Okay, I don't have any excuses. I'm just lazy. Sorry! Please read and enjoy!

"Jake hurry, we've got less than a minute to get home!" We had just turned onto the exit that would lead to my house. It was 11:59 and I was shaking in my seat. When Esme says something, she means it! She'll be walking through that front door at 12 AM sharp, and if I'm not in the house by then… there's no telling what would happen.

When Jacob pulled into the driveway, he barely managed to stop the car before I jumped out. I ran to the front door to begin unlocking it while Jacob finished parking. By the time I pushed open the door and took my first step inside, Jake was running up behind me.

Without ever discussing it, we both knew what was the first thing we needed to do: get rid of the Frenchmen.

Lucky for us, they were all gathered in the kitchen, where the list was also posted. Amazingly, everything on the list was done. I told Jacob to tell the men to follow me to the front door so they could escape- I mean, leave. Together, all seven of us managed to get to the front door. Then suddenly, the bright high beams of Carlisle's Mercedes shone through the glass, making it impossible to get out through the front since we would be seen.

"No, no. Go back!" I whispered hastily to everyone and gestured in the direction of the kitchen. The back door would have to do.

As we were returning to the kitchen, I overheard Jacob speaking rapidly in what I assumed was French. It seemed important as if he were trying to get the message through to them, and towards the end, he pointed to me.

A second later, Jacob stayed back with me as the others took off towards the back door.

"What did you say to them?" I asked anxiously.

"Relax. I told them to go out through the back and directions for how to get onto the highway. And yes, I told them to be careful and quiet. Chill Bells, they'll be fine. We need to worry about you and how you're going to get out of that dress and have it back on the hanger of Rosalie's closet."

"Jacob, what about you? You have to get out of here. You can't even be here!"

"I'll be fine. Go upstairs and change!"

At this point, I had no idea what kept Esme from entering the house. She was probably on the front porch making out with Carlisle for all I knew.

I did as Jacob asked and went to my room to change. He followed me up. Once I had Rosalie's dress off, I passed it to him through my slightly opened bedroom door. He then proceeded to place it on a hanger in her closet. In the meantime, I changed into casual, labor clothes to at least give Esme the impression that I've been doing her crap for the past few hours. I was halfway done when I heard a knock on my door.

"Bells," I heard Jake's voice. "I'm going to get going now. Esme's still outside swapping spit with the doc, so I'll leave from the back. Don't worry, I'll make sure the coast is clear.

"Okay Jake. Thanks for everything. I'll see you Monday."

"Alright. And you better tell me everything that happened."

Then he left. I wasn't too worried about him being caught. He was smart enough to make up a quick, convincing story on the spot, even if he, under Esme's instructions, wasn't allowed to be here.

Two minutes later, I was coming down the stairs, fully clothed. At the same time, the door opened and Esme walked in, looking like she just had the time of her life. By the time I reached the bottom of the stairs, she was halfway down the foyer.

"Hi Esme. How did your night go?" I asked, trying to sound like I actually wanted to know.

"It was great." She replied. "How did it go around here?" She asked as she looked around the room to check if it were spotless.

"Everything went fine. I finished everything on your list," Your absolutely ridiculous list. "and had plenty of time to spare. And no one called or anything, so it was a pretty quiet night."

"That's good." She went on as if she hadn't heard me. "Good job I guess. Good night." And she began climbing the stairs.

"Good night Esme."

By then I was so exhausted, I could have just slept on the floor at the foot of the stairs. But I knew that would have been a weird sight for Rosalie and Alice to see when they got home. So I reluctantly trudged up to my bedroom.

As I lay in bed, looking at the ceiling, I thought about the amazing night I had. I managed to talk to Edward Cullen like a normal person and not sound like a babbling idiot. I loved it. And I love him so much more now that I got to know what kind of guy he really is. He's absolutely perfect. As perfect as the kiss that we almost shared could have been, if it wasn't for my stupid alarm clock ringing at the exact same time. And then I ran out, like I was trying to escape from him. God, what must he think of me now?

Leaving his house turned out to be one big blur. I can barely remember what happened. I almost tripped several times while running down the stairs and almost ran out of breath passing the huge crowd of people. In reality, I knew only one or two minutes had passed, but in my head, it felt like hours. And when I saw Jacob next to his car, the relief that I felt was indescribable. Now that I'm home, I just need to take off a few more bobby pins and I'll be ready for a calm, relaxing sle-. Wait a minute. Bobby pins? That's not what dropped onto the ground back at Edward's house. It was something heavier, something… a lot more valuable than a couple of bobby pins. It was…

My locket.

