Chapter 4 - Fakers, shmakers.

Thank you to all who reviewed. *grins cheekily*

Twilightaddict, celine-twilightadict, Twilightgurl1917, and 1querida. - (awesome humans who spared some time to review.)

Also, thank you to the humans who had my story on Story Alert and Favourites and ME on their Author Alert and Favourite Authors. :)

*blows kisses*

Now, enjoy! :D

Bella Swan

A couple of days later, I sat at the kitchen table, stirring my bowl of Cheerios while thinking about that guy in that Bigfoot Beast band shirt. Alice and Rose hadn't found him yet, which I am grateful and disappointed for. I am grateful because I would probably go apeshit right now if they told me they found him already, and I'm disappointed, well because they haven't found him yet. It has been five days since the trip, and they still had not found him. Being Alice and Rosalie, this is not normal for them. It would only usually take three days, but they still haven't found anything about him.

My mind wandered to the memory where he and I had an actual conversation. The way I reacted to him got me freaked out. I reacted to him as if I had known him for a long time, or at least as if I knew that I wanted to get to know him. Really really wanted to.

What would make me feel that way? Sure, he was gorgeous, no question about that. Thing is, I had seen many other gorgeous people in my whole life and I'd never reacted to them like this. Instant crazies. So what was it? The shirt? Doubtful. Otherwise, I'd been throwing myself, Alice and Rose style, to each and every guy at the last BB concert that I'd attended. No, it just didn't make sense. That bugged me.

"Mmroah-ah-mhww!"

I blinked as my cat jumped onto the table in one graceful movement. Deceptively graceful. One paw almost landed in my bowl. It actually did land on my spoon, flipping it off the table going in the open aquarium. It hit one of my goldfish in the head and I rushed over there. Oh no! It hit Goldfish! Yes, my goldfish's name is Goldfish. It's eyes looked like it rolled to the back of his head and he sank down. Oh no! My fish is drowning!

I took it out and placed it on the rag beside the aquarium. I put my index finger on it's left side and started pumping the water out of it's system. Well, more like poking, but I can't use my full palm to pump it's side, can I? Then, I realized that it's a fish, of course it needed water. I couldn't exactly put it back to the aquarium, it might drown again. I rushed to the kitchen and took a cup. I went back to where I left Goldfish and saw that it wasn't there. I bit my lip in worry, and looked around.

Under the spoon that's in the aquarium? Nope.

Under the carpet? No.

Under the throw pillow? Nope.

Under the rag? Nada.

That's when I realized my cat, El Presidenté was looking up to me innocently, with it's sapphire blue eyes. I scrutinized his look for a while and then I realized what happened.

"AHH!" I shrieked. My mom rushed to where I was. She had only one earring one, her blouse only half buttoned, her right leg was in a panty hose while the other wasn't. "What happened, Bella?"

"El Presidenté ate Goldfish!" I said to her, bordering hysterical. He ate my favourite goldfish!

"It's alright, Bells. I'm sure El Presidenté was just hungry. He didn't mean to. You must've starved him," She explained to me calmly. How could she?

"Goldfish was my favourite goldfish!" I cried. She patted my arm awkwardly.

"Honey, Goldfish was your only goldfish."

"But-but-b-b-but.."

"Don't worry, we'll have Charlie buy you a new goldfish." She said and proceeded to headed back to her room. She paused at the kitchen table.

"Cheerios? Seriously, Bella? We still have some left over nasi lemak."

"It started to look kinda gross. Plus, it's morning," I complained. She just shrugged and went back to her room.

I guess I should explain about my family's weird food choices. My parents are into exploring ethnic cuisines. It's not like we're short of any money, since my mom works as a real estate agent and my dad is a lawyer after being the Chief of Police here. Anyway, back to the weird food habits, we usually eat new types of food like, thrice a month, with the other weeks featuring on what they call "reruns"—going back to eating some of the ethnic food that we really liked. This week was Malaysian, last week was Filipino and maybe next week we might find ourselves sampling the unique delicacies of Finland or Sri Lanka or maybe Mars, if my parents could find a cookbook or recipe in the internet. So because of this, plain ol' American food was an exotic treat in our house. I'd be surprised if my dad remembered to by orange juice and bread from whatever supermarket he was hitting up this week.

