Hello everybody! Thanks for the reviews, and alerts, I really liked the ones I got.

I really feel bad, 'cause I have been neglecting fanfiction and this story shamelessly. I just had the most hectic week since last July and haven't even opened the computer for three whole days! And now I'm sacrificing my first morning off for weeks to write this one…(You'd better appreciate this…) I'm trying to update at least one chapter more before I go on holiday and visit my sister. I'm letting her read this then, hope she likes it.

I don't usually put particular songs that I listened but now I have to. I just wrote 'groaned to myself when I realised it was only seven thirty' and was listening to Mcfly's Room on the Third Floor and Danny sung 'woke up early, round seven thirty'!!

So listen to Room on the third Floor by Mcfly!

But now, on with the story.

Chapter 4 – London

BPOV

I woke up early considering that it was even earlier in the States. I lifted my head groggily from the cushy pillow and groaned to myself when I realised it was only seven thirty. I fell back against the bed and stared at the ceiling, thinking of nothing particular but also everything at the same time. Thought after thought drifted by without me giving it more attention. I usually did this when I was agitated and wanted to sleep, but this time it didn't work as I had hoped.

Alice and Jasper were still sleeping, Alice curled into a small ball, cuddling against Jasper. I chuckled silently at them, because that was how Alice always slept with Jasper. She would never move even an inch. But when she and I would have a sleepover, I never even considered sleeping with her in the same bed. When Alice sleeps without Jasper, she kicks with her feet and tosses and turns around every five minutes. I had found myself on the floor enough times, my legs bruised, before I had demanded my own mattress even though Alice had a queen-sized bed. Jasper and I often laughed over her changing sleeping manners and Alice would always huff and accuse me being in the way of her vivid dreams.

I, on the other hand, never moved but did something much worse. I talked. Every time after I had spent the night at a friend's place, they would tell all the weird things I had mumbled, laughing and joking at the breakfast table. It wasn't something I could just control and I was already expecting some terrible new embarrassment stories from this trip, if we ever slept on a train. Every backpacking kid in Europe would know me as 'the sleep talking girl on our train to Rome' or something similar…

I noticed that my getting back to sleep had been a bust, since I was currently wide awake. Thinking about embarrassing myself asleep apparently didn't help me sleep. I got tired of lying on my bed and decided to get up. Breakfast would begin at eight so I would be just in time. I quickly rose out of bed and walked to the bathroom to change and get cleaned up for the day.

I walked to the lounging area downstairs ten minutes later, only to meet Edward there, reading a newspaper from this morning.

"Good morning Edward." I greeted him cheerfully. "Are we the only ones up?"

He smiled and laid the paper down. "Morning. Yeah, I would think we are. Emmett came in much later than the rest of us, so he's still sleeping."

"Oh, so he spent some time with Rosalie last night."

Edward just winked in response. "We'll have to see what happens between the two of them. Rosalie seems just the type who can handle Emmett. What about Alice and Jasper? Didn't you wake them up?"

I shook my head. "No. I'm actually surprised Alice wasn't up yet. She's usually the one to jump on my bed every school morning so she can dress me as she pleases. It's a nice change to pick your own clothes. That must be why I let her sleep today."

Edward looked at my simple jeans, white tee and blue hoodie combo. "Well, I think you managed just fine without her."

"You would think so, but I'll bet you five dollars that Alice finds something wrong with this."

We shook hands on it and then headed for breakfast. My eyes grew wide when I saw all the food available on the table. Edward chuckled at my surprise and guided my stunned form towards the plates. I grabbed one and after realising I was extremely hungry, I started piling food on it; fresh rolls, cheese, scrambled eggs, pancakes…

Edward looked at my full plate, flashing his trademark smile at me, his eyes glinting amusedly.

"Don't say anything." I warned him.

"Wasn't gonna."

"It's the London time messing with my system."

Edward just rolled his eyes at my excuses and dug into his own pile of food. We didn't talk too much while eating, each of us too hungry to socialise. We had both wolfed down out portions and were tending our full stomachs when Alice, Jasper and Rosalie stepped in. They came to sit in our table after getting food. Alice's eyes scanned my outfit disapprovingly.

"Bella, why are you wearing something like that for your first full day abroad?"

"Well Alice, I decided to be smart and choose something I could actually enjoy London in, without being afraid to smudge or ruin it. And by the way Edward, you owe me five dollars." I reminded him. He chuckled and handed me a neat bill worth five dollars.

