Author's Note: This fic takes place throughout Edward and Bella's teenage years, starting with eighth grade. I've always imagined an awkward, adolescent, all-human fic for these two, and since I could never find it, I'm going to write it myself. And, no, this does not take place in 1969. If you have any suggestions or requests, feel free to shout it out at me, and I'll try my best to incorporate it, and if I don't, I will give you a reason as to why I couldn't. Enjoy!
Chapter One: Down at the Drive-In
"Are you sure you can drive this thing?" The lanky blonde boy adjusted his seatbelt nervously, his face pale beneath the smattering of freckles.
"Chill out, Jasper," said the dimpled teen sitting in the driver's seat, looking much older than his thirteen years with his linebacker physique. "You'll get wrinkles if you worry too much."
Another blonde, this time shorter and with long, skater-punk hair, opted not to buckle up for safety, and leaned between the driver's and passenger's seats. "Yeah Jazz, no girls would like you if you're a prune - "
The driver cut in. "Prune? He's all ready a total prude."
" - especially a certain miss Alice..." the shorter of the blondes continued.
"Shut up, James!" Jasper growled, trying to lean over and punch his friend.
"You like Alice?" The dimpled grin disappeared.
"Awh, Emmett," Jasper's face shifted from pale and angry to flushed and scared in an instant. "I know she's your little sister, but - "
"You're too old for her," Emmett said in a tone that was obviously final. Jasper swallowed back any comments, especially pointing out the fact that Alice was just seven months younger than he, and a grade below because of it.
"There's his house," James said a moment later, pointing at the large white house with ash trees surrounding it. Emmett clumsily pulled over (as well as he hid it, he'd never actually driven a car before, let alone his father's old Jeep), and the trio of eighth graders focused on the upstairs windows of the house.
Not a minute later, and the curtains in a window moved, the window opening, and a skinny shadow was crawling onto the top of a tree. Silently, the shadow was at ground level and running across the lawn to the car in moments. He swung in as Emmett started up the car, his face carrying the glow of someone breaking the rules and knowing he would never be caught. He swung his shagging copper-colored hair out of his shamrock green eyes, dusting a few leaves from his person. He smiled at his friends, revealing two rows of sapphire blue braces.
"'Evening, gents," Edward Cullen said.
Meanwhile...
Emmett McCarty's adoptive sister revved the engine of her pink Vespa. "Isabella! Come on, we're going to miss the movie!"
Next to her in the Swan family's driveway, Jasper's twin wore bright red roller blades, and was idly braiding her long blonde hair. "Yeesh, Alice, like you didn't take twenty minutes prettying yourself up."
"That's different, Rosalie," Alice defended. "We weren't late when I was getting ready. And we're biking, blading and Vespa-ing! I swear, if we miss the previews heads will roll!"
"Save it for the stage, Ali." A petite brunette came out of the garage, pulling her purple bicycle with her. Bella Swan strapped her helmet over her long French braid, pulling her retainer case from her 100%-recycled-materials purse. Popping in the metal device, Bella straddled her bike, and began to pedal down the street. Alice followed close behind, and Rosalie (who had spent the last four summers with her roller-derby-champion cousin, learning the ropes) was level in an instant.
"Speaking of the stage," Rosalie began innocently, "what do you think of your co-star in this year's production?"
Alice blushed, two bright spots of cherry on her alabaster cheeks. "What do you mean?"
"Yeah, Al." Bella fought to keep a straight face. "The school play this year is 'Legend of Sleepy Hollow', you've been cast as Katrina, and Jasper Whitlock's Ichabod."
"He's a great actor," Alice said evenly.
"And you think he's hot," Rosalie chimed.
"I do not!" Alice squealed. Bella laughed.
"You know you lurve him, Tink," Bella insisted, using the nickname of 'Tinkerbell', referring to Alice's first acting role and her pixie-like persona.
Alice had a desperate shine in her eye. "Yeah, well, I caught Rose kissing Emmett's school picture!"
Rosalie shrieked, freezing and falling behind her two friends. "Ali! You said you wouldn't say anything! And I wasn't kissing it - "
"You were staring at it, and sighing like this," Alice continued to use a breathy, girlish voice, her face set in a familiar, Rosie-with-a-crush pattern. "Huhhhhhhhh."
