A/N: Thank you so much for all the wonderful review. Thank you to everyone who favorited and followed. A huge thank you to my beta, katandjasper for her amazing skills in fixing my mistakes and for bouncing ideas of. Please show her some love and check out her amazing stories.
I don't own anything. The Twilight Saga belongs to SM.
This chapter is dedicated to Jill Vader and Kouga's older woman for their ideas.
Chapter 11
When the Cullen kids got home, Rosalie called a family meeting. She had concerns about the girls at school, who cornered Bella again today and she wanted to talk to the family about it to get their input.
She felt that, although they needed to protect and nurture Bella, they should also encourage her to stand up for herself. She knew it was going to be difficult, but she knew how far Bella had come in such a short amount of time.
When every one was seated around the dining room table, where they always held their meetings, she started: "The girls that insulted and made fun of Bella the other day, cornered her again in the bathroom at lunch. They said some really mean things and I don't know what would've happened if I didn't burst in there when I did."
Carlisle look shocked, he always looked for the good in people, and even after living so many years, found it hard to believe that people can act out towards each other in such vile ways. He also felt relieved and pride that his eldest daughter, who always seemed to be a bitch, stood up and protected the girl that he saw as his youngest.
Esme gasped in shock. She felt heartbroken, that an innocent child like Bella, was the target of bullying at school. Underneath all the hurt and pain she could see that Bella had a good heart with a lot of love to give. She thought that Bella was amazing, that even after all the trials she has been through in life, she still had the ability to love unconditionally.
Alice sat there, with venom tears in her eyes. She couldn't remember her human life, but researched showed that her parents put her in an asylum because of her visions. She never knew parents until she came to live with Carlisle and Esme. It didn't bother her as she couldn't remember them, but the thought of first her mother, and now kids at school, treating her the way they treated Bella, was breaking her heart. If she could she would've taken all Bella's pain, but all she could do was watch for Bella's future.
Rosalie continued: "Though Bella managed to hold her head high, with some encouragement, I could clearly see how much they hurt her and I am sure they saw it too. I am afraid that they will want to retaliate. I don't think those girls will stop until Bella stands up for herself, though they might wait a while after today."
Just the thought of what those girls did and how Bella felt when she came into the cafeteria was enough to send Jasper into a fit of rage. He couldn't stand the idea of his mate getting hurt like that, and he needed to vent before they continued with the family meeting.
He rushed out to the forest and started shredding some trees. Emmett followed him and jumped in to spar with Jasper. He knew Jasper needed to do more than shred a few trees to feel better.
They wrestled for a while and even though Emmett was a lot stronger than Jasper, Jasper had the experience on his side. Yet it was not an easy fight. Finally Jasper calmed down.
"Thank you, brother. I needed that." Jasper said.
"No problem, man. I would've felt the same had Rosie been in that situation. Just know that we are all standing with you. We all love Bella dearly and would do anything to see her happy." Emmett said. He was rarely serious, so Jasper knew he spoke from the heart.
"We should probably head back." Jasper said.
They ran back home and took their seats at the table. Everyone understood what Jasper was going through as they were all mated, the only difference was that Bella was still human.
Edward stated then: "I fear Rosalie is right. I heard in their thoughts that they are extremely pissed about what happened today. They were thinking of ways to hurt Bella, but they are also scared to do anything immediately. They don't want to face your wrath again."
Everyone was quiet, thinking of what they could do to help Bella. They thought of various ways to raise her confidence so that she could stand up for herself, when situations like these occurred.
Carlisle said: "For now all we can do is to continue to show Bella that she is loved and that she is worthy. I believe when she know that without a doubt, she will stand up for herself."
"I believe you are right, Carlisle. I know from experience, what Bella is going through, and until she believes she is worthy, she will allow others to step on her and put her down." Jasper replied.
Every one knew about his past and they knew how long it took him to accept it and move on. It took a lot of love and encouragement before he became the man he is today and they knew, without a doubt that they would all walk the same path for Bella.
They also knew that they had to get Charlie to come and see them, without Bella knowing, so that they could update him to what was happening at school. He needed to know what to do in order to help Bella become more self confidant. They knew that Bella would hide this from Charlie because she was scared that he would go and see the principal and make things worse.
"Well if we all agree, then I think it would be good for every one to hunt tonight. We don't want our rage, for situations like these, to take control and turn into blood lust," Carlisle said.
With that everyone went out to hunt their fill before they had to head back to school.
All the mated couples took off together, leaving Jasper to hunt on his own. Vampires tend do get very territorial over their kills, with only mates allowed close by. Jasper knew this and he also new how fast a hunt could turn into something different therefore he didn't mind hunting alone and find a quiet spot after wards to just relax.
After a couple of hours everyone returned home to shower and get ready for their day.
