Title: The Note
Category: Books » Twilight
Author: Lady Gwynedd
Language: English, Rating: Rated: T
Genre: Romance/Humor
Published: 12-18-11, Updated: 12-24-11
Chapters: 10, Words: 7,671

Chapter 1: Chapter 1

The Note

No infringement is intended upon SM's property by the writing of this drabble.

E.

"Dang! I'm late."

She skid to a halt in front of her locker and quickly spun the combination. Popping the door open, she reached in to grab her biology notebook when she noticed something flutter to the floor.

"Is that a note?"

Heart thumping, she bent to pick it up just as the tardy bell rang.

"Shoot! Late again. Banner will give me a detention for sure, not to mention what Charlie'll say."

She stared at the note, feeling torn between worrying over Mr. Banner's inevitable punishment and the unexpected thrill the piece of folded college-ruled notebook paper gave her. She'd never gotten a note in her locker before.

Since she was already late, she decided she may as well make the detention worth it. She quickly shuffled down the hall and ducked into the girl's rest room. It wasn't her favorite place. The lingering smell of stale cigarette smoke combined with industrial cleaner and fetid odors was slightly repulsive but there was no other place she could go where she wouldn't be interrupted.

Locking the stall door behind her, she returned her attention to the note. Turning it over, she saw her name printed across the side in block print. She didn't recognize the handwriting but people used block printing to remain anonymous, didn't they? Was someone trying to be mysterious?

Biting her bottom lip, she carefully untucked the note. It had been tightly folded into that triangle thingy guys used to play finger football. Smoothing out the paper, she read in the same block letters that her name had been written in on the side,

Dear Bella,

I was hoping that maybe we could hang out. Meet me after school today in the stadium bleachers, if that's okay.

E.

Bella blinked at the note.

"Who the hell is E?"

AN: This is my Christmas gift for you. I hope you enjoy it. I should be posting frequently until it is done. (And I know you'd most likely rather have Nightingale. That's coming)

Chapter 2: Chapter 2

Mrs. Cope

Bella refolded the note and jammed it into the pocket of her jeans.

So, the mysterious E wanted to meet up with her after school? But who's E? There was no way she would not go to the stadium that day if only to find out.

She was half way to Mr. Banner's class when she had a horrible realization.

If she was given a detention, and she knew she would be, how could she meet with anyone after school, never-the-less this E person? Detention Hall was held right after school in the cafeteria. If she skipped it, the detention would morph into something worse—a referral to the Principal's office, complete with a parental conference thrown in for good measure. She could just imagine how pissed off and disappointed Charlie would be to be called into school for something like that. She'd be grounded until college.

What could she do?

She turned and walked to the front office. Maybe she could sweet talk Mrs. Cope into giving her a pass to class.

"Good Morning, Isabella. Are you tardy again?" Yeah, that happened a lot. Charlie used to say she'd be late to her own funeral.

"I know I should be in Mr. Banner's first period class right now, Mrs. Cope, but I'm coming from the bathroom, not home."

"Well honey, you didn't need to come to the office. Just go to class and Mr. Banner will admit you."

Bella lowered her voice to a whisper and looked around to make sure no one could overhear her. "But I had a surprise emergency. I don't want to have to explain it to Mr. Banner."

Bella was a terrible liar. If she tried to outright lie, she would blush, stutter, and twitch. She knew that while the note was an emergency to her, Mrs. Cope would see it differently. However, an unexpected start of her period was sure to buy her a free pass.

"Ohhhh, I see." Mrs. Cope nodded. Her skeptical expression changed to one of motherly concern. "Do you need any supplies?"

Ah, no. Even if she had started her period, the pads the school gave out were as thick as telephone books and were like sitting on a roll of toilet paper. "No thank you, Mrs. Cope. I'm okay. I just need a pass to class, please?"

"Sure, honey." Mrs. Cope quickly wrote out the note and handed it to Bella. "I hope you feel better."

"Thanks." Bella's smile was sincere. She grabbed the note and ignored the niggling guilt she felt over deceiving the kind lady. She'd bake Mrs. Cope some brownies tonight in hopes that would ease her conscience some.

She handed her pass to the weary-looking Mr. Banner who explained they were in the middle of a lab and directed her to her lab bench.

As she slid upon her stool, her partner smirked and lifted his chin in the universal guy sign language that meant, "Hey."

She nodded back at him and said, "'Sup, Cullen."

