Chapter 10- EPOV

Damn. Life was good.

If you would have told me at the beginning of the school year that I'd be in a single relationship, with Bella Swan and that I would be happier than I have ever been, I would have told you to fuck off.

But, that's the case and I couldn't be fucking happier.

We were really moving forward and we were finally official. Everything was really falling into place and I was falling for her, really fast.

I keep telling myself to live in the moment and not be some pussy whipped jerk that's freaked out by the future. But I wanted Bella in my future, and not just the far future, but everything in between.

Ever since I started playing basketball, I wanted to be a Duke Blue Devil and play under Coach K. I watched all the games and loved the crazy fans and I sure as hell couldn't wait to play the Tar Heels and kick their asses the eight miles back to their campus.

But Duke was across the country, all the way in North Carolina, a fuck long ways from Forks, Washington. Shit, they had accents over there;; it was like a different country.

Except, my problem was Bella. I had no idea where she wanted to go. She was really stressing herself out because she didn't know what she wanted to do. And she was refusing to look at colleges until she knew what she wanted to do. I kept telling her it was no big deal; and that plenty of people went to college not knowing what they wanted to do, that's why people enrolled undecided. She didn't see it that way though.

She told me she could go to the best college for whatever it was she wanted to do. So, how could she find the best college before she figured out what she wanted to do?

It did make sense, and Bella could go to any college she wanted, and probably on a full ride. She was the smartest person I knew and she was going to be the valedictorian of our year. Even though averages weren't finalized yet, she wasn't going to slip. She had it in the bag. What school wouldn't want someone as smart as Bella? She has the extracurricular activities, tutor center and now a cheerleader. Not to mention she was going to be the valedictorian. Schools should be fighting for her.

Sure, we could make it through a long distance relationship;. There were phone, texts and now web-cams. Plus, there were plenty of vacations and long weekends, we could do visits. There were a fuckload of ways to make it work. Plus, college was only 4 years out of forever right?

Forever? Fuck this girl has me pussy whipped.

She is forever on my mind. I wake up, my first thought it Bella. I shower, my obvious thoughts are Bella. I get dressed, Bella. School, basketball, music, before I got to bed, it was all Bella, 24/7. I could not do a single fucking thing without her on my mind. I was losing it. I went from never having a relationship to head over fucking heels for this chick.

I think I loved her but I was way to chicken shit to say anything. Hell, it took two and a half months for us to make it official, and now a few weeks into that I wanted to go and pop out that I loved her. I didn't think so. But I did and knowing that, I never wanted to be apart from her, which is what makes this college thing so damn difficult.

The basketball season is just starting up. It feels great to be back in the gym every day, seeing the team and playing organized basketball. This is what I lived for, besides Bella that is. Not to mention, now she was my own personal distraction every practice, and every game. ; My girlfriend was cheerleading. She was dancing, and stretching, in front of other guys, mind you, in a very sexy, short skirt. She was fucking hot. I couldn't look at her, at all, during practice. Otherwise, I'd have a bit of a situation. I loved it though; it combined my two favorite things, basketball and Bella.

Now that the season was starting, Coach called me in his office the other day to discuss scouts calling about me. One of them was Duke. I was on cloud fucking nine. They wanted to come see me play! This was my shot, if I played good in the game they came to see, I'd be in. I could be a fucking blue devil, and maybe on a full scholarship. Money wasn't an issue; it was the honor I wanted.

I had no idea how to tell Bella. Knowing her like I did, she would probably be ecstatic for me, knowing how much it meant to me. She would probably also tell me how proud she was of me that I could get a scholarship and that this amazing team was coming to see me. She would support me a thousand and ten percent, I had no doubts. But if I agreed to this, and I would, I would not be able to walk away from this. At the same time, I had no idea how I would walk away from my Bella if she wasn't coming with me.

"Wake up, sleepy head" I heard as I was beginning to wake up. It was Saturday, I think. I tried to move, but I couldn't. My eyes were starting to register my surroundings, and once I was fully awake I saw my girlfriend, grinning widely, straddling me.

"I would love to wake up like this everyday" I told her, grabbing her and flipping her onto her back. She was giggling like a school girl, but I silenced her quickly by kissing her. Fuck, I missed these lips.

