Bella's Little Sister Re-write

Chapter 4

The day was pretty uneventful, at least until we got to biology. Eric was making small talk with me about being on the prom committee and wanted to know if I would give him a playlist of music. My sister had very obviously tuned him out, which is what I would have loved to do, but I was far too nice of a person. 

I shrugged away from the drops of rain Mike was shaking off his hat above Jess and I as he greeted us. Tossing her an apologetic expression, I glanced forward, only to quickly stop in place next to her. A feeling of worry washed over me at seeing Edward Cullen in his place next to where Jess usually sat. When I turned my gaze upon her, Jess shook her head once, a silent indication that I did not yet need to intervene. 

I glanced at him in passing as I sat down, noting the strange golden color of his eyes. Weren't they black before? Another thing about his eyes that surprised me was that they were absolutely clear of any hatred or frustration. 

"Hello." 

Jess was slow to look in his direction at his greeting. I knew she was still rather angry at how he had reacted to her last week. 

"I'm sorry I didn't get a chance to introduce myself last week," Edward continued speaking to Jess, oblivious to her sour mood. "I'm Edward Cullen. You're Jess?" 

"You can talk to her all you want, but she won't respond." My tone was a little more bitter than what I had intended it to be. Edward briefly met my gaze before looking back at Jess again, appearing mildly confused. 

He never got a chance to say anything further, as that was when Mr. Molina began speaking to the class. After explaining the lab we would be conducting today, his gaze fell upon me. "Miss Swan, you can move to work with your sister and Mr. Cullen." 

I moved the stool I had been sitting on next to Jess, placing my papers down on the table. Edward pushed the microscope closer to us, his eyes locked onto my sister, watching her almost intently. "You were gone," I said to him as I turned the microscope towards me. 

There was a slight hesitation in his tone, as though he were choosing his words very carefully. "Yeah," he began slowly. "I was out of town for a couple of days. Personal reasons. Do you mind if I look?" Edward then asked me, referring to the stage of mitosis I had just claimed the slide to be. 

Jess and I exchanged a glance, both of us noticing how quickly he had glanced at the slide; it was barely long enough of a look to actually get a good glance at it. Edward was once again looking at Jess, studying her the way she often studied everyone else. 

"So are you enjoying the rain?" 

Edward's question was aimed towards me, though I could tell he was hoping for a response from Jess. I shook my head, darting my gaze around the room briefly as I released a breath of near disbelief at his chosen topic of conversation. "You're asking us about the weather?" 

With another shake of my head, I explained to him that I really didn't mind it so much, though my sister was not particularly happy about it. She preferred the heat over the cold. Once again, Jess tuned out the conversation, choosing instead to watch the rain pour heavily outside. It was true that she did not enjoy the rain, but that certainly didn't mean she wasn't still fascinated by it. Jess had always been easily entertained, and her curiosity had remained with her as she grew older. 

Edward announced the stage of the next slide, smirking as I questioned him on whether or not he minded if I looked. His smirk only grew more pronounced as I agreed with him. "If your sister hates the cold and the rain so much, why did she move to the wettest place in the continental US?" He was once again watching my sister watch the rain, and he pressed on before I had the chance to respond to his question. "She seems to be fascinated by the rain." 

"Yeah, that's just how she is," I stated. "Jess enjoys learning, though you would never be able to tell it just by looking at her." Silence drifted over us momentarily. "But to answer your question of why she moved here..." I took a breath, hesitating as I tried to think of the best way to answer, but the only thing I could come up with was, "It's complicated." 

Jess finally turned away from the window to meet Edward's gaze. Her hazel eyes scrutinized his expression, waiting for his next words. I chanced a look between the two of them once or twice before ultimately deciding just to tell him. "Our mom remarried and..." 

"So Jess doesn't like the guy, or..." Edward guessed, leaving his question to hang in the air. 

"No, that's not..." I faltered again as I watched Jess fiddle with the silver and green four-leaf clover necklace she always wore. Why is he so interested in Jess anyway? I mused quickly. "Phil's really nice." 

Edward took control of the microscope, changing out the slide for the final time. Another faint smile played on his face as he said, "It's metaphase. Do you want to check it?" 

I shook my head quickly. "I believe you." I did not bother to stop my sister from grabbing her backpack and leaving the room once she saw that class was pretty much over. My mind was racing, trying to figure out just why Edward Cullen had taken such a sudden liking to my sister, after having hated her so intently the week before. 

Edward walked next to me as I slowly meandered my way through the throng of students milling about in the hallway. I shifted my grip on my backpack, inching it up higher on my shoulder as I looked back at him. "Why didn't Jess move with your mother and Phil?" 

"Phil is a minor league baseball player, and he travels a lot. Our mom stayed home with us most of the time, but I knew it made her unhappy. So I figured we would stay with our dad for a while." 

Jess shifted out of the way as we approached her, allowing me to open my locker. 

"And now Jess is unhappy," Edward mused.

Taking a deep breath, I thought over his words. "I'm not actually sure. Jess always wears that blank expression-I've started calling it a mask-so it's hard for me to tell what she's feeling." I pulled open my locker, placing the golden onion from biology on the top shelf. "Jess stopped talking to everyone years ago, back when she was eleven. Jess may not be vocal, but she is observant. She notices the little things people don't usually pick up on. She studies people." Why am I even telling him any of this? There really isn't a reason for him to know why Jess went silent-

"I'm sorry," Edward apologized, shaking me from my thoughts. His eyes turned to Jess again. "I'm just trying to figure her out. She's very difficult for me to read." 

"Yeah," I sighed heavily as I closed my locker again. "That's part of her mask. It's like she's built up this wall to keep people out. She very rarely shows her emotions, but when she does, it's usually when I'm the only person around." 

Something occurred to me then, as I stood there watching Edward watch Jess. I abruptly questioned if Edward had gotten contacts, though he declined. I remembered the black color of his eyes last week, noting that they were now more of a golden-brown. Edward cut me off, closing his eyes in what seemed to be a show of frustration. He claimed that it was the fluorescents making his eyes look the way they did now. 

Edward turned and walked away quickly, leaving me in a rather stunned silence. 

I took my time walking out to the truck. Once I reached the parking lot, I stopped momentarily to speak with Angela and Jessica, though Jess continued to head towards the truck to wait for me. I didn't pay much attention to what Jess was doing while I spoke with them, but that all changed as soon as I realized that Tyler's van was screeching toward Jess at an alarming rate. 

I could hear myself screaming for her to move, to get out of the way, but she remained still, rooted in place. Whether it was from fear or something else entirely, I didn't know. But by then I was running across the lot, stopping quickly when Jess suddenly disappeared from my view as Tyler's van hit the bumper of my truck.