"Maria, I don't think you should be hanging around Edward," Bella whispers to her sister as she catches up to her on the way to Biology. Maria snorts out a laugh and looks at her twin quizzically.

"Why not, Bells?" Maria asks her, and the brunette rolls her eyes.

"I'm being serious, Maria! There's something off about that family. Especially Edward," Bella warns Maria.

"You haven't been influenced by everything Jessica has been saying, have you? It's just gossip," Maria rep lies, ignoring Bella's warnings. "If you ever actually spoke to them, you'd see they aren't even that weird."

"No, Maria! It's not because of Jessica! I need to speak to you about it later," Bella pleads, and when she sees that Maria is still unconvinced, she frowns. "Please!"

"Okay, okay!" Maria agrees, alarmed by her sister's urgency. "Later."

Maria has to beg Bella to sit in Edward's empty spot in Biology so that she has a faint chance of understanding what Mr Banner is trying to teach them. It's a little odd not to have Edward beside her, but she enjoys spending time with Bella, and she feels they've grown a lot closer to each other since the accident.

Mr Banner walks into the class juggling a few small cardboard boxes in his arms, which he dumps on Mike's table and asks him to start passing them around the class.

"Okay, guys, I want you all to take one piece from each box," he says as he produces a pair of rubber gloves from the pocket of his lab jacket and pulls them on. "The first should be an indicator card. The second is a four-pronged applicator, and the third is a sterile micro-lancet. I'll be coming around with a drop of water to prepare your cards, so please don't start until I get to you."

"Oh no," Bella groans, and Maria turns to her with a frown.

"What?"

"We're doing blood typing," Bella says, and it dawns on Maria quickly what will happen if they see any blood.

"Sir!" Maria sticks her hand up in the air as Mr Banner jabs the spike into the tip of Mike's middle finger. "Bella and I already know our blood types, so could we sit out of this lesson?"

"Oh, really? Have you done this lab before?" Mr Banner asks, a little surprised that they both know their blood types.

"No, sir... just a... a lot of blood transfusions," the words slip out of Maria's mouth by accident as Mr Banner squeezes the blood out of Mike's finger. She doesn't usually go around telling people about her medical history. She quickly jumps to her feet. The room sways around her, and she nearly falls but manages to steady herself. "I... I'm just going to... uh... take Bella to the nurse's office. Blood makes her faint."

Maria quickly helps Bella up off her stool, where she has been sitting with her face pressed against the cool tabletop. She ignores the spinning in her head and the black clouding the edges of her vision as she escorts Bella out of the room as quickly as she can. They just about make it to the edge of the cafeteria when Maria stumbles forward and has to lean against the wall for support. Bella sits on the edge of the sidewalk, slumping over and resting her cheek against the freezing, damp cement of the sidewalk.

"You'd think after the accident and all those blood transfusions I might've gotten over this by now," Maria breathes out, sliding down the wall and sitting on the cold floor. Her head is still spinning, and she's starting to think getting up and leaving the room in such a hurry has made her feel even worse.

"Well, I did pass out when you had the accident... and when I was donating my blood... if anything your accident probably made it worse," Bella replies breathily, and Maria barely manages to laugh.

"Maria?" Edward Cullen's voice calls from the distance. Maria is a little embarrassed for him to have seen her like this, but she believes it's probably for the best because her consciousness is slipping away quickly, and she needs to get Bella to the nurse's office. Edward reaches them very quickly, and he crouches down in front of her, cupping the side of her face with his hand. His touch is ice cold and sends a shiver down her spine, but the cold helps steady her brain, and she manages to stay awake. "What's wrong, are you hurt?"

"Blood typing," Maria mumbles, trying to stand up again now that she feels a little less faint.

"Woah, hold on," Edward says, keeping her sitting down.

"I'm fine, really... blood doesn't bother me that much... I just rushed to help Bella, so I felt more faint than usual," Maria explains, still trying to stand up. "Bella is worse than me. Please can you help me get her to the nurse's office?"

Edward seems reluctant to let her stand up but finally gives in, and he steadies her against the wall before he picks Bella up off the floor and carries her to the nurse's office with Maria following along behind them.

"So you faint at the sight of blood?" Edward asks, grinning as if he's amused by the whole ordeal. "Both of you?"

"It's genetic," Maria tells him, and he chuckles.

"And not even your own blood," Edward continues, and Maria rolls her eyes at him. She's starting to feel a lot better after sitting down and being outside.

"Actually, it's not as bad for me if it's my own blood... I don't know why... must be psychological," Maria explains to him. "Not like Bella. She's awful even if it's her own blood."

Edward is still laughing as they walk into the office, and Ms Cope looks up from her desk. Her eyes widen in horror as she rushes to open the door to the nurse's office. Edward gently places Bella down onto the paper-covered, brown vinyl mattress in the nurse's office and informs her about the blood typing.

