boy. One of them was deaf. He made a mental note to tell Bella, looked at the pixie girl one last time, and finally made his way to his classroom.

In the office, Bella was not having much success with changing her schedule.

"Mrs. Cope, you know perfectly well that Phys. Ed. is a hazard to my health. I don't need a doctor's note for that! How many times have you had to take me to the E.R.?"

"Not as many as your father, I'm sure, and you don't get a doctor's note to get out of that!"

Bella froze. All the blood left her face, leaving her pale and dizzy. Mrs. Cope did not look as if she realized what she had just said, so Bella assumed she had not meant it in the way she had interpreted it. Either way, she did not want to spend one more second there. She grabbed her bag and turned around, leaving the office as quickly as she could. She did not even notice the two very pale new students waiting behind her.

She made her way to her homeroom and sat down heavily, glad that the homerooms were alphabetized by last name; she did not feel as if she could face Jasper just then. Her homeroom teacher, Mr. Banner, was going to be her biology teacher this year. She groaned, remembering his tediously slow teaching pace. She would sleep through the entire semester, she was sure.

After the typical beginning of the year speeches (don't dress like you're at the beach, no PDA , no smoking, no drinking, no fighting…), which everybody ignored, they were dismissed to their classes. Since Jasper was a year older than her—a senior—, she only had art and Phys. Ed. with him. However, there was a new girl sitting right in front of her.

"Hi! I'm Alice Cullen. It's very nice to meet you. Who are you?"

"I'm Bella," she said, shyly. Bella was not very fond of being the center of attention. She was not popular and she knew it, and so she tried to stay out of the way of the "in" people, such as Lauren, out of precaution. It seemed Alice Cullen had everything Lauren looked for in a member of her clique.

"So, what do you know about this Mr. Mason? Is he a fun teacher? Is the class easy? What are we going to read? Would you like to come to my house today after school? Maybe we can hang out and you can tell me everything about this school!"

Bella stared at Alice in shock. How could such a small girl hold so much air in her lungs, to get all that out without breathing? She was so amazed at the speed with which Alice had spoken that she did not even process what she had said for a few seconds, so she simply began to answer her questions.

"Well, I know some people who had him last year… Apparently he is a very easy grader, with really low expectations from his students. I don't think he's very fun, though. None of the teachers here really are. It's kind of sad, though, because you could do so much fun stuff with Pride and Prejudice, which is what we're going to read right now."

Alice nodded along until she got to the end and did not answer her last question.

"So, would you like to come to my house?"

"You are serious?" Bella asked, surprised. She could not imagine somebody being so outgoing and friendly so as to invite somebody they'd only just met to their house. She was very trusting.

"I don't think I can. My dad's expecting me home. Maybe some other time. He doesn't like my going out on weekdays."

Truth was, he did not like her going out at all… Good thing he never really took much notice anyway.

"Maybe this weekend? You could show me around. I hear there are some cool stores in Port Angeles."

Bella shrugged. She was not one for shopping, and, even though she had grown up in Forks, the only shops she really knew about in Port Angeles were the bookstore and the music store. She did not want to admit this to the pixie in front of her, however. She seemed very nice, and few people were so friendly to her; she did not want her to realize their social circles did not usually meet.

"It's a shopping date, then! I'll pick you up at eight. Be ready to shop 'til you drop!"

Bella stared at Alice in amazement, her mouth wide open. Had she agreed to the shopping trip without realizing it?

"Look, Alice, that's really nice and all, but I'm kind of broke. Maybe you should ask somebody else…"

"Don't you want to go with me?" asked Alice, her face instantly saddening, her green eyes tearing up.

"No, that's not it at all! If you want, I'll go with you. I just can't really go shopping."

"That's OK," replied Alice, her eyes instantly dry and her smile back on her face, "I'll treat you."

"What? Alice, you can't do that. You don't even know me!"

"Come on, it will be like payment for showing me around. It will be fun. I promise."

Before Bella had time to tell her that she could not let her pay for her, and that maybe she should ask Lauren or Jessica Stanley to go shopping with her. Mr. Mason came in and started his lecture, effectively quieting her qualms. But Bella was not going to give up like that. She would talk to Alice again later.

Thanks to theadventurer, purple is my color, kdcullen, VAmpGUrl112, JazzyJasper, Bookworm365, IntrepidLlama, Paris Tokyo, Love for Romance, Alyria Phoenix, Anonymous freak, iWant2BaMonsterToo, Wolfy Pup, Chicki Babie, xBLOODYxDEATHx, EvonGreen07, CullenistFanpire, and UltravioletSpark for their encouragement.

Special thanks to:

HONVampyreChick—I'm glad you like my writing style! Few people take the time to remark on anything but the plot, and I love it when people take notice of my work. Thanks so much!

5tarRach6330—I actually spotted some mistakes after you pointed this out, but thanks nonetheless… in fact, it was your saying that there were no mistakes that led me to re-re-read it, so thank you!

BroadwayBound96—I already expressed my gratitude in the P.M., but I thought I would thank you again, more publicly, for the wonderful compliment. It puts a smile on my face whenever I read it!

Questions:

EvonGreen07—Edward was born deaf; like most people who were born deaf, he never learned to speak and so, in a way, he is dumb. He does have the ability to speak, he just does not know how to.

CullensitFanpire—Edward's teacher knows ASL, but most of the other teachers don't.

THANKS TO EVERYONE WHO READ!