High School Never Ends, A Remake

by Lady Eleanora

Remake of Part 1 of the Main HSNE Trilogy. Rated "M" for suggestive themes, language and 1 dark character. All AH, OOC; added in are some OCs of my own. Don't like, don't have to read it.

41. Journey to the Canyon

Recap of Chapter 40:

It was the next day after Bella and Edward had been kidnapped, and the teens are still waiting on pins and needles waiting to hear about anything the situation. However while the couple had been taken from the group, their tragic situation led to Alice, Emmett, Jasper and Rosalie coming together in a form of a truce and began to mend broken friendships. Meanwhile, Bella and Edward were about to be separated from one another as part of some ploy with Jane. But Edward wasn't having it and chose to strike the men down from taking his girlfriend. In a fight for their lives, Bella and Edward did what they could to protect one another from certain harm. Thankfully, the two were successful and managed to fight them off, knocking the men out. This led to them making a bold escape where they fled for their lives from gunfire and a chaotic car chase. They had luck on their side once on the road and were rescued by the Italian police force. There, the teens were taken to a hospital to heal from their injuries, before their music group reunited with them. It was there that the teens began to mend their friendships with the group on where it mattered most - and thus the nightmare was over for Bella and Edward.

A/N: Hello once more to another installment to HSNE A Remake!

It's time we move on from Italy I believe and start up the next leg to the Spring Break Trip - off to Arizona!

I have many other plot points I want to get through still with this story but feel it's time we progress along with this spring-break line of chapters.

Side-note, as much as I said before I'll say it again - I'm not pleased with the inclusion of some OCs both in the original version and the ones I've included so far to the story. The OCs often are unnecessary or hard to keep track of, and to me never really served an integral part to the story from before. But, I'm going to try and be better about their inclusions in here - at least make them have more weight or seem a bit more important rather than one-offs. And I'll try to keep track of them better than I had done so before.

Let's get to it!

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Chapter Forty-One

~Bella~

A quick rapping on the hotel door had me shuffling over and opening it. When seeing who was on the side, I couldn't help but smile. "Well hello there my prince charming."

"Hello my sweet princess." Edward greeted me smoothly, his signature crooked grin on his face. He was dressed casually once again, looking effortlessly like a model in his black t-shirt, faded jeans and black boots. I stood up on my tippy toes to peck his lips, and snickered when I saw his pout after I pulled away. "That was too short, you wound me my love."

"We can't be too distracted - we're on a tight, timed schedule as is and we can't afford to have too much time spent on kissing." I reminded him teasingly, winking whilst Edward's frown deepened.

"A longer kiss isn't going to kill us..."

"But our coaches will be unhappy with us." I countered, turning to stride back into my hotel room.

"Bella! Is that Edward?" I could hear a certain pixie's voice from the bathroom, shouting out once she heard her adoptive brother's voice.

"Yes Alice, it is!"

"Good! He better get working on helping us out here!"

"With what?" Edward complained loudly back to her through the closed door, and scowled once Alice opened the door to him, hands on her hips. "Please do not tell me I was only called up here to be the pack mule."

"Oh not just you." Alice stated with a grin.

"Hey Ed." I glanced over my shoulder and spotted that Jasper had appeared now. He was dressed up in a t-shirt under his jacket, while wearing jeans and converse. He looked comfortable as ever yet seemed surprised to see my boyfriend was here in the hotel room as well. But once the blond spotted the mountain of bags from Alice's bed, Jasper frowned. "Oh Christ."

"Yep. We're pack mules." Edward grumbled to Jasper, as if answering some unspoken question.

"I'm sorry." I murmured sheepishly, cringing as Edward minutely glowered down at me. "She told me to convince you to come up since she knew you'd said no outright to her."

"What a devious thing to do from an evil little creature." Edward muttered, rolling his green eyes before moving forward to begin grabbing Alice's things.

"Love you too brother."

"Yeah yeah, you win. Let's get going then." Edward grumbled away but worked on his task with Jasper assisting. Alice smirked at me as she saw her plan worked but I shook my head at her, laughing.

It had been at least four days since we arrived in Italy - and of course with a portion of it having been plagued by the sudden kidnapping that happened to Edward and I. I still shutter thinking back to those terrifying hours (almost a full twenty-four hour period) when we had been taken and held against our will in that musty dusty basement of that hideout. I didn't know if we'd ever be freed from the confines of our capture, much less reunited safely with our friends and the music group. Edward and I were blessed with the luck that we had, having only gotten away with the injuries that we did. I glanced up at Edward when he reentered the hotel room again, noting the bandages over his nose. He managed to have his nose realigned after it had been broken and it was definitely going to take awhile for it to be fully healed. But that was only the worst of his injuries; his bruising to his chest was on the mends and were only slightly colored now. Along with that, the bruising to his neck when he had been choked had significantly healed that you really couldn't tell if it actually happened.

Meanwhile my injuries were going to take awhile longer to fully heal up. The bullet was removed from my leg after the nurses at the hospital had been sure that my leg was fully numbed and easily grabbed the bullet out from the wound. Then they worked on stitching it closed and prescribed me pain medications to ease the pains that would come from the wound. While thinking over that injury, I couldn't help but touch my neck knowing there was an awful, angry bruise there from when I had been choked. I had been choked in the past thanks to Joshua and his abuse, yet feeling it again brought back all of the past trauma I had endured. The fight or flight feelings I had when I could feel my air supply cutting itself short when the man had his grasp on my neck, trying to claw at his arm to see if i could get him to pull his hand off of my neck - it was something I didn't want to have to go through again. I feared for my life, and I knew Edward also feared that I would've died in that man's hold if I hadn't acted when I did with my kick to the groin. I had gotten off with a great amount of luck when I managed to land the kick the way that I did. Sadly I had to deal with this nasty bruise for the time being.

Once we had been rescued and began our recovery process, it was jarring when we returned back to the hotel with our friends and the coaches. The remaining students from our music group came by to greet us, and for the most part it seemed like they were happy to see that we were alive. Gone was the animosity we had received from the group - well maybe from everyone save for Lauren. I could give two shits about her, but she was more than relieved seeing Edward alive; he didn't care for her response but I guess it was just better than receiving the cold shoulder I had gotten. But mostly everyone in our music group had gotten over the awful feuding and hatred they had for Edward and I after we had came out with our relationship, and it seemed as if they were our friends again. I guess it helped that Rosalie, Emmett, Alice and Jasper were back on our side and did what they could for the past few days to work on repairing our relationships with each other.

Alice was the quickest and easiest to getting back into being a friend with her. I always felt as if she never wanted to go through with not talking to me or being my friend after she found out I was dating her adoptive brother. But she never had reached out previously, likely due to fear from Rosalie if she had reacted poorly. However once we had gone through this awful situation, she was back to being my best friend and doting on me. She made sure that I was okay, happy, and did what she could to rekindle that lost, sister relationship. And while she continued to tease and pick on Edward, she was more than pleased to have him back, hugging him and doting on him just as much. She was also teasing the two of us any time we'd be openly affectionate. Edward took it in stride, and would snicker at me any time I'd be blushing from her joking.

The ones that were jarring to adjust to were the others. Jasper and Edward eased back into their friendship quickly, but it was a slow go for Emmett and Edward. And it was even more awkward for Rosalie and I. I won't beat around the bush and claim that it was easy for me to forget the hurtful words that she had spewed when we had our falling out. But by some miracle Rosalie had matured enough and came forward apologizing first to me. She had felt - and still does - the immense amount of guilt for saying such awful things to me when all she wanted to do was lash out at the time, to make her hurt known and to make me feel bad. But over time she had reflected on it and realized that she never meant a word of it along with realizing that she should've been there for me in the first place. Rosalie understood that if I would never forgive her but that she wanted to salvage any friendship if there was one left between us, but if there couldn't be anything to save she wanted it known that she'd be forever regretful for her words. All I had done was simply hugged her and told her I accepted the apology. But I let it be known that it'd take some time getting back to how things were between us - but it was possible for us to be best friends again. She had cried and nodded her head, willing to take it at my pace if it meant that we could be friends again.

Then there was Emmett. While Edward and Emmett were working on mending their friendship for each other, it was a learning curve for me to try and figure out a brother-sister relationship with him. I couldn't help but remember the first night he had approached me to try and spend time with me...

"Bella?" I glanced up and spotted Emmett standing behind Edward and I. We were downstairs in the hotel, hanging out in the entertainment area. It was mid-evening, where we had all spent a day out again in the town. Ever since we had came back from being kidnapped, we were working on keeping together as a group as best as possible - the teachers were not taking any chances after what happened to Edward and I. They still wanted our group to have fun but they were extra cautious. Once we had gotten back to the hotel, the coaches treated us to dinner before letting us disperse and relax for the evening. Edward and I decided to spend some time together down in the hotel's entertainment area which housed a bar (which obviously we couldn't use), some pool tables and dartboards. But our alone time was being cut into thanks to Emmett stopping by.

