Disclaimer: I do not own these characters or the universe S Meyer created. There may (or may not) be strong language or subjects in this chapter...

I'm Cool?
Chapter 8

I rocked on my heels nervously waiting outside on the Brandon's front porch. Friday night, Jasper returned to the bonfire alone with red eyes and a blank expression. We'd left soon after that and Jaz remained in that quiet state reciting random facts ever since.

Like that minus 40 degrees Celsius is exactly the same as minus 40 degrees Fahrenheit…

And the country with the most post offices is India with over 152,000, compared with just over 38,000 in the United States…

It was seriously depressing to see him mope around… especially since it was I who caused it. So that's why I was standing out here late Sunday night shivering my toes off.

"Oh hello Bella?" Mrs. Brandon greeted me surprised as she opened the door.

"Hi Mrs. Brandon, I'm sorry it's late, but may I speak to Alice for just a moment?" I asked politely.

"Of course, go on up, she's sulking in her room," she pulled open her door smiling. I stumbled up the stairs and easily found Alice's room. She had one of those girly decorative, dry erase boards hanging on her door, and on it was scribbled I think I'm drowning – asphyxiated…

"What!" Alice's moan sounded through the door after I knocked. "Mom I don't want to talk about it," she groaned when I opened her door sticking my head in.

I wasn't sure what I expected Alice's room to be like, but this wasn't it. White walls. Creamy carpets. Chocolate colored bed sheets on a big bed. Posters of famous paintings. A large mirror above the dresser. And a small bulletin board over her desk covered in photos. It was really calm and soothing for someone so... energetic and popular.

"Um, is it okay if I come in?" I asked uncomfortably seeing Alice bundled up in a pile of blankets on her bed. She was sniffling with a box of tissues next her and a copy of Sense and Sensibility in her hands.

"You?!" Alice squeaked sitting up. "What are you doing here?!"

"I'm sorry," I winced shutting the door behind me. I really should have rehearsed before coming over here.

"You're sorry? Sorry?! I'm the one who's sorry!" she said, her voice dripping with sarcasm. "I'm sorry that I can't help being flirty. I'm sorry that I believe in true love, so I go on lots of dates. How else am I supposed to find my soul mate? I've only kissed eight guys; that's not half of Forks," she grumbled.

"Don't break up with Jasper," I interrupted her rant.

"What?" she looked at me confused.

"I'm sorry for what I said, I shouldn't have said it. But don't let me get in the way of a good thing because Jasper is a really good thing," I told her staring down at her photos on the bulletin board. I noticed many of them were of three small children. A chubby boy with a head full of curls, a toothy Alice, and a pointy faced boy with bright red hair. It didn't hit me right away, but I realized it was Emmett and Edward when I saw Alice kissing the pointy faced boy on the cheek as he grimaced.

"He broke up with me," she whimpered so softly I almost didn't catch it.

"What? Why?" I looked up at her.

"I got mad and said some things… what does Bella Swan know? She's just rejected loser; she can't even get a date," she shook her head. "I'm sorry I said those things, but I was just so mad that you practically called me a whore and … I was jealous. He always talks about you - Bella this and Bella one time – I felt like I was competing with you. And when I was done ranting, he said that none of what you said mattered, kissed me, and then said we were over."

"Oh Jasper," I groaned suppressing the urge to smack someone. "Alice, I'm sorry I didn't know. From the way he's been acting… I thought you… How can you be jealous of me? You're perfect."

"I'm hardly perfect. I can point out a million things wrong with me like my hair. It's so thin I have to keep it short, and you have such nice long wavy hair. And I guess I'm not the nicest person in the world which is why Jasper broke up with me." She picked up another tissue and wiped her nose.

"One thing you have to understand about Jasper is that he is a fierce protector of his family. And I have… secrets that no one can ever find out about. He's just too loyal; he'll do anything to protect a friend. I mean you saw him at the theater when he punched that guy."

"Yeah, but I really thing I messed things up. I don't know if he'll take me back," she cried.

"Alice… Jasper really likes you. He may talk about me all the time, but trust me, he thinks about you all the time. He's been mooning over you for months, and now I'm going to kill him for doing this. He'll take you back, I promise," I told her as her face brightened.

"Really?" she asked hopeful.

"Really," I nodded as she jumped up from her spot on the bed and hugged me.

"Thanks for coming over," she whispered. "I see why Jasper talks about you so much."

"How about we just start over?" I asked her as she released me. "We'll just put all this behind us and forget it." The same idea had worked with Edward and we were now … sort of friends every other day.

