Disclaimer: I don't own Twilight! I do own some Maybelline "Baby Lips" chap stick. Seriously, I recommend it!

Chapter Thirteen

"Life's too short to even care at all, oh
I'm losing my mind, losing my mind, losing control,
These fishes in the sea, they're staring at me,

Oh, oh."

~Young the Giant

Not the fucking pink tights. Never again, Izzy says forcefully when I linger on the bright material. Please, I'm begging you, something normal – better yet, something black.

I told you, we wear too much black.

No such thing as too much black, she argues.

I sigh and push the pink tights to the side, opting for a pair of dark grey knee high socks with a tiny white and black stripe pattern. Izzy is satisfied with my choice and so am I, despite the fact that almost two inches of my skin would be showing between the top of the socks and the hem of my school shirt. I finish tying my boots up, happy that they still fit snuggly around my calf, encasing me with warm wool from the inside and sleek micro-suede on the outside. Izzy and I considered these our winter boots because of the thick inch of tread provided on the soles.

I glance at myself in the mirror, smoothing out my plaid skirt and finishing the buttons of my shirt, before pulling on a slightly floppy black knit hat, secured into place with a few dark bobby pins.

Studying the light coating of mascara and tinted lip balm, I frown into the mirror because I was very anxious about school today and I didn't know why. A tiny pit had formed in my stomach this morning when Edward left and I had channeled all of my anxiety into my appearance.

True to her word, the teasing from the other girls – no matter how minimal – had stopped thanks to Rosalie. There hadn't been any more problems.

Why do I feel like this, though? Like the other shoe is about to drop.

Maybe it will.

Izzy. Really?

I feel Izzy's mental shrug. What? I'm being realistic. Nothing is ever so fucking perfect for long. Not that anything is perfect for us, but still.

I don't respond – how can I? She's probably right.

Bundled up in my thick coat, scarf and mittens, I meet Edward at the end of my driveway, forcing a smile even though I feel more and more sick to my stomach every step I take away from the house.

I couldn't explain it, but there was a definite sense of foreboding weighing on me; I just had no way of pinpointing why.

With Edward's arm draped over my shoulder, we carefully navigate through the thick snow as we walk to school. He stays close to me as he escorts me up the stairs and to my locker, lingering while I struggle to take off my mittens.

"Where's Alice?" I ask quietly, sighing and holding out my hand to him with a sheepish tilt to my brows.

Edward grins quickly and tugs off one mitten, then the other. "Somewhere around here. Jasper and Rosalie are supposed to go here, right? Maybe she's hanging out with her boyfriend."

I feel the corners of my mouth pull up. "You know, I don't understand why you have such a problem with their age difference. It's the same as ours."

Edward scrunches his face up a bit, shaking his head. "I guess because she's my sister. I don't really have a problem with Jasper as a person, not anymore. We've come to an understanding."

I unwind my scarf and pull my hair over one side of my neck as I turn to my locker, holding my outdoor protection in one hand. "Really?"

"Yeah. Actually, I wanted to talk to you about that-"

As Edward was talking, leaning in so he couldn't be heard by the other girls in the hallway, I had reached towards my combination lock – and just as my fingers grazed the ridged edges of the lock, a quick image flashed before my eyes.

Opening my locker, revealing all of my school notebooks covered in dripping blood and toilet paper. My hands, reaching towards the shelf in my locker, poking away the torn paper to reveal a dead blue jay. In blood, the words 'loser' and 'freak' are written on the door of the locker.

I gasp, blinking the images away, feeling tears form in my eyes. I drop my shaking hands and step away from my locker.

What the fuck was that, Bella? Izzy demands angrily, causing the hair on the back of my neck to bristle.

"I don't know," I answer her out loud, just a murmur, not even aware that I'd said anything until Edward steps into my line of sight. I force myself to move my gaze from the locker, where I can now faintly smell the putrid stench of dead animal.

Who would do something like that?

I don't fucking know. But I'll kill them.

"Bella? Bella, what's wrong?"

Dazedly, fighting against Izzy's impending alter, I look up at him. I shake my head. "My locker…"

And then, with such alarming force that I stumble forward into Edward's chest, my vision blurs.

I push against his chest, shaking off Edward's hands on my shoulders.

Calm down, Izzy. We don't even know if what I saw is true, Bella whispers, sounding much less dazed than before now that she's not dealing directly with the issue. The fact that she's doubting what just happened is a testament to how fucking freaked out she is – there's just no possible way she's thinking she imagined what she saw.

