Hey again everyone! I just have to emphasise my humbled-ness within this story.. almost 470 reviews? Seriously, thank you so so so much. Thia story would have been nothing without you guys to read it.
Now, the reviewers:
mrsjacobblack91, twilightaddict26, yaaaay, beggingtobebitten, Kevin the Cornbread Slice, Ghosts in the Snow, Bethany Knight, okiegirlforever, LookAfterMyHeart, HarvestEclipse31, booknerd14, books and bojangles, Music ADD, DiscoSarah, laibballfan, FrEvrNvrLasts, x-aly-x, Grillllz, It's Moe, bedwardforever, Intoxicated By His Presence, musicormisery4105, Prince SILAS III, halokat, weirdosaywhatt, Erika Baby, FearLover, Michelle62092, smile for the paparazzi, EAMC620, mari alice.
Special Mentions:
mrsjacobblack91: Nope, Bella hasn't realised who Edward's uncle/father is. Thanks for the compliment about the summary!
twilightaddict26: Heh, loved your review; so full of energy!! I'm so lethargic atm. Woke up at like 11am and still feel tired. What the? Anyway, thanks for your review! They'll kiss soon. Promise. As in... next chapter? How's that?
beggingtobebitten: Hahahaha, who isnt' for Edward in a loincloth??
Kevin the Cornbread Slice: Lol, don't worry, you'll find out why Edward appears to be an a-hole sometimes in the next chapter. There'll be an Epov. Jacob's gonna remain a bit of a background boy, but he'll be confirmed as a big fat sweetheart by the end of the story. Yeah, I wasn't too happy with the way Edward found about his parents either, but I needed it to be a fair bit of a shock and in such a way that he would want to avoid Carlisle and Esme at all costs. His mother is careless, though.
HarvestEclipse31: Lol yeah, you'd think Bella would take it the wrong way... you'll find out her reaction in this chapter though. LOL I love that all the skanky girls are afraid of you, that's spiggin' awesome! And I love that; "...be like Nike and Just Do It!"
booknerd14: Lol, I'm sorry that you hate me... maybe by the end of this chapter you wont hate me quite so much?
books and bojangles: I love awkwardness too! You're sitting there in (for example) a room with people you've only just met and you can totally tell everyone is thinking the same thing... "One, awkward, two, awkward, three, awkward..." (Maybe that's just me?)
I CAN'T EVEN EXPRESS THROUGH MILLIONS OF EMOTICONS HOW MUCH OF A 'YES' MY ANSWER IS TO YOUR FANFICTION PROJECT PROPOSAL!!
DiscoSarah: Well, I'm glad to be of service!! Lol, everyone hates Mike, it's quite amusing... I love badass Jasper too, yumm... they'll kiss soon! Hold your fire, soldier!!
FrEvrNvrLasts: Ahh, I'm sorry, I was worried that the paragraph where Edward does a runner wouldn't make a lot of sense. But it did in my head as I was writing it.
x-aly-x: Thankyou! You're like the only one who also believes that it was a bit early for them to be kissing... I mean, I want them to know each other properly first, and you understand it! So good! Lol, Ally's the one vying for a sequal, but I'll see once this one's done.
Grillllz: Heh, more Spanish, love it!
It's Moe: I'm undecided as to whether I'll include the explanation as to why Edward's (four) parents lied to him, but I think I'll include it otherwise it'll be like leaving a bit hole in an otherwise smooth road... if ya get what I mean.
bedwardforever: Sorry again, I wondered whether that bit made proper sense. Edward pulled away because Carlisle was coming down the hall, and since Carlisle is Edward's real father (and Edward's avoiding him like the plague atm) he didn't want to deal with him - let alone be caught smooching in the hallway by him.
weirdosaywhatt: I'm from Australia, we have a whole dictionary of our own!! (Joking... or am I?)
Erika Baby: AWWW! Thank you a million times over! I can't believe you're learning by reading my amateur stuff... aww... thankyou for your review!
smile for the paparazzi: Heyy, while you're making those cookies, maybe you could wing some over here...? Hehe. I would be very impressed if you could throw a cookie to Aus, lol.
EAMC620: Shall I take that as confirmation that you would like to see a sequal when this is done...?
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Don't forget to check the chapter question at the bottom of this chapter!
Chapter Twenty-One: Invited
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Dear Bella,
I managed to re-claim the letter I handed in on Friday. It wasn't very interesting anyway, so I hope you don't mind? I even had to get into school early on Monday morning so I would catch the secretary before she went over to Forks to drop them off.
And as for the venting thing, I don't mind at all! Go for it. I know that I probably do it to you too – by the way, thank you so much for listening to me on Friday night. I really appreciate it. And I took you up on your advice; all my closest friends know and they're all being really great about it. Jared's even letting me stay with him for a while 'till I sort my head out.
You definitely had an unlucky night with that car-trouble thing! But at least this Jacob guy was willing to help you, even if he does act like a total jerk at school. I guess you'll have to decide whether you want to be half-friends with him, or not friends at all. Personally, I'd give him a piece of my mind. But hey, it's your life Little Miss Swan.
As for the football thing, Sam does play, but this year I'm not. I thought I should be a good little student and do my school work instead of wrestling with other guys – no matter how much fun it is. I think I'll ask the coach if I can join the team after finals though. I'm not sure what to do with my life these days, so staying around here doesn't sound too bad to me.
You went to the gym? How did you like it? I love going there by myself. It smells better than my bedroom, haha... aren't I hilarious? But seriously, I think I need like an FBI team to come and find whatever it was that died in here. I could have guessed that Emmett would be at the gym – he looks like he swallowed a gym for goodness sake! So does Sam. Geez that guy eats a lot. It's crazy.
