Title: Sisterhood
By: Liz
Chapter: 3
Rating: M
Disclaimers: The characters are not mine, I'm just having fun playing with them. General story idea based on Beverly Sommers' The Meaning of Sisterhood.
Author's Notes: Chapter 3. Finally. Sorry about the wait. There may be a bit of OOC-ness but all of our favorites are here and all canon couples are included. And just in case my description sucks, I've included a link to "The Drop Zone" in my profile.
Thank you to everyone who has reviewed, it really means a lot to me (and LondonLi, I totally agree with you!). For my sister, Lisey, who should probably have co-authorship of this by now with all the help she's been talking me down off the ledge on this one. She definitely has godmother-ship over it!


Bella couldn't get over how much her life had changed in just the two short weeks since Alice had moved to Forks. Things at home were certainly different.

Charlie actually sat at the dinner table and talked to the girls instead of just shoveling down his food and running into the living room to watch whatever game was on that night. And even when they did eat in front of the television with a game on the screen, Charlie no longer had his laser like focus on the sporting event and would still engage in conversation with Bella and Alice.

At school, people suddenly seemed to assume that since Alice was so friendly, Bella must be as well. Other students who had gone to school with Bella for years and never spoken to her were suddenly saying hi to her in the hallways.

Bella's lunch table was suddenly very different as well. Instead of a solitary table where she could read or catch up on homework, she was now joined by Alice, Rose, Emmett, and Edward. Angela occasionally joined them as well along with Ben Cheney, whom she had recently started dating.

For the first few days, Bella had been suspicious of Edward and had kept a wary eye on him but after a few days without any acts of stupidity on his part, she had allowed herself to relax a little around him and the two even engaged in the occasional short conversation. She had to admit, to herself at least, that maybe it wasn't so bad having Edward around when she didn't have to worry about him pulling some stupid prank on her. He was kind of funny, after all. And, she soon found out, a lot smarter than she had ever given him credit for.

One day, Bella was in the cafeteria far earlier than the other members of her table, as her fourth period class had been dismissed early. She was rereading Pride and Prejudice for the thousandth time at her empty lunch table when a voice came from above her.

"It is a truth universally acknowledged that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife."

Bella looked up at Edward, stunned, and he grinned at the expression on her face as he took a seat across from her. "I have taken an English class or two, Swan."

Bella blushed. "Sorry."

"And it is a truth universally acknowledged that a zombie in possession of brains must be in want of more brains."

Bella stared at Edward like he had grown a second head. "I'm sorry, what?"

"Oh, you mean you've never read Pride and Prejudice and Zombies?" Edward said innocently as he opened his can of soda and took a drink.

Bella gave Edward a look, certain he was just messing with her. "Somehow, I seemed to have missed that literary masterpiece," she said dryly as she tucked her book into her bag. "Let me guess, it's a comic book with the Bennet sisters dressed in revealing clothing, blood and gore and explosions, and no actual relation to the book itself beyond the name."

Edward raised an eyebrow. "For someone who's such a fan of the book, I wouldn't think you'd be so quick to judge." Bella flushed slightly, unwilling to admit that Edward had a point. "It's a book, Bella," he added as Rose and Alice approached their table. "You should give it a chance; it might surprise you."

Bella did her best to ignore Edward for the rest of the lunch period and the conversation was not revisited the next day at lunch, either. However, when she got home from school the following day and went to do her homework, she discovered that a copy of Pride and Prejudice and Zombies had been stuck into her bag at some point during the day. She smiled in spite of herself as she thumbed through it and her homework was soon forgotten as she quickly got lost in the book.

Though she hated to admit it, Edward had been right. The book was very well written, seamlessly adding zombies and humor to the well loved classic, and she found herself laughing out loud more than once. Alice even stuck her head in her cousin's room at one point to see what Bella was giggling about but when Bella tried to explain the concept of Jane Austen and zombies Alice only grinned and shook her head, heading back to her own room to finish up her Trig homework.