Oh shit. I reached up to feel my neck and saw that my suspicion was true. A bare neck. Locketless. I had just lost the most important thing in the world to me. And for all I knew, it was probably lost forever.

"So what's the big deal about this locket?" Jacob was asking me after I had told him about the discovery of my lack of jewelry on Monday morning. I haven't even told him how the night went yet. I was just focused on telling him about the locket. "I mean, you seem really stressed out about it but I don't see why." I had never shared with Jacob the story behind my beloved locket. Nor had he ever asked. But everything needs an explanation, and this is one that I didn't mind giving.

"Jacob, you don't get it. That locket's the only thing I have left of my mom. My parents were going to give me the locket when I was a few months old. But after I was born, they never got around to finishing it. As you know, my mom… passed away while giving birth to me. So my dad didn't want to make any changes to it. That's why there's no engraving on it. But he did take out his picture and leave only my mom's, making it the only memory I have left of her. The way you see it is the way it was left. But I don't have it anymore! I lost it at Edward's house!"

"Wow. That's pretty sad, Bells. So what are you going to do?" He said as he started the car.

"Well, I can't tell him, but I NEED that locket back. You have no idea how special it is to me."

"Yes, because I don't know what it's like to lose a parent."

"Jake, I didn't mean it like that. I'm sorry. I just really need it back."

"Look Bella, don't worry. I'm sure it's safe. Edward probably has it."

"And if not? Jake, we don't know for certain if he has it. Emmett could have it. Or Jasper. Or any of the other party gue-. Jacob, Alice or Rosalie could have it."

"Bella, you need to relax. Wherever it is, I'm sure it's fine."

After a long sigh, I replied, "You're probably right." We drove quietly for a few minutes and I felt a bit of tension in the car.

"Soooo…..?" Jacob spoke up.

"What?"

"How did it go? The party? You and Edward? All you've talked about since you got in the car is your locket, but tell me what happened at the party!"

"Jake, I don't know how I'm ever going to be able to thank you. Because I had the time of my life on Saturday, and it's all thanks to you."

"Aww, you're welcome. But tell me how it went."

The remainder of the car ride was occupied by telling Jacob how the night went. And it finished when I got to the part about my locket. By the time I was done, Jake was speechless. And not in a good way.

"So you mean to tell me," he began, "that after all the work I put into this, it turned out to be for nothing?"

"What? What do you mean?"

"Bella! He doesn't even know it's you! He thinks you're some random girl he met at a party. Hell, that's exactly what you are! Bella, why didn't you tell him it was you?"

"Jake, it's not as easy as you think."

"Bella! That's total bull! God Bella…." Jake sighed and looked at me disappointingly. Then his eyes went back to the road. "I guess you'll just have to tell him."

"Umm… No Jacob, I don't think so."

"Then I really don't know what else to say to you Bella. I've helped you out as much as I possibly can. All you had to do was reveal yourself, and you can't even do that." He was scolding me as he began parking.

"Jake, please don't be mad." I chased after him as he got out of the car, grabbed his bookbag, and started walking towards the school. "Look, it wasn't even that great of a night." I lied while trying to keep up with his long steps. "Nothing really happened. He's probably forgotten all about me by now."

While ending my sentence, something caught my eye. A regular-sized piece of light pink paper was taped to the school entrance. I assumed it was some new school announcement that no one cared about.

"Whatever you say Bella." He mumbled.

As we walked through the doors, my vision became blurred by the light pink and purple papers that took up most of the wall space in the hallway. On each and every paper, there was a silhouette, a brief description and the words, 'contact Edward Cullen', followed by his phone number.

"Have you seen Cinderella?" Jacob quoted the question from the top of the flyer. "Cinderella." he gestured to the paper. "Isabella." He gestured to me. "I get it."

"Jacob, shut up." I pushed him away from the posters, only to end up in front of more. So we started to walk towards our lockers. "I can't believe he did this!"

"It's actually pretty damn smart. And it's not like you were going to tell him anyway. Now Edward will find out for himself."

"Don't say the name out loud! I didn't want this to happen. I figured he would just forget about me."

"He just found the girl of his dreams and you think he's just going to forget about you?"

"Well I sure as hell didn't think he was going to try to find me like this!" I complained.

"Then again, it might not work. I mean, you get the most attractive guy in school publicly advertising that he's looking for a girl he met a party and has no idea who she is. And his phone number is on the paper. I wouldn't be surprised if he had half the girls at this school calling him by now." Jake explained.

"But none of those girls are Cinderella."

"That doesn't matter. He doesn't know who she is. For all he knows, it could be that scary, Goth girl from our English class. So he must have something planned for those girls to prove they're the real deal. Something from that night obviously, that's how he'll know that he found the right girl. Maybe a conversation you two had or…or something. Your locket."

