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I walk out of biology class feeling completely off and uncomfortable. Edward and I staring at each other had completely weirded me out. The whole experience was just plain weird period. I don't even know how I'm going to make it through the rest of the school year if I have to sit next to him every day. How could a super gorgeous hottie turn out to be some weirdo? Just my luck I guess, the second I think something good is happening, things go for a full three-sixty turn for the worst.
I hear footsteps coming up from behind me. I turn to see that it's just Bella. "Hey, um, what class do you have next?" she asks curiously.
I pull out my schedule and scan it over. "I have a study hall next period."
Bella's face falters a bit. "Oh, well, that's too bad. I have Precalculus."
"Hey, um," I stammer, "before you go, do you need anything from the office? I'm heading there now to get a copy of my school account password."
Bella nods. "Um, yeah, I was actually just heading there. Could you get me a hot lunch sign up sheet? I kinda need one." She smiles shyly.
"Yeah sure." I smile.
After that, Bella and I go our separate ways. As I'm walking towards the school office, my head feels empty. I really just can't focus on anything after what happened in biology class. When I finally reach the office, I open the door and step inside.
I freeze in my tracks at the sight of Edward. My eyes grow wide. You have got to be kidding me.
"There must be something open," Edward says to the school office desk lady. "Physics? Biochem?"
I frown. I don't believe it. Edward is literally trying to drop out of biology because of me. What in the world did I do to make him resent me so much?
"No, every class is full," the desk lady says apologetically. The desk lady notices my presence. "Just a minute, dear," she tells me.
I cringe. She just had to announce my presence to Edward. Although, Edward gives me nothing more than just a quick glance.
"I'm afraid you'll have to stay in biology," the desk lady informs Edward.
"Fine," Edward sighs, "just . . . I'll just have to endure it." Edward takes his things and swiftly walks past me before swinging the door open and closed behind him.
I blink my eyes exasperatedly. What is his problem?!
*Time Skip*
"So . . . how was your first day?" Grandma questions excitedly.
I finish swallowing a piece of lasagna before answering. "It was good. I made friends with the police officer's daughter. Her name is Bella. She and I kinda stuck together a lot since neither of us really had a clue how things worked. I also made a few other friends too."
"Are any of them boys?" Grandma asks, wiggling her eyebrows teasingly.
"Louisa," Grandpa chastises.
Grandma rolls her eyes at Grandpa. "Oh, I'm just curious, Adam." Grandma looks back at me. "Go on, dear," she encourages.
I smile awkwardly. "Um, yeah," I begin, "I made friends with this boy named Mike and another boy named Eric."
"Are they nice?" Grandma asks.
"Yeah, pretty much all my friends are nice."
"Good." Grandma smiles.
But on the inside, I know that I didn't exactly tell the whole truth. Eric was really nice, sure, and so was Angela. Jessica was a bit snobby and gossipy for my taste though, and Mike was generally nice to me, unless Bella was around. Then Mike would just kind of ignore me and give all his attention to her.
I liked Bella though. She was pretty much oblivious and uncaring to all the attention she got from all the boys. She isn't a mean person or anything. She's just shy and not as social as a lot of other high schoolers are. She reminds me a lot of myself, except I'm a little more talkative than her. I have this issue when it comes to valuing how other people view me, so I tend to force myself to engage and socialize more than I would like too.
A flash of Edward's cold eyes makes a shiver run down my spine. Now that just leaves Edward Cullen, the boy who I have to sit next to in biology class. Total hottie, but a complete weirdo.
I stick my fork into my lasagna and eat another piece. I've decided that tomorrow I'm going to confront Edward and find out exactly what his problem is. Cause normal people don't just give other people death stares for an entire class period. Who knows? Maybe Edward staring at me like that was just his way of calling for help. He may be an addict or something who just needs someone to help him, I dunno.
I sigh to myself as I eat. Darn Edward Cullen, why do you have to be such a complicated mystery?
*Time Skip*
Instead of confronting Edward in biology class, I decided that it would be best if I caught him before class. So I'm currently sitting on a bench, waiting for Edward to arrive in the school parking lot. At least out here in the open, Edward might feel more comfortable telling me what his problem is with me.
