Disclaimer.All publicly recognizable characters, settings etc., are the property of their respective owners. The original characters, ideas and plot are the property of the author. The author is in no way associated with the owners, creators or producers of any media franchise. No copyright infringement is intended. I only do this for fun.

The Chronicles of the Fallen

A/N:This story is written as a collaboration by both Xo Bella Italiana oX (my new pen name) and dramaqueen1917. If you have any questions or comments, post them in my reviews and I will answer them in my next Author's Note. We hope that you enjoy the story and look forward to reading your reviews. – B

Chapter 22
(Anna's POV)

What does one eat when you're about to meet some old family friends that you haven't seen since you were a kid? 'Friends' that you know absolutely nothing about? I don't know, but I made Spaghetti Bolognese, figuring that that was relatively simple and easy enough to make within the time frame given. It seemed nice enough.

"Anna! Come say hi to Jake and Billy!" Charlie shouted from the living room, breaking me out of my inner musings.

Quickly, I placed the pots and pans into the kitchen sink, making a mental note to clean it up after dinner as to not leave Bella or Charlie with the mess and reminding myself to start making a cake or something for Bella as a thank you present for redecorating my room for me.

Upon entering the hallway, the first person I noticed was Jacob – or who I assumed was Jacob, anyway. There were no flashbacks of old memories long forgotten, but there was this 'happy go lucky' feel around Jacob that made him feel approachable. He was only wearing a pair of shorts, exposing his bare chest. I'm no idiot - anyone could see that he was fit and his six-pack only proved that, but was it necessary for him to show off? And it was like negative 15 degrees out there… How could he not be a frozen ice cube by now?

"Hi." I said suddenly overwhelmed by a great amount of shyness.

"Annabelle! My, have you grown! I remember when you were just this big!" Billy's fingers were only really an inch apart and I was left sitting there scratching the back of my beck wondering if I should comment on how Billy had probably never seen me that small…

"Hi Anna! Sue made some… er… apple pie! Unless you'd rather those mud cakes we used to make when we were kids…" Jacob grinned at me cheekily as he pushed Billy's wheelchair into the living room. I just smiled at him, not really knowing what else to say to that.

An awkward silence enveloped the room and we all exchanged an uneasy glance.

"Well… the Mariners are playing, so yeah…" Charlie was always so eloquent, wasn't he? Although, it was understandable, considering the fact that he tended to naturally avoid emotional or awkward situations.

"Okay, Ch- Dad."

I would never get used to calling Charlie 'dad' considering the fact that sometimes, my parents didn't always feel like my parents since they had never really been the parental type. I mean seriously, if left to their own devices to raise a kid, I fear they would have burnt the house to the ground. Sure, they tried, but parenting was just this thing that they struggled to grasp. Though, Charlie did seem a lot better with Bella here to help out.

"I'm going to go and get started on desert…" I announced, gesturing towards the kitchen. Charlie and Billy nodded absentmindedly, their attention having turned onto the TV once they noticed that the game had already started.

"I'll come help." Jacob said quickly as he joined me in the kitchen.

"So…. How's the weather?" I asked him as I began to wash my hands in the sink.

He smirked and quirked a brow at me. "You're kidding me, right? That's one of the worst ice breakers ever."

I bit my lip and nodded. "I agree, but it's not as though there's much more we can talk about." I murmured, embarrassed.

"Well, how about: What are we making today?" He grinned.

I dried my hands on the towel that was sitting next to the faucets. "We're making a cake. For Bella." I informed him.

His eyebrows shot up towards his hairline in surprise. "For Bella? I mean sure, Bella is awesome and pretty and really, really sweet and her blue eyes are so dazzling when they sparkle. Not to mention that smile of hers just lights everything up, but -" Jacob paused when he noticed my expression and as though realising his mistake, a faint blush covered his cheeks.

I raised my eyebrow at Jacob, silently questioning his feelings for Bella. No one would say stuff like that without having some kind of romantic feelings towards the person…

"Something you wanna get off your chest, there?" I asked, attempting – and failing – to wriggle my eyebrows at him suggestively.

"It's nothing." Jacob mumbled, looking down and shaking his head before looking back up at me and changing the subject. "So… what about this cake?"

