Here you go, next chapter!

Oh, with old I meant that it was a part that I wrote months ago. New means I just got an idea and post it directly.

I'll post the summer story as soon as I have finished 'Forks and Frustration'. I don't like having too many unfinished stories at a time, because people expect you to update each one frequently ... but I don't have enough time to do so. And the summer story happens to be on my other computer, so I couldn't post it even if I wanted to *oops* Maybe after Whitsun break!

Now ... I made this chapter a little bit different from the others, so you can have fun guessing ... guess what? You'll see when you read it :-)

Maddie walked through the iron gate and headed for the entrance of her school, still feeling a little down that she would spend yet another day at this place, but determined to make it at least a little worth it.

A girl instantly appeared at her side. Well, almost instantly as Maddie saw her the moment she hurried towards her, which took ages by the way. Seriously, humans are slow!

"Maddie!" Becca exclaimed breathlessly as she had just sprinted towards her.

"Hey," Maddie replied and continued to walk across the school yard.

Becca placed a hand on Maddie's arm to stop her.

"Guess what?" she asked quietly while looking around to check if they couldn't be overheard. Other girls passed them, but paid them no mind.

"What?" Maddie asked impatiently, which made Becca look back at her.

"Valerie is talking about you. She's done so all morning!" Becca whispered with wide eyes.

Excellent. But ... why was Becca still talking to her?

Maddie put on a frown and said in a slightly confused tone, "... okay?"

"She says that you talk crap about everyone, and that you think you're so much better than the rest of us."

Great, exactly what she was supposed to say!

"... and?" Maddie asked, still sounding confused, but she was actually quite excited now.

Finally peace and quiet in this hellhole!

Then Becca shrugged. "Just wanted to let you know that she's spreading rumours."

The excitement Maddie felt a moment ago turned to heavy confusion.

She stood there looking like a statue, when a smile spread across Becca's face and she walked on, only to turn around again and say, "Come on! We only have a few minutes left!"

What the ... ?

But Maddie eventually followed after the girl and they entered the school building, heading straight for Becca's locker.

"So … uhm … about what Valerie said ...," Maddie started tentatively.

"Yeah, what about that?" Becca asked and glanced at Maddie while sorting through her books. She was completely at ease, no loathing or anger or ... anything.

Maddie tilted her head to the side. "You ... don't believe her?"

That cracked her up.

"What?" Maddie asked angrily, but thank God it did not sound as angry as Maddie felt right then.

Becca didn't notice anyways, she was busy laughing. "That's Valerie we're talking about, she's always making stuff up about people."

Dammit.

But there was still a little spark of hope left in Maddie. "So you didn't think it could be true what she said?"

Becca looked at her in disbelief. "... no?"

Maddie frowned at that. "Why? I mean, you don't know me, it could be true after all."

"But she knows you?" Becca asked and scratched her nose - now she seemed to be confused.

Huh, she got her there.

"No, not really," Maddie mumbled.

"Haha, see?"

"Well … did she say something else about me?"

"She said you had a nose job." Then she laughed. "A nose job … so funny! It was just too ridiculous and made everything sooo unbelievable, pff."

Maddie gritted her teeth. That stupid bitch, who threatened her the day before and seemed to be good at spreading rumours, failed. She failed miserably.

Gah, what was she supposed to do now? How could she get all these other girls to hate her, without being a bitch or using her ability?

Ugh, there really was no relying on humans... you always have to do everything yourself.

So the first thing Maddie needed to do was to convert the annoyance she was feeling into something … more productive.

Letting her gaze roam, she then fixed her eyes on something inside of Becca's locker.

"Hey … are those Mentos?" she asked while pointing at a blue candy wrapper.

"Yeah, want some? I had so many lately, I can't even look at them anymore without feeling sick."

Becca picked the little wrap up and felt it. "Four left, here you go," she said and held it out for Maddie to take.

"Thanks," Maddie replied with a smirk and was suddenly in a good mood. A very good mood.

Esme arrived at Maddie's school shortly after lunch break. With quick steps she entered the building and headed straight for the school office; her head was slightly spinning and she was very nervous about finding out what happened. Especially because she got told to bring a towel for the car - a very confusing advice.

