Hello Again. Busy week. I could blame Brit Boys… but why would I blame them for making me happy after a craptastic week? Nope… Brit boys were not to blame for the delay. Just RL.

Just Like Heaven- The Cure

~~oo~~

Chapter 58: And she was smiling.

BPOV

This week was going by so slow. I'm not sure if it was because I was eagerly anticipating the weekend, and by weekend I meant more of Edward, or that the week was just really dragging. And with the assignments and lack of any alone time at either of our homes, it seemed that Edward and I would combust before the end of the week.

At least I would.

Edward seemed to be handling it very well.

Or he was putting up a good front.

Or he was in the bathroom a lot that I didn't know about.

But he was careful the first few days to avoid any real physical time with me.

Like I was some fragile thing.

Like he'd break me.

If only.

I was ready to go breaking stuff, damn it.

I was only really sore the first day back at school.

And who knew, I might need to just keep working at it to not get sore, right?

Like when you start a workout routine. Until you had put your body through its paces, you only stayed sore.

I needed to work this kink out.

Repeatedly. Over and over. And over.

In whatever kinky way Edward would let us.

But every time I wanted to take things a little further, we would be interrupted by Emmett, or Charlie would arrive home, or Esme would insist on us studying in the dining room.

It was exasperating.

So the week dragged.

So much for a daily workout routine.

Edward stayed away most nights, except that first night that he had come and given me a massage. He had remained with me the entire night, sneaking home just as the sun came up. He had probably gotten grounded in some way.

That's why he wasn't pushing his luck with messing around, I was sure.

Of course, he had awakened a desire in me.

And now, as I sat in English class trying to write about my dreams and desires, I couldn't think of anything but Edward.

Of us.

I looked up from the blank sheet on my desk to find Ms. Denali watching me.

I looked back down quickly, a little freaked out by her attention.

She was all smiles and had been way too chatty with me all week. She was nice enough, but I couldn't understand why she would want to single me out. She seemed to ignore everyone else in class and always seemed to look right at me when she spoke.

Maybe she was just lonely. She was new in town and all.

I shrugged it off and went back to my paper.

Dreams and desires.

Probably not a good idea to write about wanting to molest Edward in the janitor's closet.

So instead I wrote about my joy in baking, and how I wanted to become an owner of a bakery like Jasper. It took me until the end of the class period, but as I stepped up to her desk when the bell rang, she looked it over with a bright smile on her face.

"This looks amazing, Bella!" she said excitedly, her brilliant teeth dazzling me and making me blush.

She really was very pretty. All the right angles and curves and skin to kill for.

"Thanks," I said, a little embarrassed.

Most teachers just ignored me.

"You really are quite talented. I see big things coming from you," she said and smiled again warmly. "I think if we worked on this, you could get that scholarship."

I looked up into her pale blue eyes.

"You think so? That would be incredible. I really need something like that to get into a good school eventually," I replied, my own excitement growing.

She nodded and sat a little straighter, showing off just how pretty she was just by sitting there. I felt a little plain and awkward sitting next to someone so sure with herself. She just seemed to exude self-confidence.

If I could ever be like that in front of more people, maybe I could go far.

"I would be happy to help you. The deadline is this next Monday," she said, still smiling.

"Oh, do you think we can get it done that soon?" I asked, worried now I would need to get it polished quickly.

"Well, I am sure you can work on it at night, work it around your other activities. And if I can get you something to revise over the weekend, then we might be able to," she said.

I nodded and smiled, excited about the possibility.

"All right. So if you can, come see me after school and we'll work on an outline. It needs to be about four pages, so you have work to do!" she said and stood up, straightening her skirt.

I looked at the clock and realized Edward would be waiting for me.

"I need to see if my boyfriend is cool with me staying," I said and pulled my bag tighter to my shoulder.

She patted me gently on the shoulder and looked down at me with a reproachful look.

"Will he pay for school? I don't think so. Sometimes you need to do things for yourself. If he cares, he'll understand," she said.

I shook my head.

"Oh, he'll understand. He just needs to give me a ride home. He'll have to wait for me," I explained, not wanting her to think I only did what my boyfriend told me.

She nodded as if she understood and motioned me to the door.

"He can always come and wait here while you and I work," she suggested and smiled again.

"I'll ask. I'm sure he'll be okay with it. Thanks Ms. Denali," I said and practically skipped towards the lunchroom, finding Edward already at our table with his lunch.

"You took a while," he said as I sat, brushing his lips to my temple. "I was about to go looking for you."

"Sorry, my English teacher wanted to talk with me," I said apologetically and pulled out my lunch from my bag.

"The hot one?" he teased and wiggled his eyebrows as he took a bite of his sandwich.

I rolled my eyes and pulled out my banana, shutting down his teasing look when he saw me slowly peel it.

