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Hey Alice!

I'm using the new school computers to email you! I miss you, where did you move to? I thought you were going to stay in the area for some time.

How is Mr. Carlisle? And your mom? I don't have a lot to tell you, this is just a quick note to let you know my school email address, everyone in the school has one! Isn't it great? We can stay over any time we want to and use them, as long as there is a teacher around. Mrs. Vaughn has shown me how to start everything, we have just finished my science…oh! Your dad left his book behind. If you send me your new address I can post you it next month.

Miss you,

Bella

Alice looked out of the apartment window, she could easily see the back of Bella's house from where she was sat, though a human would need binoculars to see that far clearly. The Cullens had had to stay inside almost all day for a full 9 days. Emmett was already driving her crazy. There was no help for it though.

They had already had to intervene again in the child's life. After that particularly horrifying vision the week before Jasper had arranged with Jenks in Washington to bring in some 'associates' that would do as they were told, no questions asked, for as long as they were needed. Luckily Jenks was so afraid of Jasper, and transmitted that fear to the others, that the Cullen's didn't need to worry about the 'help' being unreliable. The money the Cullen's were paying them was enough that a couple of them could probably even retire at the end of their 'protection detail'.

One of them had risked, if not his life, his health already. Following instructions second by second he had walked almost directly in front of a car and caused it to swerve and hit a wall. No one was seriously hurt. Their man had a huge bruise on his leg and the driver had been wearing a seat belt.

The reason for it was that Bella had decided to take a slightly different route home and Alice had seen that ifthere had been no intervention then Bella would have been crippled (probably for life) less than 200 yards down the road, when the driver leant over to change the music tape and hit her as she made her way home from school.

The girl was SERIOUSLY accident prone! In fact accident prone probably wasn't a severe enough description!

Dear Bella,

Alice tapped her nails on the table in frustration, gouging small half moon craters into the surface without thinking.

She had never interacted with a child as young as Bella, and with no recollection of her human years she couldn't even remember when SHE was that age and what girls usually thought about. Of course she doubted that she was like Bella as a child. Bella was too self-contained, Alice was very extroverted and it was unlikely that she had been much different as a human.

She thought of all the things she had heard the girls talking about at the school. Alice knew that even though it wasn't high school some topics would always be close to the heart of girls. She scanned the future as she planned what to write.

Fashion? No, Bella was not interested in clothes, not that she could afford any of the names Alice thought were essential to a wardrobe anyway. Any email even mentioning such things would stop Bella writing. She would believe that they had nothing at all in common and just give up.

Boys? Too young.

She silently wished Edward was there, he could read her mind and give them some clues… she scoffed to herself. If he was there she wouldn't have to do this, she could just introduce them and allow nature to take its course, Edward would be the one to watch over her until she was old enough to change. But she couldn't deny that she needed help, if she was to continue to be in contact with her soon-to-be sister she had to be INTERESTING!

The girl seemed to do nothing that was expected of her! She didn't watch constant streams of brain numbing TV, she didn't visit friends, or gossip about other school children, she didn't even shop! Not even window shopping! All she did was READ!

Of course! She slipped from her room and knocked on Carlisle's office door.

"Come in Alice." Her 'father' said.

"I have to engage Bella! She just emailed me and I have no idea what to say for once." she wandered over to the bookcase nearest the door as Carlisle chuckled at her comment. She stood looking at the shelf that held the usual classics. She picked up Homer's Iliad, shook her head and put it back, running her fingers over the spines she automatically remembered every word of each book as she momentarily touched it. Chaucer. Too complicated for her as yet. Milton. She doubted that Bella had read Paradise Lost yet either. Shakespeare. That had potential! But the language? Though advanced Bella was only 8! Brontë? Too depressing! That meant Dickens was out too. Austen! Pride and Prejudice! Emma! The very thing!

"Any more visions of trouble?" Carlisle asked.

"Not as yet, though she did fall down today and badly scraped her knees, there was nothing that could be done. It doesn't help that she faints at the sight of blood, and hit her head on the way down!" She sighed exasperated. It was more and more clear how she injured herself so often now.

Carlisle gave a worried look, going into 'Doctor mode' "She hit her head? Does she do it often?"

"More often than I would like, but I don't see any major damage from it… or at least not yet. If we can stop the major accidents, I don't think the minor ones will hurt her too badly." they smiled at each other. "Thanks for the inspiration, the computers came through, if you hadn't guessed." Her smile turned smug as she was once again proved right.

"It isn't as if we need the money," he laughed, "and if it helps later on then it will be a good investment!"

"Right, got to go, I have mail to answer."

