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.

20. Arabian Nights

A/N: First of all, I am very very very very very very sorry for the long wait. THe chapter has been done for weeks already, but there was a tiny little problem. You see usually when I wokr on ym chapters, I do it together with mey beta. I write a few hundred words and she betas them and in the end she sends me the whole betaed version of what I wrote, jsut because she is such a great person. Well that kind of didn't work out this time and suddenly I had this chapter done and she had to beta all of it at once. Apparently I write very long chapters...

Oh well, now it's here and you cna all rejoice. THe next chapter is already halway done and since the week end is coming, I am pretty positive that I will be done in the next few days :D

Well, I don't want to make you wait any longer so have fun reading!

---

Bella POV

I heard Alice planning again before I even entered the kitchen.

"Seriously, why aren't you getting a break today?" she asked. I assumed she was talking to Chris.

I entered the room quietly and sat down at the table beside Edward.

"Morning," he murmured, flashing me his crooked grin and handing me the bread basket.

I smiled at him in return while Emmett watched us with curious eyes. I narrowed my own eyes at him, daring him to say something. Intelligently, he kept his big mouth shut, but the grin on his face also stayed.

Thanks a lot, Chris...

"I do have breaks, but it would make more sense if I stayed at our display rather than walked around. That's all I said. Jensen wants me around—"

"I don't care. You are going to take that yoga class with Rose, Bella, and me," Alice retorted.

I looked up in surprise. "Yoga? What yoga class, and don't I have to agree before I take part?" I asked.

Alice just waved me off and mumbled, "As if there's anyway you could disagree."

"But I don't want to take a yoga class. What good would that do anyway?"

"It makes playing with the royal scepter a lot easier," Emmett commented and let out a booming laugh. Jasper snickered at his words while I just stared at him, unsure what he was talking about.

It didn't take me long to figure it out, and when I did, I glared at Emmett and then at Jasper.

"Alright, I'll go, but only if you go and kiss Pete Doherty," Chris challenged.

Alice narrowed her eyes at Chris who, in turn, stared back at her.

I looked at the two girls and then leaned toward Rose, who watched with an amused smile, to ask her, "Should I know what they're talking about?"

"A shapeshifter at the kissing booth," she answered simply.

"Right."

Alice interrupted the staring match with an evil grin. "Okay, you don't have to come with us," she said casually.

Chris eyed her suspiciously and the rest of us did the same. "What are you planning, pixie?" she asked slowly.

"Nothing," came Alice's light reply before she resumed her breakfast.

Chris looked at each of us in question, but we all shrugged, dismissing Alice's behaviour.

"Admit it, there's something evil going on in that head of yours," Chris accused.

Alice simply shook her head and then turned to me. "So Bella, when is your first break?

"It starts at half past twelve," I answered lazily.

"How long?"

"Two hours."

"That's great. Since we only ate Snow Balls together yesterday, I suggest that we eat lunch when we visit Chris," Alice sang excitedly. Nobody seemed to have anything against it, only Chris was still looking at Alice as if trying to figure out what she was thinking, which was probably exactly what she was doing.

I rolled my eyes at my sometimes—or rather, often—idiotic twin. It was obvious that Alice was only playing with her.

"Okay, so today's gonna be a little different," Alice started thoughtfully. "Emmett gets out first, and then Bella. After that, our two blondies, then me, and after that, our two lover boys."

Lover boys?

"Um, Alice?" I interrupted her thinking state.

"Yes?"

"Who exactly do you mean by 'lover boys'?"

Emmett guffawed at that while Rosalie shook her head at him. "You should know, Bella, after all, you are the only one here that's been acquainted with his magic stick," Emmett said, erupting in another round of laughter. Chris, Jasper, Dylan, and Rose joined in, while I was doing what I did best. Blushing.

I heard Edward sigh next to me and I noticed him shift, slightly uncomfortable. I looked up in surprise, only to find him glaring at Emmett, his cheeks dusted with a light pink.

I smiled fondly at that. He was cute when he blushed, even if that was usually my job.

"Didn't Edward tell you what he does at the fair?" Alice asked casually.

"No," I answered immediately, looking back at Edward, who was now looking anywhere but my direction.

Alice's head snapped up and she looked at her brother with a warning glare. "You didn't tell her?" she asked in disbelief.

"There was no occasion to do so," he answered simply.

"You didn't tell her?" Alice repeated.

"That's seriously messed up," Rose commented and took a bite of her sandwich while she shook her head in mock sadness.

"Nobody asked you, Rosalie," Edward hissed.

Rose's eyes widened before she glared at Edward.

"Eddie, if you don't want Rosie to tell Bella, in a very bold and not at all flattering way, what your job at the fair is, then you might want to consider being nicer to her," Chris piped from her seat.

Edward narrowed his eyes at her which didn't bother her too much.

This conversation confused me to no end, so I did the next logical thing. Since Edward wasn't saying anything yet, I simply let myself into Chris' mind. She seemed to have been expecting that and supplied me with all of the information she had on this subject.

"You're getting paid to date other girls?" I asked in disbelief.

Everyone, except for Chris of course, turned to me in surprise.

Rose giggled and mumbled something about prostitution. I was pretty sure my eyes widened at that.

"What?" Edward exclaimed. "No, it's not like that, I swear!" He sounded so desperate as he ran a hand through his unruly hair.

I merely raised my eyebrows.

"Chris, what did you do?" Alice asked quietly.

"All I did was think," she answered smugly.

"Bella, maybe you shouldn't believe your sister," Alice advised.

"So you aren't getting paid to date other girls?" I questioned Edward.

"Well, yes, but not—"

"How many girls have you dated?" I inquired, shocked as I jumped from my chair and stared Edward down.

"Relax, Bella," Jasper murmured and instantly I did, though I was sure it was involuntary. But thanks to Jasper, I could no longer feel insecure, hurt, or confused.

"Okay, just let me explain," Edward mumbled slowly, waiting for me to let him continue.

I sighed, sat back down, and nodded.

"Alright, well it wasn't exactly my idea. I was voted into the whole escort thing. I have to pretend to date these girls and they pay for it. Basically I'm just accompanying them for a little while and letting them hold my hand, though I try to avoid it as much as possible. And I swear I tried to get myself out of it but Miriam is—"

"A jealous bitch," Alice barged into the conversation. "She just wants Edward and she knew that everybody would vote him into this escort thing. She only came up with it because of Edward."

"What does that mean?" Edward and I asked at the same time.

Alice sighed and rolled her eyes. "She has some kind of obsessive crush on Edward and she was hoping that you'd break up with him since he is 'dating' half the female population."

"That's one of the stupidest things I've heard and I'm dating Emmett," Rose commented with a giggle and a smirk.

"Hey!" Emmett complained, starting to pout.

"Aw, baby, you know I didn't mean it in a bad way. I like your idiocy," Rose cooed.

"Right, well it's nice to hear that and all, but how come I didn't hear any of this earlier?" I said, mostly to Edward, but made sure to look at the others as well.

"It's not our job to tell you what Edward's doing," Jasper murmured with a shrug and the others made sounds and gestures of agreement.

I rolled my eyes at them and turned my attention back to Edward, who looked at me with a guilty expression painted on his face.

"It's just embarrassing," he said.

"That females are tearing each other apart to spend time with you?" Chris asked in disbelief. She definitely wasn't helping matters here.

I wasn't sure if I could have dealt with the fact that my boyfriend was walking around the fair with other girls, pretending to be their date. But I was also rather uncomfortable with the thought of hordes of girls throwing themselves at my boyfriend, waving their money in his face and begging him to take their hands. I could only imagine how they'd be pulling each others hair, throwing themselves onto each other, and crying when Edward got close as if he were a superstar. Which, I guess in their worlds, he was.

They'd probably all be dressed in extremely revealing, skimpy outfits also to get Edward's attention, and eventually there would be some blond bombshell who looked like God himself would love to brag about creating her, and then Edward's heart would be flying right out of my hands and into hers. And then he would take her tanned hand, smiling that beautiful crooked smile of his, and then they'd walk into the sunset, thousands of heartbroken girls paving the way, and I'd be the last one the two of them stepped on. Oh how I hated the blond bimbo...

"Um, Bella?" I heard someone say and then felt someone shake me gently.

I blinked a few times and my eyes focused on Edward's worried face right in front of me.

"Bella, that was one nasty scene in your head right there," Chris called over.

Edward frowned at her words and then looked back at me. "Bella, this is ridiculous. I would never fall for some blond bimbo—" Emmett coughed something that sounded a lot like 'Tanya', "—and I would most definitely no stomp on you. You have nothing to worry about, I swear."

I didn't look at him. It was easy for him to say that now, since he hadn't seen the blond bimbo yet.

"No blond bimbo could be more amazing than you are," Edward whispered to me.

"No, but she could be prettier," I murmured back, still avoiding his eyes.

Edward chuckled quietly before he said, "That's highly impossible, Miss Swan. Not even your own twin sister is prettier than you." He paused for a second and a slight grin spread on his face before he winced. "Not to me at least," he added.

I ignored the warm fuzzy feeling that spread throughout my body and looked at Chris for a moment, only to find her staring at a spot on the wall. Her face was expressionless, but I just dismissed it.

"You sure about that?" I asked Edward in small voice.

"Positive."

"And when the blond bimbo appears?"

"I will run as fast I can into your arms," he told me with a serious face and leaned down to press his forehead to mine.

I giggled quietly, comforted by his words, and then leaned in and pecked him swiftly on the lips.

Apparently that wasn't enough for Edward, because when I was about to pull back, he pushed himself closer to me, holding my head in place so he could kiss me better.

"Mushy crap," Emmett mumbled, followed by a grunt of pain which was probably caused by Rose.

"I think it's cute," Alice said dreamily. "They might even be cuter than Jasper and me," she then added, panicked.

"Nobody can ever be cuter than you, darling," Jasper drawled charmingly.

Even though he was still kissing me, Edward managed to sigh while I suppressed a giggle.

This kiss wasn't even really a kiss anymore, since I was mostly just listening to the others, not even paying much attention to Edward's lips on mine. He seemed to notice that and tried his best to regain my attention. He almost succeeded, but then Dylan spoke up.

"I never thought I'd see the day my brother made-out with a girl at the breakfast table. It's too gross to be true," he said with a dreamy sigh that sounded like he was imitating Alice.

Chris sighed as well and said, "I know what you feel like."

Rose laughed quietly.

"So you know what he feels like, huh?" Emmett asked.

"Ugh, that is so not what I meant. Grow up, Emmett."

"But you really do know what I feel like," Dylan threw in and I could picture a smirk on his face.

"I also know what it feels like to sleep next to you. I had to bury myself underneath a mountain of pillows to drown out your snoring."

"You didn't seem to mind a couple of days ago." I heard the smug tone in his voice.

The mental curses that flew through Chris' head at that moment caused me to laugh again. Edward gave up trying to get any response from my lips now. He sighed, swiftly kissed my forehead, and then turned to glare at the rest of the group.

"Finally coming up for air?" Chris asked sarcastically.

"Not if you would have kept your mind silent," grumbled Edward and I laughed at the expression on his face.

The rest of our breakfast resumed without any mention-worthy things, and soon we were all out the door to start day two of the fair.

xXxXxXxXxXx

"He was ready to jump into your lap," Natalia wheezed and then continued laughing like there was no tomorrow.

Cynthia, who was currently wiping the makeup off of my face, looked at me in question.

I shook my head at her, not really in the mood to tell her what was so amusing to Natalia.

It wasn't even that funny. We had the castle doors open for the two hours, allowing people to come and see me and Natalia, talk to us, take pictures, and so on. We'd actually only planned one hour for this, but the line that had formed in front of the entrance was so long that we ended up sitting there longer, which meant that I didn't get to do my water show and I really really wanted to. It's not that I don't like people telling me how they appreciated our hard work, but I couldn't stand being the centre of attention. The good thing was, I wasn't exactly myself and it wasn't even expected of me to say anything or even smile.

Bryce had told me that my whole stiff posture was blending in perfectly with the ice theme. I was glad that my discomfort fit so well with the scenery.

I didn't mind the water show, since I was in my element there and felt more at ease twirling around in the water than sitting on these icy thrones. The ice was just another kind of water, and even though it was frozen, I still felt the energy of it as it pulsed through me. It was really frustrating to have this much energy, yet be unable to do anything with it. And even worse was being tied to a chair, listening to people tell me how much they loved me and my country. Yes, country. I refrained myself from telling them that this was barely even a town, and even if it was, it didn't have a name.

I never would have dreamed that we would get so many fans. I received presents and letters and so many people insisted on bowing to me and Natalia. It was weird. Apparently if you tell people that someone was royal, they believed it without a second thought because that's exactly how people treated us. What I found even more confusing was that there was more attention on me than on Natalia.

Natalia said that I had a powerful aura around me and I wondered if people could sense the energy that surrounded me. But I still found it confusing. Natalia spoke to a lot more people than I did, and she was showing off her skills much more often than me, although I had to hold a water mass in place today because our pool crashed on one corner.

The reason why Natalia was laughing like a hyena was because the last guy who'd confessed his undying love to me. Apparently he was a student here and was already in college. I'd made a mental note to ask Dylan if he knew the guy. Well, this guy had not only cried when he'd finally been standing in front of me, but he'd also insisted on touching my hand at least once. When this was granted to him, he decided that he wanted to kiss my feet as well and my "security guards" had to wrestle him away from me—he'd almost chewed my boots off. When I told them to get him out so I could finally go on my break, he cried even harder and rambled on about an angels voice.

Natalia, of course found all of this absolutely hilarious, while I was at a loss for words. It's not everyday you get this amount of devotion.

After the makeup was finally off of my face, Cynthia put on some other stuff. Although I would be on break, I was supposed to keep some of my "royal charm." Japree insisted on that when he'd heard that I was planning to visit my sister today. He wanted to lure more people to our display, especially those who were hanging around at the Pyros. So I got to wear some kind of white pant suit that flowed around, similar to a dress really, and got some other kind of icy makeup which didn't make me look as frozen as the one I'd had to wear all day.

"Hey, where's my favorite queen?" a voice suddenly boomed, interrupting any peace and quiet that had been left in here, though there wasn't all that much since Natalia still had yet to shut up. Emmett appeared behind me and all I could do was stare at him in the mirror in front of me. "How is the fairest of them all?" he asked with a huge grin.

"How would I know? Ask Rose when we get to see her," I retorted.

Emmett rolled his eyes and mumbled something under his breath that I didn't quite catch, and Cynthia made a sound from my side, but I hardly paid attention to her.

Now that Emmett had walked in here, I was definitely anxious to get out of the ice town. I hadn't even been able to see the rest of the fair yet and I'd started to feel like Alice on Christmas day, which was not good. Not good at all.

Emmett started walking around in the dressing room, lurking through things. After five minutes, he got bored. "How long does it take to put glitter on her face? And why does she even have to wear it? She's already drop dead gorgeous without it and it's not like we're going to a ball, we're just going to walk around and have some fun. No need to go all overboard for that," he eventually complained.

"Well I'm sorry, but she's the Queen. Besides, Bryce isn't too happy that her sister walked around in her Sari here yesterday, promoting the Pyros," Cynthia snapped.

"Ah, who cares about your stupid little competition? I want my Belly now!" Emmett whined and actually stomped his foot like a petulant child. It looked completely ridiculous, given his size.

"You should care about this 'little competition'," Natalia barged in.

"Why?"

"The councils are deciding whether or not to let everyone take part, since this is the first year in a long time where every display could actually have a fair chance. Everyone seems to be doing a good job, so maybe this won't be just Hydros vs. Pyros," she explained.

"And what do the winners get?" I asked, my curiosity haven been spiked.

"We don't have any ideas for that yet, which is why we haven't really decided if we're going to do it or not. I don't really care, no matter who takes part, the Pyros still can't beat us."

"Yeah! Hydros all the way!" Emmett cheered, causing Natalia to smile fondly at him.

I think it was the first time I'd ever seen her smile at a guy. In my time with the Hydros, I'd learned that Natalia had a very man-hating attitude. She could tolerate them, as long as they were on a leash and far away from her. But as soon as she had to interact with males, she was anything but polite. She was somewhat nice to Japree, but that involved more nonchalance than actual nice gestures.

