A/N- Hellloooo... (waves awkwardly) it really is me, and this really is a post! TADA! (fireworks) So it has literally been a few weeks beyond a year since I last posted here. I have accomplished absolutely nothing since that last post, other than an awesome girlfriend and some good school grades. My life has been a crazy whirlwind otherwise. Anywhoooo... enjoy. I'm currently not working for the next several weeks so I'm hoping to get some writing accomplished during the school break! ENJOY!

FOF's

ShadowCub- Everyone does need to stop letting Edward speak! He's such a douche! lol Enjoy the new post! :)

lissie boo- Sorry for the long delay. Enjoy!

Apathicus- :) Enjoy!

Alpha-Hunter14- I had to make sure that I created a support character for Bella, so I'm glad you like Mrs. V. :) As for Rosalie, give her a chance, she'll surprise you later on. ;) As for Edward, he's an ass and he probably isn't going to change much.

HarleyQuinnDavidson- Sorry for the delay darlin! Please enjoy the new chapter! :)

Ravenxxx007- Thank you for your sweet words! Enjoy the new chapter and can't wait to hear what you think! :)

NANA100- Thank you so much for your support and your insight on my writing. I'm glad it's good enough to read it more than once! Enjoy! :)

71prowler- Thank you! Enjoy the new chapter! :)

milagglad- I might take FOREVERRR to update, but I would never abandon a fic! Enjoy the new chap! :)

-x-x-x-

Thank you to all the silent readers and the people who follow/favorite either me or the story. You guys are awesome! Please enjoy the new chapter!

peace&love
Mel

Bella

When I wake up the next morning, I find a small smile spreading across my lips, but quickly shake my head to help clear the thoughts that caused it. I dreamt about the small pixie-like Cullen last night. Probably the best night's sleep I've gotten since moving to Forks, as well.

As I climb out of bed, I seem to take a few extra minutes picking out my outfit for the day before heading to the bathroom and brushing my hair and teeth. When I walk back to my room, I dress in the dark blue slim fit jeans I'd picked and light blue cotton v-neck. I grab some socks from my dresser and adorn my feet with my black Vans before grabbing my iPod from my dresser and putting it in my back pocket. Then I throw my new book and my writing book into my school bag and head down stairs.

When I step off the last step, the smile -that I thought I had already done a good job of getting rid of- falls from my face completely when I hear Charlie in the kitchen. I guess I'll just skip breakfast today.

As quietly as possible, I head towards the foyer and grab my jacket before opening the door, and then slamming it as loudly as I can manage, behind me. I slide my jacket on and put my ear buds in my ears as I begin my trek through the drizzle of rain, to school. Thank God that it's only a ten minute walk and that the drizzle is almost non-existent today.

An odd churning begins in my stomach, one that I've partly never gotten used too, and one that I haven't felt in far too long. The feeling alone makes me nervous and more anxious, while bringing a sad smile to my face as I remember who used to cause that feeling before. Willing away the bad thoughts, I walk into the half-full parking lot, taking note that I'm fifteen minutes earlier that usual. God, I need to reign these feelings in. I told myself I'd stay on my guard, yet I'm letting myself get worked up when I know nothing about this girl.

I take a deep breath as I pull my hood further over my eyes and turn my music up as I walk through the parking lot towards the school. I walk through the quad and sit at a vacant table under the awning. I pull my new Neruda book from my bag and sit down to read, waiting for the bell to ring. While I'm sitting here, I glance up every now and again when someone new walks through the courtyard. It's just before the bell goes off that I see the five of them walk through. I find myself shocked once again, this morning, when I realize that there is five of them; meaning that my science partner has decided to return to school. My attention is immediately grabbed, however, by the graceful pixie who seems to be trailing more slowly behind her adopted siblings.

She seems lost in her thoughts currently, and my science partner notices a second later and shoots her a warm smile. She smirks back and nods her head once. They keep walking and a moment later I see her head turn in my direction, catching my eye for a brief moment before turning back to where she is walking. I think I see the faint trace of a smile on her lips, but dismiss the thought, knowing that a gorgeous young woman like Alice Cullen would never smile about me.

