Hello Everyone :)

This is the 8th chapter and I hope you guys enjoy it.

Please Review!

Once again, thank you to my beta TheSheWolf.

~Lenny~

I'd hidden my phone with the book I was reading so that the teacher would see it and take it away. Seth was texting me about how Paul had taken his milk, apparently he sat next to him during lunch now that I was gone.

I hate him!

I sighed. There wasn't anything I could do about his situation

Really sorry bout that, buddy.

So we continued to text back and forth and I resumed reading my book until I was interrupted.

"So Bella, I heard that you sit next to Edward Cullen in Biology." Lauren, a bleach blonde girl who sat at the same lunch table as me, asked. Just like Jessica, she ached for attention, always needed the spotlight on her. And I could tell she didn't like me by the way her eyes sized me up and down, but I was used to it. Girls have never really liked me, for what ever reason.

My first reaction was to glance at Edward from across the cafeteria. Even though he wasn't looking I knew that he had heard his name perfectly well, and was probably paying attention to the conversation. It kind of looked like he was watching us from the corner of his eye, but I didn't look long enough to know for sure. I had quickly returned my gaze to Lauren.

"Yeah, I do." I said, and then quickly returned my eyes to the book in front of me.

"I bet you feel lucky." Lauren stated, like she already knew the answer. Oh yeah, ecstatic.

I didn't say anything and just went about reading my book but Lauren continued as if she didn't notice my attempt at ignoring her.

"Do you talk to him?"

"No."

She made a snorting sound."Didn't think so." She sassed, sounding satisfied by my answer. I blanched and got the impression that she was interested in him. I mean, I had caught her looking at him more than once.

It seemed like a lot of the girls liked Edward Cullen. I'd seen a lot of them staring at him and I'd even heard some of them gush to each other about how perfect he was.

Last Friday, Jessica had filled me in on all the school gossip. I didn't pay too much attention, it was mostly about silly girl fights and back stabbing, but I became interested when she mentioned the Cullens.

Apparently the story they had going on was that they were all step brothers and sisters. The two blondes, Jasper and Rosalie, were twins and the niece and nephew of Esme Cullen who's husband was Dr. Carlisle Cullen. Edward, Alice, and Emmett were presumed to have been adopted by them.

Jessica said the whole school found it weird that Alice and Jasper were a couple, as well as Rosalie and Emmett. People found it shocking because even though they weren't related, they still lived in the same house. I could understand why that would be controversial, especially in a little town like Forks.

"Pretty scandalous," I commented after Jessica asked me what I thought about their situation. I knew that the Cullens were listening in on the conversation; I'd heard one of them tell the others that Jessica was filling me in on the information about them. They didn't seem offended in anyway, it sounded like they took it more as amusement. They were probably used to the gossip and rumors by now.

"Edward is the only one without a girlfriend though," Jessica continued. "He doesn't date, apparently no one here's good enough for him." Her voice sounded bitter. I wondered if she'd asked him out before. "If I were you, I wouldn't waste your time."

"Oh, I won't." I said with a small smile.

She sighed, "But he is gorgeous, isn't he?".

"Mm hmm." Was my only response. A werewolf complimenting a vampire, hysterical. I'm sure Edward got a real kick out of it too. Cue sarcastic eye roll here.

I had to admit, even though I didn't want to, that Edward Cullen was gorgeous. All the Cullens were. And if I had to pick which one was the most beautiful, I wouldn't be able to decide. Maybe Rosalie or Edward, but, that too would be a hard decision.

Things continued the way they had the last two days of the past week.

Silent.

Edward and I completely disregarded each other again. We pretended like neither one of us was there.

The only sign of any interaction we had was on Wednesday.

I was finished taking notes so I sat down my pencil on my side of the desk and it accidentally rolled over to his side. It rolled over right in front of him. I debated on whether reaching over and just grabbing it or forgetting about it and thinking of it as lost. But then he surprised me by rolling it back over to me. He didn't look at me when he did it but I appreciated his gesture.

"Thank you." I said quietly, but didn't look at him as the words came out.

"Your welcome." He responded back just as quietly, not meeting my eyes either.

