Disclaimer: I don't own the Twilight saga or any of its characters.
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Chapter Three
By the time Saturday rolled around, Isabella felt as though she had come down with the worst cold in the world. Her head kept pounding, and her chest ached continuously. She just could not get comfortable, and forget about sleeping. She'd barely slept for even a few hours combined in the last three days. It definitely didn't help that Jacob Black had yet to return to her classroom.
On Wednesday, when he hadn't showed up for the second day in a row, she had been a little nervous but she'd brushed it off as him possibly being sick. However on Thursday she'd sought out Mr. Molina and asked him to make a house call to see if Jacob was just not coming into class. In response Mr. Molina had told her that Jacob's father had said that Jacob was in fact sick and wouldn't be able to make it for the rest of the week. But something still didn't sit right with Isabella.
Jacob's friends Jared, Embry, and Quil all still came to class, but they seemed very tense and reserved. They hardly seemed to be paying attention, but not because they were talking. In fact it was the opposite. They had barely said a word in class unless Isabella had prompted them with a surprise question on the material they were covering. Isabella was worried and even asked Quil if anything was wrong or if she could help. He'd given her a sad little smile and replied that there was nothing she could do, but it was greatly appreciated.
It was at that time that she'd realized how tall those boys actually were. All three of them were at least six feet, possibly a little more. And their bodies looked nothing like what a nineteen or eighteen year old's should have. They looked like twenty five year old men sitting in her class. And all of them had interesting exotic features. They were all handsome in their own way, no matter how inappropriate it was for her to think something like that about her students, it didn't mean it wasn't true.
But after her stressful week at work she found herself laying on her couch cuddled underneath her cable knit blanket trying to will away the awful feeling of sickness that had shrouded her. On the small side table beside the couch she heard the phone ring, loud and shrilly. With a soft groan Isabella reached for the phone and pressed it to her ear.
"Hello?" she asked in a gravelly voice.
"Isabella?" came the voice of her father on the other end.
"Hey, dad. What's up?" she asked again while trying to take a deep breath. It only made her chest ache more.
"You sound like shit, Isabella. You sick or something?"
"Yeah... I don't know where it came from. And it's not a cold. I just feel congested or something... Anyway. Why'd you call?" she asked finally.
"Can't a man call his daughter to check up on him?" Charlie asked innocently.
Isabella rolled her eyes, "Yeah... Okay. What do you want?" she joked.
"I was just wondering what you were up to next weekend? I was thinking about have a small barbeque for labor day weekend. What'ya think?"
"Is this your subtle way of asking me to bring food to your house?" Isabella laughed slightly although it sounded ugly.
"That's exactly what this is. So is that a yes?" Charlie asked hopefully. Isabella thought for a moment and knew that it wasn't like she wasn't going to have anywhere else to be that day.
"Yeah, that's a yes. I'll bring some pasta salad and a dessert, is that okay?"
"That'll be fine. Just make a couple extra servings. My old friend Billy is going to come and some of the boys from La Push will probably show up too. It's like they have a radar for food."
Isabella froze, wondering about which boys would be coming to her father's house exactly. She knew that it would be totally inappropriate for her to be spending time outside of school with any of her students, but before she could answer Charlie spoke again.
"Alright, well I've gotta get to work, but I'm looking forward to next weekend. Try to get some sleep or something so you don't get everyone else sick at the barbeque, alright?"
"Yeah, dad. I'll try my hardest not to give your friends the plague," Isabella responded tartly.
"Oh lighten up, kid. I'll talk to you later," Charlie laughed lightly.
"Okay... Bye, dad."
She hung up the phone and let it drop to the ground with a thud as she curled up on her side and shuddered. Her apartment was absolutely freezing despite the fact that she had turned up the heat. It was probably busted and she'd have to shell out more money to fix it. God dammit. Coming to Forks was just not going the way she had hoped it would, in any way at all. There were just so many things going wrong.
