Hello all! I know it has been a while...and the story kind of sucks. I'm trying my hardest I'm just not the best at this kind of stuff =] Anyway, short announcement to those who actually read this. I will only be able to update once a week. Usually on the weekend (well, my weekend if you live in Libya or somethin') so sorry if it takes forever.

I knew it was ridiculous. As I hid behind my truck as Edward's Volvo parked beside it I hoped to God he wouldn't see me. It was childish but I had thought about things a lot the night before. After I had gone to bed I thought about a few important things like what if this wasn't real? What if Edward was really just doing this as a bet from a friend? It was extremely possible. I mean, yesterday didn't even seem like it was a possibility if it didn't actually happen. Edward wasn't in love with me. That was my conclusion no matter what way I looked at it.

I peeked through the window to the other side. Edward got out of his car and grabbed his books from the passenger seat. I have to admit, he did look pretty good when he bent over and I'm not even an ass type of girl.

Edward looked at my car and smiled a bit. I ducked, hoping he didn't see me. I took a deep breath in relief when I saw him far away talking to a friend.

"That's inconspicuous," A voice commented sarcastically. I looked up and saw a girl with brown hair smiling at me. She held her books in her chest self-consciously. I had never seen her before and she shocked me. She looked…normal.

"Yeah, well it worked," I smiled.

"Was it that boy with the bronze hair?" She had a smile that was in no way suggestive. I was starting to like her.

"Uh yeah," I said. She laughed.

"He's gone. I think you can stand up now," she held out her hand and I took it politely.

"I'm Angela. I just moved here from Illinois," Angela let go of my hand and smiled.

"I'm Bella. Welcome to Forks," she laughed at my unenthusiastic voice. We walked inside together talking about nonsense. I was liking her a lot. Not once did she ask about Edward.

"Well my class is over somewhere so I better go and try to find it," Angela said.

"I could show you where it is," I offered. She shook her head.

"It's fine Bella. You should get ready for your own class," she gave me one more smile and went off. I walked off to my locker like every morning. I thought nothing of anything as I opened it but when a white rose tumbled out and onto my foot my heart went into hyper drive. I picked it up carefully and looked around to see if anyone noticed. Of course no one had.

I ran my fingers along the bumps where nonexistent thorns were. I looked back at the shelf and found a note. With carefully hands I opened it.

Bella,

I hope you're having a wonderful day! Remember what I told you yesterday?

I plan on getting to know you. This might be the cheesy way to go but I'll do whatever I can.

That's a promise.

If you would sit with me at lunch today that would be wonderful. I would ask you in person but I have a feeling you wouldn't really listen. Please consider my offer at least as a friend.

Love, Edward

I rolled my eyes and threw the note away in the trash can. Of course I would listen to him, I did yesterday. I considered sitting with him and figured it couldn't hurt. His friends might though. Maybe I wouldn't. They probably didn't like me anyway. They were all football players and basketball players…and all guys to say the least.

I sat down in geometry and rested my head on my palm. Edward came in just before the bell rang and made it to his seat. The first thing he did was look my way. I watched him watch me with bored eyes. He smiled softly and winked. I could feel a blush rising. That didn't happen often but it was happening more and more recently.

I looked away and the teacher and tried my hardest to understand what she was saying. I could feel Edward's eyes on me and finally I couldn't take it. I stared back at him. For what seemed like a year we did that. Then the bell rang. I blinked a few time and got up. I noticed Edward did the same. He collected his stuff and ran over to me. I don't think he wanted me to slip out before he could catch me.

"Bella," he smiled brilliantly, "good morning."

"Morning Edward," I mumbled. I collected my books in my arms. They were quite heavy. I had forgotten to put my history book in my locker this morning. I had had too much on my mind.

I was about to leave when suddenly Edward took all of the books out of my arms. I looked at him surprised. He held his own and mine with ease, though I could see the muscles in his arms bulging with the weight.

"What are you doing?" I asked him sternly. He grinned at me.

"Carrying your books," he said.

"I can carry my own books," I retorted.

"I know. I want to," he said back and began to walk off. I ran to catch up with him and my backpack slapped my spine noisily.

"Edward! Give me my books back!" I must have been louder than I thought. People in the hall turned to look.

"Great, here they go again," one person muttered. I glared at them feeling rather embarrassed. I backed off a bit on the loud voice but still hissed at Edward.

"Edward, please, please, give me my stuff back. This feels really uncomfortable," I pleaded softly. I think we were getting more glances now because we were walking side-by-side. And he was carrying my books with a million dollar grin.