It surprised me even more that he'd responded back to me. I thought for sure that he'd ignore me.

Patrolling was becoming more of just fooling around than actual work. Sam was the only one who was taking it serious, but the rest of us would just wander around.

While Seth and I were running on Thursday, we got distracted by the sound of waves and the salty smell that was in the air. We were close to the beach so we decided to go over to look at it. It was getting dark so there weren't any people around so we felt comfortable enough to head out toward the water.

The sand felt cold under our paws. The sun was almost completely set and some of the stars were beginning to show.

When I got to the water, I could see my reflection in it. The wolf that I was looking at was majestically beautiful. It had perfect snow white fur, a black petty nose, and big chocolate brown eyes. This wolf wasn't as enormous or muscular looking as the others, but it still looked grand and powerful.

Sometimes, I couldn't believe I was looking at myself.

I remembered how when I first phased, everyone was amazed at how beautiful I was. It was a brief memory, most of it was horrifying for me, but they all couldn't believe the beauty I had. Maybe I can't be proud of myself as a human, but as a wolf, I can. As a human I'm acceptable, but as a wolf, I'm stunning.

Seth nudged me with his head to get my attention. I removed the shield that protected my mind and heard what he wanted to tell me.

I'm gonna taste the water. He said, trying to be silly.

Do it. I said playing along with him.

He bent his head down to the water and dipped his tongue in it. He retreated, shook his head and made a coughing sound.

That was disgusting! He complained.

I know. I said, the flavor running through his mind.

Seriously Seth? Leah thought.

What are you guys doing standing around in the beach? Sam thought, annoyance scattering his mind. Get back to patrolling.

I cut them off then, letting the elastic mind barrier recoil over my mind. Seth and I went back to patrolling the part of the land that was given to us.

I walked into biology class with snow flakes all over my hair. It had been snowing pretty hard since this morning, and a lot of it had turned icy on the sidewalks and roads around the school. I'd seen a couple students slip as they were walking around the school and I had to stop myself from laughing at their expense. Not because I was a vindictive person who enjoyed watching others humiliate themselves, but because it brought back a lot of memories of when I use to do it all the time before I phased.

Edward was already in class of course, his hair and clothes slightly damp from the snow. He gave a quick weary glance at me but then looked away towards the front of the classroom. That was weird, he never glanced at me, not even a little.

As I sat down I looked at him from the corner of my eye, but his face had turned emotionless like always.

Mr. Banner got started with class as soon as the bell rang; he said he wanted us to have time to finish our work today.

"Well guys, today were gonna have a lab. Basically, the slides in the boxes in front of you are out of order. I want you to separate onion root tip cells into the phases of mitosis they represent. Then label them accordingly on the worksheet. And no using your books for help. If I see anyone using their books, automatic F!"

"Oh, and your gonna do this in partners since I obviously don't have enough supplies for you to be on your own." Mr. Banner added quickly before finishing off.

"Can we pick our partners?" Mike asked from the front of the class.

"No. You guys aren't mature enough for that. Work with the person next to you. That's suppose to be your original lab partner anyways." He snapped at Mike.

Oh god! You have got to be fucking joking.

Edward and I glanced at each other. It was obvious that neither of us wanted to do this.

"Write both names down on the worksheet. And I'm going to go around and check who's done in about 20 minutes. Who ever has all the answers right gets a prize!"

"What kind of prize?" a student asked.

"That's for the winner to find out."

Both Edward and me looked at each other hesitantly for a moment and then he broke the silence with a sigh.

"Alright lets do this." he mumbled. " You want to go first?" He asked holding out a slide to me.

"Sure." I shrugged. I pulled the microscope that was sitting in the middle of the desk towards me and grabbed the slide from him. Both our hands were a little shaky as I grabbed the slide from him and our fingers accidentally touched, his hands were so freezing cold that it seemed to send an electrifying feeling through me. Our eyes met, both searching the reaction of the other. Luckily, it seemed like we were both composed.

As I placed the slide on the microscope, I remembered that I'd already done this lab at my old school. I hadn't done so well, but I remembered the correct answers that were given to us afterwords.

"Interphase." I said after looking through the microscope.

