Belle sat peacefully at the bookshelf in her room. She picked book after book off her shelf. She flipped through the pages, dissatisfied. She had read every book on her shelf at least three times. She got up and walked downstairs. "Papa I'm going out!" She called to her father.
She walked out the front door. She walked alone in the cold autumn wind. She could tell it was changing from October to November. She pulled her jacket tightly around her in the cool breeze. She rounded the corner and walked down the street. She passed the diner, where music and a buzz of the crown could be heard. She turned the corner, and walked down the street. She quickly approached the book store.
As she opened the door of the small shop, a small bell rang. A greeting rang from somewhere in the back of the shop. She walked to the fiction section and began analyzing the spines of the books. "Oh hello Belle!" The vendor greeter her.
"Do you have anything new?" She asked.
He looked around and shook his head, "we don't get books as often as we used to."
She carefully read the spine of each book, and examined them. She picked up a book with a girl sleeping on the cover. "I'll take this one!"
He looked at her and turned to the cash register. As he rang up the book, she dug through her bag for a couple dollars. She handed him her money and took the book and carefully placed it in her bag. She waved to the vendor as she exited the store. The cool wind blew, and her loose hair whipped over her face. She made her way home, the wind was picking up now. She walked up her street, her hair blowing in her face, when her toe got caught in uneven pavement.
She tripped, when she felt someone catch her. She brushed her hair out of her eyes. "You alright?"
It was Phoebus. She looked at him speechless. "Yeah, I'm fine." She said quickly getting back on her feet.
He looked at her as she ran her fingers through her hair. "I haven't seen you in a while." He said.
"I've been around, you know. I went to the dance last week."
"Ah." He said quietly.
"Did you go?" She asked.
"Nah, I stayed here. Dancing isn't really my thing."
"You don't have to dance, you can just go hang out."
"Well the girl I was going to ask was already going with someone, so I figured what's the point?"
Belle looked at him apologetically. "Where were you skipping home from that you almost took in a mouthful of pavement?" Phoebus asked.
"The book shop!" Belle said excitedly, "what were you doing out here?"
Phoebus didn't return her excitement. "Getting the mail from the mailbox."
Her smile faded. "I should get going." She said quietly.
"No! Please wait!"
She looked at him curiously. "Please come inside!" He begged.
She looked at him, her brow furrowed. She followed him into his house. He took her through the entry hall and up the stairs to his room. He slammed his door shut and sat Belle on his bed. She looked at him, frightened. "Belle," he began, "I don't know how to tell you this."
She looked at him, her eyes wide. Her eyes wandered around the room, where there were pennants that were royal blue and white that said 'Walt Disney High Shool'. She looked around at pieces of his collections in his room. Her eyes fixated on a small model of the Eiffel Tower. He must have gotten it on a trip to France. Her eyes darted to a paper on his dresser. The top flipped up to read 'Army'. Her eyes widened.
He took a deep breath and held it as he brought his hand to his forehead. He laughed to himself as he exhaled. He couldn't look at her beautiful brown eyes. She began to get worried. "Phoebus? What is it?" She asked.
He grunted. "Belle you're so perfect all the time! I couldn't find something wrong with you if I searched for days! You're so beautiful and smart and sweet! It gives me sensory overload! I can't take it all in at once! And I would have loved to take you to the homecoming dance, but that buffoon Gaston beat me to it!" He took a long breath and looked at Belle.
Bella's face turned bright red. "Phoebus, I had no idea!" She said softly.
He looked at the ground, and began pacing in his room. He tried to look at anything but Belle. "Phoebus, I would have rather gone to that dance with you than with Gaston, but once he asked me, there was no way I could turn him down and still go to the dance!"
"I didn't go to the dance because I knew I couldn't bear to see you and that hot air filled buffoon."
Belle looked at him, speechless. "I'm sorry Belle I'm sure Maurice is looking for you," Phoebus continued.
"No, it's fine, he knows I take forever at the book shop." She stalled.
He looked at her. "Phoebus," she began, " ever since the night you came to my house, and told me Meg had gone to the hospital, my whole world changed. I no longer saw you as the jerk who blew me off in middle school, but more like a knight in shining armor."
"Dull armor at that, there's nothing heroic about me."
"Sure there is! You ran all the way from the school to my house, to tell me one of my friends was going to the hospital with her injured boyfriend!"
"That's a good deed, it's no heroic act."
"Sure it is! After that night I could never look at you the same way again. Meg would tease me and say I wanted to be more than friends with you, but I would fight back and say I didn't,"
Phoebus looked at her from across the room. He stopped pacing. "But in reality I did! I wanted you to hug me like you did that night in the rain, but I was afraid."
"Afraid of being hurt."
