Disclaimer: See my story note…not that you don't already know that I'm not SM.

Author's note: Wow…I'm amazed at the response to this story. My crime drama did well, but nowhere near as well as this. As a reward for this story getting 163 favorites, and 86 reviews between the two websites in the first 24 hours, I'm posting chapter 2 a little early. I'm going to spread them out just a tad from here on out…probably two a week when I have the downtime or something along those lines until you're caught up…then you'll have to wait for following chapters. This story is actually going to move pretty fast. By Chapter 5, they are already taking their first semester finals, just to give you an idea.

Thanks to my beta AgoodWITCH. She just posted a new entry for the Age of Edward contest called An Angel in Hell, featuring MASHward. I'm off to read it too…if you're not busy, maybe you can give it a peek too once you finish this chapter :)

The first week of classes were pretty overwhelming for me. The campus was freaking massive and I had two classes that were all the way across campus from each other with only ten minutes to get from one to the next. It sucked big hairy balls.

The only plus to the whole thing was that it happened to be one of the three classes Edward and I somehow ended up in together. One would think that our having completely opposite majors would require us to have totally different classes, but this was the blessings of core gen-ed curriculum courses. It didn't matter that he was studying music theory and I was pre-law…in the end, we all had to have English 101, College Algebra 1, and the freshman level humanities course, thus by luck and numbers, we ended up in the same section for all three.

The first day, I walked in hot, sweaty, and totally out of breath after running two miles with heavy books across a crowded campus. As I walked through the door, my heart dropped when I saw the class was full and the professor was about to begin. Then I heard a psst, and turned to see Edward smiling at me from the back row as he gestured to the empty seat he saved for me beside him. The girls around him gave me dirty looks as I shoved my way past the people to his right to get to my seat. When I sat down, I shot him the biggest, most grateful smile.

"Thank you so much, Edward. I don't know what I'm going to do all year. That was brutal."

He smiled as he rested his hand on my wrist and leaned in to whisper. "Don't worry about it, Bella. I'll save you a seat every time, and if you're late, I'll take notes for you. No big."

I took a deep breath and nodded in appreciation before turning my attention to the older gentleman at the front of the class. As I knew was inevitable since I had the mad dash for this class, he was going to be a hard ass. He informed us that tardiness would not be accepted and attendance counted as part of your final grade. If you were late, you weren't counted for the day, end of story. I whimpered and melted into my seat as he glared up at me. Edward frowned and patted my arm comfortingly as I tried to become one with the ugly orange plastic.

When class ended, Edward grabbed my hand and dragged me to the front of the class where the professor was waiting. I tried to argue, but he ignored me, spinning me so I was face to face with the professor.

"Sir, I was wondering if there are any exceptions for the tardy rule. You see, my sister here has a class right before this in Hamilton that ends only ten minutes before this class begins. She ran full out and still ended up being late. Would you please consider some sort of lenience in her situation?"

The professor rolled his eyes as he grumbled something about Freshmen while shoving his belongings back in his briefcase. "It is your responsibility to schedule your classes in a reasonable manner, so no. IN addition, if your SISTER is not even mature enough to ask for this for herself, then she doesn't deserve to be given any sort of special consideration. Rules are in place for a reason, young man. I am sorry."

I felt my body melt in defeat as Edward turned to me and wrapped his arm around me as he led me away. "Sorry, Swan," he mumbled quietly as he began to lead me away, only pausing when the professor asked us to stop. We turned his way to see him eyeing us in confusion before addressing us again.

"What are your names?"

Edward smiled. "I am Edward Cullen, sir, and this is my step sister, Isabella Swan."

"Cullen and Swan, I know those names. Where are you from?"

I answered this time, feeling like a fool for just standing there. "Um, Forks, sir. On the Peninsula."

The professor smiled as he leaned against the desk with his arms folded, shaking his head from side to side. "Don't know why I didn't see it sooner. You're the spitting image of your father."

Edward puffed up a bit beside me, thinking the professor was talking about him, but quickly deflated as the man continued, never looking away from my eyes. "I'm honored to have a child of Charles Swan's in my classroom. Your father was the best man I've ever known."

