Forks Academy for Special Gifted Students

by StarStrellaStar

Twins Isabella and Christabel are not your ordinary, everyday girls. At least that's what the teachers of FASGS, a magical school, say. Now, the two contrasting girls have to deal with their new lives and an unexpected secret that awaits them in the dark.

17. Closer to the Truth

A/N: Okay, it took me a little longer, but what do you expect? I started a new story, which I started to dislike simply because it is getting so many reviews and this story isn't, but I kind fo still like it, obviously, since I came up with it. Sooo….this chapter is actually a very Chris and Dylan-ish chapter, so in case you hate the two of them…not my problem, but you should read it anyway, because the end might get interesting for all of you.

And I know that I already said that, but we are getting closer to the END! I'm excited, my beta ( You And Me Up In A Tree, thank you very mch) is excited and I would be totally down if you weren't excited as well. Right now I'm really hyped up because of what I just wrote and I beg you not to fall asleep during all this cheesiness and romance in between. I just thought that Chris deserves a little happiness too, since Bella's life is kinda of perfect. And seriously…is there really anyone who hates Chris? Maybe people who prefer Bella and don't want to hear Chris' constant drama and whining and stuff, but still Hate? Absurd ( in my eyes at least)

So yeah, at this point I want to mention that I am a Supernatural nerd and addict as well as a Twilight-Fanficaholic. Also I am a Harry Potter Fanatic, but I would never dream of writing a FF for that.

Why not? You might ask and it is simple. I love Harry Potter and even if there are a few things that I would have done differently, it all played out nicely in the end and I felt fulfilled and satisfied when I closed the last book. That story is done.

But Twilight is a whole other thing. I love and respect Stephenie Meyer and her book, but seriously there are so many things wrong in this book.

First of all…why is Bella already falling on love with Edward after ONE month? He spent all his time glaring at her and being mean and oh he rescued her…great, but still you do not just fall irrevocabulary in love after one month. Well, I don't have anything against that per se it just kinda threw me off.

Next thing was Bella and Edward, being all cheesy all the time. It's cute but also very disgusting (I'm such a bad Twilight-Fan) I always threw the book in a corner when they started and picked it back up to continue reading.

And then there is this whole Edward-dumping-Bella thing. I will never ever forgive him that mistake and I will never forgive Bella for being so stupid and believing him. I have the ability to oversee obvious things every now and then because of my complicated thinking, so when I read New Moon the first time, I didn't even get that Edward was dumping Bella, the way I read it, it as already clear to me that he wanted to protect her, so you can imagine that I was a little frustrated with that depressed Bella. I had to read the book twice to get that he actually broke her heart in such a cruel way.

And of course there is the end 1) they totally didn't kick the Voluri's ass and 2) I was not content and satisfied when I closed the book, I was like:"What the fuck? Where is the next book?"

So yeah, there you have just a few of the reason why I decided to missuse the Twilight characters, which are obviously not mine…

Since this A/N is now officially too long to be legal, I'll just present you the chapter and I hope you are all enjoiying it :D

---

Chris POV

"Happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you, happy birthday pixie Alice, happy birthday to you," we sang at the top of our lungs as we barged into Alice's room early in the morning.

Instead of finding a surprised Alice in bed, we found a tiny hyper pixie jumping around in her room already fully dressed.

"Aw, you guys! That's so cute that you tried to surprise me," Alice cooed, munching on a chocolate bar.

"Yes, it's wonderful that we tried," I grumbled.

"I told you she wouldn't be surprised," Jasper said with a chuckle as he went over to gently kiss Alice.

"Alice, we got you a present," Rose squeaked and revealed the package.

Alice beamed widely and pounced on Rose to grab the present from her.

"Oh, it's so sparkly and cute!" she squealed.

We'd all pooled our money together to buy her a cute little pink summer dress that sparkled and glittered a little in the light. I'd already forgotten who the designer was, but I distinctly remembered Edward mentioning that it was her favorite designer.

"You guys are all so cute," Alice sniffled and came to hug each of us fiercely.

"You're welcome, Alice," I gasped when it was my turn to be death gripped.

"So," Alice started. "You're all ready to go, and I am too, so let's just go to class."

I looked at the time. At least it was a decent, safe time to go.

"Why haven't you started your lessons with Dylan yet?" Rose asked five minutes later when we were on our way to the school.

"Because neither of us have had time," both Dylan and I answered.

"Then you better get a move on it," Alice chirped. "Irina has apparently forgotten to take the Blockers because I can see her, and I've seen that she'll be going there again in ten days."

"I should be free—" Dylan started, only to be interrupted by the pixie.

"Oh, nevermind what I said. She'll go to the Potionery in ten days, and then...dammit she took them again," she groaned in frustration.

"Well then I guess we still have until Alice sees something," I said.

"That would be...oh yeah, never," Rose commented with a roll of her eyes.

"But I can't think of another way. We can't follow her around — she's in the Green House," Jasper said.

"Can we please change the topic? It's my birthday and I want a party," Alice said.

"How do you plan to pull off a party?" Bella asked her.

"Well, there's always my parents' house, but to give me time to plan and to save Mom the work, I think we should celebrate mine and Emmett's birthdays together," Alice announced.

"Emmett, when is your birthday?" I asked him.

"April 1st," everyone, aside from Emmett, answered with a groan.

"Seriously? Your birthday is on April Fools?" Bella asked with a laugh.

"Why am I even surprised?" I mumbled to myself. "I should've seen that coming."

"And you should fear it too, thanks to the deadly combination of April Fools and his birthday, Emmett thinks he can do whatever he wants," Edward said grimly.

"Well, I'm Emmett's sidekick, so I should be safe," I announced.

"Seriously? You take the job?" Emmett asked in excitement.

"Only if you promise me immunity."

"Deal."

"Deal."

We shook hands to seal the deal while everyone else had slightly scared looks on their faces. I really didn't see their issue. I had done worse things by far, and yet, they were scared of me and Emmett on April Fools. Strange people.

I glanced at my watch again and saw that we'd better hurry up if we wanted to make it to class on time. Bella saw me looking at the time and instantly increased her speed. The rest of us simply fell into step with her without really noticing.

"Okay, guys, I'll probably see some of you later," Dylan said when we stopped in front of our school building. He quickly pulled Alice into a tight hug. "Happy birthday again, little fairy."

"I thought I was a pixie," Alice replied, but Dylan merely placed a quick kiss on her cheek before he took off. That had officially been a cute display of affection from Dylan, and it was only ruined by a slight twinge somewhere in the direction of my guts.

"Let's go, kiddos. We're going to be late," Rose urged.

"We still have ten minutes until classes start," Alice noted.

"Yes, ten precious minutes that we should use to get ready for said classes," I said and led the way into the building, and straight to our class.

"Since when do you care to get ready for class on time, Chris?" Alice asked with suspicion in her eyes.

"I had an epiphany yesterday," I retorted.

"Really? What kind of epiphany?"

"Well, actually, it was Bella's. She said that as long as we concentrate on one event, you won't notice the other." And with that said, I opened the door to our classroom which was in front of us.

Our fellow classmates had put up a big, sparkly "Happy Birthday Alice!" banner and were standing around a table on which sat a huge birthday cake.

"Surprise!" everyone shouted and Alice actually looked surprised.

Bella and Jasper exchanged proud and slightly smug glances since they were the ones who came up with the organization.

The best thing was clearly the cake because Bella and I made it. Well, it was mostly Bella who made it, since she only let me assist, but I still helped.

"More presents?" Alice asked in disbelief while she stared at the cake.

"No, Alice, it's a cake," Rose told her with a giggle. "Bella made it."

The cake was honestly amazing. It was four white layers stacked up and each one looked like a different present. The bottom layer had little textured swirly designs with pink icing to make it look like a bow. On top of that was another 'gift' which had light pink bows on two of the edges that were actually showing. The next one had a rough-looking texture along with more light pink ribbon and then the top one looked like a full present with a big pink bow right on top. All in all, the cake looked delicious.

"That is the most awesome cake I have ever seen," Alice exclaimed and then turned to Bella with brightly shining eyes. "You are fantastic. I don't think that even Mom could've made a better cake than that. It's...I don't even know what to say." Alice looked like she was about to cry.

"Just say thank you and let us eat the cake," Dean shouted from where he stood.

Rose and I agreed with that, while Jasper somehow made a knife and a stack of paper plates appear.

A moment before our teacher walked in, we'd finished eating all of the cake. Of course, not without letting Alice take a picture of it first. It was still a mystery to me why she always had a camera in her bag. I shrugged it off and turned half of my attention to the lesson that was taking place. The other half was definitely dozing off.

xXxXxXxXxXxXx

"And then she just fell off the roof!" Rose cried and the two of us burst into hysterical laughter. She had just been recounting a story of Irina during their 'classy meeting'.

"You know, instead of laughing about trivial things like that, you should be doing something productive or at least useful. Like me, for instance," Alice said with a slight look of distaste on her face. She was sitting on her bed, her legs crossed as she wrote something in her new notebook.

Edward and Jasper were playing Chess and it looked like Jasper was winning.

"Planning a party is useful?" I asked with raised eyebrows.

"Of course it is. How else do you even have a party? But if that isn't good enough for you, then do your homework like Bella," she pointed to her desk where Bella was seated behind a pile of books as she busily scribbled something down.

I went over to her and took one of the papers she'd already written on. "You'll let me copy that, right Bella?" I asked in a way that made it sound like it wasn't even a question.

"No, I won't," she answered absentmindedly, never taking her eyes off her work as she made a hand motion in my direction. The piece of paper flew out of my hand and back toward her. It soared straight into her hand and she just laid it back where it was before without even looking up once.

"Wow, Bella, I'm impressed," Edward said, indeed looking impressed.

That made her look up. "What? Why?" she asked, sounding a little out of it. She kind of looked like a nerd that had just been pulled back into reality. Which was kind of what she was, but normal nerds don't have super hot boyfriends that adore them.

Well, Edward wasn't exactly "super hot", although he did inherit some of his father's hotness genes. Well, maybe not only some, more like a lot, but still...Dylan, on the other hand—

I shook my head to rid myself of that thought.

"You just performed a flotation spell without your wand. That's actually something you start learning in your junior year, so it's pretty amazing," Alice explained.

"Why are all of you so surprised? It's already common knowledge that Bella rocks at this whole magic thing," I said, actually meaning it even if Edward and Alice didn't look convinced.

"Yeah, it's also common knowledge that you suck," Rose quipped with a chuckle.

"As if you're any better." I stuck my nose up in the air and huffed.

The others decided to continue their conversation without me and Rose, seeing as we were for some reason chasing each other around the room.

The days leading up to Emmett and Alice's birthday party were more or less quiet. Emmett was already preparing for his birthday/April Fools while Edward and Bella had decided to spend most of their free time alone and Alice was busily trying to get the rest of us to plan the party with her. Rose volunteered and so did Jasper. I was helping Emmett get the things he needed. That was a lot more fun for me than Alice's party planning and it kept me away from my room and my mind away from Bella. I really didn't need any kind of scenarios in my head. The good thing was that I hadn't gotten pulled into Bella's head again since my near drowning experience.

"We still need chlorine," Emmett announced after quickly checking his list again.

Emmett still hadn't exactly let me in on his plans, but I was okay with it as long as he didn't plan on bleaching my hair or something like that. Even if I had to carry all of his purchases, which I found rather ridiculous. I mean, seriously, which one of us was the big grizzly bear-shaped guy? Emphasis on the 'guy'.

"Okay, I'll be in your room at six AM sharp," Emmett said to me when he left me in front of my room later that night.

I saluted him and turned on my heel to head back to my room. On my way back, I let out one yawn after another. Shopping was definitely exhausting, even with Emmett. Mainly because he made me carry everything. I went into my room to gather my things and then rushed into one of the bathrooms to wash away all of this sweat.

Almost an hour later, I was trotting back to my room. A few minutes later, I was beneath my warm, comfortable covers, snuggling deeply into my pillows.

I fell asleep almost instantly.

Suddenly my dream about beach trips and sunscreen was interrupted by a movement right next to me, accompanied by a sleepy groan.

I didn't bother opening my eyes. Instead, I smiled happily and let my hand trail over his naked chest. He let out something that sounded like a grunt. I suppressed a giggle and continued to let my fingers travel over his chest, enjoying the feel of his smooth, warm skin. The only reply I received was another grunt. This time, I had an even harder time holding in my chuckles and the bed shook a little with my almost silent laughter. I attempted to do the same thing again, but this time, his hand caught mine.

"Stop that, it tickles," he spoke in a husky voice.

"But I like you grunting," I replied, amused.

"Just sleep," he slurred, probably already far away in La La Land.

I propped myself up on my elbow to watch him. He looked so peaceful when he was sleeping which made me almost feel sorry for disturbing his peace.

Almost.

I poked him in his side and he twitched. I poked him again and once more, he caught my hand.

"You really need to stop doing that," he said, his voice still husky as he pulled me close enough to be able to kiss him.

I internally rejoiced and kissed him back with as much enthusiasm as I could muster. I bit his bottom lip softly and he chuckled quietly.

"Easy there, Bella, you're getting kind of greedy," he murmured.

"That is hardly my fault when you are such a great kisser," I replied innocently.

"True," he agreed and pulled me back to him to continue where we'd left off—

Wait, wait, wait. We? Bella? Tousled bronze hair?

I jolted up in my bed with a scream bursting through my lips. A scream so loud and piercing that it put every horror movie actress to shame.

In the back of my mind, I felt something that didn't suit my current emotional climate.

"What's wrong?" Edward asked frantically as he threw open my door, wearing nothing more than his pajama pants. Bella followed in behind him, but thankfully she was at least wearing her usual sleeping attire.

I didn't stop screaming. Instead, I threw my pillows at Edward.

"What the fuck is wrong with you people? All I wanted was a peaceful slumber, not to be mentally raped by pretty boy Cullen over there!" I shrieked, emphasizing each word with a pillow. Or at least that was what I intended to do, but I ran out of pillows after the first sentence.

"Chris, what are you talking about?" Bella asked gently.

"Yeah, what's wrong?" Edward asked, repeating pretty much the same question as the two of them came toward my bed.

I moved so fast they didn't even see me as I jumped out of it.

"A lot of things are wrong. Let me list the top 3 things that are wrong in the world," I screeched.

Somewhere in the back of my mind was again something that didn't fit my emotional state. I came to the conclusion that it was Bella's reaction.

"In spot three we have global warming. Not only is it horrible, but it's also very wrong of the human beings, and witches for that matter, to destroy their own planet like that," I started listing, breathing heavily and probably giving off the impression of a mad scientist. "In second place is the fact that I'm longing for something that I can't handle yet. Constantly wanting something, but knowing you don't know what to do with it once you have it sucks. You should really know how I feel, Edward," I took a deep breath. "But what is really really reallywrong is the fact that I know how you feel. This isn't the first time, but if I hadn't woken up, nobody knows how much I would've actually gotten to feel. Mental deflowering is not how I imagined it."

"Chris, could you just calm down and explain exactly what you mean?" Edward asked, looking at me in a very confused manner.

In that moment, a curse that usually only came from me left Bella's mouth. That really didn't help the issue.

"You know, I feel very uncomfortable with the fact that I know so much about Edward. I know what he smells like, I know what he feels like, and I freaking know what he tastes like!" I started shrieking again.

It was really a wonder how no one had appeared yet. The house supervisors apparently didn't take their jobs very seriously. Otherwise, Edward wouldn't have been here in the first place or he would already be gone.

