Daphne

Daphne's first day at Forks High School went surprisingly well. Bella introduced her to all of her friends and former friends. The two girls repeated their story of being long lost cousins to what seemed like the entire school. She didn't lose her temper in any of her classes, despite how difficult she found English in particular. Reading normal books was hard enough, but reading old timey English? Forget it. Daphne had already resigned herself to hating that class for the rest of the year. Best of all, no monsters attacked.

The rest of the week proceeded in much the same fashion. Bella explained to her that Edward and his family had moved away and they'd split during that time. She told her about how she "turned into a zombie" and essentially drove all of her friends away in her depression, hence the group of former friends that had been pointed out to her. She began running around the main streets of the town when it wasn't raining.

Despite the relatively uneventful, and therefore good, week, Daphne had begun to get the feeling that there was something Bella, Edward and Alice were hiding. The first time she had shaken Edward's hand he had been so cold it had taken her very much by surprise. That on its own could easily be chalked up to the fact that it was cold in Forks right now, but his sister Alice had felt much the same. She had even made sure to innocently brush past each of them at different times throughout the week and they had always been just as frozen to the touch.

Daphne had also not seen them eat anything during their lunch breaks. She knew cafeteria food wasn't always the greatest, but they didn't even eat food that couldn't be messed up, like an apple or a banana. They didn't drink anything either. Whenever Edward came over after school, he never ate dinner with them either. When Daphne had asked Bella, her lips had quirked up and she said he was on a special diet, whatever that meant. She had looked like she was sharing a private joke, only with herself instead of Daphne.

There was also their eye colour. They were both a golden colour. The first night after meeting Edward, she had dreamed about meeting him, looking into his golden irises. The gold had then spread throughout his entire eyes until she had been looking at Kronos as he possessed her brother Luke. He had laughed cruelly, then in Luke's voice had said;

"You have no idea, little sister. You never do. You are clueless."

On the word clueless he had leapt at her and Daphne had jolted awake in a cold sweat.

Besides reminding her of her brother and his awful betrayal, Daphne had never seen such an eye colour before. What was even stranger, was that Alice and Edward said that they were adopted, meaning that they didn't even share some sort of genetic connection to their strange eye colour, like the Aphrodite kids did.

Daphne was also sure that someone - probably Edward, if she had to guess - was visiting Bella at night. It took her a while to get to sleep and she had heard the sound of very low murmurs coming from Bella's room. The sound had been too soft to make out any words though, even with her enhanced hearing thanks to her father.

All of these seemed like little things, but Daphne knew never to take the little signs for granted. Luke had shown signs for a long time before his betrayal was revealed, but no one saw his actions for what they really were until it was too late. Daphne was never going to let someone betray her like that again.

Still, Daphne was pleased with how things were going. She and Bella were slowly but surely developing a relationship. She was enjoying spending time watching sports games with Charlie, and she thought he liked having her company too. As a reward for the week going so well, she, Charlie and Bella all piled into the police cruiser and headed up to Port Angeles to find a furniture store so Daphne could stop sleeping on the couch.

Well, ok. It wasn't a reward, just the first free day they'd been able to do this, but to Daphne it felt like a reward.

Once they had bought the bed, organising for it to be delivered to them the next day, they found a nice little café to have lunch at. The meal between them was much more relaxed than their dinner the previous Saturday had been and conversation flowed between the three of them. Daphne liked the look of the candle jar on their table, so as they were leaving she swiped it.

On Sunday Daphne's bed arrived and they spent the morning rearranging Bella's room so that everything could fit. Daphne again apologised to Bella. Bella again told her it was ok. Daphne decorated the desk with her ivory elephant and candle jar. Bella watched her thoughtfully as she put away the four shirts and single pair of pants she owned and wasn't currently wearing.

"What?" Daphne asked.

"Do you like shopping?"

Daphne thought about it. She had lived at camp since she was 11 years old. She was now 18. Her mother didn't take her shopping in the recent few months she'd lived with her and the only place to go shopping at camp was the camp store that she and her siblings ran.

"I suppose I've never really been shopping like a normal teenage girl," she said finally.

Bella looked impressed. "I hate shopping and I can't even say that. You do look like you need some more clothes though. Alice loves shopping. You should ask her to take you to Portland. I'd come too but I'm grounded."

"That sounds like a convenient excuse," Daphne pointed out.

Bella grinned. "It is."

Daphne laughed.

"I'll think about it," she said. "I don't really have any money though. Would Alice be horrified if I stole the clothes I liked?"

Bella laughed uncertainly. She stopped laughing when Daphne didn't join in.

"Wait," she said, eyebrows rising. "You're serious?"

Daphne pointed to the candle jar on the desk. "Does this look familiar?"

Bella's mouth dropped open, forming an 'o' shape. Clearly it did look familiar.

"Don't worry," Daphne said in a placating tone, anticipating Bella would scold her or otherwise disapprove. "I'll only take clothes from big corporations. They have so much money that an outfit or two won't hurt them."

