In the year 2020, Vampires took control of society and ordered all humans placed in vampire custody. The people who were not captured formed a Resistance movement, headed by the Human Council, who began to plan the Insurgence.

I am, of course, indebted to Stephanie Meyer for this world we all play in, and these characters we all adore. Additionally, I am indebted to hitntr01, who has graciously allowed me to use certain concepts from her wonderful story "In Need of Rescue", which constitute much of the background of my own story. These include: the language Vampiri, the Rules, the machines used to draw blood from humans, Manners Training, and the plot theme of Edward working as a guard at a facility holding humans. Thank you, hitntr01.

Chapter 20 - Manners Training – part 1

(Bella POV)

AUTHOR'S NOTE – I have posted a two chapter outtake, an alternate version of the original meeting between Carlisle and Bella. This version is much darker: in it Edward buys Bella from a pound in Seattle while she is on an undercover mission. When she gets to the Cullen mansion, Jasper and Emmett almost attack her on the front yard. I kind of like it better in some ways than the episode in Chicago which I used in the posted version of this story, but it didn't fit with my outline of the entire story, so I used the Chicago version of the meeting instead. Please check it out, if you are interested.

Now here's Chapter 20, and in this chapter, the Cullens meet the first of several characters from Bella's past:

It had been a nice day, no rain, and the entire Cullen family was visiting. We were all sitting outside in the early evening. Rosalie and Alice had smug looks on their face, and everyone had been talking around me, not talking to me. The mind reader tipped me off to the fact that Carlisle and Esme had decided to take Rosalie and Alice's concerns about the family's safety seriously on one point. They had decided I should go through Manners Training. I had been there for several months, and since no one had filed a counterclaim against the court ordered ownership Carlisle had obtained in Chicago, he had relaxed a bit and decided that probably no one would.

Crazy knew about Carlisle's court order ownership of me, but hadn't filed a counterclaim. She was going to pay a visit personally, but didn't want to put me in a situation where I was put in a pound while she and Carlisle went to court.

Manners Training was required of all human who lived in a vampire household. The humans who had been raised as pets and purchased in pet stores, had undergone training prior to their sale, and came with certificates of Manners Training completion. Since Carlisle had a court order for ownership, he had no proof I had undergone Manners Training, so he had arranged for a trainer to come to the house. He hadn't wanted to make a big deal about it to me, so they hadn't told me anything.

Emmett broke the silence with, "So, you're gonna learn manners today I hear?"

"What do you mean," I ask innocently.

"The Manners Training Lady is coming here in a while, you're going to be all…"Carlisle cut Emmett off, telling him quietly that I didn't know about the training.

Carlisle kneels in front of me. "Come inside, dear, Esme and I have something we would like to discuss with you," he begins.

"You're putting me through Manners Training because of my attitude lately?" I ask sweetly.

"No, dear," Esme begins. "We need to do this, because it is required that all humans…"

The doorbell rings, and as Carlisle and Esme go to answer the door, I am left sitting with Jasper. Jasper is sitting on an outdoor bench, with his arm loosely around my neck, while I'm sitting on the ground, messing with repotting some tomatoes for the garden. Carlisle had dressed me in an ivory dress today. And once I learned that he was planning this Manners Training session, I had decided to dig around in a little mud on the patio, which I accomplished by re-potting these tomatoes. After all, I am a teenager, and I've been managing to sneak in a bit of teenage rebellion occasionally. I'm sure I look quite glamorous by now. Esme had been patting away the mud as best she could all evening, so I had to be careful to make the swipes against my clothes and face rather hard to ensure the mud would stick.

I look back at Emmett, and say, very softly, "I guess I shouldn't tell them what happened the LAST time I had Manners Training."

Emmett grins and says "Out with it, how bad could it have been?"

"How about I trashed a five story building, and a few hours later somebody posted a $100,000 reward for my capture?" Gasps from the girls sitting on the swinging bench, and Emmett bursts out laughing.

"No, maybe you shouldn't tell them. But you GOTTA tell me!" he chokes out after he finishes laughing.

I hear Carlisle and Esme answering the door and greeting someone from inside the house. Then I hear a voice saying she would like to say hello to someone she recognizes outside.

A minute later, Mademoiselle walks out onto the terrace. The teacher from what my friends called the Boston Manners Training Fiasco. Mademoiselle's eyes widen upon seeing me, then she races to me, stopping before touching me at Jasper's warning growl.