I break my staring contest with the side of her face after that and try to rid myself of any more thoughts of her. Knowing that giving myself false hope is not something I need to drive myself crazy with either.

The bell rings once they're out of sight, almost as if they'd planned it that way. To be walking through the school towards their classes just as the bell was about to ring.

Shaking all of the absurd thoughts away, I grab my book and my bag before heading towards my Pre-Calculus class.

Math hour goes by quickly, and I've gotten half of the homework assignment done when the bell rings. I feel a sense of dread as I head to my locker to switch my math book with my Biology book. I am so not looking forward to seeing this sullen Jasper boy.

When I walk in, he is already sitting at our table, looking as stiff and rigid as a rock. Literally not moving. He doesn't even appear to be breathing. I give him a bizarre look as I walk behind him to take my seat. When I do, I pull my notebook for this class out, and lay my homework on top of it, knowing the teacher will be coming by to collect it once the tardy bell rings.

"Hello, Isabella." My rock-like partner calls quietly to me, a thick southern accent underlining his tone.

My eyes widen slightly and I stop breathing for a moment as the shock travels through me. I turn my head slowly to the right and look at him. I study the blank expression he's giving me, but I do notice the curious gaze held in his dark golden eyes.

"Jasper." I regard him with caution.

"I wanted to offer an apology for my peculiar behavior on your first day. I wasn't having the best day, I was sick you see, and I indirectly took it out on you with my un-gentleman like actions."

He must be from the south or something with that kind of accent. And the Cullen's are doing a fine job at raising him if he's apologizing for not being polite.

"It's, uh, it's ok. Everyone's entitled to a bad day occasionally, especially if you're not feeling well." I answer him softly, my eyes moving back and forth from his intense gaze, to the the rest of the room around him. Not able to take his intense scrutinizing of my face. Well at least that explains his absence for these last few days.

He nods his head and offers a small smile. "Thank you for understanding." He answers stiffly before turning his attention at the sound of the bell, to our now present teacher.

His body still seems rigid and unmoving, and he still appears to not really be breathing; but I brush it off and do my best to not think about our short, awkward interaction.

"Today, class, we'll be learning more in depth how to identify parts of a cell by their color. This should be relatively easy if you did your homework for the last two days. On your desks, there are microscopes set up for you and your partner to share, and I'll be coming around soon with a few slides that have certain parts of an animal cell on them. There are four slides in total. The worksheet that, Eric if you would please, will pass out to you has a list of colors. Write the correct part of the cell next to the color on the page. Remember that some of these colors are repetitive within the cell."

No one seems happy about this assignment, and once Mr. Molina stops talking, everyone starts in on their own conversations.

"Ladies first." Jasper calls and pushes the microscope towards me, his pale hand balled into a fist as he does so.

I don't reply as I place the first slide and look down at the cell. "Ok, uhm, Nuclear Membrane is on this one."

"Dark brown correct?" He asks, to which I just nod.

"And the actual Nucleolus as well."

"Black?" He questions again and I nod once more.

I pull back from the microscope and blink a few times to align my vision and then write the two answers on my paper.

"May I?" He asks politely, an edge still laced in his voice and I just nod.

He gingerly reaches out and slides the microscope back to his side of our lab table. "We might as well state the cytoplasm." He murmurs and looks to me.

"Light yellow?" I question. I know the answer, but the look he's giving me is making it hard to concentrate.

He gives a small smile and nods. "That seems to be everything on this slide." He amends as he removes it and places the next one.

The rest of the class continues as such and we're the first group to finish the project. For having missed a few days of school, Jasper knew most of the answers without hesitation, whereas I got two wrong and he had to correct me.

Genius? Maybe. Do I think that's the answer? Something tells me not too.

"So, Isabella, how are you liking Forks?" He asks politely, but there's still an unexplained edge or something in his voice. Almost as if he's pacing himself as he talks, or like he's forcing himself to be nice and make conversation with me.

His question itself though, catches me off guard. Is he really making small talk? "It's uh.." I clear my throat. "It's wet." I finally say.

He gives a small smile at this. "That it is. But it grows on you." He comments.

"Hopefully not like the green shit that's on everything else." I comment sarcastically and I hear him chuckle, which surprises me even further.