So, how did you like the Pen Pal Meet Party? I thought it was pretty good – up until the point where I dragged you through an upside down swimming pool and you nearly caught a cold. But it was nice to half-make it up to you by driving you home. Are you alright now?
Now, this is the main purpose of my letter: I think I'll let Leah write it because she's insane and will probably stab my hand with her pen if I get it wrong. Over to you, Clearwater!
Hey Bella, how are you? Hope your cold's gotten better. We were all worried about you for the rest of the night! It didn't end up being much of a party when you're worried about someone. So that's why I've hijacked Edward's letter. I want to have another night where the lot of us get together, and Alice is in on it too, so good luck escaping! Haha, joking.
Not really.
But anyway; we want you guys to come down to Port Angeles and see a movie with us. I promise it won't be scary. Sam's a sissy as well, have you heard? But okay, here are the details: Friday night at Port Angeles cinema. Come around seven-ish. We (as in my whole group, and maybe your whole group) are going to stay at Jared's place for the night. Girls upstairs, boys downstairs. We get the bedroom! Hope you can come, love Leah xo
Okay, I think that's it. She just nodded, yes, that's all she's got to say. Please come, I don't want to have to listen to Sam's bitching for a whole night!
Praying for you to save me,
Edward Masen
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Hey Edward
It's Wednesday – therefore I've been tolerating Alice's excited squeals and plans for Angela and I for roughly three days so far. I have another two days to go. Therefore, you'd better make this movie one hell of a night. We'll be there; at about seven. Don't disappoint!
Bella xo
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I sat down beside Alice in gym, hoping like anything that we weren't going to have to do anything physical during today's double. I despised Thursdays for this stupid lesson's occupation of my after-lunch hours. At least Alice was here to share the pain with me. I barely even noticed as Mike sat down in a row at the front, unsmiling and not looking at me even from the corner of his eye. I didn't know what he did with himself socially, because he wasn't sitting with my friends anymore and I hadn't seen him talking to anyone else during lunchtimes.
Alice sniffed beside me, a regular thing because of the weather here in Forks. She wiped her nose with a tissue, but other than that, she looked completely healthy.
I started picking at the stitching on my shirt, silently willing Coach Clapp to come down with some incurable but non-life threatening disease.
"What are we doing today?" I asked Alice, wanting very badly for her to say 'nothing'. It would have worked that way – if I had any luck at all.
"Umm, I don't know, but I saw the coach walking around with a bag of golf balls before lunch. That might be what we're doing?"
I groaned.
My question was answered when Coach Clapp came banging into the room, a large bag of basketballs slung over one shoulder. Oh please, someone shoot me now.
I looked at Alice with an eyebrow raised. "Golf balls, Alice?"
She shrugged. "We're not the only class he teaches. I dunno."
There was nothing I hated more than balls which were big enough to break my whole face in one go if thrown – or missed – badly enough. I dropped my head down and rested it on Alice's shoulder, faking emotional sobs.
"Get up, fool. I don't think we're playing actual games today."
My head snapped up painfully fast, and I was overjoyed to see Coach Clapp dragging over the noble Whiteboard of Boredom from its recently hibernating place in the storage room. The Coach revealed a whiteboard marker, and started scribbling X's and O's all over the place to represent players on the court.
He droned on for a while about tactics and techniques and team mates and lots of other words starting with 'T'. I glanced down at my watch and was calculating the length of time I had until I could be inside my truck again when the Coach clapped his hands together.
I froze.
Such an enthusiastic move only meant-
"Sort yourselves into teams, kids! We've got time for a few games!" He loosened the string on the bag and let basketballs loose all over the court. Just looking at the potential accidents rolling around the place made me feel slightly ill.
Alice, beside me, looked from my horrified face to the balls and back a few times. Apparently, she was feeling merciful today.
"Stay here. Look sick," she whispered, trotting down the stand to work her magic on a more than easy victim.
I closed my eyes and leaded my head back; glad that the mere visions of basketballs flying toward my incapable hands was enough to make me break out in a light sweat. I hoped it glistened in the gym lights.
Down on the court, I could hear Alice working her magic.
"…feeling quite off lately. I don't know what to do." A pause. "No, no the nurse said she just needs to drink plenty of fluids. Yes. Yes. I will. Okay, no problem. Thanks, Coach."
A moment later she was beside me, digging around in her bag. Then she handed me a water bottle.
"Look weak," she whispered.
"Okay," I whispered back out of the corner of my mouth.
I took the bottle from her and took a sip. It was pleasantly cool, so I took a greater gulp. I opened my eyes fully, and looked down to see what was happening. Most people were just tossing the ball back and forth between themselves, some people shooting baskets while they waited for instruction. Coach Clapp was clumsily bouncing a ball in the middle of the court, trying to get everyone's attention so they would come around and listen to his pep-talk.
I looked at Alice, who'd produced a book and was reading it while she hummed.
"Thanks, Alice." I smiled at her and raised the water bottle in a toast.
"No problem." She grinned in a mischievous way. "I need you in full health for tomorrow night."
I started to feel a little nauseous again.
I've just had a thought in relation to the next two chapters; originally the slumber party was going to be split into two because it was so long - but you guys seemed to like the looooong chapter for the Athletics Carnival. So, would you prefer one chapter, or two?
And also, I know that this story still has a few chapters to go 'till it's done, but I was wondering if you guys were interested in a sequal to it at all. Let me know what you're thinking!
Cheers for reading, as always, can't wait to hear what you're all thinking!
-Shaps