You're clairvoyant. What you saw was real. I can smell it.

Oh, God…

"Bella-"

"Izzy," I correct him quickly.

Edward's brows rise as I reach for the locker.

And, almost like déjà vu, as soon as my hands touch the cool metal of the black locker, another reality flashes before my eyes.

A clearly identifiable curly light brown haired girl heading towards the locker, gingerly holding a clear bag filled with blood while other girls carry the bagged bird and rolls of toilet paper.

"That freak had it coming. She stole him from me."

The girls destroy the locker after opening it with a tiny key, giggling and making fun of Bella even as they dip their fingers in old cow blood.

I feel like puking as I slam my hands against the locker.

I just fucking figured out who did it.

"Where is that skanky-"

"Izzy, what are you talking about?"

I look up at Edward, trying to calm my glare. "That girl, Jennifer, Jessica, whatever. She snuck into the fucking school with her vile friends and destroyed-"

"How do you know that?" Edward demands quietly, not unkindly. He's trying to slow me down, keep me calm.

"What do you mean how? I just saw it happen."

Izzy…

What?

It happened again. You just saw the past.

It's not the past. It's just what happened last-

The past. Last night.

We're both quiet for a beat, stunned.

This has to be some kind of clairvoyant something.

But I can't deny that while Bella saw what was going to happen, I'd seen what already had.

Holy shit.

Understatement, I think, Bella injects, sounding a bit shaken.

I can't linger on her inner most thoughts though. A nasally giggle breaks through my subconscious and I spin on my heels, zeroing on frizzy hair and flaking mascara.

"Izzy, what's going on?"

Just leave it alone, Izzy. I didn't even open the stupid locker.

Don't care. This is the last fucking straw.

"You," I say, pulling myself up to my full height, back straight, chin level to the ground. I wave my hand at the girl and her brows rise challengingly, too thin and round for her face. "You and your little cronies are going to fucking regret what you did."

"Why, whatever did little me do?" She blinks innocently, shifting her gaze to Edward, who is just now catching up and filling in blanks – I can almost feel the shift in his thoughts, though I don't turn to look at him. Jennifer winks at him.

"Get your fucking eyes off him," I order, slowly stalking forward. I don't pause to notice that the entire hallway has directed their attention to us. "He's not yours. He was never yours. And he won't be your excuse for your lame ass attempts at bullying. We're not in a Stephen fucking King novel and this isn't Carrie."

I step closer to her, shrugging off Edward's hand on my shoulder.

Jennifer is very slow on the reference but when understanding dawns on her face – understanding that somehow I know about her bloody prank without opening my locker – she sputters, waving her hands around her face. "You freak! Weird little Junior bitch!"

I cross my arms across my chest, tilting my head at her. "Jennifer, there's no need for that kind of language."

"It's Jessica-"

"I really don't care," I interrupt, finally in her personal space. We're almost the same height if I include the mass of curls that is her hair. "And, I really don't like you."

Izzy, I think we can just walk away quietly now.

I disagree.

So quickly Jessica can't even flinch away, I grip a handful of her hair. Around us, there are gasps of surprise and outrage but I ignore them, instead walking back to Bella's locker and pulling Jessica along with me by my hair.

"Let's see what you've done, shall we?" I say loud enough for the entire hallway to hear. I briefly wonder where the teachers are but wave off the thought – they would only get in the way right now.

Jessica shakes her head, crying out when my grip doesn't loosen.

This time, when I touch the cool metal of the locker, I don't have any past-images or flashbacks. When I reach the last number in the combination, I make sure Jessica is standing right in front of the door, with me to the side, an arms length way. Casually, I open the locker, raising a pierced brow at Jessica's gagging.

"You did this, Jessica. Why can't you face what you've done?"

Jessica only gags again, squeezing her eyes tightly when I push her head further into the locker.

"It says freak on my locker door, Jessica. That wasn't very fucking nice. Oh, why don't you take out that neatly wrapped package on the shelf?" I suggest, tightening my fingers in her hair. By now, Jessica is crying, snot running from her nose as she blubbers into the rancid air of my locker. I sigh. "You can dish it, but you can't deal with it? Weak. You're weak. All you'll ever be is weak."

Jessica sobs out and I distantly notice the hush that fills the hallway.

I release her hair and turn to Jessica's friends, who are staring at the scene is barely disguised horror. "Doesn't look so funny in the light of day, does it? Tell me, which one of you had to blow the janitor to get the key?"

