2
The next morning dawned overcast and muggy for once, Bella loved the heat of Phoenix in the summer, but the normally clear skies were a disadvantage in winter as the cold hit fiercely, at least this day would be slightly warmer… she hoped, though she also hoped that it wouldn't be one of the few days that it rained, her coat wasn't any more waterproof than it was cold proof.
Still, her breath steamed out of her as she quickly got out of bed, wrapping herself in her blankets as she looked at the small hand basin in the corner of her room, her mother didn't like Bella sharing the bathroom with her if she could help it, she often accused Bella of messing with her things. So unless it was necessary Bella used the small hand basin in her room and the downstairs toilet. She shuddered, the room was so cold ice had formed from the faucet where it had been dripping all night long. She couldn't get washed in water that cold, she would make herself ill, so she got dressed for school.
Clean clothes wouldn't be a worry for almost a full week, she had plenty of clean underwear and unless she had a problem or accident, she could wear her uniform for three days or so, she felt relieved that this year she had a change of uniform, the previous year Renée had insisted that one would do!
She slipped downstairs to the kitchen to heat a pan of water so she could wash her hands and face, cursing the fact that the hot water was electric rather than gas.
Looking in the fridge, quickly so as not to waste the cold air keeping the few items inside fresh, she grabbed out a block of cheese and the last 2 slices of a wholemeal loaf and made her lunch up. She regularly got picked on at school for not eating in the cafeteria, but money was too tight to waste on fries at $1 a portion. There were many, many disadvantages to being one of the very few poor students at a school in such a rich neighbourhood.
Getting a stool to stand on she looked into the jar in the cupboard for the shopping money… $4. She sighed once more, Renée must have taken the $20 note she knew had been in there, she put the money in her pocket. It was payday on Monday, but $4 wasn't going to last that long… added to which as soon as she got home she had to try to sort out the electric.
She grabbed her bag and hitched it over her shoulder, almost unbalancing herself at the same time because of the weight. There was no sign of Renée anywhere in the house, so she let herself out and locked the door.
Even with the overcast skies the cold was biting! She pulled her rather thin coat around herself, hoping that it would get warmer somehow, and cursed the fact that the school uniform meant she had to wear a skirt. As soon as she stepped out onto the pavement she felt uneasy, as if someone were watching her. Several times on her way to school she looked around, but she never managed to see anyone looking at her. By the time she got to school she was perished. She slipped into the girls changing rooms and huddled on the bench at the back of the room. The huge hot water pipes that carried heat to the school's radiators ran under the bench. The PE teacher never said anything about Bella using the room before school. It took so long for her body to warm through that the bell had gone for the start of class.
Mr. Blain, the mathematics teacher hated her, three times he called on her to answer questions on the board, and not just answer, he made her get up and write. Her blushes always made the other children laugh, which made her feel even worse. By the end of her first lesson that morning she felt like crying, but the stubbornness that was the main inheritance from her father kicked in and she bit her lip and widened her eyes, determined she would not give either the children or Mr. Blain the satisfaction.
Second period was science. She groaned. It wasn't that she didn't like science, she did! She especially liked old Mrs. Vaughn the rather absent minded teacher. She had known her all her life, as they lived close to the teacher and her ailing elderly mother, it was just that with the extra lessons twice a week, it was getting boring. However when she got to class there was something unexpected. Instead of Mrs. Vaughn there was someone new.
The man was tall and blond, his face was as pale as his hair and he wore a very nice light coloured suit. Bella had never seen anyone as handsome as this man, and looking at the faces of the other girls in her class neither had they. He reminded her of the pictures that Renée had brought home one time from one of the many churches she had attended for a short while. All he needed was a halo and he would be the spitting image of a saint or even an angel. He hardly looked old enough to be a teacher to her.
"Wow!" Julie Cook said as she whispered to Jessica Smith on the next row, "He's gorgeous!" Bella was looking at the teacher as she heard them speak and noticed him smile slightly as if he had heard. That was impossible though, they were sat only 2 rows from the back and Julie whispered.
"Good morning class!" The teacher said, turning his back to them and picking up some chalk, "I am Mr. Carlisle." He wrote the name on the board in the neatest handwriting that Bella had ever seen and underlined it. "Mrs. Vaughn and her mother have taken a holiday, and I have come in to help you all get ready for your exams!" Bella frowned, when all the other pupils groaned, teachers didn't just take off in the middle of term, it wasn't allowed.
