"When are you going to be back?"

Edward and I were sitting in a tree at The Rec, taking a minute to escape the rowdiness of the kids all around us. Yesterday was our last day of school before spring break, which made The Rec extra crowded for a Saturday in early spring. Most people around town were gearing for vacation, myself included, and were getting in their last kicks with their friends before leaving for a week.

"Friday." I answered back, swinging my legs into the open air. I watched as the shadows of my legs appeared on the grass below us, and we laughed for a second at how funny my shadowed legs looked as they morphed on the grass.

My parents had surprised me this past Christmas with a trip planned in Phoenix for spring break, and now that it was here, I was more bummed to be leaving Forks than I was excited about going back to visit. It wasn't like I didn't enjoy Phoenix but these past two and a half years here in Forks made me realize just what I was missing before I moved here. I had friends that were more like family and we just grew closer every day. We were in seventh grade now and each time we were together was better than the last.

Edward shrugged and looked over at me, "That's not too bad."

My mouth dropped at him in horror and I stared at him in disbelief, not understanding how he could believe his own words that came out of his mouth. "It's forever! It's like, a whole week!"

He laughed this time, his face softening around the edges in a way that he let only me allow a glimpse of. He laughed and joked as much as the rest of us but it was only when it was just us two that he was like this. Maybe it was because I was the last one to join our group and didn't know anything about him in the beginning. Whatever it was, I loved that somehow Edward and I had become best friends.

"Six days isn't forever." Edward said, nudging my shoulder with his as we sat in the tree. That was our thing.

I watched as the kids played around us. Emmett was leading a group of kids in a game of tackle football. He was in ninth grade this year, a freshman at the high school, so he was one of the oldest kids that came here. He was always leading something here at The Rec and each day it was different. Most days we joined in but today I decided to join Edward in the tree once I saw him up there.

Rose was sitting on the swing next to this new kid, Garrett, who moved to Forks about a month ago. He didn't come around to The Rec too often and since Rose had told me when he first moved here that she thought he was pretty cute, I wasn't surprised when she decided to spend the whole day talking to him. I was leaving the next day but I would get to see her sometime before I left to go home. I wasn't worried about the time I spent with Rose and Alice. The three of us were best friends, like Edward and I, but different.

I don't know when me, Rose, and Alice introduced the topic of boys into our daily lives, but after listening to some embarrassing stories our teacher shared with us this year in health class, I guess it was part of being in middle school. And whatever I didn't learn in school, Mom was right there to help us fill in the blanks.

Tampons and all.

Alice had decided to spend the day inside The Rec, jumping from one activity to the other until she found one that she found to be cool enough for her mood. I was with her for a while until I saw Edward slip outside and start walking over to our tree.

It wasn't necessarily our tree, as we did let other kids play on it, too. But everyone knew that if we were on it, we weren't planning on sharing for a while.

"Well, it might as well be."

"You have friends there."

"Yeah, but not like you guys."

It was true. I had left a group of friends back in Phoenix, and our parents had kept in touch over the last two and half years so it wasn't like I was going to be bored or anything while we were visiting, but it just wasn't going to be the same.

"Yeah, I know what you mean."

Out of all of us, Edward was the one who knew that the most. The woman who is in charge of finding him safe places to stay or people to live with had found him a nice home to live in, and Edward had told me that for the first time in a long time, he didn't mind where he was living. They were nice to him, cooked him his favorite foods and didn't mind that he preferred to spend most of his time with us at The Rec. It was where he was most comfortable, with us and Felix and Carlisle.

With Carlisle only being ten years older than us, him and Edward were starting to become really close.

"Promise you won't do anything too fun while I'm gone?" I asked.

Nodding, he nudged my shoulder. "Promise."

We smiled softly at each other before Alice's voice shouted from the back patio of The Rec. She poked her head out of the sliding glass door.

"Come on, guys! We want to have an Easter Egg hunt before Bella leaves!"

With that, Edward and I jumped down from our branch in the tree and raced each other back inside to join everyone in the egg hunt.

