Cakewalk

Disclaimer: First of all, not mine. Not in the least. The only things I own are a nice little townhome, a dog, and my truck named Bella. Twilight, not so much. Although, if it has the Cullen Crest on it, I like to at least think it's mine; ya know, like the crest earrings, the crest necklace, the crest locket, the crest choaker….

Summary: Pure fluff. With extra fluff. This is slightly out of sequence with the stories but it basically somewhere in Eclipse. I wanted to do a Mother/Daughter fluff scene with Bella and Esme making a cake. The only reason I could come up with for Bella making a cake was to have a fund raiser of some sort so...hence the Senior Trip that never happened in the books! However, it's now turned into a family fluff scene. Carlisle will be making more of an appearance soon. He has long hours at the hospital and all….

Author's Note: I came up with this while working on my other project. I can only think in Carlisle's 17th c English for so long before the modern nonsense comes out. If you need something dark and disturbing, you might want to check it out. For now, have fun with grumpy Bella!


Chapter 9

I woke up to the alarm and immediately buried my face back into Edward's chest. He chuckled at me. "Not ready to get up?" he questioned. I grunted in response. No, I did not want to get up. I had zero desire to leave my nice bed with my Edward holding me, none at all.

"If you don't get up, Love, how can you finish the cakes?" he teased. I grumbled into his thin t-shirt, not letting go of him. "Really, Esme will be quite upset," he teased lightly.

That did it. I huffed. Although I didn't want to leave Edward's soft embrace I couldn't disappoint Esme either. She was expecting me after school to finish the other cake and ice all three. And I did want to spend more time with the woman who was like a mother to me. "Fine," I mumbled as I moved to get up. I didn't like it when Edward's arms left me.

I stumbled to the bathroom, still half-asleep really, and had my "human moment". My hair was horrendous looking now. The perfect curls from yesterday had turned into a full snarl. Sighing, I went to take a shower in the hopes that half a bottle of conditioner might make my hair more manageable. I brushed my teeth when I got out and then got dressed in a pair of jeans, a thermal shirt, and a t-shirt over that.

My hair was still soaking wet, but pulled back into a simple braid as I raced back to my room and into Edward's arms. The problem was, he wasn't there. I looked around and no note or Edward anywhere. I bit my lip and wondered where the heck he had gone too. Why had he left? I wasn't more than 10 minutes in the shower. I had to get that mass of tangles out! I felt traitor tears start to form as that old ache in my chest began to make itself known.

I must have stood there, in the middle of my room, my hair dripping on the wood floor, for a good minute. I used the back of my hand to wipe away the tears that were starting to fall down my face. Why did he leave and where did he go?

Just as I finished my thought, I felt two cool arms wrap themselves around me and his lips kiss my wet hair. "mmmmm," Edward muttered as he inhaled my scent. My body froze. He was here? He didn't leave?

"Bella, love, you should," he started as he turned me around. His face registered with shock when he saw the tears still in my eyes. "Bella!?!" he asked, alarmed now.

I tried to look down so he didn't have to see but he wouldn't let me. I felt his hand beneath my chin as he pulled my face up to look at him. "What happened? Are you alright?" he demanded, fear and anxiety lacing his voice.

"I just…I," I stammered. Great, Bella. Now you've got him all worried. You should know by now he'll never pull the whole leaving stunt again. I shook my head and forced a small smile on my face. It was easier when I looked back up at him. "I'm fine," I told him. I was fine, now. Once I was back in the safety of his arms, I was perfect. The ache that had threatened left me completely. I was whole again.

"You were not fine a moment ago," he said softly. He reached a hand up and took away the last of the traitor tears to make his point. "What happened, love?" he whispered, his face inches from mine. He began to give me a small version of his crooked smile he knew I loved while his amber like eyes bore into my brown ones. He was dazzling me and it was working. I had to look away.

"I…didn't see you," I whispered. Huh, I guess I didn't wring my hair out right given the small puddle that formed on my wooden floor. Oh well, at least my hair wasn't tangled in a mass of curly knots anymore.

