Gym class was definitely interesting the day the new girl came. We had a choice between volleyball and basketball and it was clear that she was not an athlete what-so-ever. I was on the same team as her and found myself basically playing for her.

But I couldn't be everywhere at the same time, not without being suspiciously fast. So I couldn't get to her before she swatted the ball away from her face and hit Mike in the back of the head over in the basketball court.

She immediately went over to apologize to him and I followed just to make sure the poor guy was alright, "I'm sorry, I told them not to let me play," she apologized.

Mike quickly gave his friend Tyler the ball and ushered him away to play without him, he waved off her apology, "Don't worry about it. You're Isabella right?"

"Just Bella," she corrected when I approached.

"Mike, you good man?" I asked.

He nodded, "Yeah Cate I'm fine, have you met Bella Swan?"

I chuckled, "Not officially but I've been covering you all game so nice to meet you," I greeted.

She gave me a shy smile, "Nice to meet you too...Cate..." she paused.

"Cullen," I finished as Jessica came over, that girl didn't like being left out of anything. Didn't help she had a big crush on Mike.

"She's got a mean spike huh?" She joked before introducing herself to Bella, "Hey, you're from Arizona right?" She asked as if she didn't already know, "Aren't people from Arizona supposed to be...like...really tan?" She asked.

I snorted, "Oh my god Jessica, you can't just ask people why they're not tan!" I joked.

Bella laughed at my Mean Girls reference, "Maybe that's why they kicked me out."

I chuckled while Mike full on laughed, I couldn't help but think c'mon dude it wasn't that funny. The coach was calling us back into the game.

"Just stand behind me the whole time, I got you," I told her.

"Thanks," she whispered.

We didn't really talk much more during gym. I saw Jessica talking to Bella while walking back to the locker room, so I kept to my normal schedule, got changed and headed to meet my siblings so we could walk in to lunch together.

~

I'd met up with my siblings as I pulled on my white leather jacket and asked if they'd met the new girl yet.

"Cate, if I hadn't already seen you with fur and a tail I'd swear you were a puppy cause you're always so excited," Emmett joked as we walked toward the cafeteria.

I laughed as I opened the door and walked in first. My ears immediately picked up someone talking about us, as per usual.

"The Cullens," I knew that voice, it was Angela Webber.

Jessica continued as I sat down and my siblings came in after me, "Dr. and Mrs. Cullen's foster kids. They moved down here from Alaska a few years ago, but you met Cate, they adopted her earlier this year. She started in September. Everyone was all over her for the first few months," I had a small smirk on my face as I went to the lunch line to grab my food.

I kept my ears trained on them, a part of me loved hearing what other people said about us, it was funny to me and I knew my siblings got a small kick out of it too.

Angela's voice picked up where Jessica left off, "Except for Cate, they kinda keep to themselves-"

"Cause they're all together! Like together-together! Except for Cate-" Then Jessica went off introducing the couples in the family.

Bella's tone was curious, "And who's he?" I snuck a glance and saw she was referring to my oldest brother. I started walking back with a sandwich and a water, continuing to eavesdrop on their conversation.

"Doctor Cullen's like this foster dad slash matchmaker. I bet he's trying to get Edward with Cate now since they're the only two single ones," Jessica noted I hid my face in my sandwich but could feel myself shaking with laughter. I heard Edward's chuckle next to me.

"Never in a million years Dracula." He laughed a little harder and we started a small conversation, talking about nonsense just to make it look normal. Until that is I noticed an odd look on his face, "What's wrong?" I asked confused.

"I can't hear her," he whispered.

"What do you mean? I can hear them just fine?"

He leaned in closer, "I can't hear her." He emphasized.

I looked at him confused, he wasn't looking at me, I could tell he was looking at her. Concentration was evident in his facial features but to others it looked like he was pissed- in a way I guess he was. I looked over at Bella as well, it was like I was analyzing her. What was different about her that Edward couldn't hear her thoughts?

I finished my sandwich pretty quickly, my appetite was huge ever since I'd started phasing and the school lunches weren't enough to keep me satisfied which is why I'd started bringing extra food in the compartment in my bike.

"I'll see you in biology," I told Edward before exiting and going to the parking lot to eat the rest of my food.

~

I was a little late to biology since I had to go to the bathroom to adjust my contact. I took out my right contact to put more solution on it. Looking at my bright blue eye I wished I didn't have to put the contact back on, they felt itchy all the time. I loved getting on my bike everyday and zooming home, cause I discarded them on the ride over.

I popped my contact back in and rubbed my eyes for a minute to get the itch to go away. I took my time walking to biology, it's not like I was missing much. But when I walked in I saw my usual seat next to my brother was taken by none other than Bella Swan herself. I was slightly confused, not by my seat being stolen but by Edward's physicality. He was on the edge of his seat, his hand was covering his mouth as if he smelled something repulsive.

"Ms. Cullen, please grab a seat," Mr. Molina caught my attention.

I blinked and realized I'd been staring, "Sorry sir," I apologized and took the open seat behind them. I was sitting by myself now but it wasn't that big a deal. Curiously, I continued to look at Edward, he was sitting as far away from Bella as the seat allowed. As inconspicuous as possible, I leaned forward and took a whiff. She didn't smell bad, there was a lilac scent that I could tell came from her shampoo. So what was Edward being so dramatic over?

