"My name is Edward Cullen," he continued. "I didn't have a chance to
introduce myself last week. You must be Bella Swan."

My mind was spinning with confusion. Had I made up the whole thing? He
was perfectly polite now. I had to speak; he was waiting. But I couldn't
think of anything conventional to say.

"H-how do you know my name?" I stammered.

He laughed a soft, enchanting laugh.

"Oh, I think everyone knows your name. The whole town's been waiting for
you to arrive."

I grimaced. I knew it was something like that.

"No," I persisted stupidly. "I meant, why did you call me Bella?"

He seemed confused. "Do you prefer Isabella?"

"No, I like Bella," I said. "But I think Charlie — I mean my dad — must
call me Isabella behind my back — that's what everyone here seems to know
me as," I tried to explain, feeling like an utter moron.

"Oh." He let it drop. I looked away awkwardly.

Thankfully, Mr. Banner started class at that moment. I tried to
concentrate as he explained the lab we would be doing today. The slides
in the box were out of order. Working as lab partners, we had to separate
the slides of onion root tip cells into the phases of mitosis they
represented and label them accordingly. We weren't supposed to use our
books. In twenty minutes, he would be coming around to see who had it
right.

"Get started," he commanded.

"Ladies first, partner?" Edward asked. I looked up to see him smiling a
crooked smile so beautiful that I could only stare at him like an idiot.

"Or I could start, if you wish." The smile faded; he was obviously
wondering if I was mentally competent.

"No," I said, flushing. "I'll go ahead."

I was showing off, just a little. I'd already done this lab, and I knew
what I was looking for. It should be easy. I snapped the first slide into
place under the microscope and adjusted it quickly to the 40X objective.
I studied the slide briefly.

My assessment was confident. "Prophase."

"Do you mind if I look?" he asked as I began to remove the slide. His
hand caught mine, to stop me, as he asked. His fingers were ice-cold,
like he'd been holding them in a snowdrift before class. But that wasn't
why I jerked my hand away so quickly. When he touched me, it stung my
hand as if an electric current had passed through us.

"I'm sorry," he muttered, pulling his hand back immediately. However, he
continued to reach for the microscope. I watched him, still staggered, as
he examined the slide for an even shorter time than I had.

打开的书（9）

    我有点晕头转向了。难道整个这件事都是我凭空想出来的？此刻，他是礼貌得没法说了。我得说话；他在等待。但是我想不出任何的客套话。

    "你——你是怎么知道我的名字的？"我结结巴巴地说道。

    他露出一个温柔而又迷人的笑容。

    "噢，我想每个人都知道你的名字。全镇的人都在盼着你的到来。"

    我做了个鬼脸。我知道事实也差不多是这样子。

    "不，"我傻傻地追问，"我的意思是说，你怎么叫我贝拉？"

    他似乎被我问蒙了："你喜欢叫你伊萨贝拉？"

    "不，我喜欢人家叫我贝拉，"我说，"不过我想查理——我是说我爸爸——肯定背着我叫我伊萨贝拉——这里的每个人似乎都知道我叫这个名字，"我试图解释，感觉自己像个十足的低能儿。

    "哦。"他放下了这个话题。我尴尬地望到一边去了。

    谢天谢地，就在这时，班纳先生开始上课了。我努力集中精力听他讲我们今天要做的实验。盒子里的玻璃片的顺序是打乱了的。作为实验伙伴，我们得把洋葱根尖细胞的玻璃片按照它们所代表的有丝分裂阶段分开，并把相应的阶段标出来。不允许我们看书。20分钟后，他将来回检查，看谁做得正确。

    "开始，"他吩咐道。

    "搭档，女士优先？"爱德华问。我抬头看见他一脸坏笑，可笑得是那样的好看，害得我只能像个白痴似的盯着他瞅。

    "要不我先来，如果你愿意的话。"笑意逐渐消失了；他显然是想知道我的智力是不是能够胜任这个问题。

    "不，"我红着脸说道，"我先来。"

    我这是在卖弄，不过也就一点点吧。我早就做过这个试验了，知道我要找的东西。应该很容易。我啪的一声把第一张玻璃片放到了显微镜下面合适的位置，并迅速调整到了40倍物镜。我简短地看了一下玻璃片。

    我对自己的估计很有信心："前期。"

    "可以让我看一下吗？"我准备把玻璃片拿开时，他说了一句。说这话的时候，他的手抓住了我的手，不让我拿。他的五指冰凉，仿佛上课前一直插在雪堆里似的。但那还不是我把手猛一下子抽出来的原因。他碰我的时候，把我的手扎了一下，就像一股电流从我俩身上穿过去了似的。

    "对不起，"他喃喃道，马上把手缩了回去。不过，他还是继续去够显微镜。他察看玻璃片的时候——时间比我的还要短——我看着他，心还在跳。