A/N: What's up fools? Hello out there to all the new readers :) Seeing new people add me to their alerts makes me happy. The lovely ladies over at Project Team Beta get a huuuge shout-out on this chapter, they helped make it awesome!

Characters belong to the lovely SM and I wish I owned the girls apartment.


She's a rebel,

She's a saint,

She's the salt of the earth

And she's dangerous

--Green Day

"They're here," she breathed. I stood up, going to greet the unknown.

I walked toward the front door, listening to my bare feet slap against the hard wood. You know what else I'd like to hear slapping against hard wood is—Fuck! What is this? I knew I had a dirty mind, but Jesus Christ, I couldn't walk around my apartment without turning it into something sexual. I sighed, frustrated beyond belief, and opened the door. Standing on the other side was Jasper, looking dapper again in some dark jeans, blue Vans deck shoes, and a white t-shirt bearing crossed American and Confederate flags with "The South Will Rise Again" written below them in curling script. Behind him was a giant.

Not an actual giant, but this man was huge. He looked strangely familiar, and after a moment, I recognized him.

"Holy shit, I know who you are!" I said loudly, pointing at the bear of a man. He gave me a confused look, and I remembered he was still standing in the hall. "Oh my God, you guys, please come in! I'm sorry!" I swung the door wide and tried to back up at the same time, but because it's me I totally ate shit in the entryway.

"Lady Bella, are you alright?" Jasper said as he reached out to help me up. I grabbed his hand and let him haul me to my feet. He put his hands on my shoulders, helping to steady me as I regained my balance.

"Yeah, Jasper, I'm fine. I do that a lot, just a heads up. Come on in." I stood to the side of the entry way as they made their way inside. As soon as I had closed the door Jasper spoke again.

"So, fair Bella, you said you knew my friend here?" He looked towards the giant, checking to see if he recognized me.

"Well, not exactly," I started to explain. "I saw him on the cover of a sports magazine on the flight over. All it said was 'McCarty - England's American Rugby Star.' But I remember him. He makes an impression on you." I smiled at the newcomer and held out my hand.

"Bella Swan. Nice to meet you." He smiled in return, looking much less intimidating because he had the cutest dimples I had ever seen. Lord, you just wanted to hug him.

"Hi, I'm Emmett McCarty." His hand was huge, and his grip strong but he looked surprised when I returned the force. "Shit, you have a great handshake for a chick." He looked me over closely, nodding when he finished, almost in approval.

"Bitchin'," I said, earning a double take from Emmett and a smirk from Jasper. "Why don't you guys follow me over here? Alice is in the kitchen." I walked towards the kitchen calling, "Alice, darling, we're home!" I heard some muffled sounds and what sounded like a quiet but heartfelt 'fuck' before Alice appeared in the kitchen doorway.

"Oh! Hi," she breathed, her eyes immediately finding Jasper and ignoring the rest of us. Jasper walked forward and held out his hand. Alice placed hers in his and he drew her forward.

"Miss Alice, may I introduce my friend Emmett McCarty?" Alice held out her hand, shaking politely with Emmett.

"It's nice to meet you, Emmett," she said, "please excuse our lack of furniture; we just moved in." She gestured to the lack of even a folding chair in our apartment. Emmett returned the handshake, clearly attempting to not hurt Alice with his huge hands and her overall tiny-ness.

"It's nice to meet you too, Alice. Jasper hasn't stopped talking about you," he smiled broadly, flashing the irresistible dimples at her. Jasper had the grace to flush a little before making the universal "You're dead" hand sign at Emmett. I elbowed Emmett in the ribs as Rhett and Scarlett went back to staring at each other, although in a much more harmonious way than the real Rhett and Scarlett ever did.

"He's gonna kill you man. High five!" I reached up as high as I could to give Emmett a high five. I don't know why, but Emmett and I seemed to click. Maybe it was because we realized that since the others were glued to each other, we should stick together. He laughed and threw his arm around my shoulders, sighing dramatically.

"Well, Bella, why don't you give me the grand tour," he said, winking at me conspiratorially, "while these two christen the island there?" We walked away to the dumbstruck looks on the lovebird's faces, Emmett laughing heartily the whole way.

As I led him down the hall, I recognized why I felt so comfortable with Emmett. He felt like my pack of boys back home. He felt like a brother, someone who would watch out for me and someone to laugh with. He was like a bear when you first saw him, but I had a feeling Emmett would be more of a teddy bear to those he considered friends. I stopped and opened the bathroom door. "Alright, so this is the bathroom. It's pretty awesome."

