7. Weekend

Today was Friday. My first week of school was coming to an end…finally. As Edward, Alice, Jasper, Jacob and I drove to school in the Volvo, I was already dreading the day ahead of me. Ugh.

Jasper parked the car in our usual spot and we all got out. Since I was a "freshman" I couldn't drive by myself yet. That was going to get seriously annoying. I would have to wait an entire year before I could drive even though I had already taken Drivers Ed once before. That's a small price to pay though, I reminded myself.

Once again, Edward and I walked through the double doors leading into the school. There were already colorful flyers taped to the bulletin board announcing things like the first football game, when tryouts for the ladies basketball team would be held, and the first dance ( that Edward had promised not to take me to ). I arrived at my locker and put in the combination. I shoved my first and second period things into my book bag and headed off to homeroom with Edward.

As Mrs. Rivera was calling role in homeroom, she had someone pass out the same flyers that had been up on the bulletin board in the hallway. When they reached Edward and I, I carelessly took them and shoved them in my book bag. Edward almost laughed out loud. He knew how not into sports or dances or pretty much any school events I was, so I was surprised that he found it funny. First bell then rang and we headed off to History with Mr. Hartlin.

Mr. Hartlin did not exactly make history enjoyable. He was one of those people that thought that all teenagers were rockers/teenyboppers that didn't care or know about anything educational or good. Whenever Edward would surprise him with his knowledge of history, the two of them would almost get into an argument/debate about their facts and opinions. Edward always stayed calm and composed, while Mr. Hartlin looked like he was about to bust a blood vessel in his head. One could barely watch the two of them without laughing their head off inside.

We entered the classroom and took our seats at the back of the room. A grin stole over Edward's face.

"What?" I asked after Mr. Hartlin began his lesson for the day.

"He's decided he's not going to embarrass himself today by calling on me." He replied, still grinning subtly.

A suppressed giggle slipped through my lips as I pictured them arguing again. Mr. Hartlin and everyone else turned their head to look at Edward and I.

"Is there something you'd like to share with the rest of the class Miss Cullen?" he asked pointedly. Edward slipped me a piece of paper under the desk. "Perhaps you'd like to recite what I've been talking about the entire time you and Mr. Cullen have been chatting and giggling?" I scanned the piece of paper. On it were notes that Edward had taken on Mr. Hartlin's lecture. I tried not to smile.

"Sure, Mr. Hartlin." I replied in a confident voice. He turned red at the sound of it. He then nodded at me, trying to keep his cool.

"Well, the chapter we're in is about politics. Today we started section three which is titled 'Running for Political Office'. We started talking about the two major political parties, which are they the Democratic Party and the Republican Party. And while you were trying to inform us on the general platforms and beliefs of both parties without bias, it was clear to everyone that you were showing favoritism to the Democratic Party. And I believe you were about to start on the subject of…"

"That's quite enough Miss Cullen. I am now assured that you were indeed paying attention. But, I would appreciate it if you and Mr. Cullen would refrain from talking and laughing in my class again, understood?" he was red as a beat now, and you could tell that he was summoning up all of his courage to scold us.

"Yes, Mr. Hartlin." Edward and I said in unison and tried to look guilty.

As soon as the bell rang and we were in the hallway, we burst out laughing. I turned around just in time to see Mr. Hartlin standing in the doorway, passing his hand over his face and his balding head.

"You were good in there!" Edward exclaimed in surprise.

"What do you mean?!" I asked, taking offense.

"Well, you normally aren't that confident under pressure, but today you were flawless!"

"Of course I was! I'm a vampire now, remember? I'm just naturally flawless!" I replied, smiling hugely as I thought of the word flawless and how it applied to me.

"Being a vampire doesn't make you perfect Bella." he said in a hard tone, grimacing.

"That's an opinion." I retorted as we entered Ms. Winter's classroom for English. Totally unlike Mr. Hartlin, Ms. Winter was one of those teachers that were just genuinely nice. She was young and unmarried, so she could pretty much see eye-to-eye with you. Even though she knew Edward and I sat in the back of the room and pretty much conversed through the entire class period, she never said anything. But, occasionally she would call on Edward or I and ask our opinion on a book, not because she was trying to catch us off guard, but because she was actually interested. Usually we would try to dumb down our opinions so as not to embarrass the teacher, but with her, she took our answers and respected them.

"Okay," Edward began in a hushed voice; "I didn't want you to throw a fit over this in Mr. Hartlin's class, but…Alice is taking you shopping tonight."

"What?!" I exclaimed as quietly as I could. "Why?! Don't I have enough clothes already?!" I gestured to the red cashmere sweater and the seventy-five dollar jeans I was wearing that we had bought on our last shopping trip – only two weeks ago!

"No. That's one 'Cullen family rule' – you can never have enough clothes. According to Alice anyway…" he said with a crooked smile.

