I do not own Twilight or any of its' characters

BPOV

Chapter 12

School Days

The first thing I heard the day after Labor Day was not the harsh ring of my alarm clock in my ear, but rather my cell phone. I shot a look at the clock on the nightstand, five a.m., I looked to my left, no Edward, I looked back to my right and realized that my phone was still ringing. I scrambled my hand blindly around on the table, expecting the phone to go to voicemail at this point, but it just kept ringing.

"He,Hello?" I muttered hoarsely as I turned on the lamp

"Good morning sunshine!" Chirped a musical voice on the other end.

"Alice!" I hissed, "Do you know what time it is?"

"Of course I do silly."

"Here, do you know what time it is here, in Alaska?" I grumbled.

"I'm going to say five o'clock in the morning." She replied cheerfully, she was like some kind of insomniac with a caffeine problem.

"That's right, and do you know what time I was planning on getting up?"

"That's easy, six thirty."

"Correct. Why are you calling me now?" I grumbled.

"I just wanted to wish you a happy first day of school, college is so much fun."

"Well thank you, is that all?" I yawned

"No, there's more. I also wanted to let you know that you're going to have a visitor tonight." She giggled a little.

My body tensed as I sat upright in bed now, my hand clenched around my phone, what did that mean? "What kind of visitor?" I asked carefully, funny how quickly that had woke me up.

"Definitely not a human visitor." She riddled.

"Damn it Alice what does that mean? Are the Denali clan coming by or what? Should I be worried? Are we in danger?"

"Bella, if you were in any kind of danger you know I wouldn't be making such light of this, honestly." She sounded offended

"Sorry, but every time I've had a 'non human' visitor come around, my life has been in danger, I'm a little gun shy around immortals I don't know."

"I didn't say anything about your visitor being immortal." She teased. "Don't worry, it's no big deal. I really did call because I wanted to say hi."

"Fine, whatever." I mumbled, defeated, I let my body fall back hard against the pillows.

"So what's your first class this morning?" She inquired

"Edward and I have lit together and then I have chemistry and a few others this afternoon."

"Where is my brother anyways?" She asked

I looked over at his side of the bed and saw the indent his body had made in the comforter and pillow. "I'm not sure, hunting, reading somewhere, walking; he's not here right now. He does that, disappears sometimes, and then reappears as quickly as he left." I went on, silence on the other end of the phone as she listened to me.

"That's normal for him Bella, don't trouble yourself over it. He just, wanders sometimes, but he always comes back." I didn't think that it did worry me, but I felt a little relief when I heard her say that.

"Well, whatever he's doing, he's up awful ea…" I stopped midsentence, I thought I heard water running, the shower maybe?

"Bella? What's wrong?" Alice asked nervously.

"I think he's, I think he's taking a shower?" it came out more as a question then a statement.

Alice's silvery laugh tinkled on the end of the phone, "really?"

"Yeah, I think so." Maybe I could casually pose my curiosities to Alice, I gave it a try. "I was just wondering, do you guys, do that sort of thing?"

More tinkling laughter, "you guys meaning our kind right? Not like, me and my brother taking a shower together?"

"Of course Alice, God, gross."

"Just kidding, technically, we don't have to shower, but some of us like to."

"I don't know why I just felt the need to ask you that." I said stupidly

"Because it's five a.m."

"Right, I still have an hour and a half that could be spent asleep."

"OK, enjoy your nap, tell Edward I said hi, I'll call you tomorrow to see how your evening went." She giggled.

"Okay, just don't make it at five a.m. again, or ever again for that matter." I complained.

"Bye Bella!"

"Bye Alice." I hung up the phone and shut off the light and pulled the covers over my head. The alarm was still set on the table, so I left it alone. I could still hear the shower running and my imagination started running wild with images of the steam curling around him, his bronze hair, wet and spiky, and the sweet smell of him multiplied by a thousand. I closed my eyes and sighed deeply, falling right back to sleep.

For the second time that morning I was woken up by a loud sound in my ear. This time it was the alarm, whining impatiently for me to start a new day. I slammed my hand over it in anger for waking me from the most perfect dream my mind could conjure up. The alarm became still. I lay there for a minute or two trying to wake up, finally I stretched and was able to pull myself out of the warm bed. I lumbered into the bathroom and peered in the mirror, ugh, I hated the first day of school.

