A/N: I always wondered why the people that the Cullens came across never did any calculations to see how their family dynamics were laid out since grabbing a calculator was one of the first things I did when I found out their "ages"... so I gave that job to Rebecca. Please review!

Chapter 6 - Suspicions

Bella

It was almost funny to return to school on Wednesday after everything that had just happened. Rebecca asked me in biology where we had been. I simply said "Family stuff." Family stuff that included hiding my human-vampire hybrid daughter with a werewolf while three blood thirsty vampires came for a visit and tried to stun us into confusion in order to steal her. But no worries, my ability to shield my family's minds came in handy once again and they left.

For now.

Alice had warned us before Nessie came home, but she was positive they were back in the deep southwest. She would stay on full alert as to Maria's whereabouts from now on though. We should have killed them when we had the chance. I hated when I thought violently like that, but Edward promised it was just my motherly instincts.

Across the room I could feel Derrick staring at us. He had all but given up on me - definitely not as determined as Mike Newton was - yet it didn't stop his dirty thoughts, which in turn didn't stop Edward from wanting to strangle him.

No matter how many times I tried to change the conversation, Rebecca always managed to steer it back to my family. "How long have you lived with the Cullens? Why did you change your name and Rosalie and Jasper didn't? Am I going to meet your little sister? They must have adopted you when they were really young right?" They were never ending and she was getting much too interested in details. If anyone in Forks had ever done the math, they would have realized if Edward was 17 and Carlisle and Esme were supposedly in their 30's (which was a stretch) that means they adopted him when they were in their late teens/early 20's. I knew I had to give her more details than we normally would because she was much too interested.

"We don't really talk about it," I said trying to emphasize the annoyance in my voice but she didn't seem to care that she was snooping. "Edward is Esme's nephew. He was quite young when his parents died and with Esme being his only living relative, even as young as they were, they wanted to take him in. Carlisle makes a good living and when they found out Esme couldn't have children they opened their home to other orphans." I was even impressing myself with my lightning fast thought process as I rambled on as though these were truths leaving my mouth. "Rosalie and Jasper loved their parents and wanted to honor them by keeping their name. My mother died when Nessie was born. We go by Cullen because we didn't want Nessie confused with everyone having different last names so we took theirs when we were officially adopted."

At first I was worried I just had added just more twists in the story that we would need to keep in a row, but Rebecca looked a little more satisfied. "You guys have a sad story, I understand why you don't talk about it." She seemed genuine, but there was still something that wasn't right about her tone.

After class Edward wasn't waiting for me as he usually was, so I walked towards the cafeteria alone only to find our usual table empty. The only other place I could figure they would be was in the parking lot, but we had already been yelled at twice because for some ridiculous reason it was off limits during school hours. I looked out towards the lot but didn't see or hear anyone. When I came to Forks I didn't know a single person, but now I was never alone so my vulnerability factor went up by ten. I decided to go to my locker and switch out my books and grab my cell phone, still keeping an ear or eye out for anyone. My phone blinked alerting me to a new text message. It was Alice:

GO TO THE CAFETERIA AND THEN MEET US UPSTAIRS IN THE GIRL'S BATHROOM. DON'T SIT DOWN AT THE TABLE.

I had no idea what was going on, but I tried to never question Alice so I walked to the cafeteria as directed. I didn't even know what table she was talking about.

"Bella!" I saw Rebecca waving at me. I glanced at our table, which was still empty. "Come over here so I can introduce you! Where is your family?"

I walked over cautiously, but still smiling. "They're around." I tried to be vague.

"This is Becky. She's why I go by Rebecca, because I was Becky but she moved here and it got confusing." I so do not care. As disinterested as I tried to look it must not have been very convincing because she continued. "This is Samantha and Madison. You know Derrick and that's Andrew and Mike." Derrick didn't look at me but his friends were staring. Madison was the one that looked just like Angela. I searched her face for more than just physical similarities, but there was no personality in her brown eyes.

"Do you want to sit with us Bella?" I immediately likened Samantha to the doll I had by the same name when I was a kid. People should not have hair that is that shiny. "Well, until your family gets back that is." I didn't like how she accented the word family and then there was Alice's text message in the back of my mind: Don't sit down at the table.

