Chapter 16

Bella POV

These last two months had gone by so fast that it was almost making Bella's head spin. It was already the middle of January and they were beginning their second semester of senior year. Bella had her student teaching class all set up and ready to go and she couldn't be happier about it. She was looking forward to seeing all of her new second grade students, it seemed that everything was finally coming together.

There were many things that were going good in her and Edward's life; the baby was healthy (they would find out the sex of the baby at their next appointment), and the two of them had officially moved in together after Alice moved in with Jasper. It was so nice to be able to spend a lot of her free time with Edward and start planning the nursery.

But there was one thing that eclipsed all the good happening in her life - her mom was still not speaking to her.

Charlie called Bella every other day to check up on her but whenever she asked to speak to her mother she was always told that Renee was busy and couldn't come to the phone. She'd gotten her inability to lie from her father so she knew that her mom just didn't want to talk to her, it got to the point that Bella just stopped asking to speak to her. If she didn't want to talk to her own daughter then there was nothing that Bella could do about it.

With everything that was changing around her Bella was waiting for the moment that she would wake up and look like she swallowed a watermelon. She still looked barely pregnant, the night before they resumed classes Alice had looked at her stomach for almost two minutes trying to see her baby bump. It was nice to know that she wouldn't be stared at right away (or, selfishly, have to buy new pants). She knew that there would be lots of gossip centered around her being pregnant and Edward being the father, she was nowhere near ready for all the eyes on her.

But Bella had to put all of that behind her, at least for the day. Since it was the first day of their new semester she didn't want anything to distract her from focusing on her schoolwork.

"Ugh," Bella groaned when she heard her alarm clock blaring in her ear. After she found out about the pregnancy it seemed like she could never get enough sleep, this baby was sucking all of her energy out of her.

She rolled her eyes when she saw that Edward was still sleeping next to her, he didn't have classes until nine but she had to get up at seven to make it to her seven thirty class on time. Lucky her, she thought sarcastically.

She was able to shower and get dressed with just enough time to go to the nearby coffee shop. Since she had to give up her coffee addiction she was drinking a lot more tea than was normal and the best tea that she could find was at that shop. She gave Edward a kiss, he continued to snore, and she set off for her daily dose of tea.

~LCA~

After she gave her order to the lady at the counter she stepped aside to wait for her drink order. She started to go through her social media when she heard a throat clearing behind her. When she turned around and was met with the sight of Jacob she had to swallow back her nerves.

"Bella! I haven't seen you in ages, what are you up to now?" He asked. She could see genuine excitement in his eyes, but the slight tightening of his eyes sent a shiver up her spine.

"Umm...nothing much, just starting classes." She looked around herself for someone that could save her but she recognized no one else and her tea was still not ready. "What are you up to?" She asked him. She internally kicked herself for continuing the conversation, she was too kind for her own good sometimes.

"I'm doing really well…" Bella felt bad but she zoned out of the conversation, she only had enough energy for her classes today. She didn't want to waste any on talking to Jacob Black. "So, what do you say?" He asked her.

She shook her head, she stared at him for a second while she was trying to figure out what he was asking her. When she didn't reply right away she could have sworn that she saw his jaw clench before he asked, "Were you even listening to me?" She could hear the slight joking tone in his voice but she just pushed her uneasiness to the side, she was probably just being paranoid.

"I'm sorry, Jacob, but I'm just so tired. What was it that you asked me?" She apologized.

"I wanted to take you out this weekend, we haven't had any alone time in a long time and I miss you," he told her.

"Jacob, I'm still dating Edward Cullen. I can't go out with you." She didn't bother apologizing this time to him, she would never be sorry for being with Edward Cullen.

"Bella, I don't like that guy. I just feel like he's using you. Guys like that...all they want is one thing and once they're finished with you then they throw you to the side like garbage," he told her. He was speaking in such a sure tone, it was like he had no doubt in his mind that he would be able to convince her to go out with him.