Now Edward also seemed to get what I meant and looked around awkwardly as he stepped backwards, putting some more distance between us.

"Why were you even in my mind anyway?" Bella asked, sounding like she was trying to turn the whole thing back to me.

"I wasn't intentionally. You pulled me in again, and no, I don't know why that always happens to me."

"Maybe it's because you don't have any strong emoti—"

"Don't even finish that sentence. This was not at all emotional. It was definitely turning animalistic."

"Don't you think you're being a little dramatic?" Edward asked with a sigh.

"No, I'm not. I find it very, very disturbing to know that Bella likes nibbling on your bottom lip and that you like to suck on a certain spot right below her ear," I retorted. The two of them looked at the ground and coughed. "Yes, you can be embarrassed about it, but does nobody think of me? I have to live with the fact that I might end up having sex with Edward in my mind just because the two of you aren't in control of your hormones. You've only been together for fives months, can't you wait another five?"

"Chris, now you're overreacting," Bella noted.

"Whatever. Both of you get out of my room and go to sleep," I grumbled as I crawled back into my bed. "Edward, put your shirt back on, and no more kissing. You should know now I'm going to be watching."

I heard Edward groan and Bella giggle but decided to ignore it. Soon, I fell back asleep. Unfortunately, the feel of Edward's lips haunted me in my dreams.

I woke up to the sound of an all-too-familiar voice. "For some reason, I just knew that you wouldn't be up on time," Emmett noted, speaking in his usual booming loud voice.

I opened my eyes slowly only to see him towering over my bed, looking as if he expected me to wake and jump up immediately.

"I'm sorry, but I was mind raped last night," I mumbled, still half-asleep.

"Do I even want to know what that means?" Emmett asked.

"No, probably not."

"Okay. Get dressed. I'll meet you outside in fifteen minutes," Emmett instructed, sounding very serious for the first time ever in my presence.

"Wait!" I exclaimed, hastily jumping off my bed when Emmett had almost reached the door.

He turned to look at me in question.

"Happy birthday!" I smiled and threw myself into his arms, knowing that he'd never let me fall since he was all for hugs.

"Thanks, little one," he grinned and let go of me.

"Hey, I am not little," I protested.

Emmett looked down on me with a raised eyebrow and I rolled my eyes, dismissing the topic.

Fifteen minutes later, I skipped out of my room door and followed Emmett, who didn't waste any time with explaining what his plan was. As long as he didn't pull a prank on me, I honestly didn't care.

We were in front of Rosalie's room when Emmett pulled his wand out. Only then did I notice that he wasn't carrying much with him.

"Emmett, why did we go shopping yesterday if we don't need any of that crap?" I hissed.

"I might need it some day," he replied with a shrug and carefully tapped the door with his wand.

The door opened and we quietly entered Rose's room. It was all red and white like mine, but hers looked a lot more personalized. She had three mirrors hanging around her room and surrounding each of them were pictures of her, Jasper, and Emmett. There were also a few pictures with her and Alice, and a couple of group pictures with the whole clique in them. I had to stop myself from hugging Rose when I saw that she had a picture of me and Bella hanging by her heart-shaped mirror beside her bathroom door.

It was very cute. Bella and I were sitting at the fountain, both of us sticking our heads in the same book. I definitely couldn't remember anyone taking a picture of that, but I should probably get used to the fact that they always had a camera with them. I was so occupied with looking at the pictures that I didn't even notice Emmett come back until he was standing right in front of me.

"What did you do?" I asked him quietly.

"You'll see," he whispered back mysteriously and then crept to Rose, who was sleeping soundly. He tapped his wand gently on her head, causing her to wiggle around a little. He mumbled something that I couldn't hear, but for some reason, I already started worrying if I was going to survive Rose's outburst. "Okay, I'm done," Emmett announced in a whisper, pulling me out of the room and dragging me across the house to Alice's room. "Here, put this in her body lotion," he muttered and tossed me something.

I awkwardly caught it and was highly disgusted when I realized that he wanted me to fill Alice's body lotion with mayonnaise.

"Seriously, Emmett? That's gross," I complained, only to be hushed by him, so I just did as he asked. Meanwhile, Emmett was fumbling around on Alice's dresser.

"Are you done?" he asked me after a while.

I closed the bottle and nodded at him before he grasped my arm lightly and began dragging me along again. This time, we only went down the hall.

As soon as we entered the room, I recognized it as Dylan's. It didn't even look like his room at his parents' house, but somehow, I just knew. Maybe I should go see someone about that. As far as I could see in the darkness, the room was different colors. The thing that caught my attention was the canvases. He'd painted Alice as a pixie on one of them, which I found absolutely adorable.

"Stop staring and get to work," Emmett yelled in a whisper.

I turned and looked at what he was doing. He was standing next to Dylan's desk, beside the chair, which had Dylan's school uniform on it. Emmett pulled out a bottle that looked like perfume. I remembered Emmett buying it yesterday at the pet shop.

"Spray this on his uniform; I'll be right back," Emmett told me and tossed me the bottle before tiptoeing to Dylan's bed, where he was quietly snoring.

I came to the conclusion that I probably wasn't holding perfume in my hand, but started spraying it on Dylan's clothes anyway. I'd expected it to smell bad, only to be surprised when the scent that entered my nose was quite pleasant.

"What's going on?" I heard Dylan's sleep voice ask.

Emmett let out a silent curse and quickly rushed over to me while Dylan started sitting up, his eyes still closed. "Come on," Emmett hissed and pulled me with him again. Instead of opening the door, though, Emmett just went through it, pulling me through it as well. It was a very strange feeling, but not exactly unpleasant.

"Emmett!" we heard a scream coming from Dylan's room.

Emmett just laughed to himself and gestured for me to follow him. He led me to what I assumed was Jasper's room, and this time, he didn't bother opening the door. Instead, he just went through it, leaving me to stand outside.

I yawned. This could at least be a little more interesting.

After a few minutes, Emmett finally emerged from Jasper's room.

"Are you going to tell me what you did?" I asked him quietly.

Emmett shook his head with a giant dimply grin on his face, causing me to sigh and roll my eyes at him.

Just then, I noticed that he was on his way to Edward's room.

"Edward's not in his room," I informed him.

Emmett turned around with a surprised expression on his face. "How do you know?"

"There is a reason why I was mind raped last night. Edward's in Bella's room."

Emmett's grin widened. "Seriously?"

I nodded.

"Well, what are you waiting for?" Emmett all but ran to the exit of the Black House, only to lead the way back to the Blue House.

"Emmett, do you even have an idea of what to do?" I hissed at him when we intruded Bella's room.

"Um...no. You?" he asked with a sheepish smile on his face.

I put on my thoughtful face. "Sorry, I don't have any ideas either," I told him apologetically with a shrug after a minute of thinking.

"Well that sucks," Emmett complained with a quiet groan.

"Didn't you have a plan for Edward?" I asked.

"Sure I did, but I never thought to come up with an idea for Bella," he answered.

"Just do what you originally planned then," I sighed and gestured toward Edward's sleeping form.

Emmett grinned once again before rummaging around in his bag. After a few minutes, he pulled out something that looked vaguely like candy.

"Candy? Seriously Emmett?" I asked in disbelief.

He hushed me once more and I rolled my eyes as he slowly crept toward Edward. Somehow he managed to get the candy into Edward's mouth without waking him up and he turned to me with a victorious smile.

My voice was impatient when I asked, "Are we done?"

"Well, since neither of us can think of a prank to pull on your sister, I guess we are," Emmett answered, his beaming smile still in place.

No wonder the others decided not to get him any presents. This seemed to be much more exciting for Emmett than some lame-ass birthday present. Or maybe the present was that they let him play pranks on him, because I'm pretty sure there were plenty of protection spells they could've used to save themselves from whatever Emmett had planned for them.

Emmett left quickly, mumbling something about wanting to be there when Rose got out of the shower. It sounded perverted, but the way he said it made me think it probably had something to do with him creeping into Rose's bathroom earlier.

I decided to start getting ready for school and I had more than enough time to do so. Just when I was done putting on my uniform, I felt a jolt of shock go through me. I grinned to myself, knowing that it had come from Bella. Whatever Emmett did, it scared her for a second.

I was sitting at a table downstairs, quickly doing the Math homework I'd forgotten to do before while eating my breakfast when I saw Bella and Edward approaching. I looked up, eager to see what Emmett had done to Edward. When I looked at him, he looked exactly like he always did. The disappointment must have been clear on my face.

"Don't worry, whatever you guys did, it worked," Bella reassured me when she saw my expression.

"Really? What is it?" I asked her.

Bella pressed her lips tightly together and turned slightly away from Edward so he couldn't see that she was trying hard not to laugh.

Edward wasn't stupid, though, and threw a glare in her direction before he turned to glare at me.

"You shouldn't look at me like that," I defended myself. "It wasn't my idea, and as a matter of fact, I don't even know what Emmett did."

Edward opened his mouth and quickly shut it again, but unfortunately for him, he didn't do it fast enough.

A bark escaped his mouth before he ground his teeth together again.

I looked at him with wide eyes while Bella gave up trying to hide her laughter and let it out.

"It's...been like that...all morning," she informed me in between her giggles and snorts.

"You mean he's been barking the whole time?" I asked with a grin.

"No. Every kind of animal noise. When we woke up this morning, he roared, and after that, he started bleating like a goat."

Edward didn't look too amused about that, but I found it hilarious and immediately joined in with Bella's laughter. After a while, we managed to calm ourselves down, while Edward sat there, his lips in a tight line and a dangerous expression on his face. I'm pretty sure it was reserved for Emmett.

We finished our breakfast and went out to meet the others, only to discover they weren't waiting for us this time.

"Where are they?" Bella asked, sounding surprised. We'd both gotten used to the fact that someone out of our group was always waiting in front of our house for us.

Edward motioned with his hands toward the Black House, so we decided to go to their rooms and see where all of them were. Jasper's room was on the lowest level, so we went there first.

Bella knocked carefully, causing me to roll my eyes and open the door.

Jasper's room was surprisingly tidy, and somehow had the same calming effect he did. The room was filled with all kinds of shades of brown. I looked around and saw Jasper lying on the floor next to his bed, staring up at the ceiling.

"Jasper, are you okay?" Bella asked him cautiously.

"Sure I am. I'm just very confused," he answered slowly. Somehow he sounded like he was stoned or something. What had Emmett done to him?

I went over to where he was laying and inspected him closely. He was already dressed for school and his eyes didn't look bloodshot or glazed and he didn't smell like alcohol or anything, so I figured he wasn't actually stoned or drunk.

"What are you so confused about?" I asked him.

"Nothing specific. I just feel confused."

"Well, if it's nothing then why don't you just get up from the floor?"

"I'm on the floor?" Jasper asked in surprise and sat up.

I cast a questioning look at Edward and Bella. Bella only shrugged, letting me know that she also had no clue what was wrong with Jasper, but Edward looked like he knew.

"What is it, Edward?" I asked him with a sigh.

Edward only glared at me and grinned sarcastically. Oh yeah, he couldn't speak.

I sighed once more. "Well, could you at least help him get up off the floor?" I said to him in annoyance.

Edward rolled his stupid green eyes but strolled over and grasped Jasper's arm, setting him upright.

"Thanks man," Jasper breathed drowsily. "I honestly had no clue how I was gonna manage getting up."

"Did Emmett drug you?" Bella asked him suspiciously.

"What? No. I don't do drugs," Jasper answered, still sounding drowsy, but a little more awake than a moment ago.

"Um, I asked you if...oh, you know what? Nevermind."

"Lets go get Rose," I suggested. The others agreed to that and we quickly made our way to Rose's room. Even from a distance, we could all hear the shrieking.

"What did you do?" Bella asked me.

"I didn't do anything in Rose's room," I told her defensively.

"I meant you and Emmett."

"Oh. Well, to be honest, Emmett didn't tell me a single thing. He just gave me stuff. The only thing I actually know is that Alice—" I shuddered in disgust and decided not to tell them just yet.

"Yes?"

"You'll find out soon enough."

"You probably made Alice very angry," Jasper noted.

"Maybe," I said. "But I know for sure Dylan's angry." Now that we stood in front of Rose's room, nobody was brave enough to make the first move to go in.

Edward grunted and rolled his eyes before he reached for the door handle and opened the door.

We all looked at the scene in front of us with varying degrees of surprise. Rose was chasing Emmett around the room, throwing anything and everything within her grasp at him.

"Um, guys," Bella interfered.

Emmett stopped short which enabled Rose to hit him in the head with a water bottle. Then she let out another shriek and stomped into the bathroom, slamming the door as she closed it.

"I'm sensing she's not in the best of moods," I mumbled.

Emmett chuckled quietly.

"Damn straight I'm not in a good mood at all," I heard Rose call angrily from the bathroom. She came back out with her hair in a tight ponytail which was unlike her.

And then I saw it and somehow managed to disguise my snort as a sneeze, but Edward just had to open his big mouth, letting a loud moo escape, which caused Bella, Emmett, and I to all burst out laughing. Jasper and Rose just looked at Edward in confusion.

The good thing is, I had a reason to laugh without Rose getting angry at me. The bad thing was that I was laughing more because of the fact that Rose's beautiful long blond locks now had a strong green tint to them.

"Emmett, because of you, I can't even see how I look. Of all the pranks you could pull, you just had to make me invisible to mirrors?" Rose complained, standing in front of one of her mirrors. The mirror didn't show any sign of a reflection.

I looked at Bella, who was biting her lip to prevent herself from laughing again. I guess Rose doesn't know her hair's green, I thought to her.

How would she? I don't think Emmett would've told her, she thought back.

Should we tell her?

Only if you want to die.

I nodded at that. I wasn't sure if it was a good idea to let Rose know.

Maybe we should let Alice handle that. She's the only one who is just as crazy as Rose, if not even worse, when it comes to beauty, Bella suggested.

Now that was a brilliant idea.

"Rose, maybe we should go to Alice. I'm sure she can help you," I said sweetly, interrupting Rose's cursing at Emmett while Jasper looked as if he was still trying to figure out if her hair was green or not.

Rose perked up at that. "That's a good idea. Lets go. Fast," she ordered and practically pushed us all out.

We quickly made our way to Alice's room, which was filled with even more shrieking. I was sure I'd need hearing aids after today.

"What did you do to her?" Bella asked, this time looking at Emmett.

"Ask Chris what she did," he told her with a grin.

Bella turned to me with raised eyebrows while Edward's eyes widened when he looked at Emmett. Too bad he couldn't tell us what he'd just heard in Emmett's head.

"What? I only did what you told me to do," I complained as we stepped into the room where Dylan was sitting on Alice's couch with a mirror in front of his face and Alice was gathering her things in a hurry, letting out a colorful string of curses, all directed at Emmett.

"Alice!" Rose hissed immediately. "You need to help me. Now. I can't do my hair because Emmett, the idiot, made me invisible to mirrors," Rose started whining right away.

Alice halted in her movement and turned to our little group, her eyes immediately zoning in on Emmett and narrowing. "Emmett, do you have any idea how much this lotion costs? I had to throw away the whole bottle just because of you, and I had to shower twice which is why I am now late. I've never been late to class in my entire life!" Alice yelled at him.

Emmett shrugged. "I didn't fill the lotion, that was Chris. I did that," he pointed at her face.

