CHAPTER 2

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My nightstand read 7:00, which meant I had to get ready for school. I took a quick shower and got dressed in a pair of skinny jeans, a polo shirt, my black jacket and my favorite pair of chucks. By 7:30 I was ready to go, at which point I headed downstairs were the rest of my family was.

"Hey, I'm heading out now so I'll see you later." I said as I walked towards the garage. I went to my car and soon enough, I was driving off to school.

As I drove, I thought about talking to Alice and asking her why she avoided me yesterday.

I arrived in the parking lot and spotted Alice, I quickly left my car and made my way towards her.

"Good morning, Alice." I said with a polite smile and a nod of my head.

"Hi Bella." she said with uncertainty in her voice, while looking everywhere but me.

"Can we talk privately?" I asked her, she just gave me a nod and started leading me to a secluded spot.

"Why are you avoiding me?" I asked her with a confused look on my face. She didn't respond right away so I decided to continue. "I mean, did I do something to displease you? I thought we were getting along fine in chemistry."

She answered with a shameful look on her face. "Bella, I am so sorry. You haven't done anything. On the contrary, you have been treating me extremely good. It's just…Jessica and Lauren told me some stuff about your family and they told me that if I wanted to keep my reputation intact, I shouldn't hang out with you or I was going to be labeled as a freak and a loser." she finished her explanation looking at the ground.

So, she didn't want to be my friend just because two girls told her to…that's stupid. "Look Alice, you shouldn't listen to what they have to say, they're just jealous. I know what they said about my family, I mean, my siblings they're all together and they are very happy and a lot of people don't understand that. Please, don't let what other people think cloud your judgment and our potential friendship. I would really like to be your friend." I ended my little speech looking into her eyes and then she did something that caught me off guard.

She hugged me.

"You're right Bella, please forgive me".

I just chuckled and told her it was fine and that we should get going.

Today, my first period was Spanish and apparently Alice had that class with me. We went and took our seats, just as Mrs. Robles was starting the class.

"Buenos dias alumnos, por favor abran su libro en la pagina 34."

Most of the kids didn't understand what she was saying. Me, on the other hand, could understand perfectly since I spent 30 years in Barcelona.

While I was reading what Mrs. Robles assigned us I felt a piece of paper in my side, I unfolded it and read the note

So Bella, tell me a little bit about yourself, after all if we want to start a friendship, we need to get to know each other better.

Okay, she wants to know about me, what should I write? I asked myself. After a few minutes deciding what to write I came up with a response. It said: Well, I am 17 years old, my favorite color is black, favorite movie is a cross between Ben Hur and Casablanca, I like all kinds of music and I love to read.

I passed the note to Alice and our hands accidentally touched, at which point she gasped.

"Bella, your hands are so cold." she whispered to me.

"Yeah, I have a bit of a circulation problem," I told her while rubbing my neck, giving her a tiny smile.

She took the note, read it and started to write down the response. A few minutes later, she passed it back.

You have beautiful handwriting, well my favorite color is yellow, I'll be 17 in a few weeks, my favorite movie is Titanic, my favorite hobby is shopping. Anyway, my favorite music is between indie and pop.

I rolled my eyes at the last one. Seriously, shopping? I loathed shopping; Rosalie and I had gotten into fights because I refused to go with her.

After that, the teacher called for our attention and the lesson dragged on. When the bell rang, we said our goodbyes and promised to meet each other for lunch. Second and third period passed without incident, even though Jessica and her minions were giving me death glares.

Lunch came and I went to look for Alice and I found her talking with the bitches.

"Stop talking about her, you don't even know her." Alice said to Jessica.

"Well, of course I don't know her, she's a loser and I don't associate with those." she said with an arrogant voice.

I just watched, amused at the conversation. Are these girls for real?

"Look, Alice, you've been our friend since elementary school and we don't want you to be labeled as a loser, so you need to stop talking to Bella." Lauren said, speaking to her like an adult would talk to a child.

Alice just looked at them incredulously "You're seriously making me choose between you and her?"

I decided to make my presence known. "Hey Alice, ready to go?" I asked.

The two bitches turned and glared at me before looking back to Alice.

"If you go with her, you can forget about us and your reputation Alice." they hissed in unison.

I watched the conflict in Alice's beautiful eyes, but one look at me, and conflict turned into determination.

"Let's go, Bella, I'm starving." She took my hand and led me to the cafeteria, which I happily allowed. I even turned around to shoot a smug smile at the two girls, who were left standing with their mouths hanging open in shock.

In the cafeteria, I decided to introduce Alice to Angela and Eric, who were surprised that the most popular girl in school was talking to them.

"Angela, Eric, I would like you to meet Alice." I said while grabbing some chairs to sit.

"Hello Alice, it's nice to meet you." responded Angela in her usual soft, yet kind, voice. Eric, on the other hand, just waved to her.

