A/N: Thanks so much for reading and reviewing, gang! It's mucho appreciated. I'll let you know right now, that I probably won't have a schedule for posting this story. Like I said in my other A/N, the story is done. It's just a matter of revising and posting the chapters. You might get a bunch of updates in a row, or maybe one a week. Let's just say that I will post at least once a week. Sound good?
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"Good morning, Bella," a musical voice said from behind me. I turned around to find Edward standing near me.
"Hi Edward," I managed to squeak out. Oh, Lord, I sounded like a chipmunk, and I could feel the blush starting to take over. He just flashed me that panty-dropping grin and put his arm around my shoulder.
"Ready for our biology lab today?" he asked. I knew I was supposed to answer him, but all I could think of was the fact that he had his arm around me and was guiding me toward my locker. It took me a few tries before I got it open, and after I took out the books I would need, Edward reached over and grabbed them.
"Here Babe, I got 'em."
Huh? Did he just call me babe? I was so completely lost as to what was going on that I just didn't say anything. He walked me toward homeroom, all the while talking about the upcoming football game against our rival team, and I just nodded and smiled where I deemed it appropriate it and then it happened. He leaned down and kissed me. Edward Cullen kissed me! I wasn't sure why he was kissing me, but I sure wasn't going to complain. I leaned into him to kiss him harder, wrapping my arms around his neck, delving my fingers into his glorious hair and-
Beeeeepppp!
I rolled over and sighed. I knew it had been too good to be true. The Edwards of the world always end up with the Victorias, not the Bellas. It was bad enough that I had dreamed about him, but today I would not only have to see him, but actually talk to him. Then I remembered what Ben had told me last night about Victoria, and I started to feel sick. Maybe I should just stay home from school today. Better yet, maybe Charlie could homeschool me, but the thought of never seeing Edward was enough to make me get out of bed and get ready to face whatever horrors awaited me.
I got ready for school and climbed into Chuck, my old truck. As Chuck roared to life, I turned on the radio, only to hear Beck's Loser coming out of my speakers. Yeah. Not the best song to start my day off with. I turned off the radio and drove the rest of the way to school in silence.
Turning into the school parking lot, I found a spot next to Tyler's van, parked, gathered up my crap and headed toward homeroom. I'd had a fairly accident-free morning, so I should have known something was going to happen; I managed to trip over thin air, went sprawling and banged my knee on the concrete steps leading up to the building. Fuck! That really hurt.
"God, she is so pathetic! You should have seen her throwing herself at Eddie yesterday. First, she ran into him when we were heading to lunch, and when that didn't get his attention, she accidentally tripped and fell into his desk in biology. What a loser."
I quickly picked myself up off the ground and grabbed my backpack, trying to hurry into the building. I wouldn't let Victoria and her friends see the tears that were starting to form in my eyes as they laughed at me. Sure, she'd always been rude to me, but ever since I'd run into Edward yesterday, it was like she'd decided that I was out to get her man and therefore I was the enemy. I brushed away the few tears that were starting to fall and hurried over to my locker.
"Morning, Bella."
"Hey, Ben."
"What's wrong? Why are you crying?" Ben asked.
"I'm not crying."
"Yes, you are."
"Fine! I'm crying. I tripped up the steps and banged my knee and it hurts, okay?"
Ben just looked at me like he didn't believe me, but I didn't really care. I just wanted to get this day over and done with so I could go home.
"Come on, let's get to homeroom before the bell rings," I said.
We walked in silence towards the classroom when I heard a commotion across the way. Ben and I looked over and saw Edward and Victoria having a heated argument. He was shaking his head vehemently at something that she was saying, and then Victoria looked over his shoulder and glared at me. I quickly averted my gaze, but the damage was done. Victoria stalked over to me and leaned in close enough for me to smell the coffee on her breath.
"Stay the fuck away from Eddie or I will ruin you."
After delivering her warning, she knocked her shoulder into me and headed off down the hallway. I just stood there, stunned. Ben wrapped an arm around my shoulder and asked me if I was okay.
"I guess so," I stammered out.
Truth was, I was in complete shock from what had just happened. I missed everything that happened in homeroom and didn't even try to pay attention in English. How could I? My life was officially over. Victoria had staked her claim, marked her territory and threatened me. But how could I stay away from Edward when he was my lab partner? I guessed I could ask Mr. Banner for a new partner. I turned to Angela and Ben and asked them what they thought.