"Oh hey Emmett, what's up?" I asked, wondering why he was dropping in. While we had been working on adjusting to having the others be our friends again, they normally still tried to come in and hang out with the both of us. It helped with our friendships being mended, in spending as much time together as possible. But a girl can't help but be a little sad that her alone time with her boyfriend was constantly being cut into.

"Oh uh... not much. I was... kind of wanting to talk, hang out with you tonight. But if you don't want to that's fine."

"Oh go ahead Em." Edward immediately agreed to the sentiment, and began shifting around to stand. I frowned at his readiness to leave me but Edward leaned over to peck my lips. "Babe, you should spend more time with Emmett. He's your brother and I think it'll do you two some good in chatting and hanging out." Edward encouraged me to spend time with Emmett, smiling sweetly at me.

I threw the idea around in my head, realizing that he had a point. Edward, Emmett and Alice were lucky to have grown up with one another for most of their lives. I was raised under the impression that I was an only child, never knowing that my brother was out there. I had lost a lot of time with him, even if truth I was going to school with him the entire time. It was just sad to see that I only have gotten to know him as the asshole of the boys, who liked to be especially cruel and pick on me the most. I wanted things to work out for us, and that meant I needed to have more time set aside for him, to get to know who Emmett really was. So I nodded my head and glanced back over to Emmett, saying, "Alright you big lug. Come join me on this couch."

Emmett smirked and shuffled around, taking Edward's spot. Edward leaned over me and planted a quick, heavy kiss on my lips. I attempted to keep him glued there but failed when he easily pulled away after a few seconds. "Enjoy your hangout. I'm gonna go see what Mike and Ben are up to."

"Hey, watch it there on the lip action dude. That's my sister." Emmett muttered, immediately slipping into the protective brother role.

"As I am your adoptive brother. But she loves it." Edward teased, poking the bear. I snickered at the two of them, noting Emmett flipped him the bird in response. Then with another wave, Edward dashed off.

"I guess stupid question but because he's my adoptive brother and I'm your real brother -"

"I'm going to stop you there, 'cause I already see the cogs turning." I cut him off, laughing. "Yeah you two are adoptive brothers and I'm your blood-related sister - but that does not mean he's my brother in any sense."

"Oh. Good then. I think I'd lose my mind if that was a thing for you two." Emmett muttered, shivering. I giggled but Emmett shrugged his shoulders. "Well, I want to have this hangout go well. But I think we should still work on getting to know each other really. We only have the bad experiences from what we've been through from this school year so far. You obviously know I'm a big dick-wad to you - or was a big one." he paused to sigh heavily. "I know I've said sorry so many times but I think I'll never be able to stop saying sorry Bella."

"Emmett," I cut him off again, reaching out to grasp one of his big meaty hands with both of mine. He glanced up at me with sad eyes. "We're going to work on that together. Trust me, it's going to be no cake walk. I told Rosalie the same thing or at least similar; words hurt and how you both reacted, it's not something I can easily forgive. But I accept the apologies from both of you. It's going to be awhile but eventually I'll be able to forgive you two, and our relationships will be repaired. I know you're sorry, and I know you'll always be sorry." I continued, shaking my head. "But you also didn't know. You had no idea that I was actually your sister - and we were stupid teens just feuding with our silly gender war. You wanted to make your points just as much as we threw back our own insults. Frankly just how we treat each other from this point on is what matters the most to me right now. And I want that relationship with you - I want to get to know who Emmett, my brother, is."

"Right." Emmett murmured, smiling down at me. "As I would like to get to know who Bella, my sister, really is. Along with that, I'd love to learn who Charlie i- I mean, was. Same thing for Renee - my parents... I never got to know my dad but at least I can learn who he is through, and the same thing with Renee." he paused again, struggling to find his words. I squeezed his hand after a moment and he sighed. "Do you think she knows that we know the truth now? Do you even think she'd want to reach out to me and talk to me?"

"I think..." I began again, biting my bottom lip in thought. When I was silent for a couple minutes, Emmett pursed his lip and looked away. Eventually I figured out the best way to explain my view of the situation. "I think she likely has an idea that we know now. But she's still feeling too ashamed that she doesn't want to reach out because she's worried about your response. I want to try and see it through her eyes on how she thought it was the right choice. She was a desperate mother, where both she and dad were struggling financially to support a young baby and a sick son. And she wanted the best for you - even if that meant you had to be given up. She wanted you to live and be healthy, but that meant she had to give up her own flesh and blood first. It wasn't right, but at the time she found it to be the best answer to save you."

"It'd just be nice if she could at least reach out." He muttered, the sad look still in his eyes.

"I know." I sighed to him and gave him a small smile. "But you have me at least, and you still have the Cullens."

"True. They're my family just all the same as you are." he agreed, smirking again. "Now, how about you tell me all about Charlie. I want to know who my dad was and what he was like raising my baby sister."

"Of course." I agreed to his request, and felt like this was best thing I could've asked for with Emmett.

For the remainder of the night, I spent my time on that couch chatting with Emmett. I spent time telling Emmett so many stories about Charlie and who he was as a dad, how he was raising me and what all he experienced. There were quite a few funny stories that made him laugh, but most of them had me crying here and there as I recalled them. The wounds of losing him as suddenly as we did were still fresh and I still don't think I'd be able to ever discuss Charlie without getting teary-eyed. Emmett cried with me for the loss he never got to fully know, but was there to comfort us both through the tears. Eventually, I told him some stories about who Renee was as a person, and discussed things about who I was - what I liked, disliked, did in my years throughout school, and so on. I of course glossed over facts that involved my time with Joshua, which he was okay with and never pressured me into discussing anything further if Joshua was a part of the story. Once I had finished talking about me, I sat and listened to him as he told me about his childhood growing up. I listened to each story, each memory he recalled - many happy memories, but a few sad ones. He also told me what it was like growing up with Edward and Alice, and I could see how close he really was to them. While I might've been jealous that I never got that time with Emmett and was raised as an only child, I was more than relieved to hear that Emmett got the love he deserved with the Cullens growing up. It warmed my heart to hear that Esme and Carlisle gave Emmett endless love in his lowest point of life throughout his treatment and recovery from cancer. He needed that care and love, and they raised him like he was one of their own.

We might've not had easy childhoods in our own rights, but we were raised with the best care and love that could've been given to us.

Our hangout pushed late into the evening, but it was time well spent chatting with him. Emmett had walked me up to my room that night and gave me the biggest bear hug that had me crying a new round of tears. Then after giving me a sweet kiss to my forehead, Emmett wished me a good night and said he loved me. It was the warm love of a brother that I could easily get used to. It was going to take some serious time in getting used to this type of relationship with Emmett.

What Edward and I couldn't have expected however, was a personal visit from a certain famous music mogul. On the last day that we were spending in Italy, we received a surprise visit from Aro Volturi. It was weird, meeting him in person for the very first time. I had read who he was in magazine and in articles - I did take some time learning who he was when initially this singing competition was created and that it'd be a competition to win a record deal with him. I learned at least at the surface level who he was. But after having been kidnapped, I never realized this man had basically abandoned his family to focus solely on his businesses. I was unsure if this man would be a good man after all since I could see from his family's perspective that it wasn't right he'd abandoned them the way that he did.

However, after he had requested a private lunch with Edward and I, I guess I tried my best in understanding why he did so. Physically, Aro was smaller in height compared to my boyfriend, but despite that he commanded your attention without even trying. He didn't appear as old as he really was, but rather seemed youthful and charming at heart. He had long black hair pulled back always into a low ponytail, with only a few strands starting to gray. His eyes were a warm chocolate brown that would dart around in a striking manner, but when he'd look at it, it was inviting. He had pale, papery skin which was the only thing that told me he was aging. He had impeccable style with the expensive clothes that he wore, but when we sat down with him for lunch nothing about him screamed pompous or arrogant. So I was curious as to how this man could be as cold as his niece had raged on about when we were held captive, beyond the obvious "he chose to ignore our family the minute he became famous!"

When Edward and I sat down across from Aro, we didn't get a chance to start a conversation or begin prodding him for questions. Aro focused on ordering the most expensive foods and drinks for us, and waved away his two bodyguards who were hovering beside him. They shadowed his every step leading up to us sitting down. They had nodded to him before leaving us alone. Edward and I glanced at one another when having seen this action, but remained silent.

Aro cleared his throat and gave us a deeply apologetic look. "Well, I had hoped that my first time meeting you two would've been as a result of something better."

"Uh..." I trailed off dumbly, biting my bottom lip.

"It isn't your fault, Mr. Volturi. You couldn't have known this would've happened." Edward stepped in, not letting Aro take the blame for his niece's actions.

