Title: Intrinsic Fascination

Author: pantheradraconis

Rating: T

Pairing: Bella/Rosalie

Summary: The world is filled with billions of people; a new breath is taken every second. The last breath is taken as well. But the cycle continues, on and on; who would bother noticing when someone doesn't quite fit into this cycle…

Chapter 2: True Natures

At which point should we let go and do what we want to do, and when should we submit to rules? Coming to terms with our true natures and who we really are has always been a fascination to humans. I know it fascinates me. - Hugh Jackman

That night she dreamt of a beautiful monster with long blonde hair, rock hard skin, and fangs dripping with blood.

Bella woke suddenly; sweat dripping off her brow, lungs working on overdrive. Her dream was a vague memory to her, something about moving at incredible speeds and soaring through the air. She was running through the woods, into the mountains, but the ground seemed to vanish beneath her. She was looking for something, no hunting for something, someone. There was a scent calling out to her or was it a sound, a beat, a pulse. The dream had turned into a jumble of verbs and adjectives to the groggy teen. She stretched, then stretched some more, before checking the clock. It was 9 am on a Saturday morning.

The teen rolled out of bed and crawled her way to the bathroom. After brushing her teeth and showering, she found a pair of dark khaki pants and a light green t-shirt. Bella made her way downstairs to find some breakfast. Her father had already left for work, so the teen poured herself a bowl of Rice Krispies and ate while watching a rerun of Ghostly Encounters. The show always intrigued Bella, something about the supernatural pulled at her interest. She knew ghosts must really exist, but to be able to see them or even talk to one, the idea made her shiver with excitement. She quickly got lost in her favorite channel, losing the entire Saturday to hauntings and possessed children. In the afternoon, when reruns of Mobsters took over the Bio channel, Bella picked up her cereal bowl and various snack wrappers. She cleaned the dishes loitering in the sink and jogged up the stairs back to her room.

Suddenly bored, the teen decided to redesign her room. She tore off all her blankets and sheets and rolled the ball down the hall, into the laundry room. She started the washing machine before going through the hallway closet for new bedding. The choices left her wanting, but she wasn't sure what for. She wanted a new color or a new design. Bella went back to her room and turned her laptop on. She had only meant to turn her music player on, but a half hour disappeared to nothing in particular. The laundry was quickly switched to the dryer, and Bella was once again in her room, wishing for something new.

Her current favorite song came on; she cranked the volume up and began dancing around. With a new push of enthusiasm, the teen shoved her bed up against the wall, just under the window. She shoved her bedside table up against the outside of the bed and noticed her phone light up; she picked it up, flipped it open and saw a text message from her friend Angela. She read the text then dropped the phone. It was about Rosalie. Bella picked the phone back up and quickly re-read the text; maybe she had read it wrong the first time, maybe it was all just wishful thinking, but no, it was right there in black and white: 'Ull never believe who came in the lib looking 4 u! Rosalie! She even asked Tyler if u were workin 2day.'

Bella squealed and threw her phone up into the air. It hit the ceiling before collapsing down on the bed behind her; the teen scrambled over to it checking to make sure she didn't damage the device. It wasn't a smartphone or anything really expensive, but if she broke it she knew her father wasn't going to just replace it. She'd have to learn a lesson or whatever about taking care of her property and wait for a month or two to get a new one. Bella scooped her phone up and cradled it in her hands.

There was no obvious damage, so she flipped it back open and quickly replied, 'R u srs?' Bella hit send and stared at her phone in anticipation.

The seconds lasted hours, but the vibration still surprised her when the response came back, 'Duh'

Bella jumped up and down but kept a firm grip on her phone. She danced around a moment before a thought came to her mid-dance move; she looked a bit like a cartoon character that got paused. Why? Why was Rosalie looking for her? The teen grasped the phone firmly and began typing the question in, but a new text appeared first, 'I gave her ur #' Bella froze, unsure what to do or what to say. Another message came in, 'I knew u wouldnt mind. Ur so easy to read.' Bella laughed hysterically. She couldn't help herself; she was overjoyed, confused, scared, shocked, and exhilarated. It was quite possibly true that her own crush, of a mere 24 hours mind you, liked her too!

Then she deflated, maybe Rosalie just liked her as a friend, or maybe she even hated Bella and wanted to torture her. No, Angela was so good at figuring people out, it was like she could read their intentions. If she thought Rosalie had bad motives, she never would have handed out Bella's number; if anything, the teen probably already interrogated the girl.

