And again...

When Peter and Charlotte were beginning to get serious, Charlotte's parents insisted they meet the teenager he was raising. When the younger couple brought me to a family dinner, Clay and Ellen Laughlin were immediately taken with me, and I with them. They 'adopted' me, per se, and couldn't believe any parent would just leave me to be raised by an older brother with a life of his own. They were a sweet older couple in their late forties, and they were too good to me. Charlotte and Peter didn't think so, nor did the Laughlins, but I always felt embarrassed and flattered at their affections for me.

When we arrived at their beautiful little home, Mrs. Laughlin greeted us at the door.

"Hey, Char-bug," she said, giving her daughter a huge hug. "Your Daddy's in the kitchen. Peter, dear, always great to see you. And Alice; how are you, doll-face? How long has it been? Oh, I knew you'd love that shirt. Horizontal stripes are so hard to pull off, but you look so darling!"

I was taken into a huge hug as well. "Hi, Aunt Ellen." After about three visits, she and her husband had insisted that if they were to be permanent fixtures in my life, I needed to address them less formally than Mr. and Mrs. Laughlin all the time. "Yeah, the shirts cute."

We went into the house, catching up for a moment, then Charlotte stormed out of the kitchen, laughing breathlessly and looking a bit agitated. "Daddy flooded the kitchen. Again. We're eating in the living room, I do believe."

Dinner was…interesting. We had to eat on the floor, since they had new couches they hadn't had Scotch-guarded yet. After dinner, we had Uncle Clay's amazing peach cobbler, then we talked for a while, until I began to doze on Charlotte's shoulder.

"Are you sleepy, Alice?" Charlotte asked, brushing my hair around.

"Maybe it's time we get going," Peter suggested, standing up. "Thanks for inviting us tonight. We enjoyed it."

I stood up and said my goodbyes, then we went home. I was asleep before we were halfway there, so Peter carried me in and put me in my bed, because I was too deeply asleep to change into my pajamas.

I woke up to Rose bouncing on my bed while Bella wondered around my room, picking things up and putting them where they were supposed to go. The neat freak…

"Rosie, what on God's green earth are you doing?" I asked, rolling over and pressing my face into my pillow.

She stopped her bouncing and leaned down to scream in my ear. "Wake up!"

I groaned, lifting my head to glare at her. "Screw you."

"Alice, you really need to clean your room," Bella piped up, lifting up a handbag I hadn't carried since ninth grade. "Oh, and Emmett's upstairs. He said he wasn't gonna come in unless you said he could."

I flew from my bed, then looked myself over. "Damn this shirt…"

Rose and Bella cracked up at the frilly red and white striped top. Rose was too far gone to say anything, but Bella choked out a, "Hot date?" before having to lean against Rose to stay on her feet.

I growled menacingly, then flew to my closet to look for something to wear. "Damn it!" I had no clean clothes.

"I told you you need to clean your room," Bella said, smirking.

"Go on and take the walk of shame," Rose added, grinning like a maniac.

I was about to head up the stairs then I turned around. "What are you even doing here?"

"Edward invited us all to swim today," Rose said, as if it was the simplest thing in the world. "So you need clothes and your bikini."

I huffed and stomped up the stairs, trying to make it to the laundry room without being spotted. I didn't succeed, though. Emmett intercepted me halfway, and he was gentlemanly enough not to laugh, though he did make too many jokes to count and/or repeat. (I was starting to see what Rose and Bella found annoying about him.) Finally, I turned to him at the top of the stairs to my room.

"Do you wanna come down or not?"

He looked confused. "Down?"

I rolled my eyes. "Come on."

I led him down to my room and started putting away my basket of clean clothing. He wondered around my room, looking at the different pictures and books everywhere. "Nice place."

"I thought people who lived in basements were 'special'?" I joked, pulling a mini-sundress from my laundry. I set to work looking for a pair of denim shorts while awaiting his response.

"Yeah," he said slowly. "You're different. You're special in a good way."

I blushed, looking away from him. "Yeah well… Hey, can you go on up while I change?"

"Sure," he said, then he left.

After he left, I changed into my bikini and put the dress and shorts on. After swiping on some waterproof mascara, I ran on up. Peter had a later shift and was just waking up, so after telling him where I was going and kissing him on the cheek goodbye, we left to the Cullen's place. Jasper's parents had dropped him off earlier, and the pool was waiting for us. We all dove in and Rose and Edward and Bella and Jasper got into a game of chicken. When Rose succeeded in knocking her sister into the water, she challenged me and Emmett.

