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After the shower in the morning, I examine my neck carefully and discover to my annoyance that my neck mark is still quite evident. I can't believe that something I hardly noticed at the time could take this long to disappear. I briefly consider trying to cover it with concealer but it's still dark enough that I don't think it would be successful. There's nothing for it but to wear my scarf again.

Downstairs, I pour myself out some cereal and jump nearly a ruler length when Charlie strolls into the kitchen and starts making toast. "Aren't you going to be late?" I ask him, none too subtly. "I've go to make some routine enquiries about illegal rubbish dumping up at the Corbetts' place" he tells me around a slurps of instant coffee. "I thought I'd go straight up there from her and save a bit of time".

I nod sagely, trying desperately to come up with some scheme to get rid of him before Edward arrives. Today is clearly not my day for inspiration and I've got nothing. I brush my teeth, desperately hoping to hear Charlie's car take off.

Instead, I hear another car which can only be Edward, pull up outside. The boy is five minutes early today, which would otherwise have me bursting with joy but not with Charlie on patrol. I race down the stairs, throw an airy "Bye Charlie" in his direction and bolt down the steps and out to the car. Edward has got out like yesterday but hasn't come around to my side to open the door yet, instead he's just leaning against the car. I can't hear anything behind me, if I take the path at a run I could make a clean getaway.

I almost make it. I'm just about through the gate when I clearly hear behind me "Bella, who is this?"

I try pretending I didn't hear but as I pass the gate my name is called again. My face screws up like a cartoon character so that I can't see out of my eyes and then crumples up again when I realize that Edward is standing right in front of me.

"Good morning Chief Swan" I hear in Edward's voice and I unscrew one eye slightly to see him walk around his car toward Charlie. I have to admire his self-possession.

"I'm Edward Cullen" he says. Charlie gives him a brief going over. "Carlisle's boy, right?" he says. I can almost hear the gears whirring in his head.

I can't leave Edward to face the inquisition alone. Taking a deep breath, I turn and face them both. "Charlie, this is Edward. Edward offered me a lift to school this morning."

"Car looks in good shape" pronounces Charlie "Had any speeding fines?" he asks challengingly with a total lack of regard for my feelings.

"Charlie!" I say pleadingly and then even more heartfelt "Dad!"

Perhaps the use of the term that I generally avoid gets to him. Charlie clearly relents and tells us to get going with an egregious reminder to Edward to drive carefully. Edward opens my door again but today it's actually a necessary action because I'd be otherwise paralysed by embarrassment. I step into the car and strap myself in. I catch a glimpse of myself in the rear view mirror and I don't think I could be any more red.

"I'm sorry" I whisper "There's just no excuse for him". Edward starts the car smoothly and gives me an amused glance. "He's just being a Dad" he says and then checks his rear vision mirror. "And it looks as if we're going to get a police escort to school" he adds.

Sure enough, when I look behind us, there is the police cruiser.

"Oh my God" I say and cover my face with my hands. There are no words for this humiliation.

Edward just laughs at me. "We might have to take our time going to school this morning" he says cheerfully. "Shit, I need to turn into the left lane here and then move right don't I? Fuck, it's like doing my driving test all over again!"

After a few blocks of trailing Edward's unusually exemplary driving, Charlie turns off with a blast on his horn which makes me jump. I guess I should be grateful that he didn't use the siren. "Thank fuck" I say gratefully. "I thought he was going to follow us all the way to school."

Edward laughs again but I really am angry with Charlie for putting me through that embarrassment. I tell Edward that I'll get revenge over dinner but I can't decide whether not cooking or making heartburn guaranteed chilli is the better revenge.

Edward is stealing small glances at me while still driving with hands ten and two. He lets me have my tirade. Eventually, I wind down and stare out ahead blankly. A feeling of disappointment settles over me. This trip has been such a failure.

"You could stick some fake bullet holes on his police car" says Edward suddenly and I turn round to find him looking at me with a mischievous expression and sparkling eyes. "Emmett did that to me once. You can get some very realistic looking stick ons. Actually, I think that would look good on the cruiser. Make your Dad look a little more heroic, like he dodges bullets every day."

"Forks is such a den of iniquity" I chime in, instantly relieved that our teasing rapport is back. "Dangerous criminals around every corner".

Edward comes up with some more revenge ideas including an online company apparently willing to mail dead fish to people. In fact he knows so much about how to get revenge that I'm starting to worry again about what happens when he finds out the truth again. When I ask how he knows all this stuff, he says simply "Rosalie". I give him an enquiring look and he goes on to explain that before she went out with Emmett, Rose had a boyfriend a couple of years older who cheated on her. When she found out, Rose transformed into an Amazon and drove the guy mad with an endless series of revenge attacks which she continued all the way up until he left for college. The guy figured it was Rose but he never caught her out.

"So she didn't just key his car, then?" I ask. Edward gives me a sideways look. "Sounds like you've been in the revenge business yourself" he says. Obviously Edward is not into country music. "It's in that song, you know what is it, Before he Cheats?" Edward looks puzzled. "What, you're supposed to take revenge before the guy actually cheats?" he asks in mock outrage. "What sort of chance does that give him?"

Then Edward is telling me about the time he rang both Emmett and Jasper up at two in the morning, using two different phones and then put them both on speakerphone so that all they could hear was the other one yelling "Why are you calling me at two in the fucking morning?", followed by twenty minutes worth of "I didn't call you, you called me!", while Edward was just silently listening and laughing at them. I have to say, when it comes to being annoying, Edward sounds quite creative.

By the time he's finished telling me the story, I find that he's walked me to my locker again. There's a definite sort of weird pause as we both just stand there and look at each other. Edward breaks the moment by saying "Well, have a good day. Let me know what Irina says".

Crap. I forgot that all this has a purpose. I nod, a little too enthusiastically, to hide the feeling of disappointment as I come back to earth. "See you later" I say and turn to my locker with a sudden lurch in my stomach. Should I have said that? I'm aware that Edward hesitates next to me for a second but then just says "See you" and is gone.

I'm so sorry, a whole lot of things got in the way and I'm still struggling with the next couple of chapters which represent the "hard work" part of this otherwise fluffy nonsense. Bear with me. The end is already written ... I just have to catch up with it!