Summary:

After going through a handful of unsuccessful figure skating partners, Bella Swan is on the verge of giving up her skating career. When her coach pairs her up with Edward Cullen, she decides to give her gold medal dreams one last shot.

A/N (Author's Note): ALL HUMAN.

*IMPORTANT*: I will be posting pictures that correspond with this chapter, so if you see text followed by a bold (number), that indicates that there will be a link to the picture on my profile.

I hope the pictures give you a better sense of all the skating positions... so please check em out!

(BTW: WOOOT! We're in the double digit chapters!)

Chapter 10: The Note

Bella:

"Edward?" I waved my hand in front of his face to snap him out of the strange daze he was in. For some reason a glistening drop of drool was hanging off the side of his mouth.

"You keep spacing out," I said, stating the obvious. No reply—and that dribble of drool was still hanging there. It felt like I was talking to a brick wall.

I exhaled noisily, hoping to get his attention but he still didn't snap out of it. The drool was starting to bother me, so with one final huff, I grabbed my skate back and turned to exit the ice rink. Huh, I couldn't help but wonder how long he would remain just sitting there.

I also couldn't help but wonder if he spaced out often. That wouldn't be good for our skating. What if we were in the middle of our routine and he suddenly just got warped back into his own little world, causing him to lose his concentration… Even worse, what if he forgot the steps?

Arg, I really regret not taking up singles skating now. I'm more of an independent person, and hated relying on others to get things done. In pairs skating I had no choice. Trust had always been an issue for me.

I turned the key in, and my truck rattled noisily to life. I swear you could hear the engine all the way down the block. I'd had this car since I was sixteen when Charlie gave it to me. Since I spent all my paychecks on skating, I never saved up enough for a newer, quieter one. A few years ago, I had repainted it myself, but it had already turned dull and was starting to peel off. I had more things to worry about than a car that looked like it was at least a half a century old.

When I reached the parking lot in front of my building my eyes darted anxiously around for any semi threatening looking people. Seeing none, I ran out of my car and up to my apartment door, my heart beating fast.

You would think that after living two years in this craphole, I'd be less freaked out, but it never wore off.

As I got closer there was a bright orange sticky note stuck to the door. The few belongings and clothes I had were scattered about the front door, looking like someone had just thrown them into a pile. Had someone snuck in? I didn't know if my heart could beat any faster, but somehow it did.

I tried to think positively. Maybe Alice or Emmett came by to do some house cleaning and dropped off a note.

"Miss Isabella Swan, in response to your inability to keep up with your payments, you have been evicted." It read.

My heart sank. I knew that it shouldn't have been surprised though. I hadn't paid the bills and they'd kicked me out. It was easy as 1, 2, 3.

I tried to open the door with my rusted key, but they'd already changed the lock combination.

"SHIT! C'MON OPEN THE HELL UP!" I yelled. Of course nobody heard me except the crows perching on the roof. I had no money and was alone.

I scooped up my invaluable possessions—which mainly consisted of clothes Alice had bought for me—and dumped them into the trunk of my truck.

Hurrying into the front seat I slipped in and locked the doors reflexively. I closed my eyes. I had no money and no place to go.

I could ask to Alice and Jasper if I could crash with them for a while, but they were already cramped as it was in their small one bedroom apartment.

Emmett and Rosalie were in a similar predicament as Alice and Jazz and I hated to burden them with an extra mouth to feed. They were both were already working two jobs so that they could start their life together well off.

Moving back in with Charlie wasn't a choice. When I was eighteen he had promptly kicked me out because he didn't want anything to do with my expensive skating career. He had told me that if I wanted to skate I would have to fair on my own. I haven't seen him since.

It was times like these when I wished my mother was still alive to comfort me. She had passed away three years ago to breast cancer. It was long, hard, battle, but in the end, I knew she'd ended up in a better place.

I remember how she had adored every aspect of my figure skating. She loved the dresses, glitz, and glamour, and would always be waiting on the sidelines for me with a bottle of water and enthusiastic praises to motivate me. Renee was always there to comfort me on the bad days when Tatiana yelled at me or I'd taken a hard spill that made my butt feel like it was going to fall off. She was always there for days like today.

Her death was partially the reason why I continued skating even after all the failures. I wanted to do something that she and I both loved—even if she was in heaven and I was on earth, it made me feel closer to her in somehow. Winning the gold medal wasn't only for me, but for her too.

Finally, I decided that my only choice left was to the place that was practically my second home, Forks Arena.

I pulled back into the parking lot, which was a lot more crowded than it had been at five thirty AM. Victoria's red bug was parked over in the corner, and as childish as it was, I parked my truck in the farthest spot away.

I entered through the ice rink doors, shutting them as quietly as I could. Victoria was sitting on one of the benches, listening to her iPod.

She looked up at me from the screen and grimaced. "What are you doing here? It's ten. James and I have the ice reserved just for us until twelve."

"I'm not skating," I said, looking down at my shoes.

"If you're here to workout in the gym upstairs, we rented that out for the next hour. You should just go home."

Home. Something I had yesterday, but didn't anymore.

"I'll just be staying in the lobby. I won't bother you," I half begged.

