Hello strangers!

It's been sometime- which is mostly my fault since I kinda fell of the Twilight bandwagon for a while. But I got back on! And had to re-read my own story since I forgot where I ended it last time. And let me tell you, the grammar errors that I encountered in the last few chapters… Ouch. (I'm gonna leave them in so I can learn from them though- hopefully I'll remember to do better in the future that way).

Anyway, happy reading!

Chapter 8. Personal growth

Tony pov:

Tony loved working out. He really did.

He liked how it strengthened his body and sharpened his mind. Liked how succeeded he felt once the exhaustion set in at the end of a good session. And above all else, he liked how he managed to easily scare the absolute shit out of bigoted idiots.

Throughout the years, he'd inserted himself into plenty of situations that could have gotten seriously out of hand- and he was proud that he was capable of helping people out. It was something he might actually considered something of a hobby- something he just liked to do when and where ever, simply because he could. And getting the occasional batch of cookies as a means of 'thank you' never hurt either- He hated imagining how his life would have turned out if he'd never felt that need to step in.

For one, he wouldn't have gotten adopted into the Ou Yang family for always walking his kind elderly neighbour to and fro the stations once it got too dark out. He would have missed out on all of Mrs. Ou Yang's brilliant live commentary on his old matches during their impromptu coffee breaks- which used to be tea breaks until Tony introduced the lovely woman to the delights of real Brazilian dark roasts.

So yes, Tony loved working out for it had been- and still was- a huge part of his life. But unfortunately, time passed and his age was starting to catch up on him… Thus the reason why he decided on an instructor's position. If he didn't have the full physical ability to help others out then why not just teach people to protect themselves and possibly even inspire them to take on the role of a protector?

He still missing the action sometimes- it was quite different to only do throws and other such fun things as a means to show examples rather than doing them in the heat of the moment. But there were also parts to being an instructor which he hadn't considered before, and was now maybe a little bit too obsessed with. One of them being getting to watch someone- specifically someone who's never really tried to fight back before- down someone much bigger than them for the first time. To have them glance over at you whilst the poor bastard laying at their feet was still recovering, their eyes slightly blown- having the quiet realization that all the adjustments to their stances, the boring repetitions and the pain and exhaustion at the end of each session did end up having an effect on their person. It truly was exhilarating to see how their person practically shook with the idea of doing it again.

A metal clank told him that the door behind him had opened and Tony allowed himself a split second to glance away from the spars that happened around him to see who had walked in- he wasn't all to surprised to see the copy of his little Swan scurrying inside and parking herself with a dusty looking book on the bench against the far wall. Another quick glance, this time at the caged clock hanging on the wall to his right, told him that she was a little earlier than usual. Most days, she came in a couple of minutes after the last few parents did- well into their groups cooling down stretches.

A yelp sounded out, directly followed by the familiar tumble of someone hitting the mat and Tony assessed the situation before giving a few pointers to both the thrower and the thrown. The little Swan was up on her feet again in no time and only briefly sent him a look to show that she heard what he said. Then she was off again, seemingly absentmindedly patting Amir on the shoulder before returning to her previous spot on the outskirts of the ring- being ever so careful not to disturb the other sparing pairs in their grappling.

He hadn't liked the idea of her joining his class at first- not that he didn't want to teach her- but rather that he thought that the level at which he taught would have discourage the little thing from picking up the art. There was a reason why they usually started off the kids with fun warm up activities and run throughs of the easier stances- but Annie had proven herself to be a real trouper and had quickly grown to be one of his absolute favourite students to teach- though Tony was careful to only note on his obvious favoritism in the privacy of his own mind.

When the girl had first started out, she'd gotten a more severe version of the usual taunts his students tended to throw at the new kid. Tony always tries to squash those to the best of his ability as he feared it might put the new student off from returning to his dojo- building up the physicality necessary to learn martial arts was already a hard enough stepping stone to get over. So he worried the same thing would happen to Annie after he caught some of the younger boys from his class making rude comments at her for being a girl.

Tony lectured the boys on the spot. And Annie, thankfully, came again for the next lesson.