Belle looked at Phoebus as he finished her sentence. At that moment she realized everything she had been feeling, he had been feeling too. She didn't know what to do. Phoebus came and sat down next to her. She leaned her head on his shoulder. He was muscular, but his oversized hoodies never showed it. She was surprised. For a man so muscular, he was modest. She liked that about him. Her head raised off his shoulder. "Is something wrong?" He asked.
"No, it's just, I never realized you were so strong." She said quietly.
He laughed a little. "Oh! What time is it I must be going!" She said, startled.
She got off the bed. She opened his door and skipped down the stairs. "Belle! Wait!" He called after her.
Phoebus only heard the soft click of the front door closing. He hung his head, she was gone from his grasp again. She certainly was clever.
Belle ran across the street, and up the step up to her house. She fiddled with the knob and let herself in. "Papa I'm home!" She called, out of breath.
"Belle! I was beginning to worry!" Maurice came into the entryway of the house.
"Sorry Papa I got so caught up at the book store!"
"It's alright Belle, I prepared some dinner."
They sat down to eat. Belle continued to think about Phoebus. "Did you find anything to read?" Maurice asked.
"Oh yes," Belle said, dazed.
"What did you find this time?"
Belle had forgotten. How could she? Had Phoebus distracted her that much? "It's not important Papa," she said quickly.
Maurice looked startled, but left her alone. They sat eating in silence.
"How was school Belle?" maurice asked.
"Fine, I have the worst partner for a project in Mrs. Radcliffe's class! he wants me to do all the work on our research paper! i guess it could be worse, Jane has Lottie for a Partner, and she said she doesnt do any work either." Belle began to say.
Maurice smiled, this was the Belle he knew. As they finished Belle cleared the table and washed the dishes. She skipped up to her room. She sat on her bed staring at the front cover of her new book. She simply couldn't start it. She moved across the room to her desk and began working on her homework. She finished her homework with care and accuracy. She continued to think about Phoebus as she got ready for bed. She curled up on her bed and fell asleep.
She began to dream. She was in a large palace of some sort. There was a familiar looking prince who warned her not to be deceived by appearances.
She had had this dream before, and was not sure why she was having it again. She rose from her bed the next morning, and busily got ready for school. She tied her hair up with a ribbon, and pulled on her socks. She slipped on her loafers, and placed her book in her bag. She grabbed a piece of toast on her way out of the house. She walked peacefully alone to school. She was early, as always, and sat on her usual bench. She pulled her new book out of her bag. Again she just stared at the cover. She felt no desire to break the binding or even open the front cover.
More students began to file into the front gates. Belle looked for Rapunzel, who she usually missed because she was engrossed in reading. Rapunzel entered the school gates with Alice. They approached Belle, surprised she wasn't reading.
When the bell rang, Belle hurried off to math. She couldn't focus. Her mind continued to wander between her dream and Phoebus.
In third period, it clicked. The prince in her dream told her to not be deceived by appearances. Phoebus seemed modest, but underneath his royal blue hoodie, he was toned and muscular. The prince was telling her to not be deceived by Phoebus' appearance. Or so it seemed.
When lunch finally came, she sat dazed under their tree. "What's wrong with her?" Meg asked as she and Adonis sat down.
"She's been like this all day! She's even stopped reading!" Rapunzel replied.
Meg looked at Belle stunned. It was uncharacteristic of Belle to not have her nose in a book. "Who needs reading?" Adonis commented, his mouth stuffed with a bite of his sandwich.
"Adonis! Don't be such an animal!" Meg cried.
Adonis swallowed. "What was that baby cheeks?"
Meg looked at him. "I said stop being such an animal! Can you not talk with your mouth full?"
The couple sat, steaming, for the rest of lunch. Belle continued to be in a daze.
When lunch was over, Belle walked to English with Jane. Jane sat on Belle's desk as they waited for class to start. "I don't want to work with Lottie!" Jane muttered as she looked across the room at Lottie powdering her nose. When the tardy bell rang, Mrs. Radcliffe jumped up from her desk. "Class! Quiet down! Miss Porter! Get off that desk!"
The class hurried to their seats and waited for her direction. "Use this time to work with your partner on your research project."
The class was turned loose as they paired up with their partners. "Adam?" Belle asked quietly.
Her partner glanced at her through whisps of frizzy caramel hair. "So I was thinking we could do our paper on some kind of controversial topic!" She began.
Adam looked at her, unamused. "We need to pick something!" Belle cried exasperated.
Adam glared at her. "I trust you to pick whatever you think will get us an A."
"Whoa! That's not how this works! The whole point is we learn something from this!" Belle retorted.
Adam laughed. "Have you been living under a rock the last three years? The whole point of going to school, is to get out of it! We don't take no time to learn anything!"
Belle looked at him, horrified. "You know what Adam? I am sick and tired of your attitude! I've been trying to work with you on this project, and all you do is sit here and grunt and tell me to 'go with the flow'! If this project is going to work between us, you are going to need to work with me!"