Edward was so easily distracted.

"She wants me to stay this afternoon to work on my essay for the scholarship," I said, watching him as he watched my fingers move. I paused in my work, long enough to let Edward come back to reality.

"Um, yeah. Okay," he stammered, and then chuckled when he realized I had caught him ogling my banana peeling skills. "I have to pick up some things from the hospital for Esme. I can come back and pick you up."

"What do you have to do at the hospital?" I asked worriedly. "Your dad won't be there, will he?"

The last thing I wanted was for him to go there on his own and have his father manipulate him into a funk again.

"No, he's not in town," Edward said soothingly. "But Esme has been rushing around all week back and forth from Port Angeles and there are papers that Carlisle left for her I guess. It's all kind of hush hush."

He was frowning again as he spoke, and I knew he was worried about what was going on with Esme and Dr. Creepy. She was spending a lot of time in Port Angeles, and so far Edward had only come up with the excuse of handling paperwork for divorce as her excuse.

It had to be upsetting.

He had even mentioned he felt to blame for their break up.

I had spent most of Tuesday arguing that he hadn't made Dr. Creepy sleep with that woman, Tanya.

"I'm sure its just paperwork to deal with their marriage and stuff," I replied quietly, not wanting to have this discussion in the middle of the cafeteria.

He smiled weakly and pulled apart his sandwich, quiet as he sat there. We were quiet for the rest of lunch, Edward picking at his lunch as if he was no longer hungry.

The bell rang, drawing him out of his funk and as he tossed out his half eaten sandwich, he drew me close to him and kissed the top of my head.

"Go work on your essay. I'll swing by when you are ready to leave," he said and smiled down at me happily.

He turned towards the Biology class, keeping me close by his side as we walked.

We were just about to step into the classroom when I glanced past him, seeing Ms. Denali standing near her own classroom, her eyes intent on us.

And she was smiling.

She really was kind of weird.

I hoped this session would go fast.

As much as I wanted that scholarship, I didn't want to become that woman's new best friend or anything.

I forgot about her during Biology class, concentrating instead on our project. Edward had been taking care of Flour Child all week, so we had to clean up our journal a little and part of the class was a demonstration from each team about how we had learned a little about our special needs child.

I won't say I wasn't a little embarrassed when Edward discussed blindfolding.

Yeah.

I watched as Jessica and Lauren narrowed their eyes at me at the suggestion of being blindfolded with Edward. And Mike raised one eyebrow and grinned like Edward was a god in the bedroom.

Well.

He was. It's true.

But they didn't need to know that.

"So you see, you can blindfold a subject, make them experience everyday things without the use of their eyes and they can get a feeling about how it must be to be blind," Edward concluded, remaining so calm and sure as he sat beside me.

"Great report, Edward," Mr. Banner said. "How did you find the experiment, Bella?"

It was possible to blush brighter.

Could it cause fainting?

No such luck.

"Um, it was interesting," I mumbled. "Everything is more intense. Your other senses are much more heightened."

I heard Lauren snicker behind me.

Mr. Banner seemed to ignore her.

"Exactly!" he exclaimed. "Everything that can help take over for the missing sense, it will. Touch will be more sensitive, hearing more acute. Even your sense of smell and taste will be magnified."

I was waiting for the blush to knock me out.

And Edward was smirking as he looked down at his paper.

I'm sure every one knew what we were about.

Mr. Banner took pity on me and moved onto Jessica and Lauren, leaving me to slowly cool my heated face while they droned on about their project. Edward's hand slipped across my leg to squeeze it. I looked over at him, and his eyes danced with a playful energy that made me forget how uncomfortable I was over our project.

My hand made its way to his and I smiled at the feel of his fingers wrapping around mine.

Edward always made things better.

The bell rang finally and as I made my way to gym, Edward stayed with me, walking me until we came to the gym doors.

"So call me when you want me to pick you up?" he asked, leaning in to kiss me sweetly. "Remember we have dinner with your dad and my mom tonight."

He grinned and stepped back, leaving me to think of all the things I wanted to do after I met with Ms. Denali. I hoped I didn't get to sweaty in gym, and I hoped I could get through with the essay super quick.

So as I hurried into my English class, I was surprised to see that Ms. Denali wasn't there.

Did I wait for her?

I sat in one of the seats close to her desk and waited for several minutes, feeling like the idea of standing up Bella Swan was a trend somehow in this town.

I was preparing to leave when Ms. Denali came in through the door, an apologetic look on her face.

"So sorry, Bella," she said soothingly. "The principal caught up with me on my way back, talking about needing me to stay through next week."

"Oh, well that's great!" I replied.

"Yes, Mr. Varner hasn't been released from the hospital," she said and then her eyes widened and she blushed. "I wasn't supposed to say anything."