Mom came out with Dad with him looking like he was attacked by some orangutan. His white button up shirt was buttoned in the wrong places, his tie was loose on his neck, his hair in a tangled mess and his shoes were untied. I looked at my mom weirdly.

"Why didn't you help him?" I asked her while my dad was frantically running around the room with his hands up in the air.

"He moved to much. He said he was looking for his briefcase," She said calmly, once again. It's not like they're fighting. They just have this weird way of showing love. I actually know that they love each other because in the end of the day, they'd come home like they were just married, minus the sexual things.

"AH! Where'd I put that damned briefcase?" He screamed, pulling the ends of his hair. I looked around and saw that it was under the coffee table. I didn't bother tell him. My mom invited him to eat with her and he declined. Uh oh.

My mom stomped over my dad and gave him a nice, crisp slap on the face. She pulled him by the necktie and made him sit on one of the chairs. My dad actually looks scared now. Who knew that the once Chief of Police was scared of my mom?

Mom took his necktie from his neck. He tried to reach out, but she slapped his hand down. Dad cradled his hand while mom loosened the tie of his necktie until it's just a straight necktie. She tied him on the chair, but his arms were free.

"Try and loosen that fucking knot and you'll receive hell in your mail, got it?" She gritted out. Dad nodded slowly and let out a small whimper. Mom's mood suddenly changed and she had this cheery face on.

"I'll get you some pancakes!" She chirped and flitted gracefully in the kitchen. I shook my head at the scene in front of me and just took my bowl from the table. Dad looked at me with his wide, fearful eyes. I gave him a shrug and got a new spoon and went to the couch. I ate my food there peacefully while my mom served my dad.

"Oh! I'm going to be late! I need to meet with lots of people today, Charlie!" My mom said. My dad looks presentable now that my mom actually fixed his clothes.

"But Renée! I couldn't find my briefcase! I swear I just put it on the couch last night.." He said as he threw the throw pillows around the house. We ignored him both. That's how we roll.

"Hey, Mom," I said. "I know you and Dad met in high school. But, how long did it take you that he was the one?"

"The one what?" She asked as she gazed at my Dad lovingly.

"The One," I said. "You know, the one for you. The guy you'd spend all your happy days, sad days, and fucked up days with!" I said brightly. She rolled her eyes at me.

"Oh, I don't know," she said with a chuckle. "Maybe it was the time when we both were on a party and he accidentally poured his beer on my white shirt, and then started to perv me."

"Hey! It was purely unintentional, you know that!" My Dad protested. "Yup! Sure honey. I know that. Mhm." She replied, but there was an obvious sarcastic tone in her voice.

"Oh there! It was under the coffee table!" He said and jogged over here. My Mom looked at her watch. "About fucking time."

One more thing that I love about my family? They didn't censor their words.

"Well, we're out of here. Ta-ta, darling," She said and kissed my cheek. "Bye, honey. Take care," He said and kissed my forehead and followed Mom out to their car. I heard their car revved up and closed the door.

When I got to school, Alice and Rosalie were waving me over like crazy. "We found him!" They both shrieked. People turned to look at us and I blushed. Alice just waved them away. Alice waved me her BBB, up down, left right. "OMG! We totally found him! Told you we'd do it! It took us longer than normal, but hey, I'm not a magical fairy or anything," she said. Yeah, you're just a pixie.

I blinked. "Found who? OH!" My morning fog cleared over my head as I caught on. Yeah, I'm kinda slow before 9:00 am. "Wait, really?"

"We've been scouring Facebook for like, 5 whole days, focusing on the people that came to the trip that were from the other schools," Rose explained. "I figured that your mystery man might turn up on someone else's news feed sooner or later and now, we're pretty sure that we know who he might be!"

"Might?" I asked as my stomach churned. I wasn't sure how to think.

"Well, you told us to like, not embarrass you and stuff so we just checked him out not check him out as in check him out but yeah, whatever. We actually found him on Jonathan's wall—turns out, they go at the same school. Name's Edward."

"Edward," I murmured, nodding. That name fit him. Perfectly, if I do say myself.

I took the BBB and looked at it's screen. She had it open on her Facebook wall.

"Jonathan reposted an entry from his wall," Alice said. "Edward's wall, I mean. Trying to spread the word, I guess."

"Spread the word?" I looked at her, suddenly suspicious. "You didn't tell that Jonathan guy about me or—"

"No! Chill out. This is what I meant. Here." She said and took her BBB back and scrolled down a bit. She handed it back to me and I let out a gasp.

