All rights, characters, and properties belong to Stephenie Meyer as she is the wonderful author of the Twilight series. This is merely fanfiction created to entertain my own imagination put into words for others to read and hopefully enjoy.
BTW: Sorry it took me so long to post this! I have been decorating my house for Christmas and got all wrapped up with Christmas shopping and looking for a job. I hope to get the next chapter up within a few days after this one! Thank again for reading! And PLEASE help me to think up a new story title. I was thinking maybe like Evening Star or Dusk or something along those lines. Let me know what you think, PLEASE! And as always I love reading your reviews!
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
3. THE INCIDENT
I stared in bewilderment into his golden liquid topaz eyes for what felt like an eternity until at last the noise of the classroom shocked me back into reality. My eyes drifted down to the bright red apple that Alice had so graciously placed in my hand and disbelievingly looked back up into her overly cheerful smile as a soft "Thank you" escaped my lips.
I watched as Alice gracefully lighted her way to the back of the class pulling the still stunned Edward to one of the two empty desks left. His motions seemed practically mechanical as I saw Alice forcefully push him to sit down into the open seat. His piercing eyes never left mine as I slowly released the air in my lungs that I didn't know I had been holding until that moment. I closed my eyes hoping that when I opened them that I would sadly discover that this had all been an illusion created in my mind and that I was, in fact, suffering from some kind of sick delusion meant only to torture myself. Breathing in slow measured breathes, my heart was pounding feverishly in my chest and it felt as though at any minute it would explode.
Suddenly an unfamiliar voice filled my ears. "Are you ok Ms. Swan?" I quickly opened my eyes and became aware of the looks of concern that were emanating from the now silent classroom. I searched the sea of faces and my eyes immediately landed on his beautifully pale face and topaz eyes staring straight at me from the back of the room. It took a moment for my brain to register the question that must have come from one of the worried students now seated before me.
Breathe Bella! Pull yourself together!
"I-I'm fine" I managed to say while attempting to clear my throat which had become dry for some apparent reason. In that instant, I heard a stifled giggle and at once recognized it as having come from Alice. I struggled as I tried to regain my composure and calm my still racing heartbeat to a normal speed. I knew it would be near impossible for me to tear my eyes from him for even a moment, to not run up to him and throw my arms around him, but in the back of my mind my conscious brought forth the painful images from that parting fateful day.
"Bella, I don't want you to come with me", my mind echoed his words back to me. He had spoken those words so slowly and precisely that it had taken me a while to even fully absorb them. I could still remember the coldness in his eyes that day. It had been him who did not love me anymore, did not want me anymore. Despite the amount of pain it still caused me, I had to respect his wishes of not wanting to be with me. I shook my head to clear it of all thoughts and resurfacing memories of Edward in hopes of making it through the rest of day and more importantly through the rest of this hour.
I took one last long sigh and pushed myself up off of the desk. I realized now that I still held Alice's apple in my hand. A small smile tugged at the corner of my lips as I set it gently down on top of my desk. I turned my head once more toward the uneasy class and began my shaky preamble.
"Welcome to English Literature. I am your new teacher Ms. Swan." My gaze swept to each set of eyes now focused on me at the front of the class. I forced my face to smile and felt my lips curve into what I hope was a convincing gesture of welcoming. "I will go through the attendance roster now and will call out each of your names. Please raise your hand and say 'here' so that I don't mark you absent. I'm sorry if I end up mispronouncing your name--" It was at about that time in my speech that I noticed the attendance roster lying on the floor a few feet in front of me. I tried to walk forward with an honest attempt now in not making a bigger fool of myself and bent over to pick up piece of paper.
Without looking up I continued on, "Let me know if I end up mispronouncing your name so that I try to make sure not to do it again next time." I straighten back up and walked around to the back side of my desk. "If there is another name you would like to go by let me know so that I can write it down in my book. After attendance is taken I will go over this semesters course outline with you and then we will go around the room in an effort get to know one another better."
I leaned my hands on the desk in order to steady my still nervous and trembling body as I began to read through the list of names on the roster. I glanced up every now and then as the students whose names I called off responded back by raising their hands listlessly in the air. A few times, as I had momentary looked up, I could see from out of the corner of my vision his still intense eyes set on me.
As I reached the C's I kept my eyes down intently on the piece of paper as I read the name "Alice Cullen". I could hear the amused tone in her voice as she chimed "Here" and lightheartedly waved her arm around and stifled another giggle behind her hand. My mind focused in on the next name as I managed to take a deep breath and forced out the words "Edward Cullen" Keeping my eyes still on his name on the roster, I heard the velvety softness of his voice as he smoothly answered "Here". It was the voice I had only ever, until now, heard in dreams. There was the same texture in his voice that my mind still clung to in those long ago memories and it sent shivers down my spine. I lifted my head slightly and felt my heart begin to melt into a warm liquid pool of goo as I saw his crooked smile aimed right at me. It seemed that he had not lost his ability to dazzle me even after all these year. I immediately scolded myself for losing focus and quickly finished through the rest of the roster all the while trying hard not to look up and once again be caught by his dazzling bright smile.
