A/N: Just to be clear, I've skipped over several months of Bella's senior year (the months when she was depressed). I could probably write about those months, but I don't think there's much to write about that any of us would care to read. So, this chapter takes place in the beginning of March in New Moon.

Mr. Berty POV

Once again, the school year slipped by before I knew what had hit me. The wire basket on my desk was overflowing with essays and homework assignments to me grade, which was possibly my least favorite part of being back in school. I had learned in my years of teaching that the basket only emptied on summer vacation, when it was impossible for my students to fill it back up with essays.

My students went back to their old habits, too. They complained endlessly about the homework I made them do and said that it would probably take all night for them to finish it. Then school ended for the day, and they went out with friends and completely forgot about the work they had complained about. Often, the students didn't remember the homework until they were back in school, and then they had to make up silly excuses for why they hadn't done it or rush to finish everything during lunch.

It was second period, my free period. I knew that I should probably get to work on making a lesson plan or grading papers or something. But earlier today, Mr. Varner told me that he had confiscated a deck of cards from one of his students and didn't have to give it back until the end of the day. He said that if I had the time, I was invited to come to the lounge and take a break from all my work. I looked back and forth between the door and the looming pile of papers to grade, and I made my decision. I stood up, stretched, and walked out the door to spend my free period in the teachers' lounge.

When I got to the lounge, I was more excited than I'd been in weeks. This time of year was always dull since school wasn't ending yet and it was too cool for a good beach trip.

But when I got inside, I didn't see Mr. Varner. Shelly Cope was there, as usual, and she looked like she'd found something to talk about. That was great for her, but not for me. She could talk for a long time, and she didn't really care whom she talked to or what she said to that person. I sat down, resigned, and wondered whether Mr. Varner was even coming.

Hoping to direct the conversation away from the inevitable gossip I was afraid to hear, I said, "Bella's looking a little better now, isn't she?"

It turns out that this was the exactly wrong thing for me to say. Or exactly right, depending on how you look at it. Anyway, I guess it was something Shelly actually did want to talk about because she started speaking so quickly that I could hardly make out her words. I wasn't sure how to answer her, so I decided to let her talk until she had run out of things to say.

"So you noticed too?" she asked, surprised. "I mean, I could tell she was getting better, but I don't understand it! She looks fine and I hear she's talking again, laughing even, but what's changed?"

"Um…"

"She isn't trying any new afterschool activities—I'd have seen her name on the lists—and she seems to have the same friends as always, so I can't see what's new that would make her act so much happier all of a sudden. I remember that she was sick a couple of weeks ago, and I thought that was a bad sign, but she seemed pretty normal when she got back, and now I'm just confused!"

While I wasn't sure what to say to Shelly, I knew exactly what she meant about Bella. Just last week, Bella had volunteered to answer a question, and that was rare even for the rest of the students. Her skin was just as pale as ever, but her cheeks were looking a little redder, like she really was back to her old self. I didn't understand the change either, but unlike Shelly, I didn't really care what had caused it. My job was to teach, and I wasn't interested in the students' personal lives. But Shelly talked straight through the next several minutes, and at that point, I had heard enough.

I was relieved when Mr. Varner walked through the door with Coach Clapp. The lounge felt cramped with the four of us here, but I was glad not to be stuck in conversation with Shelly all period. I shot Mr. Varner a look of desperation, and he took that as his cue to show off the deck of cards he'd told me he had.

"Hey, guys, what do you think about a friendly card game? It's finally Friday; let's enjoy ourselves a little."

We all thought it was a good idea, but it took some time to find a game we could agree on.

"Go fish?" I suggested.

"No way, pick a real game," scoffed Mr. Varner.

"Go fish is a real game!" I argued.

"Oh, please, go fish is for toddlers. How about Hearts?"

"I hate Hearts," Shelly whined.

"Euchre?" Mr. Varner asked.

None of us had played Euchre, so Mr. Varner tried to explain it to us. But none of us was able to understand his explanation at all, and I was starting to feel some sympathy for the students who had to learn math from him. We gave up on Euchre pretty quickly.

"What about Poker?" Coach Clapp asked.

We were all willing to play, but none of us had the money for it. However, we'd been trying to pick a game for the last five minutes, so we decided to play Poker anyway. There was a whole box of sugar packets in the cupboard under the coffee machine, and we used them in place of money. Despite the substitution, we had a lot of fun. Shelly wasn't very happy, but that's just because she was horrible at Poker. You could see how good her hand was by one glance at her face, and she had already managed to lose about 150 packets of sugar.

"All right, Coach, three queens. Beat that!" I said.

"Yeah, sure," he said absentmindedly. "By the way, Shelly, can you add Newton and Crowley to today's detention list?"

"You gave Mike and Tyler detention? That's strange. What'd they do?" she asked.

"I caught them trying to peek into the girls' locker room after class. When I asked them about it, Tyler kind of stammered and claimed that he'd left a textbook behind."

We all laughed at his flimsy excuse before I remembered that Coach Clapp still hadn't shown us his cards. I told him to stop stalling, and he put down his winning hand— four tens.

"Cheater!" Mr. Varner exclaimed. "I had that ten of diamonds at the start of the game. You snatched it out of the discard pile while we were all laughing!"

"Fine, you caught me," he admitted sheepishly. "I guess I'm broke now. I bet the rest of my sugar on that hand."

He swept the pile of sugar towards me, adding it on to the mound of sugar I already had. Mr. Varner was still in the game, but I undoubtedly winning so far. I hadn't expected to be so successful, but I understood why I was doing so well. Whenever I was teaching, it was my job to look professional no matter how much I needed a break from my students. I'd needed to control my face, and I guess I was better at it than I'd thought. Maybe I would do this after I retired. . .

The bell rang, and we all groaned. Mr. Varner, the coach and I all had classes to teach, and Shelly probably had to file papers or something back at the office.

"Can't wait for spring break," I muttered.

"Yeah, join the club. I can't believe it's only March," Coach Clapp said.

"Poker was fun, though. We should play it again sometime, when things slow down around here," said Mr. Varner.

The three of us agreed with Mr. Varner before leaving to go our separate ways. Within minutes, I was back in my classroom and more or less ready to teach.

"All right, students," I said unhappily. "Your essays are due today. Please pass them to the front. Samantha, you can just put those on my desk." Samantha stood up, holding the class's assignments, and put them down on an empty section of my desk. She didn't use the basket, of course—it was too full to hold anything else. I sighed, knowing that I would have a lot of work to do tonight. And still, I couldn't bring myself to regret the time I had spent in the lounge last period. I really had enjoyed spending time with my colleagues, and I had to say, I'd do it all again.

A/N: As I said, I'm pretty busy this month. I'll try to keep working on this, but I can't make any promises. Sorry.

Anyway, what did you think of this chapter, or of my story in general? Review and tell me! (I'm making my "pretty please review" face right now. Come on, you know what I mean. Go review!)