Though she wouldn't say that she was especially close to Mrs. Vaughn and her mother Mrs. Middleton (who was 90 at least, Bella was sure) they were friends. At the end of the lesson the night before, Mrs. Vaughn walked most of the way home with her, as usual, and she had said that she would see her "tomorrow" as they parted, surely if she was planning on going away she would not have said that… she would have told her that she was going away!
Bella looked at the new teacher with suspicion. Something wasn't right. On her way home she was going to go see Mrs. Vaughn and make sure everything was ok.
"Please open your books to page 223," the teacher said. Bella opened her book and frowned, she had already covered this in her extra classes. "Isabella Swan." Her head shot up and her cheeks blushed automatically as her full first name was called. The teacher was looking right at her. "Please bring your exercise book to me," she picked up her book and walked to the front of the class. David Barnes stuck out his foot and caused her to trip, she sprawled onto the floor, her book flying under the teachers desk. Her face burnt with humiliation as she tried to get up, but he had put the legs of his chair on the edge of her skirt and she couldn't move without risking ripping the material and she couldn't afford another skirt this year. Stupid school uniform! Her hands and knees stung from being in contact with the hard surface of the floor.
The sound of her tormentor laughing was suddenly cut short as the weight lifted and freed her clothes. "Principles office." The teacher said, his voice tight and angry.
Bella nodded and quickly picked up her book and headed out the classroom. "Not you Miss Swan, Mr. Barnes is the one who is being put on report." Bella looked at the teacher quickly… didn't he know who David Barnes' father was? Vice Principle Barnes was the real ruler of the school, and his son got away with murder because of it, he took especial joy in tormenting the few "poor" students, and her especially as she was a year younger than the others in the class and David seemed to think this made him look bad… things had gotten worse of late as it seemed like she was going to skip another year and so he constantly tripped her, knocked into her, or made her drop her things, just to embarrass her.
"You can't send me to the office," David said, sitting back in his chair with a cocky grin. Mr. Carlisle grabbed him by the back of his sweater and lifted him straight in the air, over the desk and out of the classroom, David was a bulky child for his age but Mr. Carlisle lifted him as though he weighed no more than a feather.
"I will be contacting Mrs. Bullock in 3 minutes, if you have not arrived at the principal's office by that time you will be on more than a report!" the teacher said his voice very angry now, the classroom behind him was deathly quiet so that everyone could hear everything. Bella stood by the teacher's desk, not knowing if she could get away with returning to her place, but deciding not to even try, she was still bright red in the face, but inside she was jumping in joy that the bully had at last met someone who wouldn't stand for his lip, and at the same time dreading the retaliation she knew he would take on her for being the cause of his humiliation.
"You'll be sorry you spoke to me like that! My dad will make sure you never work again!" Mr. Carlisle stepped back out of the classroom as David's threats followed him in. Suddenly he gave a yelp and the class could hear him running down the corridor. Bella wondered what the teacher had said or done that had shut him up.
Mr. Carlisle returned to the classroom and after a quick glance around that made every student eager to read their books, he held out his hand to Bella and took her work.
He looked through it carefully but quickly and smiled at her over the top when he finished.
"I see you have covered the work that Mrs. Vaughn has scheduled for the next two weeks already, Bella," Bella stifled her sigh, she hated doing things over and over, "so I guess I'll just have to find something new for you," he opened his briefcase and pulled out a bright orange book, "have a look at this, I got it in England last year, and was wondering if it would go down well here, let me know what you think!" Bella looked at the book, and then at the teacher, confused. He nudged it closer to the edge of the desk and she automatically grabbed it before it overbalanced. Still puzzled at what he was meaning, Bella nodded and returned to her seat.
The book, entitled "Physics for You!" was quite heavy, but as soon as she opened it she knew she could spend hours and hours reading it. It was a light-hearted tome, with poems, cartoons and mnemonics galore to help pupils remember the syllabus, and though it was for a higher age group than her own, she understood an awful lot of it, just because of the way it was explained. As an avid reader, and good student, she was almost angry when the lesson ended and she had to hand the book back.
"Keep it for now Bella," Mr. Carlisle told her, smiling, "I just knew you would love it when I heard that you were being tutored to skip a grade. You can give me it back when you finish with it, or at one of the after school lessons, feel free to ask me anything you need, to understand it." Bella nodded and carefully put the large book into her already crammed bag.
It wasn't until she was in the corridor heading to her French class that she realized what the new teacher had said. It sounded as though he was going to be at the school for a while, which reminded her of her puzzlement over Mrs. Vaughn.
She went into her French class more determined than ever to go see the science teacher after school, something just wasn't right.