AN: I really need to study for my Spanish final. Oh well. LOL. The reason I am getting this up late at night is because I was editing it all day. I want to say thanks to all my reviewers and the people who are still willing to read this after my long vaction. I want to give a special shout out to ashleygreenpink. I need eleven reviews for this chapter.

Disclaimer: I only own Franica.

"Hello, pretty girl," Edward's voice came from behind me as he kissed the back of neck.

"Hey," I said totally dazzled. I was relieved when I saw his eyes were back to gold.

"Hola" Alice mimicked me from across the room. I take it they were listening into our phone conversation.

"Can it, Alice," I ordered, not looking away from Edward.

"I think her friend was right. Bella is PMSing." Alice teased

"Does everyone just want to talk about my period?" I asked because it seemed to be a popular subject.

"Only Ricky" Francia joked

"How does Ricky even know about your period, love?" Edward asked, uncomfortable.

"I guess I mentioned it, once or twice" I shrugged

"Once or twice? Are you kidding me? Princess holds nothing back when it comes to Ricky." Francia corrected my apparent mistake. "Or me" She added, smiling.

"I am guessing you're Francia?" Edward extended his hand.

"Yeah. And I am pretty sure you're Edward?" She assumed

"Yes, that is correct." He smiled. I could tell she was dazzled. She had even forgot to take his hand because she couldn't look away from his eyes.

I leaned over to Coco. "Don't get any ideas. I plan to stay with him forever." I informed her

"Wow." She was stunned. "You two really are serious." Francia stated. Edward had some sort of expression on his face that I couldn't place. I wondered if it had something to do with Francia's thoughts.

"Yep." I replied, still looking at Edward's face. I was lying against his chest.

"It was so kind of Bella to introduce me" Alice budged in from the doorway, coming to sit down next to Coco.

"Oh, yeah. That's Alice" I introduced.

While they were talking I focused my attention back on Edward.

"Did you take care of what you needed to take care of?" I said quietly incase Francia overheard. Edward nodded.

"What did you two do this afternoon?" Edward asked, trying to act normal for Coco's sake.

"Went to the store, fought with Lauren and Jessica, came home, talked…."I trailed off my list.

"Don't forget changed your clothes," Edward chuckled

I stuck my tongue out at him, childishly.

"Hey, I like her clothes." Alice commented. Then she mumbled something under her breath.

"She did before she moved here," Francia giggled. Apparently Alice said it loud enough for her to catch it. I'm surprised I didn't, considering how small my couch is. "Oh, and I pierced her belly button." Francia added to my list of things we did that afternoon. I didn't really want to tell Edward that because he always worries about me. This had his disapproval written all over it.

"What?" Edward and Alice said at the same time. Edward said it as disapproval, Alice sounded, well, kind of proud.

"It was already pierced," I caved not bothering to try and hide it anymore. I probably should have told Edward a long time ago.

"When?" Edward asked like he didn't want to know the answer.

"When I was fourteen," I admitted

"Renee let you do that at fourteen?" Edward asked, sounding like he actually believed it. I could just feed him the lie and let it go, instead of going into the complete explanation. But I was an awful liar and I didn't like lying to Edward. Then again I had kept a secret from him about my past life. It wouldn't be impossible. But I decided against it.

"No," I admitted, "I snuck behind her back and got this guy I knew, named Tyson to pierce it."

"Did it get infected?" Edward asked

I shook my head. "No, Renee made me get it checked out when she found out. He obviously knew what he was doing." I explained

"When did she find out?" Edward asked

"About three months after I got it pierced. By then I could take it in and out without a problem."

"Was she mad?" Alice asked

Coco and me looked at each other for a split second trying not to laugh at the memory. "As hell," I answered. "She blew a fuse and started yelling and screaming and throwing things and talked about how my grandmother was rolling over in her grave and how I was a bad example for Meme and she grounded me. She even threatened to tell Charlie." I looked at Coco, "Francia was there, along with Taylor and Gwen." I added

"It was kind of funny," Francia was trying not to laugh. "If you weren't Bella, that is."

"Shut up," I responded

"Was Charlie some sort of threat?" Alice asked, curious

I thought about that. "Renee used to use him as one but it was pretty much an empty threat because she never actually told him anything. But when I did something wrong she would threaten to tell Charlie or my grandma. My grandpa used to let me get away with everything," I laughed, lost in the memory.

