3. Someone new and interesting, not.

The following days went quite slowly and with an annoying repetitive feel to them. Suddenly it was the weekend, though I had been left in some other day, Thursday perhaps. So little happened after Monday it was actually annoying. Ollie had questioned me loads, and I had answered his every question fully, taking care to say the right things. I never felt that comfortable asking people questions and it sounded like Ollie didn't like answering them that much either. By the end of the week I had managed to ask him about six questions, blushing twice and been refused once. I used to love the weekends because I could sit down and relax, could do whatever I wanted to do whenever I wanted. I decided to do what I used to. I read for half an hour, went on the internet, watched the smallville episodes I had missed. There were two so instead of reading for another half an hour I did for an hour, then did some jobs. By then it was half eleven so I made lunch and went to my room. I noticed that my room hadn't been destroyed over the course of the week. I looked at the clock, it was 4:00 so I made tea, I had lasagne this time. I chose it because of how long it took to cook and also because it was my favourite food. I ate tea happily, savouring every mouthful as if it was really precious. I was at a good bit of my book-nearly half the way through- so I read for a bit, when I finally risked a glance at the clock it said 11:55. I went to sleep still thinking about the book, wondering what would happen next.

On Sunday I read for most of the day, only stopping when I got a call from the place I was planning on learning to drive, confirming my place and the time my lesson would be. I had arranged it so I would have lessons after school on a Tuesday, driving home each week. I would start the week after my birthday, and I had already done the written exam thing and passed. The second time was just after lunch. knock, knock

"come in!" I had shouted in the direction of the door.

"you know that you shouldn't really invite someone in if you don't know who it is first." he shouted back.

"do you really think a murderer would knock, Ollie?" I asked sarcastically.

"what gave me away?"

"your voice, now will you come here? I don't really like shouting conversations to people on my doorstep." I shouted. The door closed quietly and I heard his footsteps.

"should I take off my shoes, there a bit wet," he asked not waiting for my answer and taking them off. I had been washing up so I wiped my hands on a cloth and turned to look at him. He was closer than I expected.

"hi!" I said brightly, looking at his face. I could tell he was excited, but I wasn't sure why. "am I missing something?" I asked suspiciously.

"two words, the cullen's." he didn't say anything else so I guessed I was meant to know what that meant.

"um… im sorry but that makes no sense to me, am I meant to know what your talking about?" he made a face

"you really are slow. A new family, the cullen's are coming to forks. Actually I think there already here." he was really excited. I raised my eyebrows. I never quite understood what the fascination with new kids was. Ollie told me there was the mother, father and five adopted kids. Two sophomores and three juniors. He didn't know their names, but did know that there dad had got a job at the hospital. After chatting about them for a little while, Ollie said he had to go. He walked the same way as usual but I didn't watch the way he had gone, longing for him to come back. Instead I went up stairs and read some more of my book.

crash! I was once again pulled violently from my dream with the sound of something crashing to the floor. The only difference this time was that it wasn't someTHING that had crashed to the floor. I was on the floor this morning. I felt the start of a headache, so had obviously hit my head on the floor or the table on the way down. I groaned, I would have a nice big bruise on my hip and arm tomorrow. At least I hadn't broken my clock again. I got up. It was 6:45 so I got ready like normal, just not as rushed. I sat at the kitchen table for a couple of minutes, ready with my shoes on and everything just listening to my MP3. I went outside, running to the other side of the road just in time to see the bus coming down the road. I sat next to Ollie- he always saved me a seat now- and I asked him to come to the super market with me again today. Once again he agreed, then asked if I would be doing the shopping every Monday. When I said I would be he laughed and said he would always come with me, even after we learned to drive. I told him that it would be sooner than he thought, and that I would be learning next month. He looked oh TO pleased with my news so I was a bit suspicious. When we got to school I saw the car instantly. It was a new car, so stood out in contrast to the other cars in the car park . It was a silver car, a Volvo, but apart from that I had no idea what it was. I wasn't really into cars, though I knew most of the different badges and how good they were. I DID know that Volvos were pretty expensive. But that's as much as I thought about it. I knew how to mind my own business. Better than most people here by the look of it. There was a crowd of people round the car, even Ollie stared at it a bit. But at least he didn't stare or turn to look at it as we walked to first lesson. Some people were late for class, probably discusing the flash Volvo. In first session everyone was talking about the 'new kids' and this continued into second session as well. It didn't bother me and I soon got so bored of the talk that I shut everyone out. The whole day I managed to avoid anything to do with the popular conversation, up until last session. He was there. I didn't know their names yet, only that there was a boy and a girl in the sophomore's year and two boys and one girl in junior's year. Everyone else had already got seats, Ollie sat one side of me, there was a seat on the other side of me where Cassie had sat. There were no other seats open. I was horrified though I didn't show it. I had been avoiding them all day and now he has to come and sit next to me. But I didn't show it at least. I couldn't stay in that mood for long though. He had light browny golden hair, and eyes slightly lighter that matched perfectly. Under his pale white skin- paler than mine- he had what looked like hard, well developed muscles. They were only noticeable because it was more than the other boys here. His good looks were not why I couldn't stay in that frame of mind but because I couldn't hold a grudge against someone I hadn't met or got to know at all. He looked a bit scared as he sat down next to me, but once he had settled down a bit looked more happy. He slouched in his chair- like I had- and closed his eyes like he might fall to sleep at any minute.

