13

"Back in 1939 we lived here. We were hunting in the forest close to La Push when Edward suddenly alerted us that there were humans in the area. Not just humans though, it turned out that the Quileute tribe also have a secret, some of them, usually males between the ages of 16 and 25, could change… into wolves." Bella gasped, it was TRUE? WEREWOLVES? Was everything she had thought a myth REAL? Next they would be telling her that fairies lived at the bottom of their garden! Carlisle continued. "They surrounded us. Three wolves and about a dozen warriors. We were all lucky that they didn't attack straight away. Rose and Emmett weren't that old at that time and may have killed them all if provoked. It seemed that the tribe had encountered our kind before… it hadn't ended well." He grimaced, "With Edward listening into what the wolves were saying we could communicate with them as well as the humans… one of them happened to be the Chief, Ephraim Black." Bella had heard of him, he was Jacob's great great grandfather or something. "Because when they came upon us we had been hunting animals rather than humans they listened to us when we told them that we were unlike others of our kind, and eventually a treaty was forged. We told them that we would stay away from their lands, and hunt only animals and they stay away from our lands. We also have an understanding that they won't tell the humans what we are."

Bella frowned, thinking over everything Jacob had said. He hadn't actually told her any details, except that the Cullen's were dangerous, and that they had lived here before. At least she wasn't responsible for the treaty being broken. It also gave her a safe haven to go and think over things, if she needed it, without anyone following her.

She really hoped that this scheme of Alice's worked and she could get her life back to something reasonable.

Carlisle's phone rang and he frowned at the number before pressing to take the call.

"Yes? Oh yes Charlie, she's here… no, we are at our house, she's waiting for the kids to get home from school… that isn't a problem, we'd be happy to help… do you want to talk to her… one second…" he handed the phone to Bella.

"Ch… Dad?" she asked.

"Would the Cullen's mind of you stayed at their house this evening? I've been called in to help with a case out of town a little, I should be back by 10 but I'll let you know for sure, Dr. Cullen said it was fine for you to stay but do you think he means it?"

Bella could see the reassuring smile on both the Cullen's faces. "I'm sure that would be ok Dad, did you hear anything from…"

"I'll talk to you later then Bells, sorry I have to go!" Bella frowned and looked at the phone; sure enough her father had disconnected the call.

"I'm sorry," she started to say but Esme stopped her with a soft hug.

"We are happy to have you; even in a small town like Forks it isn't safe for a young girl to be alone at night." Bella would have protested the 'young girl' title, if the person saying it hadn't been born before her grandmother.

"Alice is going to be pissed, isn't she?" Bella asked, dreading the confrontation she knew was coming.

"Don't worry about Alice, she will behave." Carlisle assured her. "Is there anything you need from home? I can give you a lift to collect it," a soft 'ding' sounded and he pulled the phone back out of the pocket. Two more 'dings' signalled two more messages and Carlisle turned the phone to Bella.

"I'm sorry, forgive me? A"

"Does she mean me?" Bella asked. 'ding'

"Yes I mean you, you would know if I could have got hold of you on your own phone, but at least Charlie managed to contact you through Carlisle."

Bella asked for the phone and sent a text back to Alice. "Charlie wouldn't have had the number to get in touch with me and he knows that I can't afford a basic phone, never mind an iPhone 4! What are you thinking buying something like that? Are they even in the shops yet? You don't even have one of them!"

"I'm thinking I could have warned you that Jasper had to leave school before biology and not to worry! A… iPhones don't work well for us, heat sensitive screens, remember?" Bella blushed, of course they wouldn't work for vampires, but couldn't Alice have found her and let her know in person? There really was no need for her to have such a top of the line phone.

The front door opened and Jasper walked into the house. Bella checked her watch; of course it had stopped again. She was sure it wasn't that late, even though she had eaten lunch she didn't think so much time had passed.

"Jasper?" Esme asked.

"Blood typing in Biology, I thought it was a better idea to skip than to end up killing a large portion of the student body." He gave a grimace that showed he wasn't actually joking.

"You OK?" Carlisle asked.

"I will be." He smiled wryly at Bella and threw his bag onto the sofa. "I'm just going to have a quick hunt, are you going back to school later?" he asked.

"For Gym?" she scoffed.

"Right… I should have thought of that."

"I'll call the school tell them you feel ill and won't be back today." Carlisle told him. Jasper nodded and like a blur was out of the house and in the woods before Bella could blink. Carlisle sighed. It was obvious he was worried about Jasper's control.