"No, I didn't. But that doesn't still mean how deeply sorry I am that this happened to you two." Aro countered, giving Edward a rueful smile. "You see, I had already explained this to your friends when I first came to the hotel to offer my assistance. I have been keeping tabs on your music group and the rivaling group for this competition, and had been alerted about this kidnapping from some of my personnel before the news of it hit the mainstream media." he began, to which Edward and I gave each other alarmed looks. Aro held up a hand when he saw our reaction. "I know, your friends were a bit shocked to hear that too when I admitted it. But I like to see and get a general idea of who I'm potentially scouting for a new record deal before officially meeting them. And so I had to do the same for your group and the other group seeing as I'm sponsoring this competition. I only did this for your music group but never went about stalking you teens beyond what you all were doing during your practices or any time you'd all perform at school."

"Oh." I stated lamely, blinking. It was jarring to hear that a mogul was looking in on us for this music competition; there was honestly no real recollection of me possibly spotting any of his agents watching us from afar but I guess he was that good with whoever he planted to have watch us for his intel.

"Still, nothing could've prepared me for this outcome as I had wished to fully introduce myself to your group under better circumstances - not after a horrible disaster like the two of you being kidnapped by my estranged niece." Aro continued, sighing. "And I know you possibly had been told a story by her in how she was vengeful, telling you both that I had abandoned my family for my businesses and any stars I sponsor. That is partially true, but the full truth is that I chose to abandon them considering most of my family members quickly became greedy when I had began my career in this industry. My ex-wife and I were already on the verge of divorce when I had started my career, but worse was the fraying relationships I had with my nieces and nephews. I had always tried to spoil my family and do my best to give them what they wanted in life - but when they saw the fame and the riches I was accumulating over time, they began asking for more and more. I wanted to give them my time and spend time with them more than just passing off gifts to show that I loved them. I believe that's where the resentment began between my family and I. It was draining me trying to keep the drama quiet whilst my career was flourishing. I found more fulfillment in creating stars and singers than I did in spending time with them." Aro had tried to explain, shaking his head.

"And so you cut them off to save yourself the heartache?" Edward surmised, but the end of his observation sounded more like a question.

"Precisely." Aro admitted, sighing once more. "It was drastic but it was going to save me the trouble from my family possibly running me to my grave early. That's when the stories began that I loved my work more than I loved my own family, or that I treated my stars with more familial affection than my own blood. Because it was true - each celebrity I took under my wing I'd give them the right care and love that I couldn't give to my own. And the celebrities I've worked have never taken advantage of me like my own family had tried; in fact many were understanding to my plight and have defended me over the years - they still do as they are privy to the situation, and can see that my family is only upset I cut them off from my wealth and success. I'll admit I should've tried to work harder on mending my relationships with my family - but I can only get so far until it boils down to them only accepting monetary gifts over actual affection and love."

"I see." I stated simply, nodding my head. Now I could understand why Aro had cut them off. I had only heard brief gossip stories of how this man was cold to his family - and the rumors of why he never spoke with them after he became famous, or why his family hated his guts. Hearing the truth from him made sense now.

We had been quiet for a few minutes, but after we received our drinks and the water promised that the food would be out shortly, Aro cleared his throat once more. "After you two had made your daring escape, the authorities managed to follow the trail that the chase had left behind, back to one of my summer villas. That is where you two were being kept hostage - I knew Jane wouldn't stray from home so to speak, on where she wanted to hide. And when they arrived, they found her and the rest of her henchmen there. She was livid that you two managed to sneak out when she wasn't looking, but she was captured by the police."

I couldn't help but give a huge sigh of relief; at least Edward and I didn't have to worry about her possibly coming after us anymore.

"She's not going to try and send anymore henchmen after us, or even more so after Eduardo and Isabelle right?" Edward questioned, pursing his lips. When Jane had been livid in realizing that we weren't her true targets when we were kidnapped, I had fears for the real victims that were her ire and worried that she'd try something even worse in getting to them.

"She's not going to be able to do anything to them or to you anymore. When she was captured, I had her sent to a maximum security prison. She needs rehabilitation after this as she's gone off the deep end - but she's locked up and will not be getting out anytime soon." Aro assured us, smiling sadly down at the table. "The little princess of a niece that I've raised is long gone, and it hurts to see her go down the path that she did. I know her feelings are the most hurt out of all of my family. She and her twin were abandoned by their father, and I treated them like they were my own children. But I spoiled them longer than I should've and she took that to heart, thinking it was okay to demand anything of me. I'm hoping that in time she'll heal and get better."

"I'm sorry you have to go through this with your family." I murmured to Aro, which Edward squeezed my waist when he heard me say this.

"Oh Isabella." Aro murmured back, smiling at me. "You two have faced a traumatizing experience all of because of someone in my family, and yet you're sorry for me? You truly are a precious, humble girl but it is I that is most sorry to you both." he said.

"I know but I truly feel sorry you have to go through this kind of thing with your family. And by the way, I like being called Bella." I replied, blushing.

"Of course. Bella it is." Aro stated, smiling then warmly at me.

After we had our chat, we ate our lunch with the mogul. It was an interesting lunch to have with him, to which he both asked us how our practices for the competition were going from our perspective. He wanted to know how we liked the type of training we were being put through by our coaches, wanted to hear how we felt about our musical arrangements and songs that we'd be singing to. He mostly was gauging how we enjoyed the rigorous exercises, how we enjoyed the world of performing and whether we'd enjoy it if we were given the chance of getting the record deal should we win. He also had pointed out to us that he knew of the gender war that we had previously set in place, and was fascinated in having heard from his agents that despite the gender war our group still kept up in working together as best as we could and that we kept it professional amongst each other. Edward and I were honest with him as we recalled the events of our music group. We couldn't help but be a little honest with him in how we quickly became a couple before the competition had started and even told him how it was hard for us to act like we hated each other. He listened with rapt attention as we detailed our story, and felt like he was genuinely invested in us as well as captivated with the dynamics of our group. It was a pleasant talk to say the least, and felt personal that he was the one apologizing to us even though it truly wasn't his fault.

After the lunch, things had settled down for our group. Necessary calls to our friends and family back home had happened once Edward and I were rescued. I did my best to reassure Jacob and Billy that I was more than okay since they had seen the news story about us. Carlisle and Esme were a ball of nerves once it had happened, where Emmett and Alice had tried to keep them calm but it wasn't until Edward had called them himself to let them know he was alive and well. However, the one person that I expected to call, didn't. I never received a text message or phone call from Renee; I had fully expected her to call and check up on me as I figured she had to have seen the news story break out about us being kidnapped. I fully expected her to go into overprotective mom mode, freaking out that her daughter had been taken. But it was becoming increasingly worrying that as more time passes, she hasn't bothered reaching out. Ever since Charlie's funeral, it's like my mom dropped off the face of the planet. She never bothered calling me after the funeral to see how I was getting on, didn't bother calling or texting the day of the will reading, and especially no calls after I had been kidnapped.

I could honestly say that my feelings were becoming more and more hurt the more time that passes on when she doesn't even bother checking up on me. Much less checking in on the fact that her son and I had found out the truth, it's as if she no longer exists in my life or is choosing to not be apart of it. It was frustrating and hurtful, but I tried my best to not let it get to me. My mom was there for me when I was younger, and definitely was there for me after I had been raped by Joshua. But the older I got, and the more distant she became with Charlie, it seems as if I was becoming less and less of a important matter to her. I knew she was busy as a lawyer and handling cases left and right. But she was still a mother to me, she was just choosing to act like she wasn't one. For now, I decided I wasn't going to reach out to her. If she didn't want to reach out to me, or even her own son that she had given up on years ago, then she obviously made her decision then and there.

Shaking those thoughts out of my head, I came back down to Earth and focused on the present. Our Italy portion of spring break was over and it was time to move on. We were now going into the next part - heading to Arizona. We'd be heading into Phoenix first, and head out towards Sedona where we'd be stay there for the night. The following day we would be heading to the Grand Canyon and spending some time out enjoying the view that was the Canyon. They had told us that there is mule and donkey rides down into the Canyon which can be a slow, leisurely paced tourist attraction - but it was mostly used to carting tourists down into the Canyon where a hotel actually is built and residing down below. But they had told us that they couldn't afford that for our trip, namely due to time constraints. Still, they had hoped we'd enjoy the scenery for when we'd be going down to the Grand Canyon. And the following day after that, we'd be spending one final day in Sedona before we'd be leaving the next day to head back to Forks.

I zipped up my last bag of clothes, and turned just in time to see Emmett and Rosalie were standing in the doorway. "All packed up sis?" Emmett asked me. It was still taking some getting used to hearing him call me his sister, much less not having to deal with the past personality of Emmett when we had our gender feud.

"Pretty much." I stated with a smile.

"Where's Alice?" Rosalie asked, looking around the room.

"No doubt she's working on directing Edward and Jasper on how to handle her many bags of clothes." I joked, snickering.

