I was late for breakfast with Jack the next morning. It wasn't really my fault though. How could I have known that the mechanics involved in creating a motorcycle would be so interesting, or that my internet could be so slow? I grabbed a bag of grapes from the refrigerator before rushing to my truck and … obeying the letter rather than the spirit of some extremely subjective traffic laws.

He was waiting beside his teaspoon full of rust when I arrived.

"Oh, How I have missed you! Isabella, it has been too long."

"So…Am I to understand that you are hungry, Mr. Stevens?"

"The lady…I'm sorry. Insert something witty and tell me that you have food."

I threw the bag of grapes to him and watched with a vague mix of amusement and horror as he fell upon them ravenously. When the feeding frenzy had died down a bit, he pulled the old blanket out and we sat on the bed of my truck. After a few moments spent looking at each other and enjoying the morning, he suddenly sat up a bit straighter and said one of the oddest things I'd ever heard.

"I want to guess your life story."

"What?"

"I want to guess your life story. I want to know more about you and I think that this could be an interesting way to do that. I could say something, like that you were afraid of the tooth fairy when you were four, and you could confirm or deny it."

"Is there an option to do neither, like a pass?"

"There could be."

"Would I get to guess yours?"

"Would you want to?"

"It's rude to answer a question with a question."

"You invite perfect strangers to call you sweetheart, Milady; I doubt that a touch of rudeness will wound you."

"Yes," I said abruptly. The conversation was moving into some very odd and very annoying territory so I had to knock it back into place before I felt the need to knock something else.

"Yes, what?"

"Yes, I'm willing to give this whole guessing life stories bit a try if you can deal with a couple of ground rules."

"What dost the lady require?"

"Your secrecy, anything private learned in this strange game of yours must be kept in the greatest confidence. Failure to comply may result in your abrupt banishment from my most elite company."

"You have it, and the option to "pass" is yours as well. Since you called this a game, we'll make it a competition. The person who gets the most right in their guessing wins and the loser buys the winner a meal; one other than breakfast for obvious reasons."

"Then the games are afoot. We begin on the morrow at dawn."

"Dawn?"

"Are you my lord or my jester? You know what I meant. We'll start at breakfast tomorrow. Now, friendly fool, we must make haste to our lessons."

We were late for class because the truck of Jack's car wouldn't close properly at first. Mr. Berty gave us disapproving looks but we were otherwise unharmed. The lecture was boring but I tried to focus rather than plan my guesses about Jack's childhood. I succeeded through English but failed in Calculus.

My apologies to Mr. Varner, but the image of a little blond child, with stunning eyes and a face that hid mischief, was far more interesting than anything he could have been lecturing on. I tried to imagine what that little blond boy liked to do, what he loved, how he acted. It occurred to me that I truly wanted to know. Jack was such a character then that the question of what he'd been like in the years before I'd met him was intriguing.

I'll admit to wanting him to know me too. I was drawn to him. Something about him made me want to tell him things that weren't secrets, but that didn't usually come up, like the thousand little things that Edward had had never known about me. I'd taken and failed at piano lessons, and won the second grade spelling bee, and blown a bubble the size of my head with as much gum as I could chew. I'd loved to dance when I was younger, holding Renée's hands and spinning wildly to the latest pop tunes on the radio. I wanted Jack to know those things, wanted to know why thinking about him knowing those things made want to dance and blow bubbles again.

Though still smiling over the mental image of Jack as a toddler, I somehow managed to pay attention in Spanish, until about halfway through class when I noticed that Jessica was shooting looks at me that ranged from curiosity to hostility.

I hadn't really thought much about Jessica in a long while. I briefly considered sitting with her at lunch and trying to catch up on what I'd missed but I decided against that. I wasn't all that fond of Jessica and, with all that I was trying to accomplish, I didn't need the drama of having the entire school knowing and pushing their opinions on me. The way she was looking at me was somewhat worrying. I'd have to keep an eye on her, and maybe ask Angela if something was up.

Jack was waiting patiently by the cafeteria doors when I got to lunch. We stood in line and then took our trays and sat at what was becoming our usual table with Angela and Ben.

"Hey Bella, are you looking forward to our movie night this Friday?"

"Absolutely, have you ever read The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants?"

"I love those books! So are we…"

"Watching the movie on Friday? That's what I was considering."

"We could head over to my house right after school and do makeovers or personalize some old jeans while we watch."

"How about we do both and watch both movies?"

"Sounds great, you could spend the night and we'll make a sleepover of it."

"Glad to see you won't be bored," Ben interjected, " by the way, Jack are you busy on Friday?"

"Sorry if I've led you on Ben, but I'm-"

"Ha ha, look, I know it's not really your thing, but some guys I know are getting together on Friday, to watch some old games and maybe play some video games. You want to join us?"

