Disclaimer: Stephenie Meyer owns it all.

Chapter 10: Here We Go Again

When we left the locker room, we found the guys waiting for us. Unfortunately, they weren't waiting alone. There were several girls surrounding them. Although none of the guys were paying them any attention, in fact, they were trying to fight them off, the girls weren't taking the hint.

"I'm Sandra, and this is Sally. We're twins. We'd really like to go to the football game with you two Friday night. We'll make it worth your while, if you know what I mean," a red haired, under-dressed, overly made up, fake tits, crooked teethed whore said as she ran her arms up and down Edward's chest. Her sister was touching Jasper on his hips and was looking like she was about to go down south any second. Emmett was doing his best to hold off an eight armed floozy with fire engine red lips and sky blue eye shadow.

I stepped up to Sandra and tapped her on the shoulder. "Hi Sandra, I'm Bella, and he's mine." I took her hand off of his chest and squeezed it a little bit too hard. I then pushed her back into the wall, again, just a little bit too hard. She fell to the floor, tears running down her face.

Alice, at the same time, went up to Jasper and pulled him away from the other girl. She said, "Sally, is it? Jasper is mine. Take your filthy hands off of him. Tell all of your skanky friends that all three of them are taken. And just so that you can remember to keep your hands off of my man," she took the hand that had been lowest on Jasper's hip and gave it a little squeeze. I heard a bone break. "Now, I don't think that you want to go and touch my man again. Next time, I won't be squeezing your hand."

Rose was less subtle. She took the octopus and tore her off of Emmett. She then shoved her into the concrete wall of the gym. "He is taken. He is mine. If you have any more questions, bitch, meet me outside, off of school property, and we will discuss it. Otherwise, tell every whore that you know that the next one of you who touches my man is going to pay dearly."

The guys then put their arms around our necks, and we walked to the main building to go to our lockers so that we could get our books. We gathered what we needed for homework, and then went to the office to turn in our slips to Mrs. Copeland. Then we headed for our cars. When we got to the parking lot, we noticed a rather large group of rather large boys near our cars. We could hear them talking from the other side of the parking lot. They were saying things like, "Who do they think that they are?" and "They don't know who they're messing with!" and "We're going to set them straight!" and "They think that they can just walk into our town and mess with our girls!" and "We're going to show them whose boss!" and "They're going to be sorry that they ever moved to Black River Falls" and "They're going to run back to Alaska with their tails tucked between their legs."

We didn't stop walking or pay them any attention. We just continued to walk to our cars. As we approached the cars, the boys approached us. The biggest one said, "I don't think that you folks are fitting in very well here."

Edward, forever our spokesman, put his backpack down. The rest of us did the same. He stepped up to the boy who had spoken to him. "Is that a problem for you?"

"Yes, it is a problem for me. One of the girls that your sisters assaulted in the gym just happens to be my little sister."

"Which one? The red haired skank with the fake tits, her twin – the slut with the bad overbite, or the whore with eight arms?" Alice asked.

"That's it. You don't know when to keep your sister's mouth closed, do you?" the big one asked.

"Alice, no, we don't even try to shut her up anymore. We've found out over the years that when Alice says something, we listen. We bet on Alice, because Alice is never wrong," Emmett said, walking forward.

"You are going to pay for that," another boy in the crowd said.

"Wait just a minute. She was only reaching for his dick. She didn't blow him or even whack him off. We don't pay for whores who don't finish the job!" Jasper said, and that was all it took. Ten very large boys attacked all at once. Four went for Jasper, and three each went for Emmett and Edward. I wanted to get into the fight, but Alice and Rose both held me back. They said that human girls couldn't fight, and that I'd blow my cover if I got into the middle of it. We had to let the boys handle it. It wasn't the first time that they'd been in this situation.

Suddenly, Alice went into one of her trances. She said, "Jasper," and then she woke up. She looked at Rose and me and said, "Someone is going to bleed. Jasper is going to lose it. We've got to get him out of here."

I went up to Edward. "Keys," I said to him. He turned to look at me with a question in his eyes. I said, "Jasper." He blocked a punch and reached into his pocket, pulling out his keys. He handed them to me. Then I went to Jasper. "Come on Jazz, we've got to go now." He turned to look at me like I was crazy.

"Now, Bella. This isn't a good time," Jasper said.

I took him by the arm and pulled. My newborn strength was stronger than he was. He was pulling against me. "Jazz, you've got to go now. Someone is about to get cut and bleed. You and I have to go now." He looked at me, at the fear in my voice. We both ran to the Volvo and got into the car. We drove off, heading for the house.

"Thank you, Bella," Jasper said.

