All right, I love my subscribers and reviewers, but you guys are only getting one chapter tonight, because this is an epic chapter. I'll make it extra long for you guys though. Okay?

Friday was in a word, hectic. As soon as I had arrived in school, I was ambushed by Angela and Jessica.

"You better not have any plans directly after school," Angela said. "Because we are decorating, and then we get to prep for the dance. Do you want to go to mine, Jess's, or your house?"

"I'm not getting out of this, am I?" I asked. I had a feeling they were going to try and pry about things while we got ready for the dance.

"Nope." Jess said, crossing her arms. "So, whose house?" I sighed.

"Mine. My date is coming to my house, so it'll make the most sense to do that." They raised their eyebrows yet again.

"And who is this mystery date?" Jess asked "We never did get around to discussing who it was."

"Is it…" Angela looked around quickly before leaning and whispering "Edward Cullen?" My jaw dropped.

"WHAT?! No. Why would you…just because we went shopping with his sister!? No! I am not going with him!" I was shocked. Edward freaking Cullen? They thought I was…I couldn't even believe it.

"Told you so." Angela said, looking at Jess.

"Well what other explanation…?" Jess said, but then shook her head. "Never mind. Let's go guys, or we're going to be late to first period." So, off we went to first period, and we immediately had a pop quiz sprung on us because it was Friday. Happy Birthday to me. It seemed that Jess and Angela had forgotten about my birthday which, all in all, wasn't a bad thing. After this week, the last thing I needed was more attention drawn to me than necessary.

The rest of the morning went a little bit smoother. In one class, we were watching a movie, so Jess, Angela, and I just went to the back of the room and wrote notes back and forth about what we were going to do to decorate the gym and what little bits of the football field that we could. Jess suggested wrapping twinkle lights around the goalposts, but Angela instantly vetoed it. There was no way that it'd work; how on Earth would we get it down?

The entire day was fine until we had gotten to lunch. Then, chaos started. Edward or Alice didn't come along to bring me to their table, but I suspected that that was because Mike was staying by my side, glaring murderously at their table. I knew the Cullens weren't intimidated by Mike, but I had a feeling they didn't like unnecessary attention as well. As I picked out my lunch, I finally arrived at the table, where Jess, Angela, Tyler, Lauren, and Mike sat. I sat down gingerly between Angela and Jess, and they both smiled and looked at the rest of the groups.

"Okay guys, one, two, three." Jess said. After she said three, the entire group burst into singing a slightly off key rendition of 'Happy Birthday' at the sound of it. I'm pretty sure that the only way you could see a shade of red that was as deep as the shade on my face was to boil a lobster.

"You guys…" I shook my head, and smiled, although I was definitely embarrassed.

"Hold up! We're not quite done yet." Jess said, with a smirk. She reached inside her book bag. "Me and Ange had an ulterior motive for leaving you and Alice for 3 hours yesterday. We had to find you a present. We both chipped in for it." She pulled out a small blue velvet bag and handed it to me. I opened it gingerly, and saw a beautiful pair of silver drop earrings. They would go perfectly with my dress, which was a nice little surprise.

"Ohmigosh you guys, you didn't have to!" I said, tears coming to the corner of my eyes. Mike pulled out a small bouquet of flowers, and I took them "Mike, thank you." I gave them all hugs, and they smiled.

"You like them?" Angela said. "We weren't sure…"

"They're perfect!" I insisted. "I'll wear them tonight!" She glowed. "And thank you very much Mike," I said, sniffing the flowers. "They're absolutely beautiful." He blushed a little bit. The rest of the lunch period was bliss, now that the embarrassing part was over. They hadn't forgotten after all. I was happy to know that I belonged, even if was a bit oddly. When I got to Biology, I was surprised to see Edward standing expectantly.

"Um…hello?" I said awkwardly. Why was he standing? He cleared his throat.

"I erm…know this may be a bit late…" his usual articulate ways of speaking seemed to have disappeared, and had been replaced with nervousness in his voice. "but I was wondering if you would want to go to the dance with me tonight?" Even though he was nervous, he had enough courage to look me in the eyes as he asked.

"Uh…I'm sorry Edward, I already have a date." I said looking downward.

"Oh. Well congratulations to the lucky guy." He said and took his seat. I sat down awkwardly beside him. We spent the period not exchanging words until the last five minutes, when Mr. Banner's lesson plan ran early, and he let us talk. Edward finally decided to try and talk to me again. "Bella?" He asked hesitantly.

"Yes?" I said cautiously.

"Please tell me you're not going with Newton." My head snapped up. He thought I was going with MIKE?