"hi, I'm Edward cullen," he said quietly even though miss wasn't in the room yet. He was pleasant enough.

"I'm tess," I replied smiling at him though I was sure he couldn't see me. He opened his eyes and smiled back. "you have paler skin than me, that's an achievement!" I said, looking at his pale arm. His sleeves were rolled up and he had his hands resting on the table. He lifted the arm closest to me of the table and put it near my arm as if to compare the difference.

"um… I think that the fact that the colour of your skin is so close to mine is more of an achievement." he looked me up and down with a critical eye. Miss was just coming in now so he turned back to the front. I kept just enough focus on what miss was saying and started day dreaming, this time I was on a horse riding through a field of corn with Ollie just behind me. The dream was so real I almost forgot that I was in the classroom. I snapped out of my day dream quickly, to see Edward looking at me curiously, as If he had seen what I had been thinking about. Then the bell went. I packed up my stuff and zipped up my bag. As I turned to wait for Ollie, Edward spoke.

"can you ride?" he asked. I heard the curiosity in his voice so I turned to look at him. I remembered how it felt when I used to ride along woodland paths with my friends

"you mean horses? Yeah!" I answered happily.

"you know, Ollie has five horses?" he asked quietly and then turned and left without another word.

"do you have horses?" I asked Ollie on the way to the supermarket. A weird look crossed his face. It looked like a mixture of confusement and curiosity.

"yeah?"

"why didn't you tell me? We could go riding!" I said excited now

"you ride?"

"yeah! I LOVE riding, don't you?" mock horror crossed my features. He laughed.

"maybe we could go on the weekend or something?" he asked politely

"would love to!" I was excited now, wishing the weekend would come quicker. On Saturday every week from that week onward we would go riding. Ollie was a brilliant rider- much better than me- and his horses were agile and fast, brilliant for in the woods. When we rode through the woods it was always in the direction of my house then back to his afterwards. At lunch we would stop at my house and tie the horses on a long rein to a tree trunk in the forest. After lunch- soup or something else warm- we would ride back to his house and put the horses in the field behind his house. That first Saturday was the first time I got to see his house, his mum too. He had already told me he was an only child and that he lived with his mum- his dad had left before he was born- but I never expected what I saw. When you talk about 'single parents' you always think about mess and clutter all over every surface so what I saw made me stop dead in my tracks. Which is something because it takes a lot to startle me. As I walked into the hall behind Ollie I was actually trying not to think that the place would be messy. I failed, miserably. The house was spotless. Ollie had told me to take my shoes off on the porch- which I would in my own house If my shoes were muddy anyway- but the gleam to the furniture I hadn't. the surfaces shined as if they had been waxed just that day- even in the dim light- and the carpets were perfectly white. I stood there- in shock- for a couple of minutes trying to sort out my confused thoughts. I heard a radio on and singing drifting from along the corridor.

"hi mum! Were back!" Ollie shouted down the corridor. The singing cut short and I heard a clattering as someone put something down, I guessed it was his mum. The door on the far left of the corridor opened and a women walked out. She was quite short with hair a bit shorter than mine that was dyed a nice shade of deep red. There were also some browns added subtly into her hair. She held her head high, and was a little chubby in a nice cuddly sort of way. She walked down the corridor at a leisurely pace- obviously not in any sort of hurry- and stopped in front of me. She was wearing brown cord jeans and a blue short sleeved top.

