Chapter One: To Rome with Love

I chewed my nails as Edward was obligated to read the balcony scene of Romeo and Juliet with Bree Tanner, the new exchange student from Berlin. I was ruining my new manicure but I couldn't care less. I was sixteen-years-old, and it was the last class of the last day of my two months of my senior year of high school. I still thought what my high school was doing was technically illegal, but maybe they figured that because of all my credits that they wanted me gone. Maybe they didn't appreciate my overachieving nature…

Thankfully, I noticed, that Edward kept his mouth closed while doing the mandatory kissing scenes with Bree. It was our two-month anniversary that night, with next Tuesday being our graduation, and I wouldn't have some drop-dead gorgeous German exchange student messing it up—or, at least, take it lying down. I had the evening all planned out, and, since it was a Friday, I didn't have a curfew.

The bell rang and Edward disengaged himself from Bree and came to pick up his things before sliding an arm around my waist as we walked out of there. We ran into my best friend and his younger sister, Alice, a.k.a. my partner in crime, in the hallway shortly thereafter, and I found myself smiling at the notion that none of this was awkward. She waved hello and walked with us, all the while talking to Jasper on her new latest-edition iPhone. Jasper, as always, was waiting for her in the parking lot, because he was done with classes for the summer already and did independent study for summer so that he could go on tour with the band.

We waved to Alice and Jasper as we walked through the parking lot, and I spotted Emmett, my twin brother, now with that motorcycle he wanted, walking proudly with his now-acknowledged girlfriend, Rosalie Hale, who had extended her stay here in Washington State. Edward smirks a little at me, and I remember my jealousy her cousin, Tanya,, who now seems to fawn over me at every opportunity she can, instead of treating me with disdain at every turn. We walk quickly passed them, towards Edward's silver Volvo, and get in before anyone can get the opportunity to fangirl me.

"So what now?" Edward asks me as we painstakingly pull out of the parking lot and proceed to drive down the street, now swarmed with fellow student escapees from school grounds. "We've got our caps and gowns picked up, we're ditching senior night, and graduation isn't being held until Tuesday. We've got off school for the whole weekend and no homework in the foreseeable future, and we're due to leave for Europe in just two weeks."

I giggle at that and remove my leather jacket, a gift from Marie. "Well, Mom and Dad are away until Monday because Mike and Eric surprised them with a trip down to Tacoma and tickets at the Dome. Apparently, they got tickets for Katy Perry…"

He smiles. "Isn't it fun when parents have gay friends to join in activities with?" Edward asks me as we keep driving.

"So fun," I reply, leaning across the seat separator and kissing his cheek, nuzzling the skin and inhaling the scent of him, comfortable with showing my affection for him now that we were an official couple. "Jasper will be with Alice all weekend in the guest house, and Emmett and Rosalie are going away with her aunt and uncle for a weekend getaway to Portland so my house is all free of parental units for the weekend…"

"What's the prognosis on the medical end?" Edward wants to know as we begin driving in the direction of my house, located in Sunset Hill.

"Mom got me on the pill as soon as we got back, and that was in the middle of April. It's the middle of June now so that means all systems are go," I say, biting my lip.

"I went to the drug store last night and managed to pick up a few…condoms," Edward whispers to me, allowing his eyebrows to rise and fall dramatically.

I giggle naughtily and allow myself to move closer to him as we get nearer and nearer to my parent's neighborhood. I manage to push the seat divider out of the way completely and lean on his shoulder. Edward proceeds to drive one-handed so as he can hold me close to him, causing warmth to enter me then. He is wearing his David Bowie T-shirt that afternoon, due to the hot weather, and I am reminded of our trip back in time, nearly two months ago.

There were good things and bad things about going back in time, as would be the case with any situations of altering history. Good things, of course, involved the fact that the weather was actually more predictable, due to the fact that global warming was not as popular then and Planet Earth seemed to be better off at the time, reasonably. Another good thing was the fact that my hair could be really huge and nobody looked at me funny or assumed that I was in the unfortunate situation where I would have to turn to sex work in order to survive. The last good thing was that Edward and I were finally able to come together, and admit our love, and now, it seemed, we could be happy.