"Uh no. I'm not going with him. I'm going with a family friend." Edward blew out a sigh of relief. I looked at him curiously.

"Sorry." He said, with a crooked smile. "I feel better that I wasn't rejected for Newton. That really would have made me upset." My eyes widened.

"I'm sorry! I didn't know you were going to ask-" He laughed.

"Don't worry about it Bella. No harm done. Well, I'll see you there, so maybe I can get a dance with you. Alice said your dress was very pretty. I want to validate that for myself." My cheeks flamed. This guy just didn't know when to quit. "Joking, Bella. Although I am curious…" The bell rang and he gathered his books gracefully, while I stuffed mine hurriedly in my book bag and got up to go to Gym. As soon as I left the doorway from the Biology room, I heard Edward's voice again.

"Bella?" I turned around. "See you tonight." He had the audacity to wink. "And Happy Birthday." Flabbergasted, I went down the hallway to Gym.

For once, I did a good job in badminton. That may have been because I was pretending that each birdie I hit was Edward Cullen's head. He was so…irritating! So frustrating! So…I didn't even have a large enough vocabulary to find a word to fit. Mike continuously congratulated on my newfound skill with badminton. He called it badminton; I called it a healthy release of frustration. Jess and Angela ambushed me after Gym Class and we decorated the gym with twinkle lights galore, and set up a refreshments table, along with hanging little stars around any doorway that we could. We set up a little barrier of chairs around the football field and put up Tiki Torches every 5 feet or so around the barrier.

When we finally finished, we all rode in my car to Jessica's house to pick up her dress, and then to Angela's to pick up hers. On the way over, I quickly told them of my experience with Edward today.

"He WHAT?!" Jessica asked, nearly breaking all the windows in my truck.

"Wow. Edward. Cullen." Angela said in an awed voice.

"I don't see what the big deal is." I said in an irritated tone "I mean, you guys have probably gotten asked by him, right?" they shook their heads. "What?"

"Bella. Edward Cullen doesn't ask ANYONE to ANYTHING. Period." Jess said slowly, almost as if to make sure I completely understood everything she was saying. I shook my head.

"Whatever. He's still…"

"Dreamy?" Angela said

"Mysterious?" Jess filled in

"No! He's…incorrigible!" And with that, the conversation of Edward Cullen was over with. When we arrived at my house, Jess and Angela pestered me about who my mystery date was if I had turned down 'Edward freakin' Cullen!'. So I told them about Jake, bit by bit. Since they didn't really know him, they weren't all that interested, but they were happy for me. The time flew as we got ready for the dance. Angela put her long dark hair up in an elegant updo, while Jess straightened hers and pulled some parts of it back. I decided to try and curl my hair so it was somewhat wavy. We put on our gowns, and Jess and Angela oohed and ahhed, not having seen the dress before. They insisted on doing my makeup, and I had to admit, it didn't look half bad. I put on my earrings and shoes, and off they went, to go to their houses to get picked up by their dates.

As soon as they were gone, I quickly ran back upstairs as fast I was able without injuring myself. I heard Charlie come in, and shouted a greeting, while spritzing myself with my favorite perfume. Twenty minutes later, Charlie came up the stairs to get me to come down to greet Jake. As he walked in my room, his eyes widened.

"Bells, you look…beautiful honey." I blushed. "I'm not joking Bells, you've really grown up into a stunning young woman." I thought I saw his eyes water slightly.

"Dad, quit it. It's just me, remember? I flew past him, and went down the stairs delicately. As I turned the corner into the living room, I saw Jake's back to me, sitting on the couch as Billy sat across from him. Billy's eyes widened as well.

"Bella, you look lovely." He said warmly. I smiled.

"Thanks Billy." At the sound of my voice, Jake got up hurriedly, and turned around. He was wearing a simple but stunning black suit with a black tie. His long hair was pulled back into a ponytail, and he looked quite dashing.

"Bella…" he said, at a loss for words.

"Jake! You look great!" I said, rushing over to him for a hug. He quickly accepted me into his arms. I realized that with my four inch deathtrap heels on, I barely came up to his shoulder.

"You look amazing Bells." He reached into his jacket pocket. "I have a present for you too." He handed me a leather pouch with a drawstring tie. I undid it carefully, not wanting to mess up the bag. I shook what was in the bag into the palm of my hand, and saw a delicate silver chain with a silver charm of a howling wolf head with a moon. It was beautiful, and the detail was exquisite.

"Jake…" I said, at a loss for words. He smiled.

"You like it?" He said awkwardly, blushing a little bit.

"I love it! Thank you so much! Can you put it on for me?" he carefully picked it up and put it on gently.