Chapter 3: Chapter 3

Cullen

Cullen pushed the microscope towards Bella and said, "We're identifying the stages of mitosis."

"We are?" She looked dubious.

"Didn't you read last night? That was the prep for the lab."

"I read. I read. Did I understand? That's another question."

"I'll help you, Champ. It's really pretty obvious."

"I'm sure it is for you, Mr. I'm-Going-To-Be-A-Doctor."

Bella and Cullen's relationship was hard to describe. It was a cross between a teasing, competitive, brother/sister/something else mash up. He was the first friend she made when she moved to Forks from Phoenix last year.

Of course, he was gorgeous. And, of course Bella was intimidated by his appearance at first. She knew from the get-go he was totally out of her league to the point she didn't even consider it—or him—that way at all. In Arizona, she had been one of the 'little people'—one of the kids who hovered on the edges, neither liked nor disliked, but mostly not noticed—so when she was noticed her first day at Forks High by this hot looking guy, she didn't know what to do for about ten seconds. Then, she got over herself and realized what he was actually noticing was her complete inability to play volleyball without causing mortal danger to herself and others rather than her non-existent animal magnetism. But at least he was nice about it because when she inevitably tripped over nothing but her own feet, he reached down to help her up and asked, "You okay, Champ?"

And thus, her nickname was born.

They seemed to be in a lot of the same classes but that was probably a factor of them being in the same grade more than anything else. When the new school year started, she was happy to find he was her lab partner in Biology. By that time she was fairly inured to his hotness and working with him was great. He was funny and smart—a deadly combination in her opinion—and he actually seemed to know as much as Mr. Banner did about the subject, something that the teacher seemed to resentfully suspect. She figured Cullen's know-how came from his dad being the chief of medicine in the emergency room in teeny Forks Hospital. In fact, she knew he volunteered there a lot when he wasn't in school. He was handy to have around in biology class, just the same.

They soon finished their lab and that gave Bella a few minutes to sit around in class and wonder about the note.

Who the heck was E? She looked around the classroom and was dismayed at the number of potential Es there were; two or three of them in this class alone. She gave each a hard look trying to figure whether any one of them was the mystery note writer.

There was Eric Yorkie, who actually did resemble the dog. He was little, eager, and hyper and a bit too excitable for Bella. She imagined it wouldn't take long before she'd be tempted to roll up a newspaper and beat him with it.

Sighing, she scanned the next row of lab tables. Oh my god! Emmett McCarty was an E. Holy-no-way-in-hell, Batman! He couldn't be her note-writer. He and Rosalie Hale were inseparable. If by some weird alignment of the stars (and maybe Emmett's notorious sense of humor) it was Emmett who sent the note, she was going to ask her dad to enroll her in the witness protection program. That was the only way she could escape the plain fact that Rosalie Hale would beat the crap out of them both, wait for them to heal and then do it again. Rosalie wasn't one to put up with that sort of shit.

Shuddering at the thought, she looked down the last row. No one there had an E name… except…EXCEPT for Emily Young.

Oh my god, it couldn't be Emily, could it? Not that she had anything against girls liking girls, it was just that Bella liked guys. Besides, she was almost positive Emily liked guys, too. Almost. Was it a girl's handwriting on the note?

Stealthily, she reached into her pocket and fished out the folded paper. Checking to make sure Banner was on the other side of the room, she discretely opened it and studied the printing but it was no use. The writing gave no hint of whether it was written by a boy or a girl.

"Whatcha got there, Champ?" Cullen's voice cut through her reverie.

She crammed the note further under the table. "Nothing."

"Naw, you have something there. Is it a note?"

"No!" Bella was sure she was blushing twelve shades of red. She crumpled up note and tried to stuff it up her sleeve.

Cullen chuckled and tugged a strand of her hair as it hung down her back. "Champ? Have you got an admirer?"

Chapter 4: Chapter 4

Angela

RRRRRIIIIIIINNNNNGGGG

Bella was never so glad to hear the bell at the end of class in her life. She scrabbled together her books and called, "See ya!" over her shoulder as she scampered from the room. She couldn't be sure but she thought she heard Cullen chuckling as she rushed out. Jerk.

Her next class was English but the teacher had asked that they meet in the media center to do research for an upcoming project. The whole way from Biology, Bella seemed to catch the eye of every person who had an E name, even Cullen's mother, Esme, one of Forks High's guidance counselors. Bella was smart enough to immediately eliminate her from the possibilities list. Finally reaching the library, Bella collapsed in the chair next to her best friend forever, Angela Webber.

