Whispers of Fate: The Girl That Never Was

Author's Note: My God. I can only apologise. I have this story planned out chapter by chapter and I truly meant to update but I am, (or have recently been), very bad at doing so over the last few years. This fic in particular is a little harder as I've planned the chapters to match with the sequence of events in the book, so as well as adding my own scenes each chapter is genuinely long just covering cannon details, although obviously those will change somewhat as the story progresses. All I can say is that I am sincerely sorry to those of you who were looking forward to this story and I do hope you continue to read it although I have clearly made you wait much too long for an update.

Chapter 2: The Art of Blending In

Muddy water is best cleared by leaving it alone. - Alan W. Watts

Ray awoke the next morning to a dull grey sky which would have been much more welcome than the sliver of light that had awoken her the previous morning if it wasn't for her stomach rolling as if the acids inside it were the sea during a vicious storm. Would Edward be coming to school today? He wasn't supposed to be that was for sure and one less bloodthirsty vampire to contend with would usually be good news especially during the point of the novel where Edward posed the most serious threat and yet, for all Aurelia knew he could be in school bright eyed and pointy fanged. Rosalie hadn't been at school yesterday after-all, in fact she seemed non-existent which could mean that in this alternate universe Edward would come to school, lose what self-control he'd had the previous day and decide on a Bella smoothie for breakfast. For Ray this seemed like a very uninviting prospect and Bella's morose face when she stumbled down the staircase that morning only added to Ray's anxious feeling. What if he did come to school today? What then?

Bella for her part, looked as if she wanted to go to school about as much as she wanted to swim with great white sharks without a cage and she didn't even know the half of it, looking at it from this perspective it was hard to see how she'd taken the whole undead, bloodsucking, creatures of the night thing in her stride; however, she had, she would. Ray tried to assure herself of this, desperately begging her mind to believe that again as they pulled up into the parking lot because as of this moment the only thing seemingly holding Bella together was Ray's (faked) easy smile and Bella needed to keep it together.

Blue eyes darting around the student parking lot as she hopped out of the roaring red beast that was Bella's truck, Ray felt her heartbeat calm some as she noticed the absence of any car which could possibly belong to the Cullens. It was of course possible that the Cullen's just hadn't arrived at school as yet but then, it was also entirely possible that Edward wasn't coming because he was already in Alaska with the Denali coven. Ray prayed it was the latter. Tucking a stray strand of hair behind her ear she quickly strode around the truck bed to meet Bella as she all but tumbled from the driver's seat looking rather green. "Now Bells remember…" Ray couldn't help grinning, eyes flashing as she internally chuckled at her own joke, "no one is going to bite you."

The withering look Bella shot the blonde was more than enough to make Ray feel slightly more lighthearted as they trudged towards the small gathering of huts that made up Forks High School. "Well…" Ray searched her mind for something comforting and yet, not too strange to say, anything that might offer Bella some comfort in the day ahead, yet all she could remember about the day from the books was that it was the day Edward hadn't come back to school. "Hope Cullen isn't such a prick today and Bella," Ray placed one hand gently on her cousin's shoulder feeling a tug of affection from the memories which assaulted her again when Bella's deep brown eyes met her own. "I'm sure it wasn't your fault."

Bella's full lips parted for half a second, and Ray was almost positive that Bella intended to rebuff the statement before the ball of energy that was Mike Newton bounded up next to them. "Bella!" He exclaimed happily, throwing an arm around the brunette's shoulder before turning to Ray and greeting her in a much less enthusiastic tone, "Hey England." Ray suppressed a smirk at Bella's wide-eyed shock that Mike was so forthcoming. "Mind if I steal your cousin? Walk her to English and all that?"

The words 'Help Me' were so clearly written across Bella's face that the corner of Ray's lips twitched involuntarily. "By all means, just don't let her fall." Ray swept an arm out towards the entrance to the school or at least, the pathway leading to most of the buildings. Although she could most certainly feel the heat of the glare Bella was sending her way Ray kept her eyes firmly on Mike as she took a step back. "I'll see you at lunch Bells. Have a fantastic day." With the cheesiest fakest smile on her face as she watched Bella pulled into a building by what she was sure was the human version of an energiser bunny, Ray gave a mocking, finger wiggling wave. "Toodles."