Adam looked at her, taken aback. Belle was steaming. They worked in silence for the rest of the period. When the bell rang, Belle grabbed her bag and walked with Jane. "Lottie is a total ditz! She doesn't do any work!"
"Well Adam doesn't either!"
"Belle!" A voice called after her.
Belle turned around, it was Adam. "Belle! Please wait!" He was jogging to catch up with her.
She looked at him, disgusted. She stopped with Jane in the Hallway. "Belle!" He said, trying to catch his breath, "I feel awful that you had to yell at me like that, I'm suck a jerk to you and I didn't even realize you were trying to help me for my own good. I'm sorry."
Belle looked at him stunned. Jane began to creep away, but Belle grabbed her arm to stop her. "Thank you Adam," she said softly, grabbed Jane by the arm, and strode away.
She sat in science alone. She was once again, thinking about Phoebus and the prince. A new thought began to enter her dreams. Adam. She wrinkled her nose as she tried to put the thought out of her head.
The day was finally over. Belle was walking through the courtyard. She heard footsteps behind her and turned around, startled. It was Phoebus. "Sorry Belle, I didn't mean to startle you," he said putting a hand behind his neck.
"It's fine," she said quietly.
"How was your day?" He asked.
She opened her mouth to say something, but stopped herself. She looked at him and said "I had some trouble with my partner for a group project in English."
"Ah! Thats never good," he replied.
"He apologized, so I guess we're ok." She said, her voice trailing off.
"Listen, I'm sorry for dumping all that heavy stuff on you yesterday, I just needed to get it off my chest. I've been bottling up all these feelings, and I just burst."
"It's ok, I'm just glad to know I wasn't alone in feeling like that."
"Wait, you really mean you had-"
Belle nodded. She stared into his deep blue eyes. She didn't know what to say, her dreams were mixing with reality. Phoebus began to walk in the direction of the front gate, and Belle followed him.
They began to walk down the street away from the high school. Belle didn't know what to say to Phoebus.
Phoebus stared at the ground. They rounded the corner by the diner, and continued down to the entrance of their neighborhood. "Do you want to know a shortcut?" Phoebus asked.
"How could you find a shortcut in here?" Belle laughed.
Phoebus looked at her. "Do you trust me?"
Belle looked at him for a minute before answering. "Yes." She said.
"Take my hand." He said stretching a hand out to her.
She hesitated, and then placed her small delicate hand into his large and muscular hand. He pulled her up a dirt hill that was covered by the over growth of trees. "Have you ever been up here?" He asked.
"No," Belle said in amazement.
"This leads to a catwalk."
He led her to a smal patch of grass, surrounded by flowers and a path. Belle had never known this existed. She looked around.
Phoebus began to loosen his tie, and unbutton the top button of his shirt. He looked at Belle. The wind blew through his sandy blond hair.
Belle looked back at him, confused. "Belle, I didn't want to tell you this where anyone could hear me, I wanted to tell you where only you could hear it. You are the most beautiful girl I have ever met, and I was a fool to let you go the first time."
"This isn't actually a shortcut is it?" Belle teased.
Phoebus grinned, "not exactly, no"
Belle smiled at him. From the climbing, her ribbon in her hair had come untied. She pulled it out, freeing her brown hair.
Phoebus came close to her. He looked into her brown eyes as she looked into his.
He brushed his fingers through her soft brown hair. He smiled at her. She smiled back at him. He tilted his head and exhaled slowly. She closed her eyes. She couldn't tell if this was one of her dreams.
Phoebus pulled her in closely, with one hand on her waist. His breathing was slow, and heavy.
She instinctively placed her hands on his chest, and for the first time, felt how muscular he actually was. She tilted her head up, looking at him. She lent herself to his will. He leaned in, and his lips touched hers. She closed her eyes, as she felt his lips between hers.
She wrapped her arms around his neck, not wanting to let go. It was the most magical feeling in the world. He placed a strong hand on her cheek.
She parted her lips, and exhaled slowly. She touched her lips to his. She tilted her head the opposite way, but he let her take control. She kissed him softly, and gently. He kissed her back with a dominating, but gentle intensity.
As he pulled away, he bit her lip. She was trying to catch her breath as he sent chills down her spine, and bumps raised on her skin. She breathed heavily, still trying to catch her breath.
He looked at her and she was smiling. He grabbed her hand and led her out of the catwalk. He led her up their street, and ensured she got home safely before returning to his own home.
Belle ran up the stairs before Maurice could even say hello to her. She closed her door and jumped onto her bed, landing face first into her pillows. She began to laugh giddily and uncontrollably. She sat up, holding one of her pillows to her chest. She smiled, and couldn't stop. She had been kissed by a boy
