Disclaimer: I do not own Twilight.
AN: I started writing this last weekend and I ended up chucking the first few pages because I hated them. I am overly critical because I don't want to give you guys anything less than what you deserve. I finally sat down today and was able to crank this out. Hope you all enjoy it.
Bella's house was silent, save for the scratching of pens across paper and pages being turned. Both Jacob and Seth had tests the next day so she had made them practice tests that they could work on while she did her homework.
Seth finished first and his mom was pulling up as she finished grading his test. He hadn't done badly, but there were places that needed work.
"Study some more. I mean it," Bella said.
"I'll make sure that he does," Sue promised.
Jacob worked on finishing his test while Bella got dinner started. This was how things usually went down when he stayed for dinner. If he had a question he would seek her out and she would explain it to him until he understood and could do it on his own.
Jacob finished, stuffing everything in his bag silently, if he needed to study more; he'd do it at home. He didn't want to take up any more of Bella's time. He came into the kitchen and placed his test on the table before grabbing a drink from the fridge.
Bella finished browning hamburger for spaghetti and added the tomato sauce then put the pot on simmer so she could look over his test. It took her less than two minutes before she was handing it back to him. That usually meant bad news and that he had tanked. He closed his eyes as he took the test from her, scared to look at the paper.
Bella went back to making dinner as Jacob continued to stand in the middle of the kitchen. She gave him an awkward glance over her shoulder as she dropped noodles into the boiling water. At least his eyes were open, but she doubted that he had looked at the paper. She turned to face him, folding her arms over her chest.
"Are you not happy with how I graded your paper I only took off points because you needed to elaborate on your answer for number five," she explained.
Jacob's eyes slowly drifted down to the paper, she had written a ninety-five in the upper right hand corner. He had seriously thought that he had failed, and he had been ready to accept it. He didn't remember writing half of what he had written down. Why couldn't this happen on his actual test?
"Thanks. I'll remember to explain more tomorrow."
"Okay," she said with a nod.
In the month that she had been tutoring him, their friendship had slowly matured. They no longer snapped at each other nor were they hostile towards one another. They were cordial at school, but neither would acknowledge each other in front of their friends other than say to say hi or wave. That was fine with Bella, she was just glad that the silent treatment/hostility was over.
XXXX
Jacob had noticed that Bella didn't eat with her friends on Monday's or Friday's. He didn't know why he cared, since it was none of his business. Seth was known for going missing occasionally on Monday's and Embry had told him it was because Bella tutored him in the library.
Jacob felt someone watching him and his eyes scanned the crowded room until he came to Bella's group of friends. Edward's sister, Alice was staring at him observantly. Why? He didn't even know her. Yes, he played football with Emmett, her older brother but he was the only person that he knew who knew her.
She finally broke eye contact with him and he shook off the uneasy feeling that the situation gave him. She talked to Jessica and Angela like the past thirty seconds hadn't happened. He saw Lauren out of the corner of his eye and inwardly groaned. She had been trying to get him to ask her out since last spring when he joined the football team.
He didn't have a problem with Lauren personally, even if she was a little pushy and overly superficial. She sat across from him, saying hi to Claire politely before smiling at Jacob. Embry and Quil had been giving him the hard sell about Lauren since the beginning of the year. Maybe she wasn't as bad as he thought.
Jacob tended not to listen to the gossip that surrounded people. And there were a lot of mean and vicious things to be said about Lauren. He didn't pass judgement on people just because they were difficult to be around.
"Hey, Lauren," he said politely.
"Hi, Jake," she said, her voice dripping with honey.
"What can I do for you?" he said with furrowed eyebrows.
"A group of my friends and I are going to the movies on Friday and I was wondering if you and your friends wanted to go."
"What movie?" Claire asked.
"We haven't decided yet, we might go see the new X-Men movie."
"Y'all wanna go?"
"Sure, Claire and I were going to go anyway," Quil said with a nod.
"I'll go," Embry agreed.
"Seth?" Jacob asked.
"I'm helping Leah and Sam move," Seth said with a shake of his head.
Jacob nodded to Lauren who smiled triumphantly. She left without saying another word. Jacob didn't know why she had invited them but he hoped that she didn't think that it was a date.