His voice reminds me of an image of molten chocolate for some reason. How smooth and deep it is. His laugh is no different. While I may not be interested in the male species in the slightest, there's no denying that Jasper Hale is a very attractive young man. His eyes, which surprisingly resemble Alice's, are a deep golden color, almost like butterscotch. His honey blonde hair falls in soft waves to his shoulders, and his smile, though restrained, is still sweet and almost innocent looking.

"That would be disturbing." he amends with a remaining smirk, "However, I like the town a lot more during the winter."

I just quirk my eyebrow at him in question for a moment.

"Snow." He states simply. "It covers all the green shit." He adds on to my joke with a wide smile.

"Gotcha." I nod.

I can't help but notice that while his face showed mirth from our short conversation, his body still remained stiff as a rock. And not once did I see his chest rise or fall from breathing.

The bell rings suddenly and Jasper is almost half way through the room before it even finishes sounding.

Despite our random conversation, does he seriously still expect me to believe that he blames himself for his behavior on my first day? Especially when he runs from the room so quickly.

I gather my things and head to my next class with a confused scowl on my face.

English and PE pass as slowly as they're allotted, my scowl even deeper as I'm forced to play basketball. I just jog as carefully as possible around the court, avoiding the other students and the ball.

When I get to lunch, I grab some fruit and a salad from the bar, hungrier than usual since I had to skip breakfast. I sit down at my table, and see that the Cullen kids are already sitting at their usual table. The fact that you've taken to noticing everything about them now is rather annoying. I groan quietly to myself, knowing that I'm starting to subconsciously obsess over all of this. Over her.

I put my headphones in and eat my lunch, before pulling out my book and reading some of it. I can feel eyes on me and when I look up to find the source, I find the most vibrant honey stare directed at me. It's Alice, and she has that curious look on her face as usual. She's so zoned out that she hasn't noticed my own staring yet, so I take the time to study her well put together appearance. Her hair, down as usual, hangs around her shoulders, the ends curving out in different directions, but she has a small clip holding her bangs to one side. She only appears to have some light eye shadow on and some lipstick. Though it isn't necessary because she has such a flawlessly beautiful face. She has a white short-sleeved blouse on, with a black cotton vest on over that. I remember from this morning that she had on perfectly tight, black jeans and some black fuzzy boots with white trim. I wonder where she shops at since this town is definitely now known for any of that kind of higher end fashion. My guess would be Seattle or Portland.

When I come out of my deep thoughts, I realize that now I'm the one who's been caught staring. Curious, penetrating eyes are locked on mine and I feel warmth spread through my stomach automatically. I let my eyes linger over her face for a moment, and catch the wisps of a smile playing on her perfect lips. I can't contain my own smirk, before biting the inside of my bottom lip to rid me of it. I let our eyes connect once more, before finally turning my head and collecting my things. I need to get out of here before I stare at her for the rest of lunch.

As I stand up, I subconsciously look over my shoulder and see sadness in her eyes. She catches my gaze and bites her own lip. I throw another smirk her way and I see the sparkle come back to her eyes as her own bright smile crosses her features. I turn after that and head towards class; deciding to sit outside in the hallway since it's raining a little harder now than it was this morning.

When I approach the door to my next class, however, I find it open already. I poke my head inside the door and see Mrs. Valentine sitting at her desk grading papers. She looks up a moment later as I step inside the door.

"Isabella." She states with a pleasant smile. "Is there something I can do for you?"

"No, not really. It's just raining so I couldn't go walk on a trail like I usually do. So I came to sit outside the class to read until the bell." I tell her softly.

"Well, please, feel free to take your seat and read in here. I'm just reading over the poems the class turned in last week. So I promise not to disturb you." She jokes and I just give her a smile.

"Likewise." I nod and begin moving towards my seat as she looks back down at her stack of papers. As I cross in front of her desk towards my aisle, I stop. "Actually, Mrs. V.?" I call softly.

"Yes?" She asks, the smile back on her face as her eyes return to me. She's always in such a pleasant mood. I wonder what she puts in her Wheaties.

I take a deep breath to clear my nerves, before proceeding. "I couldn't help but overhear your.. mom.. saying that you guys could use some help at the store?"

