A/N: My Betas were both really busy and I'm impatient, so I apologize ahead of time for glaring errors in this chapter, at some point it will be betaed and reuploaded.

Disclaimer: I don't own them, because I'm not Stephenie Meyer.

It was almost three in the morning and they were still hanging out. The night had gone as it typically went whenever they hung out in a group, the only difference was the added fun of Bella and Alice. They laughed, joked, and played enough guitar hero to make anyone hate the classic songs on it. They somehow ended up watching Iron Chef for awhile, but that made them hungry. Emmett jumped up and put in a James Bond movie, and they spent a good hour pointing out how Bond girls are always saving him. To Edward, this night had been better then most. There wasn't any significantly boring part, and Bella sat next to him on his bed when they weren't playing guitar hero.

Finally towards 2:30 Emmett pointed out that he was hungry (despite the pizza they had around 9) and he all but dragged the others down the hill to the late night food court on campus. It was crowded with drunk people, trying to get food before going back to their dorms for the night.

There in the one round booth in the corner was their entire group. Jasper and Alice were cuddled up in the middle (as they have been all night), Emmett and Jacob sat to one side with their trays overflowing with KFC, Burger King and Taco Bell. Bella and Edward sat across from them, picking at their respective foods as they came up with the questions for the game they had been playing.

"Okay, fuck, chuck or marry..." Bella said before popping a piece of chicken in her mouth as she thought "1999 Brittney Spears, Dirrty Christina or Mandy Moore, ever."

Edward snickered at the contemplative looks on Emmett and Jacob's faces.

"Mandy Moore is too… I think I'd fuck her, Marry Brittney, and chuck Christina." Jacob said definitely.

"You'd chuck Christina? Fail man, I'd fuck her and chuck Mandy, too goody two shoes, and marry 1999 brittney, cus eventually she'd become the hottie that we all knew and loved… before she went crazy." Emmett said, nodding.

"Yeah… but then you'd have her when she was crazy." Jasper pointed out as he jabbed a french fry in Emmett's direction.

"I think I would fuck Brittney, marry Mandy and chuck Christina." Alice said as she stole another of Jasper's fries. The boys of the table turned to her open mouthed. "What? I'm not allowed to join in on the fun?"

"I think I agree with Alice here." Edward said, pausing, "I mean, Brittney was kind of a dirty blond during that phase right?"

The other boys shrugged as Alice and Bella laughed.

"Why does that matter?" Bella asked, arching a brow at Edward.

"Eddie has a thing for brunettes." Emmett said around his mouth full of taco.

"Cover your mouth Em, that's disgusting" Edward told him as he glared at the much larger man. Edward tried to covertly cast a glance at Bella, who appeared to be blushing and looking down at her food.

Before Edward had a chance to wonder why she was blushing Alice spoke up.

"Kimmel is about to close, we should head back up to our dorms, are you wonderful gentlemen gunna walk us?"

Emmett cast confused glances behind him "What? You're ditching us for some boring dudes? Screw that, we'll walk you back, we can probably protect you from the killers of the quad better then some old gentlemen." He winked at Alice causing her to laugh and Jasper to wrap his arm tighter around her shoulder.

The six of them got up and weaved between the masses, throwing out their garbage before putting the trays on top of the garbage can. It was crowded all the way to the door, where they burst through into the cool night air.

"Finally, it is way too hot in there." Bella said dragging the collar of her jacket up more.

Without even asking Jasper draped his jacket across Alice's shoulders, causing her to smile widely up at him, and Jacob to roll his eyes behind them. Bella hit him in the chest with the back of her hand.

"Don't, it's sweet!" She said, before turning her gaze to the pair beginning to walk quite a ways in front of them.

"It may be sweet but its gross, just like how Sam and Emily are always all over each other, or Paul and Rachel." He made a face at the last pair.

"I still can't believe Paul and Rachel got together, but in retrospect they're so perfect!" Jacob and Bella continued to talk about couples as Emmett and Edward cast confused glances at each other.

"These people from spoons?" Emmett finally ventured.

"Forks, its Forks, and most of them are from the reservation." Jacob said shrugging.

"I still can't believe you guys traveled across the country to come to school here." Edward said, fishing to learn more about Bella. "I mean, I woulda gone to New York City, or Toronto if I was gunna travel across the country."

