Bella's POV
Instead of going to Jasper or Rose's house to hang out, I went straight to Jacob Black's house. Jake was my first friend when I moved to Seattle. He was a grade younger and I could tell that friendship was not enough for him. After my mom passed, I just couldn't have that kind of relationship. Of course, that was three years ago and I had been in a few relationships. None included Jake and he didn't take to that too kindly, but other times he'd be a cool friend.
I pulled up to his little house and didn't bother going to the house, but went straight to his garage. He was working on his own car in his spare time.
"Jake?" I called out while walking into the garage and trying to avoid tripping.
"Bells?" He asked coming out from under the car.
"Hey." I smiled and sat down on a pile of tires. I almost fell into the little holes, but avoided the embarrassment.
"What are you doing over in this side of town?"
"I came to see how you were doing."
"Did Billy put you up to this?" He asked flatly.
"No?" I said confused. "Why would Billy put me up to this?"
"Don't worry about it." He said.
"Jake…"
"It's not your problem, Bella." He said and then he laughed. "God, I miss you. How've you been?"
My laughing, fun, carefree Jake was back. "I've been okay. Jasper and Rose have been keeping me busy."
"That's good. Charlie was here the other day and mentioned how you're never home."
"Was he mad?"
"Charlie? No. He can't get mad at you. I think he's concerned he's not a good parent."
"Oh." I stated. "It's just not easy being in that house. He's fine, but…"
"I understand." Jake said. "That's why I spend more time in here. My house reminds me of my mom too."
"Yeah, it sucks… trying to avoid your own house."
"Yeah Rebecca and Rachel never come home if they don't have to."
"Your sisters?"
"Yeah." He said.
We were hanging out just like old times. I missed him. I didn't want to ruin the day by asking him a favor on Rose's behalf. So I didn't. I don't wish to use Jake anymore than he thinks that I have. I started driving home around seven. To be honest, I can't remember the last time I'd gotten home from school before nine. I usually just avoided going home until I had to sleep and even then I would usually try and find a way out of it. I'd sleep at Rose's or at Jasper's.
When I got home and opened the door Charlie turned around with a shocked expression on his face.
"Is everything alright?" He asked immediately. "Are you hurt?"
"I'm fine and no I'm not hurt. I thought I could make you dinner since I'm never home."
"Oh, well, then… okay."
I went into the kitchen and began to cook some pasta. It was the only thing we actually had in the kitchen that was edible. When I was finished I set the table and called Charlie to the room.
"Bells, this is nice." Charlie said sitting down.
I sat across from him and smiled while we began to eat. Charlie wasn't much of a talker and I wasn't either. It was nice, though.
"How's work been?" I asked.
He nodded his head as he said, "Good. The crime rate is about the same, though. I hope you're not hanging out in the bad parts of the city."
"Nope." I said.
"Good," he said, "I don't know what I would do without you."
Edward's POV
Alice, Emmett, and I were sitting in my living room. Alice was on the sectional couch, laying down on her stomach and doing math homework. Emmett was also sitting on the sectional, but he was on the part in front of the coffee table devouring all the food, while he was playing Halo with me.
Alice's phone began to ring, but it was on the coffee table.
"Emmett pick that up." Alice said.
"Ugh." Emmett whined and paused the game and picked up her phone. "Yo."
"Yo?" I laughed and Alice rolled her eyes.
"Rosalie…" Emmett said. "Do I know you...? ... I didn't think so… I'm not a creep, woman…. Just trying to figure out who you are. Yeah hold on."
Emmett tossed the phone to Alice. She began chatting away for several minutes and Emmett and I resumed our game. When Alice hung up Emmett said, "I need that girl's number."
Bella's POV
It was the next morning and I had a weird feeling that it was going to be a good day. The sun was shining in my window and I got up easily, took a shower, and got dressed. I ran down the stairs waved goodbye to Charlie and got into my car. I was driving when I saw an annoyed Jasper at a stop sign with a few freshmen. I stopped and rolled my window down.
"What are you doing out here?"
"My mom needed to borrow my car while hers is in the shop." He said while getting into the passenger side.
"You should have called me."
He shrugged.
We arrived at school a few minutes later. We were walking up the stairs to the school when Jasper stopped. I walked up a step and then I saw why Jasper stopped. There was a very large pink poster with a picture of Rosalie from the summer in a bikini and in big words it said "Vote for me for Valentine's Princess!"