"All done," Cynthia finally announced and I nearly jumped out of my chair.

Emmett was just enthusiastic as me, and we both quickly made our way outside to go get Rose and Jasper.

"So..." I said with a smile beginning to spread on my face. "You think I'm drop dead gorgeous, huh? Just wait until Rose hears that," I teased Emmett.

"I'm sure she won't mind because, even if you are drop dead gorgeous, she's drop-dead-and-go-straight-to-heaven gorgeous," Emmett answered with a goofy grin on his face.

"Aw," I cooed. "How sweet."

"I know, I'm real man candy."

I rolled my eyes at the big teddy bear at my side.

"Should we really go in there? We could just wait for Rosie and Jazz to get out," Emmett asked me when we stood in front of the Specials labyrinth. Alice and Chris had told us that they'd almost won, but then failed when they were up against Rose.

Chris claimed that they would've won if they'd had the help items like everyone else. Rose only told her it was wishful thinking and that nobody had been able to get passed her yet.

Let's see if Emmett and I can make it.

"I think we should, maybe we're better than Alice and Chris," I said to him, which seemed to motivate him easily.

"We should have bet against them or something," he said and rubbed his large hands together, eager at the thought of a competition.

I laughed lightly and shook my head at him.

When we entered the labyrinth, I looked at the items that Emmett had greedily pulled out of a little sack. We had a pair of earplugs for each of us, a mirror, and pheromone blockers. Luckily I carried a purse on my arm, so I quickly stuffed the things into it before Emmett yanked on my arm to pull me inside like an excited child.

At the first junction, he came to a stop.

"Can't decide?" I asked him bemusedly when I saw him turn his head from one direction to the other.

"Maybe we should just go through the wall," Emmett suggested.

"Do I have to come along?"

"Aw, don't be like that, Belly Bean," Emmett cooed and tucked me under his arm, ignoring my protests.

Walking, or rather being pulled through a wall was definitely not one of my more pleasant memories.

"Whoa, dude, that's freaky," a voice spoke up when we made it through the wall. When I looked up, I saw a startled boy in a toga.

Emmett eyed him and then laughed before he asked the boy, "Does everyone have to wear a dress in here?"

"It's not a dress, it's a toga," the guy said defensively.

"Sure it is. Makes your legs look great."

The boy opened his mouth, just to close it again as he looked down at his legs.

I sighed as Emmett broke into another peal of laughter.

"You might wanna shut up," the boy said suddenly.

"Why?"

"Because I'm Justin and I'm the God of Laughter. You have to remain silent for the next two minutes, and since I can see that it'll be a challenge for one of you, I'll let you pass if at least one of you manages to stay quiet." His eyes darted to me and a slight grin appeared on his face.

"We just have to be quiet?" Emmett asked in disbelief.

Justin smiled sarcastically at him. "Your time starts now."

Emmett opened his mouth, but I nudged him lightly and he snapped it shut.

Justin's lips quirked into a mocking smirk as he looked at Emmett. "Why does a blonde climb up a window?"

I lifted an eyebrow at him.

"She wanted to see what's behind it," Justin continued with the punchline.

This was the kind of joke that made me roll my eyes, but for some strange reason, the urge to laugh came over me. I pressed my lips together to suppress the laugh. Emmett did the same, but was obviously having a harder time since he actually found the joke funny.

Justin just continued his questions. "Did you hear about the guy who studied for his blood test and still failed it?"

Emmett let out a semi-snort and I couldn't help but grin, but I bit down on my lip to prevent any kind of laughter from leaving my mouth. Justin was already eyeing Emmett, probably waiting for him to break.

"What does a brunette miss about a good party?"

Emmett looked at Justin expectantly.

"An invitation."

Emmett started shaking with silent laughter while I just bit my lip harder. This definitely wasn't a natural reaction.

"Do you know the joke about the idiot who always shakes his head?"

Emmett shook his head and I suppressed the snort that threatened to escape, and instead concentrated on breathing.

"Hey, do you want to hear a dirty joke?" Justin asked.

Emmett—the idiot—nodded eagerly.

"A white horse fell in the mud."

Now he'd done it. Emmett laughed so loudly that I cringed. Sometimes I thought you needed earplugs to be around Emmett.

The figurative train hit me so hard I thought I'd have a concussion.

I quickly rummaged through my purse while Justin was a little distracted by Emmett's incredibly loud laughing fit. I blocked my ears with the plugs and was happy to realize that they weren't ordinary. I was immediately surrounded by calming music.

Justin turned to me and said something. I saw Emmett laugh at what he'd said, but since I couldn't hear a single word of it, I just smiled pleasantly at him. Justin frowned and said something else. I read the words 'Dad', 'idiot', and 'no'.

I guess I'm not a very good lip reader.

Justin glanced down at his watch and then frowned with a sigh before he gestured in the direction the aisle continued.

Emmett pulled me along again and then said something.

I took the earplugs out and looked at him. "What was that?"

He narrowed his eyes at me and then pointed an accusing finger. "You had the earplugs in!" he exclaimed dramatically.

I just grinned and shrugged in response.

"You cheated," Emmett said with a pout.

"Don't act like you're sad about it. If I'd given you earplugs, you would have just taken them out to hear what Justin said."

"True," Emmett said and smiled. "That guy was damn funny."

"If you think so," I answered absentmindedly.

"Oh come on, you have to admit he was funny, even if he's got nothing on me." Emmett puffed out his chest.

"Sure," I said slowly.

Emmett sensed my scepticism and started telling me hundreds of jokes as we made our way through the aisles.

I think I actually snickered when Emmett said, "Hey man, call me a taxi. Yes sir, you are a taxi."

My giggles were cut short, though, when I saw a familiar blonde. I think I might have stopped breathing for a second. "Irina," I hissed quietly, gaining Emmett's attention immediately. I saw him tense up and when Irina looked up, I could swear I heard something like a growl escape his lips.

Irina smiled cruelly at us for a second before it was suddenly replaced by that awfully sweet smile that I already knew so well.

I discovered the reason for that a moment later when a boy with very curly hair peeked out from behind her, though he was taller. He had a slightly green tint to his complexion and I guessed that he was the person that I'd heard of a couple of times.

"Hello," he greeted cheerfully. "I'm Mark and this is Irina, we're the Gods of Nature and your task is to get passed us."

Neither Emmett or I had reacted in any way yet, when suddenly the two of them made ranks grow everywhere in the aisle behind them, blocking the way.

By the time they were done, it was like some extreme jungle or something.

"Please tell me you have one of those jungle knives," Emmett begged while Irina and Mark stood next to their work, smiling like salespeople.

"Sorry, that wasn't part of the equipment we got," I told him.

"Ah, well we can just walk through then," Emmett said dismissively and pulled me close to him.

"Do we have to phase through it? It's not exactly comfortable," I complained.

"Do you have a better idea?" he asked, obviously waiting for me to give in.

I grinned briefly at him before I channelled my concentration on the familiar sound of water. The millions of ranks were all filled with it and I could feel the energy strengthening me. I took a deep breath and ordered the water inside the ranks to move out of our way.

I hadn't been too sure if it'd work, but seeing all the ranks slowly moving out of our way almost made me giddy.

"I thought you were the Water Queen, not Mother Nature," Emmett commented.

I giggled. "There are a lot of things you don't know about me."

"I'm sure there aren't. Chris always seems to have very interesting information." I could practically hear him waggling his eyebrows suggestively.

I sighed. Of course this had to come up sometime, there was no way that Emmett would let this go. I'd have to make sure to get back at Chris for that.

"Ah, yes, it's always cute to watch a sexually inexperienced couple slowly discover the best part about a relationship," Emmett hummed.

I just stared at him for a while before I spoke. "You're not really telling me that the best part about your relationship with Rose is the physical aspect, are you?"

"What? No, of—"

"I'm going to tell Rose that and that you laughed at the blonde jokes, and I'm also going to tell her that you think I'm drop dead gorgeous, an—" I stopped my rant when I finally let Emmett's words go through my mind again. "Is Edward, um...err..."

"A virgin?" Emmett asked loudly, of course not without laughing at the same volume. This boy just wasn't capable of keeping anything at a normal human volume.

Thanks to his shouting and the echo in these halls, I heard his words practically ring in my ears. I wasn't exactly good with any kind of sex talk, and I certainly wasn't comfortable with talking about that subject so casually.

Chris called me a prude because of that, but I couldn't help that these kind of things always made me blush. It wasn't that I thought of the whole thing in a bad way or anything, it just wasn't something I occupied myself with. But then again, I never really had any kind of long-term relationship with an older guy. Oh no, I almost forgot that Edward was older...

I recalled a stupid sex conversation that Raven, Chris, and I'd once had, even if I'd only been part of this by force.

"If you, my hot little chicas, ever date an older guy, just make sure your parents don't catch you buying condoms because you sure as hell will need them. Older guys always want to—"

"Is this conversation really necessary?" I interrupted Raven's speech, which had already been going on for about an hour now.

"Yes, it is. I feel like talking about s—"

"So do it. In your own home. Without me."

Raven laughed and Chris hummed quietly. She didn't always laugh at me and call me a prude, mostly because she usually reacted in a similar manner as me when she was talking about anyone but herself.

"Let's talk about sex, baby," Raven sang.

The book in my hands came up and smacked me in the forehead. Why was I friends with her again?

"Oh, come on, Bella. You're acting as if I'm talking about how to build a Molotov cocktail. Sooner or later, you're going to be with a guy that you totally adore, and then at some point, you'll have this incredible moment in which you realize that he's all you'll ever want and that you'd give your life, your soul, and even your favorite pair of shoes for. And when that moment comes, not only will you give your V-card to him, but you'll practically shove it in his face, tearing the clothes off your body, licking his abs—"

"Rave, your point?" Chris threw in. Raven had been getting carried away again and sometimes, like now, it started to lean a little toward the scary side.

Raven cleared her throat and smoothed her hair, which she'd mussed in the progress of her lecture, back down. "All I'm saying is that one day, you will be grateful for this talk, 'cause I just taught you girls more than we have ever learned in Sex Ed."

"I listened to less than half of that," I told her dryly, looking back down at my book.

Raven snatched the book from my hands and when I looked up, I saw her very angry face. "I told you everything that I know about first times and boys and jealous ex-girlfriends, and you didn't even listen? You just hurt my feelings, Isabella Swan, and when the time comes, don't you dare come running to me to ask for my advice because I will not give it to you. I will let you stand outside my door, in the pouring rain, and beg for my forgiveness."

Ah, yes, Raven. Such a drama queen. I honestly don't know how we even managed to get the craziest of all people to be our best friend. Although I wasn't too sure if there was anyone who could top Alice.

"Bella, did you even listen to anything I just said or were you just staring off into space and concentrating on your blush?" Emmett asked.

"I'm not blushing," I replied defensively.

"And the red just got darker." I felt more blood rush into my cheeks at his words. "It's either crazy or fascinating how hard a person can blush just because I said that your boyfriend is a virgin."

By now I was thinking that Emmett was just waiting for my head to explode or pop off.

"And there she goes again," Emmett said with a sigh. "Chill, Bella, it's not like I was saying anything dirty. You probably won't even have any kind of dirty talk any time soon. If Edward is anything like Alice, it could actually take years. But then again, Alice and Jasper were a different age when they started going out. I have a feeling that—"

"Why are we talking about this?" I cut him off.

"Why not?"

"Because I don't want to."

"Oh, come on, Bella, let's talk about sex, baby," he started singing.

I let out a frustrated groan and cast a brief look to Heaven, praying for some kind of miracle to release me. Any kind of miracle.

"Hello, my name is Jaden and I am the God of Shadows. All you have to do is free yourself from my claws," I heard a voice suddenly speak.

I guess this could be classified as a miracle.

"What claws?" Emmett asked.

"These," Jaden answered dramatically but I saw nothing happening. There were no claws growing out of his hands or anything of the sort.

Emmett and I looked at each other in confusion and then back at Jaden, who sighed and shook his head at us.

"Look down," he ordered.

We did and I saw nothing unusual on the floor.

"Are we waiting for claws to come out of the ground?" Emmett asked Jaden.

Jaden made a sound of frustration. He lifted his right arm and by some kind of force that was definitely not coming from me, my arm lifted as well.

When I wanted to turn my head to look at Emmett, I realized that I couldn't do it. I lost complete control of my body motions.

"It's shadow control. In my opinion your shadow is something like your second personality," Jaden explained and then folded both of his hands in front of him. I mimicked the motion instantly. "Oh yeah, you have one minute to complete this task."

"Thanks for telling us that," Emmett said sarcastically. Either he was not trapped or we were able to move our lips on our own accord. Judging by the fact that I could also look in every direction that I wanted, I guessed it was the latter.

"No need, it's not like you'll get out of it," Jaden replied cockily.

"Right, we'll talk about that later," Emmett answered.

Since I couldn't look at Emmett I didn't know why Jaden's expression suddenly changed into one of surprise.

But when I suddenly felt hands grabbing my ankles and then felt how my body was again pulled into some kind material, I knew that Emmett had simply phased into the ground and now pulled me down as well.

Phasing into the ground was definitely worse than just going through a wall. I didn't see anything and felt like I was being pressed together. Emmett led me and a few seconds later I was glad that we resurfaced.

We were behind Jaden now, who twirled around in surprise.

"You were saying...?" Emmett said with a smug smirk.

"You may proceed," Jaden answered with a sigh and then turned away from us.

"Good job, Emmett," I complimented the big bear, who in turn grinned proudly at me.

"Only did what I do best," he replied.

"Well, since Alice and Chris only had four tasks, I would say that we have one more left."

"And with my brains and skills, and your looks, we will definitely win this game."

"Your brains and skills?"

"And your looks, although I've got those too."

I shook my head at him, smiling to myself.

A couple of minutes later, I saw a boy sitting on the floor. After a few more steps I recognized him as Jasper.

"Jasper!" Emmett and I called, though Emmett was a lot louder than me.

Jasper looked up, completely at ease, and grinned at us. "Hey guys, I didn't think you would make it this far," Jasper greeted.

I snorted. "We wouldn't have made it without Emmett's brains, skills, and good looks."

Jasper raised his eyebrows at that, looking at Emmett questioningly.

He just shrugged. "What can I say? I'm just awesome like that."

"Right," Jasper said slowly, "Anyway, as you can see the door is over there and all you have to do to go through it as winners is ace my test. I'm the God of Emotions and all you have to do is meditate with me."

"Meditate?" I asked, surprised.

Jasper smiled gently. "Yes, although I have to say it won't be that easy. You have to stay calm and relaxed. You cannot feel anything else but that for 45 seconds."

"Do we have to sit on the floor as well?" Emmett asked.

"Doesn't matter if you sit or not, you aren't going to be able to do it anyway," Jasper replied, earning a giggle from me as I made myself comfortable on the floor.

Emmett didn't respond to Jasper's remark as he dropped himself on the floor as well.

"Alright, you ready?" Jasper asked.

"Do both of us have to pass?" I asked him.

"No, one will be enough. You are allowed to use any kind of helping item or your gifts to help you just like before."

I grinned at his words. I thought back to the one day when I had purposefully cut myself off of any emotions. I wondered if I was able to do the same thing right now.

I took a deep breath and listened for the familiar whispers. Naturally I didn't have to wait long and soon the calming energy was spreading in my whole body.

"I guess we can start," I heard Jasper say.

I had my eyes closed and didn't bother to open them as I nodded at him. I left my eyes closed and just concentrated on the water that I had running through me. Something was different than the last time I had been in this state.

As calm and collected as I felt, there was also an intense power lying somewhere beneath. It felt like there was something yearning to reach out, but I couldn't think too much about that.

I also noticed that my connection with my element had gotten stronger.

I could feel the water that was buried in the ground very deep beneath us. It was calling to me and I was all too willing to give in. Something in my powers had changed over the last few weeks and it probably had to do with me using my powers more frequently and freely. But still, there was something wrong in all of this.

And even though my mind was almost spinning, my emotional state didn't change, but when Jasper announced that the time was up, I gladly let go of the water. I had a feeling that I was starting to become dangerous as well, like Chris. I didn't think too much about it, though, and instead turned my attention to Jasper.

