So guys, gals and any vampires/werewolves that might happen to stop by! If you've read Falling Down and Getting Up 1, good for you. You know where this story starts from. If you haven't, go back! Rewind! Click on my name and scroll to my stories list and READ Falling Down and Getting Up 1 NOW! Resistance is futile. Okay, actually, you can go ahead and be stubborn if you want, but then you'll completely lose the plot of this story. Anyway, this chapter takes place two days after the epilogue of FD&GU 1, so take note of the timeline. A few notes: It is Wednesday, I will be keeping track of the time better, and new characters will be introduced as hinted from the prologue. So enjoy!

Please Don't Freak Out On Me

Wednesday

A new week, a new crime committed. I couldn't understand why students of Forks were so…starved for fresh gossip. Everyone was gossiping about me and Edward, and of course, the fact that Jacob and I weren't speaking either merely added fuel to fire. Honestly, I felt like screaming. I wanted to tell everyone to just get a life. To stop pestering me and leave me alone. Was that so hard?

I headed into gym a couple minutes late. Charlie had informed the teacher of my disability to play dodgeball and convinced him that the class would be better off without me, and had even shown him a photo of Clarissa, a girl in Phoenix whom I had injured while playing dodgeball. I had sworn off any ball games after that.

I sauntered over to the bleachers, trying to avoid the gaze of one Alice Cullen, who had convienently transferred into this class today on account of her blowing her top at one of the teachers who had insulted her while acting out a scene from Romeo and Juliet by saying that Alice was too short to play Juliet. The teacher was currently in hospital nursing a broken finger and two fractured thumbs while Alice had got off scot-free.

As much as I hated to admit this, I was really impressed. Nobody but Alice could manage that.

Alice's eyes were following me throughout the whole period. It was unnerving, partly because having someone stare at you is never a soothing experience, and partly because I knew why she was staring at me. No doubt Edward had filled them in on the episodes of my drama. They had probably stayed up gossiping about me and my incredibly talented lying abilities. Yeah, as if.

Finally after class I had enough. I strode up to Alice, clutching my books so tightly that my knuckled turned white. "Would you mind not staring at me, it's kind of creepy," I said matter-of-factly. Alice barely batted an eyelid. Damn that girl. She was way too calm to be human.

Alice just gazed up at me with these clear eyes the colour of hazel. It was a surreal moment, almost as if she was looking through my soul, penetrating in it. It filled my veins with ice water.

Then she shook her head slowly and walked off, tightening her grip on her duffel bag, as if I had failed some test she had set me. I was left standing in the empty bleachers looking after her.

xXx

The whole day, I felt as if people were staring at me. Gossiping, whispering behind my back. I said hi to a junior I knew vaguely and she turned away from me like I had the plague.

What was wrong with everyone? The whispering and everything was irritating. It wasn't like I had ditched Prince William or someone like that. It was Edward Cullen, for crying out loud, and add that to the fact that he left me… though that might not necessarily be a good thing, it would just be screaming for more attention.

I sighed, pausing before I stepped into the cafeteria. It was probably writhing with gossip-depraved students looking to take someone's private life and bash it to pieces. I can handle this, I told myself. I've managed to get by without Edward for ten years, I can do it again.

Too bad I've never been a good liar, especially to myself.

A few girls glanced at me curiously as I paused outside the big double doors to enter the cafeteria; I had deliberately avoided the other entrance since it was used more on account of it being directly outside buildings 3 and 4. This entrance was less populated.

I took a deep breath and entered the cafeteria.

I almost did an about-face and walked right out.

The moment I stepped foot in the cafeteria, everyone stopped talking. Honestly. The roar of voices which was close to deafening immediately quietened to a dead silence. I felt like I was the villian in a bad, made-for-tv movie where everyone stops talking when the bad guy enters some high-class casino for a meeting.

And it wasn't a pleasant feeling, either.

So instead of walking towards my usual table, where Jessica was sitting at smirking at me, I walked over to an empty table at the darkest end of the cafeteria, where a light had blown a fuse. It helped that the Cullens were directly across the room from me.

Slowly the volume in the cafeteria returned to its normal volume. I began to feel more normal. I would probably feel completely fine if not for the occasional furtive glances stolen at me.

I heard a chair scrape near me. I looked up to see Angela sitting down next to me, a long beaded necklace brushing her tray as she smiled at me. Ben Cheney was on her other side, grinning at me. The grin comforted me.

Slowly people began to surround me. Mike sat down next to me, Eric and Tyler opposite me. All of them offered smiles of sympathy. "We're still here for you," Eric offered. I could only manage a smile through the lump in my throat. They had no idea how much they meant to me right now.

Through the haze of sudden tears I saw a blonde figure enter the cafeteria. I saw Edward at her side, his bronze hair and green eyes unmistakable from this point. They were holding hands. Lauren reached up to purr something into his ear.

The lump in my throat grew bigger. It was constricting my throat.

Angela put her hand on my arm. "It's okay," she said soothingly. "We're here for you."

"Yeah, please, please don't freak out on us," Tyler added. That earned a round of laughs from our little group. I smiled around at them, the tears vanishing.

It was good to have them.