3. Visions Suck

It was in my first period class when I heard of Bella's time at the movie theatre while I was, well, abroad.

…if it wasn't for Jacob – Mike Newton glared at me from the other side of the class room. – well, okay, if it wasn't for me getting sick maybe Bella wouldn't have taken Cullen back. I mean, it was sort of like a date…wasn't it? We could have been together now.

Wow, Eric looked between us. Now even the guys are staring at Cullen. I can never catch a break.

My lips twitched up and Bella lightly brushed my hand. I looked at her brilliant smile and returned it.

…I mean the movie completely sucked, but I know – I just know that if Jacob wasn't there that she would have held my hand.

My teeth mashed together.

"Edward?" Bella whispered. "You look like someone just chiseled your jaw from granite."

Instantly, I relaxed my mouth. As always, she was overly observant.

…Ugh. I just don't get the attraction what so ever. Cullen of all people! But Bella now… well, she's beautiful. Mike Newton's eyes traced over her features and I moved my desk some so I was in his view.

So there, I thought happily.

Today, it seems, was just another day when I find out a little more about Bella's time away from me. It hurt. And it most definitely stung. Bella knew this, and I was pretty sure that is why she never mentioned it. But, I had to admit – I was curious. Why did she go to the movies with Jacob and Mike? What an odd combination. Did others go too?

Jacob. My thoughts turned darker. The werewolf. This morning when I left Bella's house there was a trace of his scent in the woods. Absolutely revolting, I might add. Was he spying on her – on us? Why won't he just leave us alone?

When lunch time finally rolled around Bella and I walked hand in hand to the cafeteria. I saw as her expressions changed on her face, and for once, I actually delighted in the silence of her mind. It was a break from all the non-sense I had been listening to all morning. Well – it was a break until her face roamed across some posters about graduation and she swallowed hard and looked a little sick.

Now that I had seen that look, I wondered if she was really ready after all – for the change. She demanded it, backed it up, planned for it, yet here she was looking absolutely sick about it. Or maybe it was something else? The stomach flu, perhaps?

Going through the lunch line I piled her favorite foods onto one tray to take back to the table. To everyone else it would just seem like there were two lunches, but I wasn't going to eat.

Looks like it's going to be a pretty uneventful day, Alice informed me while we were walking towards the table. She turned to peer over at us. Good god! What is she wearing?

Ben and Angela were already at the table eating their food.

"Have you sent your announcements, yet?" Angela asked Bella as soon as we sat down. By the time I'm done addressing all the envelopes, graduation will have passed. She nudged her food with her fork some, her mood a little frantic.

…and that shirt! Alice continued to look Bella over, genuinely upset over her outfit. I'm going to have to sneak into her closet and throw all her clothes away. This just won't do.

"No," Bella answered Angela, trying to ignore Alice's scrutiny. "There's no point, really. Renée knows when I'm graduating. Whoelse is there?"

…must be nice, Angela placed her head in her hands, thoughtful.

…And those shoes! I have really got my work cut out –

"How about you, Alice?" Angela cut into her thoughts.

Alice smiled, looked at me, Would you like to come to my 45th graduation? she thought sarcastically before answering, "All done."

I love my family but why do I have to invite them all? "Lucky you." Angela sighed. "My mother has a thousand cousins and she expects me to hand-address one to everybody. I'm going to get carpal tunnel. I can't put it off any longer and I'm just dreading it."

"I'll help you," Bella offered, surprising me. "If you don't mind my awful handwriting." And her handwriting really was awful.

I was glad she was going to get the opportunity to leave the house after being sanctioned to stay inside for so long. I smiled. Also, this will keep Charlie off her back, at least for a little while. It won't be long, though, before he mentions Jacob again.

And Bella surprises me once again. Thank god for some help! Angela sighed a bit in relief. "That's so nice of you. I'll come over any time you want." …heck, I'll cut off my pinky finger if she would just help!

"Actually, I'd rather go to your house if that's okay - I'm sick of mine." Bella grinned widely. "Charlie un-grounded me last night," her voice was cheery.

"Really?" Angela perked up a little at the news. "I thoughtyou said you were in for life."

…we could fly to Paris to buy her some new clothes, or we could take her to Germany. There is that big festival going on this time of year and – Alice continued on and on in her mind. Making plan after plan.

