Disclaimer: I do not own Twilight or any of the characters.
A/N: Thanks to Sunray16, katmom, and Angelinia who beta this story.
Chapter Two
What is Going on Here?
The day passed by slowly as she walked through all of her classes. She couldn't wait for lunch time, until she could see Edward's face for the first time and she could dispense with the blurry vision she had to use now. She wanted to see his eyes too, though she was afraid of the darkness that would be in them today, and that thought caused her to shiver slightly. Fear … yes that was present too. All day long she was afraid … so very afraid.
What was going to happen when she met him in biology class? Was that the beginning or the end? No, of course it was the beginning. Still, she couldn't stop the questions from filling her mind. Did she make the right choice about what to do about her scent? Would it have been better if she had done something differently?
She was at the cafeteria now, and she had to keep herself from looking at the Cullens' table, for she was well aware that she wasn't supposed to have noticed them until she sat down. How very hard this was going to be, trying to act the part she had set upon herself. What was she thinking? She was horrible at acting. Hopefully she wouldn't change anything.
It was a relief to sit down, for she knew that it was okay for her to look for the Cullens now, and it really wasn't difficult at all to find them. They really were something to look at. She couldn't seem to take her eyes off of them … him. His bronze hair had drawn her attention to him quickly enough, and her heart began to race as she looked at him. In some ways he was just as she had imagined him, though of course all of the wonderful details of his features were clear now, and she couldn't seem to take her eyes off him. "Who are they?"
She was looking straight at Edward when she said this and she saw his head move towards her as she knew it would …. Jessica's thoughts would have called out to him by this point. But she didn't see the bored, dismissive glance she had expected, she thought it looked pleased and eager if anything. That didn't make sense at all, but she didn't really get the chance to look at him because he was clearly talking to his family now.
She tried to listen to what Jessica said, it hadn't been in the manuscript she got and she thought it might be interesting. It turned out that it wasn't really, just something about all the Cullens and Hales dating each other, as if that was anything compared to the truth. She made responses when she knew she should, praying that she was saying what she had in the book. It was difficult however, when Jessica said that she thought that Esme couldn't have children, her tone was so rude. How could anyone talk about that with scorn in her voice? She realized that she was glaring at Jessica, though luckily the other girl hadn't caught it.
Her eyes would keep traveling to Edward's, watching his every move as if he was putting her in a trance. Somehow, even before he looked at her for the second time, she knew something was different. She bowed her head when he looked at her, too embarrassed to keep her gaze and pleased that she hadn't in the book either so she had an excuse to look away. Still, for that second when their eyes had met, see didn't see the blackness that she feared to see, but rather they were golden.
What? The question screamed in her head, why would Edward have golden eyes this time around? Could her getting the book possibly change that or was something else at work here? Perhaps, this had all been some kind of sick joke!
No, her thoughts screamed to her. One look at them and you know the book had to be true. Stick with your plan and go on from there.
She was lost in her own thoughts for the rest of lunch, curious about what was going on, but she had made up her mind that she wasn't going to change anything. That was her plan from the beginning and she was sticking to it, though fear was creeping up in her now. She couldn't be sure how he was going to react now and considering what was at stake, she felt she had every right to be wary. The bell rang and she let Angela lead her to class, wishing that she could say something to the girl, act friendly, but her nerves were too on edge to do anything like that.
And then she was standing at the door and she could see him again. Her heart fluttered when she looked at him and she forgot all her worries, everything would surely work out. This lasted only a second, for she then noticed his eyes again and she had to frown. Why was it ominous that his eyes were golden? It should be a good thing. That meant that he wasn't thirsty … it meant that he would have a little more control than he had in the book's meeting, but she couldn't make herself believe that. Something was different here and she wanted to know what it all meant.
She talked to the teacher quickly, hardly hearing what he had to say to her, she just wanted to walk over to Edward and demand to know what was going on. This urge was so strong that she had to constantly remind herself that it could be dangerous … that her plan was to be as still as possible. She didn't look up at him as she made her way to the empty seat next to him; if she did, the little self control she had would have crumbled and as long as she wasn't sure if that was a good thing or not she couldn't risk that. She sat down, still not looking at him though she could feel his eyes on her.
