This chapter is dedicated to my bff who is nothing like Jen character wise, and different in looks but no less pretty. And tanned for once! Love you!

I only own, Lucy, Jen, Matt and the plot. The rest belongs to Stephenie Meyer

Chapter 10 – Mistake and Memories

Lucy's POV

At the end of the day we drove back home in near silence. I had confided a lot to Alice and in doing so, we had bonded.

I also had enough clothes that I could wear a different outfit everyday for a month and not run out. I didn't know where it was all going to go, but Alice didn't seem fazed by it and I wasn't about to ask her and break the comfortable silence between us.

Alice, however, felt no compunction. Nearing the house she asked

"Can I tell the others what you told m today? There are no secrets in our house anyway, due to certain abilities."

"If you must." I mumbled. I didn't particularly mind but I resented the lack of choice.

Alice pulled into the annoyingly long drive and began winding her way up it. As we reached the house she stiffened, her nostrils flaring. I sniffed the air.

The smell of wet dog hit me like a ton of bricks.

"Oh joy!" I said, "The dawgs are here."

Bella and Edward met us at the door.

"Good trip?" Bella asked a small smile on her face.

"Brilliant!" gushed Alice, her grin twice the size of Bella's. "We found everything that Lucy needed."

"And how did you find it Lucy? Put off for life yet?" chuckled Edward.

"Actually, I really enjoyed it; I haven't had a proper shopping trip for a few years now!"

We moved into the living room as Alice excitedly went through every single purchase we'd made that day.

"Alice," I pleaded, pre-empting what she was about to move onto, "Not the underwear, please!"

A deep laugh issued from the sofa where Seth sat.

"Is it sexy?" he grinned, his black eyes twinkling.

"None of your business mutt!" I shot at him.

"Mutt? That's a new one. Is it English?"

"No," I said scathingly, "You're just thick!"

Except I actually said 'fick', my accent appearing for the first time in more than eight years, for no apparent reason. Normally it only appeared if I was stressed or tired or scared. I had worked hard to erase it form my voice, but I obviously hadn't been as successful as I had hoped. Of course Seth picked up on it immediately.

"Fick? What's fick? That has to be English!" he chortled.

"You fink my accent is funny, do you?" I accentuated it and tried to make it more menacing, but failing when I started giggling. Damn it the dogs laugh was infectious!

"My God; it laughs!"

I sobered up immediately, narrowing my eyes at him.

"I laugh!" I snapped.

"Na-ah, I don't think so! Or at least when you do its bitter."

"Well sorry for not being so carefree! What if, just maybe you're jokes aren't funny! Have you thought about that?"

"Whoa baby, cool down. I was only joking."

"Well it wasn't funny! And don't call me baby! Only Matt could call me baby!"

I froze. What had I said? I couldn't believe it. I had been trying so hard over the past few days to keep him out of my head so that Edward wouldn't know and then I n two seconds flat I'd blurted out to everyone. Stupid temper!

Mum was right – I do have foot-in-mouth disease!

"Who's Matt?" asked Seth, trying to sound casual, but I could see the tension in his face and hear the jealousy in his voice.

"Nothing. No one." I cried desperately hoping they would believe me.

They didn't. I had to get out of there. At once.

In an instant, I was gone, invisible and out of the house. My stride didn't falter as I cleared the river, almost without thinking. A small part of my mind wondered why I had been so afraid of falling in but I shut it up quickly. That wasn't important.

I couldn't go back there. Not now. They would want to know, and although I felt the most comfortable I'd been with other people since my family, with the exception of Matt, I wasn't ready for them to know my deepest darkest secret. No one knew. No one could know. It was too shameful.

Presently I slowed and, still invisible, scrambled up a tree. Resting on a branch I let the memories come. The day we met…

I noticed him come into the dining room. I'd never seen him before so he must be new. I could name every single student in the school. And their families. I needed to. So they wouldn't suffer any tragic deaths the way my family had, although I'd survived, in a way. These wouldn't. It was a difficult way to live, trying to find enough food to survive and not lose control, especially in England, where unexplained disappearances were pounced upon by the press, but I'd chosen to live this way instead of nomadic. I'd never enjoyed travelling anyway.

"Looks like we've got a newbie." I commented to my friend, Jenny.

"Where?" she said, looking up.

"Over there, just joined the queue." I indicated with my head.

She craned her neck and spotted him. Her face lit up. "Ooh, he's cute. Wonder what year he's in?"

Cute? I studied him. He was rather good looking but nothing special. Dirty blond hair, rather tanned, though Lord knows how; it just being after Christmas in wet, dreary Birmingham – even I didn't stand out here – and the bluest eyes I'd ever seen. However he was lanky, tall and thin. Muscles? If there were any, they weren't very defined and hidden under his school uniform. All in all not fantastic, to be honest.

"Dunno. He looks about our age though." Our age being thirteen, nearly, fourteen.

"Yeah, you're right." Jen agreed, "Do you want first dibs, or can I have them?"

"You go ahead." I laughed. Laughter was a lot more of a common occurrence then. "But I might change my mind."

Why did I say that? There was no chance that I could get that close to a human. Even Jen, who was technically my best friend here, wasn't that close to me. It was too dangerous. She realised that, though not consciously.

