AN: Story is beta'd by the wonderful ADT216 and EdnaSardrood.

All things Twilight belong to SM.

Enjoy!

"Did you hear that Bella is coming back?" Alice asked from the back seat of my Volvo. I could feel my heart rate accelerating and my grip tighten on the steering wheel, but I tried to keep a cool demeanour while others were present. I didn't want them to know how Alice's news was affecting me. How she still affected me.

My brother, Emmett, was sitting in the front seat next to me, while our sister, Alice, was sitting in the back. We were actually triplets, with Emmett being the youngest and Alice being the oldest.

Their significant others, Rosalie and Jasper, were squeezed in the back next to Alice. We were on our way to Black's Auto Repair in La Push to pick up Emmett's Jeep. He could have had it repaired in the shop back in Forks, but he claimed that the garage there made their profit from ripping people off. After he gave me both estimates for the transmission repair, I had to agree that Black's offer was the best deal. It was almost a steal for the work that had to be done.

While his car was in the shop, I was somehow coerced into being his chauffer since Rosalie couldn't. She had managed to get her driver's license suspended for getting too many speeding tickets. I liked to drive fast myself, but I liked to think that I did it the smart way. When she asked me what the smart way was, I told her that I just never got caught and shrugged, not really knowing what the smart way was myself.

"Back, like in back to Forks High School?" Emmett asked, turning his massive body around to look at Alice.

"I'm not positive, considering that Mike was the source, but I think she's coming back to complete her senior year here," Alice answered.

"So what you're saying is that our lil' Eddie here has another shot to make Bella swoon?" Emmett laughed while punching me hard on the shoulder.

"Firstly, I'm older than you by seven minutes, so you're the little one. Secondly, I hate that fucking name. And thirdly, what makes you think that I still like Bella?" I responded, trying to scowl at Emmett and keep my eyes on the road at the same time. I was hoping that everyone had forgotten how bad I had it for her.

"Everyone knows you still get a hard on for her," Rosalie added out of nowhere.

I glared at her from the rear-view mirror, but her lack of response indicated that she wasn't looking.

I have had a crush on Bella Swan from the moment we moved here. My family had moved to Forks back when we were in the fifth grade, which was when I met her. She was smart but not arrogant. We didn't talk much, but when we did it was pleasant.

As we all grew up and came into our own, my crush on her only deepened. Over the years, I had come to appreciate her large, brown, doe eyes and the soft waves of her hair. It wasn't until entering high school that I began to notice the curves that she had developed while I wasn't paying attention to anything but her face. She had truly become a beautiful girl.

It seemed that I wasn't the only one who realized that she had indeed turned from an awkward duck into a beautiful swan. While I had never worked up the courage to ask her out, I had watched as boy after boy strived to get her attention. Because my jealousy and insecurities flared during those moments, I never stuck around to find out if she had accepted their advances or not. The only thing that placated me was that I had never seen her hang out with one guy more than another, so it never seemed like she had a boyfriend.

In high school, we didn't run with the same crowd. The fortunate thing about Forks High, though, was that there were no definable "popular" or "unpopular" groups; there were just the people you hung out with more than others. However, there were certain people that could be classified as bitchy or jerks.

Bella mostly hung out with her two best friends, Jessica Stanley and Tanya Denali. They both seemed like pretty nice girls, although I didn't know them well enough to make an honest judgment. However, Bella liked to mingle, so she could be seen chatting with anyone. Actually, in retrospect, I realized that she was a lot like Alice – friendly to a fault. How the two never became close, I'll never know.

I mostly stuck with Alice and Emmett, and now Jasper and Rosalie. Bella and I had shared a few classes the two years we had spent in high school together, but never got the opportunity to really get to know each other. She had left at the end of sophomore year and moved to Port Angeles. The story was that her mother, Renee, had been offered a lucrative position in some law firm. Her father, Charlie, who worked at the lumber yard, had found a similar position to the one he already had so he could make the move too, without having to commute back to Forks every day.

