May, 2010
I dragged my feet on the way to Health Class. I didn't hate school the way a lot of high school kids do, but really, does anyone like Health? No, I don't think so. And honestly, in the little town of Forks it was probably much worse then your average Sex Ed. Class. The teacher, Mrs. Fuller, who was approaching 110 give or take a few years had taught all our parents at one point or another so we were living breathing reminders that she, in fact, had not convinced anyone in the class of '82 not to ever have sex. That was another thing about Forks: Nothing ever changed. If you were born here it meant that your parents had been born here, and your grandparents, and probably your children would be too. 95% of the people who talked about one day leaving and moving somewhere exotic and having a glamorous job and a picture perfect life were kidding themselves. They'd most likely end up marrying their high school sweetheart at 18, moving into a house a street down from where they'd grown up and raising babies on the front lawn. It was a pretty bleak prospect. Once upon a time that was all I'd wanted for myself, but now I hoped to be part of that 5% who got out. Maybe I could go to collage on the east coast and then just stay there.
"Hey girl! Wait up." My best friend Rosalie's voice yelled from somewhere behind me, pulling my sharply back into reality. I turned around to see her running down the hallway in a long green peasant skirt and a beaded tank top with her long blonde hair flying everywhere. She was dragging her book bag behind her and nearly took out a few people with the strap as she ran by. I was jealous of how even with such a laid back sense of style Rose was still the most beautiful girl at Forks High. Not that she should be underestimated. The girl was whip smart and had a mouth like a drunken' sailor.
"We're going to be late ya'know." I told her as she caught up to me.
"Don't worry about it, Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Hot are still down by the guys locker rooms, they'll be way later then us."
"That's funny, because I can see the jerks from here—walking into class." I said acidly as I watched Edward Cullen and Emmet McCarty slip inside just as the late bell rang.
"Fine, come on."
"Okay. Wait, which one was Tweedle Hot?" I asked confusedly. Rosalie rolled her eyes and I followed her into the classroom.
"We're going to do a social experiment" Mrs. Fuller announced the moment I sat down. She was practically bouncing out of her chair with excitement (Which was admittedly impressive for an ancient relic), which basically ensured that this project would be long, hard, and boring. Teachers love that stuff. "This is going to be your semester project and will count for 20% of your final grade, so I want you to take it seriously." She practically skipped over to the active board and pulled up a PowerPoint screen. The heading of the first slide was THE GAME OF LIFE written in rainbow letters just on like that old board game. I shot a quizzical glance at Rosalie who shrugged and nodded at the board where the second slide had appeared. TEENAGE PREGNACY RATES IN U.S. HIGER THEN EVER was the title of this one, followed by some statistics. I openly rolled my eyes and I definitely wasn't the only one.
"Don't give me that guys." said Mrs. Fuller, probably responding to the obvious disregard for her statistics. "Becoming a teen parent is a big deal, a much bigger deal then the media makes it out to be. How many people watch the television show Secret Life?" several hands went up. "Well we're going to be experiencing what it's like to live like those kids on the show. I think everyone has heard of the egg project or the flower sack baby?" there was a general mumble of acknowledgement. "Good, well this is the same idea but we're bring the project into the 21st century. Everyone will be put into groups of two—don't get too excited, these groups have already been chose by me—you will randomly draw cards to determine professions, salaries, houses, etc. Each couple will have to realistically balance their finances and lifestyles. Every class you'll be given a new life scenario to incorporate into your "lives". Tyler?" she nodded at Tyler Crowley who had his hand up.
"What kind of scenarios?"
"Like the death of a relative, or getting laid off of your job. Then you'll have to change your lives to fit your situation." I raised my eyebrows at Rosalie who had muttered something that sounded an awful lot like 'fuck this', but she wasn't looking at me she was staring at Edward and Emmet who were messing around in the back of the class room with Jessica Stanley and obviously not paying attention at all. A very small part of me wished I was like Jessica, cool enough to ignore the teacher with the hottest, most popular guys in school, but I unfortunately knew Edward a bit too well, or at least I had a long time ago, so it was only a very small part.
"I haven't even gotten to the best part!" Mrs. Fuller was bursting with obvious excitement. "You're all also going to be taking care of one of these little guys" she opened one of the three huge storage bins on her desk and pulled out—
"Oh my god!" I squealed. It was a baby. I calmed down enough to realize it couldn't be real, but it sure looked real. It had perfect tiny features and even a little bit of hair. Then all of a sudden the little thing opened its mouth and started to cry. Everyone nearly jumped out of their seats in surprise.
"Shhh, it's okay baby" Mrs. Fuller danced around holding the, um baby until it stopped. "Okay everyone, obviously these aren't real infants, but you'll need to treat them like they are. Hospitals use these for new parenting classes, and this year our school was fortunate enough to get some to use for this new project." I wondered how on earth Forks had come up with the money to buy robotic baby stimulators. The only people in town with that kind of money were…
"How much you wanna bet Dr. Cullen donated those things?" I whispered to Rose.
"Yeah" she laughed "Probably trying to scare Edward before he knocks up Jessica and ends up stuck here with the rest of us."
"Mmmm." I agreed noncommittally.