I blinked at him owlishly and tried to remember to close my mouth. "You knew my Dad?"

He chuckled, untangling his limbs as he stood and grabbing his case as he nodded toward the door. "Let's walk and talk. The professor for the next section will want his room soon."

I nodded with a smile as he led Edward and I out the door and across the way to a small coffee cart. He ordered before asking what we would like and then picking up the tab. Coffee in hand, we all made our way over to some small round tables sitting at the edge of the courtyard between the building we had just been in and the large modern science building across the way.

After a few sips, the professor set down his cup and looked back over with a smile. "To continue our conversation, yes I did know your father, and quite well I might add. We were best friends in high school. I was very upset when I heard of his passing. We had lost touch as life grew hectic, but he was always a dear friend in my heart. I remember seeing you at his funeral, actually. I hadn't paid close enough attention to how much time had passed to consider you would be old enough to roll through my program, young Isabella."

"I have another section starting in half an hour, but I'd love to have a chance to talk more in the near future. As for your scheduling issues, I will make an allowance in this one instance, but when you look at scheduling next semester's courses, I would have a campus map handy to make sure you can make it from one class to another with relative ease."

I sighed with a big smile. "Thank you so much, Doctor…" I blanked unable to remember his last name.

He shook his head as he took another drink. "Black, Billy Black. In class, you have to call me Dr. Black, but when it's casual like this, it would feel odd to have Charlie's daughter call me anything other than Billy."

I blushed as I nodded. "Thank you, Billy."

He smiled warmly at me before nodding at Edward and getting up to walk away. It was only then that I actually noticed that his dark hair was not slicked back with some sort of goop, but instead was quite long and pulled into a ponytail at the base of his neck before tucking discretely into the back of his dress shirt. Then the memory fell into place. I remembered Dad's stories about he and his friend, Billy, from the Indian Reservation. I smiled as the memory of shared conversations took over my reality for a long moment before I was brought back by a grumbling Edward. I looked over in confusion as he glared in the direction of Dr. Black.

I moved my hand to rest it on his arm and get him to look at me before I asked what was wrong. He frowned before glancing at the Dr. and back at me.

"I just didn't like him, Bella. He was way too friendly. Something seemed off."

I rolled my eyes before standing up and grabbing my book bag and coffee cup. "Oh good grief, Edward. He's literally old enough to be my father. You really see a conspiracy in everything, don't you?"

He shook his head and grumbled some more before grabbing up his things. "Only when it comes to you," he finally murmured before moving to throw away his cup.

He passed a table of girls as he went who all batted their perfectly curled and mascara coated lashes at him as they giggled "Hi, Edward" and waved their fake nail tipped fingers his way. He smiled his typical flirty smile as he passed, eyeing one in particular that appealed to him, making my stomach burn with boiling acid. I hated when he flirted in front of me. It sucked big time.

I rolled my eyes and moved to wrap my arm in his as I cast a dirty look at the table, from where I was already receiving the visual version of a gang murder via narrowed eyes from the skanks at the table. Edward rolled his eyes and smirked at me as I shook my head and began tugging him toward the dorms. He hesitated for a second until I tugged harder, making him laugh as he tucked me under his arm.

"That was mean, you know. I could have had more than one date from that table."

I rolled my eyes and elbowed him in the side. "Yeah, and a different STD from each one. I am telling you right now, if I hear any sort of sex sounds coming through my ceiling, I'm going to jump out of my window in pure disgust."

He rolled his eyes as he messed up my hair. "Oh, that's got to be the worst revenge ever, rid me of my meddling little sister in defiance of my having a sex life. Oh, the injustice."

I pushed him hard, making him stumble away as he laughed. "Oh please, you know you'd be heartbroken if I died. Just admit it already."

I glanced over to see all the humor totally gone from Edward's jade eyes as he stared at me intently. He stepped in front of me and held my upper arms in his strong grip. "All joking aside, I'd be devastated if anything ever happened to you. So, just don't even joke about something like that, okay? Neither one of us…alright?"

