Hello again!

Thanks to those reading and letting me know you are liking it :)

Thanks to my beta's this chapter: SavageWoman and Momma Bear

As always, Australianisms at the end...

SM owns all that she did before (and possibly more by now). I'd like to think I have a bit of ownership over these guys and their hissy fits.

Chapter 4

The next two mornings brought no difference in the way I woke. I was so over it already; it was making me anxious and irritable first thing - not a great way to start the day. It was the end of the week, and I was very glad; the week had been huge, and I just wanted to sleep for the entire weekend. Just one more day to get through.

I was starting to settle into my classes by now. Lit was steadily progressing through Romeo and Juliet, and I tried to keep my temper every time they did something that contributed to their demise. Jasper continued to be my saviour in that class. He would frequently make me laugh when I got worked up, or even just tell me to lighten up by knocking my knee with his and rolling his eyes at me when he caught me scowling. He was great at turning my frown upside down, and I was very grateful. That text made me more moody than maths.

Maths itself was, in equal parts, driving me insane and giving me a great sense of accomplishment. Chem and French were my staples and felt like the oxygen of my week.

Biol was fun only because Edward was a great lab partner. Mr. Banner had already learnt to leave us during class because no matter how much we talked, we always got the work done. We did occasionally get told to "respect the others' right to concentrate," though. Oops.

And gym was still there, being a complete waste of a subject. I could so put that time to better use.

Being the arse end of summer, the weather continued to be fairly decent with only a few showers that could be ignored and played through at lunch times. Friday during lunch we were, again, out on the grass. The boys were making great progress with their kicking and coordination with the oval ball.

Five minutes before the warning bell was supposed to go off, we heard the familiar tones of Drapht "J! R! Jimmy Recard! Raise your glass for the King of the bar, it's J! R! Jimmy Recard! Women swingin' their ar-" Emmett scrambled with his phone and shoved it to his ear - I understood his haste, Charlie wouldn't need to ring us at school. The call must have been from home.

"JONESY!" Emmett yelled into the phone. I was off in a flash. "Whaddaya doin' mate?" While he was just speaking normally, it sounded really exaggerated; I hadn't heard him this excited in ages. "Fuckin' course it is! Bella - Jonesy's eighteenth is on." He hugged me tightly to his side when I reached him.

"So how's it goin'? Yeah? Out in the paddock? Out the back or close to the house? Oh, no shit?" He leant down to me a bit. "They set up the camping on one of the back paddocks near the river - got a couple of fires going in some 44's."

"Sounds awesome. He's done a great job." Jonesy and I were only beginning the planning of this party when the accident had happened.

"Yeah man, she's sad to miss out on it, too." His arm hugged me harder. "Yeah, nah, it's goin' alright here. It's only fuckin' autumn and we're freezin' our tits off, ay. Well, B is, anyway."

"Yeah great, shithead, like Jonesy needs to be thinkin' about my tits." I rolled my eyes at him as he laughed, his eyes twinkling with mischief.

"Oh man, Chuck is pretty cool. He's grown this mo'. He looks like a full on hard arse, but Bells just has to say the word 'knickers,' and he goes white as a sheet." He boomed with laughter.

"Stop talkin' shit," I chided through my smile, giving him a light shove in the ribs.

We waved to everyone as they moved off to class. We were staying where we were. This was our first call from our friends at home, and it was more important than class. After a few more minutes of banter between the boys, interspersed with my interruptions, Emmett's body language changed.

"Oh really? She's there? Um, yeah sure, put her on, then." He stood up straighter and his arm loosened around me, but he didn't move it. "Hey Tan, how's things? That's good. I didn't think you were going to go to Jonesy's. Well, you told me you didn't want to go without me. Oh, yeah, I suppose that's fair enough."

Only hearing one half of the conversation was annoying, but things didn't sound like they were headed in a good direction. The fact that Em let me go, and took a step away from me confirmed it.

"I never said that, Tanya. You're the one who said you didn't want to go - I'm just going by what you told me. I know it's tough, baby, believe me." With that, Emmett waved me off, indicating I should go to class.

Yeah, I don't think so. I'd seen their arguments first hand and they affected him more than he liked to let on. She could be mean. I honestly didn't understand the draw; she was high maintenance and a condescending bi-atch. Maybe she was more relaxed when she and Em were on their own, but in all the years I had known her and on the various sporting teams we had been on, I had never seen it.

