Chapter 3: The worry of a friend

October

One month has passed since I moved to Alaska. Ever since my birthday, I and Edward have been
together every day. That night, the Cullen’s invited my parents to their house to dinner, and it
became a big party. Both Charlie and Renée became greatly surprised by the luxurious building as I
had, and we all enjoyed the rest of that perfect night together. Alaska wasn’t as bad as I first thought;
it was much, much better…

“Bellie, come on or we’ll miss the buss!” Edward called from the hall, and I hurriedly threw down all
my notebooks in my backpack and ran down the stairs. Unfortunately, I forgot what running made
me do: fall. Three steps from the bottom, I tripped on my own foot, and began to fall towards the
floor in high speed. But I didn’t hit the ground as I thought would; I hit Edward instead. He had tried
to prevent me from falling, but came one second too late. I crashed onto him, and sent us both flying
to the floor.

“Ouch…” he groaned beneath me and I blushed in embarrassment. I was lying on top of him, our
faces inches away from each other.

“I’m so sorry!” I gushed, and immediately got off him. We both sat up, and I saw how Edward rubbed
the back of his head. Our eyes met, and his pained grimace changed to a grin.

“It’s okay. Just take it easy next time; you can get hurt.” He said, and then rose from the floor and
stretched out a hand for me. I gratefully took it, and he helped me up from the ground.

“What’s all that noise?” Renée called from the kitchen and entered the hall with a small concerned
frown on her face. She was wearing her small apron that she had bought in forks when she was in
her baking phase. It passed quickly (like they all do) but at the time, our kitchen was a nightmare. You
didn’t go near the kitchen unless you really, really needed it. And if she asked you to taste one of her
cookies she had made, you ran as fast as your legs could carry you. I was dumb enough to actually
eat one of her creations and ended up with food poisoning for the rest of the week.
Edward grinned at her with one of his special, innocent grins that could get him out of anything, even
if he wasn’t the one who did it.

“Bella just took a small stumble down the stairs, that’s all. She was lucky to fall on me, or she
might’ve been seriously hurt.” Renée’s eyes wandered to me, and her frown deepened.

“What did I tell you about running down the stairs?” She shook her head to herself and then walked
over to me and bent down so or eyes were at the same level. “Just be careful honey, I don’t want you
to hurt yourself.” Then she kissed my forehead and smiled. “Now get going or both of you will be
late!”

We both followed her advice and hurried out of the door with our school bags. We walked quickly
(since obviously, I can’t run) and as we rounded the corner, we spotted the small, silver bus that was
waiting by the bus stop. Our school was very small and didn’t really have many students so it didn’t
have a school bus so we had to take the communal one instead. As we approached, I could hear the
music that blasted from the poor speakers in the old bus.
We stepped onto the bus and got greeted by the driver –Madanapal. He was an Indian man who had
moved to the U.S when he was in his young twenties, and had traveled around the whole country.
Madanapal –or “Pal”, as we used to call him, was a very funny person. He wasn’t like most of the bus
drivers in the world –grumpy and mean. He was friendly, talkative and very, very cheerful. He always
listened to old Michael Jackson albums and 80’s music and often sang along as loud as he could;
earning him some laughs and chuckles from the whole bus.

“Hey Edward! Don’t come so late, I was worried you wouldn’t show up!” he said as he closed the
door behind us and began to drive away from the bus stop.

“Sorry, got help up.” He said as we sat down at the front seats, and Madanapal immediately let his
eyes wander to me.

“Hey Bellie, what did I tell you about running?” he said with a wistful look in his eyes, and I blushed.
There was no surprise he knew I had fallen when I had tried to run; under the one month we had
known each other, he seemed to have figured out absolute everything about me. He smirked, and
then shook his head and looked back at the road ahead. “Be more careful next time or you’ll end up
like my cousin Akash.”

I stared at him with a small frown. “What happened to your cousin?” I carefully asked, wondering if I
actually wanted to know. His retorting look told me I didn’t and then he looked ahead with a stern
face.

“There’s a dangerous world out there…” he said almost mysteriously, and was just about to start
another subject when Beat it came on and he immediately dropped his sad subject and cheered up
enormously and began to drum with the beat on his steering wheel. Edward smiled and we both sat
quietly and watched him as he sang along with the song with much enthusiasm.

After the 15 minutes long bus drive we finally arrived to school and we both got off, waving goodbye
to Pal as we went. He smiled back to us, and then drove off, the music fading away as he went.
Edward turned to me and smiled.

“Ready for another ‘fun’ day at school?” he asked with sarcasm in his voice. I giggled, but nodded.
We began to walk towards the school when a cheerful voice called our names.