"Thank you, Alice. She had the vision. I don't know what would have happened to us both if we were confronted with blood. The others could have stood it, but I don't know if they could have pulled both of us off," I said.

We waited on the porch for the others to arrive. They were twenty minutes behind us. Emmett was driving, and they skidded to a stop right in front of the porch. They all jumped out, Edward and Alice carrying two bookbags.

"Well, what happened?" I asked as they came up on the porch.

"A couple of teachers finally came and broke it up," Edward said. "We are supposed to go to Mr. Barnard's office in the morning, all of us, the girls, too. In fact, everyone who was present is supposed to meet there in the morning."

"Why don't all of you come on inside and tell us all about it?" we heard Carlisle say from the dining room.

If my heart was beating, it would have skipped a beat. As it was, my stomach was in my chest. I followed the rest of my siblings into the fabled dining room. I had only been in on a couple of meetings in this room, and in none of those was I one of the ones in trouble. I took my seat next to Edward. The others took their seats.

"Okay, let's hear it. Who wants to start?" Carlisle asked.

Nobody spoke up. "Edward, as the oldest, I guess that it falls on you to explain."

"I guess now would be a bad time to remind everybody that Jasper is actually older than I am by about 60 years...." Everyone remained quiet, and Jasper glared at him, sending him a wave of anger. "I guess so, Okay, here goes. Today has been a really bad day for the six of us pertaining to dealing with our jealousy towards our mates. I don't know why it was worse today than any other day or other first day at a new school, but it was. Girls were physically all over Emmett. Guys were whistling at Rose. Jasper had one girl practically palming him in the gym, right in front of Alice. Guys were fantasizing about Alice and Bella no matter which way I turned. I'm sure that Jazz was feeling the lust coming off of them. And Bella had never experienced the girls touching me before, but she had heard all of the girls at Forks High and their fantasies, so she knew what most of them were thinking, and she wasn't far off. Well, everybody held it together until the end of the day. When we finished changing after gym, we were waiting for the girls outside of their locker rooms, when several girls came on to us. They were being physical, and no amount of telling them to back off was working. So when the girls came out of the locker room, they kinda took matters into their own hands, literally. They called the girls names, and basically man-handled them a little bit. I think that Alice broke one of their hands. Anyway, we turned in our teacher slips and got our books out of our lockers, and when we went to the cars, we were met by half of the football team. They talked some smack, and we talked some smack, and they started a fight. It was about ten to the three of us. We didn't hit anybody; we just blocked punches. Bella had to pull Jaz out because Alice had a vision that one of them would bleed, and one of them did split his knuckles on Emmett's chin. Then a couple of teachers broke it up. We all have to go to Mr. Barnard's office in the morning."

"Alice, what do you see?" Esme asked.

Alice concentrated for several minutes, then she answered, "We are all going to get one day of in school suspension. We should take something to keep us occupied, and no Emmett, if you try to sneak in your I-pod, you will get caught, and it will get taken away. You need to find something else to keep you occupied. No, not Rose, they won't allow petting. Something else. No, no cards. Something else. No, no Nintendo. Something else. Something like a book to read. No, no Playboy or Hustler. A book, Emmett. Yes, Lord of the Rings is perfect."

"What I don't understand is why this is so difficult for the six of you. You seem to have a problem with this everywhere that we go. Esme and I don't have this problem, and she's not with me every moment of the day. At least you six get to spend the day together," Carlisle said.

"That's nice, Carlisle," I said, "but you also get to be married to Esme. You get to wear your wedding ring every day. Every female that sees you sees an outward sign that you are taken. You don't have strange women come up to you daily and put their hands on you. You don't have strange men go up to Esme every day and ask her to go out with them. We don't have that. And to top that off, we are pretending to be brothers and sisters. People out there assume that brothers and sisters don't date. So you see, when we go to school, they see six very attractive, very unattached people who they very much want to sink their claws into. When you let the six of us be husband and wife, the jealousy and fighting will cease."

"Carlisle, she has a point. I can't imagine what they must go through. If I walked into the hospital and saw some woman with her hands near little Carlisle, I would throw her into a wall, too."

"EWWW, Mom, TMI, TMI," Emmett said.

"I see," said Carlisle. "Maybe I should go to your meeting in the morning. I think that Mr. Barnard needs to understand some things about your relationships."

"Thank you, Dad," Edward said.

Edward, Alice, and I spent the next thirty minutes finishing our homework. Then everyone, except Alice, went outside with me to work on controlling my strength. We tossed a football back and forth for a little bit while Alice went shopping for our gym uniforms. Then, we decided to go inside and work on my fine motor skills. They gave me an old encyclopedia and had me try to turn one page at a time. I was the subject of many laughs when I turned from aardvark to anteater. They said that I was trying to advance my diet, one "A" at a time.