"I came here for a reason" she told me once I stopped mauling her with kisses.

"I thought it was to be amazing girlfriend and wake me up with a bang" I told her, winking at her.

"Nice try. But no. Today we agreed to watch your little cousins, remember, Jake and Rebecca. You need to get ready, your Mom says they will be here in a half hour" She kissed my nose and jumped off my bed and skipped out the room.

That's it? I was going to spend the entire day with little kids and all I got as a stupid kiss on the nose. Fuck. This was going to be a long day.

It was true. I did agree to babysit my little cousins. My Aunt Elizabeth and Uncle Billy were going out with my parents today; they were going to some special opera and then out to a fancy dinner. I agreed only if Bella would help me. Emmett and Rose would around too, but this was my responsibility.

I took my sweet ass time getting ready. I was in no rush to be bombarded by a five and three year old. Jake was five and he was a cool kid. He was into sports and cars. He was little for his age but he couldn't wait to be big like me he told me and play just like me. My Mom told me he looked up to me, so I always took special care of him. Rebecca though was a girly girl. She was three and always trying to talk. She was still having trouble without a lot of her words so sometimes it was hard to understand her. Every time I saw her though it was getting better and better. Truth was that little girl was fucking adorable and she had me whipped too. Great…

"Edward!" I heard my name being called before I was even down the stairs, and I heard little feet running towards me; Rebecca.

"Hey munchkin" I said picking her up and she wrapped her little arms around my neck. She softly kissed my cheek and then giggled. She was a giggly thing; she and Alice would probably get along good, chatty and giggly.

"I met your special fwiend" she said to me, very seriously. Looked like I was about to be told her opinion

"Oh yeah? What did you think?" I asked her.

"She's bery pwetty. She agreed to have a tea party wif me. And her and Aunt Esme made yummy cookies, so I think she's otay" she explained, as best as she could in her little girl talk.

"Well, I'm glad to have your approval. I was waiting for that" I said and tapped her nose. As soon as I said that, her face lit up. She liked being important in peoples decisions.

"Jakey wikes her too"

"Where is he?" I asked her, he was the one normally running up towards me.

"In the kitchen"

I pulled her up to my shoulders, eliciting a rush of giggles from her and we went jogging into the kitchen when everyone else was.

"There's my handsome nephew" my Aunt Elizabeth said; I was the favorite.

"Well aren't you looking lovely tonight" Maybe that's why, I always sucked up.

"Bless your heart" she told me while I went to kiss her cheek.

I looked around for my little guy, and spotted him at the table, engaging Bella in a serious conversation, it looked like. I placed Rebecca down and went over to them.

"Hey Jake" I said, expecting a big high five or something.

But I got nothing, barely even a hi. Someone was quite smitten with my girlfriend it looked like.

"Hey baby" Bella said, turning towards me to smile up at me. Ugh, who could blame the kid? She was gorgeous.

"Hey, what are you two talking about" I asked, as I pushed Bella over, and then pulled her onto my lap.

"Jake was telling me about kindergarten and how he made a bunch of new friends" Bella explained, and finally he noticed me.

"Edward! It's so cool. They like to play basketball too. And there's one of those smaller hoops at the schoolyard and I always win!" he exclaimed.

"That's awesome buddy. I told you that you were great when you beat me last time"

"See Bella, I even beat Edward and he's gonna play in NBA some day!" Jake bragged, trying to impress her.

We were interrupted for a moment when both sets of parents were ready to leave. Bella and I got lectured to make sure we paid plenty of attention to the kids, and received about a thousand phone numbers, all 4 cells numbers, the number of the opera house and the restaurant, their doctor and 911, like I didn't know that? We assured them that everything was going to be okay, and for some reason they trusted us. I think it had to do mostly with Bella, she was the trustworthy one. They didn't think I could corrupt her, little did they know…

"Alright, so you guys ready to eat ice cream and cookies for dinner and jump around the house and make a mess" I yelled and I got two screaming yes's. Okay that was mean. "Well, we can't do that. But we are going to have fun. Bella, what are we gonna do?" I asked her.

The kids moaned, and asked when we were going to eat dessert.

"Why don't we go watched the movie you guys brought. Edward can make some popcorn and we'll go set up the living room" Bella suggested. She was so amazing with them; they both listened to whatever she said like it was the law. They followed right behind her and turned every time she did.