"Emmett, you failed after two seconds," he said calmly.

"I did not," Emmett argued.

Jasper only sighed in response. "Anyway, Bella, you made it which means that both of you officially won. Congratulations, you are our first winners so far." Jasper got up and grinned at us, before he turned to the door and opened it. "We've got two winners," he announced as he stepped into the room behind the door. Emmett and I followed.

A group of people was in there, Rosalie among them and all of them started mumbling in surprise.

"How the hell did they win?" Rose exclaimed.

"Aw, Rose, babe, you know that I am brilliant at everything that I do," Emmett responded.

Before Rose could reply to that a boy came up to us and smiled in amusement. "Well, from what I have seen on the monitors, you seem to have a pretty brilliant sidekick," he said, looking intently at me.

"Sidekick?" I asked with raised eyebrows.

Emmett threw an arm around my shoulder. "Yes, you are my sidekick, didn't you know?"

"I think you are mistaking me with my sister," I replied dryly.

"I would never mistake a beautiful and brilliant lady such as yourself," Emmett said in a fake French accent.

"I'll be sure to talk to Chris about you thinking she's not beautiful and brilliant."

"Jeez, you sure are a snitch today."

"It's what I do best," I said with a grin.

"Um, I don't mean to interrupt your conversation, but since you won...we kind of have a program for that," the boy interrupted.

"Do we really have to do that?" Rose whined.

"Yes, you signed up for it, so do it."

"I didn't sign up, I was forced to be here."

"Whatever, Hale. Just get your ass over to the others. And you better be singing loud enough for me to hear you."

Rose scowled, but went to stand next to Jasper, who was already standing in line with the other kids in the room.

Emmett and I looked at each other before we looked back at them.

They all stood there in a row looking much like a choir...in togas.

That was probably the sense because suddenly the all started singing.

Celebration

I looked at Emmett, but he was currently absorbed by the solo part of the boy who had talked to Rose a few seconds ago.

Let's all celebrate and have a good time

I had to admit that the boy had a decent voice.

Celebration

We going to celebrate and have a good time

It's time to come together

It's up to you, what's your pleasure

Everyone around the world

C'mon!

And then suddenly music started playing, balloons and confetti started falling from the ceiling, while the 'choir' started dancing.

Yahoo! It is celebration

Yahoo!

Celebrate good times, c'mon!

It is a celebration

Celebrate good times, c'mon!

Let's celebrate

They kept repeating this part of the song and while I watched this absolutely perfect High School Musical moment, I felt tears rising in my eyes.

Eventually I couldn't hold them in and I downright cried with laughter. I had never seen Jasper sing and dance before and it just seemed so weird. The same goes for Rose, but that wasn't nearly as funny as seeing Jasper with a fake smile, clapping to the rhythm and moving his feet. My laughter got worse when I saw him actually getting into the whole thing. I held onto Emmett for support, but he was howling with laughter as well and eventually it stopped raining balloons on us and they stopped their little party only to watch Emmett and me holding unto each other gasping for air in between our laughter.

"Please tell me I just imagined that," Emmett wheezed out.

"I..think...it was...real," I gasped out, shaking with another round of laughter.

"Right, if the two of you are done any time soon, you should pick the Gods of your choice. You can choose two, one for each. So if you still got some business with someone, you might wanna chose that person," the boy interrupted our laughing fit.

"Oh yeah, we can chose slaves right?" Emmett asked.

The boy only nodded.

"I'll take Rose," I quickly shouted.

"No way, I wanted Rose!" Emmett complained.

"Well, I'm not so sure if you would still want her after I told her that you laughed at blonde jokes."

"What?" Rose shrieked.

"I will always want her, she just might not want me anymore," Emmett replied and then grinned meaningfully at Jasper, who knew that this was not a good thing.

"I'm guessing that you chose both of the Hales?" the boy questioned.

"Yes," Emmett and I answered right away.

"Well, then congrats. Be nice to them, they will only be yours for today."

Emmett already rubbed his hand together evilly and looked at Jasper.

I only rolled my eyes at him.

"Let's go and get changed," Rose sighed to her brother and pulled him along.

"We'll be waiting outside," Emmett called after her and we left the party room.

"You know what? Our clique is really a little weird. We are all siblings and couples," I noted on our way out.

"True, but I'm the only McCarty, which makes me special."

"Yes, yes, you are oh-so very special," I said as if I was talking to a little child.

"The way you say it makes it sound as if I'm crazy."

"Oh, you're not?"

Emmett pulled a grimace at me.

It didn't take Rose and Jasper long to get changed and a few minutes later we were already making our way through the Psychs display. Since I hadn't gotten to see it ever before, I was probably acting a lot like a little child, gaping at everything, pointing, laughing and so on.

I got to see the kissing booth that the others were talking about earlier and also a stand that was called "Fly On A Magic Carpet!"

"Yesterday it was 'Fly With Peter Pan'," Rose commented.

"So where do we find Alice?" Emmett asked.

"Her tent is right beside the Cake Bakery," Jasper said.

"Oh, I saw that one yesterday. I really have to get a cake there," Rose said.

"Why? It's just cake," I asked her.

"No, it's not. It's the closest I can get to the Halloween Pumpkin pie. It's explosive. You can get whatever flavor you want and it will explode in your mouth. It's awesome," Rose sighed dreamily.

"Okay, I guess it's not just cake."

Sure enough, when we passed the bakery there was a huge line in front of it.

Alice came skipping to us out of nowhere holding a box in her hand. "You need to try this! I knew Rose wanted some so I got this cake earlier today. It's called Raspberry Madness and it's one of the greatest madnesses of my life. Also, I think you look really great, Bella, and you shouldn't be smiling at those guys who come to see you in your castle. About half of them came to me today and asked if that meant something more and if they had chances. The funny thing is, though, I think you and Edward got competition. It seems like quite a few girls are discovering their soft spot for Dylan once more, even though Edward is still the number one escort thanks to his mind reading, and I have to say that your sister got quite a few guys attention. It also seems like Kate is a general hottie, since she won a wrestling match against Emmett today. Luckily nobody got to see Jasper in his toga otherwise I would have chopped a couple of heads off today already. And did you know that Jessica rented first Dylan and then Edward as an escort and she tried to kiss them both? Dylan disappeared into thin air when she did that and Edward ran for his life. Stupid bitch is now moping around in my tent, crying on and on about how the Cullen boys should pay more attention to her. I think that Lauren is going to do something equally stupid and if I were you, Bella, I would make sure to be there when she tries any funny things on your man. See, that's the good thing about having a boyfriend who works in a labyrinth that nobody seems to get through, I get to keep him all to myself. By the way—"

"Alice, shut up!" Emmett, Rose, and I yelled.

Alice had just walked up to us and started talking all the while she was shoving the cake into our face and led us into the opposite direction passed quite a few interesting stands.

How could a person even talk that much without taking a breath?

Alice had snapped her mouth shut only to start pouting. Jasper had an arm around her to comfort her, but that bottom lip started to tremble.

I sighed, knowing what was coming next.

"Ali, never mind them. I care a lot about what you have to say," Jasper said to her.

Of course that made her face light back up and she continued her rant. "So, I had this incredible vision of the Pyros display and I must say I'm impressed. I think Bella is dressed most perfectly for the weather and I also think that we might have to keep Dylan in check. Actually scratch that, you boys should watch little Chris, because unlike Bella Boo, she doesn't have security guards. Oh and did you guys hear that the councils are thinking about making a little competition between all the groups? The only problem is that they don't have a prize for the winner yet, so it might not be done. Personally I think it would be great, but it's not that important. What is important is the ending ball on Friday. I still don't have anything to wear and that is tragic. By the way, I don't get why they are calling it a ball if it is more of a party. Which reminds me..." Alice took a huge breath before she continued, "Bella, what are you going to wear for prom?"

I blinked. "Um, what?" I asked her dumbly.

"Prom? Prohooom," Alice sang. "You know...prom, short for promenade, a formal dance or gathering in high schools. It is typically held near the end of the senior year."

"Thanks, Alice, I'm aware of the definition of prom, but as you just pointed out, it is held at the end of the senior year, so I don't get why you are asking me about prom now. We still have a couple of years," I noted.

Both Alice and Rose let out a disappointed sigh and shook their heads.

"Both you and Rose are going to prom, you should really know these things," Alice scolded.

"And why are we going to prom?" I asked, more than just confused.

"Because I gotta bring my hot mama for the junior prom," Emmett boomed. He wrapped his large arms around Rose and placed a fat kiss on her cheek. She pulled a grimace, but couldn't hide the smile on her face.

"That's great and all, but uh, what does it have to do with me?" I asked Alice.

Alice groaned and looked at me as if I was an idiot. "Obviously you are going to the senior prom, duh."

When I only quirked an eyebrow at her she shook her had and mumbled something about 'self-proclaimed genius'.

"Edward is a senior," she said slowly, as if talking to a retarded person, not that I have anything against retarded people. "As a senior, he will attend the senior prom. It is quite common to bring a date for the prom, and since you are Edward's girlfriend, you will be going to prom with him."

"Ah," I hummed in understanding, but didn't say anything else.

"Well?" Alice demanded harshly.

"Well, what? I think you might want to wait for Edward to actually ask me."

"Details, details. The whole world knows that you will be going to prom with him, so you might wanna start thinking about the right dress. The senior prom will be one week after our final exams and knowing you, you will spend the time before the exams actually studying."

"You make it sound like that is a bad thing."

"It's not unless you start thinking about prom too."

"But what if Edward doesn't even want to go to prom? I think I'll wait until he actually asks me."

"Ask you what?" the velvety voice of Edward asked.

I hadn't even realized that we had stepped into a little shop until I stood in front of the counter and saw Edward standing behind it.

Somehow Alice had not only distracted me enough to watch where we were going, but I had also successfully ignored the huge line of girls next to us. Girls of all age groups, I might add. Well, maybe not all. It started with 13 and went up to...oh Jesus was that woman for real? Oh wait, it was more than just one.

Well, apparently it went up to you-could-be-my-granny's-granny's-age.

The were all reaching out for Edward, while at the same time they were shoving each other to buy something from a girl there. It looked like she was selling t-shirts. When I looked closer I noticed that she was selling 'Team Edward' shirts with a picture of him on it. I frowned at the fact that about a thousand girls got that beautiful face and the adorable lopsided grin for themselves now. But then again, for now I was the only one with the original.

"So what am I supposed to ask you?" Edward asked again over the noise of screaming fan girls.

"Hmm?" I replied absentmindedly.

Alice sighed next to me before she hissed, "Proooom."

"Oh. Yeah, right. You have to ask me to your prom," I said boldly.

Suddenly the whole fan girl screaming stopped and Edward looked at me with a surprised expression.

Everyone was staring at me, including the girl who was selling these ridiculous t-shirts and I had a feeling that she was the Miriam girl that I had heard about before.

The sudden silence and all those eyes on me made me blush. No matter how many hours I had spent as a queen, I would never get used to people staring at me, especially not in awkward situations like these.

"Well, you don't have to, it's just that Alice asked me what I was going to wear for prom and I didn't know what she was talking about and then she had to explain it to me, telling me that you would have your senior prom soon and that you would probably take me along and I said that you might not even go and even if you did you would have to ask me first to go to prom with you otherwise there is no sense in picking out a dress. So that is why I said you'd have to ask me first, even though I don't think you have to. We live in a modern world, so I could actually ask you as well, but you know it's your prom and I didn't want to spoil it for you, so yeah. You don't have to ask me or anything, it was just..." I let my voice trail off, knowing that I was already talking too much. Hanging out with Alice was not healthy.

A couple of girls giggled at my stupid ranting, Miriam being one of them. Tanya suddenly stood behind her and they were whispering something to each other. What was Tanya doing here?

"Um, Bella," Edward started, but I interrupted him.

"Oh no, I'm sorry if I took you by surprise. You really don't have to decide anything now—"

"Yes, he does," Alice piped in.

"—it's okay if you don't answer or ask or whatever right away. I don—"

"Bella, would honour me with the privilege of being my prom date?" Edward asked me in a serious tone, cutting of any rant that was going to come.

I looked at him with wide eyes before I looked down. "That was a bit cheesy, don't you think?" I mumbled quietly.

He stepped close to me and wrapped his arms around me. He was laughing quietly as he whispered, "It was the best way to make all of these girls jealous. They all seem to wish they could be you right now."

"So you only did it for show, huh?"

"I might have phrased it the same way if were were alone, although I had almost forgotten about prom," he admitted quietly.

Alice had of course been listening and wrenched herself in between us. "But I was thinking about it and even if you two are completely incompetent to do the whole prom thing right, you will still be the most stunning part of that party thanks to me. We have a lot of work to do."

The quiet fan club in the background was starting to make me uncomfortable.

"Ah well, ladies, our little Alice likes to get ahead of things, we still have some time until prom," Miriam spoke up. "Still plenty of time for those two to break up."

That seemed to make sense to all of them and the shoving in front of the counter continued, all of them eager again to get an Edward shirt.

Edward rolled his eyes and then leaned down to kiss me. I was pretty sure that he did that for show as well, but I let him.

This time nothing in the world could have distracted me from his kiss and while I enjoyed the feel of his warm lips—the fuzzy feeling in my tummy and the spinning in my head—I came to a very weird realization. This was it. I already knew that I loved Edward and I already told him that. But the thing is that I happen to love this very easily. But I didn't just love Edward, I was in love with him. I loved being with him, I loved seeing him, and I loved the fact that he was claiming me in front of hundreds of girls and women who would all be more than happy to kiss his feet, even if he had run a marathon and didn't take of his sneakers for three days after that.

As disgusting as it may sound, I would probably even lick his feet. I was no better than his fan girls in that sense, but the difference between me and them was that I had him. And I knew him. None of them could possibly know that Edward was ticklish and that he liked to lay on his stomach while sleeping or that he only ate breakfast when he woke up with a good mood.

They probably didn't even knew that his reddish-brown hair had the slightest bit of blond in it when you looked at it in the sun, and none of them had ever gotten the privilege to touch it.

All of that was reserved for me and only me...and Chris occasionally.

So this was it. The moment in which I realized that I would give my life, my soul and even my favorite pair of shoes for Edward. And even though the world seemed to shift for me a little, it didn't seem like anyone else did notice anything. We broke the kiss, which felt like eternity to me and could have lasted exactly that long, and leaned our foreheads against each others. There were no fireworks in the background and no dramatic music. Nothing. Only me grinning like a fool at the realization that I really, really, truly loved Edward. Chris was definitely not going to like this, because she had already been showing the slightest hint of jealously after Edward had admitted his love to me and I instinctively replied.

Edward grinned right back at me and I didn't even care that the whole room was silent once more, except for our friends whispering to each other about something.

"Your favorite pair of shoes, huh? That is definitely a lot. I'm not sure if Alice would do the same thing for me," Edward teased me quietly.

Of course my shield was still not back in place. I should really pay more attention to that. Edward had gotten way too much insight into my mind today.

"I find it rather enjoyable," he continued. "But I'm sure that the whole shoe thing did not come from you. Who did you quote?"

I gathered as much energy as fast as I could to my head, before my mind raced to that stupid conversation with Raven again. There was no need for him to know that.

However, I wasn't too sure if he had gotten a glimpse or not. His face gave nothing away.

"Well, ladies," Miriam said slowly, she was obviously desperate to sell those t-shirts. She wielded her wand quickly and then her smile was back in place. "We still got 'Team Dylan' shirts. You also might wanna consider 'Team Shane' or 'Team Adrian'."

"She's not seriously selling fan articles of me now, is she?" Dylan asked, suddenly appearing in our midst.

"Yes, she is," Rose told him and hit him lightly on the shoulder.

"Where have you been?" Edward asked.

"Lauren," Dylan replied gravely. "She's going with the same plan as Jessica."

"Oh damn," Edward sighed.

"Well, well. Since all of us are complete now and Edward and Bella made it clear to everyone that they are not breaking up, I guess we can go."

We were all agreeing when we were interrupted by the group of girls.

"Dylan, are you single?"

