High School Never Ends, A Remake

by Lady Eleanora

Remake of Part 1 of the Main HSNE Trilogy. Rated "M" for suggestive themes, language and 1 dark character. All AH, OOC; added in are some OCs of my own. Don't like, don't have to read it.

38. A Disaster Start to Spring Break

Recap of Chapter 37:

It's February as the teens embrace the weather warming as well as adjust to the sudden shift in the social dynamics. It's only been a couple weeks but Bella and Edward's relationship is finally out in the open at the school after their confrontation with their ex-best friends and they made it known they have chosen each other over their friends, and now the couple is public enemy number one. They however push forward ignoring the hate and soon it's Valentine's where it's the day of the People's Auction where the baseball team is up for the bids. Bella has a nasty encounter with her current enemy, Lauren Mallory as she tries to protect her boyfriend, all while she does her best to ignore Rosalie's usual acidic attitude. It's soon time for the auction where the boys are auctioned off one by one - before long it comes down to the final three; Jasper Hale, and Edward and Emmett Cullen. To Bella's shock and surprise along with the rest of the students present, Alice and Rosalie partook in the bidding, with Alice winning Jasper and Rosalie bidding for Emmett. It all came down to Edward who's price soon skyrocketed amongst the girls - including a bidding war between Lauren and Bella. With a last minute bid just starting to inch close to almost a grand, Bella won her boyfriend from Lauren. Soon the bottleneck blond storms after her and gets into a fight with Bella, and chooses to insinuate that Bella's using her inheritance money for dirty means, used Alice for her money, and even claimed that she knew of Bella's past - or rather chooses to guess she knows and puts the blame onto her. This enrages Bella - and rightfully so - which caused the two to lash out at each other with slaps and hits, hair being pulled and falling into the fountain. Their fight gains the attention of milling students as well as Mr. Greene who orders they make their way to the office within the hour. It sure turned out to be an eventful Valentine's.

A/N: Hello readers and welcome to another chapter for the story!

I hate feeling like I'm jumping around or skipping through time too quickly but at this point we likely have to start kicking into another plot-point which would be the Spring Break timeline I have planned for these teens. Yes I had already did a time skip into February but there, in my eyes, isn't much I could delve further into the story in a short amount of time - or nothing that to me exactly warrants another chapter before jumping into the Spring Break plots. Sorry not sorry but I'm just trying to move the story along.

Hopefully I can try to piece this a bit together cohesively but we shall see how it turns out.

I'll do my best here but for the sake of the chapter if there is any time fallacies for traveling - as in it doesn't make sense of how long some of these flights should be taking - please try to ignore it as I'm trying my best with what limited knowledge I have on hand for flights and travel.

Onwards!

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Chapter Thirty-Eight

~Bella~

March

"Bella are you finished packing yet?"

"About as packed as I can get - how does one even prepare for an overseas trip?" I grumbled, grunting as I struggled to zip what felt like an overstuffed bag full of at least over a week's worth of several different outfits. It still didn't feel like enough. I quickly peeked over to see Alice was staring down at her army of bags, likely filled with at least five outfits for each day and then some. I wondered if she was also going to have several extra bags brought along for any extra purchases - especially for any European or Italian pieces of fashion that may catch her eye. Rosalie was finishing on zipping up her fourth bag, her back facing us.

"We're going to be in Italy for only four days, I doubt you need anything excessive to cover our week." Angela joked, and then shook her head. "Still can't get over the fact that we're leaving today to go to Italy. Italy! Can you believe it Bells?"

"No." I murmured, chuckling. "Trust me I'm still trying to process it too."

It had been about a month since the disasterous Valentine's Auction, and already Spring Break was upon us. It was actually Saturday, where we were already getting all of our bags together to leave the school and head to the airport. We had an extremely long day ahead of us of bustling between airport terminals, running to catch flights, and having most of our time spent up in the air. Mrs. Idle and our coaches informed us that it would be altogether anywhere between 12 to 15 hours until we'd be in Rome, Italy, and we were wanting to get there before tomorrow so we could fully use up our alotted time there for our trip. So it was super early in the morning as is right now where I wish I was still snuggled up under my covers sleeping, but instead here I was at nearly five-am making sure everything was packed away for our week trip. I made sure to have my toiletries stowed in their bag securely in hopes they wouldn't explode once up in the air, along with making sure I had enough clothes packed for both Italy and for Arizona - with also keeping in mind that they were appropriate for the weather at this time. I knew that Arizona's weather was going to start heating up soon as this time as usually March starts to have temperatures climb after a slightly chilly winter, with maybe mixed in between some balmy weather or some rain here and there if the state felt like being nice. As for Italy I had to do light research and found out that in reality the weather was actually quite chilly at this time unless you were heading south, but even then it was nothing compared to Arizona's March weather. So I had to come prepared for both instances of these drastic weather changes. Along with my sufficient amount of clothing (hopefully at least), I had packed some schoolwork that had to get done so I could work on that in downtime in our hotel, along with some reading material, a journal that I've just been used to doodle or use as a planner, my Ipod, and any other little item I use for personal entertainment. I knew I'd need something to keep myself occupied on the flight, and also had a sleeping mask and neckpillow ready incase I wanted to nap on the flight. I felt like I was extremely prepared for anything for this long flight but also still felt like I didn't have enough ready for this journey.

Since the day of the Valentine's Auction, the school hasn't let up still on treating Edward, Angela, Ben, Jessica, Mike and I like we were public enemy number one. That day especially wasn't good at the end considering after I had went to dry off and change clothes, I marched my way over to Greene's office where Edward met up with me and tagged along as support - and well because he was apart of the fight in some aspect because he was the 'source of the fight'. We arrived and waited in the waiting room with Mrs. Cope who was typing away on her computer. Lauren arrived late just as the hour was almost up, to which Greene opened his office door at that time and took us both back into the office where Edward said he'd wait for me. Once Greene had the two of us in his office he sat quietly and let us tell our stories as to what happened and what caused the fight in the first place. Of course Lauren used any and all embellishment to try and play her story up acting as the victim and blaming everything on me, while I told my truth with no flares - just the cold hard facts. Eventually Greene took my side and did regard Lauren's side as a hot mess of confusion, yet did agree that me attacking her was a bit too far - even if internally I wanted to scream against it. But he lamented that regardless what nasty insult was said, we both partook in violence and would be punished with three days of after school detention. He thankfully didn't threaten anything else serious, or even threaten to suspend us from our music competition, but he left us with a warning that if another fight was to break out between us then our positions for the competition would be put on the line. So we left the office and after dragging Edward away, I did what I could to keep myself distanced from Lauren as much as she kept trying to throw herself at my boyfriend or make my life at school a living hell.

The rest of the school enjoyed the drama that was our fight yet were disappointed that no further cat fights broke out between us for the next few weeks. They went back to their regular scowls, glares, sneers and scoffs at us when we'd walk the halls. We continued to ignore the ridicule and the snickers, ignored the cold gazes or snide remarks made about us. This of course included the treatment we still received from our old friends that were still upset over our situation as is. Rosalie still persisted with icy scowls, snide insults thrown here and there, and the usual hair flips over her shoulder. Emmett continued to scowl and glare at the both of us and was still gruff as usual with his attitude, but kept up with the silent treatment. Jasper would look at us with the most unreadable expression on his face yet would never stick around for long before he'd dash off and kept himself isolated. Alice would still cast her usual pouts and sad eyes towards us, but would be quick to wipe the look off of her face before she'd hurry off to also be alone. I rarely saw her with Rosalie much, and the same said for Emmett with Jasper. It's as if they really did splinter off like I had my suspicions on previously.