I'd thought Alice's face was red because she was a little flustered from running around the room, like she was just doing, but now that I looked more closely, I saw that it was red. Seriously red. As a matter of fact, the color had increased while she was talking to Emmett, so now she looked like she'd dipped her face in a pot of red paint.

Alice looked at him in horror and quickly grabbed the mirror out of Dylan's hand.

I heard Bella gasp and Edward chuckle with his mouth closed, but I'd been looking at Jasper, who still hadn't made it into the room. I wondered if it was healthy to walk against the door frame more than once. It seemed like he just couldn't get into the room probably. I was about to consider helping him out when he finally made it through the doorway.

I turned back to see what the others were laughing about. It was just too much and I burst out laughing along with Bella. I heard an amused meow come from Edward as well.

Jasper was acting like he was high, Edward was imitating a zoo, Rose had green hair and didn't know it, Alice's face was as red as a firetruck, and Dylan had whiskers.

Seriously, how could a person not laugh at that?

"This is so not funny," Alice screeched, causing us to laugh even more. Even Rose was laughing, but I knew she'd stop as soon as she discovered that her hair was no longer beautifully blond. "Emmett, what have you done to my face?" Alice shrieked, her face turning even redder.

"Nothing too bad," Emmett answered, chuckling at her expense. "It's color changing makeup. It changes colors with your mood. Be neutral and it'll be like you're not even wearing it."

Alice looked at him in disbelief and then rushed into her bathroom, all while cursing Emmett.

He didn't seem to be bothered by this though. He looked like he was thoroughly enjoying the outcome of his work. He actually looked rather relaxed. "Alice, it won't come off for the next eight hours," he informed her.

A minute later, Alice reappeared in the room. "You mean I had to walk around like this all day?" she asked.

Emmett nodded.

"How am I supposed to hand out the invitations like this?"

"Fix my hair and I could do it for you," Rose offered.

Alice looked at her and frowned. "I don't think I have any blond hairdye, and I can't turn it back," she said.

"What are you talking about?" Rose asked in a shocked voice and stormed to Alice's dresser. The thing was, she couldn't see herself, which made her howl in frustration.

Dylan watched the whole thing with an annoyed expression. "Seriously, Rose, you shouldn't be complaining. Your hair isn't even that green. At least you don't have whiskers on yourface," he told her.

Now he'd done it.

Rose turned slowly in Emmett's direction. "My. Hair. Is. Green?" she asked in a low, threatening, dangerously calm voice.

Emmett sensed that trouble was brewing and immediately bailed through the wall before anyone could stop him.

"My hair is green?" Rose squeaked, now sounding like she was about to cry.

"It only has a green tint. It's still more blond than green," Bella tried to comfort her, patting her arm in sympathy.

"It's really not that bad," Dylan agreed with a nod.

I looked at him. The whiskers on his face looked kind of cute and the way he wiggled his nose as he looked in the mirror again only added to that.

"Okay, I think we all need to calm down a little," Jasper said and went to throw himself next to Dylan on the couch.

"Um, I'm not sure if it's escaped your attention, but my hair is green and Alice looks like some sort of freaky color show," Rose hissed.

Alice was now a purplish color. I wondered what emotion that was.

"What about me? I have whiskers and Edward sounds like a cat."

Once again, Edward made the mistake of opening his mouth. This time, it was a tweeting sound that came out.

"Sorry, I meant bird," Dylan corrected.

"You don't have as good of a reason as the others to complain this much. Emmett decided to do you a favor and had me spray perfume on your clothes," I informed Dylan.

He looked at me in confusion. "Perfume? What kind of perfume? I don't smell anything," he said, sniffing his shirt.

"Are you wearing the uniform that was laying on your chair?"

"Yeah, but I still don't smell anything."

"But I practically drenched the thing in perfume!" I insisted.

Jasper leaned over to Dylan and sniffed. "Nothing," he then said.

"I don't think I believe you. Who knows if your nose is still working after you ran into the door frame fives times in a row?"

Edward went over to Dylan and sniffed, then shook his head.

"Seriously, what's wrong with all of you? I know I sprayed the perfume on that uniform," I said in annoyance and marched over to Dylan myself. As soon as I was in his range, I was hit with the overwhelming smell. I remembered that I thought it smelled good earlier when I sprayed it on his clothes, but now I could actually smell it properly. I slowly stepped closer to Dylan, sniffing the air. "You should get your noses checked," I said absentmindedly to Edward and Jasper. Not only was the smell good, but it was very attractive. I felt like I just had to get closer to the source of it. I took the hem of Dylan's sleeve and breathed in deeply. "You really don't smell that?" I asked breathlessly.

"Chris, none of us can smell anything out of the ordinary. You started sniffing the air like crazy when you were still five steps away from him," Alice informed me.

I ignored her. I was getting far too excited by this scent. This wasn't even excitement anymore, it was a serious turn on. My mind decided then to take a vacation, which meant that I had absolutely no idea what I was doing. I was in a trance, in my own little world, when I was suddenly yanked back to reality.

"Chris? Chris!" a hand on my shoulder started shaking me.

I opened my eyes slowly and turned to see Rosalie looking at me with a worried yet amused expression.

"You sure you don't want to take Dylan to another room before you get too frisky?" she asked me with a grin.

I frowned at her. Why would I—

That's when I realized that I was straddling Dylan's lap. I turned back to him and saw him looking at me with an expression that I couldn't place. His shirt was open and my hands were both rested on his sculpted, naked chest.

"What the fuck?" I screamed and jumped up, only to fall backward on my precious butt.

"Yeah, good question," Alice nodded. "I mean, one minute you're telling us there's some scent that no one else can smell, and the next, you're kissing Dylan's neck and before we knew it, you were on his lap, biting his earlobe and undressing him."

I gawked at her in horror. I'm pretty sure that all of Bella's blushes from the day we were born couldn't compare to my face at this point.

"Not to mention you were purring," Bella added.

"I—what?" I asked in confusion, looking at her.

"Yeah, you were purring. And hissing. And roaring quietly. And I think I even heard a meow or two."

"In a weird way, it was totally hot. I might've even reconsidered my sexuality because of the way you went at it, but then I thought about it more intently and realized that if your foreplay is always that aggressive, I don't think I'd be able to keep up for long. It was hot to watch, but also kind of scary," Rose commented.

"Those were the most animalistic sex noises I've ever heard," Alice agreed.

I didn't dare look at Dylan. I just sat there, petrified on the floor at his feet.

He moved then and the scent I would now probably recognize anywhere went straight into my nose again. I could practically hear the click in my head when everything turned back to instinct as if there were a switch for that.

"Edward, Jasper, get her out of here," I heard Alice's voice in the distance.

I felt one set of arms sling around me. I struggled against them, having this inhuman need to...ravish Dylan. Not the best choice of words, but the truth.

"Chris, I think you need to get a grip on your hormones," Jasper said calmly, yet at the same time, still confusedly. He put his hand on my head, letting me calm down momentarily.

Edward dragged me out of the room and set me down a few metres away from the door in the corridor.

"Are you alright?" Jasper asked, not looking at either me nor Edward. He was talking to no one. He must be very confused.

"Yeah, I'm fine. What just happened?" I asked.

Instead of giving me a proper answer, Jasper walked back in the direction of Alice's room. He walked passed it and accidentally went into another room. He stumbled right out a few moments later, and quickly closed the door, cutting off the yelling that was coming from inside.

I shook my head at him. "Did Emmett pull a prank on me too?" I asked Edward darkly.

Edward pulled out his wand and moved it quickly as if to write in the air. A few seconds later, I realized that that was exactly what he had done.

I don't think so, floated in the air in glowing letters.

"Then what was it?"

As far as I could tell from your non-existent thoughts at that moment, it was your animal spirit again. I think your losing control of it when it just breaks out like that.

I huffed at that just as our group came out of Alice's room. Rose had somehow managed to hide her hair underneath of a beanie atop her head. Alice had a mirror in one hand and a makeup tube in the other, while adding another layer on her face. I hoped for her sake that she took at least one more tube of makeup for that. Dylan was walking behind Bella, Rose, and Alice, who was pulling Jasper along casually as he almost wandered in the wrong direction again.

"Did she calm down?" Bella asked softly.

Edward nodded.

I frowned. They were acting as if I'd tried to kill Dylan. Okay, maybe it could have been deadly for him if I had turned again, but that wasn't the point.

"Then lets hurry. We have ten minutes to get to class," Alice urged.

Edward nodded and grabbed me by the arm. I had to walk in front of him while the other girls stood between me and Dylan. I couldn't help but roll my eyes at them.

We made it a few metres south of the house before Emmett suddenly reappeared with Heidi by his side.

"Hey guys!" he greeted, acting as if nothing was wrong.

I instantly made a move to jump on him but Edward was faster and held me in place before I could do anything. The fact that he was touching me definitely wasn't a good thing because I still remembered the way Bella felt when he was touching her. I pushed that thought aside and concentrated on hissing at Emmett and ignoring Heidi as she skipped happily to Dylan's side.

"Emmett, you big oaf, what did you do to me?" I asked him. Even after Edward's explanation, I was still under the impression that this wasn't my fault. I mean, come on. There was a smell that only I could smell and the next thing I know, I'm undressing Dylan?

"I didn't do anything to you. I promised to spare you and I'm not the type to go against my word," Emmett said with honest innocence as he looked nervously at Rose and Alice who were glaring daggers at him.

Behind them, I heard Heidi sneezing like crazy. She sounded more like a dog than a human being.

"What did you have me spray on Dylan's clothes?" I demanded.

Emmett opened his mouth to answer when suddenly we were interrupted by Heidi snarling.

"What is it with all the animal noises today?" Rose asked, annoyed.

Heidi paid no attention to her. She looked like she was about ready to rip Dylan apart piece by piece. He seemed to notice this as well and quickly beamed away, leaving the spot where he had just been, empty.

Heidi returned to normal and looked around a little disoriented. Then she stalked off, mumbling something about a reeking smell.

I watched her leave before turning back to Emmett. "Why is she the only other one who can smell it?" I asked him.

"She's a dog, of course she can smell the cat pheromones thanks to her animal features. We just don't get to smell—oh," Emmett stopped his explanation with a sound of realization as he looked at me. "Oh shit, I totally forgot about that. I'm so sorry, Chris," he apologized with a guilty expression on his face.

"What for?" He had officially managed to confuse me.

"Cat pheromones. I just wanted to deny Dylan and Heidi any kind of contact for the day, but I forgot about you. I didn't think you'd be able to smell it, though. I thought you were human."

"I am human, thank you very much," I muttered sourly.

"So, wait, Chris didn't actually turn, she was just highly attracted to Dylan because of the pheromones?" Bella asked.

Emmett nodded.

"So Dylan has two girls chasing him today. One wants to chase him up a tree and the other one wants to play," Alice giggled and then turned yellow. Apparently the makeup couldn't be covered up.

On our way to school, everyone complained and cursed because of Emmett's pranks. It turns out, he put a Confusion Charm on Jasper that will last for the rest of the day, and Rose's hair color was supposed to be able to be washed out tonight. Edward's normal speech, however, would never return.

At least that's what Emmett told us before Edward threatened him with his eyes. Then Emmett quickly changed his mind, saying that Edward should be back to normal by the afternoon. Somehow we manged to survive the whole day, even if people looked at us funny. Well, not us, just Rose, Alice, and Jasper. Edward was able to weasel his way out of the strange gaping by not opening his mouth.

Jasper had difficulties sitting down on his chair and ended up landing on the floor twice. He also ran into three more door frames and once, he wrote his notes on the table rather than his notebook. Alice took care of him as much as she could and saved him from the humiliation of a lot more embarrassing situations. Although it was a little weird to see her leading him out of the girl's bathroom.

Even though Alice's color changing face was weird, people thought it was part of her party spirit. She handed out invitations for the party, turning every color the rainbow has to offer and entertaining all those kids by doing so. Alice, the living disco ball.

At the end of the day, we all sat exhausted in Alice's room. We'd just gotten out of the classy meetings and it seemed like they hadn't been pleasant for any of us. The Pyros had spent the time heating the whole place back up because it had cooled down too much over the last few days. That definitely wasn't something I wanted to do again any time soon.

Apparently Alice was having problems telling the difference between future and present now. She'd been using her ability so much lately that she was just getting flashes of the future without willing herself to look for them.

So we all just hung around lazily in Alice's room — me keeping a safe distance from Dylan — and listened to her list one future event after another.

"Bella will trip going up the stairs in three weeks. Some kid I don't even know will try to steal in a wand shop. The weather on April eleventh is going to be unexpectedly nice. Irina will be creeping out at night on the thirty-first of April. Bella is going to be a stunning—"

"Whoa, hold up," Emmett cut her off.

Alice blinked and seemed to be back to reality again. "What?" she asked.

"Irina? Thirty-first? Creeping out?" Emmett listed.

"Um, yeah," Alice answered.

"Awesome. Can I watch when Dylan tries to each Chris?" Emmett asked excitedly.

Both Dylan and I answered with an instant, "No," then looked at each other before I turned away, blushing.

"Are you sure about the thirty-first, Alice?" Jasper asked her. I could tell he was starting to be himself again because he was actually looking at Alice while he spoke to her now.

Alice swayed lightly from side to side, looking intently at Jasper, though her eyes didn't seem very focused. A strange thing happened this time. Her eyes didn't just glaze over like they usually did, but they also become kind of milky. Then a few seconds later, they turned back to normal and Alice's eyes became focused again.

"What just happened?" Bella and Rose asked at the same time. For some reason, everyone turned to Edward for an answer.

Edward looked at us with wide eyes and shrugged.

"I really don't know what you guys are talking about, but to answer your previous question, yes, I am sure about the thirty-first," Alice said, looking at all of us with a confused expression.

"You totally just turned Lilith on us," I told her. Everyone turned to look at me with raised eyebrows.

"What is that supposed to mean?" Alice asked.

"That means Chris is being a nerd," Rose snickered. "A Supernatural nerd."

"I am not a nerd," I denied.

"Of course you are, but that is hardly the point here," Rose turned to Alice. "Your eyes went all blank and white a minute ago."

"What?" Alice shrieked and jumped up to inspect her eyes in the mirror.

"Alice, calm down. Everything is fine now," Jasper soothed gently. "Except you're turning green."

Alice sank down to the floor next to Jasper.

"Your eyes turned white when you looked into the future," he told her quietly.

She frowned slightly. "Is my gift broken?" she suddenly asked with shock all over her face.

"That's not likely," Edward told her.

"Not necessarily true," Dylan piped. "Unstable abilities tend to get out of hand and bring some weird symptoms along. Like the green guy in your class."

"But my gift isn't unstable," Alice said, her bottom lip trembling as she looked at Jasper for reassurance.

"You can't know that yet. Abilities aren't only classified in groups but also their state. There are gifts which are really powerful, but tend to get unstable over the years depending how often you use them, and there are other that weaken over time. Then there are the really stables ones. Most people are stable," Dylan continued his lecture.

Alice jumped up off the floor again. "I'm going to Daddy now," she affirmed in a way that made her sound like a kid.

"Why do I get the feeling we're all gonna be dragged along with you?" I murmured with a sigh.

"Because you are," Alice snapped back and looked at us expectantly. We all groaned and heaved ourselves up to accompany her.

"Okay, once again, and slowly this time, please," Carlisle said when Alice stormed into the house and threw herself in his arms, starting to whine.

"I'm going to die, Daddy," she cried.

"What?"

All of us looked at her in surprise. Had she seen something on our way that we hadn't?

