Chapter 5

Previously…..

Charlie came home and we had a quiet dinner. We went up to bed soon after. Rose and Alice were sleeping in the spare room next to my bedroom. I quickly fell asleep, content and just plain happy.

The next morning I woke to a furious midget throwing clothes out of my closet all over the floor.

"Why don't you have any decent clothes in here?" she asked, punctuating each word with a piece of clothing thrown over her shoulder.

"Cause I live jeans and jerseys my friend. That's my motto – jeans and jerseys," I replied.

"Fine," she huffed, "We're going on a major shopping spree today."

"Okay, as soon as I get ready we'll go get the boys."

"No need to do that, I already called them; they're picking us up at ten."

I glanced at the clock. It was nine twenty five. I groaned and quickly went to shower. When I came out, Rose and Alice were ready, having cereal. I downed mine and then waited for Edward and the rest to arrive. I was feeling extremely jumpy, quite unlike my usual state.

As soon as Edward arrived, I jumped into the car. Emmett was riding shot gun, and for that I was thankful – at least we wouldn't have to squeeze in with him on the backseat. The rest of the group climbed in, and after the preliminary greetings, we were off.

The car was eerily silent, and bugged by the quiet, Alice leaned over the console and flipped on the radio. A burst of static emanated for her efforts, and Emmett; always one for finding humor in a situation, laughed loudly.

"Looks as if the radio doesn't like you, short stuff!" he said, and that got us laughing too.

After the commotion had died down, Emmett opened the glove compartment and started browsing through the CD's. He kept on a running commentary as he did so.

"Linkin Park, Linkin Park, Linkin Park – Good Lord in heaven, Edward, how many CD's d'you have of the same band?"

"That's my favorite band, Emmett, and Bella's too, so I'd appreciate it if you kept your comments to a low." Edward retorted.

"That's nearly impossible to do, Edward, surely you'd have learned that after last night," Jasper said. He and Emmett erupted into laughter, and Edward burned a red that could have rivaled mine.

"What happened yesterday night?" Rose asked curiously.

With a death glare aimed at both of the other guys, Edward responded testily, "Nothing."

"Oh come on, something must have happened to get such a reaction out of you!" I teased.

He flushed again, and then made a motion as if he were locking his lips, never taking his eyes off the road.

Alice pouted, and said "Oh come on….fine, Emmett, Jasper, what happened last night?"

"Sorry Shorty, that's private, and as much as I'd like to embarrass Ed here, I wouldn't disclose that info," Emmett said with a grin.

"Party pooper."

"Real mature, Shorty, real mature."

"Jazz?" Alice now tried to wheedle the mysterious conversation out of Jasper. "Wouldn't you tell me? Please? Pretty please with sprinkles on top?"

Jasper looked very close to giving in when Emmett leaned in and whispered something in his ear. Edward snorted, having heard what Emmett said, and that apparently steeled Jasper's resolve to keep mum, and Alice was disappointed again.

"So, what were you girls up to last night?" Edward asked in an effort to change the topic.

Rose and Alice cackled manically. My face burned. The boys, catching on that this was a topic I'd like to avoid, immediately flooded the traitors sitting next to me with questions.

"What did you talk about?" Emmett asked.

"Tell us, we do have a right to know…." Jasper said.

"Wait," I cried as Rose began to open her mouth. "You don't have a right to know – you didn't tell us what happened last night with you guys!"

"This girl is going to be a lawyer someday, I can tell," Emmett said, although not in a mocking way.

"You make a fair point. I believe we're at an impasse now, so why not talk about something else?" Jasper suggested.

"No need, we're in Port Angeles now, and the mall is just round the corner," Edward said.

Alice giggled evilly. "It's time!"

Four hours later, we all staggered into the parking lot, our arms full of bags. My eyes were starting to droop, and I yawned, unable to stifle it.

The yawn was contagious, and Jasper and Rosalie yawned in succession. That set the others off, and soon we were climbing into the car and trying to find a place to sleep. Emmett was riding shotgun again, and the rest of us squeezed into the backseat.

Edward yawned particularly loudly, and I turned to him.

"Hey, you sure you can drive? You look a lot tired."