"But could you at least wear some decent shoes. Those sneakers of yours are terribly worn out."

"Excuse me if I don't want to risk getting blisters, since we're going to walk a lot today." I retorted, though I knew from experience that reasoning with Alice would not often work.

Alice was about to argue, but was stopped by Jasper who stuffed a spoonful of Cheerios in her mouth. Edward took advantage of the silence and asked Rosalie about our day.

"Well, I don't really know what you want to do. But since it's your first time here, I figured some regular tourist stuff at first. Like Buckingham palace, Big Ben, Westminster Abbey and the London Eye. And of course shopping", she added after seeing Alice's face.

Alice calmed down considerably after shopping was included in our plan of action. They finished eating and we headed back to our rooms to get ready. I was mentally preparing myself not to let Alice talk me into a pair of heels that would have my feet full of blisters.

"I better wake up Emmett so he can eat some breakfast before we leave. What on earth did you do to him Rosalie, he's worn out."

Rosalie blushed slightly at Edward's hinting comment and glared at him. "Oh, shut up."

Then she turned to us. "Be ready to leave in an hour, it's going to be a long day. Oh, and it would be good for all of you to wear something warm, it might be rainy today."

"Can we go shopping already? We've seen the most important sights already." Alice was growing impatient with our tourist behaviour and was dying to raid Harrods from all the expensive clothing they had.

We had started exactly in an hour after breakfast and it was now five hours later. Rosalie's expert knowledge had guided us through Madame Tussauds, Big Ben, the London Bridge and Buckingham Palace. We did all the silly tourist things anyone could expect – photographing each other with Napoleon, Harry Potter and the Beatles, trying to make the guards laugh…(The latter failed miserably, but at least we had fun doing it.)

"Sure. Where would you like to go? There's Harrods, of course, and Knightsbridge. But I'd personally recommend Covent Garden or Oxford Street. You get more variability in shops and there are some really nice little cafés and restaurants in both." Rosalie's flood of information had me stunned for a while, but Alice seemed to know what she wanted.

"Oh! Can we visit all of them? Please?" She was literally bouncing.

"Alice it's already four pm. With your rate of shopping we'd be done after midnight."

"Okay then. Let's just visit Oxford street this time." She seemed happy with her conclusion.

"This time?" Emmett chipped in the conversation, picking up the line I had been dreading.

"Well, we might not have time this time round, but we come back after a month, right? And we can spend all the time we want in here."

That cleared up everything – Emmett's confusion and my hope of not having to shop much.

We rode a bus, one of those traditional London double-deckers, to Oxford Street. Alice immediately saw a designer store she liked and speed-walked towards it me in tow. Everyone else followed a few feet behind. I just glared at them for letting her take me; that was all I could do without falling to the ground – even without high heels. Knowing that this would go on for hours straight, I settled for my destiny small, uncomfortable dressing rooms and dozens of clothes I had no interest of carrying around Europe.

After two similar shops the boys had lost their interest and even the I'm-just-being-polite-when-can-we-leave interest. (I had lost it too, but I was in no position to argue. I had agreed to shop with Alice if we were to go on this trip.) We agreed to meet the boys for something to eat in three hours.

In my opinion, the clock couldn't move fast enough.

Finally we entered the quaint Italian restaurant Rosalie had recommended for delicious food, but affordable prices. The boys were already sitting at a table. We sat down – after stuffing the ridiculous amount of shopping bags under the table – and started to inspect the menus. I chose mushroom ravioli, which sounded delicious, and turns out it really was.

I wasn't even half finished when I was completely stuffed. Fortunately Emmett was hungry enough to eat the rest of my portion too. We sat in the table for a while even after we had finished eating. Suddenly Emmett cleared her throat.

"You guys", he said looking at Alice, Jasper and me. "I have only known you for a day, but I feel like I've known you for years. I'm really glad I can trust you."

We looked at each other, completely baffled.

"Hey Em, where's this coming from?" Edward seemed as puzzled as us.

Emmett looked at Rosalie for help, and kept shifting his gaze from her to Edward, looking guilty. "Okay, here's the thing, Edward. Rose and I have really gotten to know each other well and I would really love her to join all of us for our backpacking experience. I talked about this with Rose and she'd also love to come. So…what do you think?"