Before we made it inside, Edward stopped running and turned around and waited for me to catch up. Even though I was one of the fastest on Varsity soccer, Edward was still pretty fast.

"It's only six days. You'll be coming back." He said, looking down at his feet, his eyes eventually stopping to look back into my own. The hold was brief, but I saw it before he quickly looked away again.

It was one of those times when Edward was trying to make me feel better, but the way his words sounded more like a question made me think that maybe he was the one looking for a little reassurance. Maybe there was a little part of him that thought I would be like the other people in his life who would leave for a while and never come back like they promised him.

I don't remember when it was exactly last year, maybe it was when he had just moved out of the group home and was adjusting to his new home, but I told him that I would always be there, wherever he ended up.

"Promise." I replied with a nudge.

We went inside and teamed up as evenly as we could to make sure everyone who wanted to play had a fair chance of getting some eggs. We weren't sure what Felix and Carlisle had stuffed the plastic eggs with but they did it every year and it never mattered to us what was inside. It all came down to who had the most eggs in their baskets. There were about twenty of us for the egg hunt, and I was so happy to have picked Rose's name out of the basket to be on my team. She could be downright vicious when it came down to winning so I considered my victory almost guaranteed.

One minute before the whistle blew for us to start finding our eggs, the trash talking started which I found to be even more fun than the game itself. At the sound of the whistle, we all ran with our team strategies stuck firmly in our minds.

Too soon it was all over, and I saw my parents pull up in our car as I heard Emmett say that he wanted to do it again but blindfolded this time. As bummed as I was to miss it, I knew better than to argue with my parents in front of everyone so I said goodbye to everyone for the week.

It was harder to leave than I thought, and seeing Edward wave to me as I pulled out of the driveway almost made me beg my parents to turn around and let me stay with one of my friends instead of going with them.

One week away from them all was going to be the biggest test I had taken in my twelve year old life.

- - - tr - - -

Well, I survived, and it really wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be. I missed the heck out of my friends back home in Forks and was counting down the minutes until I was back at The Rec with them, but my trip to Phoenix turned out to be really fun, too. One of my friends showed me this new thing on the computer called AOL, and it was amazing. It's this program where we can talk to each other through the computer! All I needed to do was convince my parents to put this on our computer at home and we would be able to talk to each other whenever we wanted.

I kept it to myself that one of the first things I was going to do was beg Felix to get one of these babies for The Rec. I'm pretty sure there was an ancient computer somewhere in there collecting dust.

The plane ride was really cool, and Mom gave me some gum so my ears wouldn't bother me. They didn't, so I guess it worked. We got home late Friday night, too late for me to go out, but I did call Alice and Rose to let them know I was home and they told me that they would come over my house the first thing in the morning to catch up on all the girl time we missed while I was away.

Apparently a lot can happen in a week because while I was gone, Rose and Garrett kissed! She promised she would fill me in on all the details but it still gave me a lot to think about that night as I settled into my bed and under my covers.

Even though Rose was a grade older than Alice and I, I still couldn't help but wonder if I would get my own first kiss next year when I was in eighth grade like she did.

And if I did, I knew that I wouldn't want it to be anyone other than Edward.

Edward wasn't really into girls like that. Or maybe he was and I didn't know about it.

But wouldn't that be something that best friends tell each other?

I tossed and turned all night and gave up on sleeping sometime around 8:00. My dad didn't have to go back to work until the next day so he was on the couch reading the paper when I came downstairs. I plopped into the chair next to his couch, reaching for the blanket that Mom kept folded on top. I snuggled into the warmth of the blanket, for a second forgetting all of my thoughts about kissing and Edward and other things I had no business thinking about.

"Morning, Bells." My dad said, folding over the top of his newspaper so he could see me. "Sleep okay?"

"Yeah, great." I mumbled back.

"You sure?" He slurped his coffee through his black mustache. I thought I saw him smirk a little over the rim of the cup because all of a sudden my misfortunes are amusing to him.

"Yes, I'm sure. Why?"