"Sweetie, where did you get that crazy idea from?" Carlisle asked her gently and led her to the couch to sit. He knelt in front of her and waited for her to calm down a little.

"Dylan said that—" she started, but then stopped and started sobbing instead.

What an overreaction.

Jasper was immediately by her side, comforting her, while Carlisle turned to Dylan with an angry expression.

"Dylan, what have you done this time?" he thundered so loud that Bella and I flinched. Even Edward seemed to be startled for a second.

"I—" Dylan began, but Carlisle just continued with his rant.

"I told you and Edward to stop scaring your sister with all of your nonsense. You both know Alice is sensitive to these types of things and that she'll take them seriously."

"Dad, I didn't even tell her that she was gonna die!" Dylan complained and cast an annoyed glance in Alice's direction.

Esme was now entering the living room as well, probably having heard her husband shouting.

"But you said unstable...a-and weak...and..." Alice squeaked out between her sobs.

I rolled my eyes and breathed out. "Alice, he was only talking about unstable gifts," I threw in with a groan.

"Yes, and the description suits my current situation. My gift is getting out of hand and my eyes are turning white. I'm going to die," Alice wailed. At that, we all sighed. Alice was definitely one for the dramatics.

Esme turned to her daughter. "Alice, darling, could it be that you're overreacting?" she asked in that gentle, maternal way of hers.

"No, I'm not. My gift isn't working properly anymore. I'm seeing things without looking for them, and when I do concentrate on an event, the others said my eyes turn white."

Carlisle rose his eyebrows at that and quickly dashed up the stairs. He came back a few moments later with a thick book in his hands. Hastily, he flicked through the pages and then sighed as he knelt back down in front of his daughter and took both of her hands in his. "Alice, you really are overreacting. There is nothing wrong with you, I promise," he said, looking intently at her.

"But my gift—"

"Is expanding. You know one of the reasons for the whole fair preparation is to use your gifts more in order to train them," he said and Alice nodded. "Well then you shouldn't be too surprised that it's changing. Apparently you've been working quite a lot with it."

Alice nodded again.

"See, there is no reason for you to be scared, sweetie. You're just becoming more powerful. I'm afraid you're going to need private lessons soon."

"Private lessons? Why?" Jasper asked.

"Alice seems to be a lot more of a psychic than we'd originally thought. I think she should be trained by a fortune teller as well," Carlisle resolved.

Edward stiffened a little but said nothing. I looked at him with a question mark practically stamped on my face, but his gaze was locked on his father.

"She's more of a psychic than you assumed? What does that mean?" Rose asked.

Carlisle didn't answer her right away. When he did, he said, "There is a difference between willingly seeing the future and having random visions of the future," in a low voice. "We called Alice a psychic before, although that wasn't actually the correct term. To be able to look into the future at your own will is associated with fortune telling. Those futures can be changed. A psychic, on the other hand, gets visions of a future that can't always be changed. It seems like Alice is both."

"You mean I'm special?" Alice squealed, suddenly excited. Her face turned from blue to yellow in a flash. Now the colors weren't bright anymore since they'd faded throughout the day.

Carlisle eyed her for a moment before he threw a look in Emmett's direction and shook his head a little. Apparently Emmett was very notorious for his pranks. I didn't want to know what he'd done to them the years before. Just thinking about it made me shudder.

We spent the rest of the evening hounding Carlisle with millions of questions regarding developments of our gifts. Apparently there was the possibility of our gifts either increasing or us developing a second one, which is what happened in both Dylan and Edward's case.

It was kind of odd how alike the two of them were, even though they weren't related by blood. When I mentioned it, I got my answer though.

"Dylan's mother was my sister," Esme said quietly. "She died giving birth to him and we adopted him when he was eight. He just became so attached to us over the years that he now refers to us as his parents rather than his aunt and uncle," Esme smiled fondly at her son.

Dylan didn't look like he card too much about the topic at hand. As a matter of fact, none of them even looked uncomfortable talking about it.

"And what happened to his father?" Bella and I asked at the same time.

This time, we got a reaction. Dylan's eyes darkened dangerously and Esme and Carlisle both looked a little worried. Alice and Edward, on the other hand, seemed to be just as engrossed as the rest of us who weren't a part of this family. Only now did the thought that, to Alice and Edward, Dylan was like their own brother, cross my mind. I didn't think they ever thought much about the fact that Dylan was adopted.

I smiled a little at the thought. The Cullens were truly one extraordinary family.

"You should ask Dylan if he wants to talk about it," Esme advised. Everyone's curious eyes turned to him.

Dylan froze and I guessed that no on other than Carlisle and Esme really knew what happened. "He kind of just abandoned me," Dylan said with not even a hint of emotion leaking from his voice. "One night, he just decided that he was fed up with me and left me. In the middle of no where, or at least that's what it felt like to me. A few days later, the police picked me up and tracked down Esme and Carlisle." He said it so nonchalantly that it was truly heartbreaking. If we weren't in the midst of an awkward relationship, and he didn't smell like those pheromones, I might have gone to hug him.

Instead, Alice started sniffling. "Oh Dylan, I'm so sorry!" she cried and threw herself in his arms, completely catching him off guard.

Bella went over as well with tears in her eyes as she squeezed him tightly. The most shocking was Rosalie. She had a few tears rolling down her face and went over to pat his head. He still had whiskers on his face, so I guessed it was kind of a fitting gesture.

The rest of us merely watched them with funny expressions.

Dylan looked over at me for a brief second, but his face gave nothing away. He then concentrated back on his cuddling session with the girls.

"Jealous, Cullen?" I asked Edward casually.

"Not in the slightest. Why? Are you?" he retorted with a sly smile on his face.

I huffed. "Why would I want to hug him?"

"Right, you prefer ripping his clothes off," Edward laughed and Jasper quickly joined in.

Emmett looked at us in confusion. "What did I miss?" he asked.

"After you left this morning, Chris jumped Dylan and started undressing him and purred while doing so," Jasper informed him.

I dropped my head immediately, but not without catching Esme and Carlisle's curious glances. I started to wonder when my life started becoming so horrible and even worse, when I'd started blushing so much in my life.

"Seriously girls, I'm fine," I heard Dylan complain. I looked up to see Alice, Rose, and Bella still patting Dylan as if he were a pet.

"I think the pheromones do have an effect on humans," Edward mumbled.

"What do you mean?" Emmett asked.

"They're treating Dylan like he's actually a cat," Edward said, looking at Emmett as if he were missing something obvious.

"You mean the pheromones are still on me?" Dylan asked, not sounding very thrilled.

"Of course they are. You wore your uniform most of the day, so it naturally rubbed off of it and onto your skin."

Dylan let out a frustrated groan and got up to stomp up the stairs. Of course he had to pass me on the way, which really wasn't the smartest move on his part.

I immediately jumped up and chased after him, only this time, my mind was semi-active. The smell wasn't quite as strong as before, either.

"Somebody grab her," I heard Edward shout.

I felt a pair of hands reach for me when I saw Dylan disappear right when I was about to jump on his back. Emmett had somehow managed to catch me and wanted to drag me back, but in that exact moment, I was pulled away by a familiar force.

Before I knew it, I was landing harshly on the floor of a bathroom. I cursed quietly to myself and got up. I opened the door and found myself in Dylan's room.

Maybe I didn't need him to reach me after all. I was doing a pretty decent job on my own.

I saw Dylan in front of his closet, rummaging through his clothes, before he threw a few on the couch.

I was slowly creeping toward the door, thinking of a fast escape. Now that I couldn't smell him anymore, there was no need for me to be in his range. Otherwise I'd probably sniff him to death. Damn Emmett and his stupid pranks. I mean honestly, how does someone come up with cat pheromones?

My little Mission: Impossible exit was interrupted, however, when Dylan decided to take off his shirt. Come on! How was I supposed to get out of his room when he was getting naked right in front of me? Life just wasn't fair. Or maybe life's being very, very generous to you right now, Chris...

And when I say naked, I really mean naked. When he started taking off his pants, I came to the conclusion that he was planning to shower those pheromones off of him. Fine with me, because honestly, I didn't need anymore embarrassing situations. The only thing was that I would be in my next embarrassing situation in a few moments if I didn't get out of his room. Now.

Why had my life gotten so sucky ever since we came to this school? Bella's had worked out quite well for her. She was popular, pretty, and had a boyfriend that every girl envied her for. Maybe even me, though that had less to do with the boyfriend himself compared to the fact that she actually got the guy she really wanted. And then here I was. I was popular, but that was because of the people I associated with. I was good-looking enough to not break any mirrors. And I had an ex-boyfriend who dumped me because I had some weird crush on a college guy who was currently in a relationship, although he wanted me to be his girlfriend, but I didn't want to because I had a boyfriend at the time.

Yeah, my life sucks.

But then again, maybe not, I thought as I realized Dylan's hands were already at the hem of his boxers...

And that's when I decided to sneeze.

Well, I didn't really decide anything, it just happened.

So when Dylan spun around, I was back at the conclusion that my life sucked.

Badly.

"What the..." he started, but then let his voice trail off.

"Um...hey?"

Yes, that was by far the smartest thing I'd ever said. I started to wonder why not even one person from downstairs came up to rescue me. By now, I had no doubt that Bella would know where I was. I reached through the bond to see what she was doing. I felt that I'd startled her and she quickly gestured for the others to be quiet.

What the hell were they doing?

"What the hell are you doing in my room?" Dylan asked, pulling me back to the current situation.

"Um...enjoying the view?" I immediately wanted to smack myself.

Dylan watched me with raised eyebrows. Seriously, this conversation wasn't going anywhere when he was standing there half-naked.

"I should go," I mumbled slowly and quickly went for the door. When I opened it, though, it immediately slammed shut again. I looked up to see that Dylan had pushed it closed. I turned around, looking at him with a questioning expression.

Bad move.

As soon as the all-too-familiar scent hit me, I held my breath. Dylan smirked down at me. We stood like this for a few moments until I had no choice but to breathe again. I concentrated very hard on not moving from the spot, which was by far the hardest thing I had ever done. His smirk became even more pronounced.

"Next time you drench my clothes, you should probably ask Emmett what it is first," he told me. And with that, he simply opened the door and pushed me out of his room.

Now that was probably the weirdest thing that has ever happened to me. I was kind of dumbfounded as I made my way down the stairs to join the others. I eyed them all through narrowed eyes when I saw that they were all sitting there, giggling and chuckling. Esme tried to put on a disapproving expression, but failed miserably, while Carlisle looked kind of thoughtful.

I was about to ask them what they found so funny when I heard Bella's thoughts loud and clear. She had been giving them a play-by-play. Wasn't there anyone in this world I could trust?

Bella only shook her head. "I'm sorry, but the two of you are so much like a bad TV show," she informed me.

I huffed and stomped away.

The next few days went by just as I'd expected them to. Dylan avoided the group and we barely got to see him, which resulted in me being the one who had to stand all the teasing on my own. Even my sister, the traitor, joined in.

The weekend came and we all had to be present for Alice and Emmett's birthday party. I didn't know how many people Alice had invited, but it was definitely a lot. I thought I even saw a few college kids hanging around the party, which was probably because of Dylan. And of course everywhere there were college kids, was alcohol. Alice freaked out and had them thrown out, along with Dylan. She had actually gotten two of the school's security guards to monitor her party, and she was really touchy on the whole alcohol subject. The reason for that was actually quite simple. Alice didn't have anything against it, but Carlisle had told her that if there was any alcohol involved, Alice wouldn't be allowed to celebrate another party at the house.

Bella and Edward were, of course, supporting the whole thing, while Emmett and Rose seemed to be a little disappointed. So young and already so spoiled. I really didn't care. I was in a bad mood and let it out on everyone who dared to talk to me. Eventually, half of the party guests were scared of me and left me alone, making sure to inform others to stay away from me.

At the end of the weekend, after the party, I found a note on the floor in my room. I frowned a little, but opened it anyway.

Saturday, 12:00 at my parents' house.

Dylan

A love letter was something different.

And so Saturday came and I found myself making my way to the Cullen home. Bella accompanied me for a little while, but only because she had a meeting with the Hydros.

"Good luck, Chris. And try not to kill anyone," she said as we parted ways.

I smiled tightly at her. I couldn't promise her anything.

I stopped short when I was in front of the Cullen's house. I really hoped Carlisle and Esme were at home because I knew for sure that I would not be able to deal with being alone in a house with Dylan. Not after last week. I cringed just thinking about it. I was about to ring the bell when someone called my name. I turned around.

Heidi was jogging toward me, waving like crazy. "Hey Chris," she called happily.

I just stared back at her, trying to think of when she became so gleeful. "Hey Heidi," I replied slowly after a few moments.

"Aren't you totally excited for your first lesson with Dylan today?" she asked me, smiling brightly. Something about her was weird, but I couldn't exactly put my finger on it.

"Um...sure, yeah...totally excited," I answered, sounding about as cheerful as an emo.

"Yes, yes, I'm sure you are. You know, I think it's very sweet of him to teach you how to use the giftstone. Other guys would just ignore the girl as soon as they lost interest, but he's nice enough to try to keep up a friendsh—"

"Wait, wait. What?" I asked in confusion. What was she talking about?

Heidi looked at my surprised expression and then sighed an oddly sympathetic sounding sigh. "I knew it might be like that, but Dylan just didn't believe me. He said you knew that you were just friends, but it's so obvious that you like him." I continued to stare at her like an idiot. "I'm sorry to have to tell you this, but you need to realize that Dylan doesn't care for you as much as he did before. I'm his girlfriend now," Heidi told me and a strange smile of satisfaction spread across her face.

I just shook my head at that. "When did he tell you that?" I asked her with an amused smile.

"He told me last week." Now the smile on her face vanished.

"I'm sure it was very sincere since you're not just one of his many girlfriends."

"I'm not just one of his girlfriends. I am the one that he will eventually stick with," she said, sounding so convinced that I almost laughed.

"That's great. I'm sure he already made a giftstone for you," I responded sarcastically.

If there had been any friendliness left in her features, it was gone now. "He only gave you a stone because at that point, he wasn't as mature as he is now. He didn't think about his actions and I forgave him for that. I don't need a stone to have his feelings for me confirmed. I know that he loves me, and you should just give any hope you have up now because you are nothing to him," she hissed. Now I realized why I thought something was wrong with her earlier.

She was jealous.

"I'm sure he's matured a lot over the last four months," I replied and finally rang the doorbell.

A second later, Dylan opened the door. I didn't bother greeting him and just stalked in, mainly because I knew what was going to come next. All of us had hung out with Heidi and Dylan often enough to know how they greet each other.

"I missed you," she attempted to purr, but being the dog she was, she failed.

Dylan murmured something back to her that I couldn't make out, but I heard he low, deep rumbling of his voice.

I ignored the urge to puke all over Esme's beautiful carpet and instead went upstairs.

"Hey, where do you think you're going?" I heard Dylan call after me.

I rolled my eyes to myself. "To Neverland, isn't it obvious?" I walked straight into his room and went to sit on his sofa.

Dylan and Heidi entered not too long after me.

"I don't recall saying I was going to teach you in my room," Dylan complained.

I thought about the last time I was in his room. It probably wasn't the best idea I'd ever had, but there was no way that I would admit that.

"Do you want to start the lesson any time soon?" I asked, doing my best to sound bored and unaffected by the fact that Heidi was constantly running her hands up and down his body. It was just so irritating, but then again, I found everything about her irritating.