He listened to her go on for a while, and noticing I hadn't moved off, he gave me a more exaggerated wave and mouthed "go." I shook my head and mouthed "no" back. His expression grew dark.

"Tanya," he growled. "What's goin' on?" Pause. "This is insane," he huffed quietly, his eyes still blazing. He stalked toward me and grabbed my upper arm forcefully, pushing me in front of him for a few steps toward the school buildings. I angrily twisted my arm out of his grip and rounded on him. He put his hand over the microphone of the mobile. "Bella, go to class," he whispered through gritted teeth.

I locked eyes with him, crossed one foot in front of the other and sank into a sitting position, resting an elbow on each knee. I was not moving. He gave me a greasy and stalked off in the other direction. I continued to watch him for a moment, but then cast my gaze downward and just picked at the grass and waited. I didn't really want to hear his conversation. I wasn't hanging around to be nosy, but I was going to be here for him when he was done whether he actually wanted me to or not.

Although I wasn't actively listening, I could still hear some things: the occasional exasperated sentence, "Sweetie, I had no choice," and "And what about Bella?"

I didn't like that question.

Not just because I knew what her response would most likely be "What about 'er?" I didn't like the thought that Em would be staying here until I was legal as well while he still had ties back home. It was easier for me to be here because, while I missed my friends back home like nothing else, I didn't have a partner waiting for my return. I wasn't one half of a ridiculously long-distance relationship.

After a lot of pacing, arguing and placating, Em finally finished his phone conversation. He stopped and sighed, dropping his head back and closing his eyes. His head rolled in my direction, and he opened his eyes to look at me. His face set hard, he walked back over to me.

"Why haven't you gone to class?"

I looked up at him. "My arse is wet, and I'm too embarrassed to get up."

He snorted a laugh. "Dickhead." He held his hand out to me and I took it. With a quick yank, I was pulled clean off my bum and onto my feet with a jump.

"So what was all that about?" He looked at me, debating whether to answer.

"Urgh, she's still pissed at me for leaving."

"Em, are you serious? What the fuck does she think you could have done about it?"

"Nothing. Something. I don't know... and I don't think she does either. She's just lonely and misses me."

"Well that's all fine, but it's not really fair that she's taking it all out on you, though."

"Oh well. You should get to class now, mate." He gave me a little shove, and I screwed up my face at him.

"There's only twenty minutes of biol left and after that it's just gym. Can't we just wag?"

"Jesus." He breathed out in a chuckle. "Our first week here and we're already wagging class on a Friday arvo. Alright. Get ya shit and let's go."

We went to our lockers and grabbed everything we'd need for the weekend and started the walk home.

"So what did you want to do? The town doesn't even have a bloody cinema. Anything you wanted to look at in town? Don't know that I can be stuffed following you around the shops though."

I rolled my eyes at his crap attempt at humour for the fact that I wasn't particularly fond of aimless shopping, and the lack of shops the town provided for that anyway.

"We probs shouldn't walk around town anyway. Chuck might be out on the beat."

"I don't think anyone's out on the beat in this town, Rooey," he smiled. "C'mon, if we're wagging, we have to do something with it; otherwise I should be in history. What did ya wanna do?"

The poor bastard, he just looked wrecked as he unlocked the door and let us into the house. I grinned at him, knowing something that would cheer him up a bit.

"You sit down there, Plugger. I'm makin' you a Milo and a snack, and we'll watch a DVD."

"You're a champ." He flopped onto the couch and turned the telly on. The house filled with the sound of commentators from who knows what sport.

I put two mugs of milk into the microwave and got the green tin of malty-chocolaty yumness out of the cupboard as well as some corn kernels and some sugar.

"Whatcha makin', Rooey?"

"Christ! How does someone built like a brick shithouse move like a friggin' ghost?" I whipped around and hid the ingredients behind my back.

"Sorry," he said with a grin that told me he was anything but. The microwave went off.

"Yeah, right. Can you make these?" I gestured to the microwave with the milk. "Then bugger off. I'm being nice and making you a surprise." I shoved the ingredients up the back of my jumper and moved around the kitchen, getting the various utensils I would need. Not entirely easy. Emmett chuckled at my antics while making the Milo, the quick stirring of the teaspoon in the mug a welcoming and comforting noise.