Now, I'm no idiot. I knew that Jacob was purposely trying to divert the attention off of him and his crush on Bella, but I decided to let the topic go… for now. However, I did understand his silence on the topic, since Bella did have a boyfriend – who, by the way, had to be the most handsome man I had ever seen in my life up to this point - and they really seemed to be head over heels in love with each other.

Shaking my head, banishing any thoughts of Bella's love life, I opened the cupboard next to the fridge to grab the cake mix. "I was thinking of making a Black Forest Cake… It looks good and easy enough to make with the amount of time we have."

He pursed his lips and nodded, "Okay, so where do we start?"

"Well… for one, you can start by putting on an apron." I attempted to hide a smile as I gestured to the only other apron in the open drawer near the oven. It was a frilly, pink one that Renee had probably bought back when they had still lived together some 16, 17 years ago.

"Why do I have to wear an apron and you don't have to?" Jacob frowned as he held out the apron in front of him with distain. I couldn't hide my smile, as he seriously did look like an upset puppy who couldn't climb the stairs. The resemblance was kind of scary.

I sighed, closing the drawer. "Because, unlike some people," I shot Jacob a pointed look and gestured to his bare chest, "I had the brains to wear a shirt, whereas you, you aren't wearing one."

"So…?" Jacob asked, looking honestly confused.

I snorted at his obliviousness. "Yeah… I feel weird working with half-naked people." I replied bluntly.

He rolled his eyes, but put on the apron, regardless.

"Flour." I listed the next ingredient as I looked at the back of the box.

He looked side to side. "Where's the flour again?" Jacob asked.

I looked up and began to scan the kitchen. "Um… I think it's in the pantry cupboard." He found the bag of white flour and placed it on the counter next to the bowl. "Eggs." I read off the next ingredient.

"Okay… Eggs… Fridge?" He gestured to the white fridge door.

"Obviously." I replied with an eye roll before returning to my recipe book. I had taken up the task of naming the ingredients necessary to make the cake, though I just knew I was going to regret this…

"Okay, eggs, check." He placed the carton on the counter. "What next?"

"Milk."

He nodded, "Fridge again."

It was quite comical to see Jacob in a frilly pink apron walking back and forth in the kitchen getting all the necessary ingredients.

"I think that's everything." I mumbled, hesitant to actually start cooking this cake in case Jacob turned out to be as horrendous a baker as he was at gathering the ingredients – which I didn't even know was possible.

"Okay… So… Can I read the recipe?" He asked, holding out his hand.

"Sure," I shrugged and handed over the box; anything to get him away from the ingredients where he could make a much bigger mess…

"Okay, so you pour the milk into the bowl like this." Jacob suddenly poured in a shit load of milk into the bowl, making me internally groan. I should have known that he wouldn't just resort to reading off the instructions and I had a gut feeling this wasn't going to end well…

I tried to phrase this as delicately as I could, "Jacob… Maybe I should-"

He shook his head interrupting me, "No, no, I've got this –This is actually fun!" Jacob grinned at me. "Now, we crack the eggs."

Jacob tapped the egg on the counter. It turned out that he didn't have full control of his strength, because the moment the egg hit the counter, it just broke, splattering bits of egg yolk and shells all over the countertop and dripping down onto the floor.

I let out an exasperated sigh. "Jacob-"

He held his hand up to silence me. "No, no, I've got this!" His tongue found its way out to the side of his mouth as he very carefully tapped the egg on the counter. It was funny to see this bulky 6 foot something guy trying to break an egg.

A dozen eggs later, Jacob finally managed to crack one egg and separate the yolk from the egg white. Unfortunately, it seemed that Charlie's poor kitchen paid the price of Jacob's egg fascination. But to his credit and my displeasure, he never gave up.

There were bits of egg and egg shells all over the bench and the bowl with milk had been tipped over in Jacob's determination to crack and egg – the milk having spilt off onto the floor.

Due to the fact that the kitchen was already a mess, I decided that a little more mess wouldn't do that much more damage.

"Jacob!" I laughed.

"What?" Jacob's head whipped around to look at me, his eyes alight with amusement. I imagined what a sight we must be. Jacob was covered with egg and I probably wasn't all that much better.

