Two

Gone With The Wind

After meeting Isabella, Alice had quickly convinced her parents that this girl just had to go with them. Her hope and joy was enough to make them believe her, much to Alice's content, and Isabella soon found herself on her way to her new "home".

Both her and Alice sat in the back of the car. Isabella was quietly staring out of the window, listening to Alice talking at the same time. Alice had been constantly talking ever since she said "Hey", which surprisingly to Isabella, wasn't as annoying as she thought it might be. She had never enjoyed talking much, let alone listening, but listening to the voice of the girl she was going to be living with was comforting to her. Her voice had a nice quality to it, it was beautiful, soft and delicate.

"Bella, are you even listening to me? I just wasted tons of oxygen talking to you!"

As Isabella turned away from the window to look at Alice, she had to smile at the sad and frustrated expression she had combined.

"Don't worry, I'm still listening."

Alice looked thoughtful for a moment, pouting and all, and just for that moment, she didn't look like she was two years older than Isabella, which made her smile. Alice didn't continue talking though and started gazing at the view outside of the car. She seemed to have sensed Isabella wasn't much of a talker, and surprisingly for little Alice, she didn't feel too bad about it. Sitting next to Isabella was nice enough.

As they arrived at the Brandon mansion, Isabella was afraid her eyes would pop out. The enormous house in front of her seemed as though a hundred people could live inside of it! It was incomparable to the small cottage Charlie and Renée lived in.

Renée.. How badly Isabella would've wanted her mother to have seen this she thought sadly. But she was soon shaken from her thoughts when she felt a hand slip into hers though, and looked into the bright eyes of the girl next to her, feeling the excitement rush through her at the thought of what she might find inside.

"This is going to be your new home Isabella! I do hope you'll like it." Loïs said to her, smiling warmly. Next to her Marcus' smile seemed just as inviting as his wife's attitude.

The grand exterior of the three story building was intimidating to say the least, the building was white with rows of five windows on every floor, decorated with the nicest of curtains, Isabella could tell from this far. There was a driveway that ended in a circle with a great fountain in the middle.

As they walked towards the door, Isabella admired the flowers around the building, looking even brighter coloured in contrast with the stark white building. As she thought about where she came from, the damage she'd caused, the happiness she hadn't known, she started to feel intimidated. This family seemed so complete already, so happy and content. They lived a life she thought only believed in fairy tales like.. Cinderella.

Unconsciously she tightened the grip she had on Alices' hand.

"Don't worry Bella, everyone loves you already, you'll fit in great." Alice softly whispered to her, squeezing her hand a little tighter too to reassure her.

Marcus opened the door letting her go inside first.

"Welcome home Isabella."

Bella was already gone though, the inside of the house was magnificent, most of the interior was made of wood which gave it a very warm feeling. In front of her was a large staircase which lead to the first floor. On the left side she could see the fire place situated in the living room. It caught her attention since it reminded her of the orphanage.

Above the fire place hung a big family portrait of Marcus, Loïs and Alice in the middle, painted by a professional she assumed. Alice was still very young in the painting, four years old at the most. She almost forgot she hadn't moved from her spot at the door, she hadn't even let go of Alices' hand.

She took a few steps into the hallway before she turned around to face the Brandons. She smiled at them, for the first time in months, she smiled. The warm welcome and kindness she got from them was quite a contrast from the usual behaviour of the people she had met in her short life. People didn't usually bother much with her, they let her be.

"Can I show her around the house, pleaaase?"

At the sight of the puppy dog face Alice gave them, her parents just couldn't say no, even though they had wanted to show Isabella around themselves. However, they had all the time in the world to bond with her, they had a feeling this girl was here to stay.

"Alright, go ahead, I'll call you girls down when dinner is ready."

That was all it took for Alice to loop her arm through Bella's and rush her from one room to the other, explaining every scene that had ever taken place in every room, like the time Alice had been so excited for her first day of school, she was literally bouncing so much she spilt her orange juice all over their brown leather sofa in the living room, which was why they had gotten black sofas now.

Or the time her pet bird Yves had escaped from its cage while she was feeding it and flew around for three hours before it ended up in the fire place.. It went quiet in the room, until her father broke the silence by saying that it seemed they were going to have dinner early.. Alice cried all night.

It took two hours for them to finally get to Alices' bedroom.

The room was big and nicely decorated. The walls were painted in a dark shade of purple which contrasted beautifully with the dark, wooden furniture like the desk, bed and big closet in the room.

"Sooo, this is my room, which I hope you'll like since you'll be staying here as well. I have a huge bed so we can share, unless you'd like your own, which is perfectly fine because we could fit another one in if you want-" Alice started but Bella interrupted her before she took her silence for an answer.