I brushed my teeth and made my way to the walk in closet, what kind of image did I want to portray? Who was I kidding? I had no image, I was who I was I thought to myself sticking my chin out defiantly. I grabbed a clean pair of jeans, a periwinkle colored tank top and a long sleeved fitted brown shirt that I put on over the tank. I straightened my hair and pulled it into an intentionally messy half ponytail using a dozen bobby pins. I pulled some strands out of the improvisational up do and put on some mascara and a touch of eyeliner to make myself look less sleep deprived. Taking one last glance in the mirror, I sighed deeply and headed downstairs.

I walked into the kitchen and found Edward standing over the stove adding salsa to some eggs that he was cooking. "Good morning," he chimed a little too brightly, using one hand to flip the little omelet he was making out of the frying pan into the air and onto a plate. Simultaneously the toaster clicked and two pieces of toast popped up. He had already set out juice and made coffee for me and they were sitting on the counter waiting.

"You're incredible." I said shaking my head and sitting down at the table.

He set the plate in front of me and said, "First day of school deserves a big breakfast, I'd join you, but I already ate." He smirked wickedly; his eyes glowed like pools of honey through his thick lashes. He sat down in front of me at the table and folded his hands. He wore a new pair of jeans with a button down shirt the color of a robin's egg with a brown t-shirt underneath. His usual black wrist cuff with the Cullen coat of arms was positioned around his perfectly muscled forearm and I was becoming increasingly distracted as I stared at it.

"Alice called this morning." I stated, trying to snap myself out of my trance.

"Really? I figured she would." He said nonchalantly, "what time did she call?"

"At five a.m." I said miserably

He chuckled softly, "you must have loved that, sleeping beauty."

"She could have picked a better time, but whatever. She said we were going to get a nonhuman visitor tonight."

"Denali?" He asked.

"No, definitely not, but she said it was nothing to worry about. She also told me to tell you she said hi, she'll call tomorrow." I went back to my breakfast, it was delicious, maybe Edward's culinary major wasn't such a bad idea after all. He'd have to test out his cooking on someone right?

We had college literature together first thing at eight thirty, so once I had finished eating we headed out together. We took Edward's familiar silver Volvo; I assumed that the Cadillac was going to be reserved for the days when we had lousy weather. We drove to school like we always had back in Forks, it almost seemed like déjà vu, but that feeling quickly passed when we arrived at the University of Anchorage. The campus was immense and intimidating. I wondered how many students before me had approached the campus center with the same fear and anxiety that I felt now. My stomach lurched at the sight of the front doors and I immediately regretted the huge breakfast I had just eaten. I looked over at Edward, and he was the picture of confidence. His features were so composed and clean he looked like a statue. I was a Jackson Pollock oil painting next to him, I was a mess of nerves and self doubt.

He squeezed my hand gently and we headed to first period, pulling me along for most of the way. We found the classroom we needed to be in and went in. It looked like most of the students had already arrived, maybe they were as nervous as I was, I hoped. The classroom was designed like a stadium, where each row of seats rose up behind each other and the front of the room was rounded. Miles of dry erase board with literary jargon written in black marker surrounded us and there was a podium at the head of the room. Edward spotted a couple of empty seats toward the middle of the room and he started to lead me that way. I could feel several pairs of eyes on us. Dare I look back? There were so many students in that one room my mind boggled, there had to have been at least fifty, which was huge to me, considering how small Forks was. I tried to look around at the faces that were studying us, they were mostly women, and they weren't staring at us, they were ogling Edward. I felt less self conscious. He continued to lead me to our seats, I knew he could feel everyone watching him and his mannerisms quickly changed. He went from being arrogantly confident, to shy and subdued. As he passed, you could see some of the women becoming breathless, one woman; a blond girl with a heart shaped face actually touched her throat and flushed when he passed. He gave her a polite nod and continued up the stairs. Another woman, that had an aisle seat blatantly stared at his butt as he climbed past her chair, and there was even one woman, an older woman who looked to be in her thirties, that sniffed the air as he finally took his seat a few chairs down from her, she gasped and flushed red.

I sat down next to him and I could still feel the eyes of some of his groupies for another minute or two.

"Is this normal?" I whispered to him.

"What's that love?" he asked leaning his side toward me.