Carlisle was quiet and contemplative when they returned. He was concentrating very hard to keep his thoughts to himself and to not make any decisions though he planned to contact the principal later that day. He needed to be careful, for he didn't want anyone, not even his kids, to now what he was planning. He would do anything to protect his newest daughter.
Later, that morning after Carlisle arrived at the hospital he went to his office and immediately dialed Charlie's number. When Charlie answered, Carlisle asked him if he could come to see him at the hospital. Charlie agreed and said that he would be there in fifteen minutes.
Charlie was worried, he knew of only one reason that Carlisle would want to see him and that was Bella. Charlie wondered what was going on that Carlisle felt the need to call him in to talk to him.
When he got to the hospital, Carlisle was waiting for him in the reception area.
"Charlie. Thank you for coming." Carlisle greeted him.
"Hi Carlisle. It sounded urgent. What is going on?" Charlie asked worriedly.
"Please, let's talk in my office." Carlisle said leading Charlie to his office.
He held the door open for Charlie and when Charlie walked in, he closed the door and motioned for Charlie to take a seat.
"The reason I asked you to come and see me, is Bella. Did you know that the girls at school are still harassing Bella?" Carlisle asked in his calm way.
Charlie was surprised for he did in fact not know that Bella was still being harassed.
"No, I didn't know. Bella didn't say anything, other than that first time it happened," Charlie said, confused that Bella didn't say anything and angry that those girls wouldn't leave Bella alone.
"That's what we thought. They cornered Bella in the bathroom yesterday and said some pretty hurtful stuff. Luckily Rosalie overheard and told them off, but the damage was already done." Carlisle said.
"This has to stop! I will go and see the principal." Charlie said angrily.
"Please, Charlie, that will only make things worse. Everyone is going to think Bella is hiding behind her police chief, father." Carlisle said.
"Then what do I do, Carlisle? I won't just sit by while my daughter is being bullied relentlessly," Charlie said distraught.
"The best we can do is to continue to show Bella our love and prove to her that she is worth it. We need to build up her self confidence so that she can stand up for herself. It won't be easy, but it's the best thing we can do for Bella." Carlisle said sympathetically. He knew how Charlie felt.
"I will show her just how much I love her and prove to her that she is worthy everyday of my life." Charlie said passionately.
"Good. Then another thing, I am scared that this will keep escalating, until someone gets hurt. Especially now that those girls now that my kids are looking out for Bella. I am scared that they will do something to hurt Bella more than just emotionally." Carlisle said hesitantly. He didn't want to face Charlie's anger.
Charlie became extremely worried at Carlisle's words. How can he protect his daughter if he can't take matters into his own hands.
"What can we do? We have to protect her somehow" Charlie asked.
"I was thinking of calling the principal, but I wanted to run my idea past you first. We need to explain to him what is going on, and we need to make him understand that he cannot do anything about it. I want to sponsor cameras to be installed in the school without the knowledge of the students. That way if anything happens, we have the necessary proof and we can take matters further." Carlisle explained.
Charlie sat there thinking about what Carlisle proposed. The more he thought about it, the more he could see the benefit of having cameras installed and not just for Bella.
"I think that is a good idea. When can we speak to the principal?" Charlie asked.
"I will phone him now and ask him to meet us here. We don't want to alert the students as to what is going on!" Carlisle replied.
"Yeah, I can see that it wouldn't be a good idea if those girls saw both of us going to see the principal." Charlie said calming down a little.
Carlisle phoned the school and asked the principal if he could meet him and Charlie at the hospital. The principal agreed, but stated that he couldn't leave the school for too long.
Twenty minutes later the receptionist showed the principal into Carlisle's office. Carlisle went ahead and explained to him about the girls harassing Bella at school repeatedly. He also explained about Bella's past with her mom so that the principal could understand why this is such a huge problem. It wasn't just a normal case of school yard bullying.
The principal was shocked at both Bella's past and what the girls was causing due to their pettiness. He was a father himself and could understand why Charlie felt the need to call him in.
Charlie then explained to the principal that he didn't want him to do anything as it would only worsen the bullying, but that they were afraid that the girls could take it further and therefore Carlisle has offered to sponsor cameras to be installed without the knowledge of the students.
The principal could see the benefit of having cameras installed all over the school. He knew other kids would also benefit from it and that the trouble makers could be identified a lot easier.
He agreed to have the cameras installed and Carlisle said that he would arrange for them to be installed after school the next day.
The principal thanked both Charlie and Carlisle for letting him now what is happening. He said goodbye and headed back to school. He was going to keep an eye on Bella without the other kids knowing about it.
Charlie and Carlisle talked a little more about the cameras, and seeing as the girls cornered Bella in the bathroom they both felt that there should be cameras installed there outside of the door, this way, they wouldn't be compromising the privacy of the students; yet they would still know if Bella was in there with some of her attackers. After they hashed everything out, Charlie thanked Carlisle for all his help and left to go back to the station.
A/N: Thank you for reading. Please leave a review and tell me what you think.