Heyy!! So many reviews, so gooood lol
Here they are:
Michelle62092, prettygirlnboyfriend07, allyg1990, CrazZy-BunNy, x-aly-x, Fairy Eyes, Muff'Nbutter, Lianna Weschester, beggingtobebitten, Music ADD, Child-Of-God13, Ghosts in the Snow, smile for the paparazzi, mrsjacobblack91, Vampires-Rock4eva, AlwaysBettingOnAlice, vampiressuck, mari alice, Intoxicated By His Presence, edwardluva234.
Special mentions:
prettygirlnboyfriend07: hahaha loved what you said about Jessica, 'skanky hoe', lol!
CrazZy-BunNy: yep, that means Bella and Mike are still a couple...
x-aly-x: wow, having someone chained to a tree in your neighbourhood is like a million times more interesting than my story! Wicked!
Muff'Nbutter: you'll find out how Bella answers the 'are you taken?' in this chapter :-)
Lianna Weschester: thanks for your compliment about Edward's letters! I like making him all quirky and stuff, it's fun ;-)
beggingtobebitten: "and mike is still a 'insert bad word here'" HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!
Music ADD: lol, good work, you're a poet and you didn't even know it! (lame joke, I know, I know lol)
Ghosts in the Snow: haha, Squidward, I love Spongebob Squarepants!
smile for the paparazzi: lol, your review was great, made me laugh for yonks!
mrsjacobblack: oooooh, you just might be onto something with the Leah and Alice scheming together thing...
AlwaysBettingOnAlice: lol. I love that I can make people hate Mike so much!
vampiressuck: first off, aww, your username makes me sad. Vampires-Rock4eva! Haha.. lame... but I thought it was pretty good! Secondly, Mike's gonna be "thrown" somewhere in one of the later chapters of the story. Promise.
mari alice: aww, your username is cute!! I dunno why... I'm weird. Anyhoo, thanks for your review!
Chapter Ten: Forward and Backward
My truck made a cheerful rumbling noise as I backed out of the driveway. I happily hummed a thoughtless tune while I drove to school, and found that by the time I had covered the small distance, the tune in my head was refusing to go away – even beginning to form words of its own. I liked the words, but knew I would forget the tune, so I pulled out the little diary with the plastic lock and daisy-covered pages and wrote down all the ones I could remember.
Alice started tapping on my window then, and I nearly jumped out of my skin. The unnatural silence in the absence of the truck's thundering had been ringing in my head a moment before. I swished the loose hair out of my eyes and smiled at her, indicating with my hand that I was going to be another minute, but she waited faithfully by my window.
"Alice," I said, rolling down my window with a fair amount of elbow grease. "Get in the cab, you'll freeze!"
There was a light drizzle swirling around her, and it was beginning to build up. The clouds looked threatening and as dark as ever.
"I'll be fine. The sun will be out in a minute anyway."
I shrugged and turned back to my little diary. I scribbled in the last words I could recall, then snapped it shut.
"Done," I said to myself, turning back and expecting to see Alice now dripping from head to toe. Amazingly, she was still standing in the same spot, dry as she had been, and bathed in water-wash sunlight.
I chose not to remark.
"Angela says 'thankyou again' for her letter on Monday. She would have forgotten it if you hadn't picked it up for her. I wonder if she's written her reply already. She'll need to hand it in tomorrow, because she won't be able to today."
"What?" I asked, climbing out of my truck and slamming the ancient door shut behind me. "Why isn't she here today?"
"She's going shopping in Seattle, Bella, remember? She's only been harping on about it for the last million years." Alice picked up her pace beside me as the presence of the sun didn't stop the drizzle of rain covering us.
"Oh." I didn't remember Angela mentioning anything about a shopping trip, but then again, I did tend to blank out fairly often.
We crossed the threshold of the school and shook our heads once we were under the minimal shelter the front veranda provided. Alice headed off for her first Wednesday morning class, waving her goodbye because a bout of coughs had claimed her ability to speak. I waved to her and stepped the few yards necessary to enter my Calculus class. Today was going to be more of a drag than usual; Angela was my only close friend in this lesson.
I hung my coat on the peg provided as usual, then stepped into the debatably warmer classroom. I was surprised to see Tyler sitting across the room looking excited about something and I was even more surprised to see him wave happily in my direction. Tyler and I were good friends, but such enthusiastic gestures were usually saved for his best-best friends. I checked that there was no one over my shoulder before waving back, then following his beckoning hand gestures to sit down beside him.
"Hey, Bella," he greeted enthusiastically.
I started pulling my books out of my bag, and placed them carefully on the desk while I answered. "Good morning, Tyler, what's new?"
"Nothing much," he replied, but I could tell there was something he wanted to say. I decided to be nice and coax the subject.
"Then why are you nearly falling out of your chair with excitement?"
