A/N: Really sorry for the delay in updating, I just got a new book series, 'Mistborn' by Brandon Sanderson and I can't put it down. Anyhow, I'll try and make my updates more frequent.

Disclaimer: I own nothing, except the Van Allen's, excluding Bella. Also, the description of the Cullen's house is from the book because I wanted to get it right.

BPOV

I was staring at myself in the mirror, wondering what shopping with two humans would be like. I had gone with Jesse before, but she wasn't exactly normal.

What kind of things did they do that differed from vampire shopping trips? Would it be similar to hanging out with them at school, with the addition of buying things? Why do I even care? I really needed to get out more. Maybe Alice would like to go out with me.

I instantly blushed at the thought. Not going out with me, just going shopping or something. Unless she wanted to go out with me. Now that was ridiculous.

Sighing, I once again fixed the damn frilly top I was wearing before shrugging on a jacket over it. According to the weatherman, it would be cold in the Port Angeles area tonight and I couldn't afford to raise suspicion.

Absentmindedly wondering if whether or not my upbringing had made me paranoid, I went downstairs to wait for Angela and Jessica to pick me up. It was only one o'clock, but I didn't know how long it would take them to find a dress and the days were shorter at his time of year.

The rest of my family had gone hunting, so I had the house to myself, which was a lot more boring than it seemed. It's not like I was going to host a huge party and get drunk, if I could even get drunk. Could I get drunk? I'd have to check that out one of these days.

I had reached the kitchen, intending to make a quick snack, when the phone rang.

I jumped slightly at the loud noise. Laughing at myself, I ran to pick it up. "Van Allen residence."

It was Angela's voice on the other end. "Hey, Bella, it's me. I was just calling to check if you were ready. We'll be there in about five minutes."

Angela was always a considerate person. "Yeah, I'm ready. Do you know if Jessica managed to convince Lauren to join us?" Lauren was a truly despicable girl, much worse than Jessica could ever be. She had also taken an instant dislike to me, for reasons unknown. Needless to say, the feeling was mutual.

Please say no, please say no. "No, Lauren had other plans apparently. But we'll still have fun." Oh thank whatever gods were up there.

"We sure will." I knew that Angela could tell from my tone of voice that I was unbelievably happy that Lauren had 'other plans', but she didn't call me on it, bless her.

"Okay, asking if you were ready or not wasn't the only reason that I called."

My eyebrows rose at this. "Really? Then why else did you call?"

"Well, you won't believe who called me last night and asked if she could tag along. Alice Cullen." Her voice was excited, as though she couldn't believe the idea of a Cullen asking to go shopping with the common-folk.

I could feel my mouth drop open and my eyes widen at this revelation. "She what?"

"I just wanted to make sure that this was okay. You and her seemed a bit tense around each other lately. But she seems like a really great person and she needed to go dress shopping herself, so I figured, why not?"

After about three more seconds of me acting like a fish, I managed to respond. "It's no problem. I've been meaning to talk to her anyway." She was a sneaky vampire, I'd give her that. But, why now? She seemed to have given up interrogating me for information, so why would she tag along on this trip?

"Great. I'll see you in a few," Angela said cheerfully.

"Sure." I hung up the phone and went to the window, anxiously looking out for their car. This was going to make this trip much more interesting, that's for sure.

Suddenly grateful to Jesse for making me wear something nice, I listened for the sounds of an engine coming my way.

I heard them about twenty seconds before they arrived, Jessica's old white Mercury made a very unusual noise, sort of like a cat coughing up a hairball.

I locked the door behind me and jogged to the car.

The first thing that I noticed was that Alice wasn't there. Angela noticed and answered my unasked question. "Your house was closer so we still have to pick her up."

I nodded and hopped in, doing my best to ignore the scowl Jessica tossed in my direction.

As Jessica drove her car out of the main part of town, I realised that I had no idea where Alice lived. As soon as I mentioned this, Jessica responded. "Oh, yeah, Alice gave me directions, like, a lot of directions. She must live ages away. I had to write it all down."

Curiosity sated, I leant back into the back seat and stared out the window.

We passed over the bridge at the Calawah River, the long road winding northward, the houses getting bigger and farther apart the further we went. Then we were past the other houses altogether, driving through misty forest. Just as I was about to warn Jessica about the no-doubt impending Canadian border, we turned abruptly onto an unpaved road. It was unmarked, barely visible among the ferns. The forest encroached on both sides, leaving the road ahead only discernible for a few meters as it twisted around the ever-present trees.

Looking at what appeared to be a notebook, Jessica scowled and proceeded to drive for another few miles, until there was some thinning of the forest.