XXXX
The weekend rolled around and yet again Edward hadn't been able to come home. It was two months into the school year and he hadn't come home once. He claimed that he was up to his eyeballs in schoolwork every single weekend. 'His school work load must be harder than he's letting on.' Bella thought as she got ready to go out with Jessica and Angela.
She had been spending every weekend with them to keep from thinking about how much she missed Edward. They were going to the movies that night and Saturday they were going to Port Angeles to shop for homecoming dresses for Jessica and Angela.
Alice had been more persistent about meeting Jacob lately. Bella didn't have a problem with it; but she wondered what Alice's motives were. Edward had stopped asking about Jacob after Bella explained that she was mending her friendship with him and that she was tutoring him. Could Edward be behind the way Alice was acting? Bella hoped not.
Charlie called up the stairs that Angela and Jessica were there and Bella flipped off her bedroom light switch before walking out of the room. Jessica took in what Bella was wearing with a weary look. Bella wore a navy blue sweatshirt with Captain America's shield embossed across the center and her form hugging jeans were ripped in one knee. Jessica knew for a fact that the sweatshirt belonged to Edward because she had seen him wear it so many times. She was glad that she had been able to talk Bella into going with them.
"I'll be home late," Bella let her dad know.
"Be safe," Charlie called as the three of them walked out the door.
They drove to the movie theater in Jessica's car since Angela didn't have a car and Jessica hated Bella's truck. Their friends were waiting outside when they got there since not everyone had shown up. Bella saw Lauren talking to Tyler and Mike and she hoped that she didn't cause any trouble.
She saw Jacob and a few of his friends at the front of the line and waved with a polite smile when he noticed her. He waved back before turning his attention back to Quil who was waving his hands excitedly as he talked.
Everyone was inside fifteen minutes later. Jacob and his friends were directly in front of Bella and Jessica at the concession line and Lauren talked to Jacob until she looked over at Bella.
"Nice shirt, Swan," she said with a snicker.
"It's her boyfriend's. At least she has one," Angela said with an attitude.
Lauren scoffed before facing the front of the line. Bella bit her lip to keep from laughing as she reached her hand behind her back for Angela to give her a five. Embry chortled with a shake of his head. They moved up in line with no more trouble.
Once in the theater, Bella and Angela balked at the idea of sitting directly in front of Lauren, but Jessica had been kind enough to save them seats and Angela had Jessica's soda and candy so they didn't have a choice. The movie started and within minutes Bella felt someone kick the back of her seat, hard. Lauren apologized, claiming that it was an accident and Bella let it go. Ten minutes later Bella was taking a sip of her drink when it happened again and her straw ending up scraping across the roof of her mouth and she choked on her drink.
"Are you okay?" Jessica asked.
"She did that on purpose," Bella seethed once she regained her composure.
"Just ignore her," Angela whispered.
Halfway through the movie Bella's phone buzzed and she checked it to see a text from Edward, telling her goodnight. She texted him back quickly before putting her phone back in the pocket of her sweatshirt.
"You know, it's rude to check your phone during a movie," Lauren said in a bored tone.
"It's also rude to get into other people's business," Bella countered.
"Nice," Jessica said quietly, giving Bella a fist bump.
Lauren didn't bother her for the rest of the movie. At the diner after the movie Bella sat across from Embry and Jacob with Lauren on Jacob's other side. Things were fine at first and everyone was getting along. Embry was asking about Edward and why he had yet to come home and Bella gave her scripted answer of he was busy at school.
"Sure he is, that's what every person who is away from their boyfriend or girlfriend says. He's probably had like three girls on the side since he got there," Lauren said with an eye roll.
"That's not necessary," Bella said, her posture going rigid, ready to go on the defensive.
"I'm just saying that when you look as good as he does, those things happen," Lauren said with a fake smile.
"Okay, that's enough," Bella said as she moved to stand up.
"Jealous, much?" Jessica accused Lauren.
"You've been nothing but rude to her all night. What do you have against her? What did she ever do to you?" Jacob asked.
"Oh, I know exactly what it is. Jessica is right, she's jealous; everybody knows that Lauren's been hung up on Edward since he moved here last year," Bella confessed before walking away.
