Wednesday (2 days till dance)
Bella POV
Waking up to love, every morning - , was the song that greeted me when I woke up this morning. I took a moment to shut off the alarm, and then threw myself back across my mattress. I replayed the hours that were spent out in the snow yesterday, us goofing around and enjoying the winter weather. And Edward, the little voice in my head sighed.
Being around him yesterday made my feelings for him that much stronger. He was sweet when it came to sharing his sled, but nothing captured me heart more than the boyish grin that overtook his features when he was flying down the slopes. We were all so carefree together; that was such a commodity since this was really only the second time that we all hung out. I knew that this was bringing us all closer, and we would be friends for a long time to come after this holiday season.
I figured that five minutes was enough time to spend daydreaming, so I pushed myself to my feet and headed off to the shower. Today felt like a day for my favorite strawberry scented body wash, but I was a little sad to see that I didn't have a lot left. I shrugged it off though, and continued on with my morning routine. After my shower, I blow dried my hair and twirled it around my curling iron to make big, bouncy curls. Alice would be so proud of me right now!
I checked in my closet to see what my latest outfit would consist of, but today just felt like one of those days. I decided to dress down a little, so I tossed on a pair of black yoga pants, a grey shirt, and my black Converse. I left my hair to fall over my shoulders in curls, put on some light eyeliner, and ran down the stairs to grab a granola bar and jump in Alice's car.
"Bella, did you remember to bring Edward's gift?" Alice asked excitedly, already knowing the genius that was my most recent gift.
"Yup! It's sitting right in its little package in my bag, Ali."
"Bells, what did you get for this gift?" Rose asked from her spot in the back seat.
"I made him a date voucher! I wish I could see the look on his face when he opens it. And, of course, I got Hershey kisses to put with the gift. I decided on white and milk chocolate swirled ones this time!"
"That's such a cute idea for a gift, Bella! I wish I was that creative with my gifts. But, then again, I also am not head over heels in love with my person either, so doing something like that wouldn't make much sense."
I felt my face heat up and I shot a glare in her direction, but I couldn't be too angry since what she was saying wasn't too far off from the truth. While I wasn't head over heels for Edward, I definitely wanted something more with him.
We got to school a little early, just like we've been doing all week since this game started. I stopped off at my locker to get my books first, taking out Edward's gift so I could head down to his locker next. I shut my locker and started heading in the direction of his when I ran right into Jessica. Please don't let her talk to me; please don't let her talk to me.
"Bella! What are you doing here so early?"
"Jessica, how do you know that I don't get here at this time everyday? Maybe you are just here early. Is there something I should know about?"
My comment threw her for a loop. I could see her trying to comprehend what just came out of my mouth as if I had just spoken to her in latin. This girl needs a few more brain cells.
She shook her head a little, but then her eyes zoomed in on the little bag that I was holding in my hand.
"Oh, a gift? So you are planting a gift? For who? I know your locker isn't around here, so who could it be? Don't you want to tell me?"
My eyes widened at her and her mini interrogation, then side-stepped her and continued down the hall, ignoring her as she called my name and said that she would see me later. I walked a circle around the floor once to make sure that I wouldn't run into Jessica again, and then ran down to his locker to plant the gift before anymore unwanted visitors would appear.
I turned around to walk back the way that I came, but my heart almost stopped when I spotted a familiar mop of bronze hair. I looked both ways to see where I could hide, and I saw the stairwell that was just across the hall. I dove towards the doorway, barely making it out of sight before Edward arrived at his locker. I stayed crouched in the doorway, wanting to finally witness his reaction to one of my gifts first hand. He opened it locker, and the first thing that he reached for was his gift. His bag was tossed to the ground as the ripped the tissue paper out of the bag and pulled out the little voucher booklet. He flipped through it, then looked up and down the hall with a giant smile on his face. I did a mental fist-pump since it put a smile on his face.
I ran down the stairs and came back up the other side of the building, closer to my own class. I had an unshakable smile on my face, so proud of myself for making Edward happy with my gifts.
...
"Bella! Come sit down girl, we have so much to discuss and plan for!"
I heard Alice from about ten feet away, but did nothing to quicken my pace to reach her faster. Usually when she said things like that, it almost always meant some sort of Bella dress-up, and while I didn't mind looking cute, spending three hours to get there is a little excessive.
"Perk up a little, my friend. I know you are going to be happy with our subject! We are talking about the dance, and we are most definitely going shopping right after school tomorrow, so we need to have a game plan and discuss strategy!"
