She said, she said, she said she wants to marry me, its all in my head, that just not reality

This song was on One Tree Hill and I fell in love with it - Its All in my Head By Nick Lachey. I really liked Nick Lachey when he was on Charmed, so it was quite fun to find that I liked his music.

Today was pretty usual. College, work, normal things really. I had the second and third days of my level two course on the weekend which was interesting. I wouldn't say that its the most exicting thing to do all weekend, but its bearable. We did stroke and skill analysis, how to structure a scheme of work, and LOTS of lesson plans - we are teaching every day of the half term week. My complaint is the fact that the person who is running the course asked us what we wanted to teach and I said anything above level 4 (I don't like teaching the really young kids much) and he put me with lots of level two groups. Joy.

Anyway I have tommorow off college because it is progress review day, so I am going to get lots of work done, I promise!

xxxx Bex xxxx

A Beautiful Lie: Chapter Two

Title: A Beautiful Lie
Rating: M for some mature themes and language
Summary: Bella moves back to Forks and discovers a very different place to the town whe grew up in. Full of intrigue, lies and secrets, no one person really knows the whole story. But its all about to change.... AH. rated M for language and some content
Disclaimer: Not mine - clearly





Chapter Two: I Don't Wanna Be

Beep! Beep! Beep!

I groaned as I looked over at the alarm clock on my bed side table. 7:30. I was actually going to cry. It was the first day of school, and already I didn’t want to be there – and I hadn’t even left my bed yet. I forced myself to get out of the bed and shuffled to the bathroom to have a shower.

When I got back to my room a considerable time later, clad only in a towel, I was feeling a bit more awake, if only marginally. I stood in front of my open wardrobe, carefully considering what I was going to wear. I had no idea. It was bad enough to start a new school, but to start a new school in October was a nightmare. All the people would be used to each other, and would see me as the new oddity in town. Therefore, I had to dress to look and feel invincible. Not an easy task when it’s the middle of freaking winter. I considered calling Alice to find out what she was wearing, but she beat me to it. Before I could pick my phone up it rang loudly, startling me. I slid it up and held it to my ear.

“Hi Bella!” Alice said in a suspiciously chirpy voice for six am in the morning. “I was wondering what you were going to wear today!”

“Honestly Alice, I have no idea. I just got out of the shower and have been standing in front of my wardrobe for about ten minutes trying to decide,” I said gloomily as I considered all of my clothes.

“Its okay, Bella, I will come over and help. See you in a few minutes!” with that statement she cheerily put the phone down and I hurried to put some underwear on. I decided on neutral, so that anything we decided on would be alright.

A few seconds later I heard the doorbell ring, and my dad answering it. He laughed indulgently when he saw who it was.

“Bells, its Alice,” he shouted good naturedly up the stairs. After that I heard the sound of little feet bounding up the stairs, and across the landing. Alice burst through my door without warning. She skidded to a stop in front of my wardrobe, facing me, where I sat on my bed, now wrapped in an incredibly plush full length bathrobe.

“Is that as far as you have gotten?” she asked incredulously. I nodded reluctantly and she immediately became business like. She was wearing black leggings with a short sleeved knitted black jumper which reached mid thigh. The jumper had geometric triangle designs made up of holes in the wool, which showed tantalising hints of a fire engine red tunic top. On her feet were leather boots which could only be described as “fuck me” boots. Clearly you dressed up for a day at Forks high. Alice walked to my wardrobe and immediately pulled out a pair of leggings.

“Nuh, uh Alice. I have only just arrived from Phoenix. There is no way in hell that I am going to wear leggings on my first day. I will freeze my butt off!” she shot me a look that said ‘stop being a big baby’ and put the leggings back. Instead she pulled out the tightest pair of black skinny jeans she could find and threw them at me. I struggled into them, and immediately felt better with having my legs covered in cloth. She looked through the sweaters for a few moments before pulling a short sleeved cream coloured sweater off its hanger. She passed me a white tank top and commanded me to put them on. I slipped the top on quickly before pulling the robe off and shoving it onto the bed. After I had put the sweater on Alice threw a belt at me.

“Wear that on your waist. Okay, I’ll be back in about half hour and we can head to school.” I nodded my assent and she skipped out of the room, looking like the fashion and style fairy. She just made my morning a whole lot easier. I sure as hell hoped that that was an omen for the rest of my day. It would definitely make starting a new school a little easier.

I put on a little bit of makeup and pulled out my favourite suede boots with the considerable wedge heel. I figured if Alice was wearing heels, then I could certainly get away with it. I packed up my bag and rushed downstairs to grab some food. Luckily for me Renee was already cooking some bacon for Charlie, so I only had to wait a few minutes for a bacon sandwich. Heaven.

As I sat and waited for Alice I thought of the rest of the party from the night before. It had been completely surreal. I had been introduced to everyone at the party, and could maybe name three which I could remember from my childhood. Clearly in the two years I had been away Forks had changed from a sedate small town, to a bloody rich one! Apparently, from what I heard, that had a lot to do with the growing affluence of certain old families and the relocation of certain.... undesirables. Clearly Forks was becoming a town of two halves.

I was distracted by my musings when Alice skipped through the door again. How she managed to skip in three inch spike heels I will never know. I found it funny when she stood next to Charlie and he still towered over her.

“Come, on Bella, let’s go, you wouldn’t want to be late on your first fun filled day of Forks High!” she teased as she grabbed hold of my arm and hoisted me from my chair. After a quick goodbye to both my parents I grabbed my bag and walked out of the front door. In front of me was a Porsche Panamera Turbo, in bright yellow.

“You are kidding me Alice. This is your car?” I asked incredulously. I guess I hadn't really paid much attention the night before.

“Yeah, my mom bought it for me in one of her moments of sobriety with Daddy Brandon’s alimony. The child support is going into a trust fund for me apparently,” she said as she pulled open the driver’s door and slid in. I shook my head and slid into the passenger seat.

“I didn’t even think that you could get this car in yellow,” I commented as Alice pulled out of the drive.

“You can’t. For my birthday Jasper got it spray painted from silver to yellow for me. I love the colour!” she giggled as she drove. I smiled, her enthusiasm was infectious.

We talked together for the rest of the drive, just discussing general things. What high school was like, and how everyone was. I began to feel more nervous the closer we got to the school.


We got to the high school a little before seven, and Alice directed me to the office before wishing me luck and leaving for her first class. I walked nervously into the office and was immediately met by a big smile and a person who I vaguely recognised from the night before.

“Isabella Swan!” she enthused, walking round from the back of the desk. “It’s lovely to see you again. In case you’ve forgotten, I’m Shelley Cope. I have your schedule here. You have English first with Mr. Mason. I can call someone to show you the way to building three if you want?” she asked me as she handed me a piece of paper. Before I could say anything she picked up a phone from the desk and began talking. “Hi Susanne, yes I have someone who needs a little help..... well that’s so kind of her.... yes I will keep Isabella here until she arrives!” she put the phone down, turned to me and smiled. “Jessica Stanley is coming to give you a tour.”

What were the chances of the Jessica who had offered to show me around was not the Jessica I had met the night before? Very little I mused as I waited. In a town like this it was unlikely that there would be many people with the same name in the same school. Things didn’t work like that. I internally groaned as Jessica tottered around the corner in a pair of sky scraper heels. They were stilettos with pink rhinestones all over them. Her top was black, low cut to the extreme and was very tight fitting, which wasn’t a great look on her to be honest. The outfit was completed by a short pink mini skirt which must have been freezing. The only thing that came to me was Sharpay from High School Musical. Urg! I internally groaned again at the thought that I actually was able to name a character from that facade.

“HI Bella!” she screeched as she reached me, reaching a pitch which I was pretty certain could be used for dog whistles. “How awesome is it that I like get to show you round this place, I mean its like fate because I so totally know that you and me are going to be like BFF’s and all that shit! I mean seriously awesome! Let’s get going, and I will show you the places to hang, I mean there are no others!”


We had been walking around the school for about half hour, Jessica explaining every single minute detail of everything. Then all of a sudden she turned to me, her face suddenly turning from bimbo happiness to serious.

“Bella, I have something very important to talk to you about. Now, don’t take this the wrong way, but you need to be careful who you associate with round here. There are certain undesirables which will do nothing for your social status, believe me. Like, I think that it would totally be best for you if you don’t hang with Alice Brandon any more. She is not good people, even if she is dating Jasper Whitlock. Let’s just say that her mom is not the right character for a town like this and Alice isn’t that much better than her mom. She’s like totally not right. I mean, she does like gymnastics, yet didn’t join the cheerleading team. I mean, what is up with that? Anyway, she’s also a total slut and totally stole Jasper from Maria who is like my BFF for like, ever. So I think you should avoid her, okay?” her question didn’t really expect an answer and I didn’t volunteer one. If I did the chances were that I would be incredibly rude and say something along the lines of ‘Shut it bitch, you weren’t there last night to help me unpack, and you sure as hell can’t tell me who I can hang round with’. But I kept my peace. There was no point stirring up any problems, when Alice seemed to have no problem with Jessica’s hatred of her, judging from her hysterical reaction the night before. I just continued to follow Jessica and tried my best to tune her voice out.


“So like, here we are! The period is almost over, but you know that Mason will just accept that you were getting a tour. So you should totally give me props, because I got you out of a boring lesson of like English which is so dull!” yes, because an hour in your company was so much better, I thought sarcastically to myself. And I resented the stab against English. It was my favourite subject although I doubted the novels chosen would be very original. I dutifully tuned back into what Jessica was still prattling on about. “...and I will totally see you at lunch!”
God no! I thought as I smiled unconvincingly at her and knocked on the door to the classroom. I heard a faint voice bidding me to enter the room and I did so. The teacher was in the middle of a lecture on Tess of the D’Urbervilles, and by the looks of it and was obviously a little annoyed by the interruption.

“Hi, I’m Bella Swan,” I said as I entered the room. The teacher nodded and motioned towards the classroom. Clearly he didn’t want to be pulled from his stride, and would talk to me afterwards. I gratefully took a seat in the middle row nearest to the wall and picked up the reading list which had been left there. Tess was on it, as was Austen, Bronte, Dickens, Wilde, Tolstoy, Shakespeare, Stoker and Shelley. Some interesting choices for literature. Maybe the class would be different and more interesting than I thought.

