A/N: Well this one went smoothly. More to come soon. And by the way, I have been looking for a community to submit this story to, if you know of an appropriate one, please feel free to submit the link to this story on my behalf. I find I get much more traffic and readers by being in a community.
Dinner went smoothly; Jess was too wrapped up in her own affairs to notice my non-complacence. We decided to cut the Grecian tour short and move on to Paris for some school shopping. That idea was more Jess than me, but still I was anxious to move on to anything that would get us closer to home again. We spent a non eventful week in the city of Lights and returned to the tiny, rainy town of Forks.
I walked the streets of town almost daily looking for any sign of a new family who had moved into town. There was little word of it at all, so little in fact that I very nearly missed it completely. A new doctor had come to work in Forks with his family. The doctor was the only one anyone had seen so far and had I not had an unfortunate accident involving wearing my socks on Charlie's stairs one morning I might have passed off the mention of the new doc in town as an unrelated event to my summer adventure.
Charlie had left for work and I was sauntering down the stairs wearing my jeans, t-shirt and socks one weekend morning. I slipped very near the top stair and tumbled the rest of the way down. I managed to reach the phone and called Charlie; he came home and took me into the ER, a place I was quite familiar with by now.
I was attended by the new Dr. Cullen. The name meant nothing to me; Edward had only introduced himself by his first name, but once I saw my attending physician I knew at once this must be the father or father figure at least, of my Edward. He was pale and beautiful, a regular Adonis himself, but he paled in comparison to my would-be killer. His voice, also like Edwards, was enchanting and seemed to echo or hang in the air even after the notes had faded from audibility.
"Do you have any children, Dr. Cullen?" I asked as he treated the minor abrasion on my forehead before turning his attention to my sprained ankle. "Why, yes, I do. Five of them in fact; three boys, two girls – all adopted of course; they're around your age. I expect you'll see them in school in a few weeks." I smiled; time to test the young doctor's knowledge of one of his children's summer escapades. "One of them wouldn't be named Edward would he, Dr. Cullen?"
Dr. Cullen looked abruptly up at me before regaining his composure and returning his attention to my injuries. "One of them would, in fact." Was all he would say; I smiled triumphantly to myself, finally I would no longer have to settle for my dreams. I would see my immortal once again; every day in fact. I left the hospital elated. Charlie seemed puzzled at my unusually uplifted spirits upon just leaving the emergency room with injuries. I made no excuses, though, and urged him to return to work and that I would be fine on my own for the rest of the day. He made a disbelieving sound before agreeing that he was needed; with one of his deputies out for a week with a very pregnant wife due any day to deliver they were short handed.
I rested in my room for the rest of the day. I waited impatiently for the weeks to pass, but the closer it got to the beginning of school; the slower time seemed to go. Finally the day came and went. The first day was an unusually sunny day and there was no sign of any new students. The second day was rainy, cloudy and gloomy, and to my extreme delight a pale beauty sat directly across from me in my English class. English is an easy class for me, so I had time to study my new classmate while the teacher droned on about the upcoming semester. She was shorter than I, with short, black, spiky hair and an adorable button nose. She had an infectious smile that seemed a permanent part of her features. I introduced myself after the bell rang and class had ended. She seemed surprised at my friendly introduction. Obviously Edward had not mentioned our meeting to either the doctor or the sister who introduced herself as 'Alice' at all. She confided that as the new students quite often at new schools, since they had moved around a lot, most people found her and her siblings unapproachable. "We are kind of outcasts in most places; usually we just take solace in sticking together until we uproot and move again." From the way it sounded Alice truly hated moving from place to place, but perhaps that was a guise just as their pretense of humanity was.
I kept from them my knowledge of what they were; if Edward had not confided our meeting, surely he would not have mentioned his revelation either. I walked Alice to lunch, hoping to 'meet' the rest of her family, but I was disappointed to find that their brother was neither there with his family, nor was he mentioned by any of them. All of the Cullen 'children' seemed shocked at my friendliness toward them and none of them quite knew how to respond. I waited in the parking lot after school, thankful for once that Jessica was chronically late getting out of gym due to the fact that she could not bear for anyone to see her in a state less than perfect.
I watched as the Cullens loaded in a small, red BMW and drove away. Edward never showed; I wondered vaguely if it had anything to do with our meeting over the summer. I desperately hoped not, but I could not deny the nagging feeling that tugged at the edge of my stomach.
The first two weeks of school came and went with no sign whatsoever of the beautiful creature I had met in Greece. It was as if it had all been a wonderful dream, terrifying and thrilling all at once. The type of dream you wake from and from the moment you open your eyes wish desperately to fall back into somehow. It often seems the dreams like that never seem to repeat themselves like others do. They are one of a kind.
On the Wednesday of the third week I finally had had enough and cornered Alice in the hall before English class. "Alice, I need to talk to you… privately." I turned to walk away; I could afford to skip one class, I hoped she could too. She followed me warily until we reached the now empty picnic tables out behind the high school gymnasium. I laid my books on one of the tables and turned to face her; she had an odd faraway look on her face but seemed to snap out of it when I began to talk. "Alice, I know you have a brother named Edward… what I want to talk to you about is why he isn't with you and why you never mentioned him the few times we've spoken."
She looked at me uncomfortably, the smile that seemed so much a part of her as any other feature was now gone, and in its place a vacant and wary expression. "So you're the one he can't make up his mind about… I suspected it was you, but didn't want to ask; the others know nothing about why he isn't here and he asked me to stay quiet about what I saw. I'm asking you to do the same, alright?" Now it was my turn to be puzzled. "He told you about me?" I asked; this was a surprise – why hadn't she mentioned it before; we talked casually in class, but nothing more. "Not exactly- how much do you know, Bella?" I frowned, "How much should I know, Alice?" She smiled slightly, "Bella, there's something you should know about us…" I cut her off, "I know you and your family are vampires Alice… he told me." Her eyes glazed over slightly, her features took on a rather terrifying expression. "He what?!" She said behind clenched teeth.
A/N: Please review; the next chapter will be up very soon. I love you comments and suggestions, keep it up!