I was curled up on the side of my favorite arm chair, surrounded on all sides by teenage girls. My oldest niece, Alexa, was behind me, braiding my hair in more and more intricate styles as she watched videos on youtube and attempted them in between watching snatches of the movie. "Who do you think is hotter, Aunt Madison?" One of the girls asked. I looked up from the book I was reading on my Kindle to see the girls were looking at me in between one of them switching out Twilight to Twilight: New Moon.

"Yeah, are you team Edward or Team Jacob?" Molly asked, from her sleeping bag on the floor. She was curled over, painting her toenails.

I grinned at them. "Oh, definitely Team Jacob." I laughed at some of the outraged gasps. "Hear me out, though!" I said, and continued, "I always felt like the whole Renesme thing was kind of an after-thought. Just a way to tie everything up with a nice, neat bow. Meyer brought Jacob in as a love interest for Bella, even got the girl to admit that she loved him in her own way and then passed him on to her daughter and felt like that was okay? I don't know, I just felt like Jacob was special enough that he should have had an imprint his own age or close to it. Not have to wait so long for his mate after having gone through so much with Bella."

A couple of the girls nodded, but Molly just laughed. "I still think Edward's hotter," she said.

"And you're entitle to your opinion," I teased. I looked up at the clock above the television. "This is the last one tonight, girls. You can finish the series tomorrow. As for me, I've got to be up early to take Annie to the vet. So, movie will be over around 3:30. Bedtime then, okay?" They nodded in agreement. That gave them a chance for a few bathroom or snack breaks. I wandered around the room giving kisses and hugs. "Goodnight, my girls," I said as I walked back towards my bedroom.

"Goodnight!" they called after me. "Woof!" barked my silver-and-black German Shepherd, Annie. Knowing I had to be up early, I decided to forgo a shower tonight and just pulled on a comfortable long nightgown and crawled under the covers, thankful for an electric blanket that had already started warming the sheets and quilt underneath of it. I listened as the girls still talked and watched the movie, and smiled as I heard them all whoop at the point where Jacob took his shirt off. I laughed and closed my eyes and turned over, falling asleep quickly.

As I dreamed I heard a strange voice. I opened my eyes to find a place of blank whiteness. There were no shadows, no darkness, only a blinding white light. "Greetings, Madison," came a voice from everywhere. I gasped and looked around me, seeking the source of it.

"I am nowhere and everywhere, my dear." the voice asked again. All of a sudden there was a figure in front of me and it was beautiful. A woman with long golden hair in perfect ringlets. Her eyes were a deep blue and she was robed in a gown of paler blue. Her smile was exhilarating and made my knees weak, and I wasn't even into women! She reached out and placed a gentle hand upon the top of my head. "I am so happy see you again. Though you have no memory of it in this life, in this world. I have visited you in another world, another life and you did such an excellent job, I have decided you are the one I have been waiting for, the one I will bless with the gift of world travels." I gasped, as she continued, "I have a gift for you, child. Well, several gifts, truly. But the first gift that I will bestow upon you again is the gift of adventure. You will enter the worlds you have wished so often to join. You will have your chance to save all of my Lost ones. They need someone like you. Your love, your compassion, your heart and your bravery."

"The other gifts you will see as they come. Now, it is time I must say goodbye." And with that, she gave me a soft kiss upon the forehead. I closed my eyes and was enveloped in darkness. I felt strange, sound was muffled, but I could hear a heartbeat. No, two heartbeats besides my own. "Twins? Why is it always twins?" I thought. And got an answer. Because it is easier to bring you into a new world as connected to another instead of having to create a whole new construct. "Oh, that makes sense," I thought.

Suddenly there was tremendous pressure, and light, and cold. I screamed in confusion only to have it come out in a loud squall. I opened my eyes but everything was fuzzy. I was being held by giants! I tried to hear what they were saying, but there was another voice besides mine crying. I finally heard, "It's another girl!" as it was called out by a deep voice. I knew that voice. It was Charlie Swan, Bella's-well, I guess, our- Dad. This was going to be so weird.

I was wrapped in a warm blanket and it calmed me; I stopped screaming, trying to figure out what was going on. The other voice was still squalling, so I started cooing, trying to soothe my sister. It worked, apparently, because she went quiet and I just looked around. Then I was placed in a pair of warm arms and I looked up into a pair of warm blue eyes surrounded by soft brown hair, "Renee", I thought. Another face beside it, Charlie's with his deep brown eyes and dark brown mustache. "What are you going to name them?" Charlie asked.