"Hello." Alice said, somewhat nervous. I tried to hold in a chuckle, as the situation was kind of amusing.

After a while Eric and Angela warmed up to Alice and they started having a conversation.

Out of the corner of my eye I could see my siblings, and by their expressions, they were not happy. I internally groaned, because I knew there would be a confrontation as soon as I got home.

Lunch ended and Alice and I headed to our next class, which was history.

The hour dragged on for Alice, I could see how bored she was, but not me, I loved history and the fact that I lived through all the events the teacher was telling the class about was cool.

The hour ended and we had to write a 2000 word essay about the subject for the next class. Alice gathered her stuff and we started to walk towards PE.

"I couldn't help but notice that you like history, why?" Alice asked me while walking.

"You noticed, huh?" I said with a smirk on my face. "It's just…there is something about all those events that draws me in I guess." I just realized that sentence didn't make any sense, but I couldn't tell her that it was because I was a 265 years old vampire and had witnessed almost everything they talked about in class. At least not yet.

We arrived to the locker room, change our clothes and headed to the gym.

Today we were playing soccer and, fortunately for me, Alice was in my team. I got so into the game that for a moment I displayed my vampire reflexes, but I don't think anyone had noticed, I tried to tone it down and I did a pretty good job.

I ended up scoring twice for my team and Alice hugged me both times.

After the game was over the coach told me he wanted to exchange a few words with me.

"Cullen, you're really good at soccer, have you considered joining the team?" he asked me, all business like.

I thought about it for a minute, I mean, a vampire playing soccer that would be interesting. Also, Carlisle told us that we have to keep up the pretense of being humans, so what better way than joining the soccer team.

"Sure thing coach, I would love to be on the team." I told him, grinning.

"Excellent, we stay for practice on Mondays and Wednesdays, glad you could join us." he replied then left.

I went home and sure enough, my siblings were waiting for me.

"What the hell is your problem Bella, sitting with the humans!" Rosalie yelled with fury in her eyes.

I just looked at her "There's nothing wrong with it, they're my friends." I said with a shrug.

"Well, I agree with Rose, it's dangerous for the humans to be in contact with you, so, you better back off." Jasper said in a patronizing tone.

I just glared at him and growled. "What did you just say? You think I am going to listen to you? I know what I am doing." I hissed at him getting into a crouch, ready to beat the shit out of him.

Emmett interfered "Hey Bella, calm down, you know how Rosalie and Jasper are."

"I don't care, they should stay out of my life!" I yelled.

At that moment Esme appeared, probably hearing the commotion.

"What's the matter?" she asked with her hands on her hips.

"Bella here decided that it was an excellent idea to befriend some humans at school." Rosalie said sarcastically.

I pinched my nose and took an unneeded breath trough my nose before answering Esme.

"Esme, you know how I am, I like to make friends, they are the only ones that can fill the emptiness that I feel. My siblings don't understand because they have their respective mates, I don't have anyone yet and I don't think I will." I said in a whisper.

Esme rushed to my side and hugged me. "Shh, its okay dear, you can have friends. Plus, its good to keep up the pretense." she said to me while releasing me from her arms, I just had to smile at that.

"Now, I don't want you to bother Bella anymore, understood?" She said to my siblings giving them a glare, they all said okay and left.

"Esme, there is another thing you should know." I said.

"What is it?" she asked

"I joined the soccer team!" I yelled showing excited at that prospect.

Esme opened and closed her mouth a few times; she didn't know what to say. After a few seconds she got out of her shock.

"Are you sure that it's safe for them to have you on the team?"

I just gave her a look that said. "Are you kidding me?"

Out of everyone in the family, I was the one that spent of the most time around the humans, so I knew my own strength, plus, it gave me something to distract myself.

"Its okay, Esme, I know what I am doing, plus, you can go and watch the games. I know you like soccer." I told her with a smirk and a waggle of my eyebrows.

She just gave me a smile and left the room muttering about teenagers in general.

I headed to my room, where Emmett and Victoria were waiting for me.

"To what do I owe you the pleasure of this visit?" I asked them while we were entering my room.

"We just wanted to let you know that we support you in everything. We understand that it's hard for you to be alone, with so many couples in the house." Victoria said with a kind smile.

"Plus, you can invite them here and I know that Erick and I could play videogames." Emmett said clapping his large hands together and a big grin on his face.

I laughed at that "Okay, I'll make sure to do that and I thank you guys for everything." I finished with a grateful smile.

They left me after that. I did my homework and then went for a quick hunt. Today has being interesting to say the least a human had choose me over her long time friends, that kind of action gave me hope.

I thought teenagers were self-absorbed, but Alice proved me wrong. I smiled at that thought. 110 years ago I thought I didn't deserve happiness for everything I did, after all, how could a mass murderer find happiness and hope? But now, I know that I am on the right path.