Before I could protest, Emmett had grabbed me by the waist and lifted me onto his shoulders. By some miracle, I managed to knock her down, and it became a free for all. We switched partners several times, but when Emmett and I were together we were unbeatable. When we finally exhausted ourselves, we laid out and ate a ton of pizza and ice cream that Carlisle Cullen had brought home coming home from work.

"Alice, dear," Esme said at one point. "You're looking a little pink. Do you need some more sunscreen?"

In all the fun, I'd forgotten to reapply my SPF 85 after I was in the water for an hour, and when I looked down it proved to me true. I was a little sunburned. Esme helped me put more on, but it was too late. When we dried off and dressed to go home, my body stung slightly. At home I took and icy shower to kill the sting, but I was still in a bit of pain. After taking something to kill the fever and slathering on a ton of aloe vera, I dressed in a very light tank top and some light shorts and watched some television until Peter got home.

The next morning, the pain was gone, but the pinkness was still there. Emmett called to see how I was feeling, and asked if I wanted to come over to hang out. I got a ride from Peter and went to the Swans' home, where Emmett and I wondered around in the woods behind the house, after being picked on by Rose and Bella.

"So how do you like Forks so far?" I asked, walking on a fallen tree like a balance beam.

He spotted me, catching me when I nearly toppled over. "It's awesome. I've made some good friends. It's kinda cool to be in the place my parents grew up."

"And what about living with Rose and Bella?" I asked, stepping down so as to not injure myself.

"It's an adventure," he laughed. "But they're cool, sometimes. I love them to death, but sometimes I think they need to be heavily sedated before being let out in public."

My turn to laugh. "And what about me? Am I awesome?" I teased.

"You're the awesome-est." His smile was genuine.

I blushed a deep red. "I'm so sure."

"Alice," Emmett chided. "You seriously don't know how amazing you are?"

I shrugged, looking at him shyly. "Guess not. You seem to think I am, though."

He put one hand gently on my shoulder, then another under my chin, making me look at him. "You are seriously the greatest girl I've ever met. And I know you're amazing."

I tried to look down, but he wouldn't let me. "Emmett, you're just…too good to be true." I didn't meant to say it, I swear. I was gonna say sweet, but he forced me to do what I'm so wonderful at doing: screwing up friendships with crushes.

He smiled softly at me. "Alice, I really, really like you, and I'm going to feel like an idiot if what you just said doesn't mean you like me, too."

I felt all the blood drain from my face, then my heart was beating fast, my stomach was full of butterflies, and my ability to make words was gone. "Uh…um… I…" I couldn't even reply that I liked him, too.

His smile grew, and he leaned in close to me. "Can I take that as a 'yes'?"

I nodded quickly in agreement. "But… I don't know. I just don't want a 'relationship', quote unquote. I just want something fun and…I don't know. I just need a friend for right now, ya know? Something casual."

Emmett nodded slowly. "I get it. Relationships are too… difficult. You really are a great girl. Maybe one day we can have a real date."

I nodded, smiling up at him. We walked back to the house hand-in-hand, just talking. We took the girls' 'told you so's with little argument, even though they really didn't know anything. They weren't wrong in anything they assumed, but we weren't going to tell them they were right.

After the relentless teasing ended, we went to his room and sat in the floor, listening to music and just talking more. We'd gotten to know each other well, and the new dynamic to our friendship made us eager to learn even more about each other. He told funny stories about being raised by his grandmother, I told him all about living with Peter, and we both talked about our friends.

"All the girls in my school were so phony," he said with a roll of his eyes. "After going to the movies with about three different girls, I realized they were all the same. Now I'm not saying all city girls are like that, but the ones I had the fate to meet were."

I grinned, glad to know I had no competition. "Well, the guys here are so lame, usually. All the good ones are taken and the one's you think are good turn out to be total jackasses."

He nodded in agreement. "Rose and Bella told me all about that guy that broke your heart."

"No," I disagreed. "He didn't break my heart. I was stupid and I went for the wrong kind of guy. We were lab partners and I thought he was awesome and cool and all that jazz. He was a total loser, though."

"Good," he said, lifting our still intertwined hands and kissing mine.. "No competition."

I giggled, amazed that we were somehow on the same brainwave. "You're fun."

"You're funny," he replied, squeezing my hand gently, grinning widely. "The first night I saw you I knew I'd like you."

"The first night I saw you I knew my whole plan was blown."

"What plan?"

I chuckled, feeling dorky for admitting it to him. "My plan to not fall for another best friend."

Emmett smiled widely at me, then leaned over and kissed my cheek.