"Isabella Marie and Madison Mikayla," Renee decided. And so apparently, once again, I began a second life.

I hated being an infant. There was so much annoyance, but I couldn't tell them what was wrong. Ugh. I was wet. I was hungry. I was cold. I was tired. I was frustrated was what I was! And then I was heartbroken when Renee decided to take Bella and I away from Charlie. I can still remember the look on his face when he kissed us goodbye for the last time under his own roof.

Renee moved us around a bit, but finally settled in Phoenix. Though it certainly wasn't all as cut and dried as Bella made it sound in the books. Renee really did love Charlie and it took her a long time to get over him. During that time, we grew up. Renee put us in all kinds of lessons. Both Bella and I despised the ballet lessons. She hated them because she was so clumsy. I hated them for that, not being so light-footed myself, and because of the other girls who were mean to Bella because she was so clumsy.

I really excelled at any class involving music. And while Renee's teaching Bella piano barely stuck, I loved it and practiced constantly. I also loved the acoustic guitar and violin. For my birthday last year, Charlie and Renee had gone in together and bought me a beautiful acoustic. Renee also found a teacher to give me guitar lessons, his name was Robbie. Bella and I would be leaving to move in with Charlie in a week; I was going to miss Robbie and his fun lessons, but I would remember all he'd taught me.

As in the books, Bella had refused to go to Forks after a while for summer vacations. I would have been perfectly happy to go, but I was terrified to leave her alone. With my luck, she'd somehow trip off the edge of a pier or something and drown. So we both stayed away from Forks for years, even though I had no problem with the cool and the rain. Everything in Phoenix seemed sun-baked and colorless after a while.

And so we slowly came closer and closer to our Destiny, Bella's with Edward's, mine with Jacob. I knew this was going to be difficult, but I was determined to be as helpful to bringing Edward and Bella closer much quicker and more safely than it had happened in the books. I had some ideas as to how, but I wasn't quite sure as to how for all of it, but I'd still try.

When the day finally arrived, I woke early, excited and nervous to see Charlie again. I got dressed in jeans and a warm shirt, remembering Bella saying in the book how cold it was when she arrived. I was not going to be caught off guard by the chill like she had been. I would also be carrying on my parka, laptop and guitar. There was no way I was trusting my baby to the handling of the barbarians in the loading bay. I'd even saved enough money to buy another seat just for my guitar. Yes, I know that sounds extreme, but so be it.

Lucky Bella slept through most of the trip. I however, did not. Stupid fear of heights and flying. I had taken Dramamine to try and help me relax. It did nothing. I began to wish I had my Xanax from my life before. When we finally landed, I seriously considered kissing the ground, but Bella jerked me up as I started to kneel down, looking incredibly embarrassed. Charlie spotted Bella first, as I was busy talking to the incredibly nice older lady who I'd spent most of the flight talking with.

Now, have I mentioned yet that Bella and I are not identical twins? Oops, sorry. While Bella has a heart shaped face, mine is more rounded. Her eyes are chocolate brown, mine are a strange shade of almost an olive-like green. Her hair is brown, mine has more red to it, with gold and copper highlights in the sun. We are, however, both incredibly pale. Like...freakishly pale.

Dad hugged Bella first, but grinned when I threw myself into his arms. "Hi Dad!" I exclaimed happily. He kissed the top of my head. "Hey, short stuff. How are you?"

"Better now that I'm on solid ground," I reply. He smiled, well aware of my hatred of heights. We walked to his cruiser and I happily climbed into the back and laid across the back seat, sleepy now that I was finally on the ground and the Dramamine was still depressing my system. I knew that Bella and Charlie would grab my suitcase, and I'd already stowed my guitar into the trunk of the car. I half-listened to the stilted conversation between Dad and Bella and dozed on the way home.

When we arrived, Dad woke me up and helped me up to my room. The one main difference from the book and here and now was that the house was a three bedroom instead of two, Bella and I each had our own room. Hers was painted purple, mine was a jungle green with little glow in the dark stars on the cerulean blue ceiling. Each room contained a bed, desk and dresser, though my bed was a full size because I was constantly falling out of the old twin bed that had been in here years ago. My desk was dark wood and the chair was a funky orange-colored plastic on silver wheels. My dresser was painted white, with crystal-blue glass star-shaped handles. As mis-matched as the furniture was, I loved it and felt that it suited my personality: fun and different.

