A/N: Uber long chapter ladies and gentlemen!

Quick before I forget- shout out to ILoveTwilight29 for being AWESOME. Like Seth-awesome. I love you! This is one of her reviews for this chapter:

" Alright, I know I already commented but when I was checking this morning, I saw that with my comment it was at 698 and now this is 699, so I just thought I'd might as well make it an even 700, I hope you like that"

How awesome is that? Very.

Shout out to Caleb too for reviewing twice!

Lol. 2lazee2loginsoHA!HA!HA! you have an awesome name! and lol that was hilarious. "up with the date" haha get it? *nudge nudge* up-date? Lol and someone get her a thesaurus. (even though repetitive people are awesome, example: stephenie meyer.)

Oh and you can thank EdwardsCandycane for the long chapter!

AMANDA! Where are you???

Thanks to my fabulous beta RUTryingToIrritateMeToDeath even though I always forget to send the chapters to her :) I always post them just as soon as I finish them.

No. It wasn't Edward. It wasn't my sweet loving Edward.

I was met with warm brown eyes with a hint of gold.

&&&&&&&&&&&&&

I stared at him unsure of what to do at first. We both stood awkwardly waiting for the other one to speak.

Seconds passed.

As I was about to say something, he opened his mouth when I did so I stopped, letting him go first. He paused, too.

I tried to smile at the discomfort. "You first" I said.

He chuckled. It was obvious he was as shy as me.

"Well…this has been sufficiently awkward…" he smiled true genuine smile. "I thought I'd introduce myself" he held out this hand, "My name's Alexander Morgan. Please call me Alex."

I shook his hand. "Bella."

"I believe you've met my mate – Liz."

I let out the breath I'd unconsciously been holding in. The corners of my lips turned upwards. She had a mate, I realized. Relief washed over me. "Yeah"

During our little conversation, I noticed that like his mate, he too had a slight accent. I couldn't quite put my finger on it – Italian?

As if on cue, Elizabeth Morgan walked gracefully out of the locker room toward us. I examined each of her movements carefully. She seemed…happier. More confident, if that was possible. I wonder if it was because I didn't have a ridiculous grudge against her anymore.

"Hi, Bells!" She could see the confusion in my eyes. The only people that ever called me Bells were Emmett, Alice and Charlie. "Oh" she gasped and then grimaced. "Is that okay? I didn't mean to – I heard Emmett called you that so I figured…" she trailed off.

It took me an extra second to answer. "No, that's fine. I don't mind."

"So I see you've met Alex." She grinned. She seemed to have recovered her cheerfulness. "We've been together for centuries." As she looked at him, her eyes grew unbearably soft and loving. He returned her gaze. The moment felt so private and intimate I had the need to look away.

Two strong arms wrapped around me. I sighed.

"Hey, Edward"

"Mmm" He buried his head in my hair. Just because I'm resisting the wine doesn't mean I can't appreciate the bouquet, he'd said once. "Hello, love."

"Who's that?" He looked over to Elizabeth and Alex.

"That's Alex." I smiled "He's her mate."

"Aah I see." He chuckled.

Coach Claire came in. "All right everyone. I know it's the first day of school blah blah blah. Pair up; we're playing badminton."

I groaned in unison with half the class.

"Relax" he whispered. "You'll be fine"

"How do you know?" I sighed exasperated.

"Trust me"
&&&

It turned out Edward was really good at badminton. I, on the other hand, had no clue what I was doing. I guess I didn't get all the fabulous perks of the vampire life; I kept my accident proneness and klutziness instead of getting to be as graceful as Alice.

Edward covered both his position and mine with no problem at all. After I accidently managed to hit him on the head with the ball – or whatever it's called, and whack myself with the racket-thing, he chivalrously offered to take care of my side of the court, too.

It was all fine until Coach Claire noticed I wasn't playing. She walked over to our court, her mouth set into a frown.

"Hale! Unless you're planning on failing gym, I suggest you participate!" She turned to look at Edward. Or rather ogle. A small growl started to form in my chest. "Edward," her voice a thousand times softer, "I trust your intentions are good, but covering for Bella isn't helping anyone."

He nodded; a beautiful smile appeared on his angel face as we both heard her heart ridiculously skip a beat and her breathing speed up. She looked at him – mesmerized. Poor woman couldn't help herself, I cleared my throat.

