Hello everyone!! Thankyou sooo much for your feedback, I couldn't help but update again.
Thanks to mrsjacobblack91, x-aly-x, LittleLil, smile for the paparazzi, sTaRz, Music ADD, Lianna Weschester, PowerSurge365, Vampires-Rock4eva, Screams-At-Midnight and allyg1990 for your reviews!
Most recent questions/comments:
Vampires-Rock4eva: yes, 'realised' is with a 'z', but not out in her Aussie-land! I would write it as 'z' but I fear that my habits will change and I'll write it wrongly on an essay in an exam or something. But thanks for being so observant!
smile for the paparazzi: yes, there shall be an E.POV, but only one, and not for a few more chapters to come. I like leaving a little to the imagination anyhoo, just like the fabulous Missy Meyer in the Twilights.
Lilianna Weschester: the Bella/Mike split will come soon, I promise! And Edward's reply will be in chapter 8, so, not too far away. I'm taking so long with it because I want my characters to be established before everything gets thrown (metaphorically) into a blender!
mrsjacobblack: yeah, I thought Edward+La Push Gang would be an interesting combo. Does anyone think Emmett and Sam would be besties in other circumstances? (I raise my hand) Heh. I think that'll be my chapter question... anyway. Moving on, here's the sixth!!
Chapter Six: Geeks
I pulled up to school the next morning with a spring in my step. Alice met me halfway across the parking lot, her Porsche's lights flicking as she pointed the keys over her shoulder to lock it.
"Hey Alice!" I said brightly as she turned back and hitched her book bag further up her shoulder. She shook her hair out of her eyes and looked at me to see if I was covering some bout of depression with my tone of voice, but once she'd decided I wasn't being fake she smiled back.
"Good morning. How was your afternoon?"
"Pretty lame really. I cooked Charlie and I dinner and almost broke my neck on the stairs, as usual, but then Charlie asked me if I would ask Mike's parents over to dinner tomorrow night!"
Alice beamed brightly at me without any prompting. "Awesome! So you get to meet the parents!"
"Well, yeah, but I've met them so many times before that this wouldn't be very different."
Suddenly, Alice stopped. It took me a few steps to realise this before I stopped and turned back. She had a look of total horror on her face – horror directed at me.
"What?" I asked in an unnecessarily high-pitched voice, automatically denying whatever I had or hadn't done wrong.
"'Wouldn't be very different', "she quoted scathingly, and took the necessary steps to be at my side again. She continued past me and threw her hands in the air as she ranted about my apparent ignorance.
"Do you realise how very different this will be? It's going to be the one time where Mike's parents can judge you freely because that's what the night will be intended for – this is the time where you need to make a lasting good impression! Screw it up, Bella," she turned to me and waggled a bony finger in my direction, "screw this night up, and you'll have a likely ex-boyfriend on your hands."
I rolled my eyes and smacked her hand out of the air.
"Really Alice, stop being so melodramatic. It's just dinner. It's not like they'll be sitting there with magnifying glasses observing my every move. Though I wouldn't put it past Charlie to do that to Mike," I said, adding the last part with a smile. Alice followed my lead, probably picturing Charlie with a bright lamp behind him and one eye magnified horribly by a huge manacle jammed between his furrowed brow and raised cheek. She regained her horrified mask, however, once Angela called her hello when we got to the raised footpath indicating the campus grounds.
Alice wheeled around and Angela's steps toward us halted abruptly when she saw the look on Alice's face.
"Do you know what she just said?" Alice said, throwing her arm out in my direction and almost taking out an eye with her pointed finger.
Angela sensed it was safe to approach and regained her steps. "What?" she asked innocently.
Alice's stride, however, was not broken. "She said that the first dinner with Mike's parents wasn't going to be very important!"
Evidently, Angela agreed with me – but she was smart enough not to say so. So she compromised by taking the middle ground.
"Well, it's not not important, but it doesn't mean the planet will implode if she says or does something stupid," Angela said, speaking slowly and choosing her words carefully, trying to sidestep the mines. Alice looked like she was about to protest, so Ange raised her hand and held up a finger to silence her. "That being said, though," she turned to me now, "there are certain things that will dig you a grave if said in front of Mike's parents."
"What," I said, smiling at the prospect I thought she was describing, "You mean saying something like, 'Wow, Mr Newton, your son is really great in bed. Are you just as good?'"