"Hello," a musical voice said and the sound of it was better than she could have imagined. Her heart raced as she listened to it, her body relaxed for the split second before his word had caught up to her brain. Then it hit her again. What was going on here? Why was he talking to her? He should be thinking about killing her right about now … okay so it was a good thing that he wasn't thinking that, but still, this wasn't what was supposed to happen! "My name is Edward Cullen."
She couldn't stop herself from looking at him, she was so confused. His voice was friendly; there was no hostility at all there. His eyes were kind and yet they seemed to be confused too, as if he was puzzled about something. Perhaps he was trying to read her thoughts and was curious about it. Perhaps he hadn't breathed in and didn't know how good she smelled yet.
"You must be Bella Swan," Edward said, and she could hear an almost longing in his voice, but there was a knowing look in his eyes that confused her more than ever and also made her suspicious. This sounded a lot like the first conversation that they were supposed to have in a week, how would he know the words? No, she was thinking too much, he had just listened to what everyone else was thinking and knew that she preferred to be called Bella.
Still, she had to know the truth, and quash the feeling that someone, somewhere, was playing a joke on her. She asked the question, "How do you know my name?"
"Oh, I think everyone knows your name. The whole town's been waiting for you to arrive."
Another word for word copy of the book and she didn't like it. His wry smile didn't help any, was he teasing her? She was expecting him to be hostile, why couldn't she just be happy that he was talking to her … he was being nice. Because it's not real, the logical part of her brain said. How could vampires be real?
However, just as she was about to listen to that voice she saw Edward stiffen, his body tensed and there was a faintest trace of what she had expected to see this whole day. His expression darkened and it looked like he was battling with himself.
She wasn't sure what it meant, but she felt this was a sign. She decided just to say what she had said in the book, she hadn't read the second chapter of the book over and over; she had only read it two or three times. She was too worried about this first meeting to think about what would happen in the second chapter, but she was still able to stumble over her explanation. She was happy that she had read the chapter again, though; for there was no way she would have been able to think of anything to say to that. When she was finished, he looked almost as confused as her, and that helped her too. If he was confused, he obviously didn't know what was going on either. She wondered why that made her feel better; it didn't make any sense, but at the same time, it did. After saying 'oh' to her explanation class started and she had time to think about this.
She stilled herself almost subconsciously, as she looked straight ahead, thinking. So he didn't know what was going on, and yet he was using the same script she was. He was taking shallow breaths, his body tense again, and she had a feeling that he was getting used to her. Now that was something new. Did he know what was going on too?
Before she could say anything to him, before she could even open her mouth he was leaving, nodding his head to her, looking like he didn't want to be rude. She did the same automatic nod, still trying to see if it was possible that he knew or if she was just imagining things.
"Hello," a boy said to her, snapping her out of her thoughts and she was face to face with Mike. He was looking at her just as the book had described him looking at her and that made her more than a little uncomfortable. Still, she answered politely back to him, but all the time her mind was on Edward.
She didn't have to do anything in Gym, which she was grateful for. With her mind on Edward, and his peculiar reaction to her, gym would have been even worse than normal and that was saying something. She was now anxious to get to the office, and she was starting to wonder if she would see Edward there or not, trying to get out of biology class like he had in the book. She serious doubted that she would see him, not now that he acted so friendly towards her in the class itself, but she longed to see him again. She wanted to ask him what was going on.
However, he wasn't there, and she had no idea where to find him. She wondered if he was watching her now …. if he really did know what was going to happen like she was starting to think he must (why else would his eyes be golden and he have the eager, hopeful expression she saw at lunch), he would be just as anxious to talk to her again, too. She wished he would just come out and talk to her already, but he didn't and she had to drive back home with plenty of questions burning in her head.
As soon as she was in the house she called Jacob like she had promised she would. He sounded so relieved when he heard her voice that she knew that he must have been worrying about her all day. She tried to explain what had happened at school, but it was hard for her to get the words out right. She decided it would just be easier if she just went to see him. She wanted to get his reaction to all of this in person. However, the real reason she went there was because she knew if she was left to think about this herself she would end up driving herself crazy.