"I'm more surprised than you are. I was sure I would at least have finished high school beforehe set me free." Bella said excitedly.

"Well, this is great, Bella! We'll have to go out to celebrate." Angela and Bella's heads came close together, like they were gossiping old ladies. It thrilled me to see her so content.

"You have no idea how good that sounds."

"What should we do?" Alice pondered, the many ideas flickering through her head so fast she didn't even predict Bella's next statement.

"Whatever you're thinking, Alice, I doubt I'm that free."

Alice was taken a little aback by her statement. But… she almost frowned. "Free is free, right?" she insisted. Charlie wouldn't mind…

"I'm sure I still have boundaries - like the continental U.S., for example."

Almost all of Alice's plans went up in a puff of smoke. Angela and Ben thought it was a funny joke and laughed, but Alice was truly upset.

…there goes Paris…

"So what are we doing tonight?" Alice persisted, deciding she was going to get some good out of her freedom. As soon as Alice had found out about it, she was more concerned about my well-being that I totally forgot about how much this would excite her. She had spent the whole evening on the internet looking for entertaining things they could get into.

Bella shook her head in frustration. "Nothing. Look, let's give it a couple of days to make sure he wasn't joking," she blanched at the thought. "It's a schoolnight, anyway."

I do always forget that she needs sleep. Alice's grin grew. "We'll celebrate this weekend, then." Her enthusiasm was impossible to repress.

"Sure," Bella said cautiously.

"There's this new restaurant opening in Port Angeles –" Angela began.

"Or," Alice jumped in, grabbing a grape off her plate and popping it into her mouth, "we could go to Hoquiam. There's a concert going on…"

After watching Alice pretend to eat a grape (which I found out from reading her mind) I ignored the rest of the conversation to enjoy just being near my love again. No Jacob, no distance and no Volturi. Things were perfect.

My eyes rarely left Bella's face and it seemed she was deep into her thoughts. It was wrong for me to wish I could intrude on them, to find out what she was really thinking, but I did. All the time. Even though her silence was one of the things I truly loved about her. Being with her was peaceful, quiet. She was completely oblivious to the fact that I was watching her as she ate her food in a mechanical way and then frown at the table, like something was deeply bothering her.

Before I even had the opportunity to try and penetrate the bubble around her brain or ask what was on her mind there were other voices in my head, or more accurately, just a voice. Alice was shouting my name in her mind. Who knew how long she was doing it, but suddenly it stopped when my head snapped up to meet her eyes. Her very vacant eyes. Alice was having a vision, one I preferred not to see. On that note, her mind instantly sucked me into it.

"Alice? Alice!" I heard Angela and barely recognized her waving her hand in front of Alice's face, trying to get some sort of reaction out of her. I was still too busy watching the scene unfold before me, trying my hardest to rip my way from the vision. Victoria was coming back.

It only took me a second to realize the situation at hand; the vision, the lunch room and the five students that were staring in her direction, all curious to see what was happening at our end of the table. Trying to push the images from my head I searched for a distraction. I needed to remove the attention from her. The first thing that came to mind was the first thing I did.

I laughed as naturally as I could manage while surveying Alice and Bella out of my peripheral vision. Bella's familiar flush had simultaneously seeped from her face as she stared in horror at Alice's blank expression. My first response was to reassure her that she was all right. That I would – we would – never let anything happen to her. But, I had to remember the audience before us and tried to joke my way out of this awkward situation.

Every eye that was watching Alice was now staring at me as I pretended the best way I could to snigger.

Both the Cullen's have lost their minds.

…she get's that stare a lot…

"Is it naptime already, Alice?" I nudged her a little, trying to seem as teasing as I could while trying to get her attention.

She blinked, one very obvious move to show she had come back to planet earth. "Sorry, I was daydreaming, I guess," she sighed.

"Daydreaming's better than facing two more hours of school," Ben said.

...that was weird.

Freaks.

It was hard to concentrate after that and absentmindedly I started spinning strands of Bella's hair around my finger. It only stole my mind away from things for a few seconds before the distracting thoughts and the images playing in my mind were in the forefront. It was hard to keep track of the conversation at the table because Victoria was coming to town and she didn't look very happy.

Of course I knew it was inevitable, but I seriously didn't think it would happen so soon. Thinking about my time in the south while I was tracking her only made me angrier as each second passed. Alice could see my despondent look, but was still smiling and talking so happily you'd think she took a valium.