"Hey, Bella. How's it going?" As far as Bella was concerned, Angela was without a doubt the sweetest person on the face of the earth. They'd been friends since they were little and met on the playground one summer when Bella had travelled to Forks to visit her dad. Angela was always kind and supportive and Bella knew she was lucky to have such a friend. She was sure to give Bella good advice.

Sighing, Bella said, "It's confusing. That's how it's going."

"What's confusing?" Angela's eyebrows were as expressive as most other peoples' entire face. Right now they were saying, "I am listening intently and with great interest."

"Oh, Ang…I found this in my locker this morning." Bella shoved the note over to her friend.

Angela carefully smoothed the creases out of the paper and scanned the note. "Wow, Bella! Are you going to go?"

"I think I have to."

"So what's so confusing about it?"

"I don't know who E is."

"You don't?" Angela's eyebrows said they thought Bella was being coy.

"No, I really don't."

"But isn't it obvious?" Now they were saying Bella was stupid.

"No, it isn't obvious. Do you know how many kids there are in this school whose first name begins with an E? Lots! Heck, in my biology class there are two E boys and one E girl."

"Only three altogether?"

"Yes. Eric Yorkie, Emmett McCarty, and Emily Young."

Angela's eyes rolled as they joined her eyebrows in their condemnation. "Bella you're forgetting Edward. He's in your biology class, too."

"Edward?"

"Yeah. You know. Edward Cullen, your lab partner." Angela's whole head now joined the 'Bella's really stupid' bandwagon as it shook slowly back and forth.

"Cullen!" Bella was astonished. The librarian and Mr. Berty both looked up at the same time to simultaneously shush her.

Chastened, Bella lowered her voice and started scribbling vigorously in her notebook trying to look busy. She whispered, "No way it's Cullen. He…he…he treats me like a pesky kid sister."

"Bella, he's always got a smile on his face when you're around."

"That's because he thinks I'm an imbecile and he's usually laughing at me."

"No, he doesn't think you're an imbecile. I actually heard him tell Ben that you were one of the smartest people he knew. It's obvious to me that he likes you. He's always liked you."

It was Bella's turn to roll her eyes. "Not in that way, Angela. Besides, I don't call him Edward. I call him Cullen."

"Why?"

"Because he calls me Champ. We aren't on a first name basis."

Angela snorted. "You're such a goof, Bella."

"So therefore, if he wrote a note to me, he'd sign it C not E."

"Not necessarily, Bella. Maybe he feels it is time you two were on a first name basis. After all, you don't go around calling your girlfriend 'Champ.'"

"GIRLFRIEND!" Bella couldn't help yelling.

Crap. Berty was getting up.

"Miss Swan, I think you and Miss Webber need to sit at separate tables. You're supposed to be working on your research papers not discussing the latest Forks High gossip."

"Yes, sir. Sorry, sir." Bella gathered her papers and books and got up to move over to another table, giving Angela's eyebrows an apologetic grimace.

But though Bella looked busy as she sat alone at the new table, her brain was spinning. "Cullen? Edward Cullen?" Could he be the one? Her heart was beating so hard, she was afraid it would crash through her sternum. She put her head down on the library table and took deep breaths to fend off her sudden lightheadedness.

"No."

Cullen was too lofty to consider her as someone he'd like to hang out with after school. He was just kind during class and when he saw her about. That was just who he was.

"No."

He wouldn't write her a note and put it in her locker.

"No."

He just wouldn't.

At least that was what her brain was saying. Her body was saying something else. Her heart was pounding and she had this giddy feeling growing inside her chest that made her feel like she could fly. "Cullen. Edward Cullen. Perfect Edward Cullen."

Reality had a way of biting her on the butt, though. Nothing this incredible would ever happen to her. Nothing this amazing. Nothing this wonderful.

"No way."

She sat up and really thought about this, trying to talk herself down from the heights where her emotions were currently soaring. Honestly the fact was, she wasn't Cullen's type. He hung around cheerleaders and dated college coeds. Bella was just his mascot, a protégé, a nothing. "No."

As she thought this through, she figuratively clamped down on her racing heart, and her giddy emotions.

She wasn't his kind.

"No."

