Chapter 10
Lunch was a three person affair. Not only were the rest of the Cullen kids a no show, but to make matters a touch more awkward, Rosalie was plastered to her side and refused to let Bella get up while claiming she was "recharging" through Bella while Emmett insisted on acting like Bella's personal butler. Something she hadn't realized yesterday when having lunch with the two was how much of a show the other students saw the Cullen table as. The whispers from the kids around her might as well have been shouts with how clear it was that they were talking about Bella, Rosalie, and Emmett. The stares were nearly nonstop and super awkward, Bella only getting a break when Rosalie took a moment to give a glare at whichever offending student dared to make Bella uncomfortable.
Due to everything going on it was pretty hard for Bella to make conversation without feeling like a freak show at the way everyone around them tried to lean in and hear, but she managed. What she was mainly concerned about was why the other Cullens weren't with them; for some reason she was certain their absence was their fault.
Rosalie assured Bella that the other Cullen kids not joining them for lunch had nothing to do with Bella. Apparently Jasper had a project that he was struggling with and Alice, as his girlfriend, was helping him out during lunch. But they hadn't mentioned Edward's reason for not being there, so Bella asked about him. The way both Rosalie and Emmett's expressions darkened, accompanied by the way Emmett muttered something about how Edward didn't have the balls to show up, made Bella decide not to pursue the subject.
It was only when the bell rang and Rosalie stayed plastered to her side as Emmett slunk off with one last lost puppy look that things really sunk in. That Bella was going to be sharing a class and a desk with Rosalie.
Immediately, Bella's heart began to pound so hard she wouldn't be surprised if everyone in the hallways could hear it.
Rosalie took Bella's backpack from her before Bella even realized what was happening. "I'll be taking this."
"But–"
Bella's beautiful companion cocked her head to the side, golden hair spilling over her shoulder, eyes half lidded and dark with something Bella couldn't begin to unravel. "Please, Bella?"
Now, Bella was huge into proving how capable she was and doing everything by herself that she could. She was strong, her muscles were huge–something Rosalie had openly been impressed by–and Bella hadn't struggled with carrying her back ever. She should definitely be telling Rosalie that she was fine and could easily handle her bag on her own, and maybe even offer to take Rosalie's as well.
But that look. There was no way Bella could fight it. Hell, Bella doubted anybody on the planet could say no to that look, especially coming from Rosalie Hale.
"Okay," Bella squeaked and looked at the floor, thoroughly defeated. Rosalie gave Bella a peck on the cheek as thanks. The cool feeling of the blonde's lips on Bella's heated, blushing skin was more than enough to make Bella's overworking heart come to a stop. At that moment, Bella forgot how to speak, how to breathe, if she even had a name.
"Thanks, Bella. You're the best." Ignoring the gaping of the surrounding student body, Rosalie slung Bella's backpack over her shoulder and took Bella's hand with her free one. She would replay the look on Bella's face and the reactions of her body later, when she wouldn't risk making Bella late.
Bella couldn't make the blush go away even by the time she made it to the classroom. All she could hope was that no one would put two and two together when they entered the classroom with her face only a few shades lighter and her heart beating just as fast as it had the moment Rosalie had taken her hand.
"Rosalie?" Mr. Banner said in surprise. Clearly someone had forgotten to tell him about the class change.
"I'm in this class now." Rosalie handed Mr. Banner her new schedule, accompanied with where Mr. Banner needed to sign, and Bella took the moment of reprieve to hurry to her table as the room erupted in not so quiet excited whispers about Rosalie being in their class. Despite her icy demeanor, it was clear everyone was more than happy to have someone of Rosalie's standards to ogle for a period. It made Bella uncomfortable and want to protect her in a different way than she felt toward Emmett. Her protectiveness had a possessive edge to it that Bella knew she had no right to feel. To try and shake herself out of her urges, she sat not in her chair by the window but the one next to it and tried to busy herself by getting ready for the continued reading of the chapter that they had started yesterday. It was only when she reached for her backpack that she realized that Rosalie still had it and Bella had no way to do anything else but sit awkwardly and wait for Rosalie to finish with Mr. Banner.
Only a few minutes passed but it felt like hours before Rosalie made her way to Bella's table with Bella's bag still slung over one shoulder. Everyone eyed her and tried to whisper, and it made Bella more and more uncomfortable to the point she was shifting in her seat with the urge to get up and snap at someone.
Rosalie was soon slipping behind Bella's seat, her fingers skating across Bella's upper back. The brunette's breath caught in her throat and it was all she could do not to shiver at the touch. With the desire that always came, so did the guilt, but this time Bella welcomed it. She would welcome anything that would temper her reactions and stop her from making a fool out of herself in front of Rosalie.
