A/N: Unfortunately, I own nothing. I just wanted to borrow everyone for a little while. I'll give them back as soon as I'm finished with this little project.

I don't have any beta for this story; so all errors are my own.

Chapter 4

Edward POV

I spent an entire week working on our experiment and thinking about Bella. I don't know which of the two was more frustrating.

On the serum side, things were looking good. I had been able to recreate the results fourteen times thus far. The family all agreed we were ready to bring it to the next phase. That's where the agreement ended. We couldn't come to a consensus about what that next phase would be.

Jasper and Rosalie were adamant that it would be a bad idea to inject an animal of any kind. Jasper was concerned that we would never be able to control an animal newborn while Rose felt it was cruel to subject any animal to that type of testing. It was one thing to drink its blood and kill it humanely (at least in her mind we killed humanely) but to change without being able to reason with it was unimaginable to her.

Alice was unable to see any future with animals. Humans she could see. Vampires, she could easily see. She reasoned that perhaps it was because she had never been an animal that she couldn't see its future. Or because we hadn't decided which animal we would use. Either way, she remained neutral on the matter until we made a selection and then she would try again.

Esme wasn't sold on the whole idea of the serum. She claimed it posed to many questions about her family's safety. "We don't know that it will work on a person and I certainly don't want to offer up one of my family to test the theory. Also, how will it revert us—to our original state prior to changing, to a healthy version of ourselves at the age we changed—to the age we should be currently? There are too many questions to be answered before I will agree to this."

Emmett's thoughts were clear, "I'll go first. Why not! It's an adventure—and if it works, Rose will have the life she always wanted."

Carlisle acknowledged everyone's concerns and, ever the diplomat, kept putting everyone off with the fact that we were nowhere close to the actual injection.

As for me, I couldn't wait to get started and would have already tried it on myself if we could just get the injection piece under control. What did I have to lose? Nothing but a life of loneliness and unquenchable thirst. But then, my mind would drift to Bella.

I had never seen a more beautiful girl in my 100 plus years of life. I was drawn to her in every way possible. She consumed my thoughts. Carlisle and I spoke about the effect she had on me and my fears about needed to drink her in. I was mortified to admit to my father that I was so close to breaking the code we lived by. But as always, he assured me that he had confidence in me and knew I was capable of overcoming my desire—and possibly putting them to a better purpose. We agreed that I would head back to school this on Monday and make an attempt to be near her.

I knew my siblings were spending time with her—they come home each afternoon doused in her scent and their thoughts are flooded with conversations from the lunchroom with Bella. She's perfect! She fits in with my family in a way no human ever could. She's funny, and intelligent, and a bit of a wise ass! Emmett's thoughts in particular make me smile. He thinks of her as a little sister already and loves to tease her.

By Monday morning, I was determined to become friends with Bella and it would begin as soon as I saw her.

Walking into school, I moved to my locker and noticed Bella a few yards away from me, chatting with Angela Webber. Yet another reason to want to get to know Bella—she chose her friends well. Angela was a kind soul with nothing horrible to say, or think, about any of her classmates. So unlike the Jessicas and Laurens of the school. She and Bella were discussing an upcoming test in history on World War I. I could offer her some insight into the world at that time. Maybe I could pass myself off as a lover of that time period (not that it's true, I have lived through many better times in my long life). No, I would wait until lunch when she sat with my family.

Starting my day with calculus, where I had to pretend to be learning along with the rest of the students and that the teacher was the expert he passed himself off as, was the most frustrating on a good day. Today, I was ready to jump out the window just for some fun. French was with Rose and Em, who kept telling me to calm down. The rest of my morning Rose, Em, and I took advanced French together after math. The rest of the morning dragged on and on through art, gym, and English.

Finally, lunch! I moved into the crowded cafeteria and immediately felt the tug from Bella. My eyes moved quickly over to the salad bar and watched as she loaded her bowl with vegetables. My sisters were an either side of her plating similar bowls while Jasper and Emmett were sitting at our usual table. I grabbed an apple from the line and moved to the table as the girls arrived.

"Hey Em. Hi Jasper. How've your mornings been?" Bella was asking my brothers but looking at me out of the corner of her eye.

"Ah, you know, Bells—math sucks, history's boring, but at least I can sleep through English," Emmett joked.