After another hour of restlessly tossing and turning on the couch Isabella got up and found two Nyquil pills in her kitchen and swallowed them with a glass of water. She trudged back to the couch, but not before turning up the heat just a little bit more. The needle said that it was eighty degrees in her apartment, but it felt like it was the North Pole. She flopped unceremoniously back onto the couch and wrapped herself in her thick blanket hoping that the pills would at least kick in soon...
-8-
She was running through the woods. She'd never been a very fast runner, but she couldn't even see the trees around her because they were all a blur.
The ache in her chest was maximized tenfold and she felt as though she was about to split in half from the sheer pain of it. She continued to run, the feeling that coursed through her body was one of pure hope. Hope that she hadn't lost... Something. She couldn't quite remember what it was she was hoping she hadn't lost, but she knew that it was monumental. It was important. It was everything.
Suddenly the woods disappeared and she found herself standing at the edge of the field. Across the field on the other edge, standing in the shadows of the trees was an enormous wolf. Despite the fact that it was semi-hidden in the darkness she could see it clear as day. And as soon as her eyes ran over that wolf, the feeling in her chest dissipated completely. She could feel it in her bones. She felt better.
The eyes of the wolf suddenly met her own and the scenery suddenly changed. She was no longer on the edge of a field. She was in her classroom, but there was only one student sitting at his desk. It was one Jacob Black. He looked her over with his deep, dark eyes and her body felt hot all over. It felt as though he had touched every intimate and hidden part of her just by looking into her eyes.
Without speaking he stood up from his seat and walked over to the door of the classroom.
"Jacob. Don't leave again," she said in a strangled voice, hardly aware of speaking until she heard the words leave her mouth. She could feel tears rolling down her cheek, as the ache in her chest started to throb at the thought of him walking through that door and disappearing again. The boy turned around and looked her straight in the eye again. There were so many emotions roiling behind the dark color of those eyes. He seemed torn by what to do. His hand stayed firmly on the doorknob, but his eyes looked like he wanted nothing more than to stay...
-8-
Isabella woke up with a jerk. Her breathing was ragged and sunlight streamed into her bedroom through the curtainless windows. For a moment she tried to remember what she'd been dreaming about, but couldn't conjure anything to the forefront of her mind. She squinted to see what time it was on her clock. When she said that it was already noon, she groaned and pulled the blankets above her head in a childish way.
She'd slept for fifteen hours, and tomorrow she had to go back to work again. Just as she did back in college, she was beginning to hate Sundays. Pulling the blanket off of her head she rolled out of bed and walked towards the kitchen.
Looking into her fridge she saw that there was barely any food inside of it. Who knew that one person could go through groceries so quickly. Shaking her head she settled for making a cup of tea and started making some toast. As she waited for them to both be done she realized that the ache in both her head and her chest had diminished down to something much more tolerable.
"At least I'm getting better," she muttered to herself. There was at least one good thing happening to her. The last thing she needed was to get so sick that she already had to take a day off of again, maybe she should take a day off, then maybe Jacob Black wouldn't have to miss anymore school. At this rate he was going to have a hard enough time catching up to the rest of the class, and the school year was only beginning.
Sighing, Isabella tried to put all of that out of her mind. She didn't need any more thoughts like that to ruin her day. She decided that she should occupy herself with some cooking today.
After finishing her skimpy breakfast she went back to her room and grabbed one of her towels. The bathroom across the hall from her bedroom was even smaller, with barely enough room to fit all of the necessities in it. The sink was even leaning over the toilet a bit so she had to lean over while she relieved herself. Not to mention the water pressure was something akin to being beaten by sticks. By the end of her quick shower she was pink all over from the beating the water had given her.
She dressed in a simple pair of dark jeans with a white long sleeve. She pulled on her worn in pair of riding boots that her mother had handed down to her after she thought that the fad had gone out of style, and braided her long wet hair down her back so that it wouldn't drip and make her shirt see-through. Grabbing her purse and her keys from the living room she threw on her plain black rain jacket and headed out the door.
