And... it's posted!! Here is it, the REPLY! Are we excited? I know I am! WOO! And, as always, the moment of glory appears for my WONDERFUL reviewers:
mrsjacobblack91, Intoxicated By His Presence, Vampires-Rock4eva, Lianna Weschester, anarchist-vampire, beggingtobebitten, XxBellatrixJxX, Music ADD, Child-Of-God13, bedwardforever, jennifier potter, Panda Bee, Princess-Tinkerbelle, AlwaysBettingOnAlice, goodbyeiloveu, Ghosts in the Snow, prettygirlnboyfriend07, twilightaddict26, chrissyhale, total-eclipse911, Michelle62092, pierce.me.through.with.sadness, x-aly-x, smile for the paparazzi.
Special mentions:
mrsjacobblack: haha, loved your review, made me crack up!
Lianna Weschester: you'll find out where Bella and Mike stand relationship-wise in this chapter :-)
beggingtobebitten: lol, I love the way your review was phrased!
Child-Of-God13: goodness, NO, BellaxMike in the bedroom? Eww much? Not a chance!!
jennifier potter: oh my gosh, so weird; cos if you're talking about the musical Wicked with those lyrics? I'm doing a song from that for my voice (singing) lessons! It's a strange little world we live in. And yes, I laughed :-)
Princess-Tinkerbelle: LOVED your review. Made me smile for like an hour after reading it! (And you've now earned the First Place in my own personal 'longest review' competition!) The last thing I ate was some bread and nutella, yumm. Haha, Mike dying via a wooden spoon stabbing. I like it lol.
AlwaysBettingOnAlice: hahahaha, Mike being gay? So funny, great theory. (But he's not in this story, unfortunately, that would have been great to write lol)
prettygirlnboyfriend07: lol, you hit your computer. I like that my writing can evoke such passion!!
chrissyhale: haha, unlucky break there. I do it a lot too… eg, "Maths is the worst subject in the world! What, why are you looking over my shoulder? Stop giving me that look. I'm not falling for that again… Oh. Hi there, Mr Liebelt… so… have the computers in the maths office started working again? Heh, heh… Uhh… I have to go that way. Now. Bye!"
Chapter Nine: Recovery
Alice and Angela were nice enough to stay for most of the morning to keep me company. They pretended that they were staying because they wanted to sleep in, and I pretended to believe them. We both knew they were lying, and I was grateful. Though they were meant to be sleeping in, both of them were out of bed before eight and were throwing things across my room while I tried to sleep in. By eleven, however, both of them were gone and had only left behind the wrappers of the chocolate blocks buried deep in my bed sheets. (Charlie had been feeling negotiable enough the night before to allow Alice and Angela to take the television from the lounge and watch some DVD's side by side in my bed.) Luckily for both my co-ordination and Charlie's back, they'd returned it to the lounge before they left.
I retired to the back yard once I'd done the paper on Romeo and Juliet which may or may not be due on Monday. The sun was touching my legs from its faraway place in the sky while I flipped through the pages of a magazine long past it's used by date. Thoughts from last night were starting to creep back into my head so I yanked myself out from the wooden patio chair and headed indoors to find something else to read.
I didn't feel like a romance – so I avoided the much abused copy of Wuthering Heights poking out from under my bed. I gave Romeo and Juliet a pass along with Sense and Sensibility and a few others I found lying around. I was digging through the drawers of my dresser when I found a birthday or Christmas present from years ago.
It was a diary covered with childish stickers bearing my name, and looked like it belonged to a six or seven year old. It had been made during the hype of little plastic locks holding it closed, and had a key on a string hanging off of it like a bookmark. I laughed at myself, thinking of the silliness of hanging the key to a lock from the locked object.
I wondered why I had kept it, so I flipped it open to the first page and saw the reason scrawled across the page. It was a note from Renee that I loved, one that reminded me of her at her best when it had been just the two of us.
