Here's another chapter! I really hope you like it! Thank you so much for reading and reviewing my story. Keep doing it! Those who don't review, please do it. It would mean a lot to me and it only takes a minute. Your reviews are my inspiration which means that if you don't review I can't write and if I can't write I can't update. Are you seeing where I'm going with this? Then please review. Besides I think my mother is coming here and it's really late (almost 4am) so I think she won't be very happy. Please review! Thanks you all. Love you!

Disclaimer:Stephenie meyer owns all the characters except Luke and the triplets.

Chapter 10

Bella's POV

Another day, a new start, I hope. We were on our way to the Cullens' mansion. I trusted that after the talk I had with the kids yesterday, they would be more receptive to the Cullens but Lillian and Luke didn't seem to be convinced. Lizzie was more interested. She was always the less stubborn and the sweetest. I knew she would be the first to give in.

"Mommy, why do we have to see them again today? It's Thursday, it's the day you let us practice our powers!" Lilly whined.

"The Cullens have a yard too and it's even bigger than ours. You can still practice." I said. Every Thursday I would let them practice their powers. It was important that they learned to master them so that they wouldn't accidentally use them in public.

"Do they have powers like us?" Lizzie asked. I was glad she wanted to know more about the Cullens.

"They do. Alice can see the future, Jasper can sense and control emotions and your father can read minds." I explained.

"Does that mean he has been listening our thoughts?" Lilly asked shocked.

"I don't know sweetheart. Maybe he can't listen to you. But you can always ask him."

"Does that happen?" Luke asked.

"He couldn't hear me so maybe he can't hear you either." I told them parking in the Cullens' driveway. I was still taking the kids from their car seats and Alice had already opened the front door and was jumping in the porch steps. I almost laugh at her enthusiasm.

"Hello." She chirped happily letting us in.

"Hey Alice." I greeted her while she led us to the living room. Jasper and Emmet were sitting on the ground playing PlayStation, Esme and Rosalie were looking at a magazine and Edward and Carlisle were talking. They were the picture of a perfect family.

"Bella!" Edward said getting up. He was strange. Was he happy to see me? It looked like that. No. He is happy to see the kids again; but he can be happy to see me too right? I mean friends are happy when they see each other. He also looked nervous.

"Hi Edward." Why did I love him so much? Why couldn't I just forget him and be just his friend?

"Hello kids." Esme greeted them.

"Hi." Lizzie replied walking in Esme's direction and hugging her waist. I couldn't describe the look in Esme's face. She was so happy. I think she wasn't expecting this. Luke went to stand behind Emmet and Jasper, watching them play. He looked very interested in the game.

"Try like this." He said grabbing Jasper's controller and pressing the buttons with a concentrated look.

"Hey! You won!" Emmett exclaimed surprised though I could also tell he was a bit angry. It probably hurt his pride to be beat by a four-years-old boy.

"How did you know that?" Jasper asked curious.

"My Uncle taught me." Emmet and Jasper were amazed, looking at Luke like if he was a god.

"Can I ask you something?" Lizzie asked Edward.

"Of course. Anything." Edward was so happy. I swear I had never seen his eyes shinning so much. He could barely control his voice.

"Mommy told us you could read minds. Can you read ours?"

"No, I can't." He said frustrated. I bet his only wish was to be able to read their minds. Lizzie and Lilly sighed relieved.

Suddenly my cell started ringing. I pulled it out of the front pocket of my jeans and answered it.

"Hello." I didn't know the number.

"Hello, is this Isabella?"

"Yes, may I know who I'm speaking with?"

"Oh. It's Amanda." Amanda? I knew that name was familiar but I couldn't place it.

"Amanda?"

"Melanie's mother. My daughter is in the same class as your children." Oh. I wondered why she was calling me. It's not like we were friends, in fact I had only seen her a couple times. She almost never went to pick her daughter up from the kindergarten. Her mom, Melanie's grandmother used to do that. She was a very nice lady.

"Yes, I see." Even though I didn't particularly like her I had to be polite. She reminded me of Lauren Mallory, my high school colleague.

"Well Melanie's birthday is coming up and I would like to invite you and your lovely triplets to her party." My kids were already next to me furiously whispering, begging me to say no. I found that a bit strange. Why wouldn't they want to go to their colleague's party? I knew they weren't very fond of her but still… Luke particularly was very nervous and energetically shaking his head.

"When is it?" I asked.

"In two days. Melanie would love to have your beautiful kids at her party. She talks about them all the time."

"Well, unfortunately we won't be able to attend. We are out of town visiting some family." I answered. The kids immediately relaxed.

"Family?" She rudely asked. I could hear the sarcasm in her voice which made me very angry. The entire Cullen family was also listening. "I though it was just you and your brother. Didn't your boyfriend abandon you when you were pregnant?" I could kill her right now! How dare she? She didn't know anything about me or my story.