What with our mutual acceptance into the University of Washington, we would be able to still live in our respective childhood homes, but thankfully less restrictions would apply. Since I would be beginning my freshman year of college as a sixteen-year-old, and I wouldn't be turning seventeen until mid-November, I would still have to adhere to some kind of curfew at home, but holidays and breaks were open season, as always.

Now that, in this new life, my mother and father weren't doctors, they had much more time to spend with Jasper, Emmett, and me. In the original world, my parents were workaholic doctors who had difficulty conceiving a child and, as a result, ended up adopting my oldest brother, Jasper, from France when they were in their late twenties. However, in this new world we lived in, the difficulty to have a child naturally hadn't come, as they were more relaxed and happy in their marriage and in their work and they'd managed to conceive doubly when it came to my biological brother and me.

Edward managed to drive one-handed all the way to Sunset Hill without causing an accident and soon was parking on the street. We got out of the car and walked in through the back gate, over the cobblestones of the backyard and up the steps onto the veranda. I unlocked the door easily and let Edward in behind me, shutting and locking the door behind me. We walked upstairs to my bedroom, no other signs of life in the house, and went directly into my bedroom. I shooed our new family cat, Zafrina, out of the room—she was an orange marmalade who inexplicably loved to travel, so she would accompany us to Europe that summer.

I shut the curtains and Edward locked the door, and then I pulled back the laced comforter from my bed and watched Edward as he and I seemed to mirror each other's movements as we undressed quickly in the semi-darkness. Then, standing there quite naked, I reached out with my fingertips and found him, and, smiling, we walked towards my bed to begin our bliss where it had been abruptly cut short in 1982.

. . .

I awoke around five-thirty and turned to gaze at Edward for a moment, hardly believing my eyes at what I saw. This man, this beautiful man, was my boyfriend, my boyfriend, at long last. Even though he didn't remember all the love we shared in 1982, and I didn't know when I would tell him of that love, I knew that, one day, he should know about it—the whole story, and although I knew that it could damage us forever, I knew the truth had to be told.

I slipped from my bed and walked into my en suite bathroom before having a brief sponge bath and rubbing myself with my vanilla and rose scented soap. I quickly wrote a note to Edward, telling him I would be downstairs, and slipped on some random clothes before sneaking down the stairs, quiet as a little girl on Christmas morning, and into the kitchen.

My parents had all the latest appliances and such, and we had a woman who came in once a week to do the shopping this close to the tour so that we could mainly focus on the music. I went into the fridge and found steaks, as well as a bag of gourmet-looking Caesar salad in the vegetable crisper, and on the counter I found two large potatoes, so I knew it would be a heavenly evening.

I marinated the steaks for fifteen minutes and wrapped the potatoes in foil before putting them into the oven. I poured the salad into a bowl and put all the little things into it—croutons and cheese and whatnot—but didn't dress it, because my mother always said that dressing a salad too early would cause the leaves to turn soggy and gross. I popped the steaks into the broiler pan and soon heavenly smells permeated the kitchen.

Just as I pulled the steaks from the oven, I also tested the potatoes, and they were indeed soft enough to take out. I set the steaks on top of the stove and removed the foil from the potatoes, popping in butter, sour cream, chives, and cheddar cheese. I dressed the salad and placed everything on the table, just as the customary creak issued forth from the staircase and Edward made his way downstairs. I grinned at him from where I stood at the table—tablecloth down, cloth napkins, candles lit—and beckoned him forward.

"Hi," I said quietly to him.

He made it about two feet from me before grabbing me and hauling me to him, and I let out a little gasp as he held me lengthwise against his strong body. He bent down from his perfect six-feet-two-inch frame and kissed me. "So you cook, too?" he asked.

