What must have been about an hour later the trees started to thin out again and we finally made it out of the forest. I felt like I knew Joe a bit better but some things about him still remain a little elusive. Like, for instance, the way that he remains entirely happy for most of the time but occasionally falls silent for a few minutes while a multitude of emotions flash across his face that go too fast for me to identify and then he'll slip back in to his happy personality again. Then there's the way he seems to give off a sense of wisdom and half the time I feel like he knows more about the world than anyone else then suddenly he's just like a teenager again, messing about and getting things wrong like everyone else.

"Bells? You okay?"

"Yeah, yeah, totally" I said finally looking up and surprising myself a little at the fact that we were only a few feet from the main building"

"Okay, it's just you looked miles away for a minute then, anything you want to talk about?"

"Nah, I'm good" I said, nearly blushing at the fact that it was thoughts of him that had caused me to be so absorbed by just then.

"Right, so as long as you're alright, do you think that you can let us in the building, I left my card in my room"

"Idiot" I muttered under my breath playfully as I pulled my card out of my pocket and swiped it, a buzzing noise sounded and then the door swung open.

"Hey! I'm going to take offense at that!"

"Excellent" I said, smiling at him. I felt him follow me up the stairs and felt a little lost for a second while I tried to remember which way it was to get to my room but Joe took the lead so I was okay.

He stopped once we reached the door and just as I reached to open the door it swung open and we were met by the image of an very startled but slightly angry looking Alice.

"Oh my god Bella! I was so worried about you, we were practically about to send a search party out for you!" She pulled me through the door before turning on Joe

"And you! You know that Bella's new and so I would be worried about her, what were you thinking keeping her out for so much longer than agreed?" She gave him a pointed look with an expression that I couldn't quite understand; it was like she was telling him something else without speaking. He didn't really pay much attention to it though and just gave her a sheepish grin.
"Awww, come on Ali, you can't honestly have thought that something bad would have happened to Bella when she was with me" Alice just raised one eyebrow and gave him a pointed look, at which his grin from earlier returned in full force.

"Oh come off it, look, we were just so long because neither of us had a watch"

"Fine, whatever you say" She then stood back and I swear she growled at him. "What the hell did you do to that shirt?" He raised her eyebrows at her and she leaned up to his ear and whispered in to it, I couldn't actually hear anything but she definitely sounded angry.

"What? How can you even say that?" He exclaimed before looking over her shoulder, seeing me and leaning back down to her ear before starting whispering again. I decided I would just go to my room. I walked across the lounge and kitchen area, noticing that Edward was slumped on one of the sofas, apparently asleep. I smiled at the sight of him completely relaxed and peaceful before continuing to my room. I flopped on to my bed and pondered what they could have been talking about that they had to keep away from me and whether it actually involved me but I decided I didn't really care. I picked up one of my books and started flicking through it before it hit me that I hadn't phoned my dad yet. Shit. I pulled my phone out of my back pocket and sure enough, there were four missed calls from him. I punched in his number and waited as it rang, after four rings I heard Charlie's gruff voice say

"Hello, is that you Bells?"

"Yeah, sorry about not phoning you earlier but I just got really distracted"

"Well as long as my baby's okay then I don't mind"

"Thanks dad"

"So, made any friends yet?"

"Yeah, everyone here is like insanely nice, especially my roommate and her brothers"

"Glad to hear it, okay, I've got to go, work's on the other line"

"Sure, talk to you later dad"

"Love you baby girl"

"Love you too" I said and flipped my phone shut. After replacing my phone in my pocket I felt the urge to get up and do something. I walked in to the living room where Alice and Joe were still in deep discussion and Edward was still fast asleep and just walked straight past them and out of the door. They didn't even look. I headed down the stairs and outside where I nearly walked straight in to Joe's roommate, Abi, I think. She caught my arms and steadied me with a smile.

"Hey, it's Bella right?"

"Yeah, that's me, sorry about that"
"No problems" She grinned at me and I couldn't help but smile back. "So, are you going somewhere?"

"Just away from Alice and Joe as they are annoying me a little"

"Ha, okay, do you want to go for a walk?"

"Sure, although I swear I've been constantly walking since I got here" She laughed a little and it sounded like chimes.