"Dylan, please say you don't have a girlfriend."

"Alice, are you sure that they are not going to break up?"

"Edward, I could give you so much more."

"I will wait for you, Edward."

"Dylan, do you love me?"

They were all just randomly screaming at us.

Edward sighed in desperation and held on to me a little tighter, as if he feared that they would tear me in pieces. I thought that it was more likely that he would be shredded and I could imagine Miriam selling bits and pieces of Edward.

"Ladies, ladies," Dylan called into the mess, effectively stilling the over-excessive movement. "I understand that you only want the best, but unfortunately, our dear Edward is not available at the moment. Instead of hoping that he will fall in love with you right here, you should all make sure to pay for some quality time with him, so you can make him see what he is missing. As for those of you with the better taste, I will hurry back to you right away, I just promised a friend to visit her and I could never break a promise to a young lady."

I watched Dylan and felt the corners of my mouth twitch. He was standing there speaking like he really believed what he was saying and making gestures like he was...I didn't even know how to describe it. It seemed like he was trying to come off like a rich prince or something. He was smiling obnoxiously at all the girls and touched the ones closest to him casually. When he ran his hand through one of the girls' hair, I was pretty sure that an ambulance had to be called soon.

"I will be back, my beautiful princesses, and I will miss you every single moment I am not with you," Dylan cooed and breezed out of the room. Everyone was so entranced with his acting that nobody seemed to notice that we were dancing out of the room right in front of them.

Outside we all took a deep breath and I heard how the screaming inside continued.

"See, this is how you do it," Dylan said to Edward with a grin.

"Is this how you have been working the whole time?" Alice asked.

"Of course. The reason those girls are desperate enough to buy a date is because they want to feel special, so you have to make sure they do."

"I can imagine how many girls may have fallen in love with you," Edward mumbled.

"Oh, not only me, Shane is quite good himself. I think he is going to be in the next generation of school hotties."

"Who is Shane?" I asked.

"He is talking about Shane Mastwood," Rose sighed.

"Oh, that hypnotizing guy?"

"Yep, that one."

"No wonder that he's an escort if he can hypnotize people," I said with a giggle.

"Yes, our escorts are mainly chosen for their talents or looks and in my case even both," Dylan explained.

"Really? I don't see how you talents help you to be charming," Jasper remarked dryly.

"That is because you are ignorant."

"Ah yes and Tanya is an escort why?" Emmett asked.

"Tanya is an escort?" I asked in surprise.

"Of course she is, you should pay more attention. The hosts wear a uniform and Tanya was wearing it," Emmett said.

"And why are you two not wearing the uniform?" I asked Edward and Dylan.

"I changed before you came," Edward replied with a shrug.

"A white button up with a beautiful red vest over it and black dress pants," Alice answered before I even asked the next question. "The girls wear a skirt."

"To answer your question, some people enjoy having two Tanyas at their side," Dylan said to Emmett.

"Oh yeah, Tanya duplicates right?" I threw in.

Everyone nodded.

"Well, how come she is here then and not with the specials? I thought Alice and Chris said there was a guy who could duplicate."

"Ryan?" Rose asked.

"Yes, that's him," Alice answered.

"Um, Ryan is actually a Physio, but he's got an injury so he can't take part in all this sport madness. The council members were talking amongst each other and suddenly we had Ryan for the fair," Rose said.

I just looked at her to tell her that she had not answered my question.

"There are two kinds of duplication: physical and mental. Ryan's duplication is physical, meaning his doubles are real. They have bodies, a heartbeat, everything. You could say they are their own beings to an extent, even if that is not entirely true. Tanya's doubles are a projection of her mind into everybody else's mind. They don't really exist, but we see them. It's more or less an illusion," Edward explained swiftly.

"Thank you, Mr. Nerd," Emmett commented before he turned to Jasper. "You know what, Jazzy? I'm thirsty. You should get your master something to drink."

"Can't I do that when we are at the Pyros display?" Jasper sighed.

"No, I want one of those crackling smoothies," Emmett insisted.

Jasper sighed and then dived into the crowd around us to get Emmett his drink.

Alice, Dylan, and Edward looked a little dumbfounded.

"Emmett and I won in the Special's labyrinth and now Jasper is Emmett's slave and Rose is mine," I explained to them.

"What?" Alice shrieked. "Emmett cannot have my Jazzy!"

"That's how the rules are, Alice. Just chill, it will only be for today," Rose said to her.

"Right, you will be going back to work anyway," Alice said while taking deep breaths.

"Um, no, we are free from work now that we actually have someone to serve. I have to follow Bella everywhere today and Jasper's priority for today is Emmett. Sorry, darlin'."

"Emmett, couldn't you have chosen some other idiot?" Alice complained.

"Are you saying that Jasper is an idiot?" Emmett asked jokingly.

"No, but you are."

"That just hurt my feelings."

"I don't care. If you break Jazz I will make sure to break you for breaking my favorite toy."

"Favorite toy?" I barged into their conversation.

"Just don't say anything about that," Edward said quietly to me.

Jasper reappeared with Emmett's smoothie and we continued to stroll around until we made it out of the Psychs display.

Before we knew it we were standing in front of the door that led to the Pyros, but we didn't get in since there was a long row in front of us. In fact the row was so long that we stood inline in front of the Pyros and the Hydros at the same time.

"Seems like fire and ice are the number one things this year," Dylan mused.

"The ice is definitely lacking something though," Rose said.

I turned to look at her in disbelief.

"What? It's true. You're not there right now, are you?"

"I don't want to stand in line," Alice whined.

"It's amazing how patient you are," I remarked and Alice stuck her tongue out in response.

Unlike the line in front of the Hydros, the one here moved rather quickly.

"I guess they aren't handing out ice skates and coats," Jasper said.

Soon it was our turn and the guy at the counter shoved a fan in each of our hands very quickly while he was talking. "It is very important to us that you respect our girls, which means you will not touch any of them without their permission and even then keep your hands to yourself. Right now, the Harem is only open for our male guests, but in twenty minutes it is open to everyone to watch the performance. After that, the Harem is only open for our female guests. Should you find one of our genies lamps, just tap it with your wand before you rub it and the genie will appear. You will be granted three wishes that are within the power of the genie and please refrain from anything disrespectful, perverted, rude, or anything else along those lines. The door only opens when you say the magic words. Have fun." And with that, he waved us off toward the door that led to the actual display.

"What magic words did he mean?" Alice asked.

"Abracadabra?" Emmett tried.

"Doesn't seem like it," Rose said.

"How about open sesame?" I joked.

Sure enough, the door in front of us opened.

"Nice work, Miss Swan," Jasper complimented before we stepped through the door.

In my whole life I had never seen anything like this. It wasn't as surreal as a complete ice-world, but still it was like being sucked into a fairy tale.

We were met with a wave of heat when we entered and and a very strong and spicy smell entered my nose.

We were in an oriental bazaar. The Pyros had apparently done their best to make it as much like an Arabian market as they could. It wasn't fancy and overly cleaned up, but so entrancing and mysterious that you just wanted to see everything. Some of the stands appeared to be old and nearly falling apart which only added to the charm. And the ground was covered in sand, which seemed to sparkle a little in the burning hot sun.

You could clearly differentiate between the people working here and the visitors. Even though some visitors wore turbans and scarfs on their heads, and a few even bought dresses and such that went along with the theme, the Pyros had cleaned up nicely in a very oriental way.

"That explains the Sari," Edward mumbled when a group of girls in Saris passed, all of them giggling.

"I thought Saris were Indian," Alice mused.

"Ah, my pretty young lady, they are," a boy close to us suddenly spoke up. I hadn't even noticed his stall there. "We didn't go for only one culture, but we tried to mix as many oriental cultures as we could, which is why we have the harem." He was speaking in a fake Arabian accent.

All of us just looked at him in his dress and the neatly bound turban.

"Are you interested in the genie lamps?" he asked.

"Sure," Emmett answered right away.

"Come closer, dear friend."

Emmett leaned closer to him and I found myself doing the same along with everybody else.

"The genies are walking around in here, disguised as normal human beings, but still outstanding. If you find out who is a genie, you have to watch that person, because the genies always have to return to their lamp every once in a while."

"That was not really helpful," Alice complained.

"I'm willing to share more information in exchange for 10 gold coins," the boy said coyly.

"We don't have gold coins," Rose said, sounding annoyed.

"Then I don't have any more information."

"But I want a genie," Alice suddenly whined.

"I didn't even know genies existed," I threw in.

"They do in the Middle East, but I hardly think that they are talking about real genies here," Edward whispered to me. "Don't let Alice know that though."

"I also want a genie, so you better spill," Emmett threatened the poor guy.

"I'm sorry but I told you everything that I know," the boy replied, unapologetic, and turned his attention to the apples in front of him. "Maybe you want to buy an apple, they are very extraordinary."

"I don't want a damn apple, I want a genie," Emmett and Alice yelled at the same time.

"I can't help you with that. You must find the genies on your own."

"You were just willing to spill in exchange for coins, so you better talk in exchange for not being seriously beaten," Emmett said, looking like he was ready to jump on the poor boy.

"Seriously Emmett, Alice, just let it go and look for the lamps," I interfered.

The boy's attention shifted to me and he suddenly gaped at me.

"You are the Queen," he noted, no longer faking an accent.

I blushed and looked down. "I guess I am, but not here."

"Oh, I've seen your water show and I was very impressed. I wanted to talk to you in the palace, but...never mind that. Do you also want to find a genie?"

"Uh, sure. Why not?"

"Alright, I can tell you this. One of the genies comes by here every now and then to snatch one of my apples," he informed me, looking around as if to look for her or him.

"Great, thanks for the info," Alice cheered and then skipped off into the crowd pulling Jasper along.

"Who wants to go looking for her?" Rose asked as we watched them disappear.

"You can do that," I said to her. She opened her mouth to protest but I cut her off. "My wish should be your command."

"I'm not a damn genie," she grumbled

"Whatever. Edward and I are going to look at those love charms," I said pointing at another stall a little further.

"Since when do you care for things like that?" Edward asked when I tugged on his hand to come along.

"I don't really, but I'm curious. We could go somewhere else if you want."

"No, no. I was just wondering," Edward protested.

We reached the stand and the girl in it smiled gently at us. She was wearing a Sari similar to the one Chris had been wearing the day before.

"Welcome," she greeted us warmly. "I'm guessing you two are a couple, right?"

That was definitely a little bit forward but I nodded anyway.

"Right, let me see what I have for you," she said absentmindedly and then vanished under her counter for a moment.

Edward and I looked at each other questioningly for a second before I shrugged and looked at the rings displayed in front of me.

"Alright, I have matching rings that tell you when your better half is near," she announced when she reappeared.

I looked at the two rings in her hand, which were both golden.

"Um, no thanks," I said carefully.

"Okay." She actually threw the rings over her shoulder. I thought they only did this in cartoons. "They don't work anyway," she informed me when she saw my confused look. She dived down again and reappeared with a bracelet. She turned to Edward. "If you put the spell that belongs to it on it, it will be something like a...leash or a, err...bond. Yes, a bond! You see, the bracelet will have a connection with your wand which in turn has a connection with you, therefore she will always return to you."

"She is my girlfriend, not my dog," Edward objected.

"True words, true words," she mumbled and started rummaging once more.

I kind of felt like I was in a cartoon or something.

"How about this?" she suggested when she came up. She held a little box in her hands. She opened it and revealed a clump of sliver hanging on a necklace.

"Um...I don't—"

"It has very unique magic. It shapes when you two touch it and the shape says a lot about your relationship."

I looked at Edward, but he wasn't paying attention to me.

"Are you sure that it works?" he asked her.

"You want to try it?" she retorted.

Without saying anything, Edward took my hand and laid it on the silver. He intertwined our fingers so that we were both touching it. I felt the clump shift and I would have pulled my hand away in surprise, but Edward held it in place.

After a few seconds he lifted our hands and revealed a beautiful heart shaped pendant. It was more like a heart frame, but it was beautiful nonetheless.

"Very nice," the girl approved.

"Does that mean anything?" I asked.

"I don't know, I'm just selling the stuff here," she replied with a shrug.

"I'll take it," Edward said absentmindedly.

"Huh?" was my intelligent comment to that.

"I'm buying it," he told me while he handed the money to the girl.

"What for? Are you planning on wearing it?" I asked him sarcastically and let out a snort.

"Not me," he said gently and was suddenly behind me, "you." He put the necklace around my neck and pushed my hair aside to fasten it. "The school year is almost over and I really don't want you to forget me over the summer," he whispered into my ear.

"I..." I was pretty sure I was blinking away tears. "I really don't know what to say. You shouldn't spend money on me like this. I re—"

"Just say thank you and be happy about having such a pretty necklace," Edward cut me off.

I turned around and smiled at him. "Thank you," I said genuinely.

Edward smiled back and slowly leaned down.

"Ah yes, today seems to be such a wonderful day for love, especially in the middle of an Arabian bazaar. It's almost like 1001 nights," Dylan sighed next to us.

Why did he always have to turn up like this?

I turned around to see him leaning casually against the stall and munching on an apple.

He grinned at me. "Y'know, these apples are great, they have slight cinnamon flavor."

"Thank you for popping in on our moment like that," Edward sighed at his brother and shoved him slightly.

"Hey, anytime. Although right now you might wanna join the others on the other side of the bazaar on the plaza," he said.

"Why what's there?" I asked already walking into that direction.

Dylan didn't answer and just led the way.

I noticed that a lot of people were moving in this direction.

"Ah, there you are," Alice called after a few minutes and I was immediately dragged along by the pixie.

A crowd was around the plaza, but Alice had somehow managed to get us in the front row.

A group of five half-naked boys was standing in the middle and all of them seemed to be humming a tune. It wasn't loud or anything, but it was nice to hear.

They were wearing something that I thought were called harems pants and turbans on their heads, but other than that, nothing. No shoes and no shirts. Their bodies were glistening with perspiration, which was no surprise in this burning sun.

Then another guy appeared and stood in from of them. He held a lighter and started to walk along the little row of boy. He was lighting every boys hand.

"This is so exciting," Alice squealed quietly.

"No, it's not. The Pyros do some sort of fire throwing every year," Rose retorted.

"I didn't mean that, it's probably going to be as unspectacular as always. Well, no, it is impressive, but... you know. I was talking about the fact that the harem is going to be opened for us soon." She pointed at the beautiful building behind the boys. It looked like they had stolen it right out of the Aladdin movie, which was maybe even possible.

My musings were interrupted when suddenly a giant flame blazed up.

The first one in the row let his fire jump high, before it went back to a little flame. Then the one next to him did the same thing and it went down the line like that.

When the last of the six had let his fame die down, he let blazing balls fly up the sky like a firework.

Again they did that one after another.

I noticed that the flames were only dancing above their hands and not quite touching the skin. I also noticed that one of these half-naked boys was Dean. Like the other five, he wasn't showing any kind of emotion on his face.

"How long does this thing take?" Rose asked impatiently.

Alice whispered something to her, but I didn't listen. Even if the others didn't like it much, I found it quite interesting.

Now they all let their lames flicker a little higher, just below their chins. When the last one had done that, they moved for the first time and reached the second hand out, letting the flame wander over to that hand too. When the last one had done that, they all looked like they were holding a fire pole.

One after another, they moved their hands to create a wave. They did that for a little while. It started out slow, but turned quickly into a raging wave. They went faster and faster until the fire started reaching out on the sides.

"Aren't they overdoing that a little?" Dylan asked a little worriedly. The flames reached out more and the people on the sides started to step away.

"Oh boy, I think they are losing control," Rose said.

"Maybe Bella should step in before anything happens," Jasper suggested.

"Nothing will happen," Alice said before I could protest.

"Are you sure about that?" Emmett asked.

"Just as sure as I know who the genies are," Alice answered with a grin.

Emmett eyed her for a moment and would have probably said something, if the flame the boys were rocking didn't suddenly explode. Or at least that was what it looked and felt like. With a suddenly force the fire spread out widely and disappeared at the same time, yet we were all hit with a strong wave of heat.

They had made some sand fly around but when it came falling back down, I noticed that it was little glass particles. I guess that explained the glittering sand.

