So this is my third attempt to write a story for this contest. I don't even know if it's any good.
Oh, and the contest this is for is The Epic One-Shot Contest, started by Daddy's Little Cannibal and Bronzehairedgirl 620. Kudos to them. Here are the rules:
1.) No lemons.
2.) It must be rated T.
3.) It has to have a line or reference to a cannibal.
4.)It has to have a line or reference to a fireman.
5.) Canon pairings.
6.) Has to be a one-shot, but you're allowed to continue it once the contest is finished.
7.) Must copy and paste these rules to the top of your entry. Two entries per person, collaborations acceptable.
8.) NO LEMONS.
Curtain, Lights, Action.
"All right, everyone, settle down." Mr. Varner droned. It was the last final of junior year, and everyone was antsy.
"Now, use your number two pencils. Don't forget to bubble in the circles fully. The packets will not be graded, so there is no partial credit…." Bella tuned him out, instead choosing to doodle on the cover of her test packet.
There was a gas leak in the regular Calculus classroom, so they were crammed into the Forks weight training room. The smell of sweaty boys and the nearly glacial temperature, while quaint, weren't exactly helping everyone focus. The fact that Bella was seated in front of a poster that claimed, "PAIN IS TEMPORARY, PRIDE IS FOREVER!" just heightened the experience.
"The test will end in exactly two hours. You may now open your test packets." Mr. Varner announced before sitting on a stationary bicycle and cracking open a copy of Trigonometry 101. Bella shuddered at the thought of being a math teacher before doing as he said and beginning her test.
Question 1: There are two trees in a forest. Tree A is x feet tall, while Tree B is 87.69 feet tall. If the angle…
This was a bad sign. Five seconds into the test and she couldn't focus.
***
"Ughn…" The class groaned collectively as they shuffled out of the room. Bella inhaled a breath of fresh air and rolled her sore back. She shivered as the warm air breezed past the throngs of people, so accustomed to the clammy climate of the weight room.
"So help me, if I hear about another train…" Jessica muttered as she stumbled past Bella.
Bella sympathized completely. Over half of the test was word problems, and she was beginning to feel as though one more mention of a train's speed was going to send her into tears.
"Well, if it isn't Miss Bella Swan." A voice boomed through the crowd. Her head snapped up (she ignored the painful cracking noise as her neck complained of the sudden movement), and her eyes focused on the bulkiest of the students. He was tall and buff, and was looking at the world through the viewfinder of a video camera.
"Emmett!" Bella cried as she recognized the face behind the plastic.
"Perfect!" He praised as he zoomed in to catch her pushing through the swarm. "This is gonna be great for the video!"
"What are you doing here? I thought seniors ended last week?" Bella asked as she finally reached Emmett's side. He grabbed her into a crushing one armed hug before gently pushing her back out to arms length.
"Yeah, well it looks like I can still get in trouble. Did you know that if you teepee a car, you have to pay for car washing services?" Emmett asked. Bella laughed, before asking the most obvious question.
"Whose car?" She thought she was pretty sure that she knew whose car it was, but she wanted to see Emmett's reaction.
Emmett and Bella had met in gym class when she had transferred at the beginning of the year. Bella had gotten hit one too many times with the dodge ball, and Emmett had caught her when she slumped over. She came to and saw Emmett's big grin as he informed her that he was her "unofficial security guard". She had laughed then, not realizing that he was 100 percent serious.
They had become fast friends, and Emmett was now Bella's "unofficial security guard/favorite person/big brother". They used the acronym USG FP double B as a substitute most days, considering the incredible size of the original phrase.
"Edward's," Emmett grinned. Bella laughed again at the sheer ridiculousness of Emmett's statement.
Edward was Emmett's younger brother, though they didn't look a thing alike. They were only a year apart and the best of friends. Their antics had made them legends before they even began at Forks High, and it was rumored that Principal Greene had their files set at the top of the stack, just in case.
"So, how goes chemistry?" Emmett waggled his eyes obnoxiously to hide his burning curiosity. He had been dying to pair Edward up with Bella for months, but the two were oblivious to his matchmaking schemes.
"It's biology, Emmett." Bella reminded him with a roll of her eyes.
