Surviving High School

Mean

A/N: Thanks so much for reading and reviewing, gang!  It's mucho appreciated.  I'll let you know right now, that I probably won't have a schedule for posting this story.  Like I said in my other A/N, the story is done.  It's just a matter of revising and posting the chapters.  You might get a bunch of updates in a row, or maybe one a week.  Let's just say that I will post at least once a week.  Sound good?

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"Good morning, Bella," a musical voice said from behind me. I turned around to find Edward standing near me.

"Hi Edward," I managed to squeak out. Oh, Lord, I sounded like a chipmunk, and I could feel the blush starting to take over. He just flashed me that panty-dropping grin and put his arm around my shoulder.

"Ready for our biology lab today?" he asked. I knew I was supposed to answer him, but all I could think of was the fact that he had his arm around me and was guiding me toward my locker. It took me a few tries before I got it open, and after I took out the books I would need, Edward reached over and grabbed them.

"Here Babe, I got 'em."

 Huh? Did he just call me babe? I was so completely lost as to what was going on that I just didn't say anything. He walked me toward homeroom, all the while talking about the upcoming football game against our rival team, and I just nodded and smiled where I deemed it appropriate it and then it happened. He leaned down and kissed me. Edward Cullen kissed me! I wasn't sure why he was kissing me, but I sure wasn't going to complain. I leaned into him to kiss him harder, wrapping my arms around his neck, delving my fingers into his glorious hair and-

Beeeeepppp!

I rolled over and sighed. I knew it had been too good to be true. The Edwards of the world always end up with the Victorias, not the Bellas. It was bad enough that I had dreamed about him, but today I would not only have to see him, but actually talk to him. Then I remembered what Ben had told me last night about Victoria, and I started to feel sick. Maybe I should just stay home from school today. Better yet, maybe Charlie could homeschool me, but the thought of never seeing Edward was enough to make me get out of bed and get ready to face whatever horrors awaited me.

I got ready for school and climbed into Chuck, my old truck. As Chuck roared to life, I turned on the radio, only to hear Beck's Loser coming out of my speakers. Yeah. Not the best song to start my day off with. I turned off the radio and drove the rest of the way to school in silence.

Turning into the school parking lot, I found a spot next to Tyler's van, parked, gathered up my crap and headed toward homeroom. I'd had a fairly accident-free morning, so I should have known something was going to happen; I managed to trip over thin air, went sprawling and banged my knee on the concrete steps leading up to the building. Fuck! That really hurt.

"God, she is so pathetic! You should have seen her throwing herself at Eddie yesterday. First, she ran into him when we were heading to lunch, and when that didn't get his attention, she accidentally tripped and fell into his desk in biology. What a loser."

I quickly picked myself up off the ground and grabbed my backpack, trying to hurry into the building. I wouldn't let Victoria and her friends see the tears that were starting to form in my eyes as they laughed at me. Sure, she'd always been rude to me, but ever since I'd run into Edward yesterday, it was like she'd decided that I was out to get her man and therefore I was the enemy. I brushed away the few tears that were starting to fall and hurried over to my locker.

"Morning, Bella."

"Hey, Ben."

"What's wrong? Why are you crying?" Ben asked.