Tuesday
On Tuesday I woke up in a great mood. Isabella was asleep on my chest. I knew what to expect from school with her. Even the sun was shining.
I gently rubbed her back. Her skin was so soft.
It only took a few moments for her eyes to flutter open. They went right to my face. Then she was smiling at me and I was smiling at her. She crawled up so her face was above mine and gave me a kiss on the lips, just a quick one.
"Let's take a shower," she suggested.
"Hell yeah."
She got up then stood next to the bed, waiting for me to follow. When I was out of bed, she grabbed my hand and pulled me to the bathroom.
I let her pee first while I brushed my teeth.
"Do you ever pee in the shower?" She asked.
"Yeah, you?" I couldn't say much while brushing my teeth but she understood me.
She giggled, I think embarrassed. "I've tried it because I've heard good things but it got on my legs and feet. It felt gross. I was afraid I smelled like pee, even though I washed really well that day."
She wiped and put toothpaste on her toothbrush. I spat and went to the toilet to pee.
"It's supposed to be good for your feet, prevent athlete's feet or something."
"That sounds made up."
"Could be," I admitted.
"Do you pee in the shower a lot?"
"Yeah, sometimes I would save the pee for the shower." I turned the water on to get the temperature right.
"But you're not doing that now?"
"I'm not going to pee on you, Isabella! That is not sexy."
"Thank you," she said sweetly.
"Uh, you're welcome? That seems like the very bare minimum, not something to thank me for."
"But you liked it, if you saved your pee for the shower, you liked peeing in the shower. And now you're giving that up for me."
I closed my eyes. Was she serious right now?
"Isabella, peeing in the shower was like a 2/10 in the pleasure category. Did I like it? Sure! But having you in there with me, my hands in your hair, your hands on my back, my dick in your pussy, all that is a 20/10. I'm not missing out."
She pushed me into the shower and started kissing me. "Fuck first, then we'll clean each other," she instructed. I complied. It was probably the imprint connection, making me do what she wanted all the time.
~O~
For breakfast, she had a small bowl of cereal. I scrambled a dozen eggs for myself. Then she started making Gaston jokes.
"I can't be the beast and Gaston at the same time though," I pointed out.
"You kind of are though."
~O~
Isabella was getting more comfortable in school. She spoke up in English class, sharing her thoughts about a book she definitely was not reading.
The teacher called on her in math class and she was totally comfortable explaining an answer. I was really proud of her. I was a little ashamed too. I never shared my thoughts on the books we read and I certainly never spoke up in math class. Our grades were comparable and we were in the same classes but I felt like she was better at it somehow. She was more engaged in the life she was living. It felt inspiring. This was maybe an overreaction to watching someone speak up in class but it was how I felt.
When I walked her to the gym, little Jacob Black seemed to be waiting for her. I glared at him a little. "Watch out for my girl, ok?"
Jake nodded.
We both watched Isabella run to the girls locker room. Then I turned to leave.
"Hey Paul!" Jake called after me. He was approaching me.
"What?"
"I think you should know, Isabella has terrible coordination."
"What are you talking about?" From everything I had seen, she was graceful, almost majestic in her movements. And I had been watching carefully.
"I mean, I'm doing my best, looking out for her, but she's a danger to us all!"
"I have no idea what you're talking about!"
"She fell twice in one period! She hit me with a racket yesterday. She almost hit a freshman girl but I blocked her. And if she hits the ball, and that's a big if, there is no predicting where it will go. It's really dangerous."
I recited Mr Chadbourne's lesson. "You can always predict where the ball will go based on the speed and angle of the racket when it makes contact."
"You're such a prick," Jake said, exasperated. "I just wanted to let you know. Maybe if you weren't holding her up all the time you would have noticed by now."
I thought that over during art class. She had said that she was clumsy but the examples she used were terrible. I hadn't seen her trip at all but she did bump into me when Sam and I visited her last Sunday.
I did have my arm around her when we walked together but if she was falling I would have noticed. She had her arm around my waist a lot too, so maybe I was keeping her stable.
She fell twice in gym class?
~O~
As I walked towards the gym after art, I crossed paths with little Jacob Black. "How'd she do?"
"She only fell once today. Then she gave a kid a bloody nose and was benched."