"Bella, you can't let her get to you. She's just trying to intimidate you, and you're letting her," Ben said.
"Well, of course I am. She's intimidating! She scares the shit out of me," I replied. Didn't they understand that?
Angela looked at me and rubbed her hand over my back. "Just ignore her. She likes to pick on people and thrives on getting a reaction out of them. Besides, do you really want to give up being lab partners with Edward?"
Angela made a valid point. This would probably be the only time in my high school career that I would get to be near Edward and talk to him, assuming that I managed to form any words and not knock myself out again. I took a deep breath, centered myself and calmed my nerves. I could do this.
The remainder of the morning flew by, and before I knew it, it was time for my favorite class of the day: gym. And we all knew how much I loved gym. We were still playing badminton, and since I owed a certain person a beat down for picking on me yesterday, I might have accidentally smacked Mike with the badminton racket a few times.
"Oh I'm so sorry, Mike! I didn't mean to hit you," I told him after I hit him for the third time with my racket.
Mike, being Mike, just smiled and told me it was okay. He knew that my hitting him was due to my clumsiness. Poor clueless fool. Somehow, Mike managed to win against the other team. Afterwards, Coach Clapp told us that we would be starting volleyball the next day.
Mike turned to look at me and asked, "So ... you any good at volleyball?"
I just stared at him. "I can barely walk, I can't hold a badminton racket and you want to know if I'm any good at volleyball?"
"Good point," he laughed.
Hopefully, Coach Clapp would see just how much of a danger magnet I was and he'd let me write an essay on volleyball or something rather than making me participate. After changing out of my horrible gym clothes, I met up with Mike and we headed toward the cafeteria. I did my best to avoid running into anyone, particularly the star quarterback. As we were standing in line waiting to pay for our food, someone bumped into me from behind.
"Sorry, Bella," came the bubbly voice of Alice Cullen. While Alice and I weren't exactly what you would call friends and we didn't hang out in the same circle, she'd always been nice to me. I smiled at her and told her it was fine.
"So, Bella, are you going to the dance?" she asked.
I had no idea what she was talking about. "What dance?"
The look on her face was priceless. I couldn't help but laugh. "Seriously, Bella?"
"Seriously, Alice. I have no idea what you're talking about."
"The Sadie Hawkins dance is in a couple of weeks," she gushed.
Then she was off and running about going to the dance with her boyfriend, Jasper, and how she and some of the other cheerleaders were going to Seattle to buy dresses. I just nodded politely while she rambled on. I really had nothing to contribute to the conversation. Eventually it was my turn to pay for lunch, and I went off to my table only to see Jessica and Lauren having a hushed discussion about something. I sat down across from them next to Angela.
"Alice seemed a bit excited," Angela said.
I laughed at that. "When doesn't she seem excited? She was going on about the dance that's coming up soon."
"Oh yea. I forgot about that. Are you going to go?"
"I can't walk without falling over, so no. I won't be going. How about you? Anyone you want to go with?"
Angela turned a light shade of pink, looked down at her tray, and shyly said, "I might ask Ben. Do you think he'd go with me?"
I smiled at her. "Of course he would."
The whole time that we were talking, I noticed that Lauren kept glaring at me. I wasn't really sure what her problem was, but we never really got along anyway. I decided to just ignore her and turned to talk to Ben when he sat down. I heard Jessica ask Lauren why someone wouldn't want to go the dance with her, and I felt it was best to keep that answer to myself. Apparently, Lauren had asked Tyler to the dance, but he had told her he needed to think about it. Even though I wasn't particularly fond of Lauren, I felt that was a bit harsh. So when Tyler sat down at the table, the tension was rather thick. After sitting next to Ben, Tyler leaned around him and tugged on my hair. That was odd.
"Hey, Bella, how's it hanging?"
"Oh, hey, Tyler. I'm alright. You?"
"Good, good. So, are you going to the dance?"
What was with everyone wanting to know if I was going to the dance? Had these people not met me? What on earth gave them the idea that I could dance? "No, I'm not going to the dance."
