Chapter 10 – The First Day of School
BPOV
Without flaunting my nerdiness too much, I had actually always enjoyed school. I wasn't a standout student by any means. I felt that various forms of math were evil, but I had always enjoyed the challenge of it. A bookworm by nature, I had instinctively gravitated toward literature and creative writing. I even held a keen interest in science; into the 'why's' of the world. The part of school I dreaded was gym. The biggest thing I missed from Arizona was the fact that gym was only mandatory for one year. Forks High had made it a prerequisite for all four years of school. It was like my own personal version of hell.
There's no physical reason for it, but I fall down a lot. My mother had put me into dance lessons when I was a child, as many little girls' mothers do. Despite my evident awkwardness at such a young age, the teacher kept telling my mother that I would be a natural.
"Real dancers are clumsy because their body moves faster than their mind can keep up." To say I was clumsy was an understatement. After five torturous years of me stumbling through class, my teacher admitted that perhaps my clumsiness wasn't my inner dancer shining through after all.
Ball sports weren't my thing either. Despite Charlie's affection for any sport with a ball and Phil's ability to not only play, but coach almost any sport, it wasn't for lack of trying I wasn't able to play sports. Me and sports, we were never meant to be. I idly wondered if sitting in a comfy chair and reading a book would ever be considered a sport. Maybe if I could read really fast...
And it was with thoughts of speed reading that I pulled Jacob's Rabbit into the parking lot of school. I looked around and realised some of the other cars here were in the same condition as the Rabbit. My truck would definitely be one of the older vehicles, but wouldn't stand out too bad, until I turned it on and people could hear it. Then I saw that shiny silver Volvo from the Thriftway. I had completely forgotten about the Cullens until I saw the Volvo. I surreptitiously walked over to the car to give it a closer inspection to see if they were able to get the dent out. I was pleased to see it looked as good as new, when I heard a tiny tinkling laugh.
"I told you our sister could fix it!" Alice Cullen appeared seemingly out of nowhere and started giggling again. "Bella Swan, right? Nice to see you again, I'm..."
"Alice." I finished for her. "Nice to see you again too, Alice. I'm glad your sister was able to fix the damage from my runaway cart." I smiled at her. I looked around and found her brother standing a little off to the side eyeing us. "Does she go here too?" I asked.
"No, Rosalie graduated last year with Emmet and Jasper. It's just Edward and I this year." She turned and frowned at her brother. I couldn't believe how big their family was. Alice didn't really look like Edward, but they had similar features in the colour of their skin and eyes. Alice seemed to sense my confusion and offered up some personal information. "Carlisle and Esme are our adopted parents. They took us all in many years ago."
"That's really lovely of them. They must be wonderful people." I smiled tentatively, wondering how long we could discuss this before it became awkward for her.
"That is an understatement." Edward offered. I was surprised he joined our conversation. He hadn't said anything to me the last time we had met. "We're very lucky to have parents like Carlisle and Esme." I sensed he was going to say more but cut himself off. Awkward silence followed his statement until Alice piped up again.
"What's your schedule like Bella? Maybe we have some classes together?" I pulled my schedule out to compare it to the one in Alice's dainty hands. Alice and I shared Spanish and Gym together. I moaned at the thought of gym again.
"Ugh, gym. Why on earth do you have it for four years here?" I griped and I saw Edward suppress a chuckle. Given his athletic physique, he was probably a jock. Alice however looked delighted that I hated gym.
"It's my least favourite subject too!" She squealed. "I wish they had better electives here. I would take almost anything instead of gym. It's so boring!" Alice and I started walking towards to the school, while Edward trailed a few steps behind us. "Well here's where I leave you, but I'll see you next period!" And with that she bounded off towards building two, while I made my way around to building four. I was so intent on finding the right room, I hadn't noticed that Edward was still following me. I also didn't notice Mike Newton sidle up next to me until he touched my arm. Then I heard Edward ... growl? And it seemed like he was muttering to himself. He was sort of a strange guy.
"Bella! At last, we get you to ourselves here!" He turned and started walking backwards so he could face me while speaking. "You need help finding your classes? Please allow me." He grabbed my schedule out of my hands, and I was too shocked to do anything but follow along. "Ah, English with Mr. Berty. You lucky girl, I have that class too! We can walk to it together." Mike looked behind me, and seemed to notice that Edward was there. I glanced back over my shoulder, and found Edward scowling at us.
All three of us arrived at the classroom, to find it mostly empty. Jessica was seated with some of the other girls from the beach. When she saw Mike she lit up. She started waving frantically.
"Mike, hey I saved you a seat here!" She motioned to the desk next to her. "Oh hey, Bella! Nice to see you again. You want to join us?" She motioned to the seat on her other side, and one desk back. Since I had nowhere better to sit, I quietly walked over to the desk she suggested and started to unpack my bag. I noticed that Edward slipped into the seat behind me.
"So, Bella, you give any more consideration to our homecoming proposal?" Mike was leaning over Jessica's desk to talk to me. Jessica's eyes narrowed at the word "our", and then shot me a murderous glare, that she quickly tried to cover up.
Ok, mental note: Jessica likes Mike.
"Um, not really." Truthfully I hadn't thought about it at all, and certainly hadn't really discussed it with Jacob.
"You should bring that hottie from the beach you were hanging out with." Jessica cut in. Her eyes cutting between me and Mike to gauge his reaction. "And maybe some of his friends." Mike made a face showing that he didn't like either idea.
I hated dances. But the thought of Jacob being there made it somewhat more bearable in my mind.
"I'll ask Jake if he and his friends are free. When is it?" I asked.
"September twenty-fifth." A voice from behind me said. All the heads in the room turned to look at the speaker, Edward Cullen. Everyone had their mouth gaping and there was more than one beat of complete silence. Mike seemed to recover first.
