Disclaimer: I do not own any of the Twilight characters.

AN: All I have to say is, wow. I never thought I would get that great of a response from the first chapter of my story! Thank you to all of you who reviewed and added me to your Story Alerts and Favorite Story lists!!!!!!! This story has gotten more attention from the first chapters than the first chapters of any of my other stories! Thank you!! Since I had some extra time on my hands, I decided to write another chapter. I will hopefully have a chance to write another one before the weekend is over, but after that I don't know when I'll be able to update. Please review! Enjoy!

Chapter Two

When Alice had disentangled herself from my brother, she looked down at me, something she gets to do quite often despite the disparity of our heights due to my klutziness, and raised an giggled, "What are you doing on the floor, Bella? And why are you doing a backbend over your backpack?"

I pretended to contemplate for a minute before replying, "Hmm, I don't know, Alice…why would I be on the floor after my best friend flung the door open, knocking me to the ground and then jumping at my brother without greeting me first?"

She rolled her eyes at me but offered me a hand to help me up, just the same, "I did greet you. I asked you why you didn't open the front door for me like you said you would."

Alice pulled me up and the suitcase that had fallen on my foot clunked down on the tile floor. I blushed as Emmett began to laugh heartily. "Shut up," I muttered uselessly as he wrapped an arm around my shoulder.

"Come on, Bells, you have to admit that it was funny."

"Just like your face was funny five minutes ago?" Rosalie asked in my defense.

Emmett scowled slightly, "No, that wasn't funny."

"Well," I said defensively as I jerked myself out of his grip and went to stand by Rosalie, "I don't think my clumsy tendencies are funny either."

"What did I miss?" Alice asked excitedly, sitting in one of the chairs and leaning over the table, waiting to hear the latest gossip. Listening to the gossip and deciphering what was factual and what wasn't was Alice's way of staying on top of things. Her ability to discern truthful statements from out of control rumors was astounding, even to me after all these years. It was this ability that made her seem almost psychic when she predicted how people were going to act, based upon their previous track record.

Rosalie filled Alice in on the joke we had played with Emmett and soon her musical laughter filled the air while he retreated to a corner in a huff.

I chuckled as I walked across the kitchen and picked up the almost forgotten apple core. I threw it in the garbage and gave Emmett a somewhat sympathetic pat on the shoulder before grabbing one of Alice's extraordinarily heavy suitcases and moving it out of the doorway.

"Emmy-bear, I can't believe you thought Bella was serious! When has Bella ever been known to go off with a guy?"

I was glad my back was to the rest of them, but I still ducked my head to hide behind my hair, hoping to further conceal the look of hurt and disappointment on my face. Alice was right; I had never had a boyfriend before. Not a single one. Of course, when you lived in a town as small as Forks, Washington, the pickings were slim and most of the boys were stupid and immature anyway. Yet, I had always hoped that at least one boy would show interest in me, even if I didn't like him back. In all my years, I had never had a boy ask me out. Not even in elementary school when the boys would run around with rings from the quarter dispenser from one of the bigger grocery stores in Port Angeles. Alice had always been the one with numerous "suitors" out of the two of us, but she never wanted to date any of them, claiming that she would "know when the right person came into her life."

I admired Alice for her ability to be happy by herself and her obvious self-confidence. Who else who have the audacity to wear designer clothes everyday to a nothing school like Forks High accompanied by three inch spiked heels? Sure, Rosalie wore nice, expensive clothes, but her wardrobe was nothing compared to Alice's.

I tuned out Emmett's lame response as to why he believed me and closed the back door.

Alice was waving her hand at Emmett, brushing off his excuses, before saying with absolute certainty, "You should know Bella, Emmett. When she does find a boy, you'll know."

I silently scoffed at Alice's statement. She had said, "when" I find someone…and I wasn't so certain that I would. It was one of the reasons I turned to books so often, they were my solace, a place where I could find love since I obviously wasn't going to find it in real life. Therefore, I had determined that I was destined to be an old maid who would live alone and look after the countless children Rose and Emmett were bound to have someday. Instead of being the cat lady, I would be the book lady, who had a house laden with shelves in every room, filled with books.

In his very mature fashion, Emmett stuck his tongue out at Alice.

I tried to hide my obvious downturn in mood by joking, "See, Rosalie, what did I tell you? Petulant toddler."

Rosalie laughed and hopped down from the counter with a grace I envied. "Come on, Emmett. You said we were supposed to go out tonight but that you needed to stop at the ATM first. Why don't you go while I get ready with Alice and Bella?"

Emmett grinned, "I like you right now, you don't have to do anything special for tonight."

"Ewwww!" Alice and I said in unison, covering our ears and grinning at each other. It was our inside joke, a gesture we repeated every time Emmett said something that might be construed as a sexual innuendo.

He came over and lifted both of us off the ground, "That's not what I meant you little monkeys!"

"Put us down, Emmett!" I laughed.

"Emmett Joseph McCarty Swan! Put me down this instant!" Alice demanded, using his full name, including our mother's maiden name. When she used our full names, we knew we were in trouble.

Emmett quickly dropped us and Alice managed to remain gracefully on her feet while I stumbled and had to catch myself on a chair in order to remain upright. Of course, I ended up knocking the chair over in the process, which sent Emmett into a round of loud guffaws as he affectionately ruffled my hair, "That's my lil' sis."

I glowered at Emmett before picking up my backpack and stalking away, walking up the stairs and only managing to trip once at the top when I was out of view.

A few minutes later, Alice and Rosalie came into my room, toting Alice's three suitcases.

"I have to say, I didn't think you had it in you to pull that joke, Bella," Rosalie said as she walked over to the dresser in which I kept spare clothes for both Rosalie and Alice. We all had dresser drawers at each other's houses since we often had last minute sleepovers and would need something to wear and seeing as none of us are the same size…it just made sense.

"I didn't think I did either," I curled up in my dish chair, "but somehow he believed me."

"Well, we all know that we are the smarter sex," Rosalie winked at me in the mirror.

"We can talk about that later!" Alice said as she stood on my bed. "We have more important things to do right now, like getting Rosalie ready for her date with Emmett tonight! We have to plan hair makeup and outfit in less than an hour!"

I rolled my eyes, only Alice would think that planning someone's ensemble was important enough to take precedence over everything else. We therefore spent the next thirty-five minutes straightening Rosalie's hair and expertly applying makeup to match the dark wash jeans and red off-the-shoulder T she had decided to wear. Or, rather, Alice and Rosalie spent the next thirty-five minutes getting Rose ready while I awkwardly watched from the sidelines.