There was not much left of the lesson and when the bell rung I approached the teacher. He listened to my reasons for being late, and then asked if I had read anything from the list before. I mentioned that the only one I had not read was Anna Karenia by Tolstoy, and he got incredibly excited by that. I promised that I would read it in my free time, and was commended for being so far ahead in the reading list. That lesson was alright, but I had a feeling that it was all going to get worse.


I was right. I had chosen French over Spanish as my language elective and was wondering why as I sat at the back of a crowded classroom next to Alice. We were listening to the teacher drone on about the future tense and how to form it correctly, something I had learnt two years ago, and I was utterly bored.

It had all started off fine. I had walked in, handed Madame Howell the piece of paper for her to sign and had noticed Alice waving to me, pointing at a free seat next to her. I smiled gratefully at her and began to walk towards her, but was stopped by the overzealous teacher with the most dreaded words a new student will ever hear from a teacher.

“You will introduce yourself!” she declared. I stood in front of the class and tried to smile at my new judgmental classmates.

“Hi, I’m Bella Sw....”

“En Français!” she roared at me.

“Oh. Bonjour, je m’appelle Bella, et j’ai dix sept ans,” I muttered. She smiled at me encouragingly and I took that as a sign to sit down, but yet again she stopped me.

“Pouvez vous parler un peu de ton vie?” there was no option with the question. I was going to tell her a little about my life.

“Oui, bien sur. J’habite avec mon pere, et, il est un policier . J’apprecie les romans, particulièrement les romans fantasme, et j’aime passer du temps avec mes amis ou regarder des nouvelles films.”

After that she allowed me to sit and Alice comforted me with the fact that Madame Howell was the most evil of all the teachers. That was a small comfort. She had started the lesson and I had soon become bored with the basic subject. I started doodling, and noticed Jessica sat in the corner next to some other girl with short blonde hair and a snotty expression which just screamed a self importance issue. They were looking seriously over at me, moving between contemplative and downright nasty as they looked between me and Alice. Clearly they were shocked that I hadn’t taken Jessica’s earlier warning to heart. Clearly they thought they ran the school. I smiled at them and they quickly looked back to the board. It was when I was still looking away that Madame Howell decided to pick on me.

“Mademoiselle Swan! Pouvez vous ecouter!” she screeched. I nodded and looked at the board.

"J’irai, tu iras, il ira, nous irons, vous irez et ils iront.” She nodded, placated, and I returned to my doodling.


The next two lessons, History and Government & Politics, passed in a blur. I soon found myself walking with Alice towards the canteen for the best time of the day. Lunchtime, where I would yet again be scrutinised and watched by all. Joy! We walked along the hallway and I could see everyone watching us. I was starting to understand how animals in a zoo felt. No wonder they would sometimes lash out at people. Halfway through the day and I was ready to claw someone’s eyes out to stop them from staring at me.

We walked through the door to the canteen and I was met by a shrill cry.

“Bella!” Jessica screamed over the noise in the canteen. I turned to see her frantically waving to me from her seat on one of the tables. I could see an admiring group of people around here, who were shocked that she was on speaking terms with the ‘new girl’. It was then that I understood why she was so interested in me. Jessica was a person who loved the limelight, and thrived on any attention. By getting to know me she was guaranteed attention by the students who wanted to know about the new addition to the school. She could get her attention fix and start to spread gossip around. How telling. She probably didn’t get enough attention at home.

I realised then that in order to reach the food we had to pass directly by the table. I would have to interact once again with the odious Jessica Stanley.

“Bella, once you have your food you should totally sit with us. I can give you the 411 on everything that is worth anything in Forks!” Jessica squealed as she almost jumped out of her seat in excitement.

“It’s alright Jessica. I already said I would sit with Alice,” I said dryly as we continued walking. Jessica looked awestruck at the thought that I could actually be rejecting her proposals. Alice laughed when we got out of hearing distance and turned to me.

“You know, you shouldn’t feel obliged to sit with me,” she said with a twinkle in her eye. “I mean, you should like totally go sit over there!” she said, imitating Jessica to a T. I laughed and linked arms with her.

“No thanks Alice, I’d rather keep my hearing!”

We bought our food and Alice steered me towards a table where some of the most beautiful people in the whole school sat. There was a muscular guy with long, honey blonde hair sat to one side, clearly waiting for someone. His eyes were a deep brown and haunting with deep dark circles underneath. Clearly he hadn’t been sleeping much, but even that could not mar his beauty. In fact, if anything it only widened his appeal, because it gave him the bad boy look that every girl just wants to save. The way his face lit up when Alice approached made it clear who he wanted to save him. Next to him was the most muscular guy I had ever seen outside the television. He had a fully beefed up physique and a face which was totally at odds with the beefcake appearance. His face had an impish look to it, as if he was always joking around, and his hair curled on his head. There appeared to be no hidden depths within his brown eyes. He had his arm around a stunning modelesque woman. She had elegantly curled blonde hair which framed her face and brilliant blue eyes which were like stone cold diamonds. There was a hidden depth there, a hard edge to offset her soft beauty. Alice cleared her throat and they all turned to her.

“Hi guys, this is Bella. She just moved in next door. Bella, this is Jasper, the beefy guy is Emmett and this is Rosalie, my best friend.” I smiled at each of them in turn, and both of the guys nodded. Rosalie just stared at me. Alice sat down next to Jasper and immediately curled under his arm. I nervously took a seat, feeling very awkward with the oppressive silence pressing down on us.

“Hey Bells, what do you have next? One of us might be in your class,” Alice said excitably breaking the silence, which seemed like it would go on for eternity. I still felt a bit awkward, but I reached underneath the table to grab my bag, so I could get my schedule to show Alice. I grabbed the piece of paper and moved to sit back down. Unfortunately I was still underneath the table and ended up whacking my head against the metal strut which supported it.

“Oh shit. Dobby’s sock!” I swore as leant back and put my hand against my head, which was now pounding. I heard a laugh guffaw from across the table and turned to see Emmett laughing loudly.

“Snape, Snape, severus Snape!” Emmett sang with much gusto.

“Dumbledore!” Alice chimed in happily. I laughed and joined in.

“Ron, Ron, Ron Weasley,” I laughed as a sang

“Harry Potter! Harry Potter, Harry Potter! Oooh!” Jasper said, his calm voice making it even more amusing. We carried on like this for a few moments before I said:

“It’s a pipebomb!” everyone lapsed into loud laughter. Then Emmett sang once more, so the whole cafeteria could hear.

“Voldemort, Voldemort, oooh Voldy Voldy mort!” he collapsed into fits of giggles. The whole table was laughing. All except for Rosalie. She glared coolly at all of us.

“You all have problems. Seriously. And don’t even tell me why you cursed by saying something like that. I’m out of here,” with that Rosalie gracefully stormed from the room. I looked after her in amazement. We were just having a laugh! Evidently my face had fallen into a look of confusion.
“Don’t worry about Rosie, she just doesn’t loosen up very easily,” Emmett boomed through the silence. He shrugged and smiled at me. “So tell me Bella, why the quoting of the Potter Puppet Pals? I mean, they are immense, I will give you that!”

“So, this is kind of embarrassing, but when I was in Phoenix I had a friend who was living with her parents. They were major religious fanatics, and if she ever swore they would confiscate her car, phone and laptop. Her parents also believed that Harry Potter was for Satanists and witches, so she and I would watch the Potter Puppet Pals on Youtube in my dorm room and she would use stuff from there to swear with, because it was her way of getting one up on her parents. They had no idea that she was quoting anything Harry Potter related, so they were happy, and she was happy.” I didn’t mention that her parents used to beat her as well. That was a bit deep for a first meeting with anyone. The rest of the group smiled at me, and I felt more welcome then than I had all day. Emmett and Jasper soon began their own conversation with each other about baseball, or something like that. Alice turned back to me and asked again about my schedule. Wordlessly I handed it to her, and she inspected it, informing me that I had biology with Angela next, then study hall and Calculus, and then PE with her, Emmett and Jasper. I groaned at the last admission. I was hopeless at PE. Put me in front of a net or a hoop and give me a ball and I will find some way to damage at least one, or the other, and normally myself along the way. Alice grinned at me with glee.

“Bella, its going to be so much fun. I mean we have badminton!” as soon as I heard the word I groaned. It was not wise to give me a racket and ask me to hit a small flying object. People only got hurt when I tried to hut a small flying object. “Don’t worry Bells, we are almost finished with badminton. In a couple of weeks we will be onto swimming, and that is always a drag with Coach Clapp. He is such a perv!” she whined.

“Are you being serious Alice?” Jasper asked in his cool melodious voice. There was an undercurrent of indignant protectiveness in his voice, as if he would deck anyone who would perv on Alice. It must be nice to have someone like that in your life. I had that once.

“Not really Jasper, nothing worth going ape shit over. I mean, he just looks at us weirdly when we are in the pool. You are so lucky that they got a coach from LA for you guys. Why do you think none of the girls wear two pieces? It sure as hell isn’t because we’re that serious about the swimming!” she laughed. Jasper still looked slightly uneasy, but relaxed somewhat.

The bell rang then, and I stood up quickly. I did not want to be late to any other class. I said a quick goodbye to the guys, hugged Alice and then trudged off to my locker.





Chapter Three

Did you think that I'd blink, I'd go and take the ink to your control, that I'd sell my soul

I love Poets of the Fall at the moment - awesome indepedant band



I'm doing English homework at the moment, and can't seem to get a handle on it - maybe its a lack of motivation? I haven't been in college for the past two days, because I haven't been able to move, so college tomorrow could be interesting. My second day of level two is on saturday, and I'm really not feeling it.

xxxx Bex xxxx

A Beautiful Lie: Chapter One

Here is the first multichapter fic I am going to post on here - i'll probably post a new chapter every week because this is still a work in progress

Title: A Beautiful Lie
Rating: M for some mature themes and language
Summary: Bella moves back to Forks and discovers a very different place to the town whe grew up in. Full of intrigue, lies and secrets, no one person really knows the whole story. But its all about to change.... AH. rated M for language and some content
Disclaimer: Not mine - clearly




Chapter One: Age of the Understatement

I walked through the door and the first thing I noticed was the giant banner tapped across the living room door which was facing me. The words WELCOME HOME BELLA were emblazoned in bright neon letters on a white background. The sign took up nearly the whole door. I looked next to it and saw my two parents grinning at my shocked face.

“Hi baby!” my mother shouted as she ran across to me. She took my suitcase and grabbed hold of me, almost choking me.

