Disclaimer: Stephenie Meyer owns her characters of her Twilight series, I'm just giving them a night out.

A/N: Check out the new fan art for this story on my profile. It's badass.

Chapter 25: KATHLEEN WILKERSON OF WILKERSON PORT

Charlie Swan

When I got to the office, I only sat down for two seconds and then Hank rushed into the room. Before I could ask what the hell the matter was, he dropped a portfolio onto my desk and stood on the edge of the room with his arms crossed.

"What's this?" I picked up the portfolio with caution and waited for his response. When he didn't say anything, I glared at him. "Hank?"

"It was just delivered to our front desk by the chairwoman's assistant. It's about a town hall meeting."

I cocked an eyebrow. "Town hall? You've got to be kidding." I pulled out the papers, already dreading what bullshit laws they wanted being forced now. Not to my surprise, it wasn't a declaration or anything remotely professional. The forms were barely forms at all—just a long list of signatures, all numbered from one to one hundred. "What the hell is this?" I asked before throwing the pages down onto my desk.

"The town has filed a complaint about the lack of police surveillance regarding the night watches. They have over one hundred signatures so far on a proposition for a weekday curfew and monitored safe zones for unsupervised children."

I shook my head in disbelief. "What?" I pinched the bridge of nose to try and process the crap. "Weekday curfews—are we their parents? Safe zones? I wasn't aware we were in war."

Hank tried to hide a smile.

"What the hell am I supposed to do with this? There shouldn't be such thing as an unsupervised child in the first place. It's not police business. I don't come to work in the morning after pulling a double shift just for this."

Hank shrugged. "It's not on my doing, sir. Don't shoot the messenger."

"Well I've got a solution—people have kids, they have to be a damn parent! There—problem solved. We're not goddamn babysitters—" I cut myself off and covered my face with my hands. This whole moment was exactly what I hated about being an officer. People depended on me—usually the irrational were needier. But it was my job…for some reason…and if I didn't show my commanders that I deserved my title as chief, it could be taken away. Then I'd be back to uniforms and traffic patrolling.

"Well…" Hank began. "There's going to be a town meeting at the hall—maybe you can bring up your suggestions to the people paying your bills."

I lifted my head up and glared at him. He was the only man in the station allowed to talk to me like that. We had been through enough that he had the right. But that didn't mean I didn't chew him for it. "I pay my own goddamn bills, Hank—"

"I know, I'm just playing with you boss." He straightened his shoulders and smirked. I watched his face with a blank gaze. He shook his head and chuckled. "You need some fun—what happened to the good ol' times? Where's the Charlie I knew from the boot camp days? Even he wasn't as to the books as the guy I'm staring at today."

I shook my head. Now wasn't the time for his same old song and dance. He knew the real reasons why I wasn't the same—well not the real reasons, but almost. "Hank if you had my status, you'd be taking things just as serious as me. It must be nice to get to sit in the passenger seat and not drive anywhere."

He laughed. "Ouch boss—but it's okay. I'm just looking forward to your speech."

I stared at him. "Speech?"

He smiled. "How else are you going to inform the town at the meeting about your new ideas for straightening up the rampant juveniles?"

I sighed and shook my head. He was killing me. "Rampant juveniles—there's a topic I know too much about." My mind immediately drifted to Bella walking up the driveway, her back to me, the rain washing her away. I swallowed the dry air building up in my mouth.

"How is that kid of yours?" Hank asked. "Still breathing?" He chuckled for only a second before his breath caught and he understood his misstep. I didn't take any offence—he was only poking fun—but he still apologized immediately. "Jesus I didn't mean it like that—"

"Hank, knock it off. It's fine." I stood up from my chair and stretched. "And yeah—she's doing alright. Although I think she's mad at me."

He was already over the moment. "Oh yeah? Why's that?"

I smiled. "I made her take the bus today."

Hank shook his head. "Charlie…"

I nodded. "I know."

Hank finally laughed. "I can't imagine what it's like having you as a father—" he cut himself off again, but before he could say anything else, I raised my hands.

"I said it's okay. I wouldn't want me as a father either. I'm terrible. She hates me."

Hank's eyes dropped to the floor.