Chapter 5: Chapter 5

Ben

Third period went by, leaving Bella as confused as ever. She was still convinced that Edward Cullen couldn't be her E but she didn't have the opportunity to think very much about it. Third period was calculus and Mr. Molina was giving a test. She hated derivatives but at the same time loved conquering their asses.

Forty minutes later, she felt rather triumphant as she turned in her paper. She was pretty sure she'd Aced that one. Now she was at liberty to think about other, more important things, like The Note. She gave her fellow classmates the once over as she went back to her seat. There was no one here that could be a likely candidate for being her E. In fact, there were no Es in this class, unless you counted Mr. Molina himself. His first name was Emil but if he was the one writing her notes, she knew Charlie would have something to say about that—with his shotgun.

Bella could just imagine Charlie confronting Mr. Molina. Without a doubt if her dad had been born a century earlier, he'd have definitely been a Marshall in the old west—cowboy justice was just his thing. And Mr. Molina was sort of a mouse. She could just picture her dad swinging open the doors to the saloon, six-shooters on his hips and calling out the Evil Emil who was crouched over a poker table full of integrals. She giggled at the image she had conjured up.

"Miss Swan, did you find the test funny?"

Bella sat up straight, shocked to be caught out. "Oh, no sir."

"Why were you laughing?"

"Uhm…just thinking about how the Spartans are going to hand the Roughrider's their heads this Friday."

A gleam appeared in Mr. Molina's eye and he said, "You're darn tootin'!" and then he went on until the end of the class talking about the strategy the Fork's football team was going to use that weekend against their arch rivals, the Port Angeles Roughriders. Mr. Molina was an assistant coach and he lived and breathed Spartan football. Every kid knew that if they could get him going on the team, he'd forget just about everything else, including why Bella Swan was giggling in class.

"Gee Swan, next time wait until I finish the test before you set Molina off, okay?" Mike Newton was grumbling as they walked down to the cafeteria for lunch.

"Get real, Mike, you wouldn't have finished it if you had all day to do that test," said Tyler Crowley as he elbowed Mike in the side.

Bella just laughed and entered the noisy cafeteria to look for Angela. She saw her sitting with Ben Cheney at their usual table so she went to join them.

"Well Bella, have you finally figured out who E is?" Angela had a teasing sparkle in her eye.

"No. I have no clue."

"Yeah, you're completely Clueless." Angela shrugged noncommittally but her eyebrows said the equivalent of 'I can't believe you're so stupid.'

"What's an E?" Ben asked around a bite of pizza—clearly demonstrating a high school boys' lack of couth.

"Who's an E is more like," Angela replied. "Bella got a note in her locker from someone signed E who wants to hang out after school."

"Oh, Edward." Ben said after he swallowed.

Angela held her hand out like Vanna White disclosing the final letter on Wheel of Fortune and gave Bella a knowing look. "See. Even Ben knows it's from Edward."

Bella stared at Ben like he had just said the most random thing ever but before she could reply, Cullen himself came over and sat down. "'Sup, peeps?"

Chapter 6: Chapter 6

Lauren and Jessica

"So Edward, what are you doing after school today?" Ben asked. You could almost see a faux-halo appear over his head.

"Not sure exactly—just hanging out, maybe." Cullen looked down and smiled as he opened his water bottle.

Bella, who was sitting across from Ben, kicked his shin under the table.

"Owww!" Ben gasped in pain and doubled over.

Desperate to distract Cullen, Bella asked, "Aren't you eating?"

"Oh man, I'm already stuffed. I just ate in Food Science. We made spaghetti." He leaned back and rubbed his stomach.

"You just took that class for the food." Bella sniffed.

"You know me too well, don't you Champ?" He sat back in his seat and smirked.

As Angela rubbed Ben's leg, she muttered, "Evidently not well enough."

Bella shot Ang a look that said in no uncertain terms, 'Shut the eff up.' Bella's eyebrows could be as expressive as Angela's if given the chance.

"Well, I've got to go to the library. You know… get ahead on that English paper." Bella stood and shoved her half-eaten peanut butter and jelly sandwich back into her lunch bag.

"Going so soon?" Edward looked disappointed.

"Yeah. Gotta keep that GPA up." Bella was actually able to prevent herself from sprinting from the room like a complete noob—but only just.

When she got to the media center she decided to make up for lost time. That morning she got hardly any work done during English fretting about the note, so now she was going to buckle down and work on her research doubly hard—and distract herself while she was at it. She didn't like how the note was taking over her life.