"Oh, well, I guess something kind of interesting did happen." He stared at me meaningfully and I stared blankly back for a moment before cottoning on.
"What happened?"
Honestly, it was like trying to get information out of a five year old.
"Well, I decided to bite the bullet, and I asked Allyson out yesterday!"
I was instantly as excited as he was. Tyler had been in love with this girl for as long as I'd known him, and every time he'd come close to getting the nerve to ask her out someone else jumped the gun – or the opportunity passed him by in the form of Ben doing something exceptionally embarrassing in front of Ally.
"That's brilliant Tyler! What did she say?" By his excitement, the answer was fairly obvious.
"She said yes! We're going to spend all this weekend together. We're going to spend Saturday together down at the Athletics Day and then on Sunday we're going out for dinner and a movie in Port Angeles."
"Not anything too scary, though, right?" I knew I would have to rein him in, because he was very much like Alice when he got excited. I was surprised Ben hadn't done it already, to be honest. But then, apparently Ben had some plans of his own to be worrying about.
"Nope, soppy romance all the way." He grinned like a man who'd just won the lottery and I couldn't help but laugh at his contagious excitement.
"Good on you Tyler, it looks like some men can get it right on the first date."
"Oh, no I'm hopeless; I've been getting help from Bianca on what she thought I should do."
Bianca was Ally's best friend, and I was surprised to hear that Tyler managed to get help from her because Ally and Bianca were usually inseparable. More-so than Tyler and Ben, who were bound by their blood-lines rather than choice.
"That's really cool Tyler, I'm so happy for you!! You have to let me know if it goes well on Monday, okay?"
"Okay. I can't believe I actually did it though!" He hit the table to exclaim his excitement. Then, he laughed like he'd just realised something. "This means Ben has to ask-!"
"Good morning class, settle down and pull out your books, today we'll be working on a new chapter of work…"
The class collectively groaned at the sound of Mr Varner's voice floating around the room. I smiled at Tyler and winked to indicate that I understood what he was about to say, and by the smile he returned I was quite sure he was going to relay the details of Ben's Big Ask to me when it happened.
"I'm so bored, Alice," I whined as we sat through a speech about a book we were meant to be reading in English in the upcoming weeks. I hadn't even caught the title of the book, yet I was still bored by the tone of Miss Faulkner's voice.
Alice nudged me in the ribs to get my head off her shoulder. My eyes snapped open, then stared accusingly at the bony girl as I rubbed a sore spot on my head.
"Then do something constructive with – oh, stop looking at me like that, Miss Faulkner would love to give you a detention for no reason and you know it – do something useful with your time then." She looked back to the front of the room, but I knew she wasn't listening because her eyes remained unmoving. She seemed to come up with an idea, because she turned back to me. "Write a reply to Edward."
Stupidly, I felt a small thrill go through me at the sound of his name. I ignored it and accepted the idea, ripping off the pages of my drawings from the front of my note-pad.
Dear Edward,
Much different to the last time I'd written to him, the words started to flow effortlessly. Alice didn't even need to prompt me with her three 'F's scenario.
I loved the story you told me about your friend Sam, it made me smile because whenever I think of Sam I think of Emmett – and I know how hilarious it would have looked if Emmett was the one to have fallen out of the tree! He probably would have left a crater when he hit the ground.
So you're a bit of a runner, eh? I'd like to see you and my little Alice matched up against each other, I'll bet she could kick your butt in heels any day! As for the Athletics Day – yes, I am going, but not to compete. I pity all those who would have to watch me try and play sport too much to do that. Instead, I got talked (e.g. I got tricked) into going along as the running team's manager. Hey, that makes me like, your enemy! Bring on the competition, Port Angeles!
I'll have to make sure Charlie doesn't find that letter you sent – he'll probably come barrelling down the highway to Port Angeles brandishing a shotgun in search of your friend Paul for these supposed 'illegal acts' you mentioned. Lock up your doors, kiddies! Ha-ha, I think I've picked up Charlie's lame sense of humour. Do you know he stole my alarm clock as some kind of practical joke the other day? I had to eat my breakfast without chewing it! And trust me; that is not a pleasant experience!
That's really cool that you live with your Aunt and Uncle – living with Charlie is something like that I think. He's not the 'Be-home-at-eight-on-the-dot-or-else' type at all – very different from a typical father! I like it, living with Charlie leaves me with a lot of time to spend with my inner child.
Hmm… what else did you mention? Oh! Reading. I love reading! And yes, I do read things like Romeo and Juliet and Sense and Sensibility and all those types. I love them. And I read them because they're so different to modern stuff; not predictable and the genuine feel of love in a lot of them is brilliant to get lost in. But I do have to agree – the way they're written sometimes gives me a headache.
