Claircognizance / / J. Hale

{8 A Long Week}

Bella Swan

Bella woke up the next morning with a renewed sense of conviction. Today would be the day that she confronted Edward Cullen. Bella reflected on the very words that Evelyn had told her the day before, maybe Edward was just having a bad day and Bella had unintentionally become the centre of his bad attitude, or maybe he was just generally uptight and arrogant. After all if the words that Jessica said were true, and Bella was taking her words with a very large heaping of salt, than the Cullens did not talk to anyone outside their family unless it was absolutely necessary.

As Bella pulled into the Forks high school car park she let her eyes roam around the general mass of students that found themselves dawdling through the spaces in a half-ass attempt to get to the places that the needed to be before first period started. As her eyes fell onto the Cullens unofficial territory of spaces she was half disappointed to find it empty, but this only meant that she could wait until they finally showed up. Even if it's was only to get a glance at Edward before she would confront him in biology. The familiar rumble of her sisters motorcycle broke its way through her subconscious mumbling as her eyes were drawn to the sight. But just a few seconds behind her where the vehicles of the Cullens, Emmett was stood in the backseat of the Jeep, eyes seeming to stare her down judgementally as if he could sense that she was waiting for their arrival.

Out came every single Cullen and Hale sibling par the one boy that Bella found herself waiting for and she couldn't help but feel pure and unadulterated disappointment seeping into her bones at this fact. Letting out a deep sigh Bella began to gather her bag and books before finally getting out of the truck and making her way over to Evelyn. But before she could greet her twin, Evelyn was called over to the Cullens by Alice and Yeong-Sook, who both wore dazzling smiles on their faces. Bella just couldn't understand how each of the siblings had that same ravishing sense of beauty, and a gnawing in her gut told her that there must have been some kind of reason that they all shared the same molten gold irises. However, when Bella tried to bring up this strangeness up to Evelyn she seemed to effortlessly brush off her concerns. She was met with the same answers when she tried to ask both last night and this morning, Evelyn not seeming to budge from her same 'maybe they wear contacts' and 'Bella it's not my place to question how they look, besides they are outcast enough there is no need to spread more rumours'. While Bella understood that by her very nature, Evelyn would not make an attempt to pry further than the answers the Cullens would give them, Bella simply could not let her curiosity go. Unlike her older sister, Bella just couldn't be satisfied with this seemingly too simple cop out answer.

The Cullens had a secret, one that Bella would find out the answers too no matter what the cost.

It had only been one day since the swan twins had arrived at Forks, but Edward's mysterious disappearance had only further ignited the flames of Bella's curiosity. But what stung even worse than the previous venom filled words of the bronze-haired boy was the way that her sister seemed to so effortlessly fit in with the pale introverted teenagers. That hateful, burning glare of Edward's black near soulless eyes seemed to be imprinted on her very eyelids, resurfacing in perfect recollection each time she closed her eyes. But as Bella sat with her newfound friends, pushing her food around her tray idly, she couldn't help but notice the stares that were making their way over to the Cullen table. Evelyn sat in between Alice and Jasper, the latter who had passed his tray of food over with a carefree smile on his face as soon as she sat down.

Bella did not need to be an empath to sense the jealousy that was grappling Jessica in a near chokehold, the brunette began to almost violently stab at her food after glancing over at the Cullens lunch table. But as Bella glanced further at her sister out the corner of her eye she couldn't help but begin to feel some of that jealousy seep into her own subconscious, like a horribly infectious disease. Bella pretended to pay attention to whatever it was that Eric was enthusiastically rambling about, but like many of the teenagers in the cafeteria, her mind was too preoccupied on Evelyn. As the nature of small town gossip, many of the students seemed curious at how Evelyn Swan had managed to win over the Cullens in a single day.

How badly Bella wished she could have confronted Edward Cullen that day.

But even worse than that second day of school was that fact that Edward proceeded to skip school for the rest of that week. Slowly but surely Bella's initial irritation was beginning to bleed into anger and resentment. It made Bella feel ridiculously small, that Edward had the pure audacity to glare at her like she stunk something horrible, then only to completely school the next week. Like this was all her fault. Even more frustratingly to Bella, Evelyn refused to ask the Cullens where he went, the younger Swan was to her own logic, infuriating met with a simple 'It's none of my business Bells' by her sister.

Surely after their conversation outside the office she should have known how badly Bella wanted to confront Edward? Had the very virtue of her asking each day not solidified this point? It didn't help that Bella had to see Evelyn sitting at the Cullen's lunch table everyday, only to be escorted to maths by Jasper himself. Bella would not admit it to anyone, not even herself but she was hurt at how easy it was for her sister to interact with the near god-like honey blonde boy, while she couldn't even see Edward. It was unbelievably petty and her anger was misplaced, Bella knew this, but she couldn't help but look onto her sister with envy. Bella didn't miss how hurt Evelyn had looked when Bella snapped at her the last time she tried to ask if Bella was okay. She tried not to take her frustrations out on Evelyn, she really put an effort in after snapping at her that night, but Bella supposed that she was just getting moody over the stupid Cullen boy.

Bella than started walking into biology that Monday, thinking nothing of it. Expecting that much like the week before that Edward Cullen would once again be a no show in her life. However, much to her surprise she walked in only to see the bronze-haired beauty sat at his desk with a much more charming smile in his face. The brutal and vicious black eyes were instead replaced by a much more inquisitive and friendly pair of golden eyes. Eyes that would captivate her in ways she couldn't even begin to describe. Her previous anger dissipated almost as quickly as it had built up, the previous weeks grievance seemed to melt into nothing as he spoke the first few words to her that weren't soaked in malice.

"Hello. I'm sorry, I didn't get to introduce myself last week. I'm-I'm Edward Cullen. Your Bella?"

Thanks for reading~