Here's it is. Let me know what you think. :)
A/N: Funny: Thanks! I'm glad you're enjoying it so far. Starangel5593:Thanks for the review, I love that you love it, haha. IfLifeWereSilly: Thank you so much for both of your reviews, I'm glad that it's not like the others you have read :)
Chapter Nine: It's Complicated
"So, Mia, are you going to Port Angeles with us this Friday?" Jessica asked as soon as Mia rested her tray down on the mostly empty table.
"Sorry, Jessica, I can't. I already made plans with my aunt that day." Mia gave her an apologetic smile and readied herself to take a bite out of a yellow apple. "I'll go with you another time, okay?"
Ana let out a noise of disgust. "Tell your aunt that you can't?"
"She works a lot and she took off Friday so we could do some hiking and climb some mountains; I won't even be in school that day. I haven't been able to spend a lot of time with her recently; it will be nice for us to just be together- the two of us." Mia explained with a hint of defensiveness, Jenna really was her only close family after all.
"You've spending a lot of time with the Cullens lately." Jessica noted with a bit of animosity.
"You say that like it's a bad thing, Jess." Mia pointed out. She wasn't completely sure how Jessica had come to that conclusion, it's not like they spent time out in the public eye. Unless people had noticed that Emmett moved back to his once-normal spot next to her in class, but even then it wasn't anything major.
"I just don't know why they would pick you." Jessica said without thinking. Her hand flew to her mouth and her blue eyes grew wide, not believing that she had said that out loud. "Oh my God, I am so sorry. I didn't mean it, Mia."
Mia frowned, she had thought that Jessica could be insensitive sometimes, but she had never known her to be flat out hurtful. "Yes you did, otherwise you wouldn't have said it. But don't worry about it, we all say things we don't mean some times…"
A few tables away Edward let out a low hiss after listening to what his advanced ears had picked up. Yet another reason, not to like Jessica. "Alice, why don't you ask Mia to sit with us at lunch tomorrow?"
"Really Edward, I can!" Alice squealed in utter delight, forgetting for a moment that they were in a packed lunch room. "What made you change your mind all of a sudden?"
Edward had been adamant about accepting Mia into their lunch room clique; he hadn't wanted to endanger her any more than necessary. But he decided that she didn't need to surround herself with the kind of people that were going to hurt and tear her down. Mia didn't deserve that, "I just thought it would be nice. That's all." He lied without thinking, though Emmett caught the waver in his eyes and knew something wasn't right.
Emmett angled his chair just right so that he could look in Mia's general direction without really looking in her direction. When his searching eyes finally found her, he saw that instead of laughing and joking with her friends she mindlessly pushed around the pale noodles on her tray. The corners of his lips dipped down into a rarely seen frown and he decided that he would ask her in Study Hall after lunch.
By the time Mia had dragged herself into the fairly empty study hall class, the late bell had just been rung. But that fact had barely fazed her, it had been running through her mind since Jessica's rash comment at the beginning of lunch. There wasn't much she had regretted in life thus far, but what she had said that night, or hadn't of said.
"You're quiet today, normally you're too peppy to handle." Emmett tried to rile her up, but to no avail.
"Sorry, I was getting stuck in my own head." Mia heaved her heavy math book out of her book bag and plopped it down on their shared table. She gave it a long look before retrieving a notebook, Mia planned to at least look like she planned on doing some work. She could, but her heart wouldn't be in it; that vital organ was in California.
"Mia, I'm not good with the whole 'feelings and emotion' thing, but if you tell me what's up I might be able to help." Emmett suggested hopefully, it unnerved him to see her so forlorn.
Mia smiled at his attempt to assist her, at least he tried. "It's nothing really, someone said something that made me think of home earlier and I just can't shake it. It all gets better in time." Mia quoted the last part from a song she had heard in on the way to school. "If you're not doing anything important after school today, I need some help with homogeneous system of equations. It's not really sticking."
"Do you really need my help, or are you just trying to hang out?" Emmett joked; he hadn't heard her ask questions in class before so he assumed she knew the subject well.
"Both." Mia admitted with a sheepish grin. "And I just don't want to be home alone; a little company other than the puppy would be nice."
"All you had to do was ask." Emmett grinned, happy to get some sort of smile out of Mia. "I'll be seeing you after school then; I'll just follow you out."
"She's gotten big since the last time I saw her." Emmett observed the white fluff ball that couldn't keep still when Mia pushed her way through the front door. Nika let out a high pitched bark and jumped up to balance on her hind legs.
"Down." Mia instructed firmly, she waited until the puppy listened before she scratched behind her ears. "Yeah, she's about twelve weeks now, she's grown pretty fast. Feel free to put your stuff down anywhere." Mia relieved the load of her full bag on the wooden floor by the couch and rested her purse down next to the rest of it.
"What time is Jenna going to be back?" Emmett asked before throwing himself down onto the black love seat that was situated directly in front of the television. Mia shrugged her shoulders at the question and continued petting the dog, "Well, can you tell me where the remote is?"
Mia gaffed and wagged her finger at him, "Oh no, you're going to help me with my math homework. That's what you're here for, not to sponge off of my satellite." Mia hooked Nika's chain to her collar and opened the door, giving the pup and opportunity to romp around in the yard for a bit.
"That sounds boring, what do I get out of it?" Emmett raised his eyebrows suggestively at Mia, only to drop them when she merely looked away and began getting school materials out of her bag. Emmett heaved himself from the couch and approached Mia from behind; in an instant he wrapped his arms around her waist and swung her. Mia let out a surprised cry, not anticipating the contact- to his enjoyment. "Just tryin' to liven things up a bit."
