"No."

Bella turned to her boyfriend. "Is she telling the truth?"

Edward shrugged and gave me a smile. "I can never tell with Gen. But I think so." He did the old squinty trick, like he was trying to read tiny letters somewhere on my face but couldn't find his glasses. "Vampire government. They make sure we stay secret."

"They're curious about me. Because Edward's powers don't work on me." My sister added. "And they don't like that I'm still human. Alice saw them coming to check on me."

"Mmm."

"They're also a little curious about you, Genevieve." Edward looked at Jacob, making sure he was staying calm. When Jacob simply reached out and interlocked his fingers with mine, Edward continued. "But I knew less about you for them to learn."

"You told them-"

"No. They literally looked at my memories." Edward sighed. "Bella?"

Isabella turned her chair slightly so she could easily look between all of us. "If… I'm asking for a vote. On my… mortality."

Drama queen. I scowled. Edward gave me a pleading look.

"If I stay human, the Volturi are a danger to all of you. If I stay human, I'm in danger from all of you."

I took a faltering step forward, eyed the vampires, surged to the table to lean over my sister. "And if you are a vampire you are a danger." Don't sound angry don't sound angry don't sound angry.

She had the decency to look sad. "I know."

"You'll get to watch your twin sister grow old without you," I added.

"I know."

"Then why am I here?"

"To vote." Bella turned to address everyone again. "This concerns more than just Edward and I. More than just you and me, Gen."

"I'm voting for Dad and Mom, too."

"Gen."

"Please call me 'Genevieve'." I was so tired. I was so tired of all of this. If I'd ever had a normal conversation with my sister, I didn't remember it. A normal conversation with Jacob? That must have happened. What had it been? F*** you, Edward, don't look at me like that.

He shook his head. Then he leaned forward. "I know you're trying to convince your sister… but I don't think the danger is as much of a problem as she thinks."

I glared at him. It was an instinct at this point.

"I don't think they'll be able to find you, Bella. Alice can tell when they're coming. I'll hide you. Jacob hides Gen-'

"The police come to arrest you for kidnapping," I interjected, only slightly joking.

"I don't think they'll be able to find either of you. Bella will be invisible. Gen will be a blur."

"A blur surrounded by werewolves." Jacob considered for a moment. "If... Bella."

She turned in her chair to look up at him, frowning.

"The treaty says they can stay as long as they don't bite a human."

The conversation stopped for a beat.

"Also… It is going to hurt like the Dickens." I threw out, watching the table of vampires stiffen and trying to distract from the nearing declaration of war. "And by 'like the Dickens' I mean 'like sh…" I caught the eyes of Dr and Mrs Cullen. It was disconcerting how much they looked like normal parents. And also how they probably wanted to murder me. "I mean… it'll hurt really bad. You know. Ouchy."

The vampires looked at me for a long moment.

They didn't seem to know what to make of me. At least that's what it seemed to me. Why is that food talking so much? I scowled at their perfect faces. Would I have looked like them? How long would it have hurt? Would it have hurt less if James had killed me? My heart was beating faster and faster-

Nope. I was calm again.

The switch was so fast I felt a bit like throwing up. Off-kilter. I met the eyes of one of the Cullens, Alice's man person-the blonde angry one. He looked concerned. So did Alice. Everyone else looked confused.

"Gen you were about to have a panic attack," Alice said gently. "Jasper is helping."

"Weird." I was too numb to analyze anything, just reacting. "Almost like I'm terrified of vampires and yet my sister wants to be one of them and so invited me to visit a house filled with them. But that would be. Stupid. I would be so stupid to go there. Just for my stupid sister." The calm lessoned. "Oh, ok, that's better."

"I'm sorry." Jasper, who was going to need a nickname worse than 'Dick', was still studying me. "I was distracted by the wolf."

Jacob, sure enough, was gripping a chair and squeezing his eyes shut against the transformation. "We should go."

"You know our votes," I said sternly, looping a hand through this arm. "Bella? Isabella. You know our votes. Don't be a moron."