"We got really good scholarships here, and we both could come here, we got scholarships to other places but frankly this was the best choice. Besides, its not like Chicago is a five minute drive away."

"Yeah but I have family here." Edward said before taking a sip from the drink he carried, "And its closer then Tennessee."

"When is the last time you've heard of a good school in Tennessee? One with such a good sports program as Syracuse?" Emmett paused for affect "Never that's when. And our Rugby team is nationally ranked."

"So is the Lacrosse team, which reminds me, Bella are you gunna come to the game on Tuesday?" She nodded but the rest of her response was cut off by Emmett.

"Lacrosse sucks, you're just running around with sticks."

"Like rugby isn't glorified beating the shit out of each other?" Jacob shot back. Soon the pair were arguing about which sports were better then each other. They slowed slightly to gesticulate and argue more intently.

Edward shook his head as he kept pace with Bella. They walked in a comfortable silence for awhile until Bella broke the ice.

"So did you play sports?"

"I was on one of those little kid soccer teams when I was little, and track in high school, but nothing good enough to land me on a Syracuse team." She smiled, as she continued to watch Jasper and Alice walk hand in hand ahead of them.

"I had no idea this was such a sports centered school until I got here."

"Carlisle warned me, I actually have tickets to the next home game, he bought a bunch for his friends and then they changed plans and now he's going out of town that weekend so he gave them to me." He thought about the tickets in his drawer that he had planned on passing off to Jacob at first opportunity. "I hear you don't get the full 'cuse experience until you go to at least one game. Wanna go and suffer through the football with me? And the rest of the group of course." He added as an after thought, too nervous to leave the statement 'with me' alone.

"Of course." Edward was pretty sure that the look on her face wouldn't be described as disappointment, a good 84 percent sure. "You sure you have enough tickets for all seven of us?" She asked.

"I actually have eight. We can find someone else to go I'm sure."

The conversation turned into a discussion of their classes and before they knew it they were on top of the mount.

Emmett, Jacob and Edward began to say goodbye to Bella before noticing something was missing.

"Wheres Jasper?" Jacob said, poking his head into the hallways as if that would answer the question.

"With Alice, obviously." Edward said, smiling at his friend's good fortune.

"Ah yes, in about … 2 years, we'll tell their child about how they met, and spent a night cuddling in front of their friends, hooking up in their mama's dorm and being too caught in the passion to use protection." Emmett said, holding his hands together as he gazed wistfully towards the ceiling, as if he painted a beautiful picture.

"No worries, I'm pretty sure she's on the pill." Bella said leaning against the doorframe of the lounge. "So it'll probably be more then 2 years." She finished with a wink.

"I can wait, I'm gunna add some interesting things to the story, It just isn't entertaining all alone." Emmett continued to ramble as he walked towards the elevators, pressing the button to go down. Jacob hugged Bella good bye before joining Emmett in his revery.

"Hey Bella, about the football game…" Bella looked up at Edward expectantly, Edward shoved his hands into his pocket as he suddenly became interested in his shoes.

Just ask her out before you loose your nerve! He mentally shouted at himself.

"I was wondering if maybe-" The ding of the elevator interrupted him, and as fast as he had built up his courage, it disappeared. He could feel it slink away from his body and sink into the carpet below his feet.

"Nevermind, see you Monday!" he said loudly as he hopped into the elevator.

He faced the doors as he felt gravity reclaim their bodies. He could feel Emmett and Jacob's grinning faces staring at the back of his head.

"How'd it –"

"Shut up Emmett."

XXXXXXXXXXXX

"We're putting operation get leggy brunette into action as of now."

"Why do we have to call it operation get leggy brunette? Can't we call it operation get Bella? She has a nice name."

"I agree with Emmett, its operation get leggy brunette, much catchier, plus this guy Eric from her high school used operation get Bella, that operation failed horribly."

"Thank you Jacob, now part a. its called 'Edward grows some balls.' Do you feel the growing of the balls?"

"I already have balls thank you very much."

"So what? Are you just not good at asking girls out? Cus they hit on you all the time. I don't think you've grown enough balls."

"Why are we talking about Edward's balls?"

The trio looked up to the smirking Texan.

"Cus they're so pretty."