"There. You look even more ravishing, if that's even possible." I smiled and took his arm. Charlie and Billy observed, huge smiles on their faces. "Let's get going, okay?" I nodded my head.

"We'll be back around 11" I said, rushing out the door with Jake. We got into my truck, and he smiled at me in the hour of twilight.

"You look really beautiful Bells. Words do you no justice." He said, gently touching my face before I started the truck. I blushed.

"You're quite handsome yourself Jake," I said smiling, and started the truck with my right hand. His left hand left from my face, and as I steered with my left hand, I held his left hand with my right. As we got out of the truck, we walked arm in arm to the school. As we arrived, we were immediately attacked by Jess and Angela, and their dates, Mike and Tyler.

"Wow Bells, you look…" Mike's voice trailed off, and he then noticed Jake standing next to me. "beautiful. Who's this?" He asked with a hint of jealousy. Jess and Angela just smiled and winked at me.

"Nice catch!" Angela mouthed. I smiled a thanks.

"This is Jacob Black, Mike. And Jake, this is Mike, Tyler, Jess, and Angela." Jake shook Mike and Tyler's hands, and slightly bowed for Jess and Angela.

"It's a pleasure to meet Bella's friends here." He smiled and I looked at him, half smiling and half rolling my eyes. He was showing off big time.

"Well come on!" Jess said, ushering us into the gym. "We didn't decorate this to have it wasted by standing outside!" We got in, and were immediately surrounded by a wall of people. I recognized very few of them, and the music was extremely loud. I frowned. This was a bit more lively than I had expected. Jake had a slight look of surprise on his face. I led him to the less populated, more quiet area on the football field. It was more beautiful than I had left it; it was as if the night had transformed it.

"May I have this dance, Ms. Swan?" Jake said, swooping into a deep bow. I giggled.

"Why yes you may Mr. Black." We didn't really dance to the beat of the more current songs that were playing; we just did whatever we felt like. Sometimes I danced by standing on his feet and he spun me around, at other times, we were just goofy and did disco moves or the YMCA. As he was whirling me around on his feet, I felt a slight tap on my shoulder. Jake's face had gone from a carefree smile to a stony glare. I turned around, a bit surprised. It was Edward.

"Why Bella, you look superb." He said, looking at me hungrily. My eyes narrowed slightly. "May I have the dance I asked for earlier? Since I was beaten out to be your date for this evening?" He sneered in Jake's direction. Jake didn't take so lightly to that.

"Back off Cullen." He growled, sweeping me behind him. He was taller than Edward, so he looked down at him menacingly. Edward's eyebrow rose slightly.

"Excuse me Black? I believe I was talking to Isabella, not you. Now if you would excuse me…" He tried to get around Jake, and Jake quickly stepped in his path.

"You're excused. Now leave." I was a bit shocked by Jake's furious response. I know he didn't trust the Cullens, but this was a bit of an extreme reaction. Edward sighed.

"Must you continue to be difficult? I asked for a dance, not her hand in marriage. And I still haven't gotten an answer." He said, looking meaningfully at me.

"Um…no thank you Edward." I said sheepishly. I looked down at the ground.

"I see." Edward's lips pursed. "Well, if you wish to dance with someone other than a dog," he glared at Jake, "you can find me." He stalked off back towards the gym. Jake glowered after him. I shook Jake gently.

"Come on Jake. Don't let him ruin our night." He still looked after Edward, shaking gently. "Jake? Please?" I asked, looking up at him. He broke out of the death glare he had fixated on Edward's back.

"Sorry Bells. He and his family…" his voice trailed off.

"Its fine, Jake. Just don't let it get to you for tonight." He looked down at me as if that wasn't possible. "For me?" I asked hesitantly. He thought for a moment, and then smiled.

"For you." After that, we danced the night away. It was 10:45 before we knew it, and we left to go back to Charlie's. As we arrived in the driveway, it was an awkward silence.

"Thank you for tonight Jake. Thank you for everything. I couldn't dream of a better birthday present." I said, looking at him. He smiled.

"I should be the one thanking you, Bells. I got to spend a night dancing with a beautiful amazing girl. What else could I ask for?" I smiled

"Thank you Jake." I said, smiling up at him. He touched my face gently.

"For you, anything." Then, slowly, he began to lean in and tilted his head. My eyes close as I leaned in too. Our first kiss was wonderful and sweet, and perfect in every way. We walked to the front door, hand in hand. As we reached the front door, he whispered into my ears and gave me goose bumps.

"I will always love you. Never forget that." He kissed me gently on the forehead, and we walked into Charlie's house together.