“Hi mom!” I spluttered as I put my arms awkwardly around her. “Mom, I can’t breathe!”

“Renee, give the girl some space,” my dad joked as he gently pulled my mom off me. “You act like you haven’t seen Bella in decades!”

“Well it has been a long time. I am so glad that you are finally home, baby girl. Do you like the banner?” she asked me enthusiastically as she wrapped one arm around me and pulled me into the living room. My mother was like that a lot. She was child like in many ways, with her insatiable enthusiasm and innocent curiosity. It surprised me, now that I was back home, how much I had really missed my mom. See, for the last two years I had been going to a private boarding school in Phoenix, Arizona, called East Grean Academy. I’d only been home to Forks for two weeks each summer and at Christmas, because of all of the extracurricular stuff I had to do to keep my place at the academy.

“Yeah mom, it’s great. I’m so glad that I am home,” I said as I looked at the living room. My mother had gone completely and utterly decoration crazy. The room was full of balloons, streamers and more banners, proclaiming the same sentiment as the one which had greeted me at the door. Wow, my parents really were happy to see me back home. “Wow, the decorations are amazing!”

“Thank you sweetie! Although I can’t really claim all of the gratitude, because a girl who lives next door came over to help me. She is such a lovely girl, Alice Brandon. She will be coming over later,” my mother babbled as she pulled me up the stairs to my bedroom. I had had most of my stuff shipped back home from the Academy, so I only had one small suitcase to bring with me.

I was shocked when mom opened my door and I was greeted by something so unfamiliar. Mom had got me a new bed, a double one which was in the middle of the room. There was a new bookcase, wardrobe and dresser, as well as a new desk which had a shiny new laptop.

“Mom, Dad, you really didn’t have to get me a laptop!” I said with gratitude as I looked at the top of the beautiful machine. I walked over to it and slid my hand across the surface lightly. It reminded me of the laptop I had when I was at East Grean. I had had to give it back to the school when I left, putting all of my files on a portable hard drive.

“We wanted to sweetheart. We are just so happy that you decided to come back home!” Renee gushed enthusiastically. I smiled at her briefly, before looking around the room. The whole place was full of my boxes. My father must have realised what I was looking at, because he chuckled.

“We decided that we should leave you to unpack your boxes yourself,” Charlie explained as he took hold of Renee's shoulders and steered her out of the room. They left me in my room by myself, to unpack and get used to being home again. My parents were so transparent sometimes. I sighed and knelt down beside one of my boxes. I opened it up and pulled out the picture which was on top. I immediately replaced it and shoved the whole box into the back of my closet. Then I opened another box, grateful to see that it was one of the boxes of many books I owned. Figuring that my books were as good a place to start as any in my endeavour to organise my room I emptied the box. I began to put the books on the shelves, in alphabetical order by author’s surname. I had always been slightly OCD about where my books went, but I had become even more compulsive about it since I started East Grean.


Surrounded by my books I was happy. I must have spent a good few hours organising them, because when I was finished and looked at the clock I saw that it was five o’clock. I sighed and turned to my suitcase and other bags of clothes. I would need to unpack them next if I wanted to have something to wear the next day.

“Hi!” a bubbly and enthusiastic voice said from behind me. I turned and saw a short girl standing in my doorway. She had dark black spiky hair which stood out from her head and flawless pale skin. Her lips were glossy with red lip stick and her eyes were carefully circled with black eyeliner. The full effect was absolutely stunning. My mouth dropped open a little bit as I took her appearance in. She was a truly beautiful girl, who made me look positively drab. She danced into the room and sat down beside me. “I’m Alice Brandon – I live next door. Your mom said you were up here unpacking so I thought that maybe you’d like some help, because I am totally awesome at organising stuff, I mean I did all of the decorating in an hour and believe me that is no small task and so I thought that maybe I could help you with your clothes because I love clothes!” she said all of that in one breath, and there was immediately something about her which made me think that she could be a really good friend. And she lived next door, which meant there would always be someone near to talk to.

“Hi Alice,” I said as I looked at her beaming face. “It’s nice to meet you. I’m Bella.”

“I know who you are silly,” she giggled as she pulled me into a tight hug. “Your mom has been going on about it for weeks that you were coming back. I have a feeling we are going to be great friends, I already know so much about you!”

I felt a grim sense of foreboding at that sentence. What exactly had my mother told this girl? I smiled and shook my head slightly, to get rid of the paranoid thoughts. It wasn’t as if my mom could have told her my innermost thoughts and emotions, and Alice seemed like she would be a good friend. I needed a good friend, because I hadn’t really had a close female friend since my best friend Anna got killed in a car accident when I was fourteen. It was that which had convinced me to move to East Grean, to get over the ghosts from my past. Alice took hold of the nearest suitcase and unzipped it. When she opened it she gasped.

“Oh my god, your clothes are gorgeous!” she squealed as she pulled out a see through dress bag out. She unzipped it and pulled out the floor length strappy purple gown. It was a deep purple, with, thick shoulder straps, and beading underneath the bust. It fell to the floor in a waterfall of light silk. At the back the two shoulder straps crossed over, leaving a large amount of the back uncovered. “What did you get this for?”

“It was my prom dress last year,” I said reluctantly. Was she going to ask me the story behind each dress?

“You got to go to prom as a sophomore?” she asked me as she slowly put the dress back into its bag and hung it up in the closet. She took a cursory glance at the box which had been shoved into the back corner, but did not say anything.

“I was invited by a Junior, so I could go to prom, and I had to get a dress.” She nodded and we sat side by side and began sorting the clothes into piles of tops, trousers, knitwear, underwear and dresses.

“Was Prom good?” Alice asked after a few minutes of quiet sorting. “I mean my boyfriend was a junior, but I was ill when prom was on last year.”

“I had a lot of fun, but the party afterwards was not all that it’s cracked up to be. Lots of drunk guys trying to hook up with you, even if you have a date.” I said dryly as I pulled a wrinkled dress out of the almost empty suitcase and tried to smooth it out. It refused to comply with my wishes, and i threw it onto the pile in disgust.

“How did you get all of these awesome clothes? Most of the people in Forks wouldn’t be able to afford Christian Louboutin Zoupi heels,” she said as she held up a pair of high heels which had been in the front of the case.

“My mom used to be a model when she was a teenager, and she did really well out of it. When she had me she stopped doing magazines and just did catalogue work for high end designers. She now does photography and a lot of designers send her free stuff. I’m the same size as her, so I get most of the stuff. Mom thinks that it’s not appropriate for a woman who has a seventeen year old daughter to be falling about the place in skyscraper heels. And I worked a lot when I was away, teaching swimming, and eared money which I could spend on myself.” That was the longest explanation I ever had given someone about the cost of my clothes. I normally didn’t want to tell anyone because they would want handouts and free stuff. And telling a girl that your mom does photography for Versace and Prada makes them want to get real close to you. I didn’t think that Alice was like that somehow, because she knew the clothes well enough to know that they were designer, which meant that she probably had some in her wardrobe. The small town of Forks had a very distinct economic divide. You were either rich, like my parents or you didn’t earn that much at all. I had a feeling Alice was in the former group.

“Awesome – you and I should go shopping at some point. There are some really nice designer outlets in Portland, and Seattle is incredible for shopping.” Alice said excitedly as she pushed the suitcase into the corner and pulled another box towards her.

“That sounds good Alice,” I said as I looked at her. It seemed like we were already friends.


It took three hours and a lot of laughter to get all of my boxes unpacked. I was more than surprised when Alice pulled my sports bag out of a box, and declared that we had unpacked everything. Not only had we unpacked everything, but we had put it all away as well. I suspected that it was mainly because of Alice’s mad organisational skills, because that pixie sure could arrange everything! We had talked about so much while we organised – I was surprised by how open I was with Alice because I was a naturally introverted person. She told me that she and her mother had moved to Forks a few weeks after I had left for school, and how she had got to know Renee because her mother was sick and Renee took food over when she found out. I learnt about Alice’s boyfriend who was a senior, and who would ‘absolutely love’ me apparently. I was going to meet him the next day, along with Alice’s best friend Rosalie and all of the people who would obviously have been drawn to Alice’s sunny personality.

We walked downstairs together to see that a mass of people had congregated in the front room. I looked at Alice I shock for a moment before everyone turned around and looked at me on the bottom step.

“Welcome home Bella!” they all shouted in unison. I smiled at them all and stepped down in order to try and find my mother and find out what had happened. Before I could get to her my father caught hold of my arm and directed me towards a middle aged man in a wheelchair and a teenage boy who looked too much like him to not be his son. I smiled at the two of them unconvincingly, but I didn’t think that anyone noticed that.

“Bella, you remember Billy Black and his son Jacob, right?” Charlie said as he put a hand on the arm of Billy’s chair. Those names made me realise who they were. Dad’s friend Billy who always went fishing with him, and Jacob the kid who was a year younger than me and who I was inevitably put with when Renee was on a job and Charlie wanted to go fishing. I bitterly remembered being woken up at five in the morning, told to get dressed and then being taken out to the lake where I would play with Jacob and his older sisters Rachel and Rebecca, where our fathers could see us while they were on the water.

“Yeah sure I do, its good to see you guys again,” I said and then looked around for my mother.

“Bella, Renee is probably mingling, you won’t be able to find her any time soon,” Jacob laughed as he pulled me into a quick hug. I stiffened and he pulled away quickly as he realised how tense I was. He took a step away and I let out the breath I was unconsciously holding. I let out a tense little laugh and then tried to smile again.

“You know – you are probably right!” I said as I felt a tap on my shoulder. I turned to see Alice smiling up at me. She wrapped an arm around my waist and joined the rest of the group. “Jacob, Billy, this is Alice Brandon. She lives next door.”

Jacob stuck out his hand and shook Alice’s. As he let go I saw a faint hint of pain on his face. I looked at Alice and saw that her smile had become even bigger. I put my arm around her shoulders, feeling the need for it to be doing something other than hanging limply by my side. I also felt the urge to do something which would assist me in holding Alice back.

“Oh, I know Jacob Black,” Alice said in her melodious voice. “Last year at nationals you punched my boyfriend in the face.” She said the whole sentence with a giant smile, like she had no care in the world. Only the tension in her shoulders betrayed the anger that she was feeling. I rubbed her shoulder soothingly and tried to warn her with my eyes not to start anything. She looked at me for a moment and nodded, and then returned to smiling disconcertingly at Jacob. He looked vaguely frightened.