The blonde sat in her chair with a gracefulness that no teenager should be allowed to possess, her fingers lingering on Bella's shoulder, almost grazing bare skin, before dropping the girl's backpack gently between the two of them. "You might have to catch me up on what I've missed, I hope you don't mind," Rosalie murmured in a tone that made it clear she knew Bella wouldn't mind in the least.
"Of course I won't mind," Bella mumbled as her face heated up once more. Damn blush. And damn her heart for racing louder than before. She was starting to think her heartbeat might be heard by everyone in the class at this rate.
"Thanks. You're the best." The words were accompanied by a warm smile only Bella could see, as the human blocked the rest of the class's sightline to the blonde. Bella was sure that the teacher would have been thanking her if he had known of Bella's sacrifice–as the smile all but made Bella topple out of her chair with the strength of its dazzling beauty, it would have probably made the rest of the class faint.
"Right…um, I'm not, totally not, but thanks for thinking so." Bella quickly scrambled to get everything ready for the lesson but she was so thrown that she couldn't help but start to babble. "So, uh, right, the class. Right now we're not really doing much, just working on cells, you know, the parts and stuff. But we have some stupid packet we have to fill out to prepare for the lab we're starting, and we have to read–I mean the class has to read over this chapter first, then we fill out the packet, and–"
"Oh, that reminds me. I didn't have the chance to get the biology book from Edward." More like Rosalie wouldn't have been able to look at him without trying to kill him again, but that wasn't exactly something she was going to tell Bella. "Do you mind sharing with me?"
Share? With Rosalie Hale? God, Bella really was in trouble. Usually she was able to act semi normal most of the time, but with no reprieve, no Emmett, and such close contact to Rosalie, it was a lot harder for Bella to keep her cool.
"Yeah. No problem." Bella pulled out her book and set it so that it was almost directly in front of Rosalie and nearly unreadable for Bella herself.
Rosalie gazed at Bella for a second, trying not to coo at how adorable the girl was as she blushed and ducked her head. When her mate acted like this it was nearly irresistible. "You can't read it like that, silly girl," Rosalie murmured. The blush on Bella's face darkened as she mumbled something nonsensical, so Rosalie took it upon herself to grab the back of Bella's chair and pull her so that they were side by side, nearly brushing against each other with every breath Bella took.
Bella's heart stopped in her chest at the cool feel of Rosalie against her even as she looked up at Rosalie in bewilderment at how easily the blonde had moved the combined weight of Bella and her chair. Right, she's sexily strong. How could Bella forget about that?
"Problem?" Rosalie asked with a knowing smirk, her gaze seeming to darken to nearly black before Bella's eyes. The beautiful blonde kept her hand on the back of Bella's chair, and it made a strange thrill go through Bella. If she didn't know any better she'd say Rosalie had left it there as if trying to stake a claim on her.
"No, not at all. I just, you know, really need to figure out your workout routine. Makes me feel like all of my hard work over the years was child's play to whatever you're doing." Bella wanted to pat herself on the back for the save, especially since it was the truth. Even with all of the wonderful distractions Rosalie and Emmett had created in her life, Bella still hadn't forgotten her goal of being strong enough to kill a grizzly.
"Hm, is that so?" Rosalie asked in a near whisper. Her fingers slid up Bella's arm, sending jolts of guilty pleasure through the brunette's body. "I don't think I can agree with you. What you've been doing has made your body quite–"
Mr. Banner cleared his throat loud enough to interrupt whatever Rosalie was going to say, leaving Bella confused, aroused, and desperately curious to know how Rosalie was planning on finishing that sentence. Sadly she knew she wasn't likely to get an answer when she realized Mr. Banner was frowning at them.
"If my class is that boring, I'm sure I can find other ways to entertain you. Or perhaps you two just need to be separated?" Mr. Banner asked.
Rosalie pulled away from Bella but didn't drop her hand from the back of Bella's seat. She narrowed her eyes at the man for a moment before quickly schooling her features. She was not going to let that man separate her from her mate, and if that meant having to play nice, she would do it.
Bella mumbled an apology, but she couldn't hear what Rosalie said to the teacher or what the teacher said in reply. Her heart was beating way too loudly to the point it drowned out everything else.
Her heart didn't calm down for the rest of class and she certainly couldn't focus while being surrounded by Rosalie. She could only hope the blonde had been paying attention because Bella definitely would need notes.
Even after the bell rang and Rosalie dropped her off at her next class, Bella was still on a Rosalie buzz. Everything seemed to fly by as if she were in a dream to the point that she wasn't sure she would be able to remember anything else that happened in her classes post Rosalie.