It seemed like this was the end of their performance and people started shuffling away, when another guy came along and suddenly spat fire. I think I've never seen a person spit fire before. Well, yes, I have, but not actually without the help of anything.

That seemed to get peoples attention back and he spat again, roaring loudly while doing so and creating a giant flame above the heads of the other boys.

All of them made hurried movements with their hand and I saw that each of them seemed to have a different style. They were twirling the fire around in a ring that reminded me much of our water show, but they didn't leave it in that shape. They started shaping it into something I couldn't make out and then the guy continued spitting. Three boys were directing the flames he spat, while the other three were shaping them.

It seemed like they were shaping a snake, only that they had started with the end. It seemed to be endless above our heads and it brightened up the sky unnaturally, while sending so much heat down to us as well. I started to feel dizzy.

Then the spiting and the shaping came to an abrupt stop, and with one push from every single one of the guys, they formed the head of their snake. Only that it wasn't a snake. It was one of those Chinese dragons that was hovering above our heads, radiating heat.

All the boys stepped to the side and revealed a girl behind them who had apparently stepped out of the harem.

"Is she wearing a belly dancing costume?" Dylan asked curiously.

"Yes, she is," Alice sighed, probably knowing where his mind was.

The girl in the belly dancing costume started to sway lightly to unheard music. Then she twirled abruptly and it seemed to be spinning for hours, before she stopped, and at the same moment, that immense flaming dragon caught onto her hair. Her hair was blazing up and her eyes seemed to be burning lightly as well, while she let out a scream. People let out surprised and shocked gasps. But seeing that nothing really caught fire, I guessed that this was part of the show.

The fire in the sky vanished and it seemed like it was being sucked into the girls hair. That was definitely weird.

Her hair was falling down gently with a few flames still running through it, but other than that nothing. She opened her eyes and smiled gently.

"Ladies and gentleman, the harem is now open for everyone," she announced and then walked back to the doors, entering the building.

"Well, I guess the Pyros are capable of learning," Emmett said. "This was by far the best thing they have ever done."

"I'm really starting to wonder where Chris is. I would have guessed she would be here where the real fire is," Dylan mumbled.

"Well, there's another fire show back there that goes on all day, but she's not there," Alice said, smiling knowingly.

"Let me guess, you know where she is?"

"Of course I do." Alice almost sounded offended.

"Well, shouldn't we be going to her then? I mean, we are here to visit her after all," I said to Alice.

She sighed. "That's why we are here. She is in the harem. I'm not telling you more though."

"Aren't harems usually the room in which the women chill and men are forbidden to enter?" Dylan asked.

"That's right," Edward agreed with a shrug, saying that he didn't know either why this was called a harem then.

"Well, let's go. As far as I can tell, Chris seems to be nervous," I said. I had just opened myself to the bond to be met with Chris' nervousness.

"I hope she's wearing one of the costumes too," Dylan sang and led the way. The rest of us just shook our heads and trailed after him.

Dylan knocked on the door and a moment after that, it was opened.

"I'm sorry, I thought everybody knew. We're already full," a shy voice said as I saw rather small blond girl open the door. She was wearing a costume like the girl we had just seen.

From afar I hadn't noticed that most of the skirt was see-through. Actually, everything except the rim around the hip and a stripe in the middle across the front and the back. Even though this was an attempt to create the illusion that she was naked underneath this, she was actually wearing matching panties that covered everything important up.

The top was a simple blue bra that seemed to be made up of silk and she wore a golden head dress around her head that was attached to a veil in front of her face, which was also see-through.

"What?" Dylan protested. "But I want to go in there."

"I'm sorry, but we can't let it get too crowded in here, so we have a certain amount of people that are allowed in here."

"How many people?" Rose asked.

"Forty, but right now we are at thirty-three, because there are seven spaces reserved for—"

"Jaurica, what are you doing at the door? You know that Meredith gets pissed when more people than necessary see the inside. It makes the girls a little uncomfortable," an all-too familiar voice called and Chris suddenly appeared behind Jaurica. "Oh, it's you," she said, sounding like she wasn't too pleased about that. "Well, come on in." She opened the door a little further to reveal a stunning big room.

It looked exactly like those houses of Arabian rich men in this movies.

But then again, it didn't. The windows were high up and covered by sheets, so there wasn't getting any sunlight getting through. On the opposite side of the door was a little stage and in front of that were not chairs or anything. There was a see of big pillows little tables next to them. Most of those pillows were occupied by men. Some of them had arranged themselves in a group around a table and others sat there alone. On the side were walk ways that seemed to lead to other rooms at the back. They were on a higher level and I saw a girl in one of those blue costumes walking there before she stepped down those two steps to get to one of the tables.

Everything in here seemed to be mixed colors. I saw mostly red, orange, and green, but also occasionally yellow, and of course blue, thanks to the girls in blue that were walking around in here. It seemed like they were something like waitresses.

All of us were so busy gawking at the room in front of us with it's oriental charm, that none of us noticed the two rather big guys that Chris was talking to.

She was twirling the ends of her hair in her fingers and seemed to be looking up at them from underneath her lashes. That, added to the fact that she tracing patterns with her right foot, made me immediately know that she was flirting. Now that I looked at her, I noticed that she was not wearing a blue costume like the others. Even the boys were wearing blue. Chris wore purple harem pants that had a long rip from the bottom to top, revealing her legs in those already revealing see-through pants. The waist band was blue and had a few pendants dangling from it.

Unlike the waitresses or whatever they were, she was not wearing a normal bra. Hers was more like a sports bra, which was also blue and also had golden pendants dangling from it. She had a light pink scarf around her arms and also wore golden high heels while the others were wearing really funny shoes that were flat and the tip was curling lightly.

Chris finished her conversation with the two boys who walked off, and then turned her attention to our group. It seemed like I was the only one who had been watching her and she winked swiftly at me.

"So, do you guys want to sit at your table or not?" she asked.

"Yes, yes, yes," Alice sang and started jumping up and down.

Chris only shook her head and waved a passing waitress over. "Jasmine, can you take them to my table?" she asked her. It sounded a bit more like an order.

"Yes, of course," Jasmine answered.

"Wait, aren't you going to sit with us?" I asked her.

"I can't right now. I have to take care of the reservations, because in a few minutes the new guests are coming."

"I thought you had a guest limit," Rose said.

"We do, which is why I have to see our current guests off. Everyone can only stay in here for an hour, that way a lot of people get in and we don't have a huge crowd in here. Of course this all works with a reservation system and it helps if you have connections. We say there is a forty people limit but we already had more than that in here," Chris explained quickly.

"Christabel, we need to get going now," a girl suddenly called. We all turned to see a brown-haired girl strut toward us in a costume that looked just like Chris'. "Meredith doesn't want the same chaos as before, and I really don't want her pissed off when she comes back."

"Chill, Janan, we'll get to it right away. Just go and get the reservations book. I already sent Tommy and Max to get the other two boys for me," Chris said calmly, rubbing her hands up and down Janan's arm before she pushed the girl into the other direction and gestured for her to get going. "Okay, as I was saying, get seated," she then said with a smile to us. She turned around and walked briskly away. In her half-naked state it was easy to see every movement of her hips and upper body.

"Please follow me," Jasmine said to us and led the way. We walked down the entire walkway until we stepped down. She led us to an arrangement of eight pillows around two of these little glass tables. They were arranged in a a half circle and were right in front of the little stage.

Dylan and Emmett immediately threw themselves on two of the giant pillows.

"This is awesome. There is no better way to spend the break than chilling on an oversized pillow," Emmett sighed and patted the empty seat next to him to gesture for Rose to join him

She sighed but sank down on the pillow anyway. The rest of us took our seats as well.

I was sitting between Edward and Dylan, who had made sure that Chris would have to sit next to him when she joined us.

"Well, my name is Jasmine and I am your servant today. Is there anything you need to be more comfortable?" she asked sweetly.

All of us shook our heads, although Emmett seemed to have thought about something before Rose nudged him in the ribs.

"Alright, here are the menus." She pulled out her wand, made them appear, and handed them to each of us. "And if there is anything you need, just ring this bell." She took off a tiny bell from her bracelet, tapped her wand on it while mumbling something, and then it grew into the size of one of these servant bells. "Don't hesitate to ask me if you need anything," Jasmine said with another sweet smile before she left.

"I still haven't quite figured out what this place is about," Rose murmured.

Edward lifted his eyebrows. "It's kind of simple, Rose. A bunch of half-naked girls serving guys. And until a few minutes ago, it was only guys," he told her.

"Yes, I get that, but I don't see why this would be interesting for girls," Rose said.

"Maybe because there are guys as well," I suggested.

"That would make sense. Why did Chris have to get us a girl?"

"Ah, you guys are in for a surprise," Alice sighed and sunk back in her pillow almost vanishing in it.

"Not anymore," Edward replied smugly and leaned back as well.

Alice sat up right away to glare at him. "Edward Anthony Cullen, I swear if you ever rummage through my head again without my permission I will personally—"

We never got to hear the end of Alice's threat, because the noise in front of the doors was distracting all of us. Chris appeared on walk way to our left and started throwing orders around. I wondered how I had not noticed that the other guests had all left. The girls were all running around organizing everything when a few boys appeared and helped. I had seen two of them already, but now it was four.

They were all wearing blue harem pants, matching the girls costumes, and vests which had nothing underneath.

The doors opened for a brief moment and I saw Chris and Janan slip through it along with one of the boys, before it closed again. From what I saw, it seemed like people were desperately trying to get in.

"I thought it worked with reservations, shouldn't it be a little more organized then?" Jasper asked, looking at the now closed doors. The noise was still clear to hear for us.

"Yes, but the concept of reserving is the part that is a little all over the place," Edward answered.

I looked at him and saw that familiar distracted expression on his face, that he had whenever he was listening to several people's minds.

"Um, guys," he then said slowly. Everyone turned to look at him a little confused by his tone. "It seems like our parents have found each other and reserved a table," he frowned.

"Mom and Dad?" Alice asked a little surprised.

"Yes, and Emmett's parents, as well as Rosalie and Jasper's."

"Ugh, that is slightly awkward. My mother drooling over half-naked guys," Rose groaned.

"It's not only your mom. Apparently your father made an appearance as well," Edward told her.

"Dad?" Rose and Jasper both asked in surprise.

"Since when is your father here?" Alice asked frantically. It seemed like she was a little nervous. I guessed it was because she had missed something like that.

"That, I don't know," Edward replied.

We were all looking at the door where the waiter and waitresses were lined up.

The doors opened again and Chris assigned every party a waiter, who led the people to their tables.

I noticed Carlisle and Esme, who were with Ms. Hale and three unknown people.

I started to giggle when I took in one of them.

"What is so funny?" Emmett asked looking around the room.

Suddenly Chris slumped down next to Dylan. "Don't you think Emmett's dad looks an awful lot like his son?" she asked.

"That was exactly what I was thinking," I told her, still giggling.

Chris smirked at me, finding this just as amusing as I did.

I looked over at the group of parents again. I noticed that both Chris and I examined Emmett's parents again.

Emmett's dad was tall and muscular just like his son, maybe even more. He also had the same curly hair, even though his was a few shades lighter. Even from the distance it was easy to see that Emmett even inherited most of his facial features. They had the same dark brown eyes and the same mischievous grin.

I looked at Emmett again, who grinned at his dad when the two of them made eye contact. Looking back at his dad to see the same expression on his face was almost scary. It was like seeing Emmett's future self or something.

His dad caught sight of me and then Chris. He frowned in something that seemed like confusion and then turned to ask the waitress something.

She nodded and smiled and led the parents to a seat group next to us.

"Boy," Emmett's dad boomed. I cringed at the volume, while I heard Chris let out a small laugh.

"They are more alike than you think," Edward whispered to me with a chuckle.

"Who are your friends?" Emmett's father asked, looking first at me and then at Chris.

"You didn't tell your parents about me and Bella? I'm hurt," Chris mocked.

I noticed that Dylan was staring at Chris' bare midriff. I shook my head at that and turned my attention to Emmett instead.

"I only mention important people," Emmett said to Chris.

"So I'm drop dead gorgeous, but not important?" I asked Emmett with wide eyes.

"Drop dead gorgeous?" both Edward and Chris asked.

"That's what Emmett said," I told them with a shrug.

"Hey, Dia, I think your son has a new girlfriend," Emmett's dad called over his shoulder.

The black-haired woman who had been talking with Rose and Jasper's mom a second ago, turned.

Only now I noticed how young she actually looked.

She had long black hair and a very delicate face. Her grey eyes were shining brightly, making her look as if she was smiling with her eyes. She came to stand beside her husband, looking like a doll next to him. Although she was quite tall for a woman, she just barely reached her husband's shoulder. She looked at Emmett with a raised eyebrow.

"Hey, Dia," Rose greeted with a smile.

"Don't I get a hello?" Emmett's dad asked with a pout.

Rose only rolled her eyes and got up. Jasper quickly followed suit and the two of them went over to their parents.

"Hey, kiddos," the man, who was obviously their dad, greeted and pulled them both into a hug.

"Hey, Dad," they chorused.

A flash of emotion that came from Chris caught my attention.

She was watching the blonde section, who were all talking quietly with each other, and then her eyes flew over to Emmett and his parent's, who seemed to be teasing him.

I smiled sadly at her. She missed our parents and I understood that all too well.

"Alright, Bella, Chris, pay attention," Rose called and pulled her father over to us.

Okay, even if I had called them the blonde section, their father didn't have blonde hair. But he did have shining blue eyes as well.

"So, Dad, this is Bella and Chris," Jasper introduced, pointing at me and then at Chris.

Ms. Hale appeared behind the father of her children and then said, "Whether you believe it or not, Isabella and Christabel are twins."

That also seemed to get the attention of Emmett's parents as well. Esme and Carlisle joined the party as well, looking amused.

"So you got yourself twins? Nice work. What about Rosie, though?" Emmett's dad asked, nudging his son lightly and waggling his eyebrows. They were really a lot alike.

Emmett rolled his eyes and sighed. "Dad, I'm not dating either one of them and I'm still very happy with Rosie," he replied.

"Right," Emmett's dad said slowly and then grinned at me. He stretched his hand out to me and I grasped it, immediately regretting that I did that. He almost squeezed the life out of my hand. "I'm Caleb McCarty. You can call me Cal," he said, smiling brightly. He let go and I wanted to flex my hand, but Emmett's mom took it.

"I'm Diamonique, but everyone calls me Dia," she introduced herself with a smile. She had a slight accent that I couldn't exactly place, but sounded somehow like Russian. And then I saw the only thing in her face that Emmett had inherited. The dimples. I involuntarily smiled back when I saw them.

"I'm Bella," I replied.

Dia let go and then she and her husband went over to Chris. The next hand was extended in front of me.

I looked up to see Rose and Jasper's father. He had a handsome face and the shape was similar to Jasper's, but Jasper seemed to look more like his mom. Still, it seemed almost ridiculous how beautiful the parents of my friends were.

"I'm Derek Whitlock. Nice to meet you," he said genuinely.

"Bella," I answered.

This was a little overwhelming.

Chris jumped up. "Okay, kids. It's wonderful to meet all your parents, but I gotta work," she said hastily. I noticed that she was glancing toward the entrance. "Meredith," she then called so loud that all of us cringed for a moment.

"Why are you not dressed yet?" Meredith's voice asked.

"Getting to it," Chris replied and then turned her attention back to us. "See y'all in a bit."

Rose giggled at her attempt to imitate her family's Texan drawl.

Chris shot her a quick grin before she strode away in quick steps. Everyone turned to watch her vanish in a door, but not without snapping something at a girl that she passed.

Jasper snickered quietly and I looked at him in question.

He only shook his head, but beside me Edward started to chuckle as well.

"Care to share?" I asked him.

"His mom likes Chris," Edward told me, not quiet enough for the others not to hear.

"What? But she was not at all charming," Alice protested.

"When?" Emmett asked.

"Yesterday."

"I found her quite pleasant, thank you," Ms. Hale threw in.

"Bella is pleasant, but not Chris," Rose noted looking at her mother with a funny expression.

She might have replied something, if a small voice hadn't interrupted.