"Score!" she giggled. "Hope he is in our year; that would make it so much easier for me to nab him." She either hadn't heard my last comment or was ignoring it.

"Don't you want to get to know him first? He might be a real arsehole."

"Don't care! He's too hot for me to leave alone! I'd want him, even if he was an arsehole."

"But what if another girl wants him as well?" I asked, Like me? A small voice muttered in my head but I told it to shut up. Like I said, I couldn't get that close. Ever.

"They don't stand a chance against me." She pronounced confidently.

She was right, she had long, wavy, honey coloured hair and eyes that changed colour in the light. Sometimes green, others hazel. Occasionally they even seemed blue. They were much nicer than my red-black ones. Jen called them 'unusual', whereas I said 'freaky' although only I knew the reason for the changes. She had a clear complexion and a body to die for. She was neither too tall nor too short. To sum up she was gorgeous and she could get any guy she wanted. I knew she would have no trouble snagging this one.

"Well, then, for his sake, I hope he's in our year then too!" I snorted. "Come on we need to go or we'll be late for registration."

"One minute, then we can leave at the same time as him. Look, he's nearly finished!"

I rolled my eyes. "Fine. But if we're late…"

"Don't be such a prude. You can be late for once in your life."

I smiled. We hadn't been late and Jen even managed to accidentally on purpose bump into him, while I was still putting my tray away. It wasn't until Maths, last lesson of the day that I got a chance to talk to him myself.

"See ya then!" called Jen. "Enjoy top set Maths."

I laughed. I couldn't get over the irony that if I was human our roles would have been reversed.

In the classroom, everyone was chatting, getting their books out in preparation for the lesson. I sat by myself, like usual. Jen was the only one brave enough or stupid enough to sit with me. But she had loads of other friends who would occasionally consent to be near me.

Suddenly I noticed that the new guy had entered the room.

I chuckled to myself. He was in our year then. Jen would be pleased.

And also insanely jealous that she wasn't in top set and I was. I would just have to offer to introduce her or something if I got a chance to talk to him. I snorted. It was, highly unlikely I would ever exchange more than a few words with him. It wasn't like I was popular and he had that look that immediately screamed cool to the world. He would have girls lapping at his feet.

"Alright class settle down now. We're carrying on with the work form last lesson. And you are?" Ms Fox turned to the new boy in her usual direct way.

"Matthew Porter, miss, I'm new here."

"Oh, yes well, you'd better sit down. There's a seat by Lucy. Lucy, will you make sure he knows what he's doing?"

I groaned, too low for human hearing, and then nodded my head. It looked like my prediction was wrong. He was probably an arrogant idiot, who thought he knew more than he actually did.

Matthew dumped the books Ms Fox had just given him on the desk then sat down, shrugging his bag off his shoulder. His blood caused slightly more than the usual pains of being in such close proximity to a human, but it wasn't so bad that I couldn't resist it and it didn't even cause me to be curious about him. A little difference in appeal was natural.

"Hi Matthew." I said, cringing at how formal I sounded.

"Ugh. Please, call me Matt."

"Gladly."

"Hi Gladly!" he grinned.

I laughed. "Actually, it's Lucy." I corrected, still chuckling.

"I know, I heard. Now what are we doing?"

He was very good at Maths. He told me he'd already done most of it and so it was easy. He was almost as quick as I was and soon caught up with the rest of the class, though it wasn't really that hard.

Normally I found Maths incredibly boring. Once you grasped the basic concept it was just a matter of practising to remember it, which was pretty pointless for me. I'd also understood it three schools ago. But that lesson was the best one I'd had all year. At the end I realised I didn't want to introduce Jen to Matt. I didn't want her getting her claws into him. I'd seen the messes that were boys after she'd grown bored and discarded them like objects.

I didn't want that happening to Matt. But why? That question kept me preoccupied all night. Why did I feel so protective of him, especially from Jen?

The pain was building. Had I known, then, what would happen? No, I can't have. And even if I had, would I have run? Of course I couldn't answer that. I could never have guessed what was to come, and I was too selfish anyway. I never tried to run even when I endangered his life…

In the end I decided it was because he was so nice and completely opposite to what I thought he would be like. He was funny generous and not scared of me at all.

I didn't let on to Jen that I sat next to him when I informed her that he was indeed in our year, but she found out anyway. She had spies everywhere. She was angry for that but I calmed he down by claiming I didn't think it was that big a deal as I had no interest in him in that way.

But that was a lie. Maybe I wasn't quite there yet, but I was certainly intrigued by him. I spent longer than necessary checking out his family and seeing what he liked to do. I suddenly found myself having an interest in cars when I heard that his favourite sport was racing. But I resolved to keep my feelings to myself even if it meant I turned into a bit of a stalker.

Anyway, after that I couldn't keep Jen away from him. She devised elaborate plots to get near him and to get to know him, flirting endlessly. But to my immense relief, he didn't seem interested. However I was still not going to –

A twig snapped very close by and I suddenly became aware of heavy breathing. I froze, checked I was still invisible then silently went into my crouch while I waited to see who or what was nearby.

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