Hey people! I'm back with chapter 2.

It's a little shorter than I'd hoped for, but the latter chapters will be a lot meatier =D

Please hang in there =P

Thanks for those who viewed/alerted/favourited/commented. Much love goes out to you =D

Chapter 2:

"Hey best friend!" I'd barely had the chance to remove the key from the ignition, as my petite pixie-like best friend bounced eagerly outside my driver-side door. She seemed to share the same energy and exuberance as a Jack Russell Terrier; there was very little in the world that she couldn't get excited about.

"Heyyy" I replied as I swivelled in my seat to clamber out of my truck, my feet landing on the ground one by one; my bag in hand.

"So are you free this weekend?" she was quick to jump in, and with the expression on her face, I could sense what was coming. I slammed the door to a close a little harsher than poor Betsy deserved; I cringed at the sound of clanging metal that quickly followed.

"Erm, well actually…" I began with hesitance as I turned to face her. But she went on before I had the chance to answer, "Because I thought we could go shopping!"

Oh great, the 'S' word, my arch rival and one and only nemesis. "I've already asked Angela and she's totally up for it!…We both agree that its about time we get you out of those scraggy old jumpers and into something a little more fashionable, yeah? Sound good!?" my overly zealous best friend beamed at me whilst linking my arm, as we made our way towards first class.

"Scraggy and old?" I scoffed in disgust, "This jumper's brand new I'll have you know!" I scrunched my face up in annoyance, a tad offended by her comment. I guess I should be used to her bluntness by now; especially when my clothes were on the agenda. Alice is the reason my hair now falls in waves past my shoulder blades, ordinarily I would've been quite content in tying it back, but since she's recently taken it upon herself to overly critique my appearance, claiming it was 'a crime to have such long and luscious hair, and not take advantage of it', I'd decided to just keep it down, it wasn't worth the hassle. Alice could be scary when she wanted to be, and once she'd laid down the law, it was hard for me to object.

So last week it was my choice of hair style, this week on the agenda, it's my clothes apparently. "Come on Bella, my grandma wears more flattering clothes than you do."

Coming from any other person, I probably would've hit them, or started to cry, but this was Alice talking, and I knew that deep down, every critical comment she made was only out of love. She may be a handful at times, and so irritating that you just want to squeeze her little head, but she was honestly the most caring and thoughtful person I'd ever known, even back in kindergarten when we'd first played together, (that was also the first and only wedding I've ever attended), when her Barbie married my Ken. We've been best friends ever since.

"They don't show off your figure" she went on, and I knew that this was a no win situation. "The colours are so last season, the neck line does absolutely nothing for your lady features, and don't even get me started on the material they've used," I heard her say in genuine distress, although I wasn't really paying much attention, I had a tendency to drift off when it came to discussions about clothes or the latest fashion trend. It was yawn city for the likes of me, who very much preferred the warmth and comfort of my Rocket Dogs, to a pair of feet-disfiguring heels. Much to poor Alice's dismay, she's been trying to get me out of flats for over 3 months now, but to no avail.

She hasn't always been like this though; it's only been since she's met Jasper, her now boyfriend of 18 months, that she's made it her mission to immerse herself in my love life. Or, lack of one to be more precise. A seemingly pointless and never ending challenge for anyone who didn't share the same motivation that Alice did.

"So is that a yes then?"

"Is there any point in me trying to argue with you?" my voice sounded lazy compared to the spiciness of hers.

"Probably not" she smiled at me, thoroughly accomplished, "You could try, but I doubt you'd get anywhere".

"Yeah, I didn't think so" I sighed downheartedly, even though a small part of me would happily let Alice work her magic on me, purely out of the prospect of finding me a date, someone who would love me for me, no questions asked. But then, surely that would go against everything I'd ever believed in? Having to change myself, no matter how slight, just in order to gain someone's attention. If there really was someone out there for me, then surely they'd like me no matter what! With or without my 'scraggy old jumper'.

"Come on, it'll be fun" she tugged playfully at my arm, grabbing my attention from where it had wandered. "Get in touch with your feminine side, dig deep and let that girly girl come out, I know she's in there somewhere" she teased me, and I couldn't help but smile back.

"Yeah, alright" I relented, "But promise me one thing!"

"Sure" she chirped.

"No frills!" That was a line I would never cross, no matter how much peer pressure was thrown at me.

"Deal" she grinned back at me as she loyally clung to my arm.

……………………..

"So the cellular structure is made up of various components, first and foremost, it has a double layered outer membrane which functions as a…" Mr Kayles droned on, succeeding in sucking the life out of every student in class with his lack of enthusiasm and strictly mono-toned voice. I struggled to keep my eyes open at one point, and as I let them close for just one moment, letting my chin rest on the palm of my hand, I felt myself zone out... Heaven knows how long I was out for, and it wasn't until I heard a hum in the distance; faint and barely audible, followed by a nudge to my left, as Alice jolted me out of my sleep, that my place in time quickly came back into awareness. This was unfortunately accompanied by my recognition of pain, as I bashed my leg off the roof of the table, thanks to Alice.

"Damit" I rubbed my knee frantically. "Great. That'll leave a bruise" I muttered to myself.

"Sorry" I finally turned to see her anxiously tapping her pen off the table, "I guess the lack of interest made me slip into a semi- comatosed state. It's lucky I came back from that" I joked as I looked at her, she smiled and shook her head at me, "Yeah, well just be glad you didn't start snoring. Can you imagine how embarrassing that would've been for me!" She smirked, and I couldn't help but laugh back, before my attention was drawn elsewhere, and I noticed the awkward state of excitement my fellow students now seemed to bear.

"What's going on?" I asked unawares. She didn't verbally respond to me, she simply signalled with her eyes towards the doorway. I hadn't even noticed someone standing there, a male by the looks of it, and I'm presuming a potential new student. He stood at the front with his back to us.

"Ok, let's have some hush please!" Mr Kayles' voice projected across the room, which was actually surprising considering he'd never really displayed that kind of energy before. "SILENCE!"

The entire class was dumbfounded, struck down by Mr Kayles' unexpected burst of volume. "Now we have a new student starting today, so I hope you'll all make him feel very welcome … Edward, would you like to take a seat".

And that's when it happened. I was like a deer in the headlights, completely thrown by the situation presented before me, and I'm fairly certain I didn't exhale for a whole 15 seconds! I had all but a matter of seconds to hide myself. Harry Potters cloak would've come in real handy right now. Unfortunately for me, there was no escaping the inevitable. There was no magical cloak to shield my face with, and no secret hiding place to crawl into. And for the second his eyes locked on mine, I was frozen. My entire world just fading away around me, leaving only him and me.

I watched as he took to his seat, thankfully one closest to the front. And for the first time I caught my breath.

I didn't fail to notice as he angled himself to one side, his head appearing to turn towards me. My head immediately dropped in my state of panic, the waves of my hair falling to cover my face (for once I could be thankful I wore my hair down!), my eyes quickly slamming shut, and at that moment in time, I remembered his words from last night. Ringing through my head like a siren…

"Catch you later Clumsy!"

Well, I guess he wasn't wrong about that!

Thanks again for reading :)

Don't be shy, please comment. It spurs me on to write more! =D