Dylan sighed and looked back and forth between the two of us before he moved to the closet wall and pulled out his wand. He started the lesson then. "The most important thing about teleportation is concentration. You need to have your mind fixed on landing in an empty space on the floor. It works best when you know where you want to land because then you can really decide where you want to reappear, but if you have never seen the place, you should at least imagine landing on the floor safely with nothing in your way. Believe me, you don't wanna get stuck in a wall."

Heidi let out a laugh that sounded so fake that I had to roll my eyes. That wasn't even the slightest bit funny. Even Dylan quickly threw her an annoyed glance.

"Another thing that you really have to keep in mind is not to slack while teleporting. It's only a few milliseconds, but that's enough time to make a mistake," he said. "Step one is to concentrate on leaving the place you're currently at. You just need to forget about the place you are. Step two is to concentrate on your own body; you can't have the force pull you away. When you do that, you automatically get to step three, which is concentrating on your goal. Now you've already beamed due to emotional outbursts, which means that you let the force just grab you. You need to push against it—"

I was momentarily distracted by Heidi. It was amazing to watch how she was desperately trying to show me that she and Dylan were an item. She nodded at every word he said as if he were teaching her instead of me, and she had that annoying smile constantly plastered on her face. Dylan didn't see that, though, because he was busy writing the steps on the wall with his wand as he listed them. But every time he turned to see if I was still listening, she sat up straighter and smiled even wider. And when he was pacing back and forth while talking, she would let her hand touch him as soon as he was close to her. It was sickening really.

Dylan was saying something about astral planes when I noticed that Heidi seemed to be keen on squeezing his butt. At least she tried to grab it anytime he was in reach, and she looked like she was entranced or something. I could only imagine her with a wagging tail.

I grinned at the thought.

Heidi turned her attention to me for a short second and looked at me arrogantly as if to remind me of our talk from earlier. I considered laughing at her for believing the nonsense Dylan had apparently told her just last week, probably the same day I attacked him. Of course it would cross his mind just then that I meant absolutely nothing to him and she was number one in his life. That seemed a little...well, untrue. I was pretty sure I'd get a reaction that showed Dylan's interest in me.

My mind had already started coming up with evil ways to destroy Heidi's hopes by letting her see that Dylan lied to her. When I eventually came up with a plan, I looked at Heidi, whose attention was back on a certain part of Dylan's anatomy, and giggled.

"Chris, did you even listen to anything I said?" Dylan asked exasperatedly.

"No, I'm sorry, I was distracted by the dog sniffing your butt," I replied sweetly and watched Heidi's outraged expression with a smile on my face.

"Chris, can't you just be nice for once?"

I got up from the couch and went over to Dylan's king-sized bed. I threw myself on it and stretched my body in a very cat-like manner.

"Sorry, I can't do that. I'm just a naughty girl," I purred with a wink.

Dylan stared at me wide-eyed and I was pretty sure he was close to drooling.

I looked at Heidi with a triumphant expression. If she ever walked up to me again to tell me that I was meaningless to Dylan, I would have to remind her of this moment.

"You stupid little—" Heidi started shrieking, but I stopped her.

"Do you really want to insult me? I don't react too well to that, and I'm sure you don't want me to get angry," I said as an evil smile spread across my face before I went back to lolling on Dylan's bed. It was surprisingly comfortable and I let out a contented sigh.

"Dylan! Stop staring at her and do something!" Heidi complained.

"Heidi, we should talk," he said slowly and before I could even look up, the two of them had already vanished from the room.

I smiled smugly to myself, oddly content at my achievement. I sunk back into Dylan's pillows and waited patiently.

I waited...

And waited...

And waited...

And eventually I fell asleep.

I was awoken roughly when something heavy dropped on the mattress, causing my body to fly up a little. I looked around, a little disoriented, and saw Dylan lying next to me, cursing. I yawned and rubbed my eyes.

He immediately stopped his profanities and looked at me. "Sorry, I didn't mean to wake you. I wasn't concentrating on the right thing," he murmured. His words make no sense to me, so I ignored them.

"What took you so long?" I looked at my watch and saw that it was already passed three.

Dylan sighed. "I only wanted to ban her from our lessons because she was so distracting, but she did not take that too well."

"You argued, huh?"

"You could say that." I noticed then that something about his voice was different. Was it really that bad? If it was, was it my fault?

"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to mess things up between you two," I mumbled.

Dylan POV

I sighed in frustration when Heidi angrily stomped away.

I couldn't say that I regretted breaking up with her, even if that hadn't been my intention. I'd merely asked her to let me teach Chris without her presence, but she didn't take it too well. I'd already known that she viewed Chris as a threat, but I didn't know that it was that bad until she began a one hour speech on how she was so much better than Chris and every other girl for that matter. I didn't listen to her because speeches like that just didn't interest me. When she was finally done talking, she'd managed to irritate me so much that I broke it off without a second thought.

Of course that didn't sit well with her either. She then started to argue and tried persuading me to start all over again. She even promised to become best friends with Chris.

But the truth was, I was tired. Tired of girls who clung to me as if their life depended on it, and tired of going from one girl to the next. They were all the same. Each one of them was like everlasting glue, sticking to me, and so possessive that I felt like a trophy rather than a human being.

That was probably the reason why I'd taken such a great interest in Chris. She wasn't like that. She didn't care about who I was. She treated me exactly like she treated everybody else, if not even worse. She also didn't appreciate my constant presence.

It sounded kind of messed up, to be honest, but that's just how it was.

I imagined being with her would be like being on a vacation, away from all these crazy fan girls. Some of them actually only wanted to be with me just so they could get to Edward, which was even more messed up than my relationship with Chris.

Thinking of Chris reminded me that I'd left her in my room. On my bed.

I beamed back to my room, but the thought of Chris on my bed threw me off focus, causing me to land on my bed with a thud. The downside to beaming was that sometimes your desires are stronger than your actual thoughts and you end up somewhere you didn't want to land.

I heard a soft thump from my side. It seemed that Chris was still on my bed and I'd probably made her fly high in the air when I landed. I cursed the workings of the human mind until I heard a soft yawn coming from beside me. I looked at Chris and saw that she was no longer playing sexy kitten on my bed, but that she'd actually fallen asleep.

I must have been gone longer than I'd thought.

Seeing the way she rubbed her eyes made me smile a little. "Sorry," I apologized to her. "I didn't mean to wake you. I wasn't concentrating on the right thing." I turned to stare at the ceiling.

After years and years of practice, you'd think I'd be able to beam to the right spot at the right time whenever I wanted. But one mere thought of this girl managed to throw me off and make me land somewhere entirely different. I mean, in this case, it wasn't too bad, but still, I was lecturing her on the importance of concentration and yet, I couldn't get it right myself. I didn't want to end up becoming a hypocrite.

"What took you so long?" Chris asked softly. Usually there was some odd kind of power and confidence in her voice, but right now, she resembled her sister a lot more than I thought possible. Bella was probably influencing her sister more than everyone thought.

I sighed at having to answer her question. "I only wanted to ban her from our lessons because she was so distracting, but she did not take that too well."

"You argued, huh?" And there was a hint of the usual Chris attitude.

"You could say that." I didn't know if I should tell her about the break up. Was it really something I should just bring up like that?"

"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to mess things up between you two," Chris mumbled, still sounding a little sleepy. She sounded sincere, not teasing and sarcastic like she usually did. I wondered if she was always like this after she woke up.

"I don't think you messed anything up," I told her.

Chris looked at me, but she didn't say anything. For a few moments, we both just laid there, looking at each other. But then she flinched.

I scanned the room quickly to see if there was anything that could have startled her, but there was nothing. I looked back at her. She was squeezing her eyes shut with her lips pressed tightly together.

"Stop, dammit," she hissed out through clenched teeth and looked like she was struggling against something. Her whole body was tense and I didn't know what was wrong with her.

"Chris, are you okay?" I asked her. I didn't get an answer. She wasn't sick, was she? I put my hand on her forehead. She was very warm. So maybe she was sick. But why so suddenly?

Then she relaxed without warning and reached for my hand. She put it on her cheek and smiled gently.

That was very unlike Chris.

"Chris, are you okay?" I repeated urgently. "Talk to me, Chris," I pressed when I got no answer.

Instead, she decided to pull my head closer to hers.

I knew oh too well where this would lead and I wasn't sure if this had anything to do with her fever. Before I knew it, she was kissing me. But something was different. By now, I could tell how she kissed and that something was wrong. I tried to beam out of her arms, but the thing is, I couldn't think of a place I'd rather be now and I really didn't want to land on the astral plane.

So I just let her kiss me. Hell, I kissed her back. In a far corner of my mind, I still knew that something was wrong, but at the same time, I also knew that there was nothing more I wanted right now. The kiss deepened, and while I was enjoying it just like any other normal male, I was also worried where this would lead. Sure, I'd kissed Chris before, that was nothing new, but this time, I was practically lying on top of her.

And then I heard a sound that made me think my heart was going to stop.

Chris moaned. But she didn't just moan. She moaned a name.

And it wasn't mine.

"Edward," was what she said and I froze.

Edward? Why in the world is she thinking of Edward?

I pulled back and looked at her face. Her eyes were closed and her lips still puckered, but she hadn't noticed that I'd pulled away. I detangled myself from her and watched as she reached out for me, but only managed to grasp thin air.

Was I missing something?

So, I wasn't always with my siblings anymore, but Edward wouldn't have gone behind Bella's back, with Chris no less, would he?

Now that I looked at Chris and saw she was still reaching out, I came to realize that she wasn't conscious. Right. She had a fever. It still didn't explain the Edward thing, though.

And then without warning, Chris sat up and started screaming. Out of instinct, I clamped my hand down on her mouth. That's how Edward and I had always gotten Alice to shut up when she randomly started screaming. Chris looked at me with wide eyes and then she bit me. I immediately withdrew my hand and hissed. She looked at me with a frown and moved from the bed.

She looked angry as she stomped to the door. I reacted fast and beamed to block her way.

"Would you mind telling me what just happened?" I asked her breathlessly.

"Your stupid brother happened," she hissed back.

"Ah, yes, my brother. Why exactly were you moaning his name while kissing me?" I was pretty sure jealously was evident in my voice.

Chris looked at me in surprise. Her eyes widened in shock and then she slowly backtracked. I watched her as she went to sit on the couch. "I kissed you?" she asked.

I nodded.

She buried her face in her hands and started cursing Edward, and apparently Bella, to the deepest, fiery pits of Hell. That made no sense to me, so I just stood there and waited for her to finish her rant. When she finally did, she looked up at me.

I'm so sorry. I don't know why, but if there is a God, he highly enjoys watching me jump you at every given moment," she blabbered. "It wasn't me who kissed you, it was Bella," she finally answered. If there was a prize for being the most confused person in the world, I would have won it right then. Chris saw my expression and elaborated. "Bella and Edward are currently enjoying each other's presence a little too much. It starts out normal, like studying, and the next thing you know, they're making out like...like...like teenagers," she huffed and started pacing around.

I couldn't help but chuckle at her comparison.

"It's not funny," she hissed. "This happens every time Bella gets too excited. It's really annoying. Her feelings for Edward are too strong. She pulls me into her mind with it, letting me experience the whole thing first hand."

"So Bella pulls you into her mind when she's kissing Edward?" I asked, trying to process everything.

"Pretty much, yeah. I feel everything. It's horrible and gross. I'm not sure what I'm supposed to do if they decide to have sex one day, and then—" she stopped her train of thought with a shudder.

"So you didn't even know you were kissing me?"

She looked at me and her face turned thoughtful. "You pulled away at some point, didn't you?" she asked.

I nodded.

"That's why the tingling lessened," she murmured and I wasn't sure if it was even meant for my ears. "I don't think I really noticed, though of course there is always the whole subconscious thing, but as far as I know..." she let her voice trail off.

I wasn't sure what to make of this information. On one hand, I was relieved that she hadn't been fantasizing about Edward. On the other hand, I was...I guess you could say disappointed that she hadn't willingly kissed me. And then there was the third hand that I didn't have, on which it was also good that it wasn't her kissing me because that proved to me that there really had been something different about her kiss.

I sighed and ran a hand through my hair.

Chris caught the movement and shifted from one foot to the other. Whatever that meant. "So, you want to go or continue our very messed up lesson?" Chris asked, trying to sound casual.

"Depends if you can sit through it without falling asleep or attacking me," I replied.

"If you're doing a good job with distracting me, I should be safe from Edward and Bella."

"Well then I guess we should continue."

She nodded and I started where I'd left off earlier.

I had to explain the whole matter of getting stuck on the astral plane to her. I remembered when Mr. Decour was lecturing me about it. I'd been bored to death. It just sounded so complicated and scientific. The astral plane is something like a parallel world to our universe, but at the same time, it isn't. It's part of this earth, but not part of our world, and it's in between time and space. Back in the day, I'd gotten a headache when I heard that.

The astral plane was all around us, but cut off from our world. But it was also connected to it. If I were to beam to the exact same place where my room is, only on the astral plane, I could write a message at the place where my wall should be in our world and it would appear for the person who was in my room at the time to read. It was highly complicated, because even though it was the same place, it didn't look the same. It was very close to the world of the dead and from what I knew, it just so happened that there actually were some souls who'd gotten lost on their journey and landed in the astral plane.

Chris didn't look too confused by the whole thing, so I continued with my lesson.

There was a simple reason why I'd brought up the astral plane. Since it was in between time and space, it was the only place that I always entered each time I beamed from one place to another. The pulling force came from there and I'd managed to get stuck there once for about three days.

Theoretically, I could purposely go to the astral plane, simply by beaming with no goal or letting the force pull me along. But since I was too trained to just allow that to happen, I didn't think that it would actually work very well. For Chris, it was a little different though. All she had to do was lapse in her concentration and she might end up there, and since the giftstone wasn't powerful enough to beam her all around the place, I wasn't sure if she would be able to make it back on her own. I made sure that Chris understood the importance of concentration, and at the end of the day when I was done with my lecture, she had indeed been so concentrated that she needed a while to get back to reality.

I saw her off and watched after her as she walked away back to the dorms.

I wondered if it was really wise to let her go with Alice to spy on these weirdo psychos.

The remaining weeks of the month passed in a blur. I still hadn't told the others about my break up with Heidi, which was mostly because I barely spent any time with them. Between school and classy meetings, I still had the training sessions with Chris.

We used every free minute for that, and when we got to the practical part, we started working outside due to the nice weather.

"I don't get what you're trying to tell me," Chris whined when I tried to show her how to land precisely.

I groaned and showed her again. "Look at that tree over there. You want to land right in front of it, so you have to imagine yourself there as soon as you're in the force. First, think of yourself away from where you are now, and then imagine yourself where you want to be," I told her for the third time. It was also the third time I'd showed her. I quickly beamed to the spot in front of the tree that Chris should be concentrating on and then back to her side.

"But how am I supposed to think myself away?" she complained.

"Haven't you ever thought of wanting to be anywhere but the place you're at?"

"Are you telling me you don't want to be here with me?" she asked me with wide eyes.

I threw her a look and she immediately turned serious, although I could still see a little grin on her face.

"Okay, give me your hand," I instructed. She did as I asked without hesitation. "You do exactly what I told you, and I will come along in case something goes wrong. I'll pull you along until it's safe for me to let go, but you have to do the landing on your own."

Chris scrunched up her nose, but nodded anyway. Until now, she had never actively beamed. The last few lessons I had taken her along to get her used to the force and let her dominate it.