Bella quickly replied, 'u didnt question her rt?'

The response came in immediately, 'of crs I did ;-)'

Bella pouted at her phone then relaxed into an awkward smile. She wasn't upset her friend questioned the new girl; she was jealous she hadn't been there. It was weird, now that Bella was away from Rosalie and all her siblings, she felt good, happy, but when they were face to face her emotions were all over the place. It must have just been jitters, she thought to herself, despite the fact that she'd never acted with such ferocity before. She sighed and collapsed unto her bed.

After a moment, her phone buzzed again. When she lifted it up to see what Angela said, she saw it was a new message from an unknown number. It was probably just a spam text or some ad from a radio station. The teen opened the message, expecting to just delete it, but instead read, 'Hi, this is Rosalie. Angela gave me your number.' Bella read it over again and again when another message popped up, 'I hope you don't mind. I wanted to apologize for yesterday.'

"Yes!" The teen yelled out into the room, dropping her phone lightly beside her; she jumped up on her bed and began playing the air guitar. This was the display her father walked into.

"Uh, Bells?" He asked, cautiously walking into the room towards the desk and turning the volume down on his daughter's laptop speakers. The teen spun around to see her father staring at her, an amused expression on his face. "You ready to go?"

"Go? Go where?" Bella got down from her bed, smoothed down her clothing and looked up curiously at her father.

"To the Cullen's; remember, you said you'd go with me after my shift?"

"Oh yeah, yeah I remember, but wasn't that at four?" Bella turned to her clock, but it had been unplugged when she moved the bed and the table, and her father was standing in front of her laptop, the only other clock she could think of in the room.

"It's quarter after." Charlie tapped his watch, "Time to go." He walked out of the room and down the stairs, saying over his shoulder, "Hurry up Bells, it's a thirty-minute drive."

Bella grabbed her phone and quickly responded to Rosalie's text. 'RU home?' She then sent a quick thanks to Angela, receiving a smiley in response, along with a demand for all the details on Sunday.

The teen smiled at her friend's request before switching over to Rosalie's response. 'Yeah, why?'

'C U in 30.' Bella laughed at the text she got from Rosalie asking what the teen meant. She sent a quick wink smiley and left it at that. The teen ran down the stairs and out the door, settling in the cruiser. She smiled at her father and began running through the radio presets. Finding a station that was actually playing music, Bella leaned back in her chair, drumming her thumbs on her lap and staring out the window. She could hardly contain her excitement.

"Now I called Mrs. Cullen earlier this morning, to let her know we were stopping by," Charlie explained as he turned up route 101. They left the village of Forks behind and headed in the direction of Port Angeles. Bella watched every house go by wondering if the next one would be the Cullen's. When Charlie started slowing down to turn onto Maxfield Rd, Bella wondered if the family had bought the mansion that was for sale on Steelhead, Mr. Cullen was a doctor after all, but instead, her father passed the small neighborhood and continued to the end of the drive. He turned down a road sitting off to the left; Bella didn't see a name anywhere, so she figured it was an extension of Maxfield, but the road had narrowed significantly and there were patches of grass growing in various cracks down the middle. Charlie frowned at the trees closing in around them.

"Mrs. Cullen explained they lived down this old logging road. I just hope it stays paved all the way; I don't think the cruiser would be able to handle a washed out gravel road." He laughed, but the sound was strained. Bella knew her father hated the claustrophobic feel of old country lanes, but she loved them.

The drive continued, the road staying paved and clear, for another fifteen minutes; there was one right turn, marked with a handcrafted sign reading, 'The Cullens', and Bella assumed this to be their driveway, but the difference between the road and the turn was slight if any. The forest finally opened to a gorgeous, classic manor. Bella didn't know what she had expected before, but it certainly wasn't what she found. The home was old fashioned, yet homey and well taken care of. It was three stories, painted white with colonial accents and something more, something exotic. The driveway ended in a turnabout with a large, three-door garage to the right.

Charlie drove the cruiser around the circle, pulling over a few paces past the front door. He tapped on his daughter's shoulder and told her to stop her drooling and get out the car. Bella complied, but she couldn't make any promises about drooling. She had never seen a house this beautiful before. On TV, there were plenty of movie stars with estates that were made out of gold, but this house felt inviting, homey even.