I tugged on the sleeve of his shirt and moved my head casually in the direction of the gawking women. There were about five now. He followed my gaze and lowered his eyes when he realized what I meant. A cautious smile played across his lips as he touched the tip of his tongue to the side edge of his teeth.

"Yes, I suppose it is." He muttered, slightly embarrassed.

I raised an eyebrow, incredulous. "Don't worry, in a couple of days, the novelty will wear off. Maybe even sooner than that when they see that I'm taken." He said with the crooked smile that he knew I loved.

"Well, I shouldn't judge, I felt the same way the first time I saw you too."

"And then the novelty wore off?" He asked, his voice rising slightly.

"No, that hasn't happened yet." I smirked at him as the teacher entered the room and started class.

He looked away shyly, and then said, "it seems like you have yourself a fan as well over there." He gestured to a seat near a window that had a young man that looked about twenty sitting in it. He was very clean cut with gelled dirty blond hair and glasses. His jaw was square and strong and he was very handsome and Edward was right, he was staring in my direction.

"He's gay." I said firmly.

"What?" Edward asked in disbelief

"He's gay, and he's definitely staring at you too."

"Oh come on Bella, that's ridiculous." He said dismissively.

"Fine, why don't you just check out what's on his mind and find out for yourself." I waited a second and watched Edward, he looked like he was listening very closely to something, and then suddenly a look of horror crossed his face.

"You were right, and I'm going to have to spend the rest of the day just trying to get that disturbing image out of my head." He hissed, I started to giggle and he looked irritated. Who would have thought that Edward was a homophobe?

"Excuse me," a sharp voice suddenly said out loud toward our direction, Edward suddenly sat rigidly at attention "you two in the middle row, your names please."

"My name is Edward Cullen, professor, and this is Isabella Swan." He purred as he gestured toward me. I gave the teacher a weak wave.

"Well, Mr. Cullen and Miss Swan, your conversation will have to wait until after lecture." She said curtly.

"Certainly Professor," he said in his most pleasing and persuasive tone, "I do apologize." He gave the professor a meaningful glance and it seemed to melt away some of the frostiness to her voice.

"Thank you Mr. Cullen." She said a little more softly. He gave her a polite nod and kept his word and did nothing to further disturb her lecture.

Class finally ended, but the nonstop gawking at Edward did not, I was starting to get irritated, wasn't it fairly obvious that we were together? He only spent the entire class looking at me and touching my hand, didn't that stand for anything in the merry old land of Alaska? I got myself so worked up I practically was making my hands into fists as we walked down the stairs away from our seats toward the door. I wanted to kill each and every one of those silly girls, though I can't say that I don't blame them, but still, ugh! Edward looked as if he sensed my tension, I saw a smile starting to work its' way at the corners of his mouth as I listened to two particularly annoying girls walking behind us whispering. I was seriously going to inflict some pain in a minute. We finally made it to the door, when Edward, who had been holding my hand, spun me around and pushed me gently into the door. Right in the doorway he planted his lips hard against mine and took my hands, wrapping them around his neck for me, I kissed him back and tugged at his hair a little, after a moment he pulled back from me slightly and stared into my eyes excitedly, he tilted my chin gently and said, "I'll meet you at the student center at three, and we'll head home. You can drive." He smiled.

"I love you." I whispered, about to burst into hysterics.

"Don't forget, it's my night to cook." He added loudly enough for the girls to hear him, he kissed me on the lips once more and looked to the left, the whispering girls were standing there waiting, he had completely blocked their way out of class. He smiled politely and said, "Excuse me." He turned and walked out of the room holding my hand as he went and winked at me and sauntered away.

The girls glared at me in disgust, I was still coming off my high, but managed to say in a very serious tone, "Sorry about that." I gave them a nasty grin and walked out of the room, they still stood mouths agape, in the doorway. I think they got the hint.

The rest of the day was pretty uneventful, I met a couple of freshman from out of state just as lost and terrified as I was and we kind of tried to stick together. One girl named Danielle was from Massachusetts and I liked her a lot. She was a tall girl with big brown eyes that she had darkly outlined in black mascara. She had long pretty painted nails that she looked like she did herself, and was very sarcastic. She seemed like a very kind and thoughtful person, but her sense of humor was as sharp as a point on a knife, I knew that we were going to get along famously some day. The other two girls were pretty nice too; one girl named Dorie was Indian and from San Francisco and the other girl, Martina, was from Virginia, again, seemed very nice but struck me as someone I had to watch carefully. We sat together at lunch and made small talk, Danielle seemed to be the most comfortable around all of us and Martina was very quiet. Danielle was a communications major, but we still had a lot of classes together. Dorie was working up to be a lawyer that represented abused and neglected children and Martina was a psychology major, which to me meant, she didn't know what she wanted to do. Renee used to say to me that everyone is a psychology major their first year of college, I was starting to see what she meant.