It was raining, of course, as she got into her car and blasted the heat. It was just cold enough to make her skin prickle. She was thankful that the grocery store wasn't too far from her apartment and that there weren't so many cars in the parking lot.
She walked into the store and grabbed a cart and began her search for the items on her mental list. She knew that she was going to be making a pasta salad and a dessert. She had settled on simply making cookies for the dessert, but Charlie had told her that she'd have to make an extremely excess amount. When she found herself standing in the "Baking Needs" aisle, she stared at the sacks of flour and sugar, and wondered how much she'd need.
"Hey, it's Miss Swan," came a voice at the end of the aisle. Isabella looked up and saw that two of her students, Quil and Embry were both standing there. They didn't look as solemn or nervous as they had during the school week.
"Hello boys, how are you?" Isabella asked them with a small smile, thankful that they were warming up to her. They walked into the aisle to where she stood, and she was once again stunned by just how tall and mature these boys really looked.
"We're good. Just picking up some stuff for my mom. She says that the store on the rez doesn't have the stuff she needs," Embry said as he looked down at a scrap of paper in his hand.
"Oh, that's kind of you boys," she replied, trying not to be rude as she looked for a size of flour that would be suitable.
"So what are you going to make, Miss Swan?" Quil asked her as she looked back to them, almost surprised that they hadn't escaped yet. It was as if they didn't mind associating with their English teacher in public.
"Oh, um... My dad is having some kind of barbeque next weekend so I offered to make some desserts for everyone..." she said while waving her hand at the assortment of baking supplies.
"You're father is Officer Swan, right? The chief here in Forks?" Quil asked and Isabella nodded carefully. What if her students were some kind of stalkers and they were going to use this information against her? "Oh, that's cool. I know that Billy is really good friends with him. And if you're making desserts for everyone? I'd probably get the biggest bag of flour you can find."
Both of the boys shared a snicker of laughter, and then Embry looked over his shoulder, he then hit Quil on the shoulder with a smack that made Isabella jump slightly.
"Right, well, we have to go. We'll see you tomorrow!" Embry smiled at her and both boys scurried away. Isabella stared after them, slightly confused about the interaction they had just shared. Those boys had barely said one word during the week and now they were offering her advice on which flour bag to buy? Isabella shook her head in confusion and proceeded to grab three of the larger bags of flour and sugar that she found on the shelf. She snagged a few bags of chocolate chips and some other necessary items from the aisle. Afterward she went through the store and bought some cereal for her mornings and some milk and eggs, fruit and vegetables and some things she could use for dinners throughout the week. It was much harder shopping for just one person than someone might think...
She checked out finally and wheeled her cart out to her car through the drizzling rain. As she put them into the trunk she felt as though someone was watching her, although when she looked around the parking lot there was no one else around. And instead of getting that gut feeling that she was in danger, she felt no such feeling. Instead she finished up quickly and jumped into her car, cranking up the heat and making her way quickly back to her apartment.
Once she had gotten all of her groceries into her kitchen she stripped off her jacket and unzipped her boots so she wouldn't get her floor all wet. Putting away all of her groceries she made herself a nice grilled cheese for her lunch and then sat down at the tiny kitchen table to grade some of the homework she had gotten from her first week.
Most of the answers on the homeworks were pathetic, if she was being honest. There was only a handful of students that had actually read the pages she had assigned in The Scarlet Letter, and the rest of them hadn't even attempted to do some of the questions. A knot formed in her stomach as she thought about how difficult the rest of this year would be. Especially when these kids had absolutely no motivation to do well in their classes.
She cried again that night. Thinking about how she should just call in sick tomorrow morning. After all, the ache in her chest hadn't completely gone away yet. She cried because she knew that no matter what she did, these kids wouldn't think any differently of their future. She cried because she felt as though coming to Forks was a complete mistake. And she cried because she was still unsure of what had happened to Jacob Black. She wasn't sure if she wanted him to come back to her class more or if she wanted to avoid him completely.
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