She staked out her favorite study carrel against the back wall of the library and then dove into the stacks to find some reference material. She loved the library. She loved the smell and feel of the books and she especially loved how she could disappear into other worlds just by reading about them. Books were exactly her brand of heroin.

She was standing in the narrow aisle between two tall bookcases, lost as she read about the sounds and sights of colonial Annapolis, when two shrill whispers caught her attention. She looked around until she figured out they were coming from the aisle next to hers.

"I tell you, Lauren, she doesn't have a clue." Bella recognized Jessica Stanley's whine.

"Are you sure?"

"Positive. Not a clue. She's wandering around school today completely fooled." Bella was sure Jessica would quit snickering like that if she knew how much like a pig she sounded.

"So, this afternoon, she'll show up and…?" Lauren's voice was full of malicious glee.

"She'll look like a complete idiot." More of that pig snort laugh.

Bella shut her book, shoved it back on the shelf and slid out of the stacks without attracting any notice. She couldn't do any more work here, now. She had to go. Shouldering her back pack, she stumbled down the hall to her next class, a sick feeling in her stomach. Had the note in her locker just been a set up by two of the bitchiest girls at Forks High? Was she going to become the unwitting target of one of their hateful pranks?

She knew Edward Cullen would never be interested in her. She knew it. She's always known it. So why did it feel like her heart was breaking?

When she slipped through the doorway of her next class, she was fighting back tears of humiliation. Of course someone up there hated her because she also had this class with Edward and coincidentally, again he happened to have the seat next to hers. To top it off, he was there already.

Swallowing, she sat in her seat and nodded in his direction. She folded her arms over her stomach and dropped her head so that her long hair hid her face. She couldn't let him see how upset she was.

But it was no use. "Bella, what's wrong?"

The knot her chest rose to her throat and she struggled not to fall to pieces.

But she did notice he had called her 'Bella' instead of 'Champ.'

Chapter 7: Chapter 7

Bella

Bella couldn't take it. The basketball-sized knot in her throat prevented her from talking and even if she could talk, she didn't know what she would say. All she knew was she couldn't sit next to Cullen and keep her cool so she flung out of her seat and ran out of the door.

Kids were beginning to trickle out of the cafeteria for the start of the next class, so she decided to go to the only place where she knew she could fall apart in semi-private, the same place she had gone that morning to read the note—the girls' rest room. But just as she rounded the corner to enter, she saw the two head beyotches of Folks High go in ahead of her.

Damn. She didn't want to face them, either. So, she turned around and surprisingly barreled right into Cullen's chest.

He held her arms. "Bella, what's wrong?"

"Nothing." Her voice sounded like a frog's croak.

Cullen snorted and rolled his eyes but he didn't take his hands away. "Yeah, right. Come in here with me." He pulled her into an empty classroom, shut the door, and then led her around the front so they'd be out of view of the door's window.

"Now what happened?" He leaned against the teacher's desk so that they could be eye level. He still was holding her arms. The basketball was back in her throat and she couldn't talk. She just shook her head, ducked her chin, and squinched her eyes tightly shut trying to keep from crying in front of him.

"Oh, Bella." His voice was a whisper as he pulled her close and wrapped his arms around her. She was surprised at how good his arms felt and how nice it was to fit into his shoulder. She wasn't so surprised when she burst into tears. It was all more than she could take.

He held her as she cried, not saying a thing just rubbing her back and making soothing noises. It took her a few minutes before she realized that she was snot-sobbing all over Cullen, who may have not been the E but she was beginning to realize that he was her E. He probably always had been but she had refused to allow herself to consider it before today. She knew, though, it was unlikely that she was his B.

Except…here she was, in his arms, arms that felt like perfection to her, but bawling big, snotty tears all over his t-shirt. This was definitely the coolest and the most uncool thing that she'd ever experienced. No wonder she was confused today. She really needed to stop crying.

With a few hiccoughs, she was able to pull herself back together and said, "I'm sorry. I shouldn't have cried all over you like that."

He reached around on the teacher's desk and found a box of Kleenex. Holding it out to her, he smiled. "I didn't mind. But why were you crying?"

Taking the tissues, she wiped her eyes and blew her nose as delicately as she could as she shrugged. "I just overheard something in the library." She hoped to play it off as unimportant.

"What did you hear?"

She shrugged again and shook her head. "It was probably nothing."

