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Entry in THE CANON TOUR-TWILIGHT ROUND

Summary: Moments in time are like snapshots in the mind.

Beta/pre-readers: LJ Summers, u2shay, NKubie

Disclaimer: Some of these words are SM's. No copyright infringement meant!

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Snapshots

That picture was imprinted in my mind, never to be erased:

Mike looming over Bella as she sits at the Biology table.

Her long hair shielding her face, her discomfort clear.

The tips of his ears are red.

He was working up his courage to ask her to ask him to the school dance. Even if she didn't say yes to him, she'd be saying yes to someone at some point in her very human life.

The pain at this realization is more than anything I've felt before. A human would have to be on the point of death to feel this pain—a human would not live through it.

And not just pain, but outright rage. I don't understand this emotion—it's such a tangle of pain and rage and desire and despair. I have never felt it before; I can't put a name to it. But it makes me want to kill something, someone. Mike appears to be a likely candidate.

When Bella tells him that he should accept Jessica's invitation, the relief I feel is almost overwhelming.

She said no to him. But she will say yes to someone, sometime.

I make a decision and halfway through the class, I meet Bella's eyes for the first time in a month. It was like taking a long, cool drink after being thirsty for an eon. Her eyes meet mine and neither of us can look away. She finally breaks the connection and begins to jot notes down in her notebook. Her cheek, where I can just see it behind her hair is rosy. The monster in me slavers at the thought of all that warm blood resting just below the surface of her smooth skin. I fight him back and swallow the venom pooling at the back of my throat.

I ponder her look for the rest of the class, even as I watch her out of the corner of my eye. She doesn't seem happy. Is she regretting her decision about Mike and the dance? I want to see into her mind, just once.

No, that is a lie. I want to hear her thoughts until I'm tired of them. The worst part? I can't foresee a time when I won't want to know what she's thinking.

As the bell rings, I say, "Bella?" She doesn't look at me again and I find myself disappointed. I can't just let her go, not after that brief look at her features.

"What do you want, Edward? Are you talking to me again?" Her face is turned down as she methodically places her notebook and pencils into her pack.

"Not really, I just wanted to apologize. It really is for the best that we aren't friends." I want to hit myself even as the words leave my mouth. First, I don't talk to her for a month, then I break my silence only to tell her that we shouldn't be friends. Could I be more cryptic? I don't think so. Alice is probably going crazy by the decisions, or lack thereof, that I am making.

"Then what do you want, Edward?"

The sound of my name on her lips does strange things to my body. If I had a heartbeat, it would quicken.

But how to answer her?

With the truth, I decide. I will be as truthful as I can be with her from now on.

"Bella, I'd like you to ask me to the dance."

That certainly gets her attention and I am gifted with seeing her face as she looks up at me. Her eyes are wide and startled and more beautiful than ever.

"You want me to do what?" Surprise, shock and amazement run in waves over her face.

Taking a deep breath that I don't need, but which feeds the monster and causes me to nearly groan at the pain in my throat, I repeat my statement.

"I would appreciate it if you would ask me to the school dance."

Bella shakes her head, her hands at the sides of her face. "No, this can't be happening." She is on her feet, her pack slung over one shoulder, extra books in her arms and she's leaving. I can't stand that and leap to my feet.

Her grand departure is stymied when she trips near the front of the room. The books she'd been holding fly from her arms and she stops, dropping her head down toward her chest, hair bracketing her face, fists clenched tightly at her sides. I am in front of her noting that her eyes are closed, her books gathered in my hands, before she even noticed my movements. Her eyes open and she startles just a little to see me so close.

She shakes it off, takes her books, pushes passed me and out of the door.

Bella's face as she sees me leaning against her truck after school…Priceless.

She's startled to see me here and grits her teeth as she approaches me.

"Edward, lose something? Or are you here just to annoy me further with your obscure comments and ridiculous requests?"

Bella doesn't know that I've already scared Eric Yorkie off from this position. He thought to waylay her and ask her to ask him to the dance. All I did was smile at him, widely, and he was gone.

I'm almost ashamed that I'm putting myself in the same position as these boys. I know that Tyler is getting into his car and planning how to ask her, too. Yes, almost ashamed. But not enough to forego asking her to ask me again.

"You didn't give me an answer in Biology." She's shaking her head in disbelief even as she comes closer to me.

I move away from her truck door and open it for her. She gets in but doesn't close the door, finally gazing at me. Our faces are nearly level this way. Her brown eyes are searching mine and I wonder what she sees.

A man who's realized that he can't fight his desires any longer?

A monster waiting to pounce?

A teenager begging for her company?

I am all of these, and more.

"Why?"

I answer with the truth, just like I'd promised myself earlier.

"I've tried to stay away from you because it seemed like it's the right thing to do, but I no longer know what that is—the right thing. I'm giving in and all I know is that I want to get to know you better."