Chuckling to herself Ray ran a petite, pale hand through her thick blonde locks before stuffing her hands resolutely in the pockets of her leather jacket, it was time she made her way to her own lesson.

The morning passed in a bit of a blur for Ray, her classes were all sans vampires which calmed her racing mind and she settled into the strange routine that was American high-school relatively easily. It didn't seem half as bad as all the teen movies had led her to believe but then again this was a particularly small high-school so perhaps she had that to thank. In fact the only bump in Ray's morning was discovering when she took her notebook out in her first class that she'd forgotten to pack herself a lunch which meant trying to navigate American money at lunchtime a prospect she wasn't thrilled about.

Getting into the cafeteria was easy enough. She didn't have the same trouble remembering where things were that Bella had seemed to in the books but then, Ray had a pretty good memory so that was to be slightly expected. The routine to picking out a lunch seemed easy enough too, grabbing a bright red plastic tray Ray followed the other students into the line and placed a sandwich, bright green apple, packet of crisps or, as they were called in America, chips and a fresh bottle of mountain spring water on it. Digging a hand into her pocket for the money she knew was there even though she still hadn't got the foggiest idea where it came from, Ray surveyed the items on her tray carefully. Did you pay tax on school lunch? She couldn't be sure but if you did considering it wasn't already added on the ticketed prices like in England she had no idea how much this was going to cost. Brilliant, she thought, just what I need, to embarrass myself by holding everyone up. With a sigh as she stared at the green notes and little coins in her hand Ray pushed her tray slightly further along her stomach clenching.

"How much are you likely to be?" She muttered to the food as if it could actually answer her question. "Is tax a thing I need to work out here? Because if so I'm sure I lack the mathematical ability to do so." Her teeth tugged her full bottom lip between them as she stared at the tray willing it to answer her.

"Three dollars and thirty five cents." Ray's answer came in a tinkling musical voice that reminded her of bells and could only possibly belong to one person.

Heart pounding in her chest, Ray tilted her head sideways to look at the person who'd answered her and was entirely unsurprised to be faced with the small, pixie-like form of Alice Cullen. The books had Alice down pat. She was absolutely tiny, had bright golden eyes, a soft friendly smile, pale unblemished skin and short, choppy, inky black hair which stuck out in every direction and yet still looked impeccably styled. She was wearing a beautiful grey dress which pulled tight under her bust and fanned out afterwards and of course she looked completely gorgeous. What Ray hadn't particularly been expecting was to see the other two Cullen's behind Alice in the line smiling whilst they looked at her. Jasper she already knew would look alluring up close after sitting beside him the day before although she had to admit, he looked a lot more approachable with the friendly smile on his face and Emmett, well Ray still wasn't prepared for Emmett. Unintentionally she ran her eyes over his hulking form, he was massive positively ginormous in fact even placed next to Jasper who wasn't short or lacking in muscle himself, and by god was Emmett attractive. He did have a slight baby face when he smiled, his cute grin only enhanced by the dimples that made him look oddly young and carefree but he was also extremely handsome. Ray once again couldn't help but note internally how much of a disservice Emmett had been done by Stephanie Meyer when it came to descriptions. He was both huge and intimidating whilst also looking playful and sincere and he was easily the most devastatingly handsome man that Ray had seen...well anywhere if she was honest.

Realising she was clearly staring and there was no way the vampires could possibly have missed this a blush wormed its way onto her cheeks as she forced her eyes back to Alice. "Er...thanks." Ray mumbled feeling stupider by the second.

Gulping quietly, she cast her eyes down to the money in her hand again trying to focus on getting enough to pay. Her fingers deftly extracted three dollars and a quarter before the puzzled look flickered across her face again as she stared at the remaining coins realising she had no idea how to make the remaining ten cents. She only had one five and a couple of loose cents which gave her seven and some dimes, whatever the hell those are she thought hopelessly.

"Those are ten." Alice's soft voice pushed through Ray's panic again and a delicate pale finger pointed to the dimes resting on Ray's own pale hand, which when compared to Alice's looked slightly tanned.

"Thanks." Ray mumbled dropping one of the dimes onto her tray with the three dollars and the quarter before stuffing the rest of the money back into the pocket of her jeans. "It says how much they're worth on the coins in England." She added by way of an explanation.

