Hello! Thanks for the feedback on Elizabeth. My girl is a little tough right now but she'll definitely warm up to Edward in the following chapters. Thanks for the reviews!

Edward

According to my schedule, I had a free hour just after lunch. Going to the library seemed the best option, since I had to pretend to study and write that paper, but I got distracted by some music… someone was playing Mozart's Turkish Rondo at the piano, in an impeccable manner. I couldn't help myself, and I went to the music hall.

I groaned when I saw who the pianist was. Elizabeth St. John, of all people. She was a talented musician, I gave her that, but her personality I couldn't stand. She was… irritating, plain and simple.

Reason told me that the best choice would be to leave that room and go to the library before Elizabeth noticed my presence and picked up a fight with me again. But the musician in me didn't want to move until the last note was played. I tried not to cringe when she raised her eyes from the keyboard and saw me there.

She heavily sighed. "Again? Are you stalking me or what?"

"I can think of a million things I rather do instead of stalking you, Elizabeth."

"Oh really? Well, I can think of a billion things I rather do instead of talking to you right now. Playing Mozart is on top of the list. So if you don't mind leaving…"

I found myself smiling. Instead of leaving, I walked closer to the piano and sat next to the chair where she had left her things, and the notebook with her scribbled notes. I eyed her music, and then I went back looking at her. Oh, if looks could kill… In the end she resigned to my presence and started playing again, and I went back to read her music. It was slightly unbalanced, she had clearly written down it fast before inspiration wore out, but I could see where she was going with that… it was definitely interesting. In that moment Elizabeth hit a wrong note.

"Damn it!"

She gave me a burning look.

"I have done nothing," I said.

"You distracted me!"

"I didn't!"

"You did!"

I sighed heavily. I closed my hands into fists so I wouldn't have the impulse to strangle her. And yet, a part of me found this… fun. Like when I was younger and human, and I couldn't stop teasing my cousin Celia when she was studying music. How weird.

Elizabeth rose from the piano and walked to me.

"Go. Away. Library, Student's Hall, another planet. I. Don't. Care!"

"You're overreacting. You play really well, why can't I just sit here and listen?"

The little compliment surprised her, but it didn't change her disposition towards me.

"It's the only moment of the week I get to play the piano, is it too much to ask I could exercise alone?"

The only moment? I frowned slightly. A pianist so good surely studied music at home. Still, she said that it was the only occasion she had in the entire week… something didn't add up.

I turned in silence, and walked out of that room. Five seconds after, I heard Elizabeth playing again.

What a strange girl.

My thoughts were soon occupied by the music she had written on that notebook. I couldn't stop thinking of it. I wrote the notes down on a piece of paper, and I began working on it. Those little defects in the melody irked me more than its composer. I kept working on it during lessons, and when the bell rang I was halfway through my job.

"So," asked Emmett with a malicious smile. "You saw your girlfriend again?"

"Elizabeth is not my girlfriend," I replied through gritted teeth.

"You know, there's a very thin line between love and hate," added Rosalie, with a smile that matched her husband's.

Bella smiled and took me under my arm. "Enough, you two, leave him alone."

"Careful, Emmett," Rosalie said with a fake alarmed tone, "she might change her mind about her favorite big brother!"

Even Jasper joined the laughs. Bella stopped laughing abruptly, though, and looked at a precise point in the parking lot.

There stood a black haired girl and five boys who were all bigger than her. It didn't take a genius to realize who the girl was.

Jasper watched the scene with a tense look on his face. "Elizabeth's in big trouble. They don't have good intentions."

"She was somehow involved in what happened earlier to that boy…" Bella said. "I heard the discussion she had with her friend."

"Retaliation," said Jasper, without detaching his eyes from the scene. We weren't close, but thanks to our hearing it was like we were next to Elizabeth.

"Things have changed, princess," said one of the guys. "You are not one of us anymore."

"Like I care."

"It should, because it means no one will raise a finger to help you."

Elizabeth laughed. "In the school's parking lot? In plain daylight? How stupid are you?"

The boys raised their fists, and Elizabeth took a defense position, scanning the area for help. I didn't have doubts she could handle herself in a fight; still, there were five boys and she was alone…

"Jasper," Bella said, looking at her husband. Jasper slightly nodded and used his power on Elizabeth's aggressors, so that no one would get hurt or in trouble. Immediately the boys walked away, with confused expressions on their faces. Elizabeth seemed confused as well, but before she could look in our direction we silently went to Bella's car and disappeared in the traffic.

