I don't own Twilight or any of its franchise.
Thanks to 4mejasper and Angelz1114577 over on PTB for betaing this chapter for me! (July 2012).
A/N The wait is over. Hopefully you won't be disappointed after so long - tIt's been brought to my attention that he chapter might confuse a bit, but just give it a chance regardless:D Thanks to the lovely people who reviewed it really keeps me focused despite busy days. (:
Last time on BB: Bella met a mysterious girl, Tanya and her angry butler, Jacob. Edward revealed Aro's plans of making Bella the heir to the Volturi Cooperation while being the best lady possible. They didn't seem eye to eye and Bella told him in no uncertain terms to forget about that idea.
CHAPTER FIVE
It was early Saturday morning. I would normally have been sleeping soundly in my bed, dreaming of my parents and my former happiness to my heart's content, but because my life sort of sucks these days, I was awake…and very angry.
"Don't even think about it." I growled out through gritted teeth, placing my hands firmly around my bedpost, just in case Edward got any ideas.
"Miss Bella." Edward's tone was as courteous as ever, but knowing him as I did then, I could almost sense the slight exasperation in his voice.
"I said no!" Burrowing my head as much into my fluffy pillow, my reply was a bit muffled, but since my grip hadn't slackened, I think he got the fact that I was very serious.
"It's not that…" Edward began, but I rudely interrupted him, glancing at him through the tiny hole I had available from underneath my pillow and my arms.
"I don't wanna hear it, Edward. I will not now, nor ever go back to that stupid ass class. They're insane!"
"I have to point out, Miss Bella, that if you would only reveal to me what transpired during your last class, I would not have to do this."
I frowned, not liking the slight edge in his voice one bit, but I ignored my instincts and tightened my grip on the bedpost even more. Of course, I should've known that was a bad idea, not trusting my gut that is, because next thing I knew, I was being carried across Edward's broad shoulder in a very non-elegant position with my butt high in the air and my head all but steaming with equal parts embarrassment and anger.
"Put me down Edward!" I shrieked, slamming my clenched fists into his back with about as much effect as a gnat kicking an elephant to its knees.
Edward merely sighed at my antics and continued out the door to the dusty hallway of my dorm, and I shrieked loudly. It was still early, and I was not going into public wearing my Disney themed pajamas willingly. Unfortunately, my butler didn't seem to care, and I shut my eyes with a sob of fury and despair.
Then, all of the sudden, I felt this weird whoosh sensation on my body and when I tentatively opened my eyes again, I was clad in the standard uniform, my Disney nightwear nowhere in sight. "How did you even do that?" I mumbled, already knowing that I wouldn't be getting the answer I sought. Before I could reignite my attempts at escape, I heard a door open and a bubbly voice speak.
"Aw, I love crazy bondage games in the morning; don't you just agree, Jazz?"
It was Alice…Naturally, because my days just weren't complete if I wasn't humiliated by my crazy neighbor.
Jasper's soft hum of what I took to be passive agreement reached my ears and I stiffened; my embarrassment became absolute.
"Put me down Edward." I ordered and the tone in my voice must have resonated within him, because he stopped and gently sat me back on my feet.
I glanced over at an eerily happy looking Alice, silently thankful for the first time that we were the only ones living in this dorm; at least there weren't as many witnesses to my constant butler themed mortification.
"Good morning, Alice," I greeted with as much dignity I could scrounge up, nodding to Jasper as well. After that, I proceeded to walk with my head raised a tad higher than was completely necessary out the front door, and silently made my way to the Pink Horror, which I'd affectionately named my helicopter.
Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Edward sidle up next to me in his usual soundless way. And just to make sure he realized that I was still mad at him; I huffed and sped up a little. Of course I nearly tripped three times as a result, but fortunately I managed not to make a complete fool of myself as I climbed up the steps to get inside the Pink Horror.
We took off a few minutes later, with me sitting as far away from my irritating butler as I could manage. Edward himself was surreptitiously eying me with a questioning look in his green eyes, but to my relief he didn't actually make any comments.
That left me with time to ponder about where I was headed to, and I grumbled inwardly, letting my mind escape back to a week earlier, when I'd finally decided to never ever attend another Lady Class as long as I lived.