"Well I wasn't suggesting we went for a long walk, it's already like four, but you know, you could come and meet the rugby guys with me, it's a tradition that we all meet on the first Saturday before school starts for a game of touch rugby and you'd be welcome to come along"

"Sure" I couldn't really see much harm in meeting more people, I feel like it's all I've been doing recently. She started walking in what was presumably the direction of the playing fields and I followed behind, hardly keeping up with her long stride. "So, how are you involved with the rugby team?"

"Oh, I play" I was a little surprised by this as she didn't really look built like a rugby player but shrugged it off.

"Awesome" I answered, we rounded the corner of one of the school buildings and vast playing fields came in to sight that I hadn't seen before, and in the corner of the closest marked out pitch stood a rowdy looking bunch of guys that was very clearly the rugby team. As we got closer one of the guys looked up and started running towards us.

"Abi!" He yelled before pulling her in to a massive bear hug.

"Sam you can put me down now!" She shouted in his ear and he dropped her pretty quickly. It was at this moment that I realised that she was wearing a rugby shirt, tracksuits and trainers and it somehow looked like she belonged in it.

"So, who's your friend?"

"This is Bella, she's new and is here to watch us" This was met by cheering from a few other guys who had followed after Sam.

"You not going to play?"

"Nah, I have no idea how the hell you play rugby"

"Really? Well with the way this lot plays touch I don't think it would really matter, but I suppose it would be best that we didn't break any of your bones before school has even started" I rolled my eyes at this and let out a giggle, I could tell that I was going to like Sam. Abi then waved a hand and shut everyone up; I was a little impressed at the control she had over them.

"Okay, everyone this is Bella, Bella this is everyone" At this they all responded with their names and I received more handshakes than I ever have before in my life. Of course I didn't actually hear any of their names which Abi noticed and so bent down and whispered their names to me

"Ben, Danny, Jez, Jamie, Harry, Martin, Harrison, Mikey, Max, Harry M, Matt, Tom, Jay, Simon…" I gave her a pointed look and she stopped. "Okay, yeah, there's no way you'll remember everyone's names straight away."

"Right teams, let's go!" One of the guys shouted, presumably the captain. As everyone ran to separate sides of the pitch I was fairly sure that I could recognize Jasper's figure. I caught brief words of their conversation and was fairly sure I heard Edward's name a few times but then tuned out once the only things I could hear were 'F1 back" and other complicated phrases that were more numbers than words. Sam stood in the middle of the pitch and held up a hand at which they all fell silent.

"Right, I want a nice clean game, no biting, scratching, fish hooks or anything like that, this is after all touch rugby and supposed to be a non contact game. I want to see two hands on hips for a touch, nothing higher than shoulders or you will be penalised. Seven touch turnover. Okay, let's go!" He said, blowing a whistle that I swear had just appeared from no where.

The ball that one of the guys had been holding was suddenly thrown in to action and Abi caught it. She side stepped the largest of the guys on the other team and flew down the pitch with Harry right on her tail, just as he was about to touch her she passed the ball to Jay who dodged a guy flying at him and sprinted to the line and was about to put the ball down when someone else came out from no where and stole the ball right out of his hands. Jay just turned around and touched him at which Sam shouted

"Touch 1". The person passed the ball to Simon who swerved away from Max who had gone in but tripped and nearly dropped the ball but passed it before he fell. The ball span across the pitch to the person standing on the pitch closest to me but he was being marked well and was touched nearly straight away.

"Touch 2" The ball was passed to Martin who was touched as well almost immediately.

"Touch 3" Martin sent the ball flying back towards the other side of the pitch but Abi intercepted and stole the ball, sprinting towards the try line. She swerved around the only defence left near the line and dove towards the line, touching the ball down.

Sam blew the whistle and held his hand upwards before leaning it towards the side Abi was on. This was followed by cheers but the game had already started up again. Simon was going straight in, trying to break the defence

"Touch 1" The ball went flying down the pitch towards me, and was caught again by the person closest to me. The defence wasn't so strong this time and he got very close to me before someone from the other team came flying towards him but with the momentum crashed straight in to him and sent him flying out of the pitch and almost in slow motion I watched them both come at me, all I could do was raise my arms in front of my face before everything went black.

Okay, so i spent ages on this chapter and would really love to know what you think

I had seriously forgotten how much i loved writing and when i sat down at my computer today this just flowed and the next chapter is practically finished too, i definitely had fun writing this

Right, so remember, if you review i'll send you a sneak preview if you want me to

Abi x