Not even half an hour ago she received a call from school saying that she should come pick her daughter up. No need to say that after she hung up, she immediately jumped into the car - Rosalie's this time - and headed for Fairholm. On her way she called Carlisle at work, and even though he was having a very busy day, he had a minute to spare and so he listened to his wife telling him these less than pleasant news. He groaned at hearing that the secretary called, but told Esme to wait until she would arrive at school - it might be a misunderstanding after all. They shouldn't just assume Maddie was causing trouble again, it wouldn't be fair. But to be honest, it was exactly what he did as well. He just hoped it wouldn't prove to be true and Maddie wasn't playing pranks or the like again, because then he would be forced to ruin her long-awaited weekend.

Entering the office, Esme quickly stepped forward to the counter and wanted to greet the secretary to get her attention, but the voice of her daughter distracted her.

"Hey Mommy," Maddie said to Esme, who immediately turned to the side to locate the girl.

She gasped when her eyes fell on her. "What ha-"

"Mrs. Cullen, hello," the secretary greeted and smiled at Esme.

Esme reluctantly peeled her eyes away from her daughter and replied, "Hello, Mrs. Sanderson. What exactly happened?"

"It was probably just a little accident or a prank, I'm not sure."

Prank? Oh no, Esme did not like to hear that. If her daughter repeated her misbehaviour at this school, she wouldn't know what to do.

Maddie stood up and walked over to them, coming to a halt right next to her Mom. With her came the strong smell of something sickeningly sweet and artificial, and Esme couldn't help but wonder how Maddie had managed to end up looking - and smelling - like this.

The secretary took her eyes off Esme and turned to look at Maddie, a little smile on her lips. "Oh, you probably want to go home now, don't you? A shower and a set of fresh clothes and you feel as good as new again, dear."

"Yes, thank you," Maddie said to the secretary, then looked at Esme. "Can we go now, Mom? I'm starting to get cold."

"Uhm, yes sweetheart, let's go," Esme replied in a voice that held a hint of confusion.

They said good bye to the secretary and left the office. Esme was carrying her daughter's backpack, because Maddie looked way too ... dirty to do so and she didn't want to have even more things ruined. Hopefully she could save the uniform.

"Maddie, what happened? You look like you took a bath in sugared water with your clothes still on."

"Yeah, and it doesn't feel good, either, " Maddie said while distorting her mouth. "My clothes are sticking to my skin and my hair is all ugh."

'Ugh' was a little understated if you'd ask Esme.

When they were halfway across the schoolyard, Esme stopped her daughter and looked her over, unable to ignore this any longer.

"What is that?" she asked and, using her thumb and index finger, inspected a strand of Maddie's almost dried, but still sticky, hair.

"Diet Coke ... and regular Coke."

What? "How come you are covered in Diet Coke?" she asked and shook her head in disbelief, then fished a wet wipe out of a little bag from her purse.

"And regular Coke," Maddie added as though it was an important fact.

Esme put a hand on the back of Maddie's head to hold her in place and then dragged one of the wipes across her face.

"Mom, stop!" Maddie complained, but to no avail.

Esme was determined to at least clean her daughter's face of this sticky liquid - she couldn't enjoy smelling it the whole time.

Maddie whined and tried to move her head away, but Esme did not let go until she had her cleaned and her hair wasn't sticking to her forehead or her temples anymore.

"Maddie, answer me. Why are you covered in Diet Coke?" she asked while cleaning her hands with another wipe, because they were now as icky as Maddie.

"Girls at private schools obviously aren't as sweet as you think they are," Maddie grumbled and rubbed the side of her face with her dirty sleeve - that wet wipe stuff made her skin feel sticky, too.

Esme tzked at seeing that and pulled Maddie's arm away from her face. "Stop that. Now tell me what happened."

"I got sprayed with that stuff." Maddie shrugged and walked on towards the car.

Esme's eyes went wide, and she hurried after her, then pressed the button on the car remote to unlock the doors when she was close enough.

"Do you get bullied?" she asked and placed a hand on Maddie's arm, turning her around. "Maddie, who did that? Are you all right?"

"Yeah, I'm fine." Maddie nodded, opened the passenger door and made to get in.

"Wait!" Esme quickly called out and retrieved the white towel she brought from the back seat. Quickly draping it over the passenger seat, she then stepped to the side to let her daughter get in. "Here, honey, let's keep the leather clean, yes?"

Yeah, wouldn't go down well with Rose to ruin her nice black leather seats.

Within a minute they were driving down the highway that would lead them to Forks, and Maddie pulled her hair back into a messy bun to keep it from blowing in her face whenever she turned her head.

She was so glad that Rosalie's car was a convertible, because the smells of the lunch hall and of course the soft drinks were everywhere on her.