"That's him!" I exclaimed, recognizing the profile photo that was beside the entry she indicated.

The rushing started to happen again. The photo was miniscule, but I recognized him entirely. It was Edward. The guy from the planetarium.

"Read what he wrote!" Rose said and started twitching in excitement. It was a real challenge to take my eyes off his picture to the the text beside it. I could hardly believe that they had found him.

"'Searching for a certain girl,'" I read aloud. "I met you in the planetarium during the class trip this week and can't stop thinking about you. But I never got your name, your school, or even a good look at you...'"

There was more, but I had to stop to process this correctly. "He's talking about me, right?"

"Right!" Alice said, jumping up and down earnestly. Rose too. Unable to control their glee, they wrapped their arms around me and we started to dance in the middle of the parking lot. Chaz Murkins paused long enough to whistle and say something crude about my best friend's anatomy. Everyone else pretty much ignored us. They were used to our exuberance.

My heart was pounding and my throat went dry. I felt excited, nervous and weirded out at the same time. This was big. I mean, really big. I wasn't sure I was ready to handle it.

Finally, we stopped dancing. Then, I read the entire entry:

Searching for a certain girl: I met you in the planetarium during the class trip this week and can't stop thinking about you. But I never got your name, your school, or even a good look at you. You fell into my arms and asked me to stop meeting like this, but I can't stop thinking how we met. I keep humming the song I wrote about you, and it's driving my friends crazy. So, if you're The One and you want to talk about Bigfoot Beast and walk down the Ocean Road with me, please get in touch.. and maybe we could stop meeting like that and meet for real.

"Wow," I said, stunned. "He wrote a song about meeting me."

"Well, isn't that superly amazing and cool?" Alice exclaimed, clutching my arm so hard it hurt. "This has got to be the most romantic thing ever in your whole life!"

I wanted to tease her for that. Putting my love life ahead of her many conquests. Thing is, I couldn't focus on doing that right now. All I could think about was the post Edward made.

"I have to write back," I said firmly. "I should friend him, and you know, like write back, I guess."

That very idea is daunting. Luckily, I was saved by the bell. Literally. The late bell jangled over my head, reminding me that I was supposed to be in Homeroom right now.

"Ooops," Alice grabbed her BBB and stuffed it in her bag. "Let's pick this up later. If I'm late to Homeroom one more time, Old Lady Fernandez is going to expel me."

"What are you typing? Come on, at least let me see!" Rose exclaimed. I didn't let Alice see what I was typing so now, she was pouting.

"I don't even know. Everything I type sounds so lame," I said and hit the back space button, then glanced over to Alice. She was tickling El Presidenté, who was sprawled out with his back beside her, purring like a maniac.

I'd had a yearbook meeting at lunch today, and Alice, Rose and I didn't have the same Study Hall. So, here we are, at my house after school, so they could give me moral support while I wrote to Edward.

Unfortunately, once I sat down at my desk in front of my laptop, found Edward again, and clicked on Add as Friend, I'd realized I had no idea what to say to him. The little Add a Personal Message box blinked impatiently at me, once again as blank as my mind when you asked me how to flirt with boys, my way.

"What?" Rose blinked impatiently at me while Alice was enjoying El Presidenté's company. "Why aren't you typing? The sooner you write back, the sooner you get to start your new romance with Mr. Band Shirt."

"I just don't know what to say that doesn't make me sound like a total dork," I sighed, closing my eyes to avoid the taunting blank box. "Nothing I try seems right."

"How about this.. 'Meeting with you is out of this world' ..." Rose paused and grinned, waggling her eyebrows like Groucho Marx. "Get it? 'Cause you guys met in the planetarium. Cool, huh?"

I rolled my eyes. "Get real. I thought you were supposed to be good at this."

"Okay, okay. Give me a minute. I'm just warming up, sheesh, don't get your knickers in a twist." She tapped her chin thoughtfully with one perfectly menicured finger. "Well, how about 'Greetings from The One. Are you The One for me? Let's see if One and One make Two of a Kind."

"Are you kidding me?" I shook my head profusely. "That is totally not me. Nuh uh."

