A/N: Please Review!
The Sun God's Daughter
Chapter 10
"So how was dinner with the Cullens?" Josh asks, leaning forward conspiratorially with humor dancing in his baby blue eyes.
"It actually turned out okay. A lot better than I thought it would be."
"So they have your approval?" Stacy smirks, stealing a fry off my plate.
"They seem nice enough, and Bella could end up with worse. I did have fun threatening them though." I grin, letting my amusement show, and they laugh.
"I would have paid to see that," Jordan smirks. "You trying to be scary? My guppy is more terrifying."
My smile turns sly. "I can be quite intimidating, if I want to."
They chuckle disbelievingly, but I let it go.
"So, movies Sunday?" Stacy offers.
"Yeah, but I'm going down to the reservation Saturday with Charlie and Bella."
"That's cool, but bring your homework so you can get it done before we hang out," Josh says, making me grimace.
"What, are you taking over Stacy's job?"
Both Stacy and Josh pull offended faces. "Hey, I just don't want our time with you ending early because you have to do 2+2."
"And I just want you to get the best grades you can get," Stacy huffs.
I let a smile break my straight face.
...
"Uhg!" I scream through my teeth, pulling my hair to the point of sharp pain, and slam my head hard into the floor. "Oh, ow ow ow," I grimace, rubbing my forehead.
"I don't think making yourself loose brain cells will help you figure things out," an amused voice says behind me.
I give a startled gasp, flipping around fast with a hammering heart.
Leah stands there in the rain, hood flipped up and hands stuffed in her pockets. Her dark eyes dance in happiness as she looks down at me.
I hadn't heard her walk up.
Following Josh's advice, I had taken my homework with me to Billy's, but I couldn't concentrate with them watching a game, and since Jacob and Bella were able to escape to his garage, I decided to lay out on the porch and attempt to get stuff done.
I blush and move to lean against the side of the house, brushing my hair behind my hair.
"I'm more of trying to knock the letters back into place. I don't understand any of this."
She flashes me a smile and moves to sit next to me. "Maybe I can help," she offers, reaching for my Shakespeare book.
"Jacob is out in the garage," I offer, because why else would she be at his house than to see him.
"I'm not here to see him," she says simply, gently plucking the source of my headache from my hands.
"Okay, what part of this don't you understand?" She asks, flipping through a few pages.
My face burns in shame, and the uncomfortable topic makes my ADHA kick in. My hands wring the hem of my sky blue sweater and my voice comes out in a whisper.
"I can't read any of it. When I get frustrated, my dyslexia gets worse, and then I get even more frustrated."
I can feel her stare on my face. "Oh," she says softly in surprise.
My knuckles turn white with how hard they are clenching.
"'My bounty is as boundless as the sea, my love is deep;'" she reads softly and my head jerks up to stare. "'The more I give to thee, the more I have, for both are infinite. I hear some noise within. Dear love, adieu-'"
She speaks softly, quietly as if speaking just to me. Her eyes flick across the page, taking in the old words and giving them life in the way she reads.
Her short hair brushes gently against her cheeks, but she does nothing to push it away. Still staring, I notice that there are flecks of gold in her dark eyes and a splash of small freckles on her tan nose. Her long dark lashes brush her cheeks when she blinks.
My gaze drops lower, drawn to her moving lips that carefully form the words I couldn't make out.
Coming from her, it doesn't sound like Shakespeare at all, but more like an ancient music.
"'Sleep dwell upon thine eyes, peace in thy breast. Would I were sleep and peace, so sweet to rest. Hence I will to my ghostly Friar's close cell, his help to crave and my dear hap to tell.'" She pauses in her reading and looks up at me. "That was the end of the scene."
Dropping my eyes, I see that she had, indeed, read all the way to the end of the scene.
"Thank you," I whisper, and then look up to give her my best smile. "Thank you so much. No one has ever done that for me before."
Her jaw slackens and she blinks several times before her own answering smile lights her face.
"Anytime. So, what else do you have to get done?"
"Don't you have something better to do than help a freshman with her homework?"
"Nope," she says, pulling my other textbooks closer and I find that I can't look away from her face again.
...
"So," Bella says, softly closing our bedroom door when we return from Billy's house. "Leah's cute, don't you think," she comments.
I look up sharply from my drawers, sleep clothes dangling from my fingers. Is she trying to talk girls with me? Is this some sort of cousin bonding thing?
"Leah's nice," I say simply, moving to remove my weapons in order to change.
She frowns at my vague reply, before seeming to give up easily and move on to another topic.
"What is that, anyway?" She asks.
I glance at where she's pointing to my stick of a weapon.
"Oh!" I say happily, snatching it up to show it off. "This is my spear."
I flick it and watch as metal plates extend and fall into place. Bella takes a surprised step back, staring wide eyed as I twirl it.
"Neat, right?"
"Um, yeah." Her voice is higher than normal so I quickly put it away under my pillow.
"That's quite the trick you have there," a voice says behind me and Bella is still standing in front of the door.
In a practiced motion, I spin, drawing a bow and notching a glowing gold arrow, firing two into Edward Cullen's feet and nailing him into the floor.
His mouth opens as wide as his eyes in a silent scream of pain.
Bella gives a little shriek and rushes forward to help.
I roll my eyes, folding my bow and clicking the pin back in place in my hair.
"Don't you know not to sneak into a girl's bedroom?" I scowl, tugging on my nightshirt I had yet to pull on.
"Sorry," his strange bell like voice squeaks, hissing when he tries to pull an arrow out of his foot, and jerking his hand away.
It's still glowing white-hot.
I sigh in response to Bella's pleading look and walk over to pull the arrows harshly out of the floor and back out through his feet.
"You can hurt me." He says disbelievingly, leaning against the window he snuck through.
I scowl. "Didn't you hear me when I said that I have killed monsters before?"
"But you can hurt me." He says again, incredulously.
I roll my eyes, snatching up my toothbrush and toothpaste. "You've got a bright one there, Bells," I call sarcastically over my shoulder, closing the door firmly behind me.
When I get back into the room, Bella and Edward are cuddled on her bed speaking softly, so I just lay down on my own bed, turning my back to them.
I keep my hair clip in and one hand under my pillow when I fall asleep.