Chapter 2

"W-What do you mean I'm going to jail?!" I stuttered in a panicked tone to Alice.

I can't go to jail! I'm too young. Shit, I haven't even graduated high school yet. I just survived a near-death experience! I still haven't even got Edward back yet!

Alice began to shake my shoulders to get my out of my stupor.

"Look, it's okay. I can fix this. It's just people thought you were strange since you're wearing…really interesting clothing and followed my sister here." Alice said as she finally did a once over on my clothes. Her eyes were pensive and then finally grimaced a little.

I snorted. Even in this time, she still doesn't like my clothing style. Go figure.

"Well how do you suppose to fix my outlandish appearance?"

Alice stood back to view my figure, which made me blush slightly, but I tried to force it back down. Her fingers held her chin in a contemplative look before she smiled.

"I have the perfect outfit for you. I just finished making it the other day and you're about my size and oh! It's green, oh my, you'd look great in green." Alice squealed and grabbed my hand. She pulled me into the back of the shop and up the stairs. I figured that Alice's family lived above their shop. It was pretty roomy. Guess business must be good for them.

She pulled me into a room and I'm guessing it was hers because it was so personalized and colorful. There were drawings and sketches everywhere on her walls and on her desk.

"Wow, did you draw these?" I asked Alice and she hummed in response while she was digging through her closet.

"Yeah," She said while rummaging further into her closet.

"I love fashion and anything to do with clothing. I draw them out and then sew them on my own, but I can't really do much with them since no one will buy them."

My face contorted into a weird expression. Why would no one buy these? They're so beautiful. I mean, they're not exactly my style (not that I had style), but I couldn't deny they were wonderful.

"What do you mean no one will buy them? They're gorgeous, Alice."

Alice seemed to finally find the outfit and pulled it out with a small 'ah-hah!' and came over to me. She smiled bashfully and blushed when she looked at me.

"Thank you, Isabella. But none of the townsfolk will buy them because they think I'm the town's witch and things I sell them will be cursed." Alice said and it was obvious she was upset by it, but she tried her best to hide it.

I bit my lip and frowned. I was so going to regret this later on. I know it. But Alice's sullen face was too much for me. Even back home, I couldn't resist it.

Damn it.

"Well…if you want, Alice…I'll wear your outfits while I'm here and it'll help you if you have a person modeling it. Though, I don't know if I have the right body."

It was silent for a second and before I knew it, Alice squealed loudly and threw her arms around me. It was slightly awkward because she was still holding the outfit for me.

"Really! You'll do that for me? You're so nice to me, what did I do to deserve you?"

I chuckled and did my best to pat her on the back.

'I wonder that too.'

"Alright, alright. Hand me the outfit will you?" Alice pulled back sheepishly and held the outfit out for me.

"You have about five minutes before the police show up. Try to be quick, okay? If you need any help, just let me know. I'll be back with some shoes." She pointed me in the direction of her bathroom and I went in.

Shutting the door behind me, I took a good look at the outfit.

'Okay…how do I wear this?'

I managed to put the outfit on me and I shuffled awkwardly. It was a silk drop waist dress that went straight down past my knees. The waist down part of the dress was emerald green while the top half was white. The band around my waist was black and Alice had given me a darker shade of green cardigan and heels to finish off the outfit.

"Alice…I don't know if I can do this. I have two left feet and I'll trip over either my feet or air and break my neck."

Alice just laughed as she fixed my hair that was slightly ruffled from putting the outfit on and shook her head.

"Nonsense. You look great and you're barely off the ground in these heels. But afterwards if it's really hard for you, I'll get you some flats."

I nodded and tried not to complain too much since Alice was really helping me out even though I was a stranger to her.

The door chimes went off, letting us know that someone had entered the shop. Alice and I turned to look and unsurprisingly, two police offers stepped in and I tried to slow my heart rate down.

"Hello, officers. What can I do for you, today?" Alice said in a polite tone and the officers glared at her. I almost glared back at them for being rude to her.

"We got a call saying there was a strange woman following a little girl in this shop. Do you know anything?" The first officer said in his gruff voice. He kind of reminded me of Charlie with his mustache.

Alice pulled a concerned face and gasped with her petite fingers at her mouth.

"No officers, I haven't seen anything like that enter the shop. My little sister is in the back and as you can see, it's just a customer and I here right now."

The officers eyed her warily and I tried to smile politely at them but it was hard because obviously the first officer didn't like Alice.

"I see…we'll be on our way then…but we'll be watching you, Mary Alice." The first officer said once again and I fought the urge to scowl at him.

What an ass!

