Bella was roused from a peaceful slumber by a cold hand on her cheek. She cracked one eye open to look into Alice's smiling face. Bella could tell by the light coming in the window that it was another cloudy day, and around seven in the morning. I slept? She thought to herself and grinned triumphantly. Maybe all it took to get her to sleep was someone else in the room. She had never tried that. She yawned tiredly and stretched her arms above her head, the emerald green comforter pulling off of her her shoulders slightly.

"I thought you said you were an insomniac." said a musical voice from somewhere off to the left. Bella's eyes flew open in shock to see Edward's crooked grin. A blush spread over her cheeks and she closed her eyes with a groan. She wondered why he was in her room. Aren't guys not allowed in the girl's dorm floors? Aggravated, she decided that this morning was a good morning to go back to sleep. Too embarrassing for her taste.

She pulled the comforter back over her exposed face and ruffled hair and turned over in the bed.

"I'm still sleeping." she mumbled petulantly, drawing a chuckle from Edward and a twinkle of laughter from Alice.

Edward asked again.

"I normally am" she admitted confusedly, answering his question after a minute then opening her eyes. "Normally, I never sleep. I think maybe it's because there was someone else in here, sleeping with me." Alice giggled, and then looked at the floor ashamedly. Bella looked down at her pajamas and decided to start the new day. She pulled the blanket down again and looked at Edward, sitting backwards on a chair. She gave him a meaningful look, but he didn't take the hint and leave the room. She looked pleadingly at Alice instead, who in turn glared at her brother until he started for the opened door.

She has to change Edward, she's a human. She might have to brush her teeth or something like that. Alice thought to him as he walked to the door. He hung his head; he had forgotten that she was human and needed these kinds of things.

"See you at breakfast ladies" he said with a mock bow as he walked from the room. Bella was relived and slightly saddened that he had left, but slowly pulled herself from her sleep-warmed sheets. She stood up and streched her arms over her head in a fluid movement, hitting them on the top bunk. Rubbing her arm, she glared up at the offending post. She looked over at Alice, who was putting on what seemed like the uniform for her obviously well-to-do family. Alice's black hair was not sleep mussed, and Alice looked like she hadn't slept at all. The purple bruises under her eyes seemed to darken over the night. Bella noticed these on Edward too, but they were more prominent on his face than hers. Other than those bruises and the pale skin however, Alice and Edward had little in common.

"You don't look related" Bella commented after a moment spent pulling on a pair of jeans over her dark blue underwear. She silently thanked god that Edward had left before she had gotten out of bed, considering that she had forgotten that she was sleeping in only a pair of underwear and a tank top. With a blush at her train of thought, Bella looked up in time to see Alice grin.

"Adopted." She uttered that word like it was an amusing joke.

"All of you?" Bella asked, surprised.

Alice nodded. "Emmett is my cousin, but we don't really look related either." Bella laughed, considering the difference between his brawniness and her petite beauty. "Jasper and Rosalie are twins." Bella could see that, both inhumanly beautiful like the rest of their family, but were the only ones that shared that blond hair.

"And Edward?" She asked quietly. "Is he your parents' real son?" Alice laughed and shook her head.

"No," She giggled. "but sometimes even we think he could be. He's the loner of the family." she sighed, but gave a little inward mischievous grin. Not for long.

"Well, I'll bet he gets all of the girls he wants." Bella grumbled to herself, aggravated. Alice raised her eyebrows with a grin.

"Nope." she said and swept from the room, beckoning for Bella to follow.

Her mouth fell open as she obliged. "What do you mean Nope." she asked breathlessly. Alice just smiled at her and threaded her small arm through Bella's, leading her down the stairs. "Alice." She whined, "Tell me!"

"He's never had a girlfriend." she finally admitted, as they walked into the cafeteria. Bella's mouth fell open and she stopped dead in the doorway. Never had a girlfriend? Edward? He was beautiful, and charming. Good lord I've got it bad she thought as she jogged to catch up with Alice.

In the daylight, she could see that the large room was filled with campers. The long tables were filled with campers. In one corner though, there was a small round table. At that table sat the Cullens, ostracized from the rest of the group.

"Why does your family sit apart from everyone else?" Bella asked suddenly, as they walked through the breakfast line. Alice gave her a look that said "can't you tell?"

"We scare people." she said finally, looking away towards the table of her family. And they did scare people, their predatory aura sending people running away from them before they got close. Alice looked over at Bella and thanked god for her. She wasn't afraid, bless her. They needed her, Edward needed her, despite the fact that she was a human. Because the fact that she was a human. If Edward could prove to vampires everywhere that it is possible to interact at such an intimate level with the prey... It would give Jasper hope. They all knew that he struggled, Edward more than the rest of them. She looked down at her arm as Bella placed a hand on it and gave her a sympathetic smile.

"I'm not afraid of you." she murmured and Alice grinned.

"I know," she said, drawing Bella into a quick hug, She pulled her through the end of the line and towards the table where her family sat, waiting for them.

