A/N: Ah! I finally got it done. So, if you read my previous author's note you'll know that I was being a lazy author and didn't get the chapter up. Then it got deleted from my computer, so I've been spending a week trying to get it back to what it was. So here it is and I am sooooo sorry for the delay. So, get reading chapter 6 of Stranger!

Disclaimer: It's still not mine…

Chapter 6

Testing My Control

BPOV

It was now a couple days before the first round of campers arrived. I had successfully avoided him whenever possible and I met a lot of the other counselors here. Other than Jessica and Lauren, most of the counselors were very friendly. There was the archery, theater, and high ropes instructors, Tyler, Eric, and Mike. All three of them hit on me whenever I was around, it was kind of creepy. Then there were the arts and crafts and the horseback riding instructors, Angela and Kate. They were both really sweet. Angela was shy like me and was really nice. Kate was very laid back, I liked her. Some of the counselors who worked with the campers like me, Rose, and Alice were Tanya, Garrett, Ben, James, Victoria, Laurent, Carmen, Eleazar, Irina, Seth and Zafrina. They were all nice enough. No one other than Lauren and Jessica really got on my nerves that much.

Everyone was excited about today because all we had on our schedule today was an early morning meeting, at 8 AM to be exact, and then we were getting tonight and tomorrow morning off, so everyone was going out apparently. The meeting was in the dining hall as usual and Chrissy was perky perky perky, as usual.

"Alright, so as most of you know, part of the campers' day is their skilled activity. Those include: theater, music, sports, horseback riding, archery, arts and crafts, high ropes, and canoeing and kayaking. Each of the skilled activities has a leader. I have already broken you guys up into groups to work in the activities. The leader's job is to teach the activities and the other two counselors are to watch the campers and help out. In theater we have Eric, the leader, with Victoria and Irina. For horseback riding we have Kate, the leader, with Garrett and Laurent. For sports the leader is Emmett, with the counselors Rosalie and Zafrina. In archery the leader is Tyler, working with Lauren and James. In arts and crafts the leader is Angela with counselors Ben and Seth. For high ropes Mike is the leader and Jessica and Eleazar are the counselors. In music, Edward is the leader along with counselors Bella and Tanya. And last, canoeing and kayaking has Jasper as its leader and Alice and Carmen as the counselors."

Oh, no she didn't. She did not put me in the same group as him. Ugh! Of all the luck in the world. Of course I'd get stuck with him. This camp is out to get me I swear…

"Now, get in your groups and discuss what types of activities you would like to do with the campers and get to know each other. You'll be working together the whole summer" Chrissy ended and she winked towards me. Why'd she wink?

I sighed and reluctantly got up in search of Tanya and him. They were sitting in a corner talking to each other and laughing. The weird part was that she was hugging him around the waist and had her head resting on his chest. He was resting his head on top of hers as they shook with laughter. I cautiously approached them. Tanya looked up.

"Oh hey Bella!" She said with a smile as she continued to hold onto him. He looked up from Tanya at the sound of my name. I looked up and met his eyes.

"Hi" I said timidly, "Um, should we start?" I said, my voice shaking a bit. They both nodded and we sat. I looked at him nervously. Tanya untangled herself from him and started talking.

"So, I already know Edward fairly well, and he knows me. But I know nothing about you, and that definitely has to change. So, why don't you tell us about yourself?" Tanya said with a smile. She really was a sweet girl. I looked at his face for a second… surely he didn't forget everything he knew about me right?

"Um, well, I'm 17, I'll be 18 in September… uh, I was born in Forks, Washington… but I live in Phoenix, Arizona with my mom and my step-dad. My parents are divorced…um… yeah." I said quietly.

"Oh, you were born in Forks? So, you knew Edward right?" Tanya asked me. I looked at him with my mouth open a bit, about to say something, but stopped. Tanya knew he lived in Forks? Did that mean she knew about me? I closed my mouth. No, she couldn't. He couldn't call me or contact me at all, why would he talk to people about me?

"Yeah… I did. Alice and I were best friends, so I saw him around the house…" I said with a cold voice. I knew that was a low blow, acting like I only knew him because he was Alice's brother, not because he was my best friend. I looked him in the eye when I said this and I thought I saw pain flash across his eyes. Oh, did that hurt? Well, it could only have been a fraction of the pain I felt.

"Your parents divorced?" He asked in a quiet voice but not surprised; obviously remembering the times I would run to his house crying. I nodded, remembering the same thing. He gave me a sad smile.