"So what's up, Bella?" Jacob asked, furrowing his eyebrows. "You said things didn't go exactly how you thought."
"No," Bella said, and told him everything that happened, it didn't take too long. "…. and now I think he must have known about the book. Unless this was some elaborate joke someone was pulling on me." She couldn't help voicing the last thing as the logical part of her brain listened to everything she had just said and pointed out everything that was unlikely.
He had a thoughtful expression on his face by the time she had finished. "I talked to Dad," he said after a long pause. "I didn't say anything outright, but from the questions I asked him, it was clear that he believed in our legends. I think he's suspicious that I might know something now too, but whatever …."
"Okay," Bella smiled at him, he had alleviated all her worries with that sentence. Well, not all her worries, now she was dying to see Edward again and wondering how she was going to go about telling him about this.
"There's also something else odd going on around here," Jacob said, sensing her anxiousness and trying to keep her mind off it.
"Something that goes along with the whole supernatural theme?" Bella questioned.
"I think so," Jacob said.
"What is it?" Bella said.
"Well, there's this guy, Sam," Jacob said, "he's a little older than us and some strange things have been happening around him lately. He went missing for a while not too long ago. Everyone was looking for him, and set up search parties for him and all, for all the good it did. He came back on his own, looking terrified of everything. I didn't really see much of him at the time but things have changed around here since then. All the older people started treating him differently, like they valued his opinion … no, more like what he said carried weight in the community.
"He's not the only one that was different though. This guy Jared, he disappeared too, and the next thing, he's best friends with Sam. I know something's going on with them …."
"What do you think it is?" Bella questioned.
"Guess," Jacob said frowning.
"You think they're …." Bella said softly.
"Werewolves," Jacob nodded his head. "I kind of do … it would explain what happened then … maybe I'm putting too much into this, but something weird is happening here."
"Wow, I didn't realize I was going to have to deal with werewolves too," Bella said, sitting down on a chunk of driftwood, she didn't realize it but they had been walking to the beach while they were talking.
"Sorry …. I suppose I chose the wrong topic to distract you with," Jacob sighed sitting down. "I've just … I couldn't get it out of my mind."
"It's okay, Jake, you help me a lot with the whole vampire thing," Bella smiled at him. "So … um … will you become a werewolf too?" she tried to sound like she was joking, but couldn't quite pull it off.
"Probably," Jacob shrugged. "It would explain why you like me … didn't you say something about not being able to fit with people?"
"Argh," Bella groaned and rolled her eyes and Jacob chuckled.
"So what are you going to do about your bloodsucker?" Jacob asked, though his tone was playful.
"Bloodsucker? What happened to calling him Edward?" Bella raised an eyebrow.
Jacob just shrugged.
"I'm not sure," Bella groaned. "Argh, I hate that I have to wait until lunch tomorrow before I can even see him! I want to just go to him … tell him I know and all that …."
"I'm still voting for you going to Alice," Jacob said.
"But …." Bella said; she wanted to talk to Edward.
"Better safe than sorry, right?" Jacob looked at her pleadingly.
Bella sighed and then looked at him. "How would I even get to talk to Alice anyway? Should I just walk to the Cullen table …?" at this Bella looked thoughtful, she could do that. Then she thought of Rosalie and Jasper, and shivered a little. She didn't have the guts to look either of the Hales in the eyes during lunch, though she hadn't expected them to look at her, she was a little terrified of how they would feel about her.
"I don't know," Jacob shrugged. "I still think all you have to do is think about it and the little vamp will be on your doorstep."
O
Edward paid little attention to his Spanish class, he didn't even listen to his brother's questions, though they were being screamed at him by the annoyed vampire. His mind was analyzing every difference that happened today and how it happened. Yes, he was planning on things being different, but mostly that stopped with giving her death glares. He was hoping that he would be able to talk to her, but she was so confused. Why was she so confused, and suspicious?
"Edward!" Emmett said out loud as the bell signaled that school was over.
"Hm …?" Edward said in a daze voice.
