Emmett Did It!

BPOV

The rest of the day passed in a blur.

I don't know why, but I'd been anticipating the lunchtime conversation for so long so and each period seemed to pass so slowly before that, but afterwards, everything flew by.

I was with Edward again, thankfully, until seventh period, when I had a class with my daughter. At the end of the day, for our last period, I had the class with Edward, Emmett, and Alice. I made up my mind to teach Emmett a lesson in that period. When a girl came up to Edward – my Edward – and was talking to him in a flirty voice (thus making me seethe with anger), Emmett came up to her and said, in a callous voice, "You better leave him alone. He's with her." He pointed to me. "They're together, like you know, together together." Emmett waggled his eyebrows up and down, and I winced. Why, why, why did it have to be us? The girl looked like she was going to puke and fled.

As we strode out to the parking lot presently, I glared at Emmett, and Edward's arm was wrapped around my shoulders. He seemed more and more pained, and I pitied him. Finally, he gave Emmett a hard kick in the shin. "Would you stop already?!"

When we arrived at Edward's Volvo, I planted myself in front of Emmett.

"I swear, Emmett McCarty Cullen," I said, seething,"the next time you say anything about Edward or me, in that sense, or our relationship, in front of unaware humans, I will kill you myself. Tear you to bits and burn the pieces!" I was certainly not messing around with him. He smirked down at me.

"I'd like to see you try, little sister!" I didn't miss how his arms flexed.

I shrugged nonchalantly, and Emmett relaxed. After a moment, I asked, "Hey, Emmett, do you want to play 'Mercy'?"

"Up for anything." His eyes gleamed as he rolled up his sleeves.

I raised my hand, with a grin on my face. Emmett looked at me in confusion, and then clasped my hand.

Immediately, I pulled the arm back and twisted it to the side and down. Emmett screamed. We laughed, and the humans nearby stared at us in bewilderment.

"I take that back, Bella!" he yelled. "You can beat me any day!

Ow…oh…my…dang…BELLA! LET GO!"

I was having too much fun. "You have to say 'Mercy'! That's the point of the game!"

"MERCY!"

Reluctantly, I released him. Emmett pulled his arm back and rubbed it. "I swear, Bella, I shall never underestimate you again."

I shrugged nonchalantly. "I saw two humans playing that game in the hallway, before we walked in."

The rest of us Cullens were in hysterics by this point, of course. Edward grabbed me and pulled me to him. "Who would have thought that the great Emmett would be brought down by Bella, the shy, blushing girl that he used to tease everyday?" That only made us laugh harder.

"Gee, Em," Jasper managed out. "I didn't know you took French."

"French?" Emmett asked, still mad. "What does that have to do with this?"

"Merci, merci!"

"Ugh! You're so irritating!"

Jasper, seeing that we were about to split our sides, sent calm waves toward us. "You just had to ruin our fun," Alice grumbled, smacking Jazz on the…butt.

I was slightly shocked at that, but no one else thought anything about it, so I let it go.

Rosalie was still chuckling, and then wrapped her arms around Emmett. He relaxed slightly, and hugged her back.

Edward's perfect voice was at my ear. "I'm so proud of you, love," he whispered, making my whole body tingle.

I reached up to him. He laughed, knowing what I was after, and kissed me slowly and sweetly. Out of my periphery, I saw a group of snobby, stuck-up cheerleader types walk past us. The girls looked daggers at me and then huffed off, noses in the air. I growled, recognizing the group's leader as the girl who'd gone up to my Edward, but Edward restrained me from ripping that girl's throat out.

"Steady, love," he reminded me, and leaned in again to touch his lips to mine. His hands, locked in my hair, slowly began to make their way down my back, across my waist, and to my butt. He gave it a gentle squeeze, and I trembled in his arms.

"Hey, you may want to postpone your make-out session for later!" Alice told us. "A cloud that's concealing the sun is going to shift in five…four…three…two…."

We were in the car.

"…One."

At that moment, the cloud moved over and a ray of sunlight struck the place where Edward and I were just kissing.

We went home quietly. Edward leaned in for a kiss every now and then.

"Alice!" Edward snarled. "What are you hiding from me by singing 'Deck the Halls' in Cantonese? And then Korean? And then Czechoslovakian? And then German? And then – "

"No way am I telling! Don't worry, you won't be in…intense pain." She smirked, twisting to the back where Edward and I were. "Much less pain than Emmett." He growled, and Rosalie giggled.

In an effort to placate him, I grabbed his face and kissed him again. His eyes opened and I sat, hypnotized, staring into the pools of lovely gold, until he closed his eyes and kissed me again.

As we pulled into the huge driveway of our old home, Edward tore away from me. "I'll put our backpacks away," he offered, swinging them both over his shoulders.