"I decided to move to Phoenix with Renee. She needed to get out of Forks and I found that I felt the same way. She said that there were too many memories in Forks. I agreed with her." Now his head fell to look at his lap. I was just barely letting him in on all the pain that his departure filled within me. Tanya stayed quiet, almost like she understood what was going on between me and him.

"That must have been a hard move, to leave so many memories behind" He said, a little bit of pain leaking into his voice.

"It was a little hard at first. But, I had seen a couple people I loved do the same without any hurt, so I figured I could do it too. And then I met Rosalie and Jasper and the pain seemed to disappear. I found some real friends I could count on, something I needed but never quite got." I knew he could hear the double meanings in my words. To an outsider, it sounded like I had found some really good friends when I moved, something kids who move don't get at first a lot. But to him, he knew that I was telling him that he wasn't a real friend and never had been, and that he wasn't hurt when he left.

"Well, that's a good thing" Tanya said with a smile. Yeah, she didn't hear the double meanings in my words. That's a good thing, they weren't meant for her. Tanya started telling me a bit about herself next. She had a boyfriend of three years, Felix, and she lived up in Alaska, but loved to come down to California for camp. She loved the sun but never got much up in Alaska. He and Tanya had been good friends since they met at camp around 4 years ago.

"It was actually kind of entertaining, because last year everyone thought we were dating because we were so close!" Tanya said with a laugh and he smiled. "Even though everyone knew I had a boyfriend, they couldn't believe that we could just be friends. I mean there might have been one point when we first met that we touched on that subject a bit, but then I met Felix and fell in love with him. I'm going to marry him someday, I know it" She said with love in her eyes. I was happy that Tanya had found love and I was happy that it wasn't with him. I mean, he wasn't mine and he never was or will be, but I couldn't help but not want anyone to be with him.

"Well, I guess Edward doesn't have to tell anything about himself, I mean we both know him pretty well." Tanya said with a smile. My smile faltered and she saw. "Wait, you do know him well right? I mean, you guys were friends when you were younger and you were best friends with Alice so she must have caught you up on what Edward was doing…"

"Actually, I haven't heard from him in five years. I've been completely clueless as to the goings on in his life." I looked directly at him when I said this. Tanya saw the obvious tension between us.

"Oh… well, I'll just let you two work this out." Tanya said and got up and left the dining hall, as we were the only group left in here now. I guess that either people decided to go to wherever they were working and plan, or were finished. We sat there for a moment in silence; I refused to look at him and I had no idea if he was even acknowledging my presence. After a couple minutes of neither of us saying a word I got up to leave. I sure as hell didn't want to talk to him and he obviously didn't want to talk to me. Or at least that's what I thought. I was walking towards the door when something stopped me. Someone had grabbed my wrist and wasn't letting go.

"Bella…" His velvet voice filled my ears and I held back the tears that were threatening to spill over. I said nothing. "Please, can we talk?"

"Talk?" I said quietly. "Now you want to talk?!" I turned to face him with anger present on my face. "For five years you couldn't be bothered to just pick up the phone and call me and you want to talk? What am I only your friend when it's convenient to you?" He looked down.

"Bella, I am so sorry for the past five years. I was just so busy and whenever you'd call, I'd get the message so late, I-I didn't want to bother you. I haven't had a lot of free time." He looked back up at me. "I was hoping we could start over. You know be friends again?" Friends. There's that damn word again. Could I be friends with him again when he had hurt me so badly in the past? Could I just be friends with him when I knew I wanted to be so much more than friends?

"I don't know, Edward" That was the first time I had spoken his name in I didn't know how long. It felt good, but it hurt at the same time. "You hurt me pretty bad by not talking to me. I'll try, but I can't trust you right now. I hope you understand that." He closed his eyes and took a deep breath. I couldn't help but notice that he looked really hurt.

"I understand that. I will earn your trust back, I promise." He said with a determined looked in his eyes. Then a small cloud of confusion was present in those green orbs. "What I don't understand is why has Alice gotten your trust so quickly?"

I looked down. "That's between Alice and me, Edward. And my problems with her were completely different than those with you." He nodded slowly and smiled. I smiled back.

We then went to find Tanya and spent an hour or so coming up with ideas for activities to do with the campers. It was really nice just talking and joking around with Edward and Tanya. Tanya was really creative and came up with a bunch of amazing activities to do, and I could tell that we would be friends even after camp. I mean sure, she was absolutely gorgeous and I felt more than plain next to her, but since when had I not surrounded myself with exceedingly beautiful people? The three of us got lunch together and I was surprised how well it went. We were laughing and I found myself having as much fun as I did when I was with Rosalie and Alice. Later, I returned to my cabin to find Alice and Rosalie fighting over an outfit.