"Sounds like a good idea… do you maybe want to go shopping sometime next week?" she asked plucking used tissues from the floor.

"Uh sure," I grimaced.

I walked home at a fast pace thinking over what Alice had said. I couldn't believe what Jasper did ending his, barely there, relationship with Alice just because she'd said some things about me. Never mind, I could because that's how Jasper is. Always choosing others instead of himself. I need to remind him that he needs to come first with a swift kick to the shin… and a big bag of oatmeal raisin cookies.

"You're an idiot," I mumbled tossing a bag of cookies at Jasper as I fell into the backseat. I'd stayed up late baking cookies, so now I was tired and my head hurt.

"What?" he turned to look at me.

"You're an idiot. Rose, did you know he broke up with Alice?"

"What?!" she yelled, her foot on the brakes jolting me forward in my seat. "You moped around all weekend!"

"I don't want to talk about it," he mumbled turning up the radio.

When we got to school, Alice was waiting, bouncing on her toes, by her yellow bug. She hurried over to Jasper, and Rose and I watched as they exchanged words. Jasper whipped his head to me and looked back down at Alice nodding a little. A few minutes later, Jasper opened the bag of cookies offering one to her and slugged his arm around her as they walked into the school.

"Well that was stupid," Rose muttered.

"Yeah, he did it for me, you know?"

"Why?" she raised an eyebrow.

"She was mad and called me a loser, and he broke it off."

"Of course he did," she shook her head. "How do you even know this?"

"I went to her house last night."

"Of course you did," she roller her eyes, smirking at me.

"Hey Rosalie." Emmett appeared next to us with a goofy smile on his face. "Oh before I forget Bella, Edward's home sick today and I was wondering if you could tell me whatever he missed later."

"Yeah sure, is he okay?" I asked chewing on my lip.

"Yeah, he'll be fine; it's just a bug. This morning I found him passed out in the bathtub with his pillow. Apparently he'd been awake all night throwing up. It wasn't pretty."

"I'm sure he feels better now," Rose started a light conversation with him. I zoned out following them into the building.

By fourth period I was ready to go home. I couldn't get any of my math problems right, Mrs. Chea gave us a pop quiz which I hadn't studied for, and everyone had been staring at me. Apparently my friendly relationship with "the Wolves" was too shocking for the normal kids to believe.

I was late for lunch because I dropped my books while I was at my locker, and Lauren kicked my math book down the hall away from me. I mean who does that? Rose told me one time that Lauren had seen too many mean girls, but I didn't really understand what she meant. By the time, I got my tray and made my way over to the table it was completely packed except for my seat covered with Rose and Emmett's books. Even tables around it were filled with other kids who usually sat somewhere else in the cafeteria. I spotted Angela sitting with her younger brother Connor and decided to join them.

"Hey Bella, how are you?" she smiled warmly at me.

"Good, is it okay if I sit here?" I asked shuffling my feet by her table.

"Yeah, it'd be cooler to sit with someone else besides my sister," Connor joked as I sat down.

"What? I get you like ten cool points for just being you're sister," Angela scoffed at him.

"Yeah, well Bella probably gives me at least fifteen," he laughed as she pinched his elbow. I admired their close relationship wanting a younger sibling. The boys from the Rez were pretty close, but those relationships changed when they hit thirteen and discovered my girly parts...

"Ben!" I startled him as he walked passed us. "Sit with us," I said kicking the chair across from me out from under the table. I glanced at Angela and Connor to make sure it was okay.

"Yeah join us Ben," he smiled cheekily at Angela knowing about her small crush. "I need all the cool points I can get." Ben looked over at his usual table to see that Eric and Tyler had ditched him for mine.

"Alright," he smiled at Angela. "What are cool points?" As Connor explained the freshman game to him, I felt two more chairs pull out beside me. Rosalie and Jasper gave me small apologetic smiles.

"What about Alice?" I asked Jasper glancing at our old table as Emmett joined us.

"What about you?" he shrugged continuing his lunch. I gaped at him frustrated. He didn't need to mess up his relationship with Alice; he'd already proven that he was a good friend way too many times.

"No twins are worth extra even if one of them is a dude." Connor was having a spaz attack as Ben and Angela were helping him calculate his cool points.

"Any more room?" Alice asked standing by our table looking for room. I started to move my chair over to make space, but Jasper pulled her down onto his lap. She blushed a light pink when he whispered in her ear.