"There you go," he said, pushing the Milo toward me.

"Ta." When he continued to wait, grinning all the while, I gave him a look that said "Well?"

"I'm leaving, I'm leaving!" He wrapped his hands around the mug and left the room, blowing on the steaming liquid.

I made sure he was engrossed in what I determined was baseball before I started. Baseball was something I hadn't really gotten into. It was too slow - even slower than NFL, though how anything was slower than that game, I have no idea. I smiled at my hypocrisy as I poured the sugar into a pot and put it over a low heat; I watched five-day test matches of cricket from first to last ball, so I couldn't really talk.

I quickly put a bowl of corn kernels in the microwave and put the cover on. The popping would give the game away, but I hoped he was too caught up in the sport to hear it. Within minutes, I was stirring the air-popped popcorn though the fresh caramel. I am the best sister in the world, hands down.

I left the bowl on the back doorstep to cool while I went to the lounge to the TV cabinet where Em and I had added our DVD's to Charlie's small library and got out the one I was looking for. I flicked it at Em as I moved back to the kitchen. He jolted in surprise when it hit him in the chest and looked down to where it landed.

"Haha! Sick!" He got up to load it into the player, and I retrieved the bowl, breaking up the now set caramelised popcorn as I walked back. I jumped on the opposite side of the couch as Em sat back down.

"Aaaaawww, frickin' A." Em's eyes were devouring the bowl in anticipation.

We settled ourselves with our backs to the arms of the couch, feet meeting in the middle. Em flicked the blanket from the back of the couch over us and put the bowl of popcorn on our feet just as the multitude of whistles signalled the beginning of Hot Fuzz. We spent the next two hours laughing our arses off and pre-empting our favourite lines.

The movie ended, and Em and I sat in silence for a bit, picking at the dregs of the popcorn.

"Sounded like the party was goin' off," I started. Em nodded with a smile that didn't reach his eyes.

"Sorry you had to miss it, Rooey."

I shrugged. "Ah well. Not a huge deal in the scheme of things. So... was it really a surprise that Tanya was there?" Our home town was only a little bigger than this town. Most of the kids of the same age knew each other even if they went to different schools, and if there was a decent party going on, everyone went. Not to blow my own trumpet, but the one Jonesy and I were having was going to be a cracker, and all our friends were excited.

"Nah, it's not that she shouldn't have gone or anything. But I talked to her earlier in the week, and she was in tears telling me she couldn't go to the party without me 'cause she was gunna miss me too much. Then she's there and bangin' on about how her life can't stop just 'cause I'm not there, and if she meant anything to me at all, I wouldn't have just up and left her right before the most important exams in our lives and blah, blah, blah." He was getting pretty riled up by now. "Frickin' Irina's been in her ear. That bitch was always trying to get Tan to go out on the weekends I was away for footy. Anyway, she was pretty smashed. She wouldn't have said half those things if she was sober."

I only just managed to swallow my disbelieving snort and keep my face neutral. "Em... do you really think trying to keep this thing going over long-distance is such a great idea?"

"Oh, don't you start," he spat angrily, picking up the bowl and making to move off the couch. I grabbed his knee to stop him.

"I'm not starting anything... It's just that it's so far away and for such a long time! I don't want to make you feel worse, but look at what one phone call did to you. You've got two years of that ahead of you."

"It's just tough now because it's the start and we're not used to it yet. It's just a stressful time."

"What, you think it's going to get better? Get easier? Shit Em, there's always gunna be a 'stressful' time. Soon enough it'll be exams, and you're gunna get it for not being there to support her. Or it'll be Christmas and summer hols, and you'll cop it 'cause she's bored without you, or she misses you not being at all the going away parties - or the start of uni, because 'you don't understand what she's going through with uni and college.'" I put on my best Tanya voice for the last part of my rant.

"Thanks for telling me about the life I'm fuckin' missing out on." He threw the blanket off us and stormed away from the couch.

"Don't be such a fuckin' drama queen. I'm not sayin' all this to be a bitch. I'm just trying to make you see that this isn't gunna be easy for you - either of you, really. And if she's already behaving like this, then it's just gunna turn to shit, and it's not fuckin' worth it!" I was following him down to the basement.