"No! Not that top! Here, this one will help accentuate her boobs… see there's the ruffles on top and the ribbon under the bust"

"Ooo, you're right, I didn't even see that one! Oh and these boots, definitely, they complete the outfit."

"Perfect, Rose. We couldn't have picked out a better outfit for her"

I walked in very confused. All around the room were different items of clothing; tops, pants, skirts, boots, heels, scarves, vests, and jewelry. Alice and Rosalie were standing over Rose's bed with an outfit laid out on top. Oh no…

"Bella!" Alice cried, "Come over here so we can get you ready for tonight"

I hesitated, "What's going on tonight?"

"Some of the counselors are going out to dinner and then to an underage club for a couple hours and you're coming with us" Rosalie answered. As I was about to protest, "And no, you can't get out of it Bell, you're coming with us." She gave me a look that told me I wasn't going to win this. Alice then thrust a bunch of clothes at me and threw me into the stall to change. I dressed in the clothes she gave me. I came out of the stall and looked at myself in the mirror. I had a blue ruffled tank on with a black ribbon tied in a bow just under the bust. The jeans I was wearing were dark stone wash skinnies with a couple of rips and tears down the legs. The boots they had given me were black flats with a couple buckles up the sides. I put the black dangling earrings in and the love necklace on. I walked back into the room and showed Alice and Rose; they wolf whistled at me, which made me laugh.

Three hours later we were all ready and Alice had straightened my hair pin straight. Alice had an adorable gray sweater dress on with bubbled sleeves. She had a matching gray knit beanie, black pumps, silver dangling earrings and a silver bag. Her hair was flipped out in its usual spikey nature, but softened. Rosalie looked drop dead gorgeous. She had a dark blue corset on with a black cropped vest over it. With that she wore white skinnies with white heeled boots with buckles up the side like mine. She had on thin silver bangles and rose shaped earrings. Her hair was curled at the ends. Even though I looked better than I do on the average day I still felt plain compared to them.

It was 5:30 when we met up with everyone that was going. Tanya, Kate, Garrett, Jessica, Lauren, James, Emmett, Jasper and Edward were all going with us. Rose, Alice and I took one look at Jessica and Lauren's outfits and had to hold our laughter in. Jessica was wearing a one shouldered blue cheetah print chiffon dress that barely covered her butt. For accessories she wore these huge gold dangling earrings, one gold bangle and gold gladiator heels. While she still looked like a whore, she looked classier than Lauren. Lauren had a mini denim skirt on with a promiscuous black corset, unlike Rose's whose had some class, short black boots, huge black hoops, a fashion Barbie necklace on and her hair in a ponytail. I looked over at Tanya and Kate, who both looked adorable. Tanya had an orange striped chiffon dress with complimenting earrings and necklace. She had these flats with a flower on the top that I had to admit were adorable. Her whole outfit worked perfectly, especially with her dark strawberry blonde hair. Kate had an emerald green satin tank on with white shorts, a green peep-toe pump and some silver earrings that kind of looked like feathers. The green really complimented her ice blonde hair. The two of them looked gorgeous.

Rose, Alice, Jasper, and I were going in Rosalie's BMW and the rest were splitting up between Emmett's massive jeep and Edward's Volvo. It took about a half an hour to get off of site and then out into the city. When Rosalie, Jasper and I drove in it was the middle of the day, so I had never seen Santa Ana lit up at night, it was beautiful and it was nice because it wasn't really busy like Las Vegas or Los Angeles would have been. We stopped for dinner at a place called Charlotte's.

"Hi, welcome to Charlotte's. How many?" The hostess asked, giving all of the boys a once over, eyes lingering on Edward, Jasper and Emmett.

"Twelve" Rose said with a snarl in her voice, making the hostess step back a bit. Rosalie always hated it when girls fawned on Jasper so when the hostess looked Jasper up and down, it was no surprise that it annoyed Rose. The surprising thing was that she looked over at Emmett when she said this.

"Right this way." The hostess said timidly. I nudged Rosalie in the side and all she did was give me an innocent look. I shook my head as we followed the hostess to our table. I sat down in between Alice and Rosalie who had Jessica and Lauren on her right. James and Garrett were at the heads of the table and Jasper was across from Alice, Edward across from me, Emmett across from Rosalie, and Tanya and Kate next to Emmett. Dinner started and it was a pleasant one. Surprisingly enough, Lauren and Jessica weren't annoyingly slutty during the meal. I mean their outfits screamed, "screw me now" but they didn't act like it. Throughout dinner I saw Alice and Jasper giving each other flirty eyes, even if they didn't speak a word to each other, and Rosalie and Emmett were bickering back and forth like an old married couple the entire time but I saw Rosalie smiling half the time.