Emmett's statement was met with Edward slapping him over the head. Edward decided to change the direction of the conversation.

"So where were you last night?"

"This morning?"

"All day?"

Jasper looked out the window at the sun setting over Syracuse before sliding into the booth next to Edward.

"With Alice, why are we talking about Edward's balls."

"It's part A. in operation get leggy brunette."

"I think we should call it 'operation: leggy brunette." Jacob said, gesturing with his hands as if he was putting up a sign of some sort.

"I like it! So what happened with Alice?"

"We talked, what's part B."

"We can't discuss part B in front of Edward until part A has been completed." Jacob said in all seriousness.

"What did you guys talk about?" Edward asked, turning to face Jasper.

"The civil war of course."

"If by the civil war you mean your penis, yes that's believable" Emmett said, causing Jacob to burst out into laughter. Jasper glared at Emmett.

"Why do you care so much?"

"We're living vicariously through you. Edward here lacks balls, Rosalie is in Rochester and no one here has caught my eye yet." Jacob shrugged.

"How long did you talk about your penis for? Did her vagina come up? Or did she just come?" Emmett said with a conspiratorial wink. With a loud thud, Emmett was bending over the table trying to grab his shin. "Why do you always kick me with your boots on? Argh the pain!"

"Maybe you shouldn't piss me off when I'm wearing my boots." Edward and Jacob were almost falling off their chairs as they laughed.

Wiping away tears of laughter Jacob turned to Jasper "Seriously though, are you guys together or what?"

"We talked for a bit, and then we went to sleep-"

"Naked or-" another loud thud had Emmett clutching at his shin again.

"Not naked, we were too tired and we don't want to go too fast. I'm taking her to dinner Friday and we're dating. And we spent all day studying together in bird, its not my fault you guys were all asleep when I came back to get my stuff."

Jasper leaned back in his seat, looking at the other boys. "Now what are we gunna do about Edward's balls?"

Edward just groaned and let his head fall on the table.

XXXXXXXXX

Dessert, a walk and three hours of working on homework later, the group finally came up with a clear concise plan.

"Make Edward grow some balls, and ask out Bella."

Emmett and Jacob have decided that they were going to make sure this happened in various ways for their own reasons. While Jasper agreed to provide assistance in the event that it doesn't interfere with his "Alice time" and he agreed to talk to Alice about it.

Much to Edward's distain.

He fell on his bed face first. All he wanted to do was go to bed and get a good eight hours of sleep before his class tomorrow. Jacob was out of the room brushing his teeth as Edward forced himself to get back up and to slip into his pjs. He pulled off his shirt when he heard a knock on the door.

"Come in, its open." He said as he continued to look through the closet for a shirt to wear to sleep, he heard the door open and a gasp.

A strangely feminine gasp.

He stood up to see a blushing Bella standing in the door way, staring at him. He looked down and suddenly felt very naked despite the fact that he still had jeans on.

"I'm sorry!" Bella said before shutting the door, Edward quickly pulled on a wife beater and changed into his baggy plaid pajamas, he opened the door and saw Bella leaning against the wall by his door.

"Whatsup?"

"Victoria kicked me out, Alice was already asleep and Rosalie isn't back yet, so I came here, I figured Jacob wouldn't mind if I crashed in your dorm." She said, wringing her hands as she looked at the ground.

"Well come on in then."

Bella came in, placing her bags by Jacob's desk. She perched herself nervously on Jacob's bed as Edward went and sat on his bed. Teeth brushed and all ready for bed, the sleepiness that Edward felt just moments before had evaporated and was replaced by the jittery feelings that tended to come with coffee.

Jacob burst through the door all but shouting, "Someone left toothpaste in the bathroom again! Smeared all over- oh. Hey Bella!"

"Hi Jacob! Do you mind if I crash here tonight?"

"No problem," He responded quickly, a light came into his eyes as if something occurred to him. "I have practice in the morning so you're gunna have to sleep on Edward's side, in fact Edward why don't you be a gent and let Bella use your bed? I can't mess up my routine so close to a game and all."

Shit.

He winked over Bella's head as Bella turned to look at Edward.

"If you don't want-"

"No! its okay!" Edward said, blushing at how quick he responded, "I mean, the lacrosse team is doing really well and I don't want to tread on their superstitious beliefs."

