Chapter Three: "Standing Up" Bella's POV

"He sounds dreamy," Rosalie gushed as she sipped tea, grading papers in my kitchen. She was a middle school teacher who always brought her work home.

"He is," I admitted as I stirred the spaghetti sauce on the stove. "Did I mention how he treats his daughter?"

"I don't think so," she said.

"He is, like, the ultimate daddy. He calls her sweetie and love and angel and princess. He always kisses her hair. He is like, so in love with Emmy. And she adores him, too. She's a total daddy's girl. I've never seen anything more adorable or heartwarming."

"Is she cute?"

"The most beautiful little girl I've ever seen," I admitted. "The spitting image of her father."

Rosalie grinned. "I bet you two would have cute babies."

"You haven't even seen him!" I exclaimed. "How would you know?"

"Emerson is the most adorable child alive, and if Emmy is as beautiful as you say, then obviously the chances for another beautiful child are good," she said matter-of-factly. "And can you imagine the wedding? Emerson as a ring-bearer and Emmy as a flower girl! And me as the maid-of-honor, obviously."

"Whoa, whoa, slow down," I said. "We haven't even been on a date yet."

There was a wicked gleam in her eye that told me all of her papers to grade were forgotten. "Well then, we must fix that. You have his number, right?"

"Yes," I said nervously.

"Call him!" she encouraged me. "Set up a real date."

I shook my head. "No, Rose. He's the man. He should call me first. And he hasn't, so how do I know if he's even interested?"

She rolled her eyes. "Isabella Marie Swan, quit lying to yourself. He totally likes you. It's only been one day since you've seen him. Maybe he's shy about calling you. Call him! If you don't want to call it a date, then call it a play date for the kids."

I shook my head. "No. Right now I'm focusing on feeding my child some spaghetti. Which is ready, by the way. I'm going to go get Emerson, okay?"

"Okay," she sighed. I walked into the living room, where Emerson was watching Dora the Explorer. "Hola, señor," I greeted him.

"Hola, Mama," he said back. "I learned the word for 'cat' today."

"Oh, really?" I asked him. "What is that?"

"Gato," he said proudly.

"Wow," I said. "You'll be a fluent Spanish speaker by the time Dora goes off the air. Are you ready for some spaghetti?"

"Si!" He jumped up and ran into the kitchen to join Rosalie at the table.

As soon as I had served the spaghetti and sat down at the table, Rosalie turned to my son. "Emerson," she said sweetly. "Don't you think it's a good idea for your mom to call Emmy's dad and set up a play date?"

Emerson's dark eyes lit up. "Yeah!" he exclaimed. "Please, Mommy?"

I sighed and glared at Rosalie. "Aunt Rosalie is forgetting that Mommy is very busy."

"I think you should call Edward now," Rosalie said, fingering my cell phone that was laying on the table.

I glanced down at it and realized that she had punched his number into it. It was just waiting on someone to hit the Call button. "Rose!" I gasped. "How do you know his number?"

"It was in your purse," she shrugged.

"You went through my purse?" I nearly yelled.

She giggled and picked up the phone. "I'll call Edward for you, then."

"Don't," I said, and then stared in horror as she pressed the button and held it up to her ear. "It's ringing," she mouthed.

"Oh, for god's sake!" I groaned, snatching the phone from her. Emerson giggled as I realized that it was, indeed, ringing. I froze, praying that Edward would not pick up. I was too shy for this.

However, my prayers were not answered.

"Hello?" Edward's velvet voice asked, sounding a bit sad.

My tongue felt like it was glued to the roof of my mouth.

"Hello?" he said again.

Somehow, I somewhat composed myself. "Hey, Edward?" I said. "It's Bella. Um, Bella Swan."

"Oh! My Payless Shoe Source angel," he joked, sounding immediately cheered up. "I was just thinking about you."

I tried to ignore the waves of flattery that were rolling over me...and the butterflies in my stomach. "Good thoughts, I hope," I said weakly.

"Always," he promised. "How are you?"

"I'm good," I replied. Both Rosalie and Emerson were staring at me in frank curiosity. "I was just calling to...um...discuss those chocolate chip cookies."

Rosalie clapped her hands gleefully. She knew exactly what I was referring to.

"Oh, right," he said. "I did promise to help with those, didn't I?"

I snorted. "Yes, you did. I was wondering if maybe you and Emmy would like to come over Thursday at six? I'll supply dinner for us all and the dinosaurs for the kids. And you can supply your housewife qualities."

He chuckled. "Fabric softener and all?"

I laughed, trying not to choke from nerves. "Nah, I have enough of that."

"Of course you do," he replied, his voice sounding very happy. "What can I bring over?"

"Just you and Emmy," I told him. "Seriously, I love to cook. Don't worry about it. Is lasagna okay with you guys?" My lasagna was everybody's favorite recipe.

"Lasagna is perfect," he said. "And I'll bring a dessert anyway...and my baking skills."

"Excellent," I said.

"Okay, it's a date," he purred, and I nearly melted.

"Yeah," I nearly whispered. "Um, have a good week until then."

"May you have a week as lovely as you are," he said sweetly. "Tell the little man I said hey."

"I will," I promised. "See you soon, Edward."

"See you soon, Bella."

I hung up. Emerson was practically bouncing up and down in his seat. "Are they coming?" he asked.

"Thursday," I told him. "And Edward said 'hey.'"

"I like Edward," Emerson announced as I spooned the spaghetti onto his plate.

"Your mommy likes Edward, too," Rosalie said mischeviously.

I coughed awkwardly, nearly spilling the sauce. "Rose, will you go get the garlic bread?"

"Of course," she smiled innocently.

Time to change the subject. "So what did you do at school today, Clark Kent?"