"We are visiting some family!" I vehemently affirmed. "And what my ex-boyfriend did or the family members we're visiting are none of your business." She had stopped being polite, so I didn't saw a reason to keep being it myself. Besides she was humiliating me and mocking with my life. She was insulting me; it was like if she was telling me I wasn't good enough.

"I'm sorry but everybody in the town knows you are a single mother because your boyfriend left you…" Then there was some strange noise on the other side of the line like if someone was trying to take the phone from her. Then I heard a muffled voice yelling "What do you think you're doing? How dare you talk to Miss Swan like that?" I immediately recognize this voice. It was Melanie's grandmother. "Bella? I am so sorry for my daughter's inexcusable behavior." This lady was a very good friend of mine. We would always chat a bit while we waited for the kids and she invited me over to her house at least one day a week.

"It's alright." I replied trying to keep my voice normal but failing miserably.

"Of course it's not all right. I can't even believe she was so rude. I haven't raised her to be like this." The poor lady lamented. "Sadly she has become an awful person and I'm afraid my granddaughter is will follow the same path. She's going to turn into a shallow and frustrated person."

"Don't say that Mrs. Cooper. Melanie is a wonderful girl."

"No she's not and we both know it. She may be beautiful but my daughter is not raising her the right way. And haven't we agreed that you would call me by my fist name?"

"Of course Natalie. Anyway as I said we won't be able to attend to Melanie's party since we are out of town."

"We'll I'm very sorry. And please do not let my daughter's words affect you. She's just jealous." Jealous? Why would Amanda Geller be jealous of me? She had everything. A husband, a daughter, money, looks…

"Jealous?" I asked incredulously.

"Of course my dear Bella. She is jealous of everything you have. My granddaughter will never be as amazing as your wonderful kids. You are young and gorgeous, and you have your entire life ahead of you. Not to mention the fact that every single man in this town has his eyes set on you."

"Excuse me?"

"Of course honey. I'm sure you know that all the single men in this town want you to be theirs. They just don't have the guts to ask you out dear. Especially that friend of your brother, the one with green eyes and blond hair that works with him at the hospital."

"Who? David?" It was the only friend of Luke who fitted the description.

"Exactly honey. I'm sure you have already noticed he has his eyes set on you. If you want my opinion I think you should give him a chance. He's a wonderful young man. You two would make a wonderful couple." I was astonished. I always thought of David as a friend. I had no idea he liked me that way. It was so embarrassing to have this conversation when I have the entire Cullen family listening. I mean it's not like they could actually avoid it. Our supper enhanced senses could be a problem sometimes.

"Uh…well…" I stammered.

"Look Bella, I know everyone in the city comments and gossips about you but you have to be superior. We both know my daughter is not the only one who acts like this but as I have already told you they are just jealous because none of them will ever be a third of what you are. Believe me Bella, you are the best mother I have ever seen and the fact that you had to fend for yourself with only the help of your brother is nothing but a motive to be proud. You should not let other people affect or hurt you. The idiot who left you doesn't even dream about what he's missing."

"Thank you Natalie. As always it was very good to talk to you." It was very comforting talking to Natalie.

"Well I hope you come back soon and when you do don't forget to give a chance to the green-eyed doctor. You would make the perfect couple. You're youthful and beautiful, you deserve nothing more than to be happy Isabella."

"Thank you and goodbye."

"Goodbye." I ended the call returning the cell to my pocket. "Now are you going to explain why you don't want to go to Melanie's party?" I asked turning to my kids.

"Well… Melanie is a bit…" Lillian started.

"Yeah she's…" Lizzie tried.

"She's just too… we don't really like her. She just wants to be our friend because we are pretty. She doesn't even know our favorite color or games. " Lilly finally said.

"Yeah and she only talks about clothes, shoes and shopping. She never wants to play with us because it will ruin her hair or her dress." Lizzie completed.

"She just wants us to go to her party because of Luke. She says she wants to be his girlfriend but of course he doesn't want to." Lilly completed. What? Weren't they too young to think about these things? Here I am overreacting. It was just kids' crushes. Everyone has one and from what I could see my kids weren't very interested in their admirers.

"Lilly! You couldn't tell anyone." So this was the reason why Luke had been so nervous when I was at the phone.

"Why not?" She asked angry.

"Well for the same reason you don''t want anyone to know Andrew is always after you."

"Hey! He's just my friend." Lilly defended. I had to admit they looked really cute.

"Okay, okay! Calm down. Is there anything else I should know?" I asked playfully.

"David likes Lizzie." Lilly and Luke said in unison. I had to laugh. Edward looked at me like if I was crazy. He held a worried look in his face. I think he was taking this too seriously. I would have to talk to him about this. I could truly imagine Edward as the type of father that would try to kill any boy who tried to get too close to his girls. Now that I noticed Emmett and Jasper didn't seemed too happy either. What was with the men in this family and overprotection? Jesus!