"Is…" Bella wondered if she was putting her nose into something that wasn't her business, but they had brought her into this and she felt she had the right to some answers if she didn't understand something. Carlisle and Esme both waited for her to form her question. "Is it fair on Jasper?" she asked. "I mean making him go to school and be surrounded by humans all day?"

"It is his choice," Carlisle said sadly, "but he spent 90 years feeding off humans, of us all he's the only one who had a 'traditional diet' for any significant period of time. It is… it MUST be hard for him."

Bella thought about it, it had no real parallel in human terms. Humans had a variety of food; the vampires lived solely off blood.

"Does blood taste that different depending on what animal it is from?" she asked.

"Oh yes, there's a wide range, just like to you lamb doesn't taste the same as beef or pork." Esme told her. "The carnivores taste better, mountain lion is the best around here, Emmett will go a long way to find a grizzly bear to eat."

Bella frowned. "Jasper feels people's feelings, Alice said." Carlisle nodded, intrigued as to where she was heading with this. "So if, say, he's in the cafeteria and all the kids are hungry, does that make him hungry too? Or is it just things like happiness and sadness he picks up?"

"Good Grief!" Carlisle looked at Bella in amazement. "I never thought of that!"

"Nor did I." Bella jumped, she hadn't even noticed that Jasper had come back. He looked just the same as he had when he left, less than five minutes before. His eyes were a little brighter though, so Bella guessed he had found something to hunt close by.

The vampires spoke rapidly to each other, working on the theory Bella had thought up. Bella just stood, watching the three of them, unable to contribute as she couldn't hear what they were saying so quickly.

Esme hugged her and the two men seemed to relax. "Well done!" Bella blushed and then blushed harder as she realised what she had done. She winced and looked apologetically at Jasper.

"No worries Suga'," he told her. "You just helped work out why I have so many problems, it took you less than a week and I've been trying to work it out for 50 years!"

"Jasper always worried that it was because he wasn't strong enough." Esme told her, Jasper opened his mouth as if to object but stopped before he said anything. It was true; he had always felt weak compared with all the rest. He struggled so much with the diet, his thirst needed so much more than everyone else's, to be satisfied.

"We can't do anything about the humans," Carlisle said, "but everyone should stop pushing their own thirst."

"Sorry, what?" Bella asked.

"We sometimes leave it longer than others, trying to extend the time between hunts." Esme told her.

"Why?"

"To help with self control. The longer we can go between hunts the more we fit in."

"Isn't that a bit dangerous?" Bella asked, "I mean all it takes is one accident, someone like me tripping and cutting themselves and if you haven't eaten in a while… ops, dead human."

"She does have a point." Carlisle told the others. "I know you all try it from time to time, but you know I keep fed at all times, with my job it isn't worth the risk."

"Not only that, but your eyes change colour." Bella pointed out. "It looks strange if you have black eyes one day and topaz the next."

"Actually you would be surprised how many people don't notice." Esme replied. "they tend to avoid eye contact with us."

"I noticed. On Monday Emmett's eyes were almost totally black, Tuesday he was gold like the rest of you. It isn't like you all have to sleep anyway. You have plenty of time to feed." She argued.

"We don't need to hunt every single night." She was told. "The local population of animals wouldn't be sustainable if we did."

"How much does one of you eat then, on average?"

"One to two animals a week, usually." Jasper told her.

"The local population can support that? That's six to twelve every week? That's a lot!" she said.

"'Local' is subjective," Carlisle smiled. "Our hunting range is quite extensive, maybe thirty five hundred to five thousand square miles, we range well into Canada and the whole of the north of Washington, and we don't have to stick to wild animals, when we lived in the south we almost totally subsisted on cattle." Jasper grimaced; Bella guessed that cow didn't taste as good as other meals.

"Oh, yes well I see what you mean then." Bella was astounded. "Good job there aren't many vegetarian vampires then, there must be a whole lot more humans to live off."

The three vampires looked at her astonished, and not only because of her point of view. Again she had seen through to heart of the matter. There was never a huge population of vampires in the world and most of them stayed solitary, only the Volturi and the Denali covens were on par with the Cullens. The Denali family were five vegetarians and hunted Alaska and most of North West Canada, the Volturi were the ruling body of Vampires and were definitely NOT vegetarians, they were made up of three 'brothers', two wives (the other brother's wife having died), and the 'guard' a band of mostly talented vampires used as a police force and protection detail. The guard usually numbered between ten and fifteen, with a core of six who stayed close to the brothers unless serious trouble needed to be dealt with.