With the attendance finally done, I feebly made my way to the back of the room to post the detached slip from the roster in the clip outside the classroom door. I could hear the loud clipping my high heels made as I forced one foot in front of the other all the while keeping my mind focused on my goal. Edward just happened to be seating on the left-hand side in the middle of the last row and unfortunately along the path I was now using all my strength to get through. As I passed by him I felt my heart flutter as his head slowly turned to watch me walk the rest of the way to the door and place the strip of paper into the clip. I turned around sharply on my heel and swiftly walked passed him once more on my way back to the front of the classroom. I could feel his ever present eyes boring into the back of me.
I had almost reached my desk when it seemed out of nowhere that my adolescent clumsiness that I had never quite grown out of came at me full force. The next thing I knew I was stumbling forward. I had just managed to catch myself from falling face forward as my arm reached out to the nearest student's desk in an attempt to steady myself. I felt myself stiffen slightly as I heard the intake of gasps throughout the classroom.
"Are you alright, Ms. Swan?" exclaimed the student whose desk I had used as a crutch to break my fall. I looked over and saw the worried look present on her face and tried my best to manage a small laugh
"Yes, thanks to your desk for saving me. I am fine." I stood up and turned back to the rest of the class. I had at least managed to make it to the front of my desk trying my hardest to ignore the sharp pain I felt in my left ankle. I hoped that I hadn't done too much damage to it. I sat down on top on the sturdy mahogany wood and scooted myself back a bit until I was firmly seated.
"So I don't go tripping over myself again for the rest of class" I said with a smile in an attempt to get a laugh out of the students at my own expense. A few let out a laugh here and there and I felt relieved that at least the tension of the incident was slowly starting to fade. I looked toward Edward and saw his hands gripping his desk. Alice's hand was gently resting on his forearm in what seemed like an effort to calm him down. She shot a quick reassuring glance at me as I looked away toward the faces of the other students.
"As I'm sure you can all tell by now, I am not the most graceful of women to walk these halls." A few more laughs erupted from a group of boys to the far right corner. "As I said earlier, my name is Ms. Swan." I indicted to the board behind me. "I am the new English teacher here at Elkin High and am very excited to get to know each and every one of you seated here in my classroom today. Before I further introduce myself, I want to thank you all for bearing with me through my first day here. I assure you things will get much better as the semester goes on."
"I moved here to Elkin after graduating from Michigan State University with my Bachelors Degree in English Literature and my teaching credential. Before that I lived in a small town in Washington, which has weather much like it is here in Elkin, and before that I lived in Phoenix, Arizona. I have always had an interest in classic literature and am looking forward to hopefully imparting some of my love of reading with you all." I shifted my weight a bit on the desk and crossed my legs while keeping my skirt smoothed out. "Now if I could have a volunteer come up here to help me pass out the course outlines--" A second after the words had left my lips numerous hands eagerly shot up into the air. I took this time to look at Alice and saw that her hand had been the first to shoot up as she impatiently bounced up and down in her seat. Edward, as motionless as ever now, was still staring directly at me. He seemed to have relaxed a bit more from the last time I had seen Alice calming him, but still had a strained expression on his face.
"Miss Cullen" I called out. "Could you please come up here to help me pass out these course outlines?"
Within a matter of seconds Alice had slide out of her seat and danced her way up to take the stack of papers from my hand. She flashed me grin and winked as she turned to distribute the packets to the rest of her classmates. After she was finished, she placed the rest of the papers in a neat stack next to me on the desk and pranced back to her seat next to Edward.
The rest of class went much the same as my previous two classes had earlier that morning. I had to call on another student to help me start passing around the seating chart since it felt as though my ankle was still a bit tender from my near falling incident and I didn't want to try putting my full weight on it again just yet. When we were about halfway through the room getting to know each other better, the bell rang loudly indicating that class was over.
"See you all tomorrow. We will pick up from where we left off." I yelled over the noise of backpacks zipping up and the sounds of students that once again flooded the crowded hallway. I cautiously looked down at my ankle to try to assess the severity of damage my clumsiness had caused me.
"Stupid klutz" I mumbled lowly to myself as I slowly slid off the front of the desk to see it I could walk on it again. I winced slightly as I bit back the stinging pain that hit me as I tried to stand on it. I had suffered through much worse and was sure I would be able to make it through the last two classes I had that day. I was suddenly relieved as I remembered that I had no class for this next period and would be free to tend to my minor injury until after lunch. I had been so distracted by the rush of students leaving and my little experiment just now that I hadn't even looked up until this point to see both Edward and Alice still standing--still waiting at the back of the room.