"They need to handle these bags with care!" Alice's little voice piped up beyond the door, and just then she squeezed past Emmett back into the hotel room.

"You and your clothes, Ali." Emmett teased her, just as he stepped aside for Edward and Jasper to slide past him. Edward held a scowl on his face the whole time while Alice shoved another bag into his arms. Jasper didn't seemed to be as upset since he too had been tricked, and just seemed happy to help Alice. That poor boy is definitely whipped and the two of them aren't even dating yet. At least not that I know of, but I wouldn't be surprised either. I thought to myself with a smile.

"Yes yes, I'm ever obsessed with my fashion. You could be helping out the boys too you know Em." Alice grumbled, not even looking over her shoulder to witness the sight when Edward took one of her bags and shoved it into his arms. The behemoth scrambled in catching the heavy bag, glaring at Edward while Rosalie giggled to herself.

"What the fuck Ed? I'm not getting dragged into this."

"Make yourself useful you dolt. I'm going to help my girlfriend with her things, so you should help out." Edward snapped at him before he turned back around to walk over to my things.

"I was being useful - I was helping Rose out with her stuff." Emmett argued, smiling to himself. I glanced over at Rosalie, still quite shocked to see that her and Emmett were faring with one another better than we had all year. A slight pink tint came ot her cheeks when he admitted out loud his good deed, but she shook her head and patted Emmett on the arm.

"And I appreciate it. But Edward's right, you should help Alice out too." Rosalie tried to keep a cool front, and with a quick squeeze to his arm, slipped past him.

"Yeah and she has Jazz for that."

"Oh just help me out man." Jasper whined as he eased his way around Emmett with one last set of Alice's bags. Emmett grumbled under his breath but after shouldering the bag that Edward had passed off to him, he walked away from the door. He was lugging his own things and a bag of Rosalie's (I could tell it was hers since it was a bright red) in his other free arm. Alice giggled and after grabbing her little carry-on bag, she pranced out of the room after the gaggle of our friends.

"We're a unique bunch." I mused out loud while Edward was arranging my bags as best as he could to carry them. Edward glanced up at me with an eyebrow raised, as if silently saying, 'You think?' which led to me giggling. "But I think I like it. It's definitely... better, than it has been in the past."

"I think I'll take this over the cold shoulders we had for the past month or so." Edward agreed with me. He quickly glanced over to the doorway and then stepped over to where I was at, wrapping an arm around my waist. I gave a quick squeal when he yanked me into his chest and tilted my chin up by a finger. "I've been wanting to have that proper kiss that you owe me after tricking me into being a mule for Alice. And I think now is about the right time to take it." Then Edward bent down to capture my lips with his in a proper, steamy kiss. I groaned under his touch and slid my arms around his shoulders, my hands making their way up to scratch and grasp at the ends of his wild coppery hair. He made a little rumbling noise within his chest, which told me he enjoyed the action. Our tongues came together in a tangled dance while we both sighed against one another, enjoying this quick make-out we were having. I knew it would become heated soon the longer we kept up with our kissing, and I could tell by his lower half that he'd very much enjoy slamming the door shut and having a bit of a quickie in one of these beds. I would've loved to sneak such a thing in before we had to leave, but just as I was about to throw caution to the wind, suddenly a quick wolf whistle was heard. Edward and I ripped apart from one another and turned our heads to the doorway. I was blushing madly from being caught but Edward glared at our intruders. "Not cool, man." Edward hissed.

"You got to think with the right head, Ed. We don't have much time before we have to leave so I don't think you guys have time for that." Mike's voice came from the doorway, to which I could see him standing there peaking his head around to look into the room. He gave a laugh just before I heard a smack behind him. "Ow! Jess baby..."

"Quit interrupting them and being a peeping tom. You and I still have to get our things down too you know." I heard Jessica's growl from beyond the door, and I laughed to myself when I heard her snapping at Mike.

"Okay, okay." he grumbled and then winked at us. "Let's get going lovebirds." he ordered before his head disappeared.

"Moment ruined." Edward mumbled, looking pissed.

"Well, he has a point babe." I replied, sighing sadly and patting his chest. "We really don't have much time for that before we have to leave - and I don't think we can really afford being caught by one of the coaches." I added, cringing at the thought of possibly being walked in on by one of our coaches if we were in the middle of something that involved less clothes on.

Edward grimaced but nodded his head solemnly. "No, you're right. Can't blame a man for wanting to try and get some in before we leave. At least I'd be happy to say we did it while in Italy - and I mean I've barely had any alone time with you while on this trip. Our kidnapping bullshit did cut into our time together..." he complained further, looking down at the floor angrily at remembering it. I reached up to cup his cheek and he leaned into my touch, taking comfort from it. "But I'm not going to dwell on that. I just want some actual alone time with you on this trip. The minute we get back to FSA, our alone time is going to be going back to being completely limited. We're going to be busy with exam preparations, my baseball stuff and finalizing anything for our singing competition." he continued, shaking his head.

"I know and trust me I want to have some alone time with you too." I murmured to him, sighing sadly at the reminder of just how crazy our time back home will become once we come off this spring break trip. "But I know we'll try and find the right time to sneak in some us time. We'll make sure of it - we just have to find the right set up for it to happen."

Edward nodded his head down to me determinedly, and gave my lips another quick peck before pulling himself away. Then, after shouldering my bags, he grabbed my hand and led me out of the hotel room. It was super early in the morning once again that we were leaving Italy, and it'd be taking just about as much time to reach the states again just like it had taken so long for us to reach Italy. We were hoping that leaving super early in the morning like we were, that we'd make it back to the states before it got to be too late in the evening. The coaches were hoping that we could touchdown in Phoenix before early evening and be in Sedona before the night got to be too late. And so, thus began our trek back home.

~*~*~*Several Hours later...*~*~*~

"Alright students, stick together!" Mrs. Idle shouted to our group as we exited the terminal.

"Jesus, I don't think I've been as sore from a long flight like that one." I could hear Jasper mutter behind Edward and I while we came to a cohesive grouping, following after our coaches.

"You're telling me. I felt like a cramped sardine on that flight." Emmett's grumbling was off to Edward's left.

"Well we made it in one piece and that's all that matters." I heard Angela say behind me, and I smiled at her positivity.

"Alright students, we'll be getting on our buses and begin our journey up north to Sedona. We'll likely stop just outside of Phoenix to get some snacks and things if you'd like, but afterwards it'll be a straight shot up to Sedona afterwards." Mr. Kartachna ordered our group while we hurried towards the exits of Phoenix Sky Harbor airport. Our bus likely was waiting in the pickup area for us. We grabbed our bags which took awhile considering the sheer amount of bags combined all of us teens had taken with us for this trip, and we hurried along as a group to the exits for our bus.

When we finally made it to the bus, we went about stuffing them in the compartments below. After I had gotten my bag stuffed, I took a minute to stretch and breathe in the warming air that was Arizona. It had been a couple years since I've been back in Arizona, and I had still been adjusting to the humid, wet air that was Washington. The Arizona air was dry and warm just like I had remembered, especially so since we were in March. Arizona was starting to prepare itself for the summer weather which meant temperatures were starting to rise to the state. It was in that sweet spot for the weather - not too cool from the winter, yet not too hot to be unbearable for summer. It was just the right temperature for mid-spring. I had dressed down in some shorts with a light blue tank top, having prepared myself for the warmth that was to come. And everyone in the group dressed similarly in some form or another, realizing that dressing up like it was back in Washington now would've landed us with possible cases of heat strokes.

I hopped onto the bus while the others set about putting their bags up and took a seat near the middle of the bus. Then I went about looking out the window, watching as the many cars sped past me at high speeds while I took in the sights of the tall buildings that resided in Phoenix. Memories came back to me as I recalled what it was like living here a year or two ago. It was still something I had to get used to, having only been living in Washington for as short of a time as I have had. Arizona was the state I mostly grew up in, especially after Charlie and Renee divorced. She felt she had more opportunities for work out here than in Washington, and after I had decided to move with her after the divorce, I felt as if I had gotten more accustomed to Phoenix over time. I did after all establish my own set of friends here for most of my life. My old group of friends were a group of chaotic, loud-mouthed but loving and caring people. I felt as if they were my second family when I was growing up. We experienced a lot together, and it was some of the best times I had with them. Sadly, my past was marred by the fact of what I faced with Joshua. He was the reason I fled Arizona with my mom; I never got a true chance to say goodbye to my friends before I left. I had been distraught after the abuse and subsequent rape, and wanted to be as far from here as possible; my mom was lucky at the time to be offered a better position in Seattle when it had happened and thus it was the perfect excuse to leave. But I had left my old friends behind, my old school and everything in such a short notice that I'm sure it left many more questions behind than I had intended.

I highly doubt I'd ever see them again but I couldn't help but wonder what they were up to, now that I'm back here only to just visit during spring break.

