I know. I. Am. Epic. Fail. At. Updating. You are allowed to kill me if you wish. I feel as though I owe you an explanation of sorts. And I do. So I'll give you the short: RL FAIL- it's a wild tale involving therapists and depression... so yeah, on with the usual business.

Much love to the kick-ass team of Betas I have: elusivekoolaid and NoMoreThanUsual, and also I special shout out to the lovely ladies of Project Team Beta (especially the misses Ali Hanniber (sorry if I killed your name :[ ) and Brady Williams) who answer all my teeny grammatical and stylistic questions.

Things I do own: A new netbook, a ton of music, and lots of books.

Things I don't own: Twilight and all respective aspects.

Enjoy & see you down below!


Airs and social graces, elocution so divine.
I'll stick to my needle, and my favourite waste of time,
both spineless and sublime.-
Teenage Angst by Placebo


|September 16, 2009|


As it turned, out the Cullens lived a little away from town, so it took under half an hour to get to the 50s-style diner. Its miniscule lot was nearly packed with cars, almost all except for the handicapped spots. I remembered the handicapped parking sticker they had given me at the hospital, I had stuffed it in my wallet, embarrassed. I fished it out now, biting my lip as I tried to think of a way to bring it up. I felt heat creep up my face as I looked at the back of Edward's head.

"Um…Edward?" I squeaked. "I er… have a um… handicap sticker…if you, ah, need it."

I saw him flash a kind crooked smile at me from the review mirror. "Thanks Bella, that's really kind of you to offer, but only if you feel comfortable."

I nodded stiffly and handed him the sticker. He slid the car into the parking spot, and hanged the the sticker on the review mirror. He swiftly got out of the drivers side door and I looked up when he opened my door. His eyes were lovely and green and I felt my mouth go dry as he gazed down at me.

"Here," he said offering his arm, "don't want you falling down on me again."

"Thanks," I smiled and he led me into the restaurant. The place was packed with various high-school kids. Emmett led us over to a booth where two honey-blonds, a boy and a girl,were sitting. Emmett slid in next to the curvy, attractive, blond girl. She was the kind of girl who made every female in the room take a hit on their self-esteem. Worst of all, she seemed to know it.

As Emmett sat down next to her, she placed a tender kiss on his cheek. Emmett beamed at her with a dimpled smile, looking far-too cherubic for someone so large. The girl smiled and gingerly placed her hand on his thigh.

Alice sat opposite boy, he was handsome and his lean frame was well built. . As she slid into her seat the boy gave her a quick glance that she instantly returned with a ghost of a smile. I could practically see the words moving between them in a language of quick fleeting glances and smiles I figured only they would know. Edward slid in next to Alice and I sat next to him. I leaned my cane against the table, might as well get that out there. I saw both of the blonds glance nervously at it.

"Hey Rose, Jaz," he began, "this is Bella. Carlisle and Esme's newest foster kid and our sister." I blinked; I hadn't expected him to call me his sister. "Bella, meet Rosalie and Jasper Hale," Emmett concluded, nodding towards them.

"Why do you have a cane?" the blond girl, Rosalie, asked in a wind-chime-y voice.

I narrowed my eyes defensively, "I was in an accident. I severely injured my L5 vertebra, pelvis, and both femurs." Both of the Hale's faces were masks of shock. "My horse fell on me."

I'm blunt, what can I say?

Alice expertly steered the conversation away from me, "So are we getting our usual?" Everyone voiced their agreement.

"We always get the Six-Scoop Sundae, so that we each get a scoop and then end up fighting over the last one. Now that you're here you can get the sixth scoop," she explained.

"So," Rosalie said, flipping open a menu, "What kind of ice cream do you guys want?"

Almost all at once everyone reached in towards the center of the table, hurrying to snatch a menu. Edward's hand bumped into mine, sending sparks of electricity up my arm.

I heard him draw in a shaky breath, "Sorry," he whispered in my ear.

"S'okay," I mumbled, blushing.

A rather bored—looking waitress came over to our table and asked, "What can I get for you?"

" We're getting the six scoop sundae – one scoop for each of us. I'll have my usual," Alice piped up, "Vanilla."

"Cherry Gracia," Jasper drawled.

