A/N: Hello! This chapter is mostly a filler because I somehow needed to get to a point in the story. I hope that in a few chapters things start to get more interesting. Enjoy.

And thank you all for reading!

EDIT: 08/15/2018 Minor editing made.

Chapter ten

When I woke up in the morning, I lay for a while with my eyes closed, trying to decide whether what had happened last night was a dream or reality. Finally I decided it was all real, mostly because I wanted it to be, and then slowly got up.

I was surprised to find my owl, Agnes, perched on a branch outside of the window. When she saw I was up, she hooted angrily. I offered her a few owl treats I knew she liked but she turned her back on me and flew off. I stared after her, wondering what I could have possibly done to offend her, but I soon forgot about it and went to the bathroom to get dressed.

After breakfast, which I ate alone because Charlie had left early again, I put on a thick jumper, hoping that Jessica wouldn't forget to bring me my jacket. I briefly thought about using a warming spell but I realised it would look suspicious if I arrived in school in just a t-shirt.

It was unusually foggy; the air was almost smoky with it. The mist was ice cold where it clung to the exposed skin on my face and neck. I couldn't wait to get the heat going in my truck. It was such a thick fog that I was a few feet down the driveway before I realised there was a car in it. A silver car.

I didn't see where he came from, but suddenly Edward was there, pulling the door open for me.

"Do you want to ride with me today?" he asked, amused. I stopped before I could walk right into him and blinked in surprise.

"Um… yes. Thank you." I smiled at him and got in the car. I noticed that his tan jacket was slung over the headrest of the passenger seat. The door closed behind me, and, sooner that should be possible, he was sitting next to me, starting the car.

"I brought the jacket for you. I didn't want you to get sick or something." His voice was guarded.

"I'm not quite that delicate," I said, but I pulled the jacket onto my lap, pushing my arms through the too-long sleeves.

"Aren't you?" he contradicted in a voice so low I wasn't sure if he meant for me to hear.

We drove in silence through the fog-shrouded streets.

"So," I started, desperate to break the silence, "where are your siblings? Don't they usually ride with you?"

"They took Rosalie's car." He shrugged, his face indiffferent.

"Did you tell them? I mean, about what I am," I asked, looking at him anxiously.

"No," he said. "Only Carlisle and Alice know. And I forbid them to tell anyone. I guessed you wouldn't want them to know." He smiled.

"Thank you." I smiled back at him, relieved.

"I still have a lot of questions," he informed me as we drove into the school parking lot.

"Of course you do." I sighed. "But you have to wait until we are alone. It's dangerous talking about it with most of your vampire family around."

"True," he chuckled as he parked next to a glossy red convertible with the top up. "But let's not wait too long. I'm not exactly a patient man."

I rolled my eyes at him and got out of the car.

"Is that Rosalie's car?" I asked, pointing at the red convertible. He just nodded with a smirk on his face.

"Why does she ride with you when she has this?"

"We try to blend in." He shrugged, waiting for me at the front of the car.

"You don't succeed." I laughed, joining him. As we walked onto campus I noticed him staying very close to my side. I wanted to close that little distance, to reach out and touch him, but I was afraid he wouldn't like me to.

Under the shelter of the cafeteria roof's overhang, Jessica was waiting, her eyes about to bug out of their sockets. Over her arm, bless her, was my jacket, in her other hand she held my shoppings.

"Hey, Jessica," I said when we were a few feet away. "Thanks for remembering." She handed me my things without speaking.

"Good morning, Jessica," Edward said politely.

"Er… hi." She shifted her wide eyes to me, trying to gather her jumbled thoughts. "I guess I'll see you in Math." She gave me a meaningful look, and I suppressed a sigh. What on earth was I going to tell her?

"Yeah, I'll see you then."

"What are you going to tell her?" asked Edward, voicing my thoughts.

"No idea." I shrugged. I took off his jacket and handed it back to him, replacing it with my own. "What does she want to know?"

"I'll tell you but I have one condition," he said with an innocent smile.

"What condition?" I asked warily.

"If you go out with me this Saturday."

I stared at him. Was he actually asking me out?

"I'd like to take you to a place I like," he went on, suddenly looking serious. "It will be far from anyone's ears."