When the family was finally finished with my "occupational therapy," Edward and I went hunting. We ran together into the forest, hand in hand. He let me "lead" the hunt. I soon identified another wolf scent and started tracking it. This time, there were two wolves, both of them eating from a fresh kill. I fell into a crouch and attacked. I took the one on the left down, breaking its neck in one swift motion. I drained him swiftly as Edward took his partner. I was learning quickly. When we had disposed of the corpses, we went for a walk.

"How bad was it today?" I asked him.

"Well, let's just say that every boy that you and Alice passed started having wild fantasies about you two. It wasn't fun to watch. Sometimes I wish that I could just turn off the voices and live in quiet."

"What do you think that Mr. Barnard is going to say tomorrow?"

"It will be okay. We usually have to go through this when we first move to a new place. It is hard for all of us, well usually all of them, to deal with the advances of the children. You'd think that they'd be afraid of us, want to avoid us, but they seem to want to get near us. It happens every time. This is just the first time that it has affected me so directly."

"What can we do to isolate us more effectively?"

"Eventually, it just happens. The rumors get started that we're dating each other. We have to be seen out with each other occasionally. That is usually the best way to get them to start laying off of us."

"Well, would you like to take me to the football game Friday night?"

"I don't know about that. We generally don't go. There is usually blood at football games. I don't know if that would be good for you or for Jasper."

"Oh, I didn't think of that. Well, how about a movie tomorrow night? I'd like to go somewhere with the family. I guess that I'm not used to being up all night, yet. I'm going stir crazy, Edward. I don't know what to do with myself."

"Love, that's why Alice shops and designs clothes. Jasper does his Civil War research. He has written several books on the Civil War under a pseudonym. Rose has her love of cars, and she keeps all of the cars perfectly tuned. Emmett, well, truthfully, besides his video games and Rose, I don't know what Emmett does to keep himself entertained. I have my music. Carlisle has medicine, and Esme has her home restoration and design. Then we all learn languages. You, love, have your reading and writing. You could read to your heart's content. You could also write, short stories or a novel. If you wanted for me to work with you on a language, I'm all yours. The world is yours. All that you have to do choose."

"I still am having trouble turning one page at a time. That would make reading a little bit complicated. I think that I would like to learn a language. I've never been very good at languages, and I've heard you and Alice speak other languages. That would be cool."

"Which one would you like to start with?"

"I took two years of Spanish during college, but I never really learned it. I couldn't really do much more than count to twenty and tell you my name at this point."

"Well, let's begin." Edward and I walked until sunrise. He spoke in Spanish, requiring me to translate what he had said. As the night went on, I soon began to recognize certain phrases. By morning, I was beginning to answer him in elementary statements. He told me that he was pleased with my progress.

We headed back to the house to get ready for school. After making love in the shower, we got dressed and met the others downstairs. At 7 o'clock, we set off for school following Carlisle. We parked and followed Carlisle to Mr. Barnard's office. He was already in, and he opened the locked door for us. We followed him into his office. He shut the door. The six of us paired off as Carlisle took a seat across from his desk.

"I didn't expect you to attend this meeting, Dr Cullen," Mr. Barnard said.

"I felt like I needed to talk with you after talking with the kids yesterday afternoon," Carlisle started.

"There was a video taken of the entire incident. We have video surveillance of most of the school grounds. When the tape of the incident was reviewed, it was determined that your children were not responsible for initiating the altercation yesterday afternoon. It was also determined that they didn't throw any punches. They only defended themselves. However, the rules still stand. The six of them were involved in confrontations yesterday. They will receive one day of In School Suspension. They will be allowed to complete all of their school work and homework today. They are to go to their lockers and get all of their books. Then they are to report to the cafeteria where they will spend today."

"That is acceptable. Now, what I wanted to discuss with you. My children are in relationships with each other. Emmett and Rosalie are together. Jasper and Alice are together, and Edward and Bella are together. I understand that to you this may seem unorthodox. However, let me explain. These teenagers, I won't call them children as they are far from children. They were neighbors in the small town where they grew up. Emmett, Edward, and Alice are brothers and sisters. Jasper, Rosalie, and Bella are brothers and sisters. They grew up together and began dating, pairing off into couples. Their parents were the best of friends. One weekend, tragedy struck both families. Their parents were attending a social function together when they were all four killed in an automobile accident. The six of them were placed in foster care when no relatives were found to take them in. My wife and I lived in the same town. I knew these guys since they were babies, having been their physician. My wife and I can't have children of our own, so when they were placed in foster care and were going to be split up, we decided to adopt them all. So, you see, while legally they are brothers and sisters, their relationships predate their becoming siblings. We, my wife and I, have no problems with them continuing their relationships. In fact, we are encouraging them. We have no intention to force more hurt and trauma on them."

