CHAPTER SEVEN- "Fall to Pieces," by Avril Lavigne

The Monday before we got out for Holiday Break, I walked into my first period class to see several of my female students crowded around my desk. They were all reaching for something, bending over, and giggling loudly. Confusion swept over me like a wave.

"Girls?" I questioned, my brow furrowed into a neat line. "What are you doing at my desk?"

One of them rushed over, a small, square envelope in her hands. "Read it, Miss Swan! Read it out loud!"

I looked down at the envelope. My name was signed across the front in loopy cursive, and I recognized the handwriting immediately. Fighting the frowning of my lips, I looked back up. "Girls, what's on my desk that has you so worked up?"

They all turned and looked at me, their faces beaming, and stepped back, revealing a large bouquet of red and white tulips. My jaw dropped, and they all burst into little giggles again.

"Who are they from?" the girl who had handed me the envelope, J'Lisa, asked eagerly, looking up at me with wide, admiring eyes.

"I don't know," I lied, trying to keep my eyes from moving towards Edward and Alice, who were most likely acting disinterested. My hands just barely shaking, I slowly opened the envelope as a crowd of teenagers encircled me.

"What's it say?" one asked. "Who's it from?"

I sighed before reading it aloud. "'Twas the week before Christmas, and all through my mind, were memories of you, and all of our good times." The girls waited, as if they were expecting more, before I shrugged. "That's all it says."

"Is it signed?" a normally quiet girl, Caitlin, wondered, looking over my shoulder.

I stiffened as her neck came dangerously close to my lips, but quickly caught myself. "Er– no. It just says 'Love, Your Secret Admirer.'" The girls all squealed, attacking me with questions as I fought a smile.

"Do you know who it is?"

"Do you have a boyfriend?"

"Do you think it's Mr. Phelps?"

I couldn't help it – a genuine smile crept up on my face. It was strange. When you're happy, you never notice a smile; it's just another part of your expression. But when you've gone without one for so long, you can feel your face moving and adjusting to accommodate the strain of muscles, the crinkling of the skin near your eyes and the tightness in the back of your jaw.

My students probably thought that this was an amazing feat. These girls got so worked up just because I got flowers, so I wasn't going to ruin their day by pointing out that they were just an over-due apology.

"Calm down, calm down," I said, letting laughter slip into my voice as I brushed through them to get to my desk. "It's probably just Mr. Crawley trying to butter me up." As I sat down, I winked at them. Mr. Crawley was a well-known pervert, usually referred to as "Mr. Creepy-Crawley."

I could feel Edward and Alice's grin without even having to look up.

The bell finally screamed, and the girls all moved to their seats. Slipping back into teacher-mode, I told them to get with their partners and work on their projects, smiling at their chipper attitude towards working with their best friends.

As they distracted themselves with gossip and excited chatter, I looked at the short note again. And when I was positive he wasn't looking, I leaned forward and inhaled the scent of Edward's flowers deeply.

The scent made my mind flash back to my junior year, when I first started dating Edward. He'd begun asking me question after question, and one of those questions just happened to be "What kinds of flowers do you prefer?" I'd answered, "Tulips."

This memory made my breath catch, and I looked up at the bronze-haired god in the back of the room. His face was pointed down towards the papers he and Alice were discussing, but his eyes were looking straight into mine.

The look in his golden orbs was unreadable. I'm sure that he was trying to tell me something, but I just couldn't say what. It wouldn't surprise me if he was apologizing, but for all I knew, it was a gift from all of his family.

An unwelcome flutter in my stomach hoped it wasn't.

After school, when I was sure that Edward would be nowhere in sight, I threw away all of the flowers but two: a red one and a white one. I didn't allow myself to keep the others, no matter how much I wanted to. I would not allow myself to be wooed, just to face disappointment again. I tucked the card in my pocket and sped off to my small home, where I'd immediately put the two blooms into water.

Even if Alice had seen me throwing away the rest of the bouquet (or maybe in spite of it), when I walked into class the next day, three or four girls were waiting at the door, squealing about a gift on my desk. I politely pushed past them, my eyebrows rising when I saw the neatly wrapped package, complete with a big, silver bow.

I sat on my desk, telling them I wasn't going to open it unless they sat down in their seats. They quickly obeyed, and I pulled off the shiny, red wrapping paper (without cutting myself, I might add). A plain, dictionary-sized, white box sat in my hands.