Time passed by though and thus we ushered in March. The weather was starting to warm up considerably quickly here in Washington, with it being a happy balance temperature on average. It was warm enough for short sleeves and shorts on some days, yet Forks would still throw in a couple overcast and rainy days requiring jackets and boots. While the school was pushing through its days with students continuing through the school year, us music students were in full swing still for practicing for our competition. We did our best to at least work through our practices and pushed past the animosity as much as we could, but outside of practice is when the restraints would fall off and it was back to being the pariahs amongst the teens. I ignored them as did Edward and the others, and I focused on my boyfriend. I cashed in my little date reward with him one weekend - where I had dropped off my donation paperwork with Carlisle and Esme - and we enjoyed a lovely night out together with a cozy dinner and a date at the nearby art museum in little Forks. I enjoyed my time out with him, and even more so enjoyed the following weekend when Edward snuck me off campus for time for us in a hotel room where we stayed overnight. We were playing that game of toeing the lines of how many times we could sneak away and have some personal, intimate time together off of campus when I feared still getting in trouble with sneaking off from the campus to go to a hotel just to have sex. Edward reassured me that most of the boys in the past would do this on weekends and it wasn't something the school could hold against the students if some teens wanted to leave the school on the weekend to go home and visit their families. We were a boarding school after all, and away from our loved ones for the school year - it was like a stepping stone of like going to University after all. So I was a bit reassured after that and had refocused back on our time together in the hotel that night, just appreciating the fact he'd try to find time for us off campus during our busy schedules as Juniors that were thrown into a music competition that was eating away at our time as is.

Thus leading into now, our Spring Break trip. It was definitely going to be a luxuriant trip away from school for a week off, away from the drama that was our lives - at least away from a slice of it. We were after all going overseas with our music group, which included a majority of our ex-best friends and many of our enemies that loved to pick on us. I could only hope that we'd be protected by Idle and our coaches to ensure no fights break out.

I sighed after recollecting my thoughts on what all has happened so far, and rose to my feet. I stared down at my pile of bags, while I could hear Rosalie leaving our dorm room with her stuff as Alice was grumbling to herself. "Come on ladies, we have our carts down the stairs ready to take your bags to the busses!" I heard Jessica shout from the hall way, not even caring that likely her yells would be waking up the other sleeping Juniors on our floor that weren't apart of our music group. I could hear Angela chuckle beside me before she grabbed her bags and began to haul them out of our room. I began to grab my things carefully and proceeded to shuffle around my bed just as I looked up and smiled.

"Need some help baby?" Edward appeared in the doorway with his ever-present crooked smile. He looked delicious as ever, fashionable that made me ache between my legs. He had on a tight dark green shirt that hugged the muscles of his chest wonderfully, with faded jeans and black boots. He looked like an effortless male model as usual.

"Where are your bags?" I asked him as he strode into my room and took my bags from my hands.

"Already delivered them to the bus. I was quick and figured you'd need some help getting yours down the stairs so here I am." he mused with a wink and I rolled my eyes at him.

"Predictable am I?

"A tad. But nothing that I don't love."

"Smooth talker." I giggled at him and he nodded his head, his bronze looks bouncing as he shook with laughter.

"Gah!" I jumped upon hearing the squeak and turned to see Alice had tripped over a bag and was now on the floor.

"Alice." Edward muttered in worry, frowning when he saw his adoptive sister fall. "Please tell me you didn't overpack." he grumbled while watching the pixie push herself up to her feet.

"Surprised you're actually talking to me." I could hear her murmur under her breath but then she leveled a scowl up to Edward. "And no I didn't overpack - you can never have too many clothes for an overseas trip." Alice continued, huffing as she put her dainty hands on her hips.

"Sure." Edward muttered, not buying what she was saying. I couldn't help but feel a bit giddy in seeing this interaction, even if it was the two of them arguing. For so long we weren't talking with the others after our confrontation, yet here they were talking with one another. I knew Edward still held care and concern for his adoptive sister despite the fact that they weren't on good terms.

"You know nothing about fashion you brainless monkey."

"Hey! I like to think I do, at least more than Emmett has ever exemplified over the years."

"Okay, okay." I murmured, smirking to myself at seeing this little sibling argument. Edward smirked and shouldered my bags, while Alice pouted for a second and sighed. "Do you need some help with your bags Alice?" I asked quietly, reaching up to rub at my neck awkwardly as I tried to offer an olive branch. Alice's eyebrows shot up into her hairline at me speaking to her, and I shrugged my shoulders to her response. "You have so many it's going to take you awhile to get them all down on your own."

"Well..." Alice trailed off, a smile appearing on her small face. "I appreciate the offer, Bella. But I already had asked someone to help me. But thank you though."

"Oh okay." I murmured and smiled back at her.

"You finished with your packing Alice?" I gaped in the next second when I heard the deep voice that sounded off in the hallway, and whirled around to stare in shock as Jasper Hale lumbered into the dorm room. He was dressed up in a dark jean jacket over a black sweater, dark jeans and boots, with a black beanie over his blond locks. Soon as he entered the bedroom, he stopped short when he realized that Edward and I were still in here. I gaped at him openly with my eyes wide and when I looked over at Edward, his own eyebrows were disappearing into his hairline as he stood shocked next to me. I think he was just as floored as I was seeing his ex-best friend in here, being the lackey of Alice Cullen. "Oh uh..." he stuttered out when he realized there was an audience waiting for him.

"Uh..." Edward muttered out, blinking a couple of times.

"Uh, Edward honey! Let's get downstairs with my stuff!" I squeaked out, realizing the awkwardness in the room was only going to continue to build if we stood in here and continued to stare at Jasper and Alice who had an arrangement today for some weird reason. I already felt like we had overstayed our welcome, and on top of that I was not one for sticking around in a situation if the room was quickly becoming too uncomfortable as it was. So I all but reached over and yanked on Edward's hand roughly to wake him up and begin to drag him out of the dorm room.

"Wha - oof!" Edward grunted when I yanked on him roughly to begin dragging him out of the room. I was happy that he had all of my bags in his hands, and glad I had slipped on my converse before he arrived. Jasper shuffled out of our way as I all but raced out of the small room, but smirked when I heard Alice's giggle at the scene we had caused, just before we had managed to reach the stairs and left the Junior Floor. I let Edward have a chance to right himself as I would hate for him to fall over on himself down the stairs when he was carrying my things, and took his hand again while we walked down the flights of stairs. "That was... something." Edward muttered to himself finally as he tried to collect himself after what we had just seen.

"You're telling me." I agreed, and noted Edward continued to frown.

"What the hell is he doing in willingly offering up help to my adoptive sister? I thought after everything the girls weren't still talking with the guys, and it very much looked like our ex-best friends would not be associating themselves with one another after our confrontation."

"Not sure." I shrugged my shoulders. "Maybe we were wrong about them."

"Hmm." Edward continued to muddle to himself and I snickered a little at his reaction.

"Are you suddenly going into brother mode over her?"

"What?" Edward grumbled, his cheeks turning pink. "Look to be frank I wasn't happy with how Emmett and Jasper treated y'all over the school year still - I've made that abundantly clear to you many times over. Need I also remind you that I was not a happy camper that day when we caught Jasper looking at Alice's ass when she bent over?" he growled to himself and I giggled.

"It's sweet that even through this mess, you still want to protect little Alice." I murmured to him and Edward's blush deepened.

"Even if we're not blood related, I'd do anything to protect Alice - even if she's had a few choice words about me and didn't appreciate me over the years. She still cares about me and I, her. We're family." Edward continued to mutter under his breath.

"You don't have to prove anything to me sweetie. I find it endearing. It's nice that you wanted to protect her from getting hurt - that's how brothers should act after all." I mused to him, frowning slightly as I recalled that I have my own brother now in light of recent events, yet one that didn't want anything to do with me for the time being.

Edward squeezed my hand when he noticed the slight change in my tone, and I shook my head to dispel the small sadness that crept over me. "He'll come around, darling." he murmured to me in encouragement and I smiled sadly up him; I wanted to believe him but for now I struggled to believe his words.

We finally reached the ground level of the dorm building and Edward respected my wishes in wanting the topic of the conversation drop before I'd get too sad. We focused on the now and hurried out to the front of the school where the line of greyhound busses were waiting for us. At least one bus would be filled with our music group, but the second bus would be for our overflow of luggage as for how many of us would be attending this trip - the students of the competition as well as the music students that were apart of our lineup in playing our music live for some pieces. We threw my bags in and got on the bus where we saw our remaining friends sitting near the back and we quickly joined them in accompanying seats. Soon the rest of the music students arrived on the bus after dropping off their bags in the stow-away compartments below us or in the overflow bus. A few students would have to ride in that bus so both extra coaches went to that bus while finally Idle appeared on the first bus where most of us were on it.