None of the girls answer, though the one with straight blond hair and dark eyes does seem to blanch.

I continue on, talking to the group of students, which now includes a few boys from the other hallway who have crowded around the fringes of the loose circle. I gesture to Jessica and her friends. "This is trash. Useless, worthless, good for nothing but a quick fuck in a closet trash. High school is their high time. In the real world, they mean less than nothing. And you all give them power. It's sickening," I scoff, stepping aside so my locker is seen.

Before I can continue, a mature female voice cuts me off. "What on Earth is going on here? Oh, my!" she gasps as she sees my locker, raising a trembling hand to her mouth.

I recognize her as Bella's English teacher. "Mrs. Bayne," I say, drawing her attention. "Meet the filth who trashed my locker, Jessica. I'm glad you're here," I tell her boldly.

Bella groans. When did you get so theatrical?

I'm proving a point.

I glance at Edward; he is watching in thinly concealed amusement and concern near the front of the crowd. He's impressed but worried I'll be kicked out of school for the dramatics. I could have just kicked Jessica's ass.

But I wanted to humiliate her.

I turn back to Mrs. Bayne, who had stepped closer to inspect my locker and Jessica, who had sunk down on the floor, shaking brokenly. "Don't worry about Jessica. She's just sad she got caught, even sadder that I wasn't surprised by her stupid fucking prank and downright mortified that my boyfriend still doesn't like her. And after everything she'd done to impress him."

Mrs. Bayne, who is quite a bit older than the rest of the faculty, blinks once then hardens her gaze at Jessica. "Is this true?" She demands, moving her hands onto her hips. "Did you violate Bella's locker?"

Jessica hesitates and it's enough for Mrs. Bayne to whip out her walkie-talkie and riddle off codes and instructions to on-campus security.

And then, the weirdest fucking thing happens.

A slow clap builds up in the hallway, starting from the boys and the slightly more geeky girls and then spreading to everyone else. I cross my arms and observe it as the clapping grows to a deafening crescendo.

Security and Mrs. Bayne escort Jessica to the principal's office, Mrs. Bayne assuring me that there would be no consequences on my end.

Wow.

Right? I'm so fucking awesome. I didn't even have to spill blood.

No, I think quite enough was spilt last night, Bella comments mournfully.

The sharp ringing of the bell breaks off the resounding clapping and I immediately wonder how that entire display took less than ten minutes. Alice rushes up to be, awe painted on her face, with Edward and Jasper not far behind.

"That was so incredibly epic," Alice sings, slamming my locker closed with a wrinkled nose.

I notice that this is my first time dealing with Alice directly and find myself unsure of how to respond. I realize she probably doesn't know about me and Bella is in no mood to alter back at the moment.

So, I shrug noncommittally.

Only until after I've done it do I realize it's not a movement that Bella is fond of using. I hope Alice isn't familiar enough to notice.

Edward steps up behind me, hugging me close to his chest while Alice rambles on about how bullying is super bad and that more people should give standing up for oneself the old Vegan try. I hardly follow anything that she's saying.

When the second bell rings, Alice scrambles to her lower classes, pecking Jasper on the cheek.

Jasper, however, lingers.

I notice something very calming about Jasper's presence – not that he couldn't piss someone off easily, he just seemed very mellow.

"You know," he says casually. "There's something really different about you, Bella. I didn't realize it until now but you're aura changes completely sometimes. Different colors and wave patterns."

Remember, though? I told him and the other Denali subjects about altering.

I know. Still, it's not something this fucking school needs to know.

True.

Edward tenses behind me when I shrug. "You know as well as I do that I'm not Bella right now."

Jasper shakes his head. "No. You're not. It's fascinating though. Something the people at Denali would probably like to know."

When Edward speaks, his voice is hard. "I thought we talked about that."

Jasper grins. "I said it's something they would like to know, not something that they will know," he shrugs, walking away backwards. "Don't you have class, man?"

Edward sighs in my ear, squeezing me tightly around the waist and riling up all kinds of school inappropriate thoughts about how perfect his hot breath feels on my skin. "I'll see you at lunch. Try not to miss me."

"You wish," I laugh, wiggling away from him.

"I don't need to wish anything, babe."

Babe.

I can't even try to ignore the way my heart pounds at the name.

I can't even ignore the warmth that spreads through my body at the fact that now he has an endearment for both Bella and I.