"Welcome to our home, Chief Swan." Bella looked up to see a beautiful woman standing at the front door. She had a heart-shaped face and billows of soft, caramel colored hair; for a strange moment, she reminded the teen of her mother. Bella looked over to her father, who looked like he was also drawn into the woman's presence. The teen wondered what her father saw in the woman; she then quickly erased the thought and walked up to the door, her father a step behind her.

"And you must be Bella." The teen was scooped up into a hug before she knew what happened, but instead of being embarrassed about hugging a woman she just met, Bella felt safe. "Rosalie has said so much about you." The teen blushed and thought she heard the woman say she smelled nice, but it was barely a whisper so Bella must have misheard. "I'm Esme Cullen, please do come in." Mrs. Cullen shook hands with Charlie and the three entered the front door.

The house immediately opened up to a large living space. Bella assumed the home used to be made up of smaller rooms, but the walls were all removed to create a flowing feel, like the air of the house simply carried a person through it. To the left was a massive staircase, easily twice the size of the front door; the upstairs hallway curved around, edged with the continued banister. The teen looked to her right and saw the entrance to a beautiful kitchen that reminded her of elaborate cooking shows.

They were ushered into the living room where a young man stood next to a pale cream colored couch. He was blond and looked to have just stepped off a movie screen. Bella wondered if this was the fifth adopted child Angela had been talking about. He stepped forward with grace and held out his hand to shake Charlie's. "Chief Swan, I'm Dr. Carlisle Cullen, welcome. Please, have a seat. And you must be Isabella, welcome." Bella was surprised at what she heard but was silenced by Mr. Cullen's bright, blue eyes.

Catching the teen staring, Mrs. Cullen stepped up to her husband, taking his arm in hers and said, "He looks like a blond Sinatra, doesn't he?" She laughed, kissed his cheek and walked towards the kitchen. "Can I get you any refreshments? Lemonade? Tea?"

Bella blushed, Charlie grunted, and they both sat down. Mrs. Cullen laughed lightly before disappearing into the kitchen. Carlisle took his seat and the three sat in silence while the hostess rushed about the kitchen, clanging glasses and opening and closing the fridge. She reappeared faster than Bella expected and placed a tray down on the coffee table. Mr. Cullen smiled at his guests, while Mrs. Cullen poured out three glasses of lemonade from a pitcher and handed one each to Bella and her father. She then sat down with her own and smiled at the group; Bella knew instantly that this woman loved hosting.

Bella, on the other hand, never knew what to do or say when she was a guest in someone else's home; especially a place she'd never been to with people she'd never met. For a moment she wondered why she had even bothered to come with her father, but then the reason walked into the room. Bella stood up, bumping her shin into the coffee table and almost spilling her lemonade. Hissing slightly, she smiled towards the approaching blonde, who, in turn, frowned. "You're going to seriously hurt yourself one of these times."

"I'm not really that talented," Bella quipped back. "I bruise and scar, but broken bones have never been on my medical chart."

"Did you just reference 'medical chart' as if it were a 'rap sheet'?" Eddie's voice buzzed in. Once again he was directly next to Rosalie, but, once again, Bella had missed his appearance. The bronze-haired boy smiled knowingly, but Bella wasn't sure what exactly he seemed to know.

"Rosalie, Edward, this is Chief Swan; and you've already met his daughter." Carlisle introduced the pair. "Where are the others?" Bella listened to the patriarch's voice with a sigh. It was warm and smooth, like an old folk song; you could just hear the relaxing tones in every word.

"Sorry old man, we're here." A big burly teen, with short curly hair, walked into the room from somewhere behind the other two teens baring a huge, goofy grin. Behind him were Alice and Jasper; they waved companionably, but Bella noticed a weird expression on Jasper's face; he was staring at Mr. Cullen, confused.

"Your tardiness has been noted." This time, when Carlisle spoke, his words sounded harsh, as if he were trying not to shout at them. Bella watched as all five teens snapped to attention and stared at their adopted father. Rosalie, Alice and the boy Bella didn't know, all looked shocked, while Eddie, no Edward, stared open-mouthed and confused. Jasper, on the other hand, turned his attention back to Bella. The teen froze; the stare, though not unkind, made her skin crawl. She went to sit back down, but instead, Jasper gestured for her to follow him into the other room. Quickly whispering to be excused, she complied, uncomfortable with the situation, but unsure what else to do.