"Alright students! You better have everything you need and want to bring on this trip! We are all packed and ready to go on this trip. Be ready for this long journey ahead of us today." Idle announced with finality and we gave out whoops and cheers as the driver started up the bus and pulled away from the school. We drove through the early hours of the morning, leaving Forks behind us and pulled into Seattle's airport. Planes were already flying in and out from the airport once we pulled up to the busy arrival and departure area. Idle and our coaches bustled us along in collecting our luggage, securing a couple luggage carts to helps us get our things in quicker. We checked in through security before we arrived to the desk and checked in our luggage as well as confirmed our time to make it to our flight. The poor attendants at the desk had to split their work for how many students they had to check in for all of our paperwork and tickets, making sure our documents were up to date so we could fly. Thankfully we had no hiccups and we managed to make it past the gates, where Idle and our coaches filed us along in a group to make it to our terminal. We arrived in less than two hours after we had originally made it to the airport and Idle said our flight would be arriving in an hour so we had time to grab ourselves some snacks or coffee before then. We took this chance to disperse and ran over to the nearby food spots where Edward and I grabbed ourselves some coffee and breakfast pastries to snack on. We returned back to the waiting area for our flight and sat down together where Edward threw his arm over the back of my chair and watched me in amusement as I devoured my danish pastry.

"You're adorable you know that?" he murmured to me and I blushed under his gaze as he watched me lick my lips.

"I don't know what you mean." I feigned ignorance while sipping my hot coffee, noting Edward snickered.

"Sure, sure." he mused and I chuckled at him.

"You find strange or very innocuous things about myself, adorable." I said to him in slight bemusement and he shrugged.

"Everything aboout you is adorable to me."

"You schmoozer."

"Is it working?" Edward asked with a raised eyebrow and I laughed at him.

"Yes and no." I replied, laughing more when he pouted.

"Uh oh, if I know that look and know that laugh, Ed's ego is getting wounded." I glanced up upon hearing Mike, and saw that he, Jessica, Angela and Ben were wandering over to sit beside us. Edward glowered at our blond haired friend who had made the remark. "Yep I hit the nail on the head." he continued to muse out loud, snickering as Jessica smacked him lightly on the shoulder.

"You're not wrong to assume." I joked and Edward sighed. "Relax baby, I'm only teasing you."

"I know, I know." Edward gave up in defeat yet his green eyes sparkled mischievously. "Just know I plan on getting back at you for it later."

"Me likey the sound of that." I purred, giggling girlishly as he pulled me to snuggle into his side while he and our friends laughed at my remark. I glanced over and noticed that Ben was looking at a travel guide magazine for Italy which caused me snicker at it. "Are you getting the tourist crash course on what to do and not to do in Italy, Ben?" I teased out loud where the others followed my line of sight.

"Har har, Bells." Ben muttered at me but shook the magazine. "But yes and no, that is what I am doing. I'm trying to brush up on the history and the appeal to the country, as well as what all is popular over there. You'd be surprised on what all this magazine has to offer."

"Let me see that." Jessica remarked and proceed to grab the magazine from his hands.

"Hey!"

"Ooh, look at the fashion!" Jessica gushed ignoring Ben's protests, while she twisted the magazine around and looked at the images before her in awe. Angela peaked over at the magazine, humming in agreement with her while Mike glanced over her shoulder.

"Oh wait! Yo!" Mike cried and grabbed ahold of one side of the magazine. "This magazine's got an article on some of their famous celebrities that were raised in Italy - some of them are stars that Aro Volturi scouted for. And check this out - two of them look like you guys!" he almost shouted as he hastily read over the magazine.

"What? That sounds so fake." I grumbled while Edward reached over and stole the magazine, skepticism apparent on his handsome face. I glanced up and watched as he read over the article himself before his eyes widened.

"Damn. Maybe Mike isn't lying sweetheart. Look." Edward murmured and pulled the magazine down for me to see. I peered over to look into the magazine and was floored at what caught my eyes. I guess they weren't lying really. Plastered near the center fold of the magazine was a blown up picture of a beautiful Italian couple adorned in couture fashions of European origin. The two looked to be about in their mid twenties but looked so youthful in their European beauty. The male was in front of the woman as it looked like it was a paparazzi shot of the couple leaving a restaurant. The male held almost a similar physique to that of my Edward - lean, slightly muscled but not overly bulky. If anything he only appeared to have a bit more muscles to his body than Edward did, yet it was barely noticeable. Moving to his face his nose appeared a bit stronger - holding almost the tell-tale signs of appearing like an Italian nose; straight, large and almost hooked yet it seems like his nose was the perfect blend that didn't look overly hooked that wanted to fall into the stereotype. His eyes were hidden behind a pair of black ray bans, while his lips - the right mixture of full to thin ratio - were pulled back into a smirk. One of his hands was stretched behind him holding onto the delicate hand of the gorgeous goddess-like woman behind him. It almost felt like looking into a mirror in some form yet not at the same time, as to me I wished I looked like her. She was slim with the right curves that made up her perfect model body, her arms slender and elegant while she followed behind her man. Both of their skin was not too pale but not too olive in tone. Going up to her face she too had that blended Italian nose but it looked so small and almost a mixture of an straight nose and that of a button nose. It suited her face whereas her eyes were also covered by Ray Bans that matched her lover's sunglasses. The man's hair was a tousseled dark brown whereas her hair was a deep, deep brown that almost looked like a shiny black, cascading wonderfully over her shoulders and down her back. She smiled brilliantly yet neither made full eye-contact with the cameras.

"It's like looking at you two in a different lense." Angela remarked, and I blinked several times as I drank in the sight of the picture.

"The European Edward and Bella look hot." Jessica gushed and that caused Ben to snigger loudly while Edward dropped the magazine, his cheeks pink. He let Jessica have the magazine back while he took to wrapping his arm around my waist to pull me close into his side again.

"I mean... she isn't wrong. That lady looks super sexy." Mike murmured to himself, wincing as Jessica smacked him again. "Hey, you got to ogle openly at them, why can't I?"

"What were their names?" I pushed, hoping to save him from her ire. I didn't get a chance to read over the article much nor did I get a chance to read the caption that I could briefly see at the bottom of the picture.

Jessica pushed her anger at her boyfriend's remarks aside while she shook the magazine and took to reading through it. "Uh... Well it says their names are Eduardo Rossi and Isabelle Fiore. Eduardo is 26 years old while Isabelle is about to be 25 this October. The article goes on to talk about how they met four years ago when they signed themselves under a contract with Aro Volturi who originally hired them as models but also threw in a record deal. The two of them are famous artists over seas and are one of the most famous singing duos in Italy." Jessica began to prattle off details about the couple, at least what was being detailed in the magazine. "It goes on to say that the two are a very private couple and that this one of the last few photos taken of them, dated all the way back from September of last year. Prior to this photo, there were a couple pictures floating around that showcased Isabelle sporting a beautiful ring on her ring finger, which sparked rumors that the two of them are engaged yet they wish to keep it amongst themselves to avoid a media frenzy." she continued and flipped the page before she whistled. "Damn, I'd want to keep my business quiet too if I had that ring." she noted aloud and showed the magazine off to us again; when Edward and I could glance down at the magazine once more, I caught sight of what Jessica was talking about. It was another photo the insanely beautiful couple, looking like it was another paparazzo photo taken of them when they were out. They were dressed impeccably once more, with Eduardo standing behind her and kissing her cheek which was causing his fiancée to beam. Below her hands were holding onto a sparkly clutch bag, with her left hand present for the photo; there was a blown up portion of her hand and there I could see a beautiful ring sitting on her ring finger. It was extravagant and that even felt like an understatement, as it looked extremely expensive and incredibly fancy as it sat on her delicate hand.

"Sheesh, man's got money if she's flaunting that." Ben joked and I could see Angela glaring at him.