Also making the move with them was Jacob, Bella's younger, adopted brother. I wasn't big on gossip, but Jacob's story was pretty big news in Forks, though it took place in La Push towards the end of freshman year. Jacob's parents, Billy and Sarah, had both been murdered during a home invasion by a fellow tribe member. Billy Black was the tribe's chief. His younger brother, Sam, was apparently extremely jealous of Billy and his title. Sam entered the Black's house one night and murdered both Billy and Sarah, on the hopes of becoming the next chief. Jacob was spending the night at a friend's when his parents were murdered. I really didn't pay attention to the story after that, so I wasn't exactly sure what had happened to Sam, but I did know that he hadn't become chief and the garage was renamed in honor of their slain leader.

I assumed that Bella's and Jacob's families were close, since the Blacks had left Jacob in the Swan's care. Supposedly, when Jacob was born, Sarah asked Renee if she could have one of her colleagues write up a will for the sole purpose of establishing who would take care of Jacob if neither of them were around. When Jacob went into the care of the Swans he was six years old. He should be around eight or so now. However, I couldn't vouch for the truth of the story since most of it was told through the grapevine.

I was heartbroken when I found out that her family was moving. Because we weren't close, it would have been weird to ask her for her number, or to even keep in contact. I would have loved to asked Jessica or Tanya for that information, but that would have been even creepier and stalkerish. To this day, I wanted to kick myself for never manning up and asking her out, or even getting to know her better. Hopefully, this would, in fact, be my second chance.

"What we should do is ask Jessica when we get back. She's been working at the diner this summer. If anyone would know what the story is, it would be her," Jasper interjected. He would never admit it, but Jasper was like an old lady; he loved to hear gossip, although he never spread it himself.

"What about Tanya? She would know," I added nonchalantly, hoping no one caught on to how prematurely excited I was becoming at the thought of seeing Bella again.

"Nah, Tanya went to Holland to spend some time with her grandmother this summer. I don't think she would know what's going on," Alice informed me.

The last few minutes of the ride were spent talking about why Bella was coming back for just one year of high school, instead of just finishing it in Port Angeles. I listened to them talk but never voiced my own thoughts. I didn't care why she was coming back; I was just ecstatic that she was coming back at all.

She had only been gone for about a year, but I still wondered if she had changed much or at all. I hoped that she was still the same Bella that I had a crush on when she left. I didn't know what I would do if she came back differently. I never admitted this to anyone, even though they probably knew, but the reason why I could never keep a steady girlfriend was because I compared them all to Bella, a girl that I only had a handful of conversations with and admired from afar.

~~O~~

We were on our way back to Forks, more specifically the diner. Things went a lot better than Emmett thought that they were going to go when we got the garage.

When we arrived there, it was basically empty with the exception of other waiting customers. After having to wait only a few minutes, the owner of Black's, Quil, came out to talk to Emmett, telling him he had knocked off the labor portion of the bill. Quil had explained that last Sunday, he had to take his young daughter, Emily, to Forks Memorial Hospital for an emergency appendectomy. Our father, Carlisle, works there as chief of surgery. Because there was no one else available, and there wasn't enough time to transfer Emily to another hospital, Carlisle was called in to perform the surgery on his only day off.

Quil had been extremely grateful, understanding how it felt to go days, or even weeks, without having a day off. Since he could only offer his own services as a mechanic to show his gratitude, aside from paying his bill of course, he told Carlisle that he would work on Carlisle's car free of charge. When Carlisle found out that he owned the very shop where Emmett's car was getting repaired, he asked Quil if he could help his son out in exchange.

Emmett walked out of the garage saving almost six hundred dollars.

Pulling into the diner, I felt my nervousness creep up on me, and I had no idea why. Well, I did, but it didn't make any sense. Alice was resolved to ask Jessica if Bella was indeed coming back to Forks. However, we didn't even know if Jessica was working today, or if the story was even true. There was no reason for my anxiety.