It'd all started rather amiably; I have to admit to that much at least. I shared the class with Rosalie; the chubby little Jane; a vapid girl with more fake eyelashes than sense, named Jessica, whose main concern was flirting with her boy-next-door type of C-ranked butler named Mike. Seriously, they gave new meaning to the phrase, "get a room".
Anyway, there was also one other girl, named Lauren; you remember her, right? The bitchy one that I'd heard mock my nonexistent grace on my first day in the school. She's one of the main reasons the day ended with my storming out, ready to commit murder.
At first I thought it was just a normal class, having only gone to two others before it. I didn't actually intend to participate any more than I usually did, but after all the butlers had left the room to go to what Edward had previously told me was their weekly Butler Meeting, I suddenly found myself face to face with the admittedly pretty Lauren.
Her light blue-grey eyes pierced into me. I would probably have been a little more intimidated than I was, if I hadn't been so occupied with not pointing out to her that her excessive use of mascara was clumping together and starting to drop off her fake eyelashes.
My lack of submission seemed to make her even more angry and she raised one perfectly manicured hand and pushed me backwards a little.
Now, there's one thing you need to know about me. I've grown up in a small community where, if someone backs you into a corner, you barrel right through them and make them regret ever thinking about touching you in the first place. So naturally, I immediately pushed back.
That response clearly hadn't been expected by anyone, because they all stopped whatever they had been doing( except Jessica, who'd started muttering and taking notes as if our showdown was worthy of being documented or something), and turned to look at us.
"You pushed me," Lauren pointed out, staring wide-eyed at me in disbelief, "you pushed me!"
"Well," I replied ever so eloquently. "Not to sound as obvious as you do, but you sort of did it first." I crossed my arms and tried imitating my mom's glare from whenever Dad and I hadn't wanted to participate in any of her current interests that never lasted more than a week or two. Judging from the small step backwards that Lauren immediately took, it worked to perfection.
High on my victory, I stepped closer to her and asked why she even acted like such a bitch in the first place- albeit with a little more polite phrasing.
"You shouldn't even be here!" Lauren stated harshly, seemingly getting her second wind in our little squabble.
"Excuse me?" I asked with a raised brow of annoyed bemusement. "I've got as much right to be in this class as any of you do."
"She meant that you shouldn't be in the school at all, Genius," Rosalie provided with one of her usual condescending smirks, and I was sorely tempted to send her one of my mom's patented glares, but I just knew that it wouldn't have worked on the Queen of Ice herself. Instead, I just rolled my eyes, and replied to the listening room at large.
"I'm here, so I'd suggest you all deal with it." So okay, it hadn't been my best comeback ever, but it got the job done.
Lauren sat down next to Jessica and Jane with an eye roll of her own, not even realizing that her left eye was devoid of the fake eyelashes after my little push. "No one likes you here. The fact that you've got Edward, the best butler in the world, from the best family of butlers ever, is just absurd. He's clearly lost his mind. Well," her expression turned into a condescending sneer as she continued her insult, "I'm not surprised really. I bet his orders have made him slightly mad. It's definitely got to be mortifying for him to call you of all people his mistress."
"What do you mean by that?" I asked, frowning with growing dread.
"Well, all butlers choose their families and mistresses, you imbecile." Lauren's answer made me slightly queasy, because there was no way in hell that Edward had woken up one day and chosen me as his singular mistress. No way. He'd been ordered to my side by my grandfather.
"He doesn't really want to serve you like Tyler wants to serve me." Lauren's voice finally succeeded where her glare had not, piercing through me and hurting me more soundly than anything else she'd thrown my way.
"Shut up," I managed to force through the sudden lump in my throat. I'd be damned if I ever let my weakness show to these people, so I just straightened my back and grabbed my bag with as much nonchalance as I had left in me and slung it over my shoulder.
"It's not like this idiotic class is worth anything real," I said before turning towards the door to leave.
The rest of the class had giggled evilly when I'd tripped and fallen to the ground in my usual show of clumsiness. Beetroot red, I scrambled around on the pristine floor after my stuff and got back up to leave again just as Lauren's parting words reached me.
"You're such a loser Bella Swan. Be careful that Edward doesn't catch it from you. He doesn't deserve another person ruining–"
"The teacher's coming," Rosalie's beautiful voice suddenly cut straight through Lauren's words and as the teacher appeared in the next moment with a cheerful, "Hello Class," on her lips, I did the only thing I could manage at that point in time. I took the chance to vanish, while stating clearly that I was never coming back, and that they were all evil witches.