When Bella arrived at her lunch table the next day, Edward was already seated and she slid the book across the table to him as she took her seat. "You were right," she told him. "It was good."

She had fully steeled herself for an "I told you so" from Edward, but he only smiled. "Keep it, I have my own copy at home. Glad you liked it."

Bella looked at him closely a moment before she retrieved the book and returned it to her bag. "Okay, I may or may not have been laughing out loud at some parts of it," she admitted, taking a bite of her apple.

Edward grinned. "It certainly made the relationship between Elizabeth and Darcy that much more interesting." Bella smiled back, Edward's demeanor and the subject matter causing her to relax, and the two spent the rest of the lunch period talking about the book and laughing at the tongue in cheek "discussion questions" in the back of the book. They all but ignored their other lunch time companions who observed the animated interaction between the two with a mixture of amusement, confusion, and, on Alice's part at least, no small measure of satisfaction.


Alice seemed incapable of sitting still and appeared to be happiest when she was involved in some kind of activity with her friends. Which was why, the weekend following Edward and Bella's Pride and Prejudice and Zombies conversation, Bella found herself standing by the racetrack at Frankie's Fun Park, a nearby indoor/outdoor arcade/amusement park.

The park was normally a place for families with children or couples and the only other time Bella had ever been there had been for Jessica Stanley's ninth birthday party. She had still been new in town but Jessica had invited everyone in the class and Charlie had thought it would be a good opportunity for Bella to make friends. Not wanting to let Charlie down, Bella had gone but had kept to the sidelines and spent the entire time wishing she were at home with her books. Somehow, even though she had managed to get out of the go-karts the others were now riding, Bella doubted Alice was going to let her sit out anything else that day.

She was proven right when the moment they came off the race track, Alice insisted that the five of them ride the Drop Zone together. The Drop Zone was a ride where the riders sat five across and were harnessed into seats. The platform supporting the seats then rose slowly into the air before plunging several stories only to stop and rise again to drop the riders over and over.

Bella eyed the ride warily as Alice dragged her over to the short waiting line. "Alice, that thing's, like, 20 feet high."

"Thirty," Alice replied cheerfully. "Come on!" And before she really knew what was happening, Bella found herself strapped into the hard plastic seats between Alice and Edward.

As the attendant came around to make sure that everyone was secure, Edward noticed that Bella seemed a little paler than usual. "Not a fan of heights?" he asked her quietly.

Bella shook her head nervously. "It's not so much the heights as it is falling from the heights," she admitted.

"Here." Edward reached over and took her hand in his. "If it's too much, just squeeze my hand, okay?"

Too nervous to even think about how out of character Edward's offer was, Bella swallowed and nodded, gripping his hand tightly as the ride began its ascent, closing her eyes as they rose higher and higher. When their carriage reached the top, it stopped momentarily and Bella drew in a sharp breath, squeezing Edward's hand so tightly he thought for a moment she might break his fingers. Then the ride dropped, plunging downward before stopping just short of the ground and rising up again. When they dropped again, Edward realized Bella was no longer holding his hand. In fact, her arms were above her head and she was screaming in delight as the ride dropped and rose again.

When the ride was finally finished and the restraining bars released them, Bella practically jumped down from her seat. "That was fun!" she exclaimed, exhilarated. "Can we go again?"

Edward laughed, shaking his head at Bella's sudden change of heart, but Alice grabbed her cousin's arm and started to drag her off again. "It's time for mini-golf!" she called over her shoulder to her friends. The others shared an amused look at Alice's antics before they followed the cousins to the indoor mini golf course.

Alice did actually plan some more sedentary activities for the group as well. The day after their adventures at the park, she invited everyone over to their house and the five of them spent the day sprawled around the living room watching movies.

Alice declared it a "comedy only" day and gave Bella first pick of movies. Bella went with Zoolander, one of her favorites. To her surprise, it appeared to be one of Edward's favorites as well and the two spent a good portion of the movie quoting their favorite lines and entire scenes when they came up.

