Bella's POV

School passed by quickly on Monday. Not much had happened at all except for Mike Newton shooting Edward, Emmett, and Jasper dirty looks. He often stared at me too, but I ignored him.

He was not the only one who paid attention to Edward. Angela watched him from time to time. This even happened at lunch and Gym. I caught Edward doing the same. Once, he even smiled shyly at her, looking much younger than 17. For some reason, he made me think of how Charlie reacted when I told him that I met Esme. Angela grinned back.

One of his brothers or sisters must have been teasing him via their thoughts. He turned to us and whispered, "Shut up."

I laughed and exchanged amused glances with Alice and Rosalie. This was just too sweet and cute.

When I had a chance to talk to him, I spoke up.

"It seems like you and Angela like each other," I noted in a low voice.

He shrugged. "Yes, it appears that we do," he murmured.

I was taken aback by this response. I half-expected him to deny it out of embarrassment.

Nevertheless, I smiled. "Well, I don't blame either of you. You both would be great together."

He rubbed my back. "Thank you for thinking so, Bella."

My opinion had obviously made Edward feel more confident. When Angela waved to me and the others as we left school, not only did Edward beam at her, but he waved back. Her face turned so red that it looked blistered. I held back a giggle.

When I made it home, I started on the load of assignments that I had to do today. By the looks of the pile that everybody was given, I'd be lucky to be finished before 9:00pm.

Less than half of them were completed before I went to make dinner. Charlie must have been working a little late; he didn't show up even after I was done eating. I washed my plate and silverware, then returned to my bedroom.

After tackling the rest of my homework for an indefinite amount of time, I was finally putting it all away. My temples ached and I was mentally exhausted. Damn, why did my teacher give us more stuff to do on Mondays more than any other school day?

I took two Aleve pills, laid down, and closed my eyes. I needed to clear my mind for a while, or at least think of something peaceful.

My headache gradually began to fade away. I was less harried and wasn't quite as tense as I had been earlier.

Charlie arrived home just as it was nearly gone. I heard footsteps and rustling, then he went to the kitchen to get dinner. I heard the TV turn on a minute later; he was probably watching football.

Not long after that, my phone rang with a text message. I opened it to see that it was from Carlisle.

Hello, Isabella. I meant to call you sooner, but I have been very busy all day at the hospital. I wanted to let you know that I cannot visit you tonight, and I'm sorry about that. One of my patients arrived in a very serious condition early this afternoon. He/she is only slightly improving (I cannot disclose the gender), and I want to make sure that he/she does a little more before I leave in a few hours. I will see you tomorrow, I hope.-C

I quickly sent a reply.

Hi Carlisle. I understand that you want to be there for your patient. Don't feel sorry for not visiting me. I know you won't always have time to whenever you wish. I will see you when you are able to come.-B

Thank you for being thoughtful and understanding, dear. I will call or text you sometime tomorrow afternoon or early evening, all right?

Okay. I miss you!-B

I miss you too.-C

He didn't send me anything else, so I put my phone on my side-table drawer. I figured that I'd go to bed. There was really nothing for me to do.

Just as I had put on my nightclothes though, I heard Charlie walking up the stairs. Then he opened my bedroom door.

I sat up. "Hi Dad," I greeted.

"Hey, honey. Are you okay? I didn't see you all evening," he remarked.

"Mmm-hmm, I'm good. I just had a lot of homework to do, and now I'm tired. Mondays can suck."

With a laugh, he nodded. "You're right about that. Did you have a nice day at school?"

"Yeah, it wasn't bad. Was it hectic at work? You came home later than usual."

"It kind of was. Some girl was shoplifting at the market around the time I was about to come home, so I had to help check it out. But it was a first offense, so we just gave her a warning. Plus, we called her mom and dad."

I pursed my lips. "Hopefully, she learned her lesson, or is learning it right now. I'm sure her parents grounded her."

Charlie scoffed. "I would have, if she were my daughter. I'm glad that your mother and I never had deal with anything like this or worse from you."

"Well, I never had the urge or desire to steal or worse. It's not likely that I'll have it in the future either."

"Good. You'd better not," he joked.

He and I snickered.

A minute later, he embraced me. "I'm going to let you rest now. Maybe I'll take you out for dinner later in the week, on Thursday and Friday. Is that okay with you?"