The two teens walked down a small stretch of hallway, where Bella got a clear glimpse of the back of the house; the wall had been taken out and replaced with glass, an entire wall of glass. Behind her, the teen could hear an awkward apology followed by even more awkward assurances. Jasper turned to the left and into a smaller room completely void of furniture except for a black grand piano. Bella passed the teen and walked up to the piano; she had never played, but the beauty of the instrument made her want to slide her fingers over the keys. She heard the door shut and spun around. Jasper stood a few steps away from her, staring. No, it was more severe than that, Jasper was glaring at Bella with a snarl on his lips. She blushed and cowered slightly, slowly lowering her body onto the piano bench.

"How did you do that?" The teen boy asked.

"Do what? I don't know what I did?" Bella's voice was confused, alarmed, and unsure. But Jasper knew immediately she wasn't lying. He frowned, and leaned back on his right leg, crossing his arms.

Edward walked into the room, closing the door behind him. He came to stand next to Jasper and the two looked at each like they were going to say something, but after a moment of silence, the two looked back at Bella. Edward smirked. "Bella, do you believe in the supernatural?" The teen immediately starting thinking about all the TV shows she loved to watch and the debates she had had with Ashley Dowling about whether or not werewolves were more tangible than humans that could morph into any animal at will, or how many fortune teller's in the world were legitimate. She looked up to see both Edward and Jasper smiling at her. She frowned, feeling like she was on the outside of an inside joke. Edward nodded; he then brought his eyebrows together for a moment.

"What? What are you thinking?" Bella pointed at Edward walking right up to him. "What are you thinking right now?"

"Well, I guess you could say a couple of things." Bella had already decided she was not a fan of the pompous way Edward spoke to her. "One, werewolves are far more tangible. Two, a surprisingly large amount of fortune tellers are legitimate, but they rarely charge money, instead of demanding far more important items. Three and this is the confusing part, the Lakers beat the SuperSonics, but after that the lyrics just get uncomfortable."

Bella blinked several times. At first, she was shocked at what Edward had been saying, thinking he was possibly reading her mind, but the last comment was so off topic she barely had time to dwell on the idea of telepathy. Edward scratched the back of his head. "Yeah, that's the part I don't get either. It was a line from a Jay-Z song, but I don't know where the thought came from."

Bella was about to claim Edward was the one to say it, but she was cut off by Jasper. "It wasn't his thought, it was someone else's; Edward just heard it."

The teen girl's mouth opened and closed, but no noise came out. She coughed, much louder than she expected, but finally cleared her throat out. "Okay, sure, why not." Bella starting pacing back and forth between the two boys, "Let's just say for a second that you're telepathic and this isn't just some sick joke." The two boys laughed, but Bella tried to ignore it. "Then what am I thinking right now, Jasper?"

"Oh," The blond was taken off guard. "I'm not like Edward; I have no idea what you're thinking."

"You were repeating the word 'lilac' over and over." Edward quipped in.

Bella frowned but nodded. She had been thinking about the color, but she'd been thinking more specifically about what a lovely color it was for a beautiful blonde girl's eyes. "So then why were you the one that keeps looking at me weird?" Bella asked the blond. "What am I doing that's causing you to glower and growl?"

The teen rubbed the back of his neck and shrugged, "You heard that?" He sounded genuinely sorry, but it didn't make Bella any more comfortable with the act. "I didn't mean to, it's just. Something about you makes it so hard, I can't control it. The emotions keep changing and then it ricochets and latches onto random people."

Bella looked back and forth between Edward and Jasper, but they seemed to be having the same problem with understanding what exactly was going on.

Edward spoke up, "It seems that something about you, some sort of power you might not know you have, is conflicting with us and causing our own to lash out of control."

"I'm sorry, but you can't really be serious." The teen laughed; when she caught the look of both boys' frowns, she laughed harder. "First you want me to believe that you're telepathic, second you want me to believe that you are, what, a super empath? Or are you just overly emotional?" Bella questioned while pointing towards each boy in turn. She didn't wait for an explanation, she wasn't sure she trusted either of the two teens in front of her to give her an honest response. "And then, after all that mumbo jumbo, you want me to believe that I, also, am crazy, and more importantly, my crazy messes with your crazy."