As the credits rolled, the two began discussing the rumors of a sequel to the comedy and began arguing the pros and cons of such an idea. They were still discussing it several minutes into the second movie when Emmett threw a pillow from the couch at them, whining that they were talking over the movie.

"See, I knew we should have gone with The Fast and the Furious," Emmett grumbled. "It's too loud and too good for you two to have been having this stupid conversation."

"Yeah, but Emmett, when Alice said comedy, I think she meant movies that intended to be funny," Bella said innocently. Edward nearly fell over laughing at Bella's statement and Alice and Rose snickered behind Emmett's back as well.

Emmett opened his mouth to defend one of his favorite movies but Rose was faster. "I would just like to remind you all," she said, cutting Emmett off, "that in spite of Emmett's dreams of Vin Diesel and fast cars, the next pick is actually mine. So if you guys don't behave, I will put you all in chick flick hell." The threat – though empty, as Rose later confessed to Bella and Alice that chick flicks made her nauseous as a general rule – was dire enough to quiet everyone down and they returned to the movie in relative silence.

That night, after everyone had left and Bella was trying to finish up some homework she had not yet gotten to as a result of her active weekend, she found her thoughts drifting back over the events of the weekend. Despite the fact that she still definitely liked to spend time alone in her room with a book, she had actually had a good time really good time with everyone, and she found she was beginning to feel slightly more comfortable with her new group of friends.

Of course, as she soon found out, in a school as small as the high school was, Bella wasn't the only one to notice the sudden change in her social life.

On Tuesday, Bella was with Rose at her locker following their second period Spanish class when she thought she heard someone say her name. A few lockers down from her, Julianne Kaplan and Tiffany Regent were standing with their heads close together, talking animatedly and snickering.

She distinctly heard the words Edward Cullen, crush, and her and when she looked over at the two girls, she saw that they were looking right at her. They stared at her for a moment before turning away and starting to talk again. This time they were loud enough for Bella to hear every word they said.

"You should see how she hangs all over him," Julianne said. "It's so pathetic."

"I know, right?" Tiffany replied. "She's so out of her league."

Bella flushed a deep red as she tried desperately to think of a cutting response. However, before she could say a word, Rose turned and looked directly at the two girls.

"You know what's really pathetic? Jealous bitches who spend all their time talking shit about other people in order to feel better about their own sad little lives." The two girls glared at Rose but wisely did not respond, turning away in a huff and walking off without another word. "God, what is it with people?" Rose said, returning her attention to Bella. "You'd think they'd be more worried about their own relationships than about you and Edward getting together."

"Um, yeah, about that," Bella said nervously.

"What? Bella, don't let those asshats bother you – you guys are great together."

"Yeah, it's really not like that." Rose stared at Bella uncomprehendingly and Bella sighed. "He likes Alice. He's only being nice to me so I won't sabotage his chances with her or whatever. But he's definitely not interested in me. Trust me, he has never liked me and I can't stand him, either."

Rose's eyes narrowed, glinting dangerously. "Oh, really? So the Cullen boys like playing games, do they?" she muttered to herself. "I'll see you later, Bella," she said, turning and quickly making her way down the hall.

"Rose, wait," Bella called weakly. But Rose was already too far away to hear her and Bella closed her locker, resting her head against it for a moment. Rose had looked pissed and she mentally crossed her fingers, hoping that things weren't about to get even more complicated.

Edward was just closing his locker when he heard something slam into the locker next to his. He jumped slightly at the sudden noise, turning to see an extremely pissed off Rosalie Hale standing right next to him.

"So you're just pretending to be nice to Bella to get to Alice, is that it?" she said. She spoke quietly but Edward didn't miss the dangerous undertone in her voice. "Is this how you Cullen boys amuse yourselves? Make everyone around you think you like one girl when in reality, you're going after another?"

Edward's eyes widened as he realized what she was asking. "No, Rosalie, I swear this is not what you're thinking." Shit. Emmett was going to kill him.

