The next two weeks of summer went by with a pleasant amount of production. Considering I had done nothing for the first three weeks I felt a nice little sense of accomplishment that I had gotten off of my lazy ass and gone out to do what I was supposed to do.

Seriously, being out of high school is overrated. I would never admit it to anyone else but I was at a loss of what to do without high school. I had nothing to do. And my sense of routine had completely faltered.

The forth of July passed a few days ago. My mom wanted to go up to the lake for awhile to see if it was in order for the project that Bella and I had to do. Instead we stayed home and went to a Cedar Springs picnic at the middle school soccer fields. The thing about that was Martin's mom was organizing most of it.

She let us light fireworks.

It was a surprisingly more rewarding experience when you weren't going to have to go the police station for it all. This did happen to me when I was 15. It was all Paul's fault but in the end it did get me grounded for a few weeks. But it was so worth it.

The real highlight of those two weeks wasn't lighting fireworks though, -I'm not saying it wasn't a very close second- was seeing Bella again. I realized how much I had missed her without our daily walks.

I went to her house most days to catch up and start collaborating ideas on the project. Emmett had a rule about me not being allowed in the house while he was at the shop. I scoffed at it at first but Bella was fairly excited at the aspect of relaxing out on the front lawn and talking. I was beginning to enjoy it as well verses lying at home on my couch with a bag of chips.

It would be perfectly reasonable for someone to assume that the days when we were not at the Swan's were spent ay my house, right?

Wrong.

Along with Emmett's no boys in the house rule he also told me that he really didn't trust me and wasn't willing to let his sister be alone at my house. Which does make sense in its own way. But I did not really understand it and was frustrated, I wanted to Bella to come to my house and lounge on our huge lawn with me.

Bella had told me to just let it go. Of course she used her beautiful pleading eyes and I dropped any arguments I may have been planning to pick with her older brother.

After 10 days of debating we were finally able to pick a subject to do our project on. I really tried to be interested in it. In the beginning it was hard and the only reason I was even coming was because I missed Bella's bubbly personality. But after a few days I was actually getting into it because she was so animated about it.

So like I said; it took awhile before we were able to agree on a subject that we were both comfortable on to focus on. In the end we agreed on, Fish; their natural habitat.

I came up with the title.

We planned on going to my family's cabin to study the patterns of the fish and do some experiments with their environment. The difficult part of this was that Emmett wouldn't let Bella even come to my house…and we needed to go to my cabin…for a week.

So we had to then talk with our legal guardians on the matter. The four of us sat down to talk at the 4th of July picnic on seemingly neutral territory.

The conversation started with Bella informing her brother of our plans which quickly dissolved into a very firm, "Hell no!" from Emmett before my mom rushed too our defenses.

"Emmett, let's be reasonable, I know you don't want to let Bella go and I understand that but my son values her, he will keep her safe because if he doesn't his sorry ass will be living on the street." I cringed back from my mom's warning stare. She never swore…does ass count as a swear word?

"He is not capable of caring for her," Emmett responded, managing to look intimidating even sitting down. My mom looked like she wanted to roll her eyes as she sat up straighter and folded her hands together on the table.

The two of them went on arguing for about 10 minutes. Bella kept giving my mom apologetic glances but she didn't see them and I kept staring the table down to keep a laughter burst that was coming at bay.

Every point my mom made about anything from trust to how we raised them Emmett had a reason to shoot down…his excuses were getting fairly pathetic at about eight minutes.

Finally Bella cleared her throat and gave Emmett a look with one of her eyebrows slightly raised that caused him to sigh heavily. Bella grinned before speaking once again, "Emmett, I'm 18, it's my decision and while I appreciate your concern I also trust Edward, he's only ever had my best interest and I think you are being unfair by underestimating his manners." Bwahaha, I thought with an inside smirk…what manners?

Bella stopped to narrow her eyes at me; I straightened my face out instantly as the threat registered.

"So, like I said, I appreciate your concern, but I will be fine." Bella's hand touched Emmett's large one like a feather and looked at him in a very reassuring, yet so soft voice. Then she added, "besides its July." I wasn't entirely sure why it was relevant for her to point the month out, but I couldn't argue because…it was July.