"Renee sounded a little harsh," Edward said. "And more like a parent than anything I have ever seen her do." He added, chuckling

"Who knew Renee could be a mother," I joked

"I know, right," Coco added in, "With all her boyfriends and all" She smiled

I pretended to gag. "What boyfriends?" Alice asked, animated

"Renee had a lot of boyfriends when I was a kid. Let me see, there was Michael, Chad, Jack, Micah, Miguel, Phil, Louis, Brian, Dallas, Bryce, Chandler, Chad again, Drew, Barrett, Jagger, John, Ethan, two brothers named Ron and Steven, Tim, Phil again, Jordan, Danny, Matt, Chad again, Aaron, and last Phil again." I was out of breath after saying all those names.

"Whoa," Edward was understandably surprised. I had never told him this either. I guess I didn't like sharing my feelings or maybe I just had too many of them.

"I know, it's a lot." Francia spoke up

"How did you memorize their names?" Edward asked

I shrugged. "Practice." I said simply, as if that covered everything.

"Where did Renee find the time to date all those guys," Alice asked

"The same time any other single woman does." I answered

"But she had you?" Edward asked

"I've never really been much of a priority," I stated.

"That's kind of sad." Francia said quietly.

"Not really," I said quickly before this became a 'Poor Little Bella' fest. "I could always do whatever I wanted without a mother to control me. Well most of the time," I remembered the times when she was around and never left me alone. "The worst part is that she brought her dates or boyfriends or whatever you call them, home. I met every last one of them," I said a little unpleasant.

"They were that bad?" Alice asked

"They all reeked of beer and other alcohol and cigarette smoke and Renee's perfume." I explained.

"When did she start dating again? Like how soon after your parents split" Francia asked, I realized I might not have even told her all of this.

"As long as I can remember she's been dating." I answered. "I'm pretty sure she already had one lined up before she even left my dad." I realized too late that I had referred to Charlie as dad.

"I can relate," Francia stated. "To a lesser degree."

"What do you mean?" Alice asked

"My mother left my father when I was in the womb and I didn't meet him again till I was nine. But my mother always has a date or something and my dad is practically a hovercraft now. He never leaves me alone." She explained.

"At least your parents wanted you," I stated

"Just my mother. My dad didn't. I was my mother's plan to trap my father. Then she changed her mind and moved on to other men."

"I've met your mother. She's not as bad as you're making her seem," I pointed out.

"Maybe not, but neither is yours." Francia said

"My dad is," I mumbled. Francia couldn't argue. She didn't know my father. And after Edward and Alice had witnessed the past couple of days, I doubt they'd ever defend Charlie again.

"Who's Meme," Alice asked randomly, trying to change to subject.

"What?" I was confused where that came from.

"You said before, when you were telling us Renee's little tirade after you got your belly button pierced behind her back, she told you that you were a bad example for Meme." Alice explained

"Oh," I understood then. "Meme is my little cousin. She was five when I got pregnant, so she's nine now" I explained

"I didn't know you had cousins" Edward said

"I have six," I shared. "I have a cousin named Kate-Lyn whose twenty seven on Charlie's side and her husband Dean and their eight year old son, Blake and their five year old daughter Elena. On Renee's side, I have Lucas, whose about sixteen now and Meme who is nine." I explained

"How come you never mentioned them before?" Edward asked

"Because I don't really know Kate-Lyn and her family too well, and Lucas and Meme were related to Phoenix and I didn't tell you any part of that until recently."

"Your family has nothing to do with what you didn't want to tell me." Edward argued

"I just didn't feel like talking about it, okay?" I said in a tone that meant I was done talking about this.

Francia obviously wanted to change the subject, "Is Meme that really cute one with the brown curly hair and missing teeth, that bounced around your condo."

"Yeah, she belongs to my aunt Pam" I said

"Who are Lucas' parents?" Francia asked

"My uncle Troy and his ex-wife Lila. Remember, I told you that Lila left him for a younger male model. Now Lucas wants nothing to do with her and my whole family hates her." I reminisced

"Oh yeah!" Coco remembered this conversation from a few years ago.

"Are you close to Meme and Lucas?" Edward asked,

"Yep. Lucas and I used to baby sit Meme. Lucas only lived across the street from my school so I could walk with him to Meme's house, which was like 2 minutes from my condo."

"Sounds nice that all your relatives lived near you," Edward wanted me to say more. I decided to please him and elaborate.

"Yes, it was. My aunt Pam is Renee's sister, so she knows how dippy Renee is. She purposely moved close to us, incase I needed anything. Same for my uncle Troy and Lucas." I hesitated before throwing in the last thought on my mind. "Taylor also lived right down the street from me." Francia went quiet, as did Edward. Finally he regained composure.

"Did you have anymore aunts or uncles?" Edward asked, whatever he saw in Francia's mind didn't affect his tone of voice.

