Chapter 2
Friday, January 24, 2005
"Bella, I need you to do me a HUGE favor." Keira stopped Bella on her way to lunch.
"What?" Bella asked looking at her.
"Josh's flight gets in at 2 and I'll still be in class. Do you think you could go to the airport and meet them?" Keira questioned, knowing her friend would probably protest.
"But--"
"Please Bella, I'll even give you money for a cab."
"I don't like taxi's," Bella stared at her friend.
"I'll give you money to rent a car then." Keira pleaded.
"You know I don't have an American license." Bella reminded her.
"Fine, you don't like cabs and you don't have an American license. Even if you were caught driving, you wouldn't get in trouble, all you'd have to do is tell them who you are and they'd let you go." Keira grinned evilly.
"No. I'll go pick them up and ride in a cab, but I refuse to flaunt my title. Nobody knows I'm here and thats the way it's been for four yers and I'd like to keep it that way. If the press finds out I'm here, I'll never get any peace." Bella rolled her eyes. "I'm not my brother."
"I know you're not, which is why I love you all the more." Keira smiled and put her arm around Bella.
"So, if you're going to do this for me, you better go now."
"Their flight better not be delayed, I have rehearsal at five and I need to be there at 4:30 to change." Bella held up a finger in warning.
"It's not going to be late, trust me." Keira assured her.
"Whatever." Bella sighed.
"I'll see you at the house then. I'll be there when you get back." Keira nodded.
"Wait a second Enstein, don't I need to know their flight information." Bella stopped her.
"Oh, right. Almost forgot, here you are." Keira smacked herself in the head then handed her a peice of paper.
An hour later Bella sat in the airport constantly checking her watch. It was 3:30 and as expected, the flight was late. Bella was really starting to get on edge, she only had an hour to drop them off, then make it back to the school in time for rehearsal. She knew that Skip wouldn't be mad if she was late, but she was never late. She made it her goal to be on time for everything, she loathed being late.
It was four o'clock by the time they finally made the announcment that their flight had just landed. Bella rolled her eyes and made her way to the gate and waited for people to come out. She realized that she really had no idea what they would look like. She'd met Josh before, but it had been a long time since she'd seen him. She stood there waiting before she noticed two guys standing there looking around. They looked to be about the right height, and she knew they were probably looking for Keira.
She inhaled deeply and walked over to them, "Are you Josh?" She asked the man who stood her height.
"Yes, are you Bella?" he smiled warmly.
"Yes, sorry Keira wasn't here to meet you, she had class when your flight was scheduled to land." Bella answered shaking his hand.
"Sorry about that. Our flight was delayed, oh by the way this is Chris." Josh said introducing his friend.
"Hello Chris, I'm Arabella, but my friends call me Bella." Bella smiled and stuck out her hand.
Chris shook her hand and was left breathless by her innocent beauty. "It's nice to meet you, Bella."
"Well, we need to get going because I have to be at rehearsal in like," Bella paused to look at her watch, "Fifteen minutes."
"Okay, we just need to get our luggage and check in with our rental car." Josh nodded.
They were off to get their luggage when Keira called Bella's cell phone, "Hello?"
"Where are you?" Keira asked.
"They're flight just got here." Bella answered with an "I told you so" tone of voice.
"I'm sorry, I didn't know their flight was going to be late." Keira apologized.
"Yeah, clearly, anyway I gotta go, I'll see you when I get there."
"Sorry if we made you late." Chris said feeling guilty.
"It's okay." Bella smiled, even though in her mind she was a little irritated.
"Well, why don't we drop you off and then meet Keira there too." JC suggested.
"You wouldn't mind?" Bella asked getting into the car.
"No, not at all." JC shook his head.
Bella nodded then called Keira.
"Hey, they're gonna drop me off at rehearsal and you're supposed to meet us there." Bella said as soon as she heard Keira's hello.
"Okay, I'll be there." Keira replied.
"She'll be there." Bella said after hanging up.
"Okay, so what do you have rehearsal for?" JC asked looking in his rear-view mirror at her.
"Mary Poppins." Bella answered feeling a bit of shyness.
"Really? That's cool. What character are you?" JC inquired.
"Mary Poppins." Bella answered again.
"It's a jolly holiday with Mary, Mary makes the sun shines bright." Chris sang moving his head back and forth.
"Wow," Bella laughed.
"Hey, that's a good movie." Chris shrugged.
"Yes, I love Julie Andrews, shes my favorite actress." Bella smiled wistfully.
Chris felt her smile in the bottom of his stomach and returned her smile.
"Do you like Julliard?" JC asked.
"Yes, it's always been a dream of mine to attend and now I graduate in May."
"Awesome. Where are you from if you don't mind me asking?" JC asked.
"Kidron. It's a small country in Europe." Bella answered hoping he wouldn't question further.
"What did you do there?" Chris asked.
"Lived with my family and went to school then came here."
"Kool." Chris nodded then left it at that.
Fifteen minutes later they were at the school and Bella was running to the auditorium for rehearsal, the guys trailing behind.
"Hey Bella!" Chris called.
"What?" she answered not slowing down.
"Can we stay and watch?" he asked catching up to her.
Bella glanced over at him then tripped over someones foot and fell on the ground. She felt a sharp pain in her ankle as she tried to get up.
"Here, let me help you." Chris offered as he held out a hand.
Bella grabbed his hand and tried to put her weight on her foot, but it gave out causing her to stumble again. She would have fallen again if it weren't Chris's arms coming around her.
"Careful there." he said as he held her up.
"Ow." she cried when she tried once again to put her weight on her foot.
