Disclaimer: I don't own anything except for the stuff you don't notice, everything else belongs to Gemma Malley and Stephenie Meyer.
Chapter three
The new surplus, Bella decided almost immediately, was going to have trouble fitting in and learning his place. And if he thought that it was funny and clever to tell lies and to talk about people's parents as if they weren't selfish criminals, then he would learn soon enough that those kinds of things lead to Solitary or a beating.
She had ignored him completely after his inappropriate comments about her parents, which had made her both irritable and uncomfortable.
But whenever she turned a corner, he seemed to be there, looking at her with those challenging eyes and making her feel awkward; even though he was the new one and if anyone should be feeling awkward it was him.
And so she wasn't particularly pleased when, a few days later on her way to Female stockroom 2, she found him waiting in the corridor just outside the sanatorium, which was also on floor 2, along with most of the female dormitories.
Grange Hall corridors were very long, covering the width of the building. There were five storeys, including the basement –floor 0 housed the training rooms, central feeding and Mrs. Denali's office; Floor 1 housed the boy's dormitories with ten large rooms accommodating between ten and twenty occupants each (you could fit more Middles in a dormitory than Pendings, particularly the younger ones) and two bathrooms; Floor 2 housed the girls in a similar way.
Floor 3 housed the smalls and the Domestics, who were Legals that performed any cleaning and cooking tasks that weren't taken care of by surpluses, and whose job it was to care for the smalls, although 'care' didn't come into it much.
Every room and corridor was decorated in the same way –pale grey walls, darker grey concrete floors, fluorescent lighting and thin radiators which had been fitted when Grange Hall served a different purpose; now they were permanently turned off because surpluses, Mrs. Denali said, had no right to central heating.
The low ceiling and triple-glazed windows, each covered by a long, grey vertical blind, kept in the heat as well as excluding the outside; security cameras on the perimeter walls screened every visitor to the Hall and ensured that no one could leave unseen.
When Bella came across Edward, she was on her way to replenish the stock cupboard, one of her jobs as a prefect, and in her hand she was carrying a detailed list of how many tubes of toothpaste and bars of soap had been used in the past month by the surpluses in her dormitory.
One tube or bar too many, and they would all be made to work extra hours to make up for the squandering of essential resources.
Bella's dormitory never went over their quota, she made sure of that.
She looked at Edward, narrowing her eyes slightly as she passed him, and it was only when he said her name that she reluctantly stopped.
"Bella" he said softly "Bella Swan"
She stared at him angrily.
"Surplus Bella" she corrected him "Please don't use words from the outside in Grange Hall, and please don't pretend that you know my parents, because as far as I'm concerned I don't have any"
Edward looked at her uncomprehendingly his eyes making her shift uncomfortably on her feet because she wasn't used to anyone scrutinized her like that.
"So what goes on in here, then?" he asked looking at the door to the sanatorium.
"Health checks" Bella said curtly "You'll be checked for any weaknesses and given vaccinations against diseases. And weighed. Surpluses have a duty to maintain their health so as not to burden the earth any further with illness."
Edward raised his eyebrows "I thought surpluses weren't allowed drugs. I thought they wanted surpluses to die off as quickly as possible."
His voice was low and had an edge to it and Bella found herself getting unusually warm.
"Of course surpluses can't have drugs" she said crossly, "Vaccinations are preventive, not curative"
She found her eyes drawn to Edward, drawn to his dark agitated eyes, his pale skin, his defiant chin. Quickly she forced herself to look away.
"Being surplus means that you have to limit your impact on the earth," she said with a sigh. "They don't want us dead. They just don't want us spreading disease, or being too weak to be useful."
"And you're 'useful'?" Edward asked softly.
Bella frowned. "Of course. I'm set to be a valuable asset. They're the most useful surpluses."
Edward nodded silently, his eyes cast downwards, then they flickered up to Bella's.
"Do you have computers here? Or a library?"
Bella stared at him "Computers?" she asked cautiously.
She knew what computers were. Mrs. Weber turned hers on for two hours a day to watch television programmes and to read about the news, and Mrs. Denali had one too, but Bella had never actually used one. How could she, when anything that used unnecessary electricity, was banished from Grange Hall?
She didn't like the idea that this new surplus might know more than she did.
"We don't need computers" she said defensively "And anyway they use too much energy. Everyone knows that."
"Of course they do. Silly me." Edward said with a sigh.
His foot was tapping the ground beneath it, and once more, Bella felt her eyes being pulled to his strong slender frame.
He seemed so full of confidence, energy and curiosity, and it made Bella both intrigued and nervous. Surpluses were trained to be passive and obedient, and just the glint in Edward's eyes made Bella feel like she was looking at something she shouldn't, like she was being drawn into a whirlpool, even though she suspected that the current would be too strong, she knew she couldn't swim.
"I have to go now," she said quickly. "I have stock to collect"
She started to walk away, but she stopped again when she heard Edward's voice.
"You. . .you like it here Bella?" he asked softly, his gaze challenging.
Bella turned round and frowned. What kind of question was that?
She bit her lip and found herself reddening as Edward smiled at her, a little twinkle appearing in his eye, which made Bella feel like she was already in the whirlpool and drowning.
"I am here," she said her voice suddenly slightly hoarse "And so are you. Surpluses aren't here to like things, Edward; they're here to do things. Useful things. And the sooner you learn that, the better for everyone."
