Disclaimer: As much as I'd love to own these characters, they are the works of Stephenie Meyer, except Alexander, he's mine.
Chapter Three: Converse
The week breezed by rather quickly. What with my meeting new people, catching up with everyone else accademically, and dancing practice with Alexander. We were practicing our dancing for the Boston Ball this weekend in Seattle. Anyone rich or famous in the area was to go, and we needed to be at our best.
After the first day, Edward Cullen never came back to school. Some said he moved to a different school, some said that he went to live with grandparents, and some of the even more absurd theories made were about him dying. Where did he go? I don't know, but all week I have been thinking it was me. All me.
I sighed, because I didn't want to be the cause of someone's discomfort, no matter how much they loathed me.
My phone rang then. I answered with a "hello?"
"Bella?" A weary voice muttered.
"Who is this?" I answered.
"Alexander." The voice mumbled with a cough and a sneeze.
"Oh my God! You sound terrible! What happened to you?" I asked with concern.
"I'm sick, but don't worry, it's just the common cold," Alexander reassured me.
"But you can't dance tomorrow if you are sick!" I reminded him.
"That's why I am staying home. I am still dancing tomorrow, regardless of my illness, but today would not be a good day to go to school and get everyone else, including you, sick," He told me.
"...Okay. Well, I have to get ready and go to school. Feel better, okay? I will come check on you after school," I told him.
"Okay, thank you Bella. Have fun at school." His mumble was sincere.
"Thank you, bye." I ended the conversation and hung up.
Great. Now I had to go to school without Alexander by my side. I now had to be with a bunch of people I barely knew. Plus, he wouldn't be there to distract me from the rampage of thoughts about Edward Cullen.
I got up from my bed, and went to my closet to pull out a pair of jeans, my cream, lace flats again, and my cream tunic that felt like cashmere. I pulled them on and then went into the bathroom to brush my teeth, go to the bathroom, brush my straight hair and wash my face. I never wore any makeup, it never suited me. Of course, I put it on to see what I looked like, but I looked exactly like another one of those plastic valley girls. That is the last thing that I would want to look like.
I trudged down the stairs at a slow pace. I grabbed my dance bag and my bag carrying my books, a granola bar, and my iPod and cell phone, and then walked out to my beetle. I started the ignition and jumped out of fright. Charlie already left for work. I pulled out of the driveway, and drove to school, thoughts of Edward Cullen and where he has been, why I was consumed of thoughts of him.
I pulled into the parking lot and parked my car close to the school. Lucky me. I got out of my car and walked to my first period class. Eric was there to greet me, like on the first day. We talked about random things, like on the first day. That was basically how my morning went. Talk to whoever had the guts to talk to me about random things. I was almost falling asleep in my chair in boredom.
Jess met me after fourth period to walk with me to lunch. She chattered on about the usual random things, once again. She also started to ramble on about Alexander and how good looking he was. Give me a break, I hear it all the time.
We walked to the cafeteria, minus Alexander, and sat down at our usual lunch table. I excused myself to get a bottle of lemonade. When I walked up there, I could feel eyes on me. It was unnerving, because I hated attention greatly. As I was in line, I took a quick peek at the Cullen table, to see if Edward's family was throwing glares at me like they have been doing all week, mind Alice. I was just making excuses for myself to look over there. The reason I was looking over there was because I wanted to see if Edward was back. Much to my fortune, or disfortune, depending on how you look at it, there were five people at the table. I froze. So maybe he never left because of me. Maybe I didn't have anything to do with his disappearance. That thought made me hopeful. More hopeful than I could ever think.
It was all childish really. Like a little girl developing her first crush. The thought of Edward being my first crush was laughable. I couldn't get involved with him even if he wanted to. I had to think about my future being a dancer. Part of me still wanted to live a normal life, but I did find great pleasure in dancing. Plus, Alexander was a very good partner and leader. I could not let him down.
These thoughts made me a bit morose. I walked back to the table and laid my head down on the table. I was about to drift off to sleep when Jessica interrupted me when I was trying to sleep. But, since I was so exhausted I almost missed what she said.
"..staring at you."
"Er..hmm?" I mumbled while lifting my head up.
"I said, Edward Cullen is staring at you," she told me, clearly annoyed. But, I had no time to worry over her annoyance now. I was too busy staring at the God across from the lunch room.
He was staring at me with his now golden colored eyes. How strange, hadn't his eyes been that hateful black the last time I saw him? But, his gaze didn't look hateful now. He looked rather curious. As if he was trying to see right through me. I was pretty easy to understand. My mother always called me an open book. I will admit, I was.
I looked away before I did something idiotic, like drool. Oh, that would be interesting.
"So, Bella, what are you doing this weekend?" Angela asked me, much to my relief. She was such a nice girl, always pleasant to be around. I was thankful for the distraction. I would have to thank her for her kindness later.
"Well, tomorrow Alexander and I are going to the Boston Ball to dance for people. Sunday, I am not doing anything." I told her with a smile hinting at the corners of my mouth.
"By the way, where is Alexander?" Angela asked me. Definitely would have to thank her.
"Oh, he is sick." I tried to pull of a nonchalant tone, but my worry leaked through a little bit.
"I hope he feels better." Angela told me sincerely.
"Yes, me too." I smiled at her. I would have to hang out with Angela. She seemed like a person I could really get along with. Perhaps I could invite her to one of the balls I wouldn't be dancing at and introduce her to people I knew.
I would have to do it later, because the bell rang, which meant that I would have to go to sixth period, and face Edward Cullen. I got very nervous walking there. What if the curiousity in his eyes wasn't there when I went to sit next to him? It would be mortifying.
But I decided to quit being a coward and sauntered off to Biology.
I walked in the room and went past the teacher's desk and sat down in my seat, totally ignoring Edward. I wanted to see what he would do first.