We grabbed a booth in the corner, and Alice quickly began searching the restaurant for Jessica. She couldn't immediately find her, and I don't know whether it relieved me or disappointed me.

After continuing to search, and coming up unsuccessful, we concluded that Jessica wasn't working today. Almost an hour later, with our meals finished, we exited the diner. As we slowly walked over to our cars, Jessica pulled into an empty spot. I quickly stiffened at the sight of her and hoped that we were going to just continue on our way and not even bother asking Jessica if she knew anything. However, Alice, with a little encouragement from Jasper, headed towards Jessica instead of to my car. Jasper followed eagerly, while I followed to hear for myself. Emmett and Rosalie, seemingly the only smart ones, got into Emmett's Jeep, presumably heading to our house.

"Hey, Jess," she greeted her before Jessica got too far away.

"Oh hey, Alice. What's going on?" Jessica asked when she realized who was talking to her. She waved to Jasper and me in greeting

"Nothing much, just getting ready to start school again for the last time. So I heard that Bella is coming back, is that true?" Alice asked, cutting to the chase quickly.

Although, I was still undecided whether or not I wanted to hear the news, I couldn't take my eyes off of Jessica, waiting to hear her response. However, I was shocked at what I saw before she even spoke.

At the mention of Bella's name, Jessica's eyes widened and darted around, as if looking for something to hide behind. It seemed that talking about Bella made her uncomfortable, which was extremely odd. After a few seconds, Jessica seemed to compose herself and plaster a fake smile on her face.

"Um, actually, yeah, she is coming back," Jessica finally confirmed, still looking a little uncomfortable.

"Not that I'm not excited about it, but why is she coming back with only one year left?" Alice continued with her questions.

Jessica steeled her eyes and fixed them on Alice before spewing out her answer.

"Her parents got divorced. Her father is getting his old job back here and she is coming to live with him."

"What about Jacob?" Alice asked.

"I'm not completely sure. Now I gotta go punch in before I'm late," she said before abruptly turning and leaving.

Jasper and Alice both turned to me, looking completely confused and hoping for some kind of clarification. I just shrugged my shoulders before turning and heading back to my car, just as confused as the both of them.

"That was kind of weird, don't you think? Her response seemed… robotic," Alice said as we were walking into the kitchen.

"What was?" Rosalie asked, stepping out of the pantry carrying a huge bag of pretzels.

"Jessica," Alice said, before telling Rosalie about the brief encounter with Jessica outside the diner.

"I don't get it," Emmett chimed in after Alice stopped talking. "What was so weird about it? People get divorced all the time."

"Not the divorcing part, although that part sucks, but her answer seemed, I dunno, rehearsed or something, like she's been practicing it. There was also the whole situation with Bella's brother," she answered, still looking perplexed.

"That doesn't make sense, Alice," Rosalie said. "What you're implying is that Jessica is covering something up about Bella's return. I doubt there is any mystery behind it," she said, sounding bored and ready to move on to the next topic of conversation.

"She and Tanya were Bella's best friends and probably still are. Jessica is probably still shocked at the news of the divorce and maybe still processing it herself. I'm assuming that she was close to Bella's family, too," I offered, trying to make sense of Jessica's odd reaction earlier.

Alice seemed to be thinking over what I just said.

"Yeah, I guess," she said, seeming appeased at the moment. "Besides, school starts in a little less than two weeks, and we can always ask Bella herself how things are going," she finished.

I didn't like the idea of Alice, or anyone, approaching Bella and inquiring about her personal life. If her parents were divorced, I'm sure it was something that she didn't want to talk about, especially to people who really couldn't be considered anything more than acquaintances.

"This is our first day our last year of high school," Emmett squealed, frightening sounding a lot like Alice, while jumping on my bed to wake me up.

