Renee and Charlie were bemused by their daughter's sudden friendship with Emmett Cullen, the boy mountain. Charlie had already come across Dr Cullen at the local hospital, and had been impressed with the man's dedication and obvious compassion. The family was highly regarded in Forks, even if they mostly kept to themselves. They gave generously to local charities and Esme Cullen frequently volunteered at the hospital with her husband. Renee asked around the staff room and although the Cullen children were thought to be standoffish and their relationships just a little odd, the general consensus was that they were exceptionally well-mannered and highly intelligent. Model students. In fact it really wasn't clear why Emmett had asked for assistance with Trig as his marks were almost as good as those of his other siblings. Bella explained that it was Rosalie that usually helped him, and Emmett needed a change of tutor for the sake of his relationship. Or at least that was how that Emmett had explained it to Bella.
Emmett was a man on a mission when he arrived at the Swan house on Wednesday afternoon. He was going to charm Renee Swan and remove any doubt that he could be the perfect best friend for her daughter. The bunch of flowers he handed to Renee may have been overkill, but what else would you expect from a man who was born in 1915? He was polite and charming and rather funny, and spoke with deep affection of his girlfriend Rosalie, telling Renee he just wanted to do as well at school as he could to make sure he could be the man Rosalie deserved. And Renee did see that he was really rather sweet with her daughter. She brought them snacks in the library (which Emmett left untouched) and watched proudly from the doorway as Bella explained a series of higher level trigonometric functions in clear and simple terms. Emmett was impressed and seemed to quickly catch on under Bella's tutelage. Renee realized this strange friendship could be just as good for her daughter's confidence as for the boy, and left them alone to study.
After an hour they'd managed to work through all their assigned homework and ahead to next week's problems as well (both of them deliberately taking far longer than needed to maintain their respective charades) and Bella felt a little disappointed when she realized they'd finished. They moved out into the cool of the back porch to talk.
"Hey Bells, how about you come for a sleepover on Friday night? Rose wants to see you. Alice too. I wanna thrash you at Call of Duty. I am the MASTER. Or we can play something more girly like Guitar Hero. I'm cool with that."
Bella didn't have a clue what Emmett was talking about, but was too busy trying to stop her heart from racing out of control after Emmett mentioned Alice. She hadn't been at school since Monday.
"Is Alice ok?"
"Sure. She wasn't well on Monday. That's why she ran out. Poor thing. She's only just stopped throwing up. It was epic. Totally gross." Emmett lied like a pro.
Bella felt guilty for feeling so happy that Alice was sick. Maybe Alice didn't dislike her after all.
"I'll ask Mom. I'm not really .. I haven't .. I've never had a sleepover."
Emmett looked at her peculiarly, but said nothing.
After a comfortable period of silence Bella looked over at Emmett as though she'd just made up her mind about something.
"Emm?"
"Hmmm? Yes?"
"Can I ask you something?"
"Sure Bellybutton." He was quite proud of that one. He already had a whole series of nicknames ready for the girl and he was going to try them out one by one.
"Why don't you or Rose have a heartbeat Emm?"
Emmett froze.
"Wh .. what?"
"You don't have a heartbeat. It's ok. I wont tell anyone if it's a secret. But why not?"
"I .. uh ... I'm not supposed to tell. It's like a rule. It's really bad if we tell."
"Oh ... what .. what if I guessed?"
Emmett's face relaxed. "That'd be ok I think. Can .. can I check with Car .. with my Dad first?"
"Course. Sorry. I didn't mean to make you feel bad Emm."
"You could never make me feel bad Babybelle."
xxxxx
That night things were tense at the Cullen residence.
"You can't invite her HERE. She's a human. And now we know she suspects something. I can't even read her to find out what. It's too dangerous. What if she works out what we are." Edward really did sound like a whiny girl when he was upset.
Carlisle was conflicted between ensuring his family was protected, and wanting to meet the girl who seemed to know too much. In the end safety won out "It might be safer if she didn't come here."
Surprisingly, Esme disagreed with her husband for a change. "I don't see any harm. What's the difference between her seeing the kids her or at school? If she works it out she works it out. Staying one night isn't going to change that. Emm can take her out to dinner before she gets here and she can sleep in one of the girl's rooms."
"Pleeease Dad." Emmett channeled his inner 5 year old. Which wasn't hard as it was usually pretty close to the surface.
Alice had been silent throughout, but took the opportunity to speak up now, offering softly. "She can sleep in my room."
Edward glared at his boyfriend, and loyalty won out over Jasper's true feelings. "I don't think she should be around Edward. It .. it could be a problem."
Edward grinned triumphantly. "See. We win. Four against three."
Emmett spluttered "Four?"
Edward laughed. "We all know how much Rose dislikes humans. Sorry, but you lose."
Rose looked up from the magazine she had been reading on the couch, having ignored almost the entire conversation. "Actually, I don't entirely hate this one. I vote for the .. sleepover." She seemed to find the last word distasteful. "It might be interesting."
She looked quite disgusted when her husband and sister launched themselves squealing happily onto the couch on top of her.