My eyes widened. I was shocked. She didn't tell me or Jasper. I slowly walked up to the poster with Jasper slowly behind me. We stared at it for a few more moments. Then an angry Rosalie came from the school and ripped the poster down.
"I didn't think you were going to that dance…?"
"I'm not!" Rose said.
"Did someone else put these up?" Jasper asked.
"Obviously." Rose sneered. "I don't know why, though!"
"It's a… um… cute picture." I laughed.
"Isabella Swan you better tell me you didn't do this for some sort of joke?" Rose asked in a deadly voice.
I rolled my eyes, Rose didn't scare me anymore. "I wouldn't do that."
She sighed, "Whatever. It's a great picture."
The rest of the day went by pretty uneventful. Rose transformed from being angry to being somewhat flattered. In the school newspaper it said that she was the favorite to win. Rose was now looking for a dress to the dance.
There was a substitute for math class. He took attendance and handed each of us a worksheet. The worksheet consisted of about ten math problems that were at a seventh grade level. Once we were finished he told us we could leave early. It took me ten minutes to wrap up my work and hand it to the teacher. I began walking to my car in the frigid February cold air when Alice screamed, "Wait up!"
I stopped and waited until she made it up to me. "Aren't you cold?" I asked. She was wearing a skirt with boots.
"Pain is beauty." She shrugged, walking next to me. "So, I have a favor to ask."
"What?" I asked rubbing my hands together trying to cause some sort of heat to enter my body.
"Your friend Rosalie told me that you're really great at drawing and stuff and I wanted to know if you could help me for my fashion class."
"I… I'm not that great at drawing."
"She showed me some of your work in the art room. It was spectacular! And I don't really have any friends who could help me and it's just the cover and it shouldn't be that hard. It'll take you ten minutes to draw tops."
"What would I be drawing?"
"Just a picture of some friends, pleaseee?"
"Um, well I'm sure I can fit it in somehow."
"You're so nice, Bella! Do you think you could help me today?"
She looked so excited that I couldn't say no. So I nodded my head as I began walking towards my car. "Right now?" I asked.
"If you wouldn't mind?"
"Not at all." I smiled. "I'll drive you to your car."
Alice hopped into my truck and I began to drive to the parking lot until she screamed, "Stop!" I laughed and stopped my car as she hopped into her yellow car. "Just follow me."
I followed her, which was extremely hard considering how fast she was going. My truck couldn't handle much more and she lived far away from the school.
She pulled down a curvy driveway to a white house on a lake. I was in awe. It was so gorgeous and my truck and I were just out of place. I parked my car anyway and hopped out. I followed Alice to the front door where she punched in a code on the fancy machine and she walked me into the house.
"Alice, you're house is so pretty." I said.
She laughed, "Oh, my house is next door. This is Edward's house. I left all of my designs and papers at his house."
"Will he mind me being here?" I asked. I didn't want to intrude.
"Nah. Emmett and I basically live here. They'll get here in a little while."
"Oh." I said as she led me to the living room where there was a massive sectional couch and plasma television. She grabbed a pile of books from the corner of the room.
"Alright," she began getting business-like while plopping down on the couch, "these are my fashion designs. They're supposed to be sophisticated, yet, high school style." She smiled at me. "Bella, you can sit." I did. "I need a picture of a few friends wearing some of these designs. I've tried, but I can't draw normal people right. They always end up too modelsque, is that a word?"
"I don't think so." I said while looking through Alice's sketch pad. I had a similar one, but it was hidden underneath my bed. Occasionally, I'd show something to Rose or Jasper, but not often. Alice's designs were mind-blowing. "They're… amazing, Alice. Not even just the designs, but the drawing techniques you've used."
She flashed me a big smile, "Thanks! I show these to Emmett and Edward and they kind-of glance and all, but they don't appreciate it. Men."
We laughed together. Then Emmett came running through the house with Edward closely behind.
"Ha ha, Edward! You can't catch me!" Emmett yelled running around the first floor of the house. He was like a toddler, with the body of an eighteen year old.
"You're going down, Emmett!" Edward said with a smile on his face.
"Only if you can catch me!" Emmett yelled taking off again.
"Ha!" Edward said as he dove at Emmett. They were laughing as they collided, but they both hit a table with a vase on it. It came crashing down. Alice frowned at them.
"Shit." Emmett said.
"Fuck." Edward muttered.
"Idiots!" Alice yelled at them. "That's Esme's favorite."
"No, shit." Edward said while standing up.
"Well, we can just buy a new one?" Emmett said, standing up and dusting the invisible dust off of his shoulders.
