Bella's point of view
On Monday, no one really paid the teachers any mind during lessons. The school was busy discussing dates, dresses and general gossip in relation to the upcoming dance. Some girls didn't have their dresses yet and some guys were still tux-less. A lot of people were wearing their heels and dress shoes to school in preparation for the first dance class taking place today.
There was much excitement all throughout the morning classes: Was the starting quarterback of the varsity football team really bringing a freshman girl? Tyler even had a bet with Lauren going regarding when I was going to fake-break my ankle. Tyler was betting on 'not until P.E.' while Lauren was convinced that it was going to be earlier than that in order to get out of dance classes and P.E.
Apparently dances were a big deal at Forks High School since about two years ago. At that time someone had decided to make the semi-annual dances a lot more formal by introducing ballroom dancing to the general student population. The seniors had already participated several times, but for me it would be the first time attempting to dance in a formal setting. I was nervous about it due to my known clumsiness, but excited because of the extra close contact it would bring me with my date. Luckily, the school's administration had decided that there would be dancing classes several times before the formal. This way I had a chance to learn before the big day, which meant extra time with Jacob, which was a bonus.
I seriously didn't understand why it was so hard for people like Lauren and Tyler to accept that I really had a date for the dance. I didn't get the impression that I was unpopular enough to suspect that I would lie about having a date to save face. Maybe I had just hurt Tyler's pride despite helping him to find another date? Mike appeared to be happy with Jessica as his date. And Lauren had never liked me, anyways.
To Tyler's great surprise and Lauren's annoyance I actually turned up in front of the big gym unharmed after P.E. Throwing the two of them a sarcastic wave, I joined Angela, Ben, Erik and his sophomore date by the main door. Jacob hadn't arrived at our school yet. He got out of class at the same time as we did and had to drive all the way over here. I was glad that our teacher had been considerate enough to figure out that some of us had outside dates. It meant that everyone had to wait a bit after the last class finished until the dancing class would commence. As we waited, we realized that we didn't yet know who our dancing instructors were going to be. I couldn't quite picture any of our teachers being great dancers.
"Imagine Mr. Lark and Mrs. Lopez dancing together!" Erik chuckled. He made a sickly love-struck face and cooed, "Oh, Mr. Lark, mi amor!" That really would be funny. While our history teacher never got his nose out of his books, the school's Spanish teacher seemed a bit stuck up. Angela and I burst out laughing both at the mental image and at Erik's performance.
Maybe it wouldn't be any of our teachers instructing us, in the end. There was a persistent rumor claiming that our instructors would be former students who had successfully competed in ballroom dancing after high school. This was probably better for us because we'd be able to be ourselves rather than trying not to giggle at our teachers' out-of-character antics.
As Angela told Ben about her dress- she couldn't very well not tell him about the color since she was wearing the matching shoes right now- I kept shooting nervous glances at the school's entrance. I was a little anxious and scared that Jacob might be late. He had warned me that this might happen when I called him on Friday to fill him in on the facts about the dancing lessons. It didn't really matter if he was late, but it would add fuel to Lauren's gossiping and I just didn't feel up to that kind of scrutiny today.
Just as Angela was saying, "I'll just bring my scarf tomorrow so you'll be able to find a tie that goes well with the dress," the door opened and in came Jacob. He looked relieved when he noticed that all of us were still out here and searched the crowd for me. He was probably looking forward to making an entrance into the ongoing class even less than I would have been. When Ben and I waved at him, he hastily came over, obviously nervous about the stares he was receiving by now.
"Hey," he softly said as he hugged me. Then he greeted the rest of the group. "It's so great to know at least some people here. I kind of feel like I grew a third head."
I smiled at him, feeling only a little bit sorry for him. "Now you know how I felt when I first came here. I already warned you that Lauren didn't think you exist. And rest assured, they didn't even notice head number two yet." I smiled at him and introduced Erik's date, whom he hadn't met before. "You know these guys firmly believed in your existence. Jacob, this is Sara. She is going to the ball with Erik. You know Angela and Ben. Mike and Jessica just left to talk to his cousin. Sara, this is Jacob, my best friend and date to the ball." I properly introduced them to each other.
"I'm really surprised you made it in time. Isn't La Push like at least ten miles out of town?" Angela started a group conversation.
"I drove over here like a madman 'cause I was fearing that I'd have to walk into a room of strangers. You know, I was imagining a Mexican standoff in my head: Music is playing, I walk in, the doors bang on the wall. Silence, all eyes on me for being late. I was kind of scared of being stared down."
