Jessica planned to spend her Sunday sleeping in and eating cereal while watching the latest episode of Gilmore Girls but she promised Bella they would go to Port Angeles in exchange for her attending Homecoming. Angela had to go to church as she did every Sunday (Pastor's daughter and all) and Lauren totally fibbed about being too sick to go with them. Lauren was probably at her house watching the Gilmore Girls episode and ignoring Jessica's messages. The blonde still hadn't warmed up to Bella and spending her weekend on a three hour car ride with her would result in somebody being murdered.

Bella's truck was like the tortoise in The Tortoise and the Hare. It was moving and it would get them there but it was going to take its sweet time. The truck didn't have a CD player and only played cassette tapes. They resorted to borrowing her mom's and Charlie's collection of eighties music. Her mom's taste was mostly pop hits and Charlie's was hard/glam rock.

Jessica asked, "What do you think, Bells? Bon Jovi or Cyndi Lauper?"

Bella frowned as she thought about it before replying, "Which one is less annoying?"

"Never say that around our parents. Charlie implied there will be disownment if we break his Bon Jovi tapes."

"Fine. Make it Cyndi."

Jessica put the tape in and pressed play and Cyndi Lauper's high-pitched voice blared through the ancient speakers. She sang along loudly, not caring how she sounded. Bella shook her head and bit back a smile. Jessica nudged her to sing along and Bella refused.

"Come on," Jessica insisted then sang, "Some boys take a beautiful girl and hide her away from the rest of the world. I wanna be the one to walk in the sun…"

Bella rolled her eyes before giving in and sang with her, "Oh, girls, they wanna have fun. Oh, girls wanna have…"

The rest of the trip was spent like this, singing along to every cheesy eighties song they had available. Bella admitted that her mom liked most of the same music that Joan did and she grew up listening to the songs. Renee's favorite was Madonna and Bella knew all the lyrics to her songs. Jessica was in higher spirits than the previous night and even Bella was all smiles as they sang along to Madonna's hits.

It turned out the bookstore Bella wanted to go to was a small specialty bookstore downtown. Jessica looked around at the store and found a biography about Madame Curie on sale. She ended up buying the book and they went to a pizzeria for lunch. As they ate their pizza, Jessica reached for the small pile of books Bella bought and looked over the titles. They were about the Quileute tribe.

"Are you researching about the tribe?"

Bella grabbed the books back and shoved them into her backpack. "It's for a paper."

"You could also interview Jacob. He is your godbrother."

"I didn't…I didn't want to bother him."

"It wouldn't hurt to ask. Whatever he could tell you has to be more accurate than what you'll find in those books."

Bella made a non-committal response and went back to eating her pizza. Jessica suggested going looking for prom dresses while they were there. They were going to have a combined prom for the juniors and seniors that year and the prom committee was still debating on what theme they were going for. Bella wasn't excited at going shopping but Jessica insisted they were just looking.

"Prom is like Homecoming but bigger," Jessica explained as they looked through a rack of gowns. "When else are you going to be able to wear a gown and be pretty for a night besides weddings?"

Bella sighed and frowned at an ugly gown with polka dots. "Isn't it a waste of money to buy a gown you'll never wear again?"

"You're paying for the memories," Jessica countered and pulled out a red tulle gown and held it in front of Bella to see if it would suit her. "So that when we're as old our parents, we can tell them about our proms."

"Renee loved her prom. She wore this bright pink gown with ruffles. She saved up weeks' worth of babysitting money to afford it."

"Does she still have it?"

Bella winced. "She showed it to me. It's hideous."

"My mom still has hers too. It's this iridescent green metallic with black tulle. It's the ugliest thing I've ever seen but my mom loves it."

They laughed at the image of Joan's prom dress from hell and looked at more dresses before getting bored. They didn't want to go home yet and Jessica suggested they go see a movie. They walked to the nearest cinema and had to decide between a Drew Barrymore rom-com and a vampire horror flick. Bella was staring at the poster for the vampire one with an odd expression on her face.

"Bells?" Jessica shook her a little. "You okay?"

Bella blinked and responded, "How about the horror movie?"

Jessica looked at the red and black poster with what looked like a vampire screaming. "I feel like it's going to give me nightmares. Even though I know vampires aren't real…" She turned back to Bella who had that thoughtful expression on her face again. "And Halloween is over anyway. Do you really want to watch it?"

Bella nodded. Jessica sighed but relented. They bought the tickets and Jessica held on to her bucket of popcorn as a lifeline throughout the film. Lauren was the big horror movie fan in their group of friends and Jessica suffered through them like a trooper. Her parents didn't raise a quitter.