I looked over at my alarm clock and saw that I still had a good half hour before it was set to go off. It always felt good to turn around and see that you had extra time to sleep in the morning, but I knew that with Emmett bouncing on my bed, sleeping was no longer an option.

"Why the hell are you even up so early? And why the hell are you so excited to going to school?" I asked, extremely agitated that I was woken up early. My throat was dry and now scratchy from having to scold Emmett.

"I've always liked the first day of school; it's like one of the few days you can't take seriously. You get to reconnect with friends that you lost contact with over the summer and get to check out the fresh meat. Classes are going to be a joke today since all the teachers are going to be doing is handing out syllabi and explaining the same rules that they reiterate every fucking year. The best part, though, is that we're seniors this year," Emmett shouted out the last part.

I couldn't partake in his excitement, since I was still more than half asleep. Instead, I covered my head with my pillow, groaned, and rolled over, hoping that I would somehow disappear and get back the few minutes that Emmett had stolen from me.

I had gone to sleep a lot later than I wanted to last night. I stayed awake in my bed thinking about Bella and what I would say to her when I finally saw her. I didn't know which tactic was best; should I just walk up to her and welcome her back? Should I strike up a conversation, acting like she had never left? Do I reintroduce myself? I felt like I was back to that awkward kid that I was when I first started high school. Unbeknownst to her, Bella was the only girl who made me feel like that.

"C'mon, E, don't be like that. Don't think that I don't know how anxious you are to see Bella again after a year," he added, before getting off of my bed. I heard the amusement clearly in his voice.

"Fuck off," I mumbled from underneath my pillow, unsure if he even understood what I said. The laughter that rang out from his direction indicated that he had.

"You better be up by the time we're ready to leave. All of us are all riding together, save on gas, help the earth, and all that green stuff that's popular these days," he babbled on his way out the door.

A little over an hour later, the three of us, plus Jasper and Rosalie, were pulling into the parking lot of our tiny high school.

From what I could tell from the people that I could see, no one had changed much. Granted, we were only gone for a couple of months.

I searched the parking lot hoping to spot Bella, hoping to appear discreet. At the end of her last year here, her parents bought her an old Corolla as a starter car since she was still a new driver. I had no idea if she still drove that ugly car or if she had upgraded to something that was built in at least the last decade.

As I continued to search, I spotted a vehicle that was even worse looking than Bella's old Corolla. Almost completely hidden under the shade of the immense trees and overgrown shrubs, was an ancient and decrepit looking, rusty red Chevy pickup. Because of the shade that the trees provided, I couldn't make out who was seated in the truck. My eyes began to ache from straining them, looking to see if I recognized the poor soul forced to drive the death trap. Right as I was about to give up, the truck's driver side door slowly wrenched opened, one leg and then the other stepping out onto the ground.

Suddenly, I was looking straight at Bella. Although she wasn't looking back at me, I could still tell that it was her. Her hair still looked the same as I remembered it, perhaps longer. Her body was still slim, yet curvaceous. And even though I couldn't smell her from so far away, I could still remember the vanilla scent that seemed to waft around her.

"Hey, E, c'mon, we gotta get to homeroom to get our schedules," Emmett yelled, breaking me out of my blatant staring.

I turned and noticed that everyone had already started walking toward the building, not bothering to even wait for me. I jogged the short distance between me and everyone to catch up with them. Alice slowed her pace when I was finally right behind them, hanging back.

"Was that her?" she asked.

"Who?" I decided to play dumb. Although I'm sure everyone knew that I still had a massive crush, bordering on obsession, on Bella, I still didn't want to confirm what they already knew. At least not yet.

"You know who," she said, calling me out. "The girl you were staring at across the lot. It had to be her based on the small amount of drool that is pooled at the corner of your mouth," Alice laughed.

"Shut up," I said, shoving her playfully with my shoulder. "I'm not drooling. But yeah, it was her," I confirmed.