"Yeah, I have an uncle name Milo, who is also Renee's brother. He lives on the other side of Phoenix," I explained, getting kind of bored with talking about my family. "Let's talk about something else," I suggested

Alice spoke up. "I want hear more about your guys' life before Forks," Alice announced, directed at Coco and me.

"It's not really that interesting," I mumbled. They all shot me glares. "Fine," I resigned. "Coco can start,"

"What do you guys want to hear about?" Francia asked, obviously not sure.

"What about how you guys met?" Edward asked

Francia and me looked at each other. "I don't remember" Francia laughed.

"Me either" I joined in. "We were too little."

"How old were you guys?" Alice asked

"About five. We met first, then we met Gwen and Millie and Allie a month later. Briee came along a little later and we met Taylor around May of Kindergarten." Francia explained

"I thought it was April," I questioned

"Princess, does it really matter?" She asked, smiling at how I care about the details.

"It's Taylor," that was all I had to say. I felt Edward's chin leave the top of my head, where it was resting before. He must have picked something off of Francia's mind. I would have to try to avoid it later.

"How did you guys all get your nicknames?" Alice asked obviously sensing something was off. I was glad she chose to change the subject instead of pressing it.

"We kind of made them up when we were little." Francia answered. "I got mine because of my skin coloring when we were in Kindergarden. Gwen got her nickname, Sparkles, because she used to where roll on glitter and Briee used to put honey on everything."

"Oh my gosh, I remember that:" I smiled at the memory of her carrying around her bottle of honey. Back then I didn't even know honey came in bottles.

"Wasn't Millie's reason for being nicknamed Bubbles kind of gross?" Coco asked me

"Yeah. It was because she used to blow bubbles with her spit all the time." I made a face, thinking about how gross that was. "I think her mom had already nicknamed her that, before we met her though."

"Oh yeah. That's about the same as Allie's great grandpa naming her Smiley because she was always smiling." Francia added.

I laughed at a new thought. "Taylor was named Star because she couldn't draw a star worth a damn."

There was a slight pause. "Why did you get named Princess?" Francia asked

"What?" I asked, surprised that someone had asked the same question that I was surprised nobody had ever asked before.

"Your nickname? You had it long before we met." Francia said. This perked Alice and Edward's interest too.

I paused, remembering why I had snapped when Ricky had called me shorty that day on the phone. "Charlie nicknamed me Princess," I said, not really liking this conversation anymore. "He called me that ever since I was born. Renee told me when I was ten, that he has called me that since the first time saw me." To my surprise it made me sad to think about. I really needed to gain some composure over myself before I started crying or something.

Edward was the one who broke the silence. "Charlie nicknamed you Princess?" He sounded surprised. "Where did he come up with it?" Edward asked. I shrugged, knowing he would feel it, considering I was still lean into him.

"I don't know. I'm going to have to ask Renee sometime." I said Renee instead of Charlie, obviously.

"I thought you were mad at Renee too?" Alice asked

"Uh, kind of, but not really." I said as if was supposed to make sense.

"She's more bitter towards her mother," Edward answered for me.

I twisted my neck to catch a glimpse of him. "How do you know?" I asked

"Because I pay attention." Edward shot me a breathtaking smile.

I gave a small smile. "Is something wrong?" Edward asked but I shook my head, wanting to completely drop it. I should have known it would be impossible. "Do you want to talk about it?" Edward asked

"No," I said quickly

"Hey, Bella, don't Ricky and Nate call you Shorty?" Francia asked. Edward rolled his eyes.

"How many nicknames can you have?" Edward said

"Oh my god!" I exclaimed, ignoring Edward's comment. "I am not short!"

"That's what I said years ago," Alice commented, "Now I accept it about myself."

"But your only 4'10 here," I said, full of fight.

"Sweetheart," Edward said, looking at me. "You're only 5'2." (AN: I am pretending she's 5'2 instead of 5'4)

"So?" I asked

"That's a little short for the average person" Edward pointed out.

"I am not short!" I said again, hoping saying it would make it true. "I'm fun sized," I remember Renee saying something like that.

That cracked the three of them up. "I am so using that next time someone calls me short," Alice said, not yet recovered from her laughing fit.

We talked some more about old memories and stuff for a few more minutes. Then an awkward silence came over us. I knew Francia was thinking something. I just waited for her to say it.

Francia sighed. "Okay, you know what?" She blurted out. "I've got to say this." I prepared myself for what I thought she might say. But like usual she surprised me. "Where the hell is Renee in all of this?" Francia asked

"In what?" I asked

"In the slow motion train wreck that has become your life." She exclaimed. "You've fought with your father, more than ever before, everyone in this town now knows that you've lost a child and they are mocking it," She sounded like she couldn't believe why someone would mock a death of a child. I couldn't either. "Why the hell is your mother not around, Princess?" She asked

I stared at her for a second then said the best response that came to my mind. "I don't know," I said quietly but pronouncing every syllable of every word. I took a deep a breath and expressed one of my thoughts that I didn't usually share. "Renee lost all interest in me the second she married Phil."