"I'm sorry, but maybe you want to sit together? Then you could just push the pillows into a group. It's just that you have to sit down because we have other guests to seat as well," the girl in her blue costume piped.

"Sure, we'll sit with our kids," Cal immediately agreed and was already dragging a pillow over and squeezed it in between Alice and Emmett.

His wife let out a sigh and rolled her eyes. Somehow Emmett's parents reminded me of him and Rose.

Five minutes later we all sat in a large group together. I noticed that every now and then someone was looking over at us, pointing excitedly in our direction.

I raised an eyebrow in question, wondering what was so interesting about us.

Emmett let out a groan, while Edward laughed quietly.

"What's so funny?" Alice asked.

"Mom's fans," Emmett grumbled. He didn't look like found this funny.

"Fans?" I asked.

Edward pulled me closer to him before he explained to me. "Dia is a model, and quite a famous one at that. Well, at least in our world. And in case you were wondering, she is originally from Hungary. But it's not only her that they are staring at. Unfortunately, we are some kind of celebrity group. Derek is a historian and wrote quite a few books, some of them are used for our classes, and then there is our dear Ms. Hale. She is one of the former royals and works for the IDM. She's the adviser of the president. Also there is Cal, who used to be a pro surfball player. Not to mention that you get your fair share of attention too, as well as Chris."

I just nodded at that, not sure if I even got everything he had just told me. Basically I was sitting here with a group of extraordinary beautiful people, who were all some kind of superstars. Great, just great.

"You know what? I think we should get that magic lamp tea," I heard Esme suggest. I hadn't even realized that she and Carlisle had seated themselves between me and Dylan.

"One hundred and one flavors cake sounds like something we should try," Cal said and Emmett agreed with that.

"Where are the servants when you need them?" Rose complained, not looking up from her menu.

Alice let out a little sigh and reached for the bell on the table. "Oh Jasmine," she sang.

Not even a second later, Jasmine stood right behind Alice. "Is there anything I can do for you?" Jasmine asked pleasantly.

"We want that one hundred and one flavors cake," Emmett told her.

Jasmine made a scroll appear, opened it and seemed to be writing his order on it.

"And some of that magic lamp tea would be nice," Esme added.

"I want fortune cookies," Alice chimed in.

Jasmine nodded. "Anything else?" she asked.

"How big is the cake?" Emmett asked.

"Big enough for all of you."

"Okay, we'll take two then," Cal interfered.

I looked at him with wide eyes.

"He's Emmett's dad, you shouldn't be surprised," Edward noted.

Dia, who had heard that, looked up and said, "You definitely would never want to be at the same table with those two at Thanksgiving. It's traumatizing each year."

"Oh, I've seen it," I reassured her and shuddered at the memory of the school's Thanksgiving dinner.

Just then, Jasmine and two other waitresses appeared, serving us. They made a stack of plates appear and left again.

The one hundred and one flavors cakes were two-layered and had colorful icing on them. And when I say colorful, I really mean it. The icing was changing colors.

"Well, that explains why some of our food people had to help out the Pyros," Alice commented. She had a little basket with fortune cookies in front of her and grabbed one, before passing the basket on to Jasper.

"Confucius say: if you think you're going to sum up your whole life on this little bit of paper, you're crazy," Alice read out loud and then pulled a grimace.

Jasper snickered at that, but stopped when Alice threw him a dark look.

"Why do I have the feeling that Chris might have written that?" Rose mused.

"Because it sucks," Alice sulked.

Jasper opened his cookie and laughed before he read, "Fortune not found? Abort, retry, ignore."

I actually snorted at that, while Emmett and his dad guffawed loudly, drowning everybody else's laughter.

Jasper took out another cookie before Dylan reached over to grab the basket form him.

"Never forget a friend," Jasper read with a frown, "especially if he owes you."

"That means Jasper will forget all of us except Emmett," Dylan commented, while the rest of us laughed. "Only listen to the fortune cookie; disregard every other future telling unit," Dylan read, already choking with laughter.

"Well, Alice, looks like you're out of business," Edward said with a chuckle.

Esme took out a cookie next . When she read it, she let out a high pitched giggle. "If you eat a box of fortune cookies, anything is possible," she read.

"That is probably true...if Chris doesn't write the phrases," Rose said.

"I don't think she wrote them," I said to her.

"What makes you think that?"

Carlisle answered that question. "A great pleasure in life is doing what others say you can't."

"Huh?"

"That was in my cookie and it doesn't sound like Chris to me," Carlisle explained and handed me the little basket.

I took a cookie out and passed it on to Edward. 'You are admired by everyone for your talent and ability' I read to myself. I didn't say it out loud, but that sounded like something Chris would say. To me, at least.

"How very true," Edward breathed into my ear, causing me to shiver.

"Cut it out, you two. We already saw enough of that," Emmett complained.

I stuck my tongue out at him, which only caused him to laugh.

"Why does Bella get the best fortune?" Alice whined.

"Stop whining. If you don't like it, order more of those things and see what you get then," Jasper's mom said to her. She didn't look amused like the rest of us did, as a matter of fact, she managed to sit straight and proper in this giant pillow, but it seemed like she was a less formal than the other times I had seen her.

Edward read his fortune. "You will soon discover a major truth about the one you love the most." He looked at me in question.

"Don't look at me," I said defensively. "Ask your parents if they have any more kids."

"Really, Edward? You love Bella more than us?" Carlisle tried to sound hurt, but the proud smirk on his face kind of made that impossible.

Dia chuckled quietly before she took out her own cookie. "The one you love is closer than you think," she read. When she looked up, Cal had scooted so close to her that she had no choice but to look at him. She smiled, but then turned around. "Now where is he?" she asked pretending to be looking for someone.

"Don't play those games woman," Cal growled and pulled her in for a rough kiss.

"Seriously guys, that's disgusting," Emmett protested.

The two broke apart quickly and Cal grinned at his son, not really looking apologetic. "Playing a game of musical farts really stinks."

Of course Emmett and his father laughed loudly at that.

Emmett's cookie said: 'You will receive a fortune cookie', and Rose got one that said: 'Good things are being said about you...in bed'.

The silence that followed was definitely comical, seeing that Alice, Jasper, Edward, Emmett and I were trying to suppress our laughter, while the parents that belonged to the package seemed to be at loss of words.

Well, that was not entirely true, since Cal was just like Emmett shaking with silent laughter until his wife smacked him on the back of is head.

"Rosalie, you are not doing stupid things with stupid boys, are you?" her father asked.

Rose's eyes widened, but she shook her head furiously.

"Hey, I'm not stupid!" Emmett protested.

That just did it. I let out a laugh so loud that it rivalled Emmett, but immediately clamped my hand down on my mouth, which didn't really stop me from laughing.

Rose shot a glare in my direction, but I couldn't help it. And it wasn't even like I was the only one laughing. Thanks to my outburst, Alice and the others didn't bother suppressing their laughter anymore.

"Emmett McCarty..." Rose's dad started to threaten, but never finished, because we were all distracted by two guys carrying a basket onto the little stage. It looked like one of those snake baskets out of which snakes always wound out in the movies when someone was playing a flute. Only this one was bigger and it seemed like it was heavy too.

"What kind of giant snake are they going to summon out of there?" Rose asked in terror.

"It can't be bigger than the snake you already got acquainted with," Emmett said to her in a suggestive tone.

As an answer he got a glare form Rose and her father, while Cal laughed hysterically at that.

"Geez, it's like having two Emmett's around," I complained and leaned closer into Edward's chest.

"Trust me, it could get a lot worse than this," he said with a chuckle that rumbled through his chest.

The two guys vanished from the stage again, leaving it completely empty aside form the basket.

"Ah, the show is about to start," Carlisle noted with a nod.

"What show?" I asked.

"The reason why everybody wants to be here, especially the males," Alice explained.

The look I gave her must have shown the confusion I felt, since she only answered, "Wait and see."

As if on cue, the music suddenly started playing. It was slow and entrancing and I felt all my attention focused on the stage suddenly.

It was dimly lit now and smoke was covering the floor, while the oriental music was playing.

In the back of my mind I noticed that Edward said something about an entrancing spell, before my attention was completely focused on the happenings on stage.

In the fog on stage, I could make out the figure of a woman, who was standing there with her arms raised above her head. She was moving her hands in waves and slowly let them travel down until they were at her sides.

She was still doing that wave like shapes with her hand though.

Then she let her arms join that movement as well. The fog around her started to fade and I could actually see who it was. It was Janan, the girl we had met earlier at the entrance. She was now dressed in a green skirt with a matching bra that had pendants dangling on it like her earlier outfit.

Even if it seemed to be covering a little more than her previous attire, she seemed much more naked in that one. I really couldn't explain why that was, but I still liked the costume. She looked very beautiful in it and it did make her body look nice.

Janan had expanded her movements to her whole body now and she was winding and bending slowly to the music.

She raised her arms every now and again and never stopped those arm waves.

Then she actually put those wave movements into her body, making her move like a snake. She swayed her hips slowly from one side to the other and then did the arms waves again.

Then suddenly the music picked up and drums joined the sound and behind Janan appeared another set of arms before Meredith stepped out from behind her.

They both moved in synchronization, bumping the right side of their hips up and down to the beat.

Meredith was wearing a blue costume, that seemed to have lots of beads on it and was less flowing than the one that Janan was wearing.

The two of them twirled and let their hips roll, matching to the sound and speed of the music.

Then they slowed down a bit and did a brief shimmering of their hips exactly when the drums in the music were heard, making it seem as if their bodies were making the music.

Somehow they had made their way to the basket in front and I already guessed what was going to come next.

The two girls seemed to be rotating their shoulders quickly and that was when the basket opened.

And sure enough, it was Chris who slowly snaked her way up, the lid on her head as if it was a hat. She held her hands out to both sides as if balancing something on them, when I realized that, there were small flames dancing on her palms.

Janan and Meredith placed their hands over the flames and then twirled abruptly to the sound of the music, moving away from Chris.

The flames expanded as if they were ropes, which were held by Chris. Due to the twirling of the two others the flames had somehow formed a spiral around them looking a little like those big scarfs that belly dancers usually twirled around.

Chris let go of the flames, leaving them with the other two and continued dancing her way out of the basket.

She was wearing a red costume, which also had beads on it, that were dangling in little chains from the top.

She gripped the rim of the basket and heaved her legs elegantly out of it. Until now I hadn't realized that she had her seal covered up with make-up earlier, because now it was visible, and for some strange reason, it looked good. Chris quickly twirled to stand in the middle of the two other girls, who had been twirling the whole time as well, making the flames look like whirlwinds.

Now that Chris stood in the middle of them they stopped.

Somehow they got the flames winding around their arms, without touching their skin, still making it look as if it were and accessory instead of a deadly element.

Chris made flames appear and they wound themselves around her arms, only hers actually touched her skin.

And then they continued dancing. It was really impressive how fast they could move their hips and isolate the movements of each body part, although it seemed like Janan was more fluent with the whole thing. But even though her movements were more fluent, her concentration was not always on the dancing, because she had to keep an eye on the flames surrounding her. Meredith did just fine, although she had trouble with those strange isolated movements of the hips. Everything else seemed just fine and she also look like she had fun with the whole thing.

Chris' dancing was very impressive as well, but I could see that she was not fully concentrating on it, even if that did nothing to her performance. Through the bond I felt a mixture of boredom, embarrassment, and excitement.

I smiled at that and when her gaze fell on me, her enthusiasm seemed to be enlightened and she put a little more effort into her routine. It wasn't unknown to me that Chris was a good dancer, because while I had been in failing in ballet classes when we were little, she had been acing her little belly dancing sessions. She actually had wanted to do ballet as well, but our parents thought it would be nice if we had separate hobbies. And since Mom was very much into dancing at the time, this was what came out of it. But after my second injury, Mom took me out of ballet classes and signed me up for singing instead, which went a lot better than the dancing.

We stopped singing and dancing when we were eight though, because Mom thought that we could be great artists just like she was. I sighed at the thought, but returned my attention to my dancing twin sister.

Currently the three girl were shimming their chests every time the beat of the drums picked up for a few seconds and somehow managed to roll their hips at the same time as well as move their feet. I noticed that the flames would flare up as well every time the beat picked up and I saw that Janan got a little nervous about that, but she never stopped dancing.

She only stopped then when the music paused and only the drums were to be heard. Thanks to Chris' past obsession I knew what was coming next. A drum solo. That was what Chris liked the most about the belly dancing and what she did best. Janan and Meredith stood back and snaked their arms, letting the flames dance. Now that Janan didn't have to move much she didn't seem as nervous anymore.

Meanwhile Chris had her drum solo. All she really had to do was move to the beat. Only that it was all about timing, so that it seemed as if she was making the sounds with her body.

She did exactly that and I was reminded of the times when she would rehearse that in our room and kept messing up.

She was unable to move her chest as much to the right as she did it to the left. She had always been frustrated about that and that little flaw was still there. I was sure that nobody would really notice that, but since I used to make fun of her antics back then, I saw it and grinned to myself.

Little flames started dancing around Chris' midriff and I started to wonder if that was planned.

When the little flames formed themselves into a circle around her and moved with her, I had my answer.

Then Chris quickly switched places with Janan, who took over the rest of the drum solo. I quickly realized why. Janan seemed to be the more experienced dancer among the three, and seeing that the beat picked up a little, Chris wasn't able to keep up.

But then it slowed again and Janan switched places with Meredith, who dipped her hip to the beat a few times before all three danced together again.

The way they sent vibrations through their bodies almost made me feel envious, but it helped to know that Chris was nowhere near as perfect as she seemed right now.

And it wasn't even like I wanted to be dancing in front of a bunch of drooling guys, wearing nothing but a bra and a skirt. That was definitely nothing for me.

"Is it normal to be vibrating like that?" Edward asked quietly. I wasn't even sure if he was talking to me.

I only shrugged in answer. The girls ended their performance with a few more twirls letting the flames burst out in a giant circle around all three of them, before they all dropped on the floor when the music stopped.

When the sound of the music faded, I was able to divert my attention from the stage. I looked at our group, who also seemed to wake from their haze.

"That was just so damn hot," Dylan whispered loud enough for the whole world to hear.

The three girls were still on the stage and were now getting up. The perk in Chris' attention told me that she had heard Dylan.

"Don't pee your pants, D-boy. You get to screw her later anyway," Emmett snickered.

"Don't say that," Dylan, Edward, and I hissed at the same time. Everyone looked at us in wonder, while the three of us threw questioning glances at each other.

"Hey, if they were ever going to go there, I will have to hear all about it in his thoughts," Edward explained with a shrug.

"Are you telling me that you guys didn't—"

"Emmett!" everybody shouted, thankfully making him shut up.

Chris was skipping off the stage, glaring at the big oaf.

So she had heard him.

"Chris, you are a really talented dancer," Esme complimented her, sensing the trouble that was going to come if Chris didn't get distracted.

Chris threw her a grin. "If you think I'm good, you should have seen Bella back when she was dancing," she exclaimed.

Everyone turned to look at me.

"Don't look at me, it was Chris who did the belly dancing," I said defensively.

"So wait...Chris did belly dancing and...what did you used to do?" Alice asked, but grinned before she finished her question.

I didn't attempt to answer her, but Chris opened her mouth to answer for me.

"Shut up, Chris," I told her with a sigh.

"Well, I must say I understand why I heard so many young man talking about this place," Cal murmured to his wife, looking pointedly at Chris. Even though she had been revealing a lot of skin earlier already, somehow she managed to show some more now.

"All of them are having wet dreams with Chris in them," Rose giggled.

"As if...some of them only come here because they know I'm Bella's twin," Chris huffed and I sensed a brief flash of bitterness coming from her, which was quickly replaced by a short flash of jealousy before it changed into affection. What was she thinking about?

I reached through the bond to get into her mind, but her thoughts had seemed to move on, since she was now slumping down in the empty seat next to Dylan.

She started to play with her hair and thought of some organizing things.

"And that was why you insisted on coming here?" the ever so cheerful Ms. Hale asked the father of her children.

"It was Cal and Carlisle's idea," he defended himself.

I looked at Carlisle in surprise.