"Are you going to ask her out this year?" She looked at me, quirking an eyebrow questioningly.

"If I work up the nerve, then yes, I will," I told her, albeit not very confidently.

Thinking about asking her out was one of the things that had kept me up last night. I went back and forth in my mind about whether or not I would, or even could, get the guts to finally ask her out this year. I had to do it this year as it would probably be my last chance. I didn't know what her plans for college were, or if she even planned on going at all. I was still undecided about where I wanted to go, so she could be in the same boat. The chances of us ending up at the same college were probably slim.

Alice didn't respond verbally, but nodded approvingly as we continued toward the building. She didn't have to say it, but I knew that the thought of Bella hanging around us excited her. For whatever reason, Alice believed that the two of them could become great friends.

~~O~~

Because of our last names, Emmett, Alice, and I had different homerooms than Rosalie and Jasper. We wouldn't be able to compare schedules with them until lunch, the only guaranteed period we all shared together. Aside from lunch, I noticed, after comparing our schedules ,the three of us also had biology together,. I had yet to determine if that was a good thing or a bad thing, considering that they were both horrible when it came to the sciences.

We all parted ways to make it to our first period classes. When I looked up from my schedule, to find out which room I was supposed to go to, I noticed that Bella was walking a few feet in front of me, seemingly heading for the same class as me. I instantly became nervous. I was determined to talk to her, but I thought that I would have more time to psych myself for it. Luckily, I saw that she was wearing her ear buds. I figured that gave me an excuse not to approach her just yet.

When I entered the room, it was already more than half way filled with students; a lot of them didn't seem happy to be there. There was an empty seat to the right of Bella. Although I wasn't ready to talk to her, I wasn't going to [ass up the opportunity to sit next to her. On my way over, I saw that there were other people looking at her and whispering. None of them probably knew about her coming back, either. She wasn't really new, but her coming back still caused some gossip. As I passed some students I overheard some of the things being said about her, fairly rude things. It didn't make sense; she was well liked when she attended here a year ago. How could these people talk badly about her when she hadn't really been gone that long at all?

She still hadn't taken off her ear buds as the teacher entered the room. However, because she had such long hair, they were easily hidden, along with the rest of her face. The teacher began roll call, making sure that everyone who was in the class was accounted for. She called someone whose last name was Stach, and I assumed Bella's name would be next. And it was. However, she didn't hear when her name was called.

"Isabella Swan?" the teacher called again, looking around for someone to claim the name.

When Bella didn't make a move to answer, I tapped her on her shoulder. I thought that she would have been startled, seeing as she wasn't paying attention to her surroundings. On the contrary though, she looked at me as if she was expecting someone to call her to attention.

And the look she gave me. It was kind of startling. Her eyes weren't full of life like the way I remembered. Looking into her eyes, as she seemed to be looking into mine, I saw… nothing. They were just glazed over.

As I felt myself grow uncomfortable looking at her, and her looking at me, I nodded my head to the front of the room towards the teacher. Bella looked at me for a second longer and then turned toward the teacher. The look she gave the teacher seemed intense but vacant at the same time.

"Are you Isabella Swan?" the teacher asked Bella.

Instead of answering yes, Bella simply nodded and continued to look as if she was waiting for something else to be said.

"Of course. I was told about you," the teacher said to no one in particular. She picked up her roll call sheet, a pencil, and made some kind of note on it. Her eyebrows furrowed as she continued to write.

The whole exchange between them was very odd. Bella didn't bother to utter one word to her, not even after the small comment that was made. The teacher accepted her silence as if it was nothing peculiar. If it was another teacher, any other teacher, I'm sure that they would have become frustrated with her already, if not with her silence, than with the fact that she was blatantly not paying attention on the first day and first hour of class.