"Sure. I would love that. But you're right, I do need to get to bed. I have to be up early. Good-night, Dad."

"Night-night, Bella."

I hugged and kissed him. He waved before leaving my room.

(The following day)

Rain was pouring down in torrents when I woke up the next morning. Thunder occasionally rumbled through the sky, and there were flashes of lightning.

Yawning, I climbed out of bed and showered quickly, hoping against hope that lightning wouldn't strike the house. I was thankful that it didn't. The last thing I needed was to end up in the hospital just for tempting fate. Plus, I didn't want Charlie or Carlisle to be overly-worried about me. I know that Carlisle's kids definitely would be.

I put on my clothes and fixed pancakes, eggs, sausages, and fried tomatoes for breakfast.

Charlie had to laugh when he noticed that I made my favorite breakfast. I promised to make his the next time.

"Be careful out there," he announced as I was throwing my jacket on. "Enjoy your day at school."

"Okay. I'll try to."

I kissed his cheek, then left.

It was just as well that I decided to head to school fifteen minutes earlier than I usually did. The rain made it hard to see cars more than ten feet away, so I had to drive slowly.

Eventually, I made it to Forks High. Not many people were there yet, besides the teachers and the early-bird students.

An umbrella was held up over my door right after I parked my truck. It turned out that Jasper was holding it.

"Thanks," I said to him as I got out. I opened my own umbrella.

"No problem. You don't need to be all wet during class. Come on, the others are inside. Alice and I will walk to History and Geography with you."

We hurried inside the building and closed our umbrellas. Then we joined his brothers, sister, and Alice. They were standing further down the hall. I greeted all of them enthusiastically.

Our teachers were much more lenient with us today and didn't give us a lot of homework. Most of them seemed depressed, likely due to the weather.

I noticed that Edward kept staring at a drowsy-looking Angela during English II again. She didn't realize this until class was nearly halfway over. Then she perked up, and her mood suddenly brightened.

This continued at lunch. Our table was pretty close to the one where she sat with Jessica and her other friends, so it wasn't hard to see her. They exchanged smiles so often that I decided to intervene.

"Edward, if you are going to keep that up, why don't you just talk to her? You clearly know that she wants you to make the first move," I pointed out to him.

He looked nervous then. "I do know that, yes. I just haven't figured out how to. What if I say or do the wrong thing?" he inquired.

"I don't believe that you will. Just say 'Hi' and ask 'How are you?', then see where it goes from there."

"Since when did you become an expert on these situations?" he chuckled in a playful tone.

"I'm not. I'm just giving you the advice that anyone else might have given you."

Nodding his head thoughtfully, he said that I had a point.

Unfortunately, Edward had no chance to do this after lunch or Spanish II. Angela had two other classes before Health, which we had instead of Gym on Tuesdays and Thursdays. I felt sorry that he didn't. They did nod to each other in class, however.

The rain had stopped falling before we were dismissed at three o'clock. I gathered all of the books that I would need for homework and left school with the Cullens.

Alice's eyes grew unfocused as we did. We paused, knowing that she was having a vision.

When she came back to earth, she turned to me. "Dad is going to be off work after six o'clock this evening. Expect him to visit around eight."

"Thanks for the heads up."

I said good-bye to them and went home. I was a bit hungry, so I made a snack before going upstairs to do my homework. When I had completed all of it at six twelve, I fried the rainbow trout that Charlie brought the other night for dinner. I also made macaroni and cheese and spinach to go with it.

He walked in just as everything was boiling and cracking. I glanced at him as he sat down at the table to wait until the food was ready.

"You're not home late this evening," I observed.

"Nope. It was pretty quiet and boring all day. We really didn't do anything except catch up on paperwork, not that there was much to do in the first place," he remarked. "But enough about me. Was it a busy day at school?"

I shook my head. "It was yesterday, but not today. Nearly all of my teachers were out of it because of the storm."

"Ohhh. Well, I don't blame them. My friends seemed to be moving like they were underwater themselves."

The food was ready after a half an hour. We had a nice chat as we ate, save for when he brought up Egg Donor.

"Have you talked to her lately? She hasn't spoken to me since the day before you moved here," he stated.

I glared at my trout. "No. Not since she called me on my birthday," I responded, keeping my tone neutral.

"Mmm. You should talk to her. I bet she's missing you terribly. I know you miss her."