"Uh, right. Hale, you're up to serve" she was still in a daze.

I shot her a panicked look. I had hit Edward and myself already – that was no problem considering we were nearly indestructible. A human? Not so much.

"I-" an excuse already forming in my head.

"Get!" She motioned with her racket.

I internally groaned, praying I wouldn't hurt anyone.

I threw the ball up in the air and hit it with a miniscule amount of force. I closed my eyes, waiting for the "Ow", "Hey!" or "Watch it!" All I heard was the ball hitting the floor and a frustrated sigh.

I opened my eyes and saw the ball a few feet away – out of the court, I might add. It didn't even reach the net. How pathetic.

The coach took a deep breath. "Bella, I want you to hit it as hard as you can." She spoke slowly, as if talking to a mentally incompetent person. I sighed. I highly doubted she meant that. I tried again, this time putting a little more force into it.

Again, I closed my eyes – an involuntary reaction.

Thud.

All the chatter around us stopped.

I hesitated. I wasn't sure I wanted to open my eyes. There was no "Ow" but I was ninety-nine-point-nine percent sure I'd hit someone. Slowly, I peeked through my eyelashes.

In my peripheral vision, Coach Claire stood as still as a statue – wait, as still as a vampire. Her right hand was on the side of her head, her mouth open and her blood was flowing faster.

Crap. At least she wasn't actually bleeding.

"I'm so sorry!" she held up her hand.

I swallowed compulsively. This couldn't be good.

"Maybe," I started.

"Ah" She interrupted.

"you should get some…"

"Ah" she stated to walk away.

"…ice" I finished.

The whole gymnasium was filled with laughter as soon as she was out. "Can't say she wasn't warned" Alex said from across the gym.

"Switch!" a substitute teacher yelled as he walked in.

Everyone switched courts.

Elizabeth and Alex, who were obviously partners, now stood on the opposite side of the court.

"Play nice, Bella!" Alex laughed. I glared at him. "Kidding! Don't worry, Bells, I can't play either. No hand-eye coordination whatsoever." He moved to stand in a back corner, playing with the ball. He tossed it to Elizabeth.

"Guess it's just you and me" Elizabeth whispered. "Don't worry; I'll go easy on you."

Edward being the gentleman that he is didn't retort. He just smiled crookedly.

Minutes passed. The hands on the clock moved uncaringly. No one scored. Thirty minutes went by as I watched the ball go back and forth; neither of them missing a hit.

Two fingertips tapped my shoulder.

I didn't turn around, though.

"Hey, Alex!" I could sense his confusion.

"How'd you know it was me?"

"I smelled you" I answered simply.

"You know, if it weren't for the fact that we're vampires, I'd be really freaked out. He joked. It took me by surprise the way he casually said vampire.

I didn't know how to respond so I kept my mouth shut.

"So tell me about yourself" he broke the silence.

"What do you want to know?" I asked, suddenly wary. I couldn't just tell the story of my life to someone I barely knew.

"How about a good old game of 20 questions?"

"Hmm, tempting. How about five?"

"All right. I'll take what I can get. How old are you?" he asked.

"Wow. Pretty straight forward." I chuckled. "Seventeen."

"How long have you been seventeen?"

"A while." He raised an eyebrow. "Fine. A little over a year. Hey, you went twice!"

He laughed.

"How old are you?" I asked.

"Copycat" he stuck out his tongue like a five-year-old. "eighteen"

"How long have you been eighteen?"

He seemed to hesitate. "Uh... 321 years"

That was…shocking. There was an awkward pause. "Funny; you don't look a day over 300" He cracked a smile.

"Um," he seemed to be looking for a question. "What's your power?"

Should I tell him? Is it too much information? "I can sort of share other vampire's power. I can't explain it right, I could show you though- depends on what your power is. What's your power?"

"I don't have one" he frowned.

"Oh"

"Who created you?" He turned the attention back on me.

"Edward"

"And Edward is your…?"

"Soul mate" mate sounded a little too animalistic.

"What's his power?" he was suddenly curious.

"Uh-uh. I believe your five questions are up and I still have two left." I smiled, hoping he would push it further.

"Go ahead."

I couldn't think of anything brilliant to say so I blurted out the first thing that came to mind.

"What's your favorite color?"

