All I Wanted Was the Truth

Walking at my usual leisurely pace towards Biology, I pondered the odd behavior of the Cullen Clan.

I had barely formed the thought when I entered the class. I was slightly surprised - I must've been walking a lot faster than I had realized. That was odd, as I liked to take my time getting to class.

I shrugged inwardly, and made my way to the back of the class, where I always sat. I hated being at the front, where all the attention was focused directly at you. It was nerve wracking.

Class hadn't really started yet, so I had time to dig around my backpack to get my homework out.

Except it wasn't there.

'Crap!' I thought, silently cursing Emmett. In his usual, jolly, happy, slightly intimidating way, he had distracted me from my task - finding my homework and managing to hand it in on time for once. But no, as fate had it, it was not to be.

Mr. Banner was walking down the gap between the work benches, looking haughty as he always did. He turned in the middle of the room, and stopped at Edward Cullens' workbench. But he wasn't alone today, I realized; Isabella Swan was once again gracing my life with her presence. I assumed she had been assigned that seat automatically, and Edward had had no choice, because Edward chose to sit alone in every class I'd ever had with him.

I also noticed Edward was sitting at the very edge of his seat - so close to the edge, in fact, that he was in danger of falling off altogether. I smiled to myself - and stopped, because that was a horrible reaction to his obvious dislike of Ms. Swan.

While I had been observing Edward and Isabella, Mr. Banner had started his dreary lecture. It was something about anatomy, but I wasn't entirely sure. I never paid any attention in Biology. I had only taken it because it had been a 10th Grade course back home in Canada - here, it was an 11th Grade course. I sailed through it without blinking. So, as I did every day, I put my head in my arms and slept the class away.

The bell startled me when it went off - I never expected it. I had been dreaming something about Chief Swan catching his daughter dealing drugs when the high-pitched keening had started, and immediately felt ashamed of my subconscious for thinking up such things.

I heard a slight scraping, and looked up just in time to see Edward beelining it out the door. Isabella was watching after him, a shocked and disappointed look on her face.

'That's Edward for you,' I thought, sighing.

Isabella was gathering her things slowly, and I was a bit surprised to see her near tears. I started gathering my things too, wiping away the pool of moisture I had left on the table while sleeping. Mike Newton walked up to Isabella.

"Aren't you Isabella Swan?" he asked. I rolled my eyes. 'Obviously...' I thought.

I noticed out the corner of my eye that the few people who were left in the room slowed very slightly, hoping to catch a bit of their conversation.

"Bella," she responded, smiling.

"I'm Mike." He was smiling too, always the gentleman.

"Hi, Mike." I let out a snort of laughter, managing to turn it into a believable cough at the last moment. 'How original,' I thought.

"Do you need any help finding your next class?" Yes, her knight in shining armor was certainly working hard to prove himself.

"I'm headed to the gym, actually. I think I can find it."

I had just been through the doorway when Bella said this, and I groaned involuntarily. I bit my lip and hurried away, hoping nobody had heard me. 'Great,' I thought. 'She's in my PE class, too.' And once again, I stopped the flow of insults that ran automatically into my thoughts. I began to wonder why I instinctively disliked Bella Swan - all I knew was, she sparked my sarcastic-slash-bullying nature more than anybody else ever had.

I had been thinking all of this, walking to my locker, with my head down, so I nearly fell over when I banged into something large and very solid.

"Ah!" I blurted, throwing my hands out randomly. I looked up in time to see Emmett Cullen's very large hands grab mine, and he pulled me up with ease. He pulled me up with such ease, in fact, that I was temporarily in the air. I ran my fingers through my hair, embarrassed. "Sorry, Emmett, I wasn't paying attention to where I was going."

He laughed his loud, booming laugh. I fought the instinct to check whether or not my ears were bleeding, and smiled apologetically up at him. "It's okay, I can understand that... I guess." His brow creased for a fraction of a second before smoothing out again. "I take it Edward was okay in Biology today?"

I nodded. "Yeah, but he was avoiding Bella Swan like the plague."

If I hadn't been looking closely for his reaction, I would've missed it. Something shot through his eyes - something that looked wrong on him. His tall, well-muscled body and outgoing nature made him seem indestructible. But the look that came to his face, the shock and distress that flickered through his eyes - it made him seem smaller than I'd ever seen him in my own eyes.

And then it was gone.

"Bella Swan?" he asked, supremely unconcerned. "Weird."

I made a non-committal noise in my throat, still looking at him closely.

After a moment, I guess he noticed, because he raised an eyebrow and said, "What?"

I raised both of my eyebrows, quickly looking away. "Nothing, sorry. Nothing."

He smiled an odd, secretive, knowing smile. "Okay."

I frowned in return. Now it was my turn to ask, "What?" suspiciously.

He smiled wider, a mischievous look in his eye. "Nothing." he replied, mocking my earlier tone.

I was worried now - when a boy, particularly a boy with a reputation as somebody who could snap anyone like a twig, smiled at you like that, it usually wasn't a good thing.

I decided to change gears, and also, to wipe that conspiratorial smile off of his face. "How's Rosalie?" I asked innocently.

Rosalie - his beautiful, mysterious, perfect girlfriend. His smile faltered immediately. "Rose is doing great." He paused. "Why do you ask?"

I worked out my answer carefully. "I was just wondering, because she seemed a bit angry at lunch today."

Emmett shrugged his massive shoulders. "She's great." he said again. That mischievous look was gone now, and I was comforted by that - but a little worried by the way he responded to the subject of Rosalie.

I took control of the conversation once again. "I never really see you or your family - Edward, Jasper, Alice and them, I mean - outside school. Do you guys live very far out of town?"

"Yeah," he said, looking around aimlessly. "We live outside Forks with Carlisle and Esme."

It took me a moment to realize who Carlisle and Esme were, but then it came to me. Dr. Carlisle Cullen and his wife, Esme, lived with their adopted children. Dr. Cullen had treated more than one of my many wounds in the recent past. "Dr. Cullen is nice. He fixed this up for me -" I held up my arm, where a long, pink scar ran down the length of my forearm and to my wrist, '... right after I hopped that chain link fence and tripped."

Emmett looked down at my arm and laughed. "You should be more careful." His eyes scanned the rest of my exposed skin, and he pointed, asking, "What's that one from?"

I looked at my leg, where he was pointing, and grinned. "That's from Coach Clapp's car - I spray-painted it entirely pink, then slashed the tires. But the knife I was using bounced back and got me in the leg. Dr. Cullen sewed that up, too."

Emmett laughed harder. "You vandalized Coach Clapp's car!" he exclaimed, shaking with mirth. "That's awesome!"

I couldn't help laughing, too. "He never caught me, either. I mean, he knows it was me, but there's no proof. He can't do anything."

Emmett stopped laughing, wiping tears away from his eyes. "You're funny." he said decisively.

I waited for more, but he stayed silent, so I said, "Thank you."

He frowned down at me, looking as though he were trying to decide something. Finally, he said simply, "I'll talk to you later." and walked off, smiling slightly to himself.