Perhaps it was because of this prior interaction that he starting keeping more of an eye on her- but Tony liked to think that he simply knew through his instincts that Annie was someone to look out for. The girl was like the perfect student. She practically shut off her ears for anything but his teachings, and that single minded concentration clearly showed in her process. She took tumbles and the stray punch like an absolute champ. Rarely cried- if at all. And had been very helpful in explaining the uses of good muscle stretching to the kids who still struggled with them. Apparently having experience firsthand at the ballet studio what slacking on the warm ups and cool downs did to a body made her practice it almost religiously.

The little Swan was weirdly and amazingly competent. Tony wasn't ignorant to the fact that it was rare for someone her age to take any of this serious- most of the kids that came in just did it to have fun or look cool to their friends. But Annie actually seemed driven to learn how to fight. Almost scarily determined… But, of course, there was also something entirely satisfying and hilarious about watching that little thing thrown someone twice her size over her shoulder-

It sadden him a little that the other Swan wasn't nearly as interested in martial arts, no matter which style he tried to show off and hype up- the little girl seemed more than comfortable to just sit on the side line in silent support of her sister, whilst keeping far away from anyone that could potentially try to strike up a conversation with her. Tony had heard from their mother in passing that the older Swan had also participated in Ballet alongside her sister. And he wanted to see if Annie's physical abilities were something that had been taught or if it was just something special to her. It didn't help that a part of him was really curious to see what two prima ballerina's could do- getting to see a pair of little girls take down a grown-ass man was something he didn't think he would ever see outside of an action movie. He really wanted to make that vision a reality. But whenever Tony tried to get the other Swan to join in on some of the group activities- free of charge of course, kids shouldn't have to pay to enjoy trying out something new- she turned down the offer, preferring to continue with her books and eventually he just stopped asking.

He never really understood how people couldn't like working out. It was his bread and butter. To him it was just freeing to get to move around as much as he wanted to- but he supposed that other people felt the same way about other things- like reading a book. And in his experience, having someone forced a thing on someone like that only served to make them less willing to do the thing. He just hoped that, with time, the other Swan would come to understand and appreciate the benefits that physical exercise could bring into her life. That she would find something that does catch her fancy. Maybe swimming or even golf for all he fucking cared. It didn't have to be martial arts, as long as it kept her moving about. He couldn't think of anything worse than getting to the age he was at now and realizing that he wasted all that time- that he could have done more.

He held out hope that the other Swan would turn out to be just as driven about something as her little sister- since the thought of there being two equally ferocious Swans about to take life by their horns brought a savage grin to his face. He wanted to see where they would end up in the future if they did decide to go down such a route. But unfortunately, it wasn't up to him to decide that for them. They needed to put in the work themselves.

All he could really do was offer opportunities and guidance- something which the other Swan seemed unwilling to accept from him. So for now, he would just have to make do and grace the littlest Swan with all of his youthful support-

"OI, SWAN! STOP PULLING YOUR PUNCHES!"

Bella's pov:

The chili bubbling on the stove reminded Bella of scorching magma and she once more wondered if that meant that she'd put in too much of the red peppers. She worried her lower lip as she took another glance over the photo copied recipe. She knew that she hadn't messed it up though- how could she if she'd measured out and cut each and every ingredient separately before she even felt confident enough to start mixing it all together on the fire?

In the last few weeks, she'd practiced cooking easier things and managed to pull them off well enough. Eggs and pancakes and such things had been served without the scent of something burnt irritating her nostrils- and most of it had been eatable too! So Bella had felt ready for some more complicated recipes. But watching the red concoction violently bubble away on the fire made her question if her earlier confidence had maybe been arrogance instead…

"Ooh! Smells great baby!" Bella jumped at the sudden exclamation of cheer and found her point of gravity shift when her right foot slipped off the side of the small stepping stool. Her vision blurred for but a second, and then pain bloomed on her right hip and elbow as she caught her fall on the brown tilled floor. Behind her another exclamation sounded- this one in surprise and concern. It didn't take long for her mother to crouch down beside her and help her back onto her feet.

