Disclaimer: Stephenie Meyer owns Bella, Alice and Edward.

Also I love each and every one of you who reviewed my story, or put it on alerts.

To the ones who didn't, well I am still glad that you actually read it!

Special thanks to Lozzie for putting me as her favourite author, my story on her alerts and for adding it as a favourite.

Bella

I was extremely eager for Thursday to arrive, even though I was perfectly aware of how stupid that was.

I nervously pushed open the gate of the orphanage and peeked inside. No, no sign of bronze hair or a pair of green eyes. I ignored the feeling of disappointment I felt and walked towards my class.

I really enjoyed teaching these kids. Sure, all of them didn't understand every theorem I taught, but I was patient and explained the same thing over and over again, until each and every one of them grasped its meaning. I asked them not to be shy or afraid to ask me questions, because I myself remembered being scared of doing so.

When class was over, and my pupils were shuffling out of the room, my phone buzzed.

"Ms. Swan?" It was Sister Charlotte.

"Yes, Sister, it's me."

"Would you take the trouble of coming to my office? We are having a staff meeting. I could have informed you earlier, but it was sudden and unexpected," she explained.

"No, that would be no trouble at all. I will see you at your office in a minute," I snapped my phone shut.

I tried unsuccessfully not to remember the last time I'd been in Sister Charlotte's office, and hurried towards the now familiar path. I paused outside the door, knocked and entered when Sister asked me to go in.

Sister was sitting on her chair behind her desk. She had to bring in two extra chairs, which joined the other two chairs next to her desk. Three chairs were occupied – by two strangers I haven't seen before and a third person whose face was almost painfully familiar to me by now, even though I've seen him only once. His bronze hair was tousled as usual, and I had this strange urge to go forward and smooth it. He was looking down at his feet, which is why I couldn't see the green eyes I've been dreaming about since the past one week.

I went forward and sat on the only unoccupied chair and for the first time paid attention to the strangers. The person sitting next to me was a big muscled young man with dark curly hair cropped short and he was smirking down at me. Beside him sat a beautiful young blonde woman and she was calmly twisting a pale strand of her hair. Edward Cullen was sitting next to this woman, and I wondered, with a sharp pang of jealousy if they were together.

Sister Charlotte cleared her throat and presumably caught me staring at the other three people.

"Ms. Swan, I am guessing you are already familiar with Mr. Cullen?"

Familiar? I huffed at the understatement of the century. That was true if familiar was synonymous with being hopelessly infatuated with a certain person. Then yes, I was familiar with Edward Cullen alright. He was so much familiar that I could recognize his face with my eyes closed, just by tracing it with my fingers.

Wait, did I just admit that? I must be completely losing my mind.

Instead of saying all this gibberish, I answered her with a simple nod, and instinctively looked over at the person in question. He was still gazing down at the mosaic floor. Wonder what was so fascinating…

"Well then, here is the rest of the staff of Queen Victoria Child Care Orphanage," she said, waving her right hand at the two strangers.

What? That's it? Only 4 of us comprise of the entire staff?

The curly-haired man waved at me and said "Hi, I'm Emmett, the cook here."

I smiled at him and said, "Nice to meet you, I'm Bella, the math teacher."

Next, the blonde woman turned towards me and with a smile said, "I'm Rosalie, I give music and dance lessons."

I smiled.

I felt utterly confused. These people were not screaming at me; as a matter of fact they seemed genuinely nice. I began wondering what I could have possibly done to infuriate Edward (I was now on first-name basis, God Help me) apart from messing up his schedule. Is that petty reason significant enough to make him despise me so much that he couldn't even look at me?

Sister Charlotte slammed shut the file she was holding and said, "Now that the pleasantries are over, let me get directly to the point as to why I've asked you to be here.

Ms. Swan, you are probably not aware of this as you are new here, but every year we organize an elaborate birthday celebration for the children here, on a random day of the year."

I nodded. I had heard about orphanages doing this and thought it was a brilliant idea.

"Well, due to the current global economic crises, we are bit short on the funding. In fact, we had to cut down costs on linens and dishes so that we can bring in more food and text books. At such a time, arranging a party might not be the best idea. "

"Wait, does that mean we won't be celebrating the kids' birthday this year?" Rosalie asked, horrified and slapped her palms on the desk after uttering the last word.

Sister Charlotte continued, as if there had been no interruption at all.

"What I am trying to say is that we have to come up with an alternative way, to make this up to the children. This is the only day they eagerly wait for," she said in a sad voice.

Emmett jumped up from his seat and lurched forward with what was perhaps a suggestion when Sister Charlotte cut him off.