I knew why he looked so serious. I would be alone with him and it could be very dangerous. But I was a witch so if I was quick enough, I should be able to defend myself with a simple shield charm.

"Okay," I whispered, blushing.

He smiled but his face went immediately serious again.

"It can be dangerous, Bella," he warned.

"I know." I nodded, trying not to think about it. "So what does Jessica want to know?"

He sighed, shaking his head.

"She wants to know if we're secretly dating and how you feel about me."

I groaned.

"Great. What should I tell her?"

"It's up to you." He shrugged with a wicked grin on his face. "But I'll be listening to hear the answer." He stretched his right hand to my face to catch a stray lock of hair that was escaping the twist on my neck and wound it back into place. I held my breath and felt my heart pounding wildly, my cheeks turning red. Then he winked at me and slowly walked away.

I scowled after him for a few seconds and then, with a sigh, shuffled into class. I spent English and History dreading Math. Though I quite liked Jessica, she wasn't the person I wanted to talk to about my relationships. She seemed to like gossip and she would certainly tell the whole school as soon as possible. And there was another problem as well. What was I supposed to tell her anyway? I didn't know what exactly was between me and Edward, and the fact that he would be listening didn't help either.

When I walked into Math, Jessica was sitting in the back row, nearly bouncing off her seat in agitation. I reluctantly went to sit by her, trying to convince myself it would be better to get it over with as soon as possible.

"Tell me everything!" she commanded before I was in the seat.

"What do you want to know?" I hedged.

"What happened last night?"

"He bought me dinner and then he drove me home." I'd decided to be as short as possible.

"Was it like a date – did you tell him to meet you there?"

"No, we met by chance. I was surprised to see him there."

Her lips puckered in disappointment at the transparent honesty in my voice.

"But he picked you up for school today?" she probed.

"Yes, that was a surprise too. He noticed I didn't have a jacket last night," I explained.

"So, are you going out again?"

"Well," I said slowly, not liking that I was talking about it with Jessica, of all people, "he asked me to go out with him Saturday."

"Are you dating, then?"

"Um." I hesitated. "I don't think so. I think we're just friends."

Jessica shook her head disapprovingly but she wasn't ready to give up.

"But you like him." It wasn't a question.

"I think so," I whispered with my eyes on the teacher.

"How much you like him?" She was unbelievable.

Fortunatelly I was saved by Mr. Verner, who called on Jessica for an answer.

When the bell rang, I quickly grabbed my things and then said I had to go to the bathroom and hurried out of the classroom before Jessica could say anything. I did go to the bathroom where I locked myself in one of the cubicles. I leaned back against the wall and closed my eyes. I thought of Ginny and really wished she could be here. She was the one person who I could talk to about anything. And she actually cared about me, unlike Jessica, who only wanted fresh gossip. I could feel a tear running down my cheek and wiped it away with my sleeve. Pull yourself together! I ordered myself and then, taking a deep breath, walked out of the cubicle. I washed my face and headed for my next class, which was Art.

When it was time for lunch, I hurried out of the door feeling quite hungry. But outside the classroom, leaning against the wall, Edward was waiting for me. I stopped right in front of him and looked at him with raised eyebrows.

"Hello," he said with a smile. "Do you want to join me for lunch?"

"Yes." I smiled back and let him lead the way to cafeteria.

Walking with Edward through the crowded lunchtime rush was a lot like my first day here; everyone stared. I didn't like the attention so I kept my eyes on the floor. He bought me lunch and then led the way to an empty table in the corner of the room. I could see Angela, sitting with the rest of our usual group, staring at me disapprovingly. I still had no idea how to find out what she knew.

I shifted this problem aside in my head and focused on Edward, who just sat down and moved the tray toward me. I sat too and took a slice of pizza from the tray.

"So," I started casually, chewing the pizza, "why are you not sitting with your siblings?"

"You're more interesting." He grinned, his eyes never leaving my face. "You have no idea how boring it had been here before you turned up."

"Why do you do it then? I mean, why do you go to a high school when it's so boring? You must know all the stuff."

"Well, what else is here to do?" He shrugged. "And like I said, we try to blend in. It would look suspicious if we stayed at home all the time. I suppose it's the same for you, isn't it?"