"Everything alright?" Her little sister questioned with an even voice from the living room area. Bella noticed that Annie had stopped picking at the ukelele strings when she'd made her trip down to the ground- but also that her little sister hadn't bothered to rush over to her like their mother had done. Bella didn't feel hurt by this though. If anything, she appreciated the non-action.

"Fine." Bella called back in an equally even tone. Over the years, Annie had witness a fair share of Bella's accidents and eventually they'd seemed to have developed something of a routine around it. Annie didn't panic anymore and generally wouldn't bring unnecessary attention to Bella's person- a chance for her to save at least some of her dignity… And now, the only time Annie did go out of her way to act completely depended on Bella's answer- or if she didn't answer at all.

The plucking of strings soon picked up again on the other side of the breakfast counter. Her mother let out a light laugh and patted Bella down the back and pressed a loving kiss on top of her hair. Bella felt a small smile grow on her face despite the fact that she wanted to feel annoyed about her clumsiness for a little while longer.

"We should get you a bigger stepping stool- this is already the fifth time this happened…"

'Eight actually' Bella thought dryly, before she shook her head. "The stool is fine. The problem is that I forget that I'm standing on it…"

Her mom let out another laugh and thankfully seemed to drop the idea after that.

Bella's interest in cooking hadn't been an accident- she'd noticed that the take out dinners they ate tended to be a lot more expensive than what their separate ingredients would have cost at the grocery store. It hadn't clicked immediately, it took noticing her mom complain about the prices and doing the actual math that she discovered the difference. And what it could mean for them if someone were to pick up the slack and started working out a meal plan.

Annie had been actually helpful for once and had gone on a merry little search for do-able recipes. Asking our teachers, some of our classmates and even some people at the gym for their favourite dishes- most people hadn't been able to be very detailed in their descriptions on how to go about making the dishes though. But Bella could appreciate the effort Annie had put in- as it was rather odd for her little sister to interact with people on her own accord. Bella herself had found quite the number of cookbooks at the library and had been able to collect the easier recipes by photocopying them onto new sheets of paper- the lady from the middle school's administration office had been kind enough to entertain her request and had even gone out of her way to remain on standby in the off case that something jammed. Bella was proud of her ingenious idea to simply create her own cookbook. It certainly made it a lot less nerve wreaking to work out new recipes- especially since she wouldn't have to worry about ruining a library book by means of accidental spillage.

What made it even better was that her mother had been more than excited about Bella finally finding 'a thing'. Bella wasn't blind to the fact that her mother had been worried about her- unnecessary as it was in Bella's own opinion. Her mother just didn't understand that Bella liked spending most of her free time reading books… She supposed that her mother just didn't recognize it as 'an activity' since there wasn't exactly much active about it. But Bella didn't see it that way. She could explore new worlds just by visiting the library, could learn things about anything that's under the sun and even experience life through the narrative of thousands of different people. Bella didn't think that there was anything wrong with the way she'd been conducting herself before- but then Annie started picking up new interests and then their mother wondered why Bella didn't.

It had been more than a little bit annoying to have to constantly dissipate the older woman's attempts at get Bella interested in things. What was worse was that she tended to use Annie's new found enthusiasm for stuff as a means to get Bella to do more too. She knew it was just her mother's way to get Bella to join in on the 'fun'- but a part of her couldn't help but feel slighted. Did her mother really think that Bella wasn't doing enough?

Bella felt herself frowning as she mindlessly continued to stir the Chili. Her eyes traveling up to look over at the woman in question as Renée flipped through an old magazine- only halting now and again to comment or snicker at Annie's pitiful attempts to get the melody right.

Did her mother really think that? The thought brought up something uncomfortable in her chest. A tightness that made her feel heavy and seemed to make the air around her a little too easy to breath in. It had been fine before. Back when Bella decided to quite Ballet- she couldn't remember it well but she believed that it had taken her quite a while to take up reading. Her mom had been happy for her then, right? She knew that her mother was proud of her as the last time Annie and her came home with their report cards… Then why was it suddenly an issue now?