Bella wrinkled her nose. "Emmett McCarty? Jasper Whitlock? Really guys, what do you see in them?"
Rose and Alice both looked at Bella in confusion and offense. "What do you mean?"
"Well, no offense to Alice, but Emmett is all brawn and no brain. And Jasper's a bit of a wuss, and all he does is homework." Bella pointed out.
Alice, who loved Jasper's intellect but would never admit it, rolled her eyes. Rosalie adored Emmett, the big goof he was, felt her temper flare. "And what about you, Miss Bella I-Know-Everything-About-Relationships Swan?"
"I don't like anybody."
"Phew," Alice breathed a sigh of relief. "For a second I thought you were going to say you liked James."
"Ew!" Rosalie and Bella shrieked.
"I'd never like James - with that stupid haircut," Bella protested.
"He's too short for you, anyway," Alice said.
"I fully intend on being single forever," Bella said proudly, "I am a strong, confident woman, and I'll never need a man to complete me. My thirty-eight cats can keep me company!"
Rosalie laughed, shaking her blonde head. "Hey, what movie are we going to see, anyway?"
"I don't know what it's about," Bella shrugged as the girls waited to cross the street, "but some new guy at our school supposedly got a small part in it, so I figured its worth checking out."
"Do you think it's Jasper?" Alice asked, unable to conceal the excitement in her voice. Her best friends rolled their eyes, speeding ahead of her, closing in on the big green and white apparatus that was the drive-in theater.
..............................................................................
Edward laid across the roof of the Jeep, waiting for the movie to start. James sat with his feet hanging over the windshield, eating a Twix and trying to get his hair to stay out of his face. Jasper and Emmett were sitting on either side of Edward, pumping him for information.
"Why didn't you tell us you were in the movie?" Jasper pressed, miffed that one of his best friend would keep something that big from him.
"Because it's not a big deal," Edward said. "I only have, like, twelve lines."
"What's it about, at least?" Emmett asked. The guys didn't even know what the movie was called.
"'If You're A Man'," Edward began in a bored, rehearsed voice, "is the tale of a secret society called The Sufferings that rounds up boys and uses them for various illegal activities, such as robberies and murders, by blackmailing or brainwashing. It is responsible for the arrests of over one million teenage guys over a three year span, and the deaths of fifty thousand. A seventeen year old boy named Michael Nelvana finds out what's going on, and tries to join the organization to take it down. I'm ruining the movie for you now - " Jasper and Emmett waved him along, not caring about the surprise ending, " - but in the end Michael's killed, and the Suffering's system is damaged, but not destroyed. Just in time for the sequel, Michael's younger brother Jordan takes over his legacy."
"Who are you - some random guy?" James prodded from his seat.
"I'm Jordan." Edward ran his tongue over his braces. "I've signed on to do the sequel. 'Man or Boy', it's called."
"No shit?" Emmett asked, blown away with the news that he was sitting next to a future movie star.
"Yeah, shit," Edward said. "I had to spend months filming 'Man or Boy' already. I hate missing school."
As his friends shook their heads, aghast that a guy would rather sit through science class than jet off to Hollywood, Edward jumped off the Jeep and jogged over to the snack bar.
"Uh, two chili dogs, two large nachos..." James and Edward would have nachos, Emmett and Jasper the dogs, and they'd brought some of Jasper's mom's world famous lemon-limeade. "...and two cans of Coke, please."
As the bespeckled boy behind the counter prepared the order, Edward leaned against the counter, looking around. He didn't even know what he was looking for until he'd found it. There, locking her bike to the bike rack, her long braid falling over her shoulder, was the cutest girl he had ever seen. Even from a distance, he could tell she wasn't wearing any makeup - her skin was naturally that clear, glowing in the twilight. She had big, round brown eyes, and pink pouty lips, like Angelina Jolie's but better somehow. The mystery girl looked like a younger Emily Browning (the actress Edward had the biggest crush on since he saw a Series of Unfortunate Events). When she laughed at something her friend said, Edward felt himself smiling, too, something he'd tried not to do since he got his braces. Then, she turned around, and looked right at him, her eyes wide, and he felt himself grinning from ear to ear.
