Disclaimer: I didn't write any of the books in the 'Twilight' series.

Author's Note: apologies if you've been following along, this took me a rather long time to write. I'm afraid that's because I've been busy with Christmassy chores, not because it's an especially brilliant chapter.

I slept well (I know, I know, I didn't deserve to sleep well, I deserved to toss and turn all night long, but the bath helped) and I didn't wake up until the next morning, when my alarm went off.

As I dressed for school, I was cursing myself and dreading facing Edward. What would he think of me now? He would never be able to understand that I had intended to call him, but had fallen asleep. He would think that I was heartless.

I was too nervous to eat breakfast. I stood in the hallway, listening for the roar of Jasper's Mustang. Alice must have noticed that I was going to be ready early, because the car pulled up before its usual time. Jasper got out and began to walk (slowly, a casual human stride) up the driveway. I grabbed my bag, opened the front door and came down to meet him.

"No Edward today?" I asked, wondering if he was so miserable that he'd run away again.

Jasper looked confused, "he's in the car" he said, nodding towards the back-seat, "can you really not see that far? I think even a human's eyes ought to be able . . ."

I scowled at this latest accusation of my sight being less acute than even an average human, and Jasper shrugged and cut himself off.

He took my bag, of course, in the Cullens' world Edward's polite gestures were normal behaviour, and he held open the car door for me. I was pleasantly surprised to see that Edward was sat next to me today, not in the front seat like he usually was.

Edward smiled at me when I got in the car. He wished me a good morning and took my hand in his. This day was exactly like the day before. Edward chatted to me, kissed me chastely, smiled a lot and didn't do any of the things that usually annoyed me. Alice and Jasper pretended that everything was fine, but they avoided us at lunch and managed not to bump into us once in the corridors, though that usually happened several times a day.

Edward was perfect, again. He was sweet and attentive. He was interested in everything that I said. He carried my books, held doors open and pulled out chairs for me. He picked up my pens, when I dropped them, and he didn't laugh at my clumsiness. He let me look into his golden eyes for ages without pressuring me to tell him what was going through my mind. He held my hand whenever he could, he kissed me on the cheek whenever he thought that I would let him. He was utterly respectful and anxious for my comfort all day long, but he managed to be available rather than hovering.

In short, Edward did everything that I had ever asked him to do. He was by my side, but he wasn't in my face. He was interested, but he wasn't intrusive. He was affectionate, but he didn't draw attention to us as a couple. He didn't scowl at other boys or pull me away from them. He was flawless. I wasn't the mind-reader, but even I knew that every single girl envied me my perfect boyfriend.

I had everything that I had ever wanted from Edward, but it felt wrong. It felt too good, too nice, too bland. It felt as though he was pretending. This wasn't the Edward that I had got to know. This Edward was calm and collected, not intense and moody. This Edward kept his distance and was content just to be in my life, he didn't also want to be in my head. This Edward was happy and contented. I had never seen my Edward being happy and contented throughout an entire school day. This Edward was too perfect. He didn't seem to be himself.

When we all got into the car at the end of the second day of fake-perfect-boyfriendness, I cracked. I had begun to consider the possibility that this wasn't really Edward, but was a robot constructed to look like Edward. I couldn't understand where all his emotions had gone, the only one that he seemed to have left was a sort of placid cheerfulness.

"Alright," I said, "you're very good at not sulking and I'm impressed. But it's getting a bit scary. We need to talk."

Edward looked confused, "have I been annoying you?" he asked, he seemed to be thinking hard. Knowing his perfect memory, he was probably running through the day in his head, trying to work out what had gone wrong.

"No," I said, "you haven't and that's a problem."

"You would like me to be more annoying?"

Jasper and Alice laughed.

"No!" I said again, getting irritated now, "I'm going to come round to yours this afternoon and we're going to talk."

Edward nodded. I realised that we must have been driving towards his house rather than mine, I guess Alice had seen this coming.

The rest of the drive was silent, luckily Jasper drove fast, so the silence didn't last long.

When we reached the Cullens' house, Alice and Jasper disappeared and Edward took me into the lounge. We had the whole lounge to ourselves. As far as I could hear, we had the house to ourselves, but I couldn't always hear where his family were.

Edward cheerfully brought me juice and cookies, before he sat down next to me and asked me what I wanted to talk about.