"Are you positive?" Okay, watching their tender, caring conversation was getting to me. I stared the wood of the table down once more.

"Okay; but you're taking the truck." I brightened instantly and straightened up with a giant grin on my face. "Don't push it Edward," my face fell a little bit at his annoyed voice but I shook it off and grinned as I nodded.

In the end that went way easier than either Bella nor I could have predicted though after I realized I should have just counted on my mom for that because she was just a natural at winning. Though she really didn't win that argument by herself; that was all Bella.

It only took about a week for us to figure out what we would need, then go and get it and have everything packed for eight days at the cabin. As the days approached the trip I was getting more excited, I hadn't been to the cabin for awhile and it would be fun to see it once more; even though I ended up with the couch in terms of sleeping arrangements.

My back hurt just thinking about it.

We were leaving today for the hour and half long drive to the cabin. I had already gotten the red truck from Emmett and brought it home to pack up. The Swan's were coming over in a car that was in Emmett shop and I had everything ready in the bed of the truck.

I had extra blankets, tons of food (thank you mom), tools for repairing and an axe for cutting firewood, I had a collection of records for the player and the stuff we needed for our project. I was ready to go.

When Emmett and Bella pulled into our driveway my mom came out to meet them with me. Emmett moved Bella from the passenger seat to the car he was driving to the truck and leaned over to talk to her leaving my mom and me without a word.

I turned towards my mom as she wrapped her arms around my shoulder. I rolled my eyes and hugged her back before she pulled back and put on her stern face. Inwardly, I sighed deeply.

"You have a lot on the line. Emmett will never ever trust you again if you mess up and I will be very angry, and 'your sorry ass' will be living on the street." I chuckled silently. Mom glared at me and I stopped lifting my shoulders from laughing.

"Be careful with her Edward." I nodded exasperatedly not expecting her to put a steady on my shoulder and look directly into my eyes with a motherly softness in them. "I mean it. Keep her safe."

"Love you mom." I bent down to kiss her cheek and she smiled.

"Love you too. Now go! Have fun!" I grinned and nodded before jogging over to the truck where Emmett had moved Bella's wheelchair into the back (where I thoughtfully left room for.)

I should have known I wouldn't get away from Emmett that easily.

While my mom danced over to talk brightly with Bella I got stuck with Emmett who looked downright pissed.

"I will personally hunt you down and hurt you if you hurt my sister. I don't even care about the age difference, upset her in any way and I will make your life not very fun. Got it Cullen?" I felt my eyes widen as he started to talk and my eyebrows were so high as well. I nodded meekly before darting my eyes to each side frantically and then jogging quickly off.

"Let's just go before the whole town shows up to threaten me." I said breathlessly as I slammed the door on the drivers' side shut. Bella giggled lightly and nodded as I put the key into ignition.

As we pulled out of the driveway Bella waved back at my mom who was smiling in that same motherly way. I almost laughed at Emmett standing next to her with his arms crossed and glaring me down through the windows. I felt more confident every foot we drove away from him. But he did soften up just enough to wave to his little sister…before he was back to glaring at the car.

"Sorry about him." Bella said apologetically, I nearly snorted; I didn't need to ask in whom she was referring to. "He just worries a lot."

"I can tell." I muttered dryly. I was secure enough with my masculinity to admit that Emmett's threat had thoroughly scared the shit out of me.

I had originally thought that Bella had I would fall into a comfortable chatter. The stuff that wasn't too deep nor meaningful but just light and nice.

Ha!

Not. A. Chance.

I quickly learned that Bella was one of those people; the really annoying can't-stand-to-be-in-a-vehicle-for-more-than-two-minutes types. I was ready to bang my head against the steering wheel by the time we had exited out onto the highway. I swear this girl was unnaturally high.

"Hey! You know what we should do! You know eye-spy?" Yes, Bella, I thought sarcastically. I do know that game. "Okay I'll go first; I spy with my little eye something green."