"Whatever." Emmett played nonchalance and hid his increasing frustration. He had a feeling he was going to need to buy neon lights soon. "Has a trip to the emergency room been warranted in the week I've been gone?"
"That was one time!" Bella whined, her face turning its signature red. Emmett made sure to capture every second of it, knowing that Edward had let it slip that he loved it when she blushed.
Edward still hadn't heard the end of it.
"You may be the only person I've ever met who's fainted during one of Banner's lectures. He's not that boring." Emmett teased her. As expected, she turned a darker color red, and he caught every minute of it on film.
"Mike stapled his finger and the smell of the blood made me queasy, okay?" Bella protested. "Besides, you're one to talk, Mr. I'm-Going-To-Singe-Off-My-Eyebrows."
"Ah, the eyebrow incident of '07. A classic, don't you think?" A melodic voice wondered. Bella spun around and saw none other then Edward meandering slowly towards them.
"Well, if it isn't my ex-lab partner." Bella greeted him.
"So quick to dismiss me. We've only been officially broken up for a few hours and I'm already an ex." Edward feigned dejection until he recognized the third presence skulking behind the camera.
"Emmett? What are you doing here?" Edward asked.
"What, can't a guy come to wish his little brother congratulations on surviving his junior year relatively unscathed?" Emmett protested innocently from behind the camera.
"No." said Edward. Edward was still wary from the cross-dressing incident of '06. The fact that there was a video camera present only intensified his suspicions.
"Relax. I'm just supposed to record your end of school year memories. Mom had to go to the airport to pick up Alice for the summer." Emmett was only half lying. He was supposed to record, and their cousin was really coming into town. He just neglected to mention the fact that he was also dying to catch Edward's reaction to his latest artistic endeavor on film.
"Hi mom," Edward told the camera sheepishly. He was moderately embarrassed that Bella was around to hear about this childish tradition.
"That's weak." Emmett scoffed. "Let's try Q&A instead."
"Bella, run while you can." Edward warned her. She rolled her eyes at the brother's antics and remained in her spot, intrigued to hear more.
The Cullen boys were a legend around school, both for their looks and their troublemaking tendencies. They were both very intelligent, and she wished she knew them better. She was also nursing the tiniest crush on the bronze haired brother. He had been starring in her dreams for the past year, ever since she sat down next to him in Biology.
"So Bella, if you were a superhero, who would you be?" Emmett asked in a cheesy game-show host voice.
"I don't know." Bella responded honestly. Emmett's vicious glare had her quickly backpedalling, so she rephrased. "I-In-Invisible Woman?"
"Good. Edward, what about you?" Emmett prompted him.
"Superman." He responded coolly. "What about you?"
"That's easy. I'd be Double Sided!" Emmett continued to elaborate when he saw the confused look on Bella's face.
"By day, I'd be a firefighter, saving lives and putting out fires all over the city. But by night, my secret is revealed. I'm a cannibal! And the only reason I save people's lives is to keep the human race alive so that I can eat forever! Because I'm immortal, and I sparkle in the sunlight, and I'm super strong-"
"Emmett?" Bella interrupted.
"Yeah Bells?"
"Stop being such a boy." She requested as she wrinkled her nose.
Emmett scoffed at her and chose to center in on his brother's face instead. He didn't want to have to pull out the big guns, but the two oblivious fools were going to need to be shoved together before anything would happen.
"How was Biology this year? Any romances bloom up?" Emmett asked. Bella flushed crimson almost immediately and Edward shot him the darkest glare possible. "C'mon guys. There's nothing more romantic than the smell of formaldehyde in the morning!"
"Bella, I swear no one put him up to this. He drank lead paint as a baby." Edward explained quickly.
Bella laughed, effectively breaking the awkward silence, while Emmett began a particularly mortifying moment from their childhood.
"You ever wonder why Edward is the way he is? Well, Edward was always a momma's boy. He'd follow my mom around all day long, and one day, he decided that he wanted to imitate her. Now, trying to fold the clean sheets and pretending to cook weren't that catastrophic, but then he got the idea in his head that he wanted to look like her too." Emmett was a very entertaining storyteller when he wanted to be.
"Emmett, you were four! How do you even remember this?" Edward moaned as buried his face in his hands.
"The pictures took up three pages in his baby book." Emmett told Bella gleefully.
