That week I spent in Forks went by much faster than I expected. Although I was stuck at the Cullens' house while they went for their final week of school, it did actually give me a lot of time to perfect my Mario Kart game, so now I was basically unbeatable.

Alice had taken me shopping on Tuesday evening to buy a dress for the graduation party I was being forced to attend. After many painful hours of rummaging through clothing racks and getting sidetracked by shoes, we eventually settled on light blue short-sleeved dress that ended mid-thigh with a v-neck. I wasn't exactly a dress kind of person, so it took a lot to get me to agree to anything in fairness, but Alice had tried to talk me into many…revealing items, including a baby pink vinyl spaghetti-strap mini-dress with panels cut out along the sides.

"Alice, what the fuck is this?" I hissed almost silently.

She pulled back the dressing room curtain and looked me up and down with a shrug. "What's the issue?"

"The issue is the fact that there is way too much skin showing. Look," I gestured to my side, "my ass is going to pop out at any second!"

"But it looks so good on you though," she insisted.

"Alice, come on," I turned around to the other side, "how am I even supposed to wear underwear with this?"

"We can work around it."

"Ugh, Lord give me strength," I muttered and shook my head, pulling the dressing room curtain closed again.

On the plus side, I did manage to talk her into allowing me to wear trainers with my dress, as she'd chosen out a really nice pair of white Nike shoes for me. As much as I did appreciate Alice's love affair with clothing, my patience had limits with that child.

Before I knew it, the day of the graduation had finally arrived. I was fast asleep in the spare bedroom after staying up for way too long playing Mario Kart with Jasper, when the room suddenly lit up brightly.

"Why?" I groaned into my pillow.

"Eli, its graduation day!" Alice's voice squealed, "I've got to go and take this," she gestured to a large white box, "to Bella. Go and get ready, I can't wait to see the dress on you!"

"Fine, fine, I'm getting up," I waited until she left before finishing my sentence, "in twenty minutes."

Twenty minutes later, I finally rolled out of bed and pulled the dress out of the pile of clothing we'd bought the other day. Quickly cutting off the tag, I tiredly stumbled into the bathroom and locked the door in case anyone was to barge in without knocking. Fortunately for me, the dress was quite modest so I wasn't really worried about wearing it during the graduation while, if it was the mini-dress, that would be a whole different story.

After quickly French braiding my hair down my back, I put on the new trainers Alice had bought for me and headed down the stairs, greeted by Esme who handed me a plate of freshly-cooked pancakes.

"For you," she smiled.

"Thank you Esme," I responded and settled down at the table.

Rose and Emmett had managed to talk their way out of coming to the graduation, and were currently out of the house doing god knows what. Edward was on his way out past me when he stopped and glanced at my dress.

"Nice dress. Did Alice get to you?" he asked humorously.

"Unfortunately," I giggled, bringing my plate back into the kitchen and placing it in the dishwasher.

"I heard that," Alice spoke while she tugged my hand to get a better look at the outfit she'd chosen, "you should wear blue more often, it really matches your skin tone."

"You think?"

"Yes, it's just a shame your mates aren't here to see you in this," she winked.

I shook my head, giving her an unimpressed look. Carlisle's voice suddenly called from by the door downstairs.

"Photos, we're taking photos right now!"

I stood back with my arms crossed over my chest, a look of bemusement on my face as I watched Alice, Jasper, and Edward forced into a group photo. Despite still looking as gorgeous as ever, their gowns were so tragically hideous and their smiles were so forced that it was honestly just a stroke of comedic gold. I even considered pulling my phone out of my pocket to take a few photos myself to tease them later. As soon as Esme and Carlisle let them go, Edward dashed out of the door, calling behind him.

"I'm off to see Bella, I'll see you later."

The remaining five of us headed down into the garage and climbed into the car, Carlisle in the driver's seat with Esme beside him. I was squished against the left door with Alice in the middle, Jasper seated next to her. Esme had her camera held proudly in her lap, clearly eager to take as many photos as possible. This was going to get interesting…

I timidly followed behind Carlisle and Esme like a shadow as they led us to a few empty seats near the front. On the way over, a voice called my name.

"Eli?"

I turned around and my gaze met Charlie. "Charlie, how are you?" I asked politely.

"I'm great thank you, lovely to see you again, it's very kind of you to come down and support Bella and her friends. She does miss spending time with you," he smiled just as I was pulled into a quick hug from Bella.

"Thank you for coming," she spoke.

"No problem, slay this graduation girl!" I responded with a giggle as I pulled away from her and followed Carlisle and Esme into our seats.

