A/N Not much to say except I'm sorry this took so long, I have had the majority of this written for ages but I couldn't figure out how to end it without hating it... anyway I hope you like it!
On with the my show my lovelies
Disclaimer: I still need this? Really? Really? Fine, I own nada
BPOV
I breathed a sigh of relief as rehearsal ended; I don't think I've ever made so much of a fool of myself in one lesson alone, ever. I kept daydreaming and forgetting to come in with my lines, or coming at completely the wrong time confusing myself and everyone else on stage, Edward had sent me out of whack. After theatre, my next two classes passed without incident including the short break in between. I walked out of my third period English class and walked down the hall seeing a familiar head of jet black head bouncing along in front.
"Alice!" I called out to her; she turned around her eyes searched for me for a second, grinning as they landed on me. She stopped in the hall waiting for me to catch up.
"Come on Bella. Math awaits!" she chirped at she grabbed my elbow pulling me towards out next classroom.
"Yay." I muttered sarcastically.
"Oh c'mon Bella you can do better that that." She nudged me with her elbow. "We get to use our magic freinds..." She teased; I burst out laughing, our math teacher referred to or calculators as our "magic freinds", they where these high tech statistics calculators that could do just about anything with, it tells you everything apart from if it's a boy or a girl! No seriously, I think you can even listen to music on it, though why you need a calculator to do that stuff is beyond me. Our teacher seems to think they're the best thing since sliced bread. As we walked through the door I turned to go to my locker, having left my "magic friend" in my locker, I think our teacher would have an aneurysm if I turned up without it.
"Alice, I need to run to my locker I left my "friend" in there." I called as I hurried down the hall.
"Sure, I'll save you a seat." She called back as I turned the corner, still looking in that direction, I carried on walking only turning when I narrowly missed walking into a wall, I jumped and dodged the wall in surprise. I stopped leaning against the wall with a sigh of relief, I push away from the wall and turned to carry on walking down the hall shaking my head, only me. Before I could look up I banged straight into a warm body walking in the opposite direction. I dropped my books and nearly fell, but a hand shot out and grabbed my waist before I could topple over and pulled me too them roughly, making me fall straight into their chest. I placed my hands on their chest and grabbed their shirt to steady myself.
"I'm sorry!" I squeaked, looking up at their face, two amused dark eyes meeting mine, the heat rose in my cheeks. "Jacob!"
"Hey Bella" he chuckled.
"I wasn't watching where I was going then nearly ran into the wall, which would have hurt, so I dodged it, then I ran into you, I really need to pay attention to where I walk, I should come with some kind of warning label." I rambled, getting impossibly redder.
"Its fine, but you really should pay attention to where you walk, it's a good job it was me you walked into and not the wall, I don't think it would have been so forgiving." He grinned, I smiled back nervously. We both fell quiet for a second, I blinked, quickly realising he still had his hands on my waist and I was still holding onto his shirt, he dropped his hands from my waist and I quickly let go of his shirt jumping back, he laughed and bent down picking up the books that were strewn across the floor. I crouched down to help, letting my hair fall as a curtain to hide my face. After we had picked everything up and made sure we had all our own stuff, I went to stand up and thank him, but he apparently had the same idea and stood at the same time I did. Meaning we bumped heads in the most awkward way, luckily, after a few seconds of trying to make sure I could see straight, we both started laughing.
"I think you were right." He laughed sobering up, I looked at him.
"What?"
"You should come with a warning label." He teased grinning; I rolled my eyes but laughed with him elbowing him in the side. "C'mon, we need to get to class." He said motion down the hall.
"I need to go to my locker I left my friend in there." I muttered, He chuckled.
"Sure." He nodded; he turned to leave then turned back "See you in class?"
"Sure." I nodded, mimicking his words. "See you in class." I turned and rush off to my locker making sure not to run into anything or anyone. My heart was beating a little faster than normal, had he always been that tall? Had he always been that good looking? What the hell was wrong with me? For a fleeting moment I wondered what I would say if Jacob asked me to the dance, I shook those thoughts away. Either way I didn't want to go to the dance so there was no point in wasting energy wondering about it. I breathed a sigh of my relief when I reached the class; I snuck in took the seat next to Alice which she had placed her bag on. She looked up from her work with curious eyes.
"What took you so long Bells?" I waved her off pulling out my stats textbook from my bag.
"I'll tell you later." I whispered, as the teacher turned to face us, hitting us with a glare.
"You can't leave me hanging here!" She pouted.