“Hey Billy, have you seen the cake that Mrs Crowley made for the party?” Charlie said, desperately looking for a way out. Bless him; he didn’t want to get involved in the argument. I would have tried to do the same, but I felt the moral obligation to Alice to stay, because she had helped me all afternoon.

“Uh, no Charlie I haven’t. You should show it to me.” Billy said almost desperately as Charlie took hold of the wheelchair. “It was nice to see you again Bella.” With that the two men disappeared into the crowd. Wimps.

“Wait – you’re dating Jasper Whitlock?” Jacob said incredulously. Alice raised one eyebrow and nodded.

“Yeah, I am.”

“Ahh, shit. I didn’t mean what I said, I was just pissed that his team beat us again.” He said apologetically as he took one step back.

“So you didn’t mean it when you said that I was a no good skanky ho, for dating him? Because you know, I was right there. And if Rosalie hadn’t of held me back, you would have walked away with worse than a broken arm. You wouldn’t have walked away at all.” The menace in her voice made me believe her. At that moment there was nothing more scary in the world than this small woman snarling at him. And evidently he agreed with me because he lifted his hands up and made a motion for her to calm down.

“Whoh girl, calm down. He started it,” Jacob muttered defensibly, as he took another step back and collided with the wall. A look of pure terror crossed his face before he composed himself. If it hadn’t been so serious I would have laughed at the whole situation. Here was a six foot five giant muscular Native American guy cowering in fear of a petite four foot eleven girl.

“He made a throwaway comment that your swimming hadn’t been so good. You said that his girlfriend hadn’t been so good either. Then you made that comment and pissed the whole team off. I’m surprised they didn’t all jump you after the meet was over. You got off easy,” with that comment Alice twisted the two of us around and began walking away. Her grip on my waist was so strong that I had no choice but to walk with her. When we were what Alice judged as a sufficient distance away from him we stopped and Alice looked up at me in apology.

“Sorry about that. I just can’t stand that guy,” she giggled.

"I can see why you might have a few problems with him,” I laughed as I thought about the whole silly situation.

“Well, look at it this way. You just survived your first Forks grudge match!”

“That happens often?” I asked incredulously. How many grudges could a small town like this hold?

“You’d be surprised. There are so many people who are forced in close contact with people they hate in a small place like this. It leads to some... interesting confrontations. Believe me that was nothing compared to some of the big things that have gone down. Now come on, let’s find that cake your dad was talking about!” she said gleefully as she took my hand and pulled me along. I tried to shake off a feeling of unease at the statement. There was clearly more to the small town of Forks than I could ever imagine. Two years had changed a lot.

Alice and I meandered about the party, looking for my mom. I was really starting to think that she had been abducted by crazed fashion lovers, when I noticed her standing in the corner, talking to a beautiful woman who looked so much like Alice that I could only assume that she was her mother. I could feel Alice’s reluctance to approach our mothers, and I wondered what kind of relationship she had to have with her mother to be able to feel that way. As we got closer I could hear her mother’s raucous laugh at something Renee had said, and watched as she swayed on her feet. She was very obviously drunk.

As I realised this I saw the embarrassment bloom on Alice’s face. She had seen it too. She plastered an unconvincing smile onto her face, but I could see through the facade. I didn’t think anyone else could though.

“Hey, Alice, let’s go get some drinks,” I said quietly in her ear as I steered her towards the kitchen. She smiled up at me gratefully as we bypassed out mothers and walked into the empty kitchen. I grabbed two cups from one of the cabinets. “What do you want to drink?”

“Um,” Alice said, biting her lip. Suddenly she seemed subdued. “Do you have coke?”

“Yeah, I think so.” I said as I looked through the fridge and the cabinets. Darn. I stood up and managed to hit my head on one of the higher cabinet doors which I left open. My hands flew to my head. “Ah, crap!”

“What’s wrong?” Alice asked as she came and stood beside me, pulling my hands from my head.


“Well, it’s not bleeding, I think you just bumped it. Did you find any coke?” her voice was full of hope.

“Unfortunately, no. Renee went through this no sugar kick a couple of months back, part of a fad diet. She got rid of all the Coke, and since Charlie doesn’t drink it they never got anymore. Don’t worry, we can go to the store. I need to get out of here.” That was an understatement and a half. Already I had been exposed to life in Forks for maybe half hour, and I was running on overload. There were so many people, who knew everything about me. It made me nostalgic for Phoenix and East Grean. At least there unless you did something to make people notice you, then you were ignored.

“Okay, do you want to use my car?” she asked as she looped her arm around mine again.

“Yeah, that would be great. Just let me tell Charlie where we are going,”


Ten minutes later Alice and I were on the way to the nearest grocery store to my house. Charlie had accepted my excuses, with a knowledgeable look in his eye, and told me to be back before Renee noticed that I was gone. He said this way I wouldn’t have to explain to her why I ditched her specially planned party for half hour. I could see Charlie’s logic. He sure knew Renee.
Alice had been quiet ever since we left the kitchen and got into her yellow Porsche. I was about to ask her what was wrong when she suddenly spoke. She was still looking out of the front windshield, avoiding eye contact with me.

“I don’t get why she does it,” she said almost inaudibly as she drove. “She drinks so much that it’s actually a normal state for her to be plastered. I know Forks is a screwed up place, but I don’t understand.” I could hear the pain in her voice and I desperately wanted to put my arms around her and give her a hug to make it better. Clearly her mom’s alcoholism affected her, more than she wanted people to see, that much was clear from her fake smile from earlier. Alice pulled into the parking lot and viciously rubbed at her eyes to try and get rid of the half formed tears. I pulled her hands away from her face and wrapped my arms around her.

“It was alright until we moved to Forks. She only drank in the evenings. Now she fucking depends on the stuff, and doesn’t go out without drinking. I swear, this place corrupts everything!” I rubbed her back and let her cry on my shirt. Clearly this was something she hadn’t talked much about.

After a few minutes Alice stopped crying and pulled away from my embrace. She smiled meekly at me and opened the car door. I got out of the car and followed her into the store.


We were standing at the checkout, with a twelve pack of cans and two big bottles when I noticed a short girl with super curly hair walking purposefully towards us. Alice growled quietly, and I looked at her in askance, but she just shook her head and nodded towards the girl.

“Be careful Bella,” Alice warned as the girl stopped in front of me. She stuck her hand out in front of her and I reluctantly shook it, raising my eyebrows. Clearly this girl expected me to know who she was.

“Hi Bella, I’m Jessica, I thought I’d introduce myself. Your mom and my mom are like BFF’s and she has totally like told me so much about you!” she squealed in her high pitched voice. I winced slightly as I wondered how she could stand to listen to herself all the time. I swear if it were me I would have burst my ear drums to escape the sound. Although, her voice was so high pitched it would probably do the job for me if I had to spend extended periods of time with her.

“You know, I can totally show you around school tomorrow! You are going to love it, like Forks high is like totally full of hot guys! And I mean Hawt!” she giggled as I looked amazed at her. How was I meant to respond to that? “Do you have a ride tomorrow? Because I could totally give you one, if you want!”

“I’m already taking her. She lives next door to me,” Alice said suddenly. I hadn’t been aware of the arrangement but I silently thanked God for Alice. She had just saved me from hours of torture. If Jessica’s voice hadn’t been enough, her language set me on edge. Surely she could refrain from using the word like in every sentence.

“Well, isn’t that so nice of you Alice Brandon!” the sarcasm and malice dripped off Jessica’s tongue as she smiled at Alice patronisingly. There was clearly some bad blood there. “Well, Bella I will see you in school. Toodles!”

With that she walked away, almost tripping in the cheap ho stilts she was wearing. Seriously, who wore high heels to the grocery store? I looked at Alice and burst out laughing.

“Did she seriously just say toodles?” I asked her between gasps for air. She nodded, laughing herself. Then the smile fell from her face.

“Bella, you need to be careful who you hang out with in Forks. There are so many people who would eat you alive.” The warning in her tone was evident. Clearly there was more to the small town of Forks than first met the eye.

Chapter Two

If I had to crawl, you'd crawl too

I just found this video, and loved, so I thought I'd post it here (I think now that i know how to do this I'm going crazy over it!) It has a beautifully haunting song as the backdrop: Crawling (Carry me through) by Superchic



xxxx Bex xxxx

They're locking up the sun, the light of reasons gone

I love this song, and just figured out how to put Youtube videos into a blog so i thought i'd experiment with this song - Locking up the Sun by Poets of the Fall. Poets of the Fall is easily my favourite band at the moment! This is a pretty cool video as well by Shadowofanight - i like the effects:



I managed to trip down some stairs earlier, and hurt my ankle - not good!

xxxx Bex xxx

Why don't you and I get together, take on the world and be together forever

I love this song - its so soulful. Why don't you and I by Nickelback

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MQJ6xJfTDaE

I had my first day of my level 2 teching aquatics yesterday, which was... interesting. It wasn't that bad, but a lot of it I have already done because I had to do a child protection course as part of my continued professional development and all of the health and safety stuff was covered in my lifeguard course. Its okay though, because a girl I work with is on the course, and she is a good laugh, and a couple of the people who are there are ones who I did my level one course with last year. But its going to be a lot of work, and I am really not looking forward to doing five days straight over half term. The first unit exam is next Saturday, and I really don't want to mess up and had the swimming club pay for it all for nothing :o

I watched an episode of An Idiot Abroad last night, where Karl goes to the Taj Mahal, and throughout it, i just wanted to give him a hug. He looked SOO fed up at points during it, and I just felt so bad for him. It was a very entertaining programme though, specially when people started throwing dye at Karl, and he was just so confused!

xxxx Bex xxxx

Breathe your life into me, I can feel you falling

I'm loving this song at the moment Breathe into me by Red. The video is a really great Veronica Mars/Supernatural crossover, with Veronica and Sam - I think that I could really grow to love this pair!



