A/N Hello again, I think this is the fastest I've update. I'm on a mission, on a roll, and let's take advantage of it!

The way this chapter is set out takes some inspiration from New Moon, where we have the months passing. But with detail and to just speed along through this filler time.

Let me know what you think xx

Chapter 32

February

Alice and Bree left the day after the fight and all over again I felt like my world was out of my control.

Charlie was suspicious something had happened when I walked back into the house that Sunday afternoon. I looked like I hadn't slept, I was still pale after the events of the previous day, and I wasn't too proud to admit I had shed a few tears when I saw Alice run off into the woods.

Only Jasper, Edward, Carlisle as Esme remained from our family, Emmett and Rosalie had decided to accompany them off to the Cullen's old home near Denali, while Tanya and the rest of our Alaskan cousins also returned home. Peter and Charlotte left soon after and the house was quiet for the first time in weeks.

Truly too quiet.

We needed to tell Charlie something, but there was no more energy in me to think of the lie. I left it to Jasper, and late in the afternoon when Charlie suggested we order a pizza, he simply asked if I was okay and if everything was going to be a bit more normal again.

"Yeah, it's going back to normal now, Dad." I answered.

"Good. I can go back to pretending those boys don't turn into giant animals again." I think it was the first time I had heard him acknowledge the wolves out loud. For Charlie's sake I hoped he could stick to never saying that out loud again.

I helped myself to a couple of extra slices of pizza than I normally would, now that the treat of death any minute was back to a more normal level, I finally had an appetite back. I wanted to gain back the weight I had lost to worry and anxiety. I wanted to look like me again. Especially before I couldn't change my appearance again.

That night I slept in Jasper's arms peacefully, for once not dreaming of armies of savage newborns and fiery red hair. No snarls and growls. No clashing boulders.

I dreamed of us, and of summer where the sun shone, and we glittered together as we ran through the woods. Just like Alice told me.

Just like I knew was so close.

I just had to get through the Spring.

March

The snow stopped and gave way first to a slushy winter and eventually the wet spring Forks was used to. I stopped slipping everywhere and we all adjusted back to being perpetually wet. The snow chains were once again off the truck and my mood began to lighten ever so slightly.

Most of the school seemed more disappointed than I, unwilling to see the end of the snow fights. I was finally out of the cast on my arm, but the snow and ice had meant it was always a threatening possibility every time I took a step outside.

As the weather grew less frigid, I found myself longing to see First Beach and spend time in Jake's garage again. It was still an easy friendship with Jake, though there was still fiction regarding the timeline of my change.

"I just don't understand, Bella." Jacob said for what had to have been the hundredth time. "I don't understand how you can be so calm and casual about choosing to die."

I was so far past trying to make Jacob understand, I took a different approach.

"I know," I sighed. "I know you don't understand my choice, and I don't expect you to. But I hope you can respect my decision." I looked at him from where I sat on the low milk crate. He was standing in the doorframe, head ducked slightly to avoid the top and his shoulders all pulled in.

"Jake, you are one of the very few people in my life I'll still be able to see and have any kind of relationship with. Please don't let this come between us."

Eventually he nodded and smiled.

"I'll stop going on about it." He took one giant step towards me and flopped down to the ground. "So, want the latest Pack gossip?" He waggled his eyebrows.

"Always." I answered eagerly.

"Quil imprinted." He said matter-of-factly. "And it's become quite the scandal."

"Oh, please tell me it isn't someone else's girlfriend?" I laughed, hoping for the sake of all the wolves sanity that they didn't have to deal with another Leah-Sam-Emily love triangle.

"No, it's worse." He spoke. "Guess."

"Someone's sister? One of the wolves? A vampire?"

Jacob laughed. "Nope." He shook his head. "Should I just tell you?"

I nodded and gestured for him to continue.

"Emily's cousin Claire." He said, looking almost disgusted. "She's only fourteen." He grimaced. "A kid."

I had to laugh. Of all the things in the world that he could be worried about, the fact that this girl was fourteen seemed like the worst thing in the world.

"I get it, it's not ideal that she's what, two years younger than Quil?" I finally said. "But come on Jacob, that's hardly as disgusting as you made it seem."

"She's a kid!" He said, shocked I wasn't so shocked.

"She's the same age as Seth, right?" I laughed. "You boys are only sixteen, and if I remember correctly, Quil is pretty freshly sixteen? That isn't a huge age gap."