I shot Edward a glare that I hoped nobody would notice, and he replied with a faint smile.

Sighing, I pulled off the top half of the box, holding up the bottom half so that the class could see the gifts that lay inside: a 1924 copy of "Romeo and Juliet," along with the DVD to match. The nineteen-sixties version, of course.

"You like Shakespeare?" one student asked, wrinkling her cheerleader nose.

"Yes," I said, pulling out the antique book. Mint Condition, of course. "It's one of my favorites."

"Is there another note?" a voice asked, and I shrugged.

As I thumbed through the play, though, another small, square envelope fell from between the pages. "I guess so," I mumbled, leaning over and picking the note off of the floor. I opened it quickly, scanning it over before reading, "I hope Mr. Berty still thinks the sixties version is the best. Love, Your Secret Admirer."

"Who's Mr. Berty?" one tall, lanky boy asked.

"Um," I sighed. "He was one of my teachers when I was in high school."

"So, you know who your Secret Admirer is?" J'Lisa squealed.

After hesitating, I quietly responded, "Yes. I'm pretty sure I do."

"Who?" almost all of the girls shouted.

Shaking my head, I smiled sadly. "He's just an old friend of mine. We sort of had a thing back when I was your age." But before they could ask anymore questions, I put the note and the gifts back on the desk and crossed my legs. "So, who was supposed to present today?"

The class went on uneventfully, and I found it hard to concentrate. Because, what I didn't tell my students was that there was more to the note. "Romeo loved another girl and killed Juliet's cousin. My mistake was much worse than anything he could ever think of. I'm sorry. I love you. Edward."

I thought that'd be it, and that after his apology, he'd leave me alone, but he didn't. Every day that week, there was always a gift on my desk when I walked in. Wednesday was a thin silver chain, with an onyx bead and a topaz bead settling right in the hollow of my neck (I tried it on as soon as I got home). Thursday brought a mixed CD, nineteen tracks of songs we'd talked about together: Clair de Lune, a few songs from Phil's CD, and another copy of my lullaby, to name a few (the songs were listed – I refused to listen to it, even though my students begged me to let them hear).

Friday brought the biggest and most painful surprise. I walked in, expecting to see one small present resting on my desk, but instead, it was covered with presents. I shot Edward and Alice a glare, but they shook their heads. "From the kids," Alice mouthed, tilting her head towards her classmates.

"Thank you, guys!" I said, looking at the tags on the gifts – there had to be at least ten. "This is so sweet!"

"Open mine first!" a silly, loud girl, Nicole, squealed. She ran over to my desk, picking up a flat, square box and handed it to me.

"Hmm..." I looked at the class in their desks. I was surprised that they had even gotten me anything. I was the only teacher who wasn't letting them have a party or watch a movie or something. Before I could change my mind, I set it back down on the desk.

"Can I get all of my men to move the desks and chairs back for the ladies?" I asked as I slipped out of my shoes and kicked them under my desk. As they did so, everyone began to squeal at the fact that I wasn't going to make them take a test on the last day of the semester. "Everybody get your presents; we're going to open them all together."

I had them all get in a circle, sitting between Caitlin and one of the football players, Josh. Several students had grabbed their gifts off of the desk and now were holding them out for me to open. I was relieved to find that Edward's hands were empty. Alice had a small package in her hands, but I could handle opening something from her.

So we opened the presents together, laughing and joking. For the first time in almost fourteen years, I was having a genuinely good time. My students told the funniest jokes, and even though I couldn't eat the chocolate that a few boys produced, I appreciated every one of their gifts – even the (probably expensive) clip-on earrings from Alice.

Everything was going good, and then, while everyone was going to their lockers, I picked up my cell phone and ordered a stack of pizzas for them to have for lunch. My Christmas bonus would cover it. I gave the delivery man the school's address and told them to take it to the office, asking for Miss Swan.

When I told the kids what I had done, they were ecstatic. Even Alice and Edward had grins on their faces, which worried me a bit. Why would pizza interest them? The students were on their cell phones in minutes, calling and texting about how cool I was. I could get used to that.