It made me think of what an amazing mother she would be to our kids… Whoa, now I'm thinking about having kids with her? What the fuck has gotten into? Love is fucking with my mind… There I go using the L-word again…

Once I got my head out my ass, imagining things that I never thought I would be picturing, I got the popcorn together, a sippy cup with apple juice for Rebecca (not watered down, it was a special occasion), a little bit of soda for Jake and regular sized cups for Bella and I.

Rebecca was in Bella's lap and Jake was lying across the floor, where a shitload of blankets and pillows were laid around. I was told they wanted a "picnic".

The movie was Toy story 3, and I was actually excited. When I was little, I enjoyed these movies, so I knew I could easily get into this movie.

For small kids, they were damn good. They sat down and watched the whole movie. Rebecca sat in Bella's lap the entire time, sucking her tiny thumb and giggling a lot. Jake just lay across the blankets and I sat next to Bella. I kept trying to get her to leave the kids on the floor and we could go up on the couch and fool around. All I got was a stern look and told to behave.

"Eddie" Rebecca called out. She was the only person in the world allowed to call me that. If she wasn't young, had trouble speaking sometimes, and freaking adorable she wouldn't even be allowed to call me that.

"Yeah, Becky boo?" That was that name I called her, and only I was allowed to call her that. When she found out no one else was allowed to call me Eddie, she wanted a name that only I could call her, so we came up with that.

"I haf to use the potty" she said and I was frozen. Please, take this one Bella.

"I'll take you, sweetie" Bella told her.

"No! Eddie take me" she demanded. Fuck.

Okay. I picked her up out of Bella's lap and brought her by the bathroom. I turned on the light and I wasn't sure what to do next.

"It's kay. I go all by myself. But you need to turn round" she told me and I giggled. Demanding little thing, she was already a woman at 3.

"I done" she announced. "Pwease pick me up so I can wash my hands"

"Sure. Don't forget to do your alphabet count" I told her. My aunt had enforced this rule with her. She would stand at the sink for 20 minutes, washing her hands if you let her. So, she was only allowed to wash her hands for as long as it took her to sing the alphabet song.

When we got back to the living room, the movie was over and Emmett and Rose got home so Rebecca ran over to Em and Jake was already attached to his leg. Emmett had a way with kids; I always said it was because his mind was just as old as them.

"Dropped as soon as they walk in, huh B" I asked her, and she giggled. But as soon as she started walking towards me, Rebecca ran right over to her.

"Where are you going Bella?" she asked, big blue eyes wide with wonder.

"She's just coming over to stand by me. Don't worry she won't be leaving before your tea party. I promise" I assured her.

"Okay, because it's now. Rose said she would come too" Rebecca informed us, and started to try and put Bella by her fingers. She waved bye to me and blew me a kiss. I caught it in air and placed it on my lips. I'm turning into a wimp.

"Basketball time" Jake announced, and Emmett and him were chasing each other out the door. Emmett could never let the poor kid win though. One day though, when Jakes legs are little longer, he will be able to beat him. Emmett's too big to be fast. Jake is lean, and runs fast for a small kid.

"Ha! I beat you once again, squirt" Emmett told Jake, sticking his tongue out. See, 18 and burly on the outside, 5 on the inside.

"I bet you that Jake can beat you in basketball" I challenged him.

"You're so on"

Emmett was trying to be a go-hard but he had no skill at shooting. He was on the basketball team to get deep in the fold and catch rebounds and block shots. He did that part well. He never had quite the amount of grace necessary to place the ball through the hoop though. It always ended up hitting off the backboard too hard and never going in. And since the basket was lower due to Jakes height disadvantage, Emmett couldn't dunk. Otherwise he would automatically win.

So, I cheated. I told Jake to shoot the long shot, and with the lower basket, he could. And then when Jake wanted to go closer and make a dunk, I picked him up and helped him out.

The score was 15 to 5, Jake. Emmett forked over the ten bucks without a fight, complaining the entire time though. Jake loved it though, to him 10 bucks was months of saving up. He kept going on and on about he could afford to get a new basketball now. I gave him 10 bucks too, figured he could get a really nice one adding 20 bucks to the money he already saved up.