"I can sleep on the floor." Bella said, shrugging.

"Seriously, Edward is all about the chivalry, he doesn't mind." Jacob chimed in, his grin wide.

Edward shook his head in agreement, Bella bit her lip as she thought about the situation. The sudden lust shot through Edward at the sight.

"Okay, if you're sure I'm not putting you out."

"Not at all, we can get coffee before class if you want." Edward said as he stretched to grab his spare sleeping bag from the top of the closet, he could feel the cool air across the exposed skin of his back, and heard Bella's intake of breath.

"I'ma… gunna go… brush my teeth." Bella said, seeming distracted as she grabbed her toiletries out of the book bag.

With a confused look on his face Edward watched as Bella all but ran out of the dorm and into the hall. He turned to the snickering Jacob.

"Whats up with her?"

"I have no idea." Jacob smirked, causing Edward to think that Jacob knew just what was going on with Bella.

"Was that the leggy brunette I just saw heading to the bathroom?" Jasper asked as he stepped into their room.

"Oh yeah, she's sleepin' on Edward's bed tonight, cus you know. Can't ruin my routine." Jasper put a exaggerated knowing look on his face.

"Oh yeah, its all about the routine."

"Coach would kill me otherwise."

Whatever response Jasper had to make was cut off by the door hitting him in the back, he turned around to smile at Bella.

"Hey! How's it going?"

"Its been good, besides the fact that my friend chattered my ear off about some guy." Jasper instantly perked up. "Oh really?"

"Yeah, starts with an J, spent the night and practically all day with her… Gosh darn it I cannot remember the name!" She said as she put her arms on her hips and winked at Jasper.

"I'ma let you sleep on that. Ya'll have a good night now." Jasper said as he all but skipped out of the door way. Jacob popped his head into the hall to watch Jasper head back to his room.

"Wow, you give him a cuddle buddy for one night and all the sudden he's Cheery McCheers." Jacob cut off the remark Edward was going to make when he stood up right and looked at Edward.

"Maybe if you get laid you won't be so grumpy all the damn time." Once again he grinned over Bella's head as she turned to look at Edward with a slightly confused face.

"You don't have a girlfriend?" Edward met the question with a confused face of his own.

"What? No. I don't, didn't you know?"

"No, but you look like the type to have one." Instantly Bella began to blush and she crawled onto Edward's bed. Most of the beds at Syracuse were unnaturally high to allow students to store things underneath. Edward got some sort of sick pleasure from seeing Bella struggle to get on the bed, her butt wiggling as she did so.

Edward could see the strain that Jacob was going through to not laugh his ass off, so he unrolled his sleeping bag and grabbed one of the pillows from behind Bella who sat up on his bed. He set the clock for an appropriate time before crawling into his own sleeping bag.

Edward watched out of the corner of his eye as Bella slid into his bed, and turned to lie on her side. He wished she was facing him, so that he could fall asleep looking at her face, but that would be creepy, and Jacob just shut of the light, casting the room in total darkness except for the streetlight that streamed in through the window.

Edward laid awake for an hour, trying not to think of the girl that he had gone from having an innocent crush on, to full blown adoration in a matter of days was lying on his blue sheets not two feet away.

He was finally beginning to nod off when Bella said something.

"Grab the groceries Phil, we're going to Mexico and we need to eat." She mumbled into his striped pillow. Edward sat up.

Bella talks in her sleep?

"No, I will not vote for spaghetti, it's my vote and I intend to use it."

Edward turned and found himself enraptured. He felt slightly sketchy, listening in on the dreams of the girl he was crushing on, but at the same time he felt compelled to.

Besides, it wasn't like he could fall asleep with someone talking beside him.

She continued in this manner for a few minutes and then went quiet. Edward was beginning to think it was over when she moaned.

His eyes shot up to her face in shock, smiling in her sleep her mouth let out one last word.

"hmmm Edward."

Interesting.

So. There we go. ^.^ The place they're chilling at is Kimmel, its at the foot of the hill that the boy's dorm is located. Btw, the dorms are Co-ed, I just have all the girls in one and all the boys in another for plot devices.

So what do you guys think? press the lil review button and let me know! I'm loving all the hits and alerts on the fic though, makes me all happy inside ^.^ Hopefully the next chapter will be up within the week depending on my awesome betas.