She frowned. "Come on, you've got to write something! I'm just suggesting, Bellarina. Oh wait, I know!" She plopped down the bed, enough to make El Presidenté to be startled and bounced over to Alice's face. "How about, 'Roses are red, Violets are blue, I'll be your One, if you'll be my Two."

"That doesn't even make sense."

"Maybe not, but it's cute and sort of romantic." Rose pursed her lips. "Well, now that you pointed that out, it does kinda sound corny."

"You betcha."

"Well, guys eat that crap a lot, so I'm about 75% sure that he'd eat that corny line up."

"Do you think 75% of all the guys will write a song for a girl he just met?"

"Touché."

"And that crap will only be eaten by guys that you flirt with. Especially when you flutter your eyelashes and give them the look saying Hey, big boy at the same time." I shook my head and gave my attention back to the blinking cursor on the screen. "Anyway, I'm just trying to let him know that I am out here. Not wow him with my mad poetry skillz."

"It doesn't have to be poetry," Rose said. "Just something fun and clever to catch his attention."

I didn't answer, instead typing up a few lines: Hi there! I'm the girl from the planetarium. My name is Bella, and I thought you seemed really cool, too. Write back if you want to chat more.

"There," I said, sitting back from the keyboard and shooting Rose a look that dared her to argue that my note was too boring and straightforwards. "That should do the trick."

"That's too straightforward and boring." I heard Alice say from behind me. I screamed in surprise and fell on the floor with my bum. I didn't even hear her rise up from the bed and that's saying something, 'cause my bed is so creaky and stuff.

Before Alice could erase it and replace it with something less me and more her, I hit the Send Request button. "Why play games?" I said, feeling a shiver of nervousness come down through my spine.

"If those were sparks—or whatever they were— really were some kind of hint that he and I were meant to be, then he should like me for me, not who I pretend to be. If not, then we all might as well suck it up and move on."

They both shrugged. "What an inspirational speech," Rose commented. I shot her a 'shut-the-hell-up' look, and she did.

"Well, whatever. You're right. How about we give you a mani-pedi while you wait 'til he gets back to you? Your nails look like hell," Alice said.

"No, they don't." I held out my hands to check. "Well, okay, maybe they kinda do."

Alice skipped merrily to her bag. "Rose? Which is better for her paleness? Red, Blue or Pink?" She said and held up three nail polishes. "Blue, definitely."

She danced back to me and started painting my nails. They painted both of my finger nails and toenails. We were lounging on the bed, and after a few minutes, my email beeped to let me know I had a new message. I jumped at the sound. So did El Presidenté. He rushed out of the bed and tried to run out of the room. Instead, while running out the door, he hit the door frame and fell back. Crazy cat.

"What's with him?" Alice asked.

I didn't respond. I just clicked over my inbox, careful to not put nail polish on the keyboard. My heart jumped right out of my chest when I saw that message was from Facebook. Edward had accepted my friend request.

"Click through!" Rose demanded, and I did. It opened to the message, filling the screen with mostly blank space.

Hi Bella, Edward had written. Nice to hear from you.

That was all. No proclamations of love. Not even a proclamation of like, lust, or vague interest. Just hi-how-ya-doing. Wasn't what I expected after that sweet, romantic "searching" post.

"Wow," I said. "He's not exactly that thrilled or overjoyed to hear from The One, does he?"

"So what!" Alice exclaimed, unfazed. "Your thing was short and boring too. He might not want to appear to eager or something. Male pride." She reminded me. I shrugged. Guess she was kinda right.

"OMG! This is so exciting! I can't wait to see what's on his page!"

I shrugged. She had a point. Maybe Edward and I had something more in common other than just our taste for Bigfoot Beast. Like not knowing what to type to a perfect stranger over a social networking site.

Reaching for the mouse, I clicked on the link to take me to Edward's profile page. It popped up on the screen.

The first thing I saw was his profile picture. It looked so much better full size than seeing it on Alice's BBB. The photo showed him standing next to a silver Volvo, smiling and his hair was much more messier. Nice.

Next, I turned to the text scanning down the latest posts. Suddenly, I started to understand why he didn't sound particularly excited or something. His wall was positively overflowed with messages from girls who'd read his "searching" post.

Almost every single one of them was claiming to be The One!

Reviews are like sugar bombs on boring days. I'm having a BORING summer. Care to give me a sugar bomb? :D

Press down there to make a sugar bomb explode and make me more energetic and update FASTAHH. XD