He picked up the current copy of the Lancet and started to read again as she quietly closed the door behind her.

I am so glad you can keep in touch! Dad told me about the computers, he learnt that the school was waiting for them when he was there, that's why I gave you my email address, it's a lot better than using a phone, as you don't miss the calls this way and any time we have spare we can keep in touch, it also is cheaper than phoning long distance. Dad found some great sites online for me for my schoolwork, Mom is still 'home' schooling me because at the moment we are in England! Yes England! Mom had a conference to go to for work, and then she wanted to visit some cousins to work out something to do with the family… or something. Anyway, as Dad didn't have a full time place, and they hadn't put us into school yet, we all came with her!

The weather here is a lot colder than it was in Phoenix!

She quickly went to the BBC pages and looked up the weather in Derbyshire, England.

There is still a lot of snow on the mountains (or peaks as they call them here), but down where we are it isn't so bad. I have recently been to a place called Chatsworth house, the house is open to the public and it is super! The grounds are very pretty too, there is a 'waterfall' that is like a staircase down a hillside! I think this is the place that they filmed the Pride and Prejudice series that was on TV a few years ago, I don't know if you saw it? It was very good! I have just had to read the book again as we can now go and look at the places mentioned in it, have you read it? I do like Jane Austen books, they are easy to read but so interesting, I have a version that gives explanations for things that we wouldn't understand, which makes it better.

My Dad says when the family business that brought us here is finished we are going to London, and should be able to stay a month or so, I will mail you whenever I can, please keep me updated with things in Phoenix.

Bye for now

Alice

She couldn't think of anything else to say so signed off, looking over the email she thought she had hit the right note, it DID sound like something a teen would write. She paused, just to be certain, before sending, looking to the future to make sure that it would be received well and that Bella would be happy with it. A vision of the young girl reaching into her school bag that was under the computer desk and pulling out a tattered but well loved copy of P&P. Smiling, she at last pressed the send. Tomorrow, or the day after, (depending on whether she decided to leave school and shop the next afternoon) when Bella got the message she would be overjoyed that her new friend had more in common with her than she had suspected.

The great friendship Alice had seen in her visions for years was firming up to certainty.

August 2001

Alice,

Hi! I'm back from Forks! It will take me a week to dry, I swear. It's not too bad being with my dad, his friend Billy has three children that I get to stay with a lot. The girls are a little older and Jacob a little younger but it feels strange to actually have other kids around to talk to.

What are you doing? I missed our emails, a full month without being able to contact you, dad says he may get me a computer for next year so we can keep in touch, but I told him not to bother as I'm there so little! But I'm back now. School starts again soon and in a way I am looking forward to it, even though I told you before that I wasn't.

A new school! I wonder if I will like it? It is going to feel strange being the youngest by more than a year in the whole school, but Mr. Barnes, who just took over as head teacher, assures me that I will be able to do the work. I admit I was dreading having to redo the last two years just because I had already done them, but now I'm wondering if it would have been better just to stay and be bored rather than move now.

On a positive note there's no uniform at this school so I don't have to wear a skirt EVER!

Renée is her usual self, I came back to find not a single thing had been washed when I was away, so I spent the last 3 days washing clothes and tidying the house.

She also told me I had put on weight while with Charlie and that she can't afford me another set of clothes, so I have to diet because I am getting fat. I don't think I look any fatter than most of the girls at school, I wish I had a camera I could send you a picture and you could give me some advice.

In the end I just had to come to the library for a break, and was very pleased to find the computers available as soon as I walked in. I usually have to wait for an hour or so before I can get on!

I don't expect there will be much to tell you before school starts again, so I'll wait for your email and probably write back in two weeks to let you know how it went.

Love

Bella

The Cullen's had visited their house in Forks while Bella had been there in the hope that they could look after her just as much as they had before, or even more, as well as hunt properly. However the family was shocked to realize that Charlie's friend was Billy BLACK, hereditary chieftain of the local Native American tribe and grandson of Ephraim Black, the man who had made a treaty with the Cullen's in 1939, before Jasper and Alice had joined them, keeping the family away from their territory.

Though the family could move around in daytime better in Forks, they could not follow Bella when she went onto tribal lands, which was almost every single day of the month that Bella was visiting.

Charlie was by no means an overprotective father, but he WAS a good one and made sure that she was always well supervized. Even so, three times during the month she ended up in the local hospital with various bumps and cuts, it was never too serious, and it DID reinforce the fact that she really was just accident prone and not being abused at home.

Charlie had just been promoted to Chief of Police of the small town, killing any real chance that Bella would end up living full time in Washington any time before her late teens.