{The Mountains Are Calling}

Time is a funny thing. Generally, it passes by at an even pace, though in Bella's experience it had a tendency to crawl at times. However, when her alarm sounded that morning, she felt as if not even an hour had gone by since the moment she had fallen asleep. Bella reached out her hand from under the covers and blindly felt around for the alarm clock, slamming her hand down on the button so it finally stopped making that irritating noise.

With a yawn, she sat upright and pushed her wild hair out of her face. She leaned down to the ground and picked up the book she had been reading last night; it must have fallen off the bed when she fell asleep. She quickly put the bookmark in between he pages and returned the book to her nightstand.

Bella's gaze fell on the numbers displayed by the clock and she froze for a second until she remembered why she had set her alarm this early: she still had to call Aro before she went to school today. Yesterday she had been way too tired to even think rationally and she had not been in the mood for a late-night call to Italy. However, she was not sure whether she had done herself a favor by postponing it to the morning, as her eyes were already well on their way to close again.

She shook herself awake, suppressing another yawn and decided it was probably best to get ready first and have some breakfast. Hopefully that would help to make her sound and look at least slightly more awake when she made the call.

Her dad was already sitting in the kitchen when she came down the stairs. He looked surprised to see her up, but simply rose from his chair to fix her a plate with breakfast.

"Thanks," Bella muttered when he put it down in front of her. She poured herself a cup of coffee from the can that stood on the table.

"No problem," her dad said. "Is there a reason you are up this early? Did I miss something?"

"I've got to call Uncle Aro," Bella answered, taking a bite of the scrambled eggs. At her dad's knowing look she hurried to explain, "Not about yesterday, well, we'll probably talk about that too, but he just wanted to know how I was doing. It has been a while since I last called."

Her dad nodded in understanding.

The remaining part of their breakfast was spent in a comfortable silence. At a quarter to six her dad had to go to work, leaving Bella on her own as she finished getting ready. Right when the clock struck six, she put her packed schoolbag in the hallway and made her way to the living room with her laptop under her arm. When she was comfortably situated on the couch, she opened the laptop and opened Skype.

The Italians were already online, and it took just a few seconds until Bella was connected. She narrowed her eyes at the screen and started laughing.

"Good day, young one!" she heard, before he paused. "What is it you are laughing at, Isabella?"

"Aro," she snorted. "You have to fix the camera, all I can see is your lower body."

The image on her screen blurred for a second, but low and behold, Aro's head finally came into view.

"There, is this better?" At Bella's nod, a grin appeared on his face. "Ah, it has been such a long time! How do you fare? To what do I owe this pleasure of talking to you?"

"Good morning," Bella answered, ignoring the vampire's antics. "I'm alright, though I do have some things we need to talk about."

"What is bothering you? I take it the Denali coven is still treating you well?"

"They are," Bella reassured. "But, well, the thing is, they are no longer the only vampires in the area."

Aro was silent for a moment. "I beg your pardon?"

Bella shifted on the couch and looked away from the screen for a second. "I went shopping with my friend last week, and came across a member of the Cullen coven. They have all moved to a house near Anchorage, and five of them are attending my high school."

"The Cullen coven?" Aro said, his eyes wide. "Heavens above! That must be Carlisle's coven, I have heard much about them, but I haven't seen my friend in years! And he was such a fine young man, though he warded off all my attempts of innocent flirting…"

"Watch out, Aro, your inner teenage boy is showing," Bella commented dryly. "You're getting off topic, I was telling you they have moved here. Near us. And, well, they probably already know I'm different because Tanya picked me up after school yesterday."

"Ay," Aro said, now looking a bit more concerned. "I did not wish to expose you to this all. They will have to be informed of our arrangement, if we do not want to cause uproar and incorrect speculations. Would you feel comfortable talking to them yourself?"

"Alright," Bella complied. "I guess that really is one of the few options I have?"

"Well, I would not mind paying a visit to the Americas, but it would most likely only serve to frighten the Cullen coven," Aro slowly said. Bella spotted the change of light in his eyes as soon as the words had left his mouth, and she shook her head before he had the chance to speak up again.

