Chapter 9: Detention (Part 1)

Jessica stumbled backwards and almost fell over. She held her hand over where I had punched her and called me a name that I would rather not repeat. I had actually planned on apologizing to her . . . Yeah. Not anymore. Coach Clapp had impeccable timing and decided to walk in seconds before and saw the punch and its aftermath. Suddenly, everything took on a dream-like quality.

"Isabella Swan, go to the principal's office! Now!" Coach yelled that, but it sounded muted. I walked out of the building in a daze. What had I done? This was not like me.

I barely registered Edward and Emmett standing outside with their Spanish class when I exited the Gym. Edward ran to me and Emmett followed after; their absence from the group was not noticed. Edward put his hands on my shoulders gently to stop me.

"Bella, what happened?" He asked, worried, looking down at my gym shirt and jeans, product of being interrupted while changing. I could understand why he was worried; it wasn't really normal attire for me.

I looked off at nothing and answered without really thinking first. "I punched Jessica Stanley in the face."

"Are you okay?" Edward asked, almost frantic now.

"Niiiiice." That was Emmett. He held his hand up; I absently high-fived him. The cold hardness of his hand woke me up from my state. I answered Edward's question.

"I'm fine, but I'm in trouble. I suppose they're expecting me at the office right now." Edward caught my eyes with his.

"I can take care of that for you," he said in a smooth, silky voice. At that moment, I didn't doubt that he could. I melted in his eyes. It was almost like he was willing me to let him do what he wanted. He figuratively pulled me into him and I didn't want to leave; I hummed in assent and nodded infinitesimally.

His lips turned up imperceptibly at the corners. I knew that if he walked away, I would follow him without a thought. His eyes closed for a second and his hold on me dropped when I realized what I'd just agreed to.

"N—What? No!" I exclaimed when I regained my common sense. "I did what I did and I have to face the consequences." I stared pointedly at him, annoyed that he'd tried to trick me.

He didn't seem to be happy about what I'd said. His face contorted, stuck between listening to me and doing what he wanted to do.

"Come on, Ed, let her live a little. Maybe getting in trouble gets her hot and you could . . . No, wait. I forgot. You guys don't 'do' that. Tsk, tsk." Emmett said, completely serious, save the last part.

My mouth fell open and my face almost bled from my blush. Edward looked about to burst with all the anger he was keeping inside of him. I put my hands to my face and errantly tried to rub the redness away.

"Emmett," Edward and I said at the same time, growling and groaning it respectively. I peeked up from my hands. The way Edward was glaring at Emmett, I wouldn't have been surprised if Emmett was reduced to a burning pyre by the end of the day.

I left them then to receive whatever punishment the school felt justified to give me. As I walked to the building that housed the offices, I thought about what Emmett had disgraced us by saying. I'd never thought of Edward and I . . . doing that. We'd kissed, but that was pretty much the extent of our physical relationship. Edward was over 100 years old. Who knew how many beautiful girlfriends he'd had? I was probably nothing compared to them.

I walked into the office feeling insecure. No one else was in there so I sat down in a plastic chair and waited, making sure not to think about what had briefly consulted my mind.

Ms. Cope, the secretary for all intensive purposes, walked out of an office and looked at me as if she'd been expecting me. News sure does travel fast.

"Miss Swan, Mr. Greene would like to see you in his office." I idly wished that everyone would fall to the floor unconscious and wake up with amnesia. I had never been the "bad kid" in school. The only slightly rebellious thing I'd done was eat dirt on a dare when I was younger. Even then, all the teachers just laughed and cleaned me up. When you punch somebody, they don't exactly give you a lollipop for it. Suspension is usually what they did in cases like this. Which was why I was surprised when that didn't happen.

"One week of detention, starting today," was the verdict I received after I'd walked into the Principal's office and told Mr. Greene what had occurred in the locker room. Not everything, but enough to prove that I was provoked.

My eyebrows furrowed and I cocked my head to the side questioningly.

"Miss Swan, you are an academically gifted student with no history of disobeying the rules. Your previous school had only good things to say about you. And for a seventeen-year-old, you're very mature. Suspension is not necessary in this situation because I feel that you might have already learned your lesson. Punishment is mandatory, though, and I think five days of detention is fair." He explained. I nodded, no verbal response needed in this powerhouse's presence.