We walked into the living to quite a surprise.

The girls apparently wanted to play make over, well mostly Rebecca did. Rebecca was the one that got to choose the makeup that went on Rose and Bella. It was quite colorful and a lot of it. There was blue and green on Bella's cheeks with red and black over her eyes. I think she had green lipstick on too. Rose got the honor of gold and purple cheeks with yellow and blue on her eyes. It looked better than Bella's, but that wasn't saying much.

"Look Eddie! I made the girls look pwettyful. Don't you love it?" Rebecca asked excitedly.

I couldn't contain my laughter and neither could Emmett, who was doubled over from laughing so much. Rebecca didn't like that though, and she stuck out her bottom lip, putting on a pouty face. "You don't like it, do you?" she asked again, almost about to cry. That made Emmett and I feel like shit. Damage control. Lucky for Em, that was his specialty; he always got his foot stuck in his mouth with Rose.

"Nah, Becky. We were laughing because we think it's funny that the girls look better when a little girl like you does their makeup then when they do it themselves" he explained, as Rebecca stood with her hands on her hips.

"I'm not little!" she exclaimed.

That's where I stepped in. "Don't listen to Em. He's just a big goof; and he doesn't know what he is talking about. I think it looks great. I bet that the girls wish you could do their makeup for them everyday" I told her as I picked her up into my arms. She buried her face into my shoulder. Once she did, I giggled softly so that girls could know my reaction, because it was fucking funny.

"Did you win Eddie?" she asked me.

"Nope, Jakey did. He beat Em"

"You're right. Em is a big goof" Rebecca said, making everyone crack up.

Emmett proceeded to grab Rebecca from me and starting tickling her, causing her to giggle and scream for me to save her. I waited a few minutes before I swooped in and saved her from the big bad Emmett monster. She wrapped her arms around my neck.

"You're my hero, Eddie" she told me, completely melting my heart. Boy, I was really becoming a fucking girl.

After, the girls went upstairs to clean themselves up after playing makeover, we all sat down to eat a real gourmet meal; chicken fingers and fries. At least it was home-made though; Mom made it before she left. My mom rarely left us without home-cooked meals even if she was going out. She never wanted to order in, only for pizza every now and again. Otherwise, she cooked every night. I liked it that way.

We all finished eating quickly but Becky liked to eat slowly. She ate a fry at a time and the cut up nuggets one little piece at a time. It was always a pain sitting to wait until she finished her food. The tiniest meal could take her an hour to eat. If you gave her a cookie though, she downed that shit in a second.

"I done now, Eddie. Where's my cookie?" she demanded

I laughed. "We just finished eating. How about we go inside and play a game and have cookies a little bit later?" I suggested.

"Otay. But nobody better eat those cookies afore me" To that, I saluted her.

We all gathered around in the living room to play candy land, it was the only game we had that Rebecca could play.

After playing Candy land 3 times, with Rebecca winning twice and Bella winning the other time, we decided to give the kids their snacks. My mom had made brownies too, so there were crumbs everywhere. I volunteered to clean up the kitchen and Bella took Jake and Rebecca inside to watch TV. Emmett and Rose disappeared as usual when the work had to be done. But this time I didn't mind, I had actually enjoyed watching them today. Dare I say it, I had fun.

When I walked inside, Rebecca was passed out on Bella's lap and Jake was passed out lying against Bella. She smiled at me, and I grinned right back at her. I hate that when I saw her with my cousins all I could think about is her having my babies. Before Bella, I never even thought I would want to have kids. I never saw past the day in front of me. Sure, I liked hanging out with my cousins, but I couldn't wait to send them home at the end of the day. I never saw myself wanting to have kids around 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, raising them. But now seeing Bella be perfect with my little cousins, and beaming doing it, I knew I wanted it all with her. The whole happily ever after, marriage, kids, white picket fence.

I was in love with her.

My aunt and uncle got home shortly after and neither of my cousins wanted to leave Bella or me. We promised them that we would go see them one day soon but they had to go home tonight. After twenty minutes of crying, they finally got tired and were carried out asleep.

My mom praised me, saying I must have done such a good job for the kids not to leave me. I told her it was all Bella though. She thanked us both, no matter who did the better job and told us to go have fun.