The second officer just shrugged and pulled the first officer out the door with him. We didn't move until the chimes stopped ringing and the door was shut.

I huffed and rolled my eyes.

"You know, my father is a cop, but he treats citizens with the respect they deserve."

Alice smiled as if the whole encounter didn't affect her and turned to me.

"Where are you from, anyhow?"

I was about to answer her when the door chimes went off again.

"Mary Alice Brandon, why were there police officers leaving the shop? Did you do something?"

I turned to look at who was at the door and found a middle-aged woman walking through.

"I—oh, who's this?"

Alice eyed me and tried to speak but it seemed she didn't know what to say. So I helped her out a little—granted it was lying. It was obvious this woman was Alice's mother.

"Hello, Ms. Brandon. I'm Isabella Swan. I'm a friend of Alice's and I just moved back into town." I smiled and held my hand out.

The woman eyed me suspiciously as if finding it hard for Alice to have a friend. She shook my hand nonetheless and looked at Alice.

Alice was flushed but she was smiling widely.

"Oh, I see. How nice to meet you, dear. How'd you and Mary Alice become friends? She has…a little trouble making them."

I smiled and thought about the first time I really did become friends with Alice.

Ah…how nostalgic.

"I met Alice at a shop, she was very friendly and I saw her a lot. I moved away because my father's job. I had tried to write to Alice though, must've been lost in the mail." Hahaha, the irony in this right now.

"And where are you and your parents staying now?"

I paused. I hadn't thought about where I was going to stay. I couldn't just be staying in Alice's jewelry shop and I probably shouldn't be lounging around outside after that incident with the police.

"Uhm…my parents just passed away, which is why I moved back here. As for where I'm staying…" Shit, why am I such a bad liar? Alice seemed to notice my little problem here and jumped in.

"Uhm, I was actually going to ask you earlier, but it seemed to slip my mind. Is it all right if Isabella stays with us for a while, mother? Just until she can find a place of her own and a job? Please, mother? She can sleep in my room and I'm sure she'll be willing to help around the house."

I faced the woman again and nodded with the most pleasant smile I could pull.

The woman looked at her daughter and sighed.

"Alright Mary Alice. Only because this is the first friend of yours I've met. It'd be rude not to offer our hospitality anyways. I'll let your father know later tonight when he comes back." The woman smiled at me finally.

"My name is Catherine and you can call me that or Mrs. Brandon." I nodded and appreciatively said thank you to her.

"It's no problem, honey. Otherwise, did we get any customers today, Mary Alice?"

Alice shook her head.

"No, but Mr. Lanston will be coming by later on to buy a necklace. I think he's going to buy it for his secretary. Did you know he's secretly having an affai—"

"Mary Alice, please stop with that nonsense. You have a guest here and I don't think you should scare her away."

I wanted to tell her that I found Alice endearing but I held my tongue. I didn't want to piss this woman off especially if she was letting me stay. But it was really hard seeing Alice frown and look at me with mortified eyes.

"I'm sorry…" Alice said quietly and I couldn't tell if she was saying it to her mother or me but her mother nodded.

"Why don't you take Isabella here to your room and show her around the house? I'll watch the shop while you two can cook dinner, alright?"

Alice nodded and I thanked Mrs. Brandon again before following Alice back into the back again and up the stairs.

Alice didn't say anything and I was worried she was upset. When we reached her room again, she sat down and sniffled.

Oh no. Not the tears again! Anything but the tears!

"Hey, hey! Don't cry now, what's wrong?" I asked her, my tone rising higher as I sat down next to her.

"I'm so sorry! My mother is right; you think I'm weird, don't you? I don't even know if you want to live here with me in my room. You even had to lie to my mother for me! I'm so sorry!" Alice said as she actually began to cry. Her cheeks and nose were turning rosy as tears were pouring out of her eyes. She kept sniffling and making noises that indicated that she was upset. She put her head down into her hands and wailed quietly.

I went up and grabbed some tissues—I swear she cried harder went I got up. I plopped right back down and grabbed her chin to force her to look at me. Her face was flushed and her eyes were red. It was new for me. I've never seen Alice cry because she couldn't, but now I could guarantee that her crying face was something I never wanted to see. It made my gut wrench uncomfortably. I began to dap the tissue gently across her eyes and followed the line her tears went and finished off by handing her another tissue.

"Blow." I demanded, my voice rougher than I meant it to be. I couldn't help it though. It was weird to see Alice so insecure about who she was. I was used to the confident Alice, the Alice that loved who she was and where she landed herself. Alice did as she was told and looked at me. Her lips were still frowning and her eyes were still telling me that she was distraught.