Suddenly, we were in a small meadow/lawn. Huge trees surrounded the house, overshadowing the porch that twisted around the first story, and what a house it was.

The house was timeless, graceful, and most likely a hundred years old. It was painted a soft, faded white, three stories tall, rectangular and well proportioned. The windows and doors were either part of the original structure or a perfect restoration. Jessica's was the only car in sight and I could hear a river close by, hidden in the obscurity of the forestry.

I could see many windows, a must-have in any modern vampire home nowadays and the whole thing complemented the forest surrounding it nicely, the wooden walls blending and the glass reflecting the misty view.

I knew the Cullens were a rich family, seeing as all of their clothes were designer and they had a pretty nice everyday car, but I was now seeing the extent of their wealth. A house such as this wouldn't be cheap and from what Jessica's incessant ramblings told me, they also owned a huge portion of the surrounding forest. It was beginning to seem as though deep pockets were a prerequisite for any vampire family.

It was still pretty early in the morning so there were no lights on inside, but I could still clearly see the small, spiky-topped silhouette of Alice waiting just inside the dark-glassed front door. She had no doubt heard us coming long before we got here but she didn't seem like the type of person to wait in the rain for people to pick her up. Then again, she didn't seem like the type of person who went shopping with humans, but she was sure as hell doing that.

I wasn't under the impression that she was coming to spend some quality time with Jessica or Angela, neither of which she knew particularly well. It also wasn't for the shopping, regardless of what she had told Angela because I knew that she could go anytime that she wanted, being free from the restrictions placed on normal teenagers. This was mainly due to the obvious fact that she wasn't a normal teenager, or even really a teenager for that matter, and that she could just run there way faster than any car.

I watched as the front door opened and Alice danced down the steps, waving over her shoulder at a woman that I'm assuming is her 'mother'. She was, like all vampires, beautiful, with soft, caramel hair that passed her shoulders and kind golden eyes. She returned the wave before her eyes settled on me. Her eyebrows rose in curiosity, she obviously had been given a description of me by her children, and I couldn't help but wave cheerily at her, my instinct to be polite kicking in.

She seemed confused by my action at first, but it was soon replaced by a warm smile. Everything about her seemed to scream 'mother' and I half expected her to invite us all in for cookies and milk, which I highly doubt they had in their kitchen.

The door on my left side opened and Alice's scent wafted in bringing with it the impulse to close my eyes and inhale. That was new.

Forcing down the strange desire, I watched as Alice slid into the car and couldn't stop my eyes from giving her a once over.

Predictably, she was wearing designer clothing that suited her perfectly. A pair of black, fairly snug, jeans and a white blouse, with a black jacket over it. Seeing this, I couldn't understand how it had taken me so long to realise my attraction to her. Of course, now that I knew that I was attracted to her, I couldn't help but notice how close we were, side by side because the last seat in the car was taken up by an old computer that Jessica just had to bring in for repairs today.

Shutting the door behind her, Alice turned to face me. "Hey Bella," She glanced at the front seats for a moment. "Thank you for letting me tag along, I really appreciate it." Her voice was sincere and contained all the excitement of an upcoming shopping trip.

Jessica, still seemingly shocked about having a Cullen in her car, merely nodded in response.

Angela looked back at us. "No problem, the more the merrier, right?" Looking at the ancient pile of technological crap on my right side, she seemed concerned. "You guys aren't too cramped back there, are you? Jess really needs to get that thing fixed today."

Alice and I looked at each other at the same time. "It's fine." We said in unison. Angela nodded and started talking to Jessica about what kind of dress she was looking for and what shops we should go to. I held Alice's golden gaze for about two seconds before I had to look away, feeling a blush coming on.

It was still raining as we made our way to Port Angeles, the raindrops creating a constant hum of noise. The streaming windows made sightseeing difficult as the images seemed distorted. Unfortunately, it also made the car seem smaller, not cramped exactly, but...intimate.

Her arm was pressed up against mine and, despite both of us having jackets on; I could feel the cold emanating from her. I kept my gaze focused straight ahead, doing my best to not look at her, because if I did, I would blush and I didn't like blushing.

I sat there for about three more minutes before I decided that talking with her would make me feel less awkward. I did want to mend some fences, after all.

I cleared my throat and she looked at me, eyes full of curiosity. "So, er, how've you been?" That was it? That was all you could manage!

As I mentally scolded myself for my lack of conversational skills, Alice's eyes widened in mild shock. "Oh, I've been fine. I've also been ignored and avoided, but you already know that."

