Hi Guys, Welcome back.

All things Twilight belong to the awesomely talented Stephenie Meyer. (The Host was awesome!)

Thank you to those who have already reviewed, you're tremendous. I will update every other day (Actually everyday but I wanna give myself some time in case something comes up.) My goal is to be finishing Alice's version of Eclipse when Breaking Dawn is released, because you know that as much as I love to write I won't be able to put off reading breaking Dawn as soon as it's in my hands :)

Songs for Thought: Bliss by Muse and Hands open by Snow Patrol (The playlist can be found on my profile. Enjoy)

Chapter One - Birthday

We arrived at school, as always, with plenty of time to spare. Edward always drove fast. Not that I complained, I preferred it that way. I was clinging to the carefully wrapped gift in my hands. Edward had asked me for my help and graciously offered to share the sentiment. I think it was due to that fact that he didn't want to give her a gift and reap the consequences. Bella didn't want to acknowledge her birthday, I couldn't understand it at all.

Edward had warned me not to push Bella too much. Her birthday had become a touchy subject, especially since she had decided she wanted to be one of us. Edward would never agree to that though, so they were still battling it out every chance they got.

Our gift was a simple CD, I had helped Edward with recording his compositions for Bella, she had always been so touched that he had written her a lullaby, Edward wanted to make it as immortal as he was for her. Simple, but effective. I knew that she would appreciate it more than anything else she received. It was homemade, and it was from the heart. It seemed to fit.

We leaned against the Volvo waiting for the familiar red truck to enter the parking lot. It was steadily filling as we waited. I was amazed at how things had changed, from the time we returned from Phoenix and began interacting more with Bella, we seemed to become a little more accepted. Bella still grumbled that the group were hesitant, but Edward and I took what we could get. It was more than we had before, and that was good enough for us.

We heard the truck before we saw it. Edward had considered getting her a car for her birthday but he knew how she would react to that, so he'd gone with his intuition, and used me as a crutch.

I'd never seen him happier than he had been for the last couple of months, he was almost a different person. He had always been my favorite brother, but as happy as Edward was it was, almost impossible not to spend time with him, or Bella.

Bella pulled into a parking spot a little way down from us and climbed out. I was almost hopping on the spot I was so excited. Edward shot me a warning look, but I ignored it. I was hoping that I could take the frown, that Bella wore today, from her face. She slammed her door closed and headed towards us, I couldn't contain myself and skipped ahead to greet her.

"Happy birthday, Bella!" I sang as I closed the gap between us.

"Shh!" Bella hissed through her teeth and looked around the emptying parking lot to make sure no one heard.

"Do you want to open your present now or later?" I asked as I walked beside her towards Edward.

"No presents," she mumbled unhappily. She really was taking the whole end of the world dramatization a little far so I decided to drop it. . . for now.

"Okay . . . later, then. Did you like the scrapbook your mom sent you? And the camera from Charlie?"

She looked at me quizzically for a second, then shrugged her shoulders. I was guessing she putting my knowledge down to my visions, little did she know Renee and I had spoken about it last week.

Renee had called me in a panic, she wasn't sure what to get Bella. I wasn't sure why she was so upset about it but I had given her a few ideas, I saw as soon as she had chosen which she would go with.

"Yeah. They're great."

Ugh, I hated seeing Bella wallow in self pity like this. "I think it's a nice idea. You're only a senior once. Might as well document the experience."

"How many times have you been a senior?" she asked, her sarcasm flowing freely.

"That's different." I said defensively, and it was. I didn't have a choice in the matter and I was almost certain that I hadn't made it to being a senior when I was human.

We reached Edward and he held his hand out for her. This was the only thing about being with the two of them alone, their affection made me miss Jasper desperately. It was silly, seeing as it was only a couple of hours but the emotion was there and I could do nothing to remove it. Jasper was always there for me, and I hated when we pretended to be in different grades because there would always be a year at school without him. I couldn't feel too sorry for myself though, now I had Bella and Edward. We fell into step and headed towards the school.

"So, as discussed, I am not allowed to wish you a happy birthday, is that correct?" Edward asked Bella casually.

"Yes. That is correct."

"Just checking." I picked up the teasing tone in his voice but I wasn't sure if Bella had noticed. "You might have changed your mind. Most people seem to enjoy things like birthdays and gifts."

I laughed, I couldn't help myself. It seemed so odd to me that an occasion such as a birthday could cause such a dour mood. "Of course you'll enjoy it. Everyone is supposed to be nice to you today and give you your way, Bella. What's the worst that could happen?"

"Getting older," I had asked for that, I had given her a way to slip into the excuse she'd used for the month or so.

"Eighteen isn't very old," I started, trying to ignore the statement."Don't women usually wait till they're twenty-nine to get upset over birthdays?"

"It's older than, Edward," I rolled my eyes and heard Edward sigh on the other side of her.

"Technically," I said out loud, trying to keep the atmosphere lighter than the morose mood Bella was now projecting over us. "Just by one little year, though."

'Sorry Edward,' I said in my head, I noticed Bella had a line across her brow, she wasn't frowning, she was thinking. I knew what that meant. I had made her think about that one little year and now she was considering the alternative again.

My fault, time for a subject change.

"What time will you be at the house?" I asked trying to keep my expression innocent. Maybe a little too innocent.

"I didn't know I had plans to be there." she glanced out of the corner of her eye at me. I could see the grin she was trying to hold in.