I threw a handful of flour at him, laughing as the flour landing on Jacob's shocked face.

"You shouldn't have done that." Jacob's declaration probably wouldn't have been so funny had it not been for the fact that he too had been struggling to keep his face straight. The edges of his mouth had already begun to turn upwards.

And that is how, when Bella returned home an hour or so later, the entire kitchen was practically drenched in flour and egg.

Upon her entry, Bella burst into hysterical laughter. Well, she was laughing. That was always a good thing right…? At least Bella hadn't started screaming her head off at us. I mean, that's the good thing about laughter. As long as someone is laughing, they can't get angry at you… Or so I hope it goes.

"What's going on in here?" Bella grinned. Wow, she was so pretty and when she smiled, it was that much more dazzling. Who even knew that they could make such a perfect looking physical being?

"We… we… were…" I stuttered, flapping my arms about, speechless. So much for making a good impression…

Jacob didn't even say anything. He just picked up an egg – one of the lucky ones that had remained relatively unharmed and had thrown it at Bella. It hit Bella's face with an audible splat. There was this moment of utter silent where Jacob ad I were just waiting for Bella to react. She wiped it off and grinned mischievously at us before picking up a hand full of flour and launching it at the both of us.

It was so on.

"KIDS! WHAT ARE YOU DOING?" Charlie bellowed after he and Billy failed to capture our attention the first time. I think the kitchen had gotten even messier – if that were possible.

"Erm… we were…uh…" Wow, I was so eloquent these days, wasn't I?

"We're just hanging out, Charlie…" Jacob grinned, reaching up behind Bella's back with a hand full of flour and splatting in on top of her head. She gasped and pushed him away from her and reached down, grabbing whatever she could manage off the floor to chuck at him, causing them to laugh, but sobered out when Billy and Charlie groaned continuing to inspect the damage done. I could faintly hear him grumbling about how the mess would probably take forever to clean up.

Bella, Jake and I all stood there, drenched in food, all carrying expressions that ranged from embarrassment to amusement. (You can probably guess that the amusement was radiating off Bella, who seemed to see humour in the situation)

"Charlie, it's okay. There's no harm done and I can always clean it up. It'll be brand new by morning." Charlie and Bella seemed to have their own private conversation through their eyes as they looked at each other.

It was then that I finally realized what Bella had actually said.

"What? You can't clean this up… I mean – Jake and I made most of the mess and the whole cake idea was all my idea, so I should clean it up. I mean, you're a guest… so…"

"Cake idea?" Bella asked curiously, her eyes scanning over the bench as though she were trying to understand what we meant by a cake.

"Mmmm? Oooh, yeah. Bells, we were trying to make you a… I…" Jake suddenly coughed, a blush painting his cheeks again. "I mean… We were trying to make you a We love you and totally love what you've done for us cake."

Bella laughed. "So, this is what this started as?" At his nod, she pulled us each into a hug. "Awww… That's cute. Thank you anyway. It was a very sweet gesture."

I was kind of tempted to face palm or bang my head on the table or the wall. Bella was awesome and everything, but I couldn't believe how naïve she was to Jacob's affections for her. It was as plain as daylight. The only person who didn't seem to notice them was Bella. Heck, even Charlie and Billy were grinning like maniacs whilst their eyes flickered back and forth between the two and I got the impression that Charlie and Billy weren't the most expressive with their feelings.

I couldn't believe how ignorant Bella is of Jacob's feelings for her – I just can't.

A/N: And there you have it! How did you like the peek into Anna's mind? I just wanted to remind everyone though that the reason that Bella is ignorant of Jacob's feelings is because she is mated to Jasper and she just doesn't see anyone like that but him. So, it just hasn't even crossed her mind. Any ideas what's going to happen in the next chapter?! Review!

If you have any questions or comments, post them in my reviews and I will answer them in my next Author's Note!

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If you enjoyed this story so far, check out some of my other stories on my FanFiction page! Also, I am still accepting Stories that need beta'ing. I will accept OC characters as well as other Fan Fiction stories aside from Twilight depending on the other lead character. PM me for details!
- Bellisma -
Xo Bella Italiana oX