"Let's just say it includes Jacob Black." I murmured, turning indiscreetly to look over at him, he looked up just I turned to him and gave me a grin; I blushed and looked down and away. Alice quirked an eyebrow at me, grinning at me giggling quietly. I elbowed her in the side which only seemed to make her laugh more; I eventually joined in our laughs getting steadily louder until the whole class had turned our way. We both seemed to slowly sober up, but only after we had captured the entire classes attention, including the teacher's, who was looking at us over her thin gold rimmed glasses.
"Are you two quite done now?"
"Yes Miss."
"Sorry Mrs. Spencer." Alice muttered trying to contain her snickers again, if she started again there was no way I'd be able to stop.
"Good, now get to the problems on the board, they're not too difficult, remember; you have your magic friends to do most of the work." She grinned conspiratorially. Maths dragged on. Not that that's any different from normal, Alice and I did manage to stop laughing, well, eventually anyway. Even after our giggles had subsided I still couldn't concentrate, my stomach had decided to protest, loudly. I hadn't eaten anything this morning and there was only thirty minutes until the class ended. I stared at the clock, willing the hand to move, it didn't. It only seemed to go slower as if trying to add dramatic effect, all thoughts of even attempting the stats problem had gone out of the window.
My leg bounced under the table erratically, Alice muttered something unintelligible under her breath. This didn't deter my leg from bouncing faster, I heard Alice huff in annoyance, then quickly clamp her hand down on my leg.
"Quit it." She whispered. "The table is vibrating, and not in a good way."
"Sorry." I laughed quietly, biting my lip, only Alice. She moved her hand off my leg, shooting me another look. I just rolled my eyes. I moved my gaze back to clock, which seemed to have only moved on five minutes forward. The obnoxious ticking had got seemingly louder making me grind my teeth. I fidgeted my legs which were starting to ache through the effort of trying to keep them still. At this moment, my empty stomach decided to make itself known once again. I groaned inwardly, and apparently outwardly too as Mrs Spencer looked up from her paperwork.
"Is everything okay, Miss. Swan?" She asked tersely. I blinked, and wracked my brain for an excuse.
"Just having some trouble with a problem." I shrugged and smiled innocently. Alice snorted delicately from beside me. Mrs Spencer raised a brow, sighed, then stood up.
"Let me see if I can give you a hand." She sighed, and knelt down to start instructing me on the usage of my calculator and the normal distribution of the weight of chocolate. My stomach growled. The teacher looked up at me and blinked at me in surprise.
"Sorry." I muttered sheepishly. "I missed breakfast." She nodded and began to read out the question.
She carried on talking, my eyes flickering back to the clock. Ten more minutes. I hummed and nodded along as appropriate when the situation called for it, all the while keeping my eyes on the clock as it moved, excruciatingly slowly, until it reached twelve. I breathed an audible sigh of relief. The teacher was startled at my sudden eagerness to leave the classroom.
"So you understand it now?" She asked as I stuffed my books in my bag, fumbling with my textbook.
"Yes, thanks Miss." I called hurrying after Alice who was stood at the door I grabbed onto her arm and pulled her out of the room and down the corridor. "Thank god!" I sighed, blowing out a huge breath, the tension melting from my body.
My stomach growled not letting me forget its presence; I patted my stomach and sighed. "I know, trust me, I know." We grabbed some food from the counter steering clear of the hot food and making a beeline for the pre-packaged sandwiches, we when paid we stopped in front of the counter to scout out the others. I scanned the room until my eyes rested on Emmett, Jasper and Rosalie, who were all seated at the back of the room deep in conversation. I scanned the rest of the room my eyes landing unconsciously on Edward's table.
I watched him as he spoke with his friends a smile on his face, he leaned back in his chair said something then looked to the ceiling seeming sort of distracted. I frowned, it seemed kind of strange, I didn't know him well, but I knew him well enough and I knew people's body language to know something was bothering him. He couldn't seem to focus on one thing and couldn't focus on the conversation for long only giving half hearted responses. I looked away and shook my head, for all I knew he could just be having an off day, problem with some work or something, I was probably reading too much into things.
I let my eyes roam again this time they landed on Jacob, he was also sat leaning back in his chair, but his posture gave off a feeling of calmness and relaxation, completely opposite to Edward. He had a wide grin on his face, bark out a laugh at something his friend said, I think his name is Seth Clearwater; he's in our math class, the one Jacob sits next to. Alice nudged me breaking my staring as I looked over at her.
"C'mon!" I blinked and carried on walking towards the others, were Emmett had looked up and was now waving us over, I laughed at his enthusiasm as he grinned like a small child getting his favourite toy. When we reached the table, we placed our trays down that we had piled with food earlier, Alice took a seat next to Jasper, his arm slipped round her waist as she sat down.