Then came gym, and after changing, she was greeted by Emmett's huge, childish grin. "You ready to get your ass kicked today, Bells?"
An equally large grin spread across Bella's face to match that of her large friend. "Oh, you can count on it. Prepare to go down, big man."
In a moment of dejavu, Bella heard a voice clear behind them. This time it was Coach Clapp. "I'm always happy to see my students so excited and ready for my class, but today we're running laps. Twenty of them, to be exact. So put your rivalry away and get jogging. You're late."
Wait, Bella was? Shoot, she must have been slower getting changed than she realized. And now she got Emmett in trouble too? Damn it. For a moment Bella couldn't help but hate herself. "Yes coach, sorry coach," Bella said, giving Emmett a guilty glance as he also apologized, although he didn't seem bothered. As they jogged off to the rest of the class that was already running, she added, "You didn't have to wait for me, you know. I hate knowing you got in trouble because of me." In fact, the way her heart clenched and her throat tightened to the point she had trouble breathing when Coach Clapp first chastised them made it clear her body had an extreme reaction to having gotten Emmett in trouble. It was strange how she had such an extreme reaction when it came to Emmett and not with Rosalie, but she couldn't think much about it now. She was determined not to get Emmett in even more trouble.
"You okay Bella?" Emmett's concern was enough to make Bella smile.
"I'm fine. Just got stuck in my own thoughts for a minute there." Bella's smile took a mischievous edge as she said, "Wanna see who finishes fastest?"
Emmett's answering grin was so childish and eager, Bella almost laughed. "Oh, hell yeah. You're on!"
"I still can't believe you won. I'm fast, you know that? I've broken records!" Bella was still grumpy at how easily Emmett had managed to keep just a few strides ahead of her during their impromptu race. So grumpy in fact that she was determined to keep complaining about it even after they met outside the school after their showers. "Seriously, the hell is that training regimen you do? I've never lost in a run so thoroughly before."
Emmett was incredibly pleased with himself, especially after he got to rub it so thoroughly in Bella's face. He might have used his vampiric speed to cheat, but he had never beaten his sister in a race before. Even in her first life, his sister had been a speed demon. "I'll tell you some other time. Right now, we've got a mission to accomplish."
"Oh, no you don't," Bella started, jumping on his back to give him a revenge noogie. She had to raise her voice over his laughter to make sure he heard her say, "I'm not letting you escape until you give me all of your secrets, you hear me?"
"Then you're going to have to get used to living up there. I'll never crack!" Emmett declared. He reached up to try and return the noogie Bella was continuing to give him, but only managed to mess up her hair and make Bella laugh as well.
"I see you two are having fun."
Rosalie's voice was unreadable, but it was still enough to stop Bella cold. She felt strangely self conscious as she slid off of Emmett's back and muttered, "He wouldn't tell me his secrets," in a tone that was almost that of a sulky child.
"I'll get those secrets out of him later," Rosalie promised, almost half joking. Her attention was firmly on Bella even though she knew it wasn't a good idea. The vampire's lust was rising fast as she took in the girl who was still pretty wet from her shower, having rushed through it to the point she hadn't even dried her body properly. Her clothes stuck to her skin in certain wet patches, her shirt clinging in a way that the baggy material often never did and teasing Rosalie mercilessly.
"Yeah. Sounds good." Bella's face was growing red, riling up Rosalie even further, and something about the way Bella pushed her messy wet hair out of her face was so enticing that Rosalie found herself stepping toward her mate without even realizing it. She had no idea what she would have done right there in the parking lot had Emmett not let out a low hiss–not aggressive in any way. He was simply warning Rosalie to snap out of it.
Right. Rosalie Hale didn't drool…in public, anyway. Not to mention they had a mission to accomplish.
"Are you ready to show us those videos?" Emmett asked Bella. Even though he was absolutely certain who Bella once was, he still felt oddly desperate to get more tangible proof even if that proof might be upsetting.
Bella's grin faded and she clearly hesitated. Right. The videos. The super embarrassing, awkward videos of Bella freaking out over something for no clear reason. She had completely forgotten that she had promised to show them after school today.
"You don't have to. We can do something else," Rosalie quickly added. Even if she and Emmett desperately wanted to see them, she was determined to put Bella's comfort first and foremost.
"Yeah, what Rose said," Emmett agreed. Now he was the one feeling a bit guilty at causing any distress in Bella. He could have at least brought it up in a better way, but his eagerness had gotten the best of him.
Bella shook her head. "No it's fine. You guys really want to see them, so you're going to see them. Let's go."
A/N: Well, that's another chapter done. I appreciate all the sweet people reaching out to me, you guys are adorable and help keep me writing. Keep being awesome.