That had only been the beginning. After she realized the one-sided game of eye spy was in fact, one sided, she stopped that. Then she started with a game of 20 questions.

I picked my last nerve for her to figure out. She went on asking the normal questions; is it an animal. A mineral? A vegetable? Then we got into the more detailed questions, I laughed at the irony when she asked if it was thin.

She also just couldn't stay still; her fingers had to be moving. First it started with just tapping her lap lightly than it was strumming her fingers on her legs before she started doing it on the car door. It was enough to drive me insane. Don't snap at her, dammit Cullen, don't snap at her. I just kept chanting that in my head as my grip around the steering wheel tightened.

After she lost the game of 20 questions she started to pester me about singing. She really wanted to do a sing-a-long of Elvis Presley's Jailhouse Rock.

"Sorry Bella. I don't sing. Ever," I told her when she asked again. I was biting, literally down on my tongue to keep from snapping at her or adding anything sarcastic to that statement.

"Everybody in the whole cell block was dancing to the jailhouse rock." I laughed as she started to sing. She was surprisingly in key. I grinned over at her as she burst out laughing and buried her head in her hands on her lap.

"No, keep going!" I urged her with a wide smile. She looked over at me, her face was bright red but she was grinning back. "Let's rock, everybody lets rock." I pursed my lips so that one was curled up and started bobbing my head along with the pathetic attempt I was making to sing.

We ended up actually singing through all the hits of 50's, though most were Elvis we got some Tutti Frutti in there too. I hadn't laughed so hard for a long time. At times we even rolled down the windows and let the people at the stoplight next to us hear our beautiful gift of song.

Well okay, Bella was an amazing singer. All those years in the church and school choir had definitely done wonders to her voice. Mine; not even close.

As we got closer to the lake where the cottage was Bella somehow got into Johnny Cash with a pretty strange version of I Walk the Line. I did my best to try and keep the beat with my hands on the steering wheel while we drove along, but I was no Johnny Cash's guitar. But I liked the sound of her voice singing…a lot.

I recognized the small town after exiting the highway. I usually had slept when I was younger on these car rides but sometimes I had been awake so I remembered it well. It was like riding a bicycle; it will always come back to you when you need it to. Or at least I thought that's what they said…hell, it was something that that.

Towards the end of the small town –when I say small I meant smaller than Cedar Springs, our town was more than double this one- I saw the little wooden ice cream shop. The Tip Top, ice creamery. One side of the little shop was half window from the waste up with sliding windows to keep the ice cream cold.

I grinned to myself as we drove past it, I remembered my dad and me sneaking out while mom was napping to go and get some chocolate ice cream cones. Some way or another mom always found out and scolded us for not bringing her back some, because the Cullen family loved their ice cream. Usually though the whole family would go together on Sunday afternoons before we went home again.

"Oh," Bella commented lightly –the singing had died down by now- I looked over at her, still grinning, "that looks nice."

"Best ice cream in Michigan." I grinned at her, looking past the truck again as the shop got smaller.

"Can we go sometime?" She asked me, smiling in her own Bella eager without being too hyper but so light.

"Hell yes!" I exclaimed enthusiastically, phh, I thought to myself, I'll take you there but I'm sneaking out any chance I get.

A few minutes later we were pulling in the dirt driveway that led to the house. I had realized how excited I was to actually be back here until now.

The wind was blowing my hair lightly as I slowed down. We had rolled the windows down when we entered town so Bella's hair was being ruffled nicely as well. I looked over at her and she beaming; I mean that, she looked positively angelic. The sun wasn't quite directly above so it was shining on her giving her skin a golden tint that really was very pretty.

"Please stop staring at me and look at the road," Bella laughed as she caught me staring at her, "we will have some serious problems if you crash this truck. And that's only Emmett."

Shit. I cannot crush his baby.

My eyes snapped instantly back to the bath that I was following just as I got to the end of it and close to the cabin. It looked exactly the way it had years ago, it even look like the Clearwater's had painted the wood a fresh white coat recently. I put the truck in park and pulled the keys out of ignition.