"It's from France." Alice said, "She'd know the difference from a mile away."
"Fuck." Emmett said.
"Alright, we get that it sucks." Alice said to Emmett. "No need to curse a million times."
Emmett went to go pick up a piece.
"Stop." I said suddenly. Emmett and Edward noticed me the first time and both their mouths formed 'O'. It would have been quite hysterical if I wasn't so nervous for some strange reason. "I can probably fix it."
Emmett high-fived tiny Alice and Edward beamed at me. I got down on all fours by the broken vase. It was broken into two large pieces. "I had to fix this plate my step-dad gave my mom once. You should still tell your mother. Just incase this doesn't hold."
"What are you going to do to it?" Edward asked.
"Use this really cool glue. It's designed to fix china and stuff." I said. "Alice, can you hand me my bag?"
Alice hopped over, grabbed my bag and gingerly put it down.
"You carry glue with you?" Emmett asked, hiding a smile.
"I knew I'd get some use of it someday." I smiled at him, while gently picking up one of the pieces of the vase. I put small dabs of glue here and there. Everyone was watching me in silence. I then attached the two pieces together. Gently, still from the ground, I placed the vase back onto the table. I wondered if Edward's mother was one of those step-fords like wives.
"You're amazing." Edward said, he extended his hand to me.
I took it and allowed him to help me up.
"Wow." Emmett laughed. He put his head up to the vase and started to inspect it.
"Be careful!" Alice shrieked nearly causing Emmett to fall onto it.
"Let's all take a step back from the vase." Edward said as my cell phone went off. I thought of ignoring it, but I saw it was Jasper.
"Hold on." I said to everyone. "Jazz?"
He laughed into the phone. "I don't remember where you parked this morning? Are you already in your car?"
Shit. I forgot about Jasper.
"Where's Rose?" I asked.
"She left for work."
Damn.
Jasper sensed my silence and knew somehow. "I can walk home or call my mother."
"No way." I said. "I'll be there in ten minutes, okay?"
"Take your time." He said.
I hung up the phone with him.
"I have to go." I said to everyone. Emmett went to the kitchen taking stuff out of the refrigerator. Alice was sitting criss-cross on the floor next to my feet and Edward was standing next to me.
"I'll get him." Alice offered.
I raised an eyebrow at her.
"I noticed you drove him to school." She said. "I forgot until now about you drove him. I'll go get…?"
"Jasper."
"Yeah, I drive faster. I can drive him to his house or here or whatever works for you."
I didn't want to be stuck in Edward's house with Emmett all by myself. I didn't know if that would be awkward. I barely knew either of them.
"Stay." Edward said to me.
"Listen to him." Alice said standing up.
"I'll cook for you!" Emmett boomed from the kitchen.
"Um." I said.
"Please?" Alice asked. "I want to go over some more stuff with the cover?"
"Sure." I said. Alice didn't wait and skipped out the door.
"Don't eat anything Emmett gives you." Edward whispered while walking me to the kitchen. I sat on a stool as Emmett whisked almost all of the contents of the refrigerator on to the counter. I had to duck a few times. Edward would look at the food on the counter and then to me with an apologetic face.
"Edward you don't have to be a girl anymore!" Emmett said with his head in the freezer now.
"What?" I asked as Edward said, "Fuck you, Emmett. What the hell are you talking about?"
"Alice." Emmett said. "She wanted a female friend," Emmett wiggled his eyebrows, "to hang out with. Alice was designing a dress in Edward's size."
Edward rolled his eyes at me and I laughed. We all spent the time hanging out for the next hour. I beat Emmett at Halo, which he claimed impossible. Edward sat back and laughed when Emmett would curse.
"Where's Alice?" I asked eventually.
"Knowing her she's probably at the mall buying a new wardrobe for you." Edward said.
My eyes widened.
"I'm just kidding, Bella. Although, I'm sure she'd love to."
"Don't scare me like that." I smiled.
"Who is up for the desserts?" Emmett asked.
"I'm so full, Emmett." I whined. Emmett stood up and went to the kitchen.
"I think I'm gonna head home." I told Edward. "Just tell Alice that I'll talk to her tomorrow?"
"Sure." Edward said. "I'll see you tomorrow?"
"Yeah," I said walking to the front door with Edward, "bye Emmett!"
"Bye, Bella!" Emmett yelled.
"I'll see you later." I said to Edward.
He leaned against his front door and smiled crookedly at me as I walked away.