"Thanks," I murmured, pecking him on the cheek.

"Bella, do that again!" Jasper asked me. "I want to see Emmett's face – apparently I arrived a bit late for the last show."

"Okay, that's it!" Before we knew it, Emmett had a handful of pebbles in his hands, throwing them at Jasper, who dodged each one. Just when he ran past the door of our house, Edward stepped out, and one of the pebbles flying at faster than two hundred fifty miles per hour flew right into his private area. Edward keeled over, and I was at his side in an instant.

"Edward! Are you all right?" I asked, shaking him.

"Yes, love," he muttered. "Just because I'm a vampire doesn't mean I can't feel pain. Especially if Emmett's the one inflicting it."

I turned accusing eyes on the rest of them. They all took one look at my expression and pointed to Emmett. "He did it!" Rosalie, Alice, and Jasper chimed at the same time.

Renesmee was just having a laughing fit, doubled over.

"Come on." I pulled Edward inside and pushed him down on a couch. I knelt next to him.

"Are you okay?" I asked again, rubbing there. It was…sort of awkward.

"Ugh. It's painful," he admitted. I knew that he hated to show his weakness to me.

For fear that the others would hear me, I removed my shield. I can fix that tonight.

"Ah, Bella," he whispered, kissing me again. "I'm going to take you up on that."

Then his eyes took on a distant quality. "Jacob's going to appear in sixteen seconds, and the others will be here within two minutes," he confirmed.

I pulled him and we went back outside, where neither of us were pelted by rocks, thankfully.

"Jacob!" Nessie cried when he ran out from the trees.

Jacob crushed my daughter in a tight hug. "Yeah, I missed you too. So, the other vampires are coming here in a few minutes, right?" he asked the rest of us when he set Nessie down.

"Yes," Edward confirmed. "In fact…."

We held our breaths.

"Here they are."

I looked where Edward's eyes were trained. From the forest, three figures appeared.

Timothy holding Isabelle's hand, and Tatiana trailing behind. Nessie waved to Tatiana, who perked up and waved back. I could see definite friendship forming between the two.

"Welcome to our residence," Edward said, gesturing toward the house.

"It's lovely," Isabelle murmured, and her thoughts must have been genuine.

I noticed Edward looking at Tatiana with something akin to pity. I moved my shield off. Why?

He squeezed my hand in response.

Is it because everyone around her has a mate, but she doesn't?

Looking down at me, he nodded briefly.

I hope she finds someone soon.

"So do I," he whispered softly.

"Let's go inside," Alice said. She pulled Jasper with her into the house, and the rest of us followed. We settled down comfortably in the living room.

For the next few hours, we were always chatting. Nessie, Jacob, and Tatiana bonded quickly enough. After running out of vampire topics to talk about, we babbled on about non-vampire (or werewolf) related subjects. At night, when Carlisle and Esme returned (Esme had spent the day at the hospital, too), they joined the conversation, and William and Alena arrived shortly afterwards. The parents were great right off the bat, and the rest of us were slightly bored, so we played truth or dare.

"The only rule is, nothing inappropriate." Edward laid down the law.

"Which means?" Timothy asked.

"We'll judge as a whole if and when the time comes."

Tatiana went first. "Nessie, truth or dare."

"Truth."

Tatiana laughed. "How many times have you and Jacob done it?"

Nessie shot Tatiana a dirty look. "Six thousand, nine hundred and seventy-four."

Edward and I winced.

"Alice! Truth or dare?"

"Dare."

We all grinned in anticipation. "Alice, I dare you to go into the forest, cut down a tree

with a trunk at least three feet thick, and lay it in front of the library."

Alice dashed out the door and was back in half a minute. "Done."

"Did she do it?" I asked Edward, who nodded.

"Edward, truth or dare."

He stiffened. "Truth," he decided.

"What was the worst thing that a girl other than Bella has done to you…you know, in that way?" We all laughed and waited for Edward expectantly…except me.

"Well, when we were in Denali, I'd gone for a walk in the woods. Tanya jumped on me and started kissing me and then she ripped my shirt off and she was reaching where she, um, shouldn't have, and then I pushed her away and cussed at her." He finished and everyone was laughing, but I was horrorstruck.

Edward leaned down to kiss me. "It's okay, love. You still have my first kiss; I don't really consider that a kiss. More like a sexual assault." I calmed down slightly.

"Emmett, truth or dare."

"Dare."

"I dare you to go spray-paint one of the wheels on Jasper's motorcycle bright orange."

We howled at that, and none of us deemed it inappropriate.

Jasper was tensed. "Did he do it?" he asked Edward.

Edward nodded.

"EMMETT!" Jasper was out the door, and we could hear him wrestling with Emmett in the garage.

The two finally came back. "Emmett owes me a new wheel."