"Hmph." I pouted. I wish he had waited to tell me this. Now my whole day would be ruined.

"Please, put on a good face tonight!" he pleaded sternly. "You don't accomplish anything by having a bad attitude, Bella! It'll make Alice happy, that's what counts."

For Alice, I told myself as I forced out a smile/grimace. He chuckled softly at my halfhearted attempt as he played with a strand of my hair. I remembered back to the day when I first met Edward and I self-consciously sniffed myself all over, trying to figure out why he could possibly look so repulsed by me. I remembered me sniffing my hair, smelling my old strawberry scented shampoo, and trying to remember if I had forgotten to use deodorant that morning. Never in a million years would I have guessed the real reason behind his hostility. Yet here we sit, our relationship effortless. Then the bell rang, signaling that it was time for us to go to PE.

Edward and I disentangled our hands as we were both forced into two different locker rooms. I strode past three rows of lockers until I got to mine, which was on the second to last row. I opened my locker and pulled out the blue sweats and white t-shirt that had the school emblem on them. I remembered longingly back to when this used to be my daily attire, but once Alice got a hold of my wardrobe, I never saw my sweats and t-shirts again. As a matter of fact, the only things that I still had from my old wardrobe were the graduation outfit that Alice had given me when Victoria had taken most of my clothes, and the blue shirt that Edward loved on me and had convinced Alice to let me keep. As I was thinking, I had unconsciously undressed and dressed myself. I snapped out of reminiscence and stepped out of my row of lockers and into the sea of blue and white that was streaming toward the two exits. I tried to avoid making contact with anyone; the last thing I wanted was to be in an awkward situation without Edward.

When I finally reached the double doors, I was one of the first girls to enter the gym. Most of the girls went through the other exit leading outside to play softball. Edward was on the other side of the court, sprawled across the gym floor just like the other guys, but so unlike the other guys. He flashed me a crooked grin and I attempted to mimic it. I could tell it didn't turn out the way I wanted just by the way it felt on my lips. Mrs. Waters then blew her whistle and shouted, "Alright ladies! Get stretching!" I had been completely unaware that the rest of my class was in the gym now. I self-consciously spread my legs apart and bent down to touch my right toes. I could feel the cool air on my back as I bent down the middle to touch the floor. Alice had ordered my PE uniform for me and with Alice; it's the smaller the better. I heard Edward suppress a growl and I looked through my legs to see what was I going on. One of the boys was staring at me, and I wasn't going to give him time to fantasize any longer. I shot up straight and bent my arms behind my head. The cool air moved from my back to my stomach. I jerked my shirt back down and, with an exasperated sigh, sat down on the floor like Edward. I was going to kill Alice.

Mrs. Waters blew her whistle again and yelled, "Positions!" Everyone scrambled into their designated spots. My position was in the middle. Basically all I had to was bump and/or set the ball. Occasionally I had to serve, but that wasn't hard for me. Nothing was. "Get ready team two!" Mrs. Waters shouted as the other teams server threw the ball in the air. I instinctively bent my legs – something I never would have known to do as a human – as the server smacked her hand against the ball, sending it flying over the net. The ball was heading straight for one particular girl in the back. I knew who this girl was. She was me. I could just tell by the way that she awkwardly stretched her hands out in front of her what kind of girl she was. As the ball descended toward her, she flung her hands over her head and flinched when the ball slammed into her hunched over back. Everyone in the gym laughed…except for Edward and me.

The girl arose wearily, avoiding everyone's eyes. She was blushing profusely. I felt the need to go and comfort her, but what was I supposed to say? "It's okay! I used to be like you until I was changed into a vampire! Things will get easier someday!" I'm sure that would make her feel loads better! But the truth was, it probably wouldn't have gotten easier for me. I might still be the klutz I used to be if I had never moved to Forks. "Alright, alright! Lets get back to work!" Mrs. Waters commanded both classes. "Team two, you're up!" She tossed the ball to the girl whose last name was Andrews and looked pointedly at the back line of the court.

And the rest of the class period passed like this slowly…………….

Edward and I entered the cafeteria together. We were always some of the last ones in the cafeteria since we had to change back after PE and shove our way through the crowds in the locker rooms. I entered the lunch line and grabbed a plastic tray from the stack. I passed through the threshold into the hot serving area. The lunch ladies were busy preparing more food for the next three lunch waves. As usual, I grabbed a tiny portion of everything. Occasionally, Jacob would sit with us and he would always mooch off of our plates. Not that I minded, but it was kind of gross to see him sitting there stuffing his face.

I headed to our table in the back of the cafeteria. As Alice smiled at me, I answered her with a glare. I was still mad at her for several things.

"What did I do?" she asked innocently.

"Well let's see…" I was about to mention the shopping trip, but a nudge in the ribs from Edward reminded me about our agreement. I had to be nice. I moved on to my next complaint – my PE clothes.