Then I had a thought- Have you fed recently? He subtly shook his head at my question and I whispered a profanity, he knew better than to be thirsty at school. I told him that I was going to take him hunting when we got home. I spent the rest of the class thinking of absolute nonsense to keep Edward's mind off his thirst. When I saw him grabbing his stuff I knew the bell was about to ring; we were both out of our seats the moment the bell sounded and out of the room before anyone else even realized class was over.

"You're an idiot, you know that?" I growled at him.

"I need to transfer out of that class," he muttered as he dragged me to the administration office. While he had the attention of the only secretary I texted Alice that she was gonna have to take Edward's car, with which she responded with, "I already know."

"There must be something open? Physics? Biochem?" He pleaded.

I heard the door open to my left and smelled the lilac again, damn.

"No, every class is full. Just a minute dear," the secretary told Bella before turning back to my agitated brother, "I'm afraid you're gonna have to stay in biology," she told him.

Edward had such an annoyed look on his face as he gripped his jacket, "I'll just have to endure it," he hissed as he stormed out leaving me to chase after him.

He waited for me by my bike, I quickly put my bag inside my compartment and hopped on, he got behind me and I kickstarted the engine to life. We zipped out of there so fast I doubt anyone even saw us.

I drove my bike back to the house and we quickly ran into the woods, I phased and followed him, letting him hunt in peace. I tried to keep my thoughts to a minimum, I knew he needed to concentrate but I couldn't help it.

"Are you going to go back to school on Monday?"

"I don't know."

"When do you think you're going to go back?"

"I don't know," he said again, "I was so close Cate. So close to killing her in front go the whole class."

"I would've stopped you."

"You can't expose yourself because of my stupidity."

"What, so you're just gonna keep hunting until you're too full?"

He shrugged, "Yeah, pretty much."

Good plan. It was clear as he took down his third elk that he didn't need me around, so I told him I'd see him back at home and ran back. I phased back and let myself in through the door to my room, putting some clothes back on. I could tell that was going to be a challenge for him, I felt bad I couldn't do anything to help. When I'd first moved in they all talked about how my scent was....unpleasurable to them. But since it had been nine months since then, they claim the smell is still distracting but not as bad as it was initially.

"It's still there," Emmett promised, "I don't think you'll ever not stink to us," he told me playfully.

Jasper rolled his eyes, "But since you've been around for a while we can make out more than just stink," he informed me.

So using my "stench" to cloud Bella's appealing smell for Edward wasn't going to work. Looks like he was just gonna have to get through that on his own.

I felt hungry again, and I didn't want to bother Esme, even though she says all the time she loves cooking for me because it gives her an excuse to use the kitchen. So, I grabbed my bike and made my way to the little diner in town. I placed my order- fried chicken and waffles with fries- and sat at the bar waiting for my food to finish. The door opened and I heard the familiar voice of Chief Swan, Bella's dad. I turned my head half an inch and saw the two of them sit in the corner table by the door. I quickly turned back, even though I could tell they probably saw me. Everyone seemed to notice me, being a Cullen and all. It got annoying when I wanted to just blend in, but I couldn't. I quickly asked the waitress who took my order if she could make it to-go. If I went home smelling like Bella I knew Edward would have a problem.

The moment I got my doggie bag I gave her a fifty and left, we didn't bother with change. I didn't even give Bella a second look but I could feel her eyes on me as I got on my bike and sped back home.

I could tell this was going to be hard on me and my whole family.

~

The following Monday, Edward didn't come to school. He told us he was going on a hunting binge, so we weren't expecting him to come back for a few days. I like to think I'm a very observant person, the wolf in me demands it. So I could see that his absence had an affect on Bella. There seemed to be something on her mind. But I wouldn't consider myself a friend of hers, so I never went up and asked.

For the rest of us, our days went on as normal. It was weird Edward being gone but we knew he'd be back eventually, it wasn't that big a deal to us. Besides, he'd been through high school dozens of times. I was still on my first run.

I've caught Bella looking at our lunch table a few times, I tried not to stare back but Alice and Jasper were looking too. I knew we were all wondering the same thing, there was something different about her. We just didn't know what.

~

One of the nights of Edwards little retreats there was a thunderstorm. For us Cullens that meant one thing, baseball time. With Edward gone that meant I could take his place. I may not be as fast as the rest of my family in my human form but I was just as fast, if not faster in wolf form.

"How are you going to throw the ball if you're a dog?" Rosalie asked curious.

I shrugged, "I'll figure it out. Anything to actually play instead of being the umpire," I laughed.

I let myself phase, the clothes I was wearing teared away, while basically everyone had seen me naked by that point, I still wasn't going to deliberately strip in front of them. Alice had brought me a change of clothes.

Being on the outfield was a blast! It was so much fun running to grab the ball, which I also had to do with my teeth. Every time I got the ball I got laughs from the rest of the family. I was basically a big dog playing fetch. To throw it back I had to run in a circle and launch the ball into the air, it took some practice but at least it got to where it needed to go.

We played as long as it rained, but we had to stop when Alice told us, the impact from the bat to the ball was too loud we couldn't play when the thunder stopped. I phased back and put on my tank top and shorts, "So who won?" I asked.

"It was a tie," Esme told me.

Emmett groaned, "We coulda won if you'd just thrown faster mutt!" He pulled me in a headlock.

I wrangled myself out and chuckled, "Don't blame me! If your giant bear feet didn't get in your way you could've caught the ball faster!"

We bickered back and forth until we reached the house, "Cate are you hungry?" Esme asked.

I laughed, "What kind of question is that? Of course I am!"