Dear little Bella,
No matter what anyone else says, you're the best thing in my life, and the best thing in the lives of those lucky enough to meet you. Never let anything beat you down; never allow anyone who can't hold you to lift you up.
Please stop sucking your thumb, darling, it makes me nervous when you do it!
I love you, more than the sky is blue and more than the sun is bright.
Stay beautiful, beautiful.
Love always, Mum.
I smiled at the note and flipped to the page past it. I'd never wanted to spoil the daisy-print pages while I was a child, so I'd never written in it.
Now, however, I felt like there was nothing wrong with spoiling a silly little page with some writing if it could just be ripped out again anyway, so I grabbed a fountain tip pen and headed back to the patio.
I folded my legs over one another and slumped down in the chair while I started to write.
It started as nothing more than a list of whatever words would come into my head, but before I knew it I'd filled pages and pages with my thoughts. I knew the length had a lot to do with the fact that my writing was astronomically big – it might even be visible from space – but there was still a fair level of emotion drenching those pages. I felt a little alarmed by my own thoughts when I read them back to myself, but shrugged it off and shut the book, clipping the insignificant lock closed. I hugged it to my chest and bounded up into the house, swinging aeroplane-style around the banister to the stairs and flew into my room, pulling the door closed behind me.
I pulled up to school the next morning feeling better than I'd expected. It was probably due to the fact that Alice had relayed details of her Sunday to me for so long that I had no time to wallow in my likely-to-be-single state; Charlie needed feeding and there was washing to be done once I'd hung the phone up. I was quite sure that that had been her intent, and I was appreciative of it.
The weather seemed to be in a good mood of its own, because the sun was still shining bravely from its home in the sky as I pulled my bag from across the seat and slung it over my shoulder.
Neither Alice nor Angela made an appearance as I approached the school buildings, and I wondered where they were. Suddenly, for what felt like the first time in weeks, I saw Ben and Tyler Cheney appear around the corner of one of the buildings. I called them and waved, to which they waved back, and I checked that I wasn't going to be flattened by a car before jogging carefully across the black and white zebra lines to where they were.
"Hey, guys!" I said brightly.
"What's up, Bella?" Ben asked, graciously leading the way to my first class.
I readjusted my bag on my shoulder as I answered. "Not a lot." The bell went overhead so I cut to the point. "Where have you guys been this week? I haven't seen you two at lunch for what feels like forever!"
Tyler laughed, but Ben went slightly pink and started examining his shoes.
"We haven't been doing anything illegal, don't worry," Tyler said, giving his brother some kind of look. "Ben here, he's just been trying to get up the nerve – OW!"
He was cut off mid sentence by Ben's wayward foot hitting his shin. Hard. "Sorry," Ben said sarcastically. "We've gotta be going, Bella, but we'll see you a bit later, okay?" He said all that in a rush and seized a handful of Tyler's jacket as he dragged his twin mercilessly along behind him.
I laughed at their retreating backs and turned my direction to English. I was pretty sure I knew what Tyler had been half a breath away from saying, but wasn't nosy enough to try and get it out of Ben himself.
I entered the shade of the cloakroom and paused automatically to hang up my jacket, but then remembered that I wasn't wearing one. My mood went up a little at this fact, and I continued into the class to take my usual seat. The happiness of my weekend had armed me with enough confidence to willingly face Mike, but he wasn't there in his usual place beside my own. Angela and Alice had subtly rearranged the seats so that my vacant seat had been saved between the two of them, and Mike was on the other side of Emmett – who was obviously in on it (or was being bribed fabulously by Alice).
Despite the knowledge that I could face him, not having to do it just yet was a relief for me. My morning classes, at least, would be free of arguments if Alice kept the pattern up through gym. I sat down and dropped my bag by my feet.
"Told you it was today," Alice said, pointing at the board.
'Romeo and Juliet papers due TODAY' had been written across the black board, and Miss Faulkner was sweeping around the class with a clipboard marking off the names of students who were present – and she was adding notes next to those names who didn't have their assignments.