"Oh, little Madeleine, I am so glad to see you," she exclaims in her French accent. Carlisle's eyebrow rises and Emmett starts mouthing "Madeleine" with a questioning look from across the patio.

Damn, Crazy's cat's name had come into play. Crazy always used her favorite cat's name whenever she had to show ownership papers for me. "You're a people, not a pet," she always said. She had filed all the papers under her favorite cat's name, Madeleine.

Noticing that Mademoiselle's eyes are moving from me to Jasper and then back, I suppress a smile. I guess she thought I had stepped up the muscle since the last disastrous manners training in Boston.

"You know our sweetheart?" asks Esme tentatively.

"Oh yes, and I'm so relieved to see you are all right. You were always my favorite human, and you have such a wonderful singing voice. I am glad to see you are with the Major now", she babbles. "Just look at how lovely you are. That color in your cheeks," she enthuses, stroking my cheeks, "I have to put on rouge to get that look. And look at your pretty lips and how your skin just glows! The Major has been very good for you!"

Emmett's lips are still trying out the name Madeleine, and I'm trying hard not to laugh.

I keep my eyes down, after all I know what to do around vampires, having taken her training class, and say, "We didn't ask if I had passed after the last class ended so…abruptly. It didn't occur to me I might have passed."

"Of course you passed! You were so lovely and polite in class, paying such close attention." Mademoiselle turns to Carlisle and Esme and continues, "If your young lady has been around little Madeleine, we will be done here very quickly. She moved so quickly and easily through Manners Training, and she would have done just as outstandingly well in my Finishing School classes that I taught in Paris before…before…l" she paused.

I hadn't paid much attention to her in the Boston classroom, now I realize she genuinely likes humans. It used to be that most "animal trainers," such as people who gave dog obedience classes, held those jobs because they loved animals. This was not the case with the vampire manners trainers. For the most part, the vampire manners trainers thought humans were beneath them, and they were just teaching "the rats" their place. It was more slave training. So Mademoiselle was something of a rarity among Manners Trainers.

Carlisle smiles. "I did not know you had taken Manners Training," he says to me.

"Well, you didn't ask now did you?" I mouth at him, not wanting to shock Mademoiselle with my directness. "And you never answered my question from earlier, are you doing this to me because of my recent attitude?"

Carlisle carefully holds my gaze and says seriously, "This is a requirement of the rules, and one I intend to fulfill. It's an easy one for the police to check without actually visiting the house, to measure compliance with the rules."

I wouldn't have told him about the Boston fiasco, because I hadn't known I had passed the course, among other reasons. I thought that I had failed for several reasons, not the least being when one of the other vampires lost control of his blood thirst and tried to attack me, I had helped Crazy fight back. It seemed to me that the point of Manners Training was to do whatever a vampire wanted. And that meant letting a vampire attack and kill you, if that's what the vampire wanted to do.

Deciding to ease the tension, I ask her a question. "Well, then since you're here, perhaps you can give me some guidance with certain situations. I mean, I do things, and perhaps they are misguided?" I query.

"What are these transgressions," Mademoiselle asks quite properly.

"Well," I begin, "what is the proper place to put one's chewing gum when done. I notice that when I put under the leather car seats in the Mercedes, I think I hear a growl. But when I stick in on top of the seat, and the next person who gets in the car sits on it, the growl is even louder," I say with wide eyes, feigning innocence.

Mademoiselle looks shocked and then starts to smile slowly. She's clearly uncomfortable. I don't know how often a human has nearly been attacked in one of her classes, but Carlisle is a high-profile client, if this gets out, it might hurt her reputation.

"Perhaps one should remove one's gum before leaving the house," she suggests.

"Thank you, I'll do that. The second issue is a question about food. I just can't say I care for truffles. Yet I keep getting this tagliatelli ai funghi neri con quattro formaggi en croute*. I know that getting truffles these days is not easy. Truffles, after all, are difficult to find, and have traditionally been located by a man following a specially trained pig on a leash.

Now, in this world, truffle hunting gets more complicated. First the vampire takes the human and pig out into the forest on their leashes: the vampire holding the human's leash, the human holding the pig's leash. The pig won't hunt with the vampire present, so the vampire removes the human's leash. Once off the leash and out of sight, the human takes off for freedom, letting go of the pig's leash, as the human and pig run in opposite directions. So now the vampire is out chasing the human, then chasing down the pig. The vampire takes them both home, yells at the human, and they set off to try again the next day.