"Here," I picked up the portfolio. "I don't have time for this. Give this to one of the new guys—tell them to pick up patrolling in the evenings. That way we'll be able to tell the folks we're improving before they eat us alive at the town hall."

Hank nodded. "Sure thing boss," he said, accepting the portfolio and leaving the room. When he shut the door, I walked over to the window and watched the pouring rain hit the trees behind the building, and no doubt drenching Bella.

I sighed. She probably does hate me.

-X-

Bella Crossbones

The bus came just as Maksim disappeared. It stopped right in front of me and I got on like nothing even happened.

"Hi there," I said, nodding at the bus driver when he closed the door behind me. He was completely bald but had a dark grey beard touching his chest. A cigarette was in his mouth but it wasn't lit. He only looked at me for a second before turning to the road and hitting the gas. I grabbed onto the top of the first seat on the right and swore. "Jesus—okay." I tried to walk down the aisle like I wasn't having difficulty, but when the driver put on his brakes to make a right turn, I flew back and landed in an empty seat on the left side of the bus. I adjusted myself and pulled my hair out of my eyes. That's when I finally got a look around. My eyes squinted at what I saw.

The bus was empty.

It wasn't my eyes playing tricks on me again or my mind blacking out—there was no one on the bus. It was just me. Alone. I looked up at the huge rear view mirror in front of the bus driver's face. It was tilted so that I could see his forehead and his grey eyes. He looked up at me when he felt my eyes on him but then quickly looked back at the road. I sat up in my seat. "Excuse me?" I asked from six rows behind him. The radio was on extremely low—for his ears only apparently—yet he still insisted my voice wasn't loud enough to reach his ears. I moved to the edge of my seat, right on the aisle, and lifted my hand. "Hey—bus driver?" I yelled, waving my hand.

His eyes caught the mirror again, but this time, they stayed frozen on my face. His stare made me regret interrupting his driving. But before I could take it back and apologize, he was correcting me. "It's Gary," he said without moving his lips.

I lowered my hand lamely back down next to me and looked to my right at my neighbour that didn't exist. I wanted to sink down in my seat, but I had a question. "Sorry Gary," I said lowly, crunching my back molars together in regret.

He shrugged.

I perked up. He could hear me loud and clear. I didn't feel bad anymore—he was just as much of an ignorant asshole as I was. Suddenly, I felt right at home. Well…as home as a foster kid could feel. "Gary," I said his name without raising my voice. His eyes flashed to the mirror and then away. I realized that meant he was listening. "Was I the first stop?" I asked.

He shook his head. "Second last."

I leaned back in my seat. "Wow." That was all there was to say. I looked behind me one more time, just to make sure I hadn't missed anything, but sure enough, I was the only loser on the bus. I didn't understand it. I couldn't be the only one without parents who didn't give them four wheels to drive to school with.

I didn't worry about it. Maybe I would be lucky enough to see the school as bare as the bus system. That would be lucky. I sighed and pondered the thought a little longer, scooting over towards the window and leaning my head against the glass. The rain outside continued to slam against the window, but at least it wasn't slamming me in the face like before.

I kept my head planted in the same position when the bus rolled to a stop and the doors opened. Apparently I wasn't the only loser taking the bus. How charming. I didn't have interest in seeing who was joining me on the magical ride, that is until I heard a voice greet Gary, and him actually respond.

"Good Morning Kathleen," Gary said lowly.

I immediately looked up over the seat, shocked that Gary had spoken to someone else and not me. But when I saw the girl…something in me had a change of heart. I didn't feel jealous all the sudden. Her unthreatening appearance melted my cold heart.

"Oh—hello," the redhead said, shocked to see another person on the bus. Before seeing me she had taken a step into the first row, but after discovering she didn't have to be so alone, she quickly adjusted herself to the seat directly in front of my own. Gary didn't move an inch forward until she was fully situated. I didn't understand his prejudices, but I didn't dare question them. She looked like the type of kid teachers let sit on their knee. With once glance I already knew how charmingly innocent she was.

