Teach Me to Heal- Chapter 1
Bella
- Tuesday, October 13 -
"Okay, remember to finish the outline of your report for tomorrow," I said to my class just before the bell rang and they all scurried out of the class.
I sat down at my desk and started looking over my e-mails. I saw the shadow of someone standing at the front of my desk. I glanced up and saw one of my students, James.
"Hey, James. What can I do for you?" I asked wondering why he wasn't going to his next class like everyone else.
"Well, I was wondering if I could talk to you about my outline and see if I'm on the right track," he said.
"Of course! What are you worried about?" I wondered. I thought everyone was doing fine with the reading.
"Well, I'm just not sure if I'm doing the right thing and I want to make sure that it makes sense before we start on the next part," he shrugged.
"Okay" I glanced over at my schedule and noticed that I had nothing planned until later tonight so I looked back at James and said, "Is it possible for you to come back after school? I can look over what you have and we can chat what you're thinking."
"Okay, thanks Miss Swan," James smiled.
"No problem, here, let me give you a note for your next class so you don't get in trouble for being late," I said as I scribbled on a piece of paper noticing that the bell was supposed to ring in a 30 seconds.
As James left my class, I noticed the students in my next class sitting on the desks, talking to each other and some were playing with their phones.
The bell rang and I stood up, "Okay. I'm very lenient about you using your phones in my class when you're waiting for the bell. Put them away now, please."
The end of the day came quickly and James walked into my room a few minutes after the bell.
"Hi Miss Swan," James said.
"Hi James, have a seat and we can get started," I said while grabbing my pen and some paper before sitting down next to him.
James and I spent about half an hour going over his thoughts on his report and some of my suggestions.
"Thank you, Miss Swan," he exclaimed when we finished.
"It's my pleasure James; I'm glad that you're asking for help if you need it. Let me know if you have any more troubles as you continue working on your report," I smiled.
"Okay, I will. Bye," he smiled and walked out of my classroom. I had an inkling in the back of my mind that there was more going on with James than him being unsure about his report. He is one of my brightest students and was doing really well with the rest of the assessments.
Shaking my head, I packed up my stuff and headed out to my car. It was approaching 4 o'clock and time for me to head over to the daycare to pick up my little angels, Layla and Aiden.
The next night it was the first practice for the basketball team that I am coaching this year. The recreational league is always looking for people to coach more teams so that all the kids can play. I played basketball all through high school and college so I felt confident in my ability to help these young girls learn the sport.
"Hi, it's great to meet you, I'm Bella. I'll be your daughter's coach for this season. I'm looking forward to getting to know your daughter better and helping her develop her skills a bit more," I smiled at one set of parents. They had arrived with their daughter, Alyssa, who was now shooting hoops with a few of the other girls that had already arrived.
Tonight was the first team practice and I really was excited to meet all the girls and their families. By the looks of it so far it is going to be a good season.
"Thank you so much for coaching this year. They have been short on coaches and have had to cut people off because there wasn't enough teams so only the more advanced players could play. Alyssa tried last year but she didn't end up on a team. She's never played a real game before," said Alyssa's mom.
"I'm just glad that I can teach a bunch of wonderful girls how to play this sport. I'm very excited as well. If you'll excuse me, I'm going to go meet a few more girls that just arrived," I excused myself.
I glanced over at Layla and Aiden who were sitting by the wall playing together. There was another family that had just entered and was standing just a few feet away from them. There seemed to be 3 kids and their father. The youngest of the three had jumped right in and started playing with Aiden and Layla. She looked maybe a year or two older than Aiden. I started walking over in that direction to introduce myself. As I got closer I heard, "Kaitlynne, those aren't your toys, you can't play with them without asking first."
"It's fine, really," I jumped in when I was in speaking distance. "Hi, I'm Bella, I'm the coach."
"Hi, I'm Edward. This is my daughter Addison, she likes to be called Addi though, and she's going to be on your team this year it seems," he smiled.
"Great! I'm very excited about this year. Have you ever played before?" I asked Addi.
"Not really. I shoot hoops in the driveway with my brother sometimes but I've never played before. I'm nervous," she admitted.
"You know what; a lot of the other girls haven't played before either so don't be nervous. I'm going to do my best to teach you all as much as I can so that by the end of the season you guys will all be great players," I explained to her.
"Mommy!" Aiden called and got up off the floor to come over.