It's such a calming thought that I don't realize the alter until my vision blurs.

The day passes quickly with most people giving me polite, if not slightly scared, smiles of acknowledgement.

School on Wednesday is much the same, aside from learning that I have a new locker and that Jessica was suspended from school; her friends don't even glance in my direction.

You're welcome, Izzy says smugly.

In fact, the only one to bring it up is Rosalie when we arrive at the Denali house after school. Edward has just parted, whispering to me that we really needed to talk about something major tonight.

"I'm so sorry about what happened at school," Rosalie says remorsefully, pushing her perfect blond hair off her forehead. Her intense blue eyes trap me as I sit on the couch. "I told those girls that they needed to knock it off and leave you alone but now I'm afraid that only made them more mad."

I shake my head at her. "Rosalie, it happened," I say gently. "It's over now. I know you tried and it worked for a while. Besides, you had no idea that they were planning something so…"

"Sick," Rosalie supplies, reaching forward to touch my hand.

I expect a jolt of knowledge or something, but all I can feel is her smooth palms and manicured finger nails.

I don't know if I should be sad that there was no flash of insight or information.

I almost miss it.

Well, I don't fucking miss it. It's weird as hell.

It's part of us. Shouldn't it be a more regular thing?

Don't know, don't care.

"I said I would stop them," Rosalie continues sadly. "But I couldn't. I've let you down."

"No, no. It's fine. It's over now."

Rosalie measures me with a level gaze, seemingly trying to find the truth in my statement. After a long moment, she sits back. "I'll do better," she promises, then glances down shyly. "We're in this program together. That's something the kids at school don't understand. It draws us together. I mean, Bella, I see you as more of a sister now than just a classmate," Rosalie says. "What we're doing here doesn't happen to normal people."

Unconsciously, I smile at the sincere feeling behind Rosalie's words. I pat her hands. "Then that's even more reason to forget about the entire ordeal."

Rosalie nods, smiling beautifully at me, as Carmen walks into the living room briskly.

"Hi, girls. Have anything exciting to share?"

"Actually," Rosalie pipes up, sitting forward with her knees crossed at the ankles. "Something really interesting happened to me over the weekend."

Carmen pulls out a notebook, ready to jot down her notes. "Go on, honey."

"Well, I was cooking chicken enchiladas because my mother is a horrible cook. Really. One time, she burnt boiling water. I didn't even know that was possible. Anyway, I was chopping up green peppers when the knife slipped and I cut open the tip of my finger," Rosalie pauses, holding up her perfect pointer finger as evidence.

I don't see a single thing wrong with her hand.

"It hurt a lot, you know. And I was just thinking that I wanted it to stop, that my finger had to go back to normal and then…it just stopped. It healed right up. And when I was thinking about it later, I realized that every paper cut I've ever got has vanished. Even when I broke my toe at cheer camp two years ago, the doctor said it would heal up in weeks and I was walking fine in days. Could that be something, Carmen?"

Carmen taps her pen against the notebook. "You know what? It sounds to me like it might be some strain of psychic healing. Energy medicine? Or psychic medicine. Was there any…glowing that you were aware of?"

"No."

"Were you feeling rather drained afterwards?"

"Not really, no," Rosalie answers smoothly.

Carmen hums in the back of her throat. "Then I would say it's psychic medicine."

"I don't understand the difference…"

"With energy medicine, you would be using your personal energy to heal or fix something. It would leave you tired, even exhausted afterwards. With psychic medicine, you use the energy and psychic charges of things around you to heal. In other words, your body acts as a kind of channel for the energy. It's a bit harder to heal others with psychic medicine, but a little training will fix that."

Rosalie sits back, a thoughtful look on her face. "I didn't feel tired," she says, as if in confirmation.

Carmen smiles gleefully and turns to me.

And here it goes. Again.

We're getting paid for this, Izzy.

I know. And I thank you for the really awesome chow mein from last night but I hate this fucking place.

I sigh and force a small smile.

"Anything for you, Bella?"

I fiddle with the hem of my school skirt and my sheer indigo tights. "Yesterday," I mumble. "I touched my locker and had…I guess a vision of some sort. And then my alter, Izzy…she had a vision, too. Of the past though."

Carmen slows her writing to a stop and Rosalie looks at me with wide, surprised eyes.

"Of the past?"

I nod slowly. "Not like, super far into the past. Just the night before. The past of the locker, you know?"

"That sounds a lot like…Chronesthesia."

I blink at Carmen, confused.