Feeling really ill today and so am home from college. I just can't bring myself to do anything, and the Sky box has broken AGAIN so Ican't even watch anything I have recorded! I swear the Sky people make the boxes so they break down at the most inopportune moment.

xxxx Bex xxxx

Painted Symbols

Title: Painted Symbols
Penname(s): Landiana
Rating: Mature
Disclaimer: I don’t own Twilight. If I did I wouldn’t be so worried about money, now, would i?
Summary: Two sisters move to Forks, but one is hiding a deep dark secret.
Submitted for the ‘To Kill a Cullen’ Contest
Please check out the other entries here :
http://www(dot)fanfiction(dot)net/community/To_Kill_a_Cullen_Contest_Community/76759/

She looked down at him, eyes empty of anything remotely resembling compassion or remorse. His body lay before her, spread-eagled, and tied to posts protruding from the floor. His blood covered chest appeared to glow in the darkness, showing the strange symbol which had been carved into his skin. A rich laugh, full of menace and evil ripped from her throat, a sound which a seventeen year old girl should not have been able to produce. It was a laugh of a being who had seen evil, and revelled in its madness. It was the laugh of one who had been to the dark side of the furthest moon and came back to this world, more than a little unhinged by the insanity they had seen. A laugh which carried a warning, of pain and of the darkness which would follow this girl wherever she went. She didn’t run from it. No. She embraced it.

~*~*~*~

“Have you heard?” a bubbly blonde screeched as she came to a halt next to Rosalie Hale, Emmett McCarty and Jasper Whitlock. “There are two new girls at the school, apparently they are twins. Anyway, we have to meet them!”

“Jessica, why do you always feel the need to introduce us to the new students?” Rosalie asked, her voice indicating that she had heard the same speech over and over again.

“Rose, you never know when someone awesome is going to join the school!”

~*~*~*~

Isabella and Alice Swan walked through the halls together towards their first lesson. They were no strangers to the new student routine, but both had to admit to themselves that they were a little disconcerted by the stares. It was like they were animals in a zoo, and people had flocked to see what kind of tricks they would perform. Alice smiled at all of the people, and Bella glared. The two of them were as different as twins could be. Alice had short, spiky black hair, while Bella had long chocolate brown locks. Alice had dazzling blue eyes while Bella’s were brown. Alice was all lightness and joy. Bella was darkness and misery. This was not un noticed by the people in the school.

~*~*~*~

Alice sat down in Spanish, which was her first lesson without her sister. It was right before lunch and she was feeling a little lost. That was until two good looking girls came and sat down either side of her. The tall statuesque blonde spoke first.

“Hi I’m Rosalie Hale,” she held out her hand and smiled at Alice. Alice took the proffered hand and grinned back.

“I’m Alice Swan, but you probably already knew that!” she giggled.

~*~*~*~

Jessica, Rosalie and Alice got to know each other throughout the lesson, ignoring the teacher when she begged them to be quiet. They discovered a shared love of clothes and shoes, and bonded over the universal female slogan – ‘aren’t boys dicks?’ it became clear to them that the three of them had much in common and therefore could form a tentative friendship. Jessica and Rosalie were so convinced of this that they invited Alice to sit with them at lunch.

“Oh, Jess, Rose, I have to introduce you to my twin sister, Isabella. She is so awesome, I know that you will love her! I will meet you in the cafeteria” Alice gushed as she ran into the crowd. Jessica and Rosalie exchanged sceptical looks, before linking arms and walking into the cafeteria, everyone moving out of the way of the elite.

“You know, Jessica, for once you may be right about a new student,” Rosalie murmured to her best friend.

~*~*~*~

Alice found her sister in the girl’s bathroom, washing her hands. She put her arm around her sister and rested her head on her shoulder.

“You know Bells, I think that we are going to like it here!” she said looking at the pair of them in the mirror. “I have some awesome people for you to meet!”

Bella simply nodded and began walking with her twin to the cafeteria. Alice didn’t have to know that Bella already hated it here and wanted to be away from this stupid little small town where all the people were either assholes or cheery little bitches.

They walked side by side, and as with Jessica and Rosalie the people moved out of the way. Only they did not move out of respect, but instead some strange desire to figure out the new girls.

The two pairs met up by the doorway and began to walk towards the food. Jessica and Rosalie began assessing the twin of the girl who they had taken under their wing. As if she had felt the stares Isabella lifted her head so she looked at the two of them directly and glared.

“Rosalie, Jessica, this is my twin sister, Bella,” Alice said happily, totally oblivious to the murderous looks her fraternal twin was aiming at the two girls. They both took a step backwards, taken aback by the malicious aura the girl seemed to radiate. Her face was covered by a long, dark swathe of brown hair, so only one eye was uncovered. That eye had thick black eyeliner around it, with a swirly pattern painted up above her eyebrow and down onto her cheek. Her lips were painted a blood red, and were twisted into a sneer. She wore tight black skinny jeans and worn away black converse, with a black hoodie over the top. Overall she had the appearance of one who was slightly unstable.

“Me and Bella live alone together, which is awesome for us, because we can totally have parties whenever we want,” Alice chirped, seemingly oblivious to the stares her sister was receiving.

“Where are your parents?” Jessica asked, her eyes glowing with the promise of new gossip.

“Well, our mom is a senator so we never see her,” Alice explained as she grabbed a tray and began loading it with food. Bella did the same thing, copying her sister’s movements exactly.

“And your dad?” Jessica probed, tactlessly.

“He went away a long time ago,” Bella snarled at the overly inquisitive girl. It was the first time she had spoken all day. Jessica was taken aback, shaken by the menace in the other girl’s voice.

“So, Rose, what is good in this town to do outside school?” Alice asked, breaking the silence as she paid for her sister’s and her own meal. They all walked over to an empty table as Rosalie began explaining the wonders of the small town of Forks.

Bella just sat back in her chair and listened to their vacuous conversation. Jessica couldn’t help but shoot looks at her every so often. There was something strange about Isabella Swan.

~*~*~*~

After lunch Bella walked alone to her next class, wondering what Forks High School could possibly throw at her next. She had biology, which was her best subject, so she hoped that it could not get any worse than the hell she had just had to sit through. Lunchtime listening to the conversation of Jessica, Rosalie and Alice could have driven anyone to insanity with their meaningless drivel and nonsense.

“You know Bella, I met this really cute guy in P.E. today,” Alice chirped as they drove through the streets of Forks.

“Really?” Bella asked her twin dryly. “Don’t you meet a really cute guy in every new school we go to?”

“Yeah, but they all end up assholes. I know that Jasper is different to all of them!”

“If you say so Ally. Personally I think that are all idiots.” Bella turned her attention back to the road and only half heartedly listened to Alice’s description of the god like Jasper Whitlock.

~*~*~*~

The girl sat in the bedroom she shared with her sister and laughed softly. The first day had gone perfectly. She could already see many victims within the masses, and she enjoyed the
contemplation that her games would soon begin.

~*~*~*~

It had been a week since Alice and Bella had moved into town and things were starting to get back to normal. People stopped staring as they walked through the halls. At Alice’s insistence the two of them sat with Jessica, Rosalie, Emmett, Jasper and Edward every lunchtime, although Bella never contributed to any conversation. She was too busy looking around at the people, trying to judge which bitch was the most vacuous. But even though she never spoke she was still noticed.

Edward found himself intrigued by Bella Swan. She was moody and dark, the sort of girl who had many hidden secrets, and for some inexplicable reason he wanted to find out. She had shown no interest in him, and he saw that as some sort of twisted challenge. He wanted to get to know this dark, brooding girl, to get to know her inside out. He sat next to her every biology lesson, and took in everything about her. She only ever spoke when she was spoken to, and then only if she couldn’t answer with a nod or a shake of the head. Edward began to crave the moments when she would speak to him in her soft melodious tone, when they were doing a lab, or when he asked her a question because he hadn’t understood anything.

Isabella Swan had made him need her. And Edward Cullen didn’t give up until he got what he wanted.

~*~*~*~

As she walked about the quiet house in the small hours of the morning the girl thought over everything which had bought her to this sleepy town and made her want to bathe in the blood of all of the busybodies and bitches who lived there. Within her diseased mind she rationalised everything she planned to do. It would shake up everyone, which was something which could not be helped. She had to play her games if she intended to survive in this cruel world. If she didn’t play then she knew she would die. And so would her sister. Their father had impressed that much on the girl. Play the game, or die.

It was in the darkness when she though best. The dying of the sun was like a veil being drawn back. She could see clearly in the dark. It made everything obvious. The games would have to be played soon otherwise things would go wrong. And she could not let anything go wrong. She would have to choose her playmate soon, or everything would go downhill for her and her sister. And that could not be allowed to happen.

~*~*~*~

“Hey Bella,” Edward said as he sat down next to her at the biology table. She nodded in his direction before turning back to her notepad. She was drawing random symbols in the margin of her binder, completely absorbed in creating the perfect design. “So Bella, me and Jasper were thinking, would you and Alice like to go out with us this weekend?”

Bella looked at Edward for a few long moments before she felt her phone buzzing in her pocket. She pulled it out and saw a text message from Alice.

Pretty please Bella, say yes to Edward! I want to go on this double date! Xxxxx

“Alright Edward, I will go on this double date. Where are we going?” Bella said, a little grudgingly.

~*~*~*~

Later that night the girl sat on the balcony which attached to the bedroom, listening to her sister’s deep breathing. She was glad that she had agreed to the date. Because in doing that she had inadvertently chosen who she would play the game with. She would get close to him, prepare him for the game, and then they would be able to play. And she could enjoy the blood once more.

~*~*~*~

“Bella, we have to get going!”Alice shouted up the stairs at her reluctant sister. Bella looked at herself one more time in the mirror before sighing and making her way out of the bedroom. She could never look more than mediocre, specially next to Alice. Alice had vehemently denied her sisters words when they had been stated, but Bella couldn’t help but feel that she was only saying that, because that was what sisters like Alice did. They lied. Alice had cheerfully forced Bella into what she thought was appropriate date wear, and Bella had let her. She wanted to look good for Edward.

She walked down the stairs and was met by the watchful gaze of three people. Jasper’s mouth dropped open and Alice looked satisfied, as if Bella had achieved something great with her help. However, she did not notice this. It was only Edward’s response which caught her attention. After all he was her date, he had chosen her, and she wanted to look good for him. She wanted to get closer to him. His mouth gaped wide with wonderment and a love struck cartoon character would have had smaller eyes. He was awestruck by her transformation.

For the date Bella had been forced into a tight black leather skirt which clung to her curves and accentuated her small waist. She wore a black tank top with lace adornment on the neckline and a deep red shirt over the top. On her feet were black ballet flats. Her hair was straightened, although her fringe still swept dramatically across her face, which was made up with dramatic dark eyes and deep red lips.

“You look beautiful,” Edward said honestly as he took her hand. Bella shook her head, but smiled tentatively at her.

