"Bella, this was an amazing idea." Angela Weber reached an arm over the side to help me center the blow up air mattress in my truck bed. Smiling, I unzip a sleeping bag, tossing the other half Angela's way. Once we unfurled and smooth the bag over the mattress, we repeated the steps for the fitted sheet. The trick to a successful Last Weekend of Freedom! evening was to have a warm blanket, a soft sitting spot and a boombox. An air mattress made up in my truck bed was the perfect opportunity to spread out and enjoy the double feature, Ghostbusters and Clueless, in style.

A soft whining from my cab was Batman's reminder that she was stuck in the dreaded four walled moving box and not where she belonged: the truck bed.

"Incoming" I said to Angela, opening the driver's side door. Batman slid to the pavement in a brown blur before rounding the back of the truck and jumping onto the tailgate. A hefty sigh emanated from her dogginess as she flopped onto the mattress.

"I hope you're cool with sharing," I smirk at Angela.

"Not a problem," said she "As long as I get a quarter edge."

A familiar "vrooooom" motored alongside the truck. A red Jeep Rubicon slid into the spot next to ours. A dark haired pixie leaned out from the passenger side.

"Angela! Bella!" trilled Alice Cullen. "Look, Edward! It's Bella! And Angela!" I didn't know Alice Cullen well; as I was moving from Forks to Phoenix before sophomore year, she and her family moved from Alaska to Forks. After I moved back in March I'd chummed around with Alice a few times in friend hangs but never one-on-one.

Inside the car I could see Edward's head nod once in acknowledgement.

What I did know of Alice I liked. She fit in everywhere and most everyone liked her. Five whole feet, she is a force of nature. Shakespeare had to be thinking of Alice when he wrote "Though she be but little she is fierce." She could talk about anything from the fluorescent bulb flickering rate, to the latest designs from Dior and Hermès fashion lines, to which spices or herbs could be used to improve school lunches.

The only people who didn't love her were the same people who couldn't stand me: James Nichols and Victoria Lanley.

On her second day in school Alice witnessed James dealing from his car while kids made their way home. Alice marched up to his car, loudly knocked on his window and told him to get the fuck off school grounds. When James told her "You don't scare me, Pintsize," Alice had reached out and grabbed his balls, à la Wesley Snipes in Too Wong Fu, Thanks for Everything, Julia Newmore. Putting James on speaker she had him confess while on the phone to my Dad, hammering the final nail into James's expulsion from Forks High School. Jessica and Angela had both called me in Arizona to relay the scene in great detail.

Her brother Edward Cullen was harder to define. It wasn't that he didn't fit in, moreso he didn't claim any group or clique. He co-captained the cross-country team in the fall, and ran the 1600 meter and team relay in the spring. Jocks like Mike Newton and Tyler Crowley loved having Edward on their team. He showed up and put 110% into practice. He never complained. He was there for humid 90 degree day runs, or when the ever present Forks rain turned from drizzle to downpour.

"Hey Alice," I replied, giving her a small wave.

Alice jumped down from the passenger seat, bounding over to my truck.

'Is this your doggie, Bella? Can I pet him? What's his name? Oh, what a good boy you are, aren't you. You're the sweetest." Alice hoisted herself into the truck bed, no mean feat when her chest barely cleared the tailgate. Batman thumped her tail, whinnying softly as she slithered over the airbed mattress toward Alice.

"Yes. She loves ear scratches. Her name is Batman. She's a very good girl. " Alice held out her fingers for Batman to sniff. Batman stuck her nose into Alice's palm before shoving her entire head in Alice's hand. As Alice scritched behind her ears, Batman huffed a long breath of contentment.

"Batman?" a baritone voice behind me asked. I jumped. I hadn't heard Edward Cullen get out of the jeep. He'd come up behind me standing so close I caught the faint scent of his body wash. Masculine. Deep. Woodsy.

"Yeah," I said. "She was a birthday gift from Renee. I mean, my Mom." I swallowed. Batman was one of the best things Renee had ever given me. Even though it was her way of saying "goodbye."

Beta'd by the wonderful WritingforOne and Brook M.

"Five whole feet" joke was lovingly borrowed from Sally Thorne's novel "The Hating Game." If you haven't read her Twilight fanfic, The Blessing and the Curse, do it now. She writes under the name The Black Arrow.