"Yeah hi," I said before adjusting my eyes back out the window. I had no intentions of making friends on my first day of school, especially with someone like her. She looked like she needed a babysitter by the looks of her French braided hair and lightly dusted freckles—to young to ride the bus. And her green rain jacket…enough said. She and I weren't made from the same thread. In fact, I believe she was woven with the purest silks, whereas someone went out to the back field and made me out of old, barbed wire.

"I never thought I'd see the day when I'd get to ride the bus with someone else," she said as if she had just climbed a mountain. She was out of breath and looked up at the ceiling of the bus like she was reading a script there. I looked away from the window and looked up there too, but it was only metal. "Are you new—well of course you are!" she said. "Duh." She banged her hand against her forehead.

I smiled without showing my teeth, my eyebrows rising just because they could. I hoped that would be enough of an answer, but apparently, she wasn't done.

"Where are your things?" she asked, sitting up a bit higher in the seat and placing her chin on the back of her seat. Her eyes looked beside me and then at my face.

I didn't know what she was talking about until I felt that my back was pressed right against the seat. My backpack. Only I would manage to lose something so quickly in the shortest amount of time. I hesitated and then decided to play with her a little. "I can't afford it—I'm a foster kid. I wish I had nice things, but I just don't." I shrugged and then looked out the window. But out of the corner of my eye, I still saw her starting to react. My eyes moved back to her face. She looked horror-struck from my news. Her face held guilt, which immediately put the regret in my stomach. Stupid idea. So stupid! And then for whatever reason…I knew I couldn't let her go on.

"I'm so sorry. I had no idea…" she whispered, her voice failing and dropping into the rumbling of the engine.

I cringed internally. I knew I had to fix it. I was no better than the people who picked on me. "Just kidding," I said quickly.

Her eyes widened in disbelief, the relief almost there but not.

"Well, sort of. I am a foster kid, but I'm a…" I didn't know where I was going with this. "Fortunate one," I finished. In my head, the choir of hecklers laughed at my expense. I joined them—it was ridiculous.

She pulled her hand up to her chest and leaned away from her new chin rest. "Oh!" she said, finally catching her breath. "You're good!" she said before laughing the strangest laugh I had ever heard. I nodded and tried not to smile at her laugh, and when I saw Gary glaring at me from his mirror, I knew I couldn't let myself slip. "I'm sorry," she said. "I'm not used to being around jokers. My family is strict—I never get a good chance to laugh."

I held up my hands. "It's okay—sorry, what was your name?" Had she told me? I couldn't remember.

She smiled and held out her hand over the seat to me. "Kathleen Wilkerson, descendent of the Wilkerson Port, famous for the red sands and salty seas."

My eyes widened at her declaration of independence. Now that's a name. I couldn't imagine having a heritage like that. I barely remembered my initials on a good day. Her hand dangled for a few seconds in front of my face, waiting in anticipation. It reminded me of Maksim's, only this hand was harmless, pure white with chipping aqua nail polish and had enough bangles around the wrist to start a line of jewellery in a corner boutique.

"And you are?" she asked, eyeing me with a smirk.

And even though I didn't want to, I took her hand and said "Bella Crossbones."

Kathleen Wilkerson of Wilkerson Port smiled and shook my hand with as much enthusiasm as one would think a girl with that much sparkly decoration would have. And with every shake of her wrist, the metals and plastics of her jewellery clanked together, creating a chime that only she could appreciate. "Nice to meet you, Bella Crossbones. I know we're going to have a great time riding the bus together."

I smiled nicely before she flipped back around excitedly and then joined me in my seat. I kept my eyes forward until I saw Gary's amused face, his eyes peering out onto the street, no longer a sharp grey, but much softer.

I turned to the window and pretended I was Bella Crossbones of Empty Seat Way, famous for the lonely leather lands and wet-window skies. But even though I wasn't too pleased with my new sidekick, I swear the rain fell a little bit lighter against the glass.

Strangely, I didn't feel sick anymore.

This day was already too much.

-x-

"I don't get out much," Kathleen admitted over lunch.