Edward scratched the back of her head. He opened his mouth, but no words made an appearance. Jasper shuffled his feet looking down at the floor and shrugged. Bella looked between the two boys unsure what should happen next. It was the perfect time for a commercial break, so she decided to break apart from the group. Neither boy tried to stop her as the teen made her way out of the room. Her mind was racing with the possibilities of what had just happened. Yeah sure, she had always loved the supernatural, it was fascinating, and if you had asked her just a few hours earlier she would have argued that any of it could be true and most of it was. But now that she was facing something so blatant in the face Bella wondered if it was all just a joke. When it's on TV it's real, but when it makes an appearance in her real life it's fake; is that honestly what she's trying to tell herself?

Bella looked around to see where in the house she had wandered off to. It was immediately apparent she had turned the wrong way out of the piano room, but the view she was given made it all worthwhile. The teen passed through a glass French door to the back yard patio. There was a creek running across the edge of the mowed lawn, the opposite sidelined with the thick forest.

The yard made Bella feel like she was alone on an island, but instead of being surrounded by water, she was surrounded by trees. What made the teen girl feel at ease with this idea was the tall, blonde teen standing with her back to the younger girl.

Rosalie leaned on the railing of the wooden deck facing away from the house. Her back leaned slightly forward, exposing the tiniest amount of skin between her tight fit jeans and a thin, soft looking shirt that hugged the blonde's curves so perfectly it made Bella purr.

"Staring isn't polite, you know." Rosalie said before turning towards the younger teen. The blonde smiled at Bella's blush. "I can't say I particularly mind though." Bella's blush darkened and she was shocked she could keep herself standing.

Bella cleared her throat and said, "Will you go out with me?" Both girls were surprised at the younger teen's question. "Shit, I meant, how are you?"

Rosalie recovered quickly, "Those two sentences don't exactly sound the same." Her voice was light and airy and held just a small amount of teasing.

"Yeah," Bella didn't know if she could blush any deeper of a color, but her body seemed sure it was going to try. She quickly looked down, letting her hair cover her face. "I know you just moved here, so I was going to wait, but Tyler is so popular."

"And you aren't?"

Bella laughed the heat from her face finally lifting as the conversation eased forward. "Yeah, no, not me, I'm just, well I'm just Bella."

"What's wrong with 'Just Bella'?" Rosalie took a few steps forward, walking right up to Bella and reaching her hand out towards the shorter girls face. Her fingers pushed back some of Bella's hair, making it impossible for the girl to hide her face away.

"Uh," The words that the teen girl wanted to say were eloquent, smooth, intelligent, and sexy. Why on earth was she grunting? Rosalie's hand dropped to her side and Bella immediately missed the contact. She thought about reaching out to the blonde before her, but a voice caused her to stumble back instead.

"You ready to go Bells?" Charlie's voice came from the hallway. The first thought Bella had was how much she hoped her dad hadn't seen the two standing so close, so intimately. She hadn't ever had a boyfriend, or a girlfriend. Sure, the teen had dated, she even went to a movie with Tyler back in middle school, but going steady was something completely different. And even then, the teen was pretty certain she wouldn't want to be caught by her father in any type of embrace, innocent or not.

"I'm here, dad." Bella had turned to face the house, looking at her father's bemused face. She wasn't sure if he had seen anything, or he was simply reacting to her wording. "I mean, I'm coming. That is, I'll be right there." The teen turned back to her blonde companion. "I have to go."

"I think I got that." Rosalie nodded and smiled. It was apparent to the shorter teen that Rosalie was trying not to outright laugh at her.

"Yeah," Bella stared up at the blonde teenager but didn't say any more. After a moment, she realized their conversation was over and turned to leave. Rosalie didn't try to stop her. The brunette wasn't sure what that lack of a gesture meant, but she knew immediately she was overthinking it.

"Yes, you are." Edward's voice came from the right, just as Bella passed the piano room. She looked in to see the teen sitting at the piano, softly pressing the keys and playing out a beautifully sad song. Bella watched for a moment, lost in the music, and forgot to make any sardonic comments, or even to say goodbye when the song ended and she had turned away.

It took a half hour to drive home, an hour to make and eat dinner, and two more hours for Bella to realize that Rosalie had never answered her question. She went to sleep wishing she had never said anything to the beautiful blonde.

Early Sunday afternoon Bella found herself wandering through town. She had spent the morning working on homework and sporadically taking down and putting back up various pictures and decorations in her room. Now the teen was riding her bike to the Forks Coffee shop on South Forks Ave to meet up with Angela. The trip was a normal occurrence for the young teen and only took her a few minutes to complete.

