Old Acquaintances

We all hit inside when night fell. Everyone was informed to bring some spare clothes; everyone but me apparently. I didn't have time to whine about it though. Alice had dragged me up into her room when everyone started to move inside. I wasn't sure how I was going to fit in her clothes. Apart from being short, she was also tiny. Apart from her tiny frame, she was more fashionable than I was. So should I be worrying about her playing dress up on me? Maybe the reason she didn't tell me to bring any spare clothes was so she could doll me up. Oh man…I wish I could make a run for it right now but the night air was far too cold when I was soaking wet.

"Bella, strip out of your wet clothes please." Alice requested gently as soon as she closed the door to her room. Not only closing it, she locked it as well.

"…What?" I asked, a bit surprised of how bold she was being.

She turned to face me with a raised eyebrow. "Don't tell me that you're embarrassed about it?"

Instead of answering her I turned my head down at the floor. Yes, I was embarrassed. I also had a good reason to be as well; the only person that had seen me naked was my mother.

"Oh my god? Oh my god! You are! Wait…why? We are all girls here. It's not like you have a dick down there, unless you want me to check it?"

When did she get to be this…bold?

My head immediately jerked upward to stare at her right in the eye. "Did you just say what I thought you did?"

"Yep." She answered with an audible pop of the 'p'.

"I know that you haven't had any alcohol so you can't be drunk. So, are you high on air?"

She giggled. "No, why on earth would you think that?"

"Because you're being very bold right now, when usually you're not like this." I answered. "But I'm getting cold and I want something dry to put on!"

She giggled some more and turned her back towards me. "Fine fine, I'll go and fetch some dry clothes for you."

She moved over to her closet, opening it and going through her clothes while I stripped off of my wet clothes. The slightly cold air hitting my exposed skin gave me goosebumps. Also, there was no way that I would want to get my bra and panties off. No freaking way. This was embarrassing enough as it was!

Alice finally pulled back from the closet and turned towards me. She held up a dark shade of pink t-shirt with a big word 'Love' printed across the front of it. Her other hand was holding up a black leather skirt. Wait, those two clothing items looked familiar. Where have I seen them?

"Are those…mine?" I asked unsurely.

She grinned and nodded. "Yes. I knew that something like this would happen, so I got it all prepared for you."

"Meaning you kidnapped my clothes?" I asked as I moved toward her, extending my arm to grab on the items.

Alice took a step back just as my fingers grazed lightly on the fabric. I raised an eyebrow at her only to feel my face started to burn. Alice's green eyes were raking all over my body. My mind and body immediately engaged into an argument. My arms wanted to hide my exposed body from Alice's view, while my mind wanted me to just stand there and let her eyes indulge themselves in my toned body. I wasn't sure which I would like to comply to.

After what felt like a good five minutes, I cleared my throat loudly enough to get Alice's attention. She blinked and looked up at me with a satisfaction smile. "Are you done eye-sexing me?" I asked, raising an eyebrow at her direction.

The bold Alice suddenly disappeared when her cheeks flushed in embarrassment. I held back a chuckle when she mumbled a respond and gave me my clothes. I quickly put them out and folded my arms across my chest. "So, from what I'm understanding at this point, you 'kidnap' my clothes in case of an...mmm how do I put it?"

"Emergency?" Alice suggested.

"Yes! Emegercy!" I quickly said before realizing that wasn't the word I was using for. "Wait, that's not it. There shouldn't be any sort of emergency that would need me to change my clothes."

Alice's lips pursed up in a pout. "Aww, fine. I only took these clothes because I just wanted to see your body." Her cheeks flushed at the end of her sentence and I giggled.

"Should of have told me that I would be swimming so I could bring my bikini with me, along with some spare clothes." I told her and I had to say, I was enjoying how her cheeks flushed even more at my words.

"Well…Umm…" By this time I knew that she had ran out of excuses to give me.

I chuckled as I moved closer to her, placing both of my hands on the side of her arms. "You're adorable, do you know that?" And that question only got her to blush more. Seriously, I couldn't help myself. She was, indeed, adorable when she blushed. So for her reward as being adorable, I leaned down and placed a soft kiss on her forehead before grabbing her hand gently. "I would love to stay up here, in your room that's it, but I think you are the host of the party that is going on downstairs."

"Damnit." She grumbled. "I'm pretty sure Emmett can handle all the guests."

"I don't think so." I commented. Knowing Emmett he'd probably had gotten way too drunk to even see straight, let alone walk straight. Rosalie would have been slightly tipsy as well. As for Jasper, he'd probably had gotten home. He wasn't the kind to stay at a party for long anyway. And Edward? Probably he was in a guest room, not so far from here, doing things that I would much appreciate to not know.

Alice sighed. "Fine, fine, I'll be responsible for once." And led me out of her room and back to the party while I pondered around the fact if she was ever responsible for anything.

There were so many people here now, mainly the seniors and their friends; as in friends outside of school. Since Alice's parents were supposed to come home tomorrow, they were all happily drinking alcoholic beverages when they weren't supposed to. Let's face it, we were still underage but that didn't stop us from breaking some rules. It wasn't like we were going to be tossed into jail for drinking. I'd doubt Charlie would be happy with that if it was to happen to me.

Alice pulled me towards the dance floor and already I wanted to pull her towards where the booze was being handed by her brother. I wasn't much of a dancing girl. It wasn't that I didn't know how to dance. I just never liked it. I guess dancing meant to lose myself; letting myself be free. I guess that was the problem since I hated having to lose control of my own body. I admitted that it was the way I was raised and there was no way I would actually 'dance' at this point. So as Alice continued to pull me towards the dance floor, I made a snap decision to escape it. Try to escape it to be correct.