"Ok, thanks bud." I went around him to find her but she was right there, staring at me from down the hall.
She looked pissed. "Are you spying on me? Getting little Jake to be your eyes and ears during the one period that we're not together?"
"Not at all. He came to me with his, uh, concerns."
"I don't want to talk about it, Paul." So we were silent as we filled our lunch trays and went to our table with Jared and Kim. As soon as we sat down, she buried her head in my chest. "I might not graduate."
"What the hell are you talking about?" I asked, gently stroking her hair.
"The state requires a Phys Ed credit to graduate."
"Yeah, but you're in Phys Ed."
"But I'm going to fail again."
"How can you fail Phys Ed?"
"I don't know." She looked up at me sadly. "I'm probably cursed."
It broke my heart to see her upset. I needed to fix it. "I could tutor you."
She laughed. "That doesn't sound like a good idea since you've been kicked out of the gym."
"I'm surprised you haven't asked about the volleyball story yet."
"I heard all about it in gym class yesterday," she said, her smile slowly creeping up her cheeks.
"Not all sources are reliable. Who told you the story?"
"Jake. He said he was there."
"He was. Listen, it wasn't entirely my fault."
"Who's fault was it?" She was smirking.
"It was an accident, nobody's fault."
"But you threw the ball."
"I did."
"Jake said it was $8000 worth of damage."
"That's around what I heard as well, but nobody died."
"But two kids had black eyes."
"Yeah," I sighed. "I felt bad about that. They had bloody noses too, dripping like a faucet for ages."
"How do you know that?"
"We all had to sit in the principal's office together. It was an accident though. Even on my shittiest asshole days, I would not do that on purpose."
"I believe you. Do you ever worry about hurting me on accident?"
"I don't," I answered honestly, holding her gaze.
"Why not?"
"Because I'd never throw you at the basketball hoop from across the gym."
She laughed, but asked, "Seriously though, you're not worried that you could forget your strength for even a second?"
"No. Every time I touch you it is with the intention to show my love and affection," I said, caressing her cheek as a demonstration. "Even when we did the bodice rippers fantasy with my old shirt, I moved my body so it feels like I'm out of control but I'm not."
"Ok."
"Are you worried?"
"I guess I didn't think about how strong you were before I heard that story. Like, I knew you were strong, but I didn't know you were that strong."
"The only thing I worry about even a little bit is what happened to Emily, where Sam phased too close. It was an accident but it still scares me as a possibility. Do you know the signs of phasing?"
She nodded. "I think so. It looked like you were vibrating."
"Yeah, shaking that gets so intense it looks like vibrating, usually when my emotions are out of control. If you see that, back away from me, no matter what. Don't run though because that gets the wolf excited."
"What would the wolf do if I ran?" she asked.
"Try to catch you, but it wouldn't be gentle because it would be instinct, not a deliberate decision."
"So I'd get hurt?"
"I don't know but I assume so."
She nodded. "What am I going to do about gym class?"
"I'm serious about tutoring you. I was good at gym before I phased. Not so much now. Still, I know the curriculum inside and out."
"Do you have tennis rackets?" she asked me.
"I don't think so. Do you think your dad has some?"
"Probably, yeah, I think so."
"We'll run to his house after school."
"Wolf run?" she asked excitedly.
"We'll try it, yeah." My wolf was purring at the plan.
After she finished everything on her lunch tray that she wanted, she gave the leftovers to me. Anna sat down across from us while I was finishing the milk.
"So, did you try it?" Anna asked Isabella.
Isabella's face broke into a huge smile and nodded. "Yeah, that was really kind of you. How did you know I needed that?"
"You're sweet, Bella. I figured you probably weren't a slut but I wanted to share the benefits of my experience."
"I appreciate it. We both do." She squeezed my hand. I looked back and forth between the two of them, confused. They both glanced at me, then looked at each other and giggled, offering no explanation.
"One more thing," Anna said. "Someone started calling you 'Hot Kim' as a nickname. I'm trying to shut it down. Neither of you deserve that. So do you prefer Bella or Isabella?"
"Generally Bella, but you can call me either, Anna."
"Thanks, sweetie. Alright, Paul, don't be a dick. See you around, Bella."
"Care to explain what you were thanking Anna for?"