"This," I said, pointing at the juice, the cookies, and his bizarrely cheerful expression.

Edward looked confused, "don't you like cookies?" he asked, "I can get something else."

"Don't be obtuse," I said, then I scowled because it was the sort of thing that my mum used to say to me.

He smiled again, I was really beginning to miss his agonised frowns about now, what had happened to my Edward? I would never have expected to miss his pained expressions, but this new, smiley Edward just didn't seem real.

"Alright," he said, "I'm afraid that I still don't understand what it is that you want to discuss. What aspect of this," he pointed at the cookies, the juice and his own, calm smiling face, "is displeasing you?"

I frowned. What was he playing at? "Why are you so happy?" I asked.

"You're here," he said, "I'm always happy when you're with me."

"No, you're not. Usually, when I've disagreed with you about something, you sulk. I refused to marry you and you're not sulking. I need to know why not."

He shrugged. This was getting stranger and stranger, where was the wincing and the narrowing of the eyes?

"I'm being calm and mature about this," he said, "it would be foolish to sulk because you don't want to marry me."

That was, of course, true. "But, aren't you upset?" I pressed.

Suddenly, he smirked and he looked a bit like himself again, "do you want me to sulk?" he asked, "I can; if that would please you."

"Don't tease," I snapped, then I realised that he would probably accept that as an order too. He would stop teasing me or sulking and then he would just smile at me blandly all the time. "Wait," I said, "I don't mean that. You're allowed to tease me. You're also allowed to sulk and to be miserable when you don't get what you want. I don't like the feeling that you're acting around me. I know that you put on an act most of the time, and you're very good at it, but I don't like the idea that you're putting on an act with me. I want our relationship to be real."

"But, I made you unhappy," he said, "I don't want to make you unhappy."

"That's what real relationships are like" I said. Then I giggled. "Well, that's what I think they're like, anyway. Actually, you're my very first relationship, so I'm sort of guessing."

He smiled his crooked smile at me, and I had my first hope that my Edward might be back, "me too," he said. "I am not going to pressure you about marriage, though. That would be rude and unhelpful. I was a bit upset, but really, Jasper helped and I think that I understand. We need to take things one step at a time. I can wait."

He put his arm around me, and I snuggled into his chest, "this is nice," I said, "much better than perfect."

Edward chuckled, "better than perfect?" he repeated.

"Yes. Yesterday you were acting like the perfect boyfriend, and I didn't really like it. Now, you're acting more like you, and I like it better. See, you're better than perfect."

He pulled me closer and laughed again, "wait for it," he whispered.

I wondered what he meant, but then I saw Emmett and Rosalie come into the room. Emmett was roaring with laughter, but Rosalie looked pityingly at me.

"You don't know how to have a decent fight," Rose said, "that was rubbish."

"No it wasn't, Rose," Emmett answered, through his chortling, "Edward is better than perfect, didn't you hear? So, will you play, Jake?" he asked, presumably continuing a conversation that he'd been having with Edward out of my hearing-range or inside his head.

Edward shook his head. He never wanted to let go of me when I was visiting. Once he'd got me snuggled against his side, he liked to hold on until I had to go home. I decided that I ought to be a decent girlfriend and make sure that he had a bit of fun, so I pushed him forward and insisted that he let me watch him beat Emmett at whatever computer game Emmett wanted to play. At my insistence, Edward agreed. He pretended not to care either way, but as soon as the game started, he was just as competitive as Emmett.

They were playing some kind of a racing game. For some reason it wasn't enough fun for them to just control one car each, so they'd set the game up for four players and had taken two controllers each. Emmett tackled this extra difficulty by taking one controller in each hand. Edward kept switching between the two controllers, presumably trusting himself to move fast enough to compensate. The game did seem to occupy both of their attentions pretty well.

I watched for a bit. I saw Emmett win the first two races, and then Edward win the next one. Then Rose looked up from her magazine and said, "aren't you bored, Bella?"

Edward span round, letting Emmett overtake both his cars, "do you want to do something?" he asked me.

I shook my head, "you're losing," I told him and I laughed when he hissed and returned his attention to the game.

"Fancy making things a bit more interesting?" Rose asked me.

I was confused, "what did you have in mind?"