"nice to meet you, I'm Julie," she said to me. "you must be tess, nice to finally meet you." she shook my hand and flashed her son a triumphant grin. "I see he tidied up for you, he must really like you." she winked and I giggled. HE cleaned the house?

"what were you doing before we got here?" I asked, letting the curiosity show in my face and voice. Even though I wasn't really curious about what she was doing she didn't need to know that.

"come see," she encouraged. She led the way to the room she had come from, opened the door and let me see by pressing herself against the open door. I gasped but didn't stop this time. Screwed to the four walls were shelves. But not just a few, there were four shelves on every wall going along the whole length of the pale lilac walls. As the shelves got further down they also stuck out a little more. Littering every shelf were pots of hundreds of tiny glass beads and some other pots with string and ribbon, as well as little metal things. In the middle of the room was a circular table, with even more glass beads on. These ones were bigger and had more colours, I realized that she stuck them together to make cool patterns. There was also a miniature blow torch on the table. "welcome to my studio," she told me, snapping me out of my dazed assessment of the room. "do you like it?" she asked. I turned slowly to look at her and blinked a few times. I felt the same blank look on my face and weird stare that I got after watching a movie or TV. if I am tired and that freaked people out on my face. I worked to put an expression on my face. I raised my eye brows.

"do I like it?" I asked her incredulously. "I LOVE it!" I was mostly just amazed. She smiled.

"this is what I do as a job," she explained. I could only WISH I could do that.

"could I have a go?" I REALLY wanted to be able to do that to.

"what do you think, Ollie?" that was when I remembered Ollie was there.

"yeah! I need to clean up the mess in the kitchen anyway…" with no more explanation he walked back down the corridor. I stared after him, feeling a little bit guilty but not quite enough.

"do you WANT a go now?" she asked. And from that moment on, after riding I would make some beads for about and hour. To start with. I managed to burn the first one. I got better quite quickly from then on. Julie kept my little works of art each week. I don't know what she did with them but I hoped it was something good. The weeks sped by after that. I was happy, so was Ollie. He didn't mind that I spent some time with his mum. He actually liked it. He told me I was 'the daughter she never had' and I found her fun to be with. She acted like a kid, it was hilarious to watch. You would see her, stood there making beautiful pieces of delicate jewels and then she would make you giggle. It was almost like she was a slightly older version of Cassie. I was so happy in fact that I didn't notice when the new month started, at first anyway.

"surprise!" shouted Julie, Cassie, Sue, my mum and my brother Sam together. I stopped, completely taken off guard by them. I had totally forgot that today was Thursday. I might be happy but the same repetitive thing each day at school was getting old, fast. Even for someone as patient as me. Cassie, Sue, my mum and Sam- my brother- had all come over especially. I smiled, ecstatic that they were here. There was music on, a cake on the table and presents on the floor. The cake was probably all thanks to my mum, she was really good at cooking. We all talked for a bit, then I got told I HAD to open my pressies, which I couldn't wait to do anyway. I opened my mums first. It was- predictably- some new books I had wanted for ages and some c.d.. there was also LOADS of money in my card, mum must have known that I would be running short of money to get food with soon. My brother also got me a book and Cassie and sue got me a joint gift. It was a special alarm clock. One with rubber round so that no matter how many times you dropped it, it always came bouncing back. I laughed with her about that. Ollie and Julie had got me a joint present to. The first thing was the burnt beads stuck on a thick piece of card, and underneath were the words tess' first attempt at making glass beads. The second was a bracelet made with a few of the best beads I had made. I put it on straight away and thanked them both loads. I talked to Cassie a lot that night, asking her about her new house and what she thought of England. At that she made a face and I had laughed, knowing EXACTLY what she thought. My mum said I had picked a perfect place, for me anyway. She also said that she could never, ever live here. Sam complemented the size of my house TV. and stereo, though I think he liked the latter two more than the first. When I questioned him on which he thought was more important he shrugged, but looked at the TV. I had laughed at that. The music was brilliant, I put on one of the cds mum had got me but I had to put it on my MP3 first so I couldn't do it straight away. After the party we had to figure out who was going to sleep where. Cassie and Sue had got an apartment in the hotel in town tomorrow night but for today they had no where. Mum and Sam had no where for both days but that was my fault. I had told them they could stay at my house. Mum and Sam slept in the spare rooms- both had single beds in- but we still had no where for Cassie and Sue. They suggested sleeping on the sofa, but there was only enough room for one so in the end Cassie slept on the double bed with me. She got a sleeping bag out of the airing cupboard while I used my normal quilt. I felt really sorry for her mum who had to sleep on the sofa down stairs, though she did tell us she didn't mind. About five times in fact. I set the silent alarm on my phone and put it on my pillow next to my head.