"Shh, baby, Mommy's talking right now," I told him. He came over and wrapped his arms around my legs and hid behind them, he poked his head to the side every few seconds to see what was going on around him.
"I had a question, how often are practices and games going to be?" Edward asked.
"Well, we have a game every Saturday and a practice every Wednesday," I told him.
"Ok, thank you. She won't be able to make all the practices just because of timing and everything but we will try our best to be here as much as possible. Thomas sometimes has activities on Wednesday nights as well so we will see what happens. Do the parents have to stay or leave for practices?" Edward asked.
"Well, really it's your choice. Some stay and watch and others leave and do other errands or go home until the practice is over. The practice is only an hour long so there isn't much time to do anything in between but it's your choice. Now, am I safe to assume that you're the big brother that shoots hoops in the driveway?" I questioned turning to the young man standing beside his father.
"Yeah, that's me. I'm Thomas," he introduced himself.
"It's nice to meet you. And who is this little beauty over there with Layla?" I asked.
"That's Kaitlynne, she's 6. She seems to enjoy your daughter's company," he laughed.
"It seems that way. If ever you have a conflicting schedule for games of practices let me know. I can come pick her up and drop her back home," I offered.
"Oh, wow. Okay, that would really be great. We'll see what happens with his schedule and I'll let know. Thank you," he smiled.
I started practice five minutes later, some parents and siblings of my players sat on the bleachers against the wall of the gym. I noticed that Edward and his two other children stayed. Aiden and Layla seem to have taken to his youngest daughter Kaitlynne. The three of them were sitting close together playing and chatting with each other.
The girls ran through some drills that included shooting, running, and passing. More parents started arriving for pickups so I wrapped up practice and people started leaving.
After putting away all the equipment away and saying bye to parents, the kids and I headed back home for the night.
Baths and bed for the kids was the first thing on the agenda before I could sit down with a glass of wine and turn on the TV.
- Sunday, October 18-
"Bella," Esme smiled at me in the coat room at the church, "How have you and the kids been? I haven't had the chance to talk to you in a while."
I met Esme and her husband, Carlisle, at church when my kids and I started coming here 3 years ago. Esme took instantly to Aiden and Layla and was almost like their grandmother. Esme and Carlisle have always supported me and have babysat them numerous times when they thought I needed a break for a few hours. It had been tough to raise two kids by myself since my husband passed away but they helped and encouraged me so much over the past 3 years. I was so thankful to them and I knew that I would never be able to thank them properly.
"We're doing really well actually," I said back, "lots of work now we're all back into school."
"What grade are you teaching now?" she asked.
"I'm teaching sophomore and junior English this year," I replied.
"That must be interesting. One of our grandsons is a sophomore this year and I believe he is taking it this semester so you must have him in one of your classes," she smiled. "Carlisle and I were going to go out to lunch, would you and the kids like to come with us?"
"That sounds like a good idea, we were just going to have sandwiches at home. Where are you guys going?" I wondered.
"We haven't decided yet, why don't we let the kids choose," she suggested.
"Sounds good, I'm going to just go get them from their class and I'll come find you guys in a few minutes," I told her.
I stepped into the room where all the kids were doing a craft, and some of the older high school students were helping them.
"Hi Mommy," Layla said when she say me.
"Hi sweetie, are you guys almost done your craft? We're going to go out for lunch with Esme and Carlisle," I explained.
"Yay!" she said and started putting away all the markers she was using.
"Aiden, it's time to go, sweetie," I said.
"Okay," he said.
When they were done cleaning up, we went into the hall and found Carlisle and Esme. Layla went running up to them and latched herself onto Carlisle's legs.
"Hi Layla," he smiled down at her.
"Hi," she replied.
"Are you ready to go out for lunch?" he asked her while picking her up in his arms.
"Yeah! Where we going?" she asked.
"I don't know, it's up to you and your brother," he told her.
"I want to go to Denny's," Aiden cut in.
"Me too!" Layla agreed.
"Denny's it is," Carlisle smiled at both of them.
We went and got into our cars and drove off to the restaurant. Once we got seated and ordered, the kids started drawing and playing games on the colouring sheets that the hostess left them. Esme and Carlisle were asking me all about the kids and my job and everything else they could think of the ask me.
I saw someone approach the table out of the corner of my eye.
"Mom, Dad?" a deep voice asked.
Esme and Carlisle turned in their seats to see who it was.