After a few more times of me trying to rip my books of his hands we made it to my locker and he finally handed over my books. I opened the locker and saw the rose, remembering a question that I thought of earlier.

"Thanks. Hey, how did you get into my locker this morning anyway?" I asked. He shrugged and smiled, leaning against the locker next to mine.

"You can go away now," I told him.

"That's one of the things I love about you," Edward said. He tilted his head and rested it against the locker, "how rude you are to me when you're really flustered with my chivalry."

"I'm not flustered," I stuttered as I tried to jam a book into my locker. Edward smirked and reached out a hand, running it down my cheek. His touch felt extremely cool to my skin. I looked into his green eyes.

"You were. Of course you didn't get the fortunate opportunity to see your face when we were walking together down the hall. You turned to a tomato," his smile widened. I glared at him.

"That's a way to woo a girl," I hissed sarcastically, "Say she looks like a vegetable. Yeah, that makes me feel all tingly inside." Edward's face fell a bit.

"I didn't mean it Bella," he said.

"Yeah, I'm sure you didn't," I said honestly, "now I think you should get to class."

"Are you taking up my offer at lunch?" He asked hopeful. I thought for a moment. They wondered off to Angela and how she was keeping up. I figured I should try to sit with her just in case she hadn't found anyone with a real face and body yet.

"Maybe not," I said. I watched as he frowned. A line creased into his forehead and his green eyes smoldered, "I mean, there's this new girl and I want her to feel as comfortable as possible. Maybe later Edward."

He nodded, "Or she could sit with us." I shook my head.

"I don't want her tainted by your friends," I said. He laughed.

"They won't taint her. Besides, I wasn't offering you to come sit with them anyway," Edward said. I furrowed my eyebrows.

"You weren't considering sitting alone were you?" I asked.

"Would that be a problem?" I looked away from him and busied myself with grabbing all my books needed for the next class.

"That's just strange for us. It'll look weird," I concluded. He scoffed.

"You're worried that we'd look weird? Just because we happened to not get along before? I don't care Bella. People can believe what they want and spread rumors about what they want," he turned my shoulders so I faced him, "I know the truth. And so do you now. It won't be so weird after a while." Edward ran a finger up my arm. It made me shiver. Both, out of the creeps and satisfaction. He was quite charming.

"Fine. I'm going to ask Angela if she would like to sit with us," he smiled again and kissed my cheek briefly before practically skipping down the hallway.

I must confess I was a bit giddy inside. My cheek tingled for a long time after that, just reminding me of his lips. But I couldn't think about that. Like before, I didn't know anything about him. He could be playing me for all I knew. Soon after that thought the giddiness was gone. Who was I kidding. I was plain. No one had ever professed love to me, so why would someone like Edward do it now? I wasn't worth his time and he wasn't worth mine. But I would play his little game just to ease his entertainment.

Finally after a few hours of class it was lunch. Angela met me at my locker so I didn't have to come find her.

"Hiya!" she smiled widely.

"You are looking mighty happy," I commented.

"I am!" she squealed, "you didn't tell me the guys here were so nice!" I gave her a confused look. Since when were the guys nice?

"Nice?" I asked. She nodded like a bobble head.

"Yeah, Ben Cheney. He's a dream, Bella. He's in my History class and we clicked right away," I stared at her. Ben Cheney? I had never heard that name before.

"Is he new too?" I asked. She furrowed her eyebrows.

"Um…no? He said he lived here his whole life," she said.

"Huh," I breathed.

"You never noticed him?" she asked.

"Guess not," I packed away the rest of my books and closed my locker.

"Anyway, I figured I was sitting with you at lunch…sooo…I hoped you wouldn't mind if I invited him to sit with us too," she let it linger in the air and I nodded.

"Of course, it's a free country," I smiled. She matched my smile and we were off to lunch.

Angela had met up with her man in the lunch line. I was surprised to say the least. He had really been in our school the whole time? He was cute. In a geeky sort of way. Not too bad on the eyes though. He wasn't unnatural either. Ben was a really down to earth kind of guy. I could tell he was perfect for Angela even if I had met them both that very day.

After meeting Ben it made me wonder if a lot more people were like that in school and I just chose to ignore that, only seeing what I wanted to see; fake, plastic, and people with mistakes. Was I really that unobservant? Was Edward one of those people I was just ignorant about?

I thought all about this as I strayed to an empty table. Angela and Ben spoke shyly to each other behind me. I didn't realize until a few minutes later that someone else had joined us.

"You look like you're thinking hard about something," a velvet voice said. My eyes shot to the seat across from me. Edward grinned crookedly at me.