When I woke up I was shocked to find Cassie in my room, then I remembered last night and smiled. I got out of bed completely silent and got dressed in the bathroom, trying hard not to wake anyone up. I ate my breakfast while listening to Sue's gentle snoring drifting from the lounge. I snuck out the house without waking anyone up by accident and was on time, so got on the bus like usual. Ollie looked a bit tired but had saved me a seat so I sat down next to him.

"wasn't the party great?" he asked more enthusiastically than I thought he could manage.

"yeah, it was! Everyone was still asleep when I left." I said, laughing quietly

"so was my mum, we must have worn them out!" he laughed too. We talked about the party right up until when we had to split for first lesson. P.e. didn't seem as boring as it usually was, though that was probably mostly to do with the fact that I was in such a happy mood. In English I sat there smiling and actually listening to the teacher the whole lesson, I even surprised myself with being able to listen the whole lesson. In calculus we wrote each other funny little notes like me and Cassie used to do in science. The rest of the day went in the same sort of way, a flash. Suddenly we were on the bus, then at home. The day really had gone by quickly.

Crash! I was once again ripped from my dream forcefully. I opened my eyes widely at the sound but was not startled to badly. I was getting used to being woken up by a crashing as something fell to the floor. I stretched, yawned and sat upright. Then the door opened sharply.

"are you alright?" my mum sounded worried and looked It to. I had forgot to tell her that I sometimes knocked things over in my sleep.

"I'M fine," I told her looking at the table- or where it should have been anyway. My table was on the floor, but luckily not broken. I looked at her apologetically. Then I got out of bed and picked up the table. She left when she saw that I was ok. I got dressed and read until Ollie knocked on the door. Cassie was coming to so while we were waiting for her we made a lunch that included birthday cake, sandwiches and crisps. While we made the lunch we talked about which way we were going to ride to. Cassie and Sue got here in a taxi by nine o'clock with there suitcases. We all walked through the forest to Ollie's house slowly, chatting as we went. Most of the time we were laughing, enjoying the last day in each others company for a while. We rode through the forest, going towards a little meadow where we would eat the lunch w had packed. It took two hours to find the meadow and we sat there for quite a while, laughing and eating. The rain held off all day- as if it knew that we didn't WANT it to rain- and at one point the sun actually shone. We lay in the meadow talking and laughing until we actually HAD to get back. We rode back to his house and quickly sorted out the horses, so we could get back into the warmth. When we walked into the house we heard laughing coming from down hall.

"hi mum!" Ollie shouted as always and the laughing abruptly cut of.

"hi Ollie!" his mum gasped, obviously trying not to laugh. They stumbled out of the room and Julie leaned against the wall. My mum and Sue were just a little bit calmer and were managing to stand up on there own ok. Mum nodded to the three of us, smiling widely. We left them alone and went outside. We walked back to my house, knowing that the 'adults' would want to be left alone. We sat in the lounge, starting from where we had left off telling each other funny things that had happened at school. I was telling them about the cullen's when mum and Sue stumbled through the front door, still laughing. It looked like mum had fell over a couple of times as she had mud on one knee of her jeans and on her hands. She also had mud on the top of her jeans, she had probably wiped of some of the mud on her hands on her jeans, only to find it was too thick to wipe off. Sue told us that they needed to go soon else they would miss their flight. My brother had been in bed when we had left and now stumbled down the stairs with his suitcase. I smiled, he couldn't wait to be home. Mum went upstairs and got her suitcase, already packed. When she came back downstairs she had washed her hands and changed her jeans. Me and Ollie stood on the door step waving as they drove off. When they had drove out of sight I looked at Ollie. He was looking at me in a odd almost gooey way.