Connor was ridiculously happy as we left lunch waving a sheet of paper to the other freshmen that he had over 400 cool points, and I couldn't help but smile at Ben and Angela as we made our way to biology.

Lunch had been the best part of my day. Biology, we had an incredibly long lab that I barely finished, and I had to finish the post lab questions for homework. In gym, we had to run laps because half the class decided to skip instead of taking the fitness test. Which usually I didn't mind running, but I had to take off my hoodie and I didn't like sharing my fruits with everyone staring.

When I got home, I didn't realize what I was doing until I was done. I stood in front of the stove staring down at a large saucepan of chicken soup. It was what I always did when someone got sick – for Dad, Jaz, Rose, the Goldsteins, everyone, and Edward was my friend… as far as I knew. It had become a common routine. Friendly for a few days and then one day of hatred. Repeat. Hopefully today was the day of hatred and I missed out on it.

I walked the back trail to the Cullens bypassing the meadow and carefully avoiding overgrown roots on the old path up to the house with the Tupperware that Edward and Emmett brought me, full of my chicken soup. I hesitated on the front porch not wanting to go inside. The last time I had been here I ended up puking in the bushes, and this time I had to face Mrs. Cullen. I wondered if she even knew how to make a decent bowl of chicken soup or at least know how to use a can opener. I mean she couldn't even decorate her own house; she had to use Tilde's old furniture…

Yeah that shit still bothered me.

The opening of the front door startled me as Emmett came out with a cell phone stuck to his ear not noticing me, "Hm-hhmm, yeah… Thanks I'll… Sure no… Oh!" He jumped back pulling the phone away from his ear when he turned. "Shit Bella, you scared me!"

"Sorry, I brought soup." I held out the container to give him, hoping I could do a hit and run and that I wouldn't have to actually go inside.

"Oh thanks that's perfect. My mom just left to get some groceries and Edward's awake," he leaned over and opened the door for me. "You can go in and I'll be in a minute."

I thanked the nice god, staring down at the hardwood floor making my way to the kitchen. At least I wouldn't have to meet Mrs. Cullen. Not today and hopefully not ever. I easily found the old utensil drawer and wondered if Edward liked using a spoon or a fork. I'd always just assumed that everybody used a spoon, but Rose and Jaz both used a fork. It must have been a strange Hale family habit.

"Fuck! Dammit!" A loud, croaky voice came from the living room with the sound of glass breaking. I peeked in the living room and found a distressed Edward. He stood staring down at the green ceramic pieces on the floor muttering something incomprehensible. Even Sick Edward was beautiful. His nose was pink and his hair stacked in ever direction, and he wore a navy blue robe with his thick glasses. He was still even wearing that leather bracelet...

"Edward?"

"Bella?" he said in a loud voice, looking up at me.

"I brought soup. You know, to return the favor." I nodded to the container in my hands walking towards him.

"I just broke this," he continued loudly. He continued staring down at the broken vase pulling at his hair.

"It's okay I'll fix it. Here, you eat this," I told him softly like I was talking to a child.

I handed him the soup as he sat down on the sofa. I had to bite the inside of my cheek when he looked at the fork for a long moment before setting it down on the coffee table and started spooning carrots. Turning back to the ceramic pieces, I found the bottle of glue in its same place, and started gluing it back together. The vase was Tilde's and had actually been broken so many times that it only broke into a few pieces. I wondered briefly about not even fixing it and letting them think that I tossed the pieces away.

"Sorry about that. Jessica Stanley is worse than Alice on the phone. I'd start to say goodbye and she'd basically start the conversation all over," Emmett grumbled coming back into the house.

"Why were you on the phone with Jessica?"

"Because she was asking about Edward," he said coming into the room.

"If I could murder a nose, I would kill my nose right off my face," Edward chewed thoughtfully.

"Oh… Bella you don't have to fix that. I can do it," Emmett tried shooing me away from mess on the floor.

"No, it's okay. I don't mind…. How you feeling Edward?" I looked at him as he sip from the bowl.

"I feel like I need Chapstick for it, it's so raw and chapped. Do you think they would make shit like that? The Chapstick for the nose?" Edward looked at us.

"I think that might be Vaseline," Emmett suggested lightly to him.

"And my throat is all scratchy and I can't breathe through my nose, so I have to breathe through my mouth and it just irritates it more. The Chapstick for the nose people can also make Draino for the throat. Or is there already something like that?"

"No, I don't think so. Maybe you can write a letter," I bit my lip to keep myself from laughing as I finished gluing the last piece. Sick Edward was very… adorable.

