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Chapter 3 – Fighting Chance
MONDAY 25TH JUNE, 2007
BELLA'S POV
"Ooh I love your bikini!" Angela commented as I quickly got into her car.
"Thanks!" I smiled. I was wearing a red bikini, with frills on the top and on the back of the bottoms. I was also wearing a pair of red and white board shorts.
"I love yours; pink is definitely your colour." I said, indicating to her bikini with gold flower pattern on them.
"Thanks." She laughed, but then her mood darkened. "There's been a change of plan, Mia can make it. She cancelled her massage appointment in Seattle as soon as she heard you were coming." She snickered.
"Great!" I groaned, really not happy.
"I'm glad you're coming though." Angela said shyly.
"Me too." I agreed.
We arrived in no time, and we were the first people there. We found a nice place to have the picnic, and started setting up. Soon enough Paul, Embry, Quil and an unexpected Seth turned up. After everyone had greeted everyone, we sat down to wait for Jacob and Mia.
"Where are they?" I moaned after twenty minutes.
"Mia's probably doing her make-up." Paul said.
"Are you serious?" I asked, and I was shocked to find he was, "What? But we're going swimming!"
"That's just how she is." Angela shrugged.
"Good Lord." I blasphemed. "Well if they don't get here soon, I'm going swimming whether they like it or not." I said boldly. The boys looked stunned, because I was definitely not the Bella they remembered.
"Well if I was Jacob, I would dump Mia on her ass and go for you." Paul said harshly, earning a slap behind the head from Angela.
"Paul!" she hissed angrily, "I'm your girlfriend, and you're not supposed to say stuff like that."
"Sorry." He said earnestly and sweetly to his imprint. I was till shocked about that. I mean agro, strong and relatively crazy Paul with sweet, innocent and hard-working Angela. It was match made in heaven.
She smiled and leaned over to kiss him.
"That's it!" I exclaimed, jumping up, "I'm going swimming!" and I bolted towards the crashing green-blue waves. They caught up with me in no time and we all dived in to the water. It was bloody freezing.
"Oh my god!" I gasped, standing up and hugging myself. "So cold!"
"What are you talking about?" Angela laughed, in Paul's arms, "It's nice."
"Huh, you would say that." I rolled my eyes, "You have your own personal heater."
"True." She smiled like she knew something I didn't, and then before I knew it I was crash tackled by one big warm body.
"Oh my god!" I spluttered again, wiping the wet hair out my eyes to see Jake. "You scared the crap out of me!" I scolded him, swatting him on the arm.
"Warmer now?" he chuckled, his arms around me.
"Much." I nodded, but the caught sight of an angry Barbie at the shore, "But I don't think your girlfriend is too happy."
"Oops." He muttered, immediately stepping away from me. My teeth started chattering when the cold water hit me.
"G-Gee, th-thanks." I said sarcastically. Everyone laughed then Seth was there.
"Don't worry little sis," he said, wrapping me in a brotherly hug, "I'll keep you warm."
"Thanks bro." I smiled, glancing over at Quil and Embry who were wrestling in the water. I just shook my head and turned back to the others.
"So why isn't Mia swimming?" I asked Jacob inquisitively.
"She doesn't want to ruin her make-up." He sighed bitterly, but looked adoringly at Mia standing on the shore. Maybe he doesn't love her but he liked her a lot.
"Oh." Was all I said, trading a meaningful look with Angela.
"Hey, don't judge her." Jacob scowled.
"Wouldn't dream of it, lover-boy." I joked, making Angela giggle.
"You'll pay for that." He smiled evilly.
I had time to scream before he dived into Seth, knocking us both into the water. I felt warm hands reach for me and pull me out of the water.
"Thanks Quil." I giggled at his hands on my stomach.
"Bella, are you still ticklish?" Jacob asked suspiciously.
"N-No." I lied, the smile wiped from my face. I was ticklish, extremely ticklish. And I knew Mia would give me hell for all this flirting.
"I think you are." Quil chuckled.
"No, I swear I'm not!" I couldn't help but smile though and that gave me away. Again, Jacob leaped towards me, and I was practically attacked. I laughed hysterically until I couldn't breathe and my sides hurt.
"Help me Ang!" I squealed through all my laughing. I heard her turn to Paul and ask sweetly;
"Please?" Oh, she had him wrapped around her little finger. Paul jumped into the fray and I was pulled out of Quil and Jacob's grasp.
"Thanks!" I said gratefully, clinging to Paul in case one of them tried to pull me away again.
"No worries." Paul snickered at the red marks all over my stomach.
"Ow." Angela examined.
"Oh it doesn't hurt." I assured her.
"Yet." Paul pointed out. I may have a few bruises in the morning.
"Shit, sorry Bells." Jacob said when he saw my stomach.
"Ooh. My bad." Quil added when he too saw the red marks.
"Will you all stop looking at me stomach?" I asked self-consciously, "I've had worse. I fell off stage once, now that hurt." I told them. The cracked up laughing and soon I had joined in to.