"I'll have Whirled Peace," Rosalie said. She held out a thumb towards Emmett and added, "And he'll have the Phish Food"

"I'll have Half—Baked please," Edward replied politely.

"I guess I'll have New York Fudge Brownie," I finished.

Just then, a group of boys wearing football team jackets walked in roaring and hooting. "Yea! We beat La Push!" they made their way to our table, the blond boy in the lead tripped over my cane. "Which grandma in here left their cane on the floor?" he bellowed.

"Excuse me, but that's mine and it most certainly was not on the floor. If you were smart enough to watch where you were placing your big ass feet, you wouldn't have tripped over it," I snarled. .

Football Jerk turned to look at me, one of his Army of Sycophants gave a wolf whistle, I blushed. "Who the hell are you? And you're no Grandma-so you must be a freak. Only weirdos carry canes," Football Jerk concluded.

Edward shot up, causing our table to move. "Leave her alone Newton! You don't know anything," Edward snarled in my defense, as he leaned over me, getting in Football Jerk's face.

"Hey Edweird, you must know all about this weirdo. What is she your new girlfriend cuz only another even biggerfreak would go out with you," Football Jerk/Newton said.

Emmett got out from the booth and put a hand on Edward's and Football Jerk/Newton's chest, "Mike, Ed, cool it. Come on Mike, she's my new sister Give the girl a break."

Football Jerk shrugged away from Emmett. "Hey McCarthy, where the hell were you? We're lucky we won our game without our best Linebacker. It's good the flu's goin' around on the Rez 'cause we would have lost without you, if Black and Ulley weren't sick."

"Hey look, I told Clapp I wouldn't be there. We had something important as a family to do," Emmett said. I realized Emmett missed his football game because I was coming. I instantly felt bad.

"Emmett, I'm sorry, if I had know I would have told you that it wasn't an-"

"Can it freak!" Football Jerk said. I had decided that I would call him that in my head.

A short girl with incredibly curly hair walked up to Football Jerk. She put her arm around his waist and snuggled up to him while he wrapped an arm around her shoulders.

"Come on Mike, let's go," she simpered, "I can see its freaks-only night. We can party at my place."

Mike looked only at Emmett and Rosalie, "You can come McCarthy and Rosie, if you want to."

"Just go Mike, ," Emmett said. Just as Emmett said that, Rosalie shimmied out, pausing to shake her butt right in Emmett's face and began to follow Football Jerk and his crowd out. Emmett gave us a look that I thought meant,I'm madly in love- what can I say? and followed Rosalie out.

Edward sat back down, gripping the table's edge so hard his knuckles were white enough to match the bleached white tabletop. "I'm sorry about Newton," his voice was strained, as if he was fighting the urge to chase after Football Jerk and punch him in the nose.

"It's fine. I was expecting this." I sighed, then continued, "Anyways, I'm having a really good time-" the three of them looked at me like I was crazy, "you know inside my head. I've been calling Newton Football Jerk. It's quite fun, you should try it sometime," I said, grinning.

My comment broke the tension at the table and we chuckled a little bit. I noticed Alice holding Jasper's hand under the table, I'd have to ask her about that later.

Then Jasper said, "Football Jerk," we all snickered, "has been nasty to all of us since he discovered he was mediocre enough to make the football team as a QB. He's only decent to Em because they're on the team together and he kind of has this hero-worship thing going on with him. He's a nice, sexist pig to Rose 'cause she's hot. Football Jerk hates me and Edward." I thought I saw a look pass between Edward and Jasper,

'Cause he thinks we're weird and Alice refuses to be 'handled'. I mean Rose, is like crazily in love with Emmett, but they have this sort of understanding that Rose is…well…Rose, and she's obviously going to be…touched," he finished with a growl. I remembered he was Rose's brother and he'd obviously feel the need to protect her.

There was the sound of heels clicking on linoleum as our waitress came over to our table, carrying with her an enormous bowl piled high with ice cream in various colors.

"Here's your sundae," she set down the huge bowl with a soft clatter. The bowl wobbled precariously. Back, forward, and forward and back. It reminded me of how I was when I started to walk again. Hazardously and tentative, I'd taken those first few steps.

The bowl settled and I let out a very tiny sigh of relief.

The waitress laid down the spoons in a pile next to the bowl and walked away.