"Nice, Emmett. No wonder you flunked the last quiz," Rosalie scolded. I smirked—Em always tried to tank a few quizzes a semester. Bella sat at the table and picked at her lunch the rest of us kept the conversation going about Emmett's lack of scholastic motivation. His argument was that as the jock of the family it was his duty to keep up appearances. Of course, it was all for show. Emmett held four undergraduate degrees (business, finance, philosophy, and biology), four graduate degrees (business administration, economics, physical therapy, and kinesiology) and two PhD's (again physical therapy and economics). What can I say; we were a driven group of vampires!

Lunch was winding down but Bella had remained quiet throughout. She kept stealing glances at me. After a few minutes, Alice piped up, "Oh, where are my manners. Bella, this is my brother, Edward! I think you both have the next class together."

"Yes, we have biology together. I'm sorry I had to run out last week. I wasn't feeling… err… quite myself. Did I miss much last week?"

Bella looked at me in surprise. "I… uh… no. Just some review of the stages of mitosis. Pretty basic."

"Good. I would hate to have to play catch up." Just then, the bell rang alerting us that it was time to move on to the next class. "Are you walking straight to class?"

Bella nodded.

"Can we walk together?"

"Yeah, sure."

Bella POV

What the hell! How is this the same guy that looked like he wanted to kill me last week? And could he be any more beautiful! I had to make conversation otherwise, I would just stare at him. Not the best option if I wanted to make it to class without running into any lockers or, you know, walls. "Are you feeling better now? More like yourself?"

"Yes, I'm feeling better," he laughed lightly. Oh what I wouldn't do to hear that sound again. "I apologize for my behavior last week."

"No problem."

"So, are you settling in at Forks?"

"Yeah. It's been ok. Different from Phoenix, but that's not a bad thing."

"Why did you leave Phoenix?"

"Long story, short—my mom remarried."

"And you don't like your step-father?"

"No. Phil's great. It's just that he plays baseball in the minors and Mom wanted to travel with him. She was torn between staying with me and spending time with Phil, so I made the choice easier for her. I hadn't lived with my dad in a long time and wanted to get to know him before I went to college." Why did I just go into all of that? He certainly didn't care about why I moved here, really. He was just being polite, right?

We were in class now and settled into our seats. Just as class began, he leaned over to me and whispered, "Well, I'm glad you decided to move here!"

That week passed quickly as did the next and the next and before I knew it we were in March. Edward and I spent time together at lunch with his siblings, walking to biology, and then in class. That was where our time ended. I was enjoying getting to know him, but something seemed off. Like there was something he didn't want to tell me, but I was willing to let it go. I would let just about anything go if it meant I got to spend time with Edward.

He was unlike any other guy my age. He was exceedingly polite and intelligent. He was able to carry on a conversation without bringing up sports or relying on fart humor. I was completely taken with him and I knew it. Now, I just needed to figure out how to spend time with him outside of school.

Alice, Rose, and I had gotten together a couple of times over the past month. They had been to my place several times—Dad was fond of both the girls and thrilled that I was spending time with a family that kept out of trouble. Today was the first time I was going to their house. Alice wanted to go through some dress options for an upcoming dance. I would rather stick eat slugs, but if it gave me a chance to see Edward outside of school, I was game.

As I pulled up to the house, I was in awe. It was a beautiful house that fit perfectly with its surroundings. Alice danced to the front door and welcomed me to the house. The interior was unbelievable. The natural light soaked in to the house from every direction making the home light and airy. The white walls and pale furniture added to the ethereal feeling.

We exhausted ourselves sorting through Alice's closet and then Rose's. They both insisted that I try on dresses with them for fun and by the time three hours passed, each of us must have tried on thirty dresses.

I came out of Rose's bathroom in the most elegant dark blue gown I had ever seen. The dress was strapless and fit me like a glove with a bit of black embroidery down the left side of my chest diagonally to the hip. Rose turned to me a smiled while Alice stopped what she was doing and started jumping up and down. "That's the one!"

"One what?"

"The dress you're going to wear to the dance," Alice stated.

"Alice, I'm not going to the dance."

Alice rolled her eyes at me, "Don't be ridiculous. Of course you're going. We're all going." Rose just shrugged her shoulders as if to say don't fight her on it. I was beginning to realize that Alice always got her way.

"Not only am I the worst dancer in the world, I don't have a date."

"I'll be your date"

I turned and saw the bronze hair and topaz eyes that I dreamed of at night. Edward was smiling at me. "So, shall we go to the dance together?"