"I would like to know what happened," Esme suddenly said and glanced at Maddie; she still couldn't shake the feeling that her daughter might have provoked this outcome or had been otherwise involved.

"I sat with a few girls at lunch and someone must have shaken their bottles, because when they opened them, everybody was practically soaked. That was really weird."

"So ... it wasn't just you who had to go home early?"

Maddie looked like she found that question very odd. "No. The others just got picked up earlier because they don't live that far away."

"Oh."

"Uh-huh."

"So, after you had your bath," Esme said in a tone that would allow no argument and looked at Maddie, "you can start your weekend! Emmett already planned something for today, am I right?"

Maddie had to grin a little at her Mom's commanding tone. Esme was probably scared she might sit down on the couch in her dirty clothes.

"I think so," Maddie replied. "He said something about a movie marathon."

"That's nice, sweetie."

At home Maddie decided to take a shower, so she wouldn't need to soak in water that was mixed with that sticky stuff on her skin.

She put on some clean clothes, brushed her hair and even blow-dried it.

Then, because she had nothing better to do until her siblings would come home, she jumped onto the couch in the living room and started a game on her gameboy.

What a perfect day that was, she thought. She had really enjoyed herself so far, and then she was even allowed to leave early!

Booyah!

She was deeply involved with her game – she was winning that level, for sure! - when someone came to a stop behind her.

"It's just your first week!" Rosalie exclaimed exasperatedly.

"I know," Maddie replied, but did not look up. She could feel her siblings' eyes on her as they passed her on their way to the foyer.

Unfortunately, Rose did not follow after them.

"What are you doing home so early?" she asked with a frown.

"Mom picked me up after lunch," Maddie replied, still marvelling at her awesome gaming skills.

Rose was wary. "What did you do?"

"Nothing."

"Maddie ..."

"Nothing!" Maddie exclaimed and glanced at her blond sister. Rosalie was watching her with narrowed eyes and Maddie focussed back on her game.

"Ha, Tiny, what happened?" Emmett asked when he entered the living room.

Maddie suddenly gave a whoop of joy and looked up. "I won!"

Emmett laughed and they high-fived.

"So?"

Maddie shrugged her shoulder. "Nothing important. Can we watch a movie now?"

"Sure." Emmett nodded.

But they couldn't start immediately, because Esme had something to say.

She stood at the bottom of the stairs, Maddie's backpack dangling from her left index finger.

"Madeline, take your backpack to your room where it belongs. I don't know what it's doing here on the floor."

"I put it there." Maddie shrugged.

"I figured as much. Now take it upstairs, you can start your movie after that."

Groaning, Maddie climbed off the couch and walked to her mother.

She lifted her left arm so that Esme could hang the backpack over her shoulder, then she ascended the stairs, starting a new game.

Arriving in her room she just dropped her backpack onto the floor next to her closet and continued playing.

But before she could take a seat to be more comfortable while finishing her game, she was lifted in the air and then dumped on her bed half a second later.

"Em!"

He threw himself down next to her and grinned. "You did something."

"Huh?" Maddie asked and put her gameboy away.

"At school. You did something."

"... what? No!" she said and tried to look indignant at his accusation. Since that did not work, she tried to at least suppress the laugh that was building up inside of her, but she failed. Suddenly giggling filled the room and she let herself fall onto her side and covered her face with both hands.

"I knew it!" Emmett exclaimed and pulled her hands away. "Tell me."

"Hm, I dunno …," Maddie replied while sitting up again.

"You still get your money … nobody knows it was you, right?" he asked and waited for her answer.

She smiled broadly. "Nobody."

Then Emmett leaned back on her bed and folded his hands behind his head. "You may start, milady."

And then Maddie told him of her day.

Earlier that day ...

Lunchtime could be a beautiful thing, Maddie thought during class.

And on this day, she was really looking forward to it, she was giddy with excitement.

When the bell rang indicating that the time had come, Maddie wanted to storm out of the room and down the stairs to the lunchroom.

But first she needed to ask the other girls just why they didn't believe the rumours to be true. Yes, the nose job was indeed ridiculous … but the other things?

"Ugh, she's doing that all the time," Katie groaned and leaned back against the wall opposite the restroom door. "She thinks she's incredibly popular and practically owns this school. What an airhead."

Alison laughed along.

Huh, Maddie figured nobody could really like that girl but to hear that it was indeed like that …

"And why the hell did she tell me to join her stupid club or never have friends ever again?"