"Why do we ever doubt you, Alice?" Angela said as her paper was taken up by Miss Faulkner. I pulled mine out of my bag and handed it to her as well, followed by Alice and Emmett on my other side.
I watched as Mike tried to explain how his weekend had been too busy for him to finish the paper, and that he would be able to hand it in tomorrow… however, the teacher wasn't accepting any excuses unless a doctor's certificate and an encased limb accompanied the story.
I wasn't sure how I felt about Mike getting a zero… I knew that I had every right to snigger at his misfortune, but he was still my boyfriend, and the (for want of a better word) 'romantic' thoughts that went with that status cancelled out the vicious ones, leaving me balancing on an annoyingly sharp little fence.
Alice captured my attention then, telling me about her plans for something to do with Athletics Day, which I remembered with a small shot of excitement was this weekend. She'd started to whine about something to do with the close seating on the bus and the horrid smell of sweaty boys we were going to have to put up with on the way home when I randomly remembered something she'd said on the weekend.
"Alice?" I said, trying to break her stride, but she ploughed on valiantly. "Alice!" I said a little louder, and she turned to me with a smile. "You know how you said you were going to ask Jasper on a date if I didn't feel better?"
"Yeah…" she said, warily watching my face and obviously hoping like anything that I had felt better.
I considered lying for a moment, and telling her that she did have to ask Jasper out, but I knew that karma would come around and wallop me in the butt. So I went for the truth.
"Well, you don't have to ask him two times over because I felt tons better when you guys left on Sunday."
Alice exhaled in a happy sigh; then smacked me sharply in the arm. "Don't you ever do that to me again! I'm too young to die of a heart attack, Isabella Swan."
I was reminded of unpleasant thoughts at the mention of my full name, but hid the emotion from my face. Angela and Alice gagged over the prospect of dating someone like Jasper for the remainder of the lesson, and I allowed my mind to space out, concentrating on what else was to come from my day.
Everyone around the room started shoving their books and pencils into their bags when I came back to reality, so I assumed it was the end of lesson. Angela accompanied Alice and I over to the gym, then waved happily as she headed off to her Geography class.
I could tell Mike was behind us when we crossed the basketball courts to the stands on the other side of the room, but I maintained enough self control to not look back. We were almost to the change rooms when I remembered something so vital I couldn't believe I'd almost forgotten it.
"Alice!" I almost shouted. She turned to me with an alarmed look on her face, but then went back to looking politely bored once she saw that I was being loud for no good reason.
"What?"
"We get our letters today!"
She looked at me with a blank expression for a moment, uncomprehending to my words. Then, recognition dawned on her face and her mouth formed an 'O' as she made the same noise.
"I wonder if we can get out of gym to collect them?" I thought aloud, getting more excited at the prospect of ditching a class I hated for something I was interested in, even if it was a once off.
"Only one way to find out!" Alice changed our direction and spun me around to head for Coach Clapp, who'd just entered the gym and was fiddling with his whistle while scanning through some pages on his clipboard.
His newest Nike pumps were looking ferociously white – making me worry that he would be making the class run just so someone might look down at his shoes. I became slightly more desperate to miss the lesson.
"Coach," Alice said, trying to be persuasive just with the tone of her voice. I knew that once he knew who was talking to him, he'd let Alice burn the school mascot uniform if she wanted to. We might as well have been heading for the front office right now. "Would it be alright if Bella and I took a little time out of class to deal with some inter-school relations? It would relax our minds better so we could concentrate on gym when we get back," she added with a toothy smile. I was happy to fade into the background while she worked her charms.
The coach looked up from his books and beamed at Alice. "Good morning, Miss Brandon, so nice to see you looking bright on a Monday morning!" He puffed his chest out like he thought her chirpiness had something to do with his presence (or his shoes). I barely contained an automatic eye-roll. "As long as you and Miss Swan don't cause any mischief, you can take half the lesson to deal with these 'inter-school relations', but don't let any of the other students know, will you!" He added the last part with a secretive smile and wink. I tried very hard not to cringe.