"Fine, you can stay in this shit lobby. If you bother James or me in any way we're kicking your fat ass out." She whipped her hair around and started towards the stairs, probably to tell James of the arrangement.

I set down my tote bag and laid down on one of the benches in the corner. My back groaned against the hard wood, but beggars can't be choosers. My eyes ran across the ceiling, seemingly memorizing every dent or crack visible. I don't know how many minutes or maybe hours I passed while I was just staring.

I felt people passing by and whispering to each other when they saw me, but paid no attention.

My mind was on such overload that I couldn't even think of a proper solution to homeless status.

"Are you dead?" Victoria's voice came out of no where.

I lifted my head up and rubbed my eyes. I felt hideous and I bet I looked worse.

"No."

"Yeah, uh whatever. James and I are done. So you can do your thing," she said, nodding her head towards the rink. "By the way, the trash can by the bathroom is practically overflowing—you may want to, you know, take it out because you work here."

"Just leave," I sighed.

I plopped my head back onto the bench and closed my eyes. It was finally quiet; the only sound was the humming of the heater going on and off…

--

I woke up to the sound of little kids screaming and the sound of metal clashing together— the classic soundtrack of a Forks Arena public skating session.

There were brothers and sisters fighting over the metal walkers, parents fawning over their precious children that had fallen, and little kids begging their moms for spare change so that they could play the 'Candy Crane' machine in the arcade.

I yawned and looked at the clock. It was 3:45. Shit. I missed practice with Edward that was schedule at one.

Tatiana was going to have a cow. No she was probably going to have the whole barn. Aw crap.

I could just imagine what happened when the clock struck one and I was no where to be found.

"Where is Miss Isabella?" Tatiana would ask a smirking Edward as she emerged out of the coach's room.

"I don't know where she is!" Edward would say in that innocent little boy voice. "She's supposed to be here by now. We scheduled one o'clock. I hope she's not hurt or anything!"

"Edward you so caring sweet gentleman. More young men be like you give us better world." Tatiana would reply. Gag me. If all the men in the world were like Edward no one would be married.

Little did they know that technically, I was at the rink—just sleeping on the bench in the corner.

I thought about the possibilities. I could probably just live at the rink. I'd just work the night and morning shifts… That way I'd be the one closing up and the one opening. The bench wasn't too stiff, I could add a mattress or something to it and it wouldn't be so bad.

As if right on cue, my phone jingled, signaling an incoming text message. I looked at the number and it was unknown.

Where were you earlier?

It had to be Edward. But how did he get my number? I decided to ignore his question to ask my own.

How did you get my number?

A second later my phone dinged again.

I have my sources. Where were you earlier?

Sources? That just sounded borderline stalker-esque.

I decided that it would be too hard to explain what happened over IMing, so I decided to call him instead.

"Where were you?" Edward's voice demanded. No 'hello' or 'how are yous'.

"I was at the rink," I sighed, it was so complex, and I really didn't want to tell him about my eviction. It was too embarrassing. There was no way in hell that he would understand. Damn it, he was a filthy rich bastard that probably never had a financial woe in his life.

"No you weren't. I showed up and you didn't," Edward said firmly, his tone seeping with annoyance.

"I got caught up in other things," I hesitated.

"Where were you? I deserve to be answered. I listened to an hour of non stop complaining from Tatiana."

I sighed in defeat; there was no way out of answering the question besides telling him the entire truth. Plus, I kind of felt bad that he received the end of Tatiana's wrath because of me. I knew that that shit wasn't pretty.

"I was sleeping."

"You know how much I would have liked to sleep all afternoon too? Shit, I'm tired. But instead I had to show up at fucking practice to find that you fucking didn't show up. Then I checked my phone and there wasn't any explanation about why you weren't there—"

"I got evicted," I said plainly.

He stopped mid-rant about how his hair isn't perfectly tousled when he gets a good night's sleep. "What?" he asked dumbly.

"I got evicted," I repeated. "Forgot to pay my bills last month and I'm broke since I invested all my earnings into skating."

"Oh."

The line was silent for a few moments. I was beginning to wonder if he was still on the other side.

"So where are you staying?" he asked. It was as if all the anger from my no show had been thrown out the window. Was it just me, or did I hear a little hint of concern laced underneath his tone?

"I told you, I was at the rink, sleeping."

"Well where are you going to stay overnight?" he asked.

I paused, because truthfully I didn't even know where I was going to stay overnight. I didn't even have enough money to rent a cheap motel room.

"I really can't talk to you about this on the phone. I'll see you back at Starbucks in ten," I sighed.

I heard the engine of his car purring in the background. He was already heading over there. Great, I had ten minutes to think of a lie to tell Edward where I was staying.

I could tell him I was going to stay with my mother; he didn't know that Renee had passed. Yes, that was perfect; in the mean time I'd just work extra hours at the rink, and be the one opening and closing the place. Nobody would know that I was sleeping there overnight between my morning and night shift. It would be perfect.

Well, it'd be perfect until someone found out. I was smart enough to know that that would be inevitable. In the meantime, I'd save up my earnings from my rink work to find a new place. Yes, with my extra work hours, hence the increased wages I could probably find a place in approximately two months.

It would be as if I had never been evicted in the first place.

End Chapter

A/N:

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