Alison was quick to answer that. "Easy: You're the new one. She always does that with the new ones, because she wants to have more people she can boss around."

Mia nodded. "Yeah, she tried the same stuff with me two weeks ago."

"Why?"

"Because I was the new one two weeks ago," Mia grinned.

Wow, Maddie really didn't know crap about them.

"And she thinks threatening people is the best way to make friends?" Maddie asked and snorted.

Katie laughed about Maddie's question. "Keep your friends close but your enemies closer ... ever heard of that? I don't think she really wants you to be her friend. She just doesn't like other pretty girls, because she wants to be the most beautiful girl in school. And if she can make you her sidekick, she can at least push you around."

"I'm not sure about that. Maybe she wants to change strategy, since she already has two idiots following her around," Mia mused, which made Alison agree.

But Maddie didn't have time for that. "Right … hey, where do you wanna have lunch today? Outside?"

"Sure, let's just wait for Becca and Steph," Alison said and pointed at the door to the restrooms.

"You know, I think it would be way better for the atmosphere in our class if we would become friends. Valerie and I," Maddie remarked with a thoughtful expression.

Katie gaped at her. "Are you serious?"

"Uh-huh, I think I'll go find her right now," Maddie said and nodded her head, then turned around and headed for the stairs.

She could practically hear the other girls looking at each other weirdly and muttering an "... okay?"

Maddie held her breath when she entered the lunch hall, because she still had a hard time getting used to these smells. Rosalie said it would get better with time, to endure the smells humans thought of as nice, but it was still something she didn't really like.

Scanning the room for her target, she let out a little sigh when she found her sitting at a table in the middle of the room.

Of course in the middle of the room – she thought she was the centre of attention after all.

But she could only see one idiot girl sitting next to her ... where was the second one?

She looked around until she spotted the other sidekick.

Ha, this was getting easier by the second ...

So she went to the side to stand next to idiot number two, who was currently waiting in line to pay for a few bottles of coke.

Maddie just wanted to help her carry them to the table, where she could finally apologise to Valerie.

And when you wanna apologise ... it's always better to bring a little gift, right?

"And let me guess," Emmett said with a big smirk, "you did something with the bottles to get back at the stupid girl."

Maddie just shrugged her shoulders and looked all innocent.

"How did you do it?"

She laughed. "You know these little sewing kits you get in hotels?"

Emmett nodded his head in response.

"Mom gave me one of those to put in my locker. So in case I accidentally ripped a button off of the blazer, I could sew it back on, you know."

"Go on," he said and gestured with his hand to make her continue.

"Well ... I had a few Mentos."

And then it clicked.

"You made a coke bomb, you little devil!" he exclaimed, then his eyes widened and he quickly held a hand over his mouth while looking in the direction of the door. He relaxed again when nobody came storming in.

Maddie just frowned at his exclamation and shook her head, which confused Emmett. But he laughed when she held up three fingers.

"Three? How much time did you have?"

"Well, I prepared the Mentos during class, so it was easy to be quick during lunch."

Maddie shrugged her shoulders again, a smile lighting up her face.

"And they did not suspect you after opening the bottles and making a mess?"

She shook her head. "Nope. One of the girl's sidekicks bought the soft drinks for their little group."

"Hey ...," he then said, "when did you put the Mentos in?"

"Well, I made her follow me, help me prepare the bottles and then bring them to the table - but she doesn't remember."

"That's why you didn't get caught?"

"Uh-huh." Maddie nodded. If someone would be in trouble for the mess in the lunchroom it should be the girl who purchased the stuff, right?

Then he shook his head, because something didn't make sense to him. "But why were you home early?"

That made her sigh. "I couldn't leave the table or they might have figured it was me, so I just sat there and let it happen. Plus, they won't let you back in class when you are soaked with Coke," she told him and her bright golden eyes gleamed with joy.

"Ha, awesome," he said and they slapped hands.

"But better not tell anyone, Tiny," he suddenly whispered and held up a finger in warning. He knew Carlisle and Esme wouldn't understand the sweet art of pranking and then his little sister would be miserable again. And he wanted to take her paintballing tomorrow.

She snorted and ran her fingers through her hair. "I never even planned on telling you, Em. You made me."

"True." he nodded and nudged her knee with his. Then he sat up, looked back at her and patted his shoulder. "Now come, let's do something fun."

She nodded, then climbed onto his back and let him carry her down to the living room for a nice long movie marathon.

Tee-hee, did you guess right before finding out what she did?

REVIEW please!