"I'm actually going to go meet Edward in the library." I again commended myself silently on quick thinking. Only a second later I noticed Rebecca going for my arm, and not as though she was trying to get my attention, but more out of interest. I didn't want to make any suspicious moves so I gracefully shifted my weight to my other leg and at the same time my arm away from her grasp. If she was disappointed she didn't show it. "I'll uh, see you guys later." I waved and walked towards the stairs as quickly as possible.

The bathroom smelled of my family – but it was empty. Empty and grey. Grey tiles with grey stalls. I hated grey. "Ahem!" I heard very quietly and then saw a hand waving from the open window that was placed up by the ceiling. I climb the wall to look out and up. Looking down at me were five pale faces. I effortlessly leaped from the window to the roof and stared at them.

"You did great!" Alice exclaimed.

"Can someone please tell me what's going on?" I said in between the frenzy of kisses Edward was giving me.

"There is something going on with Rebecca. Did you see what she tried to do with you today?" Edward stopped kissing me long enough to say his piece.

"Yeah, she tried to grab my arm."

"We hadn't really known what was going on because you had been shielding Edward," Alice explained. "She lives in Elkins with her mother, but her father is a professor at University of Virginia and is very into mythological studies."

My mouth dropped. "Does this mean... that she knows?"

Suddenly Alice started giggling out of control and I noticed Emmett, Rosalie, and Jasper's smirks. Edward, sensing my frustration at the inside joke finally spoke. "She thinks we're... umm elves." He twisted his gorgeous face into one of disgust.

Stunned into silence I tried to recall any knowledge I had of elves. Short, ugly, big noses and live in hollowed out trees? "Aren't we a little...tall?" was the only question I could think of.

Now everyone was laughing and Edward tossed me a book. "Not by their stanards."

I looked down at it quizzically. The Silmarillion. "J. R. R. Tolkien? He wrote The Hobbit."

"This book wasn't published until after he died. It goes into much more depth about Tolkien's version of the elf." Now Edward was cracking a smile, unable to hid his amusement of the ludicrous allegation.

"How could someone believe this stuff? He also made up Hobbits and Wizards!" I stopped. Here I was arguing the existence of mythological creatures yet I was a vampire and had a werewolf as a best friend. "Wait. Do they actually..."

Jasper was the one that spoke this time because the rest of my family was unable to stop their muffled laughter. "Who knows? If there are any, we've never come across them and even if they do exist somewhere out there they would probably be nothing like the myths and lore read. I mean, we're portrayed to have fangs, burn in sunlight and a need to sleep in coffins so..."

"Right." I got his point. "What was up with the run around and that text message though?"

"I saw her 'fall' into you, Edward, and Emmett. It would have given too much away; fast reactions, cold skin, perfect balance. She was going to confront you guys about your 'odd behavior'. Emmett didn't know the new story you gave her during bio - which was brilliant by the way - it would have made a big mess since he stutters to begin with."

"Uh, I do not!" Emmett defended himself.

"When I decided to tell all of you the chain of events didn't go any better, so I just told Edward and Emmett and had to make sure you did go to the cafeteria, you just couldn't know exactly why."

Losing interest in Alice's manipulation of the future I finally took a look around me. The bland beige walls of the school were under my feet now and we were enveloped in miles of green backed up by the mountains and hills that scattered to both the east and west. "I like it up here a lot better than down there," I muttered, not enjoying how muddy the water was getting with our lies.

"Bella, concentrate." Edward turned my attention back to the task at hand. "We need you to pretend to break your foot."

"What?" I spun around looking at the faces that were no longer joking. "Wear a brace? Again? I hated that thing!"

"Her father has his own theories about elves and believes they cannot get injured. So...we need you to get hurt. Even though she is wrong about what species we are, she knows there is something off about us." Edward was holding both of my hands.

"So what, I say I was hiking and broke my ankle?"

This is when they all just looked at each other and not at me. "Well, when I foiled her attempt today by changing the events, another future came into play. So, tomorrow, she's going to...test out her theory again. On you." Alice had more to say but her expression showed she was clearly apprehensive on doing so.

Exasperated at how long a simple explanation was taking I huffed and pulled my hands away from Edward's. "Test it how exactly."

"Yeah..." Edward said carefully not looking directly at me. "She's going to push you."

