A/N: Oh, god I'm sorry that the earlier posting was messed up! I was in a hurry when I updated and didn't preview it. My bad :( Big thanks to everyone who let me know.

Edythe usually walked alone to biology, or on occasion with Emmett, who had a history class nearby, depending on whether he walked with Rose.

Today as she left the cafeteria, she found herself drawn into Angela and Bella's group. Mike would have been a part of it, except that Jessica, believing now was the time to make it happen, according to her thoughts, had grabbed Mike's arm and held him back to ask him to the dance.

Emmett couldn't have joined them subtly. It wasn't exactly his forte.

Hanging out with humans was...different than Edythe had expected. For one thing, she had thought she knew all of them from their thoughts, but they'd all been...different, out loud. Like Jessica quickly defending Bella's choices, even though she was planning to convince her to come later. And she seemed to be of two minds about Mike, like she wasn't actually sure she should go with him.

Angela was like she had expected, though—kind and protective. She quietly told Bella, as they walked, that she and Jessica had gone to every dance together since middle school. "Jess never makes me dance to slow songs," she said, smiling a little. "All of the guys here are...assholes. I'll probably ask someone just to keep her happy, but, well." She shrugged. "It will just be so everyone leaves me alone."

"You and Jessica have been friends for a long time," Bella commented.

"Since she moved here," Angela said. Her thoughts were wistful, just a short flurry of memories the two of them shared. "She's...my best friend."

Bella glanced at her oddly.

Edythe wished she could read Bella's thoughts, but that was nothing new.

"Who are you thinking of asking?" Bella wondered.

She shrugged in response. "Eric, maybe."

"Really?" Edythe couldn't stop herself from blurting. Angela was kind, but she had been annoyed with Eric—and Mike, for that matter—all through lunch. She didn't seem all that thrilled about asking him now.

She just nodded, though she was grimacing. "I...think it's for the best." Confusingly, she thought of her father, patting her shoulder gently.

Edythe stared at her, once again at a loss. She had thought she understood humans prior to this lunch, but it was rapidly becoming clear that she didn't have a clue.

When they reached class, Angela split off from them and took her seat. Edythe was actually a little disappointed not to spend more time with her—she was curious about Angela, too. Not in the same way she was captivated by Bella, but still.

"So, you don't eat food," Bella murmured as they sat down at their lab table. She raised an eyebrow at her, obviously curious.

"Well," she said, thrown that she'd noticed. She'd thought the box in her backpack was fairly subtle. No one else has noticed. "Not that food?" It was embarrassing, really, how being around her seemed to make Edythe forget every lie she'd been practicing her whole life.

"Noted," Bella said with a small grin.

She groaned a little. "Bella," she whined.

She just grinned and patted her arm.

Edythe didn't flinch—having had Bella so close throughout lunch made all of ...this a little easier. She breathed carefully, her arm still tingling where Bella had touched it. This was nothing compared to when Bella had leaned against her, which had practically sent her brain into hyperdrive, and shot her bloodlust to the ceiling, but every touch meant something, and it was enough to overwhelm her. Emotionally speaking. She wouldn't kill Bella, no matter how good she smelled. She wasn't even hungry—she'd hunted the night before, and there was still a carrot-like taste in her mouth, nauseating her.

So she could do this.

Carefully, Edythe put her hand under the table, and touched Bella's leg, just above her knee.

It wasn't like she was still living in 1918. People touched each other more, now. Hell, even Edythe herself had wrestled and cuddled with all of her "siblings." This touch shouldn't have been a big deal, but the truth was—the truth was that everything with Bella was a big deal.

Bella moved her hand to cover Edythe's. She carefully—delicately, almost—flipped her hand so it rested palm up on her leg, and took it in her own.

She had to keep from hyperventilating on top of not crushing her hand. God, she was a mess. They held hands for two minutes and thirteen seconds before Edythe had to pull away, too overwhelmed.

Bella was blushing again, staring straight ahead.

Edythe felt more and more flustered as they sat next to each other without talking. Carefully, she ripped a small corner of notebook paper, and drew a small smiling face. She slid the paper across the desk.

Bella looked down at it, glanced over at Edythe, and smiled.

For the most part, Edythe had been ignoring thoughts. She'd gotten pretty good at it over the years, which was to be expected.

Still, she couldn't entirely drown out her siblings incessant questioning.