Bella told me she wanted to talk to me; I was almost a little scared about what it could be about, but I told her we would go to the park and we would talk about anything she wanted to talk about.

Once at the park, Bella, as usual, went straight to the swings. But she didn't sit this time; she was waiting for me first. She motioned for me to sit first, and then she sat on my lap and leaned her head back against me. I wrapped my arms tightly around her tiny waist and I felt beyond secure. I had my life in my hands.

"Today was a good day" she told me.

"Yeah, you were great with my little cousins"

"They were easy to take care of though. Rebecca loves you, Eddie" she teased.

"I was about to kick Jake's ass, if he wasn't five years old. He was absolutely smitten with you" I countered.

"He was adorable. He idolizes you, you know. Couldn't stop saying how you're going to be the best basketball player ever"

"I think he is going to be pretty good himself"

"So, I wanted to talk to you" she started.

"Okay, should I be worried about something" I asked, I couldn't hide my fear any longer.

"No, baby. Not at all. This is a good thing, I think"

"Okay, not very convincing, but go ahead. What is it, baby"

"I figured out what I want to do in life" she declared

"That's good right?" I asked

"Yeah. Ever since you asked me like a week ago, I have been freaking out about it. I felt lost, because it was so easy for you. I thought it should be that easy for me too. But it wasn't. I kept thinking and thinking and nothing hit me. Until today"

I was relieved. At least she would be feeling better; I didn't care what it was. "Okay so, what is it?"

"I want to be a pediatric nurse"

"Why a nurse? You're grades are amazing, why wouldn't you try to be a doctor?" I asked. I mean it was great she figured out that she wanted to do that but her aspirations were always so high. I couldn't help but wonder why she was selling herself short here. I knew she could be more. Not that nurses weren't needed though, I knew they were; my dad worked in a hospital. Bella was never the [person behind the scenes, she was always the leader, calling the shots. I figured when it came to a career choice, she would be someone on the top of the food chain.

"Plenty of reasons actually. I thought a lot about it. Mostly, your father influenced my decision against being a doctor. First, it gives me more ways to interact with the patients. The nurses are the ones that keep a constant eye on the patients. Plus, I wouldn't be bogged down with all the extra school it would take to become a doctor. Not to mention, the hours would less crazy. I don't want to be working the amount of time your dad does". I immediately saw her point.

"Well okay baby. Whatever you want to do, I know you will be amazing. You are great with kids, so it seems like a perfect fit"

"That's what I thought. It was your cousins today. They were so amazing, and I connected with them right away. I thought I wouldn't mind being around kids every day. Then, I thought that I would want to help them too, not just be around them. I want to make a difference, be a part in making sure kids are taken care of. So that's how I came around to wanting to be a nurse. Plus, if I ever wanted to be a doctor, I'd already have the background I could always go back to school" she reasoned.

I kissed her forehead, so happy that she had it all figured out. "Sounds amazing, baby"

"Now, I just have to start looking at school with good nursing programs" she said.

That's where I come in.

Through my panicking about college choices, I did an immense amount of research of what Duke had to offer. They of course had basketball, but they were well known for other things too. They had a big business school, and law school. They also had Environmental sciences and doctorate programs. But most importantly they had an expansive school of nursing. They did have a specialized nursing program for pediatrics.

"Um, I hear that Duke University has an amazing nursing program, for pediatrics too. They have programs for acute and primary pediatric nursing, even programs to be a neonatal nurse practitioner; if that's something you could be interested in. It's supposed to be really good"

"How the hell would you know about this? I just told you I wanted to be a nurse now" she asked me

"Okay, truth?"

"Yeah, the truth would be nice, Edward"

"Okay. So you know how I want to play basketball in college" I started

"Yes, now get to the point"

"My dream school is Duke. I want to be play there. So when you didn't know what you wanted to do, I researched what else Duke had to offer. I wanted to know where my chances stood at being close to you while I was playing college ball" I explained.

"Duke Basketball. They're good right? Something like the Blue heels, right?" she said, and I shuttered.

"Blue Devils. They are the Blue Devils. Don't ever confuse their name with their arch-rivals the Tar Heels. But yeah, they're good. They won the championship a few years back. They have one of the best All- American players in the NCAA" I was starting to get carried away.