"She's going to do what?" I shrieked forgetting that someone could probably hear me and we'd be stuck explaining why we were on the roof of all place.

Alice looked at me biting her lip. "She's going to kind of push you down the stairs. By 'accident' of course." She made a quotation motion with her hands.

"I'll be conveniently coming up the stairs with Emmett and we'll whisk you away to the nurse. We'll then say we're going to take you to Carlisle and you'll come back to school with the story of a broken foot." Edward looked at me, unsure if I was going to go for the plan, but he also knew that I would do anything to keep my family safe.

"Alright," I relented. I figured it was better to get it over with than Alice having to constantly look out for situations.

"Operation Elf is underway!" Emmett cheered.

"Operation what? God, how immature can you be Emmett?" Rosalie scaled down the wall and back through the window. "Coast is clear," she called up to us.

I practiced "falling" the night before since my previous inability to walk across a flat surface had been completely replaced by the gracefulness I once envied in Alice, Rosalie and Esme. The first few dozen times I somehow still landed on my feet, which surprised me more than anyone else. I couldn't believe after all of the bumps and bruises I had to deal with for almost nineteen years I was now trying to fall. Alice's last words to me before going to our classes this morning were "just go with whatever happens, ok?"

Operation Elf went into action the next day after biology. All through class I wanted to rip Rebecca's pretty blond hair from her head and shove it into her mouth, but I played nice and agreed to go to her locker with her after class. In front of me the staircase loomed. I was afraid I couldn't pull it off and she'd only become more suspicious and then we would have to move again. I had never been so prepped to fall before in my life and failed miserably at getting myself to relax. About three steps down the stairs I felt Rebecca's hand on my back and although my balance was uncompromised I tipped myself forward tumbling head over heels until I met the landing below. I stopped myself before hitting the wall, knowing that at the speed I was going, my head would have left quite an obvious impression. There was a crowd of people around me, Edward, Emmett and Alice being three of the first faces I saw.

And action.

"Bella? Bella, baby are you okay?" He was putting on his best acting face - obviously I knew better.

"My ankle!" I grabbed onto it and cried trying to remember the hazy human memories of the excruciating pain I went through when James crushed my leg.

"You pushed her!" Alice pointed at a stunned Rebecca who still stood at the top of the stairs. "I saw you push her!" Now Edward was sweeping me up in his arms and all eyes turned to Rebecca in disgust.

"I... it was... it was an accident. Really. Bella I'm so sorry." I heard the mutterings of the kids around me. "Jealous" and "snob" were some of the more common words leaving their mouths. Rebecca had made one failed calculation. The students on the stairs all saw her push me, and those who didn't were obviously not fans of her to begin with and went along with it.

I didn't know Alice was going to call Rebecca out, so I figured if I was going to have to deal with the brace I should get my kicks in too. "Rebecca how could you? What did I ever do to you?" I was still clutching my ankle, allowing fake snobs to escape my lips. Alice could no longer tell me I was a bad actress.

The rest of the plan went smoothly. The nurse quickly excused us to go to the hospital to have Carlisle look at my "injury." He even found a misplaced x-ray to add to my hospital file. "You know the drill. Eight weeks in the brace."

I groaned. "I never thought I'd be doing this on purpose."

"You were great Bella!" Alice was now sitting next to me on the examination table. "An Oscar worthy performance!"

"What happens if she doesn't buy it?" I was talking to Carlisle now. "What if I was too nice and let her get too close and we have to move?"

"If we have to move, Bella, then we move. We've done it before. This isn't the first time or the last."

"It happens more often than you think. They just usually don't come along for the ride," Edward teased and kissed my forehead.

I returned to class two days later, my leg encased in its tomb, receiving plenty of sympathetic looks. I had already broken three braces since they couldn't take the pressure of me flexing my calf muscle, so Carlisle got me a size bigger. It was quite a different experience than last time when I felt like I was going to fall over every ten seconds. In between my complaints of having to deal with it for two months, Edward promised I was getting something else out of the deal, although he remained mum on the reward.

I turned to say goodbye to him in front of biology but he ushered me to my seat instead. "Edward what are you doing?"

He leaned over and whispered in my ear. "The story of your accident got around really quickly. The teachers decided to switch her out of your biology class and I volunteered to even out the classes." He was grinning now and suddenly the brace was totally worth it.