"It wasn't 'nothing' if it made you cry." Cullen had a particular set to his face that told her he would get to the truth whether she wanted him to or not. "You're not a crybaby. Come on, tell me."

"You're late to class."

"We're late to class but Mrs. Clapp knows where we are. When you left the room, she was coming in. I explained that you weren't feeling well suddenly and I would make sure you were okay. She told me to take the time we needed."

"Oh, that's good." Bella looked at his t-shirt and saw she'd left her mark there and tried another diversion. "I've messed up your shirt."

He looked down and said, "No worries. Look." He buttoned up the shirt that he had been wearing over it and the damp patches couldn't be seen. "Good as ever. Now, Bella, tell me what you heard." He folded his arms over his chest and leveled a firm look at her.

Sighing, she realized she needed to tell him something. She didn't want him to know that she thought he was the one who left the fake note in her locker so all she said was, "I heard Lauren and Jessica talking about setting someone up and I thought they were talking about me."

"Jessica and Lauren? You shouldn't pay any attention to those hos. They're full of shit most of the time."

"I know. You're right. Let me go to the girls' room and wash my face. I'm ready to go back to class."

"Okay." He seemed reluctant to let it go at that but as she was half-way out of the room, he followed. Standing at the entrance to the restroom he said, "I'll wait for you here."

"You don't have to, Edward."

He smiled broadly for some reason and said, "I know I don't have to. I want to."

Smiling down into her eyes he added, "I'll always have your back, Bella."

Chapter 8: Chapter 8

Edward

Edward and Bella shared classes for the rest of the day. It was just the way their schedule had worked out that year. As usual, Edward sat next to Bella but their teachers kept them so busy they couldn't do much more than share an occasional smile. But this gave Bella some time to think as well.

First, she still didn't know who wrote the note. Edward could have written it but then some random E person could have as well. Or Jessica or Lauren could have written it as a prank. She still didn't know.

She could ask Edward if he wrote it but then, she didn't want to put him on the spot. Their relationship seemed to change today and she didn't want to blow it. Something about this change made her feel hopeful and that perhaps maybe, just maybe Cullen saw her more than a mascot. Perhaps he could see her as more than a friendly classmate. Maybe he could even see her as someone equal to him and maybe, perhaps, possibly, hopefully as someone he wanted to hang out with as more than a friend. Her heart leaped with the thought.

She was unconsciously scribbling on her notes as the teacher lectured and was surprised to hear Edward choke or gasp or something. She looked over to see what was up with him and was surprised to see him looking at her notebook with a gleeful smirk on his face. She looked down at her notes and was horrified to see that her musings had translated themselves onto paper. She had written a stylized EC with a heart drawn around it.

If they gave out Oscars for self-inflicted embarrassment, there would be no contest; Bella'd win hands down. In fact, they'd name that award after her: the Bellies. Yep.

But for the moment, she was frozen in horror.

Then her mind started working overtime, ticking off alternatives. What could she do to salvage any vestige of her pride?

She could fudge the design and pretend like she never intended on doodling love notes to Cullen but no, that wouldn't work. The drawing was too clear. Figures—the one time her chicken scratch and drawing abilities didn't resemble a toddler's would be when she had been mooning over Edward.

She could embellish on the drawing and add someone else's initials to the heart, like she was pairing him with some other girl. But, no. That was just creepy and honestly, she couldn't bear the thought of Edward and someone else.

Or, she could cover it up, pretend it never existed and writhe in embarrassment for the rest of her natural life.

She opted for the third choice. Quickly, turning the page in her notebook she commenced pretending, writhing, and studiously ignoring Edward as he sat next to her, probably in utter disdain over her evident crush. How could she ruin what had been a very tantalizing possibility in one fell swoop? Figures.

As she sat there stewing in a big pot of chagrin, Edward poked her in the arm. She looked at him out of the corner of her eye and saw that he had pushed his notebook over for her to see.

Drawn in the margin of his notes was a heart and in the center was written "Champ."

Chapter 9: Chapter 9

Alice

Ever since Bella saw the heart drawn on Edward's paper, her own heart, the one that was pounding in her chest, felt like it would fly out of her body. She dared a quick look at him—she was still writhing a little from her earlier blooper—and when he caught her peeking, he winked. She noticed though, his own cheeks were tinged with pink just as hers were. Could he be worried and embarrassed, too?

When the last bell rang that day, she was at a loss. Her heart told her that Edward had written the note but her mind wasn't sure. Surely he'd give her a hint if that were the case. But he gave no hint, just simply said, "Bye" when they went their separate ways after class.