"Kind of. I've been too occupied with school and homework to think about her all that much," I half-lied.

Charlie nodded in understanding. "I can imagine that her teaching job is keeping her busy too."

I shrugged. "It usually does."

Egg Donor paid more attention to her students and her work than me. Not that I cared or minded after several years. It didn't bode well if she noticed me. Nevertheless, it was hard to tell if her ignoring me hurt more than her yelling at and hitting me sometimes.

"Mmm. But you should definitely call her soon, if not tonight. Let her know how you are and about school."

"Okay, Dad. I will when I have the chance to."

Yeah, right. I'll call her if hell freezes over.

"Good. Oh, and I'll be headed over to Billy's house soon. We'll be watching the football game with Harry. I'll be back after eleven."

"Have fun. Tell them and Jacob that I said hi."

I went upstairs to see how full of laundry hampers were after cleaning our dishes. Both of us had two-one for the light clothes and the other for the darks. The ones with the dark clothes were halfway filled. I would wash them tomorrow. There was rarely a lot of homework to do on Wednesdays.

On that note, I walked in my room and closed the door. I would browse the Internet until Carlisle showed up.

Carlisle's POV

My morning and afternoon had gone better than it did yesterday. The patient that I mentioned to Isabella was recovering superbly, and would be going home tomorrow.

He had had a severe allergic reaction to a snack he had eaten, not knowing that it contained peanut oil. Luckily, he had used his EpiPen before asking a family member of his to take him to the hospital. I and another colleague did some procedures on him, and now he was almost back to normal.

I left work at six feeling relieved and content. As soon as I went home, I did what paperwork I had to do, then repaired a section of the garage wall with Jasper.

Both he and Emmett were working on the latter's jeep the other night, which ended up in a play fight. At one point, Jasper lifted him up and threw him against the wall with more force than he intended. I lectured them sternly and told Jasper that he will fix it because he technically destroyed it. I offered to help him afterwards.

It didn't take too long to repair the wall. I clapped him on the back once we were finished, and warned him lightly-but seriously-that if the situation happened again, he would be on his own.

"Other than that, good job. The wall doesn't even look like Emmett was slammed into it," I observed.

"No, it doesn't. It's like our play fight neva happened," he agreed.

We parted after that. I told him and my other kids that I would be going to Isabella's and I that would see them later.

Before I left, I thought of what she and I could do tonight. The weather was chillier due to the thunderstorm, so it was inadvisable to go out to our secret place or my gazebo. I wouldn't bring my UNO cards this time either. I had no desire to bore her.

I was just running out of ideas, I noticed my art supplies on one of my shelves. I could ask Isabella would like to draw with me. I remembered how comforted she looked when she told me that she enjoyed planting. Why she did, I would have to find out sometime. But perhaps drawing could be another medium of relaxation for her.

With that in mind, I put my sketchpad, colored pencils, and my sharpener in a bag. Then I ran to Isabella's house.

Her heartbeat was the only one that echoed out to me as I approached it; Charlie must have gone somewhere. This was a relief in some ways. At least we wouldn't have to keep quiet. That became tiresome after a while.

Isabella was staring at her laptop when I peeked into her window, but turned to me as I knocked on it. She opened it immediately.

"Hey, stranger," she announced once I was inside her room.

"Hello, hello," I returned. "It's good to see you again. Are you okay?"

She inclined her head. "Yes, are you? How is your patient?"

"More than okay now that I have the chance to spend time with you. And my patient is much better today."

"That's good."

We kissed each other, then she pointed to my bag. "What's in there?"

I sat down on the bed with her. "My sketchpad and colored pencils. I figured that maybe we could draw together."

Isabella pursed her lips. "I'm not very good at drawing. The only time I do is if I'm bored and doodle something or other."

"Mmm. I understand, but I am not expecting you to be like me, or better yet, Van Gogh or Da Vinci. Just draw what you often feel or desire, or anything you want."

"Well...I guess it won't hurt. But please don't laugh at it if you see it."

Frowning in confusion, I asked, "Why would I laugh at something you drew?"

"Anything that I draw sucks. I saw a third grader who is better than me! Besides, I'm better at crafting."

I pecked her forehead. "Don't worry about that. Every person has their own talent and can't be as good as they'd like to be at everything. Like your bird-calling. Not many people that I personally know or heard of besides your father can do that. And someday soon, I'll buy art supplies that you can make things with."