"And just what am I thinking?"

"Emmett has nothing to do with any of this, I promise you."

Rose didn't look convinced and Edward hurried to explain. "Look, this is all because of me, okay?" He lowered his voice. "I like Bella but she can't stand me – I've always kind of been an idiot around her – so Alice came up with a plan for me to pretend to like her so that Bella would let me be around her. Believe me, Emmett didn't know a thing about this until about a few days ago. He thinks I'm being a pussy but he has nothing to do with it and his interest in you is certainly not part of any game."

He stopped to take a breath and smiled. "I mean, you should have heard him going on and on about you the other night. He wouldn't shut up about how amazing you are and all the incredible stuff you did to fix up your Shelby. Trust me, Rosalie. My brother may be a dumbass about a lot of things, but when it comes to you, he knows you're something special."

Edward could have sworn that Rose was blushing for a moment before she quickly changed the subject. "And what about Bella?"

"I've liked Bella for as long as I can remember," Edward admitted. "She's just, well, she's just kind of amazing. She's the smartest girl I've ever met, she's beautiful, and she does her own thing no matter what the people around her are doing."

Rose noticed the way his eyes lit up and how his voice sounded almost reverent when he was describing Bella and she smiled to herself. The boy had it bad. "So why couldn't you have just asked her out in the first place?" she asked. "Why all the stupid game playing?"

Edward sighed. "Believe me, it was not my idea, but Alice thinks it's the only way Bella will let me anywhere near her and give me a chance to prove I'm not the asshole she thinks I am. As for just asking her out, well, a lot of guys have tried in the past. She would just very politely turn them down and that was it. Eventually, everyone just stopped trying."

Rose was silent a moment as she thought about all Edward had told her. "So what exactly did you do to make Bella dislike you?"
Edward shrugged, looking embarrassed. "Well, see, Bella's never reacted the way other girls do when I tease them or give them shit. Even when we were kids, she didn't scream or cry or back down. I guess since, you know, I couldn't ever get a reaction out of her, I just tried that much harder."

So since he didn't know how to get a good reaction out of her, he figured a bad one was better than nothing? Rose shook her head. "You know, for a smart guy, you're kind of an idiot."

Edward's cheeks flushed. "Yeah, I know that now, thanks, Rose."

Rose laughed at the chagrined expression on Edward's face before turning serious again. "Look, I trust Alice," she said. "So if she's a part of this, then I'm not going to say anything to Bella. But don't fuck this up," she warned him. "Bella is one of the few nice, decent people I've met in my life and I don't want to see her hurt."

"I won't," Edward promised. "I swear to you, hurting Bella is the last thing I want to do."


Bella was on her way to her fourth period English class when Rose fell into step next to her. "So I talked to Edward," she began casually.

Bella tensed momentarily. "And what did he say?"

"He said you agreed to let him hang around and that you wouldn't sabotage his chances with Alice."

"Oh." Bella could think of nothing else to say, her mind still slightly stunned by the fact that Rosalie Hale had just stood up for her. Twice.

"If that's not true, I have no problem going back and kicking his ass," Rose offered, watching Bella's face carefully for her reaction.

"What? No! No, it's true." Bella bowed her head. "Bet you think I'm pretty stupid, huh?"

"No, not really."

Bella looked up at Rose curiously. "I think it's cool you're trying to do something nice for your cousin. Maybe you're not going about it the best way, but your heart's in the right place. Especially since you said you can't stand him."

"Right, yeah," Bella agreed weakly.

Part of Bella wished Rose would just go kick Edward's ass. Then maybe this whole awful thing would be over and she could go back to her normal life. An even larger part of her, though, was glad Rose was going along with the plan since she really didn't want to see Edward hurt.

She shook her head at herself at the thought. Where had that come from? Why was she suddenly concerned about Edward's well being? She groaned internally. This little game of his could not end fast enough.


