Sorry it took so long to get this chapter up, but I've had a shed-load of homework. As a matter of fact, I'm meant to be doing my English right now, but I can't be bothered. So I decided to give you the next chapter instead.

If you have any comments, please leave them in a review.

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"So what do you think of this blue one?"

"It's nice."

"But I quite liked the black one."

"That one was nice too."

"And the red one?"

"Yeah, it was nice."

"But which one is best?"

I looked at the dresses Jessica was holding out and the one that she was wearing. In all honesty I thought they were all awful. The black one made her look middle-aged, the red one made her look fat and the blue one made her look like a whore. There was only one in the entire shop that suited her and she'd rejected it because it was 'too simple'. Now she was doomed to look ridiculous at the school dance. If only she was as easy to shop with as Angela (the quiet one, remember?). She'd already picked out a nice pink dress with matching shoes and was ready to go. As I helped Jessica pick out a dress, Angela was off looking at jewellery.

"Um..." I stared at the dresses, trying to decide which one was nicest. Finally, I just asked, "Which one do you like best?"

"I don't know,"Jessica said, frowning at the different outfits. "I guess the blue one's quite nice."

"So do you want to buy that?"

After a moment's thought, she smiled. "Yeah, I'll buy this one."

"Okay then,"I nodded, forcing a smile. "Let's go then."

"Wait a minute, Izzy. I need to get shoes,"Jessica giggled.

"Oh. Right. Okay then, you go get shoes,"I told her, gesturing in the direction I thought the shoes were.

"Yeah, I'll just get changed first." She turned to go back into the changing room, paused, then glanced round at me. "Izzy, you wouldn't mind putting these dresses back, would you? Thanks." Then she dumped the garments in my arms and hurried to get changed. I raised an eyebrow, but decided not to fuss. If she was going to wear the horrible blue dress then I'd be as nice as possible to make her feel better. It would make me feel better about not doing more to stop her, too. Besides, I had some stuff I wanted to think about.

The weekend after I'd got out of that Biology class, Mike had invited me to go with him and a bunch of friends to the nearby beach. It was at a place called La Push or something. Anyway, it had been a lot of fun. We'd gone wandering over to some rock pools; built a big bonfire; cooked a few sausages. The whole routine. And when I was there, I'd run into an old friend.

His name was Jacob Black and I'd played with him and his sisters years ago when I visited Forks. Charlie went fishing with his dad quite often now. Anyway, we got to talking and started reminiscing and stuff. Somehow we got onto the subject of mythology and he started telling some old stories about the area. I can't remember what he said so I'll give you the most important part: he said that Dr. Cullen and his family were cold, pale-skinned, blood-sucking creatures that were the enemy of the local people.

It sounded stupid of course, but I'd been thinking of that for the whole week after that to this point. Let me tell you what I've come up with. Pale, hard skin. Cold bodies. Strange beings of darkness. I've come up with the following conclusions: I was smarter than I thought I was, mythology could be interesting, Edward Cullen was a vampire. Well think about it. I've touched his skin and it's pretty cold and hard. He keeps away from everyone else in the school (except his family and me). Then there was all the weird stuff that he did when the van almost crashed into me. It made sense. Well it did in my mind, anyway. I was planning to talk to him about it as soon as possible.

But there was something else. The reason Edward spent time with me. I've watched an awful lot of vampire movies in my time and I think I've figured it out. The vampire kid wanted to drink my blood. How often does someone say that?

So... About three things I was absolutely sure.

1) Edward was a vampire.

2) There was a part of him that thirsted for my blood.

3) That was unconditionally and irrevocably the coolest thing ever.

Suddenly, I was able to forgive him for behaving so strangely. I now understood completely why he acted like he had a split personality. I didn't care that he acted like a stalker. It didn't matter because he was a vampire. A blood-sucking creature of the night (I know he could walk about in the day, but still). When I told him I knew his secret he would probably sweep me off my feet, bury his fangs in my neck and carry me off to some dark, sinister mansion. I hoped he would anyway.

Ever since I was a child I'd dreamed about vampires. When other girls had been reading fairy tales and dreaming of their prince, I'd been dreaming of my evil monster who was coming to save me. I still loved the idea of a evil creature drinking my blood. I mean, is there any better way to die? Of course, I'd much rather become one, but still. I was so excited. Edward was a vampire!

"Izzy, what do you think of these shoes?" Jessica called, snapping me out of my thoughts. She was holding up a pair of strappy sandals covered in so many sequins they were like horrible little mirror balls.

"Oh yeah... They're nice."

It took a while, but eventually Jessica picked out a pair of shoes that went with her dress, paid for everything and we wandered out of the store. We were planning on going to a restaurant and getting something to eat, but we still had about an hour before that. So, while Jessica and Angela went for a walk down the beach, I wandered off in search of a music shop. I wanted some CDs. And I wanted to mull over my vampire hypothesis a bit more.

It took me a little while to find a music shop and when it didn't have any CDs I didn't already have. So I moseyed off in search of another shop. Any other shop. I just wanted something to do until I went back to the restaurant. Unfortunately, there didn't seem to be anything of interest in the first few streets I walked along and even less on the next few. So I didn't expect anything on the next street.

At first I was right to expect nothing, there were just a bunch of warehouses. Then, when I reached the end of the road, I noticed that I wasn't quite alone. Actually, I noticed that a few people were following me. And then there were a few people waiting in the next street. I trotted along the pavement, watching the people behind me with one eye and the people in front of me with the other. They seemed to be closing in on me. Or was I being vain? Maybe they were just trying to walk past me and I just thought they were following me.

Er... No, they were following me. I knew they were when one of them stopped right in front of me and grinned down at me with crooked yellow teeth. I looked back up at him and blinked pleasantly.

"Hello,"I greeted him.

"Hello,"he leered back.

"I'm sure you don't mean to, but you're blocking my way,"I told him, pointing past him to a lit street I could see.

"You're not going to leave, are you sweetie?"someone asked behind me. I glanced round at him. "I was hoping we could have some fun."

"Oh... You want some fun?" I nodded and felt a grin spread across my face. "Well... I could help you with that." I don't think any of them noticed my fist until it barrelled into that fat one's face.