With that, I took out my sketchbook and colored pencils. I ripped out a sheet of white paper and gave it to her. "Here. Draw whatever comes to mind," I encouraged her. "I promise that I won't laugh at it if you show it to me," I added.

She relented with a sigh. "Okay. Thanks," she murmured as she took them.

I continued to gaze at her with bewilderment as she eventually proceeded to draw something. I was starting to realize that Isabella never wanted to do certain things-especially if she didn't believe that she was good enough at it-out of fear of being laughed at and/or made fun of. Then again, it was highly possible that-like dancing-she never had to do anything that required a small of talent for anyone. No one had really asked her to. If somebody had, she apparently chose not to to prevent embarrassment and humiliation. She didn't feel too shy about doing her bird-calls, however. Not anymore.

However, it was obvious that she had an issue with her self-esteem. I wasn't thinking ill of her for this. The reasons that she gave me helped me understand why, but I wondered if there were other causes behind it. I will just have to find out what it was as soon as I could.

"Carlisle? What's the matter?" Isabella queried, bringing me back to Earth. I realized that I was still looking in her direction without knowing it.

"Nothing, sweetheart. I was lost in thought is all," I replied.

"Oh."

I took a brown and red colored pencil from the box and asked her if I could use the black one for a minute. I used it to draw the outline of two figures, then handed it back to her.

We chatted about her school and my job as we slowly turned mere lines into art. I eventually added colors to the picture I was drawing. Some green and brown here, gray there, a few traces of red. Then I put on touches of blue and lavender and I was done.

She finished with her own drawing soon after. We traded them to examine each other's work.

The picture that she made was very interesting. It was of her sitting down, facing a number of people who were glaring at her. Speech bubbles were drawn over them.

"Man, you are a clumsy, pathetic loser. I can see why everybody hates you!" one said.

"You must think that you're better than everyone, keeping to yourself and never having any friends."

"And that's why you never will."

"No wonder your dad divorced your mom. He couldn't bear having such an ugly, disgusting daughter. You're lucky that your mom decided to keep you. I would have put you up for adoption."

"She's one of the smartest in the class. But I guess that she had to excel at SOMETHING. Nobody would have anything to do with her otherwise."

The people that didn't have a speech bubble were pointing at her and laughing. Others had their noses wrinkled in disgust. I felt as if I had been kicked in the stomach. I was enraged too. Is this what my Isabella had endured for all of these years?! Was this how her fellow schoolmates treated her?!

All of what she had been told was irreparably damaging, especially the second to last quote: "No wonder your dad divorced your mom. He couldn't bear having such an ugly, disgusting daughter. You're lucky that your mom decided to keep you. I would have put you up for adoption."

I have had cruel, abusive things sneered at me before, but never anything so terrible as that! It was likely this was part of, if not a huge part of, why she didn't seem to think much of herself.

"Did your mother know about this?" I asked, my voice shaking in fury.

Isabella jumped; she had been admiring the picture I drew of her twittering to the mockingbird on the day of our hike.

"Huh? Oh...yeah, she knew. She told me to ignore it, but it was hard to. Informing a teacher about it didn't work much either. The situation just grew worse, even when I complained a second or third time. I just decided to give up after a while. They would still make fun of me on the bus ride home. The students who took the city bus I did anyway," she grumbled.

For some reason, I had an inkling that this response was not completely true, but I didn't pay attention to it. There was another question that I needed to ask her.

"Charlie mentioned that your mother is a kindergarten teacher. Did she ever speak to any of your own teachers?"

"She told me that she would, but she's rather absentminded, so I can't be sure. I would remind her so that she wouldn't forget...but if she did say anything to my teachers, it didn't make everything stop."

I gave her drawing back. "Did you tell Charlie about it?"

"One time I had, but just that I was teased and ridiculed. I didn't want him to get more upset. He was already unhappy that the classmates who decided to notice me would treat me like crap. I never even told Mom about the stuff they said to me."

I couldn't blame her. If I had gone through this myself, I don't think that I could have been able to repeat those insults to my parents if they were hurled at me either.

My poor Isabella. She had clearly suffered a great deal of emotional turmoil. At least no one bothered her at Forks High. My kids would have told me if someone had. Besides, they would have defended her.

