Disclaimer: I only own the plot and my OCs. Anything you recognize as not mine belongs to Stephenie Meyer and/or their otherwise respective owners.

Author's Notes: I know, I know. I said I would have this chapter out last month. Five words: end of the college semester. I will make up the month I missed...at some point lol, I promise.

As always, I hope you enjoy. Until next chapter,

~TGWSI/Selene Borealis

~full moon~

~chapter 5: blood type~

I made my way to English in a daze. I didn't even realize when I walked in that class had already started.

"Thank you for joining us, Ms. Swan," said Mr. Mason in a disparaging tone.

My face flaming, I hurried to my seat. Mike gave me a smile and positioned his notebook so that I could see the notes for what he had so far, as few as they were. He was a good friend. I hoped my expression properly showed my thanks as I wrote down what he had, catching myself up to the day's lecture. When the class was over, he and Eric walked with me, and his tone was full of enthusiasm as he spoke about the weather report for the weekend. The rain was supposed to take a minor break, so maybe his beach trip would be possible. I tried to sound eager about it, but even without everything else about La Push, it was hard. Rain or no rain, it would still only be in the high forties, if we were lucky. Nothing like the beaches I was used to and preferred.

I was distracted for the rest of the morning, so it passed by in a blur. My mind was still in disbelief at what Edythe had said, the way her eyes had looked as she'd said it. Maybe I was dreaming, I thought, and soon I was going to wake up in my bed, disappointed in myself at how I'd assumed our conversation could've ever been reality. But it seemed more probably that it was true, even as I went through the various methods to wake myself up and found none to be successful, than that Edythe had started to find me appealing on any level after all this time.

I was impatient and frightened as Jessica and I entered the cafeteria. I wanted to see Edythe's face, to see if her unpredictable nature had caused her to go back to the cold, indifferent person I'd known for the past several weeks. Or if, by some miracle, she was still earnest about the conversation we'd had this morning, and that it really had happened. Jessica babbled on and on about her dance plans – Lauren and Angela had asked the other boys like I'd suggested and they were all going together – and as such was completely unaware of my intentions.

Disappointment flooded through me as my eyes landed on Edythe's table with her siblings. The other four were there, but she was absent. I followed the still-babbling Jessica through the line, crushed. My appetite vanished into thin air – I bought nothing but a bottle of lemonade. All I wanted to do was sit down and sulk.

"Edythe Cullen is staring at you again," Jessica said, finally breaking through my internal agony with the mention of hername. "I wonder why she's sitting alone today."

My head snapped up. I followed her gaze to see Edythe, smiling crookedly, staring at me from an empty table across the room where she usually sat. Once she'd caught my eye, she raised a hand and motioned with her index finger for me to join her. As I stared at her in disbelief, she winked.

"Does she mean you?" Jessica asked, utter astonishment coloring her voice.

"Uh...maybe she wants help with her Biology homework," I muttered for my friend's benefit – and my own. Jessica's previous dialogue about Dr. and Mrs. Cullen said it all. I didn't want her to be getting any ideas. "I'd better go see what she wants."

I could feel Jessica's eyes boring into the back of my head as I walked away.

When I reached Edythe's table, I stood behind the chair opposite hers, unsure.

"Why don't you sit with me today?" she asked, still smiling.

I sat down automatically, but watched her with caution. She seemed to be in a good mood now. But I knew how quickly that could change with her.

Moreover, when I was with her now, in this setting, it was almost hard for me to believe she was real. I was afraid that, before my eyes, she would vanish into a puff of smoke, and I would wake up.

She seemed to be waiting for me to say something.

"...This is different," I finally managed.

"Well..." She trailed off, but once she decided what she wanted to say next, the words all came out in a rush. "I decided that as long as I am going to hell, I might as well do it thoroughly."

I waited for her to elaborate on that, or at least say something else that made sense.

She didn't.

"You know, I have no idea what you mean by that," I eventually pointed out.

Her smile, which had vanished, returned with even greater intensity. "I know. But I'll tell you again, it's better if you don't." She changed the subject before we could rehash that one anew. "I don't think your friends are particularly happy with me for stealing you."

She was right. I could feel their stares attempting to penetrate the back of my head just like Jessica's had been doing a few minutes ago.

"They'll survive for a day."

A wicked glint came over her eyes. "But what if I don't want to give you back."

Instinctively, I gulped.

This amused Edythe. She laughed. "You look worried."

"No, I'm not," I said. To my surprise, I sounded braver than I felt. "I'm just...not sure what brought all of this on."