"You've had how many boyfriends, Bella? That's right, none." I scoffed at him. "You don't know what the fuck ya talkin' 'bout. You just want me to get rid of her because you don't like her. Ya never have."

"Well can ya blame me? She just chewed you out for fuckin' half an hour for something that wasn't your fault!"

"She was drunk."

"Poor excuse! If a boy treated me like that, you'd be after his blood. Why does she get away with it? She should have more tact. Fuck. You didn't just up and move on a frickin' whim, Emmett. They're dead, and she's bitching to you about missing a fucking party. Tell 'er to get some fuckin' perspective."

"Whoa, whoa, whoa! What's all this shouting and cussing about?" Em and I were startled out of our argument by Charlie appearing at the top of the stairs. We immediately backed off and looked at our feet.

"Nothing," Emmett said.

"Mmmhmm," Charlie replied. "Is this the same 'nothing' that had the two of you skipping class this afternoon?" We glanced at each other in surprise - how the hell did he know that? "You do realise that if either of you are not in class, they contact your guardian, right?"

"Um, no, we didn't know that," Em supplied while I remained quiet. We quite visibly braced ourselves for the coming shellacking.

"Well, you do now. So are you gonna tell me why you two are skipping classes your first week of school here?"

"Ah, we got a call from our friends from and home and it was, um... taxing," I finally spoke up.

"Why were you answering your phone at school?"

"It was at lunch."

"And did you end the call when class started again?"

"No," Emmett picked up the answer this time. "We were too excited about speaking to them. They were all together, it was -" I glared at Em quickly and he changed tack, "just good to hear from them. Then the call kinda went to shit, and we were a bit bummed, so we thought we might as well call it a day."

Charlie sighed. He looked at the two of us, arms crossed with one hand up to his face where he smoothed out his moustache and rubbed him chin, contemplating his next words. Seems bringing us into line really made Chuck uneasy.

"Look. I know it's tough, guys, but you can't just decide for yourselves when to 'call it a day' at school. You have a responsibility; you have to be there. If it's really important that you have to leave, you have to let me know first. I thought you were in school today. When I think you're somewhere and find out you're not? That's pretty scary."

We apologised and ended up agreeing to Charlie's terms. Phew. That wasn't nearly as bad as I would have expected; the parents would have flipped their shit. Oh well, extenuating circumstances, I guess.

That night Emmett and I barely spoke to one another, the good time in front of the DVD this afternoon forgotten. I went to bed in a mood.

More tears, what's new? I sat up, cross-legged in bed and buried my head in my hands on my lap, entirely frustrated. I debated whether to stay in bed a little longer, but it was no use. Waking up like this always made me anxious to see Emmett, and even though I was still mad at him for being a blind dingbat, I still wanted to see him.

With Saturday morning came the luxury of staying in pj's, so on with my "visiting Emmett" clothes, even though I wasn't sure I would actually be visiting him. I opened my bedroom door and jumped when I saw Em's back moving away from my door and down the landing.

"Whaddaya doin'?" I asked slowly, suspicion thick in my voice and all over my face. He turned his head, but didn't stop.

"What, I can't go to the loo without your permission?" He walked straight into the bathroom and slammed the door. Stroppy bugger. I stopped. My bedroom was further along the landing from the stairs than the bathroom was. He had to have come close to my door on purpose for me to find him where I did, so my question before was entirely valid. I huffed and rolled my eyes at the bathroom door. At least I now knew where he was. I headed down to the kitchen to get me some breakfast.

I put enough oats in the pot for the three of us, not sure if Charlie would like porridge, but just in case. I started stirring as the oats began to boil and added milk intermittently, along with some chopped apple, cinnamon and nutmeg.

"Wow, Bells, that smells great. Got enough for me?" Charlie was fully dressed but looked a little sleepy still as he went about making himself his coffee. I wondered if Em's little hissy fit had woken Chuck, but seeing as he was in uniform, I guessed he wasn't far off getting up anyway.

"For sure." I smiled at him as he settled at the table with the paper.

I dished up as per the three bears, putting the medium serve in front of Charlie.

"Thanks, Bells."

"No probs," I lightly replied.

Em shuffled into the kitchen, and I turned, got his mammoth bowl and put it into his hands on my way back to the table with my bowl.