I looked at him since he hadn't responded. He had this frustrated look on his face again.

"Can I check?" He asked me hesitantly.

What? Did he think I was to stupid to answer it right? I flushed with irritation.

"You think I got it wrong?" I asked, my voice sounding more acidic than intended.

"No, its just better to double check." He said matter-of-factly. He was already looking at the slide and he only looked for a short second, then he wrote it down on the worksheet. Luckily I'd been right.

"I'll do the next slide." he said. He switched the slides and looked through the microscope for only half a second. "Anaphase."

"Here. Let me double check." I said grabbing the microscope from him.

"Go ahead." His voice sounded like it had a smile to it but I wasn't looking at him to know for sure. It was Anaphase.

This continued for the next 3 slides. One of us checking the work of the other. When we finished, we were the first ones done in the class. So we had to wait for the others to finish. We had at least 10 minutes of waiting.

We had an awkward silence going on between us. But he broke it again.

"By the way, Carlisle, our leader, told me to tell you thank you for confessing and for wanting to keep peace." He said in a very low voice.

I was a little stunned that I was being thanked. I was speechless for a couple seconds.

"Tell him I said you're welcome." I finally got my self to say.

He nodded.

Minutes passed by again. I was playing with my pencil, waiting for the other students to finish still.

Edward sighed again. I looked over at him to see that the his bad mood had returned and I was tired of it. I had to deal with this shitty situation too, but you didn't see me acting all annoyed.

"What's your problem?" I spat out.

"You!" he hissed back, an answer I should have expected.

"I haven't done anything to you!" I snapped, my voice a harsh whisper.

"Exactly, its what you're not doing."

"And what's that?"

"I can't read your mind and its irritating me immensely."

"Read my mind? What? You can read minds?"

"Yes but not yours. Why is that? Do you have some type of special power or something?" He asked completely over taken by curiosity. He looked eager to know the answer.

"I don't..." I shook my head, still stunned by this news. So the legends were true about vampires having special gifts.

"Forgive me if I'm being rude, its just that this has never happened to me before. I can read everyone's mind except yours."

I still didn't know what to say to him. I was still getting over what he had just told me a minute ago.

"You don't have any explanation for this?" he asked still eager to know.

"No, I don't. I really don't." I tried to compose myself so that I didn't look like an idiot.

"Oh." He sighed in defeat and looked away. He was gonna drop the subject, but now I wanted to know more about this. I wanted to know if there was something wrong with me.

"Have you read the minds of other," I mouthed the word 'werewolves', "Before?"

"Yes. Every person I've ever been close to I've heard their thoughts. Everyone but yours. Its ridiculously frustrating."

"I don't know what to tell you." I mumbled.

Wait a minute! I told myself. Could this be another advantage. Just like the way that the pack can only access my mind if I let them. I've never tried opening my mind in my human form. I don't even know if that's possible.

Edward hadn't said anything while I had my epiphany. He was staring at my face, curiously. I looked up to meet his eyes, he quickly looked away, embarrassed. I blushed from the awkwardness.

Just then, Mr. Banner came to our desk and checked our work. He congratulated us for having all the answers right and after checking everyone's work, he announced that we had won the prize. He came over and handed Edward a golden onion. Edward just looked at it.

"You can have the golden onion, if you want." He said to me with a smile. He actually smiled at me. His smile was radiant.

"Gee thanks!" I said sarcastically and took the onion from him.

"You know, its easier talking to you than I expected." Edward commented out of the blue, his voice sounding more relaxed

"Yeah. It is" I said with surprise in my voice. In all honesty, it had been much easier than I assumed it would be. I had expected us to be uncontrollably rude to each other, but instead we were civilized, or as civilized as we could be.

At that moment, the bell rang and Edward and I got up to leave at the same time. He motioned for me to go first and I did, walking ahead of him. It felt weird, turning my back against an enemy. But the students around us assured that nothing would happen.

I grabbed all my crap from my locker and headed out the main doors. It had stopped snowing but the temperatures had dropped down quite a bit since earlier today and the surfaces all glistened with a thin layer of ice. It mad me anxious whenever it got this way, I always predicted some form of accident that could happen.