Tyler's face fell a bit, and he muttered that that was too bad. Lauren glared at him and then me like I'd done something wrong. She turned to Jess and they gathered up their trash and took off. Great. Now I'd have to deal with a pissed off Lauren and a pissed off Victoria. All too soon, lunch ended and my nerves started to kick in. I was going to be seeing Edward in a few minutes-sitting next to him, talking to him, working closely with him. How was I going to survive this?
I slowly made my way to biology. I was terrified and excited at the same time. I peeked around the corner and saw him sitting at our table. Our table. That's right, bitches. I'm sitting with Edward Cullen. I cautiously made my way over to our table and prayed that I wouldn't trip like I had yesterday. Once I safely made the journey across the room, I set my bag down on the table and took my place on the stool provided.
Edward looked up at me and flashed me that gorgeous smile. "Hey, Bella. How's your head?"
I could feel myself starting to blush, and I shyly looked at him. "It's fine. Thank you for taking me to the nurse."
"Sure. Let's not make a habit out of it, yeah?"
"I can't make any promises. I'm a bit accident prone."
He threw back his head and laughed. It had to be one of the nicest sounds I'd ever heard. I felt all giddy inside. I had made Edward laugh, and I realized that despite Victoria's threat, I wanted to make Edward laugh again.
Class soon began and Mr. Banner started handing out worksheets. Once we all had our sheets, he told each table to come up and grab a pig in a dissection pan. He informed us that we'd be learning the external anatomy of fetal pigs today and that we would write down our answers on our sheets. Ugh. I wasn't so sure I could handle this. Edward, on the other hand, seemed ecstatic. He kept poking at our pig with his pencil.
"This is the philtrum," he said quite confidently. "See."
I had no idea what he was looking at, so I just agreed. I started to write the answer on my sheet just as he went to poke our pig and our arms brushed. I felt a jolt go up my arm, and I jerked my hand away quickly. I could feel the blush starting to take hold of me and mumbled an apology. Edward smiled his crooked smile at me and pointed out some other part of the pig's anatomy.
"So, Bella, you're accident prone, huh?" he asked.
"Yeah, a bit. Charlie, my dad, calls me the klutz extraordinaire since I tend to trip over flat surfaces," I said quietly. "They know me by name at the hospital."
Edward grinned. "You might know my dad then."
I smiled at that. Dr. Cullen had set many of my broken bones over the past two years.
"Yeah, I know your dad. He's fixed me up quite a bit."
Mr. Banner walked over to our table to see how we were coming along on our assignment. Edward told him that we were almost done and Mr. Banner nodded.
"Less talking, more working," he told us.
We spent the next thirty minutes finishing our lab, and for once, I was sad to hear the bell ring, signaling the end of class. I slowly gathered up my stuff, shoving my notebook and pencils into my bag.
"It was nice talking to you, Bella. I'll see you tomorrow," Edward said as he left the table.
I nodded at him and sat there, just taking it all in. I had survived sitting next to Edward. I hadn't embarrassed myself, and he had actually talked to me. Inside, I was squealing like a pre-teen at a Bieber concert. I looked up and saw Angela heading my way, and Alice waved at me. I waved back and stood up. Angela linked her arm with mine as we headed out the door towards study hall.
"So ...." Angela began.
"So what?" I asked, trying to play it cool.
"Now don't play games, Bella. I saw you and Mr. Hot talking in class."
"Yes, we talked. He asked me how my head was and he's ... he's just so nice. And hot. Why couldn't he be an egotistical ass? It would make getting over him so much easier."
Angela let out a laugh. "Just think, Bella. We've got a few more weeks left of this lab. That's a few more weeks to bask in the glory that is Edward Cullen."
We giggled at that and entered study hall. We sat in the back where we could talk some more, and as we were talking, I noticed Bree Tanner, one of Victoria's cronies, eying me. It left me feeling a bit unsettled, especially when she pulled out her phone and started texting. I tried to shake off the feeling of unease and listen to what Angela was saying.
Once study hall was over, we entered the hallway to head to our last class of the day. I was headed to calculus on the other side of the school, so Angela and I said our goodbyes and went our separate ways. I was halfway to class when a hand reached out, grabbed my arm and spun me around. I looked at the hand on my arm, its ruby-red nails digging into my skin, and a feeling of dread came over me. Slowly, very slowly, I lifted my gaze to the owner of those nails. Well shit.
....
A/N: Gee, do I sense some drama coming? Why, yes. I do. I bet you're all surprised by that. *snickers*