"Well, don't be afraid to let Charlie and your principal know if this ever happens again in the future. He can put a stop to it if your principal isn't able to. He will allow you to press charges on someone. And you know that you can always talk to me and my children. You shouldn't just give up and allow someone to keep bullying and harassing you. It can escalate and become even more serious and dangerous. Now, I'm not trying to be your father," I stated when she opened her mouth to interrupt. "I am just giving you advice because I don't want you to get hurt in any way. As I told you before, I care for you very much, and I only want you to be happy and safe."

A grateful smile appeared on her face. "I know, Carlisle, and I understand. Thank you," she whispered.

I laughed softly when she kissed me for a long moment. I held her close.

While she was catching her breath afterwards, I took up her picture again. "What made you draw this?"

She shrugged. "I was thinking of my old schools while we were talking, so maybe I unconsciously decided to draw what I remember my classmates saying to me. I can remember every insult that I had been given."

My heart ached at the thought of it. I rubbed her hair. "I'm sorry that you had to go through that, Isabella. I would change your past if I were able to. I hate that you had experienced so much hurt and pain."

"Don't worry about it. I told you before that I'm happier here. Nobody teases me; most of my classmates neither like or hate me. I don't mind that because that means that they aren't going to pick on or throw things at me when I'm not looking. Those are the reasons why I preferred to be alone at school after a few years."

"That makes a lot of sense. Did you ever try to defend yourself?"

"Yeah, but it never turned out the way I wanted it. It would always backfire in some way. When I was sixteen, I was suspended because three girls tried to beat me up, and I had to fight them back. I couldn't just lay down and let them win."

"That wasn't fair," I growled. "You had done nothing wrong. You were only protecting yourself."

Isabella sighed deeply. "No, but it looked like we were all fighting each other to the hall monitors who caught us. I tried to explain everything in private when I had the chance, but they didn't want to hear it."

"Mmm. That's too bad. They still should have listened to your side of the story, though."

"You're right, but there's nothing that I can do about it now."

We grew silent for a bit, mulling over what she had revealed to me.

Perhaps this was why she seemed to be starving for affection and love...unless this was not the only reason. Nevertheless, the bullying that she had endured had a important part of it.

She grinned at the picture that I made. "This is very beautiful, Carlisle. Everything looks exactly the way it did that afternoon. I almost feel like I'm looking at a photograph of it."

I beamed, my cheeks feeling hot. "Why, thank you. I did my best to make the scenery just how I remember it."

"You did a good job."

"Thank you," I repeated.

More time went by, and eventually, I had to leave. I asked if I could keep her picture, and she nodded. I let her have mine; it was for her anyway.

We kissed and embraced each other before I jumped out of her window.

"I will see you on Thursday or Friday, if not tomorrow. Is that all right?"

"Of course," she responded. "You're always welcome to see me."

"Good to know."

I stroked her hair before waving good-bye, then ran home. I needed to think more on all of this.

Bella's POV

After Carlisle disappeared, I put on my nightclothes and laid down with a tired sigh.

My insides were squirming in guilt for lying to him about Egg Donor telling me to ignore the people who were bullying me. In fact, she had told me to do the exact opposite.

"You need to listen to them! All of them are right! Plus, they're just telling you what I tell you almost everyday! Don't ask me to do anything about it because I won't," she huffed once, when I was in second grade.

Tears pricked my eyes, but I felt better knowing that my dad, Carlisle, and his kids cared for me. At least someone did.

I was sure that my life would have been different if I had always lived with Charlie instead of Egg Donor. I would never have had to deal with any abuse, and I would likely have been able to make friends. The only reasons why I never tried to after a while because I thought that everyone saw what she does after a number of years. Not that I believed that I was as ugly, odd, terrible, or worthless as she said I was. I never knew what to think of myself.

Living with Charlie made everything better for me. For once, I was liked and loved, and I learned that I mattered to somebody. Nothing could ever be better than that.

All I hoped now was that the day when I would be able to tell both Dad and Carlisle everything would arrive soon.

XXX

Part of the next morning went by uneventfully. Nothing really happened during the trip to Forks High and my first two classes.

I noticed that almost everyone looked more cheerful. Of course, it wasn't raining like it was yesterday.