"Really?" Embry shook his head, "How did you manage that?"
"Oh well I tripped on an electrical cord and fell off." I explained.
"Only you Bella." Quil sniggered.
"Speaking of music, why don't we go and eat lunch and Bella can play her new song for us!" Angela said excitedly.
"My song?" I asked worriedly. I was planning on singing this without Mia (and Jacob preferably) being here.
"Yes your song!" Angela rolled her eyes. This could be a problem I thought.
We got to shore and started to dry ourselves with our towel.
"You said you loved me, not her." I heard Mia's angry baby voice say to Jake, and she threw a death glare in my direction. "Were you lying? I told you not to lie to me. And I told you not to go near her." She sounded more like a mother, not a girlfriend.
"Calm down baby." He said soothingly, though he had a kind of frantic look in his eyes. "Nothing happened anyway."
"Huh." She snorted, giving me another evil look.
After a delicious lunch (filled with angry looks from Mia) I was pressured into singing.
"Do I really have to?" I moaned.
"Yes!" they all said, except Mia who looked sulky that I was getting all the attention. Quil shoved my guitar into my arms.
"Go on Bella." Angela urged me.
"Fine." I gave in. "This song in called 'You Belong With Me'" I said and Angela half-gasped. I started playing the guitar;
"You're on the phone with your girlfriend, She's upset I'm in my room, it's a typical Tuesday night But she wears short skirts, I wear t-shirts If you could see that I'm the one who understands you, Walkin the streets with you in your worn out jeans And you've got a smile that could light up this whole town She wears high heels, I wear sneakers If you could see that I'm the one who understands you Standin by, waiting at your back door Oh I remember you driving to my house in the middle of the night Can't you see that I'm the one who understands you? Standing by or waiting at your back door Have you ever thought just maybe
She's going off about something that you said
Cause she doesn't get your humor like I do
I'm listening to the kind of music she doesn't like
And she'll never know your story like I do
She's cheer captain and I'm on the bleachers
Dreaming bout the day when you wake up and find
That what you're lookin for has been here the whole time
Been here all along so why can't you see?
You belong with me
You belong with me
I can't help thinking this is how it ought to be
Laughing on the park bench thinkin to myself
Hey isn't this easy?
I haven't seen it in a while, since she brought you down
You say you find I know you better than that
Hey, Whatcha doing with a girl like that?
She's cheer captain and I'm on the bleachers
Dreaming bout the day when you wake up and find
That what you're looking for has been here the whole time
Been here all along so why can't you see?
You belong with me
All this time how could you not know that?
Baby, you belong with me
You belong with me
I'm the one who makes you laugh when you know you're about to cry
I know your favorite songs and you tell me about your dreams
I think I know where you belong. I think I know it's with me.
Been here all along, so why can't you see?
You belong with me
All this time how could you not know that
You belong with me
You belong with me
You belong with me
You belong with me."
I finished, out of breath. I look around at everyone. Quil, Paul, Embry and Seth seemed impressed and mildly shocked. Angela was full of worry and anticipation, Jacob was shocked but seemingly happy that I had written a song about him and then there was Mia. Oh God, was she furious. If she were any angrier, I'm pretty sure she would explode into a werewolf like the boys.
"How dare you." She shrieked abruptly, making us all jump. "You have no right to write a song like that you bitch!"
"Calm down." I said, struggling to keep the amusement out of my voice.
"Calm down?" she asked, sounding slightly crazy. She dove at me, but unlike Jacob she didn't want to tickle me. She wanted to scratch my eyes out with her manicured nails.
I yelped and quickly stood up, jumping just out of her reach. Everyone was too shocked to do anything but watch.
She pounced at me again, and this time I was ready. I had spent a whole year practicing defense, because I had wanted to be prepared for anything that might happen.
So I surprised Mia when I blocked her punch and spun around, making her fall to the ground. I hoped that would make her give up, but it only made angrier. She seriously needs to go to anger management classes or something I thought as she turned on me, eyes blazing.
For the third time, she attacked me. I knocked her aside, then twisted her into a submissive position.
"Please stop Mia." I said as nicely as I could.
"Get off me!" she growled back. I looked up to see Jacob still standing there.
"Uh, help!" I exclaimed in exasperation.
"Oh right." He grunted, coming forward and grabbing Mia.
"Baby, it's just a song." He soothed her. That hurt me because no song I wrote was just a song. It was a story, of how I felt and how I saw things. I felt tears spring to my eyes but I immediately pushed them back. He would not see me cry for something so trivial.
I backed away from the couple, turning to Angela.
"Are you okay?" she asked and it had a double meaning. I just looked at her and she understood. She hugged me and asked over my shoulder if the boys would pack up while she drove me home. They agreed and Angela led me to her car, as if I were sick or and old lady.
"I liked the song." She told me truthfully as we drove back to Forks, "And by the look on Jacob's face, I'm pretty sure he liked it too. Well at least until Mia went psycho." She smiled and I couldn't help but smile too. I would fight to get Jacob back, just like he fought for me.