"Can we go practice outside mommy?" Luke asked.

"C'mon! You promised we could." Lilly insisted.

"Sure, but be careful. I don't want you to get too tired." I agreed. I hadn't even finished and they were already leaving the room. They really needed to release some energy.

"Why did you laugh Bella? Aren't you worried?" Edward asked in disbelief.

"About what Edward? There's nothing to worry about. It's just kids' crushes. It's totally normal. Besides they aren't even interested." I replied.

"What are they practicing Bella?" Alice asked jumping. Honestly! She looked like a kid on Christmas Eve. Didn't she get bored from jumping all the time?

"Can you please stop jumping Alice?" Thankfully she did. "They went to practice their powers. They need to be able to control them around humans and it also allows them to consume some energy which makes my life a lot easier. Sometimes, even being a vampire, it's difficult to keep up with them."

"Can we watch?" Emmett asked excited.

"I'm sure they won't mind." I didn't need to say anything else; Emmet had already left the room. I think that describe Emmett's state as excited would be an understatement. I followed him with the other Cullens behind me.

The Cullens watched amazed my kids using their powers. To the triplets this was more of a game than anything else. Luke would separate a branch from a tree, Lilly kept it floating in the air while Lizzie formed a force field around it, lowering it to the ground. Then Lilly would send the branch flying and Luke would blow it up. Then they would exchange powers and do it all over again.

"Bella I'm very curious about the triplets. I had never heard of half-vampires. I wonder if you could tell me some things about them."He asked when we sat in the grass watching the kids. I was already waiting for this. I knew Carlisle would want to know more about the kids.

"Of course. What do you want to know?" I said. Edward came to sit next to me and I don't know why I had the feeling he was nervous. I just couldn't know why.

"Do they grow at the same rate as humans?"

"Physically they do, though mentally they seem to be a lot older, I mean, in some situations they are more mature than a human kid with their age. They understand things that most kids with their age wouldn't. Aro thinks that when they reach a certain age, probably twenty or so they will stop aging. But of course this is just a theory."

"Interesting. That's very interesting. What about their vampire and human characteristics?"

"Well they can't run as fast as us and they are not as strong, but Luke says it may be because they are still little. Their senses are not as enhanced as ours but they are still better than humans'. As already noticed their hearts beat. They have some venom mixed in their blood which makes their skin harder then humans'. They rarely are sick, though it happens."

"What about their diet?" Edward asked.

"They eat human food though once a month I have to take them hunting. They also don't sleep a lot. About six or seven hours each night. As they grow older they sleep less."

"Is their body temperature the same as humans?"

"No, because of the venom mixed in their bloodstream, their blood runs slower. This makes their body temperature lower."

"You mentioned that they shared their powers. How exactly does that work?" Carlisle was fascinated.

"Have you heard saying that twins share a special bond between them?"

"Yes."

"Well Luke thinks that because they are half vampires that connection is stronger. They can share their thoughts and powers, but only if they choose to. Usually they have the same dreams since during the night they can't choose to open or close their minds."

"Amazing." Carlisle exclaimed. "Do you have any powers Bella?"

"Yes. I can shield myself and others from vampire powers' attacks."

"Is that why I can't read you?" Edward questioned.

"Yes but now I also block Alice and Jasper's powers."

"Does that mean I will never see your future again?" Alice whined.

"Only if I don't want you to. I can control my shield, which means that if I allow you can see my future and Edward can hear my thoughts. Though I'm still practicing. It's still a bit difficult to pull up the shield."

"Oh" Edward exclaimed. "Bella can I talk to you?" He said getting up.

"Sure." I wonder what he wants to talk about. He led me to a small bench that was near a tree and we both sat.

"Look Bella first I want to apologize for all the pain that I put you through and to say that I'm truly sorry. I never regretted anything in my life like I regret leaving you." I was shocked. What did this meant? I tried to talk but he stopped me. "Don't let me finish before I lose my courage. I love you Bella, I never stopped loving you, and all I want is…"

What was he saying? Where was he going with this conversation? I couldn't let him continue. It would only make me suffer more.

"No. Stop Edward. I understand that you're confused with all that happened and I think you are mixing everything up. You're just afraid that after Luke help his friend we will leave again but I assure you that I'll do everything in my power so that you can keep seeing them. I want you to be present in their lives. So don't worry. You don't have to stay with me just so that you can be with your kids." This was exactly what I was afraid he would do, but I wouldn't let him do it. I don't want to suffer more and I don't want him to suffer either.

"No Bella you don't understand, I'm not confused, I want to…" He was cut off by Luke who was running towards us.

"Mommy c'mon you have to see what we are doing." He said grabbing my hand and pulling me away from Edward. Edward remained seated in the bench, looking at me while I let Luke drag me along to where his sisters were.

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