“Bella! Edward!” Alice shouted over the parking lot, and began to walk over towards us. A few feet
away from her stood Emmet, Rosalie and Jasper. Rosalie and Jasper were the Hale twins and were
the same age as Emmet. Edward, Alice and I went to the Denali Elementary school in the 5 th grade
and Emmet and the twins went to the Denali middle school in the 6 th grade. Both of the schools
where exactly next to each other and both of the schools shared the cafeteria. Even though Emmet
often teased his siblings, he was the most overprotective brother I’ve ever met.

A few weeks back, Alice got asked out by a boy in our class. She didn’t know what to tell him, so she
asked him to wait until lunch for her response. Once lunch came, the boy never showed up. Turns
out, the boy whose name was Tim, was ambushed a lesson after he had asked Alice out by a very
pissed Emmet. Rumor had traveled to Emmet’s class in that short time and when he met him, he
didn’t go easy on him. When the teachers arrived, it was almost
“Hey Bella, I had a feeling you would come now.” She said with a smile on her face, and took my
hand. “Come on, let’s go!” Without any further words, she proceeded to drag me towards the school,
leaving Edward behind.

“You’re just going to leave me here?” He asked after us and began to catch up with us, walking with
long strides. Alice smirked and rolled her eyes, still looking ahead.

“I knew it wouldn’t matter asking you to come or not since you would anyway.” She said with a
shrug, and Edward scoffed at her as he walked up next to me. This was something she often did;
knowing what was going to happen in the future. She always claimed it was pure luck, but Edward
and I knew it was more than just ‘luck’. Every time she announced something that was going to
happen in the future, either it was 5 minutes from there of a whole week, she was always right.

“You could’ve asked anyway.” He muttered sourly as we walked inside. The gray walls in the
corridors of Alaska Elementary were always neatly decorated with colorful pictures painted by the
students, and as we slowly made our way to our home classroom, chatting happily with each others,
we got stopped by one of the teachers; Miss Sims. Miss Sims was a young, sour English teacher that
always found faults in everything you did, and if you tried to explain to her that you actually weren’t
doing anything against the rules, she sent you to the principal.

“You are not supposed to run in the corridors! Haven’t I told you this at least a hundred times??” she
said in her shrill voice, and the three of us immediately stopped talking and stared at her. Her blond
hair was in its usual bun on her head, and her piercing glare made me shiver.

“We’re sorry, Miss Sims.” We all said together in a quit monotone, and her expression turned smug.

“Very well, off you go! If I see you doing something like this again, I will send you to the principal’s
office.” She said, and as soon as she made it clear that we were allowed to go, we as quickly as
possible (without running) fled from her.

“I hate her…” Alice muttered bitterly as we had rounded the corner of the corridor, and both Edward
and I nodded in agreement.

“What I wonder is why she’s a teacher at all?? I mean, she absolutely detests kids!” Edward
exclaimed, and I scoffed. Even though I had only been there a month, I knew exactly what the meant.
In the short time I have stayed here in Alaska, I’ve gotten 5 detentions by Miss Sims.

“She’s a real pain in the-“I was just about to say, when I suddenly was attacked by someone on my
left. I shrieked in surprised, and the hard push I had received from the unknown attacker sent me
flying to the floor, taking him/her with me.

“Bella!” Alice and Edward yelled together in the background, and I found myself staring into the eyes
of my attacker; Sam Wells. Sam was the sweetest, nicest boy I knew here in Alaska (except for
Edward that is). He was like me, a little clumsy, and was Edward’s best friend (besides me).

“Sam?! What are you doing? You scared the hell out of me!” I said as I sat up and rubbed my head
where it unfortunately had gotten a pretty bad hit.
“I’m sorry Bella, I was just about to say hi to you all when I tripped and…” he trailed off in uncertainty
and his innocent eyes fell to the floor.

“I’m so, so, so sorry! I promise I’ll never do it again! Please forgive me! I’ll do your homework for 2
weeks! 3 if you want; anything!” he began to ramble and I sighed. This was typically of Sam. As I said,
he was the sweetest and kindest boy in the world (except Edward), but as soon as he made a
mistake, he acted like he had destroyed the world.

“Sam…” I tried, but I knew it didn’t have any effect on him. He just continued to apologize, and after
a few seconds I just stopped listening. I looked back at Edward and Alice, and I saw an amused smile
on Edward lips as he watched me and Sam.

He slowly walked over to us, and before I knew it, he had lifted Sam up from the floor, grabbing the
back of his jacket. Sam, who still was blabbering on an on, stopped and stared at Edward in surprise.

