Days passed after that. Eventually, the days turned into weeks, and the weeks turned into months until summer had passed in a whirlwind of scorching heat to any human, and staying inside as the sun shone all throughout the town. It was August now, and Alice and Jasper were currently watching Marilyn and Tommy.

"So why did we do this again, Alice?" Jasper asked again as he watched Tommy and Marilyn running in circles around him, extremely hyper. He had already attempted to calm them down, and, in short, it hadn't worked.

Alice laughed quietly as she watched the children, too. "Clara and John went out to lunch and we offered to watch them," she explained, smiling happily. "Mary, Tommy, would you guys like something to eat?"

"Yeah!"

"Yep!"

Alice led them into the small kitchen, and Jasper followed after the three of them. "No," he corrected her. "You offered to watch them, after you set them up on a date."

"It's not a date. I told you, I saw them in a vision. They're going to be really good friends. Did you know that in all the time that they've both lived here, they've hardly spoken two words to each other?" she turned back to the kids. "What do you guys want?"

"Macaroni and Cheese!" Marilyn piped up in excitement, happy to be able to choose.

"PB and J," Tommy disagreed.

Alice bit her lip to keep from laughing at the serious expression on Tommy's face. Obviously this peanut butter and jelly sandwich was important to him. "Alright. How about this, I'll make you Mac and cheese, Mary, and I'll make you a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. If we have any..." she added the last part under her breath, not sure what human food they would have.

Jasper laughed at her worried comment as Alice searched through all of the cabinets to find something for the kids to eat. Alice turned around once to stick her tongue out at him before turning back to her current hunt, though it was a little different than normal.

"Oh," she breathed quietly when she was done searching. "Um, Tommy, sweetie, we don't have any peanut butter. Or jelly."

"I want PB and J," Tommy insisted stubbornly.

"I know honey, but we don't have any," Alice repeated.

"PB and J!" his face screwed up like he was about to cry, and in two quick steps, Jasper picked Tommy up and held him in his arms to comfort him before the little boy burst into tears.

Alice watched in amazement as Jasper held the child in his arms easily. He was doing phenomenal with both the children, both in his bloodlust, and in how smoothly he could take care of them. He had been worried at first, but obviously he was doing quite well with them.

The two of them had been bickering about it earlier when he had been worrying about what might happen.

"Alice, what if I can't do it?" he had asked her in a panic.

"Jasper, you have been doing so well lately, and these are children that you've come to care about. You won't do anything, I'm sure of it. I don't need visions to tell me that," Alice had told him confidently.

In the end, Jasper had just sighed and grudgingly agreed to help, because really, there was no where else to go. The sun was out still, and they were both stuck inside for the day.

"Alice?" Marilyn tugged on her skirt, and Alice glanced down at the little girl.

"Yes sweetie?"

"We can go to the store to get Tommy food," she explained to Alice as if the thought hadn't crossed her mind.

"Well, actually, we can't, I'm afraid. I'm sorry."

"Why?"

"Well..." Thinking on her feet, Alice leaned down and placed her mouth to Marilyn's ear as if she were going to tell her a secret, and then said loud enough for Tommy to hear, but still quietly. "I don't like the sun."

"What?" Marilyn cried in shock. She looked at Alice in surprise, appalled.

Alice nodded her head dramatically. "Yep. I'm scared of it."

"No! Really?"

Alice nodded again, and Marilyn started giggling. "But don't tell anyone," she warned the two of them, "It's really embarrassing."

"Don't worry Alice, I'll keep your secret safe. Tommy will too, won't you, Tommy?"

"Do I get Mac and Cheese?"

"Oh alright," Marilyn pretended to sigh in exasperation, but she turned to wink at Alice.

"Great!" Alice declared, clapping her hands. "I'll start making it now, is that alright?"

The two children nodded, so Alice turned to look questioningly at Jasper, her unspoken question hanging in the air.

Jasper chuckled and set Tommy down. "I'll get it for you, don't worry. I know you'd have to get a stool for it," he teased lightly.

Alice rolled her eyes but didn't say anything in response as he pulled a box of Macaroni and Cheese off the top shelf of their unused cabinets.