Jacob turned back to me then. "Really, you'll have to tell Charlie to do speed patrols on the other side of town for the next few weeks if I have to keep this up."
At his words, all of us had to laugh. You really couldn't resist Jacob's charm. Even knowing how likable he was, I was still glad that he and my friends from school got along so well from the get-go. Jacob seemed to relax considerably, too, knowing he had arrived on time and that he was amongst friends.
"However fast you drove her, it'll be nothing compared to how Edward drives." I threw in. When Erik looked surprised, I set to explain. "I'm sure you heard about the bank robbery in Newton? I was heading for the exact same bank exactly as it took place when Edward stopped me from going in. He 'rescued' me," I made little quotation marks in the air, "by dragging me away from there, called the police and drove me to where I was to meet Angela later. He was going like sixty miles an hour on Newton Main Street! I was scared I was being abducted or something."
Jacob chuckled at my words. "I always believed he was a mafia boss, minus the greasy hair of course. Now my suspicions are officially confirmed: He really must be bribing the police! Maybe your father is on his payroll, too." he mocked. We had a good laugh at his joke when Edward Cullen himself entered the school followed by his siblings. Without another glance around he headed for the gym doors, unlocked them and motioned for us to enter. Jasper smiled at me and nodded in passing. It looked like the rumors had almost been right this time. If they had the keys to the gym, they had to be the ones teaching us to dance. The rumor mill had only gotten the part with it being former students wrong.
As we gathered in a circle inside the gym, all of us curious to know what would be going on, Edward began to speak. "Okay. This is what we are going to do: Alice over here is going to teach you some of the easier and most common dances- starting with the waltz- while I go around to correct mistakes. It'll be useful to bring the shoes you'll be wearing to the dance to practice as well as your dates. Now, have fun!" He stepped back and Alice, his sister, took over. She had short spiky hair and looked every bit a bouncy pixy. She seemed to be overflowing with energy today, the complete opposite of her brother Edward, who always seemed rather gloomy and distant.
"Hi everyone, I'm Alice, if you don't already know me." she started in a cheery voice, bouncing on her heels. "I need you to couple up with your date or another classmate. Since there are more girls than guys at our school, we'll have some female couples. These need to decide which one of them is going to dance as the lady."
A general turmoil started at her words as the students tried to find their dates among the crowd and the girls who had yet to find a date tried to snatch themselves one of the remaining guys. Some of them tried to approach Jake until he scurried closer to me. "I'm glad that I didn't come here alone. They would have eaten me alive." he whispered to me, a look of genuine fright across his face.
As I looked at him, I noticed that he was a little taller than me even with my shoes one. Had he grown? It was a perfect height difference for dancing. I smiled at his earlier words and explained my staring, "You're still taller than me, even though I'm wearing heels."
"That's great. I would hate to wear high-heels, too. These are bad enough as it is." Jake deadpanned and I had to laugh at his humor. He shot his shiny dress shoes a malicious stare as though trying to murder them. "Oh. I just remembered. I brought my scarf so we'll match, I'll give it to you during break. It's almost seeing the dress, but that's all you are getting before the day of the dance." I smiled as he frowned.
"Okay. At least I'll get to know the color." He really seemed to want to know what I'd wear to the fall dance. I was excited to see a 'formal' Jacob, too. He normally wore jeans or shorts and t-shirts or hoodies and I had never seen him dressed up. I really couldn't imagine it, it didn't seem very him.
Finally, the noise settled down and the class took off. We started out in a large circle to learn the basic steps to the waltz. Alice explained every step in detail. "The movements themselves are fairly easy, but it's difficult to put them together. Imagine a little square in front of you. Right now you're standing at its lower right corner. We want to get to the opposite corner, so you start out with the right foot. You step to the upper right corner, like this."
Alice instructed us while showing us where to move, "Now you take the other foot to the left upper corner. The right foot follows suit. You have to set it down all the way before we can go on. Are we all there?" She checked the circle and continued when all of us were standing with their feet together. "Now we do everything backwards: The right foot goes back this time and the left one goes over..."
When Alice explained the dance to us, it sounded easy enough, but all of us messed up plenty of times. It was quite difficult to remember which corner you were currently standing in. When we were finally able to dance around our little square- sometimes Edward had to assist when people kept falling over their own feet- we were to try with our partners.