"Some things are girl talk, Paul, just between us," she said, not even looking at me.
"Do you want me and Edward to have secrets between just the two of us?"
"Oh my God, that would be hilarious!" She looked up at me, almost giddy with excitement. "Have you ever talked to Edward?"
"No."
"Oh, you don't know what you're missing. He's old fashioned but in a way that's hard to put your finger on. He can also read minds, but not my mind, so his family gets pretty annoyed with him."
"He reads minds?"
"Yeah" she nodded, "like both verbal thoughts and imagery."
"How?"
"No clue. Carlisle had some theory about their gifts, something about their strength in their human lives being amplified in death."
"Do the other Cullens have gifts?"
"Uh huh. Alice could tell the future and Jasper could read and manipulate emotions."
"Whoa." I was rubbing the back of my neck, trying to think of what to do with this information.
"I'm guessing this wasn't part of the legends?" she asked.
"There were hints of powers, but nothing like that. Jared, did you hear all that?"
Jared and Kim slid down the bench to talk to us. "I did, yeah."
"Can you tell Sam?"
"He's going to want to talk to her," Jared said, stating the obvious.
"She's going to visit Emily tomorrow," I reminded him. "Tell him that will have to do."
"Hmph." Jared said. "I'd rather you told him that yourself."
"Then he won't find out until tomorrow. Do you think that's best?"
"Fine, I'll tell him."
"Thank you." I pointed my head indicating they could go back to their end of the table now. Jared gave me the finger and slid away with Kim.
"Why are you an asshole to Jared?" Isabella asked. "He's helping you."
"I'm not an asshole to Jared. He's my bro."
"Jared?" Isabella asked.
"He's an asshole," Jared confirmed.
"Remember, what would Charlie do?"
"He's a bit of an asshole too," I said.
"I don't think so."
"He said your mac and cheese was better than boxed, that he hadn't had good mac and cheese in twenty years!"
"You're a little butt hurt about that," she said, gently rubbing my thigh.
"When you lived there, how often did you cook for him?" I asked, not letting her distract me.
"Every night I wasn't working. But I'd usually save him some leftovers for those nights."
"That's what I figured. If you cooked for me every night, I would never say something like that to you."
"You're very sweet, but I don't think it's that big of a deal."
"That's because you're very sweet." I kissed her pretty lips. "Now what's the thing between you and Anna?"
She rolled her eyes at me. "What if I don't want to tell you?"
"I don't know. I don't like secrets though."
"I don't want to tell you because I don't think you'll like it."
"Not helping."
"She gave me a note yesterday at lunch while she was looking at my ring."
"Sly. And?"
"The note had some information she thought I could use."
"About being a slut?" I asked, eyebrows raised.
"No, it had some information about… you know."
"Not really, I don't know."
"Blow jobs," she whispered.
"What the fuck?"
She shrugged. "You responded well when I tried it out so I'm glad for the help."
"You don't need to do that."
"Do what?"
"I don't know, get sex tips from Anna, or use them." I shuddered. "It makes me uncomfortable. I like you learning on me."
"I told you I didn't think you'd like it."
"Ugh. I don't like it. When we're together, I want it to be just us. I don't want it to have any connection to Anna. But thank you for telling me. We better get to class."
The cafeteria was almost empty and we had about two minutes before we'd be marked as late. I stacked our trays, dumped our trash. We ran to the next class. Ten seconds after we stepped in the class, the final bell rang.
On the walk home, Isabella said, "That nickname, 'Hot Kim,' that made me really mad."
"It's because Jared cleaned up his act for Kim the way I did for you."
"I get that part," she said. "I didn't like the 'Hot' part. Kim is gorgeous and I've been wearing your hoodies the whole time I've been in school."
"Someone can be gorgeous but not hot. People can see that you're hot even with your hoodies."
"Your hoodies," she corrected me.
"My hoodies. Your tight little ass is visible all the time even with the hoodies."
"I'm wearing jeans!"
"And they fit you just right, babe. Hey, do you wear a hoodie during gym class?"
"No."
"Yeah, so they know that you're hot."
"Will Kim be offended?"
I shrugged. "Probably not. I don't think she wants people lusting after her, other than Jared that is." Then we turned into the driveway.