She takes a deep breath, heaving a sigh as she removes her glasses and rubs her eyes before replacing them once more. "Yes, she's been pestering me about getting someone to help me clean the place up. Hoping that maybe it'll help bring some business our way. But she'll be just as upset if I do because we don't make enough money to pay anyone either."

"Well, if it's something you'd like to do, I wouldn't mind helping." I tell her softly. "Charlie has enforced me getting a job, and I could help you get everything done. Plus, I'm a reader and a writer, so I'm hoping that makes me a better candidate than most." I give her a nervous smile and wait patiently as she mulls this over. "And I'm not even really concerned with getting paid, if it helps. I'd just like something to fill up some time after school."

I see a smile tugging at her lips as she looks into my eyes. Trying to figure out how serious I am about this, I'm sure. "Ok Isabella. You got the job. You seem genuine in your offer and I really could use the help. Can you start today after school? Say three o'clock?" She asks.

I give her a wide smile and nod; honestly happy to find something to do in this dreadful little town. "Sounds good. Thank you, Mrs. Valentine." I tell her and she just returns my smile before I turn and head to my desk.

I only get a few minutes to read though, before the bell sounds.

Alice is the first student to walk into class, or should I say dance? Cause that's really what it looks like. There's a bit more of a skip to her step though.

"Hello, Mrs. Valentine." Her melodic voice calls.

Mrs. V. gives her a smile in return before Alice turns down her aisle, and sits down in her usual seat next to mine. Our eyes connected when she turned to walk this way and still currently remain locked. "Hi, Isabella." She calls softly to me as she settles in her chair.

"Hello, Alice." I reply monotonously, and I feel the heat rise up from my neck. I can't bring myself to look away so she unfortunately sees the blush flooding my cheeks.

Pull yourself together Bella! You're going soft because of this girl and letting your walls down way too rapidly!

Alice is the first to break eye contact. Probably noticing the slight change in my demeanor brought on by my thoughts.

She does glance back for a second though and my eyes shift her way quickly before focusing on my book. A pleasant look crosses her features and she turns her attention to Mrs. V. who is greeting more students.

Once the bell rings and the students who are standing around talking take their seats, Mrs. V. addresses the class.

"Alright class, today we'll be wrapping up our discussion on Darkness by Byron. For those of you who volunteered your opinions yesterday, thank you; and for those who weren't in class yesterday, we've learned that cannibalism was exaggerated in this poem along with famine and the desperation to survive. So let's see how Byron wrapped it up."

"The crowd was famished by degrees; but two

Of an enormous city did survive,

And they were enemies: they met beside

The dying embers of an altar-place

Where had been heaped a mass of holy things

For an unholy usage: they raked up,

And shivering scraped with their cold skeleton hands

the feeble ashes, and their feeble breath

Blew for a little life, and made a flame

Which was a mockery; then they lifted up

Their eyes as it grew lighter, and beheld

Each other's aspects -saw, and shrieked, and died -

Even of their mutual hideousness they died,

Unknowing who he was upon whose brow

Famine had written Fiend. The world was void,

The populous and the powerful was a lump,

Seasonless, herbless, treeless, manless, lifeless -

A lump of death -a chaos of hard clay.

The rivers, lakes, and ocean stood still,

And nothing stirred within their silent depths;

Ships sailorless lay rotting on the sea,

And their masts fell down piecemeal; as they dropped

They slept on the abyss without a surge -

The waves were dead; the tides were in their grave,

The Moon, their mistress, had expired before;

The winds were withered in the stagnant air,

And the clouds perished! Darkness had no need

Of aid from them -She was the Universe!"

A silence fills the room as the teacher let's everything soak in. "Thoughts?" She asks simply.

No one makes a sound, not knowing what to say about it. I just look down at my desk, not wanting to look like some teacher's pet since I just gave an answer yesterday.

When the silence carries on for another few minutes, Mrs. V.'s voice sounds again. "C'mon you guys!" She softly exclaims. Silence. "None of you have any kind of opinion?" She asks incredulously.