Yeah, my friend Alice is writing to Leah. That's pretty cool, isn't it? Leah sent tonnes of pictures to Alice in the last letter, but she won't let me see them. Do you know why? I mean, what's the problem if I know what you or your friends look like? Oh well. Alice is a strange girl, and by the way she and Leah get along so well, I'd guess that Leah's very eccentric herself! Not that there's anything wrong with that, of course.
Oh, I almost forgot your music thing. Alice's phone just went off beside me, so yay for Alice's lack of organisation with turning her phone on silent. The kind of music I like… well, anything really. And I totally agree with that heavy-metal crack. Who would actually want to listen to people shrieking into a microphone?! It's beyond me, it really is.
I've let Alice know that Leah will be at the Athletics Day too, so don't stress. I'm sure they'll have swapped phone numbers soon enough that they'll be able to report on their respective lives every five minutes any way.
Oh, and you haven't corrupted my Gym education any more – today English got a hit!
Looking forward to being able to match a face to a name,
Bella Swan
P.S. I don't own anything expensive enough to care whether it ends up smelly or not – but Alice, on the other hand….
"Done," I said. Alice handed me an envelope. I accepted it without question before scribbling Edward's name on the front and then shoved it into my bag.
"Do you want to drop it at the office now?" Alice stood, making me realise that I'd spent my entire class writing to Edward. I hoped that it wasn't a tradition in the making.
I stood with her and put my bag onto the desk so I could shove my books into it. "Nah, I'll do it tomorrow morning. I haven't got any classes over that side of the school and it's too darn wet to bother."
Alice led the way out of the room, whipping her coat off its peg as we passed it. I followed suit, draping my still-damp bundle over my arm. We headed for the canteen, hoping for a little warmth if not a quick snack to accompany our morning break.
For some reason the letter in my bag made it feel heavier than normal, as if the knowledge that I had deliberately skipped my relationship status was something to worry about.
For what felt like the first time in weeks, I arrived at school with plenty of time to spare. I didn't run into anyone or have any unexpected conversations; nor did I get hit by a car – which was always a plus.
I pushed open the door to the front office and was hit by the familiar wall of heated air that accompanied the cheery staff. Mrs Cope wasn't sitting at her desk this morning, but there was a pleasant looking older woman fiddling around with files behind a desk when I looked up. She smiled nicely at me, then went back to her digging.
I stepped forward and flipped open the catch on my bag to pull out my reply to Edward. I slipped it into the blue shoebox on the counter top, then turned to leave, but found my way blocked.
"Oh, good morning Miss Swan," the principal said, catching my fall to the floor by the shoulders and steadying me as he stepped around me.
"Sorry, sir." I shrugged a little tighter into my jacket, my face feeling slightly pink.
Principal Carlisle Cullen was attractive to an absurd degree. Each aspect of his face looked like it hadn't ever stressed; there were no lines other than the ones introduced by laughing. If it were possible that he could get angry, he would probably still have a kind look on his face.
Unfortunately for the desk-women, though, he was married. The lady had been described as '…pleasantly good-looking, but not good looking enough for the Principal'. I'd heard the bored folk in this town gossip so often that it was almost painful, but I'd resisted the urge to become one of them by going so far as to ignore the available pictures or information on her actual looks. Sometimes I felt ridiculously proud of myself at this fact.
But the Principal, who had apparently only been taking the job for the past few years because he wanted a break from the world of medicine, remained a favourite topic among those in the town and I doubted he would fall off the radar any time soon.
"Have a good day, Miss Swan," Principal Cullen said as he headed back to his office, a few books and folders tucked neatly under his arm. He smiled kindly at me – making me feel completely stupid and blush more than I already was – then he stopped in the hallway to speak to the lady who was still rifling around in the papers on the desk.
I pulled myself together and dashed out the door before I could make more of a fool of myself. Once the door had lightly clicked behind me, indicating that I was no longer in the same vicinity as the impossibly handsome man and the flustering heating system, I took a deep breath and headed out to my first lesson of the morning.
"Nah, I don't really feel like it."
"C'mon Bella, this is our game! You just think you're gonna lose again, don't you?"
Mike tossed the ball of paper into the air as he sat beside me in biology. I rolled my eyes seriously at him, but then tried to cover up my unexplainable lack of patience by plastering a fake smile on my face. He seemed to accept it because he started pestering me again.
"Please?" He tried to pull a puppy-dog eye look on me, and it would have normally worked, but today I didn't feel… normal.
"Is that Ruler Tennis you're playing, Mike?" Ben's voice saved me. Ben sat on Mike's other side, and was leaning forward on his desk to catch Mike's attention. Happy for an opposition, Mike got up quietly and sat down next to Ben.
The teacher didn't see because he was helping someone down the front of the class who was trying in vein to explain a knock-knock joke to him.
As I watched, bored, Mike handed Ben a wooden ruler and proceeded to smack the ball of paper across the small space between them.