Edward groaned, as he realized Emmett was ruining any chances he had with the girl of his dreams.
Edward didn't really know why she was the girl of his dreams either. He wasn't necessarily a player, but he knew what made a girl appeal to the opposite sex.
By those counts, Bella was in the negative numbers.
She didn't wear revealing clothing or eye-catching makeup. She didn't feign low intelligence or try to be coy. She was a good girl, nice, quiet, and polite to everyone.
Maybe that's why Edward was so fond of her. She was an enigma, a puzzle that needed to be solved.
She was beautiful, though. Quite a natural beauty. And he was absolutely enamored with her.
"Edward?" The object of his affections giggled as she waved a hand in front of his face.
"Ed?" His meathead of an older brother asked from behind the camera.
"Sorry. I guess I just…zoned out." Edward apologized. He ran a hand through his hair, a nervous habit he shared with his father.
"You never answered my question!" Emmett complained as he zoomed in on his baby brother's face.
"What question?" Edward asked. He wasn't even trying to be obnoxious this time. He genuinely wanted to know.
Emmett sighed at Edward's complete oblivion (which was ironic, because for their entire life, it had been the other way around), and repeated the question.
"How much do you love your car?"
Edward stiffened, and Bella attempted to muffle her sniggering behind her hand. Emmett, on the other hand, was trying to catch every emotion that passed over their faces.
"Emmett, what did you do?" Edward demanded. "It's not fuchsia again, is it?"
"Aw, c'mon Ed! Am I ever going to hear the end of that? I was six, okay?" Emmett protested. Edward ignored him and started marching towards the center of the parking lot, where his usually pristine Volvo was parked.
Emmett saw opportunity for greatness and quickly followed, tugging Bella along behind him. Poor Bella stumbled her way over as she fought to maintain her balance for at least a moment or two.
Edward stopped abruptly when the trio reached his masterpiece, and Emmett crashed into him from behind. Bella nearly fell over, but Emmett managed to right her before she hit the ground.
"You're washing my car when we get home." Edward promised lowly as he stared in horror at the two-ply fluffiness.
"Funny. That's what Principal Greene thought too." Emmett focused on his brother's face, wanting to be able to savor his priceless revulsion for years to come.
Edward's glare turned into a distant gaze, calculating and determining. Finally, he abruptly turned to face Bella.
"Do you want to go out with me?"
Emmett's jaw dropped, and the camera nearly slipped out of his hands. Bella was speechless and pink, while Edward merely stared her down.
"Emmett's been trying to push us together for the past year, anyway." Edward added as an afterthought, musing to himself. It finally dawned on him why Bella was brought up in their conversations so often.
"Yeah."
It had taken Bella a good minute and a half to remember how to speak, and it took another minute to figure out how to sound nonchalant. Squealing like the thirteen year old girl she currently felt like would have been spectacularly embarrassing, especially around Edward.
"I'll call you tonight?" Edward asked nervously. The last vestiges of courage he had summoned up were quickly fading, and he worried about the assumption. What if he misunderstood her, and she had really said no? What if she didn't want to talk to him? What if she was a fan of rap music?!?
"I'll be waiting." She said coyly with a wink before mumbling a quick goodbye and sauntering off towards her truck.
Edward stared at her retreating figure, dumbfounded. Emmett was still a little shell-shocked, but he was quickly recovering.
"Way to go, bud. I'm glad you finally grew some." Emmett slapped his statuesque brother on the back as he closed the camera.
Edward snapped out of his daze enough to punch his brother in the arm, to which Emmett protested heavily.
"Let's go get this toilet paper off." Edward mumbled as hid the huge grin threatening to overtake his face.
Emmett followed along, babbling about something to fill the silence, while Edward stole numerous glances towards Bella's truck. He started whistling a nameless tune as he and his brother began stripping the toilet paper from his car, suddenly in the best sort of moods.
As she climbed into her truck, Bella let out a huge breath she didn't know she had been holding and giggled nervously. Edward Cullen had asked her out. Edward Cullen was going to call her tonight.
Oh God.
She had winked at Edward Cullen.
So, how was it? I want ALL criticism. Especially flames.
Dedicated to Daddy's Little Cannibal. I didn't know her personally, but she was a talented writer and is greatly missed.
