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27

J POV

For a while things were incredibly… quiet. As quiet as they had never been for me before. Never before had I felt that kind of peace or as complete as I felt now with my mate by my side. Suddenly I understood how Peter and Charlotte had come to terms with being a vampire even though they had certainly seen the worst of our kind of life.

Once she had regained some rationality Bella had really – and I mean really – laid into me about rushing out to go after James and Co - the only time I had ever had any female go at me like that had been Charlotte when Maria had forced me to punish Peter for some imagines infraction - but her displeasure with me did not last longer than an hour and she had since calmed and settled down. She'd had to use the phone to yell at me, I remembered smiling. Close to me in person she could no more keep her hands of me than I could. In some way this mating bond is related to the human falling in love then. Finally we could start having a normal relationship with her staying with me for as much time as possible, making life so much easier as I simply did not really notice humans around when I was with her – one strange advantage of being a vampire: I would only think other vampires a danger to my mate, thus the humans, i.e. my prey, were out of the picture.

Edward tended to make himself scarce whenever she came to the house, but had become as distanced with me as he had been when I first arrived. He still sat with Bella during Biology but behaved – I had been told – politely introverted. When at home he mostly read in his room or played the piano.

It seemed as if things were becoming as normal as they could possibly could with vampires and while I relished the quiet life with my mate for once – even went to a movie night at the Newton house with her once – I was still alert. A tiny voice in my head kept insisting that this kind of idyll was not for me. We did not give up on training the Cullens either, and I noticed that Edward was starting to throw himself into fight training whole-heartedly now. As for finding out what was going on there I had given up. Both Peter and Alice had assured me there was no more danger or interference to be expected from the boy.

Peter and Charlotte had taken a house in Vancouver for now, waiting out the time until Bella's change, when we planned on moving down south with her. Charlotte had told me Peter kept a calendar and was counting the days so by now we had developed a plan to go house-hunting in Arizona or Texas for the summer holidays.

"And how exactly do you think we're going to convince Charlie of letting me go on a cross-country trip with you?" Bella wondered the first time I told her about the idea. We were in my room, all the windows open to the late spring sun and savoring each other's company.

I smiled. "Easy. Carlisle and Esme are going to propose that you go on the family summer trip with them, to New York City, an…"

"…opportunity which he will not be able to turn down for his daughter", Bella finished, shaking her head in disbelief. "You know you are devious creatures, right?" She was tousling my hair in a way I had come to miss as soon as she was out of my sight.

"Of course, Esme especially", I snickered, "She has already gotten hold of lots of New York picture postcards you're going to have to write so that they can be posted from the Big Apple."

"Well", Bella said grinning widely and getting up from my lap. "In that case you can't be objecting to me doing a few extra hours at my job to pay my own way or at least contribute to the expense." She had started working at the Newton's store four weeks ago for college money, no matter how much I objected. She was not going to accept me paying for her life. Besides – she had insisted – there was no way she would be telling her father not to worry about college funds, her boyfriend was going to take care of that. A moot discussion as it would take her a while to be able to go to college after she was turned, but who was I to make her start lying to her father when she was about to leave him permanently for me? Besides, I liked the man.

I grumbled but let her go. It had been incredibly hard at first to let her out of my sight, but deep down I was had some remnants of my humanity left: I was going to be a gentleman, not some Neanderthal primate. Besides… she would be in my arms again at night – I had spent every night with her that I did not need to feed. "See you tonight?"

She nodded enthusiastically and skipped out. I knew offering to drive her to work would insult her, so I merely leaned back and enjoyed the memory of feeling her near me while she drove off in that orange monster of hers.

Rosalie put her head into my window. "She still hasn't said anything?" she asked.

I shook my head. "I don't think she's noticed anything different. But I'm really grateful you looked it over." I gave her a thankful smile.

Rosalie waved my thanks away, grinning from ear to ear. "It's nothing, besides, it was fun dealing with an antique like that." She had taken the thing apart and put it back together a few nights back to make sure it was safe. At the same time she had exchanged a few aged parts for some more up to date ones and added some surreptitious security. "Apart from that, she needs all the help she can get to avoid accidents. You have your work cut out there once she is a newborn. Still on for the bet on who's more trouble, Emmett or her?" I nodded, grinning as well.

For all her bluster about objecting to another human being turned, Bella's insistence on independence had earned her Rosalie's respect, and while they were not exactly becoming fast friends – not too many shared interests, they were at least happy to spend time together.