"I told you – I got tired of trying to stay away from you. So, I'm giving up," she answered, the smile remaining on her face. But her butterscotch eyes were deadly serious.

I felt my eyebrows furrow. "'Giving up?'"

"Yes – giving up trying to be good. I'm just going to do what I want now, let the chips fall where they may," she spoke – but as she did, her smile faded, and so too did much of the warmth from her voice.

"Oh," I went. "You lost me again."

"I know," she apologized. Her beautiful, crooked smile returned once more. "I always say too much when I'm talking to you – that's one of my problems."

"'One,'" I quoted. "And your other ones?"

To this, I received no answer.

I sighed. "So are we friends now, or not?"

"'Friends,'" she repeated, mulling over the word. She didn't allow me to get any additional ones in to question her hesitation, though. "I suppose we can try, at least. I must war you now, though, that I'm not going to be a very good friend for you."

I could tell that the warning was real.

My stomach trembled. I had to fight to keep my voice even. "You say that a lot."

"Only because it's true." Abruptly, she nudged her lunch tray, full of untouched food, towards me. "You should eat something."

I felt my cheeks burn again. "I'm not all that hungry. See?" I held up my bottle of lemonade.

"Oh, please, I insist," she said. "I'm not hungry at all."

"You're never hungry at lunch," I observed. Her smile disappeared entirely yet again as I nevertheless picked up the slice of pizza on her tray and tentatively took a bite out of it. "I've wondered about that before."

She clasped her hands together on top of the table. "You have?"

"Yes," I answered once I swallowed my food. "I've...tried to figure out what you are."

Her jaw tightened. "And are you having any luck with that?"

"Not really."

She chuckled. "What are your theories?"

My blush worsened. I'd been vacillating between Selina Kyle and a female version of Peter Parker. But there was no way I was going to own up to that.

Edythe leaned her head on her hand, partially obscuring her returning smile. "Won't you tell me at least one theory?"

I shook my head. "They're too embarrassing."

"All of them?"

"Yes."

"That's really frustrating, you know," she complained.

"Really? I can't imagine why it would be frustrating at all," I replied, and my tone was much harsher than I meant it to be. But here she was, complaining about something that had irritated me from practically the first moment that I had met her. "Somebody doesn't tell you what they are thinking, all the while they make little remarks that do not explain anything at all and leave you with more questions rather than answers. That wouldn't be frustrating, would it?"

She grimaced.

"And then," I continued, pressing on anyways. "On top of this, they do a wide variety of bizarre things, and a few select people do bizarre things when around them as well or when talking about them, which only adds to the mystery. Which makes you feel like there is this open secret going on around you, but nobody trusts you well enough to tell you what that secret is, most of all the person who saved your life. That's very not frustrating, don't you think?"

I'd discarded the pizza slice back on the tray, but the grease was still on my hand. Disgusted, I grabbed a napkin to wipe it off.

"You've got quite the temper, don't you?" Edythe prodded, watching me clean my hand.

I didn't look up at her. "I just don't like double standards."

"Clearly."

When I finally lifted my eyes from my task, I saw that she was glancing over my shoulder. Unexpectedly, she began to snicker.

"What?"

"Your friend seems to think I'm being unpleasant to you – he's debating whether or not to come break up our fight." She snickered again.

I assumed she was talking about Mike. It sounded like something he would do, but I didn't want to own up to that. "I'm sure you're wrong."

"I'm not. I told you, most people are easy to read."

"Except me, of course."

"Yes, except for you." Edythe's mood shifted suddenly, her eyes turning brooding. "I wonder why that is."

I couldn't keep myself focused on the intensity of her stare. I took a swig of my lemonade and picked up the slice of pizza again. The taste of it was practically cardboard in my mouth, or ash, but I didn't care. I had a feeling that if I stopped eating it, Edythe would make another comment about my dietary habits. I didn't want that.

I wasn't sure what I wanted from her at all, actually, except for the truth.

And one other thing.

"Can you do me a favor?" I asked.

She was suddenly wary. "That depends on what you want."

"It's not much," I assured her.

She waited, guarded but curious.

"I was just wondering...the next time you decide to ignore me for my own good, could you warn me beforehand? Just so that I can be prepared."

She pondered it for a moment. "That sounds fair," she finally agreed.

"Thanks."

"But, my price is one answer in return," she said coyly.

"Alright."

I knew it was a mistake as soon as my answer slipped out of my mouth. "Tell me one theory."

"Not that one."