Loudly, an out of tune note rang out- and their mother laughed as if it had caught her off guard. Bella's eyes fixed themselves on her little sister as Annie groaned out her annoyance and started working on correcting her fingers on the snares of the neck.

Did her mother like Annie better now?

Bella tightly clenched her jaw as if to ground her again after being hit with the sheer preposterousness of the thought. Their mother loved them both immensely- it was such an enormous amount that it was essentially endless in a way that couldn't be measured or compared. But watching the two of them now, Bella couldn't help but feel like she was being left to the side.

There really weren't a lot of things that all three of them were similar in- but after Annie started to grown more into herself, it seemed like that distance between them suddenly became more pronounced too. Mostly because Annie seemed to only grow closer to their mother instead. Before, it had always been Bella and Annie together in a pair. They had been a package deal. Even when they weren't the same person, when they were in the middle of a disagreement or even when they weren't physically together- they were still a pair.

Furrowed her brow as she pondered her thoughts. Bella calmly turned off the fire as she stopped her siring of the red hot concoction. She took care to pay attention to her feet as she step off of her stepping stool and started to make her way over to the cabinet to gather the plates and cutlery. As she made herself busy setting the breakfast counter, Bella came to the conclusion that she was being ridiculous.

She missed her little sister, weirdly enough. Even though they haven't been farther than three meters of each other in the last couple of hours. Bella realized that she felt nostalgic of the days in which she wasn't just Bella- and she was pretty certain that Annie felt that way too. Though her little sister probably didn't realize it yet as Bella knew that the other girl tended to be a little slow with these types of things. Though what was rather surprising was that their mother seemed to have picked up on it- Bella might not have given the woman enough credit. Their mother had always been the most perspective out of the three of them- something which Bella was sure of came with being an adult.

So of course, her mother already knew that the two of them eventually needed to grow apart. That they needed to have their own things- that's why she always encouraged them so much to try out all of those stupid activities. Why she'd been so upset with Bella not trying to do more… Because she didn't understand that Bella already understood.

Bella let out a quiet sigh as she tried to ignore her twin struggling her way through 'Somewhere over the rainbow' on the ukulele. It was an old thing, covered in childish stickers and short quotes that her mom had likely been inspired by all those years ago. The thing had been in their family for as long as Bella could remember. She remembered playing with it herself when she'd been somewhere around toddler age- the noises it made had always interested her back then but whenever her mom allowed her to touch the strings it obviously didn't turn out anything like the short melodies her mom used to play. It had upset her. But now, knowing that her mom managed to focus on one thing long enough to actually learn how to play anything was quite impressive to Bella. She knew her mother well- probably better than anyone, probably even her sister.

Which was exactly why Bella hoped that Annie wouldn't take after their mother too much. Hoped beyond hope that she would find other things to latch onto that would make her entirely her rather than a mirror of Bella or a mini version of their mother.

The Martial Arts training had been… unexpected, though Bella supposed that she felt proud of her little sister for making such a step on her own. She was finally starting to let go of that image of 'perfect little girls' that their mother picked out for them- her little sister revolted, much like Bella had done years before.

Looking back at it now, Bella supposed that it only made sense that she never cared as much about things that other girls her age seemed to be interested in. She was just too mature- even her mother had picked up on that, having said before that she actually believed Bella to have been born at the age of thirty five and getting to be more middle-aged every year… So it was only natural that Bella practically raced through her milestones whilst her little sister seemed to struggle finding hers.

Hence the latching.

Bella smiled to herself as she once more looked over at Annie- allowing herself a moment to enjoy the sight that her little sister made as she tried her darndest to get her fingers to stretch across the neck of the instrument the way she needed them too. Another messed up tune rang out. And not a second after, Bella found herself praying that her little sister wouldn't take too much longer to switch up this new hobby the way she'd done Ballet.

She wasn't sure how much more of that stupid ukulele she could stand.

