I frowned at the letters on the page. All of them had been in on it - Emmett, Jasper, Alice, Rosalie, and Carlisle. Maybe even Esme, though he hadn't mentioned her.

"Oh, dear," Esme said.

"Don't worry mom, she won't blame any of you," Edward said.

And then Paul and the rest of the Quileute pack. It might so easily have turned into a fight, pitting my future family and my old friends against each other. Any one of them could have been hurt. I imagined the wolves would be in the most danger, but picturing tiny Alice next to one of the huge werewolves, fighting . . .

"As if that would matter," Alice scoffed, but Jasper was looking at her worried. "You know I can handle myself."

"He's worried that because you can't see them that it would be difficult for you," Edward clarified and Jasper glared at him. "Sorry, but it's important that she knows this."

"As if that would make a difference," Alice said. "I hardly ever use that sense in a fight."

"But you do use it," Jasper frowned, "and it would make a fight with the wolves more dangerous for you."

"I can handle myself," Alice repeated, her voice hard as she narrowed her eyes at him.

"I just worry," Jasper said, giving her a smile that always got to her no matter how angry she was at the moment.

"I know," Alice rolled her eyes and smiling back.

I shuddered.

Carefully, I scrubbed out the entire paragraph with my eraser and then I wrote over the top: What about Charlie? She could have been after him.

Edward was shaking his head before I finished, obviously going to downplay any danger on Charlie's behalf. He held a hand out, but I ignored that and started again.

You can't know that she wasn't thinking that, because you weren't here. Florida was a bad idea.

"Yeah, Eddy, no more fleeing the state," Emmett chuckled.

He took the paper from underneath my hand.

I wasn't about to send you off alone. With your luck, not even the black box would survive.

"Idiot," Alice said, rolling her eyes. "You know she meant that neither of you should have left."

"So?" Edward said, smiling.

That wasn't what I'd meant at all; I hadn't thought of going without him. I'd meant that we should have stayed here together. But I was sidetracked by his response, and a little miffed.

Like I couldn't fly cross country without bringing the plane down. Very funny.

So let's say my bad luck did crash the plane. What exactly were you going to do about it?

Why is the plane crashing?

He was trying to hide a smile now.

"Not trying so hard here," Emmett commented.

The pilots are passed out drunk.

Easy. I'd fly the plane.

Of course. I pursed my lips and tried again.

Both engines have exploded and we're falling in a death spiral toward the earth.

I'd wait till we were close enough to the ground, get a good grip on you, kick out the wall, and jump. Then I'd run you back to the scene of the accident, and we'd stumble around like the two luckiest survivors in history.

"Dork," Alice shook her head.

"What? It would work," Edward shrugged.

I stared at him wordlessly.

"What?" he whispered.

I shook my head in awe. "Nothing," I mouthed.

I scrubbed out the disconcerting conversation and wrote one more line.

You will tell me next time.

I knew there would be a next time. The pattern would continue until someone lost.

"You mean...until she lost," Edward corrected.

Edward stared into my eyes for a long moment. I wondered what my face looked like - it felt cold, so the blood hadn't returned to my cheeks. My eyelashes were still wet.

He sighed and then nodded once.

Thanks.

The paper disappeared from under my hand. I looked up, blinking in surprise, just as Mr. Berty came down the aisle.

"Is that something you'd like to share there, Mr. Cullen?"

Edward looked up innocently and held out the sheet of paper on top of his folder. "My notes?" he asked, sounding confused.

"Sorry...can't catch a Cullen passing notes," Emmett laughed.

Mr. Berty scanned the notes - no doubt a perfect transcription of his lecture - and then walked away frowning.

It was later, in Calculus - my one class without Edward - that I heard the gossip.

"My money's on the big Indian," someone was saying.

"Please," Edward said, rolling his eyes.

I peeked up to see that Tyler, Mike, Austin, and Ben had their heads bent together, deep in conversation.

"Yeah," Mike whispered. "Did you see the size of that Jacob kid? I think he could take Cullen down." Mike sounded pleased by the idea.

"It wouldn't help you in the least," Edward said. "And why are you on the mutt's side anyway?"

"Because he would have more of a shot with Bella if you were gone," Alice answered.

"Idiot," Edward growled.

"I don't think so," Ben disagreed. "There's something about Edward. He's always so . . . confident. I have a feeling he can take care of himself."

