Rating/Warning(s)/Note(s): T, Shadows
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Prompt: Punish

If my first semester was difficult it was nothing in comparison to the punishment I was in for my second semester. About ten percent of the freshmen who started with me in the fall didn't return in January, something Edward used to point out that I did, in fact, belong at Dartmouth. As the months trickled by and spring warmed the air, it seemed even more of my classmates were dropping by the wayside.

"Ugh! Why do they have to make it so difficult!" I ranted one day in my room. Alice was showing me an easier way to work the equations in the obligatory math class I was taking, and I just couldn't understand why they didn't teach it that way to begin with. What was the point of all the stress and frustration?

"Because they want only the best and brightest to actually finish." Her voice was calm as she gathered the book and papers I had tossed in a childish fit. "A college education is more than what you learn in textbooks, it's also seeing if you can finish despite everything they throw at you."

"So they want us to fail?" I asked, blushing lightly as I took my things back from her hands.

"Yes and no. They want you to succeed, but you go out of here with their name attached to you. Imagine if you were stupid and they let you finish? Dartmouth would lose it's reputation." I hated it when she made sense. Couldn't she just rant and rave with me about how unfair the system was until I got it out of my system?

She laughed. "If you'd like to have a temper tantrum, I can sit here quietly if you'd prefer. Or, I can help you finish your homework." Her face went blank for a moment, if I'd not been looking at her I'd have missed it. "Are you almost done? Edward would like to take you out."

My stomach rumbled in reply. By now I knew it was fruitless to argue that since he couldn't eat he shouldn't take me to dinner, because then he'd sit across from me and consume food he would later have to purge. Besides, it had been hours since I'd eaten. Edward paid much closer attention to my feeding schedule than I did.

"Almost. Once I finish this assignment I'm good to go." The other thing Edward had begun doing is vacating the area when I had homework. He was a beautiful distraction. As a result, Alice had taken to helping me with all my homework. She'd even gone as far as registering in each of my classes in January, and we sat together. Needless to say, there wasn't anything the professor said that I missed without her writing it down for me.

Half an hour later I slammed shut my book, proclaiming the assignment done. My announcement was met with a soft knock on the door. "Just come in, Edward," I said with a laugh, my mood heightened by the knowledge I could relax for the rest of the night. Tomorrow would be studying for finals.

Edward's beauty still took me by surprise from time to time. His perfect jawline, with just a hint of shading from the hair that would never grow, to his exquisite, amber eyes, and down to a molded chest emphasized by a tight t-shirt could leave me breathless. He walked into the room, crossing over to where I sat and pressed his cheek to mine in an almost kiss, breathing in deeply. One day I hoped he would actually kiss me, but he insisted it wasn't a good idea yet. Judging from the way his eyes still darkened slightly at my scent, I kept my lips to myself.

"The semester is almost over, want to celebrate?" he asked as he straightened up and held his hand out to me.

"Celebrate, how?" I asked, twining my fingers with his and blushing slightly as my heart stuttered.

"We could go to Jesse's?" Jesse's was a place for steak and lobster, very nice and formal, but I wanted to kick back.

"Murphy's would be more like it for how I'm feeling," I told him just as Marta knocked on the door.

"Did I hear the mention of food?" she asked, peeking her head in. "Can I crash the party?"

Edward turned and unleashed his smile on her, something that made her get the same dazed look that often affected me. "You know you're always welcome," he said. It had taken a couple months to convince her that we really didn't mind having her along. She was sure she was interrupting our dates at first, but Alice and Jasper showed up often enough that she finally grew comfortable.

"I'll grab my purse," she said, disappearing to her room next door.

A gasp from Alice drew my attention. I looked over to her only to see a blank face. It lasted longer than normal, so I looked to Edward, hoping he would reveal if her vision were good or bad. His look threw me.

"What? What is she seeing?" I asked, tugging at his sleeve.

Alice was the one who answered. "Bella, do you think Marta would like to come with us to Washington with us for the summer?"

"I don't know…" I said, trailing off and looking to where my friend had disappeared. "I could ask her, I guess. Why?"

"She's going to need a place to go. There's something wrong with her student visa."

"What's wrong with my visa?" came from the door, where a very concerned Marta was watching. "And how do you know?"

I know, another 'moving things along' chapter. There will be a few of these. Oh, and there were a few times my calculus book ended up across the room.

I blame the last chapter's author note on a fever. I get ditsy when I'm sick. The good news is all the samples ran. The bad is that my standards crashed out of solution so I have to run them all again. Commencing swear words and profanities now...

Lastly, no, my husband refuses to watch CSI with me, or any science or math based show, except the Big Bang Theory, because I keep telling them they're doing it wrong. And now I've reached my tangential asymptote for the night and am going to bed. Sleep well, all!