"You didn't qualify, you just promised one answer," she reminded me.

I wasn't impressed. "You've broken your own promises before too, you know."

"Just one theory," she insisted. "I promise, I won't laugh."

"You will." I was positive about that.

Edythe looked down before she glanced back up at me through her long, black lashes. The sight of her butterscotch eyes framed in that way was positively alluring. It took my breath away.

She leaned over the table towards me. "Please?" she breathed.

My mind went blank. I blinked.

How was she able to do that?

I forgot what it was we were talking about in the first place. "Er, what?"

"Please, just tell me one little theory," she said. Her voice was low and rumbling, almost sounding like a cat's purr. "What do you think I am?"

"Umm...were you bitten by a radioactive spider?"

I couldn't believe I'd offered up my theory so willingly, the memory now coming back to me of how much I hadn't wanted to. It was crazy, this kind of power she had over me. Stronger than even the hypnotists that Renée had used to watch on TV when she'd gone through the phase of thinking she could be one.

Maybe I was just a pushover. That was the more reasonable explanation, but still...

Edythe scoffed. "That's not very creative."

"I'm sorry, that's all I've got," I said, miffed.

"You're not even close," she teased.

"So there's no spiders?"

"Nope."

"And no radioactivity?"

"None."

I sighed. "Dang."

"Kryptonite doesn't bother me either," she chuckled.

Light irritation prickled at me. "You weren't supposed to laugh, remember?"

She struggled to compose her face.

"I'll figure it out eventually," I warned her.

She scowled. "I wish you wouldn't try."

"Because...?"

Edythe smiled playfully, but it didn't reach her eyes. "Because what if I'm not the superhero? What if I'm the bad guy?"

"Oh," I said. Several things fell into place. "I see."

Her face became serious, as if she was afraid she'd accidentally said too much and I'd figured it all out on the spot. "You do?"

"You're dangerous?" I guessed. My pulse quickened as I intuitively realized the truth of my own words. She wasdangerous. She'd been trying to tell me that all along. And if Sam knew the truth about her, that was why he'd been so insistent on getting me out of the hospital that one day. That was why he didn't like her.

Edythe just looked at me, eyes full of some emotion I couldn't comprehend.

"But you're not bad," I whispered, shaking my head. "No, I don't believe that you're bad."

"You're wrong." Her voice was almost inaudible. She looked down, away from me, pulling the tray back towards herself and rapping her fingers against it lightly in a purposeful way – she was a piano player, she had to be as she tapped out some tune only she could hear. But even from the taps that I could hear, no notes or anything else, I could tell that the melody was beautiful.

I didn't know why I didn't feel afraid around her. I knew I should be, since she obviously meant what she was saying and fully believed in it, and Sam had to agree with her on that. He was a good judge of character. But instead of being frightened, I felt anxious, on edge...and more than anything else, fascinated. The same way I always felt when I was near her.

She was an enigma. A puzzle that I couldn't figure out.

Belatedly, I realized that the cafeteria was almost empty now. "We're going to be late," I said, jumping to my feet.

Edythe gave a short laugh, seemingly amused at something I wasn't privy to. "I'm not going to class today."

I frowned. "Why not?"

"Because sometimes, every now and then, it's healthy to ditch class," she explained.

I huffed, far too much of a coward at the risk of being caught. "Well, I'm going."

She glanced back down at the lunch tray. "I'll see you later, then."

I almost decided at her tone not to go. I had the sense that she, like me, didn't want our conversation to end – but there was a reason why she wanted to skip class today. I almost asked her what that reason was, or any one of the other many questions that had popped up over the past forty minutes in comparison to the ones that had already been answered.

But then, the first bell rang and it sent me hurrying out the door, with a last glance confirming that Edythe hadn't moved a centimeter.

I was lucky that the rain had stopped as I half-ran off to Biology, and that Mr. Banner hadn't yet entered the room by the time I got there. I settled quickly into my seat, keenly aware of the fact that Mike and Angela were staring at me. They both looked baffled, Angela slightly awed.

Mr. Banner came into the room before Mike could get any ideas and pounce on me, juggling a few small cardboard boxes in his arms. He put them down on Mike's table with a request for him to start passing them around the class.

"Okay, guys, I want you all to take one piece from each box," Mr. Banner said as he produced a pair of rubber gloves from the pocket of his lab jacket and pulled them on. The sharp sound of the gloves snapping into place against his wrists was ominous to me. "The first should be an indicator card," he went on, grabbing a white card with four squares marked on it and displaying it. "The second is a four-pronged applicator – " he held up something that looked like a nearly toothless hair pick " – and the third is a sterile micro-lancet." He held up a small piece of blue plastic and split it open. The barb was invisible from this distance, but it didn't matter.