Alice and Jasper escorted me to History and Geography as usual, and Emmett walked to Calculus with me. However, it wasn't until Edward and Rosalie came to take me to English with them that things got interesting.

They were already standing outside of the room when Emmett and I left it. He waved to us before going to Spanish II.

Rosalie was telling me about how the Chemistry teacher had slipped and fell on his ass during his lecture. Edward and I found this hilarious, especially from the way she explained how he landed. Unlike him (Edward), I wished that I had seen it.

We were halfway to our class when I saw him stiffen out of the corner of my eyes. Before I could ask him what was the matter, Angela appeared next to me.

"Hey," she panted while greeting us with enthusiasm.

"Hi. What's up?" I asked.

Edward and Rosalie nodded to her and smiled. Edward's was particularly bright.

"Oh, nothing much. I just saw you three heading to English, and I wondered if...if you'd mind if I joined you...since I'm going the same way too?" she queried in a shy voice.

We shook our heads.

"No, no. None of us mind. We'd like your company," I assured her.

All of us exchanged how-are-you's before an awkward silence fell. None of us couldn't seem to find anything to talk about.

Rosalie frowned a little as she peered at Edward, then Angela. I did too and noticed that they kept turning to glance at each other with hopefulness and impatience.

I knew why seconds later. Grinning at Rosalie in amusement and joy, I accidentally-on-purpose dropped my books. They scattered all over the floor.

"Darn it," I pretended to fume. She bent down to help me pick them up.

"You go ahead. We'll catch up," Rosalie told them. "Very smooth," she added to me in a low hiss.

I winked at her, then pointed to Edward and Angela. Both of them appeared to be having a timid conversation.

Once all of my books were in my arms, we followed after them quickly. Neither of us wanted to be late.

They were still talking when we reached our destination. I wasn't sure if Angela realized that she sat next to him instead of at her original desk. Luckily, we didn't have assigned seats, so our teacher Mr. Berty wouldn't complain about it. That is, if they didn't catch his attention by talking too much.

"Remember to thank me later, Edward. You owe me one," I whispered jokingly.

He beamed at me from across the room and mouthed a "Thank you" right then and there.

I didn't have much of a chance to watch them because I was focused on my work. However, I did see Angela passing a note to him. I rolled my eyes with a snort.

Class was over before I knew it. Rosalie had to go to History and Geography, so she told us that she would meet us at lunch.

Alice and Jasper joined us as we headed to Chemistry. I stuck to them because I wanted Edward and Angela to have more time to get to know each other.

Unfortunately, neither of them were able to in class because we had an important lab today on polymers. Besides that, they couldn't share a desk because I was Edward's partner for the rest of the school year. Angela's was Ben Cheney. Hmmm. Maybe I could ask Dr. O'Rourke if we can trade seats...

"Don't," he murmured. "Not yet...you can in two, three weeks. I appreciate it, though."

"Okay. That's fair," I agreed in a low voice.

The lab was pretty interesting. Everyone took notes and did some hands-on activities. Several test tubes had been broken by mistake, but fortunately, they were empty and nobody was cut.

From there, we went to lunch. Angela looked uncomfortable at this point. It was easy to see that she felt torn between sitting with her friends and joining us at our table.

Edward's expression darkened, but he was understanding about it.

"Why don't you go ahead, Angela? We can catch up at Gym. You can have lunch with us tomorrow or another day, if you want," he said.

"I'm sure that my friends won't care if I ate with you today. I'll just let them know that I'll talk to them later," she remarked.

She left to do just that. I sat down with Alice, Jasper, and Rosalie as Edward and Emmett went to get our lunches. The former placed a chair at the table so that Angela could be next to him. He scowled at us when we teased him about it.

"Leave me alone," he grumbled.

Angela showed up then and laid her book bag under her chair. She was about to get her lunch when we told her that Edward was doing that for her.

Her face reddened as she sat down. "Oh. That's nice of him. But he didn't have to."

"Don't be offended. Carlisle raised us ta be gentleman after he adopted us," Jasper said.

"That's good. Edward told me that he's a wonderful father."

"Yeah, he is. We're all lucky to have him. A lotta foster parents aren't as kind as he is."

Edward and Emmett returned with our trays minutes later. Angela frowned at them and the others with confusion.

"Is something wrong? None of you are hungry?" she queried.

"No, it's not that. We don't like how the food tastes here, so we just eat at home," Edward replied.