"Well, you're not going to leave Edward. You're going to sit here and watch him play his stupid game, and that means that Emmett will sulk if I don't sit and watch too. So, why don't we make a bet? If we have to watch anyway, we may as well have something riding on the outcome. Then we might be a little more interested."

I thought about this. I couldn't really afford to gamble money with any of the Cullens and I wasn't sure that I wanted to play for secrets again. But, gambling did seem to be a family tradition and I did want to be a part of the family.

"What did you have in mind?" I asked. It couldn't be that bad, or Edward would have stepped in by now.

Rose grinned, "nothing too huge," she said, "how about a makeover? If Emmett wins, I get to give you a makeover next time you go out with Edward and if Edward wins you get to give me a makeover next time I go out with Emmett. It'll be fun."

Of course, I didn't have much to lose. Edward wasn't going to be taking me out any time soon. Had Rose forgotten that he still had more than two months left to serve? I guess two months didn't seem like much to a vampire, but, in two months time I would be a vampire too, and there wasn't much that Rose could do to hurt me.

"The makeovers can't include any permanent changes," I said, "no haircuts or tattoos."

Rose's eyes opened wide, "wow," she said, "you've spent too much time with my brothers. I'm not the devious one in the family. I'd never even have thought about that. Definitely nothing permanent, just make-up, hair-do, outfit and jewellery"

I nodded, that sounded safe enough. "Alright," I said "are we betting on the next race?"

Rose shook her head, "one race won't take them long enough. Let's say, first one to five wins. Starting with the next race."

I agreed. Edward won the race that they'd been having and I wished that I'd suggested that we began before, but it was too late. Then we sat back to watch the boys play.

I was glad of Rose's suggestion. She was right, it really did make watching the game a lot more fun. First one to five, took about as long as it possibly could. They managed to get four wins each, so that it all hung on one final race.

Esme interrupted us at that point and demanded that I ate dinner before the boys continued their game. I think that she was enjoying the excitement and deliberately increasing the anticipation. If Alice and Jasper had been home, I would have assumed that Jasper was messing about with everyone's emotions. I was glad that they weren't back yet, however, because I didn't want Edward to know in advance who would win.

Alice would definitely want Emmett to win, she was always in favour of me getting makeovers, at anyone's hands really. The only person who enjoyed seeing me dolled up more than Alice was Edward. Suddenly a new thought occurred to me, was he going to throw the race in order to make me lose my bet with Rose?

"Edward?" I asked, as he sat next to me, sort-of watching me eat, "do you want Emmett to win so that I'll let Rose dress me up? Are you going to let Emmett win?"

He looked very innocent, which convinced me that I was right.

"That would be deceitful of me," he said.

I scowled, "maybe I ought to give you some extra incentive, if you win . . ." I began, desperately trying to think of something that would make Edward as eager to win as I was to see him win. What did he like more than seeing me in a stupid outfit? "If you win, you can buy me a present."

His eyes lit up, "really? Are there limits?"

"Definitely" I said quickly, before I thought of them, "nothing that costs more than $100." It sounded like a lot of money to me, but Edward grimaced a bit.

Then he grinned again, "that's a deal," he said, "can I buy you a present if I lose?"

"Of course not, you like buying me presents. It's supposed to give you incentive to win."

"Can I buy you a small present if I lose?"

"No."

He pouted, "so, I have to win."

I nodded. That was perfect. Now all I had to do was to plan a pretty outfit for Rose. Of course, she would look great in absolutely anything. I giggled, remembering how I'd thought when I first saw her that she would make a Hessian sack look good. This could be my chance to test that theory. Of course, that would really annoy my future sister, so it was definitely best kept as a passing thought. I whispered it to Edward anyway, because I thought it was funny.

He laughed too, but then he said "of course, Rose did hear that, and now she's pretty desperate to win too, so I don't think that Emmett is going to make it easy for me."

"Hey," I protested, "I was only kidding. I wouldn't really do that. I just thought it was a funny thing to say. And, Rose would still look good."

Edward chuckled, "are you finished?" he asked, noticing that I hadn't eaten anything for a bit. I nodded and he eagerly took my dirty dishes away.

We got back to the lounge and the final, deciding race began.