Elizabeth

What. The. Hell. Happened?

If I didn't witness it with my eyes I wouldn't ever believed it. One second, Kyle and the rest of Mark's gang were ready to kill me, and the second after… I didn't even know how to explain. Suddenly they just… lost interest in me. Mark wouldn't be happy with them, of that I was sure…

"Lizzie! Are you fine?" said Mick, running towards me. "I just saw…"

"Yeah," I said, looking at my car and the flat tires. "I am. My car, not so much…"

"Mark, huh?"

"Who else? See? The cards were right after all."

"Again? Lizzie, you should stop believing every word your grandma says."

Mick didn't believe me. According to my grandmother, it was because he was a gage… someone that wasn't of gypsy origin. Both my grandmother and my mom were Kalderash; the story of how my family ran away from Romania and arrived in the United States was better than any other bedtime story when I was little. Grandma Helena taught me all I knew about my Kalderash heritage. That involved dancing, a lot of legends and tarot reading. She was revered as a seer in the tribe, or so my mother had always told me. Grandma always denied this thing, but everything she predicted with her tarots always happened. And I was like her. Sort of… I wasn't infallible, but I had a nice margin of success. And the cards had predicted I would run into trouble today. Maybe not the kind of trouble I thought, but replacing four tires was surely a problem. Especially when money was an issue… thank God I tutored a second-year boy whose father owned a body shop. I would trade again my Math skills against used tires.

The best part of that deal was that I could keep it secret. Allen and Grace didn't have to know the truth about how hard it still was for me at school. It was better that way. Knowing the truth would just make them worry more… and possibly get them and the girls into trouble. And I swore it would never happen again.

The memory of a tall, handsome, dark-haired boy came unsolicited into my mind, and I immediately sent it back to the remotest corner of my mind, where it belonged. No matter how much I tried not to think of him, to forget, he was always there in my head to remind me how much naïve I was two years earlier.

"Liz? You ok?"

I smiled. Mick knew the whole story, of course, but I didn't want to tell him how much Gabriel was still affecting me, even if he didn't show up again around here. It was my problem, not his.

"Sure. Can you give me a ride home?"

Mick smiled, and I smiled as well. Mick could be damn perceptive at times… thank God it wasn't one of those moments.

Bella

After school, I made certain Esme didn't need me for something and then I said I would go out 'for a walk'. Jasper was the only one to realize the truth behind my innocent little sentence. He had heard it so many times throughout the years. I never went out for just a walk. I always went ghost hunting. And that would be the first time in years I would go out alone, enough to make Jasper worry about me.

"Maybe I should come with you," he whispered while I was changing clothes in my room.

"Nonsense, honey," I replied with a smile. "I can do it on my own. Yesterday I was with Edward, I couldn't do much… today I want to see if someone wants my help."

"Listen to you. You would make an excellent doctor."

It wasn't the first time Jasper suggested me to give med school a try. Who knew, maybe one day…

"Thank God I have eternity, then. I want to do so many things in my life."

I changed my skirt and shirt for jeans and a sweater. I tied up my hair in a ponytail and grabbed my purse. I took my husband's face with both my hands and kissed him softly on the lips.

"I'll come home soon. Promise."

Halfway down the stairs, I heard Edward playing, and decided to pay a visit before going to the cemetery again.

"Having fun?"

Edward gave me a smile. "Bella! Come here."

I gave a look to the music sheets in front of him, written in his perfect, old-fashioned handwriting.

"Are you working on something new?"

"It's not mine, actually. It's… hers," he added with an eloquent look.

"Elizabeth's? How in the hell did you get your hands on that notebook?"

"It wasn't intentional… we met again in the music hall, we fought some more, and I accidentally read her music. She left the notebook open on a chair. I couldn't think of anything else for the rest of the day."

"So beautiful?"

"So full of imperfections."

"I hope you're planning to keep this improved version only for us, because Elizabeth would tear your head off if she suspected this. I have this feeling."

"Where are you going?"

"Nowhere. I'm going out for a walk."

"Last time you said this we ended up at the cemetery."

"Cause you wanted to go there. Strange as it sounds, I have other interests in life!"