What's the plan now? Are you going to be stalking her again? Can you handle it alone? How was your meeting with Bella anyway? You've been so out of it ….
"It was … different," Edward said slowly. "And I don't know what I'm going to do now."
"Really?" Emmett said. "Argh, what happened?
"Come on, let's go to the car," Edward said getting up and dragging his confused brother along with him. He knew everyone was going to react like Emmett and he didn't feel like explaining this over and over again. Everyone, however, was surprised to see him in the car when they showed up.
I didn't think he would have been able to keep himself away from her, Jasper thought as he got in, and then noticed the confusion flowing off of Edward and immediately tried to relax him.
"Thanks," Edward sighed, it was nice to have everything dulled a little.
"What happened?" Jasper asked.
"I'm not sure, nothing really, she was just …. I don't know how to explain it," Edward shook his head; he was speeding towards their home.
Emmett started chuckling. "I bet you thought you had all the answers when it came to Bella because you got those books … how do you like finding out that you're clueless in this reality?"
Edward growled at him as everyone else chuckled.
"That's not it," Edward snapped at them. As soon as they got to their house, he was out of the car running.
"Um … we don't have to worry about him, do we?" he could hear Emmett say as he went.
"I'm keeping an eye on everything," Alice said, and Edward could see that she was, as a vision of him going to the meadow flickered. Yes, he would go there, it was his favorite place to think and he still had a few things he wanted to go over on his own.
Once he got to the meadow, however, he found that he was too anxious to think there. He also couldn't help thinking about Bella being in this meadow with him, and that only made the longing to be near her increase. He took out the hair band he had taken with him when he left Bella's room. It still had some of her scent on it, though it was weak now because he had handled it so often. Still, even in this weakened state it made his throat burn.
He forced himself to stay in the meadow, closing his eyes as he went over everything that happened today. He could see her reaction as clearly as he did at the time; though this time he thought he detected subtle differences. Her quickened heartbeats, her almost hopeful glances, where they just tricks his memories were playing on him …?
Argh, five minutes, I can't even be here for five minutes, Edward thought as he got up, he had to go to her, he had to be near her, listen to her heartbeat. He wondered if he should call Emmett or Alice, but he shook his head. He was confident enough in himself now to know that he wasn't about to hurt her. He had been fine during the biology class after all, though on second thought he didn't want to be careless. He supposed he would have to hold his breath when he got near the town, that way he wouldn't be tempted, and he could still get close to her.
However, everything changed when he got to her house a few minutes later. Her truck wasn't there, and he couldn't hear her heartbeat anywhere around. Where was she? Maybe she went to the store … she wasn't supposed to do that until tomorrow, but maybe the difference in their meeting had caused her to go shopping early? Well, that wouldn't be the strangest twist of the day.
He ran to the shop she was supposed to be at, but still there was no sign of her truck. Where was she? Had he lost her already? His mind went immediately to all of the troubles that happened to her in the books, especially the trouble she seemed to have drawn to her in the first book. He was in total panic mode now as he searched the whole town for her, as the similarities to what happened in Port Angeles crossed his mind and he cringed at the thought that something like that could possibly be happening. How could he have let her out of his sight?
Edward, you have to relax, Alice voice rang in his head as he stood in the woods, just about ready to track Bella scent.
"Where is she, Alice?" Edward asked in a loud voice, she was still pretty far away from him.
She's safe, Alice thought and Edward looked at her, he could see her coming towards him now and there was something about how she thought that that made him think she knew more than she was saying. He could also feel her blocking him.
"Alice!" Edward hissed at her. "What are you keeping from me?"
"Um …." Alice said, now standing in front of her very livid brother. "I'm sorry, Edward, I didn't realize you would react this way when she was gone."
"But you know where she went?" Edward said.
Of course I know where she went, Alice thought, though she was careful not to think of the place. Edward glared suspiciously at her at that. Her thoughts were particular hard to understand as she thought so many things to try and keep him out. "Well you stop trying to read my mind!"
"Will you tell me what's going on?" Edward snapped back at her. "You know why she was acting strangely today in class, don't you!"
