Hi guys,

I wanted to say a big thank you to everyone who's asked after this story, to all the people who messaged me with encouragement and all the people who gave me feedback - you all know who you are and I appreciate it because if you guys didn't kick me now and again I'd never get this story finished.

Chapter 6

"I know you must be rather preoccupied," he started, keeping his tone slow and level. Evidently he thought I was some kind of idiot. "But I have a few questions for you."

My hand rested on the door.

"What kind of questions?"

"About the other night. You could really help me with this." He was looking at me with an examining expression. I was some beetle - interesting, but not of any great importance.

"Really," I said, curling my hand, searching for the doorknob. He had questions. Angela was in hospital, I'd been questioned by the police, I had no idea where Lauren was but she was probably out of her head at that minute, and the boy who showed up from nowhere to have a nice little chitchat with whoever those... people were... He had questions. "Well you've come to the wrong place. I don't know anything you don't."

"You might."

"Like what?" A question flitted back to my mind. "How did you even know those people anyway?"

"I can't tell you. Had you seen them before?"

"No. And how come? Who were they?"

"Jessica," he winced. "Please. Did you hear them say anything?"

"No. What did they want? Were they burglars, is that it? What were you doing so close by anyway? Did you hear the gunshot? Have they done this before?" He lowered his head; answer enough for me. "They have, haven't they?"

"Please stop asking me about it. Honestly, it's best you don't know. Now I realise how I must sound, but this is very important," he insisted, offering a twitch of something resembling a smile. If it was meant to make me feel better it failed.

"If it's that important, you'd tell me what's going on. You can't just show up at my house to play detective. How do I know they aren't going to show up again? You know them better than I do, judging from what you said to them. I only know what happened, and even that's a mess, but you - why should I tell you anything?"

A sharp breath was the only answer I got at first. Rolling his shoulders back, he sighed. "I'm sorry, but I just can't tell you for a lot of reasons. If that's the only time you've seen them, then I won't bother you anymore."

Folding my arms, I glared at him. "So that's it, then. You aren't going to tell me anything at all. Not who they were, what they wanted, not if they're coming back..."

"I'm afraid not. Maybe another time?" he offered flatly, the way you do when you offer to go shopping with someone sometime("Sure! Sure... Uh, I'll call you, okay?").

"Let me guess, you'll tell me on Nowhere Street on the thirteenth day of the thirteenth month?"

"No... but just not now and - "

"And probably not ever," I finished. Frowning, he stepped back a pace and half-turned to leave. At the edge of the sidewalk he paused, glanced back at me and grimaced. I couldn't help but feel slightly proud about that, in a weird way: I hadn't helped him any more than he'd helped me, which I thought served him right for barging in with that wannabe Sherlock routine.

"Thank you for your time," he murmured feebly, striding slowly down the sidewalk with a sidelong look at me as he passed. Rolling my eyes, I shut the door and clambered back up Mount Staircase to my (now cold, thanks a lot) bed. Don't mention it.

"Owdenowheliv?"

"What?" I hoisted myself up onto my elbows, kicking my legs carelessly. "Lauren, swallow and then talk."

"I said, how did he know where you lived?"

"I don't even care," I muttered, rolling onto my back. "Maybe he asked someone. I don't even care right now. There's too much going on right now. What did the police say?"

"I don't think I helped much. They kept asking me if I wanted to go to the doctor."

"How's Angie?"

"Better. She should be out soon. That reminds me, could you get her Spanish homework tomorrow?"

"Sure. Do you want some magazines for her too?" I offered, stretching a pointed finger out to a valley of magazines huddled on my desk. "She must be really bored there if she's asking for Spanish homework."

"I know, right?"

There was a lull in the conversation - normally this was where Angela would have spoken up.

"So..." I began, sensing something. When Lauren had something to talk about she had a habit of grabbing her jade pendant and pressing it against the dip at the base of her throat - maybe she thought the pressure would push the words up.

"So..." Lauren began, glancing up to catch my eyes. "I saw Tyler today."

"Did you talk to him?"

"He talked to me."

"Really?" I smiled, pulling myself up. "Tell me. Now. Details."

"It wasn't much," she insisted. "Just that there's a new girl starting soon. Eric told him."

"How did Eric know?"

"Mike, probably. Are you two... y'know."

"I'd rather not talk about it. Let's talk about Tyler instead," I said hurriedly.

"Why? It's not like I have a chance."