I shrugged. "I did make you that blueberry pie…"

He grins at me and sits down, his eyes going wide at everything laid out before him and I swear I saw his mouth water. I moved to sit across from him and nodded that he should begin. Picking up our cutlery, we proceeded to cut steak, pick up pieces of potato, and stab at salad. Edward's eyes would close in a wave of pleasure and satisfaction at the meal before him, and I was so pleased that I could make him happy in this way.

"A way to a man's heart is his stomach," Grandma Charlotte always used to say. "You just need to know what they like."

I produced small bowls of water infused with lemon in which to wash our hands before producing individual bowls of raspberries and whipped cream for dessert. I watched with pride as Edward had a good meal, and giggled when he wrote to his mom and told her, via text, that he was staying the night with me that night. I knew his parents loved me and, despite our young age, we were both graduating next Tuesday, so they knew they would have to get used to this—us spending all this time together.

. . .

Tuesday morning came sooner than expected. Edward had snuck out Sunday night just ten minutes before Mom and Dad came home. I ran out to meet them, freshly showered, and, thankfully, they didn't say anything to me about my appearance. I asked to know about their trip and they informed me that Mike and Eric had splurged to get them backstage passes.

"No way!" I cried. "So you got to see Katy Perry?" I asked.

My mother giggled, putting her roller suitcase by the stairs. "See her, talk to her, sing with her, have a drink with her," she said.

"Wait, wait, wait. You actually, like, hung out with the Katy Perry?"

"We're famous in our own right, too, kiddo," Dad said, kissing my forehead and peering into the refrigerator with a smile. "You made lasagna?"

I nodded, standing on my toes and kissing his cheek. "Yeah. Is that okay? I thought you and Mom might be hungry when you got back…"

Dad smiled at the considerate gesture and took out two pre-cut pieces and heated them in the microwave on a generous-sized platter. "You're a good daughter, Bella," he said. "By the way, where are our sons?"

I rolled my eyes. "They went on a double date to Bremerton," I replied, thinking it was stupid to drive all the way out there. "Rosalie hasn't ever been to a drive-in movie before and that's where the closest one is."

"She has your brother wrapped around her little finger, doesn't she?" Mom asked, removing the lasagna from the microwave.

"You have no idea," I replied.

. . .

Going over the conversation from two nights ago in my mind helped ease my nerves for the coming day. I was shaking all over, and looking at myself dressed in a graduation uniform wasn't helping matters. Thankfully all of Edward's love bites and such were hidden—he'd had the consideration not to bite me below my wrists or above my neckline.

I managed to straighten the mandatory graduation cap and made sure that the tassel was in its proper place. Satisfied that it was fitting okay, I found I was quite tempted to fast forward through the next several hours. Edward and I were co-valedictorians so we had to write a dumb speech about how we felt about leaving an institution that I'd only really been a part of for a year and nine months, due to skipping tenth grade, the last part of junior year, and pretty much all of my senior year.

I took off the cap and gown and got into my new brunch outfit. Mom, Marie, Alice, Rosalie, and I were all going to an exclusive brunch joint somewhere close to the University District. I later discovered that it was a tea room and, thankfully, when I realized how frou-frou it really was, I persuaded them to take me to the International District for dim sum. We ended up going to the shopping center where Rosalie spent a ton of money on some of those creepy-looking white cat figurines.

Many people recognized us and Marie, Alice, and Rosalie stepped off to the side so that Mom and I could sign autographs and give out words of encouragement to rabid fangirls. Finally, we were able to get home, and I had to change into that godforsaken uniform again. Turning the tassel so that it was just right, I confirmed with Edward where we would meet at the stadium to go over our speech.

I walked down the stairs, and I was reminded of what the tour would be like. The real me didn't know what that was like, of course, considering that I myself had only just recently managed to change my destiny, and I was ill-prepared for what tour would turn out to be. I was allowed to drive myself to graduation, thankfully, and parked in a good spot in the lot. I paid for parking before walking into the stadium via the backway, and looked around for Edward, who could have been anywhere.