"The babies will do everything a real child would." Mrs. Fuller continued "They'll cry and you'll have to feed and change them. They have sensors inside that'll tell me if you're leaving them in your room alone all day so you'll have to bring them everywhere with you. Each "parent" will alternate having them over night, so don't leave one partner to do all the work. You'll have them for a total of two weeks, and at the end of the project you'll have to do a presentation to the class about your family. Does everyone understand?" There was another general mumble of agreement.
"Who are our partners?" Jessica simpered, looking longingly at Edward. I rolled my eyes; those two would have the world's dumbest baby.
"I'll read them now, and then each group should come get a baby and sit together before I come around and give you your first life scenario cards. Okay, Mike and Angela, James and Victoria, Eric and Rosalie" I shot Rose a sympathetic glance for her unfortunate pairing. Eric was the smartest kid in our grade, but not entirely socially aware. Mrs. Fuller read several more pairs, then finally I was one of the last. Wait, who else was left? "And finally, Jessica and Emmet, and Edward and Bella."
Holy shit.
I looked around the room in a panic. "Sorry, I didn't hear you. Who did you say I was with?" I asked Mrs. Fuller hopeful I had heard wrong.
"You're working with Edward." She answered dismissively.
"Yeah Bells, what'dya think, you wanna make a baby?" Edward called from the back of the room and the whole class sniggered loudly.
"I don't know Eddy, I'd be pretty put out if my kid ended up pumping gas for a living because it inherited your brain." I snapped.
"Ohhhh!" several of the guys called.
"Enough you two!" said Mrs. Fuller loudly. "Can one partner from each group come up to the front and get a baby—careful! Don't drop him!"
I walked up to the front of the room and waited until Mrs. Fuller put a "baby" in my arms. It was the creepiest thing I'd ever seen, but only because if I didn't know better I'd probably think it was real. It was even kind of soft and squishy like real skin. Weird. Actually, the weirder thing was looking between Edward and me and the baby it kind of looked like us. With light tan skin, little amber curls, and dark brown eyes the thing was actually kind of cute. Kind of.
"Congratulations." I said sarcastically as I handed it over to its "father" "it's a boy."
"Jesus!" Edward muttered, but apparently didn't feel like elaborating. I sat down in Emmet's empty chair and stared in silence at him holding out "son". "What'dya wanna name it?" He asked me finally.
"I don't care, you can pick whatever you want." I turned away from him and watched Mrs. Fuller coming around with index cards with the statistics of our pretend lives written on them. When she came by, I grabbed one from each of the piles a random. "Here" I read quickly and then tossed them at Edward who was staring at the "baby" with his eyebrows knit together in either worry or frustration I wasn't sure "We live in a 4 bedroom house on a cul-de-sac, you're a Pediatrician, I'm a stay at home mom—" I snorted "like that'd ever happen—and we make a reasonable amount of money okay?
"'Kay whatever."
"Look." I leaned over and whispered so no one but he could hear me "I don't want to work with you any more then you want to work with me okay? So let's just get through this as painlessly as possible and we never have to talk to each other again."
"Fine by me" he smirked infuriatingly.
"Edward! Bella! Are you paying attention?" yelled Mrs. Fuller apparently not for the first time.
"What?!" we said in distracted unison.
"What did you draw for professions?" She asked. I told her begrudgingly as she typed furiously on her school mandated laptop. "And what is the name of your baby?"
"Uhhh…" I said lamely trying to buy us some time. Time that apparently Edward didn't need.
"Charlie. Charlie Swan Cullen." He said without missing a beat.
I gasped.
~Flashback~
August 1998
"Bella, when we grow up will you marry me?" Edward asked me as he ran ahead of me down the path to the pond behind my house.
"Okay, how old will we have to be before we're grown up?" I asked nervously.
"I don't know, at least 17 like Jacob Black. He's big like a grown up." He said very confidently.
"Okay, but you have to ask me again when we're 17. This time doesn't count."
"Yes it does, I asked you and you said yes. That means we're engaged."
"No it doesn't" I argued "You didn't get down on one knee like in the movies, and you didn't give me a ring."
"Well I don't have a ring."
"Right, so someday when you do you have to ask me again. If you still want to marry me then." I added uncomfortably.
"I'll always want to marry you. Always." He grinned widely.
I stumbled on a rock on the path just as we reached the edge of the pond. Edward grabbed my arm before I fell, but didn't say anything about it. We sat down on the little beach and dug around for the perfect skipping rocks.
"When we're grown up and married will we have to have babies?" I asked after awhile.
"I don't know. Don't babies just come to married people? Do you get to choose?"
"I'm not sure. But if we do I only want one so they're not too loud."
"That's okay, but can it be a boy? Girls are so annoying!"
"Hey!" I said indignantly.
"Well you're not like that, but other girls are stupid." He wrinkled his nose in distaste.
"Fine we'll have a boy, but what will we name him?"
"How about Tommy like the Rugrats?"
"No, I don't like that show. How about Charlie, like the little boy from the chocolate movie?" I suggested.
"I love that movie! Oompa Loompa loompadee doo! La la la la lalalala….." he trailed off.
"And he'll have red hair like me and brown eyes like you and look just like the Charlie from the movie." I said excitedly.
"Okay good. Should we tell anyone we're getting married?"
"No." I said, "Let's keep that and baby Charlie a secret for now."
"Okay." he jumped up "I bet I can skip this rock further then you!"
"Nuh uh! I always win."
"You do not!" he yelled.
"Do too!" I giggled.
"Fine, prove it. Ready? One…Two…Three…skip!"
I won.