Bella's back stiffens and she takes in a deep breath, lets it out, whispers, "Yes."

She said yes…to me!

We have an uneasy truce at school. We speak of unimportant things in class and catch each other's eyes in the hallways and the cafeteria. We smile shyly. The dance looms over us. I'm hoping to use that opportunity to get to know her better, if I can convince her not to cancel. It's enough for now that we aren't actively avoiding each other. When Alice tells me, in her presence, that there is blood typing in biology, Bella agrees to sit in my car with me and listen to music. She had confessed that the smell of blood would cause her to faint. I "confess" that needles bother me too. We enjoy the hour instead of feeling sick…or tempted.

A few days later, Bella is in Port Angeles with Angela and Jessica, dress shopping. She didn't want to go, but they insisted they needed her input on their dresses. Alice says that Bella is searching for a way to break our dance date, but hasn't decided how to do it yet. For sure she has decided that she won't be attending with me. And she certainly hasn't told her friends that she asked me to go with her.

Four men, a broken Bella lying on the ground, darkness covering the alley. Blood everywhere.

Alice's vision hit just after we arrived back from hunting. Bella apparently becomes separated from her friends and ends up in an alley, just at twilight.

It's a snapshot of Bella's life that can never happen; I will not allow it. Surprisingly, it's Rose that insists the most to our siblings that we challenge this outcome.

I was going to try no matter what.

A plan comes together as the sun falls lower in the sky. Alice rides with me in the Volvo so that I can see her visions firsthand. Jasper and Rose ride in Emmett's jeep with him. Our seer is searching for clues as to where this attack happens while Emmett and I drive like madmen to get to Port Angeles.

Knowing that Carlisle won't approve of us just finding these vile creatures and killing them, we are going to use Rose and Alice as bait. I finally pinpoint their minds in the warehouse district. We are in time and Bella hasn't gotten there yet. Alice and Rosalie are out of the vehicles in a flash, but when they round the corner where the scum are loitering, they slow down and act slightly drunk. They are hanging on each other and giggling. They've adjusted their clothes to show more of their skin.

They are quickly spotted by the men, who approach them slowly. My sisters meander toward an alley and are followed. Jasper and Emmett are grinning as they wave me off. I want nothing more than to smash these vermin, but my part is to get to Bella before she strays too far off the beaten path. My tale is that I was just in the neighborhood, looking for an auto shop, and spotted her as she walked down the street.

My siblings have assured me that they will deal in the appropriate manner with these predators. The tables are about to be turned. I call a tip into the police as I speed away. They are going to be happy to find Lonnie and his cohorts writhing on the dirty pavement of the alley. I can tell from his thoughts that this is not the first time Lonnie has harmed someone.

None of their injuries will actually be life-threatening, but I'm sure they won't feel that way to them. Rose is quite deliberate in her response to the men attacking them and I try not to enjoy their screams of pain, heard through her mind, too much.

On the next street over, I spot Bella looking lost. Alice shoots me a vision even as she trips one of the men reaching for her.

This snapshot is a good one.

I'm sitting at a table in a restaurant. Bella is sitting beside me and she's smiling.

After our impromptu dinner date, Bella and I begin to get to know each other. We are slowly discovering many things we have in common. We've sat together at lunch twice when I ask her if she's ready for the dance on Saturday.

The swift blush that fills her cheeks confirms my sister's vision that she's looking for an out.

Although there is almost nothing that I can think of that would be more exciting than holding her in my arms as we danced, I don't want her to be uncomfortable.

"Would you rather we sat out the dance and just went for a hike on Saturday afternoon?"

The relief that fills her face tells that she's going to agree.

"Are you sure? Because I'd really like that a lot more." The blush that covers her face from her chin to her hairline warms me where I sit across the table from her. "Honestly, Edward, I was looking for a way to break the dance date."

I try to look surprised. Alice has laughed as she's related some of the ways that Bella has decided to break the date. I was particularly amused by the one where she was going to fling herself off a cliff…in Hawaii.

"You don't want to dance with me?"

"Again, honestly, Edward, if I were to dance, it would be with you. But I don't dance. You haven't seen me in gym. It's all I can do to walk across the floor. I'm not sure I should even agree to go on a hike. That sounds like the a recipe for disaster." She's shaking her head and her hair, as it ripples over her shoulders, is tempting me to slide my fingers through it.

I finally convince her to go with me on Saturday. I know just the shot that my mind's camera will catch:

Bella, sitting on a blanket in my meadow.

Blue, white and purple wildflowers surrounding her.

The decision is made. I will tell her my secrets then. I hope the snapshot I capture will be one of her smiling and accepting me…all of me.

There may be other snapshots...but for now this is complete...do put the story on ALERT or me on AUTHOR ALERT to get a notice if/when I add something to this.

Thanks for reading!

Kathie