Disclaimer: I do not own Twilight; it is the property of Stephenie Meyer. The original characters and plot are mine. I am in no way associated with the owners, creators, or producers of any media franchise. No copyright infringement is intended.

Thanks to my lovely Beta Biddy429 !!!

Chapter 12

Him

As I took my seat next to him, I decided then to ask him what was wrong. I turned around and looked him in the eye. I had already calculated what line of questioning I was going to take which would lead me to my ultimate question. When our eyes met however all my plans disappeared into nothing and I completely forgot what I was going to say or do, heck I could have forgotten my own name! Wow, his eyes!!!

"Bella?" he asked smiling at me but with a concerned look in his eyes!

"I was just wondering, what's with the sudden shift in you. I mean the first day we meet, you death glare me and now you're being sweet and really nice to me" I blurted out and blushed deeply remembering how I was supposed to be subtle about this. He looked hurt and I immediately regretted my plan and my blunt words. I stared at my books and tried not to think of how stupid I had sounded. I thought to myself "how stupid am I?"

"I'm sorry about that, I had just found out about some family problems and I didn't mean to take it out on you" He said, avoiding eye contact with me. Was he lying? I pushed that thought away, no surely not; well anyway at least he wasn't mad that I was being quite rude!

I decided to be flippant, "No worries, I was just planning on becoming friends with your entire family and making them all love me so it would make it really awkward for you to hate me. I must say however, you have foiled my evil plans, because now you do not seem to hate me after all, how could you?" I said rambling on about nothing and yet somehow embarrassing myself. I smiled up at him once again and was lost in his eyes, they glowing just like some of Renee's amber jewellery.

"Well I am very sorry to ruin all of your evil plans" He said chuckling. I managed to look away as a happy smile crept over my face. Just then, Mr. Varner entered the room with a few students behind him carrying a bunch of work sheets in his hand, I just knew today was going to be an easy class.

"Worksheet time!" I cheered with false enthusiasm. Edward chuckled at my actions. We were told to work our way through worksheets he had handed out. I quickly read over the instructions and almost groaned aloud, it was so easy! Finishing the work in less than 20 minutes I tried to not to draw attention to the fact that I was done. Nothing is worse than letting everyone know you were finished long before them, they would all take it the wrong way and think I was showing off!

"Done?" Edward asked looking over at me and I noticed he had finished too. I nodded and began to work on my sketch of Jasper and Alice; Edward looked over and smiled whilst I finished it. Edward whispered quietly "Looks great, I'm sure they are going to love it. Actually they were showing the first one to us all at home after you gave it to them." I blushed at the praise and thought about how rude I was for only doing drawings of Alice and Jasper.

"I guess it wasn't very nice of me to only do one of them" I said thinking to myself that I could probably do one with Emmett and Rosalie then another of Esme and Carlisle, but if I did one of Edward it would have to be a solo as he does not seem to have a partner like the rest of them and maybe I could just do a family one. I was completely lost in my thoughts until the bell rang, then I got up, organized my books and looked around to see where Erik was.

Just then Edward walked over to me and said "Would you like to walk with me to next class, I could carry your books for you?" he asked and I smiled at him nodding. It was less work for Erik and he had seemed happy to help. I don't suppose he minded much otherwise he would not have asked, I was pleased that he had offered and I would not have refused him but I did wonder why he was being so nice! I wish I could just accept someone being nice to me at times without reading too much into it! I walked out of the classroom then with Edward at my side.

"Edward?" I asked as we walked, he looked at me obviously waiting for me to continue, "I was wondering..." I started to feel the blush rise in my cheeks, I stopped and tried to think straight. I was trying so hard thinking of how to phrase the words I wanted to say, I managed to trip over nothing, I didn't hurt myself, thank god but I just rolled my eyes in self disgust. Edward put a hand out to steady me and when I managed to straighten myself up I said "That day in class, when we first met I could have sworn your eyes were black, did you get contacts?" He seemed startled at my question.

"No." He said his voice cold and his face blank like a mask and I was confused by the sudden shift. We had reached my next class, Erik was standing by the door so Edward handed him my books then turned and walked to his own class.

Erik and I just stared after him. "What's with him?" Erik asked.

"Dunno, but he sure is odd, talk about blowing hot and cold..." I commented and just shook my head as Erik chuckled and we walked into class. I could not get it out of my head how confusing Edward was, one minute he was being nice and pleasant and then he seemed quite sour, just when I ask him a simple question, I mean it was just about a pair of contacts........ or was there something else, something he didn't want anyone to know, maybe he was sick, like dying sick.

Oh, I hope not, how crass would he think I was? No, it couldn't be that, but then again he was pale, no, his entire family were pale, almost eerily pale. I wondered if he would do or say something else that might lead me to find out what was wrong with him, if there was something wrong. I hoped I would get to talk to him again, ask him more questions and find out what was or was not bothering him. Maybe he had a secret, I hoped I could find out if he had, even if it was sad or painful, no matter, I wanted to find out and now I had a mission. I would find out everything there was to know about him and complete my mission. Yes, that's what I was going to do!

Why was I so obsessed with Edward? As I drove home that day I couldn't get him out of my head. I had a pad full of sketches of him and his family to prove that. Embarrassing as it was to admit, I had been drawing his whole family since it had occurred to me that what could be wrong with him might be true of the whole family. I mean they were not genetically related and yet they were similar in ways that didn't make sense.

Their eye colouring was similar, but from what I have seen so far this seemed to be common amongst them, as did the pale skin not to mention how beautiful each of them were. Very odd indeed. Maybe they were fey, mythical and immortal. Maybe they all suffered from the same debilitating illness and Carlisle had adopted them all for that reason then on a more sensible note I thought perhaps they were all born as partially albino, but that too did not seem right however it was the best I could come up with considering I had absolutely no information to go on. Besides it was far more logical than they were all dying of the same disease or all had the same illness or were mythological creatures. Pushing these random thoughts away as I pulled into the driveway I walked into the house thinking of what I would make for dinner. I felt like having finger food tonight and began to cut up vegetables and fruit. I was busily preparing the good and began to cut up the meat and cheese when I remembered the last time I had done this and before I knew it I had sank to the floor and was sobbing uncontrollably.

I didn't hear Charlie come in, "Bella?" Charlie's voice called out to me and he knelt down to wrap me in his arms as I tried desperately to suppress the emotions. "Let it out Bella, you haven't dealt with anything since Jacksonville and that's not healthy" He said as he rubbed circles on my back. I let the heartbreaking sobs tear from me as I collapsed in his arms. Everything that I had done my best to bury came up again and I mourned.

I don't know how long we sat there huddled together in grief but at least a tiny bit of the pain I had felt had gone.