He looked around, nodded and said, "I concur," as if that's just what you said about bathrooms. I walked to the closet next.

"This is the closet. You can throw shit in here if you want it out of the way." I opened the door and did the Vannah White presentation arms

He just nodded again and said, "Closet-good for holding shit," and before continuing down the hall.

My room was next. I opened the door, pointed at my poor, vacant book cases and said, "That's the only cool thing about this room so far since I have no furniture. Although they are empty, so I still don't have any books or music to share with you." And then he spoke an actual sentence.

"Dude, a friend of mine would love this room. He'd seriously go ape-shit for it." We walked out of the room, heading to Alice's room. I stopped before I opened the door and placed a hand on Emmett's arm to keep him from walking into me.

"Okay, now, this is Alice's room," I said, and he nodded in understanding. "We're gonna go in, but we're not touching anything. She will know. Don't ask me to explain, just accept that my fucking Spidey sense is going berserk and don't touch shit." I reached behind me and opened the door. We took two steps in and froze.

The first thing I noticed was the clothes. They were everywhere. They were hung on hangers anywhere they could and folded neatly all over the floor. Her shoes, and Jesus fuck there was an army of them, were all lined up on the far wall, next to the futon. Emmett let out a low whistle next to me.

"I'm so afraid to breathe right now, it's not even funny. I don't know why, I just understand that if I touch anything, my life will be forfeit. Can we leave now?" I glanced towards him only to see him looking at me, eyes wide with that primal instinct to get the fuck out of Dodge.

"Yes. Back out, slowly." We inched backwards at a snail's pace, finally reaching the door and shutting it behind us. For a second we both just stood there, staring at the door before we both exhaled loudly and straightened up from the crouch we didn't know we were in.

"Well, fuck me sideways and call me Lucy," Emmett said reverently. "Je-sus Christ." He glanced down at me and gestured back down the hall, indicating that we should beat feet and go back to the kitchen. We both seemed to settle down as we got father away from the room. I felt myself relaxing and hoping we weren't walking in on something.

"You know," Emmett said, breaking the silence. "I think the reason I was so fucking terrified was because I could just tell those clothes were worth more than my life. Those are clothes I don't buy on purpose, because I'm afraid of ruining them." He looked at me sheepishly, his dark curls falling forward onto his face and his dimples just peeking out. "Could we maybe not mention that?" he asked me. "I'm pretty sure I'd never live it down if Jazz heard I was afraid of clothes." I stopped, and held out my hand.

Emmett looked at me curiously but grasped my hand anyway. "I swear to never mention said incident because you have just given me a new idea for a nickname." He shook my hand and looked at me curiously.

"Do I want to know?" he said. I looked at him and smiled sweetly, beckoning for him to follow me. I walked into the kitchen to see Alice and Jasper doing what they do best – staring at each other.

I stopped short of the island they were leaning against and looked at Emmett quickly before saying, "So, DJ Jazzy Jeff, what's the plan?" A few things happened in quick succession: Jasper turned purple, whether from rage or restrained hilarity I wasn't sure; Alice sounded like she was summoning dolphins she was squeaking so badly, but I think it had something to do with the fact that she was laughing and couldn't take a breath; and I think Emmett exploded. He burst out laughing so loudly I thought my eardrums were going to explode. It seemed his volume was just naturally jacked up a bit.

I looked around, wondering why that was so funny. I meant it to be stupid funny, not hilariously witty. Emmett finally calmed down a bit and, seeing my look of confusion, started to explain.

"Alright girlie, I'm sure you're wondering why that caused our dashing southern gentleman to turn such a lovely shade of plum," at this he looked at Jasper and said, "Really, J, you look beautiful in that color. It makes your eyes pop," a devilish smile on his lips as Jasper flipped him the bird. He laughed at Jasper's ire and turned back to me.

"You see, the day Jasper and I first met I walked into my new dorm room to find this fool in there with his stereo already set up and blaring some old school rap. I realized that he didn't know I was there because he was singing "The Magnificent Jazzy Jeff" at the top of his lungs, dancing around like he thought he was the Fresh Prince." He smiled at his friend, waving coyly at him. "I called him Jazzy Jeff for months after that, so he's a little sensitive, aren't you Jazzy-wazzy?" Emmett said as he turned to Jasper, making faces at him and reaching to pinch his cheeks. Jasper took two huge leaps and jumped Emmett, grabbing him around the neck, holding him down and giving him noogies.

