Chicken Parmigiana

Of course like everyone else I don't own any characters you may recognize from Stephanie Meyers' Twilight Series.

BPOV

The early afternoon spent with Roxanne was very enjoyable. Our brunch was the favorite time for me because she showed me how much our friendship meant to her. I had a lot to think about with our friendship and where it was heading. I knew I'd never tell her the whole story of 'him' but I knew I could give her the finer details and she'd understand.

In the meantime, I had a cooking class I had to host. I returned just in time to prepare everything so that our dinner was scheduled for 7:00pm. I ran upstairs to freshen up before heading into the kitchen.

On my way up I ran into Drake heading down, "You two back already?"

"Of course, aren't you joining us for dinner this evening?"

"I wouldn't miss this for the world" he said grinning from ear to ear. "Ian in the kitchen actually making something that isn't in an aluminum tray with everything in it including the desert. No I wouldn't miss this."

I chuckled as I ran into my room with Roxanne right behind me. "Oh boy, that guy is cute. What do you think? Do I stand a chance with that one?"

"Of course you do, just look at yourself." I turned to her in time to see her checking herself out in the mirror. I could tell by the look on her face that she wasn't all that satisfied with the image reflected back at her.

"Rox, you are beautiful inside and out, Drake would be crazy not to be interested. Look since he'll be in the kitchen witnessing the embarrassment of his best friend, you should be in there too. This way you can casually strike up conversation and if it looks like it's going somewhere then great. If not, at least you'll know after tonight. Come on, pretty yourself up, we have grunt work to do. Remember you promised you'd help if I helped you unpack."

"Alright, alright. Give me five and I'll be right down." She grabbed a new shirt and went into the bathroom.

I quickly changed my shirt into a comfortable T and freshened up my ponytail. "Okay, Rox I'm heading down. Don't take too long," I said as I walked out the door.

I bolted down the stairs as quickly as possible without tripping myself. I made it into the kitchen and saw Anne, Sam, and Drake sitting at the table. They were laughing at Ian as he was fastening on an apron that said 'Cook in Training'. Apparently Anne and Sam had run out this afternoon and purchased this just for tonight. I chuckled right along with them and told him to turn around so I could tie the strings for him.

"Okay, are you ready to be shown your way around the kitchen" I asked Ian while putting on my serious face. I couldn't keep my expression from turning into a grin for long because he looked so silly with that damn apron.

"I'm here for your command, oh wise one" he bowed.

Rox came into the room and asked, "What'd I miss?" She quickly scanned the room and started laughing at the site of Ian. "Well, I don't know about you three but I think this show really calls for wine. Do we have any?"

"Sure, let me get it. Anne can you get the glasses?" Sam jumped up and ran into the cupboard to get the wine, while Anne went to the cupboard to get some glasses.

"Ian, I want you to get the chicken out of the refridgerator and put it on the counter over here. Rox, remember you're not off the hook, you need to get the sauce out of the cupboard and get a baking dish ready." I started ordering the two of them around as if they were my personal assistants. The great part was we were all working together and not colliding into one another.

I walked over to the stove and set the temperature so it would preheat while we were preparing the food. I glanced over at the table to see Anne, Sam and Drake with smirks on their faces that could only mean one thing. They were enjoying this entirely too much.

"Okay you three, don't think you'll get off so easy either. You get to work on the garlic bread." I reached over grabbed the bread from the counter handed it to Anne and went back to the fridge for the butter, garlic and a knife. "Get to work you three, no slackers around here."

We continued in this way while telling stories about each other and just in general enjoying the prep time for our meal. Other people from the hall would come in, watch us for a few minutes, grab themselves something to eat and quickly make a retreat from the room. I don't think we were intimidating, I just think we were just enjoying ourselves so much they must have felt like they were intruding.

Ian pounded the chicken, and I showed him how to lightly bread it. Roxanne had prepared the baking dish with sauce so we were all set when the chicken was done being breaded and browned. When the three at the table finished with the bread, I had them slice the mozzarella so it could be added to our dinner. Once the chicken was in the oven, Rox and Ian had taken seats at the table.