But the human won't miss his chance at freedom, so after promising the vampire that this time he won't run away, he drops the pig's leash when he is out of sight of the vampire once again, and runs for dear life. And again, the vampire is out hunting down the human and the pig…

Eventually, after several tries, the human agrees not to run away. The pig, however, has already learned that after a few yards, he is to take off and run for dear life. So now when the human and pig have traveled beyond the vampire's sight, the pig takes off running, dragging the human behind it. The human tells the vampire he's sorry, but now it's the pig that has to be retrained to hunt.

Eventually, everybody gets their act coordinated, and a truffle is actually found. Relief!

But, when pieces of truffle turn up in the Italian dish tagliatelli ai funghi neri con quattro formaggi en croute, I don't like them. And I want to pick them out. So what am I supposed to do?"

Mademoiselle is biting back laughter at the description of the botched truffle hunt, but she says carefully, "Are you dining at home, or are you a guest? If you are a guest, perhaps you should try your best to eat a little. At home, you should advise your daddy that you do not care for the truffles."

"I told daddy, and he says they make my hair shiny, so he wants me to eat them anyway," I go into a fake pout.

Mademoiselle glances at Carlisle, who rolls his eyes.

"And how about my clog dancing?" I continue. "I like practicing clog dancing in my own room, upstairs. The acoustics are fantastic! But they all complain about the noise as my room is right over the living room. Do I really have to practice outside, in a shed two miles away? Stupid oversensitive vampire hearing…" I mutter with my arms crossed.

We continue this banter for a while, and then after a little more talk, and after Mademoiselle heaps a little more praise on "her favorite human," she and Carlisle finish their business.

Mademoiselle tells Carlisle that she can re-print my certificate showing completion of Manners Training, and they go to his office to print out the document.

When they return, there are bows, and thank you's all around, and she leaves.

After Mademoiselle finally leaves, bowing yet again, and telling everyone what a wonderful little human I am, it gets quiet again. Everyone is staring at me.

I can't stand it anymore and start laughing.

Emmett jumps in first. "Madeleine?" is all he has to say. Now I'm rolling on the ground because I'm laughing so hard I can't talk, and the ivory dress is ruined.

I look at Jasper. "Did you see the look on her face when she saw me with you?" I ask, earning a low growl from Carlisle. I decide to ignore the growl, since Carlisle leaves me with Jasper all the time.

"I guess after my last Manners Training class, she must have decided I had gone in for muscle with my next owner and found myself an experienced fighter. I daresay they don't come more experienced than you," I continue.

"What happened, little darlin'", Jasper asks. "Although something tells me I'm not going to like the answer."

"I attended a Manners Training class in Boston. Supposed to be very high brow, we got new dresses and shoes for the occasion. But one of the gentleman vampires got, um, a little thirsty during the class, and went into a crouch…"

I'm interrupted by growls from Carlisle, Jasper, and Emmett.

"You should never have been in a group class," said Carlisle. "That's why I flew her out here, for a private session."

"Agreed," interjects Jasper.

"I'm just surprised she said I passed," I innocently reply. "I didn't exactly stand still for the attack; I used a diversionary tactic to assist interrupting the attack. But that did occur after the standard training session was over. They had moved on to a 'bonus' talent round, where those girls with talents were to give an exhibition of their skills."

"But I'm afraid I wasn't entirely guiltless in this. I had given an exhibition of my talent all right – I sassed a male vampire, leading to the attack," I assert, feigning a guilty look.

"You sassed a vampire, Madeleine?" asks Emmett, rolling his eyes.

"My name isn't Madeleine. That was Crazy's favorite cat's name from back when she was human. She used it whenever someone asked for her pet's name. I guess I should tell this story from the beginning, right?" I ask.

I get a round of 'yeses', so I continue.

"Crazy signed us up for Manners Training. There were some dining utensils she had never used, as she never went to Finishing School when she was human. So she thought they might show humans how to use them in Manners Training class.

She asked her boyfriend, a highly placed cop, about getting us into a nice Manners training class, something really highbrow. He asked why, and when she told him, he said, "I don't think that's what they do in Manners Class."

She insisted we go anyway, after all, he had never been to one of the better classes, so what would he know. He ended up just rolling his eyes and passing her his black credit card.

She signed us up and then took me shopping. "Baby, this is really high class. We are going to walk in there looking good."

She had her hair done; I got a wig, which she styled with banana curls. We both got new outfits, including new shoes.

Did I mention the new shoes?

Crazy went to the nicest shoe store in Boston. She went in with me, and the owned immediately dialed the cops, as humans aren't allowed in vampire stores. When Crazy's cop boyfriend showed up, he just looked at us, said, "Consider yourself fined," to Crazy, and then left.