"I'm seventeen, thank you very much." He said, mock offended. He knew I knew and had just had a slip of the tongue; I had given him a birthday card just three weeks ago. "But I guess it doesn't seem that bad when you have a three-hundred-year-old boyfriend." He jabbed back.

I absolutely lost it there. I was just about howling with laughter.

"You over-shot it a little there, that's closer to Carlisle." I eventually responded. "Try around the hundred and sixty mark." I laughed again.

Jacob's jaw dropped.

"Wait, how old did you think Jasper was?" I asked, not sure which way I expected the answer to go.

"I knew he was old but I thought he'd be less than a century!" His voice rose in pitch, genuinely shocked.

All I could do was laugh again.

April

Spring break came to an end and school returned for the last stretch of the year.

Prom was coming up and the talk of the town. Well, the school portion of town anyway. And one Thursday afternoon after school I arrived home to a parcel left on the front step, addressed to me.

It was clearly a shoebox wrapped in white protective plastic with a postal delivery sticker. I hadn't bought anything online recently, and I assumed it must be from Alice.

I was holding all my school things and the house keys, so Jasper grabbed it for me before I stepped inside the house. I dumped everything on the small kitchen table and dug through the drawers for a pair of scissors.

I found them and ripped through the plastic and braced myself to see what Alice had sent me.

The second I lifted the black lid from the box my phone rang from where it sat beside the box. I didn't even look at the caller ID as I answered.

"Alice, I love them, they're beautiful, thank you." I babbled.

Her bell like laugh trilled through the line. "I know."

She had sent me a pair of flat shoes with a slightly pointed toe, covered in pale gold glitter and with a delicate and bejewelled strap across the centre.

"I thought you might enjoy dancing at prom more if you wore flats this year." She explained. "And I can see them becoming favourites of yours for years to come." She said with a girly giggle.

I heard another giggle nearby; it must have been Bree.

"How are you two going? I asked, taking the box of shoes and moving towards my room. From the sounds behind me I think Jasper was putting away my rubbish and following.

"We're doing great, Bree is adapting quite well to the lifestyle." Alice answered. I already knew this, there had been frequent visits from everyone except myself up to see them. It was easy when they could run to Alaska within a night.

"It's so beautiful here, I think I want to stay for a while." I heard Bree chime in, though quieter, she wasn't so good at remembering I couldn't hear as well as the rest of the family.

"Good, because it won't be too long, and Bella and I will be joining you two love birds." Jasper said as he come to sit with me on the bed.

"Oh, that's rich calling us the lovebirds, Jasper, I still see how you and Bella are all the time." Alice joked. "Maybe I don't want you two ruining our vibe." I could practically hear her sticking her nose up in the air.

"Since when do you talk about vibes?" I laughed, it seemed far too modern for Alice's ladylike and frankly old-fashioned vocabulary and pronunciation.

"I had to modern her up a bit," Bree laughed with me, "Can't have her sticking out talking like a proper lady in this day and age."

It was refreshing to hear Bree be so relaxed. I had heard she struggled a little in the beginning, feeling incredibly overwhelmed, and I could tell whenever I spoke to Alice. She was a silent observer.

But after a couple of weeks away from everything that reminded her of where she had come from, Bree began to open up. A sly comment here or there, a joke. And now it felt like we were friends. I couldn't wait until we could properly be friends. It was unlikely we would see each other again before my change, and chances are Bree would still struggle being that close to me as a human.

But soon enough Jasper and I would be heading to Alaska.

We determined it was the best place to go after my change. Secluded, but close to family and friends, and with plentiful hunting.

Slowly the rest of the family would join us, after setting up all the correct cover stories. Luckily enough their home in Alaska was far enough out of town that no one would even need to know they were back. We would take some time out of the human world while myself and Bree adjusted and then we would come up with the new cover stories.

Alice stayed on the phone for nearly an hour, until it was time for me to start dinner, and Jasper left for a quick hunt. It was refreshing to speak with Alice, update her on what had been happening in the last week since we spoke. But like everything right now in my life, there was the ever-present ticking clock, everything had a set end date and time, growing ever closer.

Though she did leave me with a warning to be careful of my truck as it was truly and finally on its last legs. I assured Alice I wouldn't be going anywhere far and would avoid driving when I could.