"Emmett! Hi, son. What are you doing here?" Esme jumped out of her seat gave him a hug.
"We're here having lunch. Lily got to choose the restaurant. James didn't want to come so he's at home," he responded. His eyes cut to me and the kids with a questioning look.
"How sweet. You guys should have come to church with us this morning. This is Bella and her children, Aiden and Layla; they come to our church. Why don't you guys come sit with us, I'm sure they could pull up another table for us. Bella, would you mind?" Esme suggested.
"Not at all, it's nice to meet you Emmett," I said.
We waved over the waitress and they got to work moving the table beside ours over to make it big enough for all of us. We all made introductions and their daughter Lily sat next to the kids and started colouring along with them.
"Bella works at the same high school that James goes to. She teaches English for his grade. Is he taking that this semester?" Carlisle asked.
"Yes, he is, has he been ok in class?" Rose asked.
"Oh, James Cullen, he's been a great student. He stayed after class the other day for some extra help. I didn't make the connection that his last name was Cullen when Esme mentioned it," I explained.
Lunch went by quickly with us getting to know each other more. I learned that Rose is a mechanic and owns her own garage, and Emmett is a lawyer. James and Lily were their only children and they had lived here in the Phoenix suburbs since they finished college and moved back to be near Esme and Carlisle.
"Mommy, Daddy," Lily started. "Is Uncle Eddie coming over tomorrow night?"
"Yes, dear, him and the kids are coming over for dinner," Rose assured her.
"Can Aiden and Layla come with their mommy come too?" she asked. I felt a bit shocked that this little girl wanted to invite us over for dinner. It seems she had taken a liking to my kiddos.
"You know what darling, I think that's a great idea. Wouldn't it be great for your uncle to meet Bella?" Rose's smile was growing.
"Oh no, I don't think that's a good idea. We wouldn't want to put you out any," I backpedalled.
Emmett piped in, "you all should come. My brother and his kids come over every Monday night for dinner and the kids play outside or watch movies. Rose's brother and his family come as well."
"I don't know. It's probably not a good idea since I'm your son's teacher," I resisted.
"Please Mommy, I want to play with Lily," Layla begged.
"James has football practice Monday evenings and then goes out for dinner with his friends so he won't even be there the whole night. Please, the kids would love it, I'm sure," Rose convinced me.
"Alright, we will be there. How about I make dessert?" I gave in.
"Sounds great," Emmett smiled.
Rose and I exchanged phone numbers so that she could send me their address. Soon after everyone was done eating we paid the bill and headed out separate ways.
Aiden knocked proudly on the door of Rose and Emmett's house the next night. My hands were full of chocolate cheesecake and vanilla cupcakes.
The door swung open and standing there was Edward Cullen.
"Bella?" his face showed confusion.
"Edward, you're Emmett's brother?" I asked.
"Yeah, how do you know them?" he inquired.
"I'm friends with your parents. I met Rose and Emmett yesterday when I was out for lunch with your parents and they insisted the kids and I come for dinner."
"Small world. Come on in guys, the kids are out back playing before dinner."
Edward took the desserts out of my hands and led me to the kitchen.
Rose smirked over our way when we walked into the kitchen and said, "I see you've met each other."
"The thing is we already knew each other," Edward smirked back. "Bella coaches Addi's basketball team so we met on Wednesday."
There were looks of confusion on their faces as they looked at each other.
The doorbell rang again before it opened and other face I recognized walked in.
"Jasper?" I questioned.
"Bella? What are you doing here?" he asked.
"Emmett and Rose invited me to dinner," I drawled. "You're Rose's brother?"
"Yeah. This is my wife Alice, our girls, Amanda and Haylee are already outside," he introduced us.
"Well Bella, you have ruined every surprise we had. You knew my brother and Rose's brother. How is that?" Emmett joked.
"Well we teach at the same school, different departments though, but we know each other," Jasper explained.
"Never thought of that," Rose mused. "Bella is friends with Em's parents. We met up with them for lunch yesterday. Her kids loved Lily so we invited them all over for dinner tonight. She brought dessert."
"We're in for a treat then. I remember she brought some dessert to a faculty party last year, it was the first thing gone," Jasper smiled at me.
My head was spinning with all these connections that were right under my nose. We sat down to dinner and I had a fun evening with some adults that were my own age.
AN
New story I'm trying out. Hope you enjoyed it. Let me know what you think. Next chapter for my other story Meant to Be will be up soon.