A few students shake their heads 'no' and she just sighs, a frown pulling at her features, clearly wishing we would all try a little harder or care to try a little harder. Her eyes catch mine for a moment and she smirks. "How about you Isabella? You seemed to have a pretty good grasp on the poem yesterday, how about on the ending?"

I feel like a fish out of water for a moment as my lips open and close. Wanting to deny her request for an answer, but when I feel Alice's inquisitive gaze burning into the side of my face, I just start talking without hesitation.

"Byron wraps up the poem by telling how the city became from the darkness. The famine brought on starvation, which brought on a lot of death. People died from no sufficiency, or they died at the hands of each other fighting for the little food they came across. But in the end, when the dark clouds finally started to dissipate, there was no one left but two, and even they were enemies, but in the end they died as well. The waters were still because there was no one to fish on the boats, so they withered away out in the water. It foreshadows what can happen to the world if no one turns to God when these kinds of times arise. The world will become empty."

"Very good Isabella." She smiles widely in my direction, but I just downcast my eyes, feeling my cheeks heat up slightly from the attention.

When I glance from the corner of my eye, I see Alice looking at me with mirth in her eyes. I bite my lip to contain my own bashful smile and doodle on the piece of paper that's in front of me.

"What Isabella said is absolutely right! The volcano caused a great famine in this country. The poem was also written as more of an exaggeration, or a warning -if you will- of what could happen back in those times when simple things like weather changes affected the area. So this poem is a case of cause and effect. Now, today's classwork and homework is going to be to write a free verse on a cause that created a traumatic effect. Whether in your life or maybe something that you just happen to know about, or you can make it up. Because some of you might happen to write about something personal, we will not be reading these aloud in class. You'll have till the end of the week to turn them in."

Pretty sure I have more than a handful of poems that I could turn in for this assignment. I decide to take my Neruda book from my bag and read a little until the class is finished.

When the bell rings, I gather my things and head for the door, I'm just a few steps down the hall when I hear her angelic voice call my name. "Isabella?"

I stop walking and sigh before turning around to look at her. "Yes, Alice?" I respond quickly. Out of habit, my voice is hedged with annoyance, but I do my best to swallow it down. She hasn't earned any form of disrespect. Yet.

"It's really wonderful how much you know about poetry." She states before biting her full bottom lip and glancing around. She seems nervous, but I can't tell why. She stopped me in the hall, so it couldn't be because people are staring at us interacting.

"Just something I love." I answer her awkwardly, not knowing how else to respond. I don't understand this power she has over me.

"You really seem to understand it well, not a lot of people can do that." She ventures further. Is what she's saying considered compliments? Because the way her comments are making me feel, they almost seem that way.

"It just, uh, comes naturally to me. . I guess." I stammer over my words.

She giggles for a moment and I feel my cheeks heat up.

"I should, uhm, should get to," I try and clear the nervous lump forming in my throat, "to class." I squeak.

"Have a good day." She tells me with what appears to be a shy smile before she turns and walks in the other direction.

I take a few deep breaths before turning and rushing towards my last class of the day. Ignoring the peculiar expressions of the other students that I didn't notice until now.

When school is over, I head toward my locker to swap out the necessary books for homework, and then make my way towards the parking lot.

As I walk out of the main doors that lead to the courtyard I sat in this morning, I bump into what feels like a concrete pole, because I was fidgeting with my back pack and not paying attention.

The impact sends me hurtling backwards and I land not so comfortably on my wrist and ass. When I look up at the offending object, I realize that it wasn't a pole at all, but a very brawny, very amused looking guy.

"Excuse me," I mutter as I rotate my sore wrist.

"Emmett!" Comes the voice I'm growing more and more accustomed too. "What're you doing?!" She accuses as if he purposefully pushed me to the ground, instead of blaming my obvious lack of coordination. I look over my shoulder and see that she's coming from the same direction I just did.

"Hey, she bumped into me." He defends with his hands up, but I can see the mirth in his eyes. He thinks it's hilarious that I bumped into him and fell.

"The least you could've done is helped her up." Alice scolds him with a fierce look that I know I'd be scared to receive.

He just shrugs, but seems apologetic as Alice kneels down in front of me.

"Are you alright, Isabella?" Her now soft voice fills my ears and her sweet scent fills my senses.