"Uh, yeah." Mike slowly turned his head back to my direction. Jessica's eyes glazed over and she openly gawked at Edward as he shifted uncomfortably in his seat. He ran his hands through that sex hair of his and then averted his eyes to look at his desk.
"Our team's big game against Port Angeles is on the twenty-fifth, so the dance will be after that." Mike tried to get my attention again.
Did Edward not normally speak?
"Tyler and I are on the team. You should come watch us play." Mike continued.
Jessica recovered from her swooning and nodded emphatically. I speculated she was either a cheerleader at the school, or just Mike's personal cheerleader. Then Mr. Berty walked in and announced the start of class. The syllabus he set wasn't too difficult. The benefit of being a bookworm was that I had usually read all the required texts for English class. I wondered if Renee thought it would be cheating if I asked her to send me some of my old essays.
The bell sounded, and Jessica accosted me as I left the confines of the classroom. She dragged me over to her locker and opened it loudly.
"Edward Fuckhot Cullen!" She whispered at me. "How on earth are you on a speaking basis with him? You've only been here a couple weeks!" She looked at me and shook her head. "Unbelievable." I wasn't really sure how to take that, although it felt like an insult.
"Um, it's really just Alice I've spoken with a few times. Edward usually doesn't say much." Jessica looked at me like I just told her snow was white. "But yeah, I guess I've spoken with him before. I kinda banged into his car with a shopping cart over the summer."
"Oh my gosh, I totally should try that. Seriously Bella, you've got some mad skills. First with the total babe in La Push, can you say muscles? What's his name – Jake? And now the hottest guy in school?" I noticed that Jessica had a tendency to talk at me, like I wasn't really there. I also surmised she didn't want me to actually answer any of the questions she was throwing at me.
"I'm not sure what you mean, but I gotta get to my next class, so I'll see you later ok?" I hurried away from Jessica and tried to find my next class. I was pretty sure it was in another building, but I wasn't sure where that building was. I turned a corner and literally bumped into a wall. Or rather I thought it was a wall. From my vantage point on my butt, I could see it was actually Edward.
"Need some help?" First day of school and I had fallen down already. In front of what was supposed to be the hottest guy at school.
Awesome.
He offered his hand, and I begrudgingly accepted it. I noticed it was cold, like Alice's was the first time I met them. He pulled me up and suddenly I was very close to him. I looked up at his face and couldn't help but stare; his eyes were this butterscotch colour I had never seen before.
Hold on. Last time his eyes were black.
I distinctly remember deep, black eyes giving me the death stare over scratching his car.
"You have Spanish with Alice next, right? Me too. I could show you if you wanted." I felt a little dazed from my stumble. Taking into account my pre-occupation with his eye colour and I was clearly too out of it to answer him. I just nodded mutely and followed him out of this building, into the adjacent one. Alice met us at the door to the classroom.
"Hey, Bella! How was your first class at Forks High? Bored here yet?" Her laugh sounded like tiny silver bells. I smiled at her enthusiasm.
"Hi, Alice. So far so good, except for my usual clumsiness, which your brother got to witness firsthand." I blushed at the memory of falling down, and Edward made a weird face at me, then turned to walk down the aisle and sat down. Alice skipped down the aisle and sat in front of her brother, and motioned for me to sit in the desk next to hers. She somehow managed to make skipping look graceful. I stuck with plain old walking, and plopped into the seat.
"So everyone's talking about the homecoming dance. Are you planning on going?" She smiled and asked me. Out of the corner of my eye, I thought I saw Edward's lips say "Alice", but I didn't actually hear him say anything, and I couldn't be sure of what I saw. She didn't react to it, so I must have imagined it.
"Yeah, the dance." I tried to sound enthused, but even I could hear the flatness in my voice. "Um, I've never really been to a dance before, so I guess I don't know what to expect." I wondered if Jake had ever been to a school dance. Alice looked at me with shock on her face. I even noticed Edward's head tilted slightly in my direction, and he looked surprised as well. I tried to laugh it off. "Ssh. It's a secret. I'm really boring. Ha. Ha." I guess I wasn't funny because Alice just kept staring at me. Like most of the other kids in the classroom.
Right. New Kid. Or was it because I was talking to the Cullens?
I guess I wouldn't know until my next class.
"You've. Never. Been. To. A. Dance?" Alice seemed affronted, like I'd personally insulted her with this information. "Well are you planning on going to this one?" She demanded.
"Um. I dunno. I was going to ask Jacob what he thought. I'm assuming we need dates or something right?" Alice looked confused.
"Who's Jacob?"
"Jacob's my boyfriend. He lives in La Push." Alice looked at Edward like he was supposed to know this information and have passed it along to her, which made no sense at all. Then she got this glazed over look on her face, and turned to face the front of the room. So maybe Alice was a little strange too. I wondered if it was a Cullen family trait.
The rest of the school day was pretty much how I expected my first day to go, with one small snag. I never got to figure out if people were staring at me because I was new or whether it was because I was talking to a Cullen, because Edward was in every single one of my classes. Every one. And in every class he made some effort to say something to me. So I never got a clear picture of why people were staring at me, I was just painfully aware that they were.
Chapter End Notes:
Ok - so some of you might be thinking "Hey, why doens't Bella's scent seem to be affecting Edward?"
It will be dealt with in the next chapter, but I wanted to get back to JPOV first, so you may have to wait for the complete story. To sum it up it's a combo of all Eddie boy's stalkiness in Bella's room, and the fact that she had driven Jacob's car to school. Hmm...that pretty much just gave it away eh? Ok, it will be dealt with in more detail in the next chapter.