I threw him a warning look and turned my head to look at his siblings. Emmett and Jasper were staring out of the window, seemingly not caring about anything. Rosalie was sitting with her back to me but I noticed her posture stiffened. Alice, on the other hand, was looking at me with a brilliant smile.

I turned back to Edward just in time to see his eyes refocus on me. He had been watching his family too. His face was unreadable. I decided that it really didn't matter to me if his family knew that I knew what they are. I even thought about telling them about me one day, if I would have to get to know them better. It seemed very likely now, when I was about to spend more time with their brother.

"I'm disappointed, you know," he said, interrupting my thoughts. When I looked up at him, confused, he went on, "You didn't tell Jessica anything interesting. She was pretty disappointed, too."

"Good." I smiled happily at him.

"Of course, she already told half the school that we're going on a date on Saturday." He looked smug.

"That's not good," I murmured, scowling.

"It was only to be expected, wasn't it?" He shrugged. It apparently didn't bother him at all.

I continued scowling, thinking of a way to stop being the center of attention. I could feel many curious eyes on us.

"What's wrong?" Edward asked gently.

"Nothing, it's just… I hate this kind of attention, that's all," I admitted, lowering my eyes. It was strange that I always told him what I was thinking.

"It will pass. And you're lucky you can't read their thoughts." He grimaced.

"How bad is it?"

"Well, Newton absolutely hates me." For some reason he looked pleased. "And others are just shocked, mostly."

"And jealous, I suppose," I pointed out the obvious.

He just shrugged like he didn't care.

"Don't you think it's a bit suspicious that you never eat anything?" I asked, changing the topic of our conversation and pointing at the empty part of the table in front of him.

"We told them we're on a special diet. But some of the people here still think we're just too arrogant to eat school food," he explained, smiling. "Of course it suits us perfectly."

"Why did you choose to live in Forks, anyway? Wouldn't it have been better to live in a less populated area? Like in Alaska, for example?"

"We did live in Alaska for a while," he admitted, "but there are others like us there and though we consider them our extended family, it just seemed better to move somewhere else after some time. And we also wanted to be more like humans than… well… you know."

I nodded, remembering reading about the other coven living in Alaska.

"You still stand out, you know."

"Yes, but we hoped people would lose interest in us after a while. Especially if we keep to ourselves."

He suddenly looked up and glared at something behind my back. I turned to see what was going on but what I saw was only the back of his sister, Rosalie. Though I noticed Emmett watching us with a surprised expression. Apparently, they'd just figured out from our conversation that I knew what they were.

I turned back to Edward, who was watching me again.

"They know that I know," I stated the obvious.

"Yes," he sighed.

"Are you in trouble?" I asked, a bit worried.

"I'll survive." He shrugged it off and glanced at his watch. "We should go to class."

I stood up from the table, noticing that the cafeteria was already half empty. Edward dumped the tray for me and we walked together to Biology.

It turned out that it was a "movie day". Mr. Banner dragged in an old TV with a DVD player and informed us that we would be watching a film about cellular anatomy. That didn't sound particularly interesting but it was still better than doing another lab.

When the room went dark and the TV came to life, I leaned back against the backrest and tried to concentrate on the film. I could feel Edward next to me doing the same. Suddenly I had a very strong urge to touch him. He was so close that our chairs almost touched. I pressed my lips together and folded my arms across my chest, stubbornly refusing to glance at him. I spent the rest of the hour in this position.

When the bell finally rang and the lights switched on again, I stretched my stiffened back and turned to Edward. He was watching me with a strange expression.

"What?" I asked but he just shook his head, stood up and then led the way out of the classroom.

"See you after Gym," he said with a smile. "Unless you prefer walking."

It was still foggy and raining outside and I didn't really fancy walking in it for about two miles, so I just nodded and headed for the Gym.

Mike wasn't his usual friendly self today. He didn't talk to me much, though he still was in my team. I tried not to ruin the game too much. I even managed to score a point.

After I changed my clothes, Mike came to me with a very unhappy face.

"So, you and Cullen, eh?" he said with an offensive tone.

I looked up at him with raised eyebrows.

"I don't like it. He's weird. And he looks at you like he wanted to… eat you."

I stared at him for a while before I finally managed to say anything.

"I appreciate your concern, Mike," I chose my words very carefully. "But it really is none of your business."