Angela cracked up laughing and Alice's face flickered into a smile before she carefully pulled her features back into a scowl. I knocked Alice playfully in the arm as the corners of her mouth involuntarily curved up, and locked my arm around her shoulders so I could steer her back towards classes. Angela wiped a tear from her eye and skipped up beside Alice as we headed for the building courtyard.
"That's definitely some things you shouldn't say, Bella," Angela pointed out, "but there are other, less obvious things that shouldn't be said near parents. I think we need to educate you on this, don't we, Alice?"
Alice had shrugged free of my arm so she was uninhibited to nod defiantly with Angela. I rolled my eyes. Again.
"So how are you going to cram this vital information into my brain by tomorrow night?"
"Oooooh!!" Angela cried, and I remembered that she didn't know about the time of the dinner. "That's so cute! Can we come?"
Alice smacked her in the arm and she rubbed it as she mumbled, "I guess that means no…" She plopped down on a bench and swung her bag between her feet. Alice and I followed her example, but I pulled my bag onto my knees and Alice balanced hers on her feet while she leaned back on the seat.
"Hey!" Alice suddenly yelled, practically punching my closest eardrum with the noise. "I have an idea," she went on; hushing her voice once she realised some people had turned around in alarm.
"What?" Angela asked in a mock bored voice to irritate Alice. It didn't deter her.
"Well," she turned to Angela, "since I was coming to your place this weekend anyway, maybe we could spend part of our Saturday with Bella to teach her the essentials of the Meet the Parents game!"
I scoffed, and expected Angela to do the same, but she didn't. When I brushed the hair out of my eyes that had landed there after my giggle, I saw that Angela's expression suggested she was actually considering the idea, and was getting more and more excited about it with every passing second. As I watched in a slightly horrified, stunned state, she started nodding at Alice, who nodded back, and they shook hands.
"Guys, come on," I spluttered, shocked at what I knew I was going to be subjected to tomorrow if this went ahead.
Alice dropped her bag on the ground, spun around to be sitting on my other side and half-kneeled while giving me a look which was meant to be irresistible. I laughed nervously when I saw Angela's face was the same. The continued to stare at me, Alice eyeing my clothes in a way I'd learned to recognise. She flicked Angela a knowing look, and I almost flipped out.
"No, no, no, no, no," I started chanting, and as I stood and backed away from them I realised that they were planning more than just a makeover of my manners-
"Pleeeease Bella?" Alice held her hands in front of her like a prayer. Angela had an amused expression on her face but was making me back up too (and blocking my usual escape route for situations such as these). I felt my back hit the wall of the cafeteria and I knew I was lost.
I decided caving now was a better idea than being pursued for the remainder of the day between classes – so I sighed and looked at the ground as I mumbled coherently enough, "Fine."
If Alice had punched my eardrum with her shout, she'd just popped my eardrum's eardrum with her squeal of delight at an easy victory. Angela looked slightly apologetic, but not enough to switch sides. I pushed through them both while Alice jumped up and down on the spot, clapping her hands together and continually squealing with happiness.
Once my bag was over my shoulder, I turned toward my first lesson, sparing only a glance over my shoulder long enough to see that Angela was physically trying to hold Alice down. I smiled, a usual reaction, but forced it off my face as I remembered what I was going to have to live through tomorrow.
"Hey gorgeous," a cute voice said into my ear as his arm caught my waist. I giggled and looked up into his face.
"Hello there, Mr Captain of the Badminton Team, you know we're going to have to keep this little thing we've got going on a secret, my boyfriend can get a little jealous sometimes." I smiled and kissed him on the cheek. His skin was a little rough, just the way I liked it, and he smelt of warm cinnamon buns.
"He can come too, if you like," he said, and I could hear the laugh threatening to break out in his voice. I laughed and gently hit him in the shoulder with my free hand, and his response was to pull me a little closer against his side.
We strolled into the cafeteria, immediately spotting Emmett's massive form at our usual table.
"I'll grab your something to eat, Bella. Save me a seat," Mike said as he dodged his way through an opening and slid into the canteen line. I looked away once he was lost in the unusually large throng of people jostling around the counter, and crossed the room to our table.