"How do you like them apples, huh?" Jasper inquired as he rubbed his knuckles all over Emmett's head.

"Seriously, dude? Noogies? Are you six?" Emmett complained as he tried to pry Jasper off of him. I just walked over next to Alice and settled in to watch the boys fight.

She crossed her arms over her chest and said, "Men."

It was decided that since we had no furniture we would go back to Jasper's.

"Plus, my sister is supposed to come over after work and I'd love it if y'all met her." I held in my giggles as Jasper said "y'all" but only just.

His apartment was smaller than ours, but only because it didn't have the third bedroom and the awesome showers. We settled down in the living room which also held a big-ass flat screen TV, an extensive movie and video game collection, and an ungodly amount of video game consoles and entertainment devices.

When we had all settled in we started to decide on dinner. Jasper said there was a Thai place down the road we could order in from and according to Emmett, there was a French bistro in Soho, close to Seven Dials that had "beignets to die for," which he defended mightily when we all stared at him in utter confusion.

"Hey, man, this shit is delicious. Maison Bertaux is the best patisserie in London, as far as I'm concerned. If we don't go tonight I'll take you tomorrow, I promise. Mmmmm, fuck now I want beignets. All powdery and delicious. Mmmmm…" Emmett trailed off, his eyes closed in foodgasm bliss.

A knock on the door made us all jump, and we laughed as Jasper got up and went to answer it.

"That should be my sister, hold on a second and she can help us decide." He ambled to the door, opening it to reveal the most beautiful woman I had ever seen. There was something nagging at me about this woman. She seemed familiar, but that was stupid. I just got here a few hours ago, how could have possibly met her already?

I heard a strangled intake of breath come from my left and looked at Emmett. His jaw hung open and his eyes were glazed over. A whimper escaped his lips before he managed to snap his mouth shut. The beauty had walked in, giving Jazzy Jeff a big hug before taking off her coat and hanging it up. Her hair was the same perfect blonde as her brother's, and she looked gorgeous, yet normal, in loose jeans and a grease-stained white t-shirt. She walked towards the living room, looking around at us, taking stock of the new faces. Her eyes stayed on Emmett a second longer than the rest of us and you could see curiosity dawn in her features. Luckily, Emmett had stopped drooling and looked partially intelligent again.

Jasper walked forward as we all stood up, waiting to greet the newcomer. "Everyone," he said, "I'd like you to meet my sister, Rosalie Hale."

Rosalie looked around and waved shyly. "Hey, y'all," she drawled sweetly. She sounded like the perfect Southern Belle, complimenting her brother's antebellum gentleman.

Emmett was the first to step forward, hand stuck in front of him. She grasped it and shook firmly. "Hi," he breathed, "I'm Emmett, Emmett McCarty." He kept shaking her hand, rather absentmindedly. This wasn't that surprising as he wasn't doing anything but staring at Rosalie.

"McCarty? The rugby player?" Rosalie asked, seeming genuinely interested and not even noticing that she and Emmett were still shaking hands.

"You know who I am?" Emmett said, glowing slightly because the pretty lady knew his name. She placed a hand on her heart, and laughed prettily.

"Sugar, of course I know who you are! Everyone in the country knows your name." She smiled and put her hand on his arm. Emmett looked as if he was about to burst. Jasper cleared his throat, glaring at his friend's shameless ogling of his sister.

"Rose, there are other people I'd like you to meet," he said, looking pointedly at Alice and I, although we had been quite enjoying Emmett's incoherent state.

"Lord love a duck! I'm sorry Jazz, I completely forgot myself." She turned to us as Jasper pointed her in my direction.

"Rosalie, this is my new friend Bella Swan. Lady Bella, this is my sister Rose." I put out my hand to shake, but Rosalie pulled me into a hug. I looked bewilderedly at Jasper over her shoulder, but he was no help, all he was doing was staring at Alice. Again. I tentatively put my arms around Rosalie, and she pulled back after a second.

"It is a pleasure to meet you, Bella. Jasper tells me you've just arrived from the States. We're gonna be great friends, I can feel it!" She squeezed my arm gently and I felt a grin break out across my face. How lucky was I, to have met so many great people in such a short amount of time? I turned to see Jasper place his hand on the small of Alice's back as her drew her forward.