Bella looked dumbfounded.

"I won't steal from you, don't worry. You've been so generous already," Daphne said, starting to grow nervous that she'd said the wrong thing.

"No- it's just- I didn't expect that," Bella said finally. "How is it that you managed to make something like stealing sound morally ok?"

Daphne winked at her. "It's in my blood."

The next week went well too. Charlie had come back that Sunday night from visiting a friend at the nearby reservation - Quileute, she was told - with a paper note for Bella. Bella had been very upset when she read the note, excusing herself to her - now their - room. She only came out when Edward arrived.

Daphne caught her reading the note so often that on Friday she finally asked her about it.

"What's that note you're always looking at?"

Bella froze at her desk, pen hovering over the homework she was filling out.

"What note?" She replied quickly.

"The one you hide in your clothes drawers."

Bella flinched.

"It's from my best friend, Jacob," she said slowly, abandoning her homework and swivelling around to look at Daphne. "Except he's not my best friend anymore. He wanted," she paused, searching for the right word. Her eyes shone with pain.

"More. And I couldn't give it to him. Not when I have Edward. I know I hurt him, but…" She trailed off, her voice thick.

"Hey," Daphne said gently, going over and pulling Bella out of her chair and onto her bed, where she wrapped her arm around Bella's shoulders. "It's ok. You should never have to apologise for who you love or who you don't love."

"But I really hurt him," Bella said, her head on Daphne's shoulders.

"He's allowed to be hurt that you don't love him back, but you're not allowed to feel guilty about it, ok? You obviously care a lot for him. If he can't accept that, that's on him, ok? Not you."

Daphne stroked Bella's hair gently as she felt her shoulders begin to shake. She murmured gentle words to Bella until she stilled.

"It's never wrong to love someone. It's not your fault, it's ok. Some distance might give him perspective, and your best friend will be back before you know it. Shhh."

Eventually Bella rose and wiped her eyes. They were red.

"Thank you, Daphne," she said, giving her a weak smile. "Look at me! I haven't had a good cry in ages."

Daphne smiled back. "A good cry can make a lot of things feel better. You don't feel like you're going to explode now, do you?"

"No, actually, I don't," Bella replied, surprised. "I'm going to freshen up. I'll be right back."

Daphne idly bounced a tennis ball she'd stolen from school on the floor, no intention of doing her homework. Bella was just walking back into their room when the scent of a smoking burner reached them. Bella instantly whipped around and ran down the stairs. Intrigued, Daphne followed at a slower pace.

Daphne heard Bella lecturing Charlie on what he was doing wrong with dinner. The two weeks Daphne had been here she had picked up on the fact that Bella was the one to cook. Daphne felt guilty for not helping but she privately thought she'd do more harm than good, like Charlie seemed to be doing right now. She was about to head in and join them when she heard Bella ask Charlie;

"So what's this all about?"

Daphne had enough tact to know not to intrude on the father and daughter, so she instead sat on the couch and turned on the TV. Daphne's hearing was good enough and her attention span was short enough that, though she tried to focus on the TV and not eavesdrop, she caught snatches of their conversation anyway. She heard Jacob being mentioned again and heard Charlie encouraging Bella to visit him. She heard them discussing the terms of a parole period of Bella's grounding. She heard laughing between the two of them. This made resentment burn in Daphne's stomach. She would never be able to laugh like that with either of her parents. Her mother was too awful and her father would never talk to her more than a fleeting conversation once a year if she was lucky. And she wasn't very lucky.

Resentment was still scalding through her veins when Charlie called her into the kitchen for dinner. Daphne did her best to push it down and focus on how nice it was for Charlie to actually call her in to eat with them after they'd had their private discussion instead of just letting her food grow cold.

Charlie spoke again as Daphne sat down.

"By the way, Bella, you've got some mail. It's by the stove." He stood up and grabbed the envelope, passing it to Bella before she had a chance to grab it for herself. Daphne noticed it was already open.

"Er, thanks," her cousin said, frowning in obvious confusion. "That was quick. I guess I missed the deadline on that one, too."

Daphne had no idea what Bella was talking about, but Charlie chuckled. Bella turned the letter over and turned her head upwards, glaring at her father.

"It's open," she said accusingly.

Charlie held up his hands in a gesture of innocence. "I was curious."

"I'm shocked, Sheriff. That's a federal crime."

Daphne snorted. She appreciated Bella's dry and sarcastic sense of humour.

"Oh, just read it," Charlie said. Bella had barely pulled the letter out of the envelope before Charlie spoke again.

"Congratulations. Your first acceptance."

"Thanks, Dad."

It suddenly clicked for Daphne what the letter was.

"You got accepted into college?" She asked her cousin, who was trying and failing to keep the happiness out of her face. "That's amazing Bella! Well done! We should celebrate."

Bella suddenly looked mortified. "No. No we definitely shouldn't."

