[Disclaimer] I still don't own Twilight
[A/N]
Hi everyone,
It feels like forever since I attempted to write a Bellice story.
We shall see how it turns out.
Happy Birthday to my precious wife.
I love you
Chapter 1
I had never understood what people meant, when they said, it was love at first sight.
But here she was.
And I couldn't take my eyes off of her.
She was dressed in a blue shirt that brought out the reddish tone in her brunette hair.
On her feet was a pair of dirty Converse.
Laughter left her throat while her fingertip clicked the buttons on the camera around her neck.
"Bella, don't you think that's enough pictures now?"
The guy next to her placed his arm on her shoulder.
I felt how the butterflies in my stomach silenced their joyful dance.
"I want one more with you two against the statue at the entrance."
He kneeled down next to the little girl. I tried to remember her name. Something floral like Lily or Daisy.
"Smile, Edward!"
Father and daughter both smiled big while Bella took not one but about five pictures.
"Daddy, can we go have ice cream now?"
He laughed.
"When your Mom is finished with her photo session."
"Just one more!"
Her cheeks flushed beautifully red.
My heart fluttered.
It was taking it longer than my mind to grasp the situation.
She was straight. Even worse, she was straight and married. Married with a child.
She looked at me and smiled like she hadn't just turned my love at first sight into a second look disaster.
"Miss Brandon, would you mind? I really want one with her teacher in it."
xxx
The coffee from the cafeteria tasted bitter despite the two packages of brown sugar I had poured in it.
"Nasty stuff, isn't it? I always bring my own from home."
She sat down across from me and reached out her hand.
"Hi, I'm Angela Cheney, You must be the new Kindergarten teacher."
I nodded my head.
"Please call me Alice."
I was happy Angela had sat down with me. Talking to her would distract me from daydreaming about unreachable women.
One woman to be precisely.
"How did your first day go?"
"A boy tried to stuff a crayon up another kid's nose."
I pushed the awful coffee aside.
"Crayons are weapons in five-year-olds hands."
We both laughed at Angela's comment.
She was a tall woman with a face too strict for her sweet personality.
Within the next fifteen minutes, I learned everything about her military husband, her fraternal twin boys and the black labrador puppy named Lucky.
"Sorry, I tend to talk too much. What about you?"
"I moved here two weeks ago and I still haven't found my coffee machine."
"Moving is always a chaos."
I leaned back in my chair.
"It's my first job, so I am a bit nervous."
"That's understandable. I'm sure you'll do great."
She took a swig from her drink.
"Did you move here with your boyfriend?"
I hesitated for a minute.
"My ex...girlfriend preferred to stay in Biloxi. She can't stand the cold."
Angela's kind smile froze. It was just a second but I noticed it anyway.
"Oh, I see. Victoria, the first grade teacher, she is...like that too."
Like that? Like that? Who calls being gay, like that, these days?
A woman with ginger-colored curls stepped towards our desk.
"Did I hear my name?"
What was it with redheads around here? I thought them to be random.
First Bella's daughter and her husband and now Victoria. Her hair color looked bottled though. It was too bright to be natural.
"Hey, Vic, this is Alice, the new kindergarten teacher."
"Alice, like Alice in Wonderland?"
Wow, I hadn't heard that joke in a while.
xxx
By the end of the day I had convinced myself that I was already forgetting Bella.
She was off limits. I knew it.
But my mind, the traitor, replayed the scene with her smiling at me, again and again.
Every time my heartbeat quickened for a few moments.
I hadn't fallen for a straight woman in years.
It was pointless.
I set the alarm on my phone twenty minutes earlier to take a shower before school.
It took me not longer than usual to fall asleep.
My dreams though kept me tossing and rubbing my thighs together.
Bella was sitting on my lap, wearing her blue shirt. Only the blue shirt. My fingers fumbled clumsy with tiny buttons.
My excitement grew, knowing in a few seconds everything beneath the shirt would be revealed to me.
I saw a hint of cleavage.
Music drummed in my ears.
I groaned and blinked into the bright light above my bed.
My eyes watered.
I made a mental note to buy a new lamp for my bedroom as soon as possible.
When I shifted on my sheets, I noticed how moist the forbidden dream had made me.
I got up and took off my shirt on the way to the bathroom.
Minutes later, under the hot shower I absorbed the sweet scent of coconut.
The second, detachable, shower head was turned to its massage-setting while I held it between my legs.
I whimpered, biting my lip while waves of relaxing pleasure spread throughout me.
xxx
I was going to be late.
It was not good to be late on your second day.
My knees moved nervously up and down while I wished for traffic to speed up.
As the new teacher, they had given me the parking spot furthest away from the entrance.
A line of parents' vehicles was still lined up when I walked towards the building as fast as my new shoes allowed.
With their 6 inch heels, I stood proudly at 5.4.
Someone honked.
"Don't make me go."
I recognized Bella's daughter instantly. Today her hair was in braids, held together with butterfly hair ties.
"Daddy, please!"
"Iris! Come on, be a big girl."
She stomped her foot, while her arms stayed wrapped around his hand, unwilling to let go.
"Daddy!"
Her voice was shrill now.
I was next to them before I could think twice.
"Edward, right? How about I take Iris to class with me now?"
He gave me a thankful look.
"Thank you. You're a lifesaver. Bella was supposed to take her to school but she needed to be at work early today."
"No problem. Iris, come with me. I let you feed our class rabbit."
