So sorry for such a long delay… I have been having too much on my plate with my other story, homework, chores, and a balanced social life.
so I am terribly sorry it took me so long to get this up!
I hope you enjoy it!

Chapter 4

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That I love you
I have loved you all along
And I miss you
Been far away for far too long
I keep dreaming you'll be with me
and you'll never go
Stop breathing if
I don't see you anymore
Far Away – Nickelback

POV Bella

I heard the soft crunch of the gravel driveway and a car door. I smiled to myself, my day was about to get significantly better. Charlie had gone fishing with Billy and Harry and left me with the lunch dishes and laundry. Of course it didn't really bother me, it was just an inconvenience. Three quick knocks on the door set my heart fluttering like mad. I smiled knowing he could probably hear it. I ran down the stairs, taking them two at a time. I nearly fell on my face a couple of times in my haste. I reached the front door and wrenched it open. My breath fell short when my eyes met his. "Hey." My mouth finished the climactic scene lamely.

"Hello." Edward nodded and smiled, "Are the stairs okay? I didn't think they would be able to survive that stampede…" he trailed off, eyeing me with a mocking smile. He grabbed my hands gently and pulled me into his chest, "Are we going to go, or are you going to make me sit through your cleaning crisis?" He had obviously heard Charlie's guilty biddings before he left.

My face betrayed my thoughts, as it usually did.

"You're worried about… Laurel?" He guessed.

I nodded.

He smiled. "Trust me; other than being kind of annoying, she's the coolest vampire I've met in decades!"

"Annoying?" I was slightly shocked; annoying. Not ferocious, or angry, or mean. But annoying?

"She likes to sing…" he chuckled, "She's not bad at it either. It's just that she likes to sing the most random songs. Then they get stuck in my head, and she finds it undoubtedly the funniest thing when, an hour later, she can still hear it circulating through my mind." He laughed bitterly, "I still have bits of "Girls Not Grey" by AFI stuck…"

I couldn't help but smile; I hadn't ever really listened to AFI, but I knew their lyrics were quite catchy.

He smiled my favorite crooked smile, happy that I was finally at ease, somewhat at least, with the idea of a new vampire in the family.

"Alice is happy. She thinks Laurel has the potential to be her new shopping buddy." He grinned, "Laurel has yet to decide."

"What do you mean?"

"Well, Laurel is a traveler, she has no need for designer tags and expensive clothing. Don't get me wrong, She's loaded! But she doesn't see how that should be worked into her wardrobe."

I smiled again; now I was starting to see a vampire I could get along with!

"We should go."

"Yes, we wouldn't want to keep the house full of raging vampires waiting!" He chided

I blushed, still not used to how casually they used the term 'Vampire'. He took my hand and walked me to the passenger side of his shiny silver Volvo. He opened the door and bowed me into it, "My Lady."

"Why thank you, My Good Sir!" I tried my hardest to sound cordial.

He flashed me that crooked smile, and flew to the drivers side.

All too soon we were pulling into his oversized garage; right between Emmett's Jeep and Carlisle's Mercedes.

"Laurel has been waiting for you. Very patiently, she would like me to add!"

"Why would she be waiting for me?"

He only smiles and traced one cool finger over my cheek, "You'll see; she has taken quite an interest in your... Abilities. But she would like me to add that it's not like a stalkerish obsession; she's just curious." He rolled his eyes.

All this mind-to-mind channel communication was confusing, and it was already starting to get irritating.

He smiled at me, "It's all right, if it wasn't, do you think I would have brought you here to see her?"

His smiled faltered when he saw my face, "You do don't you? You think I would bring you here if there was danger?" His forehead creased.

"No! It's not that!" I rushed to keep him from hating me too much. "I mean, if she wasn't hiding something then why would she have blocked her thoughts from you last night?"

"Honestly? She was worried that I would ruin her story if I knew it before everyone else! She's been Seventeen for the past 350 years, cut her some slack!" He chuckled, "Now if that's all that's bothering you, can we go in now, please?"

"Why are you so eager?"

"Well, me and Emmett have a bet on a game, and I'm kind of missing it right now..." If he was capable of it, I'm sure he would have been blushing right then.

Edwards head suddenly snapped up, and he sighed, "Alice."

Before I could ask, he swept me out of my seat and up the back lawn. We were in the house a few moments later. Laurel was leaning nonchalantly against the end pillar of the stairs; her face was passive. As if she didn't notice Alice's ranting and pacing, or didn't care.

"No. No, NO!" Alice paced in front of Laurel, her fingers pressed to her temples. "I give you free reign over my entire closet, and you pick the ugliest shirt I own. If that's even possible!"

Laurel's face puckered, "This is my shirt, actually."

Her brown tank top was anything but ugly when it was wrapped around the torso of someone so beautiful. With the color of her eyes, the shirt gave her a very earthy quality. It looked nice.

Jasper took a few steps out of the kitchen, and looked at the situation from a distance. He looked a bit edgy. Then he walked over to Alice's pacing back and put his arms around her waist and resting his chin on her shoulder; stopping her pacing.

"All is well my Love. You will have the rest of eternity to retrain her fashion sence. Lets just let Laurel be Laurel for now."

"Thank you for being so considerate, Jazz." She said in a peaceful singsong voice. "But I would appreciate it if you gave me my anger and frustration back now."

"You know I would never willingly put you into an enviorment like that." He replied in a loving tone.

