eyes, a rush of blood under her skin, and a sudden, uneven thumping of her heart.
Bella was again annoyed at having to read this out loud, and for the blush that came to her face... and that she had to wait another few days before meeting Edward... and worried about how that meeting would go...
"Um... are you going to read again any time soon?" Jacob asked.
"Yeah... sorry," Bella blushed even more and then started reading.
I tried to hide my smile as I answered her question.
"I suppose you could say yes to the first...if you don't mind - ," her choice, always her choice, " - it's easier than any other explanation."
"I don't mind," she whispered. Her heart had not found its normal rhythm yet.
"And as for her other question..." I couldn't hide my smile now. "Well, I'll be listening to hear the answer to that one myself."
"Argh," Bella said, now glaring at the book. "That's not fair."
"But it does make this more entertaining," Jacob laughed.
Let Bella consider that. I held back my laugh as shock crossed her face.
I turned quickly, before she could ask for any more answers. I had a difficult time not giving her whatever she asked for. And I wanted to hear her thoughts, not mine.
"I'll see you at lunch," I called back to her over my shoulder, an excuse to check that she was still staring after me, wide-eyed. Her mouth was hanging open. I turned away again, and laughed.
Jacob was laughing too. It was definitely better hearing the annoyance in Bella's voice as she read this.
As I paced away, I was vaguely aware of the shocked and speculative thoughts that swirled around me - eyes bouncing back and forth between Bella's face and my retreating figure. I paid them little attention. I couldn't concentrate. It was hard enough to keep my feet moving at an acceptable speed as I crossed the soggy grass to my next class. I wanted to run - really run, so fast that I would disappear, so fast that it would feel like I was flying. Part of me was flying already.
I put the jacket on when I got to class, letting her fragrance swim thick around me.
I would burn now - let the scent desensitize me - and then it would be easier to ignore it later, when I was with her again at lunch...
"Hmm..." Bella said, "maybe I should wear his jacket more often then... if it would help him."
It was a good thing that my teachers no longer bothered to call on me. Today might have been the day that they would have caught me out, unprepared and answerless.
"I wouldn't call that a good thing," Jacob pouted.
My mind was in so many places this morning; only my body was in the classroom.
Of course I was watching Bella. That was becoming natural - as automatic as breathing. I heard her conversation with a demoralized Mike Newton. She quickly directed the conversation to Jessica, and I grinned so wide that Rob Sawyer, who sat at the desk to my right, flinched visibly and slid deeper into his seat, away from me.
Ugh. Creepy.
Well, I hadn't lost it entirely.
"And you want to be creepy?" Jacob said. "This guy is weird."
I was also monitoring Jessica loosely, watching her refine her questions for Bella.
I could barely wait for fourth period, ten times as eager and anxious as the curious human girl who wanted fresh gossip.
And I was also listening to Angela Weber.
I had not forgotten the gratitude I felt to her - for thinking nothing but kind things toward Bella in the first place, and then for her help last night. So I waited through the morning, looking for something that she wanted. I assumed it would be an easy; like any other human, there must be some bauble or toy she wanted particularly. Several, probably. I would deliver something anonymously and call us even...
"Would it really be that easy to please someone?" Bella asked, she couldn't really think of a 'thing' that would make her happy.
"Probably," Jacob said, thinking about the master cylinder that he needed for his car
But Angela proved almost as unaccommodating as Bella with her thoughts. She was oddly content for a teenager. Happy. Perhaps this was the reason for her unusual kindness - she was one of those rare people who had what they wanted and wanted what they had. If she wasn't paying attention to her teachers and her notes, she was thinking of the twin little brothers