Chapter Four - (Avoidance)

BPOV

A new school year, new kids in town, self depression getting deeper— senior year is going to be just peachy for me.

Today is the first day of my senior year. I have to go to the head office and get my schedule to figure out what teachers I'll be having this year. Hopefully they're not too annoying.

I struggle to find something to wear; I'm not one for fashion at all lately, but I don't want to go to school looking like a total loser who's lost her marbles.

I find a pair of dark jeans and pull on a black long sleeved shirt with a dark blue flannel shirt over the top. I run my hands through my hair as I stare at myself in the mirror, looking at my outfit for the day. It'll do.

I turn to walk into the bathroom to do my hair. I have as much trouble with that as I did with my clothing, so I tie it up into a messy bun. I don't even bother putting any make-up on— I don't see the point in it.

I walk back into my room, grabbing my book bag and head down to the kitchen to get some breakfast. There isn't much in the cupboards; I avoided going to the store again, not wanting to run into Edward. Too bad I'll have to deal with seeing him at school now.

I finish eating and grab my keys, heading out the door to go to school. It's been raining again. I step into a puddle on the way to my truck. Awesome.

I drive to school slowly, because I can't afford to crash my truck as it's the only transportation I have to and from school.

I pull into the parking lot, groaning as I see there's hardly any places to park. I drive around until I find a spot next to a very fancy yellow porch; must be one of Edward's relatives. Man, they have some fancy cars.

I hop out of my truck, heading towards the office. As I walk inside, I immediately recognize the bronze hair that belongs to Edward, within a group of other students who are obviously his family. I keep my head down hoping he doesn't recognize me, waiting for them to finish. Thankfully, I get my wish and he doesn't see me. I walk up to the counter and Mrs. Cope hands me my schedule.

"Bella, my dear, how were your holidays? Are you excited for senior year?" I give her a polite smile, shrugging my shoulders.

"Oh, you know how it is with me, Mrs. Cope. They were as good as they could get. I'm excited about having one more year to deal with, then being free."

She gives me a sad smile, patting my hand that is resting on the desk.

"How are you holding up, sweetie? I mean what I said last year. If you need anything at all, just come and see me."

I remove my hand from the desk and begin to play with the hem of my shirt.

"Thanks, Mrs. Cope, but I'll be fine." I smile at her then walk out of the door, colliding with someone.

"Oh my god, I'm so sorry!"

I look down, seeing that she's one of Edward's relatives that were in here earlier. She's short and slender with jet black hair, styled into little spikes. She looks up at me, giving me an apologetic smile.

"Don't worry about it. I'm used to being invisible."

I crouch down quickly, picking up my things before walking out of the office. I hear her running up behind me, beginning to walk by my side.

"You aren't invisible; I just wasn't watching where I was going. Hi, I'm Alice. I'm new here."

She extends her hand out to me with a massive grin on her face. I stare at her hand, looking like an ignorant bitch. I carefully place my hand in hers and shake it lightly.

"I'm Bella."

She slowly removes her hand from mine, hugging her books to her chest.

"So, I have English now with Mr. Berty. Do you know where that is?"

So, she's in the same English class as me. Great.

"Um, yeah. That's actually where I'm heading now."

I continue to walk to English, and she walks beside me, constantly talking about god only knows what. She talks way too fast, and she's extremely chipper for a tiny person.

"And that's when I ran into you. I'm so sorry about that by the way. I honestly need to watch where I'm going. I'm so small. I just run into everything."

We reach our English class. I hesitate outside of the door as she stands there watching me, she keeps smiling, freaking me out. I sigh as I turn my back on her, walking into the classroom and taking the seat in the back. Alice sits beside me and I look over to her as she gives me an apologetic smile, leaning back into her chair before she begins to whisper to me.

"I'm sorry if I'm annoying you, I just don't know anyone else yet. I don't want to sit by myself, in case I sit in someone else's chair. I hope you don't mind. I can sit somewhere else if you want?"

For the first time of meeting Alice, she looks wary and uncomfortable. Way to bring down a person's personality, Bella.

"No, it's alright. I don't mind."

I turn my head away from her, keeping my eyes to the front for the rest of the lesson.

English goes by in a blur; I completely forget that Alice has been sitting next to me for the whole lesson. As soon as the bell rings, I practically run out of the classroom, heading for the cafeteria.

As I'm lining up for lunch, I hear familiar laughter. Ahead of me are Jessica and Lauren. Lauren spots me, and whispers something to Jessica. She turns to look at me, giving me a filthy look before storming off to her regular seat.

I've not only lost my best friend and the place I used to sit for lunch, but gained an enemy at the same time. Cool.

I run my hand down my face, leaning into the side of the bench as I wait for the queue to move forward. Someone taps me on the shoulder, and I turn around to see Alice with a bright smile on her face.

"Hey, Bella! I just wanted to invite you to sit with me and my family for lunch, because you were so nice to me earlier. Oh, and this is my cousin, Edward."