"Oh, I know! That's why I was hoping you would do it unwillingly!" She said back, still peaceful.

"Oh, Come on Alice!" Laurel's eyes shifted to my inky haired best friend. "You're the fortune teller; I'm sure you can see that I'll give into your currently fruitless attempts, sometime." She grinned, then sniffed at the air. "Emmett!" She wailed; her voice still as clear and beautiful as bells.

"What?!" He thundered from the kitchen, which I now realized was full of smoke.

"You're burning it!" She ran into the kitchen.

"Listen, it's been 67 years since the last time I had to cook anything, give me a break!"

"68, and you're the one who wanted to do it in the first place, remember?"

Apparently this was the reason Jasper was in the rarely used room. The site was amazing; I couldn't help but laugh. The smoke was thin and whispy, and smelled like ground beef. Rosalie was sitting on the counter next to the stove. Emmett stood in front of the stove, a spatula in his right hand, the handle of a frying pan in his left. Perched quite precariously on the top of his head was a Chef's hat. Poofy and white, the red sharpied words on the front read "Chef Emmett" then something in French that I couldn't read. Laurel walked up behind him and bumped him out of the way. He allowed this, and after handing her the spatula, stood in front of Rose; kissing her tenderly.

"You're lucky; I can still save the poor thing!" She nudged him playfully.

My mouth fell open when it finally sunk in that they were making hamburgers. But why? "But I thought --" I started.

Laurel cut me off, "They don't, but don't you remember our conversation last night?" She looked at my confused expression with searching eyes.

I stared at her for a moment, wondering how she knew what I was going to ask, before I asked it. She smiled at me again. She turned around to turn off the stove and put two massive cheeseburgers on ready buns on two plates. When she turned around and handed me one of the plates. I had to blink several times before I remembered that they all moved so much faster than my mind could always allow. I followed her to the table, where we sat and ate.

"I can't." She answered another of my unasked questions. "You're face gives everything away!" She laughed a little. "I'm a bit different than your average vampire, if you would remember our talk last night. I need human food to sustain. But I don't need to eat nearly as much or often as I need to feed. My thirst will weaken me after a week or so, but I can go months without food. It's just easier to eat a bit every other day or so. So if I need to be away from society for a bit, I won't have to worry about lugging food with me, or anything!"

Edward sighed and I looked at him questioningly.

"When you are done eating, come up to my room. I need to help you study for that Trig test tomorrow!" his face was scrunched up; apparently the food was almost making him sick. I laughed at the absurd thought. He looked at me with a glint of confusion in his eye.

"Oh... alright!" I said, trying to cover up my mindless laughter.

"Oh! Laurel, are you coming with us tomorrow?" Alice asked, skipping into the room and sitting at the table with us.

My eyes flashed up in an instant. I didn't want anyone to leave. Without me, that is.

"Where?" I asked, trying not to sound too interested.

"School, Silly!" She turned back to Laurel, "So...?"

"Would I even be able to get in and registered by tomorrow?" She looked at Alice for a moment and nodded. "If He can do it, then I will go."

Alice grinned from ear to ear, and pulled her cell phone from her pocket. It was to her ear before I could even realize she had dialed a number.

"Hello, Carlisle?" She was still smiling. "Yes, do you think you would be able to get her in by tomorrow?" She nodded. "Thank you!" She closed the phone and beamed up at us. "He said he could do it! He said it might take him a bit of time, but he's sure that there wont be a problem!"

"Good!" Laurel was beaming too. I decided to smile with them; I didn't want to feel left out.

"We should go pick out your outfit for tomorrow!" Alice chided as soon as it was quiet.

"Why don't you help Bella find a great outfit? I'm pretty sure I can find my way around my dufflebag!" Laurel still had a smile while she watched Alice's dissappear.

"Fine. Come on Bella! We're going to find you the greatest outfit for tomorrow!" Alice grabbed my arm and, no less than forcefully, pulled me from my seat.

"I'll take care of your dishes, Bella, Dear!" Laurel called, as me and Alice were almost all the way up the stairs.

"I have the greatest idea of what you should try on first! It will look Amazing!"

"Uhh, thanks Alice... I mean, thats really nice of you." I stuttered.

Edward opened his bedroom door as Alice dragged me into her massive bathroom.

"Alice!" He called.

"What?" Was her simple reply.

"Bella needs to study for that test. You can play dress up when we're done!" He told her, sounding annoyed.

"Why arn't I ever allowed to have fun?! You guys always take my fun away!" She pounded her heel clad feet on the tile floor. "Fine Bella. Go. Get good grades, I mean, your appearence obviously mean nothing to you!"

I felt the red seep into my cheeks. "Err... thanks Alice. Love you too!" And I walked out of the bathroom and down the hall to Edwards open door. I walked in and plopped onto his black leather couch. "Am I really that ugly?"

"What are you talking about? Your beautiful!" Edward said, sitting next to me. "Alice just never really gets that chance to dress people up... I think Jasper stopped allowing it after she tried to straighten his hair... He likes his waves." He laughed and kissed my forehead, "Don't let Alice get to you! She's just sour because she doesn't remember her human life."

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Sorry again for the late update!
I hope you all can forgive me? :D
This chapter is a bit longer than the others... probably because of all the dialouge...
Im going to try and get chapter five up soon. My internet is down and it might be a few days before we get it back up... so bear with me, please?
R&R pleaseee?