Her mind was making a strong case for the note being a set up. She hadn't been aware of some other underlying drama going on in the school that day, mostly because she had been preoccupied with her own, but that didn't mean there wasn't one. There always were at least half a dozen dramas on any given day in high school.

She needed to make a pit stop before going down to the stadium, so she popped into the girl's room and shut herself up in one fo the stalls.

"So, she still hasn't figured it out?" Bella recognized Lauren's voice. She must have come into the bath room as well. Bella knew that where Lauren was, Jess Stanley wasn't far behind.

"Nope. She's still completely oblivious." And there was Jessica.

"How can she be so dense?"

"I don't know. But she's going to be very surprised when she shows up."

"Are the others in the cafeteria?"

"Yep. Jasper and Maria are there by now anyway. I can't wait to see Alice's face when she sees them!"

"Wait a minute. They're talking about Alice, Edward's sister." Bella realized.

Jasper Whitlock and Alice Cullen had dated for most of this school year but they recently broke up when Jasper's old girl friend, Maria Lopez, returned to Forks High after she had moved away for a year. Bella didn't know the details but it seemed that the break up was largely a huge miscommunication between Jasper and Alice. As far as she could tell, Jasper only had eyes for Alice and she knew for a fact that Alice was head over heels for Jasper. It was so silly that they were the only ones that couldn't see it. If only those two would just talk to one another, they'd get all of this smoothed out. Geez.

Bella waited for the two harpies to leave, then went out to wash her hands and check her appearance in the mirror. She felt a lot better knowing she wasn't the target of Lauren and Jessica's malice but that just made her more curious about who was awaiting her in the stadium. Could it be Edward? She sure hoped so.

Just as she was opening the door to leave, Alice Cullen came in.

"Hi Bella. How's it going?"

"Oh, fine. How about you?"

"Just great! Prom committee's meeting for the first time today. I can't wait to get started!"

Nodding as she moved towards the door, Bella stopped and decided she needed to warn Alice about the trap that lay in wait for her. She wasn't really a close friend of Edward's sister but she liked her. Alice was always kind and enthusiastic.

Turning back to the girl who was standing in front of the mirror fixing her hair, Bella said, "Alice, do you know who's on the Prom committee this year?"

"Sure. Just the usual suspects: Eric Yorkie, Jess Stanely, Lauren Mallory, Angela Webber and me. Do you want to join us?" Suddenly, the voltage amped up in Alice's body and she almost glowed with excitement. "Come on, Bella, it'd be fun and we could use the help."

"Gee thanks Alice, but dances aren't my thing at all. I was asking because I just wanted you to know before you went to the meeting that I think there are a couple more people on the committee than you know about."

"Who are they?" Alice looked a little fearful as if she may have guessed.

"I heard Lauren and Jessica gloating about how Jasper and Maria were joining you guys."

Alice's glow suddenly dimmed and a wave of pain washed over her face. "Oh, and those bitches just wanted to see me squirm."

"I'm sorry, Alice, those two are evil but honestly, I have a feeling the only reason Jasper's on the committee is to be close to you."

Alice laughed bitterly. "Then why is Maria on it, too?"

"She probably wants to be close to Jasper but that ship has sailed. Listen Alice, just talk to Jasper. I think he still likes you."

"Maybe but he likes Maria more."

"How do you know that?"

Alice shrugged. "They used to go out."

"Yeah but that was before he met you. I know it is you he likes best. Talk to him, please? At least you'll know one way or the other. I can tell you miss going out with him."

Alice sighed. "I do. So much."

"Talk to him, Alice."

"I guess I should, otherwise I'll just regret never really knowing for sure."

"You know you would. Go get him now."

A spark of determination lit Alice's eye. "Okay, I will. I just need to be brave."

"That's a girl. Good luck."

The two girls walked out of the bathroom together and parted ways at the school's entrance. Bella was glad to have helped Alice but now it was time to help herself. About halfway through the conversation she had had with Edward's sister, she realized that she should be giving herself the same lecture. Apparently, irony was alive and well in Forks High School. Bella knew she just needed to talk to Edward, too.

But first she needed to see who was waiting for her down in the stadium.

Hopefully, she'd be killing two birds with one stone.

