Chapter 6

"Alice! Alice!" I yelled at her, running up to her at school the next day. My plan was to carefully monitor her behaviour and see if she gave anything away. But the irritating thing about this was that I had to be around her 24/7.

"Hmm? Oh, hi Bella" she said, looking quite distant, and I realised she was searching for more visions. I wondered what else she knew. I also knew that this was so not Alice. She usually greeted you cheerily and then went back to whatever she was doing before, or she didn't greet you at all, she just kept doing what she was doing.

"Alice, what are you doing after school today?" I asked, hoping with all my might that it wasn't shopping.

"Shopping" said Alice, still in that distant tone I had never heard her use. "Why?"

"Can I come with you?" I asked. I knew that this didn't sound like me. I hated going shopping with Alice and she knew it.

"Sorry?" she said incredulously, dreamy fashion gone, the Alice I knew replacing it. "I don't think I heard you correctly."

"Can I go shopping with you?" I repeated, quickly thinking of an excuse. I couldn't come up with one and I hoped Alice would just believe me, but she still looked at me in a questioning sort of way. "I, er, need to, um, buy a new, um, jacket! Yeah, I need a new jacket." I probably didn't sound convincing, but Alice went back into the dreamy world she was in before.

"Yeah, alright" she said distantly.

"What are you doing Alice?" I asked, hoping she would answer, but at the same time knowing she wouldn't.

She said nothing.

"Alice! Alice, what are you doing? Alice!" The bell rang and Alice hurried off, still looking extremely distant. I stared after her in irritation and then I quickly went after her. I had to get to class too. Also I might be able to get Edward to invade Alice's mind while she might still be searching for more visions. Edward was just as interested as me about Alice's attitude.

"There you are" Edward said as I slipped into the seat beside him. "I thought you were going to be late." The teacher wasn't in the room yet.

"Edward" I said hurriedly, not wanting to lose any time. Alice's class could begin any second now. "Can you read Alice's mind right now?" Edward looked confused, but then he said "she's just concentrating on her lesson. It just started."

"Damn" I cursed. "She was searching for visions- I could tell that much. I thought she might be searching for something she hasn't told us about. She was really distant with me." I added the last bit because Edward was looking sceptical.

"Hmm" he said. "Maybe she's just worried." I stared at him.

"I thought you agreed with me" I said.

"I just think maybe she really is worried. None of us saw what was going to happen. Maybe Alice is just recovering from shock."

"She got a shock from the vision of the Volturi, but she got over that quickly, didn't she?" I argued. "Why should this time be so much different?" Edward couldn't answer that. I concentrated on what the teacher was saying, but I couldn't do it. I was too worried about Alice and what she might have seen. I was imagining what she might have seen that was so bad she couldn't tell us what it was. I spent all of the lessons before lunch thinking about what is could be. And, of course, because I was so nervous, the possibilities got scarier and scarier. Really scary. Edward seemed to guess what I was thinking.

"Act normally" he told me quietly as we walked to the cafeteria. Alice, Jasper, Emmett and Rose were already there. But one look at Alice told me she was not seeing the dreary cafeteria. Edward had seen it too.

"Hi" he said happily, sitting down. Everyone but Alice greeted him. This, even Edward could not deny, was not normal. It was Alice who greeted everyone unless she was seeing something important.

"Hey Alice" I greeted her, trying to sound like everything was normal. Alice didn't respond. Jasper exchanged a confused glance with Emmett, who shrugged.

"Alice?" said Jasper. No response. "Alice!"

"Shhhh!" she said suddenly, turning to us. "I was seeing something important!"

"What?" I asked, praying for an answer.

"James's friend" Alice said grimly, but I did not think she was telling us everything. Jasper and Emmett exchanged the same confused look again. However, nobody pressed her into telling anything more. But soon, I had to get some more information.

"What are you seeing now, Alice?" I asked, because she still looked distant.

"Nothing" Alice said, but of course she was seeing something.

"What did you see before?" asked Rosalie, guessing my plan.

"Just...just what I was seeing before" said Alice, but once again it was apparent that she was lying to us.

"Oh, okay" said Rosalie, relaxing back in her chair, but when she looked at me, I knew that Rosalie at least would try with all her strength to get Alice's secret.