I sighed and nodded, moving to tuck myself against his side again as we continued toward the dorm. Once we got there, Edward asked me to meet him up in his room after I dropped off my bag. Apparently, mom had already sent our first care package and he needed me to come grab my portion of the booty.

We separated as the elevator opened on my floor. I walked to my room with my cell out, texting my mom to tease her about not even making it a full week before she started lavishing us with Freshman 15 inducing treats. We texted back and forth a couple to time before I finally realized the time.

I started to make my way up to my room when my roommate Alice stopped me and kept me occupied for ten minutes while I tried to help her decide on an outfit for some mixer thing she planned to go to that night. Alice had showed up the day after we moved in, and I fell in love with her intensity immediately. She was super sweet and fun with a kick ass fashion sense and wardrobe, which she insisted on sharing with me. Five more minutes later, she had also managed to convince me to go along with her to the mixer thing.

When I finally got away and made my way back up to Edward's room for the first time since he moved in, I was in a rush since Alice ordered me back down so she could dress me up for the thingy. I rushed to his door and knocked, only to have nobody answer the door. I knocked again and waited, hoping either he or his roommate, Jasper, would answer so I could grab my stuff and bolt. I went to knock a third time when I heard a voice behind me chuckle.

"I'm pretty sure they would have answered by now if they were in."

I tried to suppress the gasp as I took in the site of a tall, dark, and handsome man before me with a lot of muscles displayed thanks to his lack of shirt. He had a very white smile set against his russet skin, and long dark hair that was so damn shiny it put mine to shame. Seriously, the boy was like a way hotter, way tanner, way cuter college aged Fabio. The boy could easily sell millions of copies of some crappy romance novel just by gracing the cover.

I stood there in shock as he chuckled, leaning against the door, and making his muscles ripple as he moved to cross his arms. It was totally freaking mesmerizing.

"You're awfully cute to be wasting your time with some Freshman dudes. You should hang out with me and my crew. Sophomore year rocks hardest because your classes are still pretty easy and yet you already know the lay of the land, so to speak."

I didn't miss the innuendo, and it made me blush like a freaking scarlet rose. I sputtered a bit before I gestured toward the door. "Um…Edward is my brother. I was…he has…he asked me to stop by to pick up something my Mom sent. I guess I took too long. I have my friend downstairs waiting to get me ready to go to some mixer thing tonight."

The guy's smile got impossibly wider as his eyes twinkled. "You going to the SAE mixer?" I nodded. "Sweet! We're going too, so I guess I'll see you there?"

I blushed again and nodded as I backed my way toward the elevator before turning to rush towards it. I was almost there when I heard his voice call behind me. "Hey, you got a name, Edward's sister?"

I chuckled, nibbling on my lip as I pushed the button and waited for the car to arrive. "My name is Bella, Bella Swan."

He paused and cocked his head before smiling again. "Nice to meet you, Bella Swan. When you look for me later tonight, just ask for Jacob Black."

I nodded with a smile before hopping into the elevator and pushing the button for my floor. I ran back into our room and yelled the whole story to Alice as she screamed and jumped on her toes across the room. Seconds later, I was pushed into my desk chair as she began to poke and prod at me.

An hour later, I was tweezed, buffed, powdered, colored, and curled before Alice forced me into the tightest, shortest dress I had ever worn. I freaked a bit at the dress, but Alice insisted it looked hot as hell on me. She tossed me a pair of knee high boots and I was told to put on with it. I whined in front of the mirror long enough, she finally rolled her eyes before digging in her closet to come out with a knitted black shrug which I gratefully put on and did my best to use it to make me look just a bit more conservative.

With one last look at our reflections in the mirror, Alice nodded with a smile before dragging me down the hall toward the elevators. I was both excited and terrified to be facing my first ever college party. My most fervent hope, however, was that by some stretch of luck, neither of my brothers would show up and ruin my night, because I knew as well as I knew my own name, that one look of me in that outfit would send them into protective brother overdrive.