AN: I have 105 reviews! Oh. My. God. Thank you so much everyone who reviewed, I am quite literally over the moon! More later… enjoy!
Disclaimer (because I always forget): Unfortunately I own nothing!
Please excuse grammar mistakes. Again, I'm really tired and wanted to give this to you before I crash for the night!
RECAP: "That's all I'm asking babe!" she called to me as I walked away from. "Just keep it in mind." Then she turned away, an evil grin on her face…
I shook my head and just kept on walking away, irritated that my moment with Bella had been ruined. However, I was smart enough to see the potential benefits of talking to her at lunch, there would be less people around to embarrass me if… heaven forbid, then she should reject my advances. Maybe in being an irritating little bitch Tanya had actually done me a favour… maybe it would be better this way!
As I arrived at my Spanish classroom door I began to smile again, already feeling better about the situation. I walked in confidently, no longer caring what people though of me or if they recognised me. I was already busy revising the speech I had planned in my head to help me tell Bella what I wanted to say.
I sat down in my seat, my rapidly processing brain blocking out most of the noise so I was barely aware of the whispers and giggles I was creating amongst my class mates. However, being a normal human being I was unable to block out all of the comments and some of the less welcome ones slipped into my already jumbled mind.
"I heard that he did it all for a dare!"
"I wonder if the rumours about him and Tanya are true."
"He's hot… why did I never notice that before?" This last one made me smile and I actually looked up and chuckled as I met the eyes of an abashed looking girl, who clearly hadn't expected me to be listening, as she hastily looked away.
Just then Mrs Goff waltzed in, looking every bit as insane and scatty as she had in our last lesson before the break. Mrs Goff was a recovering alcoholic, and everyone knew that she had turned to other forms of intoxication after quitting Alcoholics Anonymous, so we tried to make things easier for her. We all just smiled and nodded when she asked a question, then waited patiently for the inevitable A on our report card; it was a harmonious relationship between teacher and student and it worked well.
She clapped her hands once as if trying to bring the class to order and, when everyone proceeded to ignore her, ploughed into her lecture about reflexive and radical changing verbs regardless. I sat in silence, doodling on a piece of scrap paper for the whole hour as the others chatted jovially. I was in no mood to talk, and I didn't even bother taking my Spanish books out of my bag, so I was prepared to leave the room as soon as the bell rang.
I shambled my way, in a similar fashion, through the rest of my morning classes without much trouble. I had a few girls ask me if I wanted to 'talk' and Jasper cornered me after Chemistry to remind me that I needed to be in the Gym hall as early as possible before the class started, so that Coach Clapp could help me find a team to join. I argued vehemently with him for several minutes before Alice stepped in between us and reminded me of what was written after the number seven of the article I had stashed in my pocket. I eventually agreed, if only to stop Hurricane Alice and we all headed outside to the gym.
When we got there Jasper dragged me over to the assistant coach who was teaching the Juniors in the class before ours, and they both started quizzing me on what types of exercise I like and what sports I think that I would like to try. Nothing seemed to be gelling between me and the idea of being a member of the squash team, and ping-pong didn't tickle my fancy either; it was starting to look very unlikely that I was going to find a sport I liked, with space on their team for me. Suddenly Jasper's head jerked up and he met someone's eyes across the hall.
Coach Clapp had only just wandered into the huge, nearly empty space, clutching a coffee cup in one hand and his clipboard in the other, and I could already tell that he was up to something. I recognised the signup sheets from the start of the year clipped haphazardly to the clipboard, and he looked far too determined to be simply here by chance. Instantly Jasper had hurried to his side and they both examined the lists in his hand with great interest, talking in low, hushed tones.
I sat down on one of the bleachers (AN: I have no idea what these are so if I used the word incorrectly I'm sorry! Could anyone explain what it means please, I'd love to know, we don't have them in the UK.) and stretched out my legs, prepared to wait for as long as it took. The assistant coach had vanished, apparently no longer needed now that the coach was back, so I didn't even have anyone to talk to.
After what seemed like forever, Jasper motioned for me to come over to him. It had taken so long that other people had started arrive for the gym class already.
"OK Edward, I think I have a solution for you!" he said confidently. "Since Emmett is going to be out for the rest of the season because of his foot, I am going to be taking his place as quarterback." He explained all this clearly and slowly so that I would not have any opportunity to claim ignorance, but there was one problem with his great plan.
"Um, that's great Jasper!" I said, trying very hard not to use the same patronising tone that he had used with me. "However, we have a problem… you play for the soccer team already. You can do both!"
"I know!" he said smugly. Clearly I wasn't getting the point, but it wasn't through lack of trying. "That's why you will be taking my spot on the soccer team. You always played goal keeper when we were younger and you don't just lose talent like that through lack of play. With a bit of practise, you'll do great."