"You don't know anything about them yet you're assuming she's with him because of his money?" she muttered at him angrily and Ben balked from her annoyed tone.

"No I - I wasn't implying-"

"Nah Ben wasn't making assumptions, Ang." Mike defended his friend.

"I'm certain that there's really a lot of love between them. Remember, the article said they've been together for about four years, along with it saying that anytime they've been out in public Eduardo is extremely affectionate with Isabelle - and her the same with him." Jessica continued to give out details about the Italian celebrity couple that was my and Edward's apparent doppelgängers. "They've had many photo shoots done together too for some of their modeling contracts, as it states that Eduardo prefers to work with his beautiful Isabelle and wants no other co-models with him, otherwise he works in solo shoots. And Isabelle has expressed nearly the same, as she adores being with her man for romantic or steamy shoots. Along with that, she loves to be in the studio working with Eduardo as they have a multitude of love ballads and feel as if they're serenading one another." she gushed, and a dreamy look came across her face. "Oh they sound so adorable!"

"Almost sickeningly sweet, much like you two." Mike teased, which caused me to blush whilst Edward rolled his eyes.

"I guess maybe we're like them. But I still don't see how this is really relevant to our trip." Edward muttered while squeezing my side.

"If anything this should prepare you two for potentially any misdentifications." Jessica warned us and Edward scoffed.

"As if."

"Hate to say it but I'm with my boyfriend on this." I muttered back whilst Jessica pouted. "Look we might look a little bit like them here and there - but I highly doubt anyone would confuse us for them." I added in, shrugging my shoulders. "For starters we'd look way too 'American' I think when we'll arrive; we're going to be the classic American tourists that we are and have no clue what's all going on over there, much less be able to speak Italian. And for another, they're in their mid-twenties meanwhile Edward and I are very much still in our teens, and won't be able to pass as young adults even if we tried hard enough."

"Hey I can speak a little Italian." Edward argued and I whipped my gaze up to him to stare in shock.

"Since when?"

"Esme signed us up to take a couple language courses here and there when we were younger - I'm not exactly fluent but I'd say I'm in the mid-tier of being able to understand Italian." he grumbled, his cheeks becoming pink once more. "I also know a little French."

"Mr. Perfect here just always wanting to show off." Mike teased and yet again, Jessica smacked him. "Ow, babe, you're seriously going to break a bone of mine with how many times you've been doing that today."

"If you'd quit putting your foot in your mouth..." Jessica trailed off with a scowl, thus causing Angela and Ben to chuckle at their antics. "But, okay I guess you're right Bells. Besides, how could someone explain Edward is Eduardo when he's got that mop top of copper hair?" Jessica joked, and Edward frowned heavily at her.

"Hey don't make fun of my hair." he pouted and I giggled at his expression as it looked like he was offended at the jab she made about his hair.

"Your hair is perfect, love." I assured him, but winked. "But she has a point; if we were even remotely them, there's not enough box-dyes in the world that could make Eduardo's hair match your bronze locks."

Edward rolled his eyes angrily as the jabs kept coming, but snickered when I pecked his cheek.

"Still I don't think it hurts that you two are made aware of this couple; beyond a few discrepancies, you two do look like them just a bit." Angela amended with the other nodding their heads.

"I guess but I still have my doubts so we should be fine for our trip." Edward retorted, shrugging his shoulders. With that, we dropped the topic at hand and went back to perusing through the magazine to see what else was on offer inside it, looking at the beautiful pictures on hand that showcased the landscapes of the rolling vineyards, the beautiful ancient architecture, the art, the flourishing gardens and everything wonderfully European that the magazine wanted to show off. We sat there ogling and snacking on our food, wondering aloud of what all we'd be seeing when we get to Italy as we weren't sure exactly what all Mrs. Idle had planned for us. We must've sat there longer than we realized since the hour passed by in a flash and soon we heard on the intercom that our flight had arrived and we were ready to begin boarding the plane. Mrs. Idle and our coaches gathered us teenagers up to file into a line and handed out each of our tickets. I glanced down as we inched through the line while each section was called, noting the row and seat I was assigned. Edward was behind me, once again penguin walking with me while we had shouldered our carry-on bags, and I could feel him glancing over my shoulder looking down at my ticket. "Excellent. She put us next to each other." he purred into my ears which tickled me and I shivered.

I giggled at him as he kissed my cheek. "Looking for something more on this flight mister?" I joked quietly and Edward snickered.

"No I'm not looking for a ticket to the mile-high club. I'd never pressure you into that and I frankly like my privacy with you." he whispered into my ear and I blushed at what he implied. "I just love the fact we won't be separated on this long flight, I'd like to try and cuddle with you if our arm-rests can lift at least." he continued to whisper to me and I smiled up at over my shoulder.

"You're so incredibly sweet."

"I try." he joked and I once again giggled at him.

Inch by inch we finally made to the attendant that was at the check-in desk who was typing away furiously at her computer while she tried to quickly work the line down. She looked over our tickets and then looked at the computer before she nodded in approval and clacked away before handing our tickets back. "You two are approved for this flight, you're in row 8 - seats five and six. We hope you enjoy our flight!" the attendant chirped with a breezy smile as we grabbed our tickets from her. We thanked her and then hustled onto through the hallway that led us to the plane. In front of us was Emmett, Alice and Rosalie while behind us were Angela, Ben and Jasper. We rushed onto the plane, nodding in greeting to the other attendants who were there to meet us, and we began to shuffle through the narrow aisles of the fancy, large plane. It was a large jumbo plane almost where it had a middle section of rows of seats that were five per row, and then on the outer sections there were additional seats - three each for the windows. There were two splitting aisles that allowed for passengers and the attendants to have enough room to move between the rows of seats, and above were the compartments for our carry on luggage to be stowed away. We found our row and stowed away our bags before we shuffled into our row and sat down in our seats. In this case I'd have at least one person to my right whilst Edward would have someone to his left, with that person having someone next to them before it'd come to the aisle. Just as we sat down, I glanced up and noted that to my right, across the aisle were Emmett, Rosalie and Alice. Alice took the window seat, Rosalie the middle seat and then the hulking Emmett squeezed himself in to take the seat closest to the aisle. I glanced over towards Edward's left and noticed that across the way were Jasper, Ben and Angela. Ben let his girlfriend take the window seat, then he sat next to her before Jasper took the aisle seat.

"Hey we got our seats next to you two!" I looked up and smirked when Jessica and Mike came to our row to sit next to us. Jessica sat down on Edward's left, whereas Mike took the aisle seat next to her. Edward looked almost a bit relieved to see that we'd have our friends next to us, but the relief was short lived.

"Ugh, really? I get to sit next to you?" I glowered upon hearing the familiar nasally voice and looked up begrudgingly when I saw the bottleneck fake-blond that was Lauren Mallory, was standing in aisle next to the remaining empty seat of our row. She was dressed scantily like always and had on a bright pink leopard neck pillow hanging around her neck while she looked down at me with disdain evident in her eyes.

"Lovely." I grumbled, scooting closer to my boyfriend. He had since lifted the arm-rest that separated us and threw his arm around my shoulders.

She huffed but maneuvered to throw her carry on bags up into the overhead above us and then sat down angrily in her seat next to me. Lauren glanced up longingly at Edward, from what I could see out of the corner of my eyes, yet he didn't return a look to her but instead focused on engaging me with a digital list on his phone where he had begun to map out picture spots he wanted to take me to for us to have some photo ops. Soon the intercom crackled to life as our pilot welcomed all of the passengers on our flight, who had filled up the plane's capacity shortly after we had sat down. The pilot informed us that this flight would be heading towards the Dallas Fort Worth International Airport as our first stop, to get fuel. Then there'd be a transition over for this flight to move towards Washington DC for another fuel pit-stop, and then if we would still be on this flight, it'd be making the third leg of the journey overseas - stopping in the United Kingdom before the final stretch of the journey would be from the UK to Italy. The flight attendants on board demonstrated how to buckle our seatbelts and how to practice our safety incase there's any complications on our flight, while the Pilot gave detailed instructions of what the attendants were doing and where our emergency exits were at on our plane. We all buckled our seats and made way from pulling away from the airport, where I held hands tightly with Edward as we took off into the skies. He squeezed it back in comfort.

