A/N: Hi everyone! I hope you are enjoying this story. I mentioned in the first author's note that I would be adding my own personality into Bella's. Well in this chapter, Bella recites a sonnet that I actually wrote myself. Everything in this story is my own work and I ask that if you don't like my sonnet, please dont make fun of me for it. As Bella tells Alice and Rosalie, I've never shared my poems with anyone so if you hate it, don't tell me. I hope you do enjoy it though. You can read this poem and others i've written about Twilight in my new story 'Twilight Poems'. Thanks for reading!

emeralda violeta

Chapter Eight: Shopping and Sonnets

I woke up briefly in the middle of the night. I wasn't sure if I was still dreaming but I thought I saw a dark shadow flit across my window. It was shaped like a person but that was impossible; I was on the second floor. I shrugged and rolled over, sleep not very far off.

I woke up again at 8:30 on Saturday morning. Wearing my most comfortable clothes and shoes seemed like a good idea so I pulled on my favorite pair of jeans and a green tee shirt. My feet went into my favorite black boots. Then I went to my closet to grab my purse, which my wallet and journal went into.

Charlie was already gone by the time I got downstairs to eat breakfast. As usual, I had a bowl of cereal for breakfast. I thought about Emmett while I ate and brushed my teeth. His sisters were my friends and I was his girlfriend. Maybe life in Forks wouldn't be so bad.

At ten o'clock on the dot, there came a knock on the front door. When I answered, Alice stood on the porch. Over her thin shoulder, I saw a red convertible behind my truck. Behind the wheel, Rosalie waved at me.

"Good morning, Bella." Alice sang. "Ready to go?"

"Hi, Alice. Yep, let's go." I smiled. She grabbed my hand and towed me to the car, just as excited as she could be. I noticed that her hand, very small even in mine, was just as hard and cold as Emmett's. It was nice and comforting.

"Here, you can have the front seat." Alice offered as we reached the car.

"Hey, Bella. How was your evening?" Rosalie asked as I slid into the seat next to her, an interesting grin on her face.

"Hi, Rosalie. Not bad, how was yours?" I asked politely. She was headed down my street now.

"Oh, the usual. Missing Edward, hanging out with Alice. I talked to Edward a little last night. They'll call around noon today. Emmett wants to make sure we're treating you ok." Rosalie answered.

"Why wouldn't I be ok with you? Or is Emmett just worried about me in general?" I asked, hoping to glean some information from them.

"Emmett just cares about. That and you know that we aren't human. He's worried about how you will do with us." Alice answered form behind me.

"Oh. You're right that I know you aren't human. I just don't know what you are." I said. Maybe they would tell me what I so desperately wanted to know.

"Emmett wants to tell you that himself. You should probably hear it from him anyway. You'll take it better if you find out from him." Rosalie said then reached out and patted my hand.

I thought about that for a minute. There was silence in the car as they waited for me to say something. Finally, I found my voice and said, "You should know, I don't care what you guys are. I'm not afraid of you and I don't care that you aren't human."

"Really? You sure about that?" Rosalie asked skeptically.

"Yes, I don't care what you are. It doesn't matter. Besides, if you guys were going to hurt me, you would have already. Emmett wouldn't have saved my life or asked me out if he didn't care about me." I had thought about this all last night and most of this morning. I loved Emmett and would continue to love him no matter what he turned out to be. It didn't matter. All that mattered is the way I feel about him. My decision was made: living without him was intolerable, unbearable. Not being around him was simply not an option.

"You're really brave, you know that?" Rosalie commented, slightly awed.

"Yes, she is." Alice agreed." Bella, you can handle the truth. Hold on to your conviction and you'll be fine."

Alice and Rosalie were something else when it came to shopping. We went to every store in Port Angeles. They refused to let me pay for anything and we always walked out of the store with at least one bag. I guess they had a lot of money.

At noon, the guys called. First, Rosalie talked to Edward. Alice went with me to get some lunch. She didn't buy anything for herself or Rosalie though. When we got back to the table we left Rosalie and the bags at, she immediately passed me the phone.

"Hello? Emmett?"

"Hey, Bella. How's the shopping? Did you sleep well last night?" Emmett asked me in a tender voice. I loved it.