"No, no, I don't mind, I love your room. It's really nice.. And it's huge. Do you have a balcony?" Bella noticed the door behind the curtains, which she had first thought was a window.

"I do, it has a great view! But Dad thinks it's too dangerous so he's put a lock on it.." Alice sighed dramatically, making it very obvious how very much she disagreed with her fathers' decision.

Bella smiled at that, she had only known Alice for a day but she already felt so close to her. It was hard not to like her, she was a great girl.

"That's too bad.."

"Yeah well.. There's still more than enough for us to do, I still have so much I want to show you, I promise I'll never let you get bored as long as I'm around."

Alice smiled widely at Bella before taking her downstairs again for dinner.

Dinner was.. different to say the least. Bella had never had food like this. She had only had soup, vegetables, sometimes chicken and usually potatoes as dinner. But what lay in front of her wasn't any of that, it was brightly coloured and the smell.. It smelled fantastic! As she looked at the food that lay on the porcelain plate in front of her, she wondered what she should eat first, would it taste as good as it smelled?

"I do hope you like fish.. I thought salmon would be nice with some lemon to add to the flavour, but if you don't like fish we have a vegetable salad of corn, black beans, peas, tomatoes and onion."

Loïs was worried after seeing Isabella looking at the food so hesitantly, she mentally scolded herself for not asking the girl what kind of dishes she liked.

Bella took a small bite from the salmon, not wanting to answer Loïs without knowing what to say.

As she chewed on the well flavoured fish, she was astounded by the taste of it. She had never tasted anything like it! She had never even tasted food she actually liked, she felt like she had been missing out on so much for so long, and now these people who didn't even know her were showing her how to really live for the first time.

"The salmon is perfect, but thank you."

Everyone had been staring at her, almost holding their breath while waiting for her to reply. They wanted to make her feel at home, make her feel wanted and comfortable, and it had been working greatly so far. Isabella was such a well-mannered girl, Marcus thought to himself as he watched her eat quietly.

Alice couldn't wait for dinner to be over though, she was dying to take Bella out and show her all the nice places in their town, Watermill, New York. Also known as the Hamptons.

She'd have to wait 'till tomorrow though, since she wasn't allowed to go out after dinner. Bella probably wasn't in the mood for it either, she had been so quiet all day. Alice didn't mind though, she didn't need to talk much for Alice to like her because she already did.

After dinner they went to the living room and sat on the large sofa facing the fire place. Marcus went to his study and Loïs went to their bedroom to read, leaving only them.

"Bella, do you like being here with us?" Alice asked hesitantly, looking at the girl sitting across her. They were both leaning against the arm rest so they we're facing each other.

"Yeah, I love it here.. You and your parents are really nice. And I love your room!" Bella said excitedly.

"Good. I had a feeling you'd fit in with us right away." Alice said, her eyes sparkling with joy.

Four years later

Bella had been living with the Brandons for four years now, and her life was nothing short of a fairy tale. She was eleven now and Alice was twelve. They'd been spending all of their time together since the day Bella had come home to live with them.

She hadn't dreamt of ever getting to live like this, she hadn't dared to.. Ever since her mother had started drinking, she had felt guilty. She thought it was her influence that ruined her mothers' life. Even Charlie couldn't stand to have her around him.. She hadn't quite shaken those thoughts away though, the guilt was still there. The self loathing, she never felt she was worthy of living the life she was living with the Brandons.

However, as she was lying in the grass next to Alice with the sun shining down on them, she didn't think of that. She thought of the happiness she had found in the girl lying next to her. Alice brought out the best in her, she showed her places, learned her games, forced her to play dress up with fancy gowns all the time, but Bella was very willing to do that, after all, it made Alice happy. It was like she had found the sister she'd never had.

"Bella, are you sleeping?"

"No, just thinking.. Why?"

Bella looked at Alice suspiciously, almost feeling the excitement radiating off Alice.

"Because.. I want to go for a swim!"

"What? Alice, we're not even dressed to go swimming!"

"Then let's go swimming without being dressed at all!"

Bella's eyes widened comically at that.

"You look like Bambi when you're staring at me like that. Now, what do you say? Please say yes Bella, pleaaaaaaaaaaase!"

Bella knew she'd give in eventually, Alice didn't seem like she was going to let go of this idea, so she decided to spare herself the trouble.

Ever since Alice had shown her the lake they were lying by now, they had spent most of their summer days there. It was a beautiful place, nature seemed to have gone all out in creating it. Flowers in all colours surrounded the blue lake on which sunlight sparkled brightly. It almost seemed like it consisted of liquid diamonds. You could even see the fish swimming around in the lake.

"Okay I guess.."