Before I could stop myself I pushed open the car door and stepped onto the grass. I grinned ear to ear as I looked out at the lake. Then on a whim I decided it was hot day and the water would feel really nice. I started to jog towards the dock, beginning to take off my shirt in the process.

"Edward! Still sitting here!" Bella called from the truck where she sat with a grin. I heaved a heavy sigh before rolling my eyes and changing courses back to the truck. "You can jump in after I'm out so you don't get me soaked." I chuckled as I got her wheelchair out of the truck; always so bossy.

"The vegetation must be amazing in this lake; you see how the ultraviolet rays refract off of the surface before plunging down, oh! The patterns of the crawfish must be amazing…and oh! The amebas must be-" Bella was prattling off all of these scientific facts about the lake before I could cut her off.

"Let's not start the smarty pants thing until we're unpacked." I reasoned with her, smirking. She narrowed her eyes playfully at me before rolling them and sighing.

"Look at that Phalacrocorax auritus!" Bella pointed out to the lake.

"That's a duck."

"Amazing! Isn't it?" I blinked at her. She sat there grinning as I stared at her like she had bright blue lips.

"Let me rephrase the smarty pants thing; next time you talk in a level a 5 year old can't understand I am throwing you in the lake." Her eyes widened as did my smirk.

"You wouldn't," she said accusingly, hmm, I thought to myself mischievously, seems someone has a fear of getting wet.

"Don't make me," I retorted while lifting her out of the truck and setting her into her wheelchair.

"Whatever. Go jump in the lake, I think I like you better when you are underwater and can't talk." I didn't need to be told twice. I took off sprinting towards the dock. At the end of the dock it was about five feet deep. So I could stand with my head and half my shoulders out of the water.

I let my shirt go flying as my feet pounded against the wood of the dock. Idly I hoped I wouldn't step on a rusted nail because that hurt like hell. I got the end and without breaking stride I dove in, shallow dive of course. The water rushed around my, contrasting with my heated skin and creating a refreshing sensation that I had missed.

A half hour later we discovered that the stairs could be a problem. I had apparently left out the small detail that there were three steps up to the porch, unlike the Swan house where there is no steps.

"Piggy back?" I questioned sheepishly as Bella sat with her arms crossed, glaring at me.

"No," Bella sighed in annoyance, "just get me up there and bring the stuff from the truck to me to unpack inside." All the while I couldn't help but thinking how inconvenient it was that there was no railing on the porch. But I loved it like that; I could just jump up the three feet.

The porch was about 22 feet long and 10 feet wide. So looking at it from the beach it was about the length of the cabin and came out the 10 feet. There was a white swinging bench on the right side of it.

So I got Bella and her wheelchair up onto the porch pretty easily. I quickly unlocked the cabin doors and opened the windows to air it out. It was pretty musty inside but exactly how I remembered it, record player, small kitchen table, comfy couch and tiny but sunny kitchen.

After Bella was up I hopped down and started to get all of the stuff I packed. I would jog it over to her and she would either wheel it inside or set it next to her in the open space, because the bench was on the other side.

It was all going pretty well if you would have asked me. That is until I was coming back with one of her bags from the truck. Bella looked really damn accusing as I reached her.

"Why did you bring these?" She questioned as she held up a little tin of my cigarettes. I went silent; I couldn't even think of an answer…I was kind of scared of being yelled at, at the moment.

I shifted her bag from my right hand to my left in the awkward silence. I looked down at the grass after I heard a soft thud. I bent down to pick up the white box that read in perky little blue letters, Tampax.

Bella groaned and buried her head in her hands as I realized I was holding her tampons. I dropped them like they were on fire. I hadn't realized until now that it was me and a young woman, alone, here for the next week. I had really overlooked the awkwardness of that.

I just knew one of us was going to end up killing each other; especially if Bella was anything like my mom was when it was her time of the month. I couldn't stop the small shudder that ran through my body.

I cleared my throat. "I think…this is going to be a long week."

Chapter song: Contagious by Boys Like Girls

It's too early in the morning for this...
I've had hours of testing, golf and brother and sister's birthday.

Want anymore excuses?

Review! (:

~Carmen