"No, don't you even think about it," she threatened before sighing. "I will call to arrange a meeting later today."

"That would probably be for the best," Aro said. "Now, was there anything else on your mind?"

"Harriet wants the judge to reconsider visitation rights."

The light in Aro's eyes dimmed down as his jaw tensed. "Please do explain why that atrocious woman thinks she can come anywhere near you."

Bella told him everything her dad had explained to her last night, adding that Charlie did not think the Volturi – or 'Uncle Aro', as he knew them – could do much.

Aro listened without interrupting even once. When Bella was done, he nodded. "I will look into it, and see what we can do for you. However, I also believe they will not be allowed to let Harriet near you if it negatively affects your health in any way. We will stand beside you in this process either way."

"Thank you," Bella said, feeling lighter now that she had heard the words coming from him. She had known she would have his support, but it did not really get through to her until he had said it.

"Now, I do believe it is time to move on to the more pleasurable topics," Aro stated, catching Bella's attention. "Do tell me, dear Isabella, did someone catch your eye recently?"

Bella's face immediately flushed a bright red and she quickly exited the full screen whilst Aro's eyes widened. "Someone did! Who is it? Is she-"

"Okay, that's enough," Bella interrupted, dragging the cursor across the screen. "It was nice to talk to you again, bye!"

Aro's near-manic laughter was abruptly cut off when she ended the video call. Bella blew out a long breath and held her cold hands to her overheated cheeks. Maybe it was time she left for school.

With a bit of effort her lovely old truck started, and Bella immediately cranked up the heating. Her breath still formed little clouds in the air, but hopefully it would be warmer by the time she arrived at Angela's house.

They did not live far apart, and it was only a few minutes later that Bella parked near the entrance of Newton's Outfitters. The Newton family, including Angela, lived in the apartment right above their store, and the door at the side of the building opened revealing a bundled-up girl.

"Good morning," Bella said as Angela climbed up into the passenger's seat. She took the paper cup of coffee that was presented to her with a murmured "thanks" and drove out of the parking lot.

They arrived at school with enough time to spare to make a detour to both of their lockers and dump some books. With considerably lighter backpacks they split up, each going to their respective classes. Bella checked her schedule and climbed up the stairs to the seconds floor. When she entered the German classroom, she froze as her eyes fell upon a familiar figure in the back.

"Hey," Alice greeted, looking up from her phone. "It's nice to see you again."

"H- hi," Bella stuttered out, taking a tentative step forward. They were the only ones in the room for now, and her shoes squeaked as she moved on.

"I'm Alice," Alice said. "I don't know if you remember? We met last weekend."

"I know," Bella nodded whilst she inwardly cursed herself for not being able to come up with a more intelligent answer.

"Would you maybe sit next to me in this class?" Alice asked, tilting her head. "I'm new here, I don't know anyone except for you."

"Sure," Bella said, putting her bag on the table next to Alice's and sitting down. When she turned back to face the other, she frowned. "But I thought- Aren't you a senior? You were definitely not in this class yesterday."

"Oh, right," Alice said, waving it off. "The school messed up, they accidentally put me and my brother in the wrong year. It must have been confusing, with all my siblings transferring. My parents called in yesterday afternoon to have it fixed."

"Okay," Bella drawled, although she did not really buy into that story. It was a bit strange they would want to go down a year: had she been a vampire, she would not have voluntarily added an extra year to her high school career. Whatever floated their boat, she guessed. And she respected that the Cullens would have some secrets of their own. It was not any of her business, either way.

They chatted a bit for a few minutes until the lesson started, and Bella soon discovered – though it was anything but a surprise – that Alice's passion lay in the fashion industry. When she subtly steered the conversation into that direction, the topaz eyes started to twinkle and she spent a while asking more about it. When Alice later apologized for monopolizing the conversation, Bella shook off the excuse and reassured that she did not mind listening.

The German lesson itself passed fast enough and they were soon off to their next classes. Bella spotted Alice in a few of her other classed that day and they often managed to find seats near each other. She even re-introduced Alice to Angela, and the two hit off quickly.