"I see. Well, that makes sense. I think that you and your wife are wonderful people to take them into your home like that. I have no problem with their relationships. They will have to obey the school handbook on the rules of PDA, only holding hands is allowed on campus."

"Well, you see, their relationships are what the problems yesterday all stemmed from."

"In what way?"
"Well, several girls were throwing themselves at the boys. They were touching them very inappropriately. When the girls came out of the locker room and witnessed the fondling, they got just a little bit angry."

"What do you mean, inappropriate touching?"

"One of them apparently had her hand on Jasper's crotch. The other two weren't far behind."

"Well, yes, that is definitely inappropriate behavior. Where did this take place? None of the video cameras that we reviewed showed that happening."

"Just outside of the girl's locker room in the gym."

"Do you know who did it?"

Carlisle looked at Alice. "I assume it was the one with the broken hand." Alice nodded.

"How do you know that she has a broken hand?"

"They heard her bone snap when Alice squeezed it."

"Oh. Okay. Well, it sure sounds like she deserved it. Now you kids get to your lockers then get to the cafeteria."

"Yes sir," we said. We left, hand in hand.

Once outside of the office, Edward said, "Thanks Carlisle."

"You're welcome. Have a good day. See you at home."

We got our books and headed to the cafeteria. We took a table in the corner and sat down. We talked about going to the movies tonight. Everyone agreed to go with Edward and me. Then we started talking in Spanish to work with me. I was still having problems with some of the verbs. Edward started making me a list of the verbs that I was missing and their conjugations. I looked over them until the In School Suspension supervisor arrived with our assignments. She walked over to our table and explained that the rules included no talking. If we were caught talking, we would be separated.

Ten minutes later the others arrived. The supervisor had them to arrange themselves at tables around ours so that she could pay attention to all of us at the same time. There was an increased amount of grumbling as they took their seats. The largest boy took a seat behind me. I felt Edward tense. Under my breath and too low for anyone to hear except for us, I asked Edward what he was thinking.

"He's thinking that he would like to take you behind the gym and strip your clothes off."

"Just remember, sweetheart, you're the only one who gets to do that, and you basically did, just this morning, though we weren't behind the gym. If you'd like to go behind the gym tonight, I could arrange that," I said, placing my hand on his thigh.

He took my hand in his and gave it a squeeze. "Let's get this work done, love, then we can talk all you want to." I nodded my head and tried to open The Lord of the Flies. Our instructions for today were to write a summary of chapter 6. Try as I might, I couldn't turn the pages. Frustrated, I finally put the book down.

"Edward, can I look on with you? I can't seem to get my fingers to turn only one page at a time, yet." Emmett stifled a laugh as Rosalie hit him in the back of the head. Edward turned back to the first page of the chapter and leaned towards me, holding the book between us so that I could see it, too. I could read as fast as he could, so when he was finished with a page and turned a page, I was ready as well. It took us a whole five minutes to read the chapter, then another five to write a summary. Our chemistry assignment was to answer the questions at the end of the next section of the chapter. Edward turned to the questions, putting his book between us. We finished the questions in another five minutes. In world history, we were to outline the next two sections of the chapter. Edward again put his book between us. This assignment took a little longer to complete, a whole ten minutes. Algebra II was a page full of problems, easily worked in ten minutes, and Geometry took another ten. All together, today's work and homework took an hour to complete. The others were done as well. School was such a waste.

We took our work to the teacher who was supervising us. She told us that we needed to wait until we had finished all of the work and turn it in together. We told her that we did finish it all and gave it to her. Then we went back to our table. We took our seats, and Alice took out a sketch pad. She began working on some new sketches. I tried to look over her shoulder, but she shooed me off. Emmett took out The Lord of the Rings and started reading it.

Jasper looked at Rose, and she pulled out a one thousand piece puzzle. He said, "Let's work on your fine motor skills some, Bella." Alice looked up and put up her drawing pad. She and Edward moved their chairs closer to mine. Rose opened the box and set it in the middle of the table. Immediately, four hands entered the box and started pulling out end pieces.

I started to try to put some of the end pieces together when Edward said, "What do you think that you are doing?"

"Putting together the puzzle?" I asked, stopping and pulling my hands out of the mayhem.

"Edward doesn't let you put the end pieces together until all of the corner pieces have been located," Jasper said.