Her game is all about running the border between our territory and the werewolves. Alice thought while acting like she was listening to something Ben was saying about a movie. You know her game – avoid, avoid, avoid! It's giving me a headache trying to think about it because she becomes fuzzy the closer she encircles the werewolves territory. She paused to put in her two cents about a dress that Angela was pointing at in a magazine before returning to her mental conversation. I have a bad feeling about this. It makes me extremely uneasy to not be able to see the absolute future. She caught my eye for only a second, a look that was so pointed that anyone who noticed would think that we were communicating without words. Edward, I think you should take Bella somewhere far away from here this weekend.

As she looked away I noticed Bella had seen the whole exchange. Crap.

Before we left lunch I had devised a plan so Bella would not ask me about Alice's vision by distracting her or keeping myself busy talking with people. Normally I prefer not to interact with humans let alone seek them out for pleasant conversation so deep down I knew that I was just holding off on the inevitable.

When the bell rang to signify our departure to class I moved fluidly next to Ben to ask about our assignment in history as Alice lopped me on the head with the grape. No one else noticed. Bella eyed me curiously, but it was my words that caught her attention, not the food and I just realized I'd already slipped. It was only the other night that I informed her that my homework was complete in that class. I was always making mistakes around her.

Our next few classes drug on as my mind flipped ideas around like a lottery machine, just trying to figure out the next number, or in my case, the right way to ask Bella to go away with me this weekend. I knew she would jump at the opportunity if it weren't for her recent un-grounding and her father keeping an eye on her more than ever. I also knew that if she knew the circumstances behind the whole idea she would be scared, and that's the last thing I wanted.

Alice was no help either. All through class her head would suddenly seek me out with things that we all three could do this weekend. She offered to take Bella herself, knowing Charlie would be more likely to let Bella leave with her than me, but she knew there was no way, especially after James, that I would let Bella go anywhere without me when danger was amiss.

When school finally ended I had still come up with nothing. Absolutely no ideas.

Mike Newton had picked up his books and was exiting the class door. I watched as his hair disappeared behind the door frame. I jumped up. By doing this, I knew that I was crossing my careful lines. Bella would be able to tell something was going on. How could she not. Still, I grabbed up both of our books and rushed towards Mike before he left school.

"Hey, Mike," I said nonchalantly, acting like I was catching my breath.

"Edward?" …what's he want? Hasn't he already proven he got the girl?

"Did you apply to any colleges?" I asked, trying to seem friendly.

He replied and his thoughts were just as confused as the look on Bella's face when I looked over my shoulder to see her trailing behind. Our eyes met and she raised her eyebrows, wondering what was up my sleeve.

". . . but I just replaced the battery," Mike was saying as we rounded into the school parking lot. He has to want something. Why else would he be acting all friendly? Normally he is giving me the stare of death. He picked up his pace some, trying to get to his car faster.

"Perhaps it's the cables?" I suggested, still trying to keep up the pleasantries.

"Maybe. I really don't know anything about cars," Mike admitted suspiciously. "I need to have someone look at it, but I can't afford to take it to Dowling's."

"I know a few things - I could take a look, if you like," I offered. "Just let me drop Alice and Bella at home."

And that is when his jaw dropped dramatically. …did he just offer help? He caught Bella's incredulous look. …and she's just as stunned as I am? What game is he playing? His mouth was still hanging open slightly. "Er . . . thanks," he finally said, once he gathered his thoughts. "But I have to get to work. Maybe some other time." Not. Still a freak…

"Absolutely." I lied just as easily as he did.

"See ya," he said while practically diving into his car. …so weird… he shook his head in disbelief.

Bella and I walked towards the Volvo, which was only two cars away. Still no ideas. Oh crap.

Author's Note: Please forgive me. It's a very short chapter. This is going to be how it is for a while, which means faster results but smaller chapters. Work with me here! I work full time and I am starting school next week to top it off. Architectural Drafting, Mapping and English on top of all these wonderful books I'm reading and one I am currently writing I am a bit busy. A lot busy, actually. Sorry for the small chapter, but I promise to try to update more often.

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Disclaimer: All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of Stephenie Meyer. Lolafalana is in no way associated with the owners, creators, or producers of Eclipse. No copyright infringement is intended.