I almost laughed, recalling what Emmett had told me on my first day here.

"Oh."

They were relieved when she didn't ask any more questions about their eating habits. In fact, during the next hour, they only told her not-so-important things about themselves. I would also give my two cents if I wasn't chewing my food. We mostly talked about the things we liked and what our pastimes were. All of us enjoyed ourselves so much that we were disappointed when the bell rang, signaling that lunch was over.

Angela and I headed to Spanish as the others went to either Calculus or English. Gym followed after that, where she and Edward spent a good deal of time running laps and exercising together. I noticed that Jessica and Lauren stared at them with their mouths open. Their expressions were funny as hell.

In the parking lot after school, Edward gave Angela his phone number and vice versa. I was happy that they liked each other enough to do that. They looked so good together. Angela told him that she would call him later. Then she hugged me and said good-bye to us before walking to her car.

Emmett smirked at him. "I'll call you later, Ed-ward," he teased.

Edward pushed him with a glare. "Shut up and mind your own business."

The rest of us chuckled as we made our way over to my truck. I yelled "See you later" to them as I backed out of my parking space.

"Do you want to come over our house tomorrow or this weekend?" Alice inquired.

"Yeah! We haven't really hung out since Sunday," I pointed out. "What do you want to do?"

She frowned in thought. "Would you like to go shopping? I did mention that on your first day of school."

I bit my lip. I always found shopping boring, mostly because of Egg Donor. I always had to sit somewhere, or hold things for her. Then again, I knew that neither Alice or Rosalie would make me do that, so the trip might be fun this time.

"Okay, that would be fine. I'd love that," I eventually said. "I look forward to it."

"Great! We usually leave around 9:30, 10:00 in the morning to go to Seattle. Can you get to our place before then?"

"Sure. That won't be a problem."

Alice smiled brightly. "See you around that time, then."

I nodded and we waved to each other again before I left.

I had nearly forgotten that I had to do the laundry until I arrived at home. I put my things in my room and retrieved the basket for the clothes.

Once it was filled, I went down to the basement. It was somewhat smaller than the one at Egg Donor's house and had less stuff in it. This relieved me because it looked nothing like hers. There were no horrible memories tied to it.

When I was younger, she would lock me in her basement if I had done something that particularly enraged her. This began when I was about three or four. And if she was really upset, I was forced to spend the night in there. She didn't do it too often, but when she did, I hated it. It was as if I had been thrown in jail.

The basement used to terrify me at night when I was a kid. That is, if I had been unfortunate to receive an overnight stay in it. (Luckily, I only had to less than six times.) Long, eerie shadows appeared on the walls. I often thought that they were monsters. I would then hide under my blanket and bury my face in my pillow. Egg Donor would not-so-kindly give them to me when it was time for me to go to sleep. Then she would lay two old mattresses-from a bed she used to have-in the middle of the room.

I was barely given enough food to eat in the daytime. Egg Donor only put enough in a bowl or plate to keep me from starving. She had a routine for giving me breakfast, lunch, and dinner. She would knock on the door and open it, then set the food and drink on the landing near the top step. After that, she would close the door. I'd eat whatever she gave me and put the empty dishes on the landing when I was finished. She would retrieve them after I had knocked on the door to let her know this.

On one occasion, she had gone out for an entire day and forgotten all about me! I remembered crying from the hunger pains that erupted from my stomach. I felt so betrayed too. How could she just go off and forget that I needed to eat?

That question swirled in my thoughts until she came home. Only then did she realize that I was still in the basement, not that she cared. Still, she warmed up the previous night's dinner, and grudgingly ended my punishment. There were also times when she would make me go to bed without dinner.

At some point during the day or evening, Egg Donor came in to spank me. Not that I would say that they were spankings. That was too light a name for it. They were more like whippings. She'd order me to pull my jeans and underwear down and lean on the side of the mattress. I cried silently as her belt landed on my ass, tears streaming down my cheeks in torrents. I had learned through much pain and experience that making a sound only made the punishment worse.

I was only allowed out a few times, and that was to wash up or go to the bathroom.

My very last time in her basement was when that I had been suspended a year and a half ago. She kept me locked in it during the three days that I had to stay home.

*Flashback* (Continuing from chapter 11's flashback)

That woman is out of her damn mind! I thought to myself as I went upstairs to run water on my burning side. I closed the bathroom door and jumped in the shower.