"Okayyy. Well, I think that's pretty sweet. How about next time though, you share these thoughts with me? This way we can look together. Maybe we could still research Duke together. I mean don't you want to have a back up to basketball. You will need to major in something you know. Basketball is not a major, unfortunately for you." She explained.

I hadn't thought about that. I just thought about going for basketball. Crap, what the fuck would I major in?

"Sounds good, B" I hugged her tight. "Want to go back home and research now?"

She laughed, but agreed. I was too excited. I felt confident that we could go to the same school now. She just had to see that Duke was perfect for both us. We could both get scholarships, and we would have to dorm on campus the first two years, all the first years dormed on the east side of campus, so at least then I knew I wouldn't be living far from her. But then, we could get an apartment together close by. Once again, getting way too ahead of myself.

It was pretty late by the time we got back to my house. Bella called her dad and informed him that she was going to be staying over my house. Of course he didn't mind, he never did luckily. We agreed that we would get changed in bedtime clothes, and meet in my room for our research.

Bella walked in wearing a skimpy tank top and these fuck me shorts that barely covered her ass. She was going to be the death of me, I swear.

"Eyes up here, baby" Bella told me, snapping me out of the porn scene going on in my head. I knew I really was becoming pussy whipped; I focused on securing my future college plans with my girlfriend rather than trying to get into her pants. Especially with her dressed like that…

"Okay, I got my computer; and you got your sexy self here. I think we're ready"

We went straight to the Duke University website, which had all the information we needed. It showed pictures, had statistics and all the application forms and necessary requirements. We read about the special first year program they had, to make the transition in college life easier. It was advanced and a lot of their centers were brand new and state of the art. This was an elite college. They had rankings toward the top of the country in several categories. How could either of us turn down an opportunity to attend school there?

Bella said that we should look at the basketball stuff first; she said that my interest in the athletic program were her interests too. She saw the pictures of the Cameron crazies and how students and fans would camp out outside the ticket window to score tickets to Duke-UNC rivalry games. We looked at their record under Coach K and that they are considered one of the most prestigious basketball programs in the country.

"What is the coach's name? Coach K…." she attempted and failed to pronounce his name.

"Coach Krzyzewski (shə-shev-ski). But everyone calls him Coach K" I corrected her

"You should be able to call him that too. Wow, he coached the USA Olympic basketball team to a gold medal in 2008. He must be really good. I can only imagine how much you could improve through someone like his guidance, with all the experience. Hell, the gym is named after the guy"

"I know" I said, and my dream just kept growing. Having Bella understand and want my dream for me too, just made it that much better. I wanted her a part of my life and I spent so much time lately thinking it might not be possible. But being here, hearing her express that I should go there and have the honor of calling him Coach K, it made everything feel so real and possible.

Next, we looked at the nursing information. I knew that she had to fall in love with the school for herself too; this was her future too and she shouldn't settle. She should want this for herself, though I was praying she did.

Bella fell in love with the look of the campus; she felt it looked very "collegey", whatever that meant. She read all about the Nursing graduate programs, and said that Duke offered programs to accommodate however advanced she wanted to take her nursing degree, plus different facets of the nursing profession, like pediatrics. She looked at the undergraduate stuff too, though her main interest was the graduate programs; that was where her main focus was.

I, on the other hand, still had no idea what I was going to want to do as my major. I looked through all the majors and minors and still didn't see anything that appealed to me. Bella told me it was alright, that I could take classes and then see which ones I liked. It made sense, and I was satisfied with that. But I was thrilled, beyond so, that she was sharing in my dream to go to Duke.

"Now, I just need to get a scout to show up at one of my games and impress the shit of them"

"Well, that shouldn't be a problem. Considering that you are an amazing basketball player. They are lucky that you want them" she told me.

"See, this is why I love you" I told her, not realizing what I said until after I said it. Fuck…

"You love me?"

AN: This is a sort of fluff chapter to lead into some bigger plot happenings.

I am so happy to see that so many people are reading this story. It makes me want to write it so much more and I am really enjoying the way this story is coming out.

Next up is Bella's reaction to Edward's confession and the homecoming dance.

Thanks for reading and I hope you guys enjoyed it!