She had to bite back a few screams and was relieved when the movie was over. They got into Bella's truck and Jessica tried to block out the memories of bloodthirsty vampires from her mind. The sun had set and they still had a three-hour ride home. They were driving through a dark road when the truck suddenly stopped.

Trying not to panic, Jessica asked, "What happened?"

Bella tried to start the engine again. It whined but didn't start. "I don't know."

"Are you out of gas?"

"I still have half a tank."

They went out of the truck and opened the hood of the truck. Charlie insisted they keep a flashlight in the truck and Jessica held it over the engine as Bella tried to understand what happened. They didn't have a flat but neither of them knew what happened with the engine. It didn't seem to have overheated.

Jessica called Charlie and told him what happened. He tried to guide them into restarting the engine but realized it was useless as they were too far away from any city or town. They were in the middle of nowhere. They finally had to call for roadside assistance and wait.

It was snowing and it was too cold to just stand around so they went inside the truck and huddled together for warmth under the blanket Charlie insisted they also bring with them. He had said something about an emergency shovel too but neither Jessica nor Bella knew when that would be handy. They munched on leftover popcorn and hoped roadside assistance would arrive soon. A car was pulling up beside them and Jessica told Bella to stay in the truck.

Warily, she opened the truck door and got out. The vampire movie was playing tricks on her head and she was imagining a vampire in that car that was getting ready to murder them. She held on to the military grade flashlight Charlie bought and she was going to bludgeon someone to death if need be. The car stopped beside her and it was a silver Volvo.

The car window slid down and Edward's pale face greeted her like a mirage in the desert. "Hello, Jessica. Do you need any help?"

She stared at him in shock and disbelief. "How are you here?"

Bella quickly got out of the truck. "Edward!"

He smiled at her. "Bella. Do you need my help?"

Bella told him about the engine. He got out of his car and looked it over. He went back to his car and took out jumper cables. It took a few tries but they got Bella's truck to work again. Jessica could've hugged Edward in gratitude. She was that excited to get home.

"Looks like you're all set," Edward remarked.

"Yeah, we should be fine till we get to Forks," Jessica replied. "Thanks for the help!"

Bella was about to say something but Jessica interrupted, "Drive, Bella. We have class tomorrow!"

Bella frowned but started driving away. Jessica waved cheerily at Edward until the sight of him disappeared.

"I can't believe I'm saying this but thank God Edward Cullen showed up."

Bella said, "Why do you think he's in the area?"

"Stalking us?" Jessica joked. "Maybe he's a creature of the night and he's looking to gnaw on someone's jugular."

Bella went quiet.

"Lighten up. I'm kidding."

"Isn't it too much of a coincidence that he showed up just as we needed help?"

"Life is full of coincidences. It doesn't mean there's destiny or something nefarious at play."

Bella didn't reply and focused on the road. The truck didn't break down again but Jessica was going to have a talk with Jacob Black about that crappy engine.

Jessica walked into her History class and found Edward Cullen wasn't there. A sense of foreboding made her pause. She took her seat beside Eric and asked him, "Did you see Edward around?"

"I think I saw him in the parking lot as we were going in."

"And did Bella go in with us?"

"I think so."

She could ignore this. Maybe the Cullens weren't at school that day. Maybe they were on another camping trip. Maybe Edward skipped that day because there was a sale on hair gel at the mall.

She couldn't know if he was whisking Bella off to murder her. He couldn't have put her at the trunk of his car and was driving away to a cabin in the woods. They wouldn't find her body weeks from now in pieces and would only be able to identify her with dental records. None of that was happening.

She had to overreacting.

Or maybe she wasn't.

Panic rising, she grabbed Eric by the arm and demanded, "Are you sure you saw Bella come into the school?"

"Well, I didn't see her–"

She got up and went to Mr. Welsh and asked to be excused to the nurse's office. She gave some hasty explanation about a 'womanly problem' and he gave her a hall pass. She practically ran to the parking lot, evading the hall monitor with all the stealth of a ninja. She got to the parking lot and saw the silver Volvo and Bella's truck were still there.

Maybe Bella was safe and sound in class. Edward could've locked himself in the library to read misogynistic poetry. Jessica might be overreacting. But safe was better than sorry.

She had to think. If she was a serial killer, where would she lure her victim? Not in the school because there would be too many witnesses. Her stomach dropped as she realized the woods nearby was far enough that they wouldn't hear screaming.