That Friday, Alice invited Rose to spend the night and she rode home with the two cousins after last period. After a dinner of Chinese takeout, the girls headed up to Alice's room to figure out what to do with the rest of their evening. Alice and Rose were going to share Alice's bed and since Alice had insisted they all had to sleep in the same room for it to really be a sleepover, Bella had set up an air mattress in her cousin's room for herself which she dropped onto when they reached the room. "So full," she groaned, closing her eyes and holding her stomach.

Alice laughed. "No moo shu induced food coma yet," she told her cousin, nudging her with her foot. "The night's still young. What are we going to do with it?"

"Remember, it's Forks," Bella said, her eyes still closed. "So our options are pretty much limited to TV, renting a movie, or hanging out at the café. I imagine it's going to take awhile to get used to this after LA."

Alice shrugged. "I don't know, I miss Jazz like crazy of course, but Forks definitely has its charm. What about you, Rose? Do you miss San Diego?"

"No," Rose said immediately.

Alice and Bella were both surprised. "That was fast," Bella said, looking up at the blonde who was perched on the bed next to Alice. "It took me years to get used to this place after Phoenix with all the rain and lack of sun here."

"How long ago did you move here?" Alice asked curiously.

"Last March, beginning of the fourth semester."

Alice scrunched up her face. "That is fast. And that's a shitty time to move," she added. "Did one of your parents get transferred or something?"

"That was part of it," Rose said. "The other part was, well, you could say I had a falling out with a teacher," she said finally.

"Must have been pretty bad if it made you move all the way up here," Bella couldn't help saying.

Rose grimaced. "You have no idea."

At Rose's comment, Bella realized she was right. She really did have no idea of what Rose's life had been like before she had moved to Forks the previous spring. She knew, thanks to Alice, that the blonde had lived in San Diego prior to Forks but she had no idea why she had moved, if she had left friends or a boyfriend behind, or anything of the sort.

However, she didn't feel comfortable asking Rose such personal questions this early in their friendship. Fortunately, Alice had no such reservations. "What happened?" she asked Rose quietly.

Rose took a deep breath and looked from Alice to Bella. "Just between us?"

"Among," Bella couldn't help blurting out.

"What?" Rose and Alice looked at Bella like she was speaking in tongues and Bella blushed.

"It's just, you can't be between more than two things," Bella explained. "Then it becomes among."

"You're such a dork," Alice said affectionately, throwing a pillow at her cousin.

Rose smiled briefly. "Okay, well, then, do you guys promise to keep what I'm about to say among the three of us?"

The two girls promised and Rose took another deep breath before she began speaking. "I grew up in San Diego right on the beach. I had a lot of friends, played volleyball, took trips to Mexico and Catalina Island. All very teenage dream, I guess, but I don't miss it one bit.

"See, there was this really popular teacher at my school, Mr. Caraway, that I had for European History my sophomore year. He was young, pretty laid back, kind of hot, always tried to make class interesting. He was the faculty for the newspaper, too, and everyone in my school pretty much adored him, me included.

"And then one day, right after we got back from Christmas break, my best friend Maya took me aside during our free period and told me she was in love. I was surprised because she'd never been the type to get all silly about guys but I told her I was happy for her. Until she told me who it was. Apparently, she and Mr. Caraway – Jonathan, she called him – were in love and had started sleeping together. Didn't matter to her that he was our teacher or 15 years older than we were. Didn't matter, either, that he was married with a baby at home.

"I told her it was a bad idea and she needed to break it off immediately. She begged me not to say anything to anyone, said they were so in love and once she graduated, they were going to be together. I didn't like it but I told myself I'd keep an eye on her and I promised her I wouldn't say anything. And I didn't. Until that jerk tried to force himself on me one day after school.