"Ta," he said quietly.

I nodded as I sat down. We sat there for the first quiet meal since we arrived. The only interaction was Chuck glancing up from his paper at us occasionally while we threw intermittent greasies across the table at each other. Sleep had done nothing to improve our moods.

Finally, Chuck made a move from the table.

"So I have to go into the station today. Will the house still be standing this afternoon?" he asked, looking between the two of us.

"Prob'ly," came Emmett's surly reply. I snorted; I couldn't help it.

"Right." With that, he left us.

I finished up my breakfast and put my bowl in the sink.

"You're on dishes," I told Em as I left the kitchen. It was only fair since I had cooked. I heard no argument as I went up the stairs. Good. Now that I was, again, holed up in my room, I had no idea what I wanted to do. It was bucketing down outside, so indoor entertainment was my only hope.

I sat down with one of the books from my lit list and read for a solid hour. My arse was going a bit numb and I was getting fidgety, so I decided to find other entertainment around the house. Nah, I was actually curious as to what Em was up to. He wasn't downstairs, and the door to the basement was closed. Right, well I'm not going down there. I went back to my room and did some more homework. Close to lunch, I had finished chem and French, and had gotten a fair way through my maths. I decided to give it a rest before my brain completely fried.

I collected my washing and Chuck's hamper, and headed downstairs. Dumping those in the laundry, I went and thumped Emmett's door.

"Bring your washing up," I called when I opened the door briefly.

As I was sorting the clothes, Em dumped his washing just inside the door. Once I had the first load going, I went to the kitchen to find Em with the sandwich press going.

"Roasty toasty?"

"Cheers," I said, sitting down.

We were silent as he went about fixing the Vegemite and cheese sandwiches to toast. This was the way it always was between us when we were snooty at each other. Mum could never decide if she loved it for the peace and quiet, or if she hated it because of the tension we both gave off. I invariably detested it.

The shitty thing was, he was pissed at me when I was standing up for him. Argh, whatever.

I cleared the lunch dishes and joined Emmett in the lounge to play Halo on the X-Box. Occasionally one of us would get up to get food or drink, but there was still very minimal talking. Around three in the arvo, I cracked the shits.

"Fuckin' rain!" I got up from the couch and did a funny stretch to try to ease the weird, kind of itchy feeling I had in my legs from not being able to go outside and do what I wanted. I was bloody stir crazy.

I stomped out to the kitchen, exasperated with the rain, Emmett and the whole day in general. I opened the pantry purely for want of anything better to do. While my eyes roamed over the shelves, I was struck by an idea. I started rummaging.

"What on Earth are you doing?" Em said to my back.

"Searching for the 'essential ingredient!'" I replied.

"What?"

"Today on Australian MasterChef," I began in my best imitation of Matt Preston, the compere's voice. "Your challenge is to cook a two course meal for Mr. Charles Swan, Forks' Chief of Police. You have free reign over menu selection, but you must use the 'essential ingredient'..." I paused as my eyes continued to search the kitchen. Gold! "Oranges!" Em was snickering during my spiel. "You have approximately two hours before the Chief arrives home. Good luck!"

Em's face mimicked the tension of the contestants while he stood in front of the pantry; legs spread wide, arms crossed. He hammed it up by pushing a finger to the side of his over-pursed lips, smooshing them to the side.

"OK, I think we have a chance of winning this thing if I do the main and you do the dessert," he stated, not taking his eyes off the ingredients.

"Sweet."

"Literally."

"Ha." I started to get things together for a cake, moving around the still-stationary Emmett. He finally went to the freezer and started digging around, chucking stuff onto the bench with a clunk. I sidled up to him, bouncing on my toes and hands clasped behind my back, now imitating another of the presenters, George Calombaris.

"Emmett, what have you got on the menu for the Chief?"

"Uh," he was perfect at the harried movements they all had, and I bit the side of my cheek to stay in character myself. "Well, I hear he's a bit of a fish nut, so I'm going to cook up some fish in foil parcels on the stove top in an orange and mint marinade. I would prefer it on the barbie, but the weather isn't really cooperating."

"Right, sounds good. You confident you can get the tricky fish dish right? Have you made this before?"

"Never, but I'll give it a crack. I'm pretty confident, yeah."

"And what kind of fish are you working with today?"