“Let’s go to the cinema!” Alice cheered as she dragged Jasper through the door. He let her with a happy smile adorning his face. Bella and Edward followed a bit more sedately.

~*~*~*~

After the date it was clear that Jasper and Alice were a couple. They would walk around holding hands, and looking at each other with love sick eyes. Bella and Edward were a bit more discreet. They too were a ‘couple’, if you went by high school rules. However, their relationship was tentative, to such a degree that they would only touch when it was the two of them. But they were both happy with that.

And the girl was ecstatic.

~*~*~*~

“Bella!” Alice shrieked as she barrelled down the corridor towards her twin and the two men in their lives. Bella grinned darkly, before leaning back in Edward’s arms and whispering to him.

“I take it she has heard about the party then.” Edward laughed and turned to the bundle of energy before them.

“We have to go to the party. Understand!” the rest of the group did not argue. They knew Alice too well.

~*~*~*~

The girl lay outside in the darkness under the stars and took in the fresh scent of the trees and grass around her. She had really left it too long, and she could smell death in the air when she was in the house or in school. The time had come for her to play her final game. She would not allow it to take her or her sister. That would be unacceptable. The party could not have come at a better time for her. So she planned for it, knowing that soon she would be able to revel in the true delight of the parting of flesh and the spilling of blood. It would be worth the wait. She would beat her father once again.

~*~*~*~

“Bella, I’ll take you home if you want,” Edward said as he took in his girl. She looked damn bored that was sure, her dark brown hair lying across her face dramatically. Edward smiled at her as he slung his arm around her.

“Edward I have to go tell Alice that I am leaving. Wait for me out front?” she asked him in her low melodious voice. He nodded and walked out of the front door, going to wait in the front garden for his girl.

~*~*~*~

Bella walked through the party, looking with disgust at all of the drunken party goers. They were sickening. All the frivolity and idiocy made Bella mad. These people had no idea of true suffering. Someone would show them the true meaning of the word pain eventually.

She saw her twin around the corner, talking to Jasper and Emmett. Bella smiled a true smile at the sight, one of very few real smiles which she graced the world with. It was good to see her twin smiling again, after all the trouble which had forced them to move across the country. Bella walked slowly up to her twin and tapped her on the shoulder. Alice turned and Bella was happy to see that her sister had a cup of soda in her hand, rather than an alcoholic drink.

“Alice I’m gonna head off. I’ve got some things to do tonight anyways. Have you got a ride?” She asked her sister concerned.

“I’m gonna drive myself home pretty soon sis,” Alice trilled as she leant into her boyfriend. “I don’t know that I want to stay much longer anyway.”

“Edward is giving me a lift home. Are you sure you are okay driving?” Bella asked, her concern for her little sister evident in her voice.

“Yes Mom, I’m fine!” Alice laughed. Bella nodded and turned around, heading back to grab her coat.

“Hey Jazz,” Alice said sweetly. “Could you go out and get the car warmed up for me. I just remembered I need to talk to Bella about something.”

~*~*~*~

The girl walked towards her boyfriend, thinking about the situation. It was a perfect time for her last game. Everyone was so drunk in the party no one would be able to tell who had left with whom.

He stood in the front garden wondering what was taking his girl so long. He turned around to look at the cars. He had already turned the car on, and was just waiting for his girl to finish talking to her sister.

He heard footsteps behind him and began to turn around. Before he could greet his girlfriend something hit him on the back of the head. Then everything went black.

~*~*~*~

As he opened his eyes the world slowly came into focus one thought ran through his head. What the fuck? All he could see was the empty night sky above his head, devoid of even the stars which usually gave the black canvas some character. He became aware of his position. He was lying on the ground, spread-eagled, with his limbs tied to posts which had been driven deep into the ground. He tried to fight against the bindings, but they were tied tight. He began to look around him for the person who had knocked him out and bound him in such a helpless manner.

“Honey!” a cheerfully outraged voice said right by his side. “What are you doing up so early?”
He slowly turned his head and saw his girlfriend lying next to him on the floor. She did not appear to be bound as he was, and her face was scarily happy. As if she was enjoying his predicament.

“Alice, what’s happening?” Jasper asked, her, slightly scared by the maniacal glint in her eye. Alice moved herself so that she was almost lying on top of him, her face right by his.

“Shh, baby, shh. It’s okay. We just need to play a little game,” she whispered, before sitting up and leaning over him. She slowly stroked from his chin, down his chest and stopped just above his waistband. “You like games, don’t you Jazz?”

“Alice, why am I tied down like this?” he asked, trying to keep the frantic edge from his voice.

“Baby, I told you. We need to play a game. It’s a very special game. I like to play it with all my boys. It will help me to get to know you better,” Jasper swallowed. For some inexplicable reason he did not like the idea of this game.

“Now I need to get you ready for the game. Don’t worry honey it will be fun!” she giggled as she took hold of his shirt with two hands.

She laughed as she ripped his thin t-shirt apart, the laugh far from her normal bubbly giggle. This was the laugh which could disturb dreams, haunt waking moments and embodied the deepest, darkest pits of hell. Jasper felt himself shaking with fear at the transformation his girlfriend had inexplicably gone through. Her black hair had been slicked up into one single spike, and had stripes of blood red running through it. Her face was a mask of blood red and black, shapes and angular lines were painted over her pale skin, giving her the visage of a demon. As she stood up and walked towards a bag which Jasper had not seen before her was able to take in her whole figure. She wore a black tank top which had been cut off just underneath her breasts, showing her flat stomach. The paint on her face extended down her neck, underneath the tank top and down onto her stomach. The malicious designs finished just above the line of her brilliant red skirt which fell down her body to stroke her knees softly. Jasper felt bile rise in his throat as he noticed the dark red patches dotted over her skirt, the colour of dried blood.

“You know baby, I used to have a pair of leggings I would wear, but they just got too covered in blood. It made them so hard to move in, so I started to play my games without them on. And you know what?” she said as she walked closer to Jasper carrying the bag. She knelt to just by his side and leant into his ear.

“I like it better when the blood is all over my bare skin,” she whispered softly into his ear, menace creeping into her previously light hearted voice. This was not the Alice that Jasper had gotten to know over the past couple of weeks. This was the dark Alice, the true Alice who basked in carving of flesh, in the screams of a victim, in the spilling of hot, fresh blood. This was the true Alice Swan.

Jasper began to scream for help. He pulled against his restraints and tried to get free, to get away from this insane mockery of the girl he thought he could love. She laughed as she pulled the remains of his t-shirt from his body, leaving him bare chested to the frigid night air.

“Shh, baby don’t waste your voice, no one can hear you scream,” she whispered in his ear while stroking his face soothingly. She licked down his neck, catching the beads of sweat with her tongue. “You know, I’ve always wanted to say that!” he voice was full of glee.

“But it’s true. Did you really think I would play my final game close to people?” she laughed that insane laugh, which sent chills down Jasper’s spine, again. “No sweetie. I wanted quiet so I could take my time and get it just right.”

She sat back and reached into her bag. She pulled out what appeared to be a roll of material and two large trays. She crawled down by Jasper’s side and placed an arm under his body. With a display of strength which one would not expect of the petite girl Alice lifted his body up and pushed the two trays underneath his back so that some of each of the trays stuck out. The metal bit into his back and he resisted the urge to wiggle and try to move them. He knew that it would make no difference.

Alice began to unwind the roll of material and tell tale glints of metal began to appear.
“Baby, you know what. I’m gonna use my new toy on you because, you are just so special. I hope you appreciate it.” Everything she said was in a conversational tone. It was so at odds with the situation that Jasper began to realise the depths of this girl’s lunacy. Everything she had done in the past few weeks was a lie.

“Now, honey this is real important. I want you to remember this. I’m not doing this to hurt you,” she said, her eyes glazing over. It was as if she was reciting something from memory. She stopped unwrapping the material and looked off into the darkness. “It’s only a little game. No one will be hurt. But we can’t tell anyone okay. This can be our little secret. Our game to play. It’ll be fun honey, I promise. And we can play the game as many times as we want.”

“Why Alice?” Jasper managed to splutter through his dry lips. She snapped out of the trance and smiled down at him.

“Baby, it’s because this has to happen. I have to finish my game if I want to live. And you are a sacrifice I am willing to make. The game has to be played. I hope you understand.” She went back to unrolling the material. Once it had been fully unwrapped she laid it on the floor and picked up the handle of one of the knives. It slid from its sheath slickly, and Alice held it up in front of her face. It was long and thin, and the point had been sharpened so much that it disappeared into a mere glint.

“Now honey, I want you to know I won’t think any less of you if you scream. In fact, that would make it so much better for me.” Alice smiled down at him and straddled his prone form.
She began carving into his chest with the long thin knife. Jasper screamed out as the blade bit into his flesh.

“Yeah, baby, scream just like that,” Alice laughed.

She carved an intricate design into his skin, laughing as the blood flooded over her hands and was caught in the two trays. She was determined to save every drop, for she would need it later to win the game.

Jasper screamed in agony as the knife bit into his delicate flesh again and again. He was sure that there was some sort of method to the way she cut into him, stopping, and looking at the wound every so often, before beginning again. He could feel himself becoming weak from the amount of blood he had lost, the cuts had been so deep that if he did miraculously escape this with his life he would be left with scars etched deep into his skin.

Then, she stopped. She put the knife aside and reached down into the pools of blood in the trays.

“Baby, we’re almost there,” she whispered once more in his ear. She began methodically painting his skin with his blood. Once she was satisfied with the positioning of the blood she reached into her bag and pulled out a set of baby wipes. She wiped away all of the blood which was in place where it should not be and painted the rest of the symbol with black ink.

She stood up from the body and began to pack away. She put the knife back in the roll of material, the ink and baby wipes back into her bag and stood away from Jasper.

In his last moments of consciousness he saw the blood on her knees and lower legs and the triumphant grin on her face.

“I win the game again daddy,” she said softly as she began to walk away.