I barely paid any attention during the ceremony, mostly because I didn't really know anyone there. A few of them I did recognise as some of Bella's friends, one of them even doing the whole 'inspirational' speech. The whole thing went by pretty slowly, mostly because I was boredly daydreaming instead of concentrating. Once the whole thing was over, I made my way back over to Bella and hugged her briefly.

"So proud," I dramatically wiped away an invisible tear from my eye.

"Shut up, I saw you falling asleep," she laughed.

"I would never, I was just…thinking deeply about how much of a meaningful turning point this is in your life," I answered sarcastically, "your gown looks awful by the way."

"They all do," she rolled her eyes just as Edward came over.

"Jasper and Alice are both preparing for her 'party'," he explained, drawing speech marks in the air, "how was your sleep?"

"For the last time, I wasn't sleeping!" I yelled a little too loudly with my arms crossed, earning glares from across the room.

"If you say so," he joked.

"We're heading back now, are you coming?" Carlisle asked from behind me.

"Yeah, sure, nowhere else to be," I replied, following after them away from Bella and Edward, "see you later alligator!" I called embarrassingly.

Once we got back to the Cullen household, I immediately ran upstairs and began touching up my makeup. Maybe it was because I was dozing off with my head rested in my hand, but everything was now a little on the untidy side. Adding an extra layer of lip gloss, I headed back down the stairs just as people gradually began filing into the house. Alice was bustling around as per usual, making sure everything was just right.

"Hey, Alice?"

"Eli, what's up?" she asked, raising her voice over the music and the large number of people who were now gathering in the front room.

"I was just wondering if you've seen Bella around, considering I literally know nobody here."

She pointed over behind my shoulder before turning her back to me and continuing her crazy party organising. I spun around and spotted Bella, who had decided not to wear a dress apparently, but instead a shirt and jeans.

"No dress then?" I questioned.

"As if," she waved her hand just as two other girls came up to her.

"You made it!" the one with glasses hugged Bella tightly.

"Do I know you?" the other girl asked me.

"Um, no, my name is Eli. I'm just here visiting," I smiled, trying to seem as friendly as possible to offset my resting bitch face.

"Oh my God, you're Bella's British friend! I thought you were made up for a while," she responded, "I'm Jessica."

"And I'm Angela, I love your accent," she added.

"Thanks," I smiled sheepishly as they turned their attention back to Bella.

"What did you think of my speech? Too easy-breezy, too self-helpful, you hated it?" Jessica asked too quickly for anyone to process the question.

Bella paused for a moment. "No, I think you pretty much nailed it," she assured.

"Yeah? It's like I was born to lead, right?"

Angela gasped beside her. "I love this song, let's go," she tugged Jessica away into the crowd, leaving me and Bella standing there awkwardly.

"So are you staying over then?" I asked Bella.

"Charlie said I could since you're here and we don't get to see each other much," she replied, her face lighting up slightly.

"This is gonna be so much fun!" I squealed and bounced on the spot.

Bella's attention instantly turned to the stairs as a small group of boys wandered in. The three of them had dark brown hair and wore weirdly similar dark-coloured t-shirts. I noticed that Bella seemed almost bewildered, but I just assumed it was simply because they were kinda hot compared to most of the boys I'd seen around so far.

"What're you doing here?" she inclined her head.

"You invited me, remember?" he answered with a slightly bitter edge before turning around to me, "and who's this then?"

"Eli, actually, you?" I asked him, a little pissed off at his attitude.

"Jacob," he responded dismissively.

"Was my right hook too subtle for you?" Bella snarked, "That was me uninviting you."

Wow, things did really get interesting all of a sudden. Bella really punched that dude? I noted to bring that topic up in our catch-up later.

"Look, Bella, I'm sorry, about, you know, the kiss," the kiss?! "and your hand. I'd blame it on the whole 'inner-animal' thing but it was just…me being an ass, I'm really sorry."

Huh, as much as this Jacob dude had already pissed me off and we'd only just met, that was a sweet apology to his credit.

"But I brought you something," he fumbled in his pocket, "a graduation present. I made it myself."

He handed her a little bracelet with a wolf charm on it. Hold up, everything now made sense; were these the shape-shifters I'd heard about? Oh, that would explain his little 'inner-animal' analogy.

"Wow, you made this?"

I sensed that I was probably getting a little nosy and interrupting the whole sentimental moment at this point, and instead decided to scurry off into the crowd.

"I'm just gonna, hmm, go refill my drink," I excused myself before noticing that I wasn't even holding a cup.

