Chapter 2
Bella POV

No one answered, but I heard the callers' breath hitch before speeding up. I waited impatiently, then started to chew on the end of the pencil I used to make notes on my dancing.
"If no one answers in the count of –"
"Is this Bella?"
"Yeah…" I answered hesitantly.
I used the hand that I wasn't holding the phone with to start pulling the out the pins out of my hair.
"Eeeeeek!" an excited screech blasted through the phone, causing the pencil to drop from between my teeth. The phone fell out of my surprised hands. I bent down quickly to retrieve it.
I fumbled uselessly with the phone and then spoke into it;
"Who are you?"
There was a short silence, in which the caller seemed to send out waves of disapproval.
"I'm sorry, but I really don't know who you are!" I apologised.
"Guess." Then it clicked.
"Ermmm. Lauren?" I suggested innocently.
"Ugh! You can seriously compare your best friend, the one who forced you into ballet and made you literally famous, to that little……..!" She left the sentence hanging.
"Alice." I said smugly after another small pause.
"No. A hippo." The statement was dripping with sarcasm.
"Oh gosh! I'm so sorry!" I answered back in the same tone.
"Sooo…" She dragged on the word, filling it with an unexpected suspense.
"Uh Huh? " I answered, desperate to find out what she was keeping from me.
"I'm back in Forks!" She squealed, excited.
"I have missed you so much!" I squealed back, just as excited as her; it had not seen her for six years.
"Sure, sure. Hey where are you living?" she blurted out.
"Well, I live on La Push road, in a small building called the Little Red House, it's a little dingy, to be honest, so I won't invite you over."
It's not really dingy, just sort of collapsing.

"Why don't you live with us then!" Alice suggested suddenly.
"What?! …"
"Great! Pack your stuff tonight; I'll pick you up at the studio tomorrow at about 12!"

Oh God! I froze. Did I just agree to living with Alice? Living with… living with ALICE?
Panic washed over me as I thought thoroughly of what I agreed to.
"Her parents… how can I know if they agreed! I heard they had adopted two other kids! NOOOO!"
I screamed at my reflection in the mirror. I have to say no to this. I picked up my bag and walked out of the studio.

*

"Belllllaaaaaaaaaaaa! OHMYGOD! I have missedyousomuch!"

Alice screamed as she ran at me. I gasped as all the breath was knocked out of me as she collided with me at high speed. When I had got my breath back, as was stood back on my own two feet, I looked up into Alice's adoring eyes.
"I've missed you too." I laughed
You just can't resist her when she was so happy. I let her tow me out of the studio, my stuff in my dance bag in her other hand.

"I cannot wait for you to see my family…" She gibbered. "C'mon Bella!"
I had frozen, staring at the car in front of me like an idiot.
"Wow."
Alice grinned at my reaction and came back to tug me along. She brushed her hand gently across the Porsche's yellow paint.
"I know! I got this from Esme and Carlisle for my nineteenth this year! Cool, huh?"
"Yeah."
I felt a sudden sadness as she mentioned her adoptive parent's name. Her parents had died in a car accident the year after they left for Forks. She was adopted by her neighbours, Esme and Carlisle Cullen, who had already adopted two other kids, only a year older than Alice, so 2 years older than me. My parents had also died. My mom had cancer and my dad was shot during an armed robbery at a jewellery store. He had been a cop. My eyes filled with tears. I had never been adopted; I had lived in a children's home until my sixteenth birthday, then I had received a scholarship from the local college. I have lived in the almost-derelict dorms next to college ever since.
"It's okay, Bells," she said as she hugged me.
"I'm fine! Totally over it!" I could detect nothing in her eyes besides happiness so I let it be.
Alice sang along to a song on the radio, bouncing happily on the black leather seat.
"I love this song!" Alice screamed over the booming music.
"So do I, Allie." I answered absentmindedly. I was pulling at a lock of my hair, wondering how much my life would change after this.
"You okay?" she asked worriedly.
"Yeah, just thinking about what will happen when I come to live-"
"Fish sticks! You'll love it!" She swiped my arm playfully, leaving a mark on my pale skin.
"Ouch. Sorry! Look! We are here!"
I looked up and gasped.
The house was beautiful! Ivy was creeping up the side of the white walls, whilst rose bushes lined the pebbled path that led up to the huge front door. I walked as if in a daze towards it. Amazingly, the inside of the house was just as grand.