CHAPTER SEVEN – OBSERVANT

EDWARD POV

The sound of gunfire was the only thing to wake me up from my slumber. I rolled over on my back and pinched the bridge of my nose. With my eyes closed Id lowered my arm and felt around for my watch on the floor. I clasped it and brought it up to my face. My watch indicated it was 8.13am. I groaned inwards and dropped the watch again.

"Edward get up were going to be late" Jasper knocked and shouted at the other side of my bedroom door.

"Yeah" I groaned back clearing my throat.

I rubbed my face with my hands then climbed out of bed. I could really do with a shower but I doubted that Esme had paid the bill. I stalked out my bedroom in nothing but my boxers and crossed the hall to the bathroom. I entered and locked the door behind me. The bathroom was small and consisted of just a sink, toilet and shower, nothing fancy. I stalked over to the sink and prayed as I turned the faucet on. I groaned inward when nothing came out for a few seconds then all of a sudden the odd trickle of water dripped out then eventually it poured out.

"Fuck me" I said to myself in shock.

I turned the faucet off and continued to run the shower. Lucky me there was a towel hanging from the railing as well.

"Fuck me this must be my lucky day" I sarcastically murmured.

I removed my boxers and climbed into the shower. I opted for the half empty bottle of shampoo to use in both my hair and as body wash because the grotty, dirt infested soap didn't appeal to me the slightest. I was only in there for five minutes then my luck finally ran out as the water turned stone cold. Fucking boiler I growled in my head. I jumped out and wrapped the towel around my waist before returning to my room.

I walked over to the jeans I wore yesterday and pulled out my schedule. Today was Thursday so I had Math with Bryans, Chemistry with Conner's, free period, and then History with Harding. Great at least I knew I would enjoy one lesson today. I threw my schedule on my bed and headed to my wardrobe. Black, white, and grey were the only colours visible, well tell a lie I had a few black jackets with dark purple interior but that was about it. I pulled out a pair of black jeans and a black short sleeve v neck top and threw then on my bed, a pair of black Calvin Klein's and some socks where the last things to hit the bed.

I quickly dried myself and vigorously rubbed my hair with the towel before I got dressed. I tucked my jeans into my black army boots and left the laces untied before I pulled my leather jacket back on. I strapped my watch to my wrist then considered taking all of my money to school but that decided against it. It's not the fact that I would probably get mugged, it was purely because if anybody did try to mug me then they wouldn't see the light of day again. I unrolled the money and just took a twenty out before placing the rest in my hiding space. I grabbed my schedule and placed it into my back pocket followed by my money, smokes, lighter and keys.

My watch indicated it was 8.27 so I left my room and continued down the hallway then down the stairs.

"You want a lift?" I asked Jasper who was sat in living room.

"Nah I'm good Emmett's on his way" he replied.

"Laters" I said walking into the kitchen.

"Remember the rave later" Jasper shouted.

"Remember the rave later" I mimicked him in a high pitch voice pulling a stupid face.

Yeah as if I could fucking forget that! I shouted in my head. I continued through the kitchen and out the back door. I walked over to my bike where I had covered it up again last night and threw the plastic sheet off. Most black heart members had their own bikes so I didn't have to worry about mine being stolen but still you can't be too careful. I flicked the stand up and walked it around the side of the house before starting it up. I climbed on it and speed off leaving black tire marks behind me.

It had taken me less than ten minutes to get to school. I pulled up and scanned the parking lot before I parked up in an empty space next to a silver Volvo. It was empty so she must have already been inside, then I wondered what time she actually got here and where she spent her time during her free periods. That was another two questions piled up on top of the million other ones I already wanted to ask her.

I climbed off my bike and headed up the steps to the pile of students.

"Hey Edward" someone said coming up behind me.

"You alright" I asked nodding my head.

Eric hung around with Tyler, Mike and Jessica but he wasn't very outgoing as they were. He was quiet a laid back guy that had a carefree attitude, and that was mainly because he was always Edged up. I could already see that his pupils were very heavily dilated and by the way he swayed side by side that he was high on Edge. I noticed the gold chain wrapped securely around his neck. His mother gave it to him before she died and he had her name engraved in it. He never took it off and always wore it in her memory. Eric was a good guy, I didn't no why he wasted his life doing Edge.

Edge affected everybody differently, most people would burst out in laugher and hallucinate, others would turn violent but Eric had been talking Edge for so long it just made him mellow. If only edge had that effect on everyone then maybe we would get some peace in the town. I moved up the queue and sin Emmett's jeep pull in the parking lot.

"Are you excited about the rave tonight?" He asked.

"Do I look fucking excited?" I hissed at him.

He held his hands out in protest.

"Sorry mate, didn't mean to hit a sore spot" he apologized.

"No, its fine" I huffed.

"So are you still going to be there or not?"

