Vanity and Patience: A Rosalie Hale & Emmett Cullen Story

Chapter 21: Redemption

It was my last day of school, several final exams awaiting me. By then, it had been a few weeks since my last and final dance with Mr. Kent in our garage, and only a few days following my first wonderful night under the setting sun with Emmett. I never returned to my lessons with Mr. Kent after the garage incident, and the guilt from what I had done still bothered me when I thought of him. In my mind, I now addressed him as formally as I did out loud: Mr. Kent.

I was still full of shame and guilt for using him. Now that I had made things right with Emmett, I felt I needed to find a way to make things right with Mr. Kent. I wanted to redeem myself, and the good man deserved some sort of reward for putting up with and being the subject of my scandalous endeavors. I spent most of my day with my mind split in half: one side concentrating on the exams, and the other on Mr. Kent. I realized I wanted to find him some happiness, or give him some sort of opportunity.

During my final exam in Pre-Algebra, I looked to my right and noticed my classmate Margaret Dickson. She was a senior like me, but socially reserved and shy; a genuinely nice person for a high school teenager. I had never noticed before how lovely she was, at least by human standards. She had shoulder length, sandy brown hair in tightly set waves, and gorgeous blue eyes. I knew that she used to take dance lessons with Mr. Kent, and when I had walked in on a few of their lessons I didn't miss the flustered coloring of her cheeks when she was in his arms, or how her heartbeat was the speed of a drum line. Of course when I entered the room, Mr. Kent would fall all over himself about me, and I could tell by the way she looked at me that she thought me to be her competition for his affections.

When the exam was over, I turned to her as she was wrestling to get her books together, a notebook almost falling from her desk. With supernatural reflexes, I caught it immediately, handing it to her with a disarming grin.

She looked at me and gave me a grim smile in return, her eyebrows furrowed quizzically, as I had never tried to interact with her before. "Thanks," she mumbled under her breath.

Previously I would only speak to her when required by the teacher, working with her to solve equations when we were asked to partner. I kept it very scholastic. I was all business, and I could understand her shock that I was suddenly paying attention to her. "Maggie, isn't it?" I asked in my most gentle tone, hoping my wind chime voice came out as soothing as I meant it to be.

"Uh... yes," she said, though it sounded more like a question. I heard her heart begin to beat erratically against her chest.

Realizing her subconscious human instinct for danger had her on edge, I gave her a sweet innocuous smile, turning my head to avoid the fluorescent light that may shine on my grin and accentuate on my razor sharp teeth. "You used to take lessons with Mr. Kent, correct?"

"I..." she gulped, her face automatically turning red at the sound of his name, "I did, yes. Why?" She was suspicious, and rightfully so. I didn't know many girls in school who actually liked me. However, I had an intuition that this girl seemed, in most cases, the least bitter with jealousy out of all the girls in my graduating class. She never once given me the evil glares that most of the girls did.

"I just..." I said and thought quickly about what I wanted to say before continuing. "Well, in my last lesson with Mr. Kent, he told me he was wondering why you had stopped lessons. He mentioned that he enjoyed his sessions with you." So it was a lie, partially. I knew he wondered why she had stopped her lessons suddenly, but he had never mentioned what he felt about her as a student or otherwise. I watched to see if she'd buy it.

"He did?" she asked, hope coloring her voice. She got up from her desk clumsily, and I gracefully stood up from mine. Suddenly her attention was eagerly on me, and she was more than thrilled to have me follow her to the door of her next class. Her features were quite lovely, with soft but defined cheekbones, her heart-shaped lips a lovely shade of coral; definitely a perfect match for Mr. Kent. It was a shame he had never noticed her before, but I figured with me now clearly unavailable that he'd take heed of this nice girl standing in front of me with a shine of hope in her lovely blue eyes.