I sighed as quietly as I could and tried to turn my attention back to the scribble covering the front of the room. I stared for a good five minutes, trying to make out a word which I then discovered (to my intense embarrassment – but relief that no one could read my mind) that it was just the name of the day printed at the top of the board. Maybe I needed glasses.
A pair of dark arms leaned onto the blacktop in front of me, and I looked up after a moment, already knowing who it was.
"You know, Swan, you're not supposed to be moping about today being Thursday. It's nearly Friday! Which means it's nearly Saturday, which would mean no more school for two whole days."
"Thankyou, Jacob, I had realised the day of the week."
He shrugged, and pulled Mike's vacant chair back to sit beside me. I half expected Mike to turn around and threaten Jacob to high hell, but I heard him cry in triumph as he scored a point against Ben. I knew I should have laughed at his child-like enthusiasm, but there wasn't enough energy left in me. I felt completely drained, and I had no idea why. I'd practically been bouncing off the walls of my bedroom that morning.
Jacob wriggled in his chair. He was probably feeling uncomfortable, I was sure; then he looked at me. I took an extra second to look at him, and when I did I saw my real Jake sitting beside me.
I realised, in that moment, that Jacob Black was only unbearable when Jasper and James were wasting air in the same room as him, or he'd been around them for a minute too long and it didn't wear off. It hit me just how long it had been since I'd spoken to Jake when he wasn't trying to pick me up or wasn't trying to insult me in front of his guffawing friends. I braced myself, preparing for something along those lines to escape his mouth, but I was happily surprised.
"How are you, Bella?" Some hair fell into his eyes and in his face I saw a small flash of the little boy I'd played in the mud with when I was little.
The question wasn't overly deep, or sensitive, but I found myself pondering my possible answers more than was necessary. A million thoughts flew through my head at that moment, and I found that I wanted to say the things that I realised were weighing me down. 'Well,' I wanted to say, but didn't, 'I found out recently that my boyfriend is a two-faced twit who sides with his insulting parents over me, and that he doesn't even notice when I'm obviously upset over something, I'm writing to someone that I've never met but feel like telling more than I should, my best friends are always there for me but I don't think I'm there for them enough nor am I any good at timing my entries or exits on the big events in their lives. Oh, and the fact that I'm opening up to you makes me think that there's more wrong than I'd originally thought, because the last time I'd told you there was something wrong was when we stopped talking to each other and I tried to confront you about it but you told me there was nothing interesting about me and that you were only friends with me because Billy had told you to play nice all those years. Yeah, so I guess I'm doing fantastically!'
But I didn't. Not even close.
"I'm fine, Jake, just fine."
"Hey, you!" I heard Mike's irritated voice snap from Ben's table. "Get out of my seat."
I felt irrationally irritated at his interruption; I might have just been on the road to redemption with Jake for all he knew and there he goes, ruining the moment.
"Alright, alright, don't get your knickers in a knot, Newton." Jake stood up, and with a smile that was totally Jake, he headed across the room to his own table beside Tanya. I saw her flick her hair and giggle stupidly at something once Jacob had appeared, and I inwardly cringed and growled at her. How dare she try and get her mangy mitts on my-!
"You alright, Bella? I hope he didn't say anything stupid to you." Mike looked fairly concerned for me, which made me a little happier.
I looked from my hands on the desk to Mike and back as I spoke. "He barely said anything at all. I'm okay." I smiled. Mike gently patted his hand over my own and started playing with my fingers. A moment after beginning to do this, however, Ben called as quietly as he could manage over Mike's shoulder.
"Mike! We're not finished! And I'm still winning!"
Mike looked slightly shocked, then he gave me a pleading look I recognised. I rolled my eyes like a mother who was allowing her child too much junk food.
"Go on, you can't lose now."
"Thanks, Bella," Mike swept a kiss onto my cheek then threw himself back into the vacant seat beside Ben to finish his game.
Even though I had clearly given the 'Ok' to Mike playing with Ben, I still felt a little abandoned at his choice.
I looked over to the board again and saw that someone had been shoved into the writing and half of the assigned work had been rubbed off. The class was steadily becoming rowdier, and Mr Banner didn't appear to be trying to quieten them down, so I sighed and shut my book.
I got an idea, suddenly, and reached down to my bag for the little Daisy Diary I'd been using as an outlet. The moment felt quite appropriate, so I scribbled down my thoughts and found that by the time Mike had returned with his tales of a tough game against Ben, I could smile, laugh and nod in the right places. The diary was becoming a rather important tool in my everyday life – but God forbid someone else should get hold of it.
Well! I updated so quickly because you all reviewed so darn well!! Tell me what you think's going to happen, hmm? I know you've all got ideas you're dying to express!!
This chapter's questions: What kind of a person is Jacob Black, now?
Love you all!!
-Shaps