"I reported him to the principal and the school board that same day, about what he had tried to do to me and that he was currently involved in a sexual relationship with a student. They both denied it, of course. Maya even started a rumor among the students that I had been the one to come on to Mr. Caraway and when he rejected me, I made up this story to get back at him. Fortunately, the school board was cautious enough to put him on paid leave while they investigated and they found enough dirt to fire him. But it sure as hell didn't make me popular. No one at school, including the people I had thought were my friends, would talk to me. My locker was broken into and all my shit was stolen, people called our house at all hours of the day and night, our house was egged. It wasn't what you'd call the most fun time in my life. The second time someone slashed the tires on my mom's car, she finally had it. Her job had been offering her a transfer anyway so she took it and we moved up here."

Bella and Alice sat in silent shock for a moment, digesting what Rose had just shared with them. So much about the way she held herself apart from everyone else made sense now and Bella felt guilt course through her for her earlier judgment of her friend. "Well, we're both very glad you're here," Alice said finally, leaning over to give Rose a quick hug. Bella nodded in agreement.

"Rose, I'm-"

"Please don't say you're sorry, Bella." Rose cut her off.

Bella nodded. "That sucks," she said instead.

Rose nodded back. "Yeah, it did, but in the end, I guess it was for the best. I mean, I found out that those people weren't really my friends after all and I moved up here and met you guys so it evens out."

"And don't forget Emmett," Alice added with a wicked grin. "I'm sure he'd like to help even it out a bit more."

Rose rolled her eyes but she couldn't help smiling as she gently shoved Alice away from her. The three girls giggled and the heavy mood that had been present in the room only seconds before quickly dissipated as the girls returned to planning their laid back Friday night.


The Monday following the girls' sleepover, Edward and Emmett were walking down the hallway at school together. Emmett was, for the hundredth time, trying to decide whether or not it would be a good idea to ask Rosalie out.

"Do you think I should ask her to go somewhere with just me instead of the group?" Emmett asked. "I think she likes me but she's so hard to read and I don't want to freak her out or something. I mean, I know we're all friends and that's cool but, you know, I kind of want more than that with her."

Edward smiled to himself. Emmett would kill him if he told anyone how "girly" he was acting about Rose. "I think you should just ask her," Edward replied. "You can just make it pretty casual if you're afraid of what she'll think."

Any further conversation was cut off as they approached Mark Price and a few other guys hanging out at a bank of lockers. Mark was on the football team and the brothers knew him from classes over the years and most of the wilder weekend parties but they were definitely more casual acquaintances than anything approaching friends. So they were both a little surprised when Mark's face lit up as they approached.

"There he is!" Mark cried, grinning wildly. "Nice job, Cullen!" he said to Emmett, holding up his hand for a high five. "I should have known if anybody could do it, it'd be you!"

Emmett smiled gamely, hitting Mark's upraised hand. "What are you talking about?"

"Like you don't know," Mark said, nudging the boy next to him. "The ice queen, man. Hale. We all gave up trying but you finally did it, you got in her pants."

"Emmett," Edward said quietly, trying unsuccessfully to move Emmett away from the group, knowing just where this was heading.

"Excuse me?" Emmett's voice was dangerously calm but Mark was too busy playing to the crowd of guys around him to notice the warning signs.

Mark laughed and slapped Emmett on the back. "So, she as good as they say, man?" he asked, pressing his tongue against the inside of his cheek and raising his fist near his face to simulate oral sex.

The crude words had just left his lips when Emmett slammed him up against the lockers, pinning Mark there with his forearm across the other boy's throat.

"I don't ever want to hear you say anything like that about Rosalie again, do you understand?" Emmett snarled. "You treat women with respect. If I ever hear you say or even imply something like that about Rose or any other woman in this school-"

"Emmett."

Emmett, Edward, and the rest of the group turned to see Rose, Alice, and Bella standing a few feet away, staring at the scene before them. Emmett dropped Mark to the floor and the other boy sat there in a heap as Rose approached the group.

Walking purposefully to Emmett's side, Rose leaned up and pressed a soft kiss to his cheek. Emmett stared at her, a stunned smile spreading across his face as Rose smiled back at him. She took Emmett's hand in her own and with a withering look down at Mark, she and Emmett walked down the hall together hand in hand.