My stomach didn't just flip, but seemed to do so several times in quick succession. I was suddenly glad all I had eaten for lunch was half of that slice of pizza and most of my bottle of lemonade.

"I'll be coming around with a dropper of water to prepare your cards, so please don't start until I get to you." Mr. Banner began at Mike's table again, carefully putting one drop of water on each of the four squares. "Then I want you to carefully prick your finger with the lancet..." He grabbed Mike's hand and jabbed the spike into the tip of Mike's middle finger.

Oh, no.

Clammy moisture broke out across my forehead.

I put a hand against my mouth – or, more accurately, my nose.

"Put a small drop of blood on each of the prongs." He demonstrated, squeezing Mike's finger until the blood flowed. I swallowed convulsively, my stomach heaving.

"And then apply it to the card," he finished, holding up the dripping red card for all of us to see.

I closed my eyes, trying to hear through the ringing in my ears. Mr. Banner went on as he walked around the room, talking about the blood drive that would take place in Port Angeles on the weekend, and how he wished we would all donate. I could barely hear him as I put my cheek against the cool black tabletop and tried to hold on to my consciousness. All around me, I could hear the excited, if not slightly nervous, chatter of my classmates and their reactions to the skewering of their fingers. I tried my best to ignore them, my breathing strained from having to do it through my hand.

There was another reason why I felt like I was an alien that stood out when compared to my peers, my family: I couldn't stand the smell of blood.

Most people will assure you that blood is impossible to smell in small amounts as long as it's not directly in front of you. But in my experience, this was never true for me. Blood for me was always poignant if I was near it in a room, smelling of rust, salt, and something...worse. When it was my own blood, or the blood of my mother and my grandmother, I was able to brave the nausea it caused to tend to any wounds. But when the blood came from anybody else...

"Bella, are you alright?" Mr. Banner asked. His voice was close to my head. He sounded alarmed.

Saliva pooled in my mouth as I brought my hand away from my face to answer him. I tried not to breathe through my nose at all. "I already know my blood type, Mr. Banner," I said.

"Are you feeling faint?"

"Yes, sir," I mumbled.

Although I had no idea how she'd known Mr. Banner was going to be doing this today, it was clear to me now why Edythe had ditched. I should've ditched with her when I'd had the chance.

"Can someone take Bella to the nurse, please?" Mr. Banner called out.

I didn't have to look up to know it would be Mike who volunteered.

"Can you walk?" our teacher prodded me.

"Yes," I told him. It didn't matter if I couldn't. I'd crawl if it'd meant I'd get out of the classroom.

Mike came over and put his arm around my waist and pulled my arm over his shoulder. I leaned against him heavily on our way to and out the door.

Mike towed me slowly across campus. When we were around the edge of the cafeteria and out of sight of building four, in the event that Mr. Brunner was watching, I stopped.

"Can we wait here for a moment, please?" I begged.

Mike acquiesced, helping me sit on the edge of the walk.

For the first time in my life, I actually felt thankful to be inhaling the fresh air of the Pacific Northwest. I put the palms of my hands against my eyes, my elbows digging into my knees, and breathed in sharply.

But it wasn't enough.

"Put your finger in your pocket," I ordered Mike, adding at the last second, "please. And don't take it out."

I heard him do as I instructed. "Wow, Bella," he said nervously. "You're green."

The cool air did wonders as it breezed past my face. I almost wanted to lay down on the damp cement of the sidewalk to see if it would make my dizziness and desire to retch even better, but I didn't. That would simply be too much for me.

"Bella?" a different voice suddenly called out from a distance.

Oh, no, I thought.

"What's wrong? Is she hurt?" Her voice sounded closer now, and she sounded upset. I knew that tone couldn't be a figment of my imagination, even if I'd tricked myself into believing she might have been such. I'd never heard her sound so concerned before.

Mike was stressed. "She got sick in the classroom, I don't know why. She didn't even prick her finger."

"Bella?" Edythe's voice was right beside me now, her tenor changing from upset to relieved. "Can you hear me?"

"No," I groaned, refusing to bring my hands away from my eyes. "Go away."

She chortled.

"I was taking her to the nurse," Mike explained. "But she wouldn't go any farther."