"I might," Alice smiled at him, a little amused, she was thinking about the vision she had seen of their meeting. He could hear how amused she was by all this and he glared at her. "Honestly Edward, I'm surprised that you haven't figured out what's going on already."
"ALICE!" Edward snarled at her impatiently.
"Didn't it ever occur to you that if you got the books that she might have gotten one, too?" Alice said slowly, watching him as the words brought meaning to him.
He froze, his eyes widened, and he stayed like that for several seconds with his mouth slightly open. No, he never did think of that. "She knows …." he finally whispered softly.
She knows, he repeated the words in his head, she knows! He didn't have to worry about what she would think when she finds out that he's a vampire because she already knows. And that was why she was so confused today, because she had been expecting him to …. That thought stopped his excitement on the spot. She knew what her scent did to him. That was why she was so still. Was she afraid of him? How did she know?
"I don't know how much she knows, of course," Alice went on as she watched Edward's expression go back and forth between being relieved and back to confused.
"Why didn't you say anything?" Edward asked; he wasn't sure what to think now so his voice didn't portray any emotions.
"The first vision I had about this was while you were still away, thankfully," Alice said, she knew that Edward would have reacted badly if he had seen what she had then: Bella and Jacob reading in her bedroom, seeming to be getting along rather nicely. She herself wasn't sure how she felt about that, however she had decided to let it carry on. She did this for two reasons, one she felt as if Bella had the right to know, just as much right as they had to read about her, at least. The second reason was it was a nice way for Bella to have found out the truth about them without actually having to tell her. Alice thought of none of this as she was standing in the woods explaining this to Edward. She had to tell him about Jacob in just the right way and still, she was sure that Edward was going to want to strangle the mutt when he found out. "I was surprised, of course, but I thought it was best to just let this happen. Don't you agree that it was only fair that she knew about us, as we already knew so much about her?"
"Yes," Edward nodded his head; that really was understandable to him. "But it doesn't explain why you didn't tell us."
"I thought about it, Edward, for a long time," Alice said, this was true. "While you were gone and Jazz was busy working with Carlisle, I thought about this. I knew that if you had known that she got here early …."
"She was here early?" Edward said, shocked at first and then he glared at his sister. "You know how much I wanted to see her!"
"Which is why I couldn't tell you she was here!" Alice shouted back at him. "You would have gone and seen her … you would have watched her. She deserved to have a chance to read this in privacy."
"So you didn't go and watch her at all?" Edward questioned, scornfully.
"No," Alice said, and quickly went on before she could think that she couldn't even if she wanted to, "though of course I saw some of the decisions she made while she read."
"Oh," Edward said, curious and anxious again.
Alice chuckled at his expression; yes you would be interested in that, wouldn't you?
He glared at her.
"Like I said before, I don't know how much she read, I couldn't see that, but I know she decided to meet you, that she wanted to meet you," Alice smiled kindly at him this time.
"Right," Edward said, he felt dizzy just hearing that and he wanted to run to Bella right now, talk to her about everything, but of course, he didn't know where she was at the moment. "You still haven't explained why you didn't tell me that she knew this morning."
"She decided that she wanted things to play out like they had in the book," Alice shrugged. "I … um … liked the idea …."
Again Edward saw their meeting in Alice's memories of her vision and he could see she was trying hard not to laugh.
"You know, I'm not the only one that was talking in that conversation, Bella might have liked it if she knew that she didn't have to be terrified of me!" Edward snapped.
"Look, Edward, I think she had her reasons for wanting what she did and I felt I had to respect that," Alice said.
Edward snorted and Alice rolled her eyes.
"Besides, Bella is much quicker on the uptake than you are!" Alice smirked at him.
"What?" Edward asked what was Alice talking about now?
"She figured out that we must have gotten the books too, and she is planning on either confronting you about it tomorrow or coming to see me," Alice smiled at him. "I was thinking that perhaps we might want to pay her a visit a little early."
"I might like that," Edward said, and couldn't help the smile that came to his face. "But I don't see why you have to be there."
"Well …." Alice said, biting her lip nervously. "You see, she's not going to be there alone."