Bella had looked up from the bike rack, laughing at Rosalie's dirty joke, and felt someone's eyes on her. She looked around, and saw the most gorgeous guy on the face of the earth. Like a younger Gaspard Ulleil, but with reddish hair and braces. He was sort of staring at her, grinning like an idiot, and for a minute Bella wondered if she had something on her face, before realizing she was staring just like he was. Wow.
"Bells!" Rosalie yelled - she and Alice had begun walking towards the swing set just behind where the cars parked (much like in the movie Grease), where the girls always sat. "Hurry up!"
The guy behind the counter droned the total at Edward, who clumsily paid, taking the food from the counter, turning back to find the girl running up the hill.
As she tried not to trip and fall, Bella beat herself up inside. The boy had ordered two of everything - of course he was on a date. Hell, he was probably older than she was. Even if he wasn't, like he'd ever be interested in a flat-chested, retainer-wearing geek like her. Bella threw herself onto the left swing, Rose on the right, and Alice climbing onto the top of the set to the seat she'd spent the better part of three summers making - an old lawn chair taped, glued, and even nailed to the wood and steel of the set, complete with a safety belt around her waist. Armed with three bags of Gummi Bears and a two-litre bottle of A&W root beer, the girls settled in to watch 'If You're a Man'.
'An okay flick,' Bella thought about halfway through. 'Pretty exciting so far.' She was just swallowing the head of a green bear when a familiar red head appeared on screen.
"Michael?" the boy from the snack bar asked on screen. "What are you doing?"
"It's nothing, Jordan," the star said, shoving the incriminating knife under his pillow. "Why don't you go play with your video games or something?"
"Mom's worried," the boy said. "She was crying earlier, on the phone with grandma? Yeah, she thinks you're getting yourself into trouble. She said she's scared you'll end up in jail like dad." The boy took a step towards his on-screen brother. "I'm scared, too, Mike."
The star's shoulders slumped at the mention of his father, who'd been wrongly accused of murder. "I'll be lucky to end up like dad, Jor." The brother then proceeded to confess everything to his little brother. Bella didn't listen.
She had just been face to face with a very talented actor, who was in a semi-major movie.
Gah.
Edward didn't watch himself on screen, or any of the movie. Like some creeper, he'd spent the entire ninety-seven minutes with his back to the film, watching the girl on the swings. He saw the shock in her eyes when she recognized him, saw how she didn't move a muscle even as the end credits rolled, except when she seemed to gasp as he said his final line ("I swear to any god there is, I will avenge my brother. The Sufferings will be destroyed!"). Did she like it? Did she like him? As everyone piled into their cars, Edward ran, weaving through the cars with kids his age and groping older couples, til he reached the bicycle rack just as the girl was unlocking her bike.
"Hey," he said, a wave of shyness suddenly washing over him. "Did you, uh, like the movie?"
The girl blushed, a rosy pink fading onto her cheekbones. "Um, yeah. Was that you, as Jordan?"
"Yeah," Edward said sheepishly, looking down at his feet. "I'm Edwa- "
"Edward Cullen," the girl interrupted. "It was in the credits."
"Oh," Edward felt himself blushing this time. "Yeah. Right. Er, what's your name?"
"Bella."
"Short for Isabella, right?"
"Yeah, but nobody calls me that."
"Not even your crazy old grandma?"
Bella giggled. "Not even my crazy old grandma."
"Man, maybe it's just mine - she calls me Edmund."
She giggled again, before a blonde girl called to her. "I've gotta go. Nice to meet you, Edward."
"Same here, Bella." Edward watched her swing a denim-clad leg over her bike, strap on her helmet and pedal after a pink scooter and Blondie on some blades.
"Hey man, did you meet Bella?" Emmett had snuck up behind him.
"Yeah, I did," Edward turned to look at his friend. "She seems...great." That was a lie. She seemed better than great - but he couldn't tell his friends that.
"Yeah, she's pals with my sister, Alice, and that hottie Rose." Emmett shook his head, letting out a low whistle. "I've wanted to ask Rosalie Hale out since fourth grade. But she's shot down every guy to every look at her. I don't have a chance in hell."
"I know the feeling," Edward said, staring off in the direction the girl had gone - the girl he was sure would never like some brace-face like him.