I bounce my leg impatiently until the sound of car motors reach my ears. It's the Cullens, Jasper, Alice, Emmett, and Rosalie to be specific. But no sign of Edward. Jasper pulls up in a jeep with Emmett riding on top, peaking out through the jeep's open sun roof, while Rosalie pulls up in a convertible with Alice in the passengers seat.
I peer at them in suspicion. The second they're parked, Rosalie and Emmett get together and walk up the front school steps. Alice and Jasper do the same with their arms around each other. As they walk up the front steps, I swear that I see Alice and Jasper take a quick glance back at me.
I would ask Edward's siblings about where he is, but just like Edward, they kind of make me nervous. Rosalie and Emmett aren't creepy like Edward, but they're seniors, and I've always been a bit nervous to talk to students in the upper classes. Alice and Jasper are juniors like me, but Jessica did get one thing right about them. They are pretty weird. In fact, the back glance they just gave me has made me even more uncomfortable with the idea of talking to them.
*Wednesday, The Next Day*
Deciding that I didn't feel comfortable confronting Edward in front of his siblings, I go back to my original plan to talk to him during biology. But once again, he's a no-show at school. I sigh in disappointment at the sight of his empty seat next to mine as I walk into the biology classroom. Where can he be? Out sick? I doubt it.
*Thursday*
I walk towards my usual lunch table, with Bella, Jessica, Mike, Eric, and Angela. I place my tray of spaghetti down on the table before sitting down. Jessica is beside me getting a head start on a homework assignment while Bella is on my other side. She appears to be daydreaming about something.
I immediately look across the lunchroom at the Cullens' usual table. All the Cullens are accounted for, except for Edward. I frown. It's obvious now that Edward being absent from school for this long is no coincidence. Something unusual is up with him, and it may be my fault. Whatever it is that I did that ticked him off in biology the other day.
"Um, Rebecca," I hear Bella hesitate as she looks at me.
I turn my attention to the awkward girl. "What's up?" I ask.
"You don't have your own car, do you?" she questions. "It's no offense. I just noticed."
My cheeks turn a light shade of pink. "Yeahhh, I don't. How did you know?"
Bella averts her gaze before looking me in the eyes. "I've never seen you get into a car after school. You just sorta, disappear."
I can feel my cheeks turn an even darker shade of red. I sigh. "Okay, you caught me. My grandparents drop me off and pick me up every day a few blocks away from school." I laugh a little to lighten the mood. "That's why I disappear after school. I don't like people watching me get picked up and dropped off."
"Oh," Bella says. A brave look suddenly appears on her face. "Hey, I can pick you up and drop you off at your house every day, if you want. My dad brought your grandparents up the other day, and he said that you guys don't live too far away from us."
I smile at Bella's offer, feeling thrilled that the two of us are getting closer. "Yeah, sure," I say.
Bella smiles. "Cool." She immediately goes back to eating her lunch, which appears to be a peanut butter and jelly sandwich.
I quickly lean down towards my backpack on the floor and dig inside of it. I take out a blank sheet of paper and a pencil. I place the paper down on the lunch table and quickly scribble down my address. "Here's my address," I say as I slide the paper over to Bella.
Bella smiles at me with a hint of shyness. "Nice," she says.
*Time Skip*
First week at Forks High done, another week to go. It's Monday, and I'm once again back to hating school with all my guts. Really, the only upside to today was that Bella got to drive me to school in her new orange Chevy pickup truck, which I highly appreciated. It's much more cool to have a friend drive you to school than to have your grandparents do it. Not to mention, a lot of the boys are still gaga over Bella, and since I'm pretty much her closest friend, maybe I can rebound some of the boys that she rejects, which I have a feeling is going to be a lot. I know these thoughts are sort of selfish, but I'm not wrong for hoping? Am I?
"So it rains here a lot, doesn't it?" I ask Mike as he and I walk to our next classes. For me, it's biology and for Mike, it's speech.
"Yeah." Mike grins. "You could say Forks is the rain capital of the world."