"Hey." He murmured as he kissed the sided of her head, Alice smiled up at him and leant into her side, taking a potato chip from her plate and popped it into her mouth. I popped open my sandwich, and took a bite, I hummed and my stomach rumbled with satisfaction. I made light work of my sandwich and moved to the Hershey's bar I had picked up at the counter, a chocolate craving coming over me. I sliced open the foil and snapped of the end popping the piece into my mouth letting it slowly melt on my tongue.
I absentmindedly let my eyes wander again but this time I wasn't the only one, I looked over to Edward again, I hadn't meant to look over there in fact I had been trying to avoid it, my surprisingly when I looked over my eyes met his eyes. I held his gaze steadily; he smiled at me his left side pulling up slightly higher than his right. I smiled back, recapturing my lip between my teeth. He raised his hand in a silent greeting; I nodded back raising my hand, his grin widened. At the same time his friends turned to see what he was looking at all turning to look at me, I chewed on lip hard and looked away flushing.
I fixed my gaze down to the table and popped another square of chocolate in my mouth, I felt kind of like a creeper for staring at him, but I suppose if he caught me looking that meant he had to be looking at me too. Which I just can't understand. I look back to find him still watching me, he wasn't looking at me in a creepy way, or like he was checking me out, he was almost looking without looking. It was nice, but, kind of strange. Something moved out of the corner of my eye, I turned slightly to face it and watched as Lauren Mallory strode over to Edward, a fierce look of determination on her face. I knew I should have looked away, but Edward still hadn't notice her walking towards him, I motioned to his right with my eyes, and like he understood what I was getting at he turned and saw Lauren walking towards him. His eye brows shot up into his hair line.
She called out to him; he fully turned her way, seeming reluctant to turn away from me. She seemed annoyed about something; Edward just appeared to be confused at first, which morphed into incredulity, then into understanding, Lauren seemed really angry. Wildly gesturing in my general direction, people who were close by turned in this direction, but as expected, their eyes glossed over me. It wasn't as if everyone knew about the fact we were starring in the play with each other and other than that people had no reason to associate me with Edward Cullen. Even so, I had a certain sick feeling it was me that they were arguing over.
I couldn't hear much of their conversation, just enough to know what was going on, they seemed to have captured a lot of attention. Without warning, as the next words were spoken, the whole room fell silent and the words where heard as clear as day.
"Lauren. Were done."
Edward never looked up at her he kept his head down and turned away from her, for a second her jaw went slacked, then the quickly corrected it blinking, close her mouth the turned and strode out of the room, with an almost smug expression on her face. Everyone's eyes were on her watching as the strode out the room her chin held high, the cafeteria door slammed as she left the room. A flurry of voices sound broke the silence, scandalized whispers filling the room.
"Oh my god, I can't believe it."
"They've been together for so long!"
"Do you think I have a chance with him now?"
"What do you think happened?"
Why could people just mind their own business for a change? Thinking about it; I was a huge hypocrite, I was dying to know what was going on, maybe that was why Edward was acting strange today. It might have something to do with what is saw a few days ago things looked kind of tense between them then. I ran my fingers through my hair, why did I care so much? I shouldn't care; at least, I didn't want to care. There was just something about him, about Edward; he wasn't at all how I had thought, he was different very different. Why couldn't he have just been conceited the way I thought he was, it would save me from all these thoughts. I sighed to myself.
"Thinking again Bella?" Emmett teased as I looked up rolling my eyes at him shoving another two chunks of chocolate in my mouth, nothing like a bit of chocolate therapy to calm the nerves. I looked around the table none of them seemed surprised or bothered by this sudden development. It was nice. "You're gonna hurt yourselves one of these days doing all this thinking." I stuck out my tongue. "Nice Bella, such a lady."
"Since when have I ever been a lady?" I asked incredulously.
"That's true." Jasper nodded thought fully laughing quietly at something. "You always find some kind of mud to get on the dresses mom and dad would buy you when we were little." He smiled fondly at the memories; Rosalie laughed loudly, her blue eyes sparkling.
"Neither of them would get mad though, well apart from the time they threatened to ship you off to finishing school." She smiled softly, I laughed remembering that day.
"I remember, we were all about 5 at the time and Mom and Dad had just bought me and Rose new sun dresses, and Jasper a shirt and expensive jeans, it was one of the few times we had gone over to the reservation. Billy had invited us down to have a barbecue on the beach." I reminisced it seemed like all this wasn't so long ago, Jasper barked out a laugh and shook his head.