"Well, you don't seem like you're too happy to be awake just yet. Why don't you go back to sleep? Too excited to see your friends?"

I was, despite my dark mood, really excited to see Alice and Rose. The thought of them coming over perked me up a little bit, enough for me to throw the blanket off of me and walk over to the phone on the wall in the kitchen. No one would be at The Rec until at least 9:00, so I called Alice instead. Rose liked to sleep later than we did but Alice said she would stop by her house and wake her up. I told them they could come over whenever and Mom offered to go out and buy us some fresh donuts from the bakery. I swear any excuse that woman needed to go to the bakery and she was out of here.

The girls showed up not too long after Mom came home with the donuts, and after hugging each other like we had been separated for years rather than six days, we sat at the table with my Mom eating breakfast. As much fun as we were having, I was dying to go upstairs to my room to hear all about Rose and Garrett.

Once our stomachs were full of sugar and cinnamon, we rushed upstairs, practically tripping over each other on the way up. I shut my bedroom door behind us and joined Alice and Rose on my bed, flopping on my stomach.

"Tell me everything!" I hissed excitedly and we had to cover our mouths so my parents wouldn't hear us from downstairs.

Alice must have heard this story a thousand times while I was away but we were both staring at Rose like she was about to tell us the most important thing we would ever hear in our lives.

"Okay, so, you know how he just moved here, like, a month ago?"

I nodded eagerly, ready for her to get to the good stuff.

"Okay, well, he was saying that he needed to go to the library to get this one book for Mr. Gilbert's class, but he didn't know where the library was. So I told him that I'd show him."

"So he kissed you in the library?" I made a face, not thinking that would be the ideal place for a first kiss. But again, what did I know? I shook the negative thought out of my mind and tried to focus on being happy for my friend.

And I really, really was. But I'd be lying if I didn't say I was a little jealous that I hadn't been kissed yet.

Rose shook her head, "Nope. We stopped to get a soda from the deli on our way back and he kissed me in front of the newspaper rack!"

We giggled for a few minutes, all of us knowing that something was definitely shifting in our lives. We were about to enter into a world of questions, curiosity and experiences, regardless of whether or not we were ready for it.

"He even put his tongue in my mouth!"

That silenced us for a few moments before Alice shook her head and came out her daydream.

"How did you even know what to do?"

Rose shrugged, reaching into her bag and pulling out some nail polish. We perused the colors, picking out the ones we liked for ourselves.

"I don't know, "she said, continuing, "you just know."

"Are you going to kiss him again?" I asked, watching the pale blue polish spread evenly across my toenails.

"I guess," Rose said, thinking for a second. "Have you guys seen Alec though? He turned hot overnight!"

I guess she was right, now that I took the time to think about other boys in my grade besides Edward. One minute they were all as tall as I was and the next day they came to school with their voices sounding weird and were towering over me.

I took a glance at myself in the mirror that I had over my dresser. I didn't think I was changing as fast as the boys, but I had already started to wear a bra last year after I had gotten my period for the first time. My mom had called all of my aunts and told them like it was some big thing that I was supposed to be excited about. It wasn't exciting at all.

It really, really sucked.

My hair was still long and brown, and I didn't really wear it in a ponytail or a braid as much anymore unless I was playing soccer. I wasn't allowed to wear makeup yet, even though Mom promised me she would talk to Dad about letting me try it out sometime next year when I was in eighth grade. I didn't see the big deal at all; it wasn't like I was going to put a ton on, anyway. Just a little to make me not feel like a little kid anymore.

We talked for the rest of the morning, filling each other in on anything we missed over the week while I was gone. We looked through some magazines, flipping through idly while listening to songs from our favorite radio station.

By noon, we were bored and I asked Mom to let me ride my bike with Alice and Rose over to The Rec. I had done it a couple of times and Mom normally had no problem with it as long as we all rode together. After a few minutes of talking it over with Dad, they told me to be careful and we were on our way.