"Alright, what movie does everyone want to watch?" I asked. As it was the last day of school before break, three or four different DVD's were going to be playing from the AV room. They quickly decided on a romantic comedy (cue groans from the few males), and I sat back with them and watched it, too.

About twenty minutes into the movie, though, the intercom crackled and the voice of the school secretary filled the room. "Miss Swan? I have someone here with a pizza delivery for you?"

"Thank you, I'll be right there!" I called and moved to stand, but Edward and Alice jumped up.

"Let us go get them, Miss Swan!" Alice chirped, dropping to her knees in front of me. "Please, please, please, please, pl-"

"Okay, okay," I said, smiling hesitantly. The other kids were staring at her, seeing as this had been the most she had said since the Cullens arrived, and I tried my best not to seem off-beat. "I put the money on the desk. Hurry back."

I expected them to 'accidentally forget' the money, but the pixie-like vampire just scooped up the few bills and left the room with her brother. Trying to ignore the nagging suspicion that something was up, I turned my attention back to the movie, faking a laugh at a joke I had heard several times before.

I almost didn't hear their footsteps in the hallway when they returned ten minutes later, but Alice suddenly burst into the room, her hands full with a large bouquet of wildflowers – not at all Christmas flowers. "Miss Swan! Look, look, look!"

I sat up from my lying position as Edward walked in with about five boxes of pizza in his hands. He sat them down on the back table and avoided my gaze, while the guys flocked to his side (for the pizza, of course, not the bronze-haired god).

"Who are these from?" I asked as she plopped down next to me and set the vase full of wildflowers in front of her. The rest of the girls crawled over to us, only a couple more interested in the food.

"I don't know," she lied cheerily. "We got up there and the pizzas and the flowers were already there, no pizza guy. Edward," she looked up at her brother, who had backed up into a corner of the room. "Where's the note that was on top of the counter?"

Next to me, Nicole whispered about how gorgeous Edward looked when he was being 'shy.' I frowned, but kept my expression calm.

My once-love walked over confidently, reaching into his back pocket and pulling out a small, square card, much like the one I had found the first day. He handed it to me, and I fought the urge to brush my fingers across his. Instead, I politely took the card and opened it, pulling out the card and reading it aloud.

"'Dearest Bella, I hope you know that it was completely ridiculous for you to even think of wasting away your Christmas money when all you had to do was ask me. I hope you like your flowers and agree to spend Christmas with my family and I. Love, your not-so-secret admirer."

The girls burst into questions, mostly asking if I was going to go with him. I shrugged, trying not to glance at Edward and Alice, and said, "Maybe if he's lucky."

"But, Aunt Bella!" Alice suddenly whispered, just loud enough for everyone to hear. "I thought you were going to spend Christmas with us this year."

"She's your aunt?" one of the guys asked incredulously, his mouth half-full of pizza.

Alice nodded at him. "She's our mom's sister," she said matter-of-factly, ignoring my what-the-heck-are-you-doing look.

"Damn," the guy said lowly. "Good looks definitely run in that family."

I gave him a level look, and he blushed, turning away to stuff another bite of pizza into his mouth. One of his classmates explained that they were adopted as I turned back to the tiny woman at my side.

"I don't know, Alice. I haven't had a chance to talk to your mom and dad about it." I shook my head, proud of my improved acting skills. "I don't want to inconvenience them."

"Inconvenience them?" Alice asked, laughing. "We moved up here just so we could be closer to you!"

"I haven't even had a chance to go Christmas shopping this year," I offered as an excuse, absently running my thumb over a petal of one of my daisies. I really hadn't gone Christmas shopping in ten years. I had no need to, with no friends to give gifts to.

"Please, Aunt Bella," Edward spoke up, his voice soft and persuasive. "Just seeing you can be our Christmas present."

It felt as if all eyes were on me, watching my every move. Would I spend the holiday with my 'family' or my 'secret admirer'? With a deep breath, I shook my head. "Tell your mom that I'll be over at six on Christmas Eve."

And just like that, time continued, and everything was set back into motion.

It wasn't until after school, when I was packing up my stuff to leave, that I noticed the tiny card taped to the side of the vase that my flowers were sitting in. I took it off carefully, not wanting to rip the paper. As soon as I had read it, my body went numb and it fell out of my hands.

"Sweetpeas, honeysuckles, and daisies," it said. "Straight from our meadow."