Bella settled into the routine of school as easily as she did any other year, though with the admittedly a little odd addition of her blooming friendship with the Cullen siblings. After the first two weeks of school, Bella was absolutely certain that she was the only other student that the Cullens really interacted with. They were nice enough to Bella's friends when they had the odd encounter and Bella hadn't heard anything about any of the Cullens being outright mean, but they weren't going out of their way to make new friends, either. Except for Bella, apparently.
It was a nice change of pace, if Bella was being honest. As much as she loved her friends, there was only so much to say to the people who had been in the same class as you since kindergarten. There was nothing more to learn about each other that hadn't been shared years ago. They made the same plans every weekend, laughed at the same inside jokes that they'd always had, and breezed through high school in that lazy haze of believing it will never end. And Bella was, for better or for worse, right at the heart of it. Between cheerleaders Jess and Lauren, computer guy Ben, sporty-guy Mike who was actually decent at most sports he tried, and all around good kid Angella, not to mention Bella's own position with the basketball team, she had an in with nearly every group that existed on campus. It was an 'everyone's friends with one of my friends' situation that Bella was grateful for, but she couldn't deny her own excitement at the prospect of getting to meet new people.
While Bella didn't have much in common with Alice, she was happy to listen to the shorter girl talk her ear off about fashion as they walked to the cafeteria together. Jasper was a history buff and always seemed to have some little anecdote or fun fact about everything they talked about in A.P. History. Edward was an avid reader, though Bella had admittedly had far less conversations with him than she had with Alice and Jasper. Emmett she felt like she talked too the most, his general personality reminding her so much of Jacob that it was easy to chat with him during gym. And of course there was Rosalie, who was the only Cullen that didn't give Bella the time of day, despite Bella having caught Rosalie looking in her direction several times.
Sometimes she looked curious, intrigued. Most of the time she looked bored, but there were a few times when she looked like a cross between jealous and annoyed. Funnily enough, Bella had noticed an odd trend where the times that Rosalie looked cross coincided with two distinct events: Lauren somehow inserting herself into Bella's personal space, and that faint growling sound that only Bella seemed to be able to hear. Still, despite a weird feeling that Rosalie wanted to talk with her, Bella hadn't really attempted to breach whatever gap was between them herself. She was a little preoccupied trying to figure out when and how she would shift.
Bella was sure that her search history looked like that of a crazy person, several links that she had clicked on leading to articles about suspicious sightings of odd creatures and assurances that bigfoot was in fact real and there were actually multiple bigfoots that were all able to hide because they could change forms to other living creatures. The rest were urban legends and folktales from around the world about people changing into animal forms. Some were forced to change by a god or a demon or a bargain gone wrong, some chose to change to run away from their problems, some changed by accident and were never able to return to their human form. The one thing that most of those tales had in common was that the process of shifting was incredibly painful.
Granny's diary had been sparse on the details of her first shift, but by piecing a few things together, Bella had figured out that she would eventually be able to shift nearly instantaneously. The first time would be an excruciating experience, all of the bones in her body breaking only to reform again, the muscles straining as they bent and reshaped into different sections, elongating as they did because Bella could expect that her tiger form would be double, if not triple, the size of a normal tiger.
All in all, it was something that was barreling towards Bella at full speed that she was trying to prepare herself for, but without knowing when the shift would be, she knew it was a futile effort.
Bella's working theory, based on snippets of things from the internet and one section of Granny's diary where she told the story of a young shifter she'd met who had been on the run for accidentally killing two people in an uncontrolled shift, was that her shift would be triggered by an exceptionally strong emotion sometime directly after whatever binding spell on her had broken or grown weak enough for Bella to break through. Now, before Bella had started going through this pre-shifting phase, she'd never been quick to anger. She was too much like her father, too willing to go with the flow and see how things happened. If she ever did get mad, she calmed down fairly quickly.
Now Bella felt like she was always on the edge of being pissed off, no matter what. The feeling grew stronger as the days passed, so much that Bella was actually dreading the first official basketball practice of the year. She knew they'd be running drills until it felt like they would collapse and she knew that all the little annoyances that happened during practice, a missed basket, a bad pass, extra time running lines, any of it could be the thing that tipped her over the line.
She wasn't sure how her teammates would react if there was suddenly a giant tiger in the middle of the court, and she wasn't overly eager to find out.
Bella made her way to A.P. History on her own for once as Alice had suddenly remembered she left her English homework in the car and had to go get it. Jasper was sitting in his usual seat behind Bella's, grinning at her as she walked in. Bella smiled back, unable to help the glance she sent in Rosalie's direction. Rosalie was looking straight forward, staring at the board with clear distaste written across her perfect features.