Alice grabbed the spoons with one hand, waving them in the air to punctuate her words, "So Rose and Em, have ditched us... Well I guess there's more for us." She doled out a spoon to Jasper and two to Edward. Edward passed a spoon to me, our fingers brushed and I jerked my hand back as a shock of electricity flew from the pads of his fingers to the tips of mine.

"Thanks," I mumbled. At that same moment I felt all of the blood in my body rush to my cheeks, taking them from ivory to scarlet in color.

"Yeah," Edward said, not meeting my eyes. He wore a pained expression and looked away from me. "Here," he spun the bowl of ice cream around, "your Fudge Brownie was on the opposite side."

We ate quickly, making few jokes and polite conversation. For the remainder of the evening Edward ignored me, always looking away from me. He didn't even speak to me.

Jasper, on the other hand, was a wonderful person to spend time with. He had a calming air around him that just eased everyone within a few feet of him.

Except for Edward.

Edward was... I fumbled for the right word. A conundrum. That's Edward in a nutshell. One moment he was so polite, the next he acted like he couldn't stand your presence.

Suddenly Edward was standing up and trying to get out from between me and Alice, "Hey Bella, maybe we should get you home before Carlisle and Esme flip on us." Mood switch again. He'd replaced loathing with caring.

"Okay..." I said, slightly confused. Getting up, I looked at Jasper, "Bye, It was nice to meet you."

I grabbed my cane and exited the booth. Edward and Alice slid out after me. We left the cafe and made our way back to the car. I sat in the backseat while Edward and Alice sat up front. Edward switched on the ignition and eased the car out of the parking lot .

The car was silent on the way back to the Cullen's. I thought about the events that had unfolded at the diner and I realized that even though I been living out my dream of becoming a champion rider before my accident, I'd missed out on a lot. I'd missed out on making close friends, having a boyfriend. Hell, I never even had the chance to figure out if I liked guys.

And now that I didn't have horses to fill my days... I needed something to do. But more importantly, I needed to build a new life for myself.

I was going to go to school... with Football Jerk.

Eh, I could have suffered a worse fate.


It was nearing nine when we got home, as soon as we walked in the door Esme was all over us.

"So how was it? Who did you introduce Bella to? Did you have fun Bella?"

Alice smiled, "Slow down mom, one question at a time, just like we practiced. We had a good time, Bella met Rose, Jazz, Mike-" at that Edward hissed and I snorted, Football Jerk-"Em went to hang out with Mike and some of the football team, said he'd be home by eleven, Bella acted like she had a great time," Alice looked pointedly at me.

"Oh yeah, we had a great time-laughed at some jokes," I lied, although the look of horror on Esme's face, and the pursed lips and wide eyes on Alice's face told me I did not lie well.

Esme frowned, "How bad was it? Tell me straight."

I took a deep breath, "Well Rosalie acted cool with it; Jasper didn't seem to really care. It was Mike who made a stink," I said and then added, "no biggie, I was expecting as much."

Esme made an, I don't really believe you, but okay face and snapped her fingers, pointing up the stairs, "Bed. Now," she said. Edward and Alice headed up stairs, but I hung back.

"Do you think…I could…you could maybe…enroll me in school?" I asked nervously. "I haven't been to an actual school since I was twelve…and I thought I'd like to try it. To tell the truth, I'm quite fascinated with all this 'high school drama'." I made air quotes around, high school drama.

Esme hugged me, again making me think of the mom I'd never had, and said, "Yes. Sure, we'll push the papers throughASAP, so that you could start school in a couple of days. Now go to bed," she said, kissing my forehead and releasing me.


I'm too lazy to come up with my own ice cream flavors, so I stole Ben & Jerry's (I also do not own those). Also, I'm not trying to set-up for femme/slash here, I just wanted to bring up an issue that most teens have: their sexual orientation. Which I think would be a truly foreign aspect of life for Bella because she's never really encountered people her age that she wasn't competing against.

I truly am INSANELY sorry for the long wait for an update (did I just rhyme? I'm such a nerd :P ). Hope you can forgive me.

Hey answer this question for me in a review: What's your favorite ice cream flavor?

~ LOVE, Sam

PS- On my profile I have links to my LJ and Twitter. Add me! I love to talk to new people.