He merely shrugged and said, "I had to inspect my future daughter-in-law."

Dylan, who had been drinking tea, was now spiting it all out and started coughing like crazy and Chris had accidentally lit her hair on fire, but didn't look up to show any further reaction.

"You do realize that Bella was not even in our program, right?" Chris asked.

I sensed that Carlisle's words had made her feel uncomfortable.

"Yes, I do, but Bella and you are almost like one person and when she gets married to Edward then you will be our daughter-in-law as well," Esme explained calmly.

"Are you sure that Edward and Bella will get married?" Jasper asked sceptically.

The uneasy feeling that Chris was now starting to wash over me.

"Don't say that, Jazzy, I'm very sure they will get married. Of course, not before us," Alice chirped.

"Could we please stop talking about weddings?" Rose demanded, rolling her eyes.

Her mother nodded in agreement, while Emmett's parents were quietly whispering to one another excitedly.

I sighed. I was surrounded by crazy people. Crazy people that call themselves my friends, and apparently, also my family.

"Don't worry, if we ever get married we will get rid of all of them," Edward whispered to me, reassuringly.

"I really think you should visit us at home some time, Edward," Chris suggested sweetly, now that her hair was no longer burning.

Edward only rose an eyebrow at that. Both of them gazed at each other and then Edward shook his head mumbling something I didn't get.

"He will definitely shoot you," Chris said to him, obviously continuing a conversation they just had mentally.

It didn't take much to get that she was talking about Dad and she was right, he was definitely going to shoot Edward.

"Who is going to shoot the pretty boy?" Emmett asked curiously.

"Daddy," Chris said so cheerfully that it seemed ridiculous.

"You have a father?" Dylan asked in confusion.

Chris glared at him. "Of course I do. What's wrong with you? Did you think I hatched out of an egg or something?"

"Hmm...no, but I assumed that you would have fallen out of heaven. Did it hu—"

Chris groaned and got up. "Did it hurt when you fell on your head when you were little?" she finished his question.

"Only a little," he replied with a grin.

Chris groaned once more before she got up and left. She went over to a group of boys, who had apparently already been waiting. I watched her for a few moments, who she talked with them, while Meredith and Janan were talking to others.

"You're already sleeping with her! What the hell did you use a pick-up line for?" Emmett asked Dylan, once again not aware of the parental presence.

"Emmett, could you shut that giant trap of yours?" Rose hissed and hit him on the back of his head.

I hit my head against Edward's shoulder, while I avoided the curious glances of Esme and Carlisle.

"Let's just eat the cake," Alice suggested, turning everyone's attention to the cakes in front of us.

Seeing the dangerous twinkle in the eyes of the McCarty guys told me that this was not going to be pretty.

While Chris was busy with having her picture taken together with her drooling fans and her co-dancers, we were stuck at the table experiencing what it was like to eat with two Emmetts.

It had already been bad with one, but now I wasn't so sure if there was anything worse than that.

The way the two of them attacked the cake should definitely be illegal.

They had claimed a whole cake for themselves and didn't even bother to use plates. They just shoved their forks right into the cake and started munching like starved wolves. They even let out growls while eating.

I was watching the whole thing cautiously, wondering if I should be fascinated or terrified for my life.

"Apple," Emmett grunted.

"Really? I'm tasting strawberry," his dad replied.

"Now it's orange."

Cal chewed loudly and looked thoughtful. "Ketchup," he declared.

"That's gross," I mumbled.

"Oh that is nothing, they can get a lot messier while eating," Dia reassured me.

"I actually meant that the cake tastes like ketchup," I told her with a giggle.

"Now it's chicken," Cal barged in.

"Bella, I dare you to eat some of this cake," Alice announced out of the blue.

I looked at her with raised eyebrows. "Um...no."

"If you don't do it, I will arrange for you to wear one of those belly dancer costumes," Alice pressed.

"Alice, we are not even playing Truth or Dare, and if you like it so much, why don't you eat the cake?"

"I don't think it's called one hundred and one flavors cake for nothing. With my luck, I could end up eating feet or something," she reasoned.

"Right, and of course it makes sense to force me to eat it then," I said, not bothering to hide the sarcasm in my voice.

"Come on, Jasper, let's try the cake," Dylan encouraged Jasper, who had been eyeing the cake curiously.

Sure enough, the two boys did it more civilized than the McCarty section and cut themselves a piece that they ate skillfully with a fork.

Judging by their twisting expression, nothing good came out of it.

"What does it taste like, Jazzy?" Alice asked eagerly.

"Mustard," Jasper mumbled, struggling to swallow the mass in his mouth.

Rose laughed at that.

"Down with it, boy," his father encouraged, while his mom made a face similar to his.

"At least mustard is edible," Dylan complained, his mouth also still full.

"What did you get?" Carlisle asked eagerly.

"Soap."

"That's just nasty," Chris commented. She somehow made herself appear beside Dylan again and slumped down in her previous seat.

"Done with your fans?" Rose asked.

"I wish," she answered absentmindedly and took a piece of the cake herself.

"Are you willing to eat that?" Alice asked her.

"Sure, why not? Weren't you just trying to get Bella to eat it?"

Alice only shrugged.

Chris took a bite and different then the boys her face didn't twist in disgust, she looked like she was in heaven.

"What did you get?" Rose asked sceptically.

Chris jumped up and started looking around, before she waved one of the waiters over. "Could you please ask in the kitchen if I can get a huge piece of cake that is only cinnamon flavoured?" she asked the big guy.

"I don't think that will be possible. They are having too much fun mixing the disgusting stuff," he replied apologetically.

"Oh come on. Mira has a crush on you, so you only have to play nice and I will owe you if you do that," Chris actually put on a Alice worthy pout and looked up at the guy, who sighed in defeat.

"I'll see what I can do."

Chris grinned at him, before she sat back down.

"One day we'll have to do something about that cinnamon addiction of yours," I said to her with a serious face.

"We'll do that at the same day that you admit that you would die for cotton candy," she retorted.

Just then, the boy Chris had talked into getting her cake reappeared with a plate with a really big piece of cake on it.

"She thought it was for me," he told her with a grin.

"Thanks a billion times. Remind me that I owe you for a lifetime," Chris said breathlessly, staring hungrily at the cake.

"You should be careful what you say," he replied, but I doubted that Chris heard him, because she was already giving a really impressive Emmett impersonation. Only not as smeary.

"I'm officially in heaven," she moaned.

"It's really sad that her heaven involves a cinnamon cake and nothing else," Edward commented.

Dylan's expression changed and he suddenly stared intently at Chris.

"People you should eat faster, because I want to catch my genie," Alice whined.

"Oh, good luck with that. As far as I heard, nobody has found one yet, although they are walking around here," Esme said.

"Well, they all don't have my skills," Alice cheered and started vibrating with excitement.

"That's because not everybody cheats," I told her.

In return she glared at me. "I don't cheat, it's not my fault that I have been blessed with this wonderful gift. You can blame my parents for that."

"It's hardly my fault," Esme defended herself. "My branch of the family is not the one that passes on psych gifts."

"Hey, don't blame that on me. Neither of our gifts should have created that monster," Carlisle retorted gesturing toward Alice, who was pouting at the reference.

"I'm not a monster. I'm cute," she sulked.

"Of course you are, but you are also a monster, even if you're the cutest one alive," Carlisle said to her with a sweet smile that Alice mimicked.

"Um, Carlisle...what is your gift anyway?" I asked him. I never really thought much about it and I realized only now that it had never come up and I had never seen him use it.

Maybe he was a mind reader too, like his son.

"Oh, I thought that you already knew. It's really rare, which might explain why my children are so very gifted," Carlisle smiled proudly at each of them. "It's innate capability—the ability to naturally have skills and/or knowledge typically earned through learning."

"Does that mean you can do anything and you know everything?" Chris asked, sounding awed.

Carlisle laughed. "Hardly. Knowing everything would be omniscience and that is not within my power. In my case, it is mostly limited to knowledge, but I still have certain skills that I never actually learned."

"Like what?" Chris eagerly.

"Don't ask that. He will find a way to make it sound boring," Alice interfered.

"Thank you, Alice," Carlisle said.

"Anytime, Dad."

"Okay, so how does it work? You just know things that others have to learn?" I asked curiously.

"Yes and no. I have to be confronted with those things first before I can attain them. If I read a book for instance, I don't have to read it carefully, it's enough for me to read a passage every now and then."

I would have asked more questions but Alice just continued to whine.

"Chris, you could be a nice friend and give me a clue so I know what to look for," she tried to persuade Chris.

Said person wasn't even listening, since she was entirely occupied with her cake.

"Chris!" Alice yelled to gain her attention.

"What?"

"A clue?"

"For what?"

"The genies."

"You want to know who our genies are?" Chris asked in surprise.

"Yes, of course. I want those three wishes," Alice answered.

"You do realize that our genies are human right?"

"What? I thought you had real genies." Alice sounded disappointed.

"Alice," Edward sighed. "Where should they have gotten real genies?"

"They could have imported them."

"Of course, despite the fact that the genies are hiding from every other kind of being, the Pyros should be able to import a couple of them," Edward replied sarcastically.

"It could have been possible," Alice said in a small voice.

"You could give us a clue anyway," Emmett choked out between two bites.

"Fine, but only the official clue," Chris grumbled.

"Official clue?" I repeated in wonder.

"Yes. We didn't think that anyone would just stumble across the lamps, so every Pyro is allowed to share a certain piece of information if someone asks him. Of course they should make it seem as if it was against the rules to answer, but Martin at the apple stand has practically told everyone the same thing already."

"Huh. And here I thought we had great persuading skills," Emmett commented.

Chris only rolled her eyes at him.

"So what is the clue?" Alice asked impatiently.

"Two of the genies dance twice a day."

"That was not a clue, that was telling her the answer," Dylan mocked.

"Before you jump to any wrong conclusions, our performance here takes place every hour," Chris said to Alice, even if it was clearly meant for Dylan.

"There is more dancing?" Jasper asked.

Chris sighed and nodded. "You can't imagine how much work that was. Janan and Jensen were drilling everyone like crazy."

"So where is the other dancing performance?" Alice asked.

"You might get to see it," Chris answered and got up.

"Where are you going?"

"I'm going to change. You don't think that I'll walk around in this outside the harem, do you?" Chris didn't wait for an answer as she skipped away.

"Hmm...well she sure changes outfits often," Carlisle noted.

"So do I...I think I have about five different outfits for one day," I told him.

"Really? How come we never got to see that?" Edward asked.

"You saw me in the bathing suit and the two dresses. And right now I'm wearing my royal free time robe."

"It's not fair that you get to change so often. You don't even appreciate that as much as you should," Alice complained.

I didn't reply to that. A few minutes later Chris appeared behind me and smiled brightly.

"It took me a lot of convincing to get Steve to hand out my final Sari. Now we match and he has to make a new one for tomorrow," she said gesturing toward her new attire.

She was wearing a white Sari now.

"Seriously, I don't see why you got changed. That scarf is see through, so basically your midriff is bare again and you could have stayed in that other outfit," Alice said.

"Shut up," was the only answer she got. "The time is up, so we kind of have to get lost now."

"Why?" Emmett asked with a pout, even though he and his father had killed the cake already.

"Like I just said, the time is up and now the harem will be closed for male costumers, so I have my break now, seeing that the service will be taken over by our men."

I looked around and noticed that more boys were walking around now, all of them vanishing in one of the rooms in the back.

"Is there going to be a male belly dance performance now?" Rose asked excitedly.

"Yes and no, the guys settled for sweaty fire-spitting with rhythmic elements," Chris explained, grinning when she saw Rose's eyes widen. "But unfortunately, you guys don't have a reservation, so I guess you will not be able to see it." Rose glared at Chris, but she only laughed. "It might be possible to get us girls a table for tomorrow, though."

"What for? You have me, Rose." Emmett sounded a little offended.

"Yeah, yeah," Rose waved him off.

"Let's just go," Dia proposed and rose, pulling her husband along.

The rest of the parents got up as well, before we all dragged ourselves to our feet.

"Didn't you girls want to go to the yoga class?" Emmett asked, looking at his watch. "I'm heading back soon, so we can go together."

"But I wanted to find a genie," Alice said with a frown.

"You can come here later and find one," Rose told her.

"Will you be coming with me?"

"Can't. I have to work—charm the people in."

"I can go with you," Dylan suggested lazily while we made our way to the door.

"Only you?" Alice didn't sound very keen on that idea.

"I can come with you guys as well," Jasper threw in with a sigh.

"What? No, you can't. You'll spend your breaks assisting me," Emmett protested.

"Oh come on, you will survive without me."

"Yes, I know, but I'm not missing the opportunity to order you around."

"Fine, then I will go with Dylan," Alice agreed and showered her brother with millions of rules that went along with her idea of a genie search.

"Alright, kids, I think this is where we are going separate ways again and I must say it was very awkward to hang with y'all," Derek then said, slinging his arm over Cals shoulder and dragging him along. Carlisle went after them reluctantly, sending a small wave at the rest of us.

"I didn't know that your dads were such good friends," I noted.

"It's not that surprising really. Dad is a lot like Jasper, even if it doesn't seem like it in the beginning, and obviously Emmett and his dad are almost the same. Well and Carlisle and Edward are pretty alike as well, so it figures that they would get along," Rose explained, making it sound like an educational theory.

"And the moms?" Chris asked, looking after them as they had just taken off.

"That is a little different," Jasper said, shaking his head. "Our mom likes beautiful people and those two are beautiful as well as intelligent, so they are in her good book. She actually likes them, even if she sometimes seems as if she doesn't."

"My mom is very fond of Esme and she once said something about Ms. Hale being quite funny," Emmett told us.

"Funny?" Dylan asked.

"Yes. Funny."

"Even I am surprised by this information," Rose said.

"Your mother probably didn't hear it right," Dylan reasoned.

"She is capable of being funny once in a while," Jasper defended his mother.

Rose snorted. "Only when there are no other people around," she said.

"She was not funny when I visited you...maybe I should visit you guys again," Alice exclaimed, her eyes shining brightly at her idea.

"No," Rose immediately protested.

"Why not? Don't you like having me around?"

"Of course I do, just not at my mom's place. We'll all go crazy there."

"Fine, then I will visit you at your dad's place," Alice said and then suddenly looked like she had an idea. "We all could visit you there!" she practically shouted.

"Um, don't you think you might have to ask us before you plan any kind of adventures for us?" I asked her.

"No, I don't think that. You wouldn't want to miss the opportunity to live in a normal magic household. The school has too modern standards for you to know how it really should be."

"When exactly do you expect all of us to do that?" Emmett asked, sounding intrigued by the idea.

"Well, since we are spending Thanksgiving with your crazy family, I guess we could celebrate Christmas at the Whitlock residence."

"No way, I want to celebrate Christmas with my parents," Chris protested right away.

Alice huffed. "Okay, then I will think of something, but we will do it and I believe that one of the twins invited us to visit them as well."

Chris threw a horrified look in my direction. Alice and the rest of them in our normal Phoenix lives? Not a good idea. In fact, a very very bad idea.

I didn't say that out loud though, fearing some kind of outburst from Alice.

Luckily the general attention shifted to something else when suddenly music blared from somewhere.

Chris groaned.

"Where is the music coming from?" Rose asked.

"That's the question that nobody asked in High School Musical," Chris mumbled.

I laughed at that. Chris, Raven, and I had spent numerous hours with analyzing the logic of the movies.

I watched how suddenly a few people in the crowd and some of the workers at their booths jumped up and started singing, while somehow getting together in a group and started dancing as well.

This was like HSM in real life. Oh what has the world come to?

"Try to find a genie in that crazy crowd, I'm going to get myself an apple," Chris said and sauntered of to the guy at the entrance who was swaying along to the music and juggling a few of his apples.

I watched the little dancing show and came to the conclusion that this was more of a Bollywood thing. I didn't understand a single word they were singing and the dancing didn't involve any basketballs, so this was definitely Bollywood.

I was a very, very lucky person to be part of the Hydros and not the Pyros.

xXxXxXxXxXx

Rose helped me get my makeup off, and I sighed contently when I was back in my comfy jeans and t-shirt combo.