"Bella!" Jasper greeted her cheerfully, grinning as Bella took her seat just in front of him.
"Hey," Bella's greeting was much more casual, a vain attempt to hide the very much not casual glance she shot in Rosaline's direction as she sat down. "Uh, are you okay?"
Rosalie's piercing golden eyes turned sharply to Bella. One perfect eyebrow arched expectantly. Bella felt her face flush and cleared her throat.
"I just meant - you look more annoyed than you usually do." Bella pinched her eyebrows together, her brain catching up with the words that had come out of her mouth. "Um. I ment that in the nicest way possible."
"I don't think there is a nice way to tell someone they have a resting bitch face." It was the longest single sentence Bella had heard Rosalie speak yet and she was helpless to the way her shoulders relaxed as the voice washed over her. Soft, musical, like Rosalie had her own personal symphony that accompanied every word she said. "But to answer your question, I am more annoyed than usual today."
"Why's that?" Bella fought to keep her voice normal, though she wasn't sure if she succeeded. This was the first real conversation she'd ever had with Rosalie and her heart was racing at the acknowledgement. Rosalie's eyes were intense as they swept over Bella's frame, taking in her blue jeans, plain gray t-shirt, and the blue and black flannel she wore over it. Her hair was probably a mess from the beanie she'd been wearing early, an attempt to keep the early morning rain from making her hair frizz up any more than usual.
Rosalie lifted one hand, pointing a slim, perfectly manicured finger towards the white board at the front of the room. Bella followed the silent command to look and groaned.
"My sentiments exactly."
"C'mon, Rose. Group projects aren't that bad." Jasper piped up cheerily, his southern drawl and a certain amount of charm that even Bella wasn't entirely capable of resisting.
"Group projects suck, Jasper." Bella said, arguing on her own and Rosalie's behalf. "One person ends up doing all the work while everyone takes the credit and it's usually something unrelated to what we actually need to learn."
"Forced cooperation between peers is nowhere near as effective as voluntary." Rosalie agreed. "Groups should be composed of likeminded people who can work together."
"And split the work evenly between them so they all put the same amount of effort in."
Jasper looked back and forth between the two of them, an all too knowing grin on his face. "Practice that bit, did you?"
"Just saying." Bella shrugged, turning around in her seat as the last bell rang and their teacher walked in from the hallway. "Don't we have an uneven number of people in this period anyway? One group will be uneven."
"You are correct, Ms. Swan." Mr. Tanner said from the front of the room. "As I'm sure you have all noticed, we are starting our group projects today. Now, because this is a class with an uneven number, we will have one group of three. Don't get too excited, I've already chosen your groups. You need to get with your people and decide on your research topic by the end of class. Feel free to move around the room and meet up as I call your names."
Mr. Tanner began listing the groups, reading from the papers in his hand. As more and more people were called, Bella couldn't tell if she was happy or scared about who her potential group mates would be. Even as their names were called, Bella, Rosalie, and Jasper working together, Bella couldn't decide. She was happy for the excuse to spend more time with Rosalie, but she wasn't sure how long she'd be able to stay in close quarters with the girl she had a massive crush on without letting the cat out of the bag, literally and figuratively.
"Well, Mr. History Buff, what do you say?" Rosalie asked her brother as the three of them moved to the back corner of the room.
"Since we're limited to U.S. History, I'd say we do something that was transformative. The Space Race or the Industrial Revolution?"
"Not the Civil War? Isn't that your go to?"
"Gotta switch things up sometime, right?" Jasper turned to Bella. "What do you think?"
"Honestly, I don't really care." Bella shrugged. "I'll do my share of the work for whatever we choose, but history isn't really my thing. Rosalie, any preference?"
"The Space Race will give us more information to pull from since we'll have to address other countries' progress too." Rosalie didn't seem any more interested in the project than Bella was, preoccupied with staring out the window.
"Great! I'll tell Mr. Tanner." Jasper made his way to the teacher desk, leaving Bella and Rosalie alone for the moment. Bella stood there awkwardly for a second and then moved so she could sit with her back leaning against the wall beneath the window. She nearly jumped in surprise when, a moment later, Rosalie dropped down beside her.
"What makes you so special, Bella Swan?"
Bella felt every muscle in her body tense. It took a not small amount of effort to make the way she turned her head to look that the blonde goddess beside her look natural and not like the most forced movement she'd ever done.
"Sorry?"
"Oh," Rosalie turned her head, clearing her throat. "My family doesn't usually make friends. No one has ever been worth the effort before. But you, you have them all mesmerized."