"Bella-" Edward started but I cut him off

"I don't want to talk about this anymore," I clearly stated.

"Fine," Alice agreed, but probably not letting it go. "Let's talk about Nate," Alice smiled at me while I groaned.

"What about Nate?" Francia asked.

"Anything." Alice said. "I want to hear stories or about his family or something."

I sighed. "I'll take this one, Coco." I volunteered. "Nate has an older brother named Ryann, obviously." I sounded a little angry even to myself. "Then Nate has a twenty three year old sister named Summer, who I absolutely love, and a nineteen year old sister named Julianna and a sister who is almost fifteen named Claire. Nate also has a brother named Aidenn who is sixteen. Aidenn and my cousin Lucas were friends."

"What about his parents?" Alice asked

"His dad, Tom, is nice enough and his mother, Kayla, is very sweet but they both neglective. Tom is an alcoholic and rarely ever pays attention to anything Kayla does, let alone their kids. And like I said before, Kayla is very nice but she's," I didn't know how to put it. "Superficial." I decided on.

"What do you mean?" Edward asked

"You were there when Nate explained it, Edward," I said

"What?" Coco was confused

"Long story," I said to her

"Tell me,"

"Another time."

"I want to hear about Nate's mom," Alice said, drawing me and Francia and Edward's attention back to her.

"She just doesn't really always pay attention. Mainly to her kids. I mean they're not neglected or anything but she cares more about what her husband's co-workers and the public than what her own kids think." I couldn't really explain it. You had to know her.

"I have another question," Alice announced. "Is Nate the odd one out of his family?" Alice asked

"No, why?" Francia answered

"Because his name only has one N in it." Alice explained

"Aren't you supposed to spell Nate with one N?" Edward asked

"But his brother spell their names with two Ns." Alice explained

"Oh," I caught on to her point. "No, Nate's real name is Nathann, which is spelled N-A-T-H-A-N-N" I told her. I giggled at a memory. "I remember when we were thinking of names for Novalee, Nate wanted to add a silent N in her name somewhere." I chuckled as another thought crossed my mind. "Wait a second, Alice"

"What?"

"How did you know that Aidenn and Ryann's names were spelt with two Ns?" I had no idea how she would have figured it out,

"Carlisle mentioned it." Edward said sheepishly.

"Why?" I asked

"Kayla Carter scheduled an appointment for Aidenn to have a check up at the doctor's office" Edward explained. "Carlisle saw the name and was curious." Edward explained. There was something he wasn't telling me. Something he knew that he didn't want me to know, but I didn't push it with Coco sitting right next to me.

"Hey, Shorty, can you hand me that pillow," Alice teased. Obviously she didn't want the pillow. She just wanted to make fun of me. I grabbed the pulled and chucked it at her.

Edward was trying not to laugh. "Shut up," I said, looking him straight in the face. He kissed lips, quickly. I felt the blood rush to my cheeks.

"Ooo, Bella's turned on," Coco teased,

Edward and Alice got a kick out of that. I grabbed the pillow and clocked Francia in the face. She, playfully, shoved me back.

"Okay, you two are going to destroy the living room." Alice said, ripping the pillow out of Francia's hand.

"Well if Bella doesn't want to be called Shorty, I can always call her LTK." Francia meant to be kidding, but that struck a cord in me.

"LTK?" Edward asked "Another nickname?" Edward kind of sounded annoyed. "Keep this up and I'll start calling you Isabella," Edward teased, knowing how much I hated my real name.

"What does LTK mean?" Alice asked

"Looks to Kill," I said quietly.

"What's wrong?" Edward whispered in my ear but Francia and Alice heard it.

"Nothing, just…" I paused not really wanting to go on, but they were all waiting. I sighed before answering. "Ryann gave me that nickname," I said, hoping that explained enough.

There was a silence for a few seconds. Edward absentmindedly kissed the top my head. "I still don't really understand what the meaning of Looks to Kill is," he stated.

Francia answered. "It means every guy wants to have sex with her and every girl wants to kill her because she's so pretty,"

"Oh, well I agree on the exceptionally pretty part," Edward replied. "But I don't really like the fact that another guy gave you that nickname," Edward said to me.

"I hate Ryann anyway, so it doesn't even matter," I closed the subject.

AN: I know, another crappy place to end. Oh well. LOL. I need eleven reviews to update.