"I'll take her," Edythe said. She sounded much more enthusiastic than she had any right to be. "You can go back to class."

"I don't think that's a good idea," Mike protested. "Mr. Banner told me to take her."

Although I was sitting upright on the sidewalk, I felt an arm reach under the bend of my legs, another coming behind my back as I tilted back. I made a noise in surprise, my eyes flying open. Edythe had scooped me up in her arms, as easily as if I weighed ten pounds and not one-hundred-and-ten.

"Edythe!" I cried in shock. "Put me down!"

I was mortified now, but I knew my embarrassment would only become much worse if I threw up on her.

But she was already walking away before I finished talking.

"Hey!" Mike shouted, scrambling behind us. He was almost as tall as Edythe, but she walked with a longer gait – and faster.

Edythe ignored him. "You look awful," she informed me, grinning.

The rocking of her body made me feel like I was on a boat out at sea, like Renée and I were whale-watching again in California. It made my nausea worse. I squeezed my eyes shut again, trying to rebel against her hold despite how very not good it would be for me if I fell. But even though she was holding me away from her body, supporting my weight with only her arms, she might as well have been holding me tight to her chest with all of her strength. I couldn't get away from her.

"If you know what's good for you, you'll let me go and put me back on the ground," I moaned miserably.

"What, and let you trip over your own two feet? You don't need more of a reason to go to the nurse's office," she said almost giddily. Amusement was more than lacing her voice. "Do you really faint at the sight of blood?"

I didn't answer. Closing my eyes again, I fought the nausea with all of my strength, clamping my lips together.

Blood.

There was no liquid on this Earth that I hated more.

"And not even your own blood," Edythe continued, enjoying herself.

"Please stop," I begged, ashamed, embarrassed, and nauseous, all in one. "If you don't, I might actually hurl."

She chuckled again.

With her hands being full with me, I wasn't sure how she was able to open the door. But warmth wrapped around us, and I knew that we were now inside.

"Oh, my," I heard the secretary gasp.

"She fainted in Biology," Edythe explained.

Opening my eyes, I saw that sure enough, we were in the office. Edythe swept past the front counter and towards the nurse's door. Mrs. Cope – what I had learned the secretary's name to be – hurried ahead of her to hold the door open for us. The grandmotherly nurse looked up from what I automatically recognized as one of those cheap romance novels you could get at the grocery store, astonished, as Edythe swung me into the room and set me down gently on the one cot for the entire office/school. Quickly, Edythe backed away from me, retreating to the opposite wall. Her eyes were bright, excited. She was having too much fun with this for reasons I couldn't even begin to speculate were, but nonetheless annoyed me.

"She's just a little faint," she reassured the nurse. The nurse wasn't as old as my grandmother, but she was up there in years. She readjusted her thick glasses, setting down her book. "They're blood-typing in Biology."

The nurse nodded sagely. "Of course. There's always one."

Edythe muffled another snicker.

"Just lie down for a minute, honey; it'll pass."

"I know," I sighed. I could feel the nausea fading.

"Does this happen a lot?"

"Sometimes," I admitted. Edythe coughed to hide an additional laugh.

She wasn't as successful as I expected she wanted to be. The nurse's lips thinned, nonplussed at her amusement. "You can go back to class now," she instructed.

"I'm supposed to stay with her," Edythe replied. She said it with such conviction that the nurse didn't argue it further, although she looked like she wanted to.

"I'll go get you some ice for your forehead, dear," she said to me before bustling out of the room.

My eyelids drifted back shut. "You were right," I told Edythe.

"I usually am," she replied. "But what about in particular this time?"

"Ditching can be healthy," I answered.

She laughed again. But then her mood seemed to mellow. "You know, you scared me for a minute there, Bella," she admitted. "I thought you had somehow managed to injure yourself in Biology."

So she had known we were blood-typing today.

The mystery with her increased.

"Do you have to make fun of my clumsiness?" I complained.

"It's not my fault that you seem to be an exceptional danger to yourself without even trying," she returned. "With how often you trip over nothing or cause some other sort of calamity, I was worried you'd nicked your own artery. Honestly, I've seen corpses with better color."

"Poor Mike," I thought out loud. "He must've been so worried."

"He was. It doesn't help that he absolutely loathes me," she said brightly. "He doesn't think I'm a good influence on you."

"You can't know that," I argued, until it occurred to me that maybe she could. "And according to your own words, you're not a good influence on me, anyways."

"Yes, that's true. And I saw his face – I could tell."

"How did you see us, anyways? I thought you were ditching."