"I guess you guys have moved around a lot?" Bella runs her suddenly sweaty palms over her thighs. Rosalie nods.
"Carlise likes to go where he's needed and since we usually don't have any friends to say goodbye to, it's easy to follow along with him." Rosalie looks back at Bella. The golden color of her eyes had changed but only slightly, hardly even noticeable except for the fact that Bella feels completely enthralled with everything about Rosalie. Sitting side by side like this, she can smell the perfume she wears and something even sweeter lingering beneath that scent. The tiger in Bella's blood hungers for more, but she doesn't feel that ever-present hum of energy buzzing beneath her skin.
"I'm no one special." Bella says casually. Rosalie's eyes roam over her face.
"I disagree." She says simply, like she's commenting on the fact that it's raining again. "But I can't figure out why. You are a mystery to me, Bella."
"Well," Bella rubs at the back of her neck. "This is the first time we've ever really talked. You seem a little more wary than your siblings, not that it's a bad thing. I just mean - you're just as much of a mystery to me as I am to you."
Rosalie hums, a pleasant sound that makes Bella's spine tingle. "Well, mysteries abound where most we seek for answers."
"Ray Bradbury?" Bella asked, a hesitant tease in her voice. "And here I thought Edward was the reader in your family."
"I have layers." Rosalie quickly held up her hand over Bella's mouth. "If you make a joke about onions or ogres, I swear I will never speak with you again."
Bella pulled back, laughing. "I wasn't going too. I figured you'd get enough corny jokes from Emmett." Bella reached into her back pocket, pulling out her phone. She typed in her pin and then opened up her contacts, pressing the 'add new' button before sliding her phone into Rosalie's hand. "Here. If you want to seek answers to your mystery, it'll be easier to do it this way."
Rosalie smiled, a barely there lift in the corner of her mouth and Bella reveled in the small motion. Her fingers moved across the keypad of Bella's phone and soon she was passing it back over to her. Bella sent a text to Rosalie so she'd have Bella's number too, and then tucked her phone away right as Jasper came back up to them.
"Good news, girls. Mr. Tanner approved our research topic. Let's draw up an outline and divide the work?"
As they each pulled a piece of notebook paper, a clipboard, and a pen towards them, Bella had a feeling that this group project wouldn't be as bad as most of them were.
When Bella left the gym after practice that night, she'd stayed late to run a few extra rounds of lines in the hopes that it would help her rest easier without the boundless energy in her rearing up, she felt her phone buzzing in her pocket and pulled it out as she walked to the truck. It was a text from Rosalie.
R: How bad is my resting bitch face, really? Jasper won't tell me.
B: On a scale of 1-10, probably a solid 8.
R: Only an 8? I need to work on that
Bella laughed slightly, turning the key in the ignition of her truck and letting the engine heat up before she started driving towards home. She didn't text while she drove, but only because she knew her father would give her hell if she got pulled over for it.
B: Are you trying to terrify the masses of Forks High?
R: I consider it a bonus to being left alone.
B: I'd apologize for bothering you but you texted me first.
R: Shockingly, I don't mean you anyway.
B: I'm flattered?
R: You should be.
R: According to my siblings, I am notoriously difficult to get along with.
B: I don't know if two conversations, one of them over text, counts as getting along.
R: That's more than anyone else has gotten from me in a long time.
B: Sounds lonely.
There was a long pause between replies, long enough that Bella was able to start cooking dinner and had it almost complete when Rosalie finally sent a message back.
R: I get by. Having siblings is like having built in friends. Or servants.
B: I wouldn't know
B: But wouldn't it be nice to hang out with people who like you for who you are?
B: Not just people who happen to sleep in the same house that you do.
R: I wouldn't know.
B: Another mystery to solve then. I'd be happy to help with that one, too.
R: Who said you're helping with the first one?
B: Well, if the mystery is me, aren't I the best source of information on the topic
R: Who said I want to solve the mystery of you?
Bella wondered how it was possible for someone to be defensive over text messages, but Rosalie certainly made it possible.
B: You were the one throwing Bradbury quotes around and telling me you didn't understand my appeal.
R: …that doesn't mean I want to understand it. It was simply on observation.
B: Sure, sure
B: Whatever you say Rosalie.
Rosalie didn't respond and Bella took the silent dismissal with a shrug. The tiger in her veins was drawn to Rosalie like a moth to a flame and because of that and the fact that she could feel her tiger growing stronger by the day, Bella was certain that whatever it was that had made Rosalie start reaching out to her, it was only just beginning.