Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep.

The beeping continued, making it impossible for me to go back to sleep. It seemed to get louder with every second. Without opening my eyes, I waved my hand around, looking for my alarm clock. I heard things clatter to the floor – CDs, Wuthering Heights, a pen – but didn't find my alarm clock.

"It's not there Bella," the velvety voice laughed. "You have to get up."

I could barely keep my eyes closed after hearing Edward's voice. I wanted to see him. But I wanted to sleep too. "Why?" I moaned, still hitting the air.

"If you're late again you get detention," Edward shrugged. "And then what would I do for a whole afternoon?"

"I don't know," I cried. "But I do think we're getting a little stalker-ish. I mean, not that I don't enjoy it, but we do spend nearly every minute of the day together."

"It's only stalking if the other person doesn't know you're in their house," Edward corrected. "Now come on, get up. Alice said there's a surprise today but she won't tell me what it is. She keeps reciting the Japanese alphabet in her head."

I groaned. If there was a surprise there was even more of a reason for me to stay in bed. Edward knows I hate surprises.

"I'll be waiting downstairs," Edward told me. "Charlie's already gone."

It took everything I had, but I pulled myself out of bed and got ready. When I got downstairs and looked at the clock, I saw I was ten minutes earlier than usual. "Edward! Why would you do this to me? Why get me out of bed ten minutes early?" He shifted uncomfortably.

"Well, we're only barely in school on time most days, so I figured if I turned your clock forward we might actually get there early enough that I don't have to dazzle Mrs. Cope every morning." I glared at him. "What?" he defended himself. "She has inappropriate thoughts about me! It's not nice!"

I huffed angrily, but let it go. As I was pouring cereal into a bowl I said, "You said Alice said there was a surprise. Do you have any idea what it is?"

"Maybe, maybe not," he teased. "More like not. Nobody was thinking about it on Monday and then we were away until yesterday, remember?"

"Oh yeah. I forget about days that you aren't here for," I frowned. I ate my breakfast as slowly as I could. That's what Edward gets for pulling me out of bed early. But then I noticed him staring at me, begging me with his eyes to eat faster. I sighed and threw my bowl in the sink, not bothering to wash it. "I'm ready," I grumbled, grabbing my raincoat and leaving before Edward. He made it to the car before me though, and held my door open with a smile on his face. I couldn't even scowl at him when he was wearing that crooked smile.

Edward drove way too fast as always and we got to school on time. "Just," Edward muttered when I mentioned this to him. I hit his arm. If it wasn't for the fact that he was watching me, I don't think he would have noticed.

When I got to English, my normal seat was taken by Lauren Mallory. Alice was nearly banging her head off the desk. Lauren was talking about her cats or something.

"Um, Lauren, I sit here," I muttered. She turned to glare at me.

"I don't see your name on this seat," Lauren hissed. "Besides, I'm talking to Alice." If looks could kill, I would be sprawled on the floor while Gil Grissom examines my body.

"No, you weren't!" Alice exclaimed. "You were talking, that doesn't mean I was listening. I told you repeatedly to get out of Bella's seat and to shut up about your dumb Mr. Wiggles!"

"Actually, it's Dr. Piggles," Lauren said icily. Uh oh. Double homicide for the CSI team. She stood up and moved to a seat of the other side of the room. Angela giggled and covered her mouth.

"How long has she been talking to you for?" I asked Alice. "Twenty minutes," she groaned. "It took all I had not to throw her through the wall."

Mr. Mason came in then. I started to get my books out like everyone else was, but Alice put a hand on my arm to stop me and grinned. "Everyone put your books away and go to the gym in an orderly fashion," he called. Orderly fashion, yeah right. As soon as Mr. Mason said 'go', people jumped up and started running. Lauren was even screaming. Alice rolled her eyes.

"They think they've got it bad, having to come to school everyday," she scoffed. "Imagine if they had to go to school decade after decade after decade!"

I laughed and we left the classroom last. By the time we got to the gym it was almost full. Edward, Emmett, Jasper and Rosalie were sitting together in the back corner, looking inhumanly beautiful, as always. Emmett stood up and roared, "Alice! Bella! Over here!" As if we couldn't see them already. I sighed and walked over there as people stared and giggled.

Alice skipped off to sit next to Jasper. I, not half as graceful as her and feeling intimidated by the staring people, tripped over someone's outstretched foot and tumbled into Edward's lap. He chuckled. Emmett sounded like he was choking with laughter.

"Okay everyone, quiet down," Mr. Banner was standing in the centre of the gym. He had to shout three times to get everybody to shut up. "Now, I've got a surprise for you all." Edward's mouth had dropped open in shock.

"As you all know, next week is Environment Week," Mr. Banner looked around at our confused faces and sighed. "It's a week where we all learn about the environment and how we can protect it. Don't you kids listen in Science? Anyway, next week, we're going to split up into groups and go camping in different parts of the state. That way we all get to see different types of wildlife and we can tell each other about it." He looked around, obviously waiting for someone to cheer or clap. Nobody did.

I stared at him in horror. Camping? Was this man trying to kill me? Had he no idea how dangerous it would be for me?

"The groups have been chosen at random and there will be no changes to them," he added sternly. I stared at Edward, terrified. What if I was put into a different group from him? Who would save me from my own two feet then?

"Don't worry," Alice whispered, just loud enough for me to hear her. " After they made up the lists I went to the science labs and made sure we were all in the same group."