"I don't think I've got a choice have I?" I rolled my eyes.

"Edward" Emmett called me pushing in the queue. "Here, you left them in my jeep"

He handed me my books from yesterday and I sighed, I didn't even remember about my books let along let along where I left them.

"Thanks"

I moved up the queue and walked through the detectors. All clear, I was starting to get smug with myself for passing them a second time. Emmett walked through and you guessed it set them off. I couldn't help but laugh at him.

"Fuck you" He scowled at me.

I gave him a smug smile and continued into the building as the first bell rung.

I headed straight to Math and narrowly avoided getting trampled on by the running students. I walked to the end of the hallway and up the stairwell to the second floor. I entered the classroom and like the history classroom it had individual seat and tables. I sat down at the front and placed my books on the table as the second bell rung. This was my first Maths class so I didn't have a book, so I just stared at chalkboard. Mr Bryans walked in the classroom in smart attire and everybody was silent.

We were studying limits and we had to work out equations and get the value of a letter like X or something. What the fuck was wrong with just plain old simple one add one is two or five times five is twenty five. As if any of this bollocks was even useful to me for my future. I heavily sighed and continued on with the lesson. Mr Bryans still glared at me like he did in gym class. What the fuck was his problem?

The lesson went rather slow for my liking and when the bell rung I was first out the class. I didn't care about getting trampled on because I wanted to get far away from that fucking freak as possible. I headed down the stairwell and through the hallways. I was literally buzzing and I had to stop myself from actually running to Chemistry. I was so fucking far from excitement about the actually lesson, I was just excited to find out if Bella actually wanted to speak to me or not. I ran up the south stairwell and into the hallway. I caught my breath before I entered the classroom.

The seat next to mine was empty so I just sat down in my seat. Ms. Conner's was already sat at her desk as the second bell rung. She looked exactly the same she did yesterday but this time her skirt and blazer was purple. My eyes were fixated on the door as the students piled in, my foot restlessly bounced off the floor causing my knee to jolt up and down, as if I couldn't look any more fucking desperate and eager I grunted to myself. I torn my eyes away from the door and began to open my book.

A few seconds later I heard the chair next to mine scrap across the floor and the smell of strawberries filed my nose sending a feeling of euphoria surging through my body. I hesitated before I finally looked up into her chocolate eyes. Her eyes looked tired like she had trouble sleeping I wondered why?

"Hi" I spoke breaking the silence.

"Hi" She whispered blushing.

Ok so you have both registered each other's presences, now what?

"I'm sorry about yesterday" I apologized.

"For what?"

"For crashing into you then taking off pretty much without saying anything" I smirked.

"Oh, its fine I'm used to it" She said looking down.

I could tell that she regretted telling me this but that was something I could have easily guessed anyway.

"Alright class we will be continuing with Elements and Compounds. Please turn to page 38 and continue to read and discuss quietly chapters twelve and thirteen with your partner." She told us.

My book was already open so I waited for my partner as Mr Conner's would say to open her book up. Her chocolate brown hair flowed down her back which brought my gaze to her white cashmere sweater and black jeans. I liked her outfit purely because I liked the colours, did she not like vibrant colours either? Maybe it was because she wanted to look plain and she didn't want to draw attention to herself. The whole class began talking amongst themselves. I didn't really know what to say and I could tell she was feeling uncomfortable as well.

"I don't really understand these elements and shit" I admitted to her to break the silent.

Smooth dumbshit, real smooth I laughed in my head. Now she's going to think that you're stupid as well as an obsessive stalker. She smiled at my comment.

"That's makes two of us" She replied.

Well at least I wasn't the only one who didn't have a faintest idea what these teachers waffled on about.

"Actually I don't really have a clue what goes on in any of my lesson except for maybe gym" I admitted again.

"Yeah, they can be a bit um" She paused "Confusing, especially how we move around a lot and have the same teachers for different subjects" she slightly smiled.

"I'll agree with you there"

Yet again the silence lingered. Fuck sake why was it so hard to have a conversation with her?

"Are you finding your classes alright?" She asked.

"Yeah, although I haven't being to Social Studies yet" I told her.

"Oh, that's in" She paused.

She searched her bag and pulled out her schedule.

"Third floor, north stairwell classroom three" She told me. "I have that last on Friday"

I pulled out my schedule from my back pocket and flipped it up. I checked down the chart to Friday and I smiled inwards.

"Me too"

"Well you won't get lost then will you" She smiled.

"Do you mind" I asked nodding to her schedule.

She handed it to me and we both scanned over them. We were in the same Chemistry and Social studies class and we shared three free periods together which was good. My schedule consisted of mostly History, Math, Chemistry, and a few social studies and the odd gym. Where Bella's consisted of mostly Chemistry, History, Art, with a few social studies with the odd math thrown in.

"No gym" I glared at her.

