*All characters are © Stephenie Meyer!*
A/N: I'm having serious serious writers block guys. I have future chapters... but they need to take place in chronological order and right now it's February. This chapter sucks but I didn't want to just disappear. I apologize ahead of time!!!

Chapter 11 - Blinded
Edward

School had been absolutely unbearable since we found out about a possible direction our future would take. I was in another world most of the day, even with Bella sitting by my side the entire time. She would jar me back to reality every so often but it wouldn't be long before I went to this other place that has become a second life for me. In this life we had to live like the Volturi. We had to hide from humanity, no longer able to blend in. We wouldn't be able to attend school and Carlisle wouldn't be able to practice medicine. The detail that worried me the most, no matter what she promised, was what it would do to Bella... taking everything that is normal out of the picture.

I was now in a trance, looking aimlessly out of the second story window, unable to listen to Mrs. Baldwin drone on about genus and species. The scene of the frost covered lawn below, dull with no dimension due to the sun hiding behind the incessant clouds that owned the skies, was even more depressing than usual.

So sick of Cullen. Bella wouldn't be a problem without him. Derrick Harris had become my new Mike Newton; a sore loser. Who even wants her anymore? She's friends with Misty. Ugh.

These are the things I really did not consider when agreeing to change Bella. Of course it ended up being an emergency transformation, but all the same, I should have thought about this. I should have taken into consideration that she would have to deal with the drama of high school, the monotony of reliving the ages 15-20 and the repetitive classes... forever. I felt selfish still, regardless of how many times we've had the conversation, that I brought her into a life I hated for almost 100 years. Perhaps these are the reasons I am being over protective? Do I feel like I owe something to her?

"Mr. Cullen?"

"Hmm? Oh, binomial nomenclature."

I would have sworn he wasn't paying attention, Mrs. Baldwin thought although only smiled and nodded at my correct response.

Bella must have been thinking the same thing because she looked at me sideways and raised her eyebrows. I just tapped my forehead and grinned. In return she gave me the smile where only one corner of her mouth turned up and she looks at me through doe-like eyes. This, I had decided, was Bella's blush, minus the rosy cheeks. I needed to make changes for her; for us, before anything else happened. I would hate to move out after all of work Esme went into planning the house but I think it's what we needed. Someplace like the cottage; separating us as our own family but still close enough to our "coven." How I despised that term. Unfortunately it was coming up in conversation more often, most vampires didn't see each other as a family.

I was so involved in the aspect that we would need to live in secret underground passage ways, I missed the rest of the class. My view of the window that I hadn't take my eyes away from was suddenly obstructed by my wife, standing in front of me.

"You want to stay in biology all day?"

The bell must have rang because the room was practically empty, Mrs. Baldwin giving me a very odd stare, Strange family. Nice, smart and polite... but strange.

"Sorry, lost in thought."

"So I noticed," she said hoping I'd elaborate but to her disappointment I only took her hand and walked towards the cafeteria.

Alice was talking to me well before we could even see her and Jasper who waited for us by the stairs.

The house will be pretty, but I don't think you should leave. Not right now, please? We need to stick together.

Damn her premonitions. When we finally did see them I only shrugged at her, Bella immediately recognized the signs of our private conversation and gave me a sour look.

"You will tell me later," she snapped.

Misty and Sophie sat with us as they had been since the day they had been first invited over. A part from Bella they were only two humans I had met that seemingly had no aversion to us. Angela, Ben and Mike all made an effort in Forks, but they did it out of loyalty to Bella, not because they ultimately enjoyed the company. Misty never had an unkind thought run through her head besides the occasional stab at Derrick Harris which made me like her even more. I thought Sophie on the other hand could block me like Bella because she rarely had a thought... until I realized she just doesn't really think but instead prefers to sing to herself. She was completely content being awkward and quirky; being different. I envied her in some ways.

Today, Alice fawned over Misty who had made the mistake of admitting she had a date. Bella's face showed an expression of both relief and pity. Relief that finally someone else could be Alice's barbie doll, pity because she knew what Misty would be getting herself into.

"You have to come over to get ready! Please, I have the perfect outfit for you to wear!" It was difficult to deny Alice's pleading almost child-like eyes.

"I guess..." Misty was uncertain and rightly so.

"So who's the lucky guy?" Emmett asked concentrating on balancing the tongs of a fork on his fingers. He had opened up to the two girls, more so than Rosalie and Jasper, but that wasn't a surprise.

Misty blushed. I can't talk about this with them, it's so weird! "He goes to the college," she murmured referring to Davis and Elkins College. And he's so cute and polite and awesome but can't even compare to any of you! Oh, I can't believe I'm thinking that!

I had to use all of my self control not to break a smile. I instead turned to Bella, who was resting her chin on her hand, leaning on the table with her elbow, looking extremely content.

Within ten seconds the tranquil atmosphere that surrounded our circle was shattered.

Alice's face went blank, a sign I knew well.

The sun! She screamed in her head. I saw what she saw with barely any time to think.

In one lightning fast motion I broke the clasp that held Bella's rings around her neck, faster than any human eye could follow. My mind was full of a deafening silence; I could only hear the metal rings bounce on the linoleum floor as if the rest of the world had ceased to exist. All the while I was following Alice's vision, changing constantly with my every move. I yanked Bella down to the ground before words even left my mouth.

"Oops, Bella your rings!"

We were under the table now, her eyes wide with confusion. The rest of the table was scrambling in reaction to our dramatic scene; seats went flying from the table and screeching across the floor. It seemed like it was happening in slow motion but in reality it had been a few seconds.

And then the sun broke through.