We took our time getting there, the three of us enjoying the freedom and wind as our wheels turned around the twists and bends. It was still cold even though it was technically spring, but I was comfortable in my jeans and a pink sweatshirt. I had thrown on a pink headband to match, leaving my hair down and out of my face, and my sour mood had started to lighten a little bit before I left the house.

We let our bikes fall into the grass on the side of The Rec, looking around the area before heading inside. It was quiet, and it was probably because school was starting back up again in two days and all the kids had to catch up on their homework that they ignored over the past week. Luckily I was able to get it all done on the plane to Phoenix.

When we walked in, we were surprised to see only two kids inside the big room. One was reading and the other was playing video games on the TV in the corner. We looked at each other strangely, expecting to see the boys inside somewhere since no one was outside playing. Looking around, Alice pointed down the hall towards a light coming from the room off of Felix's office. It wasn't much of a room, just enough for one single bed that was used only for kids who were sick and were waiting for someone to come pick them up.

We heard voices as we approached, and the three of us walked in hesitantly, not wanting to interrupt whatever it was, or whoever it was, that was in there.

"Girls, hey. Do you mind waiting outside for us?" It was Carlisle, and even though he tried to block him from our line of vision, we saw Emmett behind him.

He was looking down at the floor, but we were still able to see the blood dripping from a cut on his bottom lip. It was swollen, and just as the thought crossed my mind, he put an icepack up against it. He caught one look at all of us and he turned around the other way, cursing so loud that I was afraid my Dad heard him and was on his way here to The Rec to bring me home.

"Yeah, sure." Rose said, all of us turning slowly to give them some privacy, even though we were sad to leave Emmett all alone. He wasn't alone though, and because Carlisle was probably the best person to be there with him, we headed back towards the big room.

We definitely weren't as happy as we were a few minutes before, especially because I had never seen someone hurt like that in my life. And the way that Emmett looked, like he was suffering from more than just a cut lip, already told me that his injury was not sports related.

We heard the door to the room close behind us, and when we turned our attention back to the big room we saw that Edward had slipped inside from the backyard.

"Do you know what happened?" Rose asked, her head motioning back towards Emmett and Carlisle.

Edward nodded, and we all followed him outside at his suggestion.

"Is he okay?" I asked worriedly.

"He'll be fine," Edward said, sliding a patio chair from under the table and sitting down. "His stepdad roughed him up a little bit."

"What for?" Alice wondered. We all made ourselves as comfortable as we could on the back porch as we waited for Emmett to join us, if he was even up for it at all.

"I don't think he had a reason," Edward said.

None of us talked for a long time after that, each of us lost in our own silence.

None of us were perfect, that was for sure. We all came to The Rec looking for a place to forget. A place for us to just be kids, but every now and then the real world seeped into our utopia within the woods. Temporarily, it reminded us that I was adopted. That Edward was orphaned. That Alice's mom spent more time away from her own daughter than with her. That Rose still lived in the shadow of her sister's death.

That Emmett took the wrath from his stepdad away from his mother.

Times like these made me realize how lucky I really was. There were a couple of aspects of being adopted that I struggled with as I grew up but it was nothing compared to what some of my friends were facing. They were facing some of the very things that my dad told me about from his years of being a police officer, and I felt completely helpless.

"This stays right here, got it?" Emmett's voice broke out into the silence on the back porch, each of us startled by the gruffness of his voice. He closed the sliding glass door behind him once Carlisle stepped through. We all agreed, each of us voicing our pledges of secrecy.

He nodded appreciatively, sitting down into an empty patio chair next to Edward before turning over to look directly at me. "Especially you, Bella. You cannot tell your dad."

I swallowed hard. He was right. My dad would be over at Emmett's house so fast if I told him anything. So for the first time in my life, I was going to keep a secret from my parents.

There wasn't much I wouldn't do for my friends, and my reasoning solidified as all six of us, Carlisle included, placed our hands on top of each other on the patio table on the back porch.

- - - tr - - -

"You okay?"

I heard Edward's footsteps through the grass a few minutes before but I didn't stop to see where he was going. I figured he would find me in the tree eventually, once he was satisfied that Emmett would be okay.