The Halloween Grinch

I decided to start putting my fanfiction on this blog: this is the first, a one shot I did for Halloween last year:

Title: The Halloween Grinch
Penname(s): Landiana
Summary: Edward is the Halloween Grinch. He refuses to enjoy the holiday or even acknowledge it. Enjoy as he has to communicate with the Halloween revellers. But what happens when the new girl in town knocks on his door?
Rating: T
Submitted for Haunted Twilight Challenge
Please check out other Challenge Entries at : http://www (dot) fanfiction (dot) net/community/Haunted_Twilight_Challenge/74526/

Halloween. What a truly monotonous time of year. Children get dressed up in twee, clichéd and frankly ridiculous costumes, run around strangers houses and ask for candy. Whatever happened to ‘don’t talk to strangers, they could be bad people’, and ‘asking for something is rude’? Obviously on Halloween the perverts and the paedophiles just take a break, and just disappear. I think not. And if you don’t give the children candy what do they do? Throw things at your house, knock over pumpkins and generally make a nuisance of themselves. And if you give them candy? They become hyper and loud. They run about, ruining the peace and tranquillity of life in the small town I live in. Seriously, does no one have any sense of decorum and decency anymore?

And then there are the high school kids. They are by far worse than the children. Girls dress up, just asking to be abused, in short skirts and tops that their chests burst out of, all in the name of Halloween. They gather in flocks in ‘haunted’ places and houses where parents have more money than sense and drink themselves in oblivion. Pathetic. And of course they all decide it is a good idea to roam around town in these ludicrously short outfits, skin bared to the air, and ‘have a good time’. Since when did knocking on people’s doors and running away constitute as fun? What was the appeal of going into public places, drunk as a skunk, and causing trouble, and getting thrown into a jail cell for the night? High school students confused me immensely, and were the true bane of my existence. Every Halloween we would get teenagers in the Emergency Room, who had hurt themselves in some drunken fuelled stunt. Hardly intelligent.

And the worst part of the inane holiday? My brother. Emmett absolutely adored it. Every year he would come to my house with his children to beg for candy. I didn’t understand how his wife Rosalie could even put up with his simple glee and idiotic enjoyment of a holiday which for all intents and purposes was manufactured to make money in the lull between Easter and Thanksgiving. I mean, why else would shops fill up with expensive, low quality pieces of clothing, which masqueraded as costumes? The whole industry of Halloween was frankly ridiculous.
I should mention now that my sister could even be worse than Emmett when I consider her devious mind and determination for everyone to be involved in the so called ‘holiday’. Alice had decided when we were young children that we would celebrate Halloween every year with a party, which our parents had even foolishly sanctioned. Every year she would work whatever school we were in into a frenzy over the ‘Halloween Party of the Century’. Our house would be full of people which I detested, and in the later years, with girls who were all over me. I learnt to lock myself into my room with the music up as high as it would go to drown out their vacuous conversation. How could they even stand to listen to themselves: “like I totes can’t believe that she so like even did that, I mean what a cow!” in their high pitched squeals. If I had to listen to that all the time I would certainly try to perform a lobotomy on myself to escape it. But I digress.

Every year my brother, his children and my sister march up to my front door in the morning of the 31st and demand that I put a pumpkin out, and stock up on candy. For the first few years after I returned from college I resisted them. I locked my door, refused their entry, and settled down for a quiet evening with my own company. The first year they egged me. They threw flour and eggs all over the front of my house, and even went as far as painting on my front porch that I was the ‘Halloween Grinch’. The name stuck. I thought that would be the extent of their pranks. I could deal with a small cleanup in the morning in exchange for not participating in the insane ritual of gratuitous expense.

But no. It got worse every year after that. The next year I took the whole day off work and locked myself into my house. I stupidly thought that if I was out of sight then I would be out of mind. But no. That year my siblings decided to plaster the whole town with signs proclaiming that my house had the ‘Best candy and scariest experience of your life!’ They even put instructions on all of the posters. I had no chance. That night I was inundated with whiny children and their pushy parents. Every two minutes my doorbell would ring, and I would be interrupted from whatever activity I was partaking in at that moment. It was one of the most stressful nights of my life.

However, nothing could compare to what they did to me the next year. I decided that I would offer to take one of the other doctor’s shift at the hospital on Halloween night, so that I could get away from it all. I assumed that if I was not home then I would not have to take part in the inane ritual. Unfortunately, my sister expected me to leave a bowl of candy on the front porch, or buy some so that she would be able to distribute it to the revellers. I adamantly refused for the whole week prior to the black event. That morning as I got ready for my morning run my siblings and their families snuck into my house through the back door.

Emmett and Jasper, Alice’s husband held me down. Jasper felt it necessary to inform me that this had not been his plan of action, but that Alice had threatened his life if he did not take part in this humiliation. Emmett just guffawed and encouraged Alice and Rosalie. They painted my whole face with clown makeup, with what Alice dutifully informed me would only be removed by makeup remover, which she would give to me in the morning. Then, they painted onto my back the words ‘I am the Halloween Grinch’ with the same stuff. While all this was going on my treacherous niece and nephew went through my whole house and gathered up all of the scrubs, lab coats and anything which could possibly be used for work in a hospital. Then to add insult to injury Alice and Rosalie set about writing the same slogan onto every piece as was on my back.
I had to turn up to work that night with a clown face and a lab coat which had red paint vibrantly across the back, on both sides. I had tried to get it out, but Alice cheerfully told me that only a certain kind of detergent would get it out – one which she was holding ransom, and could only be brought online. I managed to sweet talk one of the nurses into getting me some makeup remover so I could rid my face of the sticky gloop. However, my father had given all the staff instructions that they could, under any circumstances, give me a fresh lab coat. Evidently he agreed with my siblings.

Have you ever walked around ER with ‘I am the Halloween Grinch’ printed on your back on the 31st of October? It was a truly harrowing experience. I had drunks swear at me and tell me that I was a self absorbed killjoy. Children who had come in threw candy at me. I even had one angry mother tip her cold coffee over my shirt. And of course I had nothing to change into, thanks to my siblings and interfering father. The worst night of my life, ever.

Last year I gave up. I allowed my sister to create a pumpkin and put it on my porch. I dutifully bought candy and distributed it to all the children who came to my door. I did it with a grimace on my face, but I did it. Alice could not complain.

“Edward! How is the Halloween Grinch today?” a voice squealed, piercing my ear, breaking me from my contemplation of what brought me to this moment. I turned around and saw my small pixie sister standing across the room, hands on her diminutive hips and a pile of bags surrounding her feet. That did not bode well for me.

“Alice, how did you get it? Both the front door and the back door were locked,” I sighed as I walked over to her and hugged her close to my body. I purposefully ignored her comment about the Halloween Grinch. I was used to it. I did love my sister, even if she could be a tad irritating.

“Silly Edward,” she giggled as she hugged me back. “As if a locked door could keep me out. I could probably fit through a cat flap. And besides, you keep your spare key in the same place as mom and dad do. Under a plant pot in the garden.” Darn. I would have to move that. Maybe I could put it in the garden shed someplace... “And don’t even think about the garden shed. Please, Edward what do you take me for?”

“Alice, I thought that you were psychic, not a mind reader,” I joked as I picked up the bags for her and carried them to the table. Alice waved a hand in dismissive way.

“Details, details, Edward. Does it matter how I know these things?” she asked as she sat down and began rifling through the bags and pulling out pieces of clothing. I felt a wave of foreboding sweep over me.

“Alice,” I choked as she began to lay the clothes out on the table. “Are those.... costumes?”

“Yep!” she said cheerily. I didn’t understand her. Her job was to design costumes for a film company in New York, and she and Jasper lived there most of the year. It baffled me that she would choose to make costumes in her spare time. Every year Lily and Daniel were treated to custom made, one of a kind costumes, which were the envy of all of their friends. Apparently this year Alice had decided that I would wear a costume. No way in hell. I told her that exact fact.

“Edward, you and I both know that you will end up in a costume, and you will like it, otherwise I will call Jasper and Emmett. I still have some of that paint, only this time I will paint it on your face! Halloween Grinch or not, you will wear a costume!” she said fiercely as she waved one finger in my face. I shrank back. My sister could be intimidating at times, regardless of her diminutive size and cute pixie hair cut. I had memories of her at six years old, scaring the hell out of myself and Emmett, who I might add were both two and six years older than her respectively, because we ate her cake. We never did it again, that was certain.

“But Alice!” I whined, perfectly aware that I sounded like a petulant child. We all have to have our weak moments. “I don’t want to!”

“To be honest Edward, I couldn’t care less!”

And so that was how I found myself standing at my front door, just waiting for the first trick or treaters to arrive, dressed as a pirate. That’s right. She forced me into a pirate costume. Her justification was that ‘Em and Jazz are going as pirates as well, so you can all match!” her enthusiasm which would normally be seen as endearing was draining. I tugged at my bandana restlessly and sighed yet again. Damn my sister and her insatiable desire for the perfect Halloween, which apparently included me.

A knock at the door distracted me from my musings. I took a deep breath, smiled unconvincingly and opened the door.

On the porch Lily and Daniel stood, smiling up at me. Six year old Lily was dressed as a little fairy, complete with glittering wings, and a dress which was layered with gossamer and blue lace. Eight year old Daniel was dressed in a long black gown with a hood and a belt with skulls along it. His face was painted deathly white, with black lines running from his eyebrows to his cheek on each eye. Lily flung herself into my arms and squealed.

“Uncle Edward! I knew that you would get dressed up this year!” she squealed, filled with childish exuberance. I put her down and smiled good naturedly. My niece always could put a smile on my face.

“Of course he did!” my brother boomed. I looked past Lily to see my brother swaggering up the walkway in a costume which was undoubtedly a perfect replica of Captain Jack Sparrow’s costume, even down to the beard. It looked hilarious on my brother who was six foot five with the build of a football player. He looked like Johnny Depp had been stretched outwards and upwards. He fingered his beard dramatically as he looked me up and down. “Ahoy there matey!”
“Hello Em,” I said, indulgence filling my voice.

“It’s good to see that you finally got into the spirit of the holiday!” he boomed as he pulled me into bone crushing hug. He let go of me after a minute and looked towards his grinning children.

“Now, let’s take Uncle Edward’s candy and get going. We have many more places to go to my children!” he actually cackled. I started laughing at his absurdity as I pulled out the orange bowl and offered it to the two of them. They pulled a few pieces of candy out each, and thanked me profusely. It was nice to see that someone had taught them manners. Obviously not Emmett, who grabbed a handful and tucked it into his pocket, laughing as he did so. They waved goodbye and I walked back into the house.

I looked at the clock on the wall. 7:30. It had only just begun.

“I just love the decoration you have up Edward!” Tanya screeched as I opened the door. I winced and raised one eyebrow.