I was feeling a lot better now: the queasiness was mostly gone, and I didn't have the pit in my stomach that had let me know even trying to sit up again wouldn't have gone well for me.

"I was in my car, listening to a CD," Edythe said. It was such a normal response compared to everything else she did, it surprised me.

The door opened, revealing the nurse with a cold compress in her hand when I looked to see who it was.

"Here you go, dear." Instead of handing it to me like I would've preferred, she laid it across my forehead. "Hm, you're starting to look better."

"I think I'm fine," I said, testing my luck by sitting up. Thankfully, the room didn't spin, though I did have a little ringing in my ears. Nothing that I couldn't handle.

I could see she was about to make me lie back down, but the Mrs. Cope became my saving grace. The secretary poked her head in through the open door, her face serious. "We've got another one."

Seizing the opportunity, I pushed myself up off of the cot and handed the cold compress back to the nurse. "Here, I don't need this. Like I said, I'll be fine."

Mike staggered through the door with the next invalid, a sallow-looking Lee Stephens, another boy in our Biology class who looked much worse than I probably did. His face was ashen, practically devoid of all color. I drew against the wall to give them room, standing next to Edythe. I was so close to her, I could almost feel that current of electricity again, the one I'd felt that day in the lab when our hands had touched. She flinched ever so slightly, barely perceptible to the eye, letting me know I wasn't the only one who did.

"Oh, no," Edythe muttered. "Go out to the office, Bella."

I didn't need to be told twice. My nose wrinkling and my stomach beginning to churn all over again, I bolted out of the room, Edythe right behind me.

"You actually listened to me," she marveled.

"I can put two and two together," I said.

"Oh, I didn't doubt that," she murmured. "I just – never mind."

Mike came through the door then, glancing from me to Edythe. The look he gave her confirmed what she'd said about the loathing.

"You look better," he told me, equal parts relieved, concerned, and glum.

"Just keep your hand in your pocket," I reiterated.

"It's not even bleeding anymore," he muttered. Louder, "Are you going back to class?"

"Just to have to turn around and come back? Are you kidding?"

He half-cringed, half-smiled. "Yeah, you've got a point. So...you are going this weekend, right? To the beach?"

"I told you I'd come," I said. "Um, everyone does kind of know me down there, but that probably means they'll be friendlier than they usually are."

Unlike with Edythe, Mike looked relieved at the prospect. Did he not like her because he knew she was dangerous, too? Or was it just something he'd intrinsically sensed? "Good," he said. "I know the last time I went, that one older guy was there and he wasn't all that friendly."

"Sam?" I briefly looked over at Edythe. She was standing against the cluttered counter of the office, motionless as a sculpture, staring off into space. But at the mention of his name, I watched a muscle in her face twitch. So the animosity there was on both sides. But why? I couldn't imagine a situation where the two of them ever would have met. "He's my cousin. He's...changed a lot in the past couple of years – " Edythe stilled at this, then shook her head in a way one would to a joke that wasn't particularly funny " – but he's a nice guy. He means well."

"That's good," Mike said. His eyes flashed over to Edythe as well. "We're meeting at my dad's store, at ten." Judging by his body language, it wasn't an open invitation.

"I'll be there," I promised.

"See you in Gym?"

"Yeah, see you," I replied.

Mike left, though not without some hesitation.

"Gym," I groaned when he was gone.

Edythe pushed herself away from the counter to step over to me, leaning close to speak directly into my ear. "I can take care of that," she said lowly, humorously. "Go sit down and look weary."

That wasn't a challenge. My recent swoon had left a light sheen of sweat on my forehead, and Renée had always told me I had the facial demeanor of someone much older than I actually was – that I had been born middle-aged and only mentally became more so with every year. I sat down on one of the creaky folding chairs and rested my head against the wall with my eyes closed. Fainting spells always took more out of me than I thought was fair.

"Mrs. Cope?" Edythe asked pleasantly.

"Yes, Ms. Cullen?"

"Bella has Gym next hour, but I don't think she feels well enough. Actually, I was thinking I should take her home now. Do you think you could excuse her from class?" Her voice was like auditory nectar, the food of the gods. I could only imagine how much her eyes made it more impossible to resist her.

"Do you need to be excused too, Edythe?" Mrs. Cope asked concernedly.

"Oh, no, I have Mr. Goff. He won't mind."

"Okay, I'll take care of everything. You feel better, Bella," she called out to me.

I nodded weakly, though I layered it on a little thicker than what the reality was.