" You're certainly right about it not being my thing but since the ladies are sampling sorority a bit of brotherhood might be good for me."

Angela winked at me before turning to Jack and saying, " You know, 'yes' works just as well and it's shorter."

"Izzy, please refrain from corrupting your friends. Angela, really, you were such a sweet girl. It's sad to see such an angel fall."

We laughed and as the laughter died down I looked up and saw Jessica looking at us with disdain. I remembered that I'd planned to ask about her.

"So Ange, what's up with Jessica? She seems annoyed with me, but I can't think of why."

"I don't know. Maybe she's just having a bad day. She's been hanging out with Lauren more, and you know how she is. If she has a problem with you, it's probably nothing you did."

"Who's Jessica," Jack asked, reminding me suddenly that he was new to Forks High.

Ben and Angela pointed her out at the table with Mike and skirted around a description of her personality for a few moments before deciding to go on to class. Jack and I walked to Biology together and alternated between taking notes and passing them, nearly getting caught several times.

Afterschool, we met by my truck.

"How was Gym class today," he asked.

"I'm still standing."

"Yes, but were you during Gym?"

"Sometimes. Since when are you obsessed with me being horizontal?"

"Since when is it at all lady-like to attempt to throw me off with innuendo?"

I blushed.

"Since it became gentlemanly to pick at my short-comings."

"Accept my sincerest apology, but I truly meant no offence."

"Don't worry about it. I have to go. I'm doing a lot this weekend, and I need to work if I don't want to get behind."

" Understandable, I'll see you tomorrow. "

When I got home, I closed my eyes and lay back on my bed. I let my mind empty and my awareness expand and enjoyed the silence that I would never really have with other people around. There was no shifting or footsteps or sighing. I closed my eyes and the walls disappeared. Something was absent. It was not missing but it wasn't there. I'd meditated before, on one of Renée's whims, but it had never felt like that. It was sort of comforting in an odd way. If something has left, it can return. An absence is not death.

I studied for a while then went downstairs and made dinner. After dinner I went upstairs and read more about motorcycles online. I thought about my plans with Angela on Friday. I wondered what it would be like to have a normal human makeover. The closest I'd come before had involved being swept up in hurricane Alice. While that hadn't been all together horrible, she'd always aimed at creating a look that Edward would like or that was expensive and eye catching. I'd never really had much involvement in the final product.

I thought about how I'd like to look. I pictured myself with shorter hair or different clothes. If I was going to live differently then shouldn't I look it?

Was there something else that I could do? Another part of my life that could do with a change? I wanted to be stronger and to have better coordination. Could I take a self-defense class? Was there a gym that I could join? There was quite a bit research to do in the morning and lots to consider, and I refused to be late meeting Jack for the second morning in a row, so I went to bed.

That night I had the dream about the meadow again, but it was different. Where before the brave and defiant girl and I had faced a coven, now there was only Laurent; though to say that is somewhat like saying that your enemy has a hand gun instead of a rocket launcher. Either way it looked like we were going to die. In the past I'd walked towards death, a martyr in my own right. This time, in that dream, I was no one's martyr. The absence I'd felt earlier was a weight binding me to life. I tried to look at my defender; the girl that I was about to die beside, but all I could do was stare as Laurent approached. His eyes were red and he was as beautiful to me as the flames must be to a woman being burned at the stake, or the gleaming edge of a knife before it strikes the heart.

I woke up screaming with Charlie leaning over me. I sat up breathing heavily and leaned forward. I touched my forehead to his, whispering oaths and swearing that it was just a nightmare. It was just a nightmare; I wasn't going back into a catatonic state. I was going to be fine. Charlie sat down at the foot of my bed and watched me drift back to sleep.

As I drifted into sleep, I had the irrational thought that I was must have been the safest person in the entire world. Charlie looked as though he could protect me from anything, could banish Laurent from the state with a look because he was my dad, and we lived in the universe where dads never died, never lost, and daughters never wept or knew harm. I slept peacefully. And I lay still, feigning sleep when he poked his head in early the next morning to check on me before leaving for work.

Hey all, so sorry about the delay in getting this out. All I can say is that now that it's summer, I should be able to do a bit better in regards to the length and frequency. Guys I'm going to need some reviews please, how'm I doing here? I need at the least a "you don't suck" so I know if I should change something.

So… thanks as always to my reviewers and alert people, loving you all.

Next chapter: Izzy makes some decisions, and some guesses, Lauren makes an appearance, and I try to make with the Jack references so that some of you can earn shout outs.

Peace, love and happy mother's day (even if I focused more on fathers at the end of the chapter).

PS, it occurs to me that I might need a beta for this fic, any volunteers?