"Rose," he said gently, "I'd like you to meet someone else. This is Alice Cullen." His remarks were addressed to Rosalie, but his eyes were for the woman at his side. Alice blushed slightly under Jasper's gaze, but she held her hand out to Rosalie; she got exactly the same reaction I did, which means a massive hug.

"Alice, I don't know hardly anything about you but, honey, if you're the reason my brother is smiling like he is right now then I would happily consider you a friend." She smiled, and received a squeal of approval in return.

We migrated back to the couches to figure out dinner, now that Rosalie was here. I gallantly moved to the chair Emmett had previously occupied so that he and Rose could have the love seat, while Jasper and Alice took the couch. It was finally decided that Thai sounded good to everyone, and we placed our order. And then the silence came.

This always happened, when a new group of people are forging relationships and connections. People still weren't sure which subjects were kosher to bring up, and that leads to complete and utter silence.

"Hey Rosalie?" I asked. "This is gonna sound weird, but you didn't happen to be on the cover of an auto magazine recently, did you?" It had been nagging at me since she walked in the door, the feeling that I had seen this woman already. I had let my brain work on it for a while and I had just remembered.

"What? A magazine?" Emmett looked curiously at Rose, and she stared right back. I liked her determination.

"Yes, a magazine. They wanted to do a feature on my work for Ferrari," she said, ignoring Emmett's spluttering. He was staring at her as if she was made of gold and he wanted to touch but was afraid to. She looked at him like if he touched, she would maim. I could see that Emmett's boyish charm had worn off on Rosalie, and now he was just a jock.

Alice piped up from beside Jasper. "Do you like your work?" she asked.

Rose answered immediately her whole face alight, "I love my work. I love being able to build things with my own two hands. I love the sense of accomplishment I get when I figure out a way to make the internal combustion engine better. I…just love it," she finished with a shrug that said "that's just how it is."

There was a knock on the door, signaling the arrival of our dinner. Jasper got up and paid the deliveryman, the smell of Pad Thai and spring rolls wafting over his shoulder. He grabbed some Cokes from the fridge as he walked back to the living room, setting everything down on the table. We gathered around, everyone eating everyone else's food, and I felt myself getting comfortable with these people.

Jasper was quiet, but I felt it was more from a desire to observe than a lack of something to say, and Alice was more than loquacious enough for the both of them. Emmett was like my boys back home, although he seemed slightly more intelligent than my pack. Rosalie was breathtakingly beautiful and more down-to-earth than anyone I'd ever met. Em clearly wanted in her pants and I could tell from the way her eyes lingered on him as he reached for the drunken noodles Rosalie was attracted to him as well, but she wasn't one to let a pretty face fool her. She was going to make him earn a date with her, I could feel it.

The rest of the evening passed comfortably, each of us testing the waters and discovering things about our new friends. Emmett, as it turned out, had a Masters in Mechanical Engineering as well as Bachelors in both Mathematics and Applied Physics. Jasper had graduated high school at 14 and had his doctorate in US History by 18. Rosalie had re-built her first engine at 10, taking apart the lawn mower. Jasper was her half-brother; her mother marrying Mr. Whitlock when Rose was 3 and Jasper was born a year later. Alice had gotten into fashion by making her own clothes, her mother teaching her when she was little. I was curled up in the chair, unbelievably comfortable while listening to the guys banter and thinking that today was a great first day.

I woke up in a pair of strong arms in the hallway leading up to my room. How did I get in the apartment? And who the fuck is carrying me? I shifted, looking up to see Emmett peeking back, a slight smile on his face.

"Hey stranger," he said quietly. "You and Alice passed out in the living room and we didn't have the heart to wake you, so we brought you up. Hope you don't mind." He opened the door with one hand and walked in, turning the sheets down before setting me down on the bed. I snuggled under the blanket and felt Emmett tuck it in around my shoulders. I heard him walk towards the door and pause as he opened it.

"Good night, Ealah. Sweet dreams." I heard the door click as he closed it. I closed my eyes, relaxing back into sleep. The last thing I remember is a flash of bronze hair, a laugh echoing through my head.

A/N: Ok, so I know you guys must be like "Holy Jesus, where is Edward?" and I can't tell you where he is but I can tell you the next chapter is called "Lightening Strikes," and yes, that's big motherfucking clue, people.

REC: This week its Mr. Horrible by Algonquinrt. One of my favorite Edward's ever. For serious. Her take on James is beyond fabulous, and the world she created is amazing.

As always, review! I love seeing the emails in my inbox. I turn like six shades of red and giggle. Its pretty amusing.

Looooove,

Me.