I stand there with a shocked expression on my face— it's her first day here and she's inviting somebody elsewho already goes to this school to sit with her for lunch? She really is a positive person. I didn't even notice Edward behind her until she mentioned him, and she looks at me as though she knows something about me.

"Alice…"

She gives him an annoyed look and places her hand on her hips.

"What, Edward? She was nice to me. Why can't I ask her to eat lunch with us?"

He narrows his eyes at her; he clearly doesn't want me to sit with them.

"Alice. You know we've already met, so do you have to be so annoying and chipper on our first day? Maybe she has other friends she wants to sit with."

Oh, so he's told her about me? That explains that look on her face. He glances over at me, giving me a smile. I raise my eyebrow at him, causing his smile to fall. I decide not to get my lunch, and go find a table to myself.

I glance over at Alice's table a few times, catching Edward staring at me. He must think I'm insane for being so nice and care free the first time we meet only to giving him the cold shoulder. But it's only for his own good; it'll be better this way. Lunch goes by quickly, and I'm more than grateful when the bell signals that lunch is over.

The rest of the day goes by in a blur. When I get home, I start the house work before beginning to cook dinner. By the time I'm finished, its 10pm. I have a shower and brush my teeth before collapsing onto my bed feeling exhausted, and falling asleep almost instantly.

Because I have the worst luck in the world, I walk into biology with all the seats being taken except the one next to Edward. I sigh, walking to the desk and sit as far away from him as possible. But that doesn't seem to phase him from talking to me.

"Hey, Bella."

I glance over at him, and he gives me a polite smile.

"Uh, hi…"

I look away from him, but I can still feel him looking at me; an awkward silence builds between us.

"So, I'm sorry about Alice. She's a little over the top. She already knows we met, so I don't know what her problem is. How was the rest of your shopping anyway? End up getting what you want?"

He's almost as bad as Alice when it comes to talking so much. I look down at the table, fidgeting with my sleeves because I can't stand him gazing into my eyes with such intensity.

"Uh, it's alright. Why are you asking me what I bought at the grocery store that day?"

He laughs lightly, folding his arms over his chest as he continues looking at me.

"Uh, I don't know. Small talk?"

I look away from him, taking my hair out to create a shield in front of my face. I hear him sigh. I take a quick peek at him. He's slouched back into his seat with a thoughtful look on his face. He looks over at me, catching me looking at him, and takes that as a chance to try and talk to me again.

"So, how do you like senior year so far?"

He looks at me expectantly, but I can't figure out if that's a serious question or not.

"Uh, is that a serious question?"

His expression turns into confusion, then amusement. I decide to answer him anyway.

"It's as good as it'll ever get, I guess."

I avoid looking over at him for the rest of the lesson. The bell rings. I begin to walk out of the classroom, but turn around just as I reach the doorway. He's still sitting in his seat, not moving. I clear my throat and he glances over at me.

"Uh, class is over."

He looks around as he gets out of his chair, and I turn on my heels, walking to gym class.

I hate gym. I'm the most uncoordinated person in the universe and they expect me to play sports like Volley ball? They've got to be insane. I walk into the locker room and spot Alice sitting on the bench. She looks up as I enter the room, a look of relief washing over her face as she practically jumps up off of the bench, running over to me.

"I was beginning to think you weren't going to show up! Coach Clap assigned me to be your partner. I hope you don't mind."

She looks at me uncertainly, fidgeting with her hands and shuffling her feet around. I sigh, walking over to my locker to get changed into my sweat pants and polo shirt; I refuse to wear the shorts all the other chicks wear.

"I feel sorry for you more than anything. I have the worst coordination, so I'm the worst to be partnered with in team sports; I always end up hitting everyone in the head with a ball. I've asked Coach a million times not to let me play."

Alice cracks a smile as she walks over to me, placing her hand on my shoulder. I stiffen up at the contact; but she doesn't remove her hand. I wonder if this looks as awkward as it feels.

"Lucky for you, I'm a pro at Volley Ball"

She winks at me, and then skips out of the change rooms. Yes, she skipped. She really is a chipper person.

I walk out into the hall, getting in my position as Alice runs up to me.

"If you're seriously worried about playing, just stay back here and I'll handle the rest."

She smiles at me then turns away, running back down to the front.

For the rest of the lesson, Alice gets all the hits and handles the whole game like she said she would. I hardly have to move, which is a good thing. Maybe having Alice as my partner won't be so bad after all. When the game is over, Alice runs over to me with her hand in the air signaling for a high five. I slap her hand and her grin becomes impossibly larger.

"Great game, Bella!" she exclaims.

She's telling me we did a great game when she practically did all the work? Talk about team spirit. I laugh to myself as she spins around, running into the change rooms with me following after her. We change in silence, and just as I'm about to walk out the door, she catches up to me.

"So, do you want to sit with me and my family for lunch today?"

She gazes at me with a hopeful look on her face.