I stayed in it for twenty minutes to relieve the pain. After that, I climbed out and treated the burn, then covered it with a sterile gauze dressing.

Egg Donor was waiting outside of the room for me. She beckoned for me to follow her downstairs without a word. I had prevent myself from groaning as I was led to the basement. She handed my blankets and pillow to me, shoved me through the door, and locked it.

With a sigh, I made the bed that was in the center of the room. It was just barely lit due to the tinted window. Egg Donor bought it for the sole purpose of keeping our neighbors from seeing me if I was ever in here.

I turned the light on and got a novel off of a shelf that had been in here since I was old enough to read. There was nothing to do here, so I often grew bored. Reading distracted me from the sadness and anxiety that I felt before Mom came in here to warm my ass up.

An indefinite amount of time had gone by when there was a knock on the basement door. I heard it open and there was a clink. Then the door was shut and locked again.

A plate of fish sticks and greens were on a tray that was placed on the landing. I sat on the top step to eat the food and drank the orange juice next to it. When I was finished, I knocked on the door twice. I was already laying on the bed when Egg Donor came to get the tray.

She didn't return until later that evening. However, it was not to feed me; she came downstairs with her belt. My vision blurred with tears.

"You know what to do. Now hurry up before I do it myself," she sneered at me.

I put my novel on the bed and stood to slide my jeans and panties down. I gripped the sheets as I leaned over, closing my eyes tightly.

The first lash hurt like hell, but it was nothing compared to the ones that followed. My tongue bled as I chewed on it to keep myself from making any noise other than a whimper.

"You disgust me, you know that, bitch?! I've told you a million times to behave in school, and instead, you chose not to listen! I warned you that I would wallop the living daylights out of you if an incident like this ever happened! Do you know how embarrassing it would have been for me if you were a student in my school and not the one you go to?! Answer me!" she growled.

Choking out a sob, I mumbled, "Yes, Mom. I'm sorry."

"Good! I hope that you are because if not, you will be in here until you are, and I won't care if it takes more than a week either! Do you hear me?!" The belt hit my ass particularly hard several times.

"Mmmmph! Yes, I understand. I'll never do it again, I promise," I wept.

She yanked me up by my collar. "You better not ever do it again! I have no problem in following through with my threat, and I will beat your ass twice a day every day!"

I was thrown onto the bed after that. She glared at me and went upstairs. I buried my face in my pillow and cried with hurt and shame.

The next two days were just like that afternoon and evening. I read unless I was eating or sleeping. At some point, Egg Donor would come down to whip me. The only difference was that she didn't berate me the next two times.

She finally allowed me to leave the basement on the third day after one last spanking. It was time to fix dinner at that point, but she wouldn't let me sit at the table with her. I had to eat on the floor by the wall. I always had to do this for one evening if I had been locked in the basement.

"You will eat right there. If you want to act like an animal, I will treat you like an animal," she told me once, years ago.

That statement broke my heart.

*End of Flashback*

My phone rang with a text message then, bringing me back to reality. I looked at the screen.

Bella, what happened? I didn't see you in the last ten minutes. Did you get hurt or something?-Alice

No, I'm all right. I was just about to put the laundry in the washing machine, but I got caught up in a memory-B

Are you sure that you're fine? Do you need to talk about what you were thinking of?-A

No. It wasn't really important. But yes, I'm fine. I'll talk to you soon, okay?-B

If you say so, but call me if you change your mind-A

Will do-B

Ha. I sounded like Charlie.

Okay, thanks-A

I gathered my wits and threw the clothes in the machine. Then I went to do my homework, keeping my mind off of what I had been thinking about earlier.

(A/N: PLEASE REVIEW OR ASK ANY QUESTIONS THAT YOU HAVE! I am going to work on this story more than my other ones because I know that you want to see Renée get punished sooner than later. Here's something that will make you happy: The abuse will be discovered the week after Bella and Carlisle consummate their bond, which in the story, is about 3-5 weeks away.

The chapter that everyone finds out about it is nearly finished. I just have to write the beginning and the end of it. You will know that it is the chapter when it is posted immediately after another one. I hope Bella's last POV wasn't too long for you. I will update the next chapter as soon as I can crank it out. Until then, see you later!)