"Can you walk, or do you want me to carry you again?" With her back to the secretary, Edythe's expression became sarcastic.

"I can walk."

Unexpectedly, as I stood up, Edythe held out her arm to me. I stared at it dumbly.

"I said I can walk."

She leaned in close to me again. "Humor me," she whispered.

My heart fluttered. I reached out to just grab her arm, but she locked ours together in the old-fashioned way. I couldn't help but notice, though she was wearing a long-sleeved sweater, I could still somehow feel her body's warmth, or lack thereof. She was practically freezing cold to the touch.

Edythe opened up the door for us, her smile polite but her eyes mocking. I walked out, discovering that a cold, fine mist had begun to fall, a form of precipitation that wasn't quite rain but I'd still found annoying over the course of my time up here, past and present. For the first time ever, I thought it felt nice as it washed the sweat off of my face.

I was beginning to adjust to life up here too much for comfort.

"Thanks," I told Edythe as she followed me out, our arms still wrapped together. "It's almost worth it: getting sick to miss Gym."

"Anytime," she replied airily.

We walked to the parking lot in silence. I was tempted to ask her to come to La Push with the rest of us on Saturday, even though I knew she would almost undoubtedly decline. If she and Sam didn't like each other, she wasn't going to want to spend time down there, and it would be unfair of me to make her feel like she had to accept my offer.

Not to mention, I didn't think I would want to deal with the headache that Mike would cause, now that he didn't like her, either.

"Where do you think you're going?" Edythe asked after we'd reached our destination. I'd gone left, towards my truck. But she'd caught me by my jacket in my quest to get out from her and yanked me back, glaring.

I was confused. "I'm going home."

"After what I just promised in there?" she hissed. "I said I'd drive you home safely, and I fully intend to."

I repeated what I'd said during lunch. "You've broken promises before."

"I won't break this one."

She started to lead me towards the right, where her shiny Volvo was. "What about my truck?"

"I'll have Alice drop it off after school," she said.

I wasn't sure if I was comfortable with the idea of her sister driving my truck. I'd never spoken to her before, I'd never spoken to any of them except for Edythe and had no reason not to trust them, but...while I felt at ease around Edythe, I wasn't sure if I would feel that way with her siblings. I didn't know why. If I trusted Edythe, why wouldn't I trust them?

"Let me go!" I insisted, nearly tripping over my own feet. Snidely, I thought about how she'd teased me about my clumsiness earlier and was now all but begging the universe for me to have another accident.

She ignored me.

Edythe finally freed me from her clutches when we reached her car. I almost toppled forwards as we came to an abrupt stop on the passenger's side, and then she was opening the front door, holding it open for me.

"You are so pushy!" I grumbled.

"Get in, Bella," she spoke.

I didn't. Instead, I silently calculated my chances of reaching the truck before she could catch me. They were worse than not good.

"I'll just drag you back," she threatened, sensing what I was doing.

Feeling not entirely unlike a petulant toddler, I got into the car. She closed the door behind me, stepping around the front of the vehicle as I buckled myself in and got inside herself. I pictured myself as being akin to a stray cat that had been half-drowned in the rain, abducted from the streets to be sent off to my new home. The simile wasn't too far off from the truth, but that only made me more antsy.

I wasn't a stray cat. I could take care of myself.

"Really, this is unnecessary."

"On that, we'll disagree."

Edythe turned on her car. She fiddled with the controls, turning the heater up and the music down, so that I had to strain my ears to listen. It gave me something to do in lieu of focusing on my simmering anger towards her and how much I wanted to give her the silent treatment on the ride back to my home. I recognized the music playing easily enough, which left me curious.

"Clair de Lune?" I inquired.

She seemed as surprised as I was. "You know Debussy?"

"Not well," I admitted. "My mother plays a lot of classical music around the house – I only know my favorites."

"It's one of my favorites, too." She stared out through the rain, lost in thought.

As the music played and the rain blurred everything outside the window into grey and green smudges, making the world that I was in not as painful to look at, I relaxed into the light grey leather of the seat. Edythe was a fast driver, the way the town flashed by proved that, but she was also a steady one. I didn't so much as feel the speed.

"You're cousins with Sam Uley," Edythe suddenly said. It came across as conversationally, and strangely I didn't think it was anything more than that. "First cousins?"

"Yes," I said. "I thought you would've gleaned that from how he came with my grandmother to pick me up at the hospital."

"I knew he was related to you," she answered. I didn't bother to point out how I was related to everyone at La Push. Even Embry Call, if you went back far enough. "I just wasn't sure of how. Is your mother his father's younger sister, then?"