"There you are." I looked up as Edward spoke to me and slid into the seat beside me. He pecked my cheek and gave me a smirk. "You disappeared on me when I was throwing my bags down below and I was wondering where you wandered off to."

"Oh." I muttered with a shake of my head. "Sorry babe, I just wanted to get a good seat for us. I didn't mean to make you worry." I replied, somewhat speaking half of the truth.

"You did make me scared for a second, but it's okay you're forgiven." He said, but his eyebrows furrowed. "But I feel like you're not telling me the whole truth." Upon seeing me bite my bottom lip when he easily caught my lie, he reached over with his hand to grab onto mine. "You're thinking back to everything prior to you leaving Arizona, aren't you?"

"Yes." I sighed, shaking my head once more. "I mean... I'm not so much as thinking about what made me leave. I just couldn't help but remember the group of friends I left behind." I tried to explain myself.

"Pfft, Swan had friends before she moved to Forks? That's a shock." I growled to myself when I heard that nasally voice that decided to butt into my private conversation with my boyfriend and looked up in time to see Lauren shuffling onboard the bus. Dressed scantily as ever, she was casting a sneer in my direction before angling herself in a way to try and entice Edward to look at her. He thankfully wasn't even bothering to turn his head when he heard her speak up, but squeezed my hand to try and get me to ignore Lauren. "I can't imagine someone as skanky as you having any sort of friends before you moved to Forks - much less I can't believe you used to live here. Maybe in truth you were kicked out of this state for the fact you can't catch a damn tan to save your life."

"Lauren, did I invite you into this conversation? No." I snapped at her, feeling my blood pressure almost spike in rage. "And more importantly, who I was before moving to Forks, who I was friends with, and whatever I had going on in my life before moving up to Washington - is none of your goddamn business. So how about you take your flat ass to the back of the bus and fuck off?" I continued with acid evident in my tone. Edward bit his lip to keep himself from laughing at my comment on her figure.

"Okay listen here bitch -"

"Mallory, move it or fucking lose it." I smiled when I heard Rosalie's sharp hiss cut in then, just as Lauren stumbled. I glanced up and noted that Rosalie was coming up the aisle to find a seat; Alice, Jasper and Emmett were right behind her, glowering at the fake blond who was wanting to pick a fight with me. Rosalie likely had heard Lauren's insults towards me and had all but shoved her to get her moving.

"Fuck you, Hale. What the hell was that shove?" Lauren growled at her, whipping her fiery gaze over to Rosalie.

"You're blocking the damn aisle, and I'd like to sit down. But I can't since you decided to waste our time, as well as Bella and Edward's time trying to start shit. So I suggest you fucking move it or I'll make you move." Rosalie snarled at her in defense of Edward and I, her blue eyes icy as she glared down at Lauren. Lauren huffed haughtily, glaring intensely up at her, but then whipped her hair over her shoulder and stomped down the aisle away from us. "That's right bitch, pick your battles." Rosalie grumbled under her breath and shuffled along, taking the window seat of the two seats across from Edward and I.

"Thanks Rose." I murmured to her gratefully, giving her an appreciative smile.

"No problem, Bella." Rosalie said back with a warm smile.

"Never mess with Rosalie Hale." Jasper stated aloud with a chuckle, moving to take a seat behind his sister and Alice who slid into the accompanying seat beside the blond.

"Miss Rosie has got the claws to back up her statements." Emmett added with a wink thrown towards Rosalie. Rosalie had laughed at Emmett's compliment but said nothing more. My hulking brother then slid into the seat next to Jasper, whilst the rest of the group began taking their seats on the bus around us.

I leaned into Edward who wrapped an arm around my shoulders, sighing. "I know you've got a lot on your mind being here again, love." Edward murmured to me, picking back up our conversation before we had been interrupted. I nodded against his chest, and he bent to kiss the top of my head. "At least try to keep out the bad memories - I'm here for you if it becomes too much. But I'm sure with your old group of friends, if they knew the truth of why you left in the first place they'd be understanding."

"I hope so. But the fact I could never say goodbye to them properly... I just up and left with my mom out of the blue. I'm not sure if they put two and two together or if they realized on the why. My secret had been spilled after all when it had happened by my old school bully - and I never got the chance to explain myself to my old friends before I left." I muttered, frowning as I remember the torment of my old bully, and how miserable I had felt after she somehow found out about me being raped, abused and spun it around to paint me as the one at fault. She managed to get most of the school to turn against me and label me as the slut after what I had went through with Joshua, and took pleasure in my misery. I didn't even give a chance nor stuck around to see how my friends reacted before I fled the state with my mom. I didn't even know if they had followed her word and turned on me like everyone else did, if they hated me or saw me as a whore. I think a part of me would be devestated if I found out they had believed her words and wanted nothing to do with me if I were to ever meet up with them again.

"Hey," Edward cut in, and used his finger to lift my chin to have my face turned up towards him. He was frowning down at me. "I can already see those cogs in your head turning and I know what you're thinking."

"Am I that obvious?"

"Yes love; I know you so well now and I know when you're thinking negatively." he shook his head at me. "I know you're thinking that after your bully had spilled your secret out to your whole school that your old friends would take her word for it and hate you. I highly doubt they ever world - but even if they did, were they really your friends to begin with? Anyone with two brain cells could never hate you or dislike you, Bella. And I'm sure that your friends, if they were truly as close to you as you had told me, they would never hate you or believe your bully over you." Edward tried to get me to see reason. He kissed my forehead then, grunting when his poor healing nose smooshed itself against my skin. I smiled sadly up at him for the pain he felt, but he pressed on. "But even if by some slim chance they believed her over you, then they don't matter; you have people here who do care about you and do believe you. They would stand up for you in a heartbeat and protect you, no matter what."

"I know, and I appreciate you all for it." I murmured to him, smiling up at him. He was right of course; some time has passed since I last seen my old friends, and even if they believed my old bully over me, it didn't matter since I still had everyone here who cared about me and were my friends more than anything. I glanced around the bus, noting that across the way Alice and Rosalie were nose deep in some fashion magazines once again. And behind them, Emmett and Jasper were messing around with each other. Behind me were Angela and Ben, both reading their books and stuck in their own world yet were holding hands. Ahead of me, Mike was messing around on a gaming device while Jessica was reading through some tourist brochures about Arizona. Every other student in our music group who were slowly repairing their friendships with Edward and I are off in their own world as well, enjoying themselves. My closest friends I knew had my back and would be there for me until the end. It would hurt if I found out that my old friends were no longer my friends - but also at the same time the likelihood of me running into them anytime soon to find out, is slim to known. I could only hope for the best for them in life.

Eventually the bus rumbled to life and we pulled away from Sky Harbor. On the ride up to Sedona, I told Edward a couple funny stories of my old friends and what antics we got into. The others around us would tune in every now and then, laughing and shocked to hear that I was wilder in the past than I was now. I had explained to them too all of the crap my old bully had tried to pull when I had lived here. As much as I had my childhood friends growing up, the bully also was there most of my life and was persistently a bitch to me and our group for many years. But everyone in our friend group listened to my stories attentively, and the girls had given me their promises that they'd have my back always. It's again unlikely we'd ever run into my old friends, much less my old bully. We were in Arizona, where millions of peple resided. The chances of coming across them again was like finding a needle in a large haystack. Instead I tried to focus on the positives and focus on this trip with everyone.

After having focused back on our trip, the conversation steered away from my past. It became more lively when our group slowly led to a chat about prom. "Bella, when we get back to Forks, we have to get started on looking for some dresses. We're running out of time!" Alice whined to me, shaking a fashion magazine at me while we drove along the highway up to Sedona. Rosalie snickered at Alice's pouting, but behind me I could hear Angela and Jessica agreeing to Alice's sentiment of dress shopping. "I have all of these ideas for dresses for each of us, and I need to finalize every detail for us before we attend it."

"Alice I don't need reminders of prom." I groaned to her, and Edward chuckled beside me.

"Well you do, because we have a finite amount of time to get the perfect dresses for it. And now, I have to worry about what the boys are wearing too!"

"Hold up!" Emmett cut in then, half sitting up in his seat to glare at her. "Why are you suddenly stepping in to dress us up?"

"Emmett, dear adoptive brother of mine." Alice began, rolling her eyes up at him as if he were a brainless monkey. "You must realize that I would never let you waltz into prom in whatever ideas you might be thinking of. You have to make a statement and I will not be having you go to prom in less than the best dressed suit I can find for you." she gently admonished him, ignoring his glowering.

"Hold on, hold on." Jasper cut in then, a smirk on his face. "Is this your way of asking us out to prom, Alice?"

