Edward's POV

I blinked once then twice to make sure that I was reading the documents I held in my hands correctly. Bella had straight A's in every subject! That is except for gym; even in that she had managed to get a C+. I couldn't begin to comprehend what I was reading. I knew Bella was a bright student. She had been in an advanced placement class at Phoenix. But this was incredible. She was having the highest grades in Forks high. She had even over taken us. We made sure that we made at least one or two mistakes in our answers to make it look more human in our examinations and assignments. At this rate she would get into any university she wanted on a full scholarship. She had no need for my help or the Cullen money to back her. I went on to read her teacher's comments. They were full of praise.

She didn't seem to have found a replacement lab partner for me in biology and she had continued to score good marks in that as well. Then I remembered something. Her obsessive note taking and focus in class. To admit the truth I had been a little hurt that she could sit next to me and ignore me for such a long time. I remembered how one look from me could make her heartbeat increase and make her blush. Her chocolate eyes would darken with desire. I would give anything to have her look at me like that again.

I made copies of everything and left the school.I rushed home to Carlisle. May be he would have a better explanation for Bella's strange behaviour and I also wanted to know what illness she had been recovering from.

I was dumb struck with the medical reports Carlisle had to offer me.

Dr. Gerandy had tried to persuade Charlie to send Bella for psychiatric treatment that first week after I left. However, he seemed to have changed his mind since Bella had gone back to school and started doing well. No mention was made of any type of illness. She hadn't even suffered from a flu during that time. However after the first four months there had been some emergency room visits with cuts and scrapes which Bella had said she got when she had fallen down from time to time. They made sense since she didn't have me or my family with super reflexes around anymore to catch her.

"Edward, I hate to say this to you, but she may not have been physically ill but her mental state could have contributed to her loss of weight."

I looked up in horror. It was my fault...

"Before you start blaming yourself again, I think it would be best if you tried to think positively and try to help her recover now. Alice said she smiled today, and seemed almost normal when that kid from the reservation came to visit her."

I nodded.

"She has the potential to make a full recovery, help her son." Carlisle gave me a pat on my back. He still had so much faith in me even after what I had done.

I nodded again.

I took a change of clothes with me in a back pack to Bella's. I did a check around the forest and house before I climbed on the tree in the back yard. I could see her cleaning up the dishes from dinner. Jacob had just got up to leave. He looked out into the back yard and gave me a small nod. I heard his thoughts 'Please let me know if you have any news of the red head.'

I answered very softly knowing that he could hear. "Sure."

So life settled into a routine. I sat next to Bella in all the classes I had with her. She continued to focus on her lessons and I on her. I barely managed to get through each day. The dog came up to school almost every day to pick up Bella. Some days they went to Charlie's and on others Bella drove off to the reservation with him.I only hunted close to Forks and did not go on any long hunting trips. On the days that the dog didn't turn up Bella would clean the house. I noticed that not a speck of dust could be found anywhere. I barely recognized Bella's room. It was so neat. Even her hair brush and comb kept in a straight line just like she kept her pens and pencils at school.

Bella had started wearing the new clothes Alice had bought her from the day after the shopping trip. I was having a very difficult time coping with not only Bella's scent but her sexy looks as well. When she emerged from the truck that first day in a very tight outfit comprising of jeans and a red top I almost fell out of the Volvo. I could hardly recognize her. And I had a very prominent reaction which I couldn't hide from down below. I barely managed to keep my books in front of me to hide my arousal before Alice burst out laughing and quickly walked away. She had kept some baggy clothing out for me on my bed that day so I had put them on. I was very glad for the covering now since I was unable to hide my bulging reaction for the rest of the day. Had it not been for my cloths covering my embarrassment I would have had to leave school.

I caught Alice looking at me from time to time and quirked my eyebrows asking why. Her only reply was

"I'm going to choose what you wear from now on. Trust me it is for the best."

I started nodding my head in agreement but half way through realized that she must have seen my reaction to Bella's new clothes and decided to dress me in something that would hide my arousal from the others.

Oh dear god! My own sister had seen…, in one of her visions that… I her brother would …god no; I'm not going to even think it!

If I could drill a hole in the floor I would have gladly done it and hidden myself away for all of eternity. But she had saved me from certain embarrassment. Yes. I was going to trust her and just let her decide on my clothing. This was totally out of my hands and I had no experience on how to cope with it. I decided to ask her not to tell Emmett or the others about her visions.

I saw her smile and think "No I wouldn't tell anyone, it will be our little secret."

Life continued with me going through torture every day sitting next to a very sexy Bella, who was completely oblivious to my reaction and her looks; barely keeping my hands to myself. Incidentally I was not the only one who noticed her changed fashion sense. All the boys thought she looked very hot while some of the girls shot daggers at her.