“Sam, relax. It was an accident.” He said laughing, and Sam blushed. He and I were quite similar to
each other when you thought about it. He was as clumsy as me, he could blush as easily as me and
he hated cabbage (just like me). Both Alice and Edward had both told me that he wasn’t as flustered
as he appeared to be when he was with me otherwise; that it was something he had developed since
he met me, but I don’t know about that. It just seemed to fit with his personality perfectly.

“Are you okay??” Edward asked me, and stretched out a hand to help me up. I gratefully took it and
rose from the corridor floor, feeling how my head ached more after each second.

“Yeah, I’m fine…” I trailed off when I saw Sam’s face, which made me laugh. He was staring at me
adoringly with wide eyes and his mouth open like a small ‘o’. When he noticed I had started to laugh,
he immediately began to blush, and looked highly embarrassed.

“Sam, it’s okay. It was an accident; I get it.” I said with a smile despite the small pain I felt in the back
of my head.

“A-a-are you su-“

“Yes, I’m sure. Geez, all of you guys have to stop worry about me.” I said with a grin, and was just
about to turn around and walk over to Alice when I instead turned and walked straight into a wall. I
could hear the others’ laughs echo through the corridor. The irony was clear for anyone in this
situation, and I gritted my teeth in frustration and anger. Without a word, I rose once again from the
floor and began to brush off the dust from my clothes. Then I turned my head towards Sam and
Edward, who both still were chuckling at my wonderful performance.

“Not. A. Word.” I hissed, and my anger seemed to get through to one of them at least, and Sam
immediately stopped laughing. Edward on the other hand just laughed even more, and then walked
over to my side and put an arm around my shoulders.

“What would we do without you??” he said with a sigh, and then together, we walked into the
classroom.

*After school*
“See you tomorrow Bella!” Sam yelled as he ran towards his mother’s car where she was waiting for
him.

“Bye!” I called back, and then I turned back to Alice, who was staring at me with a sly grin. Edward
had gone ahead whilst Alice and I had said goodbye to Sam, and talked with Emmet and Jasper and
Rosalie, who were about 100 meters ahead of us.

“What?” I asked, knowing that this look of hers meant that she was thinking something I didn’t like.

“Bella, how can you not see this?! He’s so into you!” she exclaimed, and I immediately began to blush
furiously. Sam?!?! No, there was no way that Sam liked me…was it?

“He’s not, Alice! Just drop it!” I hissed back, afraid that Edward or the others would hear. If Emmet
found out about this, I’m not sure what he would do…

She continued to grin slyly, but shrugged. “Suit yourself. Come and talk with me when he confesses.
It won’t be long now.” She said, and her self-confidant words made me blush again; this time in
anger. I gave her a playful slap on her head, and she cried out in protest.

“Hey! Don’t blame me, I’m just a messenger!” she said sourly, and then pouted at me with her tiny
lips. I sighed and then noticed that Emmet and the other had stopped ahead and was now waiting for
us to catch up. As we reached them, Jasper raised one of his eyebrows questionably at me, and then
looked at Alice.

“What did you say this time?” he asked her, and she glared back at him, angry for being accused.

“I didn’t do anything! I just said that Sam is going to confess to her soon judging by the way she’s
looking at her!” She said, and as soon as her message was out, they all began to grin slyly at me
(except Edward, who looked surprisingly displeased).

“Ooh, so that’s what this is all about.” Emmet said, and grinned at me. He placed one hand on my
shoulder and then proceeded to ruffle my hair with his other hand. When he was done, my hair
looked like a haystack. I immediately began the impossible mission to make it look remotely normal
again, but it was a lost cause, and I dropped my hands to my sides in defeat.

“Don’t worry Bellie.” he said, and I sighed.

“I’m not worrying about this; you are. And besides, she’s lying. He doesn’t like me.” I said, and
Rosalie immediately began to giggle. Then she came over to me and gave me a hug.

“I’m sure you’ll solve this perfectly.” She said, and then let me go and began to walk away together
with her brother to their parent’s car, which was unusual since they often followed us home. Eric
Hale and Anna Hale sat in the car, and as they saw how their children came towards them, both of
their faces lit up with glorious smiles. When you saw the two, blond, beautiful parents, you
understood where the twins had gotten their good looks from. Eric was the only one in the Hale
family who had blue eyes; the others had taken after their mother and had brown eyes. Anna and
Eric came from Scandinavia, and had moved to the US together when they decided to become
models, and after they had lived there for a few years, they had Rosalie and Jasper. Their dialect was
quite funny, but (according to Rosalie) luckily the children of the family hadn’t been affected, and
spoke with perfect, fluently English.