"Oh, be fair, Bella! You aren't going to ruin all our fun like that, are you?" I demanded, fighting the urge to stamp my foot like an infant.

"I thought my birthday was about what I want."

"I'll get her from Charlie's right after school," Edward said directly to me. I fought the urge to smile. I was glad I'd persuaded him to help. He was my biggest Ally.

"I have to work," Bella was pulling out all the stops now, but I was always one step ahead.

"You don't, actually," I answered triumphantly. "I already spoke to Mrs. Newton about it. She's trading your shifts. She said to tell you 'Happy Birthday.'"

Bella's eyes spread wide in panic, "I — I still can't come over, I, well, I haven't watched Romeo and Juliet yet for English."

I snorted, "you have Romeo and Juliet memorized." she was scrambling now, desperately.

"But Mr. Berty said that we needed to see it performed to full appreciate it — that's how shakespeare intended it to be presented."

Edward rolled his eyes, he could see her very desperate attempt to wiggle out of any celebration for her birthday. I could be stubborn too.

"You've already seen the movie," I argued. She was being unnecessarily difficult.

"But not the nineteen-sixties version. Mr. Berty said it was the best."

I felt the smile disappear from my lips, she was more stubborn than I gave her credit for, I was going to have to think about this one. Or. . . I could threaten her, that was always fun.

"This can be easy, or this can be hard, Bella, but one way or the other—"

This was too much for Edward, he jumped in to defend her.

"Relax, Alice. If Bella wants to watch a movie, then she can. It's her birthday."

"So there," Bella added looking close to sticking her tongue out at me.

"I'll bring her over around seven," he said to me smiling, "That will give you more time to set up."

I laughed I couldn't help myself, I had her beat. She could stall all she wanted but in the end I would get my way. "Sounds good. See you tonight, Bella! It'll be fun, you'll see." I grinned and gave her a peck on the cheek, and disappeared before she could feed me another excuse. This was going to be fun, it was just us, I had considered inviting more people. But with Jasper, struggling as he was right now and Bella being in a foul mood, it would have been a disaster.

I decided I would lay of the birthday talk for the rest of the day, at least until she came to the house tonight. So at lunch I held my tongue.

By the time the day was over I was about out of my seat, I had so much to do. The flowers were ready to be picked up, I knew that Esme had gone to Port Angeles to pick them up for me. All I had to do was arrange them and it wasn't going to take long. I had Esme pick up a cake whilst she was there. I didn't know the first thing about baking so I knew it would be a better choice for Bella to eat a professionally made cake, than some concoction I would come up with.

Edward left with Bella and I took the Volvo home, I needed to hang lanterns, arrange the roses, make sure all the presents were ready, get Jasper fed. I parked the Volvo in the garage and fled into the house.

"Esme," I called quietly. She appeared from around the corner and grinned at me.

"Did you get them?"

"In there." Esme answered pointing to the fridge we never used. I pulled the door open and looked inside. It was full to the brim with pink roses. I smiled and stood on my tiptoes to look at the cake that was balanced precariously on the top shelf with more roses.

"I had them decorate it." She said pulling it down from the shelf and placing it on the counter next to me.

I looked at the cake, Esme had done a wonderful job. It was the same pink as the roses and it had 'Happy Birthday Bella' written on the top. I knew that Bella would end up loving it, no matter how much she grumbled about it.

"It's beautiful Esme." I threw my arms around her neck and kissed her cheek.

"I'm glad you think so, do you need any help with those lanterns?"

I nodded and fled to the garage again. I had stored all of the birthday supplies there knowing Bella would never go in there. Edward hadn't let the small gathering be a surprise but he let me keep the details to myself.

Out in the front meadow Esme and I stood back to admire our work, it looked beautiful. We had placed the roses in bowls and lined them on either side of the steps leading up to the house. It would look perfect, it was dusk now and it looked good. We didn't have long until Edward and Bella would be arriving so I decided I would get the cake and everything that went with it out so I could decorate it.

I ran towards the house, the angle at which we had placed the roses had a nice effect. We had brought them closer to the middle the higher the steps went. I climbed up them, grinning. Rosalie stepped out of the door as I got closer.

"Looks good, Alice." I raised my eyebrows. The honeymoon must have done them some good, she seemed very relaxed .

"Thanks, Rose." I skipped past her into the house. Emmett was stood staring at the cake. I rose my eyebrows. "And what, exactly, are you doing Emmett?"

"Hey, Alice."

I smiled and picked up the cake from in front of him. There were some spare roses that I was planning on decorating the base of the cake with.

"So, what are you up to."

His big grin told me that I wouldn't have appreciated it, whatever it was. He was planning on messing with the cake, or maybe he already had. I examined it quickly, I couldn't see anything out of place, but with Emmett, you never knew. He could be sneaky.

"Emmett?" I smiled sweetly.

"Alice,"

"What did you do to the cake?"

Emmett tried to keep his face straight, replacing it with mock horror. "Alice, what are you trying to imply?"

I narrowed my eyes, and looked at him again. Rosalie had told me to used that look when I wanted to intimidate him.

"I swear, Alice. Nothing."

I nodded and headed towards the piano. It was almost seven. Edward was always punctual, but in that snail Bella called a vehicle we would have a little extra time.

"Jasper?" I hummed quietly. He was at my side before I blinked. "Did you wrap the box?"

Jasper wrapped his arms around my waist and pulled me to him. He planted a kiss firmly on my lips and I melted like butter. He'd forgotten.