Emmett and Jasper mostly seemed confused by the situation. Emmett pointedly thought, more than once, 'It's kind of weird that you're hanging out with someone we all considered killing not one month ago.'

'Do you realize that if this goes wrong, you've now publicly attached yourself to her?' Jasper asked.

'By kind of weird, I mean really fucking weird!' Emmett was kind of stuck on that.

Edythe...couldn't blame him. And they were both right, it was just...the more time she spent with Bella, the less she wanted to think about it.

Not that it meant she hadn't thought about it.

She was agonizing over it, in fact, caught up wondering whether their feelings for each other were more important than their respective safety. Bella could die with just one wrong move, and if anyone in Italy found out how close the two of them were getting...it wouldn't end well.

Edythe sighed, and Bella sent an odd look her way. "You okay?" She mouthed.

She just nodded, although she definitely was not okay. A big part of her wanted to eat the first person she'd ever had feelings for. How was that supposed to be okay?

She knew that she tended to be somewhat morose when it came to matters of...well, everything. She wasn't sure she had ever had a soul on most days, and on days when she thought she might, she knew it had darkened.

Back when Rose was new to the family, Edythe had told her that killing was a heavy burden on the soul. Rose had wondered if it mattered, but her list of people to kill was already limited. She didn't think about it, any more, so Edythe figured it hadn't pierced her soul in the same way.

She couldn't make up her mind about this. Being with Bella had so much good potential—Alice had showed her that, and in fact was happily running over visions at the moment, enough that Edythe could have stopped thinking and looked through them herself.

But there were also Emmett and Jasper's concerns to consider. This was a huge risk not only for Bella, but her whole family, too.

She was asking a lot of them. Maybe she shouldn't do this.

Across the school, Rosalie abruptly stopped reciting Les Misérables and thought, clear as a bell, 'Let's skip 7th period.' Then she pictured the spot in the woods just outside of the schoolyard very clearly, and went back to reciting, this time going through Frankenstein.

After a moment, when Alice had a flash of a vision, she thought, 'I'm coming, too! And you better talk out loud.'

Well, Rose shouldn't be too surprised. It had been too long since their last girl talk session, anyway.

Alice and Rose both beat her to the spot, and were hissing at each other in tones too low for Edythe to hear as she approached them.

"This is a huge fucking risk," Rose said when she noticed Edythe.

"A calculated one!" Alice said defensively.

Rose actually rolled her eyes at that, and scornfully remarked, "She's in love! I've been in love, and I know nothing is all that calculated."

Both of them were probably right.

She came to stand next to them with a sigh. "I'm not in love, yet," she pointed out.

Rose searched her face. "I just don't get it. When we talked this morning I thought you were being stupid because I was pretty sure Bella was going to find out the secret. I didn't think you were going to be even dumber—"

"That's not fair," Alice tried to cut in.

"Even dumber!" Rose snapped, glaring at her. "And go public with her! Now if something happens, you two are going to be linked. It's not just you in danger, you know."

"I do know that." It had been on her mind all day. The main reason she worried about it, aside from the fact that she might accidentally kill her first...girlfriend (they'd need to talk about that soon), was the idea that her family would get scrutinized pretty closely. Not to mention that the treaty with the Quiluetes would get broken. It was all dangerous.

"Maybe you're right..." she said slowly. Even as she said it, she felt extreme despair well up. If she couldn't be with Bella, what was the point of living? That day in the hospital, when they'd kissed, her world had been rocked, settled onto a new course. If she gave up on this relationship, she was absolutely sure that she would never be happy again.

"If Edythe doesn't pursue this," Alice broke in. "She's always going to wonder if she should have. And she's never going to be happy."

Rose frowned, obviously not thrilled with that idea. "You can see that?"

"Edythe keeps changing her mind," she said with a shrug. "It's kind of like emotional whiplash, honestly."

Edythe wondered if she should feel offended that the two of them were practically discussing her like she wasn't there.

"Imagine not being with Emmett," Alice continued.

Rose did seem distressed, then, apparently unable to comprehend it. It made sense; Edythe could remember when she'd first been turned, and how unhappy she had been, until Emmett came into her life. "Do you think Bella is the one?"

"Yes," she said, before she really thought it through.

She didn't need to think about it, though—she already knew.

And although she loved Rose, Edythe suddenly realized that her opinion wouldn't be modified by her sister's. She'd decided.

Alice grinned and clapped her hands. "It's going to be fine," she promised both of them. "Now, about dress shopping for the dance. Are you thinking of going?"

