As she drove to Edward's house, memories of her life at Phoenix began drifting back to Bella. For instance, she had a crystal clear recollection of the time she'd been in the health nurse's office getting her annual hearing check when the powder-faced woman had put down the ear thermometer and look her dead in the eye before saying,

"Now, is there anything else you might need dear?"

Bella knew exactly what that woman had meant! And the very idea had horrified her. But basically, she was being vague. To understand Bella's mindset one needed to be filled in.

When Bella lived in Phoenix she was in a large school with about fifty billion blonde, suntanned model-like teenagers. All of the girls in her class were flirtatious and all of the boys were not very bright and a little too in love with themselves.

Okay, it wasn't quite like that, but Bella did stand out a little bit due to her fair complexion and abhorrence of sports. She wasn't quite heckled exactly, because she had quite a trim figure, but people did consider her a bit of a snob and so they subtly excluded her. As a result, she viewed boys that tried to get to know her as a bit of a threat -for she didn't know what they were after- and girls that talked to her as backstabbers because every time a girl did act friendly they generally had an ulterior motive. Thus she was not very unhappy to leave her school in Phoenix, but nothing had given her reason to expect Forks to be much better, and at least the former was a warm sunny place, even if she did spend the majority of her time under sun umbrellas.

As a result, this powder-faced woman that smelt like bottled flowers offering her contraceptives basically scarred her for life. She still hated floral perfumes.

Edward was inanely staring out of the window as Bella drove along the gravel back road. She snuck a glance at him and caught the movement of his head turning away. When she resumed her gaze on the road she felt his eyes on her once more.

"You're doing it again." She informed him. She could feel his smile in response. She turned her head to catch him looking at her again but he was too quick for her. Bella picked up her phone and threw them at him in irritation. He caught them it of the air.

"Everybody is cooking a meal for you tonight. You didn't eat this time did you?" He asked mildly.

"No not this time." Bella smiled. She peered out the windscreen at the encroaching darkness and Edward pointed out the opening she could still barely see that lead to their house. The gravel road crunched noisily underneath the wheels of her truck as she pulled up to the front of the house and Edward was at her door opening it before she even realised he had exited the car. The smell of burnt pot hit her nostrils as soon as she walked in the front door and Edward blanched.

"Oh god. Oh no!" He choked and then in a flash of movement was gone. Bella blinked and skipped up the staircase to join him in the kitchen where he was desperately trying to stir a pot of food in order to save it. Alice looked up from her lazy position on the couch.

"I told her it was going to burn. No one paid any attention." She stretched like a cat and then curled up; smiling at Bella with half-lidded eyes. "Hello Bella. I hope you're not hungry."

"Shut up!" Rosalie hissed from her position from behind the kitchen bench. She snatched the pot off Edward -grasping it by the red-hot bottom, not that it bothered her- and slammed it down on the marble bench-top. "Esme insisted I cook something. I don't see why I must." Rosalie narrowed her thick-lashed eyed at Bella and twisted her full lips into a snarl. "This stuff smells foul anyway."

"Start again." Alice suggested. "It'll work out if you start again."

It was the last thing Rosalie wanted to do but she submerged the pot in the sink, contents and all, and began scrubbing it out furiously. Within seconds she had worn the scrubbing brush down.

"Goddamnit!" She screeched as she threw it across the room, denting the wall. "These stupid things are so flimsy!"

"Can I be of any assistance?" Edward asked tentatively.

"Don't even- too late." Alice began and then turned back to the television she was barely watching. "They just never learn. No one listens. No one."

"Uh, I could help?" Bella put forward to Rosalie. The blonde woman immediately spun on her.

"Oh that would be perfect wouldn't it? Utterly perfect!" And then resumed utterly ignoring her. Jasper strolled into the room and stiffened when he caught scent of Bella.

"How nice to see you." He murmured; looking anything but pleased. Alice laughed her wind-chime laugh and leapt forward to grab him by the arms and pull him down into her embrace on the couch. She played with his hair lazily.

"Rosalie is still cooking the meal." She said happily as her partner registered the tension in the room and took steps to correct it. The atmosphere visibly relaxed and Bella suddenly felt like sidling up to Edward.

"See, they're trying!" He said happily. Alice snorted from her position on the couch and nuzzled Jasper's face. Emmett then wandered in.

"Ah! Bella!" He exclaimed. He was at her side in seconds, squeezing her in a bear hug. "You're why the house smells terrible!" He said, in reference to the food. "Rosalie!" He grinned; abruptly letting Bella go and strolling over to his partner. "What on earth is in the sink?"

Rosalie pulled her hands from the gluggy mess she was trying to fix and then scowled as she pulled the plug.

"I'm through." She announced to no one in particular. Suddenly Bella didn't too hungry anymore. She wandered away from Edward's side and surveyed the room and its inhabitants surreptitiously. There was Jasper and Alice snuggled up on the couch, Emmett laughingly trying to placate Rosalie in the kitchen and Edward lounging against the countertop idly contemplating the ceiling. She felt out of place.

Okay, it wasn't just because she was the only human in a room of vampires, but suddenly Bella was very aware that all these people weren't friendly with each other because they were 'family', but because they were actually friends.

Hastily, Bella tried to count the number of friends she possessed and couldn't come up with anyone she had more than a surface relationship with. Edward noticed her face going stark white.

"What's wrong?" He demanded as he sped over to her. They were ignored by everyone in the room and Bella had to grab a hold of him as the room spun.

"I feel dizzy." Bella said in surprise as her stomach pained and she doubled over. All of a sudden Alice was aware of the two as Jasper picked up the discrepancy in the room.

"We need Carlisle." Alice informed them.