Alice was containing her disgust perfectly.
"We won't be long, sir!"
She reached back and seized my hand, heading for the door faster than was strictly necessary.
"Nice," I commented as we pushed through the gym doors.
"I've perfected my anti-retching skills now, I think," she said in a deliberately bland voice, accompanying the word 'retching' with the action of pointing a finger into her open mouth.
We stopped running and concentrated on regaining normal facial colouring before we got to the front office. I was glad to step into the overly-warm office because walking outside, even in the sunshine, was cold on one's feet.
Alice knew exactly what she was doing and headed for the left side of the counter where a blue shoebox sat. She opened it but I could see over her short shoulder that it was empty.
"Don't the replies go in there?" I asked, trying to remember the little speech Mrs Cope had given us last Wednesday.
"Yeah, I'd forgotten, I think we have to ask for them…" She hopped over to the middle of the counter and struck a small bell with her palm.
Her long fingernails drummed against the counter as she impatiently waited. Finally, Mrs Cope came smiling around the corner, wearing a flowery yellow t-shirt. Alice smiled kindly at her and spoke before she'd taken more than two steps.
"Are the replies from Port Angeles here yet?"
Mrs Cope's magnified eyes surveyed us each meaningfully, probably trying to remember our names. "You're the big Brandon boy's sister," she said, pointing at Alice.
Alice nodded and said "It's Alice" before Mrs Cope's eyes switched to me.
"Isabella Swan," she said knowingly. I looked down as a compensation for an automatic eye-rolling moment. Of course she'd remember me: daughter of the Chief of Police, come home to a small town life with people who remembered names of people like me as thought it were an emergency number…
"Yep," I said quietly, shuffling my feet.
"Okay girls, I'll be back in a moment."
She disappeared out the way she'd come then returned with our letters in her hand. Mine was a white envelope with the same elegant writing spelling my name, but Alice's was a purple envelope and looked a little thicker. Once she'd actually handed them over though, I saw that Alice's was a lot thicker than mine.
"Have a good day girls!" she said cheerily, turning her attention to a pleasant looking older woman who'd just come through the door.
Alice and I took a couple of the waiting area seats, and Mrs Cope led the woman out through one of the doors leading off from the office where students weren't allowed. But now I knew what was behind one of the forbidden doors, so there wasn't much curiosity bouncing around in my head. Just excitement, and unreasonable nervousness.
I opened my letter hastily before Alice could pull it away and open it herself, then ripped out the few pieces of folded paper that had been crammed into the envelope.
Dear Bella,
Wow! I'm very impressed that you took the time to ditch class for the likes of me, I had to wipe a tear of pride away from my eye once I'd read that – I've only written to you once but my bad habits are happily washing off on you!
Sorry again about my stupid mates and their tendency to write stupid things on my letter. They were sufficiently punished, so don't fret, though I don't think Kim agreed with the killer bruise I planted on Jared's leg. Not that she'll admit to, anyway.
Now, I've lost my train of thought, so I think it's appropriate that I check your letter for any questions I should answer – Oh! You mentioned that Sam could break a tree if he got bored. Well, funny you should mention that, because the day before your letter came (Thursday, if I'm thinking on the tracks) Sam was dared to climb one of the "Oldest and noblest trees the school owns, a true gem to the heritage of Port Angeles…" blah, blah, blah, anyway, he tried to climb it. It was dark when he tried; it's always more fun in the dark-
Note to self, never say that to a girl again.
-but anyway, he tried to climb this tree.
It was pretty damn funny too, because even though this tree is all old and noble and whatever, it's really flimsy. So Sam got a boost up to the first branch and CRACK goes the trunk. It looked like a broken oversized toothpick when I stopped running to see what the damage was (I had time to spare; the other guys couldn't catch me to save their necks). It was possibly the longest I've laughed in my life.