Another change from the book: I was determined to have fast internet, so Bella and I agreed to go in together and pay for half of a faster internet package from the local satellite company. We also got cable, internet, and some phone agreement bundle thing, so dad got more sports events and cheaper phone which made him happy. My laptop was faster, which made me happy. I knew Bella didn't care much either way, but I wouldn't go crazy waiting for things to download on dad's ancient dial-up.

I checked my email quickly before bed, sent off a quick email to Renee to tell her we'd arrived and that I'd email her a longer note at the end of the week. I had a couple emails from old friends and I answered them quickly. I didn't really have a best friend, since I'd always known that Forks would eventually be my destination, I'd never really put much effort into making friends.

"Bella, I'm going to take a shower!" I called out to her, as I gathered some clean, warm pajamas and underwear.

"'Kay!" she called back to me, and I walked into the bathroom and turned the water on to start warming. I took my "human moments" as Bella would call them and slid into the shower to wash and used good old Ivory soap on my skin and my favorite, cheap apple scented shampoo and conditioner. I turned off the water and dried while still in the steamy shower to stay warm before climbing out and dressing quickly. I pulled socks onto my feet so there wouldn't be such a cold shock to my toes wandering back to my room on the cold wooden floors. I was glad I did, because the second I opened the bathroom door, I was inundated with a blast of chill air and I started shivering and my teeth started chattering. "N-night Dad!" I called down to him.

"Night, Maddie! Night, Bella!" he called back. I felt bad knowing Bella spent most of the night crying, but I couldn't stay awake anymore. And I knew that eventually, she would be beyond happy we had moved.

The next morning, I woke and smiled. Today was the day! Edward and Bella would finally meet! I was so excited that I almost fell out of the bed, my feet twisted up in my sheets. I righted myself and went over to my closet, pulling out a pair of comfortable but new jeans, a tee shirt that proclaimed that I was "Geeky and I know it!" with a picture of the Fellowship of the Ring, and my favorite pair of tennis shoes.

I packed my bag with the new notebooks and pens that I'd bought in fun colors. My messenger bag was studded with patches and pins that I'd collected for years, the denim strained white in areas, but it was still sturdy. I pulled on my jacket just as Bella came down the stairs. I grabbed packets of pop tarts for each of us and we walked out to get into the truck Dad had bought for Bella. He knew I was saving money for a car of my own and had almost enough to get it, so I'd told him not to worry about it, but that Bella needed a good, reliable vehicle. Sure enough, the monstrosity was ready for us when we arrived.

Getting to school didn't take long, but we were both fighting back panic. I turned to her and we gripped each others hands as we had so often as little girls. "Two against the world," we whispered to each other. I looked over at what she was wearing and took a light scarf from my bag, tying it around her throat for later and pulling her hair down around her shoulders from the ponytail she'd had it in. "There, you're gorgeous," I said, smiling.

We walked to the office and got our papers from Miss Cope. We were in almost all the same classes, which we were thankful for. Unfortunately, Eric Yorkie was waiting for us outside of the office and was only the first in a long morning of people eager to meet the new girls. The most annoying to me was Jessica Stanley and Lauren Mallory with their, "Aren't twins supposed to, ya know, look alike?"

"We're fraternal, not identical," we both answered at the same time, which caused everyone else to laugh, and Bella and I to roll our eyes. It was so typical. Which led us to having to explain that fraternal twins were from two completely different eggs, not one that had decided to split in half. And then, of course, it was time for lunch, also known as Bella's "First Look!"

I made sure to sit beside her to where my dear sister had a better view as they came through the front door and watched as she stiffened and stared. "Who are they?" she asked, and I turned watch the moment. However, I was struck just as dumb the moment he walked in. No, not Edward, who was as beautiful as Bella had described him, but the tall blonde beside him. Of course I recognized him, Jasper Whitlock-Hale-Cullen. But the books and movies hadn't done him justice. Wait, what the hell was I thinking! He was with Alice. Bad, Madison! Very, very bad!