Alice's 'brother', who had also been switched to junior year, turned out to be Edward, the Telepath. He sat next to her in Biology and politely introduced himself before spending the entire hour looking at her with an intense – bordering on angry – gaze. That, she guessed, was because of the defensive wall she had built up in her mind. She could feel that he was trying to get around it, once again, and by the time the lesson was finished, she had a splitting headache.

She could not wait to have a word with him soon.

The majority of the student body again spent lunch hour gawking at the Cullens, although it was not as bad as the day before. Bella herself did not have any problems averting her gaze, and got Angela to focus on her food too. Still, none of the students actually dared to go up to the vampires, which meant the students at least had some sense of self-preservation. She did expect that to wane away soon, when they got used to the imposing presence. Bella no longer had trouble keeping her attention to whatever she was working on, seeing as she had been around vampires for more than two years now. The only ones who did still impose fear in her, were the more vicious nomads she had met.

When she got home that afternoon, having dropped Angela off at Newton's, she remembered that she still had some business to take care off before she could relax. One text to Tanya and a few seconds of waiting provided her with the phone number of the Cullen residence and after a bit of stalling she made herself comfortable on the couch in the living room.

She really hated making phone calls to strangers.

"Hello?"

Bella took in a deep breath. "Could I talk to Dr Carlisle Cullen?"

"May I ask who is calling?" the gentle voice asked.

"My name is Isabella Swan," Bella answered. "I would like to speak to Dr Cullen concerning some issues which have come up, now that he moved here. I was referred to him by Tanya Denali."

She thought it wise to leave the Volturi out of the conversation for now.

"Of course, I will go and find him, if you have a moment," the woman said, a hint of bewilderment in her voice.

-oOo-

Ten minutes later Bella hung up and slouched back, closing her eyes. She had been nervous that Dr Cullen would not believe her when she disclosed her relations to the supernatural world, but he had seemed to be open-minded. And, as he had told her, his 'children' (which Bella was quite sure to be code for 'Alice') had already talked a bit about her. He had invited her to come over after school the next day to explain several things from both sides. Tanya was going to be there too, to represent her coven.

Bella stood up from the couch, halting for a moment as she realized she had no idea what she should do now. She would certainly not be able to focus on her homework. An idea soon jumped into her mind, and she sprung back into motion, moving to the kitchen to boil some water to fill a thermos with tea and grabbing her book from her night stand upstairs. A belated glance at the weather forecast luckily told her it would not be snowing or raining anytime soon, so she sent off a quick message to her dad before bundling herself up in her winter coat. She found her pair of sturdy boots at the back door and was soon off to the woods which lay right behind the house.

She had done this hike so often it was something she did mindlessly by now. When she reached the water stream well into the forest, she dropped her bag and lay down a piece of plastic on top of the snow. Pulling her beanie down over her ears, she sat down carefully and pulled her book out of her bag.

As she got lost in the story of tragedy, love and magic, she never noticed the girl sitting in the shadow of the trees on the opposite side of the stream. Alice had watched the arrival with curiosity, a book of her own held in her hand. When Bella was settled, she slowly returned her gaze to the words in front of her and she was soon emerged in a whole other world.

The restlessness which had possessed Alice for such a long time, settled down gently.

"The mountains are calling and I must go."

A/N: Bella's dislike for making phone calls is something she may or may not have inherited from me... But seriously, who likes calling strangers? *shudder* Anyway, Aro and Bella's relationship is going to be an interesting one to explore, seeing as the first is thousands of years old, but still trapped in the body of a 'young adult'. That makes me tempted to write him as a mix of my (very lovely) grandparents and my brother... Okay, that's definitely weird.

Thank you to all who favorited and followed my story in the past weeks (month?)! Please leave me a review today, to tell me your opinion on this new chapter, it would totally make my day to hear your thoughts. Also, please tell me if you notice any mistakes. Next chapter will include the meeting with the Cullens, and definitely more time for Alice and Bella to bond. I will upload again as soon as I can manage!

- Laura