****

It took many tries (for which Alice was thankful they had bought so many boxes of Macaroni and Cheese), but finally, two completely burn-free bowls of Macaroni and Cheese sat in front of the two kids.

"When's my mommy coming back?" Marilyn asked between bites, looking at Alice and Jasper expectantly.

"I don't know," Alice answered honestly, watching the girl eat her food. "How do you like it? Does it taste good?" she pressed.

Tommy grinned at Alice. "It tastes yummy!" he declared happily, and Alice smiled.

"Here that, Jazz? We can make Macaroni and Cheese!"

"Great," Jasper joked, "Now we just need to find a way to use that."

"Now you guys can eat it all the time!" Marilyn told them, and Jasper wrinkled his nose in disgust when she turned back to her food a moment later.

Alice laughed quietly while the two kids just continued eating their food, oblivious to Alice and Jasper's reaction to the proposal.

"Your parents are going to be here in ten minutes," she told them casually, having just had a vision. But they didn't need to know that part.

"Yay!" Tommy cried.

"Aw...Alice, we never got to play dress-up."

Alice laughed again. "Don't worry Mary, we'll play next time, okay? I promise."

Marilyn nodded, appeased, and went back to her food. By the time they had finished and started cleaning the dishes (Alice had made it a game for them), ten minutes was up, and everybody looked up at the knock on the door before the kids went back to washing off their plates and drying them.

"Come on in!" Alice called to John and Clara, who came into the kitchen a few seconds later.

"Who are you and what have you done to my kid?" Clara asked in amusement, to which Marilyn spun around. "Mommy!" She ran to wrap her arms around her mother while Tommy continued washing the last dish in the sink.

"Haha! I won!" Tommy cried, looking triumphant.

Alice smiled and gave Jasper a look. "Good job, Tommy! Give him his prize," she whispered the last part to Jasper, who shook his head in amusement.

Still, Jasper pulled his wallet out and held out 25 cents to Tommy, who grinned and snatched it out of Jasper's hand. "Thank you," he said in a rush.

John smiled and took Tommy's free hand before looking back at Alice and Jasper. "How much do I owe you?" he asked them.

"Oh, it was nothing, don't worry about it, either of you."

"Are you sure, I can—"

"Don't worry about it," Alice reassured.

John shrugged and slipped his wallet back in his pocket.

"I wanna win," Marilyn sniffled quietly, and Jasper crouched down in front of her, pulling a quarter out of his pocket and 'sneakily' giving it to her before standing up and winking at her, bringing a finger to his lips to mime for her to not tell anyone, though it had happened in plain sight.

Marilyn smiled vibrantly, and wrapped her arms around Jasper's legs in a hug.

"Thank you, Jasper," she exclaimed.

Jasper smiled softly. "You're welcome, Marilyn."

With that, Clara and John left with their respective children, and Alice turned to look at the mess that was their kitchen. She wrinkled her nose in disgust and shook her head. "The cheese smells disgusting," she told Jasper, and he nodded in agreement.

"Most definitely."

"I guess we should get this cleaned up, and then we've got the rest of the day. We should probably hunt tonight, but obviously we can't go out right now." Alice glanced at the window where a curtain was covering it, stopping any sunlight that might have been able to seep in and stopping her from looking out effectively.

Jasper wrinkled his nose at having to have to clean up the rest of the human food, but he obediently started to clean up the kitchen with Alice, doing it at vampire speed to get everything done as soon as possible.

"Oh!" Alice gasped quietly as she wiped off the counter a little later.

"What?" Jasper asked her curiously.

"I was just thinking...hm. Jasper, where's the camera we bought a couple months ago?"

"Um, I think it's in the bedroom, in your closet behind all the clothes," Jasper told her. "Why?"

"Oh, no reason. I'll just...be right back."

When Alice came back thirty seconds later, she was clutching the camera in her hands, holding it up. "Smile," she told Jasper.

Jasper looked up at her. "What?"

Snap.

Alice smiled and then turned to walk out of the kitchen silently. "Wait, where are you going?" Jasper called after her, before he sighed and followed behind her to see her now taking pictures at every which angle of the living room. "Um, Alice, what are you doing?"

