BPOV

"But I don't want to go to Grandma's house for a week!" I stomped my foot. "Why can't I go with you and Daddy to Lost Vaygus?"

"Because, Bella, Grandma hasn't seen you since you got your pretty little glasses, and she misses you. Besides, Daddy and I are going to be doing adult things in Las Vegas."

I stomped my foot one more time but added a pout and crossed arms to it - it usually worked to get me my way - but Mom still said, "No." I made sure to slam my door extra hard two or three times so that she would really know how mad I was at her.

I ignored her and Dad at supper that night, threw another fit at bedtime, and even told them both I hated them - they didn't care - but I still found myself on a plane the next morning. Grandma was waiting for me when I got there and declared we just had to go the aquarium and "see all the pretty fish." Whatever! I think she just didn't know what else to do in this crappy, rainy town.

She paid, and we walked down a slimy ramp and into a kind of bright room with a giant tank in the middle of it. I walked up to the sign and read, "Sea Otters." Just then one of the otters went zooming by, looking more like he was flying than swimming, and caught my attention. I sat down on a bench and watched as another one swam by, seeming to chase the other. They did this over and over, sometimes changing directions, other times flying through a huge hole in the log that was part of their - what word did the sign use? Oh yeah - habitat.

After a while, Grandma said we had to move on, so we walked up another ramp and then down some stairs until we were in a giant room made of little rectangles of glass. Even the curved ceiling was made of glass; how did they do that? It looked like we were underwater as all the fish, and even a - whale? - swam by.

"That's an Angel Shark."

I looked quickly at the tall, yellow-haired woman standing next to me. She was wearing a tan, short-sleeved shirt and tan shorts that matched her shirt and had a name tag that said, "Hi, I'm Rosalie." I quickly glanced at my Grandma to ask if it was alright if I talked to this lady, and she smiled and nodded at me.

"Hi, Rosalie. My name is Bella."

"It's very nice to meet you, Bella." She smiled brightly at me. She was very pretty. "I saw you looking at Augie …" she laughed when I scrunched my eyes and tilted my head at her "... Augusto the Angel Shark." She pointed to the light brown, spotted whale.

"I thought he was a whale."

She laughed again, and then went on to tell me about Angel Sharks. It was all very fascinating and I wanted to talk to her some more, but she had to go break up a bunch of boys who were being bad on the other side of the room. I rolled my eyes at them: boys!

Not long after she left, I watched as a diver swam by and started taking little pieces of something out of a bag that was tied to his hip and giving it to the fish that were swimming all around him. I was so caught up in watching him that I didn't notice that group of boys coming toward me, but I felt it when one of them pushed me down to the ground … really hard.

I just sat on the floor, staring up at the boy with hair so light it was almost white as he and his friends just laughed at me.

"Aw, is the baby gonna cry?" he snickered as he and the rest of them moved away. Well … almost all of them. One boy stayed behind and offered his hand to help me up.

"Are you okay, little girl?"

I knew he was just being nice, but my butt hurt, and I did want to cry, so once I was on my feet, I yanked my hand out of his and glared up at him.

"I'm not a little girl. I'm ten, thank you very much."

He chuckled softly but kept looking at in a funny way, and then he held his hand out to me again.

"Hi, I'm Edward. I'm sorry my little brother pushed you down. Tommy can be a real butt-head sometimes."

I bit my lip and wondered if I should tell him my name. I'd already talked to him, so what harm could it do? I took his hand again and gave it a little shake.

"Hi, I'm Bella … Isabella … but you can just call me Bella."

I felt my cheeks get hot and start to hurt from how big I had started to smile when he smiled even bigger at me. He had the weirdest red hair I had ever seen, but it looked kind of nice on him. He let go of my hand when Tommy started yelling for him.

"It was nice meeting you, Bella, Isabella, just Bella. I hope I see you around again."

He smiled one more time and then went to join the other boys. Prince Edward! I sighed dreamily.