Jasper was the best keeper in the state and he knew it. I had absolutely no idea what I was doing. "We'll lose the playoffs if you do that!" I practically yelled, causing Jasper to laugh loudly. "You're insane!"
"No, I just trust Alice!" he said calmly, all trace of humour gone from his voice. "She says it'll be OK, so I trust her. You should too."
"Fine!" I snapped, clearly I wasn't going to get anything more from Jasper now. He worshipped the ground that Alice walked on and would trust her with his life, a little too willingly in my opinion although I would never say it to his face. "But if we lose, which we will, it's your fault."
"Kay!" he mumbled, having just seen Alice across the hall. It was now the end of class, I hadn't even noticed it start, and we were all heading to the cafeteria for lunch. When we got there he looped his arm through Alice's and they joined the queue (AN: another word I've always been interested in, how do Americans write it, I've seen so many different spellings of it? Q? Que? Queue? Let me know!) to buy their food.
I looked around for Bella and saw her waving at me from an otherwise empty table across the room. Perfect, no unwanted attention! I mentally steeled myself for what would undoubtedly be an interesting conversation, one which I was determined to have after the interruption this morning, then started to walk across to where she sat waiting. I sat down and twist my fingers together under the table.
"Hey," she said, grinning. "So about this morning. I wanted to tell you something, and then you um… got distracted." She laughed awkwardly and I grimaced. "Tanya's a lovely girl."
"There is nothing there at all, believe me!" I stress the word nothing as much as I could, hoping that she would see the true behind my words. "Anyway, what was it you wanted to tell me?"
"Well…" She looked nervous now, and she blushed violently. "I wanted you to… oh, there you are!" The last part of her sentence was now directed at someone just behind my head. That person walked around the other side of the table and slid himself in next to Bella. "This is Jacob Black! We started dating a week ago and I wanted you guys to get to know each other." I froze, my smile still pasted on my face.
My stomach heaved and I forced myself to speak, albeit woodenly and coldly. "Your boyfriend Bella?" She nodded and giggled as he squeezed her waist gently. I flinched instinctively!
"Yeah! I just know you're going to get on so well." Clearly my exterior was holding together better than I had thought because neither of them had noticed that anything was wrong, but inside I was disintegrating… crashing… burning… dying. In fact, I had already died. Past tense! I sucked in a breath through a clenched jaw and slowly stood to my feet.
"Sorry Bella… Jacob." I could barely even that the guy's name, he had ripped my heart to pieces so thoroughly. "I have to go; I'll talk to you later." Then I practically ran from the table, stopping only once on my path out of the room, as far away from here as I could get. I paused briefly at the table where my sister sat eating with her friends.
"I'm so sorry." Alice was mouthing the words over and over again as she stared desperately at me, trying to catch my eye, but I didn't want to hear it. I tapped Tanya on the shoulder sharply and she turned to see who it was.
"Come with me please? We need to talk!" I asked, my voice bleak and depthless. She smiled, clearly pleased that I had come to her. I should have cared, but I could think anymore. I just knew that I needed to leave, and she was coming with me whether she wanted to or not.
"I told you!" she said simply, the rose from her seat and followed me out through the door and down the hall towards the parking lot and my car. We got in silently and I started the engine, pulling out of the parking space and onto the road leading out of Forks into the mountains.
AN: OK, so please don't hate me!? This was all planned at the start and I'm going to stick to it. Remember what I said about the ending being what you all want and please don't send me hate mail because I will cry. I promise that there will be no romantic moments between Jacob and Bella, and that Edward will start to get his own way soon. Congratulations to the anonymous but wonderful 'marypoppinscollar', and dedicated reviewers 'Avery Shane' and 'Ali Shaw' who all guessed that she had a boyfriend. Highest congratulations go to the again anonymous 'Your mums a chicken' who guessed exactly right about it being Jacob. I only wish that I could reply to you though because I loved your review. Also, thanks to 'cullensroc' and 'tumblin' di' who made me laugh, they really brightened up a bad day for me! Thanks again… keep reviewing! I love each and every one!
Any guesses for where I'm going with this or reactions to this will be greatly appreciated. I actually haven't decided part of the next chapter so any ideas will be duly considered, credited where used of course! Thanks!
Charlotte-xoxo
PS. I realise that Edward can't become a championship level goal keeper over night but I need you to imagine that he had some majorly mad skills when he was younger. He needs to be on that team for later on in the story. That's all I'm going to say…
Also, I want to write a short soccer action sequence and was wondering if anyone knew if there were any differences between soccer and British football. That would be so helpful, thanks!
Sorry this AN is so long… I'll let you go now. Peace out!
