AN: I don't own anything. Well, technically I own ... not, not even that. Oh and the characters in this are all Stephenie's.

House of dreams

Bella

"Bella!"

"Geez, Alice, what now?" I breathed out.

My best friend ran towards me, a huge smile in her face and I frowned, wondering what crazy thing she was so excited about this time. She always managed to rope me into stuff that I would have tried to make a mile wide arch around. Alice is a bouncy pixie though, who makes up for her height and tiny frame with her noisiness. It was not always a bad thing, but I would've prefered if she had left me out of it most of the time.

"What is it this time, Alice?"

"You're not going to believe this, Bella," she laughed, obviously eager to share her news, "I'm so happy now! I just got the best news ever!"

"No games, pixie, I'm tired, remember?"

"Oh yeah, did you finish the project?"

"Yes, no thanks to you," I stuck my tongue out at her.

College was getting close to the summer break and the professors were literally drowning us in paperwork that needed to be finished ... well, yesterday. Alice of course; like a bunny on Red Bull, had everything finished way before time and hadn't even tried to understand why those of us who were on human speed weren't able to keep up. Despite my protests, she kept dragging me shopping, clubbing or doing whichever activity she decided to participate in.

"Oh well sorry, Bella," she rolled her eyes, "I just tried to get you to have some fun."

"Hm, fun, I'm sure working in Newton's for the rest of my life will be fun, too."

"Come on, Swan, you're not going to fail anything and you know that."

"I barely managed to hand this project in on time, Alice."

"Drama queen," I heard her mumble under her breath.

"Miss Tantrum spoke, ladies and gentlemen."

Alice shot me a warning look, but I could see the giggles threatening to burst out of her any second. Our eyes met and we both started laughing uncontrollably, attracting a few looks from people passing by, but here on campus, most of the students were well used to Alice's noise levels. I cringed at the looks though, hating the attention as usual. Being Alice Brandon's best friend was not my wisest decision ever, in terms of keeping my anonymity, but three years later, I was almost used to it.

"Now, what's this big news you have for me, pixie?" I managed to ask when the giggles subsided.

"Oh Bella, it's so cool," she started bouncing immediately, "you know how we have to stay here for the summer?"

"Thanks, I just stopped thinking about that this morning," I growled at her.

"It won't be so bad now, I promise," Alice bounced again; "we won't be on campus."

Both Alice and I were caught in a summer internship that, despite our professors' promise, ended up taking place at college and not in Seattle as we'd hoped. Alice's fashion design degree required that she put on a full fashion show and my writing and editing course had a published book or story as a part of the grade. While she was let down from her hopes to work with an actual fashion house, she totally embraced the chance to design, organize and direct a whole show on campus this summer. I was stuck in the college newsletter, though, a job that I only took slightly willingly over that summer because it was actually paid. The only thing was that I could not afford an apartment outside campus and I was not going to let Alice's parents pay for one.

"Alice!"

"Before you start, Bella, I'm not paying for anything."

"O-kay," I eyed her suspiciously, "Who is, then?"

"Jasper's spending the summer here and he couldn't find anything smaller than a five bedroom house and Emmett and Rose have jobs here too and they're staying with him and he said that we were welcome to the other two rooms because he's not paying for the house anyway because the museum is covering the costs…"

"Alice, deep breath," I laughed.

"I'm just so happy, Bella," she grinned, "I thought I'd barely see him all summer."

I understood her feelings way too well, thanks to the way she'd talked about him ever since we'd known each other. Jasper Whitlock was the man who'd cast a spell over Alice when they'd first met and the man whom according to her, held her heart forever. The soppiness of it all vanished when they were together, because it was painfully obvious that they were like extensions of each other.

