Part 3.
But I got smarter, I got harder in the nick of time
Honey, I rose up from the dead, I do it all the time
Bella spends the next few weeks slowly gathering intel on Edward specifically and the Cullens more broadly. She has never been the grand heist type of thief, but she knows without a shred of doubt that breaking into the Cullen house will take some careful forethought.
Each school day, Bella watches Edward and his siblings like a hawk, looking out for anything out of the ordinary. Even though Edward had accused her of making things up and not knowing what she saw during their argument at the hospital, typically Bella prizes herself on being a keen observer. After all, observation is a key skill of theft and sneaking around. You have to know where security cameras are located, where employees are in the store, which person wouldn't notice their stuff missing, and so on.
She finds it surprisingly easy to notice things about the Cullens. Everyone else tries to ignore them and their strangeness, so maybe they've grown complacent about blending in.
For one, the Cullens never eat. They get lunch and throw it away without touching the food every single day. What could possibly be the reason behind this offensive food waste?
There's also the eye color changing that has an even less explainable answer.
Not to mention the unreal good looks and bodies—how can people who aren't biologically related just so happen to have all ideal features and the exact same shade of snow-white polished skin? They also all have musical, velvet voices, complete grace and poise, agility and strength, perfect hair—you name it.
Her second method of gathering intel on the Cullens is interviews. She's stuck asking Jessica and the rest about Edward, rather than going straight to the source, because he has been giving her the cold shoulder since the incident.
Literally, Edward sits leaning away from her at their desk now. The other day in biology, when he was turning away from her as she sat down, she bumped into his shoulder. Even through his sweater, his shoulder was chilly to the touch, which Bella felt before he'd yanked himself away quickly.
Asking Mike to dish about Edward, who he perceives to be his great rival for her affections, is no easy task. Jessica is better, but less reliable—she likes to gossip, so Bella often suspects information from her is embellished.
She still manages to learn valuable information from her sources, including where the Cullens live (out in the woods on a winding road, of course), their comings and goings (Carlisle is almost always at work, their mom Esme is almost always at the house, and, in general, all the Cullens are homebodies, except for their weekend camping trips).
The weekend camping trips are the key to the puzzle, Bella thinks. Everything else works against her—how can she sneak into a house when people are always around? She figures there is no better chance than a camping weekend. The only problem is that she can't predict when the next one will be. Will she be prepared? Will she hear about it in time?
Then the unexpected happens: Edward, capricious as ever, suddenly decides to start talking to her again. He says something cryptic about how he is bad for her, but he can't resist being her friend. They begin to eat lunch together, cementing the new phase of their closer, yet still distanced, friendship.
Other vaguely ominous breadcrumbs Edward drops during lunch: "I decided as long as I am going to hell, I might as well do it thoroughly." "I got tired of trying to stay away from you. So I'm giving up." "If you're smart, you'll avoid me." Bella doesn't know what to make of all of this—to be honest, she's starting to sense Edward enjoys his angsty melodrama.
One day during lunch, Edward catches Bella staring at him. She is in a pensive zone. He asks her what she is thinking about.
"I'm trying to figure out what you are." Bella admits, being forthcoming with Edward for once.
"You really aren't letting it go, are you?" Edward asks, eyebrows raised.
"I'm really not."
"Tell me what your theories are, then." Edward demands in response.
Bella likes to play her cards close to her chest. She's not sure if she should share her true guesses with Edward, knowing he could trick or lie his way out of them on the off chance that she did actually guess correctly. So, she opts for a half-hearted theory first.
"You are your siblings are all secretly European, which is why you're cooler than anyone in school. You're covering up your posh British accents because that would take your cool factor so off the charts that you wouldn't be able to blend in with the rest of us plebians."
This gets a wry chuckle out of Edward. "We have lived in Europe for periods of time, but no—we're not all secretly European hiding accents."
Edward's good mood inspires Bella to share another fairly silly theory, but one based in a real curiosity about the Cullens' appearances and abilities she has observed over the last few weeks.
"Carlisle being a doctor at the hospital is his cover story. In actuality, he is a mad scientist with the goal of obtaining human perfection. He seeks out children to adopt so that he can conduct experiments on them. That's why you all seem to be beyond human, you've become ideal humans."
"Wow. That's dark, Bella." Edward still looks amused. "Was Carlisle's bedside manner that bad to be believe those things of him?"
"No, no, no. And I would appreciate if you don't mention that theory to him." Bella blushes sheepishly.
"Next theory?" Edward prods.
"You were all exposed some kind of radioactivity, and as a result, you've been made into some kind of super humans."
"Radioactive free." Edward quips in response.
Bella begins to grow frustrated. He is making a game out of her serious inquiry into his identity.
"Mutants? Superheroes? Demigods?" She lists off a laundry list of possibilities quickly in desperation.
"No, no, and definitely no." The school bell rings, and Edward is saved by the bell as they say.
As they part, Bella feels certain that she needs to do more research. If every theory struck out, she needs new material. But, she is that much closer to finding the answer by knowing what Edward is not, narrowing down the possibilities of what he is.
All in all, Bella finds herself drawn back into Edward like a ship pulled into a black hole. Once again, her every minute seems to be filled with anticipation for the next time she will talk to him. If her obsession was unhealthy before, it certainly is worse now. She privately harbors her plans to unveil Edward's secrets, while she openly becomes friends (or whatever they would call the dance they're doing around each other) with him. She goes to bed every night with her feelings and desires in turmoil. It's no surprise that she dreams of Edward constantly, dark and sensual dreams that she often wakes abruptly from in a clammy sweat.