Moving on to more interesting things- the next thing in your letter I can comment on is: "And why is it that you don't have a girlfriend?" Well. I don't really know why I don't; I guess there just hasn't been a girl who's caught my eye yet. How about you? Are you taken?
Oh, and no, I'm not a stalker. Thought I do enjoy watching people do stupid things – but that's just usually Sam and Jared and Paul. And a lot of the time, I was the one who told them to do the stupid thing.
So you're the Police Chief's daughter? Well, I'll have to watch my step. That sucks for Paul; I'll bet he was planning on asking you to accompany him on some kind of insurance scam at some point – milking my friendship, no doubt. As for me and my family status, I'm an only child, and I'm living here with my Aunt Esme and her husband. I'm originally from Alaska though. My mum back there travels a lot with her work, and my dad isn't around anymore. So I just found it easier to live down here during the school year and spend time with them during breaks.
And back to the letter – reading. Yes, guys can read, and don't you forget it! I love reading anything really, but I'll only read those turn-of the century novels when I'm in the mood. Sometimes I blank out and completely miss a page because those things take some concentration to understand. Do you read them?
I've thought of another topic of interest – music. What kind do you like? I love almost everything, except for those heavy metal excuses. Screaming is not classified as listening material to me.
Your friend Alice sounds like a little bundle of joy… those shopaholic types are always energetic and completely crazy sometimes… I'd know. My cousin Leah is just like that. In fact, I think they're writing to each other, aren't they? I was sure she mentioned something about an Alice from Forks High.
That reminds me, I DO have something interesting to report on. This weekend I'm going to the interschool Athletics Day. I think our school's competitors are catching a bus with yours, if my source is correct. Are you going? That'd be awesome if you were, it would be too cool to be able to put a face to a name when I'm writing to you! I'll be competing in the running events; like I mentioned above, I can't be caught! Ha, I bet that sounds totally big-headed, but honesty isn't boasting, is it? Oh well. Please say you're going! Leah is too, so your little friend can jump in your pocket and steal away on the bus if she likes. (Don't tell her I said that, I know what a stiletto in the butt feels like, and how long it takes for the bruise to go away.)
Anyway, I hope I haven't bored you – or corrupted your gym education more than usual.
Sincerely telling you that I'm not a stalker, and hoping that you're coming to Athletics Day,
Edward Masen.
PS if you are going this weekend, don't wear anything expensive on the bus. It'll end up smelling like (sweaty) boys for the remainder of its garment-style life.
I finished reading and again had a smile on my face. I was also feeling completely excited – I was going to meet Edward after barely two weeks. Alice was still slogging through her marathon letter, a few pictures scattered over her knees. I reached for one of a pretty girl and a tall boy, but Alice slapped my hand away and turned the picture face-down.
"She told me not to show anyone."
She didn't look away from the paper in her hands the whole time. I frowned sarcastically at her, jutting out my bottom lip like a sooky child.
"No, Bella. I'll lose my head. Besides, you'll see Edward this weekend."
"She wrote to you about the Athletics Day too?"
Alice looked at me with a confused expression on her face. "No. What are you talking about?"
"Edward said Leah and him are going to the same thing we're going to on Saturday. I don't know about his other friends."
"Oh, really? That's awesome." She immersed herself in the letter again, but I didn't let it drop.
"How did you know I was going to see him this weekend?" She slid her eyes across the paper to meet mine.
"Do you know how annoying you are when I'm trying to read?"
"So stop reading for a minute and talk to me. How did you know?"
"I didn't." She was trying to brush me off. My hand twitched on my thigh, and I was considering slapping her a good bruise in the leg when she sensed my annoyance and explained further; "I just had a really strong feeling, okay?"
I sighed and lay back in my seat while her eyes whipped back and forth across the paper. Alice had had too many weird 'feelings' before for me to not believe her. She was finished reading a few minutes later, and we stood to leave. As Alice tucked her letter into her bag, I got an idea, so I went to the counter where Mrs Cope was now sitting and smiled politely as she looked up at me.