Seeing Rose and Alice flirting with two guys that I knew were good for them made me happy. What didn't make me happy was the fact that Edward and I kept hitting each others legs under the table, by accident. Or at least mine were by accident. I conversed with everyone during dinner but I could feel Edward's eyes on me for the majority of the meal. Oddly enough, when I looked back at him he was always looking away and in a conversation, making me feel like I had just imagined him looking at me.

After dinner we all climbed back into our respective cars and drove off to the underage club, Midnight Sun. We all walked up to the line and with one look at Rosalie, Alice, Tanya and Kate, the bouncer let us in. Well, with the exception of Lauren and Jessica, they had to wait in line! I was surprised he let me in with everyone else, but I wasn't going to complain. We got a table and ordered some non-alcoholic drinks. As I was sipping on my virgin piña colada, out of the corner of my eye I saw Emmett ask Rosalie to dance and Jasper ask Alice, "May I have this dance, pretty lady?" They all walked onto the dance floor and disappeared into the crowd. I smiled to myself, happy for my friends. Kate pulled Garrett onto the floor along with Tanya and Edward. James had gone off to dance with Lauren and Jessica when they were finally let in, leaving me alone. I didn't have a problem with being alone; I didn't even really want to be here. I knew that if I tried dancing with anyone, I'd break their toes. It wasn't a secret; Bella can't dance.

Just as I finished my drink I felt someone tap my shoulder. I turned around to see a cute brunette boy standing there.

"Wanna dance?" He asked with his hand outstretched toward me. I smiled at him but shook my head, unable to find my voice. "Oh, come on, you're hot as hell and you're sitting here all alone. Just one dance?"

"You don't understand I am an awful dancer" I said looking straight at him, hoping he'd go away. But he didn't, all he did was get right up in my face and look me up and down.

"One dance won't hurt you, I'm a great teacher. You'd have a lot of… fun with me" When he said this he was so close that I could smell his breath. Alcohol. I started to back into the booth that I was sitting in but he only came closer. He put his hand on my shoulder and whispered in my ear, "Come on, baby, you know you want a little taste of Joey…"

I closed my eyes, not sure what to do when I heard a voice calling my name. I opened my eyes to see Edward standing next to Joey with two more piña coladas in his hands and glaring at him.

"Sorry it took me so long to get the drinks, babe, there were a ton of people at the bar. Can I help you?" Edward said with authority in his voice as he glared at Joey.

"Nope, we were just about to go for a dance, isn't that right?" Joey said as he grabbed my hand. As he grabbed it, Edward's hand was right on top of his.

"Now, you don't really want to force my girlfriend to dance with you when she clearly is repulsed by you now do you?" I heard Edward's voice snarl in his ear. I had never seen Edward act this way, pretending I was his girlfriend so Joey would back off, it was kind of hot. No! It's not hot, you can't think of him that way! He'll just hurt you again! I thought to myself as I looked down at my hands, trying to clear my thoughts. I heard footsteps and looked up. Joey was walking away, angry and Edward was staring at him with a death glare as he did. I took a deep breath and as I did, Edward's head snapped back towards me and his expression had softened and was full of concern.

"Bella are you alright?"

"Yeah, it wasn't as bad as it looked." I smiled up at him and he looked back at me, almost not believing what I said. Whether he believed it or not, he accepted it and then stood there with his hand out towards me and I looked at it with confusion. He chuckled.

"Come on you can't sit here all night by yourself now can you?" I rolled my eyes at him.

"Do you not remember how awful a dancer I was when we were in Forks? Well, I've gotten worse if that's possible. So, I'm going to have to say that I can most definitely sit here all night by myself. I'm perfectly content being alone." With that he grabbed my hand and pulled me up. "EDWARD!" I yelled and he just threw his head back with laughter.

He pulled me up against him, my back to his front, in true club style and my heart sped up. I was completely convinced he could hear it; it was pounding so hard and fast. He put his hands on my hips and started swaying to the beat of the music as Dirrty by Christina Aguilera came on. I was so nervous to be dancing with Edward that I jumped when I heard him whispering in my ear, "Just relax, Bella… you look amazing tonight" I took a deep breath and just listened to the music. This seemed to work because I felt my heart slowing down a bit and was able to sway my hips to the beat comfortably.