"You were annoyed because Mom wouldn't let you go play with the boys, down in the sand in the rock pools, she wouldn't let go of your hand, so you, being you just ran like a bull in a china shop straight towards the rock pools slipped and got sand, mud and water all over your dress." Jasper leant back in his seat his whole body shaking with laughter. "I had to go and get you out cause Rosie didn't want to get her shoes wet, you hadn't hurt yourself, just scraped up your hands a little, but when you had to walk back up the beach dripping with water, you kept complaining about having sand in your pants."
"Mom was not happy when you went back to her, when you said that to her, she just told you to suck it up cause you weren't going to change and you have to stay that way for the rest of the night, mom walked away, but you weren't having any of it so you just decided to strip off all of your clothes in the middle of the beach." Rose clutched her stomach as she laughed, my cheeks turned red, I think I must have blocked that part out, everyone round the table was laughing now, at my expense I might add. "Those boys sure did get an eyeful, I think you may have changed they views on girls forever."
"Wow Bella, I never knew exhibitionism was your style." Emmett mocked, I shot him a glare.
"Mom had kittens when she saw you stood there with your dress and pants on a pile on the floor, I think Dad may have had a heart attack, especially with all those boys around, they both threatened to send you away to finishing school if you didn't put your clothes back on, well, I don't think anyone could put their clothes on faster than you did then." Rose teased leaning her head down onto Emmett's shoulder.
"Well, frankly, the idea of having to learn how to use cutlery, speak properly, that would be my own personal hell." I smirked, shoving the last piece of chocolate in my mouth frowning at the empty wrapper I screwed it up into a ball and rolled it between my hands.
"Being a bit stereotypical aren't we Bella." Alice laughed, I just grinned shrugging, she smiled softly. "Your mom was awesome."
"Yeah she was." Emmett grinned, he squeezed Rose's hand. "She always used to give us cookies whenever we would come over, she always seemed to know what was going on, whether we wanted her to or not." He chuckled softly, Mom had always had a sixth sense, whether we were sick, upset or we were lying about something, she had been there for all of us at some point or another she saw Emmett and Alice as her honorary kids.
"I went to see her last week." I murmured looking down at the table, still passing the ball of foil between my hands.
"Bella!" Rose leaned across the table knocking the ball from my hands and grabbed my hand. "Why, Bells? I would have gone with you, Jazz would have gone with you, you didn't need to go alone!" she scolded me softly, squeezing my fingers.
"I just needed to clear my head, I s'pose." I shrugged; I squeezed her fingers back them with my free hand reached for the foil ball and tugged at one of the loose ends. "I- I just, I don't know, I just, really miss her sometimes you know?" They all nodded their heads, looked at me with soft eyes, I knew they didn't pity me, or feel sorry for me, they just understood, but I knew just by looking and Rose and Alice they knew something else was going on too. Even Jasper was frowning, he had even less of a clue as to what was going on, but he was still my brother, idiot he may be sometimes. He had always been able to sense people's emotions easily; he could read just about anyone. He had gotten that trait from mom.
Renee wasn't perfect; she was far from it, but she was an amazing mother. She worked for a business firm in Seattle, I think it may have been a publishing company; I didn't pay much attention to stuff back then. Now I really wish I had. She was very impulsive, flighty; she was always changing her hair style trying out new styles, eager to decorate the house whenever it took her fancy. Which it tended to often, we'd come home, quite often when she got out of work early, we'd find her painting or putting up a picture she had bought that she thought would go great with the room. She had a tendency to be stubborn, like me I suppose, when she made her mind up, it wouldn't be changed.
The bell rang above our heads, cutting my musings short, I my slung my bag over my shoulder, we walked in a comfortable silence to next class, my last class was world history, which was okay to be fair, I just didn't like the thought of having to stay after school again to rehearse with Edward. Especially now, after the embarrassing display the other day, not to mention this morning! I sighed and broke off from the group with a smile and a wave. Alice called out to me before I could enter the classroom.
"Bella!" I turned; she had a wide grin across her face. "You still need to fill me in about this morning don't forget, I also want details of your rehearsal tonight!" she winked at me; I just rolled my eyes and waved her off walking into the classroom.
A/N Hope you liked my lovelies! So sneak peeks for reviewers as normal :D !
Firstly a huge and I mean massive thanks to Angel my beta who turned this out in less than an hour, especially since I forgot to put a shout out last chapter! And huge thanks to all readers reviewers favoriters and alerters it does mean a great deal to me you have no idea : )
Second has anyone seen Tangled yet? Wasn't it great? It was so sweet, I can't help it, I have a soft spot for Disney films, I don't care how old I am! You're only as old as you feel right? I really should blame Disney for ruining my perception of men... turns out my prince charming was an idiot in tinfoil *sigh* well what are you gonna do eh?
And lastly I have the next chapter planned out so all fingers crossed it should be done faster than this one!
Much love to all
Monstergirl
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