It took less than a second for Alice to take off her silk blouse after hearing Bella agree, and throwing it in the grass. She kicked off her shoes and quickly got rid of her shorts.

Standing in nothing but her underwear, she noticed Bella hadn't moved from her lying position yet.

"Do you want me to undress you or are you going to move now?" She smiled while asking, making it obvious she was just joking.

Bella had seen Alice undress plenty of times before, they did share a room after all. But right at this moment, with the sun shining down on her, and the beauty of the nature surrounding her, she found herself seeing Alice in a whole different way. Her friend looked.. Beautiful to say the least. She was so thin.. So frail, Bella was almost able to count her ribs, but it just seemed to fit her. As Alice walked towards the lake, she noticed the grace in her movements. The way she walked made her seem as if she was a lot older than just twelve. She looked back at Bella with a raised eyebrow, amusement clearly visible in her grey eyes, waiting for her to join her before she dived in.

Bella shrugged it off and slipped out of her nice, cashmere dress before diving in too.

Maybe it was the sleepiness that clouded her mind after lying in the grass all day, or the weirdness of what they were about to do, but it sure as hell wasn't normal for her to feel like that about her friend, she thought to herself.

That night as they lay in their huge bed, Bella couldn't sleep. After tossing and turning for what felt like hours, she silently got out of bed, looking back to make sure she didn't wake Alice up. At the sight of the beautiful girl still fast asleep, looking so peaceful, Bella felt her heartbeat speed up and a blush spread across her cheeks as she looked down upon Alices' full lips.

"Why am I even thinking like this.. She'd hate me if she knew." Bella silently got up and walked towards the balcony, the lock had been taken off a long time ago, and she quietly opened the door before stepping outside. The light evening breeze was nice in contrast to the high temperatures during the summer days in the Hamptons.

"Why can't this awful feeling go away already, I'm going mad thinking about Alice like this! I bet it can't be normal to look at another girl this way.. Why me, of all people on this planet, why do I have to be the one to deal with this? Things were going perfect just the way they were.."

Bella looked up at the clear night sky, stars sparkling at her from a far, far away place. What a beautiful sight it was Bella thought, admiring the sight. She had always enjoyed the view from the balcony, since the house wasn't far from the beach she could see the waves in the distance, the water reflecting a shade of black at this time of night.

"I dare to bet Alice wouldn't still be willing to go swimming undressed when she saw the water like this."

Bella smiled, thinking of her friends' weird quirks, when suddenly she felt a pair of arms snake around her waist and a warm body pressing into her own from behind. She swore her heart stopped for a moment out of fear, before beating twice as fast as it usually did after she realised it was Alice who had joined her on the balcony.

"Did I scare you? I do hope so, since that was what I intended to do."

Bella knew she was smiling while speaking.

"I'm sorry to disappoint you, but this is exactly why I'm so glad to have eyes in the back of my head. Everyone teases me about it.. But I wouldn't know what to do without them." Bella retorted with a smile of her own.

Alice rested her head on Bella's right shoulder, sighing deeply.

"Don't worry Bella, I can think of more than enough ways to scare you without creeping up to you from behind."

Bella laughed at her friends silliness, before she became aware of how close they really were. She could feel Alices' hipbones pressing into her back and could even smell her sweet breath. Her heart was pounding and she felt hot despite of the wind for which her thin night gown was no match.

"Dear god, please get off of me, it's only going to take a few more seconds for her to notice my heart beating this crazy! Who hates me this badly for this to happen to me? She'd hate me if she ever found out about this!"

As if sensing Bella's discomfort, Alice let go of Bella and moved to stand next to her, looking up at the sky for a moment before asking:

"Why are you up this late?"

"I don't know.. I just.. couldn't sleep.."

"You're not going to stay here all night though, are you? You'll freeze to death."

"Actually, I'm going back to bed now, I think I just needed some fresh air."

Alice smiled at that and lead the way back inside. As they both climbed into bed, Alice turned to face Bella.

"You know.. I wish you would talk to me more.. I can tell something's bothering you. And I don't even know anything about your past.. Where you came from, what you've been through.. Is it because you don't trust me?"

Bella flinched at the memories brought back by the question. The way she ruined her parents' lives, how she even drove her mother to take her own life.. How could Alice ever like her after knowing what kind of person she really was?

"I just.. don't know what you'll think of me if I tell you about my past. I didn't grow up as nice as you did.."

"Silly! Of course I'll still like you, I chose you didn't I? Whenever you think you're ready, I'll be there to listen."

Alice smiled at Bella before closing her eyes and drifting off to sleep.

"Out of all of the children in the orphanage.. She did choose me, I just hope I won't make her regret it."

So, that was chapter two. I hope you'll like it. J I'd love to hear your opinions! Or any questions for that matter. ;)