"Well, it's good that I don't care what you think." She was done being polite to this man. Before either one of them could say anything else she heard the barista call her name, she turned around to grab her cup and then gave Jacob a small nod before leaving the coffee shop. It was like he couldn't take a hint for the life of him, she thought to herself.

As she was walking away she felt eyes on her back and when she turned around she locked eyes with Jacob. She scrunched her eyebrows together in confusion before he just gave her a tiny wave and then took off in the opposite direction. Bella just shook her head, she didn't have the time to figure out what was going on in Jacob's head.

It didn't even occur to Bella that Jacob was leaving the coffee shop right after her...empty handed.

~LCA~

By the time that Bella was done with her day and entering her apartment she had all but forgotten about her run in with Jacob. Before she could put her bag down, though, she heard her phone start ringing in her purse. When she pulled it out she felt a smile grace her face when she saw the caller ID...Esme.

Ever since Esme Cullen found out about the pregnancy she couldn't have been more supportive, with the continued silence from Renee it was nice to get some motherly advice when it was needed. They even spent Christmas with the Cullen's since Bella was unwelcome at her own home but it was still a joyous event and Bella had enjoyed every minute of her time with her new family.

"How's everything going, sweetie?" Esme asked.

"Good, just tired but I'm just glad that the queasiness has gone away," she said. For a time there it was hard for her to eat certain foods without feeling like she was going to throw up, luckily she never did but...the feeling was still very uncomfortable.

"Are you showing yet?" Esme was almost more excited than Bella was about showing.

"Just a little, if I wear a tight top then it looks like I just had a really big meal but the doctor has assured us that it's completely normal. But at my last checkup I had the largest weight gain so I'm pretty sure that it won't be too long before I'm as big as a house," she joked.

"You're going to look so cute!" Esme said.

They continued with their conversation for another five minutes before they said their goodbyes and Bella was able to scour the kitchen for some early dinner. She didn't think she had enough patience to wait the thirty minutes until Edward got home before she ate something.

When Edward did get home it was to the sight of Bella scarfing down her lasagna like it was going out of style.

"I'm not feeding you enough, am I?" He asked, jokingly.

"Not nearly enough," she said around a bite of her food.

He just rolled his eyes before coming over to her and giving her a kiss on the forehead instead of the lips, Bella could tell that he didn't want to get a mouthful of her chewed up meal inside his own mouth. She couldn't really blame him.

"How was your day?" He asked as he served himself up a piece of the lasagna.

"It was good. I'm really excited for my first student teaching class tomorrow and I had another phone call from your mom," she told him.

"I'm sorry, I didn't think that she would harass you this much. Do you want me to talk to her?"

"No, it's nice to have...someone...like her worry about me," she explained, quietly.

"Still nothing from your mom?" He asked, carefully.

"No. My dad texted me that he's predicting that we're going to have a boy and that he needs to be one of the first ones we call after the gender reveal appointment. He didn't say anything about my mother and I didn't ask."

"I'm sorry, baby, I know that you didn't want this to happen. She'll realize the kind of mistake she made and hopefully it won't be too late," he told her after he swallowed his forkful of lasagna.

"Me too," Bella whispered.

~LCA~

Bella had to swallow down her nerves the next day as she stood outside of the classroom that she would be helping in for the next ten weeks. Every other day during the week she would be here, her own classes would be on the opposite days of the week. It would be a very full semester but she knew that she was ready for anything that was going to be thrown at her, she could do this.

"Hello, Ms. Swan, how are you doing this morning?" Mrs. Cheney greeted her.

Bella was lucky that she was able to get Mrs. Angela Cheney as her mentor. She'd heard some horror stories of teachers that didn't care about training new teachers but Angela made Bella feel comfortable almost right away. It didn't hurt that Angela was just a couple years older than Bella so they had already found a couple things that they had in common. One that Bella was amazed with was...Angela had just had a little girl with her husband, Ben.