"Really? I'm hurt. I must not be interesting at all if that's the best you could come up with." He joked. "red"

"Interesting." It seemed to fit; a vampire's favorite color's red. Blood-red maybe?
"Is that really the best you can do?"

"No. Where have you lived before?"

"Europe"

"Where in Europe?"
"I believe your five questions are up" he repeated my previous words to me.

The bell rang before I could ask him again – curiosity getting the better of me.

It was a tie. After forty minutes of badminton, neither of them had scored. The ball hadn't touched the floor once. Alex and I stared dumbfounded like everyone else.

"Well, I'm never watching a boring major league badminton game." I said – taking Edward's hand as soon as he was close enough.

"Yeah – do they even have major league badminton?" Alex snorted.

"Yeah…duh…um everyone knows that" My voice becoming a pitch higher as I attempted to lie.

Alex burst out laughing. "Nice" he said.

I stuck out my tongue. If he could act like a five-year-old then so could I.

"Ha ha ha" Elizabeth 'laughed'. Her laugh sounded just like that, though. Fake. I couldn't quite blame her though. She had no idea what we were talking about and it wasn't actually funny funny. It was a we're-bored-funny.

"I guess we should go get the rest of our family, Alex." She said. Alex stood and kissed her.

"Whatever you want" he whispered. "We'll see you later?"

"Later?" My eyebrows furrowed.

"Yeah, remember? You're meeting the rest of the family" Elizabeth said warmly.

"Oh. Right. See you later then" I waved goodbye and leaned my head on Edward's perfect chest.

I watched them walkway – not really watching them, just looking. But then suddenly, Elizabeth turned her head to look at Alex, giving her this full-of-meaning-look. I wondered what that was about.

I knew in the back of my head – the very back- I knew that I wasn't supposed to use my power so much. For whatever reason. But, uncaringly, I decided to use it. I was already leaning against Edward so all I had to do was concentrate. I looked at Elizabeth – putting every ounce of focus into it.

Blank.

Was I doing this right?

I tried again…and failed.

Taking a deep breath, grabbing on to Edward a little harder and narrowing my eyes didn't help either.

All I got was silence.

Well I knew she wasn't brain-dead. Something must be wrong with me.

"Hey, Edward?" I looked at him – his eyes smoldering. "I think something's wrong with me"

He raised his eyebrows. "What do you mean, love? Are you okay?"

"No, I mean yeah. I just – I don't think my power's working right."

I decided to try again, with a different person. The only one left in the gym was Jessica, a small girl who talked endlessly.

What is she staring at? She's weird. I don't even know what he sees in her…

I heard her all right.

"Okay, so if my power does work…then something's wrong with Elizabeth." I thought out loud. "I can't hear her."

He nodded.

"You knew?" I asked in disbelief.

He grimaced. "Yes. I've been trying to read her mind for hours. All I get is silence. It's like trying to read your mind."

"Di d you ask her about it?"

He shook his head. "I figured there was just something wrong with me."

I looked around for Elizabeth. They were gone.

I took Edward's hand and started running out the other door – looking for Alice, Jasper, Emmett and Rosalie.

After a minute I gave up. "Where are they?"

Edward was quiet for a second. "They're outside by the car – Elizabeth's already there, too"

My eyes widened. "Let's go!" I broke out in a run. How badly I wanted to run at vampire speed.

"Why are you in such a hurry?" I heard his velvet voice ask.

"What? Oh. I just have a question for Elizabeth."

We reached the parking lot. Sure enough, the rest of the Cullens and the Morgans were there.

I slowed down and finally reached them.

"Hey,"

"Bells, you should know better than to run at school – you know how easily you trip!" Emmett said grinning.

I rolled my eyes.

"Um, Elizabeth?"

"Yes, Bella?" She smiled sweetly. Maybe she wasn't so bad after all.

"Is there a reason why Edward can't read your mind?" I blurted out.

Alex chuckled. "She's pretty straight forward like that. Way to be blunt, Bells."

We all laughed, including Elizabeth and the two other vampires there. I guessed they were her family.

"It's my power" she said in a isn't it obvious tone.

"What?" I asked stupidly.

Not a real cliffie if you ask me – the next two or three chapters are mostly info with small cliffies but ITS UBER LONG! So review :) anywaays thanks sooo much for reading :)

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Question:

Do you think Elizabeth is good or bad? What about Alex?