"Alice," I said gently. I had to be really clear about this. I had to make sure my words were perfect.

"I'll tell you as many times as I have to, but I hope that I'll only have to tell you once. I meant what I said. I don't think you're weird. I mean, you're a good kind of weird and I like it. You aren't going to scare me off and I don't think you should be ashamed of who you are. I don't want you to ever be scared about telling me what you saw. I believe in whatever you see and I like you. You're nice, caring, and perfect the way you are. I mean, I could've been a serial killer and you still helped me out. And I meant what I told your mother. I'm your friend whether you want me to be or not…but I really hope you d—"

I felt the air exit my lungs rather forcefully when Alice threw herself against me, knocking us out of our positions and landing on her bed. She was half on top of me while she wrapped her arms tightly around my neck and buried her face against it.

I could feel my neck getting wet and I hoped to god this time Alice was crying because she was happy.

"No! Please be my friend. I've never had a friend before; people would get scared of me before I could make any. I really like you, Isabella. You're so unbelievably kind to me, I think you're the angel I prayed to god to send to me."

My face flushed on its own and I was thankful that Alice couldn't see it. I did my best to return her embrace as non-awkwardly as I could. Alice is touchy-feely, I should already be used to this.

"Okay," I whispered, my face finally returning to its normal color.

"I'll be your friend…if you call me, Bella. It's quite weird hearing you call me Isabella."

Alice pulled her face away from my neck and looked me in the eyes as seriously as she could.

"Will I be the only person to call you Bella?"

I scrunched my nose at her and then shrugged.

"I guess if that's what you want."

Alice nodded eagerly, though her expression still serious.

"Yes! No one can call you Bella, except me!"

I chuckled and nodded.

"I really like it, by the way."

"Like what?"

Alice finally grinned although a bit shyly at me.

"That you call me Alice. Everyone around here calls me Mary Alice…but it's nice that you call me just Alice. I think it suits me better."

I just smiled at her again before it was silent for a bit. I began to feel awkward when realizing we were still in this intimate position.

"So…can you get off? You're kind of half squishing me."

Alice flushed violently and sat up before glaring at me. I sat up on my elbows and watched her glare at me.

"Are you calling me fat?"

I laughed and shook my head.

"Not at all. As I said, you're prefect."

Alice seemed to calm down and had that tiny smile on her lips again. She pulled her knees up to her chest and hugged them to herself.

"I remember you said you had some questions…do you still want to ask them?"

I almost wanted to slap myself in the face. I can't believe I was having such a good time with Alice that I forgot my whole situation.

Jesus Bella, have a little self-preservation.

"Right…uhm…do you know the whole date today…and where we are?"

Alice looked at me strangely but answered me however.

"It's February 2nd, 1920 and we're in Biloxi, Mississippi. It's probably going to rain tomorrow, we rarely have snow here."

Uhm.

Holy shit!

That's 86 years in the past and I'm a long way from home. Oh god, what am I going to do. Is this permanent? How will I find Edward again?

Although, if he had just quit his brooding ways, I'd still be with him and none of this would've happen.

I can't even tell if I'm glad this happened or not.

I looked at Alice again. Her long hair draped over her shoulders with her natural curls and slightly rosy cheeks.

Well…Alice did say she didn't remember anything from her past. If this isn't permanent, I could always share this information with her…if I can get her to come back to see me.

I can't believe she still left me without saying anything…

"Do you have anymore questions?"

Yes.

Why am I here? How did I get here? Do you by chance know how to time travel back to the future for later reference?

"No…" I force out of my mouth.

"Okay, but I guess while I show you around the house and make dinner together, we can get to know each other a little better."

I nodded while she stood up and held her hand out for me to take. I grabbed her hand, the warmth only reminding me more that Alice was alive and she was here with me.

I think I already know a lot of about you though.

A/N: Wow, sorry it's kind of short. I swear the next one will be longer :x

I just want to say thanks to all my readers out there and I special thanks to those who reviewed! I didn't actually expect to get that many reviews since the Twilight phase kinda died after it ended.

But really, thank you!

I hope you'll leave your thoughts after this chapter too ^ ^ No pressure though :D

I also did my research to the best of my ability and estimated the time that Bella should've moved back to the past after her jump. I'm guessing it's been 5 months at the most that the Cullens have left her. Also tried my best with the whole 1920s era. Anyone who knows more than me, totally let me know LOL

azrael8919: Good question! She was changed in 1920, but never specified the exact date. We can't have her staying in the past for too long, but don't worry, it'll give plenty of time for good things to happen between Alice and Bella :D You'll see! ;)