"When I call out your name, please form a line behind the teacher you have been assigned to," Mr. Banner continued. "First, Mr. Mason's group. Abbey Abrahams, Daniel Woods, Nancy Masters, Nathan Woods…" Mr. Banner went on as people stood up and joined their teachers. There weren't many of us left.

"And lastly, my own group," he smiled. "Alice Cullen, Emmett Cullen, Edward Cullen, Rosalie Hale, Jasper Hale, Bella Swan," Mr. Banner looked confused as we all stood up and joined him, not remembering putting us in his group. "Angela Webber, Ben Cheney, Jessica Stanley, Lauren Mallory, Taylor Crowley, Eric Yorkie and Mike Newton." Alice looked up slowly, smiling shyly.

"Alice!" I hissed. "Why didn't you take some of them out of the group while you were putting us in?"

"I'm sorry!" she held her hands up. "I saw someone coming so I had to leave. Besides, they'd notice if the whole group changed and I was more focused on getting us in than on getting them out. If it wasn't for me, you and Rosalie would be stuck with them alone for the whole week!"

Rosalie and I looked at each other. She didn't hate me anymore, but I wasn't her favourite person in the world either. Neither of us could have lasted a week with Mike Newton, Lauren Mallory and ourselves as our only company.

"Fine," I muttered unwillingly. "Thank you Alice."

"You're very welcome Bella," she smirked.

"We're not going," Rosalie said. "I don't care how many times you change those damn lists Alice, it's too dangerous and I'm not leaving again. Out there, surrounded by the animals we normally eat. Edward, do you want Bella anywhere near you when you smell some nice juicy mountain lion?" Edward's face was a good enough answer for Rosalie. "I didn't think so."

Mr. Banner must be a mind reader, because right then he said, "There is no getting out of it without a letter from your parents. And before you start convincing them of how much living without the internet for a week will harm your emotional growth, you may want to mention that this trip is worth 25% of your final grade in whatever science subject you are in."

I groaned. I was already doing badly in Biology thanks to Edward sitting next to me looking so perfect and stare-able all hour. Mr. Banner and the others came over to us.

"Now, this group is really lucky," he told us excitedly. Yeah, what's his definition of 'lucky', because I'm pretty sure it's not the same as mine. "I'm organising the trips, so I got to pick where our group is going before any of the other teachers. We got the best place."

"Downtown Seattle?" Alice asked hopefully, knowing her answer was wrong.

"Now, now, Alice, the point of this week is to learn to live without material things," Mr. Banner laughed.

"I thought it was to see wildlife," Emmett said.

"I thought it was to learn how to protect the environment," Edward frowned.

"Isn't a tent a material thing?" Jasper pointed out. "I mean, that's all it is, material."

"Well yes, but I mean material things like computers, phones, clothes and-"Mr. Banner was interrupted by Emmett.

"We'll be naked?" he screeched, his face completely serious. Everyone turned to stare. "Look Mr. B, I respect you, but I just don't think I can strip for you. Anyway, that could get you fired."

"No Emmett," Mr. Banner sighed, "you will not be naked. Nobody will. I just mean living without luxuries. So, yes, we will be wearing clothes and, yes, tents are made from materials, but we won't have designer clothes to last us weeks," he looked pointedly at Alice and Rosalie, "and you will be sharing normal three person tents, not five star tents with heated double beds on the floor."

Jasper frowned. "Is it possible to get a five star tent? I mean, who would decide what a one star tent is and what a five star tent is? Different people have different needs to be catered for. I would be quite happy to lie beneath the stars, but Bella, for example, is a klutz. She'd need bubble wrap in her tent just in case it started rolling down a hill when she turns in her sleep."

Jasper grinned at me, but Edward actually looked worried. "Edward, the tent is not going to fall off a cliff while I'm asleep," I assured him. A pained look crossed his face. Oops. I really should know by now not to use any form of the words 'I', 'fall', 'off' and 'cliff' around him.

"Okay, enough about tents for now," Mr. Banner said. "Boys, we will be looking at wildlife and learning how to protect the environment, but we will also be learning to live without mat-," Jasper opened his mouth to speak so Mr. Banner quickly put in, "luxuries. Now, I teach most of you Biology, so I want you all to come there today. It's first class after lunch. I'll go through everything with you then and answer your questions. Okay?"

"Wait, before we started talking about tents and the hill Bella is going to roll down in one, you were going to tell us where we're camping," Emmett said.

"Oh, that's right. Well," Mr. Banner grinned. "We're camping in the Olympic Mountains!" The Cullen's mouths dropped open. "Okay. See you guys." And he left.

"What?" I whispered.

"Those mountains are full of animals. We always hunt there," Edward mumbled. "We can't go there and not go…crazy. When we get there we switch into hunting mode from habit."

"Come on, you have to go," I begged. "If I don't go I'll fail Biology so Charlie's going to make me go and I can't go alone."

"You won't be alone," Rosalie said. "Angela will be in our group."

"Yeah but so will Ben," I retorted. "I know they're both human but when they're around each other they act almost the same way Edward and I do."

Emmett raised an eyebrow. "Ben sniffs Angela's neck so he can smell her blood and Angela blushes, trips and faints?"

"Something like that," I scowled.

"Everybody go to your second class," Mr. Varner called. Edward took my hand and we reluctantly walked to Spanish.