The rest of the class went on. The teacher finished the roll call and began explaining what would be covered in the class and what was expected of everyone. I tried paying attention, but I couldn't stop thinking of Bella's odd behavior. She was not the Bella that I knew from a little over a year ago, I could already tell.

Aside from Jessica and Tanya, I wasn't so sure who Bella considered to be her friends since I saw her talking to a lot of the student body over the years. There were even some people sitting in the room with us now that I had seen her talk with before. If this was a year ago, I'm sure she would have made conversation with anyone in here, probably me included. She was friendly and outgoing. However, now... she was just there.

When I was finally ready to put the thoughts of Bella to bed, the bell rang. While everyone practically jumped from their seats, I was slow to get up, as was Bella. As I made a show of gathering my few belongings off my desk, I watched her out of the corner of my eye. At first she wasn't making any effort to leave the classroom. If the bell wasn't so loud, I would have thought that maybe she hadn't even heard it. And even if that was the case, there were only a couple of students left in the room, so she had to have known that the bell had rung.

I had to go. I was taking way too long leaving, seeing as I only had to shove my notebook and pen in my book bag. I saw her finally get up to leave when I was about to step out of the room and into the hallway. Before she completely disappeared from sight, I took a glance at her once again. She must have sensed my presence, because she looked up from the floor and stared right into my eyes as I looked into hers. Still, her eyes looked empty. Not wanting to become uncomfortable again, I quickly looked away and continued to my next class.

~~O~~

I was the first to make it to the lunch room and sat at the table that my friends and I had been occupying since freshman year. The sense of familiarity was a nice feeling, a distraction from the one thought that had been on repeat in my head all morning.

Bella.

I couldn't get her haunting look out of my head. She hadn't given me much to think about, since we hadn't really interacted except for a few silent seconds, but it was still enough to have left me feeling completely clueless and confused.

I sat in the seat closest to the window and just looked around the crowded cafeteria. Although it was the first day of school, there was still an excited charge in the air. People were catching up with friends that they hadn't seen during the summer, retelling the tales of their summer adventures.

I continued scanning the crowd, hoping that I found the set of brown eyes that I was looking for. I hadn't noticed that someone approached me until I heard the chair scrape against the floor next to me.

"She's on the lunch line," Rosalie said as she tossed her bag on the table.

I looked at her confused while she grabbed a smaller brown bag out of her massive purse.

"Who?" I asked, knowing exactly who she was talking about. What I couldn't figure out though was how she knew I was searching the room for her.

"Bella, but you knew that already," she answered, finally looking at me, smirking.

"Whatever," I mumbled, not even bothering to come up with some smart remark. I had been caught so there was no point in denying it.

"Have you had any classes with her?" I asked Rosalie, just as everyone else joined us at the table donning lunch trays.

"Class with who?" Jasper asked, popping the top on his can of soda.

"Bella. Did any of you guys have class with her this morning?" I repeated the question.

"I had math with her. She was late, though," Emmett responded, smothering his fries with ketchup.

"How was she? Like was she talking to a lot of people, or was she keeping to herself, what?" I know I sounded desperate, but I was extremely curious. Maybe she was just tired during first period. That was a reasonable explanation for her behavior, or lack thereof.

"I dunno, kinda quiet I guess. I wasn't really paying attention to her, but I didn't see her talking to anyone. Why, is lil' Eddie jealous already?" Emmett said teasingly, stuffing his mouth with the dry burger that the school served.

"No, dick," I said, shoving him and causing him to choke and laugh at the same time. "I had English with her first period, and she was acting kind of weird. She wasn't talking and she had this weird look in her eyes."

"Maybe she was just tired," Alice spoke, voicing my earlier thoughts.

I turned my eyes back to the crowded room. Bella should have gotten off the line by now and sat at a table. Continuing my search, I finally found her sitting a few tables away with Jessica. Bella only had an apple and a red water bottle in front of her on the table, not much at all.