"There's always one," the nurse shakes her head. "You two can go back to class now."

"Bella, will you be okay if we go?" Maria asks her sister anxiously, not wanting to leave Bella or go against the nurse's instructions.

"I'm fine! You can go," Bella insists, not wanting the attention from the nurse, Maria and Edward all at the same time.

"You can't go back to class," Edward states when they step back outside. "Would you like to come and sit in my car with me? Or I could drive you home?"

"Go and sit in your Volvo?" Maria asks, stunned.

"I thought that would be more enjoyable than sitting on the wet pavement," Edward explains, laughing at her reaction.

"Oh, yeah. That makes sense," Maria agrees to sit in the Volvo with him, and she is glad that they made it to the car just before it started to pour with rain. "That was lucky timing."

"Very lucky."

Maria looks around the inside of the car, smiling to herself at how clean and taken care of the interior is.

"What?" Edward asks, studying her face.

"It's nice to know there are people out there that actually take care of the insides of their cars," Maria tells him. "One time, Bella spilt a milkshake in my Beetle, and I nearly cried. She's just lucky it cleaned up fine."

"You can drive?" Edward seems a little shocked, and she smiles.

"Yeah, I can. Bella drives me to school because my car is in Phoenix," Maria explains. "It turns out transporting it down from Phoenix costs a lot of money, and I spent all of my money on the car."

"Do you miss it?"

"So much," Maria admits shyly. "I have a picture of it on my wall."

Edward laughs, shaking his head at her, and she giggles a little.

"Are you busy on Saturday?" Maria asks him suddenly. "Because I'm going surfing down in La Push with some of my friends if you want to join us?"

"Thank you," Edward says, his expression quickly switching from laughing to no emotion, "but I have plans that day."

"Oh, that's okay. Maybe we could do something another time?"

"Well, have I redeemed myself enough to be your date to the dance or does saving your sister from the sidewalk not count?" Edward teases, and she smiles.

"Well, you should really help people out of kindness, not because you want something," Maria points out, smirking, "but I suppose I can accept that as your redemption. But only this once, you can't make a habit out of saving my sister to impress me."

"Don't worry, I was just going to leave her next time," Edward jokes, and Maria laughs.

"Maybe that would be best; she's very clumsy. You'd never have any free time if you tried to save her every time she was in danger."

They laugh together, and then there's silence, so Maria nosily opens up the glove box and sorts through his CDs, looking for any she recognises. She picks up a Debussy CD, and Maria snickers loudly. "How old are you? Classical music?"

"I'm an old soul," Edward tells her lightly, and she giggles.

"More like an ancient soul. The only other person I know who listens to Debussy is my mother!"

"Well, it sounds like your mother has good taste," Edward defends his choice of music.

"Believe me, it's not a compliment to be compared to my mother."

"What is she like?" Edward asks curiously, and Maria frowns, leaning her head against the window.

"Irresponsible. Erratic. Immature," Maria lists simply. "Selfish. Very selfish."

"Oh, you two don't get along then?"

"Well, she doesn't know how I feel, but she clearly loves Bella more than me," Maria tells him bitterly.

"Why?" Edward blurts out as if there is no plausible reason for anybody to like Bella more than Maria.

"I don't know... maybe because Bella is a lot easier to control than I am," Maria offers as an explanation. "Bella takes care of her."

"Shouldn't she be taking care of you two?"

"Yeah, she should."

"Why didn't you live with your father then?"

"I wanted to live with my Dad, but my mum moved me and Bella away when we were so little, and we were only allowed to visit him," Maria shrugs. "I saw him a lot more when I was little and then again when I was twelve, but not very often after that."

"So, that's why I'd never seen you around then?"

"Yeah, basically." Maria sighs, looking down at her lap, and Edward furrows his eyebrows before quickly changing the subject.

"You scared me earlier," Edward admits. "I saw you and Bella slumped over on the sidewalk, and I thought you might have died."

"What?" Maria laughs loudly, leaning her head back as she imagines the thoughts that must have been going through his head.

"Honestly, I've seen corpses with better colour."

"Well, that's just offensive," Maria huffs. "I worked hard for my tan."

"Well, you won't have one for much longer now that you're living in Forks."

Bella emerges from the office sometime later, still looking rather queasy and pale, so Maria bids Edward farewell and drags Bella into the truck, insisting she drives her sister home. She struggles to get used to the truck at first, and it's a very jumpy journey out of the parking lot, but she manages to get the hang of it by the time the truck is on the road.

"Feel any better?" Maria asks her sister as she parks on the driveway.

"Kind of. After you left, Mike brought in Lee Stephens, and he was bleeding, so I passed out again," Bella grumbles. Maria stifles a laugh.

"Oh no," she says, and Bella rolls her eyes. "Don't worry, I'll get you something to eat, and you'll feel much better."