Alice shot her a stunning smile, "That would make things easier," she agreed, "as would already adding the tax."

Ray couldn't help but chuckle at that, of course the vampires had heard her talking to her food about the tax they could probably hear what was happening in the house across the street right about now.

"Yeah it would." Ray returned Alice's smile before tugging at one of her long blonde locks. "Thanks again for the help, I'd have been there all day." She pushed her tray forwards in the line, trying not to think about how easy it was to converse with Alice, she could feel her heartbeat slowing as they went.

"You're Ray."

"I-" Ray stared at Alice for a second, lips parted in shock at the knowing smile playing around Alice's lips, unsure whether she'd heard her announce she preferred Ray or she'd seen so in one of her visions. A slight squeeze in her gut told her it might be the latter. "Yeah, actually, how did you-"

"You're in Jasper's history class." Alice replied with a smile indicating the blonde behind her. "He told me you preferred Ray." Although it was possible they'd heard it somewhere still, Ray didn't think so and she was positive that she hadn't said so in history yesterday. She fought down the urge to shiver, unsure quite how she felt about Alice having possible visions of her.

"Yeah, I er-" Ray shrugged. "Aurelia is a bit of a mouthful."

Alice's lips pressed together in a small grin. "I suppose." Sweeping a hand behind her she pointed at both the boys in turn. "This is Jasper, my boyfriend you met him yesterday and Emmett my brother, I don't think you've met yet."

Ray was at a loss. She wasn't sure how she was supposed to act here, what she was supposed to say, why they were being so nice and why they were even interested in her in the first place. Surely they should be off cursing Bella right now. If she remembered correctly although Rosalie had been the most anti-Bella Cullen Jasper hadn't been thrilled himself and yet, here he was smiling at Ray as if he was already one of her best friends or something which was a stark contrast to the Jasper she'd met yesterday. Her eyes had wandered to Jasper as she thought about everything unbeknownst to her and she realised some of her feelings on the matter must have translated as soon as he spoke.

"I'm sorry about how I acted yesterday." His southern drawl sounded a hell of a lot more pronounced than Ray was expecting knowing from her Twilight knowledge that he hid it a little in public, in fact it seemed as if he wasn't bothering at all right now. "I wasn't feeling very well."

"Oh um," Ray shrugged feeling particularly thrown by this turn of events. "No worries."

"It's nice to meet you." Emmett's voice sounded slightly southern too but more than that it was deep, oddly musical, slightly husky and completely alluring. For the second time in a matter of minutes Ray found herself rendered speechless by the vampire she least expected it from.

When her blue eyes met his honey-gold ones which seemed to dance with excitement, it snapped her back to reality. "Oh yeah you too." She couldn't stop the grin that bloomed in response to his overly excited smile.

"I'm sure you two are going to really like each other." Alice chimed.

Ray was highly grateful that it was her turn to pay as Alice spoke because Alice seeming so sure that Ray and Emmett would get along only caused worry to bloom again in Ray's stomach. With one last nod that she hoped looked natural, Ray turned her back on the odd family and moved, albeit a little shakily towards Bella's table.

Bella as it turned out provided a welcome distraction from Alice's oddly ominous words because she was still none too happy with Ray for abandoning her this morning. "If you ever leave me alone with Mike again-" Bella whispered sharply as Ray took her seat. "I'll-"

"You'll bite me?" Ray asked smoothly with an impish grin. Bella lightly smacked Ray's shoulder before turning back to her own food.

"I don't think he's here Bells." Ray muttered as the other occupants of their table discussed an upcoming beach trip and Bella became more tense by the second, tugging inconspicuously on her brown hair.

Turning to face Ray Bella asked, "How do you know?" her eyes wide and swimming with worry.

"Because I just bought my lunch in line next to the rest of his family and he wasn't there." Ray took a bite out of her sandwich, chewed swallowed and then continued, "So I guess he could be skulking about in the car or something but honestly I think he's absent."

"It's my fault." Bella mumbled just about loud enough for Ray to make out.

"Now that's ridiculous. What could you possibly have done? And if you say smelled-" Ray warned as Bella's mouth opened to retort. "I will smack you in the head because I know you showered that morning and you smelt of nothing but strawberries." Ray swigged a little of her water. "He's probably just sick or something."

