Bella

Bella did not like shopping. This was a fact. The same way the sun would rise in the morning and you were never far from rain in Forks.

Despite not liking the activity they were doing, Bella was definitely enjoying the company she was with. Alice was having a blast buying clothes for Daphne and Daphne, once she had put aside her awkwardness at having Alice pay for everything, seemed to be really enjoying herself too.

After Daphne's revelation that she had no qualms about stealing things, Bella had been sure to keep a very close eye on her. She was feeling satisfied that their trip had been an honest one when they sat down to lunch and Daphne pulled out an entire bag of clothes, shoes and accessories she'd stolen. She'd apparently stolen the bag too. Bella and Alice were stunned. Alice shot Bella a look that told her that she hadn't noticed Daphne stealing them either. The mystery surrounding Daphne grew.

After lunch Bella convinced Daphne and Alice to go to a nearby bookstore with them. Bella lost herself to the scent of the pages, wandering along the isles and brushing her fingertips against the books she passed. She was broken out of her thoughts when she turned into a new aisle and saw Daphne, nose in a book.

"I thought you didn't like reading?"

Daphne looked up, not startled by Bella's sudden appearance at all. She grinned and held up the book, showing Bella the cover.

"This I can read."

Bella studied the cover.

"Is that… What language is that?"

"Greek. I'm bilingual. I have a much easier time reading Greek than English."

"Wow," Bella said. "Where did you learn Greek?"

"At my old school. They had classes on it."

"Did I hear you say you learnt Greek at your old school?" Alcie asked, joining them.

"You did, indeed," Daphne answered, showing her the book. Bella watched as Alice read the cover.

"I wouldn't have taken you for a history kind of girl," she said.

Daphne smiled as if Alice had just made a very funny inside joke. "It depends on the topic. Can you read Greek too?"

"I can," Alice confirmed. "All of my family can. We learnt at our old school too." Alice flashed Bella a wink.

"How can you read better in Greek?" Bella asked, curious.

Daphne shrugged. "My dyslexia doesn't affect the words like it does for English. I guess my brain is just hardwired that way."

Bella thought this was a bit weird, but she supposed she didn't really know that much about dyslexia in the first place so she kept her thoughts to herself.

That Monday at lunch Bella announced to all of her friends that she was free. This was met with the suggestion that they should all go out and celebrate, which Bella was very keen to do. She made plans with Angela to go over to hers and help her write invitations to all of her extended family for her graduation. As they were making plans for a more elaborate celebration, Alice, who had been eagerly participating in the conversation, suddenly became still. Her face was blank, eyes staring at something far away. Bella knew what that meant. She was having a vision.

Bella quickly asked Daphne what she used to do for fun at her old boarding school to distract everyone from Alice's sudden and uncharacteristic withdrawal from the conversation. The tactic worked. Daphne began to tell them how her dorm had often had fun by pranking the other dorms. Alice joined back in the conversation soon enough.

Bella glanced at Edward, but he didn't glance back. Suspicion rose inside Bella's mind. What had Alice seen?

Bella drove herself and Daphne home after school. Edward dropped Alice home and then came over too. Daphne went on her usual run and Bella was able to have the house to just her and Edward for the first time in what felt like forever.

"What did Alice see at lunch," Bella asked, without preamble. She knew Edward. She knew he'd try and distract her if it was something he thought would worry her. She watched his face carefully.

Edward's topaz eyes hardened slightly, but otherwise his face was perfectly composed. Too composed, the more suspicious part of Bella whispered.

"She saw Jasper somewhere strange. She thinks it might be in the southwest, near his former coven. He has no intention to go there though. She's worried."

Bella supposed that made sense.

"That's strange," she said, frowning. "Maybe I should talk to her tomorrow. She didn't mention anything yesterday, but it would have been hard to talk about something like this without having to explain everything to Daphne. Do you know if there are any movies she wants to see? I could go out with her some time now that I'm free."

Bella had expected Edward to smile at her and tell her something along the lines of how Alice would appreciate that. Instead face remained carefully composed and blank and he told her how he didn't think she'd appreciate that right now.

Bella was shocked. Alice? Not wanting a girls night? The suspicion returned. Either Alice was much more stressed out than Edward let on or he wasn't telling her the complete truth. Bella was still formulating a response when Edward walked over to her desk and fanned himself with two pieces of stiff, rectangular paper.

"Do you realise that these are about to expire?" He asked. Bella held out her hand and he passed them to her. She looked down. It was the two tickets to visit Renee that she'd been given for her disastrous 18th birthday.

"Perhaps this can be your celebration."

Bella stared up at him, mouth open in shock. "What? Celebrate by going to Florida?"

"I think a weekend away will be perfect for you to feel liberated again," he said, giving Bella her favourite crooked smile.

"Yes," she agreed. "It would. But then I'd come back home to Charlie regrounding me for good this time. He'll be furious."

"He can't keep you from seeing your mother, Bella."

"That's not the problem," she said, getting up and walking over to where he stood.

"You are the problem," she said, poking him in his chest. "He'd be furious that I'm going away with you."

Edward frowned at her the way he did when he was trying to figure out the inner workings of her mind.

"Do you think I'm a problem?" He asked.

Bella gazed into his eyes, suddenly breathless.

"No," she breathed, suddenly forgetting what they were talking about.