Bella leaned her bike up against the side of the shop, just to the right of the entrance, and left it unchained. Her father always told her it was going to be stolen one day, but the teen had yet to see it happen and therefore didn't bother with the extra work. Whenever she rode her bike to school, on the very few sunny occasions, she locked the bike to the rail, but only to keep another student in the after-school excitement from accidentally taking the wrong bike. That had happened to Bella, but the whole situation was sorted out before anyone even left the school premises.

The diner was filled up with families dressed in their Sunday best. By some amount of luck Angela always possessed, the brunette had acquired the same booth the two teens sat at every time they met in the coffee shop. Bella smiled at her friend and weaved through the group. She waved at a few people she knew, always keeping the bright smile of the Chief's daughter in place, before sliding into the bench seat across from her friend and reaching up to pet the nose of the stuffed Elk head decorating the middle pillar of the room.

"Hi Elky, hi Angela," Bella said to each in turn.

"I don't know whether I should be annoyed or amused that you always say hi to 'Elky' before me," Angela replied, a big smile on her face. The two fell into conversation quickly, both ordering coffee and sharing the diner's special Galaxy Famous pancakes. By the time the breakfast plate showed up, Bella had already dished on the failures of her and Rosalie's conversation the afternoon before.

"Something about her, I don't know, she just takes my breath away," Bella said dreamily before stuffing a huge bite of syrupy pancake in her mouth.

Angela giggled before asking, "And what about Edward and Jasper? What do you think about their powers?" Bella frowned and chewed her way through her mouthful of pancake. Angela was missing the point, the problem Bella had was with Rosalie, not with the boys. They were just being weird; it was probably a practical joke. But no matter what the teenager said, her friend wouldn't let it go.

"You can't still be serious?" Bella blew on her coffee, holding the warm cup between both hands. "They're a joke; there's no reason to believe in any of the mumbo jumbo they were ranting on about."

"But everything they said was true. I just know it." Angela's words were said with such conviction Bella found herself believing Angela, then she saw the reflection of two young men walking through the front entrance. The teen swiveled around in her seat just in time to catch Edward's crooked grin. He quickly made his way through the crowd to Bella's table and slipped into the bench seat next to her. Jasper, a few paces behind his brother, stopped at the side of the table and asked politely whether or not he and his brother could join the 'two young ladies', as he put it. Angela blushed but welcomed the tall blond to join her side of the booth.

"To what do we owe this… pleasure?" Bella spit the last word out, trying to stay calm. She looked over the table at Jasper; the teen squirmed a little before coughing and turning to his bench mate. Angela smiled brightly at the uncomfortable teen. The gesture seemed to relax him and, strangely enough, a calmness ran over Bella as well. She took a deep breath and decided to, at the very least, be congenial with the Cullen boys.

Edward continued to grin; seemingly giddy over something none of the other teens had any clue about. "It's a wonderful day, isn't? Hi, I'm Edward and this is Jasper. Yes, he does have beautiful blond curls but he's also very much taken."

Angela looked shocked before smiling herself. "I told you! I told you, Bella!" Edward started giggling. It was such a strange sight it caused everyone at the table to laugh along with him. Jasper began squirming again, but this time out of sheer exhilaration.

"Edward, you really need to calm down," Jasper said with a huge grin on his face.

"I know, but I can't. I thought you were doing it."

Jasper laughed at his brother. The group was starting to get strange looks from the other customers. A waitress walked up to the table and requested orders from the two boys. They both laughed but managed to ask for coffee, no food.

"Coffee can't possibly be a good idea for you two," Bella said quietly, her own laughter had died down. "You are more wound up than the Energizer Bunny."

"Apologies, really, I don't know what came over me," Jasper replied having finally calmed down himself.

Angela picked up on the comment immediately. "So how does it work?" Jasper looked surprised, but after a quick turn to his brother, he smiled knowingly. "Do you like control emotions or just feel them? What am I feeling right now?"

"Why is that always the first question?" Edward quipped to Bella; the teen shrugged and watched the interaction between her best friend and the supposed empath. Jasper explained that he felt the emotions of the people nearest him. He could focus in on individuals or small groups, but any crowd over twenty and he couldn't focus as easily. The power he had, as he described it, could also be used on people. He could take any emotion and push it on someone's aura, causing them to be overwhelmed by the emotion. He didn't like using that part as much, but it did come in handy when in a hostile environment. Angela tried to question why Jasper would find himself in so many hostile environments as to find the power useful, but he avoided the question and, apparently, started showing Angela what different emotions felt like.