A very small part of Ray felt bad for lying to Bella, really bad and horribly guilty but she'd decided it was best not to interfere too much before she really knew what was going on here and as such it made sense to comfort Bella as much as possible just like she assumed she would have if she had in fact been born in this universe and grown up with Bella for a cousin. Never mind that she couldn't possibly explain to Bella that it was all her fault that Edward was absent even if she was inclined to do so in the middle of the lunchroom with three other vampires sat not even fifty feet away.

So with a slight tug of guilt as lunch finished and Mike whisked Bella away again, Ray headed towards her next lesson trying to come up with advanced rebuffs to all of the ludicrous and yet oddly accurate statements she was sure Bella was going to make later that evening. Pushing her way into the English room however she was horribly distracted by Emmett Cullen who was seated next to the only available desk in the room. Wonderful.

Mr Berty Ray's English teacher, thankfully didn't make her do the whole awkward introduce yourself to the class routine that she remembered Bella suffering in some of her classes. In fact not one of Ray's teachers had done this yet and Ray wondered whether it was because they were being understanding, in this universe her parents had just died after all, or whether it was because they were worried about her voicing this to the class, either way Ray was glad when all Mr Berty did was click his tongue in acknowledgement of Ray's slight late entry to the classroom, hand her a copy of Romeo and Juliet and pointed her towards the empty seat next to Emmett Cullen.

Ray took one last deep breath to calm her nerves before she headed to the desk and swung herself into the seat next to him. A small flicker of a smile crossing her face as she heard one girl who's name she had yet to learn muttering "Whitlock in History now Cullen in English some people have all the luck." as she passed by.

Emmett looked visibly excited to be seated next to Ray and she wasn't sure if this was purely because of Emmett being an excitable person or because, as she dreaded, Alice had in fact had visions of Ray and Emmett in some capacity or another; so Ray tried her best to ignore Emmett's eyes on her. Once she was seated Ray busied herself with extracting her notebook and pen from her bag and placing them on the desk, when that was done however, she had nothing more to keep her from meeting Emmett's intent gaze.

His eyes seemed overflowing with excitement and Ray felt sure now that it was most certainly Alice that had caused this. "Hey." His grin widened as he spoke making his dimples even more pronounced if that was even possible. "Fancy seeing you here."

Ray smiled despite herself as she took in Emmett's imposing form in the close quarters. He easily took more than half of the desk and she thanked her lucky stars she was small because otherwise this would be a very uncomfortable hour. His curly hair was a shade of brown that reminded Ray of dark chocolate and it looked much too soft to be on top of the head of the behemoth that was Emmett Cullen; the guy's arms looked like they would rip his shirt any second for Christ's sake! "Two seniors sharing a class. Imagine that." Ray drawled sarcastically as she turned to the front again and tried to focus on Mr Berty who was lecturing them on the themes within the play.

Emmett's form seemed to deflate slightly beside her at her sarcastic dismissal and a twinge of guilt shot through Ray's stomach, I want to go home, getting close to the Cullen's any Cullen despite whatever Alice may have seen is a bad idea.

"Romeo and Juliet. Star-crossed lovers, making fate a major theme in this play can anyone tell us another?" Mr Berty asked, white haired, suited and looking rather strict as he surveyed the class.

"You're very small." Emmett spoke distracting Ray from the lesson.

For her part Ray couldn't have been more shocked, whatever she expected to come from Emmett's mouth that wasn't it.

"Maybe you're just very large." She hissed back, her eyes alight with irritation as she looked at his easy grin.

"I-"

"Mr Cullen?" Mr Berty had zeroed in on their conversation it seemed. "Or are you too distracted by your new desk mate to pay attention?"

Ray decided she didn't like Mr Berty much as the flush blossomed in her cheeks when the class turned to stare at his words. Emmett clenched his fist in his lap, Ray knew because his arm seemed to expand and become larger as the muscles contracted as if Emmett really needed to get any bigger.

"Love." Emmett answered, his tone level and apologetic in direct contrast to his body language. "Of various types, passionate, sensual, physical."

Mr Berty flushed now, his eyes flashing as he turned his gaze on Ray. "Miss Dewolfe another perhaps?"