Crazy started to leave with me, but turned to the proprietress and said, "I knew I should have gone shopping in New York City. These stores out here in the sticks don't have any of the better brands."

Well, that got the store owner going, and she pulled out some Manolo Blahniks. Crazy got me three pairs, two in black, one that went with jeans. She said I needed to have at least two pairs of my own, so it didn't look like I was wearing vampire cast-offs. She and the store owner then spent some time showing me how to walk in the high heels."

"Are you telling me that you own Manolo Blahniks?" asks Alice, forgetting that she doesn't speak in human to me.

I nod in response, and continue.

"When we got to the class, though, the left shoe was rubbing my ankle. I had been ignoring the pinch, but when it became a burn, I glanced down, and it was just-this-close-to-bleeding."

Jasper winced, and Emmett let out a groan. By now, Carlisle had come out to rejoin us, and he sat down quietly next to me.

"I showed my ankle to Crazy, and she said, 'Take them off, Baby, quick.'

But the damage was done, and now I had the red eyes of fourteen other vampires attending the session trained on that heel through the entire class."

Carlisle shook his head and turned to Jasper. "That's why I had the trainer come to the house. Even without the wound, she shouldn't have been in a group of male vampires. Too high risk."

"The tension level in that room was very high," I continued, "and I think that class never had a chance before it started. But we made it through the regular session, and then went to the Bonus session. This was something not usually done, but the girls in this class were supposed to be talented. This was an opportunity for the vampire owners to show off their talented purchases.

When it was my turn, I showed off my talented mouth. I sassed one of the vampires, and he went into a crouch to attack me."

Esme gasped, and both Jasper and Carlisle started growling.

"But I was with Crazy. As Jasper probably knows, it's not the size of the dog in the fight; it's the size of the fight in the dog. Although Crazy was only 5'2", my size, she was a true fighter. More like a berserker. She flung herself across the room, snarling, and took a big chunk out of the attacking vampire's chest."

"Leaving you unprotected," commented Jasper.

"No, one of the other male vampires had moved in front of me. A tall lanky guy, with a 100 yard stare. He stood in front of me almost casually, without even assuming a protective stance, as if saying 'attack me, make my day'. I think he was from Texas," I continued.

Jasper nodded, "Sounds like it."

"One of the other male vampires rolled his eyes when the first vampire didn't even make a move to protect himself from Crazy. He just had his hands at his sides, as if to say 'someone is attacking the Magnificence of Moi?' You know, that was the first time I met a vampire who didn't know how to fight. I kind of thought it came with the growl, you know, when you woke up from the change?" I asked Jasper.

He gave me a thin smile, and said, "No, not always".

"Anyways, as the second vampire was pulling Crazy off my would-be attacker, Crazy pin wheeled around, grabbed his foot, and took a big bite out of the top of his shoe. She got his big toe in that bite, apparently, and spit it out."

I heard snickers and mumbled 'eews" from the listeners.

"But just as she was pinwheeling around, I was pulling the fire alarm.

I always notice the placement of fire alarms when I go into a room. Safety first, I say," looking at an oddly amused Carlisle, who raises an eyebrow. "I may not be able to do anything about the vampires in the room, but I can know the placement of the emergency equipment, and the nearest exits if there is a fire.

So I pulled that alarm. And it was a foam system. So just as Crazy spit out that big toe, the foam came down. And the toe got lost in the foam. He had to have help finding it, so he must have gotten really pissed off."

Emmett started laughing, and Jasper elbowed him, never taking his eyes off of me.

"Some guy pulled me out from under the table I had slipped under after pulling the fire alarm, and took me outside. Crazy came and got me, and we left. Next day, we found out there's a $100,000 reward posted for me. My trackers came and told me about it. But a day or so later, another of my trackers convinced him to withdraw it, so don't think of trying to turn me in for a new car or something…"

It was true; the Manners Training class had been a disaster. I had all fourteen sets of red eyes glued to my heel.

Which had been really something, considering the other girls in the class.

TO BE CONTINUED…

PLEASE REVIEW, ALL REVIEWERS WILL GET PREVIEWS FROM THE NEXT CHAPTER

*"tagliatelli ai funghi neri con quattro formaggi en croute" – obviously made up pasta dish, I strung together the phrases for pasta with black truffles plus 4 cheeses and then added "en croute", the French phrase for baked in a pastry. Sounds a tad heavy –but maybe Carlisle would order this to put some weight on her, who knows?