She didn't have to wait outside alone long. A tall shadow was cast over her shoulder and she looked over her shoulder to see Jacob a few feet away, with his hands stuffed into the pockets of his jacket.
"What do you want Jacob?"
"I told Jessica that I'd take you home, come on," he said, jerking his head towards the Rabbit.
"You don't have to. I can call my dad, he's still up."
"I don't mind. I needed to get out of there anyway, too much drama," he said with a loud sigh.
"She's like that all the time," Bella mumbled.
"I've never seen her like that."
"That's because she had her sights on you. A girl never reveals her true self until she's got the guy. That's simple airhead logic," she informed him.
"I'm glad that you don't act like that. Your friends really lit into her after you walked out. I've never seen Angela so mad," he said with a light laugh.
"Lauren had it coming to her."
"I guess she did," he said with a nod.
"I don't even know why I let her get under my skin," she said with an exasperated sigh.
"Well, I personally won't be giving her the time of day again. No one talks to my friends like that," he stated.
He pulled up to her house a few minutes later. She undid her seatbelt before turning to him.
"Thank you letting me vent and for not thinking less of me for putting her in her place. It's been a year and she just won't let it go."
"No thanks needed. I happen to think it's nice that you wore Edward's shirt. I hope that I find a girl that will want to steal my clothes one day," he said with a chuckle.
"She's out there, somewhere."
She thanked him for the ride before getting out. Her dad was still up, watching the late news when she came in. She gave him a weary smile as she bid him goodnight. She was glad that the night was over and that she could move passed it.
XXXX
The weekend flew by and before Bella knew it, it was six a.m. on Monday. She was quiet as she got ready since Charlie was just going to bed after working the graveyard shift. Once she was at school she finally felt awake enough to face her day.
She was at her locker when Seth skidded to a stop next to her. She looked at him out of the corner of her eye, quirking one side of her mouth in greeting.
"Whew! I didn't think I'd stop in time. They waxed the floor this weekend," he explained.
"How was your weekend?"
"Long. I swear, Leah is a tyrant; all she did was order me around and yell at me all weekend."
"I'm sorry, Buddy. I'll make you some brownies this afternoon to make up for it."
"Blondies with M&M's?" he asked hopefully.
"Sure," she said as she shut her locker.
She saw Jacob coming down the hall by himself and he slowed to a stop on Seth's other side. Bella smiled in greeting and he smiled back. The breakthrough from Friday had finally broken the last bit of awkwardness surrounding them and she was looking forward to moving forward.
Alice was walking towards them with a determined look. She stopped a few feet away from Bella, clearing her throat to get Bella's attention.
"Hey, Alice," Bella said politely.
"Sorry to interrupt, but Esme wanted me to make sure that you and Charlie were still coming for dinner tomorrow night," she explained.
"We'll be there," Bella promised with a nod.
"Great! Bye cutie," she said, ruffling Seth's hair.
"Bye," Seth mumbled, shyly.
The bell rang and the four of them went their separate ways to head to class. Alice's choice to ignore Jacob hadn't gone unnoticed by Bella. They would need to talk to about that when she came over the next night.
XXXX
The lunch room was as crowded and noisy as usual that afternoon but not so noisy that Alice didn't hear Jessica fill Eric and Ben in on what had happened Friday night. She was glad that Bella had finally stuck up for herself.
"I hope that she doesn't think she is sitting with us," Angela said, motioning with her eyes to Lauren who was making her way towards them.
"Quick, put something on every free seat," Jessica said as she shoved her purse onto the seat next to her.
Everyone followed her lead and Lauren gave her a frosty look before sitting a few tables away.
"I'm glad that Jacob saw her for who she was before she sunk her talons into him," Tyler said.
"Jacob was there?" Alice asked.
"Lauren invited him and some of his friends," Mike said with a roll of his eyes.
"Yeah, I'm glad that he took Bella's side and was nice enough to take her home," Jessica said with a nod.
"Jacob stood up for Bella?" Alice questioned.
"Yes, he did; like any friend would have," Angela informed her.
Alice pursed her lips as she let the information sink in. Not only had Jacob stood up for Bella but he had swooped in and saved the day by taking her home. She thought that he had ulterior motives and had become friends with Bella so that he could steal her from Edward. Maybe she had him all wrong.