I ran out to The Pink Horror and scared the hell out of the drowsing pilot when I demanded that he fly me back to my dorm as fast as possible, and when Edward had come running into my rooms a half an hour later with concern shining out of his eyes, I'd foregone asking him about anything Lauren had spewed and simply said with mock calm that I was never going back to that ridiculous class ever again.
"Miss Bella?"
I started a little as the velvet smoothness of Edward's voice washed over me, bringing me back to the present. Turning my head I met his annoyingly perfect eyes head on with a grimace. I'd barely been able to look at him ever since Lauren's revelations. I was too inexplicably guilty to do much of anything around him anymore…aside from being angry of course. "What?"
"We've arrived," was all Edward said as he got out gracefully, silently reaching out his hand, as always, to attempt to prevent further bumps and bruises on my body. For the first time in days, I actually slid my hand into his and accepted his assistance. It was only because I snuck a quick, furtive glance at him, that I managed to catch the flash of genuine happy surprise on his features at all before his neutral butler expression took over again.
"Thank you, Edward." I nodded and walked on towards the building, where I knew Lauren and the other girls were waiting. I could already see the butlers lining up by the doorway, no doubt waiting for Edward so they could go on to their oh-so-important butler meeting.
I have to admit, though, that with every step I felt heavier. It was as if Lauren's actions had somehow poisoned me and made it more difficult for me to move. Out of nowhere, Edward suddenly took a gentle, but firm hold of my wrist. We were only a few feet away from the other butlers, who were standing and speaking lowly to one another— except Mike, who was no doubt inside the classroom hanging on Jessica's arm. Not wanting to be overheard, I lowered my voice as I turned to him.
"What's wrong, Edward?"
Edward looked over at the other butlers with an inscrutable look in his eyes before he turned his full gaze back on me.
"I may have been hasty in my pursuit to bring you here," he finally said after a long moment of silence. "If you so desire, I shall cancel my meeting and escort you back to your dormitory, Miss Bella."
I had no idea what possessed him to change his mind, but I'd already begun to nod in eager agreement to his suggestion when I caught a movement out of the corner of my eye. I adjusted my stance a little and looked over my shoulder, only to lock eyes with an emotionless looking Rosalie. She was eying me through the window, and as I watched, she looked from me to Edward and then the helicopter before fixating her stare back on me again, this time adding in a raised eyebrow and a mocking smirk as if challenging me to make the right decision.
And it was in that moment that I knew that I wasn't about to let any of those hoity toity girls get the best of me. I looked up at Edward, breaking my stare down with Rosalie and shook my head decisively.
"Thanks, but no thanks, Edward. I think I'm gonna stay right here." I began walking through the line of butlers by the entrance, and grinned exaggeratedly back at Edward. "Besides," I said, "I'm supposed to learn how to act all proper and stuff, so I'm good—whoa!"
I stumbled on the last step before the entrance, and wouldn't have been able to avoid a painful fall if it hadn't been for those familiar strong arms of my butler, expertly wrapping themselves around me and saving me from injury.
"I'll be waiting for you out here, Miss Bella," Edward said, righting me again and sending me on my way without acknowledging the small cluster of chuckles that had erupted from the men surrounding us at my almost fall.
"All right," I nodded and took a deep breath before I walked back into the classroom I'd promised myself to never go back to.
Behind me, I heard a deceptively soft voice ask if laughing at his mistress was worth their lives and the merriment immediately got cut off.
Say what you want about Edward, but he did have his moments…I was still smiling to myself as I walked over to my comfy armchair, and it wasn't hard at all ignoring Lauren's glare and Rosalie's thoughtful look at my return.
"What?" I teased when, after a few minutes, no one had said anything; including the teacher, "aren't we here to learn things?"
I left that Saturday's Lady Class feeling a lot more on top of things than ever, and it carried me through the rest of the day without worries about anything. If I'd known how much trouble my lack of submission was gonna get me into, I'd probably have wrestled with bad dreams and anxious planning. As it was, I slept like a little baby and enjoyed the rest of my weekend in peace.
TBC…
A/N Now please take a moment to review, it's the only way we fiction authors and our helpers get paid:)