Alice stopped on her track and turned as soon as she sensed my struggle to get out of her soft grip. She raised an eyebrow at me before the corner of her lips curling up into a small smirk. That smirk told me that she knew exactly what I was afraid of. If she knew wouldn't she be kind enough and let me go? I mean there was no point of trying to pull me towards her when she already knew, right?

"Alice, please, I don't do dance." I pleaded softly, well as soft as I could muster so she could hear me over the loud music.

"Uh-uh, you're going to dance." Alice said as she tugged at my hand again and I could tell she was putting her strength into it.

I sighed and shook my head. "No, Alice, please don't make me do something I don't want to do."

"So you're going to sit out while I dance…with boys that want to get into my pants?" She asked. I knew where she was going with this but it wasn't going to work. If anything was to happen to her I would be there, protecting her. But I wouldn't want to have to dance to protect her.

"Yes." I deadpanned her. Her mouth dropped, instantly, at my fast response.

She took one long look at me, probably waiting for me to have a second thought or just give in and dance with her. I didn't though. I was looking back at her as I waited for her reaction. I could maybe guess what she was going to do next anyway. So when she huffed and let go off of my hand, I knew that she was going to turn and go straight out to the dance floor. My prediction was correct when she did turn and walked towards the dance floor. However, she did it in a manner that just wanted me to go after her. With her hips swaying suggestively and her slender legs that were exposed for anyone to see, but mostly me at this point, I had to fight the urge to not go after her. God, all of the time that I've known her, I didn't even think – for one second – that she could be this seductive. I was beginning to think that one day she might seduce me just to get what she wanted. Just imagine what that would be like if it actually happened.

When Alice melted into the crowd, I turned and walked away from the dance floor. I noticed a familiar face, and thankfully it wasn't any of our pursuers. It was Jacob and he didn't look quite as good as he normally did. He did manage to look presentable though so no one could guess that he had been in a fight. Only I could see through his cover, and I had to say, whoever he fought with got him good. I moved over to him and when he saw me, he motioned his head towards the pool. I nodded and followed him outside. Thankfully no one was hanging outside, so we had the place to ourselves so we could talk. He was looking into the pool water, probably thinking of a way to start the conversation without having to sound a bit off about it. I admitted that it was careless of me to not have noticed that could be danger around me this afternoon. So if he wanted to start it off with a lecture then I was fine with it. But there was something troubling him and I wondered what it was. It was like he didn't want to be the one that came out a loser. He never did, though. That was why he was my bodyguard in the first place. So if there was something wrong, like I couldn't save myself in a certain situation, then he would be there for me. So this loss was his first and he wasn't happy about it, but he hid it well behind that pokerface of his.

"If you want to lecture me then go ahead, I won't argue with you." I said after getting tired of waiting for him to speak up. He sighed and turned to face me. There was a little bruise on his face but it didn't look too bad. It also didn't look like it would hurt him that much if I touched it, not like I would do such a thing.

"James and Victoria, they were assigned to assassinate you." He said, his face shown no sign of emotion when he reviewed what he had learned. I wasn't surprised by this information. Everyone was out there to kill me because of Charlie. My dad wasn't all that bad; he was just the best out of all the best. People got jealous and thought killing me would kill him. Sure, it would kill him from the inside but Charlie's a strong man. He wasn't going to go down that easily if I was gone.

"Do you have any idea why?" I asked.

He shook his head. "No, I couldn't bring up anything about them except their assignments."

"So if we eliminate them – " I started.

"If." Jacob interjected. "Bella, these two are the top assassins. You don't have to worry much about Victoria, she may be the top but she isn't all that bright when it comes to figuring out traps. James, however, is your number one concern. He's smart, fast and strong, and can blend into any kind of crowd possible. Not to mention he can track down anyone in just a small amount of time. No one has ever escaped from him. They can hide, but not run."

Even though he said not to worry about Victoria I wasn't going to underestimate her just because of his information. The last thing I would want to do is underestimating someone that I've never met.

….Wait, the curly red head, the names. Oh fuck! I did meet them! They always attended Charlie's once in a year party! I never did pay attention to any of their skills when Charlie was introducing me to his colleagues' children. If I wasn't mistaken, Victoria and James would be just several years older than me. For them to climb up to the top seemed to be like a breeze for them when I couldn't possibly even touch them! Now that those two were after me, I wasn't sure of what to do. I should tell Charlie but what exactly?

Hi Charlie, James and Victoria are after me, got any tips to get rid of them?

As if he would give some when I wasn't entirely ready to face any of them. I could face Charlie alone but I knew that he was holding back on me through all of those practices. He was my father after all and he would go a mile just to protect me. Now I understood why it was necessary for me to go to the Agency School.

"Bella, are you listening to me?"

I blinked back my thought and looked up at Jacob in confusion. It was obvious that I wasn't listening to him while his lips were moving. "What?" I asked.

"One of them is here." He murmured as he turned his eyes back into the house, where the party was.

I wasn't sure how he could see one of them in this crowd but that was one of the things I needed to be able to do. I could now imagine what my next couple of years, or more, going to be like. Hopefully God would have some mercy for me.

A/N

Sorry that this is a late update. I'm trying to think of what to do with this story at the moment. The characters. The whole plot. Who's going to be the next villain. Who's going to...I need to brainstorm this haha.