Now Ray really wanted to bury her head in her hands and hide. She didn't know the themes in Romeo and Juliet she'd studied The Tempest in England. Her lips parted as her blush darkened ready to admit she didn't know just as Emmett whispered his lips not appearing to move at all. "Value and Doubleness, ambiguity, not everything is as it seems both with language and judgements."

Ray was fairly certain she was the only one who heard the whisper and quietly confident that Emmett, who had probably been through high school a thousand times and could likely recite Romeo and Juliet from memory, would know the right answer so she repeated his words. "Value and Doubleness, ambiguity, not everything is as it seems both with language and judgements."

Mr Berty huffed and cleared his throat, "Yes well…"

As the lecture continued and the eyes of the other students left them Ray whispered a quick "Thanks." to Emmett. His wide smile was answer enough and thankfully for the rest of the lesson he didn't try to speak to her.

When the bell rang Ray swept her things into her bag, watching Emmett carefully from the corner of her eye. He seemed to be slowing himself down even more than he already was to match her pace because his books which had still been on the table when Ray put hers in her bag were gone a second later and safely zipped into his own school bag.

"What class have you got next?" He asked with a grin as she attempted to move around him to leave the room.

Ray bit her tongue to stop a sarcastic 'what's it to you?' from leaving her lips as she finally managed to dodge around him although she had to concede he'd most likely let her. "Chemistry." She mumbled, striding as quickly as she could from the room.

It seemed to Ray the rest of the day wherever she went Emmett wasn't far behind despite sharing no other classes with her, he kept popping up and attempting to make conversation which she'd either answer with one word or ignore completely. Her shoulders bunched more and more as the day wore on and she found herself wishing desperately for an early ending, as she became more and more annoyed with trying to avoid the persistent man wherever she went. Ray blithely noticed Alice and Jasper regarding her with frowns throughout the rest of the day too whenever they passed in the halls and Ray couldn't help but feel the walls were pressing in on her. She'd never been so happy to hear the shrill ending bell when it rang that afternoon. As quickly as humanly possible she'd packed away her things and darted out to the truck where she stood impatiently tapping her foot until Bella arrived five minutes later looking a lot less tense that she had at lunch. Ray took that to mean Edward had in fact not been at school today.

Bella unlocked the truck and both girls climbed in Ray twiddling the heat so that when Bella turned the truck on it would begin to warm up as Bella dug through her bag. "What are you looking for exactly?"

"I'm just making sure I have the money and the list." Bella mumbled in response. "We're going shopping."

"Oh." Ray's eyes scanned the car park as Bella finally left her bag alone, started the truck with a twist of the key causing the engine to come to life with a roar and backed into the line of students waiting to leave the school.

Ray was fairly certain by this point, with no mention yet of Edward that he hadn't been at school today, but she didn't want to assume considering she'd also assumed Rosalie existed and had been wrong so she decided to ask. "Edward absent?"

"Yeah." Bella replied sounding distracted as she stared at something across the parking lot. "Doesn't it seem unfair that they're all so attractive and also exceptionally well dressed?"

Ray followed Bella's line of sight to the shiny silver Volvo across the lot where Alice, Jasper and Emmett were getting into their car. "I dunno." She rubbed her nose as she watched, slightly amazed that Emmett even fit into the back seat of the Volvo. "Never really thought about it," feeling Bella's eyes on her face as Alice disappeared into the passenger seat Ray turned to face her cousin. "I suppose so. Not that I think I dress badly thanks." She grinned taking a quick glance down at her own outfit.

Bella smiled back as she began to drive out of the lot. "You don't I just-uh never mind. Let's go get some food before we starve."

When they got home Bella busied herself with preparing dinner whilst Ray began reading through Romeo and Juliet and making notes to prepare for her essay on the themes due on Friday. When her cousin appeared again in their room, Ray was sprawled on her front across her green bedspread tongue caught between her teeth as she thought. Bella settled onto the chair in front of the old, (to Ray anyway), slow computer and started it up. "Mind if I use that after you Bells?"

Bella shook her head. "No, I just need to reply to Mom and then it's all yours." She swivelled the chair around to look at Ray whilst she waited. "Homework?"