"So are you living in the dorms or off campus?" Danielle asked me.

"Oh, my boyfriend and I are living in a house off campus." I explained taking a sip of my coffee.

"Speaking of boyfriends," Dorie started, "I was in my computers class when these two girls walked in all pissed off, they sat down and started talking to one of their other friends. Apparently, there was this gorgeous guy in their lit class that they were drooling over and he kissed his girlfriend right in front of them. They were pissed off about that! Can you imagine the nerve? I hope everyone here isn't that petty."

I almost choked on my beverage as I listened in horror to Dorie's story, then I almost choked again when Martina joined in.

"Oh, yeah, I heard about that too. His name's Edward I think, he's from out of state. I hear he's very good looking, like supermodel good looking. I think he's a culinary major."

I started to shrink down into my seat silently as my cheeks started to turn purple. Danielle noticed right away. "Bella, what's the matter, are you alright?"

"I'm fine," I said clearing my throat, "So do you guys want to meet up again tomorrow?" I asked looking at my watch, almost three.

"Absolutely" Dorie chirped

"Sure, I'm game." Danielle agreed

"Yeah, that'd be nice." Martina said quietly

"Ok, well I have to get going, my ride will be here any second, and I don't want to make him wait." I was hoping to get out of the student center before Edward arrived to avoid any more talk about how beautiful my boyfriend was. Not that I was ashamed or anything, I just was terrified about being part of the center of everyone's fixation. They'd find out soon enough anyways, I wanted to wait until the hype died down. I couldn't believe that word of Edward's flawless self had spread all over campus in a day. I started to get up from my chair and head out.

"Okay Bella, we'll see you later!" Dorie said cheerfully

"Okay, bye guys!" I stood from my chair and turned to walk away quickly when a 6 foot whatever sized boulder stopped me in my tracks. I was face to face with Edward's marble chest. I looked up slowly and saw him smiling warmly down at me.

"Ready to go love?"

"Sure." I sighed.

"Excellent." He said energetically, kissing my forehead. I smiled and turned to see my three new companions staring at me wide eyed. Danielle smiled suggestively.

"Um, Edward, these are some of my classmates from out of state." I announced, he turned and faced them and smiled politely. "This is Danielle, Martina and Dorie. Guys, this is my boyfriend, Edward Cullen."

"It's a pleasure to meet all of you." He said quietly, shy boy charm dripping off of him.

"Hi Edward," Danielle said, "we've already heard quite a bit about you, but no thanks to Bella." She frowned at me jokingly.

"Okay, we really need to get home; we have to...let the dogs out." I said lying through my teeth.

"Nice to meet you Edward," Dorie joined in on the teasing, "see you tomorrow Bella!"

"Bye guys!" I started to drag Edward away, finally he followed me, nodding at the girls as he left.

"What was that all about?" he asked me as he hopped into the driver side of his Volvo.

"I thought you said I could drive." I said, trying to change the subject

"I did," he said throwing his bag into the back seat, "But I drive faster, and you know, we have to get home quickly so we can let all those dogs out." He teased. I crossed my arms over my chest and frowned at him.

"Are you aware, Edward Cullen, that the entire student body at the University of Anchorage is buzzing about you? At least, the entire female population is anyway."

"And don't forget a small fraction of the gay community as well." He added coyly with a smirk. I glared at him. "Oh come on Bella, this will blow over in a day or so. Trust me."

"Do you enjoy this?"

"Not really. It's entertaining for an hour or so, but the only reason that this is happening is because of what I am. Drawing people in is just evidence that I can be very good at what I am designed for; killing. It's actually very disturbing to me."

"It must be a great way to die though." I said mindlessly.

His smile immediately disappeared and a look of fury crossed his face, "Don't ever say that. Don't even think it." he growled angrily. "There's nothing 'great' about being murdered."

"Sorry." I said humbly. We drove the rest of the way in silence.