Chapter 7
BPOV
Edward sauntered from the doorway to the empty chair next to me. To show my great dissatisfaction, I sighed heavily and gave him a pointed stare as if to say: don't youdare sit next to me! He returned the look, albeit less pointed. He opened his mouth to speak but was abruptly cut-off by Mr. Banner, our Biology teacher. Instead, a few minutes later as Mr. Banner droned on about how exciting the study of biology could be, Edward withdrew a loose-leaf sheet of paper from his backpack and a pen. He wrote: I didn't know you were in bio with me! ;o) Now we can have time away from the others. I glanced at it and debated whether or not I should reply while annoyance crossed my face. The trouble in deciding was do I give-in just this once to him and write back, or do I hold out and keep ignoring him? I decided to go for a combination of the two, ignoring the smiley face I wrote back: Why did you sit with me? I CLEARLY told you not to with my eyes. I don't want time alone with you. As he read it, he didn't seem to look discouraged at all which deeply bothered me. Again he wrote back: That's not what I saw in your eyes… I could have slapped him right then and there, but luckily exercised better self-control than that.
I re-read what I wrote—just to double check—and was actually displeased! Shit! I mentally cursed, I totally set him up for that! My anger with him faded but was replaced with impatience for my own lack of censorship. I decided that, for once—since I shouldn't be upset with him—I'd reply a real response. I wrote him back: I guess I set you up for that… don't get used to it. Before he could reply, Mr. Banner walked around the room and handed out index cards for us to fill out our information on, just like every other teacher had on that first day of school. It was all the same; Name: Isabella Swan; Preferred Name: Bella; Birthday: September 13, 1992; Parents Names: Charlie Swan, Renee Dwyer; Phone #… etc. It was so repetitive and dull that I probably could have completed it in my sleep.
"Shit! Bella, I didn't know your birthday was this Sunday!" Edward exclaimed in a whisper-shout. I narrowed my eyes when I realized where he was coming up with that particular, purposely undisclosed, information—my damn note card. From the moment Edward had walked into my bio class, I knew that nothing good would come from it. There was a silent terror in my eyes when I pleadingly looked at him. I hated attention and that's all that birthdays were filled with: unwanted attention.
"Edward," I whispered, "don't you dare say anything to anyone." I tried to make my tone a warning instead of a plea, but I think I failed. Edward only looked dumbstruck. Other people—normal people—loved their birthdays; they lavished in the attention that's paid to them. Not me. They always made me nervous and uncomfortable which only aided in making me clumsier. I had always thought that the more people looked at me, the more they would see my flaws. Now, I suppose, that's only partially true because the people here didn't know my history well enough to know my flaws. Thank god, or whoever, for that!
Edward didn't try to pass notes again for the rest of class; Mr. Banner kept us busy with worksheets. At the end of the hour I was so worried about the birthday comment, I forgot to be rude to Edward. We stood up after the bell rang, gathering our things at a similar pace when Edward ventured another question. "So, what class do you have next Bella?"
I didn't need to think about it; it was the one class all day I had been dreading the most: gym. "I have gym with Coach Carr," I sighed. I may have been mistaken, but there was a faint sense of disappointment in his eye for a moment, and then it vanished. I was probably just seeing things. Today, after all, had been a bit stressful even if it had been relatively easy.
"Oh, I have AP French," he replied. There it was again! The small disappointment I had seen in his eyes had come out in his voice. I nodded in response, making a face that I don't remember making. "Well, have fun!" he called.
"You too," I responded, again, before I could be rude; but I didn't care because I was mentally psyching myself up for gym, which I would inevitably fail at. When I got to the gymnasium and found Coach Carr and the rest of my class, I lucked out: today we were going over the basic policies and picking lockers. Unfortunately though, Mike was also in my gym class so I had to put up with his overly-friendly demeanor the entire period. When the last bell rang dismissing us from school, I bolted to Emmett's jeep before anyone else could attempt to claim my attention. I had had my fill of people and social interaction for the day, and quite possibly, enough for the rest of the week. I was not used to it all. In Phoenix, I belonged in (some would say) the popular crowd but never received the attention for it. Lauren Mallory had been the ring-leader of my group, but my best friend was Angela Weber. She was more the quiet-type like me when it came to people we weren't close to.
While waiting for Emmett, I noticed, for the first time, the silver Volvo that had parked next to us. It was very shiny. Then, I mentally laughed that something shiny had caught my eye. Next to the silver Volvo was a red BMW. I had no idea that some families in Forks would let their teenagers drive such nice cars! I suppose, however, that not everyone's dad is the Chief of police. Today had been very mentally exhausting, so when I saw Emmett striding towards his jeep, I celebrated.
"Hey Izz, how was your day?" He called, while unlocking it. Out of the corner of my eye I saw Edward and Alice walking towards us in the parking lot.
"Oh ya know: shitty," I replied hastily while trying to speedily get into his jeep. I wanted to avoid more social situations before I could escape to the safety of my house. "There were too many people trying to be my friend. It was annoying." I could always be honest with Emmett; he was so easygoing and actually seemed to understand me.
Emmett started to laugh and shake his head at me. "Bella, you are too funny! Of course people want to be friends with you. You're my sister! And, all brotherliness aside, you're pretty good-looking too." He chuckled again.
"But I don't want to be their friends! I don't even know them!"
"So, you came to Forks to be alone? Fat chance." In all of our bantering, I had forgotten my rush to leave. Before I knew it, Edward was tapping me on the shoulder. I whirled around only to be face-to-face with him.
"What?" I demanded.
"Whoa, Bella. Someone had a bad time in gym today. You weren't this cranky when I left you after bio." He teased. Edward, I thought to myself, this is not the time to mess with me. I merely glared at him until he continued with what he had wanted. I had not forgotten, in his teasing remark, that he had tapped me. "Ok… well I just wanted to get into my car." He said.
"Your car? This is your Volvo?" I asked. Of course it was his Volvo. He had money: I'd seen his house. Well, mansion was more like it.
"Yes, and if you'd rather keep talking, I would gladly stay and chat with you. Otherwise, I think I'll go home." I flattened myself against Emmett's jeep as Edward passed by me. Suddenly I became aware of the question: why was I still at school? I looked around for Emmett and found him standing by the red BMW kissing Rosalie. Ohhh, so the BMW belonged to Rosalie—I had already assumed she came from money—which made sense. I looked to Edward, already in his driver seat, to see him laughing at my predicament. He pulled out of his space and left. A few minutes later, Emmett joined me in his jeep and we headed home.
When we got in the door, Emmett went straight to the family room to turn on the Mariner's game while I hung up my much-needed raincoat and put away my other school stuff. Deciding that I was hungry, I headed to the kitchen for a snack. "Bella, could you get me some chips?" Emmett called, noticing that I was going that direction. I mm-hmmed and started roaming around the kitchen, trying to decide what I wanted to nosh on. I settled on a handful of almonds and another handful of Emmett's potato chips. Setting down a bowl of chips and the dip that I had speedily whipped up, I joined him on our big couch. The rest of the evening passed by quickly without any significant events. I made dinner, as was beginning to be tradition, which was ready as Charlie walked in the door. After our little family dinner, I did what little homework I had and just watched whatever nonsense was on TV with Emmett and my dad until it was late enough for sleep. Keeping up with my new routine, I put on my Sleep CD, took a couple shots of Jack Daniels and fell asleep.