"Oh, and I do?"

Another pause. Lauren took a deep breath, but couldn't yank any words up. I glanced out the window; a piece of popcorn tapped me on the head. "Lauren!"

"You've done it to me."

"But... Fine. Remember when we were at your house and got that chocolate cake all over the wall?"

"That was quite a birthday party," she chuckled. "I wish you could come over."

"So I'm still banned from your house."

"Yep."

"Your sister?"

"Yeah."

"Damn."

"Exactly."

"Ah well. We didn't have homework for Math, right?"

"I don't think so. Night Lauren."

I might as well get this out of the way: the new girl was Officer's Swan's daughter, Bella. You might already know her. Maybe she talked about me, too. I don't know. I don't care. I'm writing this to throw it away. It doesn't matter - none of it matters. Yes it does, or I wouldn't want to stop thinking about it all. I'm so tired... Let's get this over with.

So anyway, new girl, Bella Swan, blah blah blah blah... She seemed okay. Quiet, but okay. She sat with us at dinner; me, Angela and Lauren. Then by some miracle Mike suddenly recovered from Avoid-Jessica-At-All-Costs Syndrome. I don't remember much of the conversation with Bella. I don't think she was paying attention to us. Instead she gazed out at another table, gawping.

"Who's that?"

"Who, the Cullens? Well, that guy there is Edward. Don't waste your time."

Maybe my attention was elsewhere. You know how it is with exes. Smiling and nodding, Mike simpered at the back of Bella's head.

"Have you got a lot of friends back home?" he asked with the teddy-bear eyes. It made me think of the sophomore dance.

"No, not really."

"You must have a couple."

"Have you got a boyfriend?" Funny, the second I asked that he turned around and looked at me for the first time in forever. His mouth dropped like that wasn't the question he wanted to ask.

"I - uh..."

"Jessica..."

"What? I'm just asking, Mike."

Angie to the rescue: "So what do you think of Forks so far, Bella?"

"It's rainy."

"I guess so."

"It's nice though," Lauren added. "What do you think, Tyler?"

"Huh?"

"Bella was just talking about the rain."

Tyler graced Bella with a shiny white smile. "It's cool, though, there's an inside gym. More time to practice, I guess. I came third in wrestling last year; all the practice this year meant I got in with first place." I could actually feel the envy radiating off Lauren as Tyler started bragging about his earth-defying biceps.

"That's nice," Bella mumbled. Her eyes turned and reached to look at the Cullen's table until the bell squealed us all over to class. The less said about English class the better, but let's just say Romeo & Juliet and leave it there. You don't really care about that, right? You know what comes next, so let's just get on with it. I was talking to Edward at the time. Well, he was talking. Surprise. All I was saying was:

"Whatever it is, I don't want -"

"I'm sorry."

I wrenched my key from the locker door.

"Come again?"

"I want to apologise for the other day. I shouldn't have showed up to your door like that."

"You think that's why I'm annoyed?"

"No, I'm not stupid."

"Oh, aren't you?" I raised my eyebrows. What was he smirking at?

"I suppose I deserved that. Jessica? Are you listening?" I kept my head turned in the other direction, pretending to be fascinated by a blue van. And there was Bella... looking weirdly shifty. Huh. Edward's voice continued grating against the back of my head. "Look, I just wanted you to know I'm sorry; I'll let you be now."

"How nice of - " The words dropped out as the van twirled and roared. It was a great wave, a metal monster charging at Bella, screaming on her behalf as she stood there, open mouthed and limp and still and stuck as Edward darted forward and slammed his open palm against the van what the hell was he doing ohGodGodfuckshithelpwhat?

There they were, the two of them wound around each other like one of those statues of lovers - no blood, no gore, no screams. They stared at each other, panting, wordless - it was as though they weren't really there, like there was a special aura around them that wasn't from the same world as us, an iron mist that wouldn't admit anything from our world, that dented the metal where it had tried. When I walked past the van, I banged at the window to yank Tyler from his trance(Mike said he went to hospital too in shock). The thing that felt even weirder than seeing Edward jump between places like that was when I looked at the car door. The metal bore a perfect imprint of a hand, like a baby's hand in clay.

I realise that this is a rough draft and might be edited later, so I've got some questions for you guys.

1) How do you feel about the car scene? How could it be improved?

2) What are your thoughts on the interactions between the normals and Bella?

3) Any opinions on the way Bella has been introduced?