"But…" he started to protest but I put up my hand to stop him.

"Sorry, but I have to go."

I stormed off, quite pissed. Mike's words reminded me of something I wanted to ask Edward but was afraid of the answer. I still didn't undestand his mysterious behaviour on my first day here. I was wondering whether I really wanted to know the answer or not.

I half expected Edward to be waiting for me outside the gym but he wasn't there. When I turned around the corner into the parking lot I saw him standing opposite Rosalie. They didn't seemed to argue, at least not verbally, but were glaring at each other with really hostile expressions. I stopped about thirty feet from them, not sure if I should interrupt them. At that moment Rosalie turned her glare to me, then got in her car, where the rest of her siblings had been waiting, slammed the door and drove away without another glance toward me or Edward.

I hesitated but then slowly walked to Edward, who had turned to me and was now watching me approach. He smiled but his eyes were hard.

"What was that about?" I asked but he ignored my question and went to open the door of his Volvo for me. I threw him an impatient look but climbed in. I put my school bag and the bag with my new jeans down under my legs and put the seatbelt on. Before I was finished, he'd already started the car and was pulling away.

"Edward?" I reminded him of my presence, still waiting for the answer.

He sighed, glancing down at me.

"It was nothing," he murmured but it didn't sound convincing.

"She's not happy that I know," I guessed and by the look on his face I knew I was right.

"She thinks I put my family in danger," he admitted. "She likes it here and doesn't want to move away. I tried to tell her that our secret is safe with you but she didn't believe me. She can be pretty stubborn."

"Well, Alice would see if I decided to tell anyone, wouldn't she?"

"Yes, I told her to ask her but then you turned up and you saw the rest."

"I didn't see you talking." I frowned, confused.

"We can talk very fast, too fast for your human or even magical ears and eyes." He smiled at me and this time the smile touched his eyes.

"Show off," I murmured but I was glad that he seemed to be in better mood.

Again, my time with him passed too quickly and he was already pulling over in front of Charlie's house. Well, even fast cars had their drawbacks. I wasn't ready to go so I turned to him and took a deep breath.

"Can I ask you something?"

"Is there still something you already don't know?" He smirked.

"Since I never lived with vampires, there might be a few things I still don't know." I paused, not sure how to ask.

"Alright, what is it?"

"Well, the day when we first met," I began, staring at my hands. "You seemed to hate me. Why?" I finally looked up at him. His expression was sad and I could see that he'd hoped I would never ask this question.

"It's complicated, Bella." He sighed. "I don't know how to explain without frightening you."

"I'm not that easily scared," I said, trying to encourage him.

"Fine. You know how everyone enjoys different flavors?" he began. "Some people love chocolate ice cream, others prefer strawberry?"

I nodded.

"You see, every person smells different, has a different essence. And you smell to me much better than anyone else. It's like I was a drug addict and you were the best brand of heroin." He smiled sheepishly at me but then his face went serious again. "For the whole hour I was fighting with the desire to kill you. It took all my will and effort not to do it."

I swallowed, tearing my eyes off him. I was slowly beginning to realise just how dangerous he was and how close I had been to death.

"I'm sorry." I could see from the corner of my eye that he moved his hand like he wanted to touch me but he changed his mind and placed it back into his lap.

"It's okay," I murmured, staring out of the window. "I thought it must have been something like that. But it's better now, isn't it? You look quite relaxed around me." I looked back at him. His face was emotionless.

"It's a little easier when I'm ready for it. And I become more immune the longer I stay around you," he agreed. "But I would understand if you canceled our Saturday trip." He looked sad again.

"I won't," I assured him. It never even crossed my mind.

He smiled slightly. He looked relieved but anxious at the same time.

"I won't hurt you, I promise." He sounded determined.

"I know you won't."

We sat there for a while in silence. The atmosphere changed and again I felt the strong urge to touch him. He gazed into my eyes now, not blinking. It wasn't until my head started to swim that I realised I wasn't breathing. When I drew a jagged breath, breaking the stillness, he closed his eyes.

"Bella, I think you should go inside now." His low voice was rough, his eyes on the clouds outside.

I just nodded wordlessly, grabbed my things and opened the door. The cold draft helped clear my head. I stepped out of the car and closed the door. Then I walked to the house without turning back.