Chapter 10: Chapter 10

Edward and Bella

Although the late autumn wind provided a snap in the air, the sun was shining brightly, a rare treat for Olympic Peninsula inhabitants. The few deciduous trees around had long shed their leaves and Forks, Washington was gearing up for another wet winter. That wasn't to say, Forks didn't also have wet springs, summers, and falls but its winters were a colder sort of wet and Bella didn't like cold, wet things. She spasmodically twitched, blinked and shrugged as she thought about it.

Clutching the straps of her back pack as it hung over her shoulders, Bella slowly made her way down the sidewalk that led to the football stadium. The closer she got, the slower she went. Maybe she should have asked Angela to come with her?

But no, Angela was at the Prom meeting with the rest of the committee. She hoped it was going okay for Alice in there with Jasper just like she hoped it would go okay with her and E. It struck her just then that Eric Yorkie would be at the Prom meeting, too, so that eliminated him from the E list. Also, she'd seen Rosalie and Emmett drive by on their way home just a few seconds ago, so he was crossed off the list as well, even though she'd never given him much of a thought in the first place.

E had to be Edward Cullen. Oh, how she hoped it was Edward. But what would she do if the person who awaited her wasn't him? Sighing, she scolded herself. If it wasn't Edward, she'd put on a happy face and 'hang out' like she was invited to with the E person. At least the chief of today's puzzles would be solved.

The gate squealed in protest when she pushed it open and walked past the ticket booth. The small building shielded her view of the stands and she knew that she was seconds away from knowing the answer to the E mystery. Her slowing steps dwindled to a stop. Once she rounded the corner all would be revealed and she needed to gather her courage first.

"Come on, Bella. It's just to 'hang out.' It isn't an offer of marriage or getting matching tattoos. You've made entirely too big a deal of this today. Just go on and get it over with."

Determinedly, she started forward again but looked at the ground in front of her, not daring to scan the stands. When she got to the bleacher stairs, she grabbed the handrail and climbed up the four steps that led to the bottom platform. Only once she got to the top did she look for her mysterious E.

And there, standing not four feet in front of her, was Edward Cullen.

"Hi, Bella."

"You wrote the note?"

He looked puzzled. "Yes. Didn't you know? You never said anything so wasn't sure you were going to come."

"I didn't know. You signed it E and I wasn't sure which E it was."

"So there's a line of E people trying to get you to hang out?"

"Well no, it's just I never expected you to want to hang out with me."

Edward smiled. "I've wanted to a long time, Bella."

"Why didn't you tell me?"

He fidgeted a little and looked over at the field, and then back at her. "You intimidated me. I was afraid you'd laugh."

"I intimidated you? You thought I'd laugh? But why?"

"Because you're so smart and pretty and I felt sure you weren't interested in spending any more time with me that you already had to."

Bella took a step or two closer to him, so close she could feel the heat of his body. "Would you be surprised to know that I felt the same way about you? I thought that you always saw me as more of a bratty, kid sister than anything more."

He snorted. "The one bratty kid sister I have is enough for me. No, I've always thought of you as someone I'd like to get to know better." He stepped closer yet and reached out to take her hand.

They stood together in the bright afternoon sun, smiling at each other in wonder, not quite believing how it worked out, both hearts filled with happiness, both giddy with the possibilities.

Edward's gaze glided over Bella's hair, her face, her eyes, then stopped at her parted lips. "I just want to try one thing..."

He moved closer, eyes focused on her lips until they were so close, he couldn't see them anymore. Bella's eyes fluttered shut and suddenly her world was defined solely by Edward Cullen. His arms were around her, his clean boy scent filled her nose, his hammering heartbeat filled her ears, and then his lips were soft upon hers and there were no more words.

This was the kiss she would remember months later as she watched him pin on her corsage before going to the Prom Alice had planned with her Jasper. She would remember it when she saw him off to a different college than hers the following fall and thought her heart would break. She would remember it when they came home at Christmas and she could still see the love in his eyes for her. She would remember it after her college graduation and he got down on one knee and asked her to always be his. She would remember it when she saw him waiting for her at the end of the church aisle as she clung to Charlie's arm. She would remember it when she watched him holding their first born for the first time. She would remember it every time he told her he loved her and every time she told him she loved him back.

She would remember it forever.

AN:

Can you imagine, I wrote this whole thing without any author's notes? Amazing.

Merry Christmas, my dear friends. This is my gift to you. I hope you enjoyed it.

I love you and am thankful for your generous encouragement of my creative writing forays.

Thank you and God bless.