Overall though, there was probably less than a thousand vampires worldwide, but even that number would struggle in the modern age if they all tried to eat animals. Though they could, at a pinch, live off of cattle and other domesticated animals, the meal of choice would always be the carnivores and they were wild and in danger of extinction in most parts of the world, the Cullens had to be careful not to decimate the populations wherever they hunted.

Carlisle headed off to his study to put notes of the conversation into his journal. He sighed heavily; it proved to him just how fit Bella was for Edward. He had always been the brightest and strongest of the Cullen's. Alice had warned them all not to mention Edward in any other way than finding him and getting him back into the family. Bella would not react well if she thought that she was being 'set-up' with the missing vampire. If Alice's vision was accurate they wouldn't have to wait long for the bond to occur, it should be almost instantaneous, he remembered his had been. He hoped to God Alice was right. If not Edward may never return to the family, and Bella would be put in unnecessary danger.

Charlie called at nine in the evening. He wouldn't be back until the early morning hours. Bella sighed, she didn't mind being home alone but she knew that there wasn't a hope in hell that the Cullen's would allow her to return to her own home.

She was right. Alice dug into the clothes she had purchased for nightwear and Bella ended up sleeping in Edward's room in a bed that had suddenly appeared there, after the torture of 'girl time'. Bella decided she had better pick her battles carefully and so allowed herself to have her hair curled and her fingernails manicured and polished, she drew the line at anything to do with plucking anything and wouldn't take her socks off to have a pedicure. When Alice pouted and tried to make Bella feel bad, Bella just reminded her that she could just as easily insist on being taken home by Esme who wouldn't torture her and would happily sit in the living room while Bella slept in her own bed. Alice gave in.

School the next day was the same as before. A couple of people asked where she had been, but a grunt of 'personal reasons' shut them up quickly. She received glares all day off Lauren and Jessica but no one said anything nasty to her, well not within her hearing anyway.

The boy, Mike Newton was annoying, always watching her, but Emmett and Jasper managed to stare him down when he had actually tried to approach her.

She had some sympathy for Edward being a fifth wheel in the family even before Jasper and Alice arrived. It couldn't be easy for him having such closely bonded pairs and him always being on the outside. Especially if he could read their minds. He would always be on the outside looking in, no matter how they tried to include him. She was sort of in the same position. Mated vampires surrounded her and though they tried to include her she would be forever on the outside looking in.

It was hard knowing where to put her eyes when the couples started getting, affectionate. For her, who shied from most physical contact to start with it was even more uncomfortable as the vampires, especially when at home, did not seem to believe in limited PDA.

Eventually school ended for the day and she drove home, grateful to know that she had some time to herself to unwind. Charlie came home at five, spent an hour watching TV after dinner and then went to bed early to catch up on the sleep he had missed. He never mentioned the case he was working on, or Renée. Bella was happy to ignore it all too.

On Friday the sun was shining as Bella woke. She stretched as she used to in Phoenix when the slightly distorted window glass focussed the sun's rays through the north window and warmed her bed. The bell sound of an incoming text message came from the phone that she still had not managed to give back to Alice, she groaned as she realised she had placed on her desk next to her computer.

Reluctantly she got to her feet, the warmth of the sun was an illusion, she shivered as the cold air of the bedroom sucked the heat from her body. She grabbed the phone and dived back under the bright purple duvet.

"Sorry, it will be sunny most of the day; we can't go to school in this. See you tonight! -A"

She wondered what happened to them if they DID go out in the sun. She knew they could go out in daylight; after all they had spent last week at school during daylight hours. Bella wracked her brain but couldn't remember what the weather was like back when the Cullen's were in Phoenix, she supposed it was overcast.

"No problems, I'm a big girl and can take care of myself." She replied.

She got her things together, including the completed essay on the 1940 P&P variation and went to the kitchen. It was obvious straight away that Charlie wasn't in. His coffee mug was upside down on the drainer and he had obviously had toast for breakfast as crumbs littered the unit under the toaster.

She picked the machine up and rattled it. Sure enough a veritable avalanche of crumbs spilled out. She removed the tray and cleaned it before making herself some toast, and scrambling some eggs.

At school she was inundated by people wanting to get to know her. She hadn't realised just how much the Cullen's had sheltered her from the others. She wished with all her being that they had come to school or that she had had sense to skip as well.

