By the end of the week the concussion symptoms had gone as had Edward's house guests. Edward wanted me to come up to the house and visit tomorrow, officially rather than in a crazy emergency panic.

Okaasan, or rather my mom not Renee, always told me when invited to visit someone's house it was polite to bring a small gift. Usually that would be snack foods. I sat in the parking lot of the school in Big Red for twenty minutes trying to figure out an appropriate consumable to gift vampires with. I went to the craft store and made a box of hand stamped stationery. I wrapped it in a pale blue linen tea towel with a bird printed on it. I tied it closed with twine. The gesture was probably a little too Lexi and not Bella enough but I don't really care. Good manners are good manners.

I brought my violin out of hiding, staring at it waiting for Edward to get there. I learn songs by memory most of the time now. Writing out sheet music only to have it disappear when a day resets is frustrating. I want Edward to play with me like he did that once in a Port Angeles day he doesn't even remember. I felt overwhelmingly self conscious because the violin was my thing not Bella's and I was choosing to try to share it.

If I was officially visiting, was what I was wearing appropriate? The vampires dress fairly formally and my closet had a lot of t-shirts from Phoenix and flannel from back when Charlie was a teenager. I think even Bella who professed to hate shopping did more shopping than I have. Forks is cold. Phoenix was not. There was not a lot of warm stuff in the closet. I'd actually almost never gone clothes shopping without my Okaasan. Sorry about the Japanese but though we mostly spoke English at home Okaasan for mom, Otosan for dad, was just part of home life. Before Forks I'd been to the mall a few times with friends but we bought school supplies, candy, we bought pocket change things. Forks did not have a mall. When I went to Port Angeles for to go dress shopping with Jess and Ange it was like driving Big Red for the first time. It was something grown up I'd not done before. It was only just occurring to me that a clothing shortage was something I was expected to do something about. I didn't have mom to act as a magic clothing fairy anymore.

I suppose I did buy the Pikachu onesie. In my defence this bedroom is freezing and Pikachu has a hood. I got it at the comic book store. I can neither confirm nor deny that I was have been buying "Happy Happy Clover" manga. I don't know if it counts as clothes shopping when you got your pj's at the comic book store.

There was a knock at my window, "Hi Edward,it's the middle of the day. The bedroom window door is closed for business. I'll meet you at the front so Charlie doesn't think you're part cat burglar."

Charlie let him in before I had turned around and he cheerfully bounded up the stairs. "Why have you got your clothing cave turned inside out?" he teased. Had he and Alice been talking about my closet? I'm sure Alice was the only one I'd ever heard refer to it as a clothing cave.

"Ah, I was looking for something to wear and realising that perhaps moving to a cold climate without doing a bit of shopping is catching up to me. Your whole family dresses like a fashion magazine. I'd settle for dressing like a girl again rather than Charlie's mini-me."

"Yep, you're fired as a girl," he teased. "But you're still beautiful as the hunting flannel princess."

"Port Angeles isn't really much better than Forks as far as shopping goes and Seattle is so far away by the time I could drive there it would be time to come home."

"Are you ready to go or are you going to contemplate shopping some more?" Edward grabbed my violin out of the closet. '"I want to hear you play."

Oh an invitation to play. That made the violin issue fun rather than super awkward. And this guy thinks he can't read my mind. I grabbed the gift for Esme. "I'll clean up the clothing explosion later. Let's go."

Edward was as cheerful as I'd ever seen him. He explained that Esme had been making cookies and she was hoping I would stay for dinner. "She actually quite enjoys cooking. Every bake sale opportunity she donates baked goods. Food doesn't smell appetising to us but neither does all of it smell horrible. Raw fruit and vegetables usually smell alright. The school cafeteria stinks horribly."

"Makes sense to me. Just because roses smell nice doesn't mean they smell appetising and honestly I agree about the cafeteria. It smells gross."

I'd already met his whole family so rather than Bella's traditional overly careful greeting, I was greeted with, "Good Morning Bella. Hey Bella bee-bop, have you tried Call of Duty 2 yet? Bella, Edward was about to ask me if I wanted to go shopping with you soon. I'm in. Come try one of these cookies I made you! They just came out of the oven. Finally my favourite patient is healthy!"

"I'm not your favourite patient Carlisle. I'm a grumpy old bear with a sore paw. I grouch at you non-stop. I don't know how you put up with me. I prefer Mario Kart, Emmett. Esme, you made me cookies? I made this for you. I'm not sure where I want to go shopping yet Alice but I definitely need some clothes that didn't belong to Charlie when he was in high school and at least one dress. I've reached my plaid flannel limit. Hey Jasper, how goes it?"

Alice, who was on the stairs, asked excitedly, "A dress, so are you going to prom?"

"Prom's a senior thing."

"No, no. The senior class is too small, juniors go too."

