A/N: For the prompt "candy canes," from the WFN Advent challenge! Also for Lupa_Barnes' challenge, Destroy Dic(tion) December.

The morning began normal enough, with everyone getting into the car 25 minutes before the first bell. Edythe drove, as always, and today, Rose slid into the front seat instead of Emmett.

"I want to talk to you," she said to Edythe. Her thoughts made it clear that she wanted to discuss Bella, and wanted to know if she was the person that Edythe had been texting.

"Okay, sure," Edythe said because she couldn't think of a way to get out of it. It wasn't that she didn't want to talk to Rose, it was just...she wasn't sure what to say. Yes, I'm a lesbian, and I'm falling in love with a human; hope that's okay with you, sis! That would definitely go over well.

Rose sent a pointed thought her way. 'Have you been texting Bella?'

"Yes," Edythe said aloud.

'Why?' was her immediate response, but she quickly clarified. 'Are you trying to gauge how much she knows? Are you trying to keep her from being too interested in us? Is this about the kiss at the hospital? I still want to know why you let that happen.' She and Rose had been sisters long enough that they knew how to have a private conversation. All yes and no questions, which required completely honest answers. Any clarifications were to wait for a more private location. She was glad to see that Rose was being respectful enough to do it this way.

"Yes. To an extent. Yes. I'll tell you later."

'What about the kiss? Wait. Did you enjoy the kiss? Do you like her?' Her sister really was quite clever. Edythe had wondered at times if she did have some sort of gift, just something so subtle that no one had noticed. Her above average ability to suss out people's intentions was really quite impressive, even if it wasn't a 100% guarantee.

Edythe gave Rose a searching look, trying to figure out how the answer would be received. "...Yes."

'To both?'

She nodded.

"Want to share with the rest of us?" Alice asked from the back seat. "I just keep getting yes/no answers."

"Must suck to be normal," Emmett teased. He didn't seem all that interested in whatever his wife was discussing with Edythe. Perhaps they'd already discussed it.

"Here's a thought," Rose said, turning around in her seat. "Stay out of our business."

This was the typical exchange that happened whenever Rose and Edythe had one of their private conversations. It hadn't gotten any less funny over time.

She didn't ask any other questions until they were close to the school. 'Be careful. I know you know that, but...You really like this girl, huh?'

"Yes."

'Okay. I don't like this. But...we can fight after school. And it's not because she's a girl, so don't worry on that front.'

"Thank you," Edythe said. She had remembered Alice's statement from before, so she'd been trying not to worry, but hearing it from Rose, who was more pragmatic than the rest of them...it made her feel better. Maybe the others would be fine with it, too. She wondered who else would be concerned about her pursuing a relationship with a human. Jasper, certainly. Possibly Emmett, depending on how strongly Rose felt.

'I think you're stupid, though,' Rose thought, and climbed out of the car as they pulled to a stop. 'Where do you even expect this to go?' She waited for Emmett to join her before walking away.

"Not sure yet," she admitted. She did not want to go to school, though. The parking lot was filling up, but Bella's truck wasn't there yet. Maybe...she could get her...coffee?

"Try a Candy Cane Latte," Alice said, as she left the car. She grabbed Jasper's hand and the two of them walked off, headed for their classes. Jasper always liked to be one of the first students in class, so he could adjust to the smells slowly.

Edythe sighed. Okay. So a Candy Cane Latte. There was a coffee shop nearby, perhaps a mile from the school. She would be back in less than ten minutes, plenty of time to give Bella coffee.

If she dropped it off at her class.

Regardless, she wouldn't mind. She drove down the main road and parked there. Sure enough, the sign out front advertised their Candy Cane Lattes. It seemed a bit late in the season for that, but maybe they had an excess of candy canes and saw no reason to stop selling them.

Whatever the case, Edythe trusted Alice. Bella would like the latte, so she would buy it.

There was a handful of people in line, but most of them were buying brewed coffee. Jessica Stanley was in line, looking as though she'd rather be back in bed. She didn't notice Edythe until both of them had already ordered and were waiting on their drinks. She didn't say anything, though, just looked at Edythe oddly.

Of course, Jessica's mind was an open book.