Soon we were up in the air and thus began our flight journey. I was relieved that our first flight passed by with no fanfare amongst us teens. I think most of us were completely dog-tired still after having been awoken as early as we were, so after I had made a couple cursory glances around, I noted that most of the teens in our music group appeared to have passed out after we were in the air; many had neck pillows around their necks, some had sleeping masks or were wrapped up in light blankets while the shades were down over their windows in attempts to block out the light from outside the plane. In our row, I could see Angela and Ben were passed out next to one another while Jasper was reading in his seat. Beside Edward, Mike and Jess were in no better shape than Angela and Ben, with pillows around their necks or sleeping masks on as they had adjusted their seats slightly and passed out into their naps. I looked over to my left and noted that Emmett was asleep in his chair, snoring a bit loudly much to Rosalie's annoyance as she sat beside him, engrossed in her fashion magazine with a sour look on her otherwise pretty face. Beside her I could see little Alice was cuddled up in a blanket, curled underneath while her head rested as comfortably as she could get it in her seat, napping effortlessly. I glanced back to our section of seats and noted that even Lauren was napping beside me, her head lolled onto her neck pillow. I then looked over towards Edward and couldn't help the smile that came to my face; he also seemed to have quickly passed out once the flight leveled out. His head was lolled to the side while his arm was still around my shoulders, and it looked like his succulent lips were parted slightly in his sleep. He looked cute while he rested. I wasn't exactly tired enough to try for a nap with him, no matter how inviting it looked to snuggle up against him and pass out much like the rest of the group. So I decided I'd try to read and luckily I had already pulled out my book I wanted to read before we took off. Shifting in my seat next to Edward, I pulled it out and laid against his chest while I began to read.

And so that's how our first flight went. The time passed by quickly since I had been so focused on my book; it only felt at most half an hour had passed but likely it was several hours. Soon, the pilot came back onto the intercom and the dings on the overhead system slowly woke up the sleepy passengers that was our music group. Everyone mostly had stayed asleep in their naps but were jostled awake as the pilot announced we'd be descending soon since we were approaching our first stop in Texas. Edward stretched beside me once he woke up, and grinned sheepishly at me as I watched him. "Enjoyed your nap?" I asked him over the roaring white noise that was the plane, watching as he stretched and rolled his neck to work out the kinks. Our peers around us were doing much of the same, stretching their achy limbs out while they woke up.

"I did." Edward murmured, his voice a bit husky and thick still with sleep. "I'm surprised you didn't want to nap."

I shrugged my shoulders and held up my book. "The coffee at the airport was enough to keep me awake for now, so I just spent some time reading my book."

We all buckled up for our descent and sat as the pilot eased the plane down towards the airport. It took awhile but soon we touched down and arrived into Texas. After the plane was eased into its stop and we waited another half hour, we were given the okay to exit the plane and head into the airport while the pilot said the plane would be fueling up and heading over to a new terminal to take us to our next leg of the journey ahead of us. Section by section we'd rise and slowly got off the plane with our carry on luggage, a slow crawl to enter the airport and regroup. Idle and our coaches set about keeping us together while I took in the sight of the busy Texan airport. It was much more crowded than Seattle's airport had been, but granted that was several hours ago when we had left so it was later on in the day.

"Alright kids! We're going to get our things, have them go through security before we move them onto the next flight once again!" Idle announced to our large group, with the coaches ensuring that we were together in a cohesive cluster that wouldn't take up too much room in the overly crowded airport. Soon, we began to hurry through the airport to claim our luggage and have it transferred over through security once more, with Idle constantly reminding us that we needed to keep up with moving at a steady pace. Our flight would not take long on refueling for this brief intermission and we had to keep up with our pace to make sure we could get back onto our flight. It thankfully didn't take us long and soon enough in a blur we were already re-boarding our flight for our next leg of the journey.

The day passed much like this as we continued towards Italy; we'd get onto the flight, our seats intermixed between our fellow students and sometimes changing up in arrangements - however I had to be eternally grateful to Idle since she kept putting Edward and I together, along with our friends being not too far from us. I think more-so she kept doing that because she didn't want there to be any potential fights on our planes due to us still being hated amongst our classmates. Either way, it sure helped our journey as I loved being able to sit next to Edward for our whole trip. After we'd board and head up into the air, us students did what we could to make sure we didn't get bored on our flights. After the first flight, everyone was mostly awake now and busied themselves amongst each other, be it on their electronics they brought along, reading books or magazines or doing whatever they could to entertain themselves. The flight from Texas to Washington, D.C was a lot shorter by comparison from our first flight, so we reached the next airport in almost three hours. As soon as we'd come to a stop, we got off and repeated the same procedure as before: gather up our luggage, pass it through security once more, hurry to our next terminal, wait to board, and once we did, we'd file onto the plane and await for takeoff. Our pilot came onto the intercom to remind them that this would be our longest flight as our next stop would be to the UK, specifically in London. Currently for our time as we were in DC it was just hitting about noon, yet with our flight it would be roughly seven or so hours before we'd arrived in London. And of course there was the jarring time zone differences of the US compared to the UK, so likely we'd be arriving to the UK exceptionally late. Idle reassured us though as we were boarding the flight that we'd likely make it into Italy late in the evening but they'd still have someone available to check us in and we'd be able to immediately sleep once we're settled in. With that, our longest flight took off from the ground. I used this time to continue reading with Edward beside me busying himself with either talking with Mike, doing some reading of his own or even writing on some composing sheet work. Eventually flight attendants came by and we ordered some food for our dinner, which all of us teens ate up like ravenous wolves. It had proven to be a tiring day for us all and I guess most of us were starving, unable to live off between the small snacks we did have - either from ones we managed to grab in between our racing through airports or what we could have on our flights.

Eventually I had passed out beside Edward when we were only two hours away from landing, yet Edward didn't complain. He had told me, after I had woken up when we finally reached London, that he enjoyed being able to hold me against his side as I snuggled into him lovingly in my sleep. I was blushing yet smiling at him while we got off the plane when he told me, and we struggled to keep up with Idle and our coaches - who seemed to be running off what seemed like endless supplies of energy - who tried to keep us awake and hurry through the airport to our final flight which would be to our destination, Rome. All of us sleepy teens trudged through the airport that seemed quiet for the late night hours of London, before we made it to our final plane. Most of us once again slept at this hour while we took to the skies for a final time as it'd be another two and a half hours before we'd arrive in Rome. I napped again with Edward napping as well, where we snuggled together comfortably. Before long, we were woken up once again as we began our descent back down to earth - signaling we had finally made it. After some time we finally touched down and waited patiently for the plane to head into the airport. Once it had pulled in and parked itself, we filed off the plane section by section once more and sluggishly made our way into the quiet airport with Idle and our coaches leading the way. One of our coaches, Mr. Kartachna, who spoke fluently in Italian, greeted the airport workers that greeted us once we stepped away from our terminal. After a few moments, we walked away and moved along to head through security after we had grabbed our luggage. We followed after our teachers before we finally made it outside and had found that a greyhound bus was waiting for us.

"Alright kids, this bus will be taking us to our hotel so lets load it up and head out so you all can get to sleep!" Idle announced to us and we moved robotically in putting our luggage away in the stowaway compartments were on the bottom portion of the bus. We were all exhausted after our extensively long day from traveling halfway across the globe to be where we are now, but the promises of a bed awaiting us motivated us all to try and keep up with our teachers enthusiasm to hurry up and board the bus. Once we had packed away our luggage and were seated on the bus, we pulled away from the airport, driving into the night for another half hour. The bus was quietly as some of us continued to pass out on and off, wanting to give into the call that was sleep. It was thankfully a short ride away from the airport that we eased our way into Rome and came up to our hotel. Idle and our coaches ushered us off and into the hotel's lobby where workers were coming out to gather up our luggage for us sleepy teens.