My eyes snapped to meet his.

"What?"

"Edward has your locket. That's how he'll know who Cinderella is. It's going to be, like, the final test. Maybe he'll ask what it looks like or what shape it is or something. I don't know. The point is he has your locket, and now you have to step forward, tell him it's you, and not only get your locket, but get the guy!"

"You sound so optimistic Jacob. Too bad that's not going to happen."

"And why not Bella?" I paused as I walked to the closest poster and scanned it.

"Because it's humiliating enough to tell Edward himself, but to have the whole school know that I had to pretend to be someone I'm not just to impress a guy, that's downright pathetic." Jacob sighed, showing that he understood.

"So what are you going to do?"

"I don't know Jacob. I don't know."

The entire school day turned out to be very depressing. And seeing the posters all over school searching for Edward's mystery girl certainly didn't help. After what seemed like forever, the lunch bell rang. I couldn't wait to meet up with Jake in the cafeteria and not have the awkwardness of hundreds of my own silhouettes staring at me in the hallways.

"This whole thing with finding you is worse than I thought." Jake said when I met up with him.

"What do you mean?"

"No one will shut up about it! All these girls can talk about is either calling the number or what happened once they did!"

"And?" I asked, not too troubled by how much it bothered Jacob.

"And what?"

"Could you gather anything? What happens once they call"? I must have sounded anxious, because I really was.

"I don't know much. But every girl, including those who didn't even go to the party, have been calling him all morning. It's really cra-." Something else must have distracted him, since he stopped speaking. The expression he had on said he was looking at something unbelievable. And sure enough, when I turned to see what he was staring at, in walked Leah, Emily, and Tanya.

"Huh. Why didn't I think of it before? Leah would obviously be the first person to call Edward." I declared as I turned back around. "Seeing as she loves him and all. She loves everything about him and will do whatever it takes to get with him." I smirked as Jake, trying to get a rise out of him. But he sat frozen. "Jacob? Hello? Jacob?"

"I'm over Leah." Okay, so he had heard me. Wait, what?

"What? What do you mean you're over Leah? Since when? How? Why?"

"I'm over Leah," he started slowly, "and onto somebody else."

"My God, who?" Jacob's eyes widened and I turned around again. I looked as the second set of terrible threes as they passed by our table. Leah was, as always, in the middle. Tanya was to her right, and Emily on her left. It was Emily who was closest to our table. Just as she was passing by us, she glanced at Jacob. That was all I needed.

"Emily?" I hissed as soon as they were out of earshot. Jacob nodded. "Seriously? You moved onto her? At least Leah had some brains. Sure, she's a bitch, but-."

"Bella!" Jacob yelled rudely, "Don't make fun of me."

"I'm not, I'm just saying that…well… Jake, it's unexpected. I mean just last week, you were making fun of her for not knowing how to count to ten! And now you're like her? How did this even happen anyway?"

"Bella, I hope you don't think you were the only one who had fun Saturday night."

"What do you mean by that? Jake, what did you do?"

"Emily."

"No you didn't."

"Okay no. But I did have a damn good time."

"Alright Jake, you're going to have to back up and tell me how this happened."

"It pretty much started right after you left…."

Flashback - Jacob's POV

"See you at 11:40!" Those were the last words I spoke to Bella before I left her and her cowardice in the middle of the party. I love the girl to death but she's got to know when to cut loose. She's never going to get the guy if she keeps up that attitude of hers. She needs a major confidence boost. And having me there wasn't going to help. I've done as much as I possibly could.

Lucky for me, Bella quickly escaped my mind the second my eyes found what they were looking for: my sexy, little Leah. She had come with Tanya and Emily, typically. But I wasn't about to let them get in my way. How they managed to get in, despite Edward telling them they weren't invited, I didn't know. Hopefully Bella could distract Edward enough so he wouldn't notice his three unwanted guests.

Turning on my irresistible charm, I boldly walked up to the three girls, who were standing to the side, over looking the crowd, Leah was in the middle, with her adorable nose in the air.

"S'up ladies?"I spoke confidently.

None of them responded, but I just gave it a few more seconds. After that, I cleared my throat. Loudly.

"Tanya," Leah spoke up, "What is that annoying loud noise?"

"The music?" Emily piped in.

"I was talking to Tanya."

"What are you talking about Leah?" Tanya replied, even though she knew exactly what Leah was talking about.

"The noise coming from our left." And with that she turned and looked at me directly in the eyes. I stood still for a couple of seconds, completely mesmerized.

"I'm Jacob." And I looked right back into hers.

"I don't care." She replied and turned away. Ouch. In the brief pause, Emily chose this moment to introduce herself.

"Hi, I'm Emily."