"Well, I like it a lot! Finally a shopping partner who doesn't have to be forced into a dressing room!" Alice gave her opinion, squealing. "This is going to be great!"

I also smiled at Rosalie to let her know it was fine by me. Edward still hadn't said anything. I watched him as he looked his brother in the eyes for a long time and then nodded to himself.

"Rosalie, welcome aboard. It good to have you with us."

Emmett smiled happily and kissed Rosalie on the cheek. "Rose still has to organise some things in London and get her ticket, so we won't be able to join you guys at first. But we'll be there in less than a week. Is that okay?" I could sense he was worried about Edward.

Edward nodded. "Emmett, I'll be fine. I'm only younger by a year, so no need to go all big brotherly on me." They grinned at each other.

"Well, you guys have to leave early to catch the boat in the morning. I still think we need to make one more stop tonight." Rosalie said, not revealing our final destination for today. We took the bus again and drove along the Thames. I was gazing at the stone buildings absentminded when my eyes caught on something. Something huge and round. The London Eye. Alice and I both squealed this time. Jasper, Edward and Emmett looked awed. Rosalie just smiled at our reactions. "I heard the best way to see London and appreciate it is to see it through the Eye."

She led us to the ticket booth and paid us all in. There was no one else in our shuttle, which suited us just fine. When the huge Ferris wheel started turning, I got butterflies in my stomach. This was too good to be true – me in London with the best people imaginable. As the skyline of London at night came to view I gasped. All the buildings were brightly lit, especially the Houses of Parliament were glowing in the soft orange light. The streets were lit with lamp posts and tiny cars moving along the road. The Thames was dark, contrasting to the bright lights with it's smooth black surface that curved along into the distance. This was just perfect.

We were all too stunned to speak at first. When we reached the bottom again, Rosalie led us along the board walk towards our hotel. We were walking in pairs, I expected them to want some privacy. Alice and Jasper, Rosalie and Emmett and then Edward and I keeping the rear.

"How did you like the day, Bella? I see your feet survived at least." Edward picked up the conversation after the long pause caused by the perfection of a view earlier.

I smiled. "I managed to convince Alice it's much easier for me to shop if I'm not falling down every second step. And as for the day, I had a lot of fun. The tourist stuff was great and shopping wasn't too bad with Rosalie there to take some of Alice's concentration off of me."

"Did you see everything you wanted, then?"

"Not exactly, I guess. I really liked the things I saw, but I just want to see so much more, you know? How 'bout you?"

"Hmm… I must also admit that today didn't completely fulfil my to-do list for London. But fortunately we have time before we head back to the States."

I was about to ask him what he had wanted to see still, but changed into another question after glancing at the new couple walking in front of us, hand in hand.

"How do you feel about your brother and Rose? You seemed to think really hard after he announced his plans."

"You're really observant, aren't you?" Edward looked at me, then sighed. "I'm fine, really. It just caught me off guard when he decided so suddenly. Emmett was always more of a player type. He never falls for girls, he just keeps them around. To see him with Rosalie, and act so differently…I guess I knew it was coming, it was just really sudden."

"I understand. But at least you can come with us tomorrow. You can fend all the museums in Europe with me and boycott shopping sprees." I turned the tone light, to make him laugh.

I worked. Edward laughed at my comment and opened the door to our bed and breakfast that we had reached without me noticing. We followed the others to our rooms. When we reached our door I turned to Edward again.

"I guess I'll see you in the morning at breakfast."

Edward nodded slightly. "Yeah, I'll see you then. I better go pack the rest of my stuff now; Emmett made a huge mess when he woke up today."

"Okay. Good night!"

I stepped into the room to see Alice folding her newly acquired clothes into her backpack and stuffing some of the old ones into a box she would send out tomorrow. Jasper watched his girlfriend's packing process from the safety of the bed.

I also packed my clothes and was ready for bed in about half an hour. Tomorrow was going to be an early wake up so we decided not to spend the entire night out and risk missing the boat. I set the alarm, even if Alice was likely to make up for her sleeping in this morning and wake everyone up even earlier than usual. I went to bed and this time my random thoughts lulled me to sleep in no time. My last conscious thought was the fact that I now had someone to fend for my museum obsession. I think the thought made me smile.

That's it! I'm about to be late for school so I'd better go. Last day of school before I have a week off!

Please review, means a lot to me. I'll try to post the next chapter pretty soon.

-Isabella Juliet