Even without my backpack, the day had gone as expected so far. Lame teachers. Horrible subjects. Weird people with scarves and drawn on eyebrows. I stayed away from those monsters and hugged the walls of every classroom I entered until the lunch bell rang. Then PEI sands—or whatever she was called—grabbed my arm and pulled me towards a lunch line. After telling her foster kids didn't do lunch lines because foster kids didn't have money, she begged me to wait for her, which I did because I'm that girl now, and then we both walked her tray over to a table in the middle of the cafeteria. I refused to sit near so many people and then we moved over to a more private one near the windows where the sun would pour through if there were such thing in Forks.

"I just don't fit in here—I think you know where I'm coming from?" she asked before she opened the plastic top to her salad.

I could stand her if she wouldn't go where I didn't want her to go. But she was a friendly human being…and friendly human beings believed that talking about things cured things. Ridiculous. I tried to beat around the bush, the bush being Kathleen judging from her now fuzzy, red hair stringing from her braids. Rain wasn't friendly to anyone. "Didn't you say you were from the sea or something…" I stared down at her food while she poured a small packet of salad dressing onto her salad. She poured it over the lettuce quite slowly and then when I thought she was done, she pulled a lunch box—a lunch box—out of her backpack and then took out a tall container from a zippered section.

My eyes widened when I saw that it was more salad dressing. She quickly drizzled it over her salad and then put it back into her green lunch box.

I was disgusted. Not because of her strange food addiction, but from something else. I felt like if I even watched her eat that I would throw up on her. I guess my face showed my true feelings for what was going on in my head, because she suddenly put the top back on her salad and started apologizing. "I'm sorry—I just don't think there's ever enough dressing in those little packets the salad comes with." Her eyes stayed low but they didn't move from the salad. She was hungry.

"Kathleen eat," I told her. "Don't be…a girl."

She tiled her head up to me. "A what?"

I wanted to bang my head on the table. "A girl."

She didn't understand. Her face stayed blank.

"It means…lame." This wasn't a conversation I thought I'd ever have. Actually, I never thought I'd even have a conversation today—especially with someone so nice and so not me. She probably pissed gold. I was lucky if I pissed at all these days.

Kathleen was still in the dark over my nonsense logic. That's why she was still looking at me funny. "Lame? Being a girl is lame?" she asked.

There was no getting around this. She was tragically boxed in and I was tragically rude. "Never mind—just eat your lunch. It's fine. I'm just a jerk. Ignore me."

She shook her head but grabbed her salad and opened it back up. "You're not a jerk," she said before taking a bite of her salad. My stomach turned but I ignored it. "And I don't want to ignore you…I…" She hesitated. I waited. "I want us to be friends."

My gaze hardened onto a stain on the surface of the table. Friends. I didn't know what that word meant. It wasn't something my brain recognized. I didn't have friends. I was solo for reasons like this—for people like this. I wasn't a crutch. I didn't need her—pssf, I was fine. I liked being alone. Yeah, I loved it…

Like before, she immediately read the dread across my face and then shoved her salad back into her lunch box and then began to get up. "I'm sorry—that was stupid."

I held up my hands. "Whoa, whoa! Calm down—where you going?" I stood up with her and then it was just a big stare down. Her lunch bag was still on the table and her backpack was still hung over her chair, just like it probably was in elementary school…and junior high…and high school. "Just sit down. You didn't do anything wrong."

She wouldn't look at me but she did sit back down. And then she got her food back out again and then started eating for the hundredth time today.

"I don't get out much either," I told her, trying to rekindle that connection that was so obviously not there between us.

She caught the lie immediately. "Ha ha, very funny," she said before flipping her braid off her right shoulder. She no longer had her green coat on, but that didn't mean she left the ruffles at home. There were layers of material all over her shoulders and down through her chest. It was one complicated design. "You're too cool to not have a social life," she said lowly, keeping her fork in her salad too long.

I laughed—I couldn't help it. No one had ever called me cool before. And for the first time in my life I think I had received a genuine, down to earth compliment. I was flattered and that's why I cleared my throat. "Well…" I said lowly. "You don't know me." I had never said something so truthful in my life. "I may wear damp, ugly boy plaid…and I may have messy, wet hair—"

"Oh but your hair is amazing—"

"Kathleen." She was unbelievable. "What I'm trying to tell you is that I may look cool…" Even the idea made me want to smile but I wouldn't. "But I'm not. I'm so not. Cool kids do well in school without studying. Cool kids have friends without trying. Cool kids care but make it look like they don't. I don't have any of that. I may not study, but I have the grades to match. I don't try to get friends—and that's why I don't have any. And I don't care…and it shows…that's what you see, and it's not cool…it's just ignorance."