"Yeah, that's nice." I responded quickly, doing my best to ignore her. "You want to dance?" Directed at Leah, obviously.

"No." she spoke firmly.

"Why not?"

"Because I don't want to."

"Well that doesn't seem like a good rea-."

"Okay, wow. You're really annoying aren't you? Alright, how about this? I'm going to go over there. And you just stay right here. And don't follow me. I'm going to take my friends so that they don't get creeped out by you either. Okay? And then after that, you're just never going to talk to me again. And I'll return the favor. That sound good to you? Okay."

"Wait, but-."

"Alright then." She began walking away.

"Leah-."

"Bye Jared." Farther away.

"It's Jacob…." I didn't get a last word from Leah because the blasting music and darkness made it impossible to hear or see her anymore. I noticed Tanya and Emily remained, but with a quick laugh at me, Tanya turned and followed after Leah.

Feeling upset, I stared at the spot where Leah's perfect 10 body was, not fully aware (or even caring) that her best friend hadn't left. When I finally did look away, I shot Emily half a smile and turned away.

"Wait." She called out. I faced her. "I'm sorry about Leah." I shrugged, clearly pissed off. "I know she can sometimes be a bit…rude."

"Whatever." I mumbled, wanting nothing more than to go home.

"It's nothing personal. She's just like that. It's her way of…meeting people."

"So she'll come back?" I asked, still a little hopeful.

"No." Hope gone. "She thinks you were really annoying. And trying too hard. Both are a bug turn-off to her."

"Oh." She nodded as I was turning to leave.

"Wait, Jacob." She yelled out again. Whoa. This girl actually knew my name. This definitely was a reason for me to keep a conversation going. "Umm… well Leah's gone. Obviously. But you and I could hang out now, I guess." Wow. Forward much?

"Well, I-." Now hold on there Jacob. Don't be so quick to let this poor girl down. Clearly, she's lonely now that her friends have left her. It's not like you have anything else to do. You're supposed to leave Bella by herself and then go off and have a party of your own. Sure, she's no Leah, but she's almost as good as! You shouldn't even be thinking about this. One of the hottest girls in school just offered to party with you and you're just standing here thinking about it. What the hell are you waiting for?

If anyone had told me an hour and a half ago that I'd be getting to know Emily Young, the supposed dumbest girl in school, I'd say they were fucking crazy. And so maybe I'm crazy for thinking this, but I'm really enjoying spending time with Emily. I suppose you really can change your opinion about a person after spending time with them. The only person I've actually gotten to know is Bella and that was years ago. It turns out, Emily is actually a really cool person. And, of course, as hot as an Egyptian desert. She laughed at all my jokes, even the bad ones, which is a plus. But the biggest shock must have been that she is actually not stupid! At all! She just looks like it. With those big, doe eyes and pouty lips, she's managed to fool everyone! Amazing! God, I really like this girl. Did I mention she's hot? Because she is.

It didn't take me too long to get into her pants.

Just kidding.

But we did start making out a little. Okay, a lot. It was getting pretty hot and heavy too. So much in fact, that we had to look for a private, secluded area in the house. The Cullen's coat closet did the trick.

I don't want to gross you out with all the details, so I won't go any farther. But just believe me when I say I really did have a damn good time.

End flashback

Bella's POV

"But it ended when you called me, screaming in my ear, to meet you at the car. If you had just waited a couple more minutes Bells… well it's alright. I forgive you.

Words couldn't come close to describing how my face must have looked. Or how I felt.

"Jake, I honestly don't know what to say to you. I'm sorry, it…I just can't… sink it in. Emily?" He nodded proudly. "Okay. Well, looks like your night was a lot more progressive than mine."

"I'll say." Jacob replied. "So I hope my story has taught you what could have happened if you just stepped up to the plate. But you didn't. Now look at the mess you're stuck in."

"Jacob, please stop. I know I should have taken my chance on Saturday. And I regret that I didn't. But I'm not going to randomly go up to him and tell him who I am. I'll tell him. One day."

"Well that day might be today. Look who it is." For the second time today, I looked at the cafeteria entrance and wasn't too happy with what I saw. It was another group of three. Three boys. Edward, Emmett, and the ever-constipated looking Jasper. Edward looked like he hadn't slept in days. Although it was probably just the massive amount of phone calls he had been receiving all morning. Unless he was up all night thinking about me…. Could I really have had that effect on him?

Probably not, it must be the phone calls.

Sighs and squeals were heard all over the lunchroom as more and more girls noticed Edward. His plan really was hopeless. He'll never find out it's me.

But like I told Jacob, I will tell him it's me.

Some day.

Thanks so much for being so patient! Sorry again! Please review! =D