I felt Edward pull me taut against him. Automatically, my arms moved to hold him. "I will never forgive myself," he whispered so low I don't think I was meant to hear.

I gently pulled back. "I'm fine, Edward. Really," I told him. I looked up at his perfect face and smiled. He managed a smile that didn't reach his eyes in return and kissed me on my forehead.

"Come," he said grabbing my hand. "I made breakfast for the human," he told me proudly. This I had to see.

Breakfast turned out to consist of two pieces of toast with raspberry jam, a glass of orange juice, and a bowl of cereal. The set up was impressive. It looked exactly like one of those pictures you see on the cereal commercials when they say "…is part of a complete breakfast!" I guess that's where he got the idea from. "Thanks, Edward!" I grinned at him before sitting down to eat. My stomach was grumbling.

He smiled back as he leaned against the counter. I caught the time from the corner of my eye and gasped. I'd have to hurry. Edward saw my feeding pace and knew something wasn't right. He looked over to where I just had and rolled his eyes. "Bella, don't worry about the time. My car can easily get us to school with time to spare. Just eat and don't make yourself sick," he scolded.

I grumbled and made a show of eating more slowly. He rolled his eyes again, but this time at me. The smile on his face gave him away though.

Once I was done, I picked up the plates to put them in the sink. I'd wash them when I got home later tonight. "Thanks, Edward. That was impressive for someone that doesn't eat," I teased. He grinned in response.

"I'm all about trying new things with you around, love," he whispered as he came over and wrapped his arms around me. We stood there for a minute, just holding each other. I could care less about school as long as I had Edward. He kissed the top of my head. "We need to get to class," he said, his voice sounding slightly strained. I nodded and we headed for the shiny silver Volvo.

School dragged on longer than normal. I know time is a constant but it didn't feel like it today. Seconds felt like minutes, minutes felt like hours….all I wanted to do was to go to the Cullens and finish the cakes so I wouldn't worry over the stupid cakewalk anymore. Edward kept smirking at me through our classes and I just glared at him.

Lunchtime was filled with an excitement I just couldn't share. Everyone was talking about the fair and the senior class trip. I was too worried about getting the white cake done, icing all three, and hoping no one died from food poisoning from eating one of my cakes or something because I had gotten clumsy and messed up. Or that Lauren's prediction yesterday of me falling face first into a cake would come true.

I was so worried, I could only stomach lemonade again. "Bella," Edward lightly growled when he saw all I was getting.

"I'm not hungry," I whispered back. He paid before I could even get my money out. I glared at him. He smiled and then sighed as we walked to our table.

"You really should eat something more. I saw that they had pepperoni pizza today," he tried to encourage me. I shook my head and sat down next to Angela.

"Hi, Bella!" Angela smiled at me. She noticed I only had a lemonade but didn't say anything. Alice, sitting across from Edward now, eyed the lemonade and her eyes narrowed on me.

"I'm making a German chocolate and a carrot cake for the cakewalk. What are you planning on making," Angela asked, curious. Ewww. Carrot.

I played, absent mindedly with the cap on the table. "Well, I made chocolate cake and yellow cake last night," I told her truthfully. "And I'll make a white cake tonight," I said as I started to look back up.

"Those sound great, Bella," Angela told me.

I heard Alice squeal. I glanced over at her. "This will be so much fun!" she said, echoing her words from yesterday when I got into the mess. I groaned.

Edward pulled me closer to him, his arm around my waist. Alice rolled her eyes. "Really, Bella. Stop worrying so much. Everything will end up perfect," she told me.