"No worries, Bells, I'm fine, and it's not as if we're driving to California," he replied with a smile, and promptly yawned again.

I chuckled, and climbed back in. a few minutes into the drive, and Alice was fast asleep, her head on Jasper's shoulder.

I smiled at the sight of those two, they complemented each other perfectly. Jasper was the calm to Alice's energy; Alice was the cheerfulness to Jasper's quiet. I was pretty sure they would eventually end up together.

Half an hour later, I was still awake, fighting to keep my eyes open in an effort to see whether Edward needed any help. Emmett was snoring loudly over in the passenger seat, and Rosalie was off in her dreams.

I was losing the fight with my eyelids, though, and wearily I asked Edward to turn on the radio. He switched it on, and turned it to the local rock station.

The sudden sound of the Offspring wailing away made the sleeping beauties jerk awake, and they blearily let out a stream of complaints. My excuse was that someone needed to stay awake so that we didn't crash, and all but Alice accepted it.

"Nothing better than a rock station to wake you up from wonderland. Couldn't you put on some classical music or something?" she grumbled.

"No offense to any classical music lovers, but that will probably put us to sleep faster than any sleeping pill," Edward remarked.

"How do you know that? Maybe a sleeping pill will be more effective, no one's ever proven that before."

"Actually, Alice, just a few ye-," Edward began, preparing to launch into one of his science lectures. Thankfully, Emmett interrupted just in the nick of time, moaning about how all the chatter was keeping him from his "blissful sleep".

"Fine, I'll let it go. Just no more surprises like that, okay?" Alice relented.

Edward and I agreed, and the rest of the drive passed without incident. When we walked groggily into Charlie's house, the sound of someone snoring in midst of a baseball game hit us. I realized Charlie had fallen asleep waiting for us, and after sending him to his room, we went to bed as well.

The next day we all woke up late. Charlie had already gone to the police station, leaving a note apologizing for falling asleep last night. After a lazy breakfast, the three of us still in our pajamas, we wandered into the living room. Snuggled comfortably on the couch, we were watching cartoons – really, the Looney Tunes never got old – when the phone rang. Rose went to pick it up, and her slightly irritated greeting quickly melted into one of excitement. Once she hung up the phone, Rosalie turned to Alice and me, her face beaming.

"Guess what, guys?"

"What, Rose?" we chorused.

"Mom has agreed to let us stay here for three more weeks! Isn't that great?" Rose began to do some sort of weird happy dance which involved a lot of impossible looking maneuvers. I looked to my right, and Alice's shocked face met mine.

Within a moment, Alice too was on her feet, squealing about how hard it was to get their mom to agree to this and how ecstatic she felt. My face broke into a wide smile, happiness coursing to me at the news. I'd finally have some more friends, and God knows I needed some female friends. Edward was my best friend, and nothing could change that, but I couldn't talk about some stuff to him. My mom and I had a pretty open relationship, but what with her living so far away and in a different time zone, lengthy chats were few and far between.

We called the boys to tell them about this good news, and although there was some moroseness about the fact that they would be leaving earlier than Rosalie and Alice, they were mostly happy.

After a general celebration, Alice quickly went into her bossy mode. It was funny seeing this travel sized girl stomping about like she was commander-in-chief of the US Army, but once she got started, well, even Hitler would have had a hard time competing with her.

She made us parade around in our new clothes, and in no uncertain terms, she informed Edward and the others that they would soon be subjected to this as well. A while passed before she actually made us get dressed and ready to go over to the Cullen's' but even then, she was still ordering us about in military style.

I was still looking forward to see the boys – all of them over six feet in height – get bossed around by this tiny five feet nothing girl. But what happened at the Cullen house surpassed even my expectations…

*Waves* Hi you all. I know it's been ages since I updated, and most of you would already have forgotten about what this story was all about, but trust me, I will frankly admit that I never expected to be one of the authors who don't update for nearly a year. However, I hope that this, the longest chapter till date, will keep you satisfied until next time =)

And please drop me a review, even if it is just a simple : ) or : (. It really does motivate me to write faster, and I promise to reply to each one of you :D

Thanks!