"Only three times today, Bella," Emmett commented as I took my place beside Alice. Angela and he were sandwiching Rosalie, who was giggling profusely and making half-hearted attempts to free herself from the squash. Alice was making a little man out of various items of food left over from everyone's trays.
"What?" I said, rubbing my side as I reached for a piece of bread Alice was flattening into a t-shirt shape.
He laughed and leaned away from Rose, who fell shaking with laugher into his arms. "Three times," he repeated, now tickling Rosalie with one hand and stopping her escape with the other. The blank look on my face must have prompted him for more information, because he said, "You only tripped three times on your way over here today. Good effort," he commented before he had to pin Rose's hands to her sides – she'd worked out that he was ticklish too.
Just then someone jabbed me sharply in the sides and I yelped with surprise. "That was quick, Mike, I didn't think-" but then I stopped, seeing that it wasn't Mike who'd given me the rib-stab. And it certainly felt like a stab, my sides were beginning to bruise, I was sure.
Angela snapped out of whatever she was thinking about and saw the intruder behind me. "What do you want, Black?" she snarled with more venom than I thought was possible from a sweet character like herself. I then remembered that he'd once tried to take it too far with her at a party when he was drunk, and though she usually forgave people, she would only forgive those who were actually sorry.
Jacob smiled innocently at her and directed his attention back to me. I felt Alice twist around in her seat and cross her arms at him.
"I was just wondering," he said, leaning down much too close for comfort, "if you'd thought about my offer yesterday."
It took me a moment to remember what he was talking about, because his overly-warm breath had hit me full in the face and by squinting out of the way of the air I'd almost stopped listening. Fortunately Alice spoke for me before he could assume I'd been dazzled by his 'good-looks' or something.
"She thought that as long as she didn't have to have any kind of contact with you, she'd be there. And she'd also bring all her friends." Alice turned to everyone else at the table and winked, encouraging them to play along. Emmett and Angela immediately murmured comments like 'oh, yeah', 'definitely' and 'wouldn't miss it' but Rosalie blurted an obvious "What?"
Emmett distracted her in a way that only Emmett could before she said something else that'd break the plan.
"Is that okay with you?" I said sarcastically to Jacob once I was sure Rosalie was 'busy'.
He leaned down to me again, but I stood my ground and tried very hard not to gag at his wood-land breath. "As long as you're happy, I'm happy." I took a great breath in through my nose and looked him in the eye, waiting for the rest of his parting 'speech'. "So you'll be there?"
I almost – for want of a better word – buckled. He looked so unexpectedly vulnerable when the sentence escaped his lips that I almost, almost reached up and hugged him as an effort to make it all better. In that fleeting moment, I remembered the laughing, the crying, the tree-climbing, the scratches and scars and tender moment's only children could share that I'd had with Jacob when we were little.
Charlie and Billy were still the best of friends, but Jacob and I had completely grown apart – or Jacob had grown away from me. Once high school had started, and Jacob had met Jasper Whitlock and James Varner, he'd become a different person. I knew I would have to choose between going with the Jacob I no longer knew, or keeping true to myself and consequentially ending up on opposite sides of a socially-defined line.
I snapped back into reality and realised that the Jacob I no longer knew had returned as soon as he'd left, and I was looking up into the face of a stranger. Oddly, however, part of me still wanted to reach up and comfort him.
"Yeah," I said quietly, looking down at the linoleum floor. "We'll be there."
"But don't expect to actually see us," Alice interjected sharply as Jacob turned and headed back to his side of the line. He didn't turn at Alice's comment; she may as well have been totally silent for all he cared.
I took a deep breath and swung back to the table, feeling a joint in my back painlessly click as I did so. Alice, who had been reminded of the masquerade, started chattering happily to Angela about everything she knew. Angela's questions and Alice's voice faded into the background as I turned around in my seat.
I looked to the rowdiest table in the cafeteria. Jacob sat there with Jasper and Varner – as I liked to call him – throwing pieces of food at passing students and laughing raucously as one knocked someone's drink over and it spilled down their front. Each of the three boys were sitting at the table on benches, and the four girls accompanying them assumed different places around the table. Victoria; the nasty girl from gym class, was sitting across James' lap and was feeding him some kind of cake or desert or something. As I watched, Victoria got a little on his cheek and she gently kissed it away for him. It would have been described as sweet had he not slapped her on the butt and pulled her in for a rough pash, her giggling stupidly all the while. Beside the two of them, who were occupying a fair portion of one of the benches, was Lauren Mallory. She was carefully perched cross-legged and was talking to Tanya Denal, who was sitting with her knees crossed on the edge of the table.