But there was no looking up from Edward showing he'd heard my thoughts. My nose wrinkled in surprise. "Hello? Edward? Can you hear me?" Nothing. So I started being stupid with my thoughts. "Vampires. Blood-sucker. Hey, leech-boy. Sex. SEX. Cat.. Sex!"...still nothing. Oh thank god, he can't hear me! My heart was pumping furiously and I shivered. I looked up and saw a pair of eyes on me. Jasper's eyes. They were a beautiful topaz, but as I met them, they began to darken slightly. He smiled at me and I felt my heart give one great big pump and flop over.

"Those are the Cullens." I vaguely heard Jessica explain. "The big one there is Emmett. Then there's the twins Rosalie and Jasper Hale. They're like Mrs. Cullens niece and nephew or something. Then there's Edward. Jasper and Edward think they're too good for anyone here, so don't bother," she sniffed.

"They are too good for anyone here," I thought. "Or were! Wait, where was Alice at?" I looked up just in time to see her come dancing through the door, with another vampire! Wait, what the hell? Why was she not with Jasper? Who the hell was this guy? Unfortunately, I was so distracted that I missed Jessica explaining who it was with Alice. Dammit.

I heard Bella say she wasn't going to bother with Edward, but my brain was still wrapping around the Alice/Jasper/strange vampire thing. If Alice was with this guy, who was Jasper with? Was he with someone? Or was he alone, like Edward? I kept an eye on them during lunch and saw Jasper, Edward and Alice look up towards us several times as they spoke with Rosalie and Emmett and the other vampire.

When the bell rang, I hopped up and followed Bella to our next class. I stopped her for a second and we stopped by my locker, making sure her scarf was in place, that her hair was down and pulled her clothes more snugly around her, keeping her scent closer to her body. I didn't think of anything else I could do more to help. If Alice saw something, I was sure she'd show up and stop Edward before he was able to do anything. I believed in the little vampire pixie.

Sure enough, biology was tense between the two of them. I was stuck behind Bella and Edward, with some kid named whose last name was Mandy who dressed like a rapper wanna-be whose pants I wanted to yank up so hard they'd never be able to pull them back down. Of all the clothing styles I hated, that was the worst. Ugh. No one wants to see your damn ugly-ass underwear!

When the bell rang, sure enough, Edward hauled ass out of the room as quickly as he could. Bella turned around and asked me if he'd seemed odd, leaving so quickly. "Nah," I assured her. "He's probably got a class across campus and knows he's gotta leave fast to get there. He was in here early, remember?" I said, trying to take her mind off of it. "On to P.E.!" I proclaimed, and we both groaned.

I was thankful that we didn't have to change for P.E. today, but Bella and I both were not thrilled to end the day with the class. She because of her balance issues. I was just somewhat lazy and hated to be physically active at the end of the day and have to take a shower at the end of the afternoon. But I knew from my obesity and health issues from my first life that I wouldn't let that happen again, so I participated in P.E. and took much better care of myself this time around. I wasn't a perfect physical specimen or anything like that but I was definitely in a much healthier place than I'd ever been before in my first time around.

As we left, Bella and I stopped to turn in our papers and who should we find in the office but Edward trying to change classes. Dammit, I thought, as he passed by. Can't talk him out of this one now, the twit. I glared at him as he walked past me and he looked surprised at my glare. I was tempted to kick him in the shin, but didn't feel like breaking my poor toes. "Jerk," I murmured at him, surprising him more, as he left.

"How was your day?" Miss Cope asked, taking our sheets.

"Fine, thank you," I said, and grabbed Bella's hand and pulled her from the office.

"Come on, Bells. We still have stuff to do, and god knows Charlie doesn't have any food at his place," I said. I looked up and was slightly dazzled at the sight of Jasper as he climbed into Edward's car. He stopped midway between shutting the door, his eyes catching mine. I smiled at him and he nodded at me. My smile brightened and I caught his lips curving as I did. Then they were gone, pulling out of the parking lot quickly. Bella and I made it to the truck and we climbed in and drove to the grocery store. We talked back and forth about the day as we decided between us what meals we wanted to make during the week.

