Sticks and stones may break Bella's bones, but words are making her realize that she's more than a little interested in Edward, which might just be worse. Oh well, a little crush is no big deal, right? There's no way this could go any farther, right? Because after all, there's no way that a guy like Edward could be interested in a girl like her. Right?

A timely update? Say it ain't so! As always, thanks so much for reading and reviewing—your feedback means the world to me. Love it? Hate it? Drop me a line and let me know what, exactly, gives you feelings.

Bzzt. Bzzt.

I rolled over and pried one eye open blearily, peering toward the nightstand where my phone sat. Was it worth checking at—I looked at the time—5:05 am?

It might be Renee, I reasoned, since she was three hours ahead of me. I pricked my fingers on my cactus as I groped one-handedly for the phone, finally managing to pull it close enough to flip it open and read the text.

'sry. friends?'

My heart warmed as I read it; I had missed Jacob. I rolled over and texted back.

'friends!'

':) hang on friday?'

'yeah'

Worth it, I thought to myself as I slid the phone under my pillow and closed my eyes, hoping to get a few more minutes of sleep before my alarm rang.

PAGE BREAK

The day was going by in sort of a blur, my sleeplessness mixing with preoccupation to create a hazy indifference to the classes unfolding around me. Ordinarily I would have been amused that we were going over Interview with the Vampire in English this week, but today the class barely registered in my mind. Gov might as well have not happened at all. As Jessica and I met up outside of the Trig classroom, she scowled over my shoulder.

"Shut up, Rob," she hissed. I had no idea what she was reacting to, and I couldn't quite bring myself to care.

Aside from that brief outburst, Jessica was unusually subdued. We walked to Spanish in silence together; that was a first, as far as I could remember.

"Hi, Bella," Lauren said as she sat down next to me. I kept my jaw from dropping—she had never bothered to greet me before. "How was your weekend? Do anything… interesting?"

I became aware that Jessica was glaring daggers at Lauren's back. I raised an eyebrow, but she shook her head. "Fine," I replied, still waiting for some kind of trap. "I stayed in for most of it. How was yours?"

Lauren smirked. "Of course you did. Mine was, oh, you know. Went to Port Angeles, crashed a club. You should come with sometime, there's a bouncer who always lets me in."

"Sure," I said skeptically, reminding myself of Jacob in the way I drew the word out. "Thanks for the invite." Somehow, I found Lauren being nice to be even more discomfiting than Lauren being mean.

"Anytime," she smiled, white teeth flashing. The expression didn't reach her eyes.

Mrs. Goff called the class to order and the hour went by uneventfully. Lauren only sighed and rolled her eyes once when I inevitably stumbled over the pronunciation of a new vocabulary word, also a first. As we filed out of the room toward the cafeteria, Lauren caught up to me and twined her arm through mine. "You never sit with me at lunch," she said, turning the corners of her mouth down into a pout. "C'mon, we'll talk girl stuff. Who's the best dressed, who's single, who's sleeping with who… It'll be fun!"

I pulled away. "Sorry, I'm already sitting with someone else."

"Is it Edward?" she asked, a little too quickly.

"No." I looked around for Jessica, desperate to find a way out of this conversation.

"It's me," a soft voice said behind me. I whirled to see Angela looking down at Lauren, her face neutral. For Angela, that was as good as a frown. "We were going to talk about that English paper, right? If you still wanted to, that is."

I seized on the excuse with relief. "Yes, I could really use some help with it. Sorry, Lauren."

Her pout deepened. "Fine. Another time, then."

"Yeah," I said insincerely before plunging off into the crowd, determined to put as much distance between us as possible.

Angela caught up with me at the entrance to the cafeteria. "Sorry."

"For what?"

She looked uncomfortable. "For… you know, the nasty things people are saying. You should be able to do whatever you want without… shitty people."

I hadn't heard any nasty things. I hadn't heard anything. I stared at her, feeling my eyebrows furrow. "What are people saying?"

Her mouth made an 'O' but no sound came out for a moment. "I thought you knew."