Eventually, Mark struggled to his feet. "Dude, what the fuck?"

Emmett and Rose were well out of earshot by then and Edward just looked at him a moment before shaking his head. Bella and Alice could see his lips moving from where they stood but his words were too quiet for them to hear. They seemed to have the desired effect on Mark, though, as he clamped his mouth shut and hurried away from Edward, his friends following behind as they passed the girls without a word.

Edward watched the boys' retreat before his eyes met Bella's. He smiled at her, nodding his head slightly before turning and walking down the hallway.


Following the incident with Mark, Rose and Emmett moved into official couple status. And while Bella was happy for them, she was also relieved to see that dating didn't seem to change the way the two behaved around the rest of the group. She wasn't sure she could stomach the groping and making out that seemed so popular with a number of the other couples at the school.

This became especially relevant in the two weeks leading up to Halloween as Alice's latest idea had the group spending nearly every free moment together both in and outside of school.

A few weeks before Halloween, Alice asked Emmett and Edward about holding a Halloween party at their house the Saturday before the holiday. The boys didn't need much convincing and Alice immediately jumped into full planning mode. She even planned each of the girls' costumes, basing them on Alice in Wonderland. Rose was going as the Red Queen while Bella would be the White Queen. Alice, naturally, would be dressed as Alice.

Big crowds of people – and with most of the students at Forks High apparently planning to attend, the crowd would indeed be large – were definitely not Bella's favorite thing and she wasn't terribly thrilled with the idea of the party when Alice first broached it to the group. Alice, however, dragged everyone right into the planning process with her and with all of the planning and supply shopping, Bella's initial feelings about the gathering quickly changed. In fact, her cousin's enthusiasm was so contagious that a few days before the party rolled around, Bella found herself actually looking forward to it.

The day before the party, however, Bella woke up with a pounding headache. She took some ibuprofen with breakfast, hoping she would feel better by the time she and Alice reached school, but by the time lunch rolled around, she wasn't feeling any better as her body had started to ache along with her head and she found that even on the unseasonably warm October day, she couldn't seem to get warm.

She managed to keep up a good front as everyone began talking excitedly about the party but Edward had noticed that something was wrong the moment she sat down at the lunch table. He waited until the others' attention was focused on Alice and her last minute details before he nudged Bella gently. "Are you feeling okay?" he asked quietly.

Bella shook her head, wincing as the motion increased the pounding in her head. "Not really," she mumbled.

"You don't look so good," Edward told her, still keeping his voice low so the others couldn't hear their conversation. "You should probably get out of here. I have free next period, I can take you home."

Bella tried to protest but her head felt so heavy. If she could just lay it down for a minute, maybe have a quick nap, she'd feel fine. "I guess," she mumbled.

She was vaguely aware that Edward turned and spoke with Alice for a moment before he was suddenly at her side, helping her from her chair. She gave her friends a weak wave as Edward swung her backpack over his shoulder and wrapped an arm around her waist as he led her from the cafeteria. "We're going to swing by the nurse's office first so we can get you a pass," he told her.

Bella mumbled her agreement, leaning heavily on Edward as he led her down the hall to the nurse's office.

When they reached the office, Edward explained to the nurse that Bella wasn't feeling well and he was going to take her home so she could get some rest. "What a good boyfriend," the nurse said with a smile as she handed Edward two passes. "You feel better, Bella," she said kindly.

Bella was too miserable to correct the nurse's assumption and she just smiled fleetingly before she let Edward lead her from the room.

When they reached the parking lot and Edward's car, he opened the passenger door and helped Bella get settled in, even helping with her seat belt before he closed her door and headed around to the driver's side. After he climbed into the car and closed his door, Edward reached into the backseat and grabbed a sweatshirt which he quickly folded up into a square and handed to Bella. "I don't have any pillows but this is pretty soft," he said by way of explanation. Bella managed a faint smile before she wedged the sweatshirt between her shoulder and the passenger side window, resting her head heavily against the soft fabric.