"You will report to room one-ten after school for the rest of the week from two-thirty to three-thirty. Do you understand?"

I cleared my throat. "Yes, sir." He started to get up from his chair and I followed suit. We walked towards the closed door to his office, but he stopped before opening it.

"But if there are anymore altercations, I won't hesitate to give you a proper punishment." He opened the door. "Goodbye, Miss Swan."

"Bye, Mr. Greene," I mumbled, then walked briskly out the door.

As I walked through the office to the exit, I had that horrible feeling deep in my stomach that you get when you've done something bad or wrong. It wasn't a feeling I was accustomed to and I felt like purging it from my system. That almost happened all by itself when I walked back into the front office and saw Jessica sitting there in the same chair I had inhabited with an ice pack over the right side of her face.

It was fulfilling and scary all at the same time to see her like that. Fulfilling to know that I could actually throw a punch and leave a bruise (on a human, anyway), but scary because I couldn't believe I'd actually done that. And I couldn't just leave things the way they were. I walked towards her and stopped a few feet away, out of arms reach.

"Jessica, I'm sor—" She cut me off.

"Save it, Bella." Her voice cracked on my name. She glared at me. "Just go away."

I sighed and did what I was told. As I walked back to the gym, I noticed that Edward and his class were no longer out there. I felt a chill on the left side of my body and looked over to the forest. It felt like I . . . like I was being watched. I shook it off and continued to walk to the gym.

When I entered the gym, with its scratched wood floors and decrepit equipment, everyone I passed looked at me differently. Certainly they'd all heard about what happened already. But that wasn't what bothered me; it was the look they were giving me, as if what I had done gave me a sprinkling of honor in their eyes. As if what I had done was honorable.

I didn't even need to look at Coach Clapp to know that I was excused from today's festivities: basketball. I sat on the bleachers, dreading what was coming, dreading the detention I had no choice but to attend. I watched the other students trying to put a ball into a basket, realizing I would never be quite like them. Aside from the fact that I was mingling with the supernatural, I was mature for my age like Mr. Greene had said. My mother always said that I was born middle-aged. I guess it worked out, then. Me acting old and Edward, well, being old.

When the bell rang signaling the end of the day, I walked to the locker room and put my normal shirt back on, all while keeping my eyes down to avoid eye contact with anybody. Their acceptance of today's fisty occurrence bothered me. Before leaving the building, I remembered that Edward would be waiting for me. Sure enough, he was leaning against the brick wall and looking more desirable than anyone had a right to.

I'd bet that he was not too happy about what I'd decided (who would be?), but he didn't show it. I walked to his waiting form, briefly admiring it. He held me gently to him and breathed me in, my scent his desire and his nemesis. But he was in control of his instincts; he didn't want to hurt me. That was what he'd been afraid of from the beginning, why he had been hesitant to be around me. He resisted not only because of the way he had chosen to live, but because he truly loved me. Once again, I wondered how I had ever deserved him.

"Are you sure about this?" He whispered into my hair. Yeah, he wasn't happy about what I'd decided to do about turning myself in. Turning myself in being what he didn't like about it. I leaned back in his embrace, so as not to break his hold, to look in his eyes.

"Yes. I only got detention for five days. It's no big deal." I shrugged. The flash of sadness on his face reminded me that my punishment would take away our piano time together, our special time together. I tightened myself back to him.

Wordlessly, he took my hand and we walked to room 110.

"How did you—" He cut me off by tapping his temple. Yes, being a mind reader could be convenient. He put his hand to my cheek, like he'd been doing all day, but this time he brought his face down to mine. It was slow, but our lips finally met. This kiss had that zing of electricity as the first one had. I believed that our two contrasting temperatures had something to do with that. Or maybe, since it was such a good feeling, it was the earth's way of telling us we were meant to be. Either way, it was that much more special, that much more perfect.

Edward pulled away with a determined look on his face. I couldn't help but notice the clock on the wall behind him. 2:28. Oh joy.

"It's almost time." I reminded him. It was stupid because he probably already knew what time it was. It was a reminder, though, that he needed to leave so I wouldn't be persuaded to let him persuade the faculty of something other than the truth, which I had no doubt that he could.

