Chapter 5 – Whiplash

The weekend came all too soon, and even though I still had my anxieties about Edward, there was a part of me that was also excited. I was ready to do what needed to be done, and the sooner we finished, the sooner we could move on.

"You're here….really early…I'm not sure why I'm surprised," Edward said Saturday morning when I arrived at the Cullen house.

"Oh…Am I too early? We never said a time, so I figured…."

"It's fine," he cut me off. "I'm just going to grab my backpack, I'll be right back."

So I waited on the front porch, but it only took a minute. "That was quick."

"Yeah, I packed it last night."

"What's inside?" I asked curiously.

"Water bottles, snacks; crap like that."

"Oh, good idea," I said, feeling stupid for not thinking about it myself.

"Here," he said, handing me a different backpack.

"It's empty?"

"Yeah. So we can put the stuff we find in it," he said slowly as if I was an idiot. I suppose I kind of was. I had been so preoccupied with the idea of being alone with Edward in the woods that I didn't really think of anything else.

"Right…yeah, good idea again."

He narrowed his eyes at me. "Uh…you sure you're up to hiking today? You seem a bit…strange. I mean, stranger than you usually do."

I couldn't believe he had the nerve to call me strange. It was almost comical. "I'm fine. Let's go."

As we hiked I kept my attention on the path in front of us, which seemed to keep me calm, but when we passed by a little brook I undesirably thought of Jacob. He had a similar creek behind his house, and we used to spend hours catching tadpoles and skipping rocks when we were younger. I hated the way things were between us currently, and I briefly wondered if it was a mistake, but then Edward pointed something out and just hearing his voice brought me back to the present; there was a reason for everything, and I had to believe it would all work out for the best.

"How about this?" I asked while struggling to pick up a big round rock.

"I don't think we can use a rock for the head," he replied. "It's too heavy, the thing will fall over."

"Oh. Good point, but what's round and light enough?"

"Well, let's just keep looking. We have to be careful of what we use because much of this natural crap will rot. Gah, this is really a lame assignment."

"I don't know, I kind of like the challenge," I told him honestly. "I'm new to this whole art thing, but it's so much better than sitting through some of the other elective classes."

"True," he agreed. "But, now that I think of it, Home Ec. would have been a better choice."

I stared at him for a moment, perplexed by his comment. If he was anyone else I would have immediately assumed it was a joke, but I doubted Edward was even capable of joking so I wasn't sure what to think. "Um…because Home Ec. is an easier A?" I guessed.

"Well, that and the fact the entire course is about sex. I mean, an hour of nothing but fucking sexual innuendos, what could be better?"

If I had water in my mouth, I would have spit it out. Did he seriously just say that?

"Okay, I don't know how your last school was, but Forks High Home Ec. certainly isn't about sex," I told him.

"Are you kidding? Home Ec. is all about sex. I mean, think about it. Sewing is what? Thrusting the pointy thing in and out. Then there's the cooking, which was originally taught to the girls so they could land a good husband…to have sex with. And then at the end of the semester they give you a baby…which is the result of all that sex."

I wasn't sure why, but I never expected Edward to say such a normal – teen –hormone driven – guy comment like that, and I found myself busting out laughing. It was so unexpected but such a relief; perhaps the assignment wasn't going to be unbearable after all.

"Why are you laughing? I'm not joking," Edward said, choking on his own laughter. I only laughed harder, so he gave up the fight and laughed with me; though, by the time we finally settled back down I couldn't even remember what exactly we had been laughing at in the first place.

"Oh, how about this?" I said, suddenly spotting an odd branch that almost looked like a bent arm; it even had what looked like a hand at the end, complete with seven stick fingers stretching out the bottom. "We can take a couple of these off," I said while breaking two of the pieces from the end.

"Wow, that's actually pretty cool. Good job spotting it," he said supportively.

"But we can't leave it like this, we need to figure out a way to make it less…branchy," I suggested.

"Maybe we can do something like Paper Mache with leaves and some kind of mud or tree sap substance to cover it and give it a little more dimension."

"Yeah," I agreed enthusiastically. "The branches can be like the statue skeleton, and then we'll build it from the inside out."

"Sounds good to me," he said, surprisingly positive.

So with a plan in mind, we decided to spend the next couple hours or so collecting sticks and twine to use for building our skeleton. We still didn't have an idea for the head, but we had time to figure it all out.