The hotel was grand with many stories to it, and looked classic for its architecture as it blended in with nearby building that were just as remarkably beautiful in preserving the history that was Rome. Some were updated slightly to the modern times yet tried to still keep the same original architecture of its build, and the hotel was very much like that. We stepped inside the hotel and I was blown away by the classy lobby. It was marbled white floors that greeted us, with golden stucco walls and beautiful paintings of landscapes of Italy adorned on the walls. Plants in pretty white pots were scattered throughout here and there in the lobby where a deep red rug drew us in and led up to the deep wooden desk that would be where we'd check in for the night; workers were behind it, typing away on their computers or occasionally answering phone calls. I'd see some workers bustling off either to our left down an equally beautiful hallway, or some bell-boys were heading towards our right where I could see some elevators were waiting there. On either side of us as well once we entered, were seating areas for any guests that wanted to sit around in the lobby; beautifully restored antique sofas and loveseats, of plush deep golden fabric and polished dark wood, were arranged in a square to ensure an open space for conversing amongst each other.

We stood together in the lobby, which had to be a sight for the workers. Likely seeing very clear American teens who were getting their first taste of Italy, outside of their norm that was the states, had to be amusing. Idle, Mrs. Looseily and Mr. Kartachna came up from behind us and went to the desk, where Mr. Kartachna spook to them again in Italian, as he was likely checking us in. One worker went about typing away furiously on her computer before she made a noise of recognition and smiled up to him warmly. After they conversed, she nodded to our teachers and stood, walking away from the desk and disappearing down the hallway to our left. "We are officially checked in students, and we'll be having some bell boys follow you up to your floors with your luggage. We've assigned you to your rooms where each room has two queens so a max of four students will be to each room. And no, it is girls and boys separated; we will not be having any co-ed nonsense occurring while we're staying at this hotel." Mrs. Looseily explained to us quietly while Idle and Mr. Kartachna began dishing out several key cards to us all. She snickered at her commentary as if completely directing that towards the only six teens of the group that was involved in said relationship - not singling us out or anything, oh no nothing like that. Edward and I snorted quietly once she had said this, but accepted our key cards that had the room numbers also on our cards. Our whole group would be on the same floor, where hopefully we won't be too much of a problem for other hotel guests with our large crowd.

After we had received our keycards, we began taking elevator rides up to our floor where bell-boys were following after us in groups with our bags. In the elevator, it was revealed to me that Jessica, Angela and Alice of all people would be sharing a room with me. The four of us, along with Edward who was still sticking closely to my side, were quiet as we rode up to our floor. However looking around, I could easily see that we were mostly quiet due to our exhaustion; Angela and Jessica were leaning against one another, looking ready to pass out. Alice was rubbing at her eyes and standing in silence, while I could feel the heavy weight that was Edward as he leaned against me, fighting his sleep off as best as he could for just a bit longer. The dinging of the elevator jolted them awake in the small space and we left the elevator, shuffling down the hallway. The others that had rode up before us from taking turns on the elevators, were quietly shuffling about in their rooms getting settled in for the night. Us girls arrived to our room and I turned to have my kiss goodnight with Edward while the girls entered our room.

"I'm so tired." Edward muttered, yawning halfway through as we stood together in the hallway.

I hugged him tightly, smirking. "Well we've been traveling for most of the day, of course you're tired."

Edward hummed and leaned down, pecking my lips. "Sweet dreams, baby. I wish I could cuddle you in bed tonight."

"I know, I wish I could do the same with you. Try to have a good night sleep without me okay?"

"I'll try but you'll be in my dreams. I love you."

"I love you too, you sweet big teddy bear." I kissed him once more, smiling against him. Eventually we separated and I let him meander over to his room which was three doors down from my room. I turned and shuffled into my room where I thanked the bell-boy who had dropped off all of our luggage and once the door shut, I flopped onto the nearest bed. The room was a simply done hotel room, with floral gilded wallpaper, deep sage green carpets, and luxurious, fluffy looking queen beds. There was also a small closet to hang some clothes, a dresser against a wall and a fancy looking flat screen TV hanging up on the wall above the dresser. To my left, there was also a large glass door that led out to a balcony yet with it being so late in the evening, I could only see darkness outside the window.

"I am ready to hit the hay." Jessica, who had taken residence on the bed I had flopped onto, groaned aloud as she stretched her achy muscles. I could hear Angela changing into some comfortable pajamas beside us, while I could also hear water running in the bathroom; Alice likely was inside washing up for bed.

"That sounds like a wonderful idea." I murmured and heaved myself up to dig through my bags. Jessica and I worked on dressing down into our own sets of pajamas, comfortable with at least dressing down in front of one another. Some unspoken rule as girls I guess, whereas before I would've been self-conscious and waited until the bathroom was free and changed then. But considering the late hour and my state, I was too tired to truthfully care. By the time that I had my pajamas on, Alice stepped out of the bathroom, dressed down in her fashionable pajama set with an eye mask slung on her forehead. The four of us remained silent and slipped into bed; Jessica and I agreed to share one of the queen beds together, which left Angela with little Alice. We got under our covers after we had locked our hotel door, closed the curtains to the window, and plugged in our phones to charge before I had reached over to turn off the bedside lamp. It was right between our two queen beds, and was currently the only light source on for our room.

"Goodnight." I called out to them, even if I knew at least with Alice we were still not on good speaking terms. I still wanted to be courteous through it with our current situation. If we were going to be sharing a room for a couple of days, we had to at least tolerate one another.

The girls gave our their quiet murmured responses as the light went off. As soon as I hunkered back down into the bed with the covers around me, I easily gave into the sleep that has been chasing me for hours - and was out like a light in the next minute.

---

A quick, loud rapping of knocking suddenly jarred me awake. I jumped from my spot in my bed, rubbing at my eyes when I could see hints of light peeking through the gauzy curtains to our room was coming through. I yawned and stretched, wondering if that was just one of the teachers quickly knocking on the door to wake us up. I glanced around and noted that the other girls were still deep asleep; Jessica was stretched beside me, arm thrown above her head and she was snoring. Angela was curled up on her side of her bed with Alice, whilst said Pixie herself was lying calmly on her back, the eye mask over her eyes while she slept peacefully.

Another knock came to our door and I sighed. I threw my covers off and began to shuffle to the door, scratching at my neck. I opened the door and jumped, frowning.

Someone who looked like a hotel employee was standing at the door, arms behind his back. He was a hulking mass of a person, dressed up in a bell-boy outfit that looked comically off-putting for a man of his size. He almost reminded me of Emmett just based off of his size; he looked menacing almost as he stood there, his dark hair peeking out from under his hat, his dark brown eyes boring holes into me while his face gave way to a smile that truly creeped me out.

The employee gave a quick clearing of his throat before he spoke in an exaggerated, heavy accent of rough English. "Good morning. I was sent to give you a wake up call." his voice rumbled above me.

"Uh..." I trailed off, gulping down some air. Something about him really unsettled me the more I stood there with him, which was odd. Why was it that I was getting a weird reading off of this hotel employee? I recalled back to the night before with the bell boy I had thanked when he was leaving, and I felt perfectly safe, unbothered, when he was leaving. Now with this one, something just seemed... off. The man blinked, as if expecting a response from me. I was becoming more and more uneasy the longer we stood there. Eventually I worked up the courage and nodded my head to him. "Thanks."

The man smiled once more, his eyes raking over me inquisitively.

"Uh, I don't have any money for a tip..."

"Oh no! No tip needed!" the man boomed aloud and I jumped from his sudden loudness. The man smiled again, even giving me a bow. "I only wanted to just stare at your beauty a bit longer, apologies."

I blinked rapidly as my heart sank to my stomach. That was definitely something I didn't want to hear. The man winked to me and before I could scream for help, he turned on his heel and strolled away to my left, heading for the elevators. I quickly shut my door and locked it, taking in a few deep breaths to calm myself down. What in the hell was that? I thought to myself in a panic, leaning against the door. That was definitely not a normal employee, but what could I do? I mean, was it normal for some Italian hotel employee to compliment me out of nowhere? Should I be flattered that he called me beautiful? Honestly no, especially since he looked to be in his late twenties whereas I'm just a teenager. But past the obviously creepy flirty, something about him in general was just... unnerving.