I tried to wipe the tears from my eyes before he noticed, shivering from the drop in temperature. "Yeah, I'm fine."

I watched him as he swiftly climbed the tree to sit in his place next to me on the branch. He peered over at me, his face coming closer and closer to mine. I laughed and pushed him away as he tried to continue his inspection of me with an invisible magnifying glass.

"You don't look fine."

Gee, thanks.

"How can you see me? It's dark out." And I thought I was doing a pretty decent job of hiding my puffy eyes and tear streaked face away from him. Apparently not.

"I always see you, Bella."

I quickly wiped away another tear that slipped through, praying that it had fallen too quickly for Edward to notice.

But of course he did, and when he saw he reached over and threw an arm around me. "He'll be okay, I promise. He's got us as best friends, what else does a guy need, huh?"

I smiled faintly at his words, already feeling better once I felt his arm around my shoulders. I leaned my head back on his shoulder and he didn't make an attempt to move it away. If it was any other boy, I would have been so self-conscious about what we were doing but it wasn't just any boy. It was Edward, and it felt as natural as breathing for us to be sitting in our tree like this.

"How, Edward? How is he going to be okay?" I sniffed.

I didn't know if the question I asked was meant to be answered or if it was meant to die out there that night in the cold wind.

I felt foolish. There I was just hours earlier moping around because I wanted to kiss a boy, meanwhile Emmett was taking a punch to the face by someone who was supposed to love him and take care of him. It made my problems pale in comparison.

"I'm okay, right?"

I looked at Edward strangely, "What do you mean?"

"Just answer me. You think I'm okay, right?"

I thought for a moment before answering him with a nod of my head against his shoulder. "Yeah, I guess so."

"Well, I am. Okay."

I wasn't following, so he sighed loudly and ran his fingers through his brown copper hair. "It's hard to explain. But a couple of years ago before you moved here, I was living with this woman who would let random people in our house. Some were cool; some couldn't be bothered by me. One guy put out his cigarettes on my arm, but –"

"Edward, that's horrible!" I interrupted, covering my face with my hands again as fresh tears threatened to make their appearance again.

"No, no stop crying. Ah, geez, this is what I mean when I say it's hard to explain. You're right, it does sound horrible. It was horrible. As horrible as it was, I had Emmett. And Rose and Alice, and eventually, you. "

He reached down for my hand, and I'll always remember that they were as cold as mine were. "And as long as that is what I have, that's how I know I'll be okay. Emmett, too."

That was the night I was sure, absolutely positively sure, that I loved Edward Cullen.

- - - tr - - -

Dear Diary,

Even though I didn't tell my dad about what happened to Emmett, it turned out that Carlisle did that same night. It wasn't pleasant at The Rec for a while for Emmett, knowing that Carlisle had been the one to tell. Edward knew all too well what could happen to a kid once those people came into your house to check on you, but luckily Emmett's mom was ready for it all to stop. His stepdad moved out and Emmett was able to stay with his mom and was able to keep going to school and The Rec.

Eighth grade starts next week. Mom already took me back to school shopping, but I brought the girls along so we could pick out some cool outfits. I never really took a lot of interest when it came to getting clothes for the new school year but I was surprised by how much I enjoyed it and how much I loved everything I got. Mom approved of everything, luckily, so that was one less argument that I had to have.

Alice and I have a few classes together this year, so I'm really excited about that. It's definitely going to be weird not having Rose around now that she's a freshman at the high school. We'll still have Edward around and that makes me happy.

I am officially one step closer to drawing his name on the new notebooks Mom got me for school. The girls called me out on it a few days ago and it feels better to talk to them about it, even though I promised myself I wouldn't tell a single soul. They promised me, no swore on their Mom's graves, that they wouldn't tell anyone. The last thing I want is for Edward to find out.

That could be the worst thing that could ever happen to me.

- - - tr - - -

Eighth grade next! Thank you all for all the recs. They mean the world to me.