Chapter Three

Disclaimer: I don't own Twilight or any of its characters. They all belong to Stephenie Meyer.

Thanks to juliegirl18, my wonderful beta. And thanks to Bella's Executioner and sariedee3 for pre-reading for me. Their comments, along with your reviews, help me keep focus and write.

Here's another Edward POV for you. Remember, these events took place ten years ago.

EPOV

"I can't believe we are stuck in this fucking town and going to this shitty school," I told Alice as I picked at the crappy food on my tray. I picked up a fry, feeling my fingers slippery from grease, and scrunched up my nose before tossing it back in the bowl.

"Oh Edward, come one. Give the place a chance. We haven't even been here a full day yet," Alice said as she sipped her lemonade. Alice always had a way of finding the silver lining in a situation.

"We have one class left. We've been here practically a whole day already. I really don't see things improving in Advanced Biology," I said as the warning bell rang. I picked up my tray and tossed my book bag over my shoulder.

"Don't forget, no fucking around this afternoon. I wanna get outta here and to my appointment on time. God knows I don't need Carlisle riding my ass about being late," I told her before tossing my trash and walking out into the hallway.

The biology class was all the way on the other side of the school so I was glad I left the cafeteria before the final bell rang. I was able to avoid the stupid people lingering in the halls and quickly made my way to the classroom.

The room was filled with the usual black topped lab tables, two chairs at each one. I was hoping that I would be the odd student out and would get the chance to work alone or at least didn't get some stupid fucker that would piss me off the entire year.

"Mr. Banner?" I asked the man sitting at the large table up front. I assumed he was the teacher considering he was wearing a sweater vest and had glasses on with lenses as thick as a fucking Coke bottle.

"Yes," he said looking up at me. "You must be Mr. Cullen." I nodded my head and handed him my schedule to sign. In the office this morning, Mrs. Cope made sure to tell Alice and me that we needed to get each teacher to sign our schedules for some reason. Mr. Banner handed me the thick green biology book and led me to one of the tables in the back of the room.

"Here you are, Mr. Cullen. You'll share a lab table with Ms. Swan this semester. According to your grades from your previous school, I'm sure you two will work very well together," he said before walking back up to the front. Hopefully that meant she was smart and not that I was gonna have to carry her ass academically for the entire year.

Slowly, students began to trickle into the classroom. A few glanced my way, but none of them were brave enough to talk to me. When none of the students sat down beside me, I wondered if the mysterious Ms. Swan was absent today.

Mr. Banner stood in front of the class and prepared to start the lesson when the door swung open and a girl quickly stepped inside.

"Isabella, I assume you have a reason for being tardy to class today?" he asked her as she stood by his desk. The girl's cheeks blushed wildly as she bit the side of her lip nervously.

"I'm so sorry, Mr. Banner. I was in the library working on my midterm paper for English and I didn't notice what time it was," she said while handing him a piece of paper. "The librarian signed a note for me." Mr. Banner took the note and motioned for her to take a seat.

She walked down the middle of the aisle and almost face planted when she tripped over someone's book bag. I couldn't stop the small snicker that escaped. When she heard me, her head shot up and she locked eyes with me.

Her eyes were dark brown, so dark that they looked almost black. Her cheeks still held some of the blush from earlier and she was smiling widely at me. She picked up her pace to make it to her seat and pulled her biology book out, placing it in front of her on the table.

As Mr. Banner talked about whatever lesson he was teaching today, Isabella hummed. She fucking hummed and nodded her head to whatever fucking tune was playing in her damn mind. I turned my head sharply, looking straight at her, hoping she would look up so I could tell her to shut the hell up.

After five minutes of her smiling, humming and head nodding, I finally got fed up. I let my foot fall off the rail on the bottom of my stool and kicked the leg of hers hard. Her head flew up and she looked at me. Where I expected to see fear or maybe at least anger, all I saw was a huge fucking smile. What the fuck is wrong with this chick?

"Hi," she whispered as Mr. Banner continued his lesson. "I'm Bella. What's your name?" I looked at her as she smiled at me, but just shook my head. There had to be something wrong with her. No one is ever this nice for no reason, not to me. I don't need anyone trying to be my friend. I need to stick by myself and get out of here.

I ignored Bella for the rest of the class and was hoping to get out of here before she decided to talk to me more. Everything was going in my favor until Mr. Banner decided we could take the final few minutes to talk quietly. I saw out of the corner of my eyes as Bella turned her body toward mine and faced me.

"So, I'm Bella. I'm so glad Mr. Banner assigned you to sit with me. I've had to do every lab on my own this year and it'll be great to have someone to help me out. What was your name again?" she asked.

"Look. First off, you can knock off the humming and nodding. That shit's gonna get old really fucking quick. Secondly, don't try to make friends with me. I don't need anyone to be my friend, especially not you. I don't need any fucking friends. I'm not here to talk and share, I'm here to pass my fucking grade so I can get out of this hell hole," I said. The bell rang and I quickly left the room before Bella had a chance to respond.

I walked outside and straight over to my car, leaning on the side waiting for Alice. After ten minutes I got fed up and started walking back toward the school to find her. She knew I had somewhere to be this afternoon yet, she still chose to fuck around.

"Hey!" I heard someone call in the distance. I kept walking, looking around to find Alice.

"Hey you!" I heard again and stopped to turn around. Some guy was walking toward me and I could almost swear I could see smoke coming from his ears.

"Who the fuck do you think you are?" he yelled as he stopped in front of me and pushed my shoulder harshly. I lost my footing a bit and stumbled backwards.

"What the fuck are you talking about?" I yelled as I stepped back toward him.

"What the hell gives you the goddamn right to say that shit to her? She came to me in tears after her Biology class saying you fucking yelled at her!" he yelled as he pushed me again. Of course, this had to be about Bella. She couldn't have just kept her fucking mouth shut and let me be.

"Hey! Get your hands off him!" I heard a familiar voice say behind me. Alice stepped up beside me and eyed the fucker in front of me. "What's this about?"

"This fucker right here made my sister cry," he said as he reached to push me again. Alice quickly stepped between us, stopping him.

"Look, I'm sorry for anything my brother did. He can be a real asshole at times," Alice stated.

"Hey," I said in disagreement. I knew I could be an asshole, but she didn't have to go and share that with this complete stranger.

"I could say I'm sorry about pushing your brother, but I'd be lying. He needs to apologize to her. She was just trying to be nice to him," he said, eyeballing me. "My name's Jasper," he said, holding his hand out to Alice.

"I'll make sure he apologizes to her," Alice said as she shook his hand. "My name's Alice." Alice smiled widely as Jasper picked her hand up and placed a kiss on the back of it.

I rolled my eyes and walked over to my car, preparing to leave Alice and her betraying ass here at school. Maybe she can get a ride with that Jasper guy.

There was no way in hell I was apologizing to her. Yeah, I might have been harsh, but I had to be if I wanted everyone to stay away from me. It needed to be that way. It had to be that way. No matter how much I might have wanted someone to talk to about everything, no matter how lonely I got at times, no one could get close to me. Especially not her.