The next day, I decided to dress comfortably. I put on a gray tee shirt, a green hooded bomber jacket, some black jeans, a wraparound bracelet and my boots. I grabbed my backpack, wrapped my plaid scarf around my neck and yanked on my knit Kermit hat. I also slipped on a dog tag I had once received as a token of gratitude from a soldier for saving their life.
I arrived at school and saw that Rosalie was waving me over. I walked up to them hesitatingly because Edward was standing next to them.
"Hey Bella! What's going on? I love your hat."
"Not much Rosalie, school hasn't started yet. And thanks, Kermit's my favorite."
"He rocks. So Bella, Edward has something he wants to say to you, don't you Edward?"
Edward looked annoyed but turned to face me.
"I'm sorry I was so mean to you Bella."
"And?" prompted Emmett.
"And that I made my family ignore you for my own benefit." Edward finished flatly.
"That's it? If you don't feel bad about what you did then screw you and your apology." Edward just stared while the others were looking at him with a pleading gaze.
"Whatever Edward!" yelled Alice "You can just stay sad and miserable for the rest of your life! Will you be joining us for lunch Bella?"
"Uh, only if I'm wanted there. I wouldn't want to impose."
"You won't be" Jasper reassured.
"Well, all right then. I'll see you at lunch. Bye guys."
I heard a chorus of 'Bye Bella' as I made my way to English. Lauren and Jessica were intent on ignoring me but I didn't mind, I could only take so much of Jessica's motor mouth. I began sketching Esme because I thought that she looked like a real life Snow White. I tried to capture her kind eyes and her motherly smile but I also wanted to capture the grace she had. It took me the rest of my classes to have her finished halfway and I went to lunch feeling better. Art was really therapeutic. When I got to Lunch, I found Jasper and Alice waving for me to join them.
"Hey Bella!" squealed Alice as I sat down.
"Hi Alice. What's new?"
"Well, Rosalie was about to slaughter Lauren today. She was bad-mouthing you again."
"Ah, girls like her often hide their insecurities by putting down others. She'll end up living some lifestyle where she's a trophy wife but will never have real friends."
The table looked at me weirdly as I popped in a cherry tomato.
"O-kay Dr. Phil" said Emmett "Where did you get your psychology degree?"
"Nowhere" I laughed "I'm just making an observation. I watch a lot of TV. Dr. Phil is not one of those shows."
We spent the rest of the lunch joking around and even had a chip fight thanks to Emmett. Edward, though, just sat and read a book during the entire lunch. I felt bad that I was taking away his family but we all tried to include him and he always denied. The bell rang and we all went our separate ways to class. Edward had gone to class ahead of time so I walked slowly. When I sat down, we continued ignoring each other until the teacher walked in.
"Class," Mr. Banner began, "I have to grade your tests so discuss the assignment on the board with your partner."
You had to be kidding me. I had already done this assignment! Judging from the completed paper Edward was now glaring at, so had he. We looked at each other and then looked at table. What now? Well, I wasn't about to just dwindle class time away so I pulled out the picture and began shading Esme's hair with a color pencil.
"That's an incredible likeness to her, you know." Edward said. I halted. Why had I taken out this picture? I felt so stupid! I mean, this was his mother and I was didn't even know her as well as he did.
"Thanks. Esme seems nice so I wanted to draw her a bit."
"Well, you have talent." I nodded my head at his words and continued coloring in.
"Bella," he started again "I'm sorry. For everything. I never met anyone like you and I guess that it just angered me that my family had accepted you so easily. Even Rosalie for goodness sakes! She doesn't even like me very much sometimes! I never meant to hurt your feelings and I was wondering if we could start all over?"
I stared at Edward's agonized eyes for a bit. He really did seem sorry. At that moment, I made up my mind and I thrust out my open hand at him.
"Hi, my name is Bella Swan. How are you?" Edward looked at my hand then at my face. He broke out into a crooked smile and shook it. I noticed it was cold but I didn't flinch.
"I am Edward Cullen, nice to meet you."
"So, want to be friends?"
"Sure. I think that my family is friends with someone and they are quite taken with her. Maybe you two would get along."
"I have a feeling we might get along greatly." I grinned.
The bell rang after we made some small talk and we went our separate ways. When gym started, Rosalie walked up to me.
"I hear you made a new friend." She said impressed.
"Yeah. We got to talking and he seemed like he really wanted to make amends. I decided to give him a chance."
Rosalie nodded her head and we waited for the boys to show up.
"Good grief, what's taking them so long?" Rosalie huffed. After a few more minutes, the boys showed up.
"What in the world kept you?"
"Rosalie! You can't achieve this" Emmett gestured to his body "in 5 minutes. Jasper and I were primping."
"Yeah, don't you see his eyelashes? They're gorgeous dahling." Jasper said in a girly voice while Emmett batted his eyes at us.
"You guys are so weird."
"Ah, ah Bella. You shouldn't say that otherwise I won't give you that fabu makeover you were begging for yesterday."
"And judging from your nails, I'd say you were in desperate need of a manicure." Said jasper as he examined my fingers. I yanked my hand away and went to slap his arm but he leaped out of the way in time.
Rosalie and I shook our heads at the boys while they posed around us. Jasper would yell for Emmett to do ridiculous things while he flashed an imaginary camera at him. The highlight of the class was when Emmett was pretending to be a unicorn and bumped into the coach who shook his head and walked away.
Soon school ended and I found myself at home. I couldn't wait for tomorrow now that I had my old friends back.