"However, Mr. Cullen has already come up with a plan and I was hoping you would approve of it as much as I did."

I could not stop myself from impulsively looking over at Edward, but I didn't need to refrain myself from doing so, because the other three individuals were mirroring my action.

Edward finally tore his gaze from whatever was planted on the floor beneath him and raised his glorious eyes for the first time that day.

My dreams had not done injustice to his features, not even a little bit. I was not able to note the correct shade of green his eyes bore. It was like the green colour of leaves after they have been drenched in a shower of heavy rain. It was absolutely enticing, mesmerizing and appealing. All of a sudden I had this sudden desire to close it shut and kiss them lightly and…

Wake up sunshine! He is TALKING! I scolded myself.

"Well, I was wondering if it would be a good idea to arrange a concert, instead of a birthday party," he said tentatively.

"No offence man. Sounds like a fantastic idea to me, but as Sister Charlotte pointed out there is teeny-weeny thing called financial support we have to worry about," Emmett said in his booming voice, and raised his eyebrows questioningly.

"Yes. I was getting back at that. The concert itself will be a source of finance for the orphanage," he explained.

"You mean, like a fund-raising concert?" I mumbled without thinking.

And I regretted it.

As soon as I had spoken, his gorgeously dreamy eyes rested on my face and I suddenly became self-conscious. I was in all probability looking like a complete wreck, since I had to come here directly from work. I imagined my hair to be all sweaty and sticking to my forehead thanks to the New York sun and hence with nothing left to do, I smoothed my slightly wrinkled skirt, all the time never tearing my gaze from his.

For the first time, I got the opportunity to observe his face accurately. Gearing up the courage to look past his mesmerizing eyes, I noticed his nose was slightly tilted towards the left; he had to cleft on his chin and there were laugh lines beside his eyes. This little detail gave me another topic to worry about – if this person had this much effect on me when he was all grim and moody, what would happen when he smiled?

But, apparently it looked like I would not get to see that anytime soon, because at the moment his expression was far from smiling – it was like he was trying to pay attention to something while looking at my face. He looked extremely sombre and somewhat cautious?

Nevertheless, all my wild imaginations lasted for the entire three seconds, and then he looked back to stare at the wall behind Sister Charlotte's chair.

"Yes, it will be something like that. However, due to the obvious financial crises, we can't possibly bring in someone famous to perform. Which is why I was thinking that Rosalie could do some ballet and Emmett knows how to play the guitar…and you - "

"Impossible, this cannot be happening! They are going to throw rotten tomatoes at us!" Rosalie exclaimed.

I wanted to strangle Rosalie, even though I've just met her. But I had my reasons. Before she had so rudely interrupted, Edward was about to ask me something!

Thus, I totally ignored her and said "You were saying something?" to Edward.

He cleared his throat, and I precariously hoped he didn't notice how I'd hung on to his every word. Of course I also wished he hadn't already figured out how enthralled I was with him.

"I was thinking if you could do something…" he said, slowly raising his index finger and pointing it at me. But it wasn't done in a manner like he was accusing me of some crime – it felt like he was almost shy about asking me this. I found that utterly endearing.

"I could sing something….I used to take lessons as a kid," I replied in an equally hesitant way and quickly looked down at my feet.

"Well, that's settled then," Sister Charlotte announced.

"Man, if I mess up, it will all be your fault," Emmett stated jokingly to Edward.

Rosalie huffed.

"Mr. Cullen, what about you? What are you doing?" Sister Charlotte asked.

Edward looked slightly taken aback.

"Sister, I will be organizing the whole thing, of course. I have a few friends at Broadway and they can set up the stage and bring chairs at minimum costs. We can do that in the backyard where the kids' play. Since the field isn't that big, that means we will have limited space for the audience. All we need to do is get the tickets printed and sell them at medium prices, but of course the children will be the most important part of the audience…" he kept on talking.

"You misunderstood me Mr. Cullen. What I meant was, are you going to perform or not? I remember it being clearly stated in your resume that you are a trained violinist."

Edward stiffened, and I looked at him, again.

This beautiful, bizarre and mysterious person also played a musical instrument?

This world is so unfair.

Sister now looked at me, Emmett and Rosalie.

"That will be all Mr. Masen, Ms. Hale and Ms. Swan. Thank you for agreeing to do this for the children. I would call you and inform you about the newest developments concerning this thing, like the rehearsals and all. Thank you once again."

A/N There, I brought Emmett and Rosalie in the story too. I am sorry if Bella sounds like a love-sick teenage girl, but like I said that's the best I could do.

Also, it might seem like the story is dragging and Bella and Edward seem miles apart. But I promise they will be together soon.

Meanwhile, please review