Dean's pov:

The bell rang loud and shrill as ever, signaling the second to last time that halls of Windemere Middle school would flood with its students. It was always the worst part of Dean's day- even worse than when he had to go through the metal detectors in the morning and afternoon. You'd think that the security would know him by name by now with how often they had to pat him down. They should just give him the benefit of the doubt- let him pass without all that bull- knowing that the detectors would go off anyway since he could never seem to remember to stash his goddamn cellphone into his backpack before walking through those stupid gates… But anyway, the rushed minutes in between classes were definitely worst. He'd grown used to shouldering his way through the crowd and throwing jeers at deliberate slow walkers. What was their problem anyway? What were they even doing in the hallways if they weren't in a hurry to get to class themselves?

"You're frothing at the mouth."

"I'm not." Dean bit back, his irritation leaking heavily into his voice.

Liam snorted, "Sure, you're not."

"How 'bout you take up the front, huh? See how much you like being shoved around." Dean snapped back.

Liam- being the pall he is- took Dean's anger with stride and wordlessly took over as the front walker. This was a part of Liam that Dean often found himself appreciating at odd intervals- though it was usually right before he got himself pissed for whatever reason. The guy just instinctually seemed to know when things began to be too much for Dean. Seemingly knowing exactly when he got to mere inches from losing his shit. Though it only made sense, as growing up together should have given Liam plenty of time to test how far he could push his friend before he got himself in trouble.

It didn't take much longer for the duo to arrive at their destination, Dean couldn't quite pinpoint when exactly the guys had decided on making the so-what cramped space below the stone staircases their little hide way, but Dean ultimately didn't feel too bothered by it to complain. Ryan- the only other friend Dean already knew from before he enrolled into this middle school- was already seated with his legs stretched and ankle crossed. Munching away on a pack of chips that he probably got earlier today during lunch. Jamar was pouring himself over our history book, no doubt already making headway on their project whilst sitting hunched over in crisscross- just the sight of him alone made Dean winch in sympathy. Knowing that the guy was gonna suffer a killer cramp by tomorrow… Liam was quick to crawl into the darkest nook under the stairs- his usual spot, though Dean wasn't sure what the hell was wrong with his friend for him to decide on that. Chris was still absent.

"Where is-?"

"Detention." Ryan replied.

"Ah." There really was nothing else to say. It wasn't exactly news for one of them to get into trouble.

"What for this time?" Liam asked, just as he finished wedging himself in the corner. Shoulder nudged up awkwardly as he rested his head against his prompted up backpack.

"He tried to throw his pencil case at me and hit the ceiling fan instead."

Dean let out a snort, perfectly capable of picturing the scene in his mind.

"What did you do?" Liam wondered at Ryan with an eyebrow raised.

"Honestly?" Ryan shrugged his shoulders, "Can't remember. Chip?"

"Ooh." Liam goo'ed and proceeded to stuff his mouth. Ryan proceeded to yell and him- whacking him with an open palm for stealing half his stash. Dean shook his head as he settled himself against the wall oppositive to the opening of the staircase, one leg pulled up and the other left straight out- bending partly over Jamar's knee. He heard Jamar let out a sigh, but knew that his annoyance had more to do with their friends bickering rather than Dean invasion of his personal space.

"So, what about that project of ours?" Dean offered the boy as distraction, "Coming along?"

Jamar regarded him with a low hum, "Overall, it shouldn't be too hard to do- with History it's usually just the research that will take up a lot of time. Preparing and presenting would probably only take up, like, an hour or two…"

"It shouldn't be too hard to find information on this Ferdinand guy at the library…"

"It also would be easier if we had more people working on the project." Jamar pointed out flatly.

"Yeah, well," Liam waved around his hand at them from his laying down position, "Ryan isn't allowed to be in our group anymore after the whole baking soda volcano incident from last month and Mateo already promised to join Vivi's group, so-"

"Still can't believe he dumped us for a girl…"

"Well what did you expect?" Dean scoffed, "With her being his girlfriend and all."

"Loyalty. Dean." Ryan grumbled, "I expect loyalty from my friend."

"Oh?" Liam smirked as he rolled onto his side, head prompted up with one hand as he regarded their friend with a coy look, "And where was that when you-?"