"have I got something on my face?" I asked curiously. He chuckled a few times then bent down and kissed me softly. I have to admit it was nice, but I still won't watch those icky romances. He took my hand and we went inside the house. I heated up yesterday's tea for both of us and we both sat there- opposite each other- and ate. It wasn't all that gooey looking into each others eyes, more like laughing at each others jokes like we did at lunch in school. After tea Ollie bent down again and kissed me again- harder this time-and went home just as it got dark. I put some music on, sat in my armchair and closed my eyes thinking about the last few days but mostly about Ollie. That night I fell asleep in my armchair listening to music.

I woke up at 10:30 the next morning. I hadn't been sleeping well lately so I was in need of a lye in. I got dressed and cleaned the house. At lunch I had the left over party snacks and a piece of cake. It had been a huge chocolate cake so there was still a few pieces left. I would take the rest of the cake in tomorrow for lunch. After eating I did my homework. I wasn't finished before tea so I had to finish later that night. When I had done my homework I read. I was asleep by 11 that night. I got up and ready quickly that morning. I walked up to the bus stop and sat on the low wall, waiting for the bus. I sat for a couple of minutes before it came into view. I got on the bus and smiled as Ollie patted the seat next to him. I sat down and turned to face him. He was closer than I had thought and he caught me off guard when he kissed me. I would NEVER get used to that, ever. I knew that now. We kissed for a minute until the other people on the bus annoyed us to much. I broke off first.

"stop it!" I said loudly, not even breathless. I heard someone behind me chuckle and turned to see emily. She smiled.

"so, you two going out huh?" I felt like hitting her. She was so annoying! just then we arrived at school. I got of the bus and took Ollie's hand, more for support than anything else. That week went quickly and happily. It was quickly established that we were going out, and the whole school soon knew about it. But we didn't care. On Tuesday when I had my first driving lesson the teacher said that I did 'so well I could do my test in a couple of weeks and pass' I hastily agreed to that and he booked me a test on Tuesday the next week. Then he smiled at me . Tuesday the 13th, it was only a week! And that week went quickly. I was a good job I had done a few lessons in England. On Tuesday I was nervous all day, but thankfully Ollie scrambled my brain as many times as he could- by kissing me- so I didn't get too stressed about it. Turns out there had been no need to worry. He had told me to drive back to the centre and then asked me to come in with him. He had said I had 'passed with flying colours' then given me my new drivers licence. I was so HAPPY! Ollie had been waiting for me at the centre and since it was only 4:00 we went first to the bank- I had put all my birthday money in to- then to one of the two car dealers In town. I found a perfect little second hand red citron. It was so great, just what I needed so I didn't bother going to the other garage, so I paid in cash- it was quite cheep as well, the brilliance of second hand things. I drove it back to my house with Ollie in the passenger seat. From now on I wouldn't need to get on the bus, and neither would Ollie. So I rang up the school and told them we no longer needed to get on the bus. They congratulated me on passing my driving test, and I thanked them. Ollie stayed round till 10:00 that night, mostly scrambling my brain cells and I drove him home. By the time I got back I needed to go to bed. We could get up a little later and Ollie walked to my house that morning. It was our last week of school before the Christmas holidays. On the way back from school I saw that there was a opening at a hiking shop. I had never been In there but thought I would need some money pretty soon. So I pulled in and talked to the guy called mike from school. He told me I would be perfect for the job, and asked if I could start after the holidays. I said it would be perfect and got back in the car. Ollie was waiting for me there.

"what was that about?" he asked suspiciously. I laughed at his expression and kissed him softly before answering him.

"I just got a job," I exclaimed proudly. His face went blank with surprise for a second, then he smiled.

"cool! When do you start?" I told him that it was after the holidays on Monday, Wednesday and Friday for two hours each day. It was obvious that he was happy we would still be able to go riding each weekend and I was too.

Writers noted---from now on I will be posting a chapter a week. At the moment I am half way through chapter 8 and am hoping that if I do this then chapter 9 will be ready after I have finished chapter 8 and so on. This will also mean people wont chase me with pitch forks and burning torches, I hope…

You see that green button? Yeah, that's the one. Press it now, go on, I know you want to…