May

As I continued to attend school, only now accompanied by Jasper and Edward, I began to work on some of my human friendships a little more. Angela was the most welcoming, and Ben too though he was still quite reserved, and I was sure struggling with the disappearance of his close friend Austin. We had never found any more trace of him, and nothing that we could use to plant a disappearance. Only we knew what had happened.

She shared photos of her twin little brothers with me, invited me to events and asked if I wanted to come prom dress shopping with her. And without the threat of Victoria, and knowing I didn't have to have a bodyguard, I found myself far more willing to go out and spend the time with my human friends.

We had planned that Angela would borrow her mom's car for the day one Saturday while we went dress shopping. I wasn't planning on buying anything, Alice had forbidden me from buying any new clothes and insisted she had grand plans for my prom dress. Of course, this terrified me almost as much as the threat of Victoria, but I was trying to not let this impact my life.

That morning though, Angela called to let me know her Mom needed the car for an urgent situation, something to do with the Church where her parents were pastors, but she was wondering if I was able to drive.

As much as Alice had told me the truck wasn't going to last much longer, I figured it had been driving fine lately and it wouldn't hurt. So, I agreed.

Of course, nothing in my life could go right and about twenty minutes out of Forks the truck spluttered to a stop. We had just made it around a blind corner, thankfully, and I was somehow able to pull to the shoulder just far enough from the corner I wasn't too concerned.

"Well fuck." I muttered. "Do you have cell reception?"

Angela rummaged through her bag to find her phone.

"I think I left my phone at home. Sorry." She spoke.

"All good," I said as I found my phone. "There isn't any reception here anyway." I added as I tried to move it around the cab trying to find anything.

"I guess we have to start walking until we get some then." Angela laughed. "Good thing we aren't the type to wear heels shopping."

We both laughed and sighed. There wasn't anything else we could do. I knew Alice would have seen what was happening and would have sent someone to find me, but there was no way we could pass that off. And I definitely didn't need another person in danger from my life choices.

And so, we set off, back towards Forks as the nearest town.

Luckily while it was overcast, it seemed dry enough.

We walked against the traffic, slowly, just on the shoulder, with our phones out ready to check the signal every couple of minutes.

But ten minutes in, there still wasn't any signal, and other than a couple of logging trucks that we stood further off the side for, there didn't seem to be any traffic we could even hope to get help from.

We kept walking for a few minutes, and just as I was ready to give up, a large blister forming on the back of my left foot throbbed painfully with every step, I saw a familiar shiny silver Volvo up ahead.

"Is that Edward?" Angela asked as she saw it too.

And then all too fast, he was pulled up beside us with the passenger window down.

"Hello Bella, Angela, is everything okay?" He asked, perfectly playing the part.

"Hey Edward," I answered, Angela did as well, "My truck broke down a little further up the road, can you give us a lift?"

"Sure, Alice called me," He smirked just a little, not that Angela would have seen, "And asked me to pick her up a book she had ordered a while ago at a shop in Port Angeles." He smiled full on at my human friend, dazzling her as he used to do me. "I'd be happy to drive you there, and we can stop at the truck, and I can take a look."

"You know much about cars?" Angela asked.

"Not a whole lot, I'll be honest, that's more Rosalie's thing but my sister has taught me a bit and I can always call her later." He answered.

Quickly we were in the car, and Edward asked where my truck was. We were there a little too quickly, and by the smirk I could see on Edward's face, I knew Angela was in agreement with me.

As he pulled up behind the truck, hazards on, it began to rain as it had threatened all day.

I handed Edward my key and he quickly, though humanly-enough, walked to my truck and popped the hood. About five minutes passed with him out in the rain and Angela and I talking in his car, before her was back again.

"Sorry Bella, this one is out of my expertise, we might need to get it towed back to town." He said with an apologetic smile. I could feel the sincerity.

I had a little laugh; I knew this might be it for my truck if Mr Perfect himself couldn't get it back up and running.

"How about I drive us all to Port Angeles, you girls go shopping and Jasper and I can organise the truck?" He suggested.

"Edward, you're a lifesaver." Angela said from where she sat in the back.

I agreed with a laugh, and we made our way to Port Angeles.

I couldn't help but think of the first time I had been to the neighbouring town when I first arrived. I was shopping for Prom dresses like today, it was essentially the night Edward, and I began dating, and it was the start of my supernatural life.

Oh, how times had changed since then.