Chris picked her up and she tried to protest, but he wouldn't have it.
"Put me down," Bella said as she tried to get down.
"No, you'll only hurt yourself worse if you don't get off it. Now where are we going?" Chris asked her starting to walk.
"Keep going straight, you better not drop me, I'm too heavy for this." Bella rolled her eyes and wrapped her arms around his neck and held on tight.
"I won't drop you, and you barely weigh anything." Chris chuckled.
"Are you okay?" JC asked.
"Just peachy, I'm not an invalid, I can walk." Bella retorted making one more desperate attempt to get down.
"Stop." Chris said.
Bella just rolled her eyes and glared at him.
"Oh My God, Bella what happened?" Skip rushed over when he saw Chris carry her in.
"I tripped and fell, probably twisted my ankle. I told him I could walk, but he wouldn't let me." she replied from her perch.
"And he's right, you should stay off that foot until the swelling goes down. Here, set her down here and I'll get an ice pack." Skip said pointing to a bench on the stage.
When Chris started climbing the stage steps, Bella held on tighter as she'd already fell down them once during rehearsal, the last thing she needed was to fall when she was being carried.
"Trust me." he whispered.
Bella just nodded and waited to be set down.
"There you go, m'lady." Chris said gently setting her down on the bench.
"Thank you my Lord." Bella smiled playing along.
Seconds later Keira, Skip, JC, Chris and a lot of the cast were standing around her making sure she was okay.
"Guys, please stop. I'm fine. Let me up, we need to rehearse." She protested as she tried to stand.
"You just sit right there missy. Keep that foot up and the ice pack on. We'll rehearse our parts and you can just sing and say your lines from right there. You're blocking is excellent right now anyway." Skip said putting an hand on her shoulder.
"Fine." Bella sighed in defeat.
The rehearsal went as stated, everyone sung and danced and said their lines as if Bella were right there with them instead of sitting on the bench singing. JC and Chris were equally impressed with not only Bella, but the whole cast. Two hours later, they were finished and Bella was ready to try standing when Chris came over to make sure she was alright.
"Don't even think about trying to fool me," he said as she stood up.
"My ankle is fine now thanks." she replied as she walked a few steps.
Truth be told, her ankle still was a bit tender, but it was better than before and there was no way she was going to let him carry her again.
"Just be careful." Chris nodded.
"Yes father." Bella rolled her eyes.
"Sorry that you were late." Keira said putting her arm around Bella.
"It's okay." Bella shrugged.
"So what do you say we get out of here." JC suggested.
"Yes, lets." Keira nodded threading her arm through JC's.
"See you Monday, Skip." Bella smiled and bid him goodbye.
"It's so good to see you again Josh." Keira inhaled his scent and smiled.
"You too Keira, this weekend is going to be good."
Bella watched the couple in front of her and felt slightly out of place. She wasnt good with talking to strangers, so she didn't know what to say to Chris. She just wanted to go home and put her now throbbing foot up again.
Moments later she was sitting in JC's rental car on her way home. She hoped she wasn't coming off as a stuck up bitch, but quite frankly right now she didnt care, she could tell that her foot was swollen again as it throbbed in her shoe.
"How's your foot?" Chris asked breaking the silence lingering in the back seat.
"It's okay." Bella shrugged.
"It hurts doesn't it." Chris said looking at her knowingly.
"I suppose it hurts a little, but thats to be expected, I did land on it pretty hard." Bella sighed.
Chris dropped the subject as he could tell she really didn't want to talk about it. Normally he didn't have problems opening up to people and could usually start a conversation with a complete stranger, but with Bella it was different. He had nothing to say to her, she intrigued him like nothing else and he found himself wanting to know her better.
"Are you guys hungry?" Keira asked her guests when they entered the apartment.
"I'm starved, I haven't eaten since this morning." JC answered.
"Yeah, I could use somethin to eat as well." Chris nodded in agreement.
Bella just chose to ignore the question and went to the freezer to grab some ice, then limped to the couch and sat down. She propped her foot up with a pillow and set the makeshift icepack on her foot and closed her eyes and listened to the conversation around her.
"You've done a lot with the place." JC said as he took in the room around him.
"Yeah, it's kind of hard to decorate when we have such different taste, but we work it out." Keira smiled.
"I think thats how it is with any roommates." Chris chuckled.
"Yeah. So how was your flight?" Keira asked as she started making dinner.
"It sucked, it was delayed as someone thought it would be fun to bring a knife onto the plane," JC answered.
"Wow."
"Yeah."
Chris left the two in the kitchen and sat on the couch next to Bella.
"So Arabella, what do you do for fun?" Chris asked.
Bella opened an eye and looked at him before closing it again, "It's Bella, and I really don't have time for fun right now."
"Well surely you must find something entertaining."
"I like going to other theatre productions, I like going to concerts, I like going to movies, I like going to museums, if its a fine art, chances are, I like it." Bella answered. "But like I said, I don't have much free time.
"Sounds like fun. So what do your parents do?" Chris asked.
"They're in politics." Bella answered carefully, not wanting to reveal much more.
"That's neat. Do they have like a president, or prime minister, or royalty in your country?"
"Royalty."
"Really? That's fun."
Bella just nodded. For some reason, this conversation seemed really strained. She thought, she hoped that maybe if she lay her head back and closed her eyes, he might, just might get the hint and leave her alone.
An hour later everyone sat down to eat the spaghetti that Keira had made, and put on a movie. They spent the rest of the night chilling in front of the TV, conversation flowing around them from time to time. Everyone got to know each other a little better, Bella keeping to herself for most of the time.