"I think I'm suffocating. I'm dying. Feel my forehead Bella." Edward reached for my hand and placed it against his head. "Oooh, you feel so cool," he nuzzled into my hand.

"He's been like this all day," Emmett shook his head as I pulled away. "It's driving Mom crazy."

"It's so hot in here, but then it gets so fucking cold," he groaned yanking off his robe so now he was just sitting there naked in his underwear. Emmett nearly fell over laughing and I looked away quickly. But I had to leave the room to keep myself from staring at his hard stomach and the light hairs that trickled south... I didn't need to ask; I knew that both Cullen boys worked out... and very frequently.

"Okay, he put his robe back on, but I'd appreciate it if you pretended that never happened. He might die of mortification if he remembers that he stripped in front of you." Emmett chuckled rubbing the back of his neck.

"Yeah, no problem," I tried hiding my face. "I'm going to use your restroom real quick." I duck down the hall as he followed me.

"It's the third door-" he started as I pulled open the narrow door. Anyone else would have mistaken it as a closet.

"Oh okay," he looked surprised before turning on his heel.

I splashed my face with cold water to wipe away the redness in my cheeks; the image of Edward sitting in a pair of black boxer briefs still burned into my eyelids. After I patted dry my face, I looked around the small bathroom. Like the rest of the house it was still the same as it had been ten years ago. Flowery wall paper with the same dark green accents. Even the same photograph of a giant Ferris wheel hung on the opposite wall of the mirror.

I heard a new voice as I walked down the hall. Emmett was chatting away with a woman in the other room. No doubt it was Mrs. Cullen, perfect mother and housewife.

"Why is there glue on his face?"

"Who knows?" Emmett lied.

"So where is this Bella?"

"Oh she's in the bathroom. You know she found it on the first try? I still keep opening the basement door when I gotta go," Emmett laughed.

"I know, I think we should hang a sign or something for you boys," she laughed and I felt goose bumps appear up my arm. It sounded so familiar, it was eerie.

"Hey Bella, come meet my mom!" Emmett appeared in the hallway in front of me and pulled me into the living room. The woman was beautiful and slender with caramel colored hair. Definitely perfect and also shockingly familiar.

"Mom this Bella Swan, and Bella this is my-"

"Esme?" I squinted my eyes at her confused. What was Esme Masen doing here? She sold the house to the Cullens. She sold it...

"You know my mom?" he looked at me before turning toward Esme. "You told me that you wanted to meet her..."

"Hi Bella," she smiled at me. "I wasn't sure if you would- oomph!" I cut her off with a strong hug. She hadn't sold the house. She wasn't a traitor!

"I'm sorry," I whispered trying my best not to cry. I was just so relieved.

"Oh for what to do you have to be sorry about?"

"I may have thought about some bad things about you when I thought you had sold the house. I was just so angry," I murmured as she squeezed me tighter.

"I'm so sorry. I wasn't sure if you'd remember me or if you wanted to see me," she apologized pulling away to look at me. "I called Charlie, but he said you'd never talk about her, so I tried to get one of the boys to bring you over after they mentioned you."

"What the Imes is going on?" Emmett asked confused.

"Tilde, Esme's mother used to babysit me when I was younger," I explained as Esme scoffed.

"Please, Bella was part of the family. She treated you like a granddaughter," she grinned. "You and Charlie should come over Sunday for dinner. Hopefully Edward will be feeling better by then," she said glancing back at him. He'd disrobed again, and I had to keep averting my eyes away from him. Four Eyes Edward in his underwear should be illegal. It probably was in some counties.

"So Bella's like my sister," Emmett knitted his eyes at us confused. "That's cool... Hey Edward did you hear that? Bella's our sister!" He smiled cheekily at him.

"Shut it," Edward grumbled mumbling something under his breath. And there he was - Grouchy Edward... apparently today was the day of hatred.

AN: Raise your hand if you didn't see that coming. Oh, no one? Okay… that was the big reveal… told you it wasn't much.

Sorry this one's short too… and I don't like it much either – less than the last one. It all seems very… forced. Urg.

I think my guy friends did the cool points thing sometime in sophomore year. They didn't actually keep track of them or had rules but they were always subtracting or adding.

Fact: I wrote the snippet of Edward being sick way back in December when I had a cold. Pretty much everything he said were my exact words… which is kind of embarrassing. : )

Next chapter is Bella's birthday…

THANKS FOR READING!!