HEY EVERYONE! I am sooooooooooo TERIBLY SORRY for the late update. I was just so busy with getting ready for school and organising some stuff that I completely forgot that I needed to update. Anyway...I am so happy to announce that I got more than 30 REVIEWS FOR THE LAST CHAPTER! That totally made my two weeks!

And to respond to the reviews, I feel bad for giving Jasper such a crappy life (But it's important for the story.) and...whoever it was Jacob? ;) I already have the next two chapters planned out, so they updates might come earlier than the last one.

Before I forget, Ember, I am sorry if I couldn't send this chapter before, I just wanted to upload this fast. But I'll try to send this chapter and the next ones soon.

Lastly, Enjoy.

Disclaimer: I do not own Twilight.

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Chapter. 12. Unsettled problems.

(BELLA POV):

I groaned loudly when my eyes tried to adjust to the bright lights of the room the moment they opened. I was about to sit up from what felt like a bed when a hand shot up to lightly push me back down.

Then I heard his voice "Be careful, you've got a small bump on your head." The honey sweet voice warned.

I turned to see who it was and was surprised to first meet the pair of vibrant emerald eyes that were haunting my very thought and dreams at night, making some of them restless and others peaceful.

"What are you doing here?" I shot out, making myself look like an idiot.

His face fell over my sudden question. "Do you want me to leave? If you wish for it, I may."

"No!" I blushed at my outburst and at the fact that I almost made him feel guilty and leave the room. I quickly tried to cover what I said up. "I m-mean it's oaky. I was actually asking for the reason to why I was brought to the," I looked around and confirmed my surroundings. "…the nurse's office?"

He seemed relieved to know I didn't not want his company and he answered my question.

"I was walking down the west stairwell when I noticed you at the bottom of the steps. I went to see if you were okay, but of course, you were unconscious." Panic of what might have happened was showed in his eyes. "I arrived to the nurse's office and she made sure that there wasn't anything wrong. Do you remember how you ended up at the bottom of the steps in the first place?"

Now that he brought it up, I didn't know what happened to me. I tried to concentrate as much as I could on the matter, but I couldn't remember the reason for me to even be near any of the staircases since I only remembered to be let out of the class early. I was sure to be on my way to the parking lot.

"Ummm…no, I honestly don't know. I recall that I was about to leave the school, I wasn't near any stairs." I felt a chill slightly run up my spine but tried to shrug it off. "I must have been going up the stairs, missed a step and came tumbling down the rest of them. Come to think about it, that sounds exactly like me. I'm just grateful that I didn't end up with broken bones or lost any blood, that wouldn't have been great." I added a chuckle to the end, trying to ease the tension I was feeling in the room.

Finally, I got him to crack his famous crooked smile that made every girl's-namely mine-heart soar.

"You're right, you are lucky to not have any broken bones." He was so deep in thought that I wanted so badly to know what he was thinking.

To ignore the akward-ness of the situation, my eyes darted to every object in the office and rested on the clock.

"Edward, school's been done for an hour…" I stated, making sure he knew.

His features softened a bit. "I know."

"You, idiot. You shouldn't have wasted an hour of your time over me. God, I bet you had plans." I groaned. I feel like a jerk now.

He only shrugged and smirked. "It's okay. It's not like I had plans. I actually wanted a break for tonight."

I giggled. "Why? Lauren and Jessica were going to jump you or something." I teased. Instead of getting another laugh from him, he grimaced at my statement and turned his head away.

"Nah. Carlisle just wanted to have a night with Esme and I. I'll see you later." Edward got up from his chair and left me in a daze.

Edward Masen was definitely a mystery.

***

I groaned out loud in the car. So did Alice, but for different reasons. I groaned over the fact that Alice convinced me to go shopping with her tonight; really, I would rather spend my Friday re-reading any other classic in my book collection. Damn Friday! Alice, on the other hand, groaned because she had no more patience waiting for Rosalie anymore. As a matter of fact, Alice was complaining about my invite to Rose the entire day. Hale this, Hale that. I swear that I'm going to blow if this feud between them keeps going between them. It's going to be the death of me, I swear.

I sighed in happiness when Alice's huff in displeasure turned to grimaces the moment Rose finally stepped out of the school, wearing a goofy grin I might add, must be Emmett. I shook my head, a grin plastered on my lips.

Rosalie quickly climbed into the back as Alice hurried to leave the school's parking lot and on to the road to Port Angeles.

I checked the rear-view mirror of the passenger's side of the car, noticing Rosalie was somewhere in la la land right. I guess Alice saw Rosalie's expression to since she's the one who's so kindly made her snap out of it.

"What's with the goo-goo eyes, Hale?"

Rosalie sighed with no care. She still must be thinking of Emmett to not get mad at Alice's purpose interruption of her day dream.

"Nothing." She blushed, lowering her head.

I tried to make her blush even more. It was fun to tease someone else about blushing once in a while.

"Oh really, Miss Hale. You're sure it has nothing to do with a certain Mr. McCarthy?"

She blushed even more than before, it was almost as red as my usual daily blushes. I snickered. She has it…bad.

"Can you both drop it? I don't feel like talking about Emmett for the rest of this car ride." Alice huffed, hands gripping the steering wheel a little bit tighter.

"Why?" Rosalie questioned, lifting her eyebrows in a teasing matter. "Jealous?"

Alice turned her head slightly from me, enough to not make me see the expression she was wearing. What was she hiding? Seconds passed and I saw a tint of her color Alice's cheeks. I shrugged it off. I must be seeing things, especially after the bump in the head I received yesterday.