"An essay on the themes in Romeo and Juliet for English on Friday." Ray dropped her pen onto the notebook with a thunk and rested her chin in her hands. "My teacher hates me."

Bella snorted, swivelling the chair back around to face the computer again. "He does not."

"He does." Ray mumbled as she picked her pen up once more. "I'm telling you he hates me." Bella didn't answer, but her fingers clacking away at the keys told Ray she was likely too focused on calming down her mother to actually form a response. "Tell Aunt Renee I say hi."

"'Kay."

The girls worked in relative silence until Charlie returned, or at least Ray worked whilst Bella laid on the bed reading Wuthering Heights again which Ray was sure Bella would have done for fun even if it hadn't been the text her class were studying in English. When the tell-tale click of the door announced Charlie's arrival Bella hurried from the room as Ray continued to clack away at her essay. At this rate she'd have it finished by dinner and that seemed like the best option considering she really needed her evenings free to decide what to do about this situation she found herself in. At best she needed to get to a library and find out if Rosalie had existed and married that asshole from the books before she could form any other sort of plan. So with that in mind she continued to type until Bella's head popped round the door. "Dinner's ready Ray." Bella announced. "You almost finished?"

"One sec." Ray finished her rather loose conclusion hastily and clicked print and then stood from the chair stretching and making her back pop. "Done. What's for dinner?"

"Steak and potatoes." Bella replied as they walked down the stairs together.

"I love you Bells you know that?" Ray asked wrapping an arm around her cousin and squeezing as they turned into the kitchen, slightly surprised to find she didn't even seem to be lying, whatever memories she'd gained from being here she'd also gained feelings and she did indeed love Bella.

"Yeah well," Bella shrugged Ray off as she sat down at the table on Charlie's right side, whilst Ray made her way around to take her seat opposite. "if we let you cook the house wouldn't survive."

"Bella!" Charlie admonished with a slight grin as he began cutting his steak.

"Nah she's right Uncle C. I would be an abominable housewife." Ray chuckled.

They ate in silence for a few minutes and Ray found herself thankful again that she'd landed in a place where she could live with the two most socially awkward people in the universe because it gave her time to think. With half an ear open catching the conversation that Charlie began with Bella about school Ray pondered her situation again. She was starting to believe after two nights of sleep and Alice's reaction today that it was less and less likely she was in a coma which really meant she'd switched universes the how and why still escaped her though and there didn't seem to be any way to figure that out at this particular moment. Her attention was finally pulled back to the conversation at hand when Bella asked hesitantly, "Do you know the Cullen family?"

Ray watched Charlie's face for his reaction wondering if perhaps any of this would have changed from what she remembered. "Dr. Cullen's family sure. Dr. Cullen's a great man."

"They...the kids...are a little different. They don't seem to fit in very well at school."

Charlie's face reddened and his moustache bristled as his eyebrows yanked down into a frown. "People in this town." He muttered. "Dr. Cullen is a brilliant surgeon who could probably work in any hospital in the world, make ten times the salary he gets here," Charlie's voice continued to raise as he spoke. "We're lucky to have him - lucky that his wife wanted to live in a small town. He's an asset to the community, and all four of those kids are well behaved and polite. I had my doubts when they first moved in with all of those adopted teenagers. I thought we might have some problems with them. But they're all very mature - I haven't had one speck of trouble from any of them. That's more than I can say for the children of some folks who have lived in this town for generations. And they stick together the way a family should - camping trips every other weekend….Just because they're newcomers people have to talk."

Ray felt slightly bemused. On the one hand that was almost word for word what she remembered Charlie to have said to Bella in the book, on the other it was also the most she'd ever heard him say and the longer she was here the more attached she felt to what was happening. Already after just three days seeing Charlie so worked up that he could speak that much in one go on one subject made her smile.

"They seemed nice enough to me. I just noticed they keep to themselves." Bella paused before continuing. "They're all very attractive."

"You should see the doctor." Charlie said with a chuckle. "It's a good thing he's happily married. A lot of the nurses at the hospital have a hard time concentrating on their work with him around." His head turned to face Ray who was watching the exchange with a small smile. It wasn't every day you got to see your favourite story playing out in front of your eyes. "What do you think Ray?"