Tanya was a bit of a mystery to me. I didn't really know why she was part of that group; she seemed nice enough when she was on her own. But, I supposed, they were all like that. They were just a bad influence on each other, and that was what tied them together. Excluding Lauren, of course. She was horrid in every right and belonged solely in the centre of that group.
Across the table were Jasper and Jake. Jasper was eyeing a group of computer-geek types approaching their table (in a way which indicated they were completely unaware of the line they were dangerously close to crossing) and had an eyebrow raised in a scheming way. He leaned back to Jacob, who was digging apart an apple with his fingernails. He said something behind his hand and Jake started laughing and nodding at the same time. He looked at the geeks in the same way Jasper was, then clasped one hand around the apple, tapped Jasper on the shoulder and Jasper automatically ducked out of the way. I didn't know what they were doing before I realised Jake's hand was rising into the air, pulling back and flicking forward to toss the apple at the approaching innocents.
The apple spun through the air, little pieces of fingernail dug skin flying off randomly, and then it struck its target. The tray the poor kid had been carrying vibrated violently at the impact, the front of it slamming up into the owner's chest and forcing all breakables to break and squelch down the front of his carefully ironed shirt.
It would have been funny had that kid not been the same one I knew had graciously helped Jake with his English work two weeks ago, and it would have been funny had I had no sense of humour nor decency. However, those lacking the latter laughed like they were on drugs, their hands slamming down on the table top and clutching to each other for support as they tried to stay vertical.
The guy who was the butt of the joke peeled his tray away from his body and looked down at the mess. One of the people behind him – who had been shielded by his generous frame – kindly handed him a wad of napkins and pointed out the toilets. His glasses had been smeared with puree of mango and peaches. I watched with a level of pride rivalling that of a mother on Performance Night as another of the group lead the Shield away from the growing laughs echoing around the cafeteria. The scrawyny, glasses clad boy (who reminded me of an underfed Harry Potter) ensured the guy wouldn't fall on his way, and kept his eyes peeled for copy-cat attacks.
So there was still some kind of civility in the world.
I turned back to my table, instinctively reaching for a drink. My fingers clutched air, and I realised Mike wasn't back yet. Then, like he'd heard my thoughts, Mike appeared at my side and sat the tray of food in front of me.
I started to protest when Alice seized one of the two apples on the tray, but she silenced me with a look. Without a word, she pulled a piece of paper from her pocket and wrote something down, then scanned my tray again. She yanked a lollipop I hadn't noticed from between a bun and a bottle of lemonade and twirled it in her fingers for a moment. I watched as she held the apple in one hand, pushed the note up next to it and shoved the stem of the lollipop through them both, pinning the paper to the fruit.
Mike had noticed now, and he opened his mouth to protest about the money he'd spent on those things when Alice said, "Wait and see," in a mysterious voice which was very difficult to argue against.
She twisted around in her seat and made sure there was a clear path to Jasper's table, and then she lobbed it over towards them. I heard it 'thunk' onto the table then the barely-muffled swear as someone noticed its presence.
"Give it here," I heard Jake's voice scold. There was utter silence from all members of the table before Jasper said "What does it say?" and I expected Jake must have handed it to him, because Jasper swore and said, "Where did this come from?"
"Dunno," James' voice came, softer than the others; "It just appeared out of nowhere."
Jasper 'tsk'ed at him at must have looked around, because then he said, "I bet it was those geeks."
I looked sharply at Alice, who obviously hadn't considered this in her brilliant plan, and saw that her face was bone white. "Dammit," she muttered. I could tell she was battling in her mind whether it was better to go over there and fess up, or to see where it went.
My head snapped back around when I heard a scraping of wood on linoleum and Jake's voice muttering barely audibly, "Sit down you idiot, it couldn't have been them, they all went to the toilet together…"
"Well whoever it was will pay." Jasper sounded like he meant it.
Alice looked fairly satisfied now. She pulled the bread roll off mine and Mike's shared lunch tray, and started picking at it. I was reminded of the food's presence and pulled one of the remaining lollipops off to bury it in my pocket. Mike reached for the salad roll and I seized a fork to start pushing the pasta around its little foil plate.