I giggle. "Well, it's a good thing I like rain then," I attempt to flirt but fail miserably as soon as Mike spots Bella.
"Hold that thought," he tells me before jogging after Bella.
I speed walk to catch up with Mike. He catches Bella right at the door of the biology classroom.
"What's up, Arizona?" Mike greets her. "Huh? How you liking the rain, girl?" He teases Bella as he shakes his wet baseball cap above her head. Small drops of water sprinkle off the cap and onto Bella.
Bella scrunches her nose at Mike's cheekiness.
"Better get used to it, girl," Mike adds teasingly.
I roll my eyes at Mike before I notice Eric standing next to Bella. I guess Eric and Bella had been talking before Mike interrupted.
Eric twirls his earbuds in annoyance at Mike. "Yeah, Mike, hey, you're real cute, man," Eric says sarcastically. Eric is obviously annoyed at Mike for interrupting his conversation with Bella.
Me and you both, Eric, me and you both . . . what the . . . I almost don't believe my eyes. Edward Cullen is sitting in his seat next to my empty one. He's here. He's actually here. Either I missed seeing him at lunch or he got to school late or something. But that doesn't change the fact that he's freaking here, in the flesh!
I gulp. It's been a whole week since the incident, and even though I was prepared and ready to confront him last week. This week I don't feel so brave anymore. Seeing him with my own eyes has completely ripped my confidence away like a tablecloth in a magic trick.
I push my lips together into a fine line before releasing them into a confident expression. I'm not going to let whatever power Edward has over me ruin this class for me. I confidently walk towards my seat. Without even giving Edward a glance, I slide my backpack off my shoulders before pulling out my chair and taking a seat. I fold my hands together on the desk and keep my focus straight ahead. If Edward wants to make this class awkward for the both of us, then so be it.
"Hello."
My eyes widen. Did Edward just say "hi" to me? Or did I just imagine that? I hesitantly turn my head towards the boy to find out.
Edward looks me straight in the eyes, which makes my stomach drop. "I'm sorry I didn't get a chance to introduce myself last week," Edward says. "I'm Edward Cullen. You're Rebecca?"
Oh my gosh he really is talking to me. I blink my eyes a few times before answering his question. "Um, yeah, I'm Rebecca."
Mr. Molina begins to talk, causing me to turn my attention to the front of the class. My heart is still beating rapidly though. I can't believe that Edward is actually talking to me!
Mr. Molina gives us our assignment instructions for the day. "Onion root tip cells, that's what's on your slides right now. Okay? So, separate and label them into the phases of mitosis, and the first partners that get it right are gonna win the golden onion." Mr. Molina proudly holds up a trophy of a golden onion. "All right? Good," he finishes.
"Ladies first," Edward offers, gently pushing the microscope across the desk towards me.
I put my eye up to the microscope and adjust the lenses a bit. When the onion root cell comes into focus, I assess in my mind what phase of mitosis it represents. "I think it's prophase," I say. When I'm done, I look Edward in the eyes. Now it's my turn to question him. "So . . . where were you all last week?" I ask.
Edward's gaze shifts down to the desk before he answers my question. "Yeah, um, I was out of town for a couple of days." Edward lifts his gaze, allowing his eyes to meet mine. "Personal reasons," he explains with a slight laugh and a smile.
He has a very cute smile that makes my heart go aflutter. But once I register his words in my mind, I mentally frown. "Personal reasons" is just another way of saying "I'm not going to tell you where I went and why." Which, I mean, I guess is fine. Edward does have a right to his privacy after all.
"Do you mind if I, uh, look?" Edward asks politely, referring to the microscope.
I nod my head.
He scoots the microscope back towards himself. He takes a quick look through the eyepiece. "It's prophase," he confirms before quickly jotting the answer down on our answer sheet.
"Hey, I was right," I grin, secretly happy that I didn't embarrass myself by getting the answer wrong in front of Edward. I smile to myself, glad that I'm still able to remember the phases of mitosis from my old school, or at least, the prophase one. Hopefully, I'll be able to recall the other phases of mitosis just as easily.
I wait for Edward to replace the onion root sample in the microscope with another one, but instead, he starts to talk. "So . . . you're enjoying the rain?" he asks.