I tried to shake it off and went to the bathroom after I grabbed my phone and a change of clothes, noting the time that it was merely seven in the morning. I tried my best to shake off the nerves that I had from that encounter and just focused on bathing, which at least helped ease my mind once I stood under the hot water. I quickly showered and after getting dressed, went back into the room to see the others waking up.

"You're up early Bells." Angela pointed out loud as she stretch, whilst Alice quickly slinked around me with her own clothes in her hands and slipped into the bathroom after I left it.

"Oh uh... yeah. I got a wakeup call from one of the employees. I guess Idle and the coaches were trying to get us up early and y'all just didn't hear it." I said offhandedly, grimacing slightly as I remembered my encounter with the weird employee. Jessica and Angela exchanged looks with one another when I said this and I frowned. "What?"

"Uh Bella..." Jessica began. "Idle just dropped by like five minutes ago to wake us up."

I felt my heart stop as she said this, and could feel my eyes go wide.

"Are you feeling okay Bells?"

"Um, yeah!" I gulped, shaking my head. So there wasn't a special wakeup call in place. But then how... Who was that that came to our room? I began to think myself in a panic, floored by this. So this 'employee' lied. If he wasn't sent to our room to wake us up, then what were his real motives? I mean from an educated guess, it was nothing good purely based off his unnerving comment just before he left. But that still left me wondering on what led him to our room, or was he able to figure out that I was in here somehow? Was it just a pure coincidence as he was stalking our rooms, looking for an unsuspecting American to open the door that he could trick, con or hurt easily if he was given the chance? With my luck of course it had to be me that opened the door stupidly, and now I was sitting here wondering if I had a new, international stalker. I prayed to god I didn't.

"Bella?" I jumped when Angela called to me, and noted that her and Jessica were staring down at me in concern.

"Really, I-I'm fine!" I lied, hoping that I sounded convincing enough to them. I didn't want them to worry about this encounter, and decided I'd just try to ignore it. I figured I could tell Idle and the coaches about it later since I was feeling unsafe in this hotel now after this revelation, yet I could also only hope that this was just a one-off encounter and that I wouldn't run into this character again. I didn't want them to worry about it, freak out over this situation if it was just a one-time thing and wouldn't happen again. We were on our spring break where we're supposed to be relaxing, enjoying ourselves on this trip. The last thing I wanted to put my friends through was stress and worries like this especially if it turned out to be nothing.

The girls didn't look convinced but when Alice had suddenly rejoined us in our bedroom, they dropped it for now. We all finished getting ready, to which once we were done we left our room and made sure it was locked behind us before heading towards the elevator; several other students in our group were following after us, leaving their rooms and dressed for a new day. When we got down to the lobby, Idle, Looseily and Kartchna were waiting there for us, along with the rest of the students who likely got dressed faster than the rest of us did; among them was Edward, and some of the boys. I rushed over to him, greeting him with a peck and snuggling close into his side.

"Someone missed me." Edward teased lightly as Idle called to our group to come together. Edward was not unaware of how I had suddenly clung to him, rushing to his side like I did. I briefly wondered if he could sense my fear after my morning encounter.

"I did." I breathed, nuzzling my face into his chest. Edward wrapped his arms around me tightly whilst our coaches announced we'd be heading out into town to a nearby cafe and having our breakfast there.

"Is everything okay?" Edward asked me quietly as we began to walk with our group to leave. I knew nothing could get past him, and especially with my unease Edward would've been able to sense it.

I gulped and nodded my head, lying to him.

"Bella -"

"It's nothing babe." I brushed it off, looking up at him.

"Are you sure?" his green eyes pleaded with me, begging me to let him in as he wanted to help - but he didn't know how if I wasn't going to let him know the truth.

I took a deep breath, feeling my resolve crumble. There was no way I could honestly keep this from him. So while we were quickly filing out of the hotel and getting onto our bus that'd take us into the nearby town for our breakfast escapade, I quietly told him about my encounter with the man this morning. Edward listened in silence, his arms tightening the more I spoke on it. By the time I had finished explaining, we were on our bus and starting to pull away from our hotel. Edward wouldn't let go of me in some manner, where his jaw locked together in anger as he heard how I described the man, his creepy flirting and how something didn't feel right about him. "I thought he was an employee that our coaches sent to wake us up but the fact that when I came out of the shower and the girls told me that Idle had only barely came by to wake everyone up... I knew something wasn't right then."

"Fucking hell..." Edward hissed under his breath, reaching up to run a hand through his bronze locks in agitation. "We have to tell them about this. There's no way in hell that I'd want you alone now if this creep is in that hotel."

"I know, and trust me I plan on telling them." I murmured to him quietly, sighing. "But I think I want to wait; I want us to enjoy our time out today."

"Bella, no -"

"Please, I promise to tell them just before we get back to the hotel. I just want to be able to enjoy my time out with you, and with our friends. We're in Italy, somewhere that I didn't think I'd ever be able to travel to in my lifetime. I'm so tired of all of these looming threats over my head, and for now I just want to be a silly American tourist, spend time looking at all the sights and be here with my sweet boyfriend." I pleaded with him as Edward brought a hand to my cheek. I leaned into his touch while it looked like Edward wanted to argue further with me. "Please, Edward. I just want to be a normal teenager for a day before I go back to worrying about everything - especially this, as much as I'm creeped out by it. I feel safe though since we're away from it, and I get to be with you. I promise I'll tell them when we're on our way back."

Edward puffed out an exhale and gave in. "Okay, I concede. But we're telling them as soon as we start heading back."

With that I set my creepy morning encounter aside and focused on the day ahead of us. We drove into the nearby town and made it to the local café where we were definitely a sight for the locals as we took up a large space on their outside patio. We let the café give us their recommendations and ate our pastries, drinking our espresso while listening to our coaches give us insight for our plans for the day. They planned on bringing around the town as it was rich with history for the arts and theater, along with taking us to an art gallery after lunch. We'd be having lunch in their town square in a few hours but our first stop was to be at one of their many old theaters that was now a historic museum. And that's how our day began - we were paraded around by our coaches and followed along to the cultural tour of the small town, taking in the sights to each locale we went to. Throughout each stop, I'd try to listen and take in the sights but time to time, I'd see some of the locals stop and seemingly do a double take as they'd stare at Edward and I before they'd be whispering amongst themselves. I really hoped that the earlier gossip that we had shared amongst our friends, was not coming true; if we were being mistaken for this famous Italian singing couple, I really wanted to laugh out loud. I still didn't see any true resemblance between us, and could not fathom that these locals were getting us mixed up with them.

Each locale that our group went to, I'd notice this on and off every time. Locals would stop and look a bit more closely at Edward and I, almost star struck yet they never truly came out and called us by the Italian couple's names. Looks alone however was enough to make me suspicious that that was the case happening the more and more I noticed that locals would stop and stare. The others noticed it as well and gave Edward and I weird looks which we awkwardly shrugged off, not sure of what to make of the looks either. Our coaches brushed it off and pushed on with our tour. Time passed by in a blur, and before long it was already lunch time. I did what I could to absorb everything said on this tour, taking in the sights, taking pictures of everything that I could, or partaking in photo ops with my friends or with Edward. I shook off the unease I had from this morning quickly and enjoyed my time with our group, happy that I was being that stereotypical tourist with how many pictures I'd get, or however many souvenirs that I had begged Edward to get for me which he willingly agreed to buy for me. Before long as our lunch hour came upon us, we walked towards the town's main square that resided right in the middle, and it was thankfully nearby our previous tourist stop so we didn't need a ride over. Once we entered the town square, I gasped at the beauty before us. It really was like an old town village with modern touches here and there yet it paid its respects in honoring the natural beauty, the natural architecture on the buildings or the local fauna that was dispersed throughout. In the middle was a large, gorgeous water fountain that locals were near the edge throwing coins into the water, taking pictures with their friends or loved ones, eating their own lunches on the edge of the fountain. Circling the fountain was a brick road that small European cars or mopeds were driving around on before turning onto diverging paths that would lead back into the streets of the town.