--

"I missed you" Alice breathed as she nestled her head into his solid, cool chest. Jasper smiled slightly and rubbed her back, running the fingers of his other hand through her short hair. Bella smiled at this as she sat down with a yawn. She grinned tiredly at Edward next to her and started into her food eagerly.

Feeling someone watching her, she looked up to see five pairs of varying butterscotch eyes trained on her face. Feeling self conscious, she raised an eyebrow at them. They all looked in different directions, except for Edward, whose eyes stayed looking at her.

"Do I have something on my face?" she brushed her cheek off with her napkin. He chuckled quietly and resumed pulling apart his food. "aren't you hungry?" she asked, pointing to his mutilated bagel which he obviously hadn't eaten any of. He shook his head with a wry smile and looked back at his tray. Rolling her eyes, she stood up and threw away her tray. As she sat back down, the room became silent. The Cullens turned their faces to the podium in the center. Bella gave Edward a questioning look, but he just pressed a finger to his lips and pointed to the podium. Laughing, she turned and watched as well.

A short, balding man stood at the front, standing on a small stool. After giggling to herself for a second, she tried to listen in on what he was saying. She leaned over closer to Edward after a second. "What is he saying?" she whispered. He smiled and started to mimic the words of the man. Bella couldn't help but notice how beautiful his voice was. She sighed contentedly as he explained about the camp.

Edward was having trouble concentrating on the words of the Director while she was sitting so close to him. Because he was talking, he couldn't just stop breathing. Instead, he focused on her small hands, which were twisting together in her lap. They were delicate and pale like the rest of her, but he could see the scars covering the backs of them. Growling slightly to himself, he stopped talking to capture one of her hands in his. The scars were apparent on the palms of her hands too. She blushed then, and for once he didn't have to concentrate on taming the beast. Instead, he looked up into her eyes. "How did you get all of these scars?" he asked quietly, and she lowered her head, pulling her hand reluctantly out of his.

"I'm clumsy" she sighed, and placed her hands back into her lap. And she was of course, unnaturally clumsy. She got that clumsiness from her father. Bella wiped a tear from her eye and looked p at the podium.

Finally the man was done talking, and they were dismissed table by table. According to Edward, they now had a bit of a break before their first class. They were supposed to get their schedules.

Alice pulled both Edward and Bella up the stairs to their room. Edward gave a martyred expression to Bella and she giggled, making Alice glare back to both of them. Innocent looks crossed both their faces. Once in the room, Bella flopped down on her bed with a sigh. He pulled a chair over next to her bed and handed her a schedule that had been in her original packet of papers. Out of his pocket, he pulled his own schedule.

"We have second class together." he remarked after a moment. "And elective hour."

"Actually," she smiled, looking over his paper. "We have all of our elective hours, free times and studio times together. I just have the strings course, while you have…" she paused, momentarily confused. "What instrument do you play?" she asked. Looking up at his face.

"Piccolo" he said with the perfect poker face. Flustered, Bella tried to think of what to say.

"Oh…" she started and immediately Edward broke into laughter. It made her breath catch, but immediately, she was laughing as well.

Alice stood at the others side of the room, awestruck. Did Edward just make a joke? Her previously stoic, brooding brother was clutching his sides in amusement as this small girl was wiping tears of laughter from her brown eyes.

She leaned against the door frame as Jasper walked in. With an amazed face, he witnessed Edward catch his breath. Alice leaned into him wordlessly and he led her from the room, down the hall.

"Piano" he said finally, after catching his breath unnecessarily.

"I just couldn't…imagine you…"She gasped. "The piccolo?" she lay back on her bed in giggles.

"We have five minutes" he remarked after watching her breathe deeply for a while. She sat up quickly, hitting her head on the top bunk.

"Ouch" she mumbled, sinking back down on the bed. Immediately, he pressed a cool hand to her forehead to dull the pain.

As she recovered, she smiled at him slowly. "Cold hands, warm heart." She muttered and he grinned.

"Maybe you hit your head a bit too hard." He laughed. She sat up again, slowly, and his hand fell onto the bed. She smiled weakly at him as she wobbled on the bed.

"Shall we?" he asked, mentally cursing himself for causing her to hit her head. He offered her his hand, and she placed her warm one in his. It was as soft as he had imagined and he closed his eyes for a second to savor the warmth.

Leading her out of the room, he looked back before he closed the door.

"Don't you need your guitar?" he asked suddenly, pulling her to a stop. She smiled and shook her head.

"I play cello too." she said and threaded her fingers through his. He was distracted as he walked down the hall, staring at their entwined fingers. She pulled him suddenly to the left into a staircase and he stumbled minutely. He was dumbfounded, did this human girl know at all the effect she was having on him?

"You almost missed our exit," she explained as she led him down the cool staircase and into a hallway. He noticed now that it was the hallway to her first class. At the doorway, they stopped and peered inside.

"Well," he said, "I'll see you at our next class?" she nodded, reluctant to go inside the unfamiliar room without him. He gave her a slight push, and she walked into the room.

He gave a meaningful look to Emmett before walking away to his own class. He was sure that it would be as tedious as he remembered.