I swallowed a groan, because while I didn't exactly know how Rose was, she seemed to match Alice in the enthusiasm department when it came to shopping. The thought made me happy at first, because I wouldn't have to be subjected to Ali on a tirade, but then I remembered that I was friends with them both, and therefore it only seemed logical that they would try and team up on me now.
I happily enjoyed my lunch, pretending to listen to their planning and nodding my head when I thought it would be appropriate. I started to tune back into their conversation when they started to talk less about where they want to go and what order to hit said stores, and more about the actual outfits.
"Bella, what color do you think you want to wear? I mean, with your skin, you could really wear any color," Alice said.
"Ali, I think that with her hair, she would either have to wear something in the blue family, or even something green."
"Rose, while I do agree with you, green just seems to stereotypically holidays to me. But, blue? I think you might be on to something! What do you think, B?"
I was almost a little shocked that they actually cared about my input. "I get an option? Wow, I feel a little honored." They rolled their eyes at me, but waited for my answer.
"When I was thinking about the dance, I pictured myself in a midnight blue dress with maybe a half up-half down hair style."
Alice was staring at me as if I had broken down the philosophy of life, and then a huge smile overtook her features. She looked at Rose, and they exchanged silent words, and then turned their attentions back to me.
"Rose, I think she is ready!"
Edward POV
After putting Bella's gift and in her locker and stopping at mine earlier, I couldn't shake the feeling that I was being watched. I had looked around, but was unsuccessful in finding anything out of the norm. I decided to let it go and focus on the task at hand, which unfortunately was waiting for Emmett to find his way out of the building so we could head to the mall.
It was almost two hours after school had ended, but Emmett insisted that he wanted to come with us, so Jazz and I had to come back to the school to get him. What could he possibly have to do that took over an hour?
He finally came out of the building, wearing the funniest hat I had ever seen in my life. It was a baseball hat, but it had ear flaps attached to it.
"Emmett, where did you get that hat?" Jasper asked.
"My secret santa, man! This person is amazing. I've been getting awesome gifts, but I wonder how they are going to top this one."
We rolled our eyes at Emmett's exuberance and piled in my car. I turned on the radio and Rudolph came blasting through the speakers. Jasper and Emmett took that opportunity to have a karaoke session, belting out the lyrics and making faces at each other. I shook my head, but decided that if I couldn't beat them, why not join them? Soon enough, all three of us were singing along to the upbeat carols that played on the radio.
...
"Eddie, when are you going to be done shopping for all of this girly crap and get onto the good stuff like video games?" Emmett whined.
"Emmett, when you find someone that you want to find genuinely good gifts for, remind me not to take you."
He walked away, grumbling about love sick fools or something. I had already got her a bath gift set today, so I didn't really know what she would like next. I finally decided to take the safe route and get her a gift card to the book store and a vanilla scented candle in a fancy box. I even found a gift card holder for the card to make it seem like more of a gift. I knew she liked to read from that time that we played 20 questions, so I knew it would at least be a gift that I knew she would like.
Jasper was getting a hair band with reindeer on it or something for his person, while Emmett went to the comic store and got Lauren a pack of those food shaped erasers. We thought that it was so funny that Emmett was trying so hard to get random gifts that Lauren would not appreciate. We were walking towards the candy store when I saw a bracelet in the window of some store. It was all glass beads of different shades of blues, and I knew that it was the missing puzzle piece from my gift. I decided to splurge a little on her gift and include it. I felt accomplished and patted myself on the back a little.
I joined the guys back in the game store, and we played a few of the demos before Emmett and Jasper decided to buy some new football game that I already had, and we made plans to play it once we got home.
I dropped off the guys and pulled into the garage. It was freezing outside, so I ran to the door and put my coat in the closet before heading to my room to put on sweat pants and a sweat shirt. I spread out on my floor to put her gift together. I was stumped on how to put it in when my mom walked into my room, sitting across from me to help me with my struggles.
"Edward, who is this for?" She asked, suspicion laced with excitement evident in her voice.
"It's for secret santa, mom. I'm just having a little trouble with what to put where."
In no time, my mom had the gift in the bag with the tissue paper, and it looks like it came right off a magazine set and into my room. I gave her a hug before sticking the candy cane into the corner. I pulled off my sweatshirt as I had warmed up quite a bit, and started to head to the kitchen to get something for dinner. I shut my light off and padded down the stairs, mentally calculating the hours until I would get to hold Bella in my arms, spinning around the dance floor under the twinkling lights, and kissing her under the mistletoe.
A/N: Sorry about the wait everyone! Things have been super crazy, but I have gained control of them, and have already started on the next few chapters! Please review and tell me what you think! Isn't Edward a sweetie pie?