Her eyes light up. Her face was heart shaped like her mother's but despite that she looked more like her dad. She had inherited her red hair and green eyes from him.
"I wanted a rabbit for Christmas but my parents said no."
"Maybe they let you have one when you are older and can take better care of it."
She shook her head, no.
"I can't have a pet cause my Dad is allergic to them."
We entered the class room and I pulled out the dried animal food for the rabbitt.
Iris went to the back of the room to feed him.
It took me a while to calm the kids enough to make sure everyone was present.
I worked through the list with names I needed to memorize as quickly as possible.
There was two Bens in my class and three Saras, one with h, two without.
Iris, was the only one of her name. And she was the only one I wished to not be here.
I tried to push the thought aside. It wasn't fair on the girl.
Iris Masen-Swan.
I made a circle behind her name.
Edward A. Masen was listed next to an Isabella M. Swan as her parents. There was a third person listed as an emergency contact, a Jasper W. Whitlock.
Isabella.
I whispered her name in my head until a screaming boy brought me back to reality.
What was it with this nonsense of stuffing crayons in other kids' nose?
This time the little troublemaker had succeeded. Blue crayon pieces mixed with red nose bleeding covered his victim's face.
My empty stomach turned.
Don't puke.
Please, don't puke.
Not in front of the kids.
I breathed slowly through my mouth while I tried to call the school nurse.
She didn't pick up the phone.
Instead, probably alarmed by the screaming of the bleeding boy, Victoria stuck her head inside my classroom.
"Jesus!"
"Can you get the nurse?"
"I'll bring him."
Xxxx
The first twenty minutes of my lunch were spent talking to the little boy's bitchy mother.
The incident with the crayon had been an unhappy accident but she was making a big fuss about it.
"The nurse said, JJ will be fine tomorrow. Keep his nose iced."
I told her how sorry I was for what felt like the tenth time, then I hung up.
"Parents, are the worst about this job."
Angela sat down next to me and started eating her salad.
I nibbled halfheartedly on my by now cold chicken tenders.
"Don't take it to heart."
"I'm fine."
I forced myself to smile wide at Angela.
"Victoria helped me."
Angela grinned. Damn it! What was there to grin about?
"Vic told me she likes you."
I shrugged my shoulders.
Things would surely be easier if Victoria and not Bella had sparked my interest.
"I am not interested in dating anyone right now."
"Ugly break-up?" Angela asked in a compassionate tone.
Pointless crush on a straight woman, I thought.
"Something like that." I murmured before quickly changing the subject of our conversation back to school.
Xxxx
I didn't see Bella again for a few weeks and I was grateful for it. She was still on my mind but the memory was getting blurrier.
Parent/ teacher conference came and I was relieved that Bella hadn't shown up when there was only twenty minutes left.
"Am I too late? Gosh, I'm so sorry."
Bella rushed in, wearing a pair of purple scrubs.
"Hi, Bella. You are fine. Please take a seat."
I scrolled through the papers between my hands, avoiding too much eye contact with her.
Her eyes were brown. The darkest, richest shade I've ever seen.
The hair on her head was twisted into a messy knot today.
She was so pretty.
I was so screwed.
"Miss Brandon, is Iris doing good?"
"Just Alice, please. I am Miss Brandon only to the kids."
"My favorite name."
"Really?"
"Yes, that's what I wanted to name my daughter but Edward didn't like it."
I don't like your husband.
"Iris is making good progress. Have you worked with her at home? The papers state she didn't attempt preschool."
"We planned on homeschooling her but she seemed to miss being around other kids her age."
I nodded my head.
"She is a sweet girl but she has a temper."
"I know. Got it from her father."
I showed Bella some of the drawings Iris had done.
The kids had drawn their families for me.
"I look anorectic in this."
Bella giggled. The sound made my insides flutter nervously.
"At least you have both legs in it. She didn't give Edward his left one."
The blonde character next to him was green from head to toe, including the face.
"Can I take it home?"
"Sure, why not?"
Bella thanked me and rolled up Irises masterpiece.
"Your accent, where's that from?"
"Mississippi."
"Do you miss home?"
"Not too much."
"I grew up in Arizona. Moved here after my mom remarried."
"Do you miss it?"
She shook her head but there was sadness in her eyes.
Xxxx
The next weekend didn't start of too good. I had finally found a lamp for my bedroom that I liked.
Since I didn't have a ladder in my apartment, I had climbed on a chair to hang up the lamp.
Now, I was sitting in the E.R. with an ugly laceration on my left knee.
It hurt but it didn't hurt that much anymore when the nurse showed up to give me stitches.
Messy brown bun
Purple scrubs
A smile that did more to me than it should.
I needed to go home.
"Alice!"
She said my name like she was happy to see me.
"It's not that bad."
"You need stitches or you'll get an ugly looking scar."
I sighed. Would it be weird to demand another nurse?
Yes, it was. Plus, they were probably poorly staffed on weekends.
"It won't hurt too bad."
If Bella knew it was her presence that worried me and not the pain.
Physical pain was bearable.
A sharp burning liquid was dabbed on my knee.
I hissed through my teeth.
Bella leaned a bit closer to my wound.
"How did this happen?"
"I tried to hang up a lamp."
She started stitching, working slow and carefully.
"Doesn't your boyfriend do things like that for you?"
"There is no one."
"It can be hard to find the person whose right for you."
It can be harder to get over the wrong person you want to be right for you.
"Love does what it wants."
Bella smiled, placing a band-aid on my knee.
"I believe when you find the right one, you just know it."