Edward leaned closer. Bella felt her heart rate speed up. She felt Edward's hand tangle in her hair, the other one coming down to her waist. Their lips met and it was as if the entire world had fallen away, leaving just the two of them there.

Bella was sitting at the kitchen table struggling through her calculus homework when Daphne came home. She came and joined Bella and Edward - who had finished his homework in minutes - after she had showered and changed. Daphne eyed Bella's question sheet with distaste.

"Have you done any homework at all since starting at Forks High?" Bella asked.

"No," Daphne said, completely unabashed. "Why should I?"

"Have you done some of these classes before? You did really well on the last calc test we had."

Daphne grinned and Bella was once again drawn to her upturned eyes.

"No. I stole the answer sheet afterwards and filled everything in before it was graded."

Edward looked stunned but Bella just rolled her eyes.

"I'm shocked I didn't see that coming," she said.

"I can steal the answers for you next time too, if you want. Now that I think about it, actually, I guess I should do homework occasionally. I don't want people getting suspicious." Daphne sighed in defeat. "I guess I'll go and do mine now too."

Daphne turned and walked glumly out of the kitchen. It was only 20 minutes later, when Bella finished hers and was packing away her things to start dinner, that Edward realised his homework sheet was gone. A quick look around the kitchen told them it wasn't there.

"Do you think Daphne stole it?" Bella asked.

Edward looked at her seriously. "I didn't notice her taking anything. I don't know how she could have."

"Alice didn't notice her stealing clothes yesterday either, but she stole loads. How is that possible?" Bella asked.

"I don't know," Edward said worriedly. "I'll ask Carlisle tonight."

Sure enough, when they opened the door to Bella and Daphne's shared room Daphne was lounging on her bed, Edward's homework sheet in hand. A glance at the desk showed Bella Daphne's own, completed homework.

"Daphne." Edward greeted stiffly. "I was wondering where that had got to."

Daphne handed over Edward's homework sheet.

"Very good, Mr Cullen," she said. "I'd say that's full marks. I'm impressed."

"How did you do that?" Bella asked.

"What, steal his homework?" Daphne shrugged. "It's a talent. I had to learn to steal when I was young so that I could survive."

"Survive?" Bella echoed, taken aback. She glanced at Edward. He was watching Daphne very closely.

"I ran away when I was ten. I had to steal things to stay alive. You know, food, clothes and stuff. That was before someone from my school found me and took me there."

Bella was stunned into silence. She knew Daphne didn't have a good relationship with her mother, but to run away so young?

"Didn't your mother look for you?" She asked.

Daphne smiled tightly. "Have you ever heard my name pop up on the news as one of those missing kids?"

Bella hadn't. It dawned on her that she had never known what it was like not to be loved by her parents. Their love was something that she'd always taken for granted, always known was there. Even now, with the prospect of never being able to see them again looming so closely on the horizon, Bella never doubted they loved her.

"I'm so sorry," she said, not knowing what else to say.

"It's ok," Daphne said, her voice still strained. She was playing with one of the beads on her beaded necklace again. "Forks is the closest place outside of my last school that I've ever had to a home anyway."

"Did you like your last school?" Bella asked.

Daphne smiled again, this time real happiness infusing her face. The difference between Daphne's face when she smiled compared to when she was upset in some way was astounding.

"I did. Almost everyone there was a runaway like me. It was the first home I've ever had. I remember the first time I arrived, I was so scared. I was only 10." Daphne was still talking to them, but her eyes were far away.

"Then I found out who my Dad was. I finally felt like I belonged there. My brother Luke-"

Daphne seemed to return to herself. Her face grew stony, her eyes hard. She gripped her beaded necklace tightly.

"You have a brother?" Edward asked.

"Had." Daphne said, her voice devoid of warmth. "He died."

Bella was taken aback at Daphne's revelation. It wasn't hard to guess that her cousin had a painful past, but a brother who had died? She had no idea how to react to that.

"I'm going for a walk," Daphne said, standing abruptly. "I'll be back later."

Bella was still so stunned by what Daphne had just said that she could only manage a jerky nod in response as her cousin pushed past her.

"Well," Edward said, breaking the silence after a while. "I certainly didn't expect that."

"Poor Daphne," Bella said, still reeling. "I can't imagine…" She trailed off.

Edward wrapped his arms around her, giving silent comfort. Bella let herself melt into his arms.

"I really would like to go and see Renee," Bella said eventually, pulling away from Edward enough to look into his face. "But I don't want to risk Charlie not speaking to me or trying to ground me again or something. Maybe we should wait a few weeks."

Edward kissed the top of her head.

"What if we could convince him to let you go?"

Bella tried not to let her hopes rise. Charlie was very stubborn in his dislike for Edward, but the prospect of seeing Renee was too hard to resist.

"Ok," she agreed hesitantly. "But if he puts up too much of a fight I don't want to keep pushing him."

"We can convince him," Edward replied. His voice was so full of confidence that Bella was unable to tamp down a tiny spark of excitement at going to see Renee again.

I tried making Edward a bit less manipulative than he was in the books but you know, character development takes time and all that.

Sorry that this chapter is a bit short. It's sort of setting up the next chapter which will be in Daphne's POV and include some actual demigod fighting and the wolves will finally be brought into the story. Yay! I hope you enjoyed this chapter regardless. It more so serves character development than plot. Please review and tell me what you think.

Thank you to everyone who has reviewed and followed and/or favourited. It makes my day when I get an email letting me know that someone has done those things. You guys are the best 3