"I won't say anything," I assured her, feeling bad for her embarrassment.

She let out a relieved breath and settled into the chair at her desk.

"Thank you, Bella. I'd hate to lose this job because I let it slip," she said and seemed to relax in her seat, concentrating on me once more. "So, should we get started?"

I nodded and pulled out my notebook, ready to hear anything that would help me write this essay a little easier.

"So let's start with basics, Bella," she said, her fingers steepled together in front of her. "They'll want to know a little about you and why you are choosing this path in life. So tell me a little about yourself. Does your mother let you cook at home? Did you learn from her?"

I laughed and shook my head, and went into the history of failed cooking attempts my mother forced upon us through the years. I talked about how I pretty much took over cooking and taking care of myself before I was even ten. She listened intently, laughing when I laughed, eyeing me curiously when I remarked on moving to Forks.

"So your parents are divorced?" she asked, a slight frown on her face. "That must be rough, not having a mother figure in your life. And your father's a cop? That must make things really strict at home. Very structured."

I shook my head, thinking about all the things I had learned about life because my parents were who they were.

"Not really," I said. "My father is very protective of me, but he treats me like an adult, which I appreciate. And my mom, even with her flighty ways really helped to ground me."

Ms. Denali was quiet for a moment, thinking.

"So you are pretty independent," she stated, more to herself than to me.

I shrugged.

"I guess so, about most things," I replied. "I think some things I have to be, while others, I enjoy someone else taking the lead."

I smiled to myself at the memories of Edward taking charge.

I liked that.

"Well, I suppose that is why you will succeed in anything you do, Bella," she said, grinning. "You have to have some strong authority to run your own business. I wouldn't have thought you so independent just looking at you though. That's a nice surprise."

I shrugged again, embarrassed at her comment.

"I just like to keep things to myself. It's only recently that I feel more at ease with letting my feelings show," I mumbled and smiled down at my paper again.

"Being in a relationship with a nice boy might have something to do with that," she said and smirked when I looked up at her in surprise.

She shook her head and laughed.

"He's cute, that boy you're with," she commented. "A little possessive maybe, but I bet you can handle your own."

I frowned at her words.

"Edward's not possessive," I said. "He cares about me. But he lets me do what I want."

She nodded and looked away dismissively.

"Of course," she replied quickly. "I didn't mean to say he ordered you around or anything. He just seems really into you. That's nice. I'm sure he enjoys how independent you are as well. Sometimes guys like a woman who can take charge. It takes a load off of them. It's too bad he didn't come and stay while you worked. But I'm sure he has lots of things he could be doing besides watching you all day. So anyway. How about baking. Let's get some words down on why you want to be a baker."

We didn't talk much after that, except whenever I wanted to ask about sentence structure or if I was on the right path in my writing. After an hour, I had the beginnings of something Ms. Denali thought would be worthy of a scholarship. She offered to look it over that night, and as I left to text Edward, she was smiling and waving me goodbye. She hopped into her car, the same I had seen that day at the bakery.

I liked her. A little weird, but so was everyone else in this town.

And she cared about me, and how I could succeed as an independent person. No teacher had really done that before. I could even see myself like her one day.

Strong. Independent. Not that I wasn't already.

She was just more so.

I felt bad that I was glad Mr. Varner had remained in the hospital so that she could stay and teach.

I could learn a lot from someone like her.

Edward arrived a few minutes later, smiling as I slid in to my seat beside him. He leaned over and kissed me slowly, humming into my lips when he felt me lean into him. His hand roamed, finding their way under my shirt to tease me, fingertips tickling up my stomach until warm palms found their favorite place over my breast. I moaned into his mouth, wanting to simply drown in the feelings he was producing. When he pulled away, his eyes were dark and needy.

But he had pulled away, which of course meant that one teasing hand grope was all I was going to get.

"Maybe we can just let our parents have dinner without us and we can go hide at your house for a while," he mused, his eyes trailing down my body while he licked at at his lips.

I pretended to scowl at him, even though I thought that was a much better idea than having to listen to Charlie and Esme chat about us while we sat right in front of them.

His eyes traveled back up my body, regret at not having more time alone clear.

It was tempting. Ditching our parents.

But not very wise. Who knew what they would discuss without us there.

He rolled his eyes and chuckled, pulling out onto the street towards his home.

"You're right," he said, sighing dramatically. "Leaving them alone would only cause us more trouble. I just hope Emmett behaves himself."

I kept quiet at that.

I hadn't thought of Emmett.

Oh boy.

Charlie would have to be on his best behavior around Esme.

I somehow doubted Emmett would be.

This could be more entertaining than I thought.

~~oo~~

AN: what could Ms. Denali be up to?

More soon.

MWAH!

steph