I winced."Listen, I'd like to apologise for my behaviour over the past few weeks. I just didn't know what else to do." She looked sceptical, eyebrow raised. "Really, I'm sorry."

I really needed her to believe me. I'd missed our small conversations more than I'd like to admit. With the exception of right now, Alice was extremely easy to talk to and she always had something interesting to say.

Her expression softened, eyes losing their slightly annoyed look. Our voices were too low for the humans in the front to pick up on, so she didn't have to censor our conversation. "I guess I understand. I should probably thank you for what happened with Jasper, it was pretty risky for you."

"You're welcome. It was the least I could do."

She smiled at me cheerfully, eyes bright with amusement. "I said that I should thank you, not that I did. Had you been nicer to me, then I would have, but now you get nothing."

Her smile grew wider at my confused expression and I decided to let it go. "Well, then I guess I'll have to make it up to you then."

She turned her head to face me fully and she looked a little too pleased. "I'm sure I can find something for you to do to gain my forgiveness."

I felt a pang of worry, wondering if maybe my offer was a foolish one. "Why do I get the feeling that I'm going to regret saying that?"

She kept grinning. "Don't worry about it now Bella."

I frowned. "Are you implying that I should worry about it later?"

"Maybe a little."

"How much is a little?"

She scrunched her face up in mock-thought. "Less than buying a fallout shelter, but more than sleeping with both eyes closed at night."

"Ok, now you're worrying me."

"You should be worried, but let's put thoughts of your impending doom behind us. I heard that you weren't going to the dance. Why not?"

"It just isn't something that I'm that interested in."

She seemed shocked by my statement. "But why not? It's a party. How can you not like parties?" Her eyes widened as a new thought occurred to her. "Is it because you can't dance or something embarrassing like that?"

My brow furrowed. "Why would you assume that I can't dance?"

"So you can dance?"

I went to respond, when I actually thought about it. Not once could I remember doing any kind of dancing. I was the kind of person who laid back and enjoyed the music. I didn't feel the urge to fling myself around, unlike Jesse, who , despite being an incredibly graceful dancer, broke more than one lamp while 'rocking out' to Britney Spears.

"You know, I've never actually tried."

Alice's mouth almost dropped open completely. "You've never danced? At all? But you move so gracefully, you'd be a fabulous dancer."

As soon as she realised what she'd said, she bit her lip and turned away embarrassedly.

I was still slightly frozen. Did she just call me graceful? Yes, yes she did.

Having Alice pay me a compliment was a wonderful thing and I couldn't help but grin.

Deciding that I should monopolise on the first and only time I've ever seen her embarrassed, I snickered. "So, you think I'm graceful?"

Alice shifted in her seat. "Well, um, yeah. I mean, we have gym together and you're really good and everything."

Suddenly not wanting her to feel uncomfortable, I smiled at her. "Thank you Alice, you're pretty graceful yourself."

She smiled back at me but before she could respond, Jessica piped up. "Ok guys, we're here. Time to go shopping."

At the mention of shopping, Alice lit up and practically threw herself out of the now parked car.

Port Angeles seemed to be a nice place to go if you were in need of a vacation. It was much more polished and quaint than Forks but Angela and Jessica knew it so well that they knew exactly where to go for what they needed. They passed the picturesque boardwalk by the bay, which I looked at with longing. It was a beautiful place and the unlit lights along the edge told me that it would be even more beautiful at night. Instead, they went to one big department store that was only a few streets away from the aforementioned beautiful bay.

I trailed along after them, not really wanting to get involved in the dress-based discussion the three of them were having.

I had rarely worn dresses as a child and most of the ones that I did wear inevitably ended up torn and muddied or some variation of both. I distinctly remembered a bright orange sundress, with matching hat, that Clare had put me in when I was about four. I had gotten so fed up with the thing that I had accidentally used my powers and set it on fire, which, thankfully, didn't affect me. Especially since I was actually wearing the dress at the time.

We were sitting in the fifth shop of the day, with both Jessica and Angela in the changing rooms, when I realised that I did not, in fact, like shopping. The reason that it took me so long to realise my underlying dislike of this particular pastime was because I liked some parts of it very much, namely the Alice-based fashion show that I was seeing.

Alice looked at me in the mirror and raised an eyebrow. "So, Bella, what do you think?"

She had on a simple black gown that seemed made for her. It was floor length, with a nice silver design and a neckline that showed the perfect amount of chest.

It was at this very moment that I realised how much I was attracted to Alice. Before this, I had known it, but had never known it while she had been in my presence. Now that she was standing in front of me, I once again couldn't understand how I hadn't noticed it before.