Kathleen stayed still in her seat. Her eyes drifted on and off my face, and then she was nodding like a dazed hospital patient receiving terrible news. But the news wasn't entirely terrible to her. She had a look on her face that told me what I had said took a little weight off her back. That made me smile. Strangely, I didn't want her to feel flattened by other people. I knew what that was like. I wanted her to recognize the smoke and mirrors like I had. But while I watched her face, I realized her gaze was now over my shoulder looking at something else. And whatever else it was had slowly turned her eyes wide.

"What is it now—" I was about to look over my shoulder until she snatched my arm and gripped me in place. I looked at her like she was a crazy person—because she was acting like one—and then I ripped my arm away from her. "What the hell is the matter with you," I said without questioning the crazy in front of me. Her eyes were no longer wide. In fact, they wouldn't even look up from the table. All her attention was back to her salad, yet she didn't take a single bite.

She spoke lowly. "Don't look now," she said, "but they're headed right for us."

Without a single thought I turned in my chair and scanned the area. Kathleen gave another hushed plea behind me to turn around, but when I saw the fleet of girls in triangle formation headed down the aisle…something in me itched.

I quickly turned around. "Who are those three?" I asked, taking another look over my shoulder before looking back at Kathleen. She still wouldn't look up from her salad. I banged my hand on the table and she flipped her gaze up to mine. "Why are you afraid of them?"

She shrugged. "They're nice enough, I guess, it's just me…" Her voice took a wrong turn and got lost in her thoughts.

I shook my head. "No it's not," I said. "It's them." I turned back around in my seat to stare at the girls now only five feet away. The one in the middle had her blonde hair pulled back so tight that her eye brows were pushed off to the side of her head and her lips were pouting for oxygen to get to her brain. I smirked to keep from laughing and that's when one of her followers tapped ponytail girl on the shoulder and pointed me out. Her head slowly but surely tilted my way, and when her purple contacts found my face, I cocked an eyebrow at her and finally let out a laugh.

Out of the corner of my eye, Kathleen shifted in her chair. I turned back to her, and that's when she said "Oh boy, you've sure done it now."

I waved her off, but when I finally stopped chuckling I noticed three bodies had moved right up beside me, and none of them were moving. I tilted my head up and smiled. "How's it goin'?" I asked the pony girl.

She smiled back just as pleasantly. "Lovely—are you new?" she asked, crossing her arms before taking a few sideways glances at the soldiers still flanking her sides.

I nodded. "Yup. Kathleen's been showing me around," I said, nodding towards the redhead who no longer had any self-confidence or backbone to hold her head up on. She stared at the table and pretended her salad was more important.

One of the girls to the pony girl's left burst out laughing, and then the other did as well. Then the pony girl said "Better look for a different tour guide—she'll lead you right back to the library every time."

When that girl laughed, every hair on the back of my neck rose in irritation. But my stomach dropped when I looked over at Kathleen and saw the tear roll down the side of her red cheek before she quickly wiped it away. That's when I had to look at the table and search for some strength to do what I was about to do next…

I laughed with them.

Kathleen's head slowly looked up at me and then back down in defeat at her salad, but I ignored it because the leader smiled at me and offered me to join them at their table in the middle of the cafeteria. It was everything and more that I needed.

That's why I declined. "You know, thank-you, but I'm probably just going to leave now. I'm done lunch as it is."

The girl nodded. "I'd loose my lunch too if I sat with someone with that many ruffles on her chest." She glared at Kathleen and then walked a row down from us, and three rows towards the center of the cafeteria.

I looked away from them and at Kathleen. Her head was now a bit straighter but her eyes stayed glued to the table. She was slowly packing up her things back into her bag. I reached across the table and grabbed her arm like she had to me. She flinched before her eyes found mine. "I'm sorry—" she began, but I cut her off.