"Shut the fuck up."

"No, for real." Liam noted with glee, always one happy to egg people on. "You were way out of your head with Isabella."

"Isabella?" Jamar cut in, sending a narrow eyed look over at Liam. "Isn't that's one of those pale ass twins?"

Liam snickered at the description, "Yeah, she's one of the ugly ducklings."

"You can't be for real- you liked one of them?" Jamar turned a judgmental look over at Ryan. "They're so… plain."

"Don't you mean boring?" Dean snickered.

"Alright, shut up." Ryan growled, his tanned cheeks turning red in betrayal. "They might be a little boring but Bella has always been the best in our class. So of course, I wanted to hang out with her at school- that way I'm basically assured an easy A right from the get-go."

"Oh, is that all?" Liam pouted- making Dean nearly scoff out loud at how much his friend was bullshitting.

"Yes." Ryan grounded out.

"So I must have imagined you staring at them all throughout last semester?"

"Yes. You did." Ryan all but snapped and instantly regretted it. Ryan knew Liam almost as well as Dean did- so by now he too would have caught onto the fact that that smug bastard wasn't going to let up, definitely not now that he gave him an opening. Not when he found 'a weakness' to prod at.

Ryan clicked his tongue. "I wouldn't be caught dead hanging around them otherwise. They're creepy- have you never noticed? They only ever seem to hang around each other- rarely talking to anyone except for maybe our teachers... They keep to themselves otherwise. Reading those old ass novels and acting all high and mighty- pretending to be all 'grown up' and shit. All the while they can't seem to fucking deal being apart for longer than a class or two. It's almost like they'd go through withdrawal if they aren't in the other's presence-"

"Yeah, I always thought that weird too." Dean decided to tag on, "You know, I don't think that I've ever even talk to either of them without the other either jumping in or being brought up in the conversation…"

"I'm pretty sure they're each other's only friend," Liam went on, "I mean, I sure have never seen either one of them willingly hanging out with other people. Normally it's only during involuntary pair work or projects and stuff."

"That sounds unhealthy." Jamar pointed out, pulling up his nose.

"And fucking weird." Ryan huffed, looking over at Jamar. "Seriously dude, you don't know the half of it. You've only known them for a year or something but we went to the same primary school as them. They used to be so much more… intertwined?"

"Eloquent~"

"Fuck off, Liam." Ryan threw back flatly, "The point is, they were almost like the twins from 'The Shining'. Like they dressed like each other, sometimes ever spoke together-"

"Which didn't happen a lot." Dean noted, "Mostly they were just quiet. But that wasn't necessarily any less creepy… Have either of you ever seen them suddenly stare at you out of nowhere? Like, one moment you're just minding your business and the next- BOOM! Two pairs of identical eyes suddenly staring you right into your soul…"

"Really didn't help that they were constantly dressing like the other- not, like, identical to the other. But I'm pretty sure they were doing it on purpose anyway." Ryan grumbled, "I've known them for, what? Since fourth grade? I still can't tell them apart."

"Not unless one of them is tripping all over themselves." Liam joked.

"Bella is a clumsy bitch." Dean noted absently, before looking over at Ryan. "But you still can't tell them apart, huh? I usually manage to get by after a bit... Let a teacher call on one of them or something, then I mostly just go through the rest of the week by like, whichever twins has the most zits."

The other guys snorted their amusement.

"That's hard to keep track of though," Liam snickered, "Both are practically covered!"

"Puberty hit them with a fucking brick." Ryan threw in and the four friends roared in laughter.

All of them were none the wiser of the girl that had halted on her way down to the library after hearing her name echoing up the empty staircase. A lone tear slipped down her cheek as she harshly bite down onto her trembling lower lip, desperately trying to keep in the sob that wanted to escape her throat. Breathe hitching; she quietly turned back around and headed up the stairs. Swiftly making her way for the nearest girl's bathroom before anyone could catch her in a moment of weakness.

Renée's pov:

"Mom, am I ugly?"