Alice showed us where to place our arms and demonstrated how to fit the steps together with Jasper, who seemed to jump at the chance to dance with her. This part was much easier than I had expected it to be: While Jacob was to start at the right lower corner, I began at the left upper one of my own square. "Do you think everyone else in here danced like this before?" I asked Jacob as I timidly placed my hand on his shoulder. He took my other hand- the right one- in his and answered. "Looks like the Cullens are the only ones from the Sophomores and Juniors. I've never been to a fancy wedding, so there wasn't ever the need to learn any ballroom dancing. But we're not doing too badly, are we?" I was a little distracted by the tingle his hand caused on mine at first, so I didn't immediately answer.
I suddenly noticed how close we were standing and how confident he seemed in leading us around. He grinned and moved us through our respective squares quite expertly. "Looks like you know what you're doing." I informed him.
"Thanks. Better than you dragging me across the dance floor like the girl in pink over there, isn't it?" I had to agree to that, especially when I looked where he had indicated with a jerk of his head and saw Lauren pushing her date around the dance floor.
Soon, I didn't have to think about the steps anymore, I could just feel the music and enjoy our closeness. Even talking didn't distract me anymore. When I looked into Jacob's eyes, I quit moving, though. It was as if my heart missed a beat when our eyes met. He was looking back at me with something in his eyes that I couldn't quite put my finger on.
"Okay, you're all doing pretty well," Alice's voice chimed in. She had stepped away from Jasper as soon as she was done demonstrating and I could see him wearing a bit of a dejected look. He seemed to really like dancing. "Now we're going to take it up a notch. What we're going to practice next is the twirling part and the rhythm. When we're done, it's supposed to look like this."
As soon as she was done speaking, Jasper stepped towards his girlfriend. But she sidestepped him and held her hand out to Edward. After a split-second of hesitation, he twirled her through the gym. They seemed to have a lot of fun and I was surprised that they knew where they were going: They were spinning around so fast, but it looked so wonderful! Suddenly, they seemed to remember their audience and stopped still. "Now I'm going to show you how we get there, starting with the rhythm. The waltz is a dance with a three-beat rhythm where the first of the three beats is most important. You count it like this: ONE-two-three-ONE-two-three, and so on. I'll turn on some music, so it'll be easier to hear the beat."
Like that, the lesson flew by. We had a short break that passed quickly as Jacob and I chatted with Angela and Ben and before we knew it, we were twirling around the gym, though not as gracefully as Alice and Jasper had been. It was so much fun and it really made me feel elegant. Jacob had an excellent lead and I hardly ever misunderstood where he wanted to go. I did step on his toes once or twice, but he didn't seem to mind that much. Our instructors hadn't come to correct us once and I was quite satisfied with our progress.
Sooner than expected the lesson was over. When Alice announced its end, Jacob led me into a pirouette and we looked at each other, laughing. We had conquered the waltz and were very much looking forward to the next lesson.
OoO oOo OoO oOo OoO oOo OoO oOo OoO oOo OoO oOo OoO oOo OoO oOo OoO oOo OoO oOo OoO oOo OoO oOo OoO
Over the course of the week, we had several more lessons after classes. Alice kept instructing us and demonstrating with her brother, while Jasper seemed more and more hurt and withdrawn while watching them. On Friday, I made a mental note to ask him if everything was okay. From an outsider's perspective, it seemed like Alice was keeping him at arm's length and obviously he was hating it. Maybe they had fought? Asking him about it felt a bit intrusive, but he had been such a great encouragement when I was feeling down about Edward's behavior that I wanted to offer my support to him.
Today, we had learned the first steps of the Rumba, a dance I very much liked but which I found difficult at first. Alice had come over to correct my posture and direct my steps a few times. One time, she had even stood in for Jacob in order to show me where I had to move for a turn. It was really interesting to see how easily such a short girl could lead me across the dance floor.
When our last dancing class of the week was over, Jacob and I said our goodbyes to our friends and went over to Newton's. Dad was out of bait for the next fishing trip. Since he didn't want to borrow some from Billy, he had insisted that I go and get him some. I had of course forgotten which one he needed for catching the big fish and I was still a little scared of Mrs. Newton.
She had been rather grouchy when she had to discover that I had declined her son's offer to go to the ball with him and that I needed a few days off for the dancing classes, all in one day. She hadn't spoken to me since, except to tell me that I was expected to be on time on the days were I would come into work. Since I was too much of a coward to face her and risk losing my new job, I went for the easy solution and asked Jacob for help. He had been fishing with our dads several times in the past, so he might know about bait.
"So, can you tell me which one I need?" I asked him.
"Yes." He looked serious, but didn't volunteer any further information.
"Pretty please? Will you tell me?" I tried to make puppy eyes at him, which seemed to work out pretty well because he tried to hide a smile.