"On the count of three. One...two...three," and with that, I put my focused my concentration on landing in front of that tree. When we were halfway there, I let go of Chris' hand and stood exactly where I wanted to.

Chris appeared a moment later, but not where she was supposed to. She crashed into the tree. As soon as she collided with it, she started to fall, but I caught her before any serious damage could be inflicted.

"That hurt," she mumbled, rubbing her forehead.

I looked at her. "I believe th—you're bleeding."

She looked at her hand, surprised to find blood there. She sighed. "Whatever you do, don't bring me to the hospital," she warned.

"Wouldn't dream of it," I responded with a grin, and a second later, we stood beside my mother in the kitchen.

She jumped. "Jesus, don't startle me like that," she complained, holding her hand to her heart and using the other to smack me lightly.

"I'm sorry, but Chris injured herself," I told her and set Chris down on her feet.

Esme instantly saw the damage and led Chris to the counter to sit on one of the stools. Then she quickly hurried away to grab her first aid kit.

"You'll be back to normal in no time," I flashed Chris a smile.

She rolled her eyes.

Esme rushed back in and started to mend Chris, all while asking her how in the world she'd managed to collide with a tree.

Five minutes later, there wasn't even a single scratch left on Chris' forehead, and Esme shooed us out of her kitchen.

After that, the rest of our lessons went without injuries. When Chris actually managed to get from one spot to another, we had to lessen our training time because all of the work we were putting into training not only weakened the stone, but also Chris. She even fell asleep during our training twice. I had to bring her into her room then and make sure that Bella took care of her.

Bella and Edward were sort of the outcasts of the group right now. The two of them were currently in their "honeymoon phase" as Alice called it. They cut themselves off from the group and went on date after date — they actually flew around campus on a broom — and spent endless time in either one of their rooms. What they were doing in their rooms was no secret, either, because Chris tended to get pulled away every now and then, sometimes even in the middle of a conversation. Hearing her say exactly the same words Bella was telling Edward was highly amusing to Emmett and Jasper, while Rose and Alice tried to act as if they found their boyfriend's amusement childish.

One week before she had her big beaming debut, I taught Chris how to teleport with a passenger. We needed Alice to participate in that, which meant that our lessons were no longer private since the whole group decided to tag along. Chris didn't seem to mind that, as a matter of fact, she seemed to be a lot more carefree ever since...well, ever since we started these lessons. I guessed that the improving weather was effecting her.

Our lessons with Alice didn't go as well as I'd hoped. Chris was already pretty decent at beaming on her own, but when she tagged Alice along, she seemed to make the same mistakes she did in the beginning.

"Okay, you know what? I think I have to take you halfway next week, but you'll have to manage the rest and beaming out, so you better work on your concentration," I told her.

Alice didn't find any of this very thrilling because she didn't want to end up in a pile of dirt. I told her that was highly unlikely, but decided to leave out the part about there being a possibility of landing, and getting stuck, on the astral plane.

On the thirtieth, the whole group seemed to be strangely excited as we sat together, listening to Jasper's plan, that evening.

"Okay, tonight is the night," he started.

"Tonight?" Emmett exclaimed. "I thought it was the thirty-first?"

"Yes, tonight. Or tomorrow morning — however you want to see it. At one thirty sharp, right, Alice?" Jasper asked and glanced at his girlfriend.

She nodded.

"Why can you see that now?" Rose asked curiously.

"She slipped up once, enabling me to see the date, and now that we're all set on doing this, I can see our future, which is now entangled with hers because of this," Alice explained briefly.

We all gave understanding nods before turning back to Jasper, who was standing in front of us.

"Alright, soldiers," he started and I'm sure we all rolled our eyes at him. "Dylan will get the twins and Edward out, and Emmett will take the rest. We meet behind the elementary school." Every nodded. "That means that Dylan, you should probably be with them in the first place."

"What is that supposed to mean?" Emmett asked. He was really slow today.

"That means we're having a sleepover without you," Chris answered and stuck her tongue out at him.

"How are we supposed to get to the elementary school? And why there?" Bella asked, ignoring Chris and Emmett's little banter.

"Excellent questions," Jasper approved. I started to get the feeling that he'd been reading, and watching, way too much about war. He was acting like one of those commanders or whatever they were called. He quickly pulled out a layout of the school's compound. "See, here is the elementary school," Jasper said and pointed to a corner of the campus. The school was right at the edge of the forest. "If we go through the woods here—" he drew a line where he wanted us to walk through, "—we should land right behind the conference building."

"Are you sure we should all be lingering around there?" Edward asked.

Jasper thought about it for a moment. "You're right," he said thoughtfully. It seemed like he was quickly calculating something. "Edward and Emmett be waiting behind the building with me. If something goes wrong, we'll be there," he then said.

"Why only the three of you?" Rose and I asked at the same time.

"Edward will keep tabs on the thoughts — hopefully they didn't pop any blockers. If they did, then I'll keep tabs on the emotional climate, and if something goes wrong, Emmett will go in and get the girls out of the building immediately, and Edward will be able to get them away from there fast."

"Shouldn't I be with you, then?" I asked.

"No. Nobody knows if Chris is going to land precisely. You said the furthest she's been off was 330 feet, so the others will be rounding the building in exactly that range, and you will go with Rose and Bella in case you have to get them out."

"So we're going to be walking around the woods?" Rose inquired in disbelief.

"Not entirely," Jasper answered. "The junction that leads into the street will be part of your little walk, but you have to be very careful to make sure no one sees you there."

"And what if I'm not 330 feet off?" Chris asked in annoyance.

"Depending on which group you land closest to, you will join them. And before you even ask, it will be quite easy to tell which you are closer to. If it's close to the building, come to us, if it's far, inform Bella and join them."

"How are we supposed to communicate with one another?" Emmett queried.

"That's simple. Bella, Chris, and Edward. There will be no mind shielding of any sort," he looked strictly at Chris. "If Edward loses contact even once, I will storm in there with no regard for losses." There was a strange vibe of bloodlust coming from Jasper and I figured it had to do with Alice being in the immediate zone of danger. I understood why he was so protective better than I thought I would.

"Okay, that's all fine and dandy, but what if something goes wrong? What if me and Alice are discovered?" Chris asked. Not the train of thought I preferred.

"Edward will know and we'll go in there as fast as we can," Jasper replied calmly, though he'd already said it before.

"Yes, I heard that earlier, but you don't honestly think it'll just work like that, do you?"

"Well, Bella would be informed as well, and Dylan would join. Since he can control the situation to an extent, I think we'll be fine. Edward and Dylan are our secret weapons in this case. All of that mixed with me trying to control the emotional climate as well as I can. I don't think there's much that can go wrong."

I thought about it. I hadn't found a hole in his plan. Not yet, that is.

"But you're not that powerful and we don't know how many of them there are," Alice threw in. "So what if you can't make it?"

"Simple. As soon as something goes off track, Bella and Rose will go get help. Mr. Decour's house is the closest, but it'd be even better if you drew the attention of the security guards." He quickly showed them where Mr. Decour lived. "Anymore questions?" Everyone shook their heads. "Okay. The mission starts at one thirty. We'll meet at the school at one forty-five at the latest. If the other group is not there by then, go back," he looked at us with a strict expression. "We will separate in the woods at two o'clock. Chris, Alice, Emmett, Edward, Dylan, and I will reach the building about five minutes later. Dylan, Chris, and Alice will take off and Dylan will go join the girls who stayed exactly where we separated." He took a deep breath before continuing, "Chris and Alice will not spend more than ten minutes in there, no matter how interesting it gets. If no one is there, you should let us know and we'll think about giving you more time, but seriously, no more than ten minutes. After those ten minutes are up, you beam out of the room and let Edward and Bella know that you are no longer in there. You'll probably need about five minutes to join either one of the groups. The two groups will make their way back as soon as Chris and Alice are safely with either one of them, and we will meet back at the elementary school again, in the exactly spot we dispersed. After that, we'll return the same way we came, using two different routes as not to draw any attention to our large group. There are no more questions, am I correct?" We all nodded hastily and Jasper smiled in satisfaction before showing us the two routes we were to take on the map.

As the evening drew closer, everyone seemed to become nervous rather than excited. I went through the basics of teleportation with Chris again, without letting her use it, because I knew she needed the stone to be at it's best, full with energy.

Alice and Jasper sat together, going over the plan. Alice tried to see if there were and flaws in it, and apparently, there weren't, which didn't help reassure Jasper even in the slightest because he knew that the future could change at any moment.

Bella and Edward were working on her shield because she was suddenly having a little difficulty keeping her mind open. From what I gathered, it was because she'd gotten very good at closing off her mind, while Chris was the opposite.

Rose and Emmett were sitting together in a corner, complaining about feeling left out and underestimated. I shook my head at them.

When curfew time rolled around, Rose, Emmett, Alice, and Jasper all left, telling us to get some sleep. The funny thing about our supervisors was that they didn't care if there was anyone in the wrong house after curfew, they only cared if we tried to get out of the house after curfew. Sometimes I thought our principal had hired a bunch of idiots.

"Bella and I sleep in my bed, you boys can have her bed," Chris exclaimed happily and started to tug Bella along. Bella didn't look too impressed with this plan. Chris noticed and groaned. "There is no way we are sleeping in your bed; it has Edward germs in it."

Bella's expression stayed the same. I looked at Edward to see him watching the twins with raised eyebrows and an amused smile.

Chris turned to glare at him. "This is all your fault," she snapped.

It took me a moment to grasp that Chris and Bella had apparently had a discussion in their heads. But it didn't take a genius to figure out that Bella wanted to share her bed with Edward.

Chris stormed out of the room, leaving the door open behind her. I only stared.

"Go," Bella urged with a roll of her eyes.

I scrambled to grab my bag, which contained sleeping clothes and black clothes for our mission later, and quickly followed Chris. She was muttering something under her breath and it didn't sound too happy.

"I'll sleep on the couch," I informed her as she rummaged through her closet.

She looked up at me in surprise and then she grinned. "I think you're too tall for that," she noted. She was right. Her couch was definitely not made for my size.

I shrugged. "There's always the floor."

She sighed. "That's complete nonsense. If anyone sleeps on the couch, it'll be me, but I'm not going to because the last time I did, my back hurt like crazy."

"So, what's your solution then?

"We'll stay up until it's time to go," she said enthusiastically. I looked at her with raised eyebrows and she rolled her eyes. "That was a joke. You're supposed to laugh."

Just to annoy her, I stared with a blank expression. Apparently that didn't work too well because a small grin made it's way onto my face and she shook her head slightly when she spotted it. Then she went back to digging through her closet and muttering curses and profanities under her breath.

"Seriously Chris, you don't have to do anything you don't wa—"

"Yes, I do. If Bella and Edward are sleeping in the same bed, then they're probably going to start up again. Maybe they'll think logically and see that they really need the sleep, but then again, maybe they won't and then I'll have to stand every minute of it," she hissed before turning to me with an apologetic smile. "I'm sorry, I just don't like the situation. There has to be some way to turn this connection off, otherwise it might work the other way around sometime and I really don't want that."

I just nodded, knowing there was nothing else I could do.

She grinned at me. "I really have nothing against you sharing my bed with me tonight. It might piss off Heidi, though."

"No, it won't," I said dryly. "I broke up with her."

That caught her attention. She halted in her motions for a moment. "Oh," was all she said.

I rolled my eyes at her reaction.

She turned around with a thoughtful frown. "When did you break up with her?" she asked me, sounding as if she remembered something.

I looked away from her.

"So it was when you got into your argument a few weeks ago, huh? No wonder she's been glaring daggers at me ever since then. I thought it was because you fought..." she let her voice trail off as she continued to rummage through her closet. I started wondering what she was looking for, but when I saw the chaos she called a closet, I wasn't even surprised she was talking so long to find whatever it was she was searching for. "Why didn't you tell me, or anyone for that matter?" she asked abruptly, turning back to face me.

I shrugged. "It didn't come up."

She eyed me suspiciously and then went back and starting to literally throw things out of her closet now. The way she did it made me think that it was the regular way she looked for things in that mess, but she'd been trying not to because I was there. That was probably because she started throwing her underwear all over the place, as well as her other clothes. After a few minutes, she found what she was looking for and quickly gathered her things. She looked up at me and I hurriedly looked away, wanting to make it seem as if I hadn't been looking. Knowing Chris, she'd probably throw a fit.

"Should I be worried that you of all people are scared to look at girls underwear? Not that I care, but I thought you were player number one," she said casually. I wondered why she had been so easy going and casual with me the last few days.

I turned to look at her with an expression that showed I didn't appreciate being called a player.

She only giggled at that and held up a pair of white lace panties. "Remember these?" she asked, still giggling.

My eyes widened. Who was this girl and what had she done with Chris? I nodded to answer her question anyway. I remembered her first day. It seemed like it had been years rather than months since then.

Looking at us now, I realized that we'd both changed so much over time, though Chris' changes were kind of minor. The fact that she was so easy going these days could just be a phase. But I was definitely not the same as before. Come to think of it, I thought a lot had changed in our group. Nobody actually seemed to have noticed the changes that the twins brought because it had just felt so normal.

Before the twins' arrival, I'd barely spent any time with Alice, Edward, Rose, Jasper, or Emmett. Well, I did hang out with Edward every now and then, but I was mostly around my friends that were the same age as I. Since the twins arrived, I'd kind of lost touch with them. I only hung out with Sam and Jared at school. Also, Edward spent a lot more time with his friend, Mason, who had always set him up with one girl after another, which is actually the reason for Edward's heartbreaker reputation. As for Rose, Jasper, Alice, and Emmett, I knew that they'd been a lot closer to each other than the rest of us, but they went off a lot more often as couples.

And then the twins arrived.

I was at the basketball court with Sam and Jared, sitting on one of the benches after the game. Jared was currently telling us all about some girl that he'd taken out the day before. Just as we were in the middle of our guy talk, that annoying bundle of energy that happens to be my sister suddenly appeared with her shadow right behind her.

Jasper sometimes seemed more like Alice's shadow to me than her boyfriend, which was fine with me. A shadow wouldn't start any naughty things with my baby sister.

As much as I loved the little pixie, I really didn't want her around in that moment, though. No guy ever wants his little sister around when he's hanging out with the guys.

"Alice, what do you want?" I asked her with a somewhat annoyed sigh before she could even open her mouth.

"You're coming with us," she commanded.

I looked at her as if she'd lost her mind. She never just came around and demanded my presence. She only did that for special occasions.

"Alice, it's not Halloween yet," I informed her and nudged Jared to stop him from laughing, which I knew he was about to do.

"I know that, thank you very much, you idiot. I just said you're coming with us."

"Hey Al, why don't you and your boyfriend go find Edward and ask him if he'll play with you?" Sam asked her, talking to her as if she were a little kid.

I snickered a little at that. Alice didn't look too happy though.

"We'll do that in a moment, but first, we'll take Dylan with us," she insisted.

"And why would you do that?" I asked.

Alice sighed and it looked like she'd given up. But that's just what it seemed like. She looked up at me and smiled that sweet smile of hers, which I knew wasn't sincere.

"I just had a vision of us sitting by the fountain and you were with us, so you better come."

"You do know that the future you see can change, right?"

"Of course. Well, I thought you wanted to come because I saw the new girls coming up to talk to us wearing nothing more than short shorts and sport tops. You know, the ones that look more like sports bras," she said and I saw a dangerous twinkle in her eyes. She knew she had me.

Damn that pixie and that annoying, hot new girl.