They both worked as models, and often worked out of the country or in a different state. It was
unusual that they were home, both of them at the same time, but not impossible. Esme and Carlisle
often helped them when they couldn’t stay home and take care of Rosalie and Jasper, and they were
very grateful for that. I had only met them four times since I had moved to Alaska, but judging by
those four times, I thought they were really nice people.

“Bella, hurry!” It was Edward’s voice who made me come back to reality. The others were already
heading towards the bus that had arrived, and I hurriedly followed them, not really keen on missing
the bus and waiting an hour for the next one.

*Later at the Cullen’s house*

The clock ticked loudly in the living room as we all sat silently. Without the twins company, our lively
group who usually had no problem at finding out things to do, sat silently in the family sofa. Emmet
had planned to have a game marathon with Jasper, and Alice had wanted to try out some new
clothes she had gotten this last weekend. But with their playmates gone, their planes were
worthless.

At last, Emmet groaned in frustration, and stood up, and Alice followed his example.

“I can’t stand it anymore! We have to do something or I’ll bore myself to death!” he exclaimed in a
frustrated voice, and Alice nodded in agreement.

“Me too!”

Edward sighed, and shrugged. “Then suggest something to do then.” He said, leaning against my
shoulder with a bored expression.

"Okay…How about hide and seek??" Alice asked, jumping up and down of excitement and sugar rush.
"Eh…sure. I'll start counting." I said, not having anything against the idea (even though it sounded a
little childish) and walked over to a wall, folding my hands over my eyes and began to count out loud.
I heard how Alice and Emmet ran off, giggling in the progress, but I heard no sign of Edward leaving
the room. Maybe he was just quieter than the others…
“58…59…one minute!” I called and turned around, looking around the room. Of course, no one was
there. I thought for about all the places they could hide, but I didn’t know the house that well, so I
just decided to go upstairs. As I reached the hall, I looked around in confusion. I had no idea which of
these doors the others had chosen, so I chose the closest one; Edward’s door.
"Edward??" I called into the room as I walked forward. I know that it was stupid to call his name; he
was hardly going to answer, but it was worth a try anyway. I was just about to call his name again
when I stepped on something; a skateboard. The skateboard rolled forward with incredible speed,
and I immediately began to fall. I thought it was just another one of my many falls, and that I was
going to hit the hard ground and just walk away with a headache, but boy was I wrong. As I fell, my
head hit his desk that stood against the south wall in the room. Pain flashed just above my forehead
and black spots clouded my vision.
In the background, I heard how someone said something, but I couldn’t hear what it was; it sounded
like it was so far away.
"Ow…" I said weakly, and slowly moved one hand to my forehead where the pain where. I felt how
someone knelt beside me, but I didn’t notice; I was staring at my blood covered hand. The scent of it
overwhelmed me, and before I knew it, everything just became black.
"Da…help…” I heard Edward’s voice in the haze, and then it disappeared along with everything else.
*After an unknown length of time*
“Bella…” someone called me, and as the seconds passed, everything started to get clearer. I opened
my eyes, and found myself staring into Dr. Carlisle’s brown ones. He was staring intently at me, and
as he saw that I was getting more and more conscious by the second, his expression became less and
less anxious.
“Bella, you’re at the hospital. How do you feel??”
“I’m…”I trailed off, and thought about it. How did I feel?? I vaguely remembered how I looked for the
others whilst we played hide and seek, and then… I tripped on the skateboard. I hit my head on the
desk…and then I don’t remember anything else. I felt how my head hurt under all the bandage I had
wrapped around my skull, and the gash I had gotten from my fall still hurt; a lot.
“My head hurts…” I said, my voice sounding weak and strained just by saying those three words.
“We’ve given you some pain medicine for the wound, so you’ll hopefully be fine. Your bloodlust
wasn’t fatal, and wound wasn’t so big, only deep. You’re going to be okay.” He said, and as soon as I
had been given those reassuring words, my stiff muscles finally seemed to be able to relax.
“You should get some sleep, your body needs to rest.” He said, and patted my cheek gently, carefully
avoiding the bandage.
“Where’s…where’s Edward?” I asked, feeling how my mind got more and more tired by the second.
Carlisle smiled warmly at me, and then turned his head around and said something. A few seconds
later, Edward entered the room, his eyes red and swollen, signs of that he had cried.
“Bella, are you okay??” he asked, his voice trembling with concern and sadness. I managed to give
him a weak smile, and placed my hand on top of his that was resting on the edge of the bed.
“Geez, all of you guys have to stop worry about me; I’m fine.” I said, using the same words that I had
earlier that day, and he slowly managed to smile back. I closed my eyes, too tired to fight the fatigue
any longer.
Edward scoffed. “How could I not worry about you, you silly girl.” He said, and then sleep found me
and dragged me under the surface.