Chapter 9

Poor Sam. He was really sick. He had been down with Bronchitis since Christmas, and now he was stuck with the flu. What a sickly child. I mentioned the last line out loud to Sam and dodged a fist that came from the chair he sat in. He leaned over, keeping his head between his knees.

"You okay, man?" I asked him, unsure of what else to say. "You really don't look so good."

"Yeah, I don't feel so good," he croaked out. "Maybe I should go to the hotel and lie down."

"Good idea," I nodded in approval of his plan. "Here comes your dad."

Levi Uley looked like an older version of Sam. He had the same copper hair and olive skin, with those deep brown eyes. Mr. Uley helped Sam up and then turned to walk him to the car.

"Thanks, Bella. He needed that." he smiled at me, as Sam groaned in pain.

"No problem, Mr. Uley. See ya later!" I called after them.

"Bella Swan! You have done it again!" I heard a familiar voice behind me.

"Emily!" I turned and gave my best friend a hug.

Emily was from a rival team that lived 20 minutes from Forks. She went to the same school as Edward, though. Her mom thinks Forks School District is way better than Quillayute Valley School District. The Quillayute Valley Dolphins were the Forks Aquatic Club's only competition. You'd think QVD and FAC would be bitter rivals, but we were mostly good friends. FAC was somewhat larger than QVD, but QVD had a lot of good swimmers and relays.

"How have you been?" I looked her up and down.

"I've been chilling. Heard you got into it with Jake." she whispered lowly, suddenly serious.

"Its a long story." I whispered back, bristled by her sudden knowledge.

"Tell me later then. Now tell me how you seem to whip me in every 500?" her tone turned joking again and I relaxed.

"Well, it just so happens I'm just that amazing..." I pretended to look up at the sky.

"Yeah and I'm Mickey Mouse!" she snorted.

We joked and laughed until it was time to go. She was staying at a different hotel so I wouldn't see her until warm up in the morning.

"Alright Bells," my dad said when I got in the car. "Ready to go?"

"Yup!" I said cheerily.

If you're a swimmer, you must know how much drama always takes place right before, during, and after swim meets. Thats just the way it is. When you spend a whole weekend with your team, something is bound to happen. And out of this swim meet, I was going to get pain. Lately, that seemed to be all I was destined for. Pain had started to seem as common as grass in yards. It had become as consistent as the rain that splashed through the town of Forks everyday. Pain was all that would come out of this swim meet.

The rest of the meet passed by without interruption from Jake or Leah. Which was good for me. I invited Edward to my hotel room while we were waiting for the afternoon session to go by. (At this meet, 13 and over goes in the morning, and 12 and under goes in the afternoon.) We hung out and made a video, on my bed. So you can imagine I was a little too happy. The meet ended, and I was sad to leave it behind. It had been a good one, the kind of meet when everything seems to go right.

The next night, Monday, Edward and I were texting when we decided to have a question war. This went on for a couple hours. Towards the end he was giving me advice on how to be more open to guys.

"You know what?" I replied. "You're right. The next time I like a guy, I'll just go up to him and tell him he's cute."

"Yeah exactly!" he encouraged.

"Well..." I hesitated for a second, unsure of how to say this. "I think you're cute."

"Oh." came the odd reply.

"Yeah." I regretted my words now.

"How could I have not seen this?" he seemed so weird.

"Girls think differently than guys." I stated the simple fact.

"Thats what makes it fun though, right?" he said.

"I guess... Well I think I'm going to go back to being shy. Good night!" I felt the wave of rejection wash over me.

"Haha. Goodnight." was all that came back.

I was so not going to school tomorrow.