She dozed on and off during the short ride to her house and didn't even realize they had arrived until Edward gently shook her shoulder. "Bella," he said quietly. "We're here."

Dazed, Bella's thoughts took a moment to come back into focus before she reached down and unhooked her seatbelt. The next thing she knew, Edward was opening her door and offering her his hand. She took it, grasping it tightly as she pulled herself from the car.

At the front door, she pulled out her keys, struggling with them for a moment before Edward took them from her hand and opened the door, leading her inside to the kitchen. Bella practically collapsed into a kitchen chair while Edward rummaged through the cabinets to find a glass and some cold medicine.

When he'd located what he needed, he filled the glass with water and opened the blister pack in the cold medicine box, handing Bella two pills and the water. She forced herself to not think about how much she hated taking pills and quickly swallowed them, finishing off the entire glass of water while she was at it.

Edward took the empty glass from her and put it in the sink. "You should really get some rest."

Bella swallowed a groan. She knew Edward was right, but the thought of moving even the slightest bit at the moment seemed like way too much of an effort. Bracing her hands against the table, she pushed herself to her feet. She staggered a bit as she stood but Edward was quickly at her side to steady her and she managed to avoid ending up on her butt. He guided her up the stairs and, after she gestured vaguely toward her door, led her into her bedroom.

"Do you need to change?" Edward asked. "I can, um, I can go downstairs."

Bella just shook her head wearily, picking up her pajama pants and tank top from the bed where she'd left them that morning. "I'll be right back," she muttered.

As she headed to the bathroom to change, the fact that Edward Cullen was in her bedroom struck her as beyond strange but she was feeling too lousy to think about it for long. She stripped off her clothes and pulled on her pajamas, pausing a moment to splash cool water on her face. The fast acting cold and flu tablets seemed to already be kicking in and Bella felt a bit out of it as she returned to her room.

Edward had already pulled the covers back on her bed and he was immediately by her side as she stumbled into her room, guiding her to her bed. She hated feeling so weak but she was grateful for Edward's presence as he helped her get settled under her covers.

She had just laid her aching head on her pillow when something occurred to her. "Fuck. The party," she mumbled.

"Don't worry, there will be other parties. For now, just focus on getting better."

"Alice is gonna kill me."

Edward smiled gently. "I'm sure she'll forgive you. And if not, I'll protect you."

"She's pretty…feisty," Bella replied through a yawn. "Sure you can take her?"

Edward laughed. "No," he admitted. He glanced over at the clock on Bella's nightstand and she heard him swear under his breath. "I have to get back for a quiz next period," he told her, regret clear on his face. "But I talked to Alice while you were changing and she and Rose are going to skip last period and come home so you won't be alone for too long. Will you be okay on your own for a little while?"

Bella almost laughed at the absurdity of the question. She was good at being on her own; it was something she was used to. The part of all of this that wasn't normal was Edward's presence in her room.

"Maybe I can just talk to Mrs. Cooper on Monday and she'll let me retake the test," Edward said as he studied Bella's face. "I can be pretty persuasive," he added with a grin.

"Got yourself into my bedroom, didn't you?" she teased. Then she caught herself. What was she doing? Was she flirting with Edward Cullen? No, no she definitely was not. It was just the cold medicine making her so loopy that she didn't even know what she was saying. "Go," she told him. "I promise I'll be fine."

Edward still looked reluctant. "If you're sure."

Bella started to nod but stopped when her head started to throb. "Alice and Rose will be here soon," she reminded him. "I'll be fine."

"All right," Edward said, still not looking too happy about the idea. "Feel better, Bella."

"Thanks, Edward," she mumbled.

"You're welcome," he replied, a smile on his face as he stepped back from the bed.

"You must really like Alice to go through all of this," she added sleepily. She could have sworn she saw the smile disappear from his face at her comment but then her eyes were closing and she gave in to sleep.