'What's she doing here?' she wondered.

Her confusion mostly seemed to be based on the fact that she'd never seen Edythe here before, but also from noticing how little they all ate.

Which was not ideal. They would need to be more subtle.

"Jessica, right?" Maybe she could distract her.

'Wow, she can speak to us mere mortals?' Her thoughts did take a turn, which was probably a good sign, and the accidental accuracy was pretty hilarious. "Yeah. How's it going?"

"I'm well," she said. What did humans discuss, besides the weather? "Cold out there, huh?"

She nodded, still completely baffled that Edythe chatting with her. "Good time for a hot drink."

"Definitely." She searched Jessica's mind for another conversation topic. "Don't you have first period with Bella?"

"Bella Swan?" Her voice had taken on a whole new level of disbelief. 'I knew Bella was obsessed with the Cullens, but I can't believe they noticed! God that's awkward.'

Edythe managed not to grimace. Jessica's thoughts weren't out of the ordinary for human teens, but it did goad her a bit to hear her think of Bella that way. "Yes. We've been texting."

'Oh! My God! I'm going to kill her for not telling me about this!'

"About Biology," she tacked on quickly. "We're lab partners."

"Oh," Jessica said. 'Damn. Here I thought someone might actually have an in on the Cullens.'

"Large soy chai!" the barista called.

Jessica rushed up to it, but came back to talk to Edythe again. "Bella isn't in my first period class, but she's in Mike's. English, with Mr. Mason."

"Thanks," Edythe said, smiling. "I need to go over some homework with her."

"Totally," Jessica replied. 'Edythe is way nicer than I thought she was.'

She tried not to take that personally. Undoubtedly it was just...the way they came off, being so distant. "Have a nice day."

"You, too!"

Edythe grabbed her latte when it came up and hurried back to school. As she parked, she noticed that Bella's truck was there, now. She was going to be late to class, but she shouldn't have a problem getting it to her before the final bell. It was especially lucky that Bella's class was near the parking lot.

Bella was seated in the middle of the room behind Eric and next to Mike, both of whom were clearly vying for her attention. She seemed a little overwhelmed by it, but not in any immediate danger. Even so, when she saw Edythe walking toward her, a look of relief fluttered across her face. "Hi," she said.

"Hey," Edythe said. "I wanted to talk to you about the homework, but I'm a little too late." The lie was mostly for Jessica's benefit, because she was certain that the girl would try to get answers out of Bella at lunch later that day.

"That's okay," Bella said. She looked a little confused, though—probably because there wasn't any homework for them to discuss. "How are you today?"

"Very well," she said honestly. She remembered the drink in her hands suddenly, and set it down on Bella's desk. "I picked this up for you."

"Oh," Bella said, eyes going wide. She picked it up and took a sip. "Peppermint?"

"It's a Candy Cane Latte," she said, laughing a little.

She took the lid off and laughed. "There's peppermint shavings on the top. That's cute. Thank you." She blushed brightly.

"No problem," Edythe said. She was certain that if it could, her face would be flushed just as red as Bella's. "Could we meet up at lunch to discuss the homework?"

As startled as Bella seemed, she immediately said, "Yes!"

Mike broke in. "Edythe, why don't you sit with all of us at lunch?"

The offer wasn't nearly as chivalrous as he wanted it to seem, though he couldn't know that Edythe heard him thinking that he didn't want to miss an opportunity to wear Bella down. (He didn't think of it that way, of course.)

Still...it might be a good way to dissuade all of them from figuring it out. "Okay. See you then?"

"Yeah," Bella said. Her thoughts were as hidden as ever, but Edythe could read her face, at least to some extent. She was excited.

She couldn't help but be excited herself.

A/N: The big mood for this universe is that Edythe and Bella are gonna have friends and family that are Good.

Jessica doesn't come across great in this part, but that's only because we're hearing her thoughts. She does like Bella, but yanno. There's no filter in your brain. I think that's why Edythe/Edward has such a low opinion of humans in Forks. Jessica and Bella are still figuring each other out, but at the end of the day, they are friends. For sure!

So: up next is lunchtime, from Bella's point of view. We'll see more of her friends, maybe Edythe will even make some friends, too :)

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