Edward didn't believe a word I said, I could tell. Anyway, I left him playing with Elizabeth's music and I headed to the cemetery. Once there, I walked through the tombs till I was sure no one was paying attention to me. I ended up in front of Elizabeth and Anthony Masen's tombs. Like the day before, I stopped and said a prayer for Edward's parents. I wished I could do the same with my mother, but I wasn't so stupid to think I could go back to Forks again and live to tell the tale. Charlie wouldn't even need to justify himself if he wanted to try to kill me again. Or Josh. Or anyone of the other werewolves…

I was going to go back to the most recent graves, when I saw Elizabeth. She had just put some fresh flowers in front of two tombs. She saw me as well, but for once she didn't incinerate me with a look. She looked… well, she looked like me when I was alive, before the Cullens. The same quiet desperation, plus the knowledge you can't count on no one but yourself. Even if I knew there was a chance she might try to kill me, I walked and got closer to her.

"Hi," I said. Elizabeth replied with a nod of her head.

"Who do you have here?"

No one, just a bunch of ghosts that I hoped to help walking into the white light. But I couldn't tell her that, could I?

"My mother," I lied. "She died at childbirth."

"Oh. Sorry. I… I couldn't imagine."

"And you?"

Elizabeth gave me a curious look, raising both her eyebrows. "You don't know? Really?"

"Since I'm asking… My family and I lived in Canada till a week ago. And we don't like gossip."

"Canada is nice. I… spent a summer there. Anyway, I'm here for my parents. They died two years ago in a car accident."

"I'm sorry. It must be hard for you."

"Like my Grandma says, 'what doesn't kill, strengthens'," replied Elizabeth.

"Tell me about it," I said, thinking of my time in La Push. Elizabeth chuckled.

"Sorry, what could you possibly know of this?"

"I didn't always live with the Cullens," I replied with a cold tone. "I grew up with a father and a brother that hated me probably every single second of my life. I ran away from home, and what can I say? I got lucky and found Carlisle and Esme. And my brothers and sister."

Elizabeth stayed silent. I could feel her evaluating me.

"Your story must be an interesting one as well," she simply stated. "Listen… I'm sorry for what happened at school. People don't want to be friends with me, not in that place. Mark and his friends make sure to tell everyone I'm an outcast. I simply don't trust people that go against this scheme."

Again, another thing we had in common.

"I don't care what people say. I trust my instinct. So… let's do this right," I said, outstretching my hand, "Isabella Marie Cullen. Nice to meet you. At last."

Elizabeth lowered her eyes for a second, with an amused smile on her face. Then she took my hand and shook it.

"Elizabeth Irene St. John," she replied. "Nice to meet you, too. But everyone calls you Bella, right?"

"Yes. And no one calls you Lizzie but Mick, right?"

"Not if you want to live."

I laughed. Then I gave a look to the spirits in the graveyard, and sighed. For some reason, Elizabeth decided she could trust me, and I really missed having a human friend in my life. I promised myself I would go back there that night, and I took a walk with my new friend. She wasn't a big talker, but that was fine because I wasn't either. She wanted to know about Canada, how I got adopted by the Cullens. She found it weird that Esme and Carlisle had adopted teenagers, when young couples usually went for babies and toddlers.

"They're… special. I realized it the moment I stepped into their house. I felt at home for the first time in my life."

"My adoptive parents are nice. I got lucky…" she said, then she took a camera from her bag and took a couple pictures of a girl at the bus stop at the other side of the street. "All things considered."

"You do that a lot. Taking pictures of random people, I mean."

"If something catches my eye, it deserves a picture. Or more than one..."

She blushed while saying that. Before I could ask, she dragged me in an alley without warning.

"What the hell…?"

"Sorry! I just didn't want to… well, to meet them," she said, indicating the boys that tried to harass her in the parking and the girls I saw in the mess hall, plus the one that was taken away by the agents.

"I was right, wasn't I? You did it."

"Mark offended my parents' memory and talked ill of my foster family. I'm not the only one that didn't like his words about foster families. And believe me, smoking pot is the lesser thing Mark has done at parties."

"Some parties they must have been."

"The other thing I'm not going to miss. Oh, look at that. You better be careful, Bella… now that Mark's paired with the spawn of Satan, it's better to not make them angry…"

"The spawn of Satan?"

"FYI," said Elizabeth, indicating all the popular kids from our hiding place, "The first from left is Mark Gallmann, son of the mayor. Georgina Price, daughter of one of the richest lawyer in town, spawn of Satan and his girlfriend. Blake Eccleston, Nate Tyler, Kyle Jones, Danielle Smith. M and G's cohorts. Enough said."

"Thanks for the explanation," I said. "At least now I know who the school's mandatory neurotic bitch is and I'll stay away from her."

"What? Don't be mistaken, Bella... That title belongs to me."

We looked at each other, and burst out laughing a second after.

It was official. I liked Elizabeth.