"Of course it will," Ben piped in. He had been reading one of his comic books. I think it was Watchmen right now. Angela smiled encouragingly at me. It wasn't that I didn't have faith in Alice, it was that past experiences involving me, cake, and anything resembling parties weren't exactly good. And I didn't mean just the whole 18th birthday incident. Actually, a cut arm and Jasper going crazy was pretty tame compared to the whole broken leg and concussion I had during my sixth birthday. Or the disaster sleepover for Megan Bedell's 10th birthday… or the…

Edward stopped my train of thought with a kiss to the top of my head. "Esme will help," he whispered. And so we all sat at the table for the rest of the lunch period, talking about the upcoming fund raising fair. When the bell rang, I dreaded the next two periods that would, no doubt, drag like the rest of the day had so far.

I was right. They dragged. Edward did try to help. He kept writing notes to me in the margins of my notebook. He was trying to cheer me up. The problem was I didn't want to be cheered up; I wanted to wallow in my worry and think about cakes, Lauren, the Volturi, Victoria, and all my other problems that just liked to mount on. Being a human was less and less amusing each and every passing day.

Edward held me close as we walked out to the Volvo. Alice danced around happily, splashing in the puddles in her new designer goulashes. He opened the door for me and I sat quietly in the passenger seat. Once Alice and Edward got in, a nanosecond later, Alice crossed her arms and looked at me. "Oh cheer up, Bella. You are going to drive Jasper nuts with your current mood," she complained.

"Sorry," I mumbled, looking out the window as we went towards the Cullen mansion. Edward parked the car in the garage and Alice danced her way out, giggling, as she ran up towards the house. Before I could think to reach for the door handle, Edward opened my door and swept me up into his arms.

"Put me down," I demanded. He grinned.

"No," was all he said, smiling at me.

I tried to pout. I really did. I even managed to cross my arms for all of a second before I felt compelled to look into his face. My arms snaked their way around his neck. His face came closer to mine, his lips just brushed the side of my mouth. I closed my eyes as he lightly placed his lips on mine.

"Geez, you two, get a room!" I heard a loud, booming voice laugh. I also heard someone hit him. "Hey!" he complained.

Edward pulled back and looked into my eyes. "Better?" he whispered.

"Much," I told him, unable to lie when he's dazzling me like that! Edward gently put me down and placed an arm around my waist. Emmett, grinning, came bounding over. I could see Rosalie, looking slightly annoyed –although not nearly as annoyed as she normally does- at him.

"You going to bake some more today?" he asked.

"Yeah, I've still got another cake to do," I mumbled.

Emmett looked confused for a second and then I saw Edward's lips move. Emmett just grinned in response. "Don't worry, lil sis! Esme will help!" he told me and mussed up my hair. I managed a weak smile in response. I did like it that Emmett already thought of me as his little sister.

"We've got to go, Emmett," Rosalie sighed and came to drag her husband away. Before getting into the jeep, she turned to me and Edward. "Bye, Bella," she said smiling slightly.

"Bye, Rose," I told her, surprised that she actually spoke to me.

Emmett backed up and shifted the truck into drive yelling "Bye Bella! Bye Edward!" before heading down the long driveway. We both waved to the disappearing jeep.

Edward led me up to the front door. Inside, I could hear Alice babbling on about her day already to someone. I figured it had to be either Esme or Jasper. Carlisle was probably still at the hospital.

Opening the door, I went inside with Edward following me. Esme came up to great us instantly. She hugged me first, since I was closer, and then Edward. "Did you two have a good day today?" she asked.

"School was fine," I responded. No need to tell her about how it dragged on and I thought it was never going to end.

Edward looked at me and raised an eyebrow before turning back to his mother. "Bella was quite agitated today. I think she's worried about the fair tomorrow," he told her. I glared at him.

Esme laughed and gently and wrapped an arm around my shoulders, taking me away from Edward. "It will be fine, sweetheart! Come on, we'll finish up the cakes together," she told me. And so, Esme lead me back to the kitchen to work on the last of the cakes. I just hope all three survive until the fair tomorrow and no one tries to sabotage this.


Author's Note: This one is short, I know. It didn't seem like nearly as many people as I thought liked the long one so I went with a short one this time. Next time on Twilight Fluff: Esme, take two!