The group raised an eyebrow at me as I hurried off and looked for literally anyone I recognised. Someone tugged at my arm, causing me to spin around and face Jessica.

"Eli, was it?" she smiled.

"Yeah, hi Jessica," I gave her a brief dorky wave.

"Come," she led me over to a group of people near the corner, "you've already met Angela, this is Eric, and this is Mike," she explained, gesturing to each of them in turn.

I reckoned that the only reason I was getting this kind of attention was because of my accent, but honestly I wasn't complaining.

"Nice to meet you," I waved awkwardly.

"So you're British, huh?" Mike asked.

"No, I'm Antarctican," I answered, my tone dripping with sarcasm. Nice one Eli, way to make a first impression.

"You a polar bear or something?" he countered.

"Um, polar bears live in the Arctic, mate," I laughed.

"Do British people always call people 'mate'?" Angela asked light-heartedly.

"No, sometimes I guess," I shrugged, "do Americans always get the north and south poles the wrong way around?" I questioned with a giggle.

"No, just Mike," Eric responded.

"Your dress looks really nice by the way," Jessica complemented me.

"Aw thank you, so does yours," I blushed. I could sense that Jessica was clearly one of those annoying 'popular girls' or whatever, but I didn't care to be honest; I was going to take every compliment I could gather.

"How long are you in town for? Because, you know, if you're free, we could, like, meet up and grab food or something…" Mike trailed off.

"Thanks for the offer, but I'm actually leaving tomorrow," I lied. I really had three days to go, but I wasn't in the mood to meet up with a bunch of people like we're best buds, or go on a date with someone who doesn't even know basic geography.

"Wait, how long were you here for? Did you not come to school?" he asked.

"Um, no, my school's already finished so I didn't need to," I raised an eyebrow.

"So Eli," Jessica butted in to our conversation, "what did you think of my speech?"

Shit, I wasn't even listening to it. I think at that moment I was busy staring out of the window at a woodpecker I'd spotted in a tree, so I literally had no idea what her speech was even about.

"Oh, I loved it. You are…really good at making speeches, very inspirational," I answered hesitantly.

"Really? You think? Wow, thanks," she grinned.

"Eli," Bella grabbed my arm and spun me around, "I thought you were refilling your drink."

"Oh yeah, I got sidetracked," I giggled and turned my head back to the group, "catch up later!"

"So, that was Jacob then?" I questioned her once we were some distance away from the crowd of people, admiring the graduation gift he'd gotten her.

She sighed, "Yeah, didn't think he would come to be honest. Sorry if he made it awkward."

"Eh, don't worry about it. I'm more interested in you…punching him?"

"Oh, that," she giggled to lift the suspense, "he kind of, um, forcibly kissed me."

"No way, so you punched him?" I widened my eyes in surprise.

"What else was I supposed to do? Anyway, Edward threatened to break his jaw, I broke my hand, but it's fine, we're on way better terms now," she explained.

"Huh, never thought you had it in you, Isabella," I teased her.

"You've been spending too much time with Aro, you weirdo," she playfully slapped my arm.

"Why? Does he call you Isabella?" I laughed.

"He did once, just before he almost sucked my blood," she responded awkwardly.

"Yikes, allow me to apologise on his behalf," I dramatically bowed.

"Oh, I even get a bow as well."

"See? I'm like Aro 2.0," I giggled, "hold up, I've just realised something."

"What?"

"Aro can read my thoughts and all that crap, right? So he's currently watching our entire conversation, just a few days later," I gasped, "hey future Aro, how's life?"

"Thanks for reminding me," Bella muttered disappointedly.

"Oh come on, don't be like that, it's fun. Also Aro, Bella doesn't like to be called Isabella, just for future reference, thanks babe," I called out to nobody.

"You call him babe?" she raised an eyebrow at me.

"Well…yeah, all three of them," I shrugged.

"Wow, look at you falling in love."

"I know right? Like some kind of crazy romance film where the teenage girl falls in love with three ancient artefacts, but to be fair, your relationship would be such good romance material."

"You think?"

"Yeah, human girl falls in love with handsome vampire and joins his lil' vampire family," I joked.

"Hm, pitch it to Summit Entertainment at some point."

I burst out laughing, struggling to breathe. "I'll add it to my bucket list!"

Author's note: This chapter was a lot of fun to write, I'm not gonna lie. Throughout this story, I'm trying to follow the whole Twilight arc as closely as possible, but if I get any minor plot details wrong, I apologise. Again, thank you so much for reading, this story is really picking up now and doing well so thank you thank you thank you! Be sure to leave some feedback, stay safe, and ily!