"I was," I hinted.

"I'm sorry. Just wanted to let you know I was here," he pulled a hand from under the table and produced another white rose. I could feel my face heating up again. Edward set the rose on my tray.

"Just to make the slop more appealing," he grinned. I could feel my face twitch into its own smile.

"Thank you, Edward," I said.

"You are very welcome, Bella," he said. I looked down at my meal. Today's special was spaghetti and I swear the meat sauce was made out of cat. At least it tasted like cat…or what I think cat would taste like.

I twirled my fork around some noodles and glanced at Edward's empty hands.

"Aren't you going to eat?" I asked. He looked at my food and made a face.

"Not that food," he said. I laughed a bit.

"Then go grab an apple. I don't want you to starve," I said. The corner of his lip turned and he squinted his eyes.

"Are you worried about my well being?"

"Yes," I sighed. He smiled.

"I'm fine Bella, I'll eat when I get home," Edward reassured. I nodded not in the mood to argue. There was a comfortable silence for a few moments as I choked down some stale cold noodles.

"So Bella, would you mind playing twenty questions?" Edward asked. I shrugged.

"Sure, if you find that helpful," I said.

"Very. I go first," he said.

"Fire away," I gulped some milk.

"What's your favorite color?" He asked. I looked at him oddly.

"Um…anything spontaneous? I don't know…macaroni yellow," I said.

"Macaroni yellow?" He mused. I nodded.

"My turn," I leaned forward, "how many girlfriends have you had?"

"Well you don't go for simple questions do you?" Edward said.

"Are you avoiding the question?"

"None," he said.

"What?"

"None. I've never had an official girlfriend. And don't say it," he held up a hand as I was about to speak, "no, I don't just have flings with them either. I'm not the player you think I am." Or he's just a liar.

"Okay, sure Edward." I left it at that.

"What's that supposed to mean?" He said.

"It means I believe you," I said.

"No you don't," he said shaking his head.

"How do you know?" I defended.

"You won't look me in the eye and when you speak you look like you're holding back from saying more," I looked up at him. I was starting to get creeped out.

"How do you know so much about me?" I asked.

"I pay attention Bella. You tend to do that a lot when you love someone," he said. I rubbed my eye.

"whatever, next question," I said. He looked at me for a moment longer before asking his next question. It went on for most of lunch. They were stupid nonsense questions like 'If you died what animal would you want to be reincarnated into?' or 'do you believe in Martians?' Finally it was down to his last question.

"Bella, will you come to my house for dinner tonight?" He asked with perfect ease. I, however, almost choked on my milk.

"It's a bit soon for me to be meeting the family don't you think? I mean, don't we have to get to the stage where we both like each other first?" I asked. He looked a bit hurt for a moment. I'm guessing it was the mention of my unloving heart.

"Bella love, you can come over as a friend. You're not coming over to announce we're engaged," I shuddered at the thought of getting married at 16. My shudder must have been obvious because a frown set deeper into Edward's face.

"Please Bella," Edward pleaded. I sighed.

"I don't know if it'll be okay with Charlie but I'll see," I was making no promise though. He smiled brightly.

"It's your last question," he mentioned. I scratched my head trying to think of a good one, but came up blank. I looked around the lunch room thinking it might help. A brunette glaring daggers my way was the answer.

"What did you tell Jessica in the parking lot the other day? I saw her walk up to you. She looked really upset," he seemed to think about that one for a moment. Surely he was editing, not wanting to tell the truth.

"What do you think she wanted?" He asked. I shook my head.

"It was your question, you answer it," I pressured. He looked down and back up.

"She was telling me she wanted me and we were meant to be. She wanted to know if everything she did, changing her clothes and friends, were for nothing. I said yeah, and to leave me alone," Edward said. I was sure it wasn't the whole story, but I let this one slide as well.

The lunch bell chimed, and it was over. I had totally forgotten Ben and Angela were there until Angela gave me a hug and bid me a good rest of the day.

Edward stretched across the table, his button up shirt riding up revealing his belly button. I blushed a bit but couldn't look away. Edward finally straightened his shirt and said, "Bella, I was wondering if I could have your number so you can tell me if you can come over and I can tell you what time." Very smooth way of asking for it. I obliged anyway. I made it clear to him that it would have to be okay with Charlie though.

Unfortunately, and fortunately, it was. I was going to Edward's for dinner. With Edward. And Edward's family. His family. Everything was moving so fast.

Review if you would. I'd also like to know what I can do better. I feel like I'm loosing this story and it's only the beginning :(