"Would I be able to pick up Angela Weber's letter?"
"You're a friend of hers?" Mrs Cope asked, but she was already out of her chair and heading for the door so I just nodded. She came back with a white envelope in her hand a moment later. I thanked her and joined Alice, who had just dropped the photos all over the floor and was scooping them up with lightning fast hands.
"Need a hand?" I asked, bending to pick up a face-down photo by my foot.
"Nope," she said lightly, her hand flicking out and seizing the photo before I'd touched it. I straightened up and pushed open the door for her while she buckled her bag a little more securely. I chose not to comment on her further unwillingness to let me see these photos and we trekked our way back to the gym in silence.
I noticed with a little disappointment that the clouds were staring to coat the sky again, bring a cold shadow with them. I was about to reach for my jacket when we were suddenly at the doors to the gym. Alice pushed them open and we were met with sounds of people grunting and swearing under their breaths.
Boxing.
Well, at least that didn't require a lot of co-ordination… until I spotted a few people throwing kicks into their attacks. Everyone's partners were holding the bags still for them.
Kick-boxing.
Even better. Maybe I can break a leg, too?
We crossed to Coach Clapp, and I was praying he'd let us off for the lesson. So, naturally, he told us to get changed as quickly as we could and get back out to use the rest of the lesson wisely. We hadn't even taken fifteen minutes out of the stupid class, and I was still cursing myself when Alice and I emerged from the girl's change room, our bags back in the metal lockers and my dignity soon to be on the floor.
Alice skipped to Coach Clapp, hoping he'd do the obvious thing and partner us, but not even Alice's charms could turn his routine around.
"Each of you should find a male partner to practise with, how about… Newton! Tyler! Get over here!" He beamed at Alice and I and pointed to each of the boys in turn as we were paired up. "Alice, you can go with Tyler. Miss Swan, with Newton. Play nicely, children." He headed off in the other direction where Jessica was kicking the crap out of the bag Jasper was holding – and she wasn't aiming for the bag.
Coach Clapp was still breaking them up when Mike spoke to me.
"Good morning," he said stiffly. I just nodded in response and looked back at Jess, who was screaming profanities so loudly at Jasper that they were echoing off the gym walls.
"Let's get started," I said once Jess had been swapped with Tanya and everything had gone back to a state of semi-peace. Mike led the way to a blank space in the room and held the bag as I started to punch it.
"You're supposed to wear gloves," he said as he held them out.
"Right," I replied stiffly, slipping them on. I started punching the bag harder because it didn't hurt my knuckles anymore.
"Bella," he said, ducking an 'accidental' wayward right hook, "I think I owe you an apology."
"Oh, you think so?"
"Okay," he admitted sheepishly, dodging a less ferocious left-hook. "I do owe you an apology." He cleared his throat. "I'm sorry."
I stopped punching and pushed the hair out of my eyes.
"Really?"
"Really. I'm just not used to seeing such a different side of you, and I was caught off guard." He smiled nicely at me, but there was something a little off about his tone of voice and choice of words – why didn't he say straight out that he was sorry he didn't take my side?
"Okay. You're half-forgiven. You're going to have to work for the other half."
He smiled and held the bag up again. "I can live with that." I punched with less vigour now, but wanted to punch a lot harder at his half-assed apology. "Use your legs, Bella. Fire up!"
I did as I was told, and 'accidentally' knocked Mike to the ground with the force of a front-on kick into the bag. He laughed from the ground, and I put a hand out to pull him up.
"Remind me not to get on your bad side again."
"Okay. Don't get on my bad side again." He laughed and pulled me into a hug, but I only lightly hugged him back. I buried my face and tried to ignore the stupid cinnamon smell while scowling.
He couldn't get onto my bad side if he was already there.
Well!! We finally see the elusive reply from Edward. What does everyone think? Did you like the tree story? Haha. Anyway... you know what to do now...
Review!!
-Shaps