Renée's thought process stuttered to a halt as she turned to look down at her eldest daughter. Bella was tugging on her sleeves- fidgeting with the fabric as if she were trying to rub a hole into it- and actively avoiding her gaze by keeping her eyes glued on the television whilst the drama of the telenovela continued to play out. She would have almost assumed to have misheard her daughter- had it not been for her youngest sending Bella an equally worried look.

"Of course not, sweetheart!" Renée crooned her assurance, her arm finding its way around the girl's thin shoulders, "You're gorgeous! Wherever did you get that idea?"

"The mirror..?" Bella replied, her voice small and sounding almost fragile- it all but broke Renée's heart.

"Oh Honey, no."

"If you're talking about the acne, that stuff should go away eventually…" Annie piped up from across the couch, clearly attempting to reassure her sister but Bella either didn't seem to believe- or register her words. "Everyone our age goes through that, it's not something to be ashamed of."

Renée couldn't help the smile from blooming on her face- proud to know that at least one of her daughters managed to pick up on and learn from her outward confidence. Now if only her Isabella could get it through her cute little skull too…"I'm sorry dear, but I'm afraid it's in the family. All Higginbotham women tend to go through a… a harsher puberty. It hits hard-" Did her daughter just wince? "but luckily for us, it's also quick to go."

"…When will it go?"

"Soon baby, soon." Renée assured her sweetly. Gently rubbing a hand down the younger girl's arm in comfort. "You know, when I was your age, I went through the same thing too. I practically spend all of middle school trying to hide my face- my girlfriends were kind enough to help me figure out how to work foundation though, so it wasn't that bad- and once Freshmen came around I got to buy myself a new wardrobe since I shot up like nine inches!"

"… All of middle school?" Bella echoed, sounding faint.

"It's not that bad Bella," Annie piped up again, but this time seemed to take the opportunity to snuggle up against Bella's other side, "We'll go through it together- and besides we're definitely not the only one walking around with a few skin conditions. We'll be fine."

Bella still didn't look convinced though- and for a moment Renée wondered why her eldest seemed to be struggling with the thought so much. Sure, it wasn't great. Renée herself had the experience to back that up. But surely having her little sister with her the entire way should make things easier for Bella? Renée couldn't imagine what things would have been like if she hadn't had her girlfriends to look after her- so for both of her daughters, it should be a good thing that they were in it together right? With most other cases, that fact alone tended to reassure Renée at least.

"We could go out tomorrow and find some nice water proof foundation? We'll make a day out of it! I'll even see if I still remember some of the tricks my girls had taught me!"

Perching her lips at her proclamation, Bella instead turned to her little sister. "Do you think I'm ugly?"

"Do you think you're ugly?" Annie shot back drooly.

"…no."

"Well good. Because you're not and you shouldn't be think such lies either."

"I wasn't." Bella replied, her usual stubbornly peaking through. Renée sent an appreciative look over at her youngest, happy to see that they managed to somewhat get through to Bella.

"Do you think you're ugly." Bella asked then.

"Are you fishing for complements now?" Annie snickered, "Bella, love of my life, dearest sister- we share the same face."

"But do you think-"

"I think I look heavenly." Annie huffed out snootily, making Bella startled out a laugh in her confusion.

"Because my little girls are just that pretty?" Renée joked along.

"No- well, yes but also no." Annie proceeded to point at specific red dots on her left cheek, "See these? Yesterday I connected them and I managed to get a constellation out of it!"

"Was that why you were walking around with ink on your face?" Bella snorted, her previous worries forgotten- if only momentarily.

"Which constellation?" Renée encouraged. "I believe you two are born under Virgo-"

" It was Leo, but like, backwards."

I decided at a later time to expand this chapter to include Renée's moment of being a more decent mother, since it didn't fit in with what I had planned for the next chapter. The part of the boys felt maybe a bit rushed, but that is basically how I imagined Bella past 'bullying' to be like- mostly it's just her classmates making thoughtless comments to their friends and Bella taking in personally since she's sensitive like that (not that that's really her fault but meh…).

Also did anyone pick up on which character I modeled Tony after?

Next up, we're getting into some angst.