Quickly, Bella turned and marched briskly down the corridor, trying to push the picture of that smile out of her head and to focus instead on the number of toothpaste tubes she would need for the following month.
Bella didn't see Edward at any more training sessions that day. The male and female surpluses shared certain lessons –science and nature, Decorum, Laundry and House maintenance –but the majority were single sex.
The classes were held in smallish rooms with the desks packed tightly together and on rare hot summer days it was not uncommon for weaker surpluses to faint from heat exhaustion.
Today though, it was bitterly cold, and as she listened to the instructors Bella had been desperately tensing and untensing her leg muscles under her desk, just in order to try and stay warm.
By the time she got to supper that evening, she was so cold and ravenous that she didn't quite notice Edward slipping silently behind her in the queue for broth.
It was only when she had the hot bowl in her hands and was carrying towards one of the long, narrow tables that filled central feeding, that she saw him, and realized that he was about to sit down next to her.
"Usually the boy's sit together" she said tightly, as she put her bowl down and immediately started to spoon the lumpy mixture into her mouth. She felt tired and irritable, and she just wanted to sit quietly and eat her food; the last thing she needed was Edward and his stupid comments and constant questions.
"But not always" Edward asked, putting his bowl on the table noisily scraping back the bench so he could sit down.
Bella ignored him and continued to eat as the table filled up.
"This is disgusting" Edward said a few moments later. "What is it?, It tastes vile"
No one said anything, and after a few seconds of silence, Bella reluctantly put her spoon down.
'This is good nutritious food," she said wearily.
"What's good and nutritious about it?" Edward demanded "This isn't even meat. It's like sawdust."
Bella swallowed her mouthful. "Its reconstituted meat," she said "With flour to thicken it. And I think it's delicious."
"Then you can have mine." Edward said pushing his bowl towards her.
Bella stared at him "You have to eat your food, Edward. It's our duty to stay strong. . ."
"Strong and healthy, yeah," Edward interrupted her. "Well, I'm not going to be either if I eat this."
Bella felt her heart begin to quicken in her chest. All the other surpluses at the table were studiously looking down, but that didn't mean they didn't know what was going on. An offer of extra food was a rare thing, and Bella's eyes were already looking at Edward's bowl greedily. But if Mrs. Denali found out that Edward hadn't eaten, she might be beaten for selfishness and he might be beaten for being ungrateful.
Looking around furtively, Bella grabbed Edward's bowl and poured half of its contents into her bowl, then pushed it back towards Edward.
"You have to eat the rest," she said, her voice low. "You have to eat something."
Edward shrugged. "There's worse things than being hungry, you know." He said softly. "Don't you agree, Bella?"
She could feel Edward's eyes on her, and she decided to ignore him, gulping down her broth quickly. She wanted to get away from him Edward, wanted him to stop talking to her and looking at her as though he thought she was interested in anything he had to say.
But instead of taking her hint, Edward moved his head closer to Bella's.
'Your mother is a wonderful cook, Bella. She makes the most delicious food. Shall I tell you?"
Bella clamped her hands over her ears, knocking her spoon to the ground in the process.
"No." she hissed "No, she doesn't, and no I don't want you to tell me anything."
She leant down to pick up her spoon, but as she reached for it, a large, heavy foot landed on her fingers and she yelped.
"Dropped something?" a voice asked, and Bella grimaced. It was surplus James, another Pending, tall like Edward but broad too, his large frame pushing through at the seams of his overalls.
"Get off my hand," Bella said angrily, pushing at his leg with her free hand. "I'll report you. . ."
"Are you bowing down to me surplus Bella?" James asked thinly, his blueish eyes mocking her."It looks to me as if you might have finally learnt your place."
Bella gritted her teeth and tried again to pull her hand free, but before she could do so, James suddenly went tumbling to the floor. She rescued her hand and sat up to see Edward towering over James, his foot pressed into his chest.
"Maybe you need to learn your place" Edward growled "Maybe you need to learn some manners too."
He looked at Bella with a little smile.
'What shall I do with him, Bella Swan" he mouthed silently, and she stared at him fearfully. Fights between surpluses were tolerated in dormitories, but in central feeding surpluses weren't encouraged to even talk to each other; Edward could have all three of them beaten if any of the instructors saw what had just happened. What made it worse was that he had pushed James down to defend her, and it made Bella feel vulnerable, the one thing she'd worked so hard to avoid.
"I don't need a protector Surplus Edward," she said angrily. "And if you don't let surplus James go right this minute, we'll all end up in solitary. You might be comfortable down there, but I'm not, thank you very much."
Edward frowned slightly, then shrugged and moved his foot.
James scrambled to his feet and looked up at Edward menacingly, "You'll regret that, you outside scum" he spat bitterly.
James walked away to join the food queue, and Edward sat back down next to Bella, making her shift along the bench self-consciously. Everyone was staring at them, and she could feel her heart quickening and she felt Edward's eyes looking towards her.
'I was only trying to help," he muttered, putting his elbows on the table and hunching over them.
"Surpluses don't help each other; we're here to help Legals," Bella said tightly. "And I can handle things on my own, thank you very much."
"Fine," Edward said irritably. "Then I'm sorry I even bothered. I just thought. . ."
"Well don't!" Bella snapped. Her eyes flickered over to Edward and met his, and they managed to stare at each other for a few seconds, before Bella managed to pull her eyes away.
Awww poor Edward, Trying to impress Bella ;)
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-GreenEyes555