She liked mostly vegetable based meals, but knew that both Charlie and I were more meat-and-potatoes people, though I loved a good salad, too. So we picked up steaks and potatoes for supper that night, plus a roast for me to make a pot roast and beef stew that weekend, and salmon fillets to make salmon over a salad with quinoa later that week. We also picked up lunch meat and bread for sandwiches, hamburger for burgers, meat loaf and spaghetti, pop tarts and cereal for quick breakfasts during the week and eggs, bacon and potatoes for a big breakfast on Sunday which was a tradition for the two of us. Juice, soda, chips and ice cream rounded out our groceries for the week. Plus a couple boxes of cookies in case we had a craving for something sweet. Neither of us had remembered to check what baking stuff Charlie had at the house, but on the off chance he had it, we didn't want to buy anything until we were sure.

When we got home, we retired to our rooms after putting groceries away and throwing the potatoes into the oven to bake for supper. I have to admit that in some ways I was enjoying these last few years, hearing songs that to me had been popular when I was in my mid-20's my first time around. I will not even lie, you would not believe how many times I caught myself dancing around when a song I'd enjoyed would come on now. Especially since I didn't have the same sense of embarrassment now that I'd had the first time around.

Being an obese person, you don't want anyone to see you "shake that thing" but as a normal-sized person, even one without much balance, I was much more likely to "shake it" now than I ever was then. And I do it quite often. So I quite often have the radio on and blasting, dancing around as I did my homework. I also would often go on youtube and look up dance routines to songs and practice them, some of them I remembered from my first time around, too. I couldn't wait for Psy to come back into popularity. I would hit Gangnam Style with the best of them, this time around!

Homework didn't take long, calculus taking the longest. I still don't know why we took this class. I'd told Bella we'd never use it. (Trust me, not once had I ever had to use it in my other life in all my years. However, reviewing basic math principals: addition, subtraction, multiplication and division were never bad things.) I was in the middle of performing a dance/excercise routine to Dirrrty by Christina Aguilera when I remembered the time. I was dressed in a pair of yoga pants and a sports bra when I heard the door downstairs open. I tossed a loose sweatshirt featuring the Hogwarts school crest on the chest over my head and ran downstairs to put the steaks into the oven, putting the under the broiler.

I heard Bella on the stairs coming down. "Hi Dad!" I said, shutting the oven door, having taken out the potatoes and put the steaks in. He pulled me into a hug and I hugged him back. He kissed Bella on the top of the head, knowing she wasn't really one for embraces. I was always the one who enjoyed cuddling out of the two of us. Even as children, I was the only one she would cuddle with. I could clearly remember the two of us curling up together in our crib. But if anyone else were around, she fought cuddling with them. Even Renee and Charlie.

We ate dinner together at the table, talking about each of our days. Bella's and mine were rather similar with the same classes and all, but we were still two different people and saw things in different ways. When she asked Charlie about the Cullens, we were both surprised at how vigorously he spoke for them. "People just seemed to ostracize them a bit, is all she meant, Dad. We were just curious," I said, taking a bit of the sting from his words.

"I understand that, Maddie. They just really don't understand how very lucky we are to have him. Dr. Cullen is a great man, and a great doctor. He could command a hell of a lot better salary at one of the bigger hospitals. We're just lucky his wife decided she wanted to raise those kids in a small town. Forks is damn lucky to have them." Charlie said.

I nodded in agreement and finished my steak and baked potato and salad. Then I and Bella did the dishes, Bella washing as I dried. "What do you think was Edward's reason for being so upset, Maddie?" Bella whispered to me as we washed. I shrugged. "Who knows. Guys are weird." She thought about it for a moment and nodded. Neither of us had ever actually dated, so guys were kind of an oddity to the both of us. And truthfully, I'd never dated in my life before either, because, let's face it, nobody ever wanted to date the fat chick in high school, and after school, my health had been so bad that I didn't think about dating. So I had absolutely zero dating experience in either lifetime.

Bella went upstairs to read while I joined Dad on the couch and watched the news and Jay Leno with him. He knew I suffered from insomnia and would be up for a while longer before I fell asleep. As I slept, I dreamed of two pairs of eyes. One big and tawny, golden. The other beautifully dark and deep, a warm brown. Both were filled with love and a sense of protectiveness. I woke a little before dawn, slightly chilled, to find the window was open, though I knew for a fact that I had shut it the night before. So, which vampire had come for a look-see? Edward was in Denali, doing his very best to convince himself that he was damned. The only one I could think of was Jasper, but what could he be looking for?