"Oh, okay. I didn't realize that puzzles came with a rule book," I countered. Then I gave Edward a quick kiss on the cheek so that he would know that I was just kidding.

"Corner," Alice said, putting it to the side.

A few seconds later, Rose said, "Corner." That's two, I ticked off in my mind. Only two more to go then I can start touching puzzle pieces.

"Corner," Alice said again. That's three. Only one more.

"Corner," Edward said. "Now you can start working on the edges."

I started working on the sides of the puzzle. It was initially hard for my to pick up the pieces of the puzzle. I would push it into the table or scoot it before I picked it up. We finally got the outside put together. Then we started working on the inside.

The supervising teacher walked over to our table. She asked us, "What are you doing?"

Alice said, "Um, putting together a puzzle?"

She asked us, "Why are you putting together a puzzle?"

Alice said, "Because we're done with all of our work, and you don't want us to talk. We didn't think that you'd want us to play a game."

She thought for a little while, then she said, "I don't want you putting together a puzzle either."

Alice asked, "Then exactly what do you want us to do for the remaining 7 hours of the school day?"

She said, "You can study, or you can reflect about what you did to receive this punishment."

Reluctantly, we put the puzzle back into its box. When she walked away, Emmett looked at us and said, "You should have brought a book to read." We broke out laughing, this time out loud. Ms. In School Suspension glared at us, and we realized that we were being too loud.

I have to admit that my appreciation for the activities that we had available for our entertainment during our long nights grew during that long seven hours. When the day was over, we gladly took our books to our lockers and headed towards our cars. We were walking hand in hand. Several of the other students were whispering about us being together. Good, the word was finally getting out. When we reached the cars, we climbed in, and I kissed Edward long and deep. I saw several of the girls watching us, staring, with their mouths open. Edward broke the kiss and started the car. We followed Emmett home.

Since we didn't have any homework, Edward and I went hunting until time for us to leave for the movie. We all crowded into Emmett's jeep and made our way to the theater. We parted into couples, and got into line. There were several people that I recognized from school. The guys bought our tickets, and we hung onto them as we moved into the correct theater. As soon as we sat down, I leaned over and started kissing Edward.

"Um, Bella, what are you doing?" he asked.

"I'm staking my claim. I can either kiss you or do something else with you, your choice," I said. He leaned over and started kissing me again. We weren't the only ones. Emmett and Rose weren't holding back. Even Jasper and Alice, who don't usually exhibit their feelings for each other in public, were kissing. We watched the movie when it came on, and when it was over, we walked out, hand in hand. Before we got into the jeep, we held each other and kissed for a little while, just to make sure that everyone got a chance to see us.

The next day at school, a boy in a soccer uniform walked up to me while Edward and I were at our lockers. "Hi, my name is Josh. We're having a soccer game tonight, and I thought that I'd invite you and your brother to the game."

"That's sweet of you, but Edward is my boyfriend. We have been together for the past 5 years," I said.

"I thought that he said that you were his sister when he introduced you day before yesterday. I'm confused," Josh said.

"Well, technically, I guess you could say that he is my brother. The Cullens adopted all of us. However, we were all together before we were adopted. Carlisle and Esme don't have a problem with us being together, so I don't see why anybody else should. Besides, I wouldn't give Edward up even if they did have a problem with it. I was made to be with him for eternity, literally," I said, leaning into Edward. He put his arms around me and kissed me on the top of the head.

"Let's go, love. We don't want to be late for class." We started moving towards our English class and Josh followed us. We ran into Alice and Jasper outside of the door. The lust that Jasper was putting off was intense.

"Good Lord, Jasper. You and Alice need to take care of that before you leave in the mornings. You're going to make me uncomfortable for the whole morning if you keep that up," I said. "Pun definitely intended. Edward and I usually take care of that in our morning shower."

"I know, we all hear you two, every morning. You aren't very quiet, Bella," Alice said.

"Better at home than at school, Ali," I said.

"Okay, you two, enough," Edward said. "Let's get this day over with and the two of you can do whatever you please with Jasper and me at home. Deal?"

"Deal," Alice and I said at once.

Jasper just smiled and hugged Alice another time. "See you at morning break, darlin'. Don't start without me."

"Jazz, you know that I don't start without you, much," Alice said.

We walked into the English room, and Josh walked in after us. Little did he know that we had staged the whole conversation just for his benefit. We were tired of the blatant suggestions and innuendos that kept spilling from those around us wanting to touch our spouses or worse. By morning break, we were definitely the talk of the school. Everyone knew that we were together. Several people looked like they wanted to approach us, but then they changed their minds. Things were starting to work in our favor, and we were happy with the results.