"Yes."

"What is she like?"

I glanced over to see her studying me with curious eyes.

"...My mother is a bit of a free spirit," I began after a moment. "I guess she and all of her siblings are." Now that I was thinking about it, I couldn't help but acknowledge Renée and Joshua were not the only ones to leave La Push. Their older sister, Ellen, was a painter in the Midwest, and I'd only ever seen her maybe twice in my life. She and Renée didn't exactly get along. The eldest sibling, Lucas, had died of AIDS in California when I'd been six. It was why Renée had moved us to Arizona. I remembered him in bits and pieces, and his partner. Michael had been a kind person. But, back to the subject of my mother. "She's more outgoing than I am, and braver. She's irresponsible and slightly eccentric, and she's a very unpredictable cook. She's my best friend."

I had to stop. Talking about her, thinking about my uncle Lucas, was making me depressed.

"How old are you, Bella?" Edythe asked, sounding almost frustrated. She'd stopped the car, and I realized we were at Nonna's house already. The rain was so heavy now I could barely see the house at all. It was like the car had been submerged in a river.

"Seventeen," I responded, a little confused.

"You don't act like someone seventeen."

If it had been any other time, I probably would've laughed. But as it was, the memories in my head, compounded by the memories of Charlie, made me melancholic.

"Someone has to be the adult," I said instead. "And Renée has never been very good at that."

Edythe's gold eyes were mesmerizing. "Is that why she married Phil?"

I was surprised that she remembered his name. "Maybe," I allowed. "I think he makes her feel younger. At any rate, she's crazy about him."

"Do you approve of their relationship?"

"Does it matter?" I asked. "I want her to be happy...and he is who she wants."

I could tell she was wanting to say something else, something more, but I'd had enough discussion about Renée. "So, are you going to tell me about your family?" I prodded curiously. My hesitation about his siblings aside, I was curious about them – all of them. "Yours has to be much more interesting than mine."

Her own curiosity flickered across her face. She wasn't expecting me to ask that question. But with it came caution and guard. "What do you want to know?"

"The Cullens adopted you, right?"

"Yes."

I stalled for a moment. "What happened to your biological parents?"

"They died many years ago," she said as matter-of-fact.

"I'm sorry."

"Don't be. I don't remember them that clearly. And besides," she added, a corner of her mouth trailing upwards again. "Carine and Esme have been my parents for some time now, and I wouldn't have it any other way."

"You love them."

"Yes. I couldn't imagine two better people."

"You're very lucky."

"I know I am."

"And your brother and sister?"

Edythe glanced at the clock on her dashboard, and so did I. I almost cringed at the time. We'd spent a while talking.

"My brother and sister, and Jasper and Rosalie for that matter, are going to be quite upset if they have to stand in the rain waiting for me."

"I'm sorry, I guess you have to go," I said. But I made no move to get out of the car.

Her beginnings of a smile turned into a proper grin. "And you probably want your truck before your grandmother gets home, so you don't have to tell her about the Biology incident."

I sighed. I didn't know where Nonna was, but I didn't doubt she'd already found out about that. I told Edythe as much, with the addition of, "There are no secrets in Forks."

She laughed, but there was an edge to her laughter.

"Have fun at the beach," she wished me. "I'd suggest sun-bathing, but the weather is never good enough up here for that."

Wait...

"Won't I see you tomorrow?"

"No. Emmett and I are going to be starting the weekend early."

I thought about what to say. I didn't want to come off as too disappointed. "What are you going to do?"

"We're going to be hiking in the Goat Rocks Wilderness, just south of Rainier," she informed me.

"Oh, well, have fun," I replied, attempting to sound enthusiastic. I knew better than to think I had fooled her, though.

She turned her head so that she was directly looking at me, and her gold eyes made my knees feel weak despite the fact that I wasn't standing. "Can I ask you a favor about this weekend?"

"Uh...sure."

"Don't be offended, but you seem like one of those people who just attract accidents like a magnet. So...try not to fall into the ocean or get run over or anything, alright?" Her smile turned crooked.

As soon as the meaning of her words hit me, I bristled. "I'll see what I can do," I snapped, opening the car door and stepping out into the rain. I slammed it behind me with excessive force. Just because I was clumsy did not mean I was as helpless as she seemed to think I was.

Edythe kept on smiling as she backed out of the driveway and drove away.

Word Count: 7,569

Next Chapter Title: the cold ones