Ray started and almost knocked over her drink. "Oh um-" She shrugged. "I have History with Jasper and English with Emmett, and er… Alice helped me with my money at lunch today. They seem nice." She mumbled, trying to avoid Bella's shocked stare.

Charlie nodded, obviously satisfied with that answer and dinner continued in silence. When they'd all finished Charlie cleared the table and Ray washed the dishes while Bella dried.

"You didn't tell me you'd spoken to them." Bella hissed as soon as Charlie had left the room.

"She told me what a dime was worth and their names, Emmett asked me what class I had next and helped me in English and Jasper apologised for being rude in History the day before. I didn't particularly consider it noteworthy." Ray passed Bella a plate as she began washing the next one. "Besides I didn't think you'd want to know what with…" She trailed off.

That effectively ended the conversation as Bella clearly had no reply and the girls finished washing up in silence before trudging back up to their room for the evening. "Any more homework?" Bella asked as they both moved towards their respective school bags, Ray grabbing the essay from the printer as she went.

"Maths." Ray announced with a groan, Bella shot her cousin a sympathetic smile and both girls settled to work on their respective assignments, happy in each other's quiet company.

For the rest of the week all Ray could think about was the trip to the town library she and Bella had planned for Saturday. No matter how much she tried to relax, even just sit down and bond with her 'cousin' for a little while, she just could not make her mind stop. Every waking second she was thinking about what the possibility of Rosalie Hale not being a vampire could mean for the story and for herself; whenever she was asleep she was taunted with images of Rosalie, no matter what she tried her brain was hot-wired that finding Rosalie was the key to her returning home so the sooner she got to the library the better.

Saturday turned out to be a disappointment of astronomical proportions. When Stephanie Meyer had written that Bella had found the Forks library 'poorly stocked' she hadn't quite encompassed quite how tiny the library really was. A small brick building, perhaps the size of the lounge room of a one bedroom apartment the Forks library contained nothing but shoddy romance novels, a few books which might be helpful for a book report, books on the town history, books on hobbies and one very old although reasonably friendly librarian who was possibly using the first computer every functioning from one tower and a large non-flatscreen monitor. It became clear almost immediately that this was not going to be the research hub Ray had been praying for. At the very least she'd been hoping to be able to hop on a computer and search for any record of Rosalie while Bella browsed, walking into the library however, Ray's nose had immediately crinkled as her lips turned down in a frown as she surveyed the room. This place would offer no help that was for sure.

After the terrible weekend which, much to Ray's constant amusement, Bella seemed to have highly enjoyed, when she wasn't chewing Ray's ear off about what may or may not have happened to Edward Cullen, Monday was turning out to be another abominable day. One week ago she had arrived, one whole week and she hadn't gotten anywhere. So as Ray stomped through the snow on the way to lunch it was fair to say she was in a foul temper, slamming herself into her seat Ray stared at her food, picking bits of her sandwich, rolling the bread between her fingers and then dropping it onto the table with a huff of frustration every other second. Putting the food down as she heard Bella and her friends approaching, Ray pushed both of her hands into the thick front of her tangled blonde locks and gripped tightly to her skull as if she were holding on for dear life. Her body ached, her mind ached, her eyelids felt heavy, everything sounded loud and now she was hit with the overwhelming urge to bang her head against the table. Nothing was going right.

Ray barely noticed when Bella and the others settled down at the table, hardly paid any mind to the conversation and would have sworn until she was blue in the face that she wasn't hearing it at all if it wasn't for Jessica's high voice making her wince and finally pulling her out of her own world. "Bella what are you staring at?"

Ray, feeling the muscles in her neck protesting at the effort of lifting her head looked up, letting her eyes flit from Bella's face to where they rested on the Cullens. All four Cullens. Edward was back. Letting out a barely audible moan she dropped her face back into her hands; of course that had to be today. Surreptitiously sneaking her hands up so they covered her ears she tried to block out all the noise she could until after lunch, she had English this afternoon, instead of Spanish which usually she would be glad of but dealing with two Cullens in one day was way more than Ray was prepared to handle.

When the end of lunch bell finally sounded and Ray had managed to somehow drag herself to the English lesson and fall into her seat she gently rested her head on her notebook, hoping that for today at least, Emmett would leave her alone.