"You gave me a bit of a heart attack there. Element of surprise: achieved." Mia gasped out, fighting to regain her nerves. After restoring her head she drummed her fingers on Emmett's arms that were still tightly wrapped about her waist in a comforting manner. "You can let go anytime you want."
"Maybe I-" He was only able to get out a few syllables before Mia cut him off.
"Nika, what are you barking at out there?" Mia wiggled out of his slackened grip and pranced over to the front door that she threw back without pause. What she saw was a small moving truck and a brown haired girl, with her hands on her hips, looking at the house in front of her. "Looks like Chief Swan's daughter finally arrived."
Emmett hung back in the doorway while Mia went to retrieve the not so ferocious dog. "I didn't know he had a daughter, learn somethin' knew every day."
"Jenna invites him over for dinner on occasion since he lives by himself, he told us a couple weeks ago actually." Mia replaced the stray hairs that had been blown by the wind. "She's here from Arizona, her mother just got married so she was coming to stay with him. He was so excited; I thought Chief Swan was going to burst."
"Fascinating." Emmett faked interest, "Now, don't you have Calculus that you needed help with?"
"I was thinking that I should go say hey or something." Mia argued, though without much fight.
"Nah." Emmett shook his head and lifted her heavy pack seamlessly onto one of his shoulders, "You should probably give her some time to get all settled in before you go get in her face, ya know?"
Mia let out a soft laugh, "You win. My room is this way."
"Mia!" Jenna called from outside her niece's bedroom before turning the knob and letting herself in, just as there was uproar of laughter that caught her off guard. Mia herself was lying on her bed- face buried in a pillow with waves of laughter still trickling out. Jenna's gaze soon fell on the muscled young man who lay sprawled out on the floor with what looked like a calculus book on his head. She instantly recognized the attractive male as one of Doctor Carlisle's adoptive children. "I just wanted to bring you a list of things you out to pack for our trip Friday. Who knew math could be so fun."
When Mia finally caught her breath she introduced the two strangers to one another, "Emmett this is my lovely Aunt Jenna. And Jenna, this is my…friend, Emmett. We were trying to do some math homework."
"Hey." Emmett looked over his shoulder and nodded at the doctor.
"Nice to meet yet another member of the esteemed Cullen family that I hear so much about." Jenna smiled, looking from Emmett to Mia and the sparkle that she had yet to see in her niece's eye for some time had returned. Friend, yeah…right. "I don't want to intrude, so you kids have fun. And Mia, I'm probably going to visit the Swan's next door after dinner."
Mia nodded in recognition of the invitation and gave her aunt a small wave as her bedroom door was closed again. Emmett cleared his throat and restored the Calculus book to its original form and stood up, "I guess I should be going now, huh?"
"If you want." Mia pulled herself into a sitting position, hugging the pillow to her body. "But can I have my book back before you leave?"
"I guess." Emmett grinned mischievously. He approached her bed and dropped his head to her ear level and softly whispered, "See you in class." He then let the heavy book fall next to her on the bed, leaving Mia speechless as she watched him leave.
"He kissed you!" Alice screeched through the phone as soon as Mia had answered the call on her cell phone. "When did this happen? And you didn't tell me, why didn't you tell me?"
Mia took a seconds pause, soaking it all in before she responded. "He told you?"
"Well…uh…not really. Edward mentioned it in casual conversation to me like I had already heard about it, because he heard it through the thought vine." Alice explained, a bit more calmed down by this point. "So come one, dish it out."
"So he was thinking about it? I don't understand why he would still be thinking about it since it happened when I was at your house and everyone abandoned me." Mia said in her best whisper voice, this wasn't exactly the kind of thing she wanted her aunt to overhear.
"AH! So he really did! Edward and I had just assumed, because he was thinking that before he left your house today he should have tried something again. And we could only assume that again had meant that he already had." Alice sucked in an unnecessary breath before continuing. "This is so exciting Mia, you have to tell me everything!"
Mia let out a nervous chuckle when Jenna cast her a sideways glance, it was safe to assume that she could hear Alice's projecting voice. "Alice, you actually caught me at a bad time, I'm supposed to go over and meet one of the new neighbors so let me call you about this later, alright?"
"Fine." Alice grumbled. "But you had better call me back or answer when I call you, missy."
"Yeah, yeah." Mia sassed while sliding on a pair of her black flip flops. "I gotta go, so we'll talk later for sure."
Jenna cleared her throat and shot Mia a knowing smirk. "So, what was all that about? Your friend Alice sounded rather exciting about something that you weren't so willing to talk about in front of me."
"It wasn't that at all." Mia covered. "Alice is always like that, you should know that by now. I just wanted to get off the phone before meeting Chief Swan's daughter; I wouldn't want to appear rude."
"Oh it's fine if you don't want to talk about that boyfriend of yours." Jenna winked at her and ushered her niece out the front door.
Mia's mouth dropped open and she gave her head a violent shake for a bit of effect. "No, no. Emmett Cullen isn't my boyfriend, Jenna. He's just a friend whose company I enjoy and someone I like to spend time with. There's nothing there." And Mia wasn't sure if that was a complete lie- or where she stood with him.
"Uh-huh." Jenna rolled her eyes playfully. "He may not be your boyfriend, but he's certainly not just your friend, Mia. I know how friends act around one another and all that jazz. And if you've seen the way he looks at you, you would know exactly what I was talking about here."
"It's complicated." Mia edged in just as the front door to the Swan household was opened with gusto.
A/N: The story should pick up and move a lot faster now that Bella has entered on scene and it will follow the plot of the book with my own plot mixed in.
Thanks for reading! Let me know of any Questions/Comments/Concerns/or Suggestions :]