"I just wanted an ordinary informal dress so that I didn't feel like a cross between a fisherman and lumberjack anymore."

"Every Disney princess should go to the ball Bella." Carlisle teased.

"You sassy vampires need to stop now or I will go to one of the multitude of school dances and you'll be so embarrassed to have ever been seen with me you'll move to another continent and never be able to look each other in the eyes ever again."

"You can't be that bad of a dancer," Edward laughed.

"Unbridled enthusiasm, zero shame, one hundred percent immaturity and absolute klutz mixed into one. It's not a pretty sight." I know Bella is supposed to hate dancing but I just grinned at them mischievously.

"Have you ever slow danced?" asked Edward teasingly.

"Slow dancing is for boring cowards who aren't fond of their toes."

"You talk the big talk, girl. Put your dancing feet where your mouth is," challenged Emmett, turning off his video game and putting a pop station on the satellite TV.

What followed was an absolutely ridiculous free form dance disaster. I broke a lamp and if vampires were less nimble I would have stepped on half a dozen toes but soon everyone was dancing too. As Karin Gillespie once said, "If you're going to walk on thin ice, you might as well dance."

Edward danced along with me grinning openly, having fun and completely giving into my nonsense. I was spun, dipped and twirled. There was a lot of laughing involved.

I think Alice and Jasper were doing the tango complete with red rose, mixed in with occasional country and western line dancing, I'm sure I saw them slip in a chicken dance, Esme and Carlisle danced like they were at a 1950 sock hop competition crossed with a courtly oddity that wouldn't have looked out of place in a mediaeval castle, Emmett kept randomly cutting in stealing partners left and right. He liked to toss me in the air. Finally Edward hijacked the music and put on a slow waltz taming me into a vampire strength controlled slow dance. I was a little sad that I was the only one rosy cheeked and out of breath but that's just the way they're built I guess.

"Let's hear the violin," Edward suggested sydling up to the piano.

I pulled it out and asked for tuning notes. "Do you know, At Last by Etta James?"

He nodded.

"Lead me in," I begged.

We played from song to song for over an hour. I'd suggest a song, he'd suggest one. Sometimes vampires danced smoothly and silently around us, sometimes they were still and just listening but the house was silent but for the violin, piano and my heart beat.

"Oh don't stop," protested Esme when I put down the violin.

"I don't have the calluses for more, If I play any longer my fingers will start to bleed." I softly explained.

Carlisle tilted my left hand over and looked at it. "Do you want an ice pack?"

"No, I'm fine."

I did grab some water though then Edward and I went for a walk. We held hands. His hand is a little like an ice pack. Which I cheerfully pointed out when he tried to come around to the other side of me so that my obviously sore hand wouldn't be in his. He contemplated that concept for a moment and then seemed pleased that cold hands could be a comfort. He said he liked the feel of the warmth of my hand in his.

"Where is Rosalie?" I asked at one point. "Is she still mad at me for being a rude busybody?"

Edward sighed. "She's avoiding you. She doesn't know what to think of you. Though your actions have all been well intentioned and have had positive outcomes for my family and me, they are riskier than she's comfortable with."

"It's mostly about the police action against the Creep, and the La Push thing jumping in over my head?"

Edward nodded.

"Actually the fact that I routinely yell at you is probably a factor too. I think she'd prefer if I was a little more cautious with her scary dangerous vampire brother."

"My mouse that roars," Edward observed of me moving a lock of hair out of my eyes, "isn't usually trying to be mean or hurtful. She's usually trying to make sure her small voice is heard." He kissed the top of my head, closing his eyes and sighing. "My sister is slow to trust. She thinks you're immature."

"I am immature," I commented.

Edward shrugged. "I'm over a hundred. All the other centenarians tell me I'm immature too."

As we walked back he wove me a flower crown.

I played the Nintendo Mario theme song for him on a blade of squeaky grass.

"I'll have to start mowing the lawn more frequently," He teased, snatching the grass away from me. "Don't dare do that in front of Emmett or he'll be playing the Mario theme on a grass kazoo for the next fifty years straight just to annoy me."

"Want a Go rematch?" I asked, feeling like something a little more restful than hiking and dancing.

"Actually I want to play Codebreaker with someone I can't cheat against," Edward suggested.

All in all we had a fine day. Esme's dinner was delicious. She made Thai veggie wraps with peanut sauce. After dinner Alice offered something that took the shine off the day. "Bella there's going to be a thunderstorm tonight. We're going to play baseball. It's something to see."

"I didn't tell Charlie I'd be this late. I should phone him and make sure it's okay." I answered thinking about what happened during the family baseball game in the book. If James, Victoria and Laurent had moved on, baseball was obviously fine. If they were still there and I didn't go the day might hiccup. Alice was the one that got away. Would she be targeted if I didn't go?