The Twilight Twenty-Five

thetwilight25 dot com

Prompt: #23

Pen Name: junejulyautumn

Pairing/Character(s):

Rating: T

Word Count: 499

Teleportation is a precise art, it turns out. Lapses in concentration at the wrong time can have disastrous consequences, like finding yourself in the tiger enclosure when the tiger happens to be hungry, or on the railtrack at 1539 after an announcement that the 1540 is running right on time. Ask me how I know!

Obviously, when I first started I made a few mistakes and it's a wonder I'm still alive. Being self-taught means there's no-one to ask for instructions or advice.

One thing I figured out early on though was not to let anyone see me. There's probably no quicker way to get bundled off to a top-secret laboratory somewhere to have your cells harvested and dna sequence mapped, and maybe even have some sort of neurological vivisection performed on your freak brain. No thanks. I want to complete school, freak brain intact, go to college, get highly qualified while having crazy fun, and hopefully meet some cute, smart, sweet boy to hang out with some of the time.

So I'm very careful about popping in and out of thin air.

The other night though, I'd been interstate for a haircut and I was careless coming home. I miscalculated by about four yards and landed outside my bedroom instead of inside. My bedroom which is upstairs. Yeah, so I was on the roof. Bella, you twit. I scrambled in and thought everything was fine.

Now, importantly, about two weeks before the hair adventure jaunt a new family had moved in next door, and they had a son who was a dream and who I hadn't spoken to yet.

Well, I arrived at my front gate the day after the roof mistake, and there he was lounging on their porch looking pretty relaxed and way delicious. He sort of sauntered down the stairs and over to the fence between our houses.

"Hey," he said. "I'm Edward."

"Hey," I replied. "I'm Bella."

"Did I see you out the other night?"

I thought back. I don't really go out, other than, like, out of town, or out of the country.

"Don't think so," I said.

"Yeah, I did. Out on your roof. What was that all about?"

Crap. I'm busted. He'll turn me in to the mutant police. Think fast.

"I hit my tennis ball up there. I went to get it."

"I don't believe you."

Why the hell not? "All right, I admit - I do parkour, I was training."

"Nope."

"I'm practising to be a catburglar."

He shook his head. Give me a break, neighbor dream boy.

"Look, I snuck out, okay? Then I had to sneak back in."

He grinned. "Okay. Your secret's safe with me."

I didn't know what he meant, because I didn't know what he'd seen.

"You need to tell me a secret now, so that we're even," I told him.

"Yeah? Well. I like girls who can climb. Don't tell anyone."

And he turned around and went inside.

Leaving me staring after him.