Angela was the only girl happy with Bella's dress sense. The guy's attraction to her had a very negative side effect on me. They thought of so many unimaginable things and fantasies that they wanted to do with her. Although I tried to block them out I found myself replacing them in some of their fantasies and creating my own with me and Bella starring in them. They were more vulgar than my own creations.

Bella's body had filled out while I was away, specially her breasts and hips, although her whole frame was much thinner than before. I knew her shape almost to the exact inch. I had felt her breasts pressed to my chest on the nights she cuddles close to me. Her nipples used to pebble when they met my coldness. I had made sure her hips never met my lower body; with the excuse of keeping her from the cold I would wrap the comforter around her. The truth was that I had fought with a raging hard-on when she was so close to me. Now in my fantasies I would remove the comforter and pull her hips flush against me. Her womanly curves hugging me; she would moan out loud when she felt me.

I was acting very human for a vampire; a very horny teenage human at that. I think I have never been so much like a seventeen year old with raging hormones as I was for the past two weeks. My birth mother would have been so ashamed of me. I followed Bella every where and the guys assumed that she was wearing these clothes to attract me so luckily no one approached her directly. They didn't seem to notice that we hardly spoke. But then again Bella didn't really speak with anyone. We didn't get any visits from Victoria either so life settled into a sort of a routine.

That is until Alice's outburst in the middle of the living room two weeks after we got back.

"Edward you've got to stop borrowing stuff from Bella. I can't shop for her and keep replacing everything. I know you don't even need anything since you have your own stuff. Charlie's bound to notice Bella's missing stationery at this rate. I saw you borrow three pens, two pencils and six pages from her note book today! Not to mention her eraser and ruler again. At this rate in another two weeks you would have enough stuff to open your own stationery store."

That got my attention.

"What do you mean you had to shop for her?"

"Didn't you even realize that Bella won't be able to afford to replace all the stuff you've been borrowing? She barely seems to realize what she is giving you let alone miss them. But she has to do her work and needs her stuff. So I have been replacing everything you keep borrowing. Do you know that the black pencil you borrowed from her yesterday had gone out of production? It belonged to Charlie and it was the only pencil she could find in the house yesterday so she had brought it with her to school to replace the two you borrowed the day before. I can't buy a replacement for that and Charlie is sure to miss it since he uses it to keep his baseball scores."

I felt so embarrassed. I had not been trying to get Bella's stuff. But I couldn't resist talking to her in the guise of borrowing stuff since she would always stop doing what she had been doing at the moment and look at me as she gave me what ever I asked to borrow. I had to see her eyes looking at me. I was still trying to read her mind through her eyes.

Those days I was able to look into her soul using her eyes as my windows. But these days they were just blank pools of nothingness. There was no emotion or hidden depth in them anymore. But my need to keep looking for it was over whelming. Thus it had actually driven me to insanity! What was I thinking! I had a whole drawer full of stuff I borrowed from Bella during the past two weeks. I had even named it my Bella drawer. It calmed me when I looked at it and touched the items in it during the times I had to leave Bella's side. I now had two weeks worth of bottle tops in it as well. I had carefully put them inside a coin collection box with dividers. So that I remembered which one I got on which date and the memories that went with it. I realized that I was beginning to resemble some kind of a maniac celebrity fan or a stalker.

"Keep taking the bottle tops Edward I don't mind. Just stop borrowing stuff from her. Find another way to get her to talk to you. I may love to shop but I'm also getting tired of visiting the stationery store every day, and the people there today wanted to know whether I would like to place a bulk order. Be thankful that I didn't simply get the stuff from your precious collection and returned them to Bella. I know how much they mean to you so I didn't want to take from it. But please stop this. It's becoming ridiculous. And please return the black pencil when you get to Charlie's today. He's going to miss it when he watches the game tonight. Make sure you keep it on the pad next to the couch on the small side table."

I heard a booming laugh from Emmett who was upstairs with Rose. Alice had spoken in front of the family. How embarrassing. Esme and Carlisle just stood there in surprise staring at me. Esme came to me and sat next to me.

"Oh now I understand; I nearly threw away the bottle tops yesterday, when Alice barged in and rescued them from the garbage. I thought she was crazy. She warned me not to throw away anything I found in your room when I cleaned it and she wanted to sort through whatever stuff I decided that weren't worth keeping before I got rid of them. I thought she was crazy but agreed with her because I knew she always had her reasons. Would you like to sort through your garbage now without troubling her?"

She was stroking my hair as she asked this question. I was dumb struck. I heard another booming laugh from upstairs and Carlisle scolded Emmett and told him to mind his own business. I nodded a meek yes in response and cuddled closer to her so that I could lay my head on her lap. I was feeling embarrassed but I felt loved at the same time and I needed to know that people cared for me and loved me even if the person I loved the most didn't seem to love me back. I had always treasured moments like this when Esme held me. She reminded me so much of my own mother. She made me feel almost human.

Please review. A fun chapter will come next when Edward figures out how he's going to get Bella talking again.