"Yes, I slept well last night. The shopping is ok. My feet are starting to hurt from it but it's tolerable. How was your evening?" I was touched that Emmett cared enough to ask me about how I slept.

"It was fine. I think I'm driving Edward crazy, though." Emmett chuckled. Even more than I love his voice, I love the sound of his laugh.

"Oh, why's that? You being annoying, Emmett?" I teased him.

"Can't stop thinking about you. I'm distracted and he's ready to push me off a cliff." I couldn't tell if he was joking or not. I loved that he thought of me so often. He really was the sweetest boy I had ever met.

"Well, you'll be home tomorrow so try to enjoy the rest of your outing. I'm fine here so don't worry about me." My voice was almost a coo as I longed for him to be home.

"I know that. I still think about you, though. Hey guess what?" Emmett boomed at the end.

"What's that?"

"We were thinking about coming home early. Me missing you is making Edward miss Rosalie. Maybe we can be back by noon tomorrow." Emmett sounded excited.

"I miss you, too." I admitted shyly.

There was a pause and then: "Definitely coming home early."

"Are you at least having some fun? I've tried to enjoy myself without you." I had a feeling he wasn't.

"Sure. I always enjoy myself. I'm glad you're having fun with my sisters. What are you doing right now?"

"Sitting down and I'm eating lunch. Rosalie and Alice are deciding where to go next. What about you?" I didn't know what exactly he was doing. I had never been camping before.

"Sitting on a stump, missing you. Edward is rolling his eyes at me." Emmett sounded extremely amused at that. "We're getting ready to go down the other side of this mountain."

I sighed. "You gotta go, huh?"

"Yeah. Hey, let me talk to Alice before I go. Miss you." Emmett sounded just as dejected as I felt. His 'miss you' sounded like he wanted to say more, it was just so full of affection. I couldn't wait for tomorrow.

"Miss you, too. Bye, Emmett." I said and handed the phone to Alice. She took it and started murmuring fast and soft.

Out of habit, I took out my journal and my favorite pencil and started to write. I started humming Taylor Swift's 'Our Song' as I began a new poem.

I miss you when you are not beside me

Waiting for you to come back to your home

Your perfect face I dearly wish to see

I will wait until the end of your roam

"What are you doing?" Rosalie's voice broke me out of my rhyme scheme. She was watching me intently, trying to decipher my writing.

"Oh, ah… I think the beginning of a sonnet. Not sure yet." I mumbled nervously. I never let anyone read my poems. Well, except for my mother.

Rosalie looked pleasantly surprised by my answer. "You write poetry? I didn't know that."

" A little, I guess. My mom read a poem I wrote for class once and encouraged me to keep at it. She gave me this to write in for my sixteenth birthday." I explained, holding my journal up. It was powder blue leather with a strip of leather that slid into a loop to keep it closed. I loved it and carried it with me so when I got inspired it was always there.

"I'd love to hear something you wrote. Unless you don't want to. I'll understand if you don't." Rosalie smiled at me like she wished I would but didn't want to push it.

"Um, sure. Let me find a good one." I said, flipping through my book.

"The guys will be home at noon tomorrow. We need to buy Bella something pretty to wear when she sees Emmett." Alice announced. "Whatcha doing, Bella?" she asked as she craned her neck to see my journal.

I blushed. "I was going to recite a poem I wrote to you two."

Alice squealed. "Yay! I bet it's fabulous."

I blushed even more deeply. "Not really. Here's a sonnet I wrote called Behind My Mask.

What do you see when you look at me?

Who I truly am I can't really show

Because what you see, it's not really me

The real me, you don't really know."

I stopped after the first stanza and looked up. Alice was beaming like the sun. Rosalie had let her mouth fall open.

"You didn't like it?" I asked shyly. I knew I shouldn't have read my work. I expose way too much of myself like that. I'm not very good anyway. I should just-

"No, we loved it. It's just that we can relate so well to that. It surprised me just how much that relates to us." Rosalie said quickly.

"Oh, really?" I asked, suspiciously. They nodded. "Would you like to hear the rest of it?"

"There's more?" Alice asked excitedly.

"Yep. That was the first stanza of a sonnet." I explained.

"Please, would you finish reciting it for us?" Rosalie smiled imploringly at me. I nodded.