I turned towards them and cleared my throat loudly. "Guys, we're not done here. What about the salad? Chop, chop and I mean that literally. Pull out the lettuce, tomatoes, cheese, cucumbers…let's go."

Rox turned to Ian, "Who knew she could be such a slave driver. I thought I was rooming with a sweet little country girl." They both sighed and got out of their chairs.

"Hey Bella, what's with the jarred sauce? Aren't you going to show us how to make a good Italian sauce? With a name like Isabella, I bet your momma would be disappointed in you" Drake teased.

"I'm not Italian, whatever gave you that impression."

"Your full name, Isabella. I just assumed it was Italian."

"Well you could be right, but no I'm not Italian. To tell you the truth I have no idea what nationality I am. I expect I'm a mutt, a little of this, a little of that." I was at the sink cleaning up the dishes we'd made from our preparation.

Ian snuck up behind me and whispered in my ear, "I like the end result of all that mixing. It looks good on you." He stepped away and started chopping the salad again. Oh boy, that wasn't good. How was I going to make him understand I wasn't interested? I reached over for my wine glass and finished what was in it.

Our dinner turned out perfect and we had a great time. We toasted to a successful semester and the start of great friendships. We cleaned up the kitchen together and everyone congratulated Ian on his first cooking class. He looked at me and said, "I couldn't have done it without a great teacher." Then he winked at me and raised his wine glass. At this point, I had enough wine and had switched to Iced Tea. I didn't need a fuzzy brain with classes starting tomorrow.

At around, 9:30 we all headed out to the common room. I was more than ready to head upstairs and mentally prepare myself for classes, but knew my new friends didn't want to call it a night yet. I moved towards what was quickly becoming my favorite seat in the room, the armchair directly in front of the fireplace. I loved staring at the fire and just letting my mind roam. Just as I was really relaxing, I looked around to see Rox and Drake sitting on the sectional in deep conversation. I smiled and let out a sigh.

Ian came over and lightly touched my forearm, "Thanks for that, I had a lot of fun. You look beat though."

"Yeah, I am. It's been a full day and tomorrow won't be any better."

"How many classes do you have tomorrow?"

"Only two, but I have a feeling they will be tough, American Lit I and Shakespeare Drama. I'm actually excited though, at least for now. I'm sure after my first assignments I won't be as excited, but for now…" I shrugged my shoulders.

"Hey Bella. What are you doing? Feel like hanging out over here?" Both Ian and I looked over to see who was yelling across the room.

"Don't look now, but I think you have an admirer" Ian said quietly.

"Oh no, not him. Please no, I'm too tired to be nice." Just as the words were leaving my mouth, Derrick appeared at my side and started tugging on my arm.

"Come on Bella, come over here. We can play cards or something."

"Derrick, I think Bella looks a little tired, don't you?" Ian asked him.

Derrick looked at Ian then back at me and then his face fell. It was as if someone had burst his balloon and he was 5 years old. His shoulders sagged and he lost all of his momentum. I felt so bad for him, but I knew from previous experience…aka Mike Newton, that no good would come from caving in right now.

"Derrick, I really am tired and tomorrow's the first day of classes. So perhaps another evening we could, um play cards or something. Right now, I really think it's best if I head upstairs." I stood as I finished speaking and headed towards the stairs.

I tapped Roxanne on the shoulder before leaving and let her know I was heading up to bed. She smiled, waved and I could tell her evening wasn't ending any time soon. She and Drake seemed to be enjoying each other's company more than she expected.

Reaching my room I realized how tired I really was. I sat on the edge of my bed removing my shoes and letting my hair down out of the ponytail. I stepped over to my desk and prepared my backpack for tomorrow's classes.

Today really was fun. I couldn't escape the feeling of contentment I felt. I stood there thinking about everything that happened today. This really was what it felt like to live a normal life. All my time in Phoenix and then the time after 'he' left Forks didn't compare. Of course the times down on the reservation spent with Jake were great, but I never felt like I belonged there. Jake always made me feel like I was welcome, but the rest of the Quilette gang didn't really understand me. How could they, they knew who I was befriended by and they were enemies of the worst kind.

I sighed and sat down on my bed, maybe everything would work out all right. Maybe, just maybe I could move on.