Angela was very understanding when Bella explained her situation with her, she knew that her stint in student teaching would be done before she gave birth but she wanted to warn this woman just in case she needed to leave the classroom suddenly. Angela then told her about how she started having contractions in the middle of a school day, almost two weeks early, and had to have a student grab the principal. Bella was stressed out just from hearing about the story, she didn't know what she would have done if she was in Angela's shoes.

"I'm doing really good. Excited for my first day, Mrs. Cheney," she said.

"I told you, you can call me Angela when there are no little ears around," Angela told her.

"Well, then, you have to call me Bella."

"Deal."

Angela then took Bella on a more in depth tour through her classroom; from the fingerpainting to the little library and then to the area where the children hung up their backpacks. Bella was already cataloguing everything in her mind, this classroom was almost exactly what she'd pictured when she imagined her own future classroom.

Angela looked at the clock that was on the wall in front of the desks.

"It's time to grab the kiddos," she said. She motioned for Bella to follow her to the outside doors where a couple other teachers were waiting, Angela introduced Bella to them. They then went outside to where the students were lining up, Angela held her hand high in the air and waited a couple seconds before all of her students had their own hands in the air.

"Let's start our day!" Angela exclaimed. Bella couldn't help but feel her enthusiasm, she could see that Angela truly enjoyed her job.

Bella spent the rest of the day helping Angela pass out assignments and then helping the students with any problems that they had. The more time Bella had in the classroom the more responsibility she would gain. She couldn't wait until she was able to help Angela with her class plans or even grading assignments.

After the last student left for the day Bella started to organize the crafts that the kids were playing with at the end of class. Angela had them all start a family portrait that they would be visiting again in a couple days, she told Bella that the plan was to get them to put down some traits from their family members. It was a way to get to know the students even more. Bella smiled as she picked up a certain little girl's handiwork.

Bree Tanner.

She was the most adorable little girl that Bella had ever seen. She had such big brown eyes and lots of brown hair that framed her perfectly circular face. All that she had drawn was a little stick person and a larger one, Bella's heart warmed when she saw that the two stick figures seemed to be holding hands. She couldn't wait until her own daughter or son was bringing home these kinds of pictures.

"Bree's a special one, isn't she?" Angela asked when she reentered the room after saying goodbye to the students.

"She really is," Bella said before going back to organizing the crafts.

"Her dad passed away at the end of last year so it's just her and her mom at home. Such a sad story but I've never seen a day go by without a smile on that little girl's face. I can't even imagine what she's going through," Angela said.

Bella's heart squeezed at just the thought of what Bree could be going through, to lose a parent at such a young age has got to be hard but the entire day Bree was happy and talking to anyone that was around her. She was a happy girl, Bella would never have guessed that she'd been through something so traumatizing.

"That's got to be one of the hardest parts of teaching. Seeing everything that these kids go through and knowing that there's only so much that you, as a teacher, can do. I can be there for them within these walls but once they leave this school I have to let them go and see a bunch of new faces. It's hard not to get too close to some of the students," Angela told Bella after they were done cleaning up.

Bella nodded her head. "I completely get that. I'm going to have to work on that because I can already feel myself getting attached to some of these kids."

"It's going to be hard but I always hope that one day one of my kids will come back through that door when they're graduating high school and say that I helped them get there. It's hard to let them go but I know that they're in good hands with the other teachers."

Bella thought about that her entire ride home, she knew that it was going to be hard to keep some sort of distance from the children but she knew that in the end it would be worth it to know that she made a difference in someone's life. She lowered her hand so she could lightly touch her small baby bump, she couldn't wait for all of the big moments that she would be able to have with this baby and to be able to share them with Edward.

As her mind went to Edward she felt a smile slide onto her face. She couldn't wait to get home and tell him about everything that happened on her first day student teaching.

A/N: I am so SORRY about the delay in this update. I finished my other book and then I got stuck on where I wanted this story to go, it took me a while but I like where I have this headed. It's going to get just a little bit darker and I really hope that you all stay with me for the ride.

Please go to WattPad and read my original story You Are My Always under the username Alison Post.

Thank you.

And as always, REVIEW!