I couldn't help but laugh when I saw both Rosalie and Alice's faces turn bright red, with Alice's mouth opening and closing like a dying fish. She struggled to find a response to Jasper's brazen question. I had to be a little curious about it myself considering our situation still. We were freshly repairing our friendships with one another since the feud has been dissolved, and I still could see that the four of them were working through their differences. I could tell that they were all friends amongst themselves now but it was still awkward grounds amongst each other. Edward and I had long since discussed in the past, even joking that perhaps they had crushes one another and were too prideful to admit it. I could see that Jasper had a bit of a hopeful gleam in his eyes when he had sat up some and stared down at little Alice after asking her if she was basically asking him out to prom with the invitation of styling him for the event. And I could see something similar in Emmett's eyes when he had glanced over the seat to look at Rosalie. Both boys had obvious crushes on the two of them, and I wanted to say the feeling was mutual with Alice and Rosalie. After all, Rosalie in the past had admitted a physical attraction to Emmett when she said so in private to me. Alice as well I could see she had grown close to Jasper after the Valentine's Auction. So I could definitely imagine the two couples going to prom together.

"Uh, er... Even if I was or not, you two still need to be dressed your best. You have to make a good impression at prom!" Alice flubbed out an answer finally after she sat there struggling to speak.

"And if we want to find our own suits?" Emmett challenged, with Rosalie snorting under her breath.

"Please - you'd find the cheesiest suit off of Amazon, or worse go in something absolutely hideous and find it to be hilarious." Rosalie quipped at him, snickering while he frowned at her.

"I like to think I have some fashion sense with my style." Emmett argued.

"You're mister macho man and workout-dude-bro with your fashion most of the time, Em." Edward cut in, smirking when he got a glower in return.

"Shut up, I do not."

"Very much so true, Emmett." Edward quickly stated back and laughed when Emmett flipped him off.

"Okay don't pick on him too much." I defended Emmett as I didn't want to see them argue.

"Well, I can't even begin to coordinate or style all of us if I don't know what we're wearing. But seeing as this prom is still made as girl's choice to ask the boys, then you boys will have to wait for your suits until us ladies pick our outfits." Alice ordered, smirking when now Jasper blushed and Emmett huffed.

"I'm fine with that. Whatever my Bella gets I'll work with it. She's going to look gorgeous in anything." Edward amended with a smile thrown my way. I blushed at his response, whilst every one of our friends around us either gave an 'aww' or a fake throw up noise to his romantic compliment - if it wasn't obvious, the boys made the fake gagging noises.

"You're laying it on thick there, Ed my man." Mike teased from in front of him, to which I heard another smack from Jessica. "Ow! Jess baby, please..."

"You could learn a thing or two from him you know." Jessica quipped with a laugh.

"And ease up with it since that's my baby sister." Emmett muttered at Edward, but snickered when Edward flipped him off.

We let the conversation drop there because not long after, the bus turned off the highway. "Alright students, we're pulling up to a strip mall to get some gas, but use this opportunity to get some bathroom breaks in, get some snacks and refreshments and take in the sights. We're about an hour two away from Sedona so we should reach there before dinner time." I heard Mrs. Idle from the front of the bus announce to us when we were pulling off from the highway. "Stick together as much as possible please, as I want you all back on this bus in an hour as a whole - safe and sound!" She added pointedly. It didn't take the bus long to find the strip mall where on the edge of it was a large gas station. Next to it had the strip mall which from what I could see had a post office, a little tourist shop, a mom and pop diner, a mechanic shop in case you were having car troubles on your road trip, and finally a little grocery store. It was nestled in a spot of the surrounding mountains and open desert, with some of the area slowly opening up to greenery and pine trees of the North. I could see many cars turning into here to get gas or to stop and admire the scenery surrounding them.

The bus parked itself at the gas station, coming to a stop and shutting off. When it was off, us students took this chance to stand and meander off the bus. We all took to stretching, some of us groaning in relief after having sit on a bus for awhile. The coaches went towards the gas station likely to pay for our gas. I took this chance to go use the bathroom, which Edward, Rosalie and Alice followed after me; they needed to use it too. Jasper and Emmett wandered away with the others of the group where some were heading to the tourist shop. I went with Rose and Alice to the women's bathroom while Edward split from us to go to the men's. Us girls took our time and went, where I finished up first and left the rest room to look at the drinks in the gas station. I found one of my favorite sodas and with my hand outstretched I went to grab it - only to bump into a manicured pale hand. I jumped when my hand bumped into the stranger's hand and muttered, "Oh sorry!"

"Ah shit, sorry! Go ahead and take it." I heard a female voice speak up that was high in pitch, and oddly... familiar. I felt my heart stutter when I heard it, recognizing it almost immediately when I heard it. I slowly turned to look up at who it belonged to, and my hands flew up to my mouth in shock. The female beside me let out a loud gasp as she stared at me with wide eyes. She was about my height, skinny and pale. She was dressed in a white tank top that had a skeleton ribcage design on the front, and was thin to the point where I could see her sports bra peaking out from underneath. On her skinny legs were black leggings with a blood red splatter design, and she wore black converse on her feet. What was distinctive about her was that she had piercings on her nose, her eyebrow, snakebite piercings, and multiple earrings on her small ears. She also wore black eyeliner on her pretty blue eyes, deep red lipstick, and what really stood out was the bright pink dyed hair that was cut to a razor cut reaching a little passed her shoulders and pulled into two small pigtails. The female did a once over of me and then hissed, "Holy fucking shit."

It was one of my old friends from my old friend group - Kitty Lawson.

"No way." I whispered, not believing who was standing in front of me.

"Please tell me I'm dreaming." Kitty hissed in front of me, reaching down to pinch herself on the arm. She hissed from the pain and shook her head. "Nope I'm not. Is that really you Belle-Belle?"

"It is... Is that you Kit-Kat?"

"Fuck yeah it's me. Oh my god!" she screeched and dove forward to engulf me into a tight embrace. I squealed in her arms and returned the hug back just as fiercely. We squeezed each other, giggling and swaying back and forth. I couldn't believe the odds of me running into her at this little gas station, but here she was. We jumped up and down in our excitement before she pulled back, looking me over. "Damn, it feels like it's been ages since I last saw you. Where the fuck have you been?"

"I'm sorry... it's a lot to explain." I told her truthfully, smiling sadly to her.

"Babe?" I heard Edward call for me, and smirked as Kitty looked suspiciously behind me. I turned around to see Edward, Alice and Rosalie were entering the aisle we were in. Likely, one of them had heard our shrieking and were concerned by the noise so they came by to investigate. Edward spotted me hugging Kitty, and all three of them looked at us with confusion apparent on our faces. "Uh..." he murmured, trailing off.

"Damn man, what the fuck happened to your nose?" Kitty bluntly asked when she spotted Edward's still-healing nose. Edward scowled at her brazen question while Alice and Rosalie briefly snickered at his reaction.

"Kitty," I whined at her briefly and she looked back at me with an eyebrow rising. "Don't pick on my boyfriend. Don't you know anything about the news?"

"Oh..." Kitty trailed off, her face puckering as she took a minute to think it through. Then realization dawned on her face and she gasped at me again. "Oh wait you're right! You two - you two were in the news! Fuck Baby B, I'm even more grateful to be running into you two. I'm so happy to see with my own two peepers that you're ok and safe!" she squealed and proceeded to squeeze me into another death trap of a hug. I laughed at her slow realization but hugged her back again. Kitty wasn't always the quickest in our bunch of friends, but I loved her still all the same.

"Uh, you mind introducing us Bella?" Rosalie cut in then, and I looked back over at her to see her gesturing to herself, Alice and Edward where they continued to stand there confused.

"Oh right!" I had Kitty pull away from the hug and taking her by the hand I led her over to the others. "Rosalie, Alice, Edward - this is one of my old friends from my school in Arizona. Her name is Kitty Lawson. Kitty, these are my friends from my new school - Rosalie Hale and Alice Cullen. And this tall glass of water is my boyfriend, Edward Cullen." I introduced everyone, smirking as Edward's cheeks turned slightly pink from the compliment I gave him.

"Whaddup, bitches?" Kitty joked around once more, shaking hands with Rosalie and Alice. Then she sized up Edward, putting him under her scrutiny while he squirmed from how intense she had been looking him over. Finally she nodded her head and looked over at me with a smile. "Miles and miles above your ex - and thank god for it." After she stated her approval she quickly turned to Edward and pointed a sharp finger at him; he quickly raised his hands up as she added in her own threat, "If you ever think about hurting my Belle-Belle, plan on kissing your family jewels bye-bye."

"Kitty, down!" I grumbled at her as Edward looked genuinely scared at her threat, while Alice and Rosalie took to giggling at the sight.

"Why is it that every person I meet that are friends with Bella, I'm threatened physical harm?" Edward muttered under his breath while I moved over to cuddle into his side, hugging his waist.

"Bella's one of my biggest, best friends. I plan on keeping her safe dillweed." Kitty muttered up to him, crossing her arms over her chest.