She pulled out her phone and dialed 911, keeping her finger on the call button as she ran into the woods. She cursed herself for leaving the mace Charlie gifted her in her bag. She knew some basic self-defense from a class she took with her mom that one time but she didn't know what weapon Edward had with him. It would all be useless if he had a gun.

She looked around the trees and prayed she wasn't too late. Charlie would never forgive her. In the short time she'd known Bella she'd grown to care for her. She felt protective of the girl that was going to be her stepsister and she would never forgive herself if–

"I know what you are."

That was Bella's voice. She tried to figure out which direction it was coming from.

"Say it out loud."

That was Edward. Fear bloomed in her belly and made her almost dizzy as she ran towards the voices.

She saw their backs. Edward was standing behind Bella. She couldn't see if he had a gun or knife pressed against her. She looked around for anything to fight him off with.

She picked up a branch on the ground. She approached them slowly. She tried to keep her steps quiet. She learned from camping trips with her dad and then Charlie.

"Say it," Edward nearly growled.

Bella replied in a shaky voice, "Vampire."

"Are you afraid?"

Jessica reached Edward and she raised the branch. He turned before the branch could hit him on the back of the head. With surprising speed, he caught the branch and it snapped into pieces. The wood shards fell to the forest floor. Jessica didn't hesitate and threw a punch at his jaw and it felt like hitting stone.

She yelped, "Jesus Christ!"

He didn't look affected and was staring at her in disbelief. "Jessica? What are you doing here?"

Jessica dropped her phone to clutch her aching hand. She felt like she broke something. She bit back a scream of pain. She hissed, "I'm saving her from you, asshole!"

Bella ran over to her and looked over her broken hand in concern. "Are you okay?"

"No!" Jessica was in too much pain to be nice. "What are you doing going into the woods with him? I told you many times that he's probably a serial killer!"

Edward looked offended. "I am not!"

Jessica was about to tell him to fuck himself but Bella interrupted. "Jess, I'm fine. We were just talking."

"Yeah, before he was going to murder you. Normal people don't have romantic talks in the woods," she retorted. "This isn't one of your old books. He's not Heathcliff or Darcy. He's Dahmer."

Edward glared at her. "Hey!"

She glared back and dropped her aching hand to grab Bella's arm. "We are leaving, Bella. And I'm going to so tell Charlie about this. He's going to ground you until you're eighty and I'm going to make sure the only books you get to read are boring textbooks."

Bella dug her heels like a child as Jessica tried to drag her away. She whined, "Jess, this is so unnecessary."

"What's unnecessary is me having to protect you from your bad life choices like that creepy weirdo over there who's busy trying to murder you and loading his hair with enormous amounts of product. I mean today it just looks like he put lard in it."

Edward ran his hand through his hair self-consciously. "Is it that bad?"

"Yes!" Jessica exclaimed. "Right now you got enough product in your hair to season a wok!"

He didn't seem to know how to reply and picked up her cellphone off the ground and held it out. "You forgot your phone."

Jessica grumbled before walking over to him and grabbing it from his filthy, murderer hands. She stood at her full height of five feet two and with all her confidence she could muster looked into his golden eyes and said, "If you ever go near my sister again, I will set you and your dreams of selling that patented butter-flavored follicle cream on fire!"

He didn't look scared. He looked bewildered as she pointed two fingers at her eyes then at him. She declared, "I'm watching you, Cullen."

She went to Bella who looked dismayed and pushed her forward to the direction of the school. She ignored all of the other girl's protests and threatened to call Charlie then and there. She would lock Bella in her room herself if she had to. No one told her getting a sister would be this stressful.

"We were in the middle of an important conversation, Jess," Bella whined. "It was really important."

Unbelievable. She saved the girl's life and this was the thanks she was getting? She should sabotage the wedding and remain an only child. It was too bad she liked Charlie too much to do that.

"You know what else is important, Bella?" she replied. "Getting an education. March, Swan. Double time!"

1. The Cyndi Lauper song they were singing was 'Girls Just Wanna Have Fun' which is also the chapter title.

2. The vampire horror film they watched was '30 Days Of Night' and the Drew Barrymore rom-com mentioned was 'Music And Lyrics' which both came out in 2007 but at different ends of the year.

3. Renee's prom would've been in 1986 which makes sense of her dress to be in that excessive 80's fashion. Joan's prom would've been in 1980.

4. I just guessed what kind of music the parents would've listened to growing up. I took inspiration from my mom and relatives' music tastes.

5. Jessica's insults about Edward's hair are from Glee.