We talked casually, joked, and laughed the entire hike, which only left me bewildered. Edward was nothing like I expected him to be, and I wondered why he had any issues making friends at all; I was even close to being sad when the day was over.

At school on Monday however, he was back to being Mr. Odd Recluse.

"Hey," I said to him at lunch, thinking we could eat together. He scowled at me, and refusing to even acknowledge that we were almost friends, he just walked away.

After school I spotted him in the parking lot, assumedly waiting for his ride home, so I decided to approach him again. "You don't have a car?" I asked, trying to sound nonchalant.

"The government doesn't often issue out automobiles to orphans," he said emotionlessly.

"Well, what about the Cullen's?" I asked, knowing Doctor and Mrs. Cullen usually gave their foster kids a car to drive.

"I don't have a license," he said agitatedly.

I swallowed roughly. "I thought you used to drive a Volvo or something?"

"Well I don't have it anymore," he snapped at me.

"Okay…I was just going to offer you a ride home," I told him defensively.

"Emmett is coming."

I bit my lower lip. "How about tomorrow? I mean, he doesn't even go to school here anymore, so it would save him a trip if I took you home every day instead."

He glared at me accusatorily, as if he was suspicious of something. It made me anxious. "Why would you want to do that?" he asked slowly, and I had to wonder if he could see through me as much as it felt like he could.

"Um…why not?" I said as calmly as possible. "We have to work on this project together, so this might make it easier. Mrs. Cullen did say we could keep all our stuff in their garage, right? So I would be going over there anyway; I may as well bring you home."

"We don't need to work on it every day," he argued. "And the Cullen's house is out of your way. It doesn't make sense for you to take me home."

"I don't mind."

"Emmett doesn't mind either," he said coldly. "In fact, Carlisle pays him to do it."

"Okay, how about once a week then? We need to get together at least that often, and that way we don't always have to use up our weekends. We can plan for every Wednesday or something."

"You're not going to stop until I agree to this, are you?" he asked irritated.

"I'm not trying to be a pain in your ass; I just don't want to get a bad grade on this. And to be honest, I don't understand why you refused to talk to me earlier. I thought we got along pretty well over weekend, but today you're acting like none of it happened."

"Just because we didn't fight the entire time, doesn't mean we have to be BFFs," he said mockingly.

"Do you have some kind of bipolar disorder or something?" I asked him brazenly. "I mean seriously, your drastic mood swings are giving me whiplash."

"I never asked you to understand me. We have to work together for this project, getting along is just easier, but there's no point in trying at school."

I let my head fall to the side as a response to his ridiculous comment. "Can we at least attempt to act like human beings and be cordial?"

He narrowed his eyes at me, and then huffed. "Fine, I apologize for my callousness."

"Thank you," I said before he had a chance to add some kind of snide comment to his hollow regret.

He shook his head and smirked, and there he was again, that semi-sweet guy I had begun to get to know the weekend before. "I'll tell Emmett that you'll be giving me a ride home on Wednesdays for the rest of the semester so we can work on the project. Okay?"

"And you'll say hi when we pass each other in the halls?" I asked with raised brows. "Maybe even have lunch with me every once in a while?"

"You're seriously pushing it," he said evenly. "I'll see you on Wednesday."

"Oh, are you dismissing me now?" I asked offended, unsure if either of us were being serious or not.

"Is that how it sounded?" he replied, keeping his tone unreadable.

"Pretty much, yeah."

"Well, there you go," he said, making it obvious that he was being sincere in his sour rudeness.

"You know, someday you're going to realize that being nice to people isn't a bad thing," I told him.

"I wouldn't bet on it," he deadpanned.

I rolled my eyes and disappointed myself by growling out in frustration. Edward was so infuriating, and I absolutely hated that I kept letting him get a rise out of me. Perhaps his lack of a real family and his unstable upbringing added to his personality flaws. Perhaps he didn't understand what it was like to have a friend, and he was rude on purpose to keep people at a distance. It wasn't surprising that someone like Edward would sadly have a hard time socializing, but it was also true that many people like him were ticking time bombs. My father had made a career out of locking up criminals and psychopaths who had similar traits and backgrounds as Edward, and I had to wonder if one day Edward would share their fate.

The thought sent a shiver up my spine.

***A/N: FYI – I, in no way, think foster kids and orphans are psychopaths. Bella's opinion of Edward is just part of the story.

I don't plan on dragging this out for too long, so it shouldn't be too many more chapters until some real information about Edward is revealed. Thanks for sticking with me :)