"Hello." A velvet pulled me out of my absent-mindedness.
I looked over at him like he was crazy. He was all kind now. God knows I didn't miss his loathing glare straight through my soul on Monday. Now, I just stared at his captivating beauty. I didn't say anything, a result of my shock. A part of me was ecstatic, for he was talking to me.
"My name is Edward Cullen. I apologize for not introducing myself on Monday. You must be Bella Swan." His tone was cool and collected, like he were simply talking about the weather.
"How do you know my name?" I probed him quietly.
"I think everyone knows who you are." He smiled at me.
"Why did you call me Bella?" I questioned.
"Would you prefer being called Isabella?" He asked me with confusion.
"No, I like Bella. It's just that everyone has been calling me Isabella." I muttered lamely. Why was I explaining this to some strange, but beautiful boy sitting next to me?
"Oh," he mumbled.
The teacher started to start his lecture, for which I was relieved. I didn't know what else to say to him. If I even tried to look at him while I talked, I would just stop and ogle him like he was a celebrity, which he very much could be.
The teacher started to hand out a worksheet for all the students to work on for the entire class period. When I got mine, I glanced down at it. It had to do with DNA and RNA nucleotides.
Great, I thought.
I started to examine the questions on the page. They were fairly simple. I got through most of the questions. I was on the final question when the musical voice interrupted me from the answer I was just about to write down.
"Do you enjoy dancing?" he asked me. How did he know I danced. I barely know the guy, and he knew I danced. I didn't tell anyone that except for a few people who asked me about myself.
"H-how did you know I danced?" I asked warily.
"Oh, your dance partner said something about it. He seemed quite eager to flaunt you as his dance partner." He said this in such an angry tone. I thought he was mad at me at first, but the look on his face gave away that he was angry at the situation. How peculiar.
"Okay. Well then, yes, I do enjoy dancing." And I did.
"So do I." He smiled.
I looked over at him incredulously. I had never met another person who enjoyed dancing as much as me and Alexander. The thought made me happy for some reason. Just because he enjoyed dancing, doesn't mean it is something to be ecstatic about.
"So, what is your next class?" He probed.
"Um, well, I have study hall, but I go to the music room to dance with Alexander. But, since he isn't here, I will just be going down there to go over some music." I told him.
"I have that class too, with my sister. Alice." His smile grew wider, like he seemed joyed by the idea.
"Oh, well, I guess I will see you there." I responded to him kindly.
Class ended as soon as it started, so it seemed. I stood up and started to load my bag, Edward staring at me all the while. It seemed like not too long ago that I was staring at him like some idiotic fool. Edward stood too, and walked over to me.
"May I walk you to your next class?" He asked me kindly. Mike heard this, and scowled at Edward as if he were offending him.
"Er, sure." I muttered. I exited the classroom with Edward by my side. He stayed a good distance from me. Close enough so that people knew we were walking together. We walked to the music room in complete silence, which I liked better anyway.
We entered the room, while he sat down in his seat. I went to the wall next to the door and sat down and started to look at music. I pulled out my iPod and turned on one of my favorite bands. I was really getting into the song as I was organizing fifties music in certain orders, when a tall, pale figure walked over to me.
"Fifties music, huh?"
I looked up to see Edward Cullen standing there with a smirk on his face. He sat down beside me and started to talk about how he enjoyed fifties music. How strange! When do you meet a boy who liked fifties music, other than Alexander.
"You like fifties music?" I inquired.
"Yes, music in the fifties was good." He smiled at me.
"Oh, well, this is all Alexander's music. He likes when I organize it, it makes less work for him." I told him.
He uttered something that sounded like "that's rude" and was silent for awhile. That was a good thing, it gave me time to my thoughts. He continued to watch me as I organized the music in orders I liked it to be. I wondered why he said that Alexander wanting me to organize his music was rude. He shouldn't care.
I looked over at him to see his eyes black again. He was giving me the same expression he did on the first day. I ignored it and turned away.
The bell rang and Edward flew from the classroom, like he did on the first day.
Geez, what was wrong with him!? First he goes from acting like I am Satan, to acting like he is my acquaintance, back to acting like I am Satan. I would never get that boy if he was going to be acting out two personalities in one person. But I still found him extraordinarily fascinating.
I finished out the rest of the day without any injuries, thank God. I walked back to my car and got in. Just as I turned on the ignition, I saw, out of the corner of my eye, Edward Cullen staring at me. I glanced over at him once and looked away, revved my engine and drove off. As I passed him, I could swear I saw him laughing.
I returned home, gave Alexander a call to make sure he was okay, and walked downstairs to make Charlie dinner. I made him a pasta dish he seemed to like and we ate in confortable silence. That is one thing I liked about Charlie, he didn't feel the need to fill each silence with unnecessary chatter.
"Hey, Bells, I might be at worker longer than I thought tomorrow. I know you got that thing tomorrow and I thought I would let you know now. Some police up county have reported some police officer getting killed by some kind of animal."
"An animal?" I asked.
"Yes. So, I was going to go down there tomorrow and give them a hand." He told me.
"Okay, dad, be careful." I reminded him.
"Thanks, Bells." He smiled at me as he finished his food. I went up early, needing my sleep for tomorrow.
I went to sleep that night with another strange dream. This one I was getting killed by a chandelier coming out of nowhere. The only figure there was a silhouette, but it was too dark to see. It was ironic because there was a chandelier in the room. Shouldn't I be able to see it? But, I had a feeling it was a symbol more than anything else.
AN: I have been making this much like the plotline of Twilight. I am trying not to. And, Edward is only nice to her because he wants to be near her so he can taunt himself with her blood. He's a little darker in this story. Masochistic, our Edward is. Review!! :D