I almost feel faint from her close proximity, which makes me have to shake my head in order to clear out the sudden fogginess. As I look back up at her, she's all that seems to exist around me. All other noise is drowned out and seems miles away as the tinkling of her soft voice resounds in my thoughts. My vision envelopes her perfect porcelain face as she stares at me with the most adorably concerned expression, lips partially pouting as she awaits a response.

"No?" I hear the panic fill her voice and I realize it was because of the slight shake of my head. "Are you hurt? Do I need to call a doctor?" I see her eyes sweeping my frame for any visible injuries, but all she finds is me cradling my wrist.

"Alice, I'm fine." I finally tell her. "Just a uh, bruised butt." I inform her. Releasing myself from the center of her attention by averting my eyes, I suddenly feel more than one set of eyes on me.

When I look up past the tiny girl, I find Alice's entire family is standing behind her, waiting for the pixie to finish with the poor fallen new girl. The blonde girl and the bronze haired boy looking the most impatient.

"You've hurt your wrist." Alice grabs my attention once more when she directs my gaze down to the arm I have cradled in my other hand against my stomach.

"I think I landed on it. But I'm fine." I tell her as I make an attempt to get up.

I stumble a little from the soreness of my butt and cool hands catch my arms to steady me. When I'm still, she reaches for my wrist. "May I?" She asks sweetly, her eyes intense as they lock on mine.

I know I should find a way out of this situation, find a way away from her and her alluring gaze -her seductive presence- but instead I give in and hold my arm out for her to take. Nodding dumbly as her small hands wrap delicately around my own hand and forearm.

"Alice." I hear lowly from one of the siblings behind her, but she ignores them.

Her cooler than normal fingertips caress my skin as she examines the tender area of my wrist. Turning my arm this way and that to assess any potential damage as I strain to hold in a tiny wince.

"I don't think you broke it. But I think you should have it looked at anyways." Alice tells me softly, and when my eyes connect with hers, I know that she feels bad for my running into her, er, brother or whatever.

"I'm sure it's fine Alice. Just a sprain or something." I try and dismiss the idea of going to the hospital.

"You took a pretty nasty fall though. I really think you should have it looked at." Her penetrating eyes look into mine once more and I feel all hope for a fight vanish from my mind.

"Ok." I relent.

"Good." She gives me a pleasant smile. "Excuse me for a moment?" She requests and I nod my head.

She walks a few feet away from me to speak with her family and I catch small pieces of their conversation as she tells them that she's going to assist me to the hospital to see their father. There's a small debate about it before her and the one I ran into -whose name I believe she said is Emmett- approach me once again.

"Sorry about your wrist, pip-squeak." He jokes, but I can tell he means no offense by the silly name he tacked onto the end of his apology.

"Not a problem, Godzilla. Concrete broke my fall." I tell him sarcastically and he smiles widely at my comeback.

Alice just rolls her eyes at us, "Isabella, this is my brother Emmett - Emmett, Isabella."

"It's a pleasure to finally meet you." He stresses and I see the look he gives to Alice.

She glares back at him and he just laughs loudly.

"Uhm, you too?" I question, completely confused by their exchange.

"Okay," she draws out, "let's get you to that doctor, yes?" Alice asks, distracting the conversation.

"I need to see if Mrs. Valentine is still here first. I was supposed to start working at her book store this afternoon. I wanna let her know that I'm going to be late."

"Not a problem. Emmett, will you let Mrs. V. know that I'm escorting Isabella to see Carlisle about her wrist and that she'll be a little late getting to the book store?"

"Sure, can do." He gives us a wide grin before walking past us into the school.

I see Alice roll her eyes and I give her a questioning gaze. Her only response is to smile at me and lead me from the school.

"Do you drive?" She asks me as we approach a silver Volvo in the parking lot.

"No." I answer her, again with a questioning look on my face.

"Just wanted to know if we'd have to come back for your car or anything." She gives me a pleasant smile.

"Nope, I walk to school." I tell her honestly.

She just gives me an unreadable expression and then smiles again. "Might want to buckle up."

No sooner than the seat belt is secured across my hips, are we speeding off at an abnormally fast pace from the parking lot of school.