"Trust me Kitty - this man here is the best catch I'll ever land and I plan on keeping him. And he plans on keeping me safe and happy." I reassured her, squeezing Edward's waist.

"Definitely, my adoptive brother would never harm a hair on Bella's head." Alice added in with a chirp.

"I'll hold you all to that." Kitty stated then, and smiled over at me. "I can't get over the fucking fact that I ran into you Bells, holy shit. I never thought in a million years I'd find you again. Especially after you upped and disappeared on us - oh fuck, the others! They're here too and they'll be beyond stoked to see you again!" Kitty suddenly remembered as if she wasn't up here by herself, smiling widely at me.

"Others?" Rosalie questioned aloud.

"The others are here too?" I asked at the same time, my eyes going wide at hearing her statement.

"Of course. I'm not some weirdo who's up here by herself. We all decided to spend some time together for this spring break and figured why the fuck not we head up north? We're going to mainly head over to Sedona and hang out there for a day or two before going back down to Phoenix. We had spent some time out near Tempe before we made a round about trip up here." Kitty explained, and I shook my head. "Yeah we live here but we like taking some day trips out in our own state to have some fun."

"No that's more than fine." I murmured to her, smirking.

"You wanna go with me to see the others? They'll be knocked off their feet when I bring you by." Kitty pressed, bouncing on the balls of her feet.

"Sure I'd -"

"Fuck yeah let's go!" Kitty cut me off and with a quick yank on my arm, she pulled me away from Edward.

"Ah Kitty!" I shrieked, being dragged behind her. "I have to make sure I stay with my friends!"

"Oh they can come along too. Come on slow pokes!" Kitty shouted over her shoulder to the three left behind in the gas station. Edward immediately took after me, not wanting to be separated from me. Rosalie and Alice giggled but I could see Alice stayed behind while Rosalie followed after us. We exited the gas station back out into the warm air. I struggled to right myself upright while being dragged by Kitty across the lot. Edward and Rosalie kept up with us in a jog. Even with Kitty being as skinny as always, she never let up on having a strong grip and the strength to drag me around. "So, you're going to have to tell me everything I've missed since you left us Baby B, and I'm wanting all the deets about your man. But we have a lot we need to catch up on." Kitty ordered while she dragged me over towards the small diner.

"I can, and I will - that is if you don't pull my arm out of my socket first." I grunted at her with a laugh, wincing at her tugging.

"Oh quit whining, you baby. You always struggled to keep up with me back then without falling behind. So big sis Kit is here to get you back up to speed with her power walking." Kitty disregarded my pain, snickering as I groaned. We hurried past the tourist shop just as Jasper and Emmett exited. They witnessed the site before them - Bella being dragged across the lot of the strip mall by a strange, small woman in front of her, with Edward and Rosalie jogging after them. Emmett looked over at me in concern as Jasper looked between it all with wide eyes in confusion.

"Bella you okay?" Emmett called out to me when we breezed passed.

"Peachy!" I quipped with a roll of my eyes, scuffling a bit when my foot caught on the crack of the concrete.

"Can you make sure my girlfriend doesn't trip and die?" Edward hollered a distance behind us, worry evident in his tone.

"She's fine!" Kitty yelled back to him and nodded her head again. "And don't worry big guy, she's safe with me!" she yelled over to Emmett.

"What the actual fuck?" I heard Jasper ask out loud, before soon he and Emmett joined Edward and Rosalie in following after us.

"Quite the posse you have, B." Kitty noted just as we entered the diner.

"Yeah and then some." I murmured to her with a laugh, remembering that there were still four more of my large friend group somewhere around here. Kitty continued to drag me into the little diner which I took note of the interior. It was a small cozy space with a few tables and a booth or two before it led to the back kitchen. There were only a couple staff members inside, along with one or two patrons at some of the tables. One booth held four more teenagers who were huddled together eating some food, and the glanced up at the commotion that was entering the diner. I felt sorry for the staff, but took a second to appraise the four teens sitting around in the booth.

There were two boys and two girls. One of the girls was slightly shorter than Kitty and I, but nowhere near Alice's short stature. She had peroxide dyed blond hair with some purple and blue streaks thrown in, but had the same gorgeous blue eyes as Kitty. She had multiple piercings on her face and ears, while she wore a dark blue crop top and jean short-shorts, with black converse on her dainty feet. She was thin and pale much like Kitty. She was Kitty's twin sister, Harlie. They pretty much shared the same taste in fashion, and held nearly the same personalities; both were loud, boisterous girls who were the life of the group. Both Kitty and Harlie were my closest friends ever since I had moved to Arizona all those years ago, and we were like the three amigas - three sisters in a way even though I was never related to them. But they treated me like family and did what they could to protect me from my old bully. They did as best as they could regarding the Joshua situation but when it had worsened and I was slowly growing distant from them, It hurt the most losing them.

Next to Harlie was another girl. She was in height wise, in between mine and Rosalie's. She was athletic and toned but still feminine. She had tanned skinned for the most part as she was the sporty girl of our group. She was gorgeous too, with long auburn silky hair braided down her back, while her pretty face looked up upon hearing us enter. She had warm brown eyes, a splash of freckles across her face and her lips were pulled up into a smile where I could see hints of braces on her teeth. She was dressed in a sage green razorback tank top, with black capri leggings and athletic runner shoes on her feet. Her name was Marnie, and she was the sporty girl of our friend group. She had joined us midway through middle school with her two twin brothers, and she was always the one going out of her way trying out for sports. She participated in track mostly, hence her slimmed down figure for running. While she wasn't as close to me as Harlie and Kitty were, she was definitely still an amazing friend that I could rely on - and especially so if Kitty and Harlie were becoming too chaotic, she was always the voice of reason that could back me up if we felt like they were going to get themselves in trouble.

Speaking of her twin brothers, they were the other two teens sitting across from the girls. The boys looked identical in the face for the most part - both had good looking boyish faces with silvery grey eyes and similar toothy smiles. Both also had auburn hair, matching their sister's hair in silkiness. Both had tanned skin as they too partook in sports. But there were a few differences that helped to tell them apart. Jed, the twin sitting on the inside of the booth, had a splash of freckles across his face and had short curly hair that was always a mess. His personality aligned more like Marnie's as he was the calm twin that thought through situation rationally before anything. He enjoyed taking part in pranks and antics don't get me wrong, but he was more levelheaded than his brother. Jed was wearing a deep brown short sleeved top with some cargo shorts and boots on his feet, with his usual glasses on his face. His twin, Griffin, was right beside him on the outside of the seat. Griffin had longish auburn hair tied back into a loose ponytail and stubble on his face, yet didn't have the same freckles across his face like his siblings did. He was a bit more lanky than Jed, yet both were towering tall twins. He had slightly less tanned skin than his sister and brother, but was still tanned enough. He wore a very loose black tank top, a baseball cap on his head that was on backwards, some blue jeans and beat up red converse on his feet.

When we came to a stop in front of the table, I stumbled from Kitty's sudden halt. I glared up at her briefly but she ignored me as she clapped her hands. "Look what I found when I went over to the gas station!" she announced to the table.

"And then some - you brought a whole pack of people." Marnie joked, where I could hear Edward, Rosalie, Emmett and Jasper coming to a stop behind me. Edward pulled me back into his chest, almost heaving a deep breath. He almost sounded out of breath after his jogging.

"Well the rest of them are cool and all, but lookie!" Kitty brushed off Marnie's teasing, and made pointed gestures to me. This caught their attention and their eyes widened with realization. "It's our little Belle-Belle."

"Hi." I greeted them all feebly, and smiled when Harlie squealed.

"No fucking way - Bella?!" Harlie cried, shocked to see me before them.

"In the flesh." Kitty stated proudly, and Jed whistled.

"Shit we haven't seen you in ages, Bella." Griffin stated with a smirk, just as Marnie stood up. She pulled me away from my boyfriend and engulfed me into a tight hug. Soon the others in the booth stood and passed me around while my friends stood behind me awkwardly. Eventually after I had been passed around, Kitty sat back in the booth with the others of my old friend group. Emmett meanwhile pulled up a spare table and we all grabbed seats to sit with my old friends. "So, who are you lot to our little B?" Griffin asked then once we got settled.

"These are my friends, brother and boyfriend from my new school." I began, and smirked when their eyes widened at the word 'brother' but I pressed on. "This is Jasper and Rosalie Hale - they're twins too like you all are. Then there's my sweet new boyfriend, Edward Cullen. Uh... Alice Cullen is his adoptive sister but I'm guessing she's back at the gas station. And then as for my brother - Emmett here would be him."

"Brother?!" Kitty hissed, staring at me shocked.

"Trust me, I didn't realize I had a brother too until recently." I murmured sighing sadly. Emmett reached across the table from my spot beside Edward, and grabbed my free hand to squeeze it.

"It's a long story." Emmett mumbled to my old friend group.