"I'm with Ben," Tyler agreed. "Besides, if that other kid messed Edward up, you know those big brothers of his would get involved."

"Undoubtedly," Emmett said. "And he knows that we'll make sure he wins the fight."

"Have you been down to La Push lately?" Mike asked. "Lauren and I went to the beach a couple of weeks ago, and believe me, Jacob's friends are all just as big as he is."

"Huh," Tyler said. "Too bad it didn't turn into anything. Guess we'll never know how it would have turned out."

"It didn't look over to me," Austin said. "Maybe we'll get to see."

Mike grinned. "Anyone in the mood for a bet?"

"Ten on Jacob," Austin said at once.

"Ten on Cullen," Tyler chimed in.

"Ten on Edward," Ben agreed.

"Jacob," Mike said.

"Hey, do you guys know what it was about?" Austin wondered. "That might affect the odds."

"I can guess," Mike said, and then he shot a glance at me at the same time that Ben and Tyler did.

"Told you that's what they would think," Alice smirked. "All normal high school drama stuff."

"Idiots," Edward said.

"Yeah...because that's not the reason that you're fighting," Emmett laughed. "Sure the whole vampire/werewolf issue is there too, but..."

"Shut up," Edward growled.

From their expressions, none of them had realized I was in easy hearing distance. They all looked away quickly, shuffling the papers on their desks.

"I still say Jacob," Mike muttered under his breath.

"That's it," Esme said.

"Let's just hope that I get better chapters in this book," Jasper muttered before he took the book from Esme.

Chapter Four

Nature

"Nature," Jasper read.

I was having a bad week.

I knew that essentially nothing had changed. Okay, so Victoria had not given up, but had I ever dreamed for one moment that she had?

"No...at least I didn't," Edward sighed.

Her reappearance had only confirmed what I'd already known. No reason for fresh panic.

In theory. Not panicking was easier said than done.

"You can see why I didn't want to tell her," Edward said.

"And you can see why it wasn't such a good idea to keep secrets from her," Esme said.

"Yeah, because the stupid mutt would rat me out again," Edward groaned, but his anger wasn't as strong as it was before - so it was easy to see that he was joking.

Graduation was only a few weeks away, but I wondered if it wasn't a little foolish to sit around, weak and tasty, waiting for the next disaster. It seemed too dangerous to be human - just begging for trouble. Someone like me shouldn't be human. Someone with my luck ought to be a little less helpless.

"Nope, none of those reason would convince me to change you," Edward said.

"Edward...name the reason that would convince you to change her," Alice shot back.

"Well, there is none, of course, but those reasons are worse than most," Edward answered. "I definitely don't want her changing out of fear."

"You have a good point there," Alice conceded.

But no one would listen to me.

Carlisle had said, "There are seven of us, Bella. And with Alice on our side, I don't think Victoria's going to catch us off guard. I think it's important, for Charlie's sake, that we stick with the original plan."

Esme had said, "We'd never allow anything to happen to you, sweetheart. You know that. Please don't be anxious." And then she'd kissed my forehead.

Emmett had said, "I'm really glad Edward didn't kill you. Everything's so much more fun with you around."

Emmett laughed at that, "That's definitely true!"

"Idiot," Rosalie glared at him.

Rosalie had glared at him.

Jasper read that part with a smirk.

Alice had rolled her eyes and said, "I'm offended. You're not honestly worried about this, are you?"

"If it's no big deal, then why did Edward drag me to Florida?" I'd demanded.

"Because he's an overreacting fool," Alice answered immediately.

"Haven't you noticed yet, Bella, that Edward is just the teeniest bit prone to overreaction?"

Jasper had silently erased all the panic and tension in my body with his curious talent of controlling emotional atmospheres. I'd felt reassured, and let them talk me out of my desperate pleading.

"Thanks Jazz," Edward smiled.

"Just doing my part," Jasper shrugged.

Of course, that calm had worn off as soon as Edward and I had walked out of the room.

So the consensus was that I was just supposed to forget that a deranged vampire was stalking me, intent on my death. Go about my business.

"That's just about right," Edward nodded his head.

"It's never going to happen," Emmett said.

"I know," Edward smiled. "Hey, you don't think that it was Victoria in the preface... that she was the danger...?"

"How would she threaten the whole family?" Emmett scoffed.

"Oh... right," Edward frowned; he would much prefer it to be her, than the Volturi...they all would.