Disclamier: I'm not a good enough author to get paid. Plus I don't have any original characters.

Chapter 4

Torture

"Alice no. I am not doing this," I whined.

The little pixie was staring at me angrily, both hands on her hips. "You promised last night."

"It was twelve thirty," I argued. "I was sleep deprived!"

"Sleep deprived or not, you said that you would do this for me. Plus, you know you want to." Alice waggled her eyebrows at me like the villain in vaudeville. For a moment I thought that being tied down to train tracks would be better then what Alice was asking me to do.

There was no way that I would have agreed to what Alice had asked me if I hadn't been as tired as I was. This was not the kind of thing that I would normally ever do and it made me feel really nervous.

She pouted at me and I caved. I always caved. Never get into an argument with a pixie, you will lose.

"Fine," I sighed.

Alice smiled and handed me the phone. I dialed the number, crossing my fingers that I would get the answering machine. On the second ring Alice pulled the phone out of my hand and put it on speaker phone.

"Alice!" I cried. I didn't exactly want her listening in, that would make me feel ever more awkward.

"I wont say anything," she promised, "but I want to hear this directly. I can't trust you to tell me everything he's going to say."

The phone picked up. "Hello?"

I sighed. "Hi dad."

"Bells!" his excitement made me feel bad. I didn't call him very often. "What's going on?"

"Not too much. I just found out yesterday that my partner in history class grew up in Forks. It made me think about you and that I should call home to see how you are doing."

"Really? Who is she?" Of course Charlie would assume that it was a girl. I never spoke to guys if I could help it.

"Actually it's Dr. Cullen's son, Edward," I said through gritted teeth.

"Oh Edward! Good kid. You couldn't ask for a better partner. Graduated top of his class if I remember correctly."

Alice gave me an approving look. I already knew that Edward was smart, I didn't need anyone to tell me that.

"Can't say that I knew him very well, which, really, is a good thing. He kept himself out of trouble. I only ever saw him once or twice a year at benefits for the hospital. He wasn't much of a talker but people would come from all over just to hear him play the piano. That boy could have gone to Juilliard but he wanted to be a History teacher. Good kid."

I smiled at Charlie's approving tone of voice. He wasn't fond of most of the kids out in Forks. If Charlie liked Edward then it was definitely a good thing.

Alice smiled at me again, but I could tell that she was getting impatient. I knew what she wanted to hear.

"I met a friend of his last night. Edward said they went to high school together. Tall and blond. Kind of quiet. What was his name? Jacob? James?"

Alice made a face at me. I shrugged. Those were the most generic male names that began with a "J" that I could think of.

"Jasper," Charlie answered.

I smirked at Alice. I didn't want my dad to think that I had called him to squeeze out any information and Charlie was the only person on the face of the Earth that believed my bad acting. I had to make him think that he was coming up with this stuff or else I would feel really guilty.

"Right, Jasper." I did my best to sound like I just remembered his name. I was laying it on a little thick, but it was working.

"Jasper Hale," Charlie whistled into the phone. "I'm glad those two are still friends. They were always close. I think Jasper graduated right under Edward, second in the class. Both really smart boys."

I returned Alice's approving look. She rarely dated smart guys, normally they were creepy idiots.

"I knew him even less than Edward. But those two boys were pretty close. Both played on the soccer team together. I saw them play a few times. They were pretty good. Always did everything together. It's no surprise that they ended up at the same school. I rarely ever saw one without the other."

I had trouble imagining Edward playing sports of any kind, but the police chief never lies.

Alice was smart to ask me to call Charlie. If you wanted to know something about a person who lived in Forks my dad was the one to call. He knew everybody's business, he wasn't nosy, it was just part of his job.

Charlie also liked to talk about people. Say someone's name and he would go on as long as he could about them.

But sadly he seemed to have no more to say about either of the guys and began to talk about this fish that he had caught that morning. Alice made a face and took the phone off of speaker phone, handing the hand held to me.

My way of thanking Charlie for the information he had unknowingly gave us was to listen to him talk about fishing for the next twenty minuets and then spend the next half an hour detailing everything that had happened with school so far this semester. As it was only three weeks in, not much had really happened.

When I hung up with my dad Alice bounced out of her room all dressed and ready for her date with Jasper.

"Am I forgiven?" I asked. Personally, I thought that I should have immunity to all things because I was the reason that Alice met Jasper in the first place.

"Mostly," she smiled. "Tomorrow we are going to spend some time talking about this Edward and coming up with a plan. Only after that will I forgive you." She winked at me and skipped out of the door.

That made me nervous. Alice's plans were always complicated and usually involved dangerous footwear. I never really had the courage to pull off any of Alice's plans, no matter what they were about.

I settled into my chair, content to spend the rest of the evening with Jane Austen and trying my hardest not to think about Edward.

Sorry that there was no Edward in this chapter, and that it was so short. I needed a conduit for background information and it seems to usually come in the form of Charlie. It's going to start to get really good in the next chapter. Crazy fun stuff. Plus we finally get to meet Rose and Emmett. Yay! I miss them, they are fun and make me smile. :) Just like that.

Okay, I'm going to stop my jabbering now since there is really no point to it.

Thanks for reading! :)