Only the possibility of seeing some naked skin made me come along. It had nothing to do with the girl herself.

Alice sensed my surrender and grabbed my arm to drag me away.

A few minutes later, we were standing at Rosalie's door, Alice's little fist poised to knock. Judging by the giggling and grumbling that came from inside, I knew that Emmett was probably in there as well. Alice knocked harshly, cutting off Rosalie's giggling.

Blondie opened the door, her hair looking seriously ruffled.

I bit back a grin.

"TV time with Emmett is over," Alice announced and pushed the door open a little further to reveal Emmett, who was laying on the couch and in fact watching TV. From the looks of it, Rosalie had just been laying there with him.

"But I wanted to see that," Emmett whined, pouting.

"Not today. We're going to see the new girls and change our lives forever," Alice declared.

Rose rolled her eyes. Apparently she was used to hearing these kinds of things from Alice. "You said that last year when you wanted to go to the football game, too," Rose noted.

"Yes, and I was right because that day you met Royce, who introduced you to Emmett a few days later when you bumped into them."

Rose didn't seem to have an answer for that and just shut the door.

"I guess she doesn't want to come," I commented and turned to leave.

"Of course she does," Alice said like it was the most obvious thing in the world. "She's just getting dressed."

And she was right. Two minutes later, the door opened again and a properly styled Rosalie stepped out with Emmett by her side.

"I guess we're going to get Edward now?" I asked with a sigh.

Alice nodded and led the way to the fountain where Edward was seated with Mason.

"Dude, I think the kindergarten wants to talk to you," Mason said to Edward, who turned to see Alice stalking toward him, followed by Rose and their two guys. I just trailed behind and tried to look like I wasn't with them.

"What's wrong, Alice?" Edward asked in a tone that showed he was expecting something entirely ridiculous.

"We are going to befriend the new girls," Alice informed him.

Edward only nodded, not to agree with her, but probably because he'd already heard it in her mind.

"The new girls? As in the twins?" Mason asked.

Alice nodded eagerly.

"Man, you should totally befriend them. I heard that they were smokin'. You can choose which ever one you like; I want the other," he said and laughed at his own 'joke'. If he only knew that the twins didn't even really look alike.

"Dude, they don't look the same," Emmett told him dryly and managed to interrupt Mason's laughter.

"Seriously? Aw man, that sucks. Which one's hotter?" Mason asked Emmett with eagerness in his voice.

"The one that bursts into flames first," Jasper said. He and Emmett both found that one funny and sniggered.

I just rolled my eyes at their childishness, and so did Mason.

"Okay, well I'm out. I'll leave you alone with the kindergarten, but tell me all about those girls later," Mason said to Edward before he strolled away.

"Alice, this is completely ridiculous. It's not your job to make the future come true," Edward complained.

"Yes it is. Now can you please let me do my job, just this once?" she asked him, pleading with her eyes.

Edward sighed in defeat.

"Thank you!" Alice beamed brightly. "Now all of you just sit and look pretty."

"I don't look pretty," I protested.

"Whatever. Nobody cares about your self esteem issues," Rose snapped.

Instead of honoring her with a retort, I sat down.

We spent an entire hour sitting outside as Alice attempted to get all of us in a good mood with her mindless chatter. She didn't succeed, but seeing as my mood wasn't entirely down, it was good enough for me. I was just thinking about leaving the group when Alice suddenly jumped up.

"Hey ladies, where are you going looking this hot?" she shouted. I glanced over to where Alice was looking and saw the twins standing at the entrance of the Red House. Bella had her arm around Chris' waist and they were indeed dressed in short outfits.

They came closer, both looking at Rose and Edward curiously, and vice versa.

"Emmett, you didn't tell me that they were such hotties," Rose hissed through clenched teeth.

"I said they were pretty," Emmett defended himself.

"They are not pretty," Rose insisted. "My toenail is pretty. These two arestunning." She stopped talking when the girls came to a halt in front of us.

"We're invited to a secret party," Chris answered Alice's question with a big smile on her face.

I could tell that she was joking, but Alice being Alice took it seriously.

"What?" she screeched. "How come we're not invited? Is it one of those 'Red House only' parties again? I hate those. I can never get in!" She got up and was about to storm toward our house when Chris spoke.

"Alice, I was just kid—" she started, but stopped short, looking like she was about to faint or puke or something.

"Kidding?" Emmett offered as an end to her sentence.

She nodded and looked a little dazed. She cast a look at her sister, who was staring at the ground, blushing. Her eyes then wandered to Edward and a hint of a grin was seen on her features before she turned her attention to Alice, who decided to take the chance to introduce Edward and Rose.

Bella introduced herself and Chris as well, but when she looked at Edward, she blushed again.

Seemed like the new girl was crushing on Edward. It wasn't really much of a surprise.

I was about to comment on her blush when the fountain sputtered and spat out a little more water than it was supposed to. Emmett, Alice, and Jasper got splashed with water and of course Alice immediately started shrieking.

"Chill, Alice. It's just water," Chris told her with a grin and then jogged off, pulling her sister along. We all looked after them, except for Alice and Jasper. Alice was still crying and Jasper was attempting to calm her down.

"Interesting," Edward mused thoughtfully.

"What is?" I asked him.

"Couldn't read a single thought," he murmured.

"Maybe there's nothing in their heads," Emmett joked and this time, I joined in with his laughter.

Rose snapped something at her boyfriend then, which made him instantly shut up.

"Are we done here, Alice?" I asked, wanting to get away as fast as possible. Alice still wasn't over the fact that her clothes were wet, so I took her ignorance as a yes and quickly made my leave.

I didn't need to waste any more of my time today.

Chris was done gathering the clothes she'd thrown around, and shoved them all back into her closet.

"Have you really never heard of organization?" I asked her as I watched her try to push all of her items back in the closet.

"I've heard people talk about it, but when I found out how much work is involved, I didn't want to try it," she answered with a shrug.

I rolled my eyes at her response.

She took the clothes she had just searched for in her closet and threw them at me. Black pants and a black turtle neck sweater.

"Thanks, but I have my own stuff," I told her slowly.

"Just put them on the couch," she said.

I did as she asked and when I turned back to face her, she was standing with her back to me, taking her shirt off. I started to wonder why we always landed in these naked situations.

"Um, Chris, do I even want to know why you're undressing in front of me?" I asked her carefully, a little entranced at the sight of her back and the way her dark hair fell down when she pulled the shirt off. I had a secret obsession with her hair. I had no idea why, but that hardly mattered.

"I'm not undressing, I'm changing," she corrected and turned around to grin at me while putting on a white tank top. She then decided to wiggle out of her pants.

"Maybe I should go wait outside," I suggested slowly, trying not to let my voice squeak or crack as I still couldn't take my eyes off of her.

"A little too late for that," she giggled and then picked up the shorts she'd thrown on the floor. I was pretty sure she'd done that on purpose. I mean, why else would she start undressing without warning, and then bend down, enabling me to admire her behind, which was quite impressive, I might add.

I shook the thought out of my head and tried to tear my gaze away, but Chris quickly pulled on the shorts, solving the problem for me. Still, I was convinced that she'd done it on purpose.

"Before you even say anything, I just came to the conclusion that by now, it really shouldn't matter. You've already made out with me more than enough times, you've seen me in a bathing suit, in my underwear, and naked," she told me and then crawled onto her bed to set the alarm clock.

She was right, so I shrugged and just started to change as well. Seriously, I was a guy. It really didn't matter if she saw me changing, as long as I wasn't changing my boxers.

A small whimper came from the direction of Chris' bed. I turned around and saw her burying her head in her hands.

"Now please tell me you're not hiding your face because I took my shirt off," I said teasingly.

She shook her head, but still didn't look up.

"Then what's your problem?" I asked as I strolled over to her bed.

"I don't have a problem," she answered, her voice muffled.

I sat down on the bed beside her.

"Please tell me you did not just sit down on my bed, half-naked," she whispered.

"Um...I did."

She looked up with a disapproving look on her face. "Get dressed!" she ordered.

I only quirked an eyebrow at her, which only seemed to bother her further. I realized that she was use to people — especially boys who weren't too keen on being on the receiving end of a woman's wrath — usually jumping when she ordered them around. Something else she had in common with Alice.

"Does my being half-naked bother you?" I asked her.

"Maybe a little," she admitted.

"So I was right?" I questioned, feeling triumphant.

"Partly. Now get dressed."

"Only partly?"

"Shirt. On your body. Now."

"Was it the thought of me taking off my pants?"

"Why can't we ever have a normal conversation like normal people?"

"Because we both know that normal isn't interesting."

Chris sighed and sunk back into her pillows.

"Okay, I'll get dressed, but I still want to know what made you of all people whimper." I enjoyed teasing her more then I would ever admit.

She groaned in frustration but at the same time, I heard surrender in her voice. "It was your back, okay? I'm a sucker for muscular backs on men. Now put on a shirt," she told me exasperatedly.

I chuckled quietly to myself and went to quickly change into pajama pants. Chris was still laying on the bed, staring at the ceiling, so she didn't notice that I hadn't put on the shirt. I simply threw it over my shoulder.

She heard me approach, though, and sat up. She narrowed her eyes at me and I was pretty sure she was close to a regular Chris outbreak, but it never came. Instead, she reached for the light switch and flicked it off. Then she breezily crawled under the covers of her bed and turned her back to me. I had to admit that this reaction bugged me a little.

I threw back the covers and climbed into the bed with a bruised ego. The moment I laid down, I felt the warmth radiating from Chris. For a brief second, I wondered if it had anything to do with her gift, but it didn't seem like it. I suppressed the urge to pull her close to me and instead tried to concentrate on sleeping.

That didn't work too well.

In my entire life, I don't think I'd ever laid in bed with a girl, not knowing what to do or what to say, and even worse, not being able to relax because I was oddly hyper aware of her presence. It was like a serious illness.

I settled deeper into the covers.

There was a very abrupt movement next to me, and before I knew it, Chris was laying very close, facing me. "Why did you ignore my wishes?" she asked in such a gentle manner that it almost startled me. Between all of her joking, teasing, cursing, and insulting, I was pretty sure I'd never heard the gentle side of her. I wasn't even sure she had one until now.

"I didn't ignore your wishes. I just ignored your poor attempt at trying to be good," I answered huskily.

"Does that mean I'm usually bad?"

"Shouldn't you know the answer to that?" I could see her answering smile in the darkness. A beautiful, breathtaking smile, and it was actually directed at me. "You're beautiful, do you know that?" I told her without really thinking about it.

"I do now," she said softly.

"So no plans to jump me this time? We're all alone now," I joked.

"I'm still thinking about it."

"Okay, well let me know. I'm ready for your bites."

"Sounds like you're trying to tempt me."

"That's 'cause I am."

She hummed in response. Her warm little hands were on my chest then, and they travelled all the way up to my neck. Her hands went into my hair and she knotted her fingers through it. "You should get a haircut," she said, sounding thoughtful.

"But then I wouldn't look sexy in the rain anymore," I told her.

"I'm sure you still would."

"Are you really sure about that? I always thought my dripping hair was the best thing about my whole image."

Chris didn't say anything about that; she just loosened her grip. Her leg slowly stroked mine, and then she slung it over my hip. Somehow she managed to pull me close to her using only her foot.

I stared at her face the whole time.

She let out a quiet giggle.

"What's so funny?"

"Your face," she answered. And then she reached up to kiss me. For once, it was on her own free will and with no reason to feel guilty about it.

xXxXxXxXxXxXx

The sound of an alarm clock pulled me out of my dreams. I wasn't too thrilled about that. I was actually enjoying my dreams.

Like so often in the past weeks since I'd started teaching her, I'd dreamed of Chris; only she and I.

In a bed. All alone.

Lots of touching.

And kissing.

And her beautiful long tresses of silk.

"Turn it off," I heard Chris groan.

I opened my eyes and that's when I realized that it hadn't been a dream because Chris was actually laying in my arms. I reached over to the nightstand and turned the annoying alarm clock off. I sighed when I saw that it was one o'clock.

Chris yawned quietly and awkwardly untangled herself from me. I couldn't say I liked that much, which is why I refused to let her go. But she didn't even make a move to get away or show any sign of wanting to get away. She just lay beside me now, rather than partly on top of me.

"Ready for your big day?" I asked her.

She merely grumbled an unintelligible reply.

"Now what kind of attitude is that?" I inquired, feigning shock.

"Shut up," she mumbled and buried her face in the crook of my neck. I didn't mind, although we had to get up soon if we wanted to be ready on time.

I absentmindedly played with a lock of Chris' hair and wondered how in the world we'd managed to land here. After everything, I would've thought that the outcome of today would be me sleeping on the floor next to her bed. I figured when she decided to get up, she'd step on me, making sure to jump so she could be certain that she caused me pain. But instead, Chris let out a content sigh in my arms. I'd discovered that she liked it when I played with her hair.

That was something we had in common.

"Chris, don't you think we should get up?" I asked after a few more silent minutes had passed. I didn't really wanna get up, but we didn't have much of a choice.

"I don't want to," she whined.

"We don't have to. We'll just live with this big secret for the rest of our lives, hoping that none of us ever slip up and accidentally tell someone, otherwise we would all die," I said lightly.

I heard Chris curse and smiled as she sat up and climbed over me to get out of the bed. She went to get the clothes that she'd chosen to wear a few hours earlier and then left the room. I heard her knock on Bella's door.

Edward entered the room then, not even bothering to knock. "Seems like you had an enjoyable night," he observed, already fully dressed.

I narrowed my eyes at him and got out of the bed so I could get dressed as well. "I guess you could say that," I murmured with a slight shrug.

"But you guys didn't..." he didn't bother finishing his question.

I rolled my eyes at him. "Should I be asking you the same question?" I questioned him with a smirk.

Now it was Edward's turn to narrow his eyes at me. I knew that he did that to enter my mind, and I didn't bother putting up a fight. Edward let out a grunt of disgust and shuddered.

"Liked what you saw?"

"I really didn't need to think of Chris in that way."

"Strange," I murmured. "Not even after the million times she's felt you all over her?"

"I wasn't...ugh, sometimes I wonder why I even try to explain myself," he said with a shake of his head.

"You know, I don't think you've ever told me why you're so crazy in love with Bella these days," I noted.

Edward opened his mouth to reply, but was interrupted by the return of Chris. She looked at me and Edward for a brief moment before carrying on without saying anything. She threw her sleeping clothes on the couch and then went to her dresser to fix her hair.

Bella entered the room then, as if looking for something, but then she saw Edward and a sweet smile spread across her face.

Both of the twins wore their hair in a high ponytail and were dressed similarly. I realized then that they really didn't look as different as everyone always said they did.

I kept that little tidbit of information in my mind and looked at the time. "Okay, since nobody says anything, I'd say it's time," I threw into the quiet room. The others looked at the time as well. One thirty sharp. "Who wants to go first?" I asked with my arms wide open.

"Can't you beam all of us out?" Bella asked.

I shook my head. "Too many people and too much distance. I have to bring you all the way to the back of the building. No can do," I smiled apologetically at her.

Edward sighed and then approached me. "Let's go," he said and pulled me in for a brotherly hug.

Bella seemed to find this heartwarming, so I sent her a quick wink before I vanished with Edward.

"Don't do anything stupid while I'm gone," I warned him before beaming back go the room. "I can transport you two at once," I told them as soon as I was standing in front of the girls. Without waiting for a response, I hugged them both tightly and a second later, we joined Edward.