Mr Berty had everyone pass their papers back to each other and surprisingly, Emmett gently nudged Ray's tired form when theirs reached them, carefully placing hers on the desk as Ray struggled to make her eyes focus on the red pen. One thing stood out to Ray very clearly as she dragged her eyes across the page, Mr Berty clearly had some problems with her paper if the amount of red was anything to go by. Forcing herself to focus she tried to decipher what exactly the problem was, his comment at the end praised her understanding of the themes so what had she done wrong, flipping the paper back to the first page making a loud rustle as she did she focused on the words he'd circled, firmly ignoring the 'D' scrawled in the corner. She wasn't accepting that was a real grade until she found significant reason for it. To Ray it just looked like he had circled words, peering down, puzzled, her brows drawn together and her lips twisted she shook her head as she stared at the paper, maybe she was seeing it wrong?

"Ah yes," Mr Berty announced loudly making Ray jump slightly as she lifted her head to see him staring right at her from the front of the class before her head dropped back down to rest on the desk. "Dewolfe, your essay is littered with spelling errors."

Ray was done, emotionally spent. Judging from the weight of her eyelids and the effort she was expending keeping herself upright, Ray was actually emotionally and physically overdrawn. The week had been hell. Bella had been moping through Edward's absence even though the guy seemed psycho the one and only time they'd met so far, Alice Cullen had been following Ray everywhere attempting to convince her to talk to Emmett and Jasper watched Ray with a look which was either, I'm going to rip your throat out or, you're mildly more interesting than the other humans here. A teacher complaining about the use of Standard English spelling was the last thing she needed. "If you have a problem with the Queen's English sir I suggest you take it up with the Queen." Ray's voice was void of emotion, her head, which was resting on the table was throbbing.

The class broke into snickers. Unfortunately Mr Berty was not as amused. "What was that Miss Dewolfe?" His tone clearly implying that repeating herself would be the wrong option.

Ray didn't even bat an eye, lifting her head ever so slightly so she could look at the teacher as she spoke, voice still void of emotion but much louder now Ray responded. "I said, that you should endeavour to contact the Queen sir, since you seem to take such issue with her language."

The colour rose, slowly at first, a deep red seeped up Mr Berty's neck and the vein in his temple seemed to throb until his head resembled an over engorged tomato. "Out." He snapped, spittle flying from the corners of his mouth as he did so. "Get out."

"Gladly." Ray mumbled, snatching her still packed bag in one hand and her essay in the other, she marched from the room without taking one look back.

At first Ray thought he might mean for her to wait outside the classroom but within seconds she had come to the conclusion that she didn't much care. A strange weightlessness seemed to lift her from the inside out as she focused on something other than her ridiculous situation for more than five seconds for the first time in a week. She practically felt as if she was floating on a haze of anger as she marched out of the building and over to the building Bella was currently in. She was going to get the truck keys and she was going to spend the rest of the day laying in the cab, teachers be damned.

Reaching the door she didn't hesitate as she shouldered her way into the building, found Bella's classroom and knocked as loudly as she possibly could, the "come in" had barely dropped from the teachers tongue before Ray was standing in front of Bella and consequently Edward Cullen. "Keys." Ray growled holding her hand out in front of Bella, whose hair had become rather tousled and windblown and who seemed to be perfecting her Bambi impression from the look of wide eyed surprise she fixed on Ray.

"I-Ray-Wha-"

"Keys." Ray repeated. "I'll tell you later."

Bella nodded, hurriedly and jerkily as she fished through her bag, yanked the keys out with a loud jangling sound and dropped them into Ray's hand. "Ray are you sure you're okay?"

"I'm fine." Ray fixed Bella with an award winning grin before slapping the paper she'd had returned down in front of her. "That might explain. If you need me I'll be in the truck." Spinning on her heel Ray marched towards the door, taking one last second to look back over her shoulder at the stunned junior class and their teacher. "Don't wake me unless you're dying."

A warm feeling bubbled in Ray's gut as she sloshed through the slush the snow was slowly turning into, not diminishing even a little until she was curled up nicely on the seat in the cab of Bella's truck feeling sleepier than she had since she'd first arrived.

Again I apologise for the wait. I hope it is shaping up to be worth it. I'm really trying to put a huge amount of thought into this one and I pray it pays off.

Thoughts and comments are always appreciated.

Rue :)