Jessica was talking excitedly while flaring her arms in the air. Bella sat there, intently listening and not offering her own input. I watched for a few minutes, but the scene never changed. Bella never talked. After a few more minutes of looking at the two girls, Bella eyes shifted off of Jessica and seemed to zero in on me.

Again, she looked at me lifelessly. Actually, it appeared like she was looking at me, but through me at the same time. This time, instead of looking away, my gaze stayed locked with hers. I refused to be the one who turned away first. I wasn't sure how long we stayed in this staring match, but eventually, she was the one to break the spell and look back to her lunch companion. Jessica looked behind her, probably trying to figure out what was distracting Bella. When she saw me looking at their table, Jessica narrowed her eyes at me. She looked pissed. Why? I had no idea.

I decided to focus my attention back on my own table when I felt myself getting a headache from trying to figure out what Bella's deal was from thirty feet away. I heard the tail end of the conversation that was going on around me. It turned out that all five of us had biology together the next period. I listened as the talking continued, only offering my input when asked.

~~O~~

We entered the biology classroom early at the request of Alice, hoping to find desirable seats that we would be able to keep throughout the year. Surprisingly, we were not the first to enter. Sitting at the last table at the back of the room was Bella. I hadn't even noticed that she left the cafeteria before we did.

"C'mon, we should go say hi and welcome her back," Alice said. She grabbed Jasper's hand, tugging him along, as the rest of us followed behind them. I thought that when the time came for me to approach Bella, I would be alone. However, I figured with the weirdness of the morning, it was a good idea to have them interact with her too. This way, I could figure out if maybe I was just being paranoid or if she really was just tired this morning.

As we made our way over to her, she looked at us, never letting her eyes veer anywhere else. I didn't know if anyone else saw, but she still had that look in her eyes.

"Hey, Bella. Welcome back to Forks," Alice greeted excitedly, expecting some kind of verbal form of communication from Bella.

Nothing.

Bella just stared at Alice, like she hadn't even heard her speaking directly to her. Bella hadn't even bothered to crack a small, friendly smile. She just stared blankly, frighteningly.

I chanced a glance at Alice and noticed she looked a little hurt by Bella's lack of response. But just like the Alice that I knew, she plastered a smile on her face again and made another attempt.

"So what are your classes like?" she asked in an earnest attempt to get Bella to respond.

Nothing.

At this point, I knew that I wasn't being paranoid this morning. Something was definitely different about Bella. The old Bella would have happily answered Alice when she said hi. This Bella was actually kind of creepy with the way that she just stared.

"Cat got your tongue?" Rosalie asked. She was annoyed and probably pissed that Bella was obviously ignoring not only Alice, but us as well.

Bella didn't even bother looking at Rosalie when she said that. She seemed to be looking at all of us, but none of us at the same time. Like I said, I was starting to find her act kind of creepy, and frankly, extremely rude.

"Whatever," Rosalie muttered as she turned to find an empty table. Everyone, including myself, turned and followed her. I occupied the empty seat next to Angela Webber.

Everyone talked to each other, still catching up, until Mr. Banner walked into class and called for order. I looked over my shoulder towards Bella. The seat next to her remained empty. Suddenly, Ben Cheney ran into class late and took the only empty seat, the seat next to Bella.

I was a little, or actually, a lot jealous. Even though she was acting weird, that didn't mean that I still didn't want to get to know her. One weird day couldn't erase the feelings that I'd had for her all these years, after all. However, it did make me feel a little better when Bella didn't acknowledge him either when he said hi to her.

There was definitely something wrong with Bella. She was just too different from when she left. I was determined to find out. I just hoped that whatever I found out wasn't as messed up as the scenarios my mind was currently coming up with.

AN: ...so this is the new story. Love it? Hate it? Let me know with a review. I also have another story up, Fighting Our Fate, which I started to distract me from this one when I was having a hard time with chapter 4. It's a vamp fic that will be going unbeta'd that could use some serious loving. Til next time!