She held back a smile and looked down at the table.

"That blows, wish I had your schedule" I smiled.

"You will have soon, the schedule changes every six months therefore different classes" She informed me.

"Perfect" I said handing her schedule back.

"I take it you don't like Gym"

"And Math" I grunted.

"Let me guess, Mr Bryans?"

"And the prize goes to Ms. Swan"

She smiled which made me smile to. Well at least the conversation was moving more fluently.

"Yeah, that guys pretty weird, scares the hell out of me" She admitted.

She had every right to be scared of him, hell I would have had to have put on at least two hundred pounds and wore six inch stilts to even match the guy.

"Same here, especially when he just stares at you like"

"Like his going to rip your head off" she finished for me.

"Exactly" I nodded.

"I said quietly class" Ms. Conner's perked up "Or did I not make myself clear" she said scanning around the room. Everybody became quiet and began to whisper to each other.

"Do you think.." she paused.

"What?" I whispered.

"Nothing" she shook her head.

"Go on?" I pushed.

She bit down on her lip which caused my gaze to stare at it. Why the hell did she do that, did she not know how nice and arousing that was. Wait, what did I really just think that?

"Do you think these teachers are well" she paused "a bit" she paused again.

"You mean a bit fucked up" I finished her sentence.

"Yeah" she replied.

So yet again I wasn't the only person to notice these things. Maybe Bella was more observant than I gave her credit for. I must admit that the more I spoke to her the more I got to know her even if I didn't ask her direct questions.

"Hey this whole town is fucked up, I wouldn't be surprised if all the teachers were jacked up on drugs and fuck knows what else" I admitted.

"Has anyone ever told you that you swear a lot" she smiled.

"Um, no actually" I choked back a laugh. "Has anybody ever told you that I don't give a shit?"

"Actually no" she smiled back.

"Well, I don't" I told her.

There was a slight pause like she was lost in thought.

"About anything?" She asked with her eyes down.

I had the feeling that there was more to her question but I wouldn't dare ask her about it with many ears listening in.

"Depends on what it is" I told her "Or who" I finished studying her face.

She smiled slightly then nodded.

We made small talk for the rest of the lesson then it turned into talk about the lesson. The bell soon rung and I reluctantly stood up from my chair. Bella grabbed her bag and flung it over her shoulder her book slid off the table and onto the floor next to her.

Without thinking I brushed passed her and bent down to pick it up by somebody else's hand already got to the book first. I stood up and looked at Jacobs's smug face. Bella immediately mad herself small and went invisible.

"Can I walk you to your next class Isabella" He smirked at me.

"I'm sure she's quiet capable she doesn't need a fucking guide dog" I spat.

"And I'm sure she's quite capable of answering for herself, she doesn't need a fucking translator" He hissed back at me.

"Gentlemen, is there going to be a problem here" Ms. Conner's interrupted us.

I snatched the book out of his hand and without thinking I took Bella's arm and guided her out the classroom. I shoved past the other students using my free arm and made sure I was out the hallway and down the stairs before I dropped my hand from her arm.

Fucking prick I screamed in my head. Bella just stood against the locker hugging herself. I knew she wanted an explanation for my sudden reaction and to be honest I did as well. I have no right to pull her away like that it's not like she's my girlfriend or my fucking property to protect so why the fuck did I feel the need to do it?

I groaned inward at myself and shook my thoughts away.

"What class you got next" I asked totally forgetting about her schedule.

"I've got a free period" she told me.

"I need some air, you coming" I asked a bit too forcefully.

She nodded then I took off towards the courtyard. I walked through the hallway and stayed close to her In case anyone got to pushy. We walked out through the side access and out to the lunch shelters. There were three girls who sat at one of the tables and one of them waved to us. Bella shyly waved back as we made our way over to them.

"Hey Bella" The girl with the black hair greeted her with a hug.

"Hey" she said pulling away.

I saw her friends exchange confusing looks between each other.

"Edward this is Joanna" she signalled to the girl who hugged her. "Helen" She signalled to the other girl with black hair. "And Rosalie" She signalled to the girl with the blonde hair.

I nodded as they all said hello.

"Oi fuck face!" I heard a familiar voice shout.

I spun around to see Emmett's smug face glaring at me. Bella and the girls tensed up beside me as if a fight was about to break out.

"Thanks for leaving me at the front gate as usual" He glared again.

"Well you shouldn't try to conceal weapons then should you, you stupid fuck" I smirked.

The girls exchanged confusing glancing between each other. Emmett charged at me and before I knew what was happening I was lifted up in the air.

"Put me down you fucking faggot" I shouted.

Emmett dropped me and we exchanged punches to the arm.

"Fuck man you got a hard punch Cuz" Emmett moaned grabbing his arm.

"Um, Cuz?" The blonde hair girl perked up.

"Yeah I told you before that I had to pick up my cousin" Emmett spoke to her like they were friends.