"Clearly not." It was taking all my effort not to grit my teeth. "What are people saying?"

Angela grimaced. "That you and Edward are… well, sleeping together."

"Oh." My heart fluttered—anxiety, I was sure, at the idea of being the center of the school's rumor mill. Suddenly Lauren's newfound interest in me made a lot more sense. "That's not that bad."

"Forks is still a small town," she said, sounding uncomfortable. "I don't think it should matter, but people judge."

I had almost forgotten how different the social dynamics were. Who was sleeping with who wouldn't have raised any eyebrows in Phoenix, unless a teacher was involved. "Thank you for telling me."

"Your friends have your back." She smiled tentatively as we reached the food, and we didn't speak again as we made our way through and over to the regular table, which was pointedly free of Lauren and her usual satellites.

I ate in silence, letting the chatter of the cafeteria wash over me. This was what I had been trying to avoid by not being seen with Edward in public; eating lunch with him had clearly been a mistake. But, oddly, I didn't feel upset. If I was being honest with myself, I was almost flattered at being connected to him, even if only in the imaginations of my classmates.

"Bella?"

I realized that my name had been repeated quietly beside me and looked up from my veggie quesadilla to see Jessica, picking at her nails and looking uncharacteristically downcast. "Yeah?"

"I'm so sorry if anything I said… you know, gave anyone the wrong idea."

Apologies—especially the in-person kind—made me uncomfortable, something I had inherited from my taciturn father. "Um, it's fine. Don't worry about it."

"I support you either way," she said, earnestness bleeding through her anxious tone. "Sleep with him, don't sleep with him, do whatever you want."

My heart fluttered again, probably because I appreciated having such good friends. "Thank you." I sneaked a peek over Jessica's shoulder at the regular Cullen table; Emmett and Jasper were laughing, and even Rosalie had a very undignified smirk on her lovely face.

"Of course," Jessica replied, sounding relieved, and I wrestled my attention back to her. "I'm glad I got to know you," she continued, the words tumbling out in a rush. "I didn't know what you'd be like when you got here, but I'm glad we're friends."

"I'm glad we're friends too," I said, feeling warm. "Moving to Forks hasn't been as bad as I expected." I found my eyes wandering back to Edward, knowing that the secrets I had discovered were a large part of that. As if I had reached out and touched him, he looked up and our gazes met for what felt like a long moment.

"—told Lauren to get over herself, just because Edward turned her down doesn't mean that… Bella, are you okay?"

I dragged my eyes away. "What? Yes, of course."

"You just looked really zoned out for a minute," Jessica said, concerned. "I know it's all probably getting to you, but please tell me if there's anything I can do."

"I'm fine," I reassured her. "Just, um, tired."

"Okay." She let it drop and I thanked her silently. A moment later, the bell rang and everyone jumped up to dispose of their plates and rush off to class. Mike walked silently beside me, interacting only to flash a cheery smile before we separated to sit down.

"So," Edward said, voice low as he slid into the seat beside mine. Mr. Banner had already called the class to order but was still handing out worksheets, so conversations were happening all over the room "I hear we're romantically intertwined."

I blushed. "It's just Lauren."

He arched an eyebrow. "Relationships are always a hot topic, and she's the worst kind of gossip. I apologize; I should have been more discreet."

"It's not a big deal," I shrugged.

"You don't seem upset." His tone was questioning.

"It's really not that big a deal," I repeated. "I'm not happy about it, but what's done is done, and making a fuss is just going to make people believe it more."

He looked at me for a long moment as I fidgeted. I tried to decipher what he was thinking, but his face was enigmatic. "That's a very thoughtful take," he finally said.

My heart fluttered; I wasn't used to compliments from boys who looked like Edward Cullen. "Um, thank you." I accepted a worksheet from Mr. Banner and pretended to be looking at it.

One corner of his mouth quirked upward. "We should keep our conversations outside of school hours."