Bella turned back to her own companion but was caught off guard when she realized the teen had been staring at her. She jumped in her seat a little, knocking her hand against the diner's middle barrier.

"Are you alright?" Edward's hand was on the back of Bella's head, his other arm reaching around her waist to the small of her back and pulling her away from the barrier. Bella found her breath hard to control for a moment, her heart had gone off on a marathon, but she controlled herself and blushed before slowing pulling herself out of the strong arms.

Edward's hands felt cold, hard, but comfortable. A small part of her wanted to stay wrapped up in Edward, but a larger part of her feared the teenager. The thought was entirely illogical and luckily missed by the telepath.

"I'm fine." Bella replied, "No, really, it was a minor slip. I do it all the time."

"She's not lying," Angela spoke from the other side of the table, but instead of joking, like she normally did after Bella committed a small mishap, the teen looked concerned.

Bella looked around the booth to see Angela, Jasper, and Edward all looking over her like she was a glass doll one tap away from shattering. It had seriously been nothing and Angela should have been used to the action.

Then Bella realized what was wrong. Without thinking she glared at Jasper, crossing her arms in front of her. "Stop it, Jasper, you're worrying everyone."

The male teen blinked, realized his mistake and said, "Sorry miss, I didn't realize I was…"

"Yeah, I know, I probably messed up your crazy with my crazy." Bella smiled a shyly, barely letting it part her lips.

"Oh, so you actually believe us now?" Edward asked, his crooked grin covering his face.

Bella frowned at the bronze haired boy. "I don't." She said deftly, "But Angela does and she's never wrong. Ever."

Angela smiled brilliantly, nodding her head. "It's true." She said modestly.

"So don't make her wrong." Bella finished, unperturbed by Edward's knowing smile or Jasper's shy grin.

"Well then, best buddy," Edward spoke, sliding closer to Bella and reaching his arm around her shoulders. "Tell us all about our new high school."

Slinking into her seat a little, but not dislodging herself from the intimate contact this time, Bella gestured for Angela to begin her welcoming committee spiel. As her best friend spoke, Bella thought about Edward and what it was about him exactly that made her heart race and her breath quicken. She continued to wonder about the difference in reaction to the boy compared to her reaction around his sister. The conversation grew and wandered for another hour before the teens eventually left the diner and parted ways.

Bella finally felt comfortable with the idea of being friends with the two crazy boys. But the thought of being seen with the boys in school, and the thought of Rosalie, simply Rosalie, overwhelmed the teen. Something about her, about her presence, about her touch, about her cold strong hands. She was different, they all were. For the first time in her life, Bella felt anxious about going to school the next day.

A/N: The description of the Cullen's house is closer to the book than the movie. For a visual, I used this house here: /greek_ . All locations used can be found via Google maps. I don't know exactly where the Cullen's lived in the books, so I made that up, and I also put Bella in a random location on the end of King Richards Way. That just made sense for a vampire to easily sneak to without being noticed at any time of day. This should be helpful in later chapters.

Now, here are some replies to reviews:

[Malice Mirandy Forever Always] – Rosalie's emotions were being messed with because of Jasper and Bella's close proximity. I hope I explained it well enough in this chapter. The two of them will be working on the problem together in the near future so it doesn't happen too often.

[Guest] – I didn't mean to make Bella so cringe-worthy. Please let me know if I make it worse or better as the story continues.

[lux] – This chapter started with detail, but I'm working on finding a median between details and story. Keep after me if I continue down the Tolkien path of describing rocks.

[Guest] – The reason I am allowing Edward to be able to read Bella's mind is that I think Bella's character was a bit too much of a Mary Sue. Right from the beginning, she was more powerful than the Volturi and by the end of the series, Bella was the most powerful vampire in the world. In my story, as a human Bella has no knowledge over her power or gift and therefore no control. The more she learns, the more she'll be able to block Edward and other vampires.

Everyone else thanks for the reviews, and I will be keeping the PoV to just Bella. Rosalie will show up later, but never for a whole chapter, at least not as of now.

So, what did you think of this chapter? How do you see Bella and Edwards or Bella and Jaspers relationships growing? Do you love pancakes?