The thought of the whole bunch of us spending the summer together was appealing. Though we all ended up in Forks in high school, we went our separate ways for college and only Alice and I stayed together. Even so, we were doing different courses, so while we lived together, I did not see Alice as much as I would like. Rose and Emmett had ended up at the same college in Cali, too, but that made no difference since they avoided each other like a pest. I have never gotten the full story on what had happened between them then, but as far as Alice told me, they got together when they were juniors, the year before I landed in Forks, and things did not go too well. Emmett, being a member of the football team, did not have enough time for a girlfriend and Rose was not willing to be one of his ever-willing fan club members. Therefore, by the time I'd got to know them, they were barely on speaking terms, a situation that was slightly awkward at times, since we were a fairly tight-knit bunch.

"Bella, this is going to be so awesome!" Alice was bouncing on the spot.

"Down, girl," I laughed, but I was quite happy about the chance to escape campus myself.

Jasper was a year ahead of us in high school and he and Alice were inseparable by the time I arrived. He ended up working in Seattle's Museum of History and Industry, but he often went on research trips, which broke Alice's heart a little every time. Now she kept explaining to me how the museum pretty much bought him a house and offered him a permanent position with research trips becoming a lot less frequent. Therefore, for the summer, we were all set in his place and Alice was dragging me to the car now so that we would go see it.

"Alice, I have…"

"It won't take long, I promise," she said half-convincingly, "You do want to get first dibs on the rooms, don't you? Rose and Emmett are not here until tomorrow!"

So I let her drag me to her car and literally fell into the seat, tired past the point of caring. Alice drove in her usual maniac style, but this time I was not complaining. The house was surprisingly close to campus and I was glad that I would not have to invest too much into getting to the office on days when Alice would stay home. Which, guessing by the fact that she was explaining how Jazz could do a lot of work from home, would be most of the days. I laughed to myself at her cheerfulness as we were climbing out of the car. Then I looked at the house and fell in love.

It was a small town house with a little garden in the front, hedges disguising most of the space from the street's view and noise and a wide staircase leading up to the front door. I followed a still-bouncing Alice up the stairs and waited for her to ring the doorbell. Jasper opened and she immediately flew into his arms.

"Hi, Bella," he greeted me, peeking over her shoulder.

"Hey," I laughed, "how are you, Jas?"

"Great now."

"So you're a very important employee now," I raised my eyebrow, "judging by the house."

"W-ell," he gave me an innocent look, "I might have asked for something that would house more than me…"

Alice and I laughed at his admission but I was not entirely surprised. I figured that at some point he would find a way to move in with her and this was very convenient. We walked into the house and got the grand tour from Jasper, peeking into the kitchen on the side, admiring the upright piano in the sitting room and the sophisticated sound system around the TV set. Our rooms were all upstairs, two on each level and a converted attic that Jasper had already claimed as his. Alice chose the one that was right next to the staircase to the attic, unsurprisingly and I walked into a small room with the door underneath that same staircase. Without hesitation, I threw my purse onto the bed and looked around, immediately feeling at home.

"Hey, no fair," Alice ran in, "this one has a balcony!"

"Too late, pixie," I laughed, "you chose your room first anyway."

Alice pouted for a minute, but then she had a look around Jasper's attic room and decided that she would take advantage of some of the storage space there. He was not in the slightest surprised, in fact, I guessed that half of his closet was reserved for her from the start.

"So, when are we moving?" I looked at Alice after we returned downstairs.

"Tomorrow?"

"Oh," I eyed her suspiciously, "what about packing? And arranging transport?"

"Done," she laughed, "I knew you'd like the place."

"You're the devil, you know that?" I scowled at her, "How am I supposed to pack everything by tomorrow?"

"I'll help you, Bella, don't worry. My stuff is almost done already."

"OK, back up a second there," my eyes were fixed on her face, "how long did you know about this?"

"Umm…"

"Jasper?" he looked up at me.

"I told Alice last week," he admitted, "but you had all those projects, so we didn't want to distract you."

They both looked apologetic, so I decided to let it go. The house was beautiful and I was looking forward to moving in. It was only my reluctant approach to change that made me hesitate, but I pushed it away and smiled.

"Fine, pixie, we need to go pack," I stood up and she followed me, giggling.