"Oh, so his your cousin" She explained to herself standing up.

She jumped on him and wrapped her legs around his waist. Since when did Emmett have a girlfriend? This was new to me.

I sin Bella go invisible again out the corner of my eye. Was she scared of Emmett? Stupid question really considering the size of him. I sat on top of one of the empty tables and lit up a smoke. I patted the table next to me and Bella made her way over to me. Rose pulled Emmett down on the other table and she sat on his lap as the two other girls scooted away from him. Maybe they were wary of him as well.

"So, Emmett's your cousin?" Bella asked sitting on the table top next to me.

"Yes unfortunately"

"I heard that" Emmett smirked from the other table.

Bella giggled slightly which made me smile, her giggle sounded so adorable. I groaned inwards at myself, what the fuck was wrong with me I never used words like adorable. Since when was anything ever adorable to me? The closest thing to adorable I ever came across was the next door neighbour's dog nearly a decade ago.

Bella sat crossed legged away from me and pulled out an apple from her bag.

"What about you, do you have any siblings or cousins?" I asked.

I could see the sorrow behind her eyes as she thought about it.

"No, it's just me and my dad" She replied taking a bite of her apple.

"Well you're not missing out on much" I told her to hopefully cheer her up a bit. "I mean really they cause nothing but trouble" I smirked.

"I heard that as well" Emmett perked up again.

I offered her a cigarette but she shook her head and wrinkled her nose to it.

"What?" I laughed.

"I don't smoke"

"What never?"

"I've tried it before but it made me giddy and I ended up crashing head first in a pile of boxes" She laughed.

I couldn't help but laugh as the mental image of her doing that swirled around in my head.

"Do you drink?"

"Occasionally" she replied.

"Drugs?"

"Never"

"Good girl" I smiled.

"So, you don't smoke, don't do drugs, occasionally drink, eat healthy and a Jane Austen fan" I smirked.

She gave me a confusing look and I nodded down to her open bag. I could see the corner of the book Pride and Prejudice peeking out her bag.

"Oh" she smiled tucking the book back in her bag.

"And I'm going to take a wild guess and say that you follow the speed limit" I teased her.

I wasn't going to tell her that I followed her so I just left it at that.

"Ok, Mr observant" She sarcastically said "My turn" she added.

"Drink?" She asked.

"Occasionally" I replied.

"Drugs?"

"Not anymore"

"You must have either sin the authors name on my book or you must have read classic literature before"

"Neither" I laughed. "My mother used to read them"

It actually surprised me how easy and fluently our conversation was now. It was like I was talking to someone who I've known all my life. Considering how she spoke to me on our first encounter only giving me one word answers I guess she felt pretty relax around me as well. I lit up another cigarette as we made small talk until the bell rung again. I almost grunted inwards because I wanted to keep talking to her. I pulled myself of the table and walked back into the building with Bella, Emmett and the girls. Rose kissed Emmett firmly on the cheek before rushing to Bella's side.

"Come on Bells we've got Art" Rosalie pulled on Bella's arm.

She looked at me with pleading eyes and headed down the opposite hallway. By the look on her face it seemed like she wasn't used to close contact with made feel guilty about pulling her away by her arm earlier. The second bell rang which sent me running towards History. I made it just in time to take my seat before Mr Harding walked in.

"Hello class" he said placing his briefcase down.

I opened my book and leaned my head on my fist then began to drone out of the lesson. I had enjoyed speaking with Bella and even though I hadn't asked the questioned I wanted I still felt like I knew more about her than I had done yesterday. As Mr. Harding was speaking there was a knock on the classroom door. My eyes flickered to it but I didn't move my position. Mr Harding opened the door and Eric swayed in. I had been that absorbed with everything going on yesterday that I hadn't even noticed that Eric was even in my class.

"You're late" Mr. Harding glared at him.

"I know" Eric slurred dragging his feet across the floor.

He was totally fucked out of his head.

"Have you got a note from the principle" Mr Harding asked.

Eric stumbled and fell into an empty desk causing it to slide across the floor.

"No, but I can go and get you one" He smirked.

As he turned around a fountain of vomit exploded out his lips. Mr Harding grabbed him by the collar and threw him out the door, leaving with him. When they both left the talking began and the students started to mess about. I droned out again and about ten minutes later the classroom door opened again.

"So, where were we" Mr Harding said walking over to his desk.

The talking came to a halt and everybody sat back in their seats. As Mr Harding was about to sit down a flicker of light bounced off the shiny object in his hand and into my eyes causing my gaze to look into the direction. I felt the colour drain from my face as I stared at the blood soaked gold chain that was wrapped around his hand. It disappeared into his pocket and he began talking where he left off.

I straighten myself up and glanced into the direction of the door. What the fuck? Was all that repeated in my mind over and over again.