"We should talk about tuition. I've got some money saved up -"

Daphne's attention wandered down to her clumpy blob of spaghetti as Bella and Charlie began to argue about money. Clearly there was a reason other than laziness that kept Charlie from cooking more often. Daphne had just started paying attention to the conversation again when Charlie asked about Edward's future plans. Bella shifted in her seat, looking uncomfortable, when there was a knock at the door. Bella shot out of her seat so fast it reminded her of when her brothers Travis and Connor had been caught mid-prank by Katie Gardner. Daphne smiled, feeling a little bit homesick. She missed her brothers.

Daphne ate her spaghetti as Charlie got up more slowly to greet Edward, a scowl on his face. Before long the three of them came back into the kitchen, Bella clearing the table except for where Daphne sat, still eating. Edward began to organise a huge stack of forms on the table.

"Hello Daphne, how are you tonight?" Edward was always polite, which Daphne couldn't help but find a bit fake of him. Bella was obviously head over heels for him though, so Daphne tried to look past this.

"Hi. I'm good, thanks. You?" She asked politely, inwardly cringing.

"I'm excellent tonight, thank you. I just got accepted to the University of Alaska Southeast today."

Charlie's scowl deepened. Daphne shot a sly look at Bella. She was biting her lower lip, clearly trying hard to conceal laughter. Daphne was suddenly suspicious about where exactly that college acceptance letter had come from.

"What a coincidence," Daphne said dryly. "Congratulations Edward."

"Coincidence?" He asked, the picture of polite confusion.

Daphne raised her eyebrows at him, the expression on her face making it clear she didn't buy his confusion for a second.

Mirth twinkled in Edward's eyes.

"Guess what, Edward? I just got my acceptance from there today too."

"Congratulations! I suppose that is a coincidence indeed." He grinned.

"Fine," Charlie said, his tone very grumpy. "I'm going to watch the game. Nine-thirty."

"Er, Dad?" Bella said before he could leave. "Remember the recent discussion about my freedom?"

Charlie sighed. "Ok, ten-thirty. You still have a curfew on school nights."

"Bella's no longer grounded?" Edward asked excitedly.

"Conditionally," Charlie snapped. "What's it to you?"

Daphne's attention withdrew from the petty rudeness her uncle reserved just for Edward and she began washing her now empty plate. Her attention was brought back to the conversation when she heard the phrase "killing spree".

"What?" Daphne asked, whirling around.

"It's in the paper," he said, his tone considerably more gentle than when he was talking to Edward. He pointed to the newspaper on the bench.

"And I don't want you going to Seattle either, Daphne. It's not safe for either of you two girls right now." Daphne's heart warmed at the concern he was showing for her. She'd never had a parental figure in her life show concern for her before. Her throat began to burn. Before she could formulate a response, Edward spoke.

"Of course not, Charlie. I didn't mean Seattle. I was thinking Port Angeles, actually. I wouldn't have Bella or Daphne in Seattle right now either."

Daphne decided she liked Edward very much, fake politeness or not. She turned to look at him, throat still burning. He gave her a small, gentle smile before turning back to Charlie.

"Daphne needs to go shopping, Dad. I forgot to mention it. She has hardly any clothes at all." Bella piped up.

Charlie looked at her. "No, I suppose you didn't have much luggage with you when we picked you up. Ok, if you want, you two can go to Port Angeles this weekend. Do you have any money, Daphne?"

"Charlie," Daphne said thickly, trying desperately to keep the tears in her eyes from falling onto her face. "I couldn't possibly. I mean, you've done so much for me already. I can't just take-"

Daphne broke off as her cousin embraced her. She put her head into Bella's shoulder and allowed her tears to fall, the same way Bella had cried on her shoulder not even an hour ago.

"Shhhhh," Bella said, stroking her hair. "It's alright."

Daphne desperately tried to get herself under control. She'd never had anyone show concern for her like this before, not just so freely and out of the good of their hearts. She had siblings that she was incredibly close to, but they weren't in a position to care so generously like this. Being a demigod essentially meant you had nothing and you needed to fight for every scrap you had, including your life. No one at camp had anything to give like this. Very few people at camp had a home that they could share. Being concerned for someone at camp was almost always to be concerned for their life, not for their comfort and wellbeing. The feeling was so novel and so nice that Daphne felt overwhelmed.

"I'm sorry," she said eventually, pulling away from Bella and wiping at her eyes. "I've just never had anyone care like this before and I just-" she broke off and laughed nervously. Her hand went to her camp necklace, twisting the bead with all of the names of her fallen siblings and friends.

"It's ok," Bella said again. "A good cry can make you feel better, can't it?"

Daphne burst out laughing hearing her own words of comfort repeated back to her so soon. Bella laughed too. Charlie, however, looked mystified and even Edward looked confused.

"It's settled, then. Alice will pick you both up tomorrow and take you shopping," Edward said.

"Ok," Daphne said, calming down. "I'm going to go and wash my face. No doubt I look like a mess right now."