Every Move You Make

I didn't know where Edward might go, as I was still operating under the assumption that he remembered nothing about Forks or his former life. Would he just wander around town waiting to be recognized? Maybe he would look for records at the courthouse. Or,he might decide to start with the police department and ring up Charlie, heaven forbid, but perhaps his lingering fears about his violent past would eliminate that option. I decided to start with Jennifer, since she would at least be able to tell me where she left him.

I got Jennifer's parents' contact information out of the ten year old looking White Pages in Charlie's kitchen, and they happily supplied me with her number. Jennifer didn't sound surprised to hear from me. "I dropped him off at the high school. He was so angry, Bella. I asked him if he needed a ride back, but he said not to wait." She dropped her voice to a whisper, "What happened to him?" How I wished I knew. "I don't know Jennifer," I sighed.

When I got to the school, I went straight to the front office, just like the first time I had come here. Mrs. Cope was typing away at the front desk, just as always. "Bella Swan!" she exclaimed, "Your father didn't mention you were back in town."

"Hi, Mrs. Cope, how have you been?"

"Oh I've been fine sweetheart, this is such a treat. Seeing two of my favorite students in one day."

"Oh?" I asked innocently.

"Yes, you just missed Edward Cullen." Mrs. Cope must be nearing fifty, and looked older with her high neck blouse and bun, but she blushed like a teenager when she said his name. The Edward Cullen effect. "He's turned into quite the charmer," she whispered conspiratorially, no doubt forgetting that he had charmed me into a near suicidal depression the last time she saw me. "It's such a shame he had to move away before graduation."

"So what can I do for you dear?" I didn't think Mrs. Cope would understand why I was stalking Edward, so I had prepared a story. I was just hoping that if we talked long enough she would mention what it was he had wanted from her.

"I'm doing a media project for school studying the evolution of evocative portrait photography and I was hoping I might be able to borrow some old yearbooks."

Mrs. Cope blinked. "Oh! That sounds so . . . interesting. Well I can't lend out the yearbooks, but if you'd like to make some photocopies I can pull out some old editions and you can use the copier right here." Perfect, I could stretch this out as long as I needed to.

"So did Edward mention how his parents are doing? My dad says the hospital has sure missed Dr. Cullen." I said casually as soon as I was setup on the copier, knowing full well that Edward had no idea how his "parents" were. Or who they were. I thought Edward might have come to the school to try to find out about his parents, and I wondered if Mrs. Cope had sent him on a wild goose chase to L.A.

"Hmm?" she murmured absently, fingers tapping away at her antiquated computer's keyboard. "I don't know dear, he didn't mention."

I decided to try another tack. Maybe he was looking for clues about what he did after high school, trying to pick up the trail that way. "It's nice to be back here, I've gotten too much sun down in Texas. Of course, I guess Edward might feel the same way after being in California. Unless he went to college somewhere else?"

"I'm not sure, we didn't talk about that," Mrs. Cope replied, looking a little dubious about by my overinquisitiveness.

I copied in silence for awhile, trying to think of another conversation opener. This wasn't going anywhere, and I was killing a lot of trees with this yearbook project. I bet it hadn't taken Edward this long to get what he wanted from Mrs. Cope. One flash of his panty-dropping grin and the poor lady probably would have handed over all of her bank accounts, PIN numbers, and secret recipes. "I ran into Jennifer McCall in Port Angeles, she seems to be doing well." I said lamely, just to break quiet.

"Oh yes! I see Jennifer all the time, she is putting together a really great alumni party for your class this Christmas. In fact, Edward is helping her." Really. Nice to know that Edward lied as smoothly as ever. "I would have thought you kids would just be text messaging and talking with each other on Facepage, but Edward wanted to send real invitations in the mail. He has such perfect etiquette," she sighed, practically swooning.

Of course! Edward didn't even know where his house was, and he could hardly claim to have forgotten it without drawing attention. In fact, few people in town knew exactly where the Cullens had lived. He'd come here for his home address.