"You know, I thought being a servant would be a lot worse, but all I actually got to do was get the glitter off your face. Poor Jasper, he should have been picked by a queen that already has servants," Rose joked lightheartedly when we walked through the dimly lit ice-town, arms linked together.

I giggled. "I don't think I would have even made you do that if Cynthia hadn't had the sudden urge to stalk Dylan, along with some other girls of the Cullen fan club."

"Aw, you poor girl. So many girls want to steal your man," Rose cooed.

I sighed. "You're lucky they're not all after Emmett."

Rose snorted and shook her head. "It hasn't always been like this, believe me. Remember the little story of me and Emmett that I told you?" she asked and I nodded. "Well, one of the reasons I was certain that he didn't notice me was because there were always hundreds of girls around him. You should have seen that."

"How exactly did you get them to stay away?"

"I told them to fuck off, otherwise I would be after their sorry asses, but don't think that stopped them."

"What do you mean?"

"It means that the girls in this school are sneaky. They're not all after Jasper, because he has never been available, but the other three guys were, and for a very long time."

I waited for Rose to continue since her tone told me that she was not finished.

"We are not in the same classes as the boys, so we don't get to see what goes on in their classrooms and during their little breaks. And if we weren't always with them, we would also get some of that during the lunch break."

"Some of what?" I asked, already having an idea of what she was talking about.

We just left the Hydro section and saw a group of five girls standing around our boys. Alice and Chris were nowhere to be seen.

"That," Rose grumbled.

I watched those girls. One of them seemed to be one of the college students and she was flirting shamelessly with Edward, while two little girls were jumping up and down, wanting Emmett to sign their t-shirts.

The one that talked to Jasper looked a little frustrated and was almost grinding against him, but he was not paying attention to her in the slightest, while Dylan enjoyed the attention he got from a girl with purple hair.

"Let's watch them," Rose suggested, stopping me from going any further.

I frowned at her. I had just done that.

"I want to watch their reactions for a bit," Rose explained, looking amused at the scene in front of her.

Emmett was being nice and signed the t-shirts before mussing the hair of the one girl and punching her lightly on her shoulder. She scowled at him in return.

Jasper seemed to be looking everywhere, but the girl in front of him and it took me a few moments to realize that he was looking for Alice. I could tell that by looking at his face, which had this strange expectant and excited expression on it. Edward looked frustrated and was continuously running a hand through his hair, nervously looking up every now and then.

And Dylan...well he was being Dylan.

"We should appreciate our guys more," Alice suddenly sighed beside me. Where the heck did she come from?

"I'm already doing that, I don't know what you are doing in your free time with Jasper, but if you don't already appreciate him properly, he might be looking for a new girlfriend," Rose quipped.

Alice let out a strangled noise that seemed to be voicing frustration and anger, but she quickly returned to smiling brightly. "Does that boy look to you as if he was looking for a new girlfriend?" Alice asked rhetorically.

"No, he looks like a sexually frustrated guy who is looking for the girl that is supposed to satisfy his primitive needs," the voice of Chris chimed in. She was just joining our little group, her gaze fixated on the group of boys.

"Wha—" Alice started, but then quickly snapped her head at Rose. "Did you tell her?" she demanded.

Rose looked at her in confusion. "Tell her what?"

"That Ja—" She then thought better of it and turned to Chris. "How do you know?"

"Know what?" Chris asked, sounding just as confused as Rose. She hadn't even been paying attention to Alice after her comment.

Alice looked back and forth between Rose and Chris, who both looked truly confused.

I couldn't help but feel a little left out.

"If you're asking me why I know that you are not screwing Jasper in your free time, it's because you told me," Chris said eventually.

"Oh we're talking about Alice's virginity?" Rose asked, interested.

"So you don't know?" Alice asked carefully.

"Know what?" the two girls asked back.

"Nothing that should matter to you," Alice said dismissively.

Chris looked at me as if I had the answer to this. I shrugged and pulled a grimace.

"I still think you're a traitor by the way," Alice said to Chris.

Chris didn't look like she cared. Now it was Rose's turn to look at me as if I knew what was going on. Why did they all expect me to know what was wrong with the crazy kids in our midst?

"There you are," Jasper's relieved voice called when he had spotted Alice and the rest of us. He was practically glowing when he strode toward us and held his arms out, knowing that Alice would be jumping into them. And she did just that.

Emmett and Edward noticed us as well and showed the same kind of relief on their faces and let their little fans stand there on their own to come and join us.

"Who was your little friend?" I asked Edward casually.

Edward ran a hand through his hair again, looking back at her in frustration before he quickly grabbed my wrists to pull me close to him. It was again one of those movements that were too fast for anyone to catch.

"No one that I look forward to seeing again," he assured me in a murmur and pressed his lips on my forehead lightly.

I felt a massive amount of frustration radiating from Chris. I looked up at her in surprise and found her staring at me and Edward with crossed arms and a dark expression.

"What's wrong?" I asked her.

She shot me a quick dark look, rolled her eyes, turned and started prancing away.

"Hey, wait, I wasn't done with your traitorous ass yet," Alice called after her, apparently done with Jasper for now. Alice's loud voice seemed to have gotten Dylan out of his little world as well, which was a miracle considering that the poor rejected girls all had moved on to him.

"Dylan, we are going home, so say goodbye to your friends for now," Emmett sang in a highpitched voice.

Dylan only rolled his eyes and jogged up to us. "What's wrong with her?" Dylan asked looking ahead.

"I'm not sure. She is frustrated about something, but—" Dylan cut me off.

"Frustrated? She's being her usual self. You don't want to be around when Alice actually gets frustrated."

"Alice?" I looked at where he was looking and saw that Alice seemed to be persuading Chris or something, going as far as shaking her to emphasize her words. Chris only pushed her off and shook her head at the little pixie.

"What are they talking about?" Rose asked, tilting her head slightly.

"She's still after a genie," Edward replied.

"Oh, that," Dylan said dismissively.

"Didn't you find one?" Emmett asked him.

"If we would have, Alice wouldn't be like this now."

"So Chris is a traitor because she's not spilling? Ah, Alice, way to twist the facts," Rose giggled.

"No, actually more that, some of the clues apply to Chris—"

"But she didn't dance in that ridiculous Bollywood impersonation."

"Yeah, but I spent my time getting more clues with Alice. Plus the first clue we got could apply to her as well."

"What clue was that again?" Emmett asked.

"One of the genies snatches apples from that apple guy," I recited.

"When did Chris snatch an apple?"

"She didn't...at least not when we were there, but you should have bought one of them," Dylan replied.

"Why? It's just an apple."

"Yeah, a cinnamon flavoured apple."

We all ahhed and ohhed at this revelation, except for Emmett.

"I still don't get it."

Rose sighed. "While you were busy playing pig with your daddy, Chris admitted to be addicted to cinnamon."

"So because of some apples, you came to the conclusion that Chris is a genie?"

"Well, no, there were some other clues," Dylan replied with a yawn.

"So if you know that already, why isn't she fulfilling your wishes?"

"Because we have to find the lamp, not the genie, and that is what Alice has been trying to get out of Chris the whole time."

"Does Chris know that you guys know?" Rose asked.

Dylan shook his head.

"Well the whole genie thing is great, but does nobody care what kind of hell I went through today?" Jasper interrupted.

We all turned to look at him, even Alice did although she shouldn't have been able to hear him.

Alice was immediately next to Jasper and glared at Emmett. "Did you break him?" she asked menacingly.

"Break me?" Jasper asked in confusion.

"Seriously Alice, I don't swing that way," Emmett laughed and hugged Rose close to his side.

Jasper's eyes widened and he looked back and forth between the two of them. "You better not, I will not share him."

"You do realize that you are dating a girl?"

"Shut up, Emmett!" Jasper hissed, only earning a booming laugh.

The bickering went on and on and eventually Rose joined in, having to defend Emmett.

I watched the scene and shook my head at them.

"Remember, to you they are all just friends, but I am related to half of them," Edward whispered to me, pretending to be disgusted.

"I know, I can tell. You are almost as pretty as Alice."

"I am not pretty. Stop hanging out with your sister, it's not good for you," Edward growled playfully and poked my side.

"I'm only telling the truth."

"Alright, if I am pretty what are you?"

"Incredibly supermegafoxyawesomehot, hyper, and heavenly gorgeous," I replied, smiling like someone in a toothpaste advertisement, while flicking my hair over my shoulder and striking my best model pose.

Edward just stood there and looked at me with a raised eyebrow.

"Do you disagree?" I asked him.

"I would say that you are incredibly—" he made a slightly confused face, "—supermegafoxyawesomehot, hyper, heavenly, and extraordinarily gorgeous."

The others had walked on without us. Edward swiped my off of my feet and had me on his back before I could even think of taking my next breath.

"You gotta stop doing that," I said lazily.

He turned his head so I could see his grin. "It's not my fault that you aren't only getting my heart racing."

"I'm starting to think that you know hundreds of cheesy lines for every situation by heart," I teased him, gently tugging at his ear.

"I do, but every time I'm with you I forget everything I ever knew and I to let my heart speak," he said in a voice that practically smelled, it was so cheesy.

"I think that is the worst that you have said," I laughed.

He chuckled as well. "I'll work on that."

"Enough you two, it's like being in the middle of a freaking romance novel," Chris complained beside us.

I hadn't even realized that we had surpassed the other and caught up with her. You'd think I would have noticed when we walk passed a bickering bunch of teenagers. Now that I was paying attention, I heard them behind us.

"Are you upset with us?" Edward asked Chris.

"Should I be upset?"

"Not that I know of. But then again, you are always upset with me."

Chris sighed. "I am not upset with you," she said quietly.

"Well, what's wrong then?" I asked her, looking down on her. Now I knew how it was when Edward looked at me.

"Nothing."

She was lying, I knew that without the bond. But now it was not frustration anymore that I felt, it was worry.

Chris probably sensed that I was still looking at her and she sighed in defeat. "I'm starting to get the feeling that everything is a little too normal and carefree. Shouldn't we be in some kind of major trouble or something?"

"We are not in trouble," I reassured her, not even buying that lie myself.

Edward coughed to hide his laugh and Chris shook her head in mock sadness. I smacked Edward on his shoulder for laughing and scowled at Chris.

"Well, maybe we are, but I think we are safe for the time being."

"Until they find us at Mr. Decour's house," Chris mumbled. "It's surprising that they don't already know."

"Why are you so negative today?" Edward asked.

"I was dancing around half-naked all day and had to be nice to every freaking guy that spoke to me. Plus I didn't sleep well." To confirm that, Chris yawned. "By the way Edward, I don't appreciate you rummaging through my head at night. If you want to know what your brother is doing, you might as well read his mind," she added.

"I wasn't reading your mind and what you two are doing is none of my concern."

"Why is everyone—ugh, forget it."

"So there was someone in your mind?" I asked.

"Felt like it for a brief second, but I fell back asleep and dreamed something weird. I don't remember much, but the color red was in it a few times." She showed me the vague memory of her dream. The color had something strangely familiar, but then again it wasn't the first time I saw something red. But somehow this reminded me of a dream that I had a couple of weeks ago. I had dismissed t since it wasn't bad or anything, but somehow red hair had been involved.

"Red hair?" Chris asked.

"Uh...yeah."

"Uh oh," Edward let out.

"What?" Chris and I asked at the same time.

Edward let me down to walk on my own and then he vanished in a flash.

"Where did your sex slave go?" Chris wondered.

I glared at her, but she didn't seem to notice.

We had almost reached the door of Mr. Decour's house, when he reappeared next to me.

"I'm such an idiot," he breathed.

I silenced Chris with a look, knowing that she had been about to comment that. "What's wrong?"

"I just looked through the register once and I could really kick my ass for that alone, since I could have done that earlier," he rambled.

"What register?"

"The school has a register where every single person is listed, including their powers."

"How in the world did you just get a look at that?" Chris exclaimed.

"I had to snatch my dad's keys, but that's beside the point. First of all, we could have looked in there ages ago, and secondly... I have two explanations."

Since we had stopped at the door, the others now reached us. Alice looked like she was about to say something, but I gestured for her to be quiet.

"First of all, do you remember when you said that, when Irina was fleeing, it looked like the shadow grabbed her?" he asked, looking at me and Chris. We nodded. "Well, Demetri is a shadow."

I suppressed the urge to ask what exactly that meant.

"And the other thing is Victoria. She is a dreamwalker. The person intruding your minds in your sleep must be her. Most psychs can't get into minds once the person is sleeping, but for her, this is a necessary condition."

"Well, awesome. Now we have to keep up our shields in our sleep as well, how great," Chris grumbled. Judging by the way she started playing with a strand of her hair, she was a little jumpy now.

"Yeah. Another interesting thing...did you know that Mr. Volturi doesn't have a gift?"

---

A/N: So that's it. For now. I'm really working faster this time, because I really want to get to the end of the story. Of this part at least.

I thought about renaming this fic, but I don't have any ideas for another title-.- Why I want to rename it? Only because of the sequels. ALthough I wouldn't have to do it if no one has anything against the title: FASGS: The Guardians

Personally I find it weird but I like the planned name for part three, which would be: FASGS: Demonic Force

Hmm... I guess I just wrote something like a spoiler...oh well :) You will live, it's not like I have made a final decision.

So since you waited so long for this chapter, I thought I would be nice and put in a special preview :)

Bella PoV

I woke up with black hair fanned out on my face. I groaned and pushed Chris' hair out of my face. Wait? What in the world was Chris doing here?

My mind rushed back to the night before. I remembered that Alice and Jasper had volunteered to take the couch and left the guest room to me and Edward, so why was Chris now here? I opened my right eye a tiny bit and sure enough Chris was lying there.

But what happened to Edward then? That question was answered immediately, when I heard a grunt from behind me and felt Edward shift.

I relaxed and closed my eyes again.

A second later I sat abruptly up and processed the situation properly.

Why the hell am I lying in a bed with Chris and Edward?

I must have said that out loud, because both of them grunted. Chris seemed to be somewhat awake

"What the fuck are you doing here?" I hissed at her.

"No cursing so early in the morning," Chris grumbled.

I let out a sigh of frustration.

"What are you doing here?" I asked struggling to stay quiet, not to wake Edward up.

"Sleeping," Chris murmured and turned.

I looked at her for several moments, before I decided that it would be best to just push her off the bed.

She hit the floor with a loud thud, but apparently not loud enough for Edward to wake up, since he just sighed and resumed snoring.

"Even his snoring is pretty," Chris mumbled as she sat up slowly, rubbing the back of her head.

"When will you explain to me what you are doing here?" I asked her impatiently.

"Oh stop being so bitchy. It's not like I interrupted you guys with anything," she replied and got back on the bed.

"That is hardly the point, but you can't just turn up in other people's beds."

"You didn't used to mind it when I crawled into your bed."

"That's because there was no Edward," I whisper yelled.

Chris quirked an eyebrow at me.

"Not everybody tolerates random people in their bed," I added.

"Oh please, I thought it was a secret fantasy of every guy to have twins in his bed."

I groaned. "Could we please just once not try to make everything sexual?"

"I'll think about it as soon as I am awake," Chris replied and slumped back into the pillows, sighing contently.

"You are awake now, so get up and leave!"

"No thanks."

I stared at her disbelievingly, before I let out another sigh.

"Fine, have it your way," I said quietly.

"Did you say something?" Edward's voice was still thick with sleep when he spoke.

I stared at him. Why did that wake him up now?

He was looking at me still half asleep and then spotted Chris.

"What's Chris doing here?" he asked, yawning.

"Nobody knows."

"What time is it?"

"2 AM," I replied bitterly.

"Then don't sit there... just sleep," Edward instructed and pulled me to his side.

"But Chri-"

"Is right now a very uninteresting matter," Edward interrupted me gently.

"I can still hear you guys," Chris remarked, but she didn't sound as if she was actually paying attention.

Like? Hate? LOooove? I don't care whatever it is, you should review. ANd do you know why? Because I love hearing from you guys and I love replying to reviews, even if I haven't been doing that lately and what I love even more is...ice cream, but that has nothing to do with reviews. So you guys review and I'm gonna get some ice cream :D