"Don't say that," I hissed lowly. "If you learn one thing today," I said before taking a quick look over my shoulder at the fleet of girls and then back at her, "never, ever say you're sorry. Ever. You hear me?"

She didn't understand, but she nodded like she did, and then I dropped her arm.

"Pass me your lunchbox."

She looked at me wearily but pulled it out from her bag again and handed it to me slowly. I opened it quickly and only rummaged through it for a second before pulling out a can of tomato juice.

"Tomato juice?" I asked, holding up the can. "Really Kathleen?"

She shrugged innocently. "It's really good for you."

I nodded. "Well, if that's the case…" I glanced over my shoulder at the girls. They were off in their own little world, standing around a table, laughing with some boys and touching each other's hair. My fist tightened around the can. "Watch and learn, Kathleen," I said, turning back around and catching her gaze finally.

She didn't say anything. She didn't need to. She knew what I was going to do when I cracked the pop open and grinned like a crazy son-of-a-bitch. I raised my eyebrows and caught her mouth twitch before I launched the pop over my left shoulder like a rocket leaving home base. I quickly adjusted my body to stare straight ahead like a good, nonchalant student enjoying her cafeteria meal, and Kathleen quickly shot her gaze back down to the table. But when I heard the wild cursing…

The target was a success.

"Kathleen, would you like to go somewhere a bit quieter?" I asked with a smile. "It's suddenly a bit louder in here."

She perked up. "How about the library?"

I didn't hide my unimpressed look well. "How about…no." I stood up and grabbed her lunchbox off the table and shoved it into her bag for her. "Take your bag and follow me," I instructed her.

I knew it was too late when I felt the hit to the back of my shoulder and then saw the red spray cover our table and then Kathleen's face. She screamed like the innocent girl she was—I turned in slow motion in the thrower's direction.

What I saw, I didn't see coming.

I had expected to see three angry girls covered in red happily content with their retaliation…but instead, I saw a group of boys wiping red off their faces, and the last person I ever wanted to see sitting at the head of the table, covered in red.

Maksim.

-x-

"You hit Maksim Smirnov right in the face with a can of tomato juice."

It was now the end of the day. Kathleen and I had fled the cafeteria before he could chuck a chair or a table in our direction, and we ended up skipping our classes for the rest of the day. We hid in the last place Maksim would look for us.

The library.

It made me sick just thinking about how right that pony girl had been, but it made me more sick just knowing how much more fucked I was with Maksim.

"Why didn't you tell me they moved?" I asked Kathleen when we got back onto the bus. Even though we had already been over it one hundred times, I still wasn't over it. "Friends don't let friends look stupid."

Kathleen smiled. "We're friends?" she asked. She then grabbed my arm and began shaking it. "Oh thank-you! I can't wait to have you over for supper!"

I couldn't say anything. I just let her lead us to the same seat we had met at, and when Gary glared at me, I nodded. "Yeah," I said lamely. "Can't wait."

-x-

Edward Cullen

"She threw a can of juice at Maksim's face..."

"Well I guess she didn't mean to, but that's definitely what happened—hit him right in the kisser," Jasper said before bursting out laughing.

I stayed sitting on the couch and pretended to be interested in the TV while I watched his mind recall the incident. From his position in the cafeteria, he had seen every smirk play across Bella's face as she taunted the students and ended up taunting the one person she shouldn't. And judging by the look of dread that had played across her face when she saw Maksim…she knew she had made a mistake.

I turned the TV off when I couldn't take it anymore.

"Hey—I was watching that," Jasper complained.

I threw the flicker at him and left the room. I still didn't understand why he let her run off. He should have followed her—I would have. Now she could be anywhere—with Maksim right behind her.

"Would you calm down," Jasper yelled form the other room. "She got back on the bus with her little friend."

I stopped moving and tilted my head up. "What?" I said lowly, knowing he could hear me.

Jasper continued just as lowly in the other room. "I saw her getting on the bus at the end of the day with her friend." Jasper played what he had seen earlier this afternoon and I watched. Like he had said, Bella was still in one piece and now following around the last person I'd ever expect her to notice.