"Right. I will see you soon, Bella." Of course he would. I didn't have my truck with me and he would have to come pick me up. And with that last sentence, he disappeared. Why couldn't he ever leave at a normal pace? I would have thought he'd never been there in the first place, he moved so fast, except for the wonderful scent and amazing memories he left behind him.

I walked into the detention room, almost dizzy by the intoxicationist that was Edward Cullen.

You know how in the television shows when the good kid shows up to detention and there are kids wearing all black, sitting on the desks, throwing paper airplanes and harassing the teacher? Not even close. There was one kid in the back named Lee with his head down and the volunteer sitting at the teacher's desk.

The classroom being used was a history room that wasn't used the last period of the day. I sat down in a desk at the front, hoping that the volunteer would acknowledge my existence so I could get credit for actually showing up. She was a pretty blond who was probably in her early twenties with a few tattoos up and down her unsheathed arms. I couldn't understand why she was wearing short sleeves in February, especially in Forks. So I sat there and stared off until she finally looked up from whatever she was doing.

"Oh hi!" She said when she saw me. "Sorry, I didn't see you come in. Are you Isabella Swan?" She looked down at a paper before she said my name, making sure she got it right.

"Yes." I didn't bother telling her to call me Bella. We weren't going to be friends or anything. She looked back down at her paper.

"Yeesh. Five days. How'd that happen?" I wanted to say, Is it any of your business? But I didn't, because That Bella, the one who punched people, was locked up in her cage, nice and tight.

"I hit somebody." I said simply.

"Oh, I heard about that." Her face scrunched up as she looked me over. "That was you?" She asked disbelievingly. Even the volunteer delinquent baby sitter knew about that already? And she didn't even think I was capable of it.

"Yeah" was all I said. She looked disconcerted. Despite how innocent she seemed to be, she was annoying me. Why was I suddenly so short-tempered? Forks was starting to drive me crazy. If it wasn't for Edward, I would have asked to leave already.

"I'm Vanessa, by the way." She smiled. I couldn't say that she wasn't pretty, but she could never compare to any of the Cullen women, especially Rosalie. "Lee back there is in here for sleeping in class," she whispered. I looked back at his sleeping form. Go figure.

"I would've never guessed," I muttered. Vanessa laughed and leaned forward a little bit.

"So," she continued whispering, "Why did you hit somebody?" Ah. She was greedy for information. Might as well tell her.

"She called me some names . . ."

Vanessa's eyes lit up. "Ooh, like what?"

"Names that suggest I did something less than honorable with her boyfriend. Which I didn't," I added when Vanessa's eyes widened.

"Wow. I can't believe that happened here. I mean, back in L.A. . . ." She proceeded to tell me about her previous life in California and all the drama that happened there. I politely listened, but thought about other pressing things, like Mike and Jessica. First of all, where was Jessica? I figured they probably split us up to avoid further . . . mistakes. Second of all, what was Mike's problem? He pulled the moves on me then told Jessica that I had kissed him then hit him. She probably thought I had a hitting problem. And, where was Mike? I realized he hadn't even been at school today.

While listening to Vanessa describe her surprisingly interesting previous life as an actress, I saw the bushes outside through the window shift once, twice, three times. Edward? I mean, he could be out there, watching out for me. Or maybe I had an overactive imagination, something else Forks had given me in the short time I'd been here. When Vanessa was telling me about when she'd moved to Forks a month ago, just like me, the intercom beeped and on came Ms. Cope's voice, telling Vanessa she had a visitor.

Vanessa sighed. "I wonder who that could be." She looked extremely confused. She got up from her desk and turned to me. "Hey, will you watch him for me?"—gesturing to Lee—"I think he's a jumper." She winked then walked out the door.

I heard the window open before I could see it. I looked over to it and saw nothing. Just as confused as Vanessa had been, I looked around to my right and saw Edward, sitting there on top of a desk.

What a show-off.

A/N: Yes, that was part 1. I have no idea when part 2 is going to be up. I hope this didn't bore you too much. School has been preventing me from having free time. Darn. Tell me what you thought.

Peace out.

-Kj