Rose had obviously had the same idea as I had. I don't know what she'd offered to reward Emmett with if he won, but it was definitely something that he wanted. I had thought that the boys were competitive before, but this was much more intense.

It was a close race, but Emmett won. He crowed and gave Rose a huge sloppy kiss. Edward frowned, but he came over to me for a kiss anyway. He didn't seem anywhere near as annoyed as he normally was when he lost a game.

"That's not fair," I said, "how come you're not upset about losing? I don't believe you were trying."

"Aw, Bella, don't tease Eddie," Emmett said, "he was certainly trying, he just can't help losing to his big brother."

Edward scowled at Emmett, and said to me, "It's not my fault that the prize for loosing was almost as good as the prize for winning. Maybe next time your prize won't come with a cash limit. I would work harder for that." I shivered. If I said that he could buy me anything he wanted, he would probably buy me a chain of hotels, or something.

"At least Rose won't be able to collect on her bet for a while," I said, "I'll just have to be very nice for the next two months and convince her that I look best in jeans and sneakers."

Emmett sniggered and Rose said, "why haven't you told her, Edward?"

He shrugged, "we've been busy with other things," he said. "Um . . . I was going to ask you, Bella, if you would like to go out for dinner with me on Saturday night. Please?"

"You can't take me out," I reminded him, "you're grounded until graduation. I was there at the family meeting."

Edward nodded, "that is true," he said, "but, um . . . I got special permission to take you out on Saturday night."

"He's a spoilt youngest child," Rosalie explained, "he looked all sweet and innocent and everyone caved."

"Please, Bella?"

That gave me almost no time to work on Rose. I frowned.

Edward looked panicked, "we can go another night," he offered, "if you already have plans."

"Don't be absurd," I told him, "you know that I never have any plans except with you. I'm just worrying about what Rose is going to make me wear."

"It'll be something suitable," Edward said, "Rose isn't going to do anything that would embarrass you."

I frowned, "where are we going?"

"It's a surprise. You don't need to know how to dress, since Rose will take care of that. So it can be a total surprise until Saturday night." Edward was so delighted with the way in which things had worked out, that I couldn't complain.

I'd lost a bet and I would have to be a good sport about it. Edward was absurdly happy to be taking me out on his surprise date, and it would be heartless to take away any of his pleasure. So I tried to smile and promised that I would do my best to look forward to out date. It would, at least, be nice to go out somewhere together. If we could have a bit of time alone, it would be well worth the terror of an expensive restaurant.

Charlie wasn't at all impressed when he found out about our plans. He moaned on and on about how it wasn't surprising that Edward had gone off the rails if the Cullens didn't stick to their punishments once they'd set them. I assured him that Edward had only been awarded this single free night because of his exceptionally good behaviour, but it didn't really seem to help.

Luckily, the Cullens had seen this coming (even if I hadn't) and Carlisle rang Charlie that evening to discuss it all with him. Carlisle emphasised that he didn't feel I ought to be punished for Edward's behaviour and he had felt bad seeing me visiting Edward every evening. It was as though I'd been grounded by default. Carlisle assured Charlie that Edward knew this was a one-off and he had been behaving impeccably at home and at school. Carlisle mentioned Edward's improvement of his grades, which was, I suppose, sort of true: he hadn't been to school at all while he'd been away and he was now back to his perfect straight A's. Charlie wasn't thrilled, but he, reluctantly, agreed that a small reward was a reasonable thing and one date wouldn't do either me or Edward any harm at all.

As if to prove that he really had earned his night out, Edward made an extra effort to please everyone in the run up to our date night. He wouldn't pass notes to me in class or kiss me in the corridors. He didn't tease Alice or Rose and he wouldn't allow Emmett to drag him into fights. He was scrupulously obedient to his parents and he didn't even protest when he was told that he still wasn't allowed access to his cars. I would have to drive us.

After his 'perfect-boyfriend' performance, I was suspicious of the 'perfect-son' sequel, but everyone else seemed happy, so I didn't complain. The Cullens all had enough to worry about, what with Victoria and the Wolves to consider. It was hardly surprising that they would just leave Edward to play his behaving-perfectly game. I hoped that it wasn't the sign of a storm brewing. We'd been through so much recently, I wasn't sure how well our relationship would weather another attack. Sometimes, it seemed as though it was impossible that Edward and I would ever be simply happy together.