When I didn't respond, Alice waved a hand in front of my face, which didn't help, since it just made her scent more potent. The fruity fragrance tried to lull me into contentment, but I forced myself to pay attention.

"It's a really beautiful dress and it looks great on you."

She gave me a huge smile and turned to look at herself in the mirror. "Really? It looks okay?"

I rolled my eyes. "Alice, it looks more than 'okay', it looks great. Now I command you to buy it."

She gave me a look. "You're not just saying that to get out of shopping, which you seem to hate, are you?"

I scoffed. "I don't hate shopping, I just dislike it immensely. And no, I'm not just saying it to get out of shopping. It really does look great."

She stayed looking at me for about two more seconds, trying to decide if I was being truthful or not, then she smiled and nodded. "Okay, I'll get it."

Angela and Jessica came out next, staring in awe at Alice.

"Wow, Alice, that dress looks fantastic."Angela said.

Jessica, while trying to hide a jealous scowl, nodded in affirmation. "Yeah, you should totally get it. What do you think of mine?"

She twirled to show off the knee-length electric blue dress that had spaghetti straps.

I managed to tear my eyes away from Alice, who was heading to the changing rooms, long enough to glance at them both. Jessica's dress suited her and brought out her eyes, which I told her, trying my best to get out of this shop. The shopping experience was becoming uncomfortable now that Alice had gone back to change out of her dress and I couldn't discreetly stare at her anymore.

Angela had chosen a pale pink dress that draped around her tall frame nicely and brought out honey tints in her light brown hair. She had just returned from the counter after paying for it.

It was only me and Angela now as both Alice and Jessica were trying on a few more 'just in case' dresses. They wanted to be certain even though they had both picked out what they were going to buy. This made absolutely no sense to me, which I told Angela.

She laughed. "They're shopaholics, Bella, it's all about the process."

"Well I wish they'd hurry up." I grumbled. The uncomfortable feeling that I'd first felt a few moments before had grown steadily worse. I felt nervous and jumpy and I couldn't shake the feeling that there was something wrong.

I opened up all of my senses to see if anything was going on, but I didn't notice anything unusual. That only served to make me more nervous because I knew something was wrong, even if I didn't know what it was.

Angela looked at me quizzically. "You ok? You seem a little edgy."

I tried to dissuade her worries, tried to tell her that I was fine, when I realised that I wasn't fine. I was worried about something and I had absolutely no idea what it was. Before I could say anything, I was hit with a powerful urge to get out of the shop, to go somewhere else, somewhere where something was wrong.

I looked at my watch and then at Angela. "Oh shoot. I totally forgot, I was going to go to this bookstore today and its closing soon." I quickly glanced at the door, fighting the need to run to where I needed to be. "You guys need to get your shoes and accessories still, so I'll just run there now and meet you all at the restaurant."

Angela nodded slowly. "Okay, that sounds fine."

I smiled at her. "Great. I won't be too long if I can help it."

As soon as I could, I shot out the door, forcing myself to remember to keep a human pace.

I started off at a walk, but the sense of urgency I was getting forced me to speed up.

I practically jogged down the streets, which were filling up with end-of-the-workday traffic and I just knew that I was headed in the right direction.

After about fifteen seconds, I noticed that I was heading away from the shopping district. The little foot traffic I had seen was going north, and it looked like the buildings here were mostly warehouses.

There were still a few people about, so I couldn't break into the supernaturally fast run that I was dying to, because to them, it would look as though I had disappeared.

The sense of wrongness that I was feeling multiplied and I couldn't take it anymore. Diving into a deserted alleyway, I looked up the side of the adjacent building. If I couldn't move fast amongst humans, then I'd move fast above them.

Crouching down, I pushed off from the ground and shot up into the air, swinging over the edge of the three story building and landing on the roof.

As soon as my feet touched down, I ran forward, jumping the gaps between buildings easily.

I was still running where this 'feeling' was telling me to go when I heard a noise. It sounded like a yell, followed by raucous laughter.

This time I didn't need the pull to direct me. Following the sounds, I ran until I came to an abandoned warehouse. It was on the other side of the street, several meters away and after doing a quick check for passers-by, I vaulted across the distance, landing silently on the cold stone of the warehouse.

I dove forward and grabbed onto the ledge hanging over the space behind the building. I crouched down on the ledge, hands grasping the edges and looked at what brought me here.

It had gotten dark very quickly and the only light came from the street lamps in front of the warehouse. This was blocked by the building itself, so they were all cast in a dark shadow. Despite this, I could easily see what was below.