Oh. Why did I feel disappointed when this was exactly what I had asked for the day before? At least it sounded like he intended to have more conversations with me. "Sure."

His gaze sharpened momentarily—did he feel the same disappointment? Of course not, I scolded myself. He was only spending time with me because I was an oddity who'd gotten unlucky—and then lucky. "What are you doing this weekend?" He sounded utterly disinterested, further proof that I was nothing particularly special.

"Just hanging out with my friend, Jake," I said, then winced. I was still trying not to mention Jacob around Edward, in spite of my incautious slip the previous night. I couldn't imagine anything good coming from those two sources of secrets overlapping.

"Will you be free on Saturday?"

"Yes," I answered, but Mr. Banner had finally reached the front of the room. He loudly announced that we would be watching a video about the role of genes within evolution and then filling out the worksheet individually.

As he flipped off the lights, I suddenly became very conscious that I was sitting quite close to Edward. I was always aware of his presence, but in the dark it was almost like I had developed a sixth sense. I could feel the way he leaned against the desk, see the outline of his throat in the harsh light of the TV, smell the faint scent of whatever product he was wearing, and hear the way his breathing was shifting from cool and controlled to slightly ragged.

I stared in the direction of the TV, processing absolutely none of the material on the screen. Maybe it was my subconscious sending fear signals that I was in the presence of something dangerous. Maybe I was coming down with a fever. Maybe this was something that all vampires caused in all humans.

Maybe… maybe I did want to date Edward.

My heart immediately went into overdrive. It wasn't possible, of course. Lauren's rumors aside, he was out of my league and—perhaps more of a barrier—out of my species. Who was I kidding?

Okay. I was attracted to him, but also capable of being realistic. The two facts chased each other around my mind until they were cut short by the end of the video.

I was thankful that this class was well below my level, as it meant that I could fill out the worksheet from memory, pointedly not looking in Edward's direction. Mr. Banner passed by to collect it and I handed it in.

Edward stood as soon as the bell rang, leaning on the desk for a moment after he had slung his backpack across his shoulders. He caught my gaze, face unreadable as my heart fluttered yet again. "Interesting," he said, and then he was gone.

I slumped against my seat for a long minute before finally dragging myself out the door and in the direction of gym. Interesting indeed.

PAGE BREAK

Charlie was already home when I walked through the door. I could hear him in the kitchen, banging pans together and humming. I smiled; it had been a couple of weeks since I had heard him so cheerful. I tossed a pleasant "hey" over my shoulder as I headed for the stairs, determined to bury myself in homework and block out the events of the day.

"Bella?" Charlie had appeared in the door of the kitchen, a dishtowel in his hands. "You have any weekend plans?"

"Maybe," I replied. "I'll be out Friday evening, I think."

"Let me know when you know." He retreated to his cooking, which smelled like it included fish. I was going to be on my own for dinner that night, it seemed. I would deal with that later, I decided, and continued up to my bedroom.

A few moments later I was comfortably sprawled on the bed as I tackled my Trig homework. That was the most complicated and most likely to engage my full attention, I reasoned. But as I scribbled equations and frowned over angles, I couldn't keep my mind from wandering back to the events of the day.

I had had crushes before, of course. Not many, and not serious, but they had existed. I tended to go for the quiet, thoughtful types, the ones who challenged me in coursework, the ones that I had that intellectual spark with. Edward Cullen was all of that and more—mysterious, intriguing, and (I had to admit) a total knockout.

I groaned and buried my face in the bed. Out of your league, out of your species, I reminded myself. But he had said that I was interesting and he was actively spending time with me. Did that mean something? Surely not.

It'll be fine, I assured myself. I could be mature. I wouldn't say or do anything that might betray my feelings, and I would avoid spending more time with him so as not to feed the crush. No—I didn't want to abide by that. I still needed to learn everything I could about the secret world within my world. A purely professional relationship, then. I could do that. I would do that.

I nodded firmly, then turned my mind back to my homework. No boys were going to stand between me and my good grades and my full-ride scholarship to the college of my choice, not if I could help it.