I pulled Jacob away and back to the front door. As I opened it to leave, I heard an unfamiliar voice-probably the other sister- say, "You know Gen's right, though, right? I wouldn't have chosen this for myself."

Huh.

Didn't matter.

I was still scared.

Jake was still angry.

We were gone as quickly as possible.

...

"I don't really want to talk about magic anymore," Jacob said about twenty minutes later, walking in shirtless to where I sat in his kitchen. He'd given me a ride back as a wolf and I'd been making hot chocolate while he finished checking in and changing back.

"Well, that's good because you are out of marshmallows and I'm going to be complaining about it for at least a week and, oh, nevermind, I found them."

"So if I eat them all, we won't talk about magic?" Jacob asked, slumping down at the kitchen table. "Or whatever all of this is."

"Oh, don't worry." I slipped a mug in front of him and began piling cookies on a plate. "The second I found out what was going on, magic became very boring."

He watched me for a moment, waiting until I sat down before he spoke again. "So you're just constantly bored and scared?"

"Yep. It's great."

Jacob sighed and sat up to grab the mug, then to reach for one of the cookies I was hoarding on my side of the table.

"Get your own." I joked, pulling the plate back just enough to make him stand up.

He snatched up on of the cookies and stuffed in his mouth.

I pulled the plate a little further away.

He leaned on the table to reach further.

The table leg fell off.

I screamed.

Jake yelled.

The table leg thudded.

Nothing else happened.

"Don't. Move." I whispered, trying to make him laugh. He was biting his lip but holding the rest of the table in place so that nothing fell off.

"Gen…" He waited for me to snatch everything off the table and then he collapsed back into the chair. The table followed him down, landing in his lap and he pressed his palms against his eyes. "Damn it."

"I mean…" It wasn't as bad as the couch. Though, breaking furniture because a vampire is scaring your girlfriend is a bit different than constantly destroying your own property because you are some sort of superhuman. Who just said he didn't want to talk about magic. Who was still sitting with his hands over his face muttering 'damn it' over and over. "I mean, you have to know better curses than that. You're bilingual, aren't you?"

"I was taught Quileute in school. They didn't really share those words."

"I bet Leah Clearwater would tell you. Then kill you. Maybe we should ask Sam. Or Paul!" I stooped down to examine the top of the leg. It didn't seem broken. "I think I can fix this."

He peeked through his fingers. "Yeah?"

"The tenon…" I squinted at the hole where the leg had once attached. "The dumba** tenon was too small and you shook the last of the glue loose. We just need a small piece of wood to make it fit. Also f*** whoever glued a mortise and tenon joint. -what?"

"I forgot you used to do that stuff." He laughed. "And now I know how you felt when I first started teaching you about cars."

I stuck my tongue out at him.

"Actually…" Jacob lifted the table off of his lap and I grabbed it to continue scowling and calculating how off the joint was. "Dad wanted me to repaint the kitchen back before I got… busy. I have random supplies out in the shed. Different leftover paint colors." Jake laughed. "He never told me what color."

"You're telling me to redo your kitchen. Are you insane? Also, it's too late, you can't take it back." I stood-table clunking down again- and chugged the rest of my hot chocolate. "Let's go find some sandpaper. Hope you're ready for me to talk about color theory for a good twenty minutes."

Jacob considered me for a long moment.

He took one of his giant steps toward me and pulled me into a hug. We stood for a second or two, my arms wrapped around his neck so that I could press my face into the crook of his shoulder. Anyone else would have complained I was holding them too tight. For that matter, Jacob was holding me just as tight and I didn't care either.

I let him decide when to let go and grinned up at him as I dropped a few inches to the floor, letting my arms trail to his elbows instead of letting go completely.

"Come on. Let's destroy your house."

"Um..."

"Nope! Still too late. Let's go!"

And I yanked him laughing out the door.

This was going to be fun.

...

Author's NOTE

thanks to all who read but especially in this case luisaespindola, januarylily, and tumblr werewitchling for getting me to reread enough that i was able to write this one! Thanksso much for the feedback and support! You're all beutiful humans. I am very tired now have a great day!