A Wilkerson…

"Is that a Wilkerson?" I knew it was. Hair that red only belonged to one family of the same goddamn Port. And when I heard Jasper laugh, I knew there was no doubt about it—Bella had made one more misstep in the small town of Forks.

"She sure knows how to pick them, eh Edward?" Jasper asked behind me. I didn't turn around. I was frozen in place, my eyes glaring at the wall. I didn't know how to process my worries. "It's like she's a damn magnet for pointing out the town's flaws. First she meets you, the stalker vampire, than she meets that werewolf—enough said there—and now she meets a Wilkerson, famous for their wandering eyes and observant ears."

"I get it, thank you."

He laughed. "Well, Charlie said he wanted to keep her as far from turning as possible, did he not?"

I didn't answer him.

"He might just get his wish—and his kid taken from him. They still have a grudge with him, do they not? Imagine when they actually have proof of what they already think they know about us…"

I shook my head. "It's just a Wilkerson girl…she's not her parents."

Jasper shrugged. "Yet. She's got two ears and two eyes—that's all a spy needs."

I pinched the bridge of my nose. I didn't know how to deal with Jasper. He was doing a great job of putting an itch on my skin.

"Now not only do you have Charlie to get through to talk to Bella…you're gonna have the Wilkerson clan on your ass blocking you too if they find out what she is."

"They're not going to—"

"And when they do, they'll call you out, and she'll be on their side…and she'll be human forever."

-x-

Bella Crossbones

Charlie was home when I got off the bus. He didn't greet me when I entered through the house. He just let me be. It kind of bothered me a little—I had wanted to tell him about Maksim and my…issues. But since he was busy with his work, I decided I didn't need to talk about anything. In fact, I was kind of sick of talking thanks to Kathleen Wilkerson of Wilkerson Port.

I stayed up in my room and tried to do everything but think about the events of the cafeteria, or let alone the whole day. I tried watching YouTube, but then that got boring, and then I tried watching TV, but the channels were fuzzy from the rain pounding down on the satellite dish outside the house.

I didn't have to wait for something else to happen for long—Charlie called me down for supper. I was almost relieved. Almost.

I grabbed my plate off the counter as soon as I entered the kitchen wearing ratty sweatpants and Edward's hoodie. Instead of heading to the table, I sat across from Charlie at the island. He had his head down and was busy typing on his laptop.

"What Bella?" he asked suddenly without looking up.

I smiled. "How'd you know I was looking at you?"

He looked up and raised his eyebrows. "Well, aren't you?"

I shrugged. "Just wondering why we can't have a normal family sit down meal—you never eat with me." I didn't care that I had eaten alone almost every night and morning that I had been here so far, and I knew he knew that too when he rolled his eyes back down to his screen. I even let myself chuckle a little just as I took a big bite from the hot dog he had made me. I chewed the tasteless food with little interest and then swallowed—

I pushed myself away from the island and let the bar stool tip behind me just as I felt my throat close over behind the food. It happened in a blink of an eye—in fact, that's how quick Charlie's reaction was. I barely had time to realize I wasn't choking on food before he flew around the island—I hadn't even seen him—and was in front of me in a panic. I wasn't sure what colour my face was, but his was painted in fresh worry and anger—well, fear, I guess. For me.

I could have smiled if he wasn't yelling into my face. "Are you choking?" he screamed into my face as he held me by the shoulders.

I struggled to get in air, but there was no space for my throat to take in anything—it was clogged, like it had shut on its own. I kept my hands on my throat, choking for air, and even though I shook my head, he turned me around and started the Heimlich Manoeuver.

My throat immediately opened on the first 'j' motion, but no food flew up and out. I immediately gulped in oxygen and cursed out loud while Charlie asked me repeatedly if I was okay and what had happened.

"What do you think happened—I choked on that damn hot dog," I told him immediately to hide my panic. I backed away from Charlie's accusing eyes, scared from his concentrated face. I knew he had seen me swallow that damn hot dog perfectly fine before my throat closed over, and he knew something was up...

"You're sure you're okay?" he asked.

I wouldn't look at him. "I'm fine," I told him, even though I felt the dread deep in my throat still, and why it was there.

I wasn't choking for air…I was choking on air.

How normal.

-x-