"The PE clothes you got me are way too small! I could barely stretch without flashing everybody! Particularly the boys…" I said as Edward grimaced.

"Oh, Bella, you're overreacting!" she said brushing the thought aside.

I growled and commanded, "I mean it Alice."

"Okay, okay! Fine! We'll get them after our shopping trip!" she said excitedly, bouncing up and down and clapping her hands together. At that, I groaned.

The lunch bell rang and I dragged myself off to class, ready to endure the rest of the day………………………………………………………

I was sitting in seventh period math with Edward. This class always seemed to pass painfully slow. I couldn't pick out whether it was because it was math, or because it was just so close to the end of the day. I sat there with my head in my hands, staring at the clock. We had three minutes left in this class, and I was counting the seconds.

Edward picked up my hand and kissed it up and down. I yanked it away and looked pointedly around the classroom.

"So…" he murmured and began kissing it again.

I folded my arms across my chest and whispered, "Later…"

"Fine then, later." He agreed. Then the bell rang and it was as if an electric shock was sent through the classroom. Everyone jumped up and sprinted for the door, Edward and I included.

We stepped out into the cool air in the parking lot. We headed toward the Volvo and the Jeep. I was surprised when Edward let go of my hand and kissed me. He headed toward the jeep with Emmett and Jasper. I narrowed my eyes. We were going shopping straight from school.

"What about Renesmee?" I argued. "She's coming too right?"

"Yep!" Alice replied, opening the door for me. Renesmee's warm scent wafted from the car. Esme sat beside her.

"How did you get here?" I asked her.

"Aunt Esme ran over here with me!" she informed me, smiling.

Alice slid into the back seat with Renesmee. As soon as she shut the door, Rosalie sped out of the parking lot.

"What are the boys doing?" I asked.

"Hunting, of course." Alice said obviously

Juneau was a little tourist trap. There were thousands of fancy French boutiques, outlet malls, restaurants that no one has ever heard of – pretty much Alice's heaven, and my hell. I sat in the passenger seat with my arms folded tightly over my chest, scowling out the icy window shield. Again I wondered how something so tiny could be so annoying. She let out an exasperated sigh and exclaimed, "Bella, you can do this the hard way or the easy way! You're a girl for heaven's sake! You're supposed to love to shop! What is wrong with you?!"

"Whatever…" I muttered.

"Hmph." She pouted.

I directed my glance out the window now. We were passing by a house with a mover's truck parked in the driveway. There were men moving sofas and dressers into the big house. There was a girl standing there looking unhappy. She seemed to be about my size. I could hear her shivering so obviously she was from somewhere a bit warmer. I didn't give her a second thought after we pulled into the huge mall in Juneau. I shot one more glare at Alice and hopped out of the car. I stopped for a moment, taking in all of the smells. Edward had always warned me; be on your guard when you're in public. You don't want to be unprepared if you find your la tua cantante. I probed the air with my sensitive nose. No scents particularly appealed to me out here. I could tell the others were doing the same thing as me.

Once again, Alice began to jump up and down excitedly. We all started toward the mall entrance. There were people streaming from every which way. Their heads turned to stare at us, and I felt sheepish at once. When we walked through the door, my acute senses picked up every little smell, sight, and sound. It was kind of overwhelming. Alice was chewing on her lip excitedly.

"Where to first Alice?" I asked, gesturing toward the huge mall in front of us.

"Forever 21!" Alice exclaimed and grabbed our hands and pulled us into the crowd of people………………………………………

Forever 21 was a huge store. While we were shopping there, Alice informed me that they had "all the latest trends". Rosalie, Esme, and I let Alice and Renesmee dress us up like Barbie dolls. Esme got her fashion sense from Aunt Alice, but then again, she had her own style completely. In the end I ended up getting five new outfits! Ugh. And we weren't even finished yet……………………………

After the night was over, I think we went to over fifteen stores and spent over fifteen hundred dollars! Now, I have about seven cashmere sweaters all in different colors, three cocktail dresses, five pairs of jeans, four casual shirts that cost about seventy five dollars each, a fur coat, like eight pairs of shoes…..it's just too much!

When we arrived home, Edward was sitting on the front porch of our cottage waiting for me. I had Renesmee on my hip, snoring lightly. He kissed her and then me. He kissed up my neck and across my jaw line. I moved closer to him and it jostled Renesmee, who stretched her hands in the air. I lightly pushed Edward away and put a finger over is lips as he began to protest. "Hold on just a little bit longer." I murmured, moving past him and into the house. I carefully put Renesmee down in her bed, tucked her in, and kissed her goodnight. As soon as she was out of my arms, Edward scooped me up and padded down the hallway. He kissed me passionately and threw me down on our soft, down bed. I had a feeling that tonight was going to be a good night.