CHAPTER 3
BAD B.O.

MARGO tended to sit directly in front during her biology class, so she could be right in center of everything. Mr. Molina admired her optimism, she hoped. At the beginning of junior year, she sat in front but farther left, with Edward Cullen as her lab partner. But that first day must've been incredibly bad for him, because he glared at her with an obscene amount of disgust in his eyes. That stare alone made Margo never sit near him again. Instead, she now sat in the center with no lab partner, but she was better on her own.

Two minutes before class was supposed to start, Mike Newton strode in, introducing Isabella Swan to Mr. Molina. He passed by Margo's desk as he cleared his throat, and she scowled at him while he rounded the corner. Once he was away, her eyes landed on Edward Cullen in the next desk, and she sent him an awkward smile. Today must have been another bad day for Edward, seeing as he had a look that screamed, murder.

Eventually, Margo did a double-take at him. She never really looked at the bronzed-hair boy a lot, but when she did this time, she felt confused. Margo always thought his eyes were a subtle shade of gold, much like her own hazel ones. But his eyes today matched how they looked their first day in September: black. Maybe his eyes just changed in different lights. Sometimes people said her eyes looked green in the sunlight, and someone with hues of gold would probably grow pretty dark in the dimly lit classroom they were in now.

Bella handed Mr. Molina a paper, that Margo guessed contained her current grades in biology and other science classes. Margo leaned her chin on her fist, wishing Melinda was in this class so she could talk to her. She watched Bella cautiously lift a piece of hair to her nose and smell it, causing Margo's brow to furrow. From the corner of her eye, she saw Edward Cullen cover his mouth and look away.

"Today we're going to be observing the behaviors of planaria," Mr. Molina explained, "A.K.A. flatworms." He placed a few vials on each lab desk.

Edward still had his hand on his mouth as he pushed a vial over to Bella. Margo watched the exchange with confusion, but quickly looked away when Edward glared at her. This lasted throughout the whole class. Margo could just see it from the corner of her eye, and she felt Bella Swan's uncomfortableness just waft off her like smoke. The whole class was eerily quiet today.

There was five minutes left of class when Edward suddenly walked out. Margo had been writing down notes so fast that she almost didn't notice. When his chair skidded and his boots squeaked against the floor, she lifted her head, watching him strut out the classroom. Mr. Molina hadn't even noticed as he was sketching something out on the white board. Bella was closing her textbook as the bell rang.

Thankfully, that bell meant it was the end of the school day. Margo packed her textbook in her bag and said her goodbyes to Mr. Molina before exiting the classroom. She strode across the hall to the student affairs office and approached Mrs. Dooley at the front desk.

"We had a problem earlier today," she said, leaning off to the side of the secretary's front desk. "I spilled half of the flyers on the floor in the cafeteria because some idiots bumped into me, and they got a bit dirty. We still had others that we handed out, though."

"No harm, no foul. As long as some were placed inside the lunchroom. That's all the club asked for anyways." Mrs. Dooley explained as the door to the office opened again. "One moment, Margaret."

Margo cringed at her full name. She hated when anyone referred to her as that, but she knew that, as a member of faculty, Mrs. Dooley was required to do so. As Margo viewed up from the side of the desk, she noticed a familiar face approaching the front. Edward Cullen was looking at her with a mix of terror and disgust before turning to Mrs. Dooley.

"I need to switch out of my biology class," Edward said.

Margo hesitantly turned away and began to distract herself by rifling through her bag. Secretly, she was still listening in. Mrs. Dooley had replied, "I'm sorry. You must stay in the class you were assigned since the beginning of the year."

"There must be something open," Edward tried again. "Physics? Bio-chem?"

"Every class is full," Mrs. Dooley sighed. The bell on the door rang, signaling another person had arrived. Margo met the eyes of Bella Swan. "Just a minute, dear." Mrs. Dooley glanced back to Edward. "I'm afraid you'll have to stay in biology."

Margo watched Edward's face contort in anger. "Fine," he muttered as he walked out, "just have to endure it."

Mrs. Dooley viewed at Margo with a confused expression before Bella approached her desk. "I'll just get going," Margo excused and walked out of the office, spotting Edward Cullen sprinting out of the school's entrance.

"Just look at him run."

Margo had been looking at the time on her flip phone that she hadn't noticed Melinda appear beside her. A flirtatious sigh emerged from her lips as she caught Edward's exit, and she flipped a piece of her curly hair to the side. Margo retrieved her rain jacket from her backpack and pulled it on. "You know," she said, "Edward was acting really weird in biology today."

"He's always weird," Melinda replied.

Bella Swan pushed through the door of student affairs office and quickly walked out of school. She passed by them in an instant, and both Melinda and Margo watched her with keen eyes. "Weirder than normal," muttered Margo. "You know how he had no lab partner since our incident in biology? Well, he does now, and it's the new girl. He kept –" Margo motioned with her hand covering her mouth and acted out a disgusted expression. "And that was all class. He even left early."

"He's just going through something," Melinda said. "Give the boy a break."

Margo rolled her eyes. "Still doesn't explain why he also requested to switch into another class right after bio."

Melinda huffed out a sigh. "Hey, you're the smart one. Shouldn't you know the answer to why he did that?"

"I do," Margo seethed. "He must simply not like her."

Melinda shrugged. "Maybe she just has bad B.O."

•••

A week had passed, and Edward Cullen was nowhere to be seen. All his "siblings" attended school, but he was somehow absent. Bella Swan must've upset him, for some reason that was really bugging Margo since she just had to know everything. This was almost as bad as the time Melinda tried talking to him after school and he didn't show up at school for two days. People started a rumor that Melinda probably got him sick, and even Melinda believed it at one point, though she knew she wasn't sick at the time.

Margo tried inquiring Bella Swan about the matter, but the new girl didn't want to speak about the topic. Each time Margo was near the other girl, she smelled the air for the moment. Bella didn't have bad B.O. She smelled like roses, for crying out loud. So that was one theory out of the way.

"There's been a surge of patients lately," her aunt told her at dinner one night. "I mean, business is usually slow in a small town hospital, but I don't know."

Margo punctured a piece of grilled chicken with her fork and placed it in her mouth. "Do they all have the same health issues?"

Aunt Jenny nodded. "Well, I shouldn't have said patients. The police have been asking for our help in a few investigations. Very hush hush."

"But hopefully not too hush, so that you can tell me."

Jenny Fowler looked up from her plate and smirked the slightest bit. She finished chewing on a slice of chicken before replying, "I guess." She wiped her mouth with a napkin. "They've found two bodies near the forest of town. Both were miles away from each other and found on different days. Both had some kind of ... bite wounds. Looked like something from an animal. Police asked if we could identify the wounds, and all I could think of was some wild coyotes. Maybe even wolves."

Margo shook her head, muttering, "Weird." But wasn't that just the case lately? Everything was weird. Her small town was never exciting, or left Margo questioning the unknown, but suddenly she was. Margo usually knew the answer to any question; she could solve a hypothesis in minutes, much to her dismay. (Being smart was kind of a burden.) But suddenly, this new girl – this Bella Swan – moves to Forks, and her town becomes questionable. Where were the answers?

Truthfully, they were right in front of her. Margo just hadn't known to make the connections.