While Rosalie liked Bella's independence it only caused Alice frowns. Those however must have been the only frowns on Alice's face since we had met up with the nomads. Since they had left the area she had gotten involved in High School life with a vengeance, joining the Pep Squad, the cheerleaders and – to everyone's surprise – the yearbook group. In a way it had also been her buoyant mood that had reflected on all of us. As to what was behind the move we were completely in the dark, at least until four weeks before Prom, when Bella came back with a surprise…

B POV

Still there. I shook my head irritated by that pull in my chest that came up as soon as I left Jasper's side, then decided to compartmentalize and keep some parts of my human life going.

Working at the Newton's was not exactly a dream job, but it paid well enough to justify the time away from Jasper – something which I had noticed was quite important to Charlie as well. I think he would have really flipped his lid if he knew just how much time we were spending together, which was probably to do with the Blacks continues insistence on checking on me. Suspicious Indians!

We were stacking a new delivery in the back that afternoon, catching up on some school gossip at the same time. Prom was the big news, and already people were talking about who was going out with whom etc.

"So, you'll be dancing with Hale, right?" Mike grunted, putting a heavy box of stuff up on a shelf.

I nodded, staggering under the weight of another one.

He took it after wiping his forehead. "Phew! Well, no surprise there, I guess. I've been meaning to ask…"

"Yes?" He could not have been disappointed by the news I was going with Jasper, could he?

"Hmm, yeah, anyway…"

Ok. What was going on there? "What is it, Mike?" I had come to like my good-natured human friend almost as much as Angela, and – truth be told – he had been quite down in the mouth for a while after Jessica had dumped him to go out with a senior hockey player.

"Oh… it's nothing. I'm probably imagining things anyway…"

"Right", I said, putting down the next box and sitting down on it. "Out with it. I've never seen you that … confused."

He took a deep breath. "Thing is… I'd really like to ask Alice to come to Prom with me, but I don't think I'd stand a snowflake's chance in hell of her agreeing, even though she's been talking about nothing else in yearbook for two weeks now, but she's probably going with some senior and I would make a complete idiot of myself if I asked her and …"

I blinked. "Slow down! Take a breath!" I'd never seen a boy this flustered and was about he was going to hyperventilate if I did not stop him.

Mike hung his head. "Thought so. Damn!"

"Thought what?"

"That I was imagining things. Man, I feel like the world's biggest wannabe!"

"Wait! Can you at least give me time to think?" Alice and Mike? Hm – maybe it did make sense. Alice was the most high-schooly person I'd ever met, and you could not get closer to the all-American boy than Mike Newton with his handsome rugged features, blond and blue eyed, good at sports without being an obnoxious jock and the perfect gentleman without being boring. Actually, it would make a lot of sense, were it not for the fact that Alice was a vampire… which he did not know. I blew a stray lock of hair out of my eyes and looked at my depressed friend: "What exactly were you imagining?"

Mike became enthusiastic at once and started telling me lots of little instances when Alice had shown interest in him, supported his ideas, laughed at his jokes or complimented him on something. I nodded. "Yep, that sounds as if you could at least try to ask her. As far as I know, she's not got a date to Prom yet." My goodness! I did not know that boys could get into that kind of mood as well.

"Does not mean she's going though, does it?" he grumbled and started throwing light bags up onto the top shelves in quick succession. Not for nothing was he part of the baseball team.

"Oh – I think I can calm your concern on that front. Alice is going. She's been researching gowns and accessories for two weeks at least." There was no way she would skip and opportunity to dress up and have fun at a ball, of that I was absolutely sure.

"Yeah, but … why would she go with me?" Mike frowned dejectedly. "I … ok. Yesterday I ever so slightly reached out to her and she literally froze away from me. Can you believe it? I know she's pretty… no, beautiful, but… she looked as if she was cold and I just wanted to lend her my jacket, but… It's probably because she's anorexic, what with never eating and being so thin…"

Ok – add observant to Mike's character traits. I sighed. "Tell you what: I'll get Jasper to figure out if she's got a date for Prom and get back to you as soon as I know something, ok?"

Mike's face lit up and he started nodding frantically. He worked twice as hard after that and we were finished in no time, so that I could get back early.

Hm. Well, I'd get Jasper and his talent on that as well as Charlotte and her down-to-earth thinking. Who would have thought that?