Angela, the nice girl she had noticed earlier in the week in Art spoke to her most, but it was the boys who annoyed the hell out of her. During lunch she and Angela sat at the table the Cullen family usually occupied but Mike, Tyler and Eric and a boy who introduced himself as Lee Stephens, all decided that today was 'hound Bella day'. Evidently there was a dance coming up, luckily it was a female choice dance, but that didn't mean they didn't give broad hints that they wanted to be asked. They had as much chance of flying to the moon unaided. In fact the only boy who sat at the table with them who didn't bug Bella about dancing was Ben, a rather short boy who looked at Angela a lot. Bella smiled secretly and tried to encourage him with a couple of head nods in her direction but he blushed and spent the rest of lunch fascinated by what was on his plate. Not that Bella blamed him, she had no idea what that was supposed to be either, and had made sure she steered clear of it as soon as she saw it.

"The Cullen's abandoned you?" a voice sneered as she bussed her lunch tray.

"If you didn't notice, they aren't here." She replied in a steady voice. Nothing winds up someone trying to anger you like being polite to them.

"That's what I mean; you aren't so close that they invite you when they go camping."

"Were they supposed to?" Bella asked, raising an eyebrow at Lauren.

"Well you're such good buddies with them I thought you were attached at the hip."

"Do you and Jessica do everything together?" Bella asked innocently, noticing a crowd had gathered, evidently Lauren had a reputation for being nasty; Bella just hoped she wasn't violent too.

"Most things," Lauren said.

"Well, sorry, I don't swing that way." It was an insult Bella had heard several times in Phoenix and she was horrified that she had spoken in such a way and hurriedly grabbed her bag and turned her back on the girl.

"Hey BITCH!" Lauren grabbed her arm, Bella swung back towards her, her bag flying off her shoulder and hitting the girl 'accidently' in the face.

"Miss Mallory?" Suddenly Miss Russell the art teacher was stood in the doorway. "I do hope that you don't kiss your mother with that mouth. One hour detention, after school tonight."

"You have to be kidding me!" Lauren said.

"Do you want to make it 2 hours? I don't have anywhere to be." The teacher said. "you know the school rules on bullying. I know you have been biding your time until the Cullens were away, now leave Miss Swan alone!"

{Wow,} Bella thought, {she doesn't pull any punches, does she? Calling someone out like that isn't exactly PC, but I'm glad she stepped in.}

When Phil had realised the problems Bella had with just walking without falling, he had decided that running away wouldn't be such a good idea for her and had insisted that she enrol in self defence classes, he contacted Charlie, who contacted someone on the Phoenix force, who recommended a class. The instructor had spent a while getting to know her and had concentrated on avoidance rather than direct conflict. Because of this she wasn't worried that Lauren could hurt her, but she wouldn't stand by and let her get a hit in, and that would attract attention, and attention was something Bella hated. So she was very glad that the teachers seemed to be aware and alert enough to prevent trouble.

She made her way to biology, Mike Newton followed her closely and when she sat in her place, he took Jasper's empty seat.

"You don't sit there." She told him.

"I thought you looked lonely, anyway I wanted to talk to you about the dance." He had moved from 'annoying' to 'exasperating' and would soon be on the 'where can I find a hit-man' list.

"I'm not lonely, and I am not going to the dance." She snapped, showing her irritation.

"Ok! Ok, Jees I was just asking." He moved back to his usual seat.

"Frigid." She heard him tell the boy sat next to him. Halleluiah he got the message at last! Though she wasn't pleased with the label it was a hell of a lot better than 'slut' which was what she would call him, knowing he already had a girlfriend.

The teacher handed out a set of slides and a microscope to each table and the 'lesson' took Bella less than five minutes to complete, Mr. Banner sighed again and handed her a college level text book. "See if you can find something in there you don't already know." He offered, Bella smiled at him, now this was more like it! The teacher turned and caught Newton looking up the subject in his text book and gave him an hour detention for cheating. Karma was sometimes great!

Gym went as well as Gym ever did. They had moved from Volleyball to Badminton. She missed Alice as she was partnered with the boy named Eric. He did his best to dodge her but after being hit on the head for the fourth time he complained to Coach Clapp who it seemed had been watching and she was told that she could sit out this lesson if she wished. Oh she wished! Bella got to the side benches in record time and sat the rest of the lesson happily watching others get hurt.