"Alice," I said once I'd eaten nearly half the lasagne-resembling dish, "what was on that note?"
She looked up from the pieces of bread scattered around her hands. "I wrote 'heartless' on there."
I gasped. Even for someone as horrid as Jasper, that was harsh. "Geez, Alice," I said, looking at Mike to see if he agreed with me. His face was so shocked I was surprised he realised I was looking at him. "Don't you think that was a little ruthless of you?"
She shrugged her shoulders. "Not really. He calls me Anna, after all."
"What does that mean, by the way?" Emmett piped up, apparently picking up some of Rosalie's earlier blonde genes.
I rolled my eyes at him. "Seriously Emmett, you need to get out more. 'Anna' is short for 'anorexic', because Jasper is an insensitive twit."
"Oh," Emmett said, nodding in comprehension. He looked up at Alice with another question. "Would you mind if I beat his face into the floor?" He may have been asking if he could have a packet of chewing gum for the tone he used. I was a little taken aback.
Alice seemed indifferent to the bizarre phrasing. "Not today Emmett, I'd like to be the first to 'beat his face into the dirt', if you don't mind. But if he's stupid enough to start something with you," she said with a smile, "feel free to rearrange his face on my behalf, brother."
Emmett smiled happily and lifted Rose off his knees in triumph. "Consider it done, sister."
Once Rosalie contained her love-struck giggles, she turned to Emmett in an effort to regain his attention. "So where were you going to take me on that date you mentioned?"
I was suddenly reminded of my Saturday night prospect plans with Mike and his parents. I stabbed the fork into the now-congealed pasta and turned to Mike, who was just shoving the remains of his sandwich into his mouth. His cheeks were bulging and he smiled stupidly at me when I started to say his name.
I grinned at his puffer-fish face and started again. "Mike, I was talking to Charlie last night and he mentioned that maybe it was time you and your parents came over for dinner. Are you busy tomorrow night?"
He chewed for another few seconds before swallowing thickly, but the glint in his eye had me convinced of his positive answer before the words escaped his mouth.
"Yes!" he exclaimed. I played dumb for the sake of it.
"You are busy?" I asked, faking a crestfallen look. "How unfortunate. I was looking forward to it and everything, Charlie's going to be devastated…"
I looked up at him and tried to look saddened, but the corners of my mouth pulled up when I saw the confusion in his face. I laughed.
"You're truly an evil little angel, you know that?"
"Yup," I laughed in his arms. He kissed the top of my head.
"I'll be there," he said, letting go of me. I wormed around in my seat to see his face. "What time?"
I hadn't considered times. But Charlie and I usually ate at about seven, seven-thirty… "How does six-thirty sound?"
"Perfect." He climbed out of his seat and offered me a hand as I followed him up. The bell was still chiming as I righted myself. "So what's the dress code?" he asked as we got to the doors. He pulled me to the side so we wouldn't be swept away by the tide of students heading off to classes.
I punched him in the arm lightly. "Very funny, wise guy. You know perfectly well that I expect everyone to be arriving in their very best superhero outfits, and I'd better be seeing some underwear on the outside of Lycra tights or you won't be seeing a very happy Chief Swan," I said seriously. Mike knew better than to believe me, thought I did receive a few strange looks from unknown faces as they passed us.
"Well then, I'd better starts ironing out the wrinkles," he said, laughing with me. He looked down the hall as someone called his name from the stream of bodies. "I've gotta go, but I'll see you tomorrow. Or this afternoon. Or after school." He looked up again with an annoyed look on his face as his voice was called, more clearly and loudly this time. I thought it was Ben.
That reminded me, where had Ben and Tyler been for the last week? They hadn't turned up at any lunch chats that I could recall.
Mike's voice broke through my thoughts. "See ya, sweetie," he planted a fleeting kiss on my lips to which I was too slow to respond to, then he was gone.
I sighed and melded my way into the dying crowd of people heading for their lockers from lunch, still wondering about Ben and Tyler's unexplained absences.
Okay, that's the end of the sixth chapter!! Like it? Hate it? Review it!!
This chapter's question: Would Emmett and Sam be good friends if the circumstances were different?
Love you all!
-Shaps