She grimaced. She wasn't particularly opposed to going to dances, though she usually didn't. Her siblings, paired off as they were, usually enjoyed themselves well enough, but if she tagged along, she was normally bored, or worse, lonely. "Bella isn't going," she hedged.

"You could totally change her mind," Alice suggested.

She shook her head. "I'm not sure about that." Bella hadn't even asked if Edythe would be there before saying she wouldn't be—she clearly hadn't wanted to go at all. And she'd already realized that Bella was incredibly stubborn.

"I still think Bella would go if you asked," Alice argued.

"Well maybe I don't want to go."

Rose clicked her tongue. "Smart move, getting out of the carpool. I guess you're not totally stupid."

Edythe rolled her eyes. "Shut up."

Rose just laughed, and darted close enough to ruffle her hair. "Take Bella to the dance. We'll watch out for you." She smiled tightly.

"Really?" It wasn't that Edythe was surprised that Rose cared for her—they weren't just sisters, they were friends, too—but such a quick turnaround was surprising.

"Really," Rose agreed. "I—we care about you. And your happiness. If Bella is a part of that...we'll make it work. I can't say I'm completely on board with this, because I can't imagine a future for you that goes well, but I want you to have the present."

"Uh, hello? I can see that future. Nine out of...twenty times...it goes just fine."

Both Rose and Edythe grimaced at Alice. "Not the best numbers," Rose pointed out.

"Sure, but I'm getting more and more positives. Before this conversation it was probably...three out of ten."

Edythe sighed. She would never get a 100% surety, but more than 50% would be nice. "When I fail, what happens?"

A flurry of images—Bella dead in her bedroom, Bella dead in her truck, Bella lying still in a forest, obviously alive because she was sobbing, not bleeding, just...alone. And Edythe, standing in a sunny courtyard in Volterra, glittering.

"I can't figure the last one out," Alice said with a frown. Then her eyes widened. "Edythe, you're shaking!"

Edythe hardly processed it. She was in too much of a panic. She was a fool to think any of this would work.

Rose was at her side in an instant, wrapping an arm around her. "Good endings, please," she ordered.

Bella with golden eyes, Bella in a wedding dress, Bella running in the forest and hunting with Edythe, Bella's tombstone 80 years later.

Much easier to swallow. Still, "Bella shouldn't be a vampire."

"Why not?" Alice demanded.

"Of course not," Rose agreed at the same time.

The two of them shot glares at each other.

"This life is cursed!" Edythe insisted.

Rose nodded.

"Stop being dramatic!" Alice said. "Once you get past the blood, it's fine! Anyway, I saw the same golden eyes you did, so there's nothing to worry about."

"That's easy for you to say!" Rose snapped. "You don't even—" she abruptly cut herself off.

Edythe couldn't help but feel grateful. She knew exactly what Rose had been about to say.

Of course, so did Alice.

"Just because I don't remember my human life doesn't mean I didn't struggle to adjust! You try waking up alone and tell me I had it easy!" Alice was hurt—whenever it came down to this sort of thing, both she and Rose always ended up on bad terms, hurting in their own ways.

Edythe needed to deescalate the situation before the two of them hurt worse. "Hey, let's be fair. Neither of you have had an easy time. And Bella's situation, whatever it will be, won't be like either of yours."

The two of them shifted uncomfortably, though she could hear them mentally calming down.

"I'm sorry, Alice," Rose finally sighed. "Sometimes I get caught up feeling sorry for myself and forget that just because your situation was different, it wasn't easy."

"I'm sorry, too," Alice said quickly. She flitted over to stand next to her. "What you went through—of course it's still awful and upsetting. Time can't erase that. I wasn't thinking about how the discussion around Bella might remind you of that."

Rose smiled and wrapped an arm around Alice's shoulder. "It's okay. Thank you for understanding."

Alice smiled and turned to hug Rose fully.

Rose met Edythe's gaze over her sister's head and rolled her eyes. But she was smiling, and her thoughts were affectionate. She jerked her head. 'Get over here,' she thought very clearly.

Alice opened one of her arms.

She sighed but joined their group hug as requested. She didn't even try to wiggle away when Rose kissed the top of her head, even though it felt a little silly.

"So," Alice said, after about eight seconds. "About this dance—"

Edythe groaned, and Rose just laughed. "I can't see the future, Edy, but you might as well go along with it," she suggested.

So she was going to the dance. Now she just had to get Bella on board.