I stopped on the threshold when I saw Jessica, and her henchmen, Angela and Lauren. Jessica, who I didn't really see any more due to the fact that she was still a junior, rolled her eyes when she saw me.

"The school colors are so not you," she said rudely.

"Hello, Jessica, how are you?" I asked her in a pleasant voice. "Angela, Lauren, you're looking well. I didn't know you three were graduating…"

Jessica turned red. "I was just wishing my brother, Abraham, good luck," she replies, and hurriedly considers what to say next in an attempt to one-up me further. "He was supposed to be the valedictorian with your hunk of man slice, Edward, but ever since you were randomly moved up to senior classes, he got booted off to salutatorian. I just think it's a good example of how good our school is with charity."

I blinked. "Charity?" I asked.

"Yes," she replies, tossing her perfect hair that she clearly didn't deserve. "You may be the lead singer of that pathetic little family band of yours, Bella, but that's exactly why you got picked to be valedictorian."

"Actually, Jessica, I got picked to be co-valedictorian with Edward because my SAT test scores were fifty points away from getting the highest score possible. Edward got 2350 as well, whereas your brother only got 2300 points on his SAT," I replied with a pleasant smile. "That's what people look for in real life, Jessica. I'm afraid it wouldn't have mattered if my parents were doctors or musicians, I still would have achieved my dreams."

"You don't deserve to—" she tries.

But I cut her off before she can finish attempting to drag me down. "I wish you well in life, Jessica, because I really think if you spent as much energy being mean to others or dragging people down, you could really build a good empire for yourself." I gave each of them a final smile before slipping away to find Edward again.

I found him talking to some guys from the football team, but he excused himself as soon as he saw me. He greeted me with a kiss and produced his copy of our speech, but noticed, and quickly, that something was wrong. I told him about running into Jessica but he assured me that everything would be all right. We went over our piece for the ceremony and, all too soon, Pomp and Circumstance played over the loudspeakers. I knew that the next time Edward and I would walk down any form of an aisle to music would be at our wedding, and this thought covered me like a warm blanket as we took our places to deliver heartfelt words to the Class of 2013 and their friends and families.

. . .

"Is that everything?" Mom asked as she looked in the massive trunk of the black and very sleek stretch limo, which was to take us to the airport.

I handed over the checklist, red check marks dotting the page. "I think so," I replied, nodding and allowing her to get a good look.

"Looks fine," she said. "Honey, kids! Let's get a move on!"

Dad, Edward, Jasper, Emmett, Alice, and Rosalie all trooped through the backyard and into the limo. Mike and Eric would be meeting us in their private jet at the airport, so it would just be all of us riding in the limo. I got into the limo and to my place beside Edward and took his hand, waiting for the driver to get moving. Mom slammed the trunk shut and got into the limo, sitting beside Dad as Dad shut the door.

"Let's go," Mom said.

"We're off," Dad said.

We were able to bypass a lot of traffic and soon we managed to navigate our way onto the freeway towards the airport. Edward and I talked about how excited we were for our first tour together as a couple, while Mom and Dad looked on at all their children and their significant others adoringly. The driver took us off the appropriate exit of the freeway and soon we got to the private loading dock.

Mike and Eric were there waiting for us and they made sure that the airport staff got all of our luggage out from the trunk and of the limo and onto the plane accordingly. They brought us into their expansive plane which had five cabins, meaning that each of us would have to share with someone in our party. Edward took my hand immediately, while Alice and Jasper stood together, and Emmett and Rosalie inched towards one themselves. Mom and Dad rolled their eyes and decided to allow it, and Mike and Eric encouraged us to take advantage of as many amenities as we wanted.

"I don't know about you," Edward said as we shut our cabin door behind us, "but I am definitely going to join the mile-high club."

I shoot him a grin before lying upon my side on the bed. I lie back slightly so that one of my elbows can rest lightly on the mattress, and I open my legs ever so slightly. "The flight is ten hours and ten minutes," I replied. "We're going to Paris—the city of love. So what's stopping you from loving me?" I whisper.