"Well," she started to explain, "When we leave, I want to make sure we have pictures of this place. Our first real home. We could leave tomorrow, or in two months, or in two years! I want to remember Elkins." Never mind the fact that she had a perfect photographic memory.

"Let me take your picture then, come here," he came up right behind her and grabbed the camera out of her hands, holding it above his head when she tried to reach for it in protest. "Come on, just one picture."

Alice sighed but went to stand where he was pointing for her to stand. "Is here good?"

"Perfect." He snapped the picture and then lowered the camera from his face, smiling at Alice. Jasper moved over to her then and wrapped his arms around her, pulling her close to him before holding the camera up to take a picture of the both of them. With the picture taken, the camera was set on the couch distractedly.

Alice smiled shyly and kissed Jasper's cheek as he watched her with adoration. Carefully, he tucked a strand of hair behind her ear as it fell in front of her face before he grabbed her hand and kissed it.

"Do you think we would be able to hunt, now?" Jasper asked after a little longer of peaceful silence.

"Mm," she moaned against his chest, glancing up at him finally. "I guess so," she relented. "Would you like to go now?"

Jasper chuckled as he rested his chin on the top of her head. "No. We can stay here for a little bit longer."

"I still haven't seen the Cullens again," Alice confessed to Jasper quietly.

Jasper groaned at the ruined moment but pulled away from Alice to look at her. "Don't worry, Ali, I'm sure they're fine."

"But why are there holes in my vision? It's so frustrating!"

"Don't worry, darling, we'll figure out why this is happening soon."

"But..." she trailed off, and her lower lip trembled. "but what if this means my vision is leaving me?"

"Have you been able to see anything else?" Jasper asked, looking her in the eye.

"Yes, everything except the Cullens."

"Well then, I'm sure you're not losing it. I'm positive."

Alice sighed but nodded finally and pulled away from Jasper to glance out the window. "It's dark now," she told him quietly.

"Would you like to hunt with me?"

Alice nodded.

"Alright. You can go get changed, and then we can leave. I know how you'd hate to get that dress dirty."

Alice smiled at him. "Thank you Jasper. I'll be just a minute."

It was only after ten minutes that Alice was finally ready to leave. Jasper hadn't been hunting in a little less than a week, and his throat was already starting to burn. Alice wasn't feeling as bad but it was getting uncomfortable.

They stayed nearby though, and Alice sped through the forest silently, Jasper ahead of her quite a bit, stalking quickly after a bear for his newest meal.In the end, she settled for only going after a herd of deer that had been passing through, despite the fact that herbivores never tasted that good.

She finished as quick as possible and went back around to the little clearing they had found a long time ago to wait for him.

As she waited for him thought, Alice's mind wandered. She was thankful that Jasper didn't feel the need to toy with the animals before he killed them like she had seen Emmett would often do with the grizzlies he hunted. Alice laughed quietly to herself when she remembered the various visions she had had of Emmett hunting, but her giggling stopped the moment that Jasper stepped into the little clearing. She frowned when he walked back into her view, fidgeting with his shirt slightly as if that would hide what had happened to it. His shirt that had been ripped to shreds.

She scowled at him, and Jasper rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly. "The bear got in a really good scratch," he tried to defend himself, but Alice just shook her head silently in exasperation. Chuckling quietly, Alice, more amused than annoyed really, started to walk back home with Jasper silently.

"You know, that was one of your only good shirts," Alice said conversationally as they strolled through the forest, almost home, "Are you sure you didn't do that on purpose?"

She smirked, and Jasper laughed at her remark before wrapping his arm around her, and smiling as if he didn't have a care in the world. And right at that moment, he didn't.

****

Special thanks to those of you who reviewed, you guys are all amazingly awesome, seriously! I love you all!

So a way quicker update, huh? Has anybody caught on to why Alice can't see the Cullens? Only one person has noticed (or at least mentioned) it, and I thought I made it pretty obvious, but maybe you were just focused on other things. So this chapter kind of wrote itself out for me, but I'm kind of stuck on the next one.

Has anybody been doing those Twilight Riddles? I started the other day, and I'm stuck on 72. I thought I had the answer, but it's wrong, and the clues aren't helping.

Disclaimer: From now on, I will have one posted on my profile, and the first chapter. But for this chapter, I don't own Twilight.