There were four of them. A group of men that were dressed too casually for office workers, but they didn't seem like tourists either. From my vantage point on the roof, I could easily see the fifth person, a girl of about thirteen. She had mid-length blond hair and was wearing jeans and a blue t-shirt. She was also terrified.

From up here I could see that there was a trail of blood running down the side of her face and a bruise forming on her cheek. I growled at the sight, hand clenching so hard that the stone slab in my hand cracked and crumbled.

The man that I'm assuming was the leader stepped forward and I could smell the alcohol on him from up here.

He was a big man, with a week's worth of beard on his face and small, dark eyes. "Hey, come on now, don't be like that, sugar," he called, and the raucous laughter began again.

The girl backed up. "Stay away from me!"

The man went to grab her. She shrieked and slapped him.

His expression went from playful to angry. "Oh, you're gonna regret that." He took a step forward and I'd seen enough. I felt a sudden, ferocious anger sweep through me. How dare they attempt something like this. How dare they presume to take advantage of another in such a way!

I went to the adjacent side of the building and jumped down, landing soundlessly in a crouch. Stalking around the corner to make it seem like I'd just arrived, I yelled to get their attention.

"Hey! What the hell do you think you're doing?" Anger infused my voice and gave it a menecing edge. I felt hot, as though I had swallowed a lit match with a chaser of gasoline. The heat was poruring over my skin and I had to fight not to let it out, to burn these men into oblivion.

The men all turned to me in surprise. The leader stepped forward, the other three blocking the girl. His eyes trailed over me slowly and a huge grin spread over his face. "Hey, looking for some fun? 'Cause we sure are, and you're it."

My eyes zeroed in on his hand, which had speckles of blood on it, and judging from the scent, it belonged to the girl.

The anger I felt reached boiling point, but when my voice came, it was quiet, almost soft.

"You just made a big mistake." My eyes met his and he took a step back before he knew what was happening. As soon as he realised what he'd done, his face twisted in rage.

Running forward, he cocked his arm back and swung forward. In my rage filled haze, I merely grabbed his outstretched arm and twisted it behind his back until I heard the joint pop. He screamed in pain and I kneed him in the stomach before I let him drop.

The other three rushed me at once. To me, their movements were sluggish and they seemed to move in slow motion.

I grabbed the arm of the first one to reach me and pulled him into the fist of my other hand. I heard the 'crack' of a rib breaking and swept his legs out from under him. He hit the ground with a 'thud', but I'd already moved on.

Easily dodging the swing of the second man by ducking, I took the opportunity to hook my arm around his legs and pull him upwards. While he was still in mid-air, I slammed my open palm into his chest, crushing him into the ground.

The burning hatred that I felt for these men had come out of nowhere. I had never experienced the desire to do harm to another so strongly before and it took all of my self control to pull my punches and ensure that none of the humans were killed.

Seeing as it took me about eight seconds to take out his companions, the final man didn't have enough time to realise, in his drunken state, that he was in trouble. He had picked up a length of wood from a stack by the ware house and swung it at my legs.

I jumped over it and spun, slamming my foot into his face in a perfectly executed roundhouse-kick. His head snapped to the side and I heard the sickening 'crunch' of his nose breaking. He was thrown to the side before crashing into the warehouse wall.

"What is wrong with you people?" I roared, the rage in my system still burning with a ferocious energy. Only two of the four were conscious and even they were on the ground, moaning.

I turned to the girl to find her staring at me in shock. For a moment I was afraid that she'd noticed that I wasn't human from how I'd fought, but I knew that I'd slowed down to a human pace and hadn't done anything unnatural.

With a gasp, she ran over to me and threw her arms around me. "Oh, God, thank you! Thank you." As quickly as it had come, the rage was gone, leaving in it's place a feeling of mild regret. I shouldn't have hurt these men so much. I knew that it was wrong, but I couldn't bring myself to feel more than that mild regret. They deserved what they'd gotten.

I wasn't sure how to respond to this, so I patted her on the back and shh'd a few times.

It was only then that I noticed it. Amid all the fighting and trying to fight like a human, albeit a very skilled one, I hadn't been paying attention to the far out surroundings.

Now, however, over the sound of the girls quiet sobs and the moaning of the men, I could hear a slight grating noise, like stone against stone.

Or stone-hard skin against stone.

Her scent reached me a split second before my head snapped up to the ware house.

There, in the exact same spot that I'd been in minutes before, crouched the small figure of Alice Cullen.

A/N: I'm really sorry for the late update, but I made it a bit longer to make up for it.

Right now, it is 5:40 in the morning and I'm writing this for you guys, so you'd better appreciate it. Also, you should blame any mistakes on my lack of sleep.

Hope you enjoyed it.

R&R.