A/N: ::ducks rotten vegetables and flying frying pans:: So, uh, what's up, guys? I'm sorry it took me this long to get this chapter out. It's my perfectionist side. That, and my other stories, new story ideas, other extracurricular activities, and school (notice how it comes at the bottom of the list). That is all. Thank you.

Disclaimer: Where have I been for the past few months? Under a rock, hoping Stephenie Meyer would take pity on me and give me the rights to Twilight. Or something. As you can see from the word at the beginning of this paragraph, I wasn't too successful.

Previously on No Easy Way

"I can see drama coming up." She answered cryptically, her silvery eyes gleaming. "Juicy drama worth sinking my teeth into. Perfect."

I did not want to ask what exactly she was talking about. I had a feeling I knew, anyway.

BPOV

The first class, English, passed in a blur. I had Jasper in that class, and he kept shooting glances my way, but I tried my best to ignore him. Mostly, I just doodled in my notebook and dreaded when lunch came.

It looked like I didn't have to wait until that time. Government was spent with both Edward and Alice. It wasn't too bad, if you wanted a re-enaction of first period. Well, Edward kept looking at me. Alice, at least, only shot me a single pointed look as she danced in the room, her spiky black hair bouncing with every step.

Third period. Trigonometry. Oh, Lord, less than two hours…

The last class before lunch was Spanish. I got called on twice, and didn't know the answer as many times. Good job, Bella.

I tried to keep my calm as I walked down the halls to the cafeteria. Breathe in. Breathe out. Keep an eye out for the Cullens. Keep an eye out for Mike, or any of his so-called friends. This was hard going.

I was only a couple of meters away from the cafeteria doors when a hand shot out from behind me and dragged me through a side door leading to the courtyard outside the school.

"Where have you been?" Mike hissed through gritted teeth. I flinched.

"Uh…my classes. We don't have any classes in common except Gym, so I don't think we'd have seen each other." I explained, hoping to placate him. It was times like this that I wondered why I'm even in a 'relationship' with him. He would get unexpectedly and unreasonably angry at trivial details.

"Shut up. I told you to meet me at my locker early thing morning, so what happened?" Mike snapped, his eyes squinting dangerously.

I winced again. Truth be told, the Cullens' arrival this morning had sent that promise – no, demand – flying right out of my head. "I-I had to meet a teacher for something…" My blatant lie trailed off pathetically.

He laughed humorlessly. "God, Bella, how stupid do you think I am?"

'You do not want to know the answer.' I thought snidely, but I bit my tongue to keep my snippy retort from pouring out. It would only aggravate Mike further. Aggravating Mike was not a good idea.

"Bella! Answer me!" Mike commanded in a carrying voice. Cue more internal flinching from me.

"Um…what?" I asked in a small, pathetic voice. I knew the drill very well. Keep your head lowered, don't make any eye contact, and think carefully before you say anything.

He sighed exasperatedly. "Where were you this morning?" he asked slowly, pronouncing each word, as though he were speaking to an overemotional toddler.

"I…I was meeting with a teacher about…extra coursework for this term." I spoke cautiously, weighing each word for potential triggers for Mike's ire.

It was obvious he didn't buy it. "And, by any chance, is that teacher—" he spoke the word with apparent distaste "—Edward Cullen?"

I stood in shock for a few seconds. Mike took that as answer enough and sneered at me. "Considering cheating on me, Bells, are you? I never took you as that stupid, but I guess I made a mistake."

"N-n-no, I'm not cheating on you. God, of course I'm not going to cheat on you." I tried to defend myself, but my words fell on deaf ears.

"So you're thinking that you could outsmart me, Bella?" Mike all but roared, rounding on me as he did so. "You think I would never know? Secret meetings here and there, probably unaware that I would have someone spying on you as you leave the house…" his voice trailed off, his chest heaving as he blew off more steam.

"No, Mike, I would never." I tried to placate him. "Never." I repeated, taking the chance and looking him in the eye. I hoped he was in a better mood now, so I could talk some sense into him. It always seemed futile, but it was better than him verbally abusing me. Or sneaking in the occasional slap.

His face smoothened out fractionally. "Never." He repeated, as though testing out the word, to detect a lie. I breathed out a sigh of relief when his shoulders went down fractionally and his breathing slowed.

"Alright, Bells, let's get to lunch." He finally said, slinging an arm around my shoulders and pulling me to him a bit too harshly. He pulled me through the doors we had just exited a while ago and to the cafeteria.

I kept my head lowered as we entered the room. I didn't want to chance making eye contact with any of the Cullens or Hales. Mike dragged me over to our usual table where everyone was seated. I had an urge to scan the room to catch even a glimpse of Edward, but I suppressed it. Mike was watching me like a hawk, as though expecting me to do anything suspicious.

I realized that everyone on our table – heck, everyone in the cafeteria – had gone silent. I followed their stares to the doors where – oh, Lord – Edward and his siblings had just walked in.

I sneaked a peek at Mike and saw that he was still scrutinizing me, checking for my reaction. I kept on a blank expression, hiding my inner turmoil. But it was hard when Mike threw his arm around my shoulders and latched it there tightly despite—or maybe because of—my obvious discomfort.

Lunchtime dragged by, with me half-listening to the mindless chatter of Mike, Tyler, Jessica Stanley, Lauren Mallory and the rest of the occupants of the table, and spending the rest of my energy resisting the urge to lift turn around and glance at Edward.

Lunch ended and I walked into my next class. Biology. I headed for my usual table, where I was seated all alone. Apparently, Mr. Banner thought I could manage without a lab partner this year—must've been all those times when he would notice that I would be the one actually doing the assigned activity and my partner would leave me alone to do the work.