His question takes me off guard as I look at him with wide eyes and a tilted forehead. Last week, he didn't say a word to me and looked at me like I was some sort of disturbing creature. Now, here Edward is, trying to make small talk with me. I'm so confused.
"Yeah-Yeah," I quickly answer his question. "I like rain. I don't know. There's just something about it that I really like. I used to live in California, so, every time it rained it was kinda special, cause it didn't rain a lot there." I give Edward a weak smile to hide my embarrassment after that gosh-awful spiel I just made about rain.
Edward smiles sweetly at me, which takes me by surprise. I'm relieved, though, that it seems that he didn't get too weirded out by my love of rain. I watch as he changes the sample in the microscope to another one. He immediately puts his eye up to the eyepiece to assess what the sample is. "It's, uh, anaphase," he says.
"Can I check just to make sure?" I ask him.
"Sure," he responds.
I carefully scoot the microscope back towards me. I have a feeling that Edward knows his stuff, but being the overly perfectionist overachiever that I am, I just have to make sure that all our answers are correct for myself, even if I don't quite have the material mastered yet to be able to fully determine that.
I put my eye up to the eyepiece and assess what I think the sample is. "Yeah, you're right. I think it's anaphase," I say.
"Like I said." Edward grins. He writes down the answer on our answer sheet. But before he changes the sample in the microscope, he asks me yet another question. "So . . . why did you move here from California?"
"Things were just getting too expensive to live there," I begin slowly. "I live with my grandparents, and they're getting older, and they just decided that moving was our best option. They found Forks on this website that listed top ten cities in the U.S. to retire in, so, yeah, that's why I'm here now." I smile shyly.
I watch as Edward scoots the microscope back towards himself and replaces the sample in the microscope with the next one. Watching him makes me feel very strange. It's like a warm and fuzzy feeling is taking over me or something. There's just something different about Edward, both in his mannerisms and in his manner of speaking. He's the only guy I've met in Forks so far who has actually shown any interest to get to know me, at least, with so many personal questions.
When Edward finishes looking at the sample, he looks me in the eyes. "It's metaphase. You wanna check it?" he asks.
"No, you're probably right," I say without even realizing it. I blink to myself in amazement. I almost never trust anyone's answers without checking for myself.
*Time Skip*
"What happened to your parents?" Edward asks as he walks side-by-side with me. It's after biology class, and I'm still amazed that Edward is still trying to make conversation with me. I feel almost honored that he even wants to give me his attention in the first place. The way he's treating me today is a complete turn around from how he treated me last week. That's for sure.
I look up at him shyly, his tall height somewhat makes me feel both nervous and exhilarated at the same time. "My parents . . . they died a little after I was born," I explain. "It was . . . in a car crash. My mother didn't make it, and my dad spent a few days in the hospital after the crash before he died of a stroke." I bite my lip to control myself from thinking too much about my parents. "I'm sorry. I just don't really like to talk about them."
I stop at my locker, and Edward does the same. "I'm sorry, " Edward apologizes. "I'm just . . . I'm just trying to figure you out." He pauses. "You're very difficult for me to read."
His words touch my heart like nothing I've ever felt before. No one has ever said something like that to me before. I don't even know what to think. Is Edward trying to grow closer to me? Is that even a good thing after everything that went down last week? I decide to finally bring it up.
I clutch the golden onion that Edward and I won in biology closer to my chest as a way to bring some comfort to me before I speak up. "Hey, um, about last week, why were you acting so strange? Like . . . when you acted like you smelled something bad, why did you do that?"
Edward looks taken aback.
"I'm just curious because I didn't smell anything bad," I try to make clear for him.
Edward blinks to himself exasperatedly before finally answering my question. "It was the worms," he explains.
"Oh," I exclaim. "You must have . . . a pretty good sense of smell then."
"Um . . . I . . ." Edward begins but never finishes. He quickly turns and walks away down the hall with his hands in his pockets.
I stare at him as he walks away just as confused as ever. That boy is one tough nut to crack.
Author's Note: Here's a funny Twilight video for you guys to enjoy:
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