"Everyone here?" he asked.

"No. One is missing," Chris answered sarcastically.

Edward shoved her lightly and then led the way. He'd memorized the route that we were supposed to take, so he knew the way pretty well. We moved quietly and only talked to each other in nearly silent whispers. We were lucky because none of the security guards appeared on our way. When we stood at the set meeting point, we waited silently for the others to arrive.

"Oh," Chris breathed suddenly. We all looked at her in surprise because nobody had said anything. "Oh," she repeated with a little more intensity. "Oh, oh. Oh!"

"What, oh?" I asked her, slightly impatient.

She ignored me, though, and looked at Bella and then at Edward. She then hugged her sister tightly and started kissing her cheeks like a mother who hadn't seen her child in years.

I looked at Edward in question, but he only shrugged in response. Apparently their connection wasn't made yet.

Chris stopped kissing Bella and went over to Edward. She punched him on his arm, causing him to surpress a groan of pain and lean down to cradle his pained arm. Now that his head was on her level, she patted his head a little harder than necessary and then said, "Congrats, you guys!" She skipped over to my side and grinned up at me. "Aren't they cute?" she asked, looking at Edward and Bella.

Bella was softly caressing Edward's sore arm, and Edward, who was apparently still in pain, seemed to be trying to man up and embrace the pain.

"Um, yeah. Adorable," I muttered somewhat awkwardly. "Why exactly did you punch him?"

"I knew they'd be here before us," I suddenly heard Rose's voice hiss from behind us.

We turned and saw the rest of the group making their way over to us.

"I bet they didn't even have to hide from one of the guards," grumbled Emmett.

"No, we didn't," I told him when they stopped in front of us.

"What's with Edward?" Jasper asked when they all noticed him and Bella.

"Chris punched him on the arm. Like legit boxer-style punch," I answered.

"Why?" Emmett asked curiously.

It was kind of sad that no one felt sorry for him. But he'd already recovered himself and stood up straight again, trying not to look as if he was just crouched in pain because a girl had punched him.

"He loves Bella," Chris resolved with a dark edge in her voice as she eyed Edward. Chris being so protective of her sister made me wonder what their father was like. Yikes.

Rose and Alice seemed to be absolutely thrilled by this news, and they quickly dashed up to the happy couple. Or rather Bella. They immediately started hounding her with a million questions, completely ignoring the boyfriend that went along with her.

Edward stood there, scratching his head and looking a little lost as the girls kidnapped his girlfriend.

"Dude, you seriously love her?" Emmett asked and clapped Edward on his back.

"Yes."

"You really told her that?" I asked him.

He nodded.

"And you're a hundred percent sure?" Jasper asked.

Edward nodded again.

"Does she love you?"

"Yes," Edward answered, echoing his first answer as a big goofy grin spread across his face.

"That's awesome, man," Emmett congratulated with yet another clap on the back.

"Yeah, yeah, you rock. Aren't we on a mission here?" Chris barged into our conversation. Between all of us guys, she looked really tiny.

Jasper glanced down at his watch. "One forty-three. We should get going." The girls immediately stopped harassing Bella and switched into business mode. Jasper led the way into the woods and the girls forgot about their serious attitude and went back to torturing Bella.

The poor girl didn't even get a chance to answer the questions because they just kept on asking them. Finally, five minutes were over and we came to a very small meadow. Jasper was eerily good at planning things like that. I briefly wondered if there was something he did in his spare time that we should know about.

"Okay. Rose, Bella, don't go anywhere," Jasper instructed and looked at the two girls in that strict manner of his.

They both nodded and I was sure I saw each of their hands twitch as if they were considering saluting.

Emmett and Edward kissed their better halves goodbye before Jasper ordered us to get moving away.

I saw Chris send a small wave to her sister. Judging by her body language, she was nervous. I took her hand and squeezed it reassuringly. She didn't pull away; she didn't really react in anyway.

The high building — our destination — came into view then and we could see that there was light coming from the top floor.

This time, Chris reacted by squeezing my hand tightly.

"Are you ready?" Jasper asked Chris, sounding more worried than anything else, which was odd for him since he was usually so calm and collected. His eyes flitted over to Alice, who was rubbing her temples and seemed to be trying something.

"I can't see anything that's going to happen up there," she whispered loud enough for just our little group to hear.

That seemed to make Jasper even more uncomfortable.

"Jasper, you really shouldn't worry so much. I think I could be a pretty decent protector if I need to be," Chris said to him. He looked at her and smiled slightly when Chris held up her free hand with a little flame dancing on her fingertip. "I trained that too."

"Jasper, don't worry so much. I'll be fine. Really. As a matter of fact, I will be back in my bed in two hours," Alice said to him and reached up to put her hands on his shoulders.

Jasper closed his eyes and took a deep calming breath before nodding and reopening his peepers.

"Ready?" I asked the two girls then, knowing it was now our time to depart.

Alice nodded bravely and Chris whispered her confirmation.

"Chris, you need to focus," I told her once more.

"I know, I know. Under the table. I memorized the sketches."

I nodded.

Alice took Chris' free hand, and then my free hand.

"On three," I breathed. "One...two...three." I started to beam together with Chris and Alice, and pulled them in the right direction, but before their destination appeared, I quickly let go and changed my goal. I joined Rose and Bella in the woods, and as soon as I hit the ground, they looked at me, as if demanding answers.

But the truth was that I didn't know what happened to Chris and Alice. No one except the two of them knew. The girls seemed to grasp that as well just by looking at my face.

"Shall we start our round?" asked Rose.

Bella shook her head. "Not yet." We waited a few moments in silence. "Now," Bella instructed suddenly.

I led the way, having memorized the route.

"I really don't like the fact that we are the patrol of this little mission," Rose complained.

"Somebody has to keep cover," Bella reasoned, and she was right about that. As soon as we starting wandering around our assigned route, Bella reached into Chris' mind to give us a play-by-play on what was going on. "Irina seems to be waiting for someone and is pacing up and down the room. From Chris' perspective, I can see a kettle in the room. A very big one," Bella stared blankly ahead while Rose made sure she didn't fall or trip over anything. "Someone's entering the room. A woman, judging by the shoes. Alice says it's...Victoria Nomad?" Bella's voice finished in a surprised question.

"I always knew there was a reason I didn't like that women," commented Rose.

"She's putting something in the kettle," Bella continued. "Irina and Victoria don't seem to get along; they're just fighting. Another person's entering. Male. Demetri Sleigh," she said. "They're talking about the potion in the kettle. It's supposed to be ready in a week. And now...now they're talking about how to get us—" Bella stopped abruptly.

"Bella? What's wrong?" Rose and I asked at the same time.

Bella didn't say anything and I started to get worried. "Bella? Bella, what's wrong?" I urged while Rose started shaking her softly.

She snapped out of it then. "We have to get to Mr. Decour," she said, panic evident in her voice.

I reacted on instinct and quickly pulled the two girls close, beaming us right to the front door of Mr. Decour's house.

Bella seemed to be way passed panicked. She instantly started ringing the doorbell like crazy while knocking at the same time and shouting our teacher's name.

Rose and I had no clue what was happening or what to do, so we just stood there helplessly, scared that something happened.

After what seemed like an eternity to me, the door finally opened. Mr. Decour looked at us. It was obviously that we'd disturbed him from his sleep, since his eyes were drooping and he looked like he'd just gotten up, which he clearly had. He took a moment to grasp the fact that his students had just pulled him out of bed at this hour, but he couldn't ask anything because Bella stormed right into his hallway and we followed.

Bella turned abruptly while Mr. Decour closed the front door softly.

"What's wrong?" he asked, his heavily French accented voice thick with sleep.

"We lost Chris and Alice!" Bella cried. "We were just trying to find out about Irina and the rest, but then someone else joined their group and he said something about having spies there, and then he pulled back the table and then Chris and Alice vanished."

"Okay, Bella. Slow down and tell me exactly what happened," Mr. Decour instructed calmly and led her to the dining room. He pulled out a chair and gently pushed her down on it.

"We were trying to find out who Irina works with — for — since you didn't know, so we sent Chris and Alice to spy on them and they recognized Victoria Nomad and Demetri Sleigh. Jasper had said that they should only stay for ten minutes at the most, and the time was almost up when another man entered the room. I didn't recognize his voice; it was just so...horrifying. He seemed to have noticed that Chris and Alice were under the table, because he pulled it aside and then they just vanished," Bella recounted a little slower than before, as sobs overtook here.

Rose had already looked bad before, but now I was starting to worry that she might pass out. What had me even more worried was the fact that Chris and Alice had vanished. I wanted to go join the guys, but I wasn't sure if I should leave the girls alone like this.

Mr. Decour's expression changed in a flash when Bella finished talking. He reached out to me for a moment and then he disappeared right before my eyes. I was too shocked to really pay attention to it. He reappeared a minute later, fully dressed. He handed me a key. "Are there any more of you out there?" he asked urgently. We all nodded. "Make sure they all get safely to this house immediately. You will stay here until tomorrow morning, and you will not leave until the beginning of the fair the day after. Make sure you mingle as much as you can in the crowd, and don't walk around alone," he instructed.

I nodded numbly.

"Where are you going?" Bella asked him desperately. I could tell that she'd put all her hopes in him to save her twin sister.

I couldn't say that I was any different.

"I'm going to get Ms. Carmina and we are going to take care of some business. We will be back as soon as we possibly can be. In the mean time, I don't want you doing anything stupid. Stay away from everyone who doesn't know anything about this," he answered and then vanished once again.

We all stared at the empty space.

"What are you staring at, Dylan? Go get those boys! Now!" Rose yelled at me, making me jump.

I complied myself quickly and beamed to where I assumed the boys would be.

Only they weren't there.

Instead, I came face to face with a very enraged Irina.

Before anything could happen, I beamed the hell away from her.

I wasn't sure if Jasper and the others had managed to save themselves, but if they had, they'd probably stuck to the plan and gone to the elementary school.

I beamed there and scoped for them.

"Dylan?" I heard Edward's voice ask.

My heart jumped and felt a few tonnes lighter.

"What happened, man?" Emmett asked.

"No time for explanation," I burst out. "We all need to get to Mr. Decour's house." Then I turned to Edward. "Will you be alright on your own?"

He nodded.

I pulled Emmett and Jasper close and beamed us back into the house. The boys were a lot heavier than the girls and I could feel my power weaken. I dragged myself to the door and opened it. In that exact moment, Edward dashed in.

He was immediately by Bella's side.

That's when the three guys asked the one question that was in all of our heads.

"What happened?"

Alice POV

Dylan let go of our hands, and a mere moment later, we were in a dimly lit room.

I looked around and saw that Chris had actually made it and landed us right beneath the table. Apparently she'd learned a lot from Dylan.

Chris elbowed me lightly and gestured toward a pair of legs that stood on the other side of the room. Basing my guess on the choice of tasteless shoes, I figured it was Irina. She was tapping her foot impatiently, cursing every now and then. It seemed like she was waiting for someone.

Chris looked very focused and I was sure she was doing her best to see every little detail so we could inform the others.

I came to realize that the force that had stopped me earlier from seeing what was going on in this room was no longer in my way. I wanted to tell Chris, but another pair of disgusting designer knockoffs made their way into the room.

I barely restrained myself from gagging.

So instead of focusing on those grotesque shoes, I closed my eyes and concentrated on the future as I rubbed my temples, trying to see even just a few seconds into the future to see who it was that had entered the room. Even though I could see again, it was limited. I only caught a quick glimpse, but I didn't need any more than that. I knew the person.

I leaned over to Chris and whispered the name of that secretary bitch in her ear. Chris' eyes widened and she nodded silently.

Victoria was adding new ingredients to the substance blubbering inside that giant kettle, which stood on the other side of the room. While doing so, she continuously snapping things at Irina, who happily replied with something just as snarky. It went on and on like that until a third person entered the room. This time, it was a man.

"Can't you two be quiet just once?" he asked in a calm manner that reminded me of my Jazzy, only Jazz didn't sound so...dead.

I concentrated on seeing a few more moments ahead and the person I saw surprised me even more than that red-headed bitch. I covered my mouth quickly so I wouldn't gasp out loud. I wouldn't want Jazz to think that the mission failed because of me. Once again, I turned to Chris and informed her who the third person was.

"How much longer is this dish water going to need anyway?" I heard Irina complain.

Victoria huffed at that. "Dish water? This is one of the most ancient potions of all time. But of course you wouldn't know that, you ignorant twat."

I'd never liked the sound of her voice much.

"It's going to take one more week. What a great way to end fair week," Demetri answered Irina's question, but still didn't sound as if he meant it.

"Really? And how exactly do you plan on getting the twins here?" Irina asked in a bored tone.

The twins?

I looked at Chris, who looked just as surprised as I felt.

"Oh, I already have a simple idea for that. We'll just—"

"Victoria," a forth voice thundered. It was male, but not one that I recognized. He sounded cold, cruel, and deadly.

"Yes, Master?" Victoria replied, submission clear in her voice.

"Do you really think it's appropriate for us to be talking about our plans when we have guests?" the voice asked.

I heard heavy footsteps approaching.

How did he know?

Chris looked surprised as well, but reacted fast and pulled me into her arms. I heard her count so quietly it was almost silent, probably to gather her thoughts.

One... "I don't understand, Master. What guests?" Victoria asked.

...two... "The ones that have been hiding under this table for quite a while," the voice answered.

...three... The table above us was being pushed away with such great force that it flew. My eyes were already squeezed tightly together in fear of what would come next.

But nothing happened. My whole body was shaking so hard that I was sure I sounded like a vibrating phone, but then I realized that it wasn't only me shaking. Chris was too, and she still had me in that tight embrace as if to protect me from the whole world.

"Are you okay, Alice?" she asked me.

I nodded and slowly opened my eyes. And I saw nothing at first. "Chris, where are we?" I asked, sounding just as scared as I was.

Chris looked up and then the nothing that I saw started to fade as if it were mist. Instead of being in the nothing, we were in a meadow in the middle of a jungle. At least that's what it looked like with it's tropical trees and hot weather. But something was strange. I didn't hear any animals, for instance.

"Where are we?" I asked again, scared that Chris had brought us to the middle of no where.

Chris got up and looked behind a tree. She rushed back to me, shrieking as a seemingly transparent human floated behind her. She was immediately by my side, wrapping her arms around me, but the thing just flew passed us, leaving a strange feeling of cold in it's wake.

"What was that?" Chris choked.

"If I am not mistaken, that, my friend, was a ghost."

"A ghost?" she screeched. Her voice wasn't echoed around or anything of the sort, which I found kind of strange. "I think I know where we are, Alice," Chris said after a while and looked at me with an apologetic expression. "We are on the astral plane."

---

A/N: There you go. I apologzize for any mistakes in this chapter. I am tired, my beta is tired and I didn't want to keep you waiting. So after an incredibly long author's note at the top, I decided to keep it short at the bottom.

1) I love every single person, who reads this story :D

2) I know that there are sometimes little things happening on which I don't elaborate, but they do get a bigger meaning later on.

3) You should really review a lot more often in order to get a chapter, I seriously work better with those. Seriously, I love hearing from you guys.

4) I love love and if that's wrong I don't want to be right. Just in case anyone is unhappy about the ChrisxDylan chapter :P

5) 80 reviews! I don't know if I should laugh or cry, but I'll decide later on when I have ninety (hehhehheheheh)

Okay kids, I will now rest and let you enjoy this incredibly long chapter... I try my best to update soon! :D