Still, he answered with a 'no' and a smirk.
"Why?" I wanted to know. "It's not like it'll cost you any time or money or anything." I was quite sure that he was kidding, but he was confusing me a bit.
"See, that's the problem. I don't want to tell you." Now he was openly grinning at me, enjoying winding me up.
"So, can you show me which one I need?" I sighed, but had to crack a smile despite myself.
"Why didn't you say so earlier? You know I'm always there to help you out!" he told me, his voice laced with sarcasm, and patted my shoulder as though I was a little too slow with my thoughts.
"Jake!" I scolded him and swatted his hand away.
"I just agreed to rescue you from Mrs. Newton's wrath and you slap me? Seriously, you have some anger issues, missy!" When a giggle escaped me, both of us had to laugh at his words.
After we had cautiously entered the shop, we hid in the main aisle for a few seconds while I tried to figure out where Mrs. Newton was. A metallic 'clang' soon gave me the answer.
"She's sorting through the beverages in the back." I whispered at Jacob. He held up a thumb and scurried over to the next aisle crouched down. Before he went in, he peeked into it and motioned for me to follow. I had to suppress a giggle. This stealth mission was a lot of fun.
I started to play along and secured the next aisle before we shuffled over. When the door opened to let in another customer, both of us hid behind a massive shelf. "What will happen if they see us?" I whispered and tried to fake a fear-laced voice.
It seemed to be convincing enough because Jacob winked at me and answered me quietly and dead-serious, "We are going to get arrested for public sneaking around." This time, it was even harder to rein in my amusement both at his seriousness and at the ridiculousness of our whole little pretence.
I was just about to clutch my chest in fake desperation, when a low growling sound disrupted our little game. Both of us shot up and I looked around the aisle, but no big, angry dog was to be seen anywhere. I turned back to Jacob who seemed to be frozen in place. Only then did I discover a Quileute boy lurking behind one of the shelves. His hair was short and stubbly and his eyes were ablaze with hatred. It was Jacob's friend, Quil. This wasn't the first unpleasant run-in I had had with him, and seeing him always made Jake sad.
He stalked around the shelf and stopped in front of Jacob who looked a little intimidated by his taller friend. Quil stared down at him and spat: "Nice company you're keeping, Jacob!"
I briefly considered running away in my high-heels because he was starting to scare me, but I couldn't let Jacob face this guy alone. So I straightened up next to him and bravely said, "Are you talking about me, Quil?" Jacob seemed to be speechless both at his friend's and at my confrontational behavior.
Quil shifted his murderous glance to me and, instead of answering, just grabbed a strand of my hair and sniffed at it. I was too perplexed to react in any other way than by freezing in place. He wrinkled his nose in disgust and started shaking furiously. His outlines almost seemed to blur as his disgusted expression turned to one of anger.
Jacob was the first to react. His voice cold, he told Quil, "Get out of here, man, before either one of us hurts someone." Without another word Quil abruptly turned around and almost fled from the place.
Both of us were silent for the few seconds it took for the shock to pass. "Is it because I'm from Forks? Because of my family? Did I accidentally wrong him?" I felt tears rising in my eyes which threatened to spill over. I didn't know why I disgusted him so much. What had I done besides being born?
"Shh..." Jacob soothed me and gathered me in his arms. "It's not you, Bells, I'm sure. He has no reason to dislike you, why would anyone?" He slowly stroked my hair and I started relaxing. I didn't want him to stop.
After a minute, I started speaking again. "I do not smell bad, do I? Please be honest." I could feel my voice trembling a little, still shaken.
"No. But let me double-check." Jacob replied and buried his nose in my neck. He took an exaggerated sniff, squeezed my waist and shook his head. "Nope. Smells good. Maybe he's allergic to raspberries." He didn't let go of me immediately, wrapping his hand in my hair and playing with the strands.
I smiled up at him, feeling better already after his reassurance, when a loud cough startled us. We hastily stepped apart only to see Mrs. Newton in front of us with one eyebrow raised. "Well, well, well, if it isn't Miss Swan being indecent in public. Does your father know about your boyfriend?" She chuckled and turned around.
"It's not... We weren't even..." I finally sputtered after her retreating back. Before she turned the corner, she shot me an amused glance and winked at me. I was relieved that it looked like she was only kidding. I had been afraid that she would carry a grudge. But then, was there any logical reason for it? Mike seemed to be happy with Jessica as his date. Maybe I was too much of a worrier or I really had an overactive imagination.
I sighed in relief and turned around to face a beet-red Jacob. Interesting…