Ah, heat is up
So ladies, fellas
Drop your cups
Body's hot
Front to back
Now move your ass
I like that

Listening to the lyrics, I got into the dance and started to lose myself.

Tight hip huggers (low for sure)
Shake a little somethin' (on the floor)
I need that, uh, to get me off
Sweat until my clothes come off

All of a sudden I was dancing by myself.

I turned around, looking all over for Edward, confused as to what happened. I found him dancing with another girl that I didn't know. She was much prettier than I was and obviously had better moves than me. I looked down and shook my head. I fell for his tricks, just like every other girl. I pushed through the crowd to get back to the table, fighting tears the entire way. Instead of going to the table, I walked straight past it and into the bathroom. As I walked in I felt some tears escape and grabbed some paper towels to fix the make up that ran. I looked in the mirror after I fixed myself and took a couple deep breaths to steady myself and get myself together. I was upset, but not at Edward or what he did. I couldn't be, he's not my boyfriend, he was probably just dancing with me to get me comfortable and when he thought I was, left me so I could dance with other people. I was upset with myself for thinking that he wanted to dance with me because there was a chance he was attracted to me. I knew better than to think things like that, especially about him.

When I left the bathroom I ran into Alice and Rosalie.

"Bella! There you are, we've been looking all over for you. We're just about to leave." Rosalie said. She looked back and me and started scrutinizing me with her eyes. "Bell, what's wrong?" I just shook my head and told her I'd explain when we got back to the cabin. We went back to the rest of the group, Edward was talking to Tanya, Kate, and Garrett, laughing as if he hadn't rescued me and danced with me tonight. I knew he didn't care. As we walked to the cars it was as if he refused to look at me. Every time someone said my name, his head would slightly move in my direction but it would always move back to the conversation he was having. I was confused to say the least.

When we got back to the cabin it was almost midnight and all I wanted to do was shower and go to sleep. After I got out of the shower and ready for bed, Alice and Rose started interrogating me. I told them about what happened during the morning, at the restaurant, at the club with that kid, Joey, and when Edward just walked away after dancing with me. Alice looked murderous and Rosalie looked like she almost expected it.

I dreamt of Edward that night. We were back in the club and dancing, he turned me around so that I was facing him and just as he was about to kiss me, he was gone. I ran around frantically, yelling his name, only to find him making out with a random girl. When he finally looked up at me, he just laughed and started kissing the girl again. Then he disappeared again and I couldn't find him. I ran into Lauren and asked her where he was. All she said was that he left. He wasn't coming back. I woke with a start and breathing heavily. It was 3 AM. I got out of bed, grabbed a hoodie, and went to the porch of the lodge. I sat in a chair with my knees to my chin as the wind blew. I closed my eyes.

"Bella?" I heard a voice call. I opened my eyes and looked in the direction the voice came from. There in the pathway was Edward in his pajamas with a black hoodie on. "What are you doing out here?"

"Bad dream" I said as he sat down in the chair next to me. "What are you doing?" I asked him.

"I couldn't sleep, so I decided to take a walk… do you want to talk about it?" I looked at him with confusion.

"Talk about what?"

"Your dream."

Oh. I took a deep breath and shook my head.

"It's so peaceful out here at night" Edward said as he looked up at the stars.

"Yeah, it's as if everything in the world and in your mind is at peace. I can see why everyone loves it here" I said with a smile. Edward smiled back at me.

"So did you have a good time tonight?"

I thought about it. Yes, I had a good time at the restaurant and then in the beginning of the time at the club. No, I didn't have a good time the rest of the night though. But he couldn't know that.

"Yeah, it was nice to get away with everyone. You?" When I asked him this his mouth opened slightly then closed as if he wasn't sure how to answer.

"It was nice." was all he said. Shortly after that I excused myself to go back to bed. Just as I was about to open the door I heard him.

"Night, Bells. Sleep well." He said with a smile. I took a deep breath before turning around with a smile and wishing him the same. He called me Bells, something he hadn't done since we were 12.

When I got back into my bed, tears started running down my face again. It was then that I vowed that everything between me and Edward from now on was going to be in the friend zone. I wasn't going to cry over him and how I felt about him anymore.

A/N: So, there it is people! I hope it wasn't too confusing. And just so you know, Bella still doesn't trust him; she kind of started to, but then stopped as she felt hurt again. And just so everyone knows, this kind of camp does exist, and the lodges aren't really like a hotel lodge, it's just a building that has a bunch of real cabins connected. Just so there isn't any confusion. It's based off of my camp. So, please review and I'll have the next chapter out soon!

~Dancerx11