We hid under the table, neither of us breathing, our eyes fixated at the sunshine that was down beaming down right where we had been sitting moments before. I looked down at Bella's hand, it had moved just inches too far and was gentling sparkling in the rays, but she quickly pulled it back before I could point it out. We pretended to look for the rings, a few times I would push one farther from my fingers giving us reasons to crawl away from the windows.

Finally, we rose from our knees with dozens of eyes watching us in amusement. We were standing near a solid door now, blocked from any chance of natural light, but it still shined in through the windows at interval breaks in the clouds, surrounding us on both sides.

"What do we do?" Bella pretended to be concerned about her necklace, worrying over the broken clasp.

"Alice is figuring it out. That was a close one." I realized it was the first time I had taken a breath in minutes.

When I turned back to the table only Alice, Misty and Sophie still stood there. You guys created enough distraction so I told them to get out of here. I can't imagine anyone saw, you guys were putting on quite a show, she explained. That was close, I'm so sorry Edward. I don't know how it slipped by me.

I put up my hand gesturing for her to stop apologizing and turned back to Bella who had given up on the necklace and slipped both rings onto the third finger of her left hand. It was amazing how much better it felt to see those rings where they belonged.

"Hey, I missed seeing those there." I completely ignored the fact that we were in a cafeteria full of teenagers, that we were almost exposed to most of Elkins High School and that Alice was wordlessly whining. I picked up Bella's delicate, pale hand in mine and kissed it, moving my other hand up to cradle her cheek.

She flashed me an expression of pure happiness, the one where she smiles with both her eyes and mouth at the same time, reached up on her tip toes and kissed me. "I had been feeling a little naked without them. I think I'll just wear them here from now on. They," she made a slight gesture to our audience, "can say whatever they want."

A foot below my eye level I noticed my tiny sister, pouting and stomping her foot. "Is it an emergency Alice?" I asked annoyed that I was jarred out of my moment.

"Well, not really," she contemplated. "We're just going to need to go home before our next class. I can't believe I missed this. What is wrong with me?"

"Is your necklace broken?" It was Sophie's little voice now next to Alice. "Oh no! I'm sorry Bella, I'm sure it can be fixed!" I had never heard the girl hold so much emotion behind one sentence.

"Yeah it's okay, I may just wear them from now on if Edward doesn't mind," she winked at me.

Misty clasped her hands together. "Oh you should! They're so pretty!" She took Bella's cold hand in hers before any of us could react, but had no reaction to the temperature. "They look amazing against your skin!"

We need to make our exit Edward. Now. Alice poked me in the back and gave me a nudge. Oh, how convenient, she broke into a grin.

I looked at her quizzically for only a second, and then the fire alarm went off.

"Emmett," we both said in sync.

The sprinklers exploded followed by shrieks of surprised students trying to get out of the indoor storm while teachers ran into the cafeteria trying to contain the chaos. We found ourselves in the middle of a sea of students making it easy to walk by the windows without being directly in the sunlight. In all of the commotion no one realized, not even Sophie or Misty, that the three remaining Cullens slipped out the side door.

We stood in a dark stairwell waiting for Emmett to drive around and pick us up. Alice twirled around the banister haphazardly, her eyes glazed over with visions of the future was passing through her mind right then. I tried to see what she was but her visions were inconsistent, jumping from one possibility to another, most of them being completely unrelated. I could see the look of almost physical pain on my sister's face as she tried to figure out what was going on.

In the truck Emmett wouldn't stop giving us grief for getting the seats wet.

"Shut up. We weren't the ones that pulled the fire alarm," Alice barked.

"Well I'm not the one that is supposed to see the future," Emmett was glaring at her through the rearview mirror. "That was too close, especially with those humans sitting with us."

"Enough Emmett!" I shouted, my voice echoing in the car making everyone wince in discomfort. I looked over at Alice whose lips were pressed together in a hard line, the little color she had to them was drained and they were stark white, matching her alabaster skin. "It's not your fault Alice; you can't see everything at once."

"No, there is something wrong," her bottom lip was now quivering as if she could cry. "It's like all static like when you're in between stations on a radio. It keeps flipping back and forth from different visions; I can't get a good reading."

Jasper put his arm around her, turning her head towards him and kissing her gentling. It was awkward almost because they rarely showed affection in front of people; I could count on one hand in the decades we'd been together how many times I'd seen it. "You saw the sun though, you did save the day," he pointed out.

Alice shook her head vigorously. "I only saw it because it was just about to happen. I should have known that already, before school. Very few things can change the weather. I should have seen that vampire too, before Bella went over there and before she was with Jacob."

The rest of the car ride was silent but I could hear their thoughts. Everyone had the same concern; what will we be missing? Even though not being able to see the werewolves was frustrating, it wasn't complete confusion. Again my mind wandered away to a future where we had to hide. We wouldn't know the important things like who was coming. We couldn't see this Anatoli, the Volturi... anyone. Then there were the little things like having to depend on the unreliable weather channel to see if it was safe to go to school or to just leave the house. We had been so use to having our future planned out for us, we took for granted what trouble we could end up in if we were blind.

Although Bella's mind was closed to me, her face said enough. I would once again need to convince her that sending Renesmee away was unnecessary, but did I believe that now? Maria could come back and we may not be ready. If we were at school she would be completely vulnerable to Daniella's power as would Carlisle and Esme. I slipped my cold hand into hers, playing with the rings now safely on her fingers. Even with the distraught expression on her face she was beautiful. I pushed her wet loose hair behind her ear, she leaned her head on my shoulder.

"It'll all be okay, we've been through worse," I whispered.

She looked up at me with an expression I hadn't seen in years; a look of complete and utter defeat. It was the look I saw the day we faced the Volturi, the moment we had all realized the probability of our death.

What she said next shook me to my very core. "Have we?"