What the fuck did she just say?

Chrone something. Chrone anesthesia?

"I'm sorry?"

Carmen smiles carefully at me. "It's not common to hear about it, even in the psychic world. Chronesthesia. Mental time travel."

A beat of silence.

Then another.

And other after that.

Mental time travel.

"It's really just seeing into the past. Actually, I really shouldn't be all that surprised. You're clairvoyant, dear. That's just seeing the future. It's fitting that your alter can see the past. Chronesthesia is a branch of clairvoyance, much like seering is another branch of clairvoyance. It's exceedingly rare. One of the books in my library only has one mention of it," Carmen tells me.

Did she just say I time travel?

I think so.

By touching things?

Again, that's what it sounded like, Izzy.

Rosalie speaks up, gesturing with her hands. I didn't notice that her finger nails are painted a perfectly shiny cherry color. "So, what you're saying, is that Bella can touch things and know the future and her alter person can touch things and know the past?"

"Essentially, yes. I take it that the Chronesthesia isn't as common as the clairvoyance?"

"Not at all," I answer in a murmur.

"I see," Carmen replies. "I'll let you girls go early today, alright? I need to go prepare some tests for each of you."

Rosalie and I walk to the intersection in silence, each of us absorbed in out own thoughts. I wave goodbye and stop off at Izzy's favorite Chinese place to pick up dinner.

Our fortune cookie is scarily accurate: Your hands touch that which points to the past and future.

Wonderful. The cookie is a fucking psychic, too.

Funny, Izzy.

Edward is waiting for me on the steps of my home. "How did it go?"

Carefully, slowly, I fill him in, still in awe of it myself.

His reaction isn't at all what I thought it would be.

"Jesus," he sighs, flopping back on my bed. "I should have talked to you about this yesterday but it had been so stressful at school and I didn't want to add to your stress."

"What are you talking about?" I whisper, toeing off my boots to lay beside him. "Are you mad at me?"

"No, sweetheart. I'm mad at myself," Edward says, tenderly touching me cheek. "I was trying to protect you and now I've gone and let you put yourself in more danger."

Lover boy needs to chill the fuck out.

"What is it, Edward?"

He sighs. "Jasper and I talked Monday and we think there are some things that need to be kept from Denali."

I furrow my brows. "Why? They haven't done anything wrong."

"I know, sweetheart," Edward murmurs. "I just get a bad feeling about them. They already know about your clairvoyance and I'm afraid they like it too much. This Chronesthesia might excite them too much."

"You think their intentions are bad?"

I didn't want to think that, especially about Tanya as she had been the most kind to me.

I'm with lover boy on this one, Bella.

What? Really?

Yep. There's something a little off about Denali. Don't know what the fuck it could be, but there's something.

I find myself nodding. "So, from now on, what do we do? Play it by ear?"

Edward shakes his head. "From now on, we keep as many things secret as we can. There's nothing we can do about what they discover during tests, but things that happen when we're away from Denali? We keep those between us, Jasper, Rosalie and Emmett."

I nod against his strong chest, feeling the weight of my world on my shoulders. Things just got more complicated.

A/N: Phew. Well this was a chapter that needed to be done. Hope everyone is cool with Izzy's ability. I kind of really love it lol

On to reviews!

Sprite007 – Ah! Welcome back! Psionics is my new baby!

james3142 – Yes! Yay mutual! Too bad Bella wasn't on the same page as everyone else!

Cici G – Well, almost everyone is on the same sharing level lol

Twivampchick – Believe I found your answer in this chapter! :D

vampyregirl86 – Pshhh oh yeah, Esme totally knows more than she lets on!

YesMyRealNameIsBella – no prophecies this time around lol

angelari7 – I'm going to have to add that to my reading list! Lol So many fanfictions!

KrysGrayMist – Welcome! I have a confession; I love this story too!

Welcome2MyWorldxoxo – this story has me staying up nights! So I really am working hard! Lol

cullen freak8888 – the land of cheese! And…fudge? Lol Sorry, no superhumanweapons here!

Dreamzuvedward –Possesive Edward makes me squeal. He just had to be included!

And superspecial shout out to the first review of the last chapter…. Twilight Rocker 12 – we agree on lots of things but pineapple and ham are not one of them! Lol

Now, I just finished a huge chunk of this chapter about 30 min ago and my left hand is being all dumb so I'm going to go ice it and think about my plot!

As always, be brutally honest. I can take it.

~cupcakeriot