"Sorry, Alice. I'd just prefer to sit by myself."

She sighs, walking to the cafeteria silently. I feel horrible for turning her down. I grab an apple and bottle of water, then go and sit by myself. Again.

I feel someone watching me, and I slowly turn around to see Jessica standing in the middle of the cafeteria, staring at me with a longing expression on her face. As soon as Lauren walks over to her, her expression turns into a scowl and she walks off to sit with Lauren. I pick up my water and apple, walking out of the cafeteria. I go straight to my car and head home.

Why do I have to screw up everything?

Over the next few weeks, everything kept repeating over and over again. Becoming a routine, Alice walks to English with me, continuing to talk to me. I keep the conversations short, doing my best to avoid her. It's hard though, considering she doesn't leave me alone whenever we have a class together. Especially Gym, when she's so enthusiastic in it, always praising me for a 'good game' even when I do nothing at all. It makes me feel like a horrible person, which does not help my situation at all.

Edward also continues to try and talk to me during biology, or whenever he sees me. He constantly stares at me during lunch and class, willing me to acknowledge him or speak to him, but I just ignore it. I sneak peeks at him occasionally, when it gets to be too much. He sometimes catches me, and gives me a smile. But I just put my head down, trying to concentrate on my work.

It's starting to become fairly hard to ignore them now— they're always so nice to me. It feels like they're already my friends. It feels nice knowing I always have Alice walking to class with me, even when I hardly acknowledge her. Even Edward has began to act really kind towards me; he does things like pulling out my stool in biology, walking me to gym class and constantly trying to converse with me.

One day during lunch I was taken off guard when Alice and Edward sat down at my table. I looked up at them with a very clear confused expression on my face. The only thing Alice did was smile at me as she sat down. Edward hesitated a bit, but he eventually sat down as well.

"Hey, Bella! I thought instead of me asking you to sit with my family, I'd just get Edward and myself to sit with you!"

Edward glances at me, giving me an apologetic smile and mouthing the words 'sorry' to me— he obviously had no say in the matter.

"Uh, okay then." I respond.

Alice starts babbling about everything and nothing. All I can help doing is actually feel happy that they decided to sit with me. It's like they put me at ease for some reason, maybe it's because they haven't gave up on me yet? I'm too busy being trapped in my mind that I don't even notice Alice was speaking.

"He's amazing. He really is. I bet you would love Jasper. You should meet him one day. Oh and my brother, Emmett, he looks really scary and intimidating, but he's not like that at all. He's like a big teddy bear, and he's always cracking jokes; you would love him too."

I look at her stunned. How can she say so much, so fast, in one breath? Jessica never even used to talk that fast, and that's saying something. Edward begins to chuckle, and I look over at him.

"Do you ever breathe when you talk, Alice? You're like an alien or something. I've never seen anybody, so tiny, able to talk that much with a short amount of breath."

Alice smacks him on the arm, poking her tongue out at him. I begin to laugh. Like, really laugh, until my eyes begin to water. I try to catch my breath, and I look up at Alice and see her staring at me with a goofy grin on her face, clearly satisfied with my reaction.

"Whatever, Edward. Anyway, Bella, you should meet Rosalie as well—"

Edward groans at her side, cutting Alice off. She glares at him, and he smirks at her.

"What?" I ask.

Edward runs his hands through his hair, shaking his head. Hmm, he looks good when he does that. Wait, what?

"Rosalie is a bitch. I highly doubt you'll like her; no one does."

For someone so tiny and fragile looking, Alice can certainly look extremely fierce when she wants too. I've never seen someone's demeanor change so fast in my life.

"Edward, that's hardly necessary! Don't act like you don't love her like your own sister. She may be a bitch, but she protects her own and stands up for what she believes in. You of all people should respect her after what she and Jasper have been through!"

She stands up abruptly, storming out of the room causing everyone to look over at us.

"Uh… What was all that about?"

Edward sighs as he leans back into his seat, running his hands down his face.

"Rose isn't that bad, once you get to know her. She can be an annoying bitch sometimes, but what Alice said is true; she's been through a lot. I shouldn't say that shit about her, especially in front of Alice. She may be small, but she's a fiery little cracker."

He laughs, and I begin to laugh with him.

"I don't doubt that at all."

He glances over at me, and I smile at him as I begin to stand up.

"Um, I've gotta go. So, I guess I'll see you later."

Edward winks at me, his mouth turning up into that crooked smile I'd seen that first day at the grocery store. I feel the blood rush to my cheeks, and I smile sheepishly before I walk away.

Hey Guys. I'm so sorry this chapter is late. I haven't had a computer for two weeks, so i haven't had time to write either. I am already Eight chapters into my story so hopefully i'll be okay. The next few chapters may also be late. It depends on when i get the computer back. Thankyou all so much for your support! I hope you enjoy the chapter! Reviews make me fluffy inside :)

Thankyou to my amazing Beta Jenndur. Without her, this would be a mess.

-Natalee-x