𝐒𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐲 , 𝐓𝐰𝐢𝐥𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭 Discontinued!

Chapter Four

Edward had missed biology class for a week, which irritated Lucinda even more. She had made up her decision to face Edward the next day, only to be disappointed when she realized his chair was empty. She'd had hope the day before, but as the days drew closer to the weekend, Lucinda's hopes of speaking with him dwindled.

Alice, on the other hand, fulfilled her word and brought Lucinda lunch on a daily basis. Alice even sat in the car with Lucinda while she ate, but anytime Luci asked where Edward was, Alice would change the subject to avoid answering the question.

When Monday rolled around, Lucinda had spent the previous night studying onions in order to be prepared for the test that was to be given that day. Edward had returned, and he was sitting quietly by the window, much to her astonishment.

Lucinda was perplexed, so she sat down in her usual seat, completely disregarding his presence next to her. Despite the fact that she felt the atmosphere between them had improved, she still thought he was wrong for acting the way he did.

"Hello" The girl was startled as a strong voice came from the seat next to her. She'd spent days wondering what he'd sound like but wouldn't admit it to anyone. His voice was gentle but compelling. As if it were a beautiful tune played on the cleanest instrument. She cocked her head to the side, her brow furrowed.

"My name is Edward Cullen," He continued softly as if the whole school didn't already murmur his name more than once on a daily basis, "I didn't have the chance to introduce myself last week. You must be Lucinda Enya." He didn't look ill, nor did he look flustered like last time. There wasn't a hint of pink on his pale cheekbones and those strangely colored eyes stared at her unwaveringly.

Lucinda was pondering whether or not to respond to him, knowing that he deserved it given the way he'd treated her the week before. Yet it was not in her nature to be snarky; she was cocky, but not snarky. "Please call me Luci." She reprimanded him, pulling out her notepad and laying the worksheet on top of it.

"Okay, Luci, your father works at the hospital, right?"He kept trying to strike up a conversation, seeing how he seemed really interested in learning whatever he could. She nodded and scribbled her name at the top of the worksheet.

"May I clarify as to what I did to you last week that caused you to act so hostile?" She felt the best thing to do was skip the small talk and go right to the point, which had been on her mind for the past week, and then turn her focus to him after she was finished writing.

"It wasn't meant to be a direct insult on you. I was having a pretty awful day," With a pen whirling between his fingers as he scrawled his own name at the very top, he explained calmly.

When Mr. Banner started detailing the day's task, their tiny talk was cut short. The slides in the package were out of order, so Lucinda and Edward had to work together as lab partners to sort the onion root tip cell slides into the various stages of mitosis and name them appropriately. Using their textbooks was prohibited and Mr. Banner would be coming around to see who had it right in twenty minutes or so.

"Ladies first, partner?" Edward asked playfully, giving her that charmingly crooked grin of his. She found it contagious, the corners of her own lips tipping upwards.

"Thank you very much, partner." Luci hummed back, snapping the first slide into position under the microscope and fine-tuning it to the 40X objective with decades of experience. "Prophase," she said after a brief examination. She was strutting her stuff a little.

"Would you mind if I took a look?" Edward inquired, seizing her hand in his as she began to remove the slide. Luci flinched a little, surprised by his curiously icy touch as well as the abrupt electric current coursing up her arm. "I'm sorry," he whispered, his face flushed once more as he went for the microscope and inspected the slide for even less time. "Prophase."