Then something made me pause. Someone was sitting on the other chair at my table. And that someone was Edward, of all people.

I inwardly cursed my nonexistent luck.

Dropping my bag on the floor next to my chair, I sat down, trying to put the most distance between us possible.

He didn't look my way.

I didn't know if that was a good thing or not.

Thankfully, all the teacher had planned for the day was a lot of monotonous droning about a lesson I didn't care about. That meant I didn't have to interact with my new lab partner—yet.

The bell rang. I breathed a silent sigh of relief and exited the room as quickly as I could, grabbing my bag along. I didn't look back at Edward. I didn't think that I could hold myself together anymore if I did. The niggling thought in my subconscious, though, told me that it wouldn't be long until I had to clear things with him.

'Could I still really clear things with him?' I wondered as I made my way through the crowd of students to the girls' locker room. Gym was my least favorite time of the day, mainly because I got stuck with Mike and partly because sports and I didn't exactly mix, to put it mildly.

Today was worse than usual. The only good thing was that the girls were separated from the boys so I didn't have to deal with Mike for the whole class. I briefly wondered if everyone was punishing me for everything I ever did wrong. The thought didn't last long, though, because the volleyball hit me straight on my head and knocked me down. That little ball didn't seem so little anymore.

I vented my frustration on the game, even though I could barely hit the volleyball when it came my way. Three times I thumped my partner on her head. The third time I did that, she glared at me and started blocking me whenever the ball would cross to my side. I shrugged. I was fine with that; she was a better player alone than with me anyway.

Finally, the class ended and I was first out of the gym, eager to leave the bad day behind. I quickened my pace when I pushed through the doors of the school building. I knew Mike and his friends were out on the town, having fun and probably breaking another dozen laws in the process. I was left on my own again. It was times like this that I wondered how on earth I ended up in this situation, and what on earth have I done with my life.

Even when I was a child, my life had been poised to crumble to pieces already. I thought I had the perfect arrangement, with a family who clearly loved me. Then everything was taken away from me. It didn't really hit me as hard as it could've been, though, because I met Edward. My lips twisted into a wry smile. In my eyes, he was my lifesaver, my best friend, my only ally. When he was wrenched from my grasp, it was back to my hellish existence again. This time, the pain of both losses left me numb. I went on as usual, but I didn't have any idea to what direction I was heading. My so-called foster family was the one constant in my life, and while it wasn't enough, it was all I had. And now, my lifesaver was back, disrupting the monotony I thought my life had established.

EPOV

She came inside the room and came to my table. I felt her stare at me, but I didn't look back. I didn't think I could hold my temper if I looked her fully in the eyes.

I sat beside her all throughout Biology. I didn't know why, I could've so easily gotten a slip and went home. But I was still too numb to consider anything.

I was still too numb to decide how I should feel after the numbness faded.

I could hardly fathom the possibility of Bella and that vile bastard together. What happened to all those years when he would taunt her, when I felt so anxious leaving her side because he might hurt her? I couldn't believe that I thought everything was alright earlier that morning. It wasn't, far from it, actually.

What had pushed her to do that? I knew my leaving would affect her, but for her to throw her life away for some worthless jerk…

I clenched my fists under the desk. My thoughts were going haywire; I was struggling to keep some appearance of calmness. Numbness was quickly fading away, leaving me wanting to bash my head against the desk or something. One provocation and I would snap.

I suffered through the rest of the period, contemplating whether I should just talk to Bella—just thinking of her name now sent pangs straight to my heart—or think the situation over first. While the latter seemed reasonable, I knew that overthinking was one of my shortcomings, and it might do more damage than good. But when I just dove into things like this headfirst, I tended to make all the wrong decisions and let my temper get the best of me, which was exactly why I didn't want to look back at her earlier.

Rrrrrrrrrrriiiiiing! The bell. I made a halfhearted attempt to go after Bella, still unable to decide upon what action to take.

She made the decision for me, when she rushed out of the room so fast you would have thought it was on fire. Part of me was disheartened, while the other part was relieved that I didn't have to have this impending conversation yet. I didn't know if postponing it was best, but at that time, I didn't know right from wrong anymore.

After Spanish, I headed for my silver Volvo out in the parking lot. I had to wait for the others to come out, and I dreaded another few minutes of soul-searching. It seemed to be the only thing I could do nowadays.

Before I could reach the car, though, a hand grabbed my arm, startling me. I spun around, half-expecting Bella…or Mike…but saw a strawberry-blonde-haired girl beside me instead.

"Hello, Edward. Long time no see." She smiled.

"Hi…uh…" I trailed off, having no recollection of meeting this girl before.

Her grin widened when she realized my predicament. "Tanya. Tanya Denali. You might not remember me…"

The name rang a bell in my head. "Oh. Yeah, I think I remember you. Sorry, it's been too long." I managed to force a smile for her sake.

Her expression turned businesslike fast. "Good. Edward…I need to talk to you about Bella."

That caught my interest. "Yes?" I replied quickly. Maybe she knew something about this situation. Hell, who am I kidding, this was Forks. Everyone knew everything about everyone else.

"Can we go somewhere…with less people?" she asked, glancing around at the students who were streaming out of the school.

"I think I can arrange that." 'Anything for Bella's sake.' I thought. I cared about her too much to let her go without a fight.

Tanya nodded. "Good." She told me again.

A/N: Sorry, this might seem rushed (it is) but I'm under tight schedule. So, was it a hit or miss? Tell me in a review, or whatever. I really appreciate knowing what you think.

By the way, I have a LiveJournal, where I might give updates about this story. The link is on my profile, listed as my homepage. Feel free to add me.