He shrugged, swirling noodles around his fork. "We watched our chrysalis but the butterfly still didn't come out. It's taking forever. And we read the Pug book again. It's boring, but Mrs. Milstead said that the school can't afford new books." He sighed heavily.

"We'll read more books at home," I promised him. "What letter are you learning to write this week?"

"P," he said. "As in pig, peg, path, pink, and Pug."

"Or porcupine," Rose said, putting the bread on the table. "What about a pink porcupine?"

Emerson giggled. "No, Aunt Rosalie. Oh! And I played with Emmy at recess! We played tetherball until Mike stole the ball."

"Mike Newton?" I asked. "He stole the tetherball? How?"

"He broke the string," Emerson replied quietly, his eyes sad. "Mike is mean to everybody except Jessica. I don't know why Jessica likes him!"

"Did you tell the teacher?" Rosalie asked.

Somehow, my son already had sauce all over his face. "No. Mike's a bully," he said quietly, sounding forlorn.

"You okay, Emerson?" I asked him.

He nodded. "Yeah…"

"What's wrong?" I asked him. "My Spidey Sense is going off."

He sighed heavily. "Mike said some mean stuff to Emmy. He said that she's a loser because she doesn't have a mom like he does."

I choked on my noodles. "Are…you…serious?" I coughed.

"Yeah," he confirmed, staring at his plate. "I told him to go away and he said that I'm a loser for not having a dad."

Rosalie and I exchanged a glance. I pushed my spaghetti away. "Come here, baby."

Emerson sighed and moved to sit in my lap. I took my napkin and started to gently wipe the sauce off of his face. "Don't ever listen to anything Mike says," I told him gently, my heart throbbing in pain. "It's not your fault that you don't have a dad. But guess what? You have a mom who loves you more than anything in the world."

"And an aunt who is also your hot girlfriend," Rosalie added.

Emerson cracked a smile.

"I'm sorry you don't have a dad," I told him sincerely. "But sweetie, I love you more than Aunt May loves Peter Parker. And I love you more than I could ever love any man who could be your dad. You're all I need, and while you may not have everything, you give me everything. We're making it just fine without a dad, right?"

He nodded. "I know, Mommy. Don't worry. I'm used to not having a dad. I could tell that it hurt Emmy's feelings, though."

"You did the right thing by standing up for her," I told him, kissing his hair. "But next time you need to tell a teacher. Mike shouldn't be allowed to say those things. And Emerson, I know it's hard to not have a dad. But it's the hard stuff that makes a superhero powerful. Peter Parker didn't have a mom or a dad."

He smiled at me. "At least I have a mom. I hate it that Emmy doesn't get to have a mom like I do."

Rosalie stuck around until after I tucked Emerson into bed with a kiss and an I love you. She was helping me wash the dishes when she brought it up to me.

"You know, he needs a male influence," she remarked. "Why don't you let him hang out with Emmett?"

"I don't want to bother Emmett—"

"Emmett loves kids," she interrupted me. "He thinks that Emerson is the most kickass kid ever. Emmett has a big Jeep and video games and he loves Transformers. Emerson would probably love to hang out with him."

"We'll see," I replied.

"It's quite simple: if Emmett doesn't want to hang out with Emerson, then I'm breaking up with him," she sniffed. "Emerson is my main man."

I giggled. "I think my son is going to be a womanizer."

I embarrassed Emerson by following him into his kindergarten class the next day, but I needed to speak with his teacher. He stomped to the far wall and hung his backpack up on the appropriate hook before going to his desk and sitting quietly, his cheeks red. He had inherited that blush from me, of course.

I sighed and approached the kind middle-aged woman. "Mrs. Milstead? I was wondering if I could speak with you for a second?"

"Of course, Mrs. Swan," she replied before blushing. Obviously she had forgotten that I was the only mother who wasn't a Mrs. "Is it about Emerson? He's doing extremely well. He's so well-behaved and reads like a second grader!"

I smiled, proud of my baby. "Thank you," I said gratefully, "but it's actually about another student. Emerson told me that Mike Newton has been teasing the other students, especially the children who live in single-parent households. Emmy Cullen has been having a problem with Mike as well."

Mrs. Milstead's mouth fell open. "I had no idea. Emmy isn't one of my students, but I know who she is. I will watch Mike and see if he continues the bullying."

"I would prefer that you have a conference with his parents," I replied curtly. "It wasn't fun last night to comfort Emerson over the fact that he doesn't have a father."

"That's what happens when a child comes from a broken home," she said dryly. "Especially with young parents."

Now my mouth fell open. How dare she! "That's none of your business," I snapped. "You just admitted that Emerson Swan is one of your most intelligent, well-behaved students, and I am the reason that he is so happy and healthy. If you won't approach Mr. and Mrs. Newton, then I will."

"No, of course I will," she said in a hurry. "I didn't mean to offend you. It's just that, well, you should expect your child to be ostracized for your poor decisions. That's how human beings are, Ms. Swan."

"Emerson was not a poor decision," I replied. "And I never expect my child to be ostracized. I want an end to it now. I'm personal friends with Emmy Cullen's father, and if she continues to be bullied, then I will go to him and relay this entire conversation."

"That won't be necessary," the teacher squeaked. "I'll take care of it."

I took a deep breath and nodded. "Okay," I sighed. "Thank you, Mrs. Milstead. I really have to get to work now. And by the way, there is nothing broken about my home. It is just as clean, tidy, safe, and loving as yours."

"Of course, Ms. Swan," she said uncomfortably. "I'm truly sorry for offending you."

I left the classroom without saying goodbye to Emerson; he had been humiliated enough. Needless to say, I was furious, but that awful Wednesday morning had an upside to it.

Edward Cullen was going to be at my house tomorrow.

Review, review, review!