"Well if you got the time, we'd love to hear it." Marnie expressed, looking over at me with questions swirling in her eyes.

And so I launched into a quick tale of what all had happened. From the beginning in how I fled Arizona because of Joshua, and how Renee wanted to make a quick departure, to discussing how things had began to take off in Washington when I had moved. My old friends seemed shocked in hearing fully my side of the story related to Joshua's abuse and why he caused me to flee, but remained quiet. I could see it in their eyes the flicker of rage and anger in hearing what he had done, but they didn't interrupt. I had my new friends and my sweet boyfriend there to help me power through retelling what I faced, but they too kept quiet to let me talk. When I explained to my old friends that I wasn't pleased with the new school I was going to prior to going to FSA, they listened in awe as I told them I had changed the school's policies on it being an all-boy school and were pleased to hear I changed it to be a co-ed school. And then they listened with rapt attention as I told them about how FSA used to have gone through a silly gender feud just because of us girls not appreciating how the boys treated us being on their turf, which they had laughed where needed be when hearing about the antics we all got up to. They were also shocked to hear we were partaking in a singing competition, and even more so surprised to hear that little Bella was the lead for the girls - not ever realizing that she had a voice to begin with. I did keep my desires in singing and appreciation for singing as a secret, for the longest time; it was a shock to Edward back then, so I knew it was a shock to them too. Afterwards, they heard me going into details about losing Charlie - which I did my best to power through and not burst into tears when talking about him. They offered their comfort where they could when hearing about it, before I told them that at the will reading is where Emmett and I found out we were brother and sister. I caught them up to where we were at now, of which they recalled seeing the news about our situation over in Italy.

"Damn." Jed muttered in shock after hearing it all. It took at least half an hour of our time in me explaining everything, with the others cutting in to supply their takes. In the middle of it Alice had found us and joined us at our table, while Harlie had ordered us all drinks so we weren't jeopardizing time in the diner for the staff. "That's... quite a fucking bit you all had went through." he surmised with a snicker, struggling to grasp everything that we had been through.

"Yeah. That's an understatement." Edward muttered, shaking his head.

"To think y'all were in a gender feud, yet I wouldn't be able to tell that happened since you all seem so close." Kitty pointed out, and I smiled up at Edward.

"It's because of these two it split, what with their lovey dovey-ness and all." Jasper teased us, and Edward flipped him off with a laugh.

"Couldn't resist the charm of her, to be honest." Edward gushed about me, leading me to blush.

"Man, he's got it bad for you baby B." Marnie teased with a giggle, and I shook my head at her with a laugh.

"As I do for him." I admitted, relishing in the fact that Edward had bent down to kiss my cheek.

"We only had an idea of what happened to you, but granted it was skewed thanks to that bitch Jasmine." Harlie admitted, scowling. I shuddered as I heard her name, and the others around me offered their comfort.

When I had told the others stories of what antics I used to get up to with my old group of friends, I had told them about my old bully as well, Jasmine. She had been a bully to me the minute I arrived in Arizona, and it worsened when I had became friends with my old group of friends. But I think what sent her over the edge was the fact that I had dated a crush of hers - Joshua. She always had a crush on him from what I could tell when Joshua and I were friends at first, but it seemed as if her torment on me worsened the minute Joshua and I started to date. She made it apparent to me one day that Joshua was hers and no one else could have him - but of course Joshua didn't have eyes for her. He even told me that he'd be caught dead next to her before anything else. She was a skinny tanned girl that was just about my height, with dirty blond hair and piercing green eyes. Last I had seen of her she was the typical cheerleader skank of the school - between heavy pounds of makeup, next to nothing clothing on a daily basis, and would do whatever she could to whore herself out to the male student body, Jasmine was like Lauren but worse in every way. When the abuse and subsequent rape happened for me, Jasmine somehow had found out about it and used it to her advantage to tell the whole school about it - and skewed it to make it out to where it was my fault, that I whored myself out like I did to Joshua when he was the innocent victim. Jasmine had twisted the story that I liked it rough due to having 'daddy issues' on account she knew of my parents being divorced and rarely spent time with Charlie when I was growing up, but even more so she twisted it that I liked to try and split my time between Joshua and James, that I liked it when they would beat me and leave me black and blue with bruises. Before I had left, I knew the school was shocked in hearing about the news, but I never fully stuck around to face any potential ridicule from the other students - and I especially didn't stick around to see how my old friend group reacted to it.

"Now hearing the truth, I knew that whatever that slut had said about you was never true - and it's good to hear confirmation. But shit... if we had known that was happening or what was going on B, we would've stepped up for you in a heartbeat. And Joshua would be six feet under as we speak." Kitty vowed to me, with the others of my old friend group nodding their heads in agreement.

"Trust me when we say we're on the same page." Alice added in then, looking over at me with a sad look.

I nodded to both groups of friends for their sentiments, smiling sadly at each of them. "I know that's how you all feel. I was just concerned for my safety at the time, and so was my mom. That's why she ran us out of here as quickly as she did." I weakly explained, shrugging my shoulders.

"Well, we just will have to work on making up for lost time then." Jed offered with a smirk, and my old friends nodded their head.

"Fuck yeah we do. No way am I going to lose our Belle-Belle again after we just met up again now." Kitty vowed.

"Well the thing is we're only going to be here for a day or two - we're mainly visiting up here to go see the Grand Canyon." I pointed out to them with a frown. I would've loved to have more time with them, but we were only here for a brief spring break trip after all. We couldn't spend a huge amount of time with them like I wanted to when we'd be needing to go back up north to Washington in a couple more days.

"We know that B." Griffin agreed, sighing sadly. "But still we can work on making the most of our time together."

"I'd extend an invite to our music competition if you all could see it, but I doubt with your school schedule - if its anything like ours - would allow much time to come out and see us." I offered weakly. Judging by their somber expressions, that was a definite yes.

"Best case, we could always come back out here during the summer to see them again." Edward offered, but I grimaced up at him just as the old friends laughed at the offer. "Well, it's just an offer." Edward laughed back, shrugging his shoulders.

"I mean if y'all wanted to come back out when it's reaching scorching temperatures and we're all dying then sure, we could plan it." Marnie teased my boyfriend, where Emmett, Rosalie, Alice and Jasper joined in on the laughter. "I'm sure that there'll be plans made for this summer for all of us to reconnect again. But Griff has a point - we can still use up our time here as is to try and catch up with baby B. We do have plans still to go up to the Canyon like you all do, and we have a hotel booked out in Sedona just like your group does. So I'd say that's a start for us on catching up."

"Hot diggity dog, Marnie has the right of it!" Kitty cried, making us all laugh again.

"That settles it then at least - we'll hang out together for the rest of this trip." I agreed to the plan, and the rest of the group all gave shouts of approval.

"There you all are." I looked up upon hearing Mrs. Idle, who was now waltzing into the diner. She hurried over to us six students and smirked at us. "It's time we get a move on kids, we have a deadline in our schedule if we're gonna make it on time for our reservation at the hotel. Let's wrap up here and get going."

"Ah, sorry Mrs. Idle." Jasper spoke for us, apologizing for being late in meeting back up at the bus.

"No worries kids, but let's hurry along now." Then, Mrs. Idle quickly turned and left the diner. We all stood from our seats, fixing the table back while Jed and Griffin went up to the counter to pay for everything.

Kitty came forward and pulled me out of Edward's arms to embrace me into another tight hug. "We'll be following behind your guys' bus to Sedona so don't think you can get rid of us so easily B." Kitty murmured to me, kissing my cheek when she pulled away.

"Wouldn't dream of it Kit-Kat." I assured her, smiling. Then, with a quick wave we separated from my old friends, rushing back to the bus. Just as we were getting back onto it, I glanced back and watched as the five of them were hurrying over to an old beat up van, likely that being their vehicle for their own trip. I smiled to myself, ecstatic that somehow someway, I found them again. I couldn't believe that after all this time I'd run into them again like I did. But I wasn't about to complain that they're still around and they had been missing me this whole time. I was shocked to find them as I thought it would've been a little bit more complicated. But I was more than pleased that they were hear, and that they believed my side of the story. They weren't upset that I upped and disappeared - they were just worried about me having no true confirmation as to what happened was all. And I was happy that they didn't believe Jasmine's side of the story.

As I sat down beside Edward again and the bus rolled away from the strip mall stop, I felt the excitement rush through me. I was ready for this next part of our trip. It was definitely going to be fun from here on out.

---

A/N: Another end to another chapter. It was hasty but this chapter was getting really drawn out. So I think that's a good stopping point.

It's mostly a filler chapter to leading up to the next chapter, but we'll hopefully have some fun soon here.

I do my best to proof read and check for errors as I go, as well as before I post. But I'm human so some mistakes may slip past me. Any feedback is always appreciated.

Until the next one,

~Lady Eleanora~