“You mean the pumpkin?” I asked sceptically. Tanya had been in my class in high school, and had been obsessed with me. Even now, as a divorcee with twins, an ex husband in jail and working as a waitress at the local fast food joint, she still had the strong fixation on me. She was dressed as scandalously as possible, in a Princess Leia slave girl outfit. Seriously. Who takes their children trick or treating in that?

“I love your costume Edward!” she enthused, avoiding her gaffe about the decorations. I nodded absentmindedly as I offered the bowl to her children. They took great big handfuls. Greedy little buggers. I looked at my watch slyly. 8:46. Several more hours of this left. Tanya took advantage of my distraction and rested a hand on my muscled arm. “You know Edward, Irina is watching the kids tonight while I go to a party. You should come with me!”

I repressed my revulsion and managed to give her a civil answer, barely.

“I’m afraid not Tanya,” I shuddered internally at the thought of spending more time with her. She pouted, in an expression which I assumed was meant to be alluring. It looked pathetic and immature. She hurried her children away, and I took the opportunity to sit down in the doorway. There was no point in going inside, not at this point in the evening.

I saw Alice walk up the pathway, along with a small boy and a woman of her age. I was stunned when I saw the woman’s face. She had beautiful long chocolate hair, which had been curled and hung loosely around her pale face. Her beauty was unequivocal. She had deep russet brown eyes which were bottomless and flawless alabaster skin which glowed. She held the hand of the small boy, with the authority only a mother could hold. I felt irrationally disappointed by that. But of course a beauty like that would have been snapped up as quickly as possible. She was probably married.

I took note in passing of their costumes. The boy was dressed in a cowboy outfit, which distinctly looked like an Alice Whitlock Original. She must have thought much of this woman and her son if she made him a costume. Every parent in Forks was desperate for Alice to design their child’s costume. She was that big in the world of costume design. Alice was dressed in a long sweeping gown, which was slit generously up the side, and fit snugly to her body. She had a pair of good quality prosthetic fangs in her mouth which she had clearly stolen from the vampire film she had just finished shooting. They were hard to distinguish from her real teeth. And the beauty was wearing a gorgeous gown of deep blue silk. It had a corset at the top and off the shoulder sleeves which extended from her wrists with a generous swathe of fabric. The dress flowed out from her hips, giving the impression of a medieval princess. Another Alice Whitlock Original. What had this girl done to attract so much good will from my sister?

“Edward!” she trilled as she walked up the steps and pulled me into a hug. “I’d like you to meet my good friend Bella.”

“Hello Bella,” I said as I held out my hand and shook hers. She smiled and gestured down to the little boy holding her hand. I was immediately enchanted by her, and could not take my eyes away from her exposed shoulders and neck.

“Hi Edward, Alice has told me a lot about you,” she said, her voice smooth and pure elegance. A perfect voice. “This little monster is Oliver.”

“Hello Oliver,” I smiled down at him as I offered him the candy bowl.

“Hello Edward Alice told us that you were really nasty and hated Halloween, she even called you the Halloween Grinch, but I don’t think you are because you have candy and I like candy and isn’t Halloween fun!” the boy said in one breath as he grinned up at me and took some pieces of candy. I had to laugh when he immediately unwrapped one piece and stuck it unceremoniously into his mouth. Bella tutted and sighed.

“Olie, you know that mom said that you couldn’t eat too much while we are out otherwise you are going to be hyper for when I get you home,” she told him off as she held out a hand for the other pieces of candy and slid it into a bag over her arm. He grinned innocently up at her.

“But Bella, mom isn’t here!” he whined. Interesting. Apparently this boy was her younger sibling. I suddenly felt an irrational hope bloom in my heart. Perhaps I would have a chance with this beautiful creature.

“So, Bella what brings you to Forks? I asked to try and make conversation I desperately wanted to know if she would be staying in town.

“Well, my dad used to be the police chief here, until he hurt his back and so I said I would move down here to help him out. My job is very mobile, so it was no problem. My mom and my step dad came down with me to help me set up,” she said, blushing prettily at my interest. Wait a minute. The old police chief was Charlie Swan. She was Isabella Swan, the celebrated author? Well hell!

“Bella and I went to Dartmouth together. Of course you would already know that Edward, if you didn’t avoid like hell my home visits. Bells came with me quite a lot,” Alice said, an accusatory tone. I internally cursed myself and my busy schedule of work.

“To be fair Alice I was doing my residency when I finished at Stanford. I had a lot of work,” I reminded her. She harrumphed, and made a dismissive gesture, as if to tell me that.

“Anyway, Bella we should get going. There’s a lot of houses left in Forks,” commanded Alice. She turned to me. “If you would grace us with your presence there is a party at Emmett’s which starts at half nine. Me and Bells will be there.”

“Maybe Alice,” I said distractedly as slipped another piece of candy to Oliver. He smiled up at me as a co-conspirator. I found myself in a mildly ethical dilemma. If I went to the party I would be subjected to Halloween decorations and the people who celebrated the inane holiday. On the other hand I would see Bella again. Decisions, decisions.

I found myself just over an hour later walking up the path to Emmett’s house. Already I was regretting my decision. They had gone completely overboard on decorations, even going as far as digging a hole in the front garden and placing a grave stone at its head. As I looked closer I saw a skeletal hand creep over the edge, and I admit that I found myself a bit surprised, at least until I realised that it was motorised. How very typical Emmett. I wondered how he had convinced Rose to dig a hole in her perfectly manicured lawn.

I approached the front door with trepidation when I noticed that someone had painted a whole wall with what looked like blood. I, of course, could tell the difference, but I marvelled at the lengths that my brother would go. Clearly I had been sheltered from his true insanity all these years. I knocked on the door and was immediately greeted by Tanya’s more agreeable sister, Kate. She and her husband were closest to the door it seemed. I greeted them and became unwillingly immersed in the party.

Someone save me. Anyone. Please. Or Kill me now. Put me out of my misery and Remind me why I subjected myself to what amounted to my own personal hell? Oh yes, because I wanted to see Bella again. A person who I hadn’t seen even though I had been at the party for an hour. One of the nurses from the hospital, who was shockingly dressed as a slutty nurse (how original), was attached to my one arm, nattering on about how Halloween was the “like totally best holiday ever!” On my other arm was a half dressed ‘genie’, otherwise known as Mrs Stanley. Honestly, how did she think that that outfit was appropriate dress for a middle aged mother of three who was divorced? I had no clue. Either was she was clutched onto my arm, as if her life depended on her staying there, and was telling me all about her eldest’s daughter’s accomplishments. I caught a not so subtle hint that I should ‘look Jessica up the next time she was in town’. I shuddered at the very idea. She had been in my class at high school, and I had no wish to subject myself to her high pitched whining and pitiful immaturity again.

I caught a flash of deep blue and brown out of the corner of my eye. I turned and there she was, walking through the front door arm in arm with my sister. Beautiful. I extracted myself from the two limpets who clung to me, and told them that I would be back once I had talked to Alice. Not a chance in hell of that happening, but they didn’t know that. They simpered as I made my way through the crowd.

Bella was deep in conversation with Jacob Black, who was unoriginally dressed as a Native American tribesman, like the rest of the residents of the Quileute reservation. Bella turned and saw me standing a little behind him. She mouthed a quick ‘help!’ to me, and I was happy to oblige. I walked up confidently to her side and put one arm confidently around her waist. She relaxed into my arms and took hold of my free hand.

“Hello Jacob,” I said gruffly. “I see that you’ve meet Bella.”

“You know Bella?” Jacob asked sceptically as he took in our very natural body language. I couldn’t help but notice how naturally our bodies seemed to fit together.

“Oh, yes. I know everything about this woman,” I said to him, looking him straight in the eye. He walked off with a snort and began accosting Lauren Mallory. I wished the two of them all the happiness in the world. They deserved each other.

“So, you know everything about me do you?” Bella asked coyly as she looked up at me. Damn, the woman was alluring.

“Well, considering how much Alice talks about you I would say that I know you pretty well,” I whispered in her ear, making her shiver in what I hoped was pleasure. I continued. “I know that you have a scar on your shoulder from when you were almost crushed by a van at college. You took ballet lessons as a child to try and remedy you balance problems. And you have a very, very inviting collar bone.” With that last sentence I ran my hand across her exposed shoulders and neck, delighting in the way that she trembled. Then the moment was shattered.

“Edward! You came!” Tanya shrieked as she ran up to me. I shrank back from her, something which Bella noted with amusement. “I knew that you wouldn’t stay away for long! I love your costume!”

There were so many things I wanted to say to her in that moment: Tanya shut up you saw me earlier, I will never ever in a million years touch you, if I knew that this was the party you were talking about I never would have come, leave now so I can get back to seducing this woman! Instead I restrained myself and politely replied.

“Thank you Tanya, I decided on a whim to come.” I hoped that the abrupt end to my sentence would warn her off. But she was as insatiable as a bulldog with a juicy bone. Absolutely impossible. She began to speak, but Bella cut her off.

“Edward, honey we should probably go and talk to Em and Rose, I haven’t had a chance to thank them for inviting me,” Bella said smoothly. I was struck by her ingenuity. I nodded to Tanya, and we began walking away. Tanya looked awestruck and did not know what to say.

“Honey, eh?” I asked in passing as we walked through the room, arm in arm. She blushed again, drawing me in and looked down.

“Well lets just say that I know you incredibly well as well.” We walked out of the room and onto the back decking. We walked aimlessly around the corner of the house into the shadows and I was surprised when Bella pushed me into the wall and leant against me. “Alice told me a lot about you, but not the important things, like how intelligent and incredibly sexy you are. And she didn’t tell me how much I would want to find out how you kiss.”

Then she leant in even more and captured my lips with hers. I immediately slid my arms around her waist and pulled her full against my body, lifting her slightly so she didn’t have to crane her neck to kiss me. Our lips moved in sync and I felt the touch of her moist tongue against my lips. I opened them up to give her access and slid my tongue effortlessly into her small, enthralling mouth. Our mouths and lips moved together for some time, both of us blissfully unaware of our surroundings. When she was gasping for breath I twisted us around and pushed her into the wall, placing feather light kisses along her neck and those collar bones which had been calling to me all night, ever since I caught sight of them across my garden. I heard her moan and pull me into her even more.

“And to think if it weren’t Halloween, we might not have met tonight,” she said in a breathy voice. That did it for me. I changed my mind. I bloody loved Halloween!