Idle and our coaches led us to a restaurant that which had outdoor seating for us all and we each took a seat while I continued to look towards the breathtaking fountain. "I definitely want to get a picture with you at that fountain before we leave." Edward murmured once we sat down. Our coaches left us briefly to our own devices where we talked amongst ourselves, where they said they'd find someone where they could bring over as our waiter.

"I mean, we could go get one in before we get our orders in." I suggested, smirking as Edward's eyes lit up.

"That's true."

"Come on, let's get it. I have a feeling we won't be able to get one before our coaches whisk us off to our next stop." I said, standing back up with Edward following after me.

"Where are you two going?" Mike questioned out loud once he noticed that we were getting up.

"We're going to go take a quick picture by the fountain." Edward told him as he grabbed onto my hand.

"You two shouldn't separate from us." Angela worried aloud, frowning. The others in our group looked up when they saw us standing again, yet since the hatred stance was still in place said nothing.

"We promise to be in view for you all to be able to see us still. And we won't be gone for long. If the adults come back before we do, could you let them know we'll be right back?" I reassured my friends, and Jessica pursed her lips.

"I don't know..." Ben stressed, looking unsure of this plan.

"Okay, they should be fine. But you have to stay within our sight." Jessica warned and I nodded to them, just before Edward turned and tugged me away from our group. We quickly left the barricade outside portion of the restaurant and headed to the road's edge. Edward waited for the right moment before we quickly jogged across the roundabout road, making it to the water fountain. It was impressive in it's size and gorgeous stone work. The water was fresh, crystal clear clean spring water as well. The light would catch it every now and then from the sunlight, in which the light would be reflected back off of the water in shimmering sparks of light. Edward managed to find us a good spot that wasn't overcrowded, and told me to sit down on the edge first.

"Smile for me, love." Edward called out to me as he took a couple steps back and held up the camera to snap some photos. I felt the smile break out onto my face and proceeded to pose, both goofily and seriously, laughing throughout the shoot. Edward chuckled here and there but furiously snapped away, even saying in a mocking tone, "Wonderful, dahling! Bravo!" while shifting around with his camera, acting like a professional photographer.

"Okay, okay." I giggled out loud once he had to have taken about fifty photos of me. I waved him over and he sauntered back towards me, sitting down next to me. I leaned into his side and smiled up at the camera just as he snapped a photo of the two of us together, the fountain behind us still. Edward then pulled the camera back down and he began to show me some of the photos. The two of us looked through them quickly, smiling and laughing at some of the goofy pictures he took. But I stopped him on one photo. "Wait." I muttered and pointed to the picture.

In one photo, I could see in the background just beyond the fountain, two men dressed in suits with sunglasses. They were a good distance away from us at our spot, yet I could see them looking directly at Edward into the camera. One of them was lanky and tall, and the other was a hulking mass of a man.

"What?" Edward asked me aloud, and I could feel him staring down at me.

I gulped and quickly looked behind me over my shoulder, and felt my heart sink. The two men were still there, yet they were starting to stalk towards us.

I had a sinking suspicion at least I knew who that big behemoth of a man was. The two men were closing the distance between us from where we were at the fountain, and I could definitely see that the massive man was the same man from the hotel.

"Edward..." I gasped, reaching out to grasp his arm. Edward wheeled his head around to see where I was staring, and I could feel him tense up beside me. "We need to get back to the others." I hissed, standing shakily to my feet.

Edward grunted and immediately stood up as well, wrapping an arm around my waist before we began to quickly jog away from the fountain and try to make our way back over to the restaurant. Just as we stood up and tried to begin making our way back to our group, I could hear the two men shout suddenly behind us. "Shit!" Edward hissed and picked up his pace. We tried to carefully make our way through the traffic, but it was useless. Just as we suddenly stepped out onto the brick road when we thought we had a window to run across, a white van suddenly skidded to a stop in front of us. We both gave out shouts of surprise just as the doors opened to the van; several large men in suits began stepping out and stalked towards us. Edward half lifted me against him in hopes to try and run us both away, but we couldn't get away quickly enough. One man managed to grab onto us with his strong hands, and yanked us apart from one another, grasping onto his our wrists in a tight unyielding hold.

"Edward!" I screamed, beginning to squirm under the foreign man's hold; he was simply holding onto my wrists behind my back and I couldn't ease my way out from under his hold.

"Fucking let go of us!" Edward roared out, struggling hard against the man's hold; I managed to look around to find him beside me in the man's hold and heard his camera drop from his hands and onto the brick road at our feet. The man grunted and cursed in his language, something I couldn't understand, before he jerked me away to another man beside him to hold onto me. I screamed and tried to struggle against the new man whilst he calmly put my hands into handcuffs behind my back, where I could feel tears begin to stream down my face as I watched the large man easily grab ahold of Edward to try and restrain him. "Fuck you! Let me go! Bella!" Edward growled, his eyes looking around wildly as he tried to find me, leaning around the man as he was being handcuffed.

"Hey! Let them go!" I whipped my head around to see that our friends from the group across the street were seeing and hearing the chaos of whatever was going on, and noticed us being taken captive by these strange men.

"Stop!" I heard a foreign voice just as the man who had put cuffs on me began to drag me away. I looked around in a hurry when hearing this voice and noticed it was the Italian police, who had rushed onto the scene - likely had been nearby - and two Italian officers began to stalk towards this scene.

The man behind me cursed under his breath and continued to yank me to the back of the van as I tried to struggle and squirm to get away from his hold, before he shouted something to his companions. I heard a shout from one of them before suddenly gunshots began to ring out. I jumped, yelping from the sudden noise just as the other patrons of the area also gave out screams and yelps from the sound; our class screamed from the noise and I could see through the chaos as the man continued to drag me away to the back of the van, some ducked down under the tables.

"Let me go!" I screamed at the man as he opened the door to the van, trying my best to still struggle against his hold, but he was much stronger than me. He easily lifted me up and shoved me into the back of the van, where I cried out in pain as my hip hit the metal flooring of the van. I was breathing heavily through the fear, my eye sight blurry through the tears as I whipped around to look back at the opening to the van. The man turned and that's when the first man, the one that had grabbed us, was coming up with his hand wrapped around Edward's arm; my boyfriend was still struggling yet it looked like he had been punched in the face considering I could see one of his eyes was looking a bit swollen. The two men grunted as they lifted Edward up and tossed him into the back with me. Edward cursed and groaned in pain once he hit the metal flooring, whilst the two men slammed the doors shut. I could hear more gunshots ringing out on the outside of the van while we had been tossed into here, before I could hear doors slamming shut with men jumping into the van. Then I heard the revving of the engine before suddenly the van jerked forward. Edward and I yelped from the sudden movement and began to be jostled around as the van peeled away. "Edward, are you okay?" I gasped out as I tried to adjust myself beside him, tears pouring down my face still.

Edward groaned and turned himself over carefully to look at me; he definitely had taken a punch or two to the face, likely when he was trying to fight the men off when they were trying to cuff him; likely they thought punching him would make it easier to restrain him. His hair looked disheveled with his shirt rumpled as well. His green eyes combed over me, likely trying to see if I had been hurt or touched in any way by the man who had me. But he could see that I hadn't been hurt at all, just was crying in pure terror. He shifted to sit closely beside me, where I cuddled up beside him and he sighed. "I'll manage baby. Don't worry, I'll figure out a way to get us out of this mess." he murmured to me over the roar of the van's engine, and I nodded into his chest, heaving a sob.

This was definitely not how I wanted to spend my spring break.

---

A/N: DUN DUN DUN! What a sudden twist! Well frankly, I think I didn't exactly lead up into it all that well but I felt like I tried as best as I could. So I apologize if it's jarring for the story to suddenly take a turn like it did.

But I just like to add some spice of drama here and there. So we'll see how our little teens will get out of this mess in the next few chapters!

Any feedback is always appreciated; I try my best to proof-read as I go when typing, and as well as try my best before I publish the chapter. But I am human so any grammar mistakes and misspellings are still bound to slip by.

As always, until next time,

~Lady Eleanora