"God only knows. I just hope to fuck it's not carp."

I burst into laughter and went back to my cake. When I was putting the batter into the tin, Em came up beside me.

"And you're doing the dessert portion, Isabella?" Matt Preston had made his way back into the kitchen.

"Yes, an orange and poppy seed syrup cake," I said, making my movements stilted and running my forearm over my forehead.

"Sounds delicious. What's the inspiration for this dish?"

"Apart from oranges? Um, it's the only recipe I know, and it's the Chief's sisters' favourite - I believe it was the only thing she could really cook." I grinned up at Em, and he grinned back.

We still didn't talk much, but we were happier, the distraction having caused the fight to pretty much blow over. The front door opened while Em and I were cleaning the mess we had made during the challenge.

"OK... looks like you two kissed and made up." We smirked at him as he looked in the oven door and to the stove-top where the three neat foil parcels were giving off the most delicious smells. "So what's this about?"

"MasterChef Challenge," we both stated together.

"We're the Blue Team. The challenge is to cook a two course meal for the Forks Chief of Police, based around oranges," Emmett explained while he checked the fish.

"Who's on the other team?" Chuck asked, a little confused.

"That's up to your imagination, Chuck!"

"You kids are nuts." He shook his head as he settled at the table.

Dinner was a huge success. The fish with green beans and homemade chips were just gorgeous, and the cake was straight out of the oven, so I had served it with vanilla ice-cream. With a bit of cajoling, we finally got Chuck to play along with us, and he declared the Blue Team the resounding winner. We cheered and high-fived while Emmett yelled "Suck on that!" out the kitchen door to the imaginary opposing team. He was a gracious winner, alright.

Chuck rolled his eyes at our antics.

"OK. So, you kids know how to drive, right?" Unexpected subject change, but he definitely got our attention.

"Yeah," we both answered, warily. Although you could only get your learner's permit at sixteen and had to drive with a fully licensed driver present until you got your probationary license when you were eighteen in Victoria, both Emmett and I had been driving the paddock basher out on the farm since we were thirteen.

"Well, the weather's only going to get worse from here on in, so I was thinkin' tomorrow we'd go look for a car for you guys."

Em and I looked at each other with twin expressions of surprised glee. "Siiiiiick!"

Chapter definitions:

Emmett's ringtone - Jimmy Recard, Drapht, Skip-Hop artist.

44's: Old 44-gallon drums, usually cut in half, either length or width-ways and used to hold fires at parties. Gallons are not a measurement often used in Aust. but the term for these drums has stuck.

Yeah, nah: Very common Australian expression, most don't even know they've said it. As far as I can tell, the 'yeah' is a confirmation that the speaker has heard what the other has said and understood, and the 'nah' is where you're either slightly disagreeing with what they're said or just the start of your next sentence. You don't actually have to be disagreeing with the person to use it.

Mo: Moustache

Mobile: Cell Phone

Greasy: A glare that usually holds no real heat, sometimes a glare with a sneer.

Biol: Not sure why, but at home it was always biol, never bio.

Wag: Skip/ditch/skyve off classes.

Milo: Chocolate malt milk flavouring, about as traditional as Vegemite.

Built Like a Brick Shithouse: Pretty self-explanatory, basically means huge/solid.

Ta: Thankyou

Five-Day Test Matches: A single game of cricket that is played over 5 days. Both teams have 2 innings to bat, with each inning only ending if the other team gets all 10 batsmen out or the batting team decide they have made enough runs (declare). At the end of the 5 days it can still end up being a draw. VERY boring to many people (I am not one of them).

Bangin' On: Ranting

Summer Hols: For Em his summer holidays will start at the end of Nov, when his exams end and will last until the end of Feb or start of March, where he will start the orientation week of University. For Bella there is only about 6 weeks of holidays until the start of term at the end of January.

College: At home this refers to the residential colleges at the university campuses.

Shellacking: actually a form of varnish, but colloquially means getting the shit ripped through you. Yelled at, big time.

Stroppy: Moody

Crack the Shits: More moody form of losing your temper.

Carp: In Aust. the European Carp is an introduced species and stirs up all the mud in the creeks and irrigation channels, making a general pest of itself, and is too muddy to taste anywhere near decent.

Thanks for reading, hope you enjoyed!