Occasionally, Bella considers dropping the whole Cullen heist plan entirely. Now that she sits with Edward at lunch and talks to him throughout biology and even often after school in the parking lot, she finds herself liking him more and more. How could she not? She is dazzled when she looks at him. On a deeper level, too, Bella is reminded of her first impressions of Edward and his siblings—that they are like her, people different than the others around them, bonded by a shared sense of isolation.
Take today, for example. Bella thought her new-girl-alluring status had worn off, but she is dismayed to realize that many of the guys in the school still, for some reason, have interest in her. Eric, Mike, and Tyler asked her to the upcoming dance. (Tyler only because he feels guilty about the whole van incident, she thinks).
Hoping to avoid direct confrontation, Bella makes up a story about how she can't go to the dance because she's already planned to go to Seattle that day to shop. (Not a total lie—Charlie had recently offered her a solo Seattle day trip as a good behavior reward for her first couple months in Forks going incident free. He doesn't know about her secret plotting, of course).
Every step of the day, she feels Edward next to her, laughing with great amusement to see her squirming under the attention of these boys. He laughs in her face after she rejects Mike in biology class and he takes it particularly hard, slinking away from their shared desk in defeat.
"Do you need a ride to Seattle?" Edward asks her halfway through the class period. They have finished the worksheet that other students are still working on. Their teacher expects this of them and, since they normally get all of the answers right, he doesn't mind them chatting in moments like this.
"I've got my truck, you know that." Bella replies. Edward is never shy to make fun of her old truck, and Bella is always quick to defend its rusty charm.
"Are you sure that antique could make it to Seattle? I'm surprised it makes it out of your driveway." Edward replies skeptically. He absentmindedly twirls a pencil through his fingers as he talks until he notices Bella watching, transfixed, as the pencil swirls so quickly it blurs in her vision. (Case in point, the kind of strange Edward phenomena she's keeping track of.)
"Just because your family has fancy cars doesn't mean the rest of us do, but we still manage to get from point A to point B just fine. Even if we have to stop for gas in multiple towns along the way." Bella responds defensively.
"Well, I was thinking of offering my fancy car to you for the Seattle trip."
"You would trust me to drive your car?" Bella asks in surprise.
"No, Bella." Edward says, exasperation permeating his voice. "I would drive my car with you in it."
"Oh." Bella answers. "So we would go to Seattle, together? Like friends would?"
"Yes, something like that." Edward responds with a nearly literal twinkle in his eye.
"Okay then." Bella accepts his proposition. Internally, she's torn about how to feel about this opportunity. On the one hand, she likes Edward and is eager to spend more time with him. On the other hand, she is gleeful to get extended, uninterrupted time with Edward, outside of school, to gather more clues about what his whole deal is and how she might, well, break into his house and steal some of his stuff.
Her hand is forced in making the ultimate decision about what she wants to do after her next major interaction with Edward. It all starts with a blood type lab in biology class. Edward isn't even there—letting her know he'd planned to play hooky at lunch time. She's bored without him around, until she realizes the lab they're doing. Everything else she has excelled at, but this—she knows she will fail. She hates blood. One thing leads to another, and she finds herself on the verge of passing out, throwing up, or both.
Mike, her ever-eager champion, attempts to escort her to the nurse's office. He is intercepted by none other than Edward Cullen—somehow still present even though he was absent from class? She's not too woozy to make note of this. She also notices how Edward gently pulls her out of Mike's arms and into his and then lifts her into the air to carry her the rest of the way. Oh, and he smells really good. Divine. But his body is like a rock against hers. And not a metaphorical rock, but actually really hard. Working out can't lead to that kind of physique, can it?
After Edward charms the nurse into letting him drive Bella home, she finds herself alone in his car with him earlier than she anticipated. That doesn't mean she isn't equipped with questions at the ready.
"Tell me about your family." Bella prompts.
Edward cautiously replies, "You've met my dad, you've seen my siblings, and I'm sure you've heard we're all adopted. What more is there to tell?"
"Spoken like someone who has been the center spotlight of school gossip for as long as he's been in Forks. I can relate." Bella sighs.
Her vulnerable comment softens Edward, chipping away slightly at his defenses. "I'm grateful to Carlisle and Esme for bringing us here and adopting me, Jasper, Alice, Emmett, and even Rosalie. I've come to love them and all of my siblings. If that comes with a little public scrutiny because we're unusual in a small town, I can survive that."
"You might be stronger than I am in terms of what you can survive." Bella responds.
"I'm hoping we both can survive this." Edward replies cryptically. Before Bella can request an explanation, Edward continues, "Speaking of my siblings, I think they'll be expecting me to give them a ride home right about now." Bella looks to the dashboard clock, shocked to see it was the school release time already. They've been parked in her driveway for longer than she realized.
Disappointed, Bella asks hopefully, "Will I see you tomorrow? Or on the beach trip this Saturday?"
Looking disappointed as well, Edward tells her, "No. My whole family is going camping for a long weekend. It's something we like to do."
Bella has to pretend like she doesn't already know about the Cullens and their camping trips. She has to pretend that Edward hasn't just unknowingly let slip the information Bella has been waiting to hear for so long.
"Oh, okay. I guess I'll see you when I see you then."
"I look forward to it." Edward says with a grin.
As Bella heads into her house, she faces her dilemma: she's grown to care about Edward and a large part of her doesn't want to betray him in any way. On the other hand, the fact that she does like Edward is yet another reason for her to figure him out—how can she really commit to being his friend—or more?—if his mysterious secrets remains hidden? And how can she look away when the perfect opportunity, the one she's been waiting for, has fallen right in her lap?