"Behind my mask, a tortured soul lies there

You can't see what I'm too afraid to show

The real me up you would surely tear

Behind my mask you don't really know.

Tried to fit into a stupid mold

Created a mask to hide who I am

The real me out I have surely sold

Sometimes I don't even know who I am.

Who I really am, I want you to see

Behind my mask I will no longer be."

I waited for them to say something. Finally, they said in unison, "that was beautiful!"

I smiled. "Thanks. I've never really fit in anywhere so I pretend to. To be honest, I've never felt more comfortable with anyone than I do with you guys, except Emmett. My mom is my best friend and we are on two totally different pages half the time." I admitted with a chuckle.

"Really? That's how we feel. People tend to stay away from us and it's dangerous to get close to humans because of what we are." Rosalie said with a smile.

"But with you? Non-issue. You understand what it's like to be on the fringe of things. You just sorta belong here." Alice said matter-of-factly.

"I'm claustrophobic so I don't like crowds. I deliberately put myself on the fringe. You do that to keep your secret, huh?" I knew I was right because that was why they kept to themselves.

"Ok, enough psychoanalysis. We need to find you the perfect outfit for tomorrow, Bella." Alice said, jumping up.

It was nearly 8:00 by the time Rosalie pulled up into my driveway. I was tired but I had a lot of fun. Alice and Rosalie were great, the best friends I could ever ask for. They were my boyfriend's sisters and my best friends so that made them even better.

Rosalie turned the car off and we all got out. The trunk was full of our bags so we had to figure out what I was taking and what was theirs. I ended up with four bags so they offered to help me take them up to my room. I turned to my house and noted that Charlie was already home. We walked up the drive and I let them into the house.

"Bella?" my dad called from the living room.

"Hey dad. Give us a minute and we'll come say 'hi'." I called back and headed for the stairs.

"Us? We?"

"Yeah. Alice and Rosalie are here. We're going to drop my bags in my room." I answered.

I opened my door and let them in. "Just set the bags on the floor. I know it's not much but I've only lived here about two months so I haven't had time to do anything to it." I said, grimacing at my shabby bedroom. The yellowing lace curtains and prehistoric computer assuredly paled in comparison to what they probably had.

"It's not bad but it doesn't reflect you. Esme would love to get her hands on this and redesign it for you." Alice said as she surveyed my bed.

Rosalie laughed. "Knowing you and Esme, you would want to redo the whole house and Chief Swan probably won't go for that. Alice, admit it, you tend to go overboard on things." Alice rolled her eyes at Rosalie.

"Esme? Your mother?" I asked.

"Yeah. Esme dabbles in architecture and home remodeling. She's fantastic with interior design." Alice replied.

"Cool. Come on, I'll show you the rest of the house." I said and headed to the hall. After pointing out the bathroom and Charlie's room, we went down to the living room. Charlie was sprawled out on the couch with his bare feet up. He immediately sat up and smoothed his curly hair when he saw Alice and Rosalie behind me.

"Dad, this is Alice and Rosalie. You know, Dr. Cullen's daughters." I introduced them.

"Hello, Chief Swan." Came the nearly unison greeting to my dad.

Charlie spluttered for a second. Then he collected himself and said, "Hello, Alice and Rosalie. Please, call me Charlie. Have a seat, there's some pizza in the kitchen if you're hungry."

"We can't. Our parents want us home soon. We just wanted to say hi." Alice explained, smiling.

"Ok, then say hi to your folks for me. Safe trip home, girls." Charlie smiled too.

"We will see you tomorrow, Bella. We'll be here at ten to get you." Rosalie moved to hug me but didn't get that far.

"What's that? You girls doing something tomorrow?" Charlie asked.

"Is it ok if Bella comes over to our house tomorrow, Charlie? We wanted to do a home spa day and Esme wants to meet Bella. Please, Charlie?" Alice lied smoothly about tomorrow's activity.

"Uh, sure. Just as long as Bella's homework doesn't get neglected." Charlie tried to play the responsible parent.

I rolled my eyes. "I did it last night."

"Ok, you can have her tomorrow, then." Charlie allowed.

"Yay! See you tomorrow Bella. Good night Charlie." Alice said.

After some 'good nights' and a slice of pizza, I went up the stairs and got ready for bed. Tomorrow couldn't come faster for me.