I don't know why, but, I keep seeing something move by the tree of my house, some dark figure. I'm pretty sure it was some animal. I rabbit or a squirrel. Also, I caught Edward sneak a lot of glances over at me when we were at least a few meters away from each other.

I decided to ignore all of it. It doesn't make sense for me to be paranoid in the first place. I-I mean, I have no reason to be paranoid. Unless…

"Yo, Bella. Don't tell me you're off in dream world, too. I mean, it's bad enough to see Hale's face every time I sneak a glance at her." She whispered low enough so that Rosalie can't hear us.

"…Or are you thinking of Edward?" She teased as I tensed. She sensed my movement and wore a smug look. Damn her.

The rest of the car ride was…awkward to say the least. Alice wouldn't try to come up with a conversation to talk about and I was sure that hell froze over twice since I thought that I wouldn't live to see the day Alice became speechless, Rosalie was too busy to draw hearts in her notebook along with writing Rosalie McCarthy everywhere on the pages she wasted, I on the other hand, closed my eyes, trying to get some sleep because of another restless night last night.

Yet, before I was deep enough in sub consciousness, Alice felt the need to speak up.

"That's it, I can't take the silence. It isn't natural. Someone please suggest something." She begged.

I heard Rosalie close the notebook and agreed with Alice. Now that was unexpected.

"Uh," I searched the whole car for ideas of stuff to do. My eyes finally settled on the radio. "How about some music?" I suggested. Both of them agreed once more.

…Freaky…

I searched for stations and picked one I used to listen when I was younger. Neither Alice nor Rose were happy about my decision, though.

"Bella," Alice whined. "Anything else but classical music! How about some rap, pop…"

"Or some techno, R&B or rock?" Rosalie added in, too.

I let out a breath. "Whatever! You guys chose, I feel like sleeping anyway. But please, something that won't make my ears melt or explode will be appreciated. Decide the station among yourselves."

Again, another stupid thing for me to do. Because I didn't end up with any sleep…at all.

"What do you mean Britney Spears is better than better than Miley Cyrus?!" Alice gasped in outrage like someone just slapped her in the face.

"That's exactly what I mean. Miley Cyrus is so fake! Plus she thinks she's so innocent. Well, she isn't! I mean, anyone can act. They only picked her to be famous because he daddy had connections. Her songs have no meaning either. They are all kids' songs. Really, who sings about their alter ego on stage when it's obvious everyone knows who she is. And, her voice just annoys the hell out of me. While Britney spears is new, she always changes her style of music. She also always ends up making her songs interesting and with a beat." Rosalie finalized. I wish Alice just listened to her.

"That is so not true. That is so hypocritical by the way. Britney spears isn't innocent either! Hell, her skimpy outfits proves it! Her songs don't ever make sense, though. Who sings songs about guys all the time? No sense. She's going to lose her touch with the public soon. While, Miley Cyrus is so young, fresh and new. People worship her. All you see in the stores these days are her cute face and not Britney Spears's"

While there fights about which singer is the best. They kept flicking the radio back and fourth back and fourth it made me snap.

"Will you guys just shut up! I'm starting to get a head ache. Honestly, they are both not in the top ten greatest singers ever so quit it. And please, for the love of everything that is holy, can I rest?!"

Soon enough, they both grumbled, shut off the radio and let me rest in peace.

***

"Hey, Cinderbella. Wake up, we're here." A sing song voice rang in my ears. I so badly wanted to smack whoever was trying to wake me up, but I wanted to sleep some more."

I groaned in protest. "Let me sleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep." I drawled out.

Another voice went beside my left ear and whispered something low. "Bella, Edward's here." I suddenly shot up to fix my hair.

I heard laughing from behind me and dropped my arms. "I knew that would work." Rosalie said between her giggles.

"Hey, do I see Emmett over there?" This time, it was my turn to laugh at Rosalie's eagerness. She growled when she found out I was joking around with her.

"Hurry up! I want to get as much shopping as I can before we leave. No complaining from you, Bella!" Alice shrieked from the front of the shopping mall's door. People turned to see what all the noise was about, making blush from all this attention. Rosalie seemed not to mind and went to walk over where Alice was. I tried to walk slowly; sadly, it didn't escape Alice's notice.

"Isabella Marie Swan! I swear to God, if you don't get your ass into this mall in the next five seconds, I'll buy you the smallest outfit I can find from Victoria Secret." She threatened. Not wanting to risk it, I ran straight into the unopened doors of the mall, earning me some laughs from Alice, Rosalie and a few other people walking down the streets who've witnessed my humiliation.

I was getting annoyed of people laughing at me as if I was some circus clown. "Yeah, yeah, yeah. Do you guys want to stay outside all day to laugh at me or do you want to go in and drag me to my own personal hell?" That quickly shut them up, both grabbing my arms to bring me closer to my death.

***

"Let go, lady! I saw it first!" Alice yelled, pulling her side of the dress with much force. I swear I heard something rip from the material when they started to play tug-o-war two minutes ago.

"Over my dead body." The little old lady hissed, trying to make Alice let go of the dress by trying to hit her with the cane. Fortunately, Alice didn't get hurt...yet.

Thank God Rosalie was looking for another dress in Alice's size so that Alice can leave the poor lady and this store alone! I groaned when I saw that Alice was hissing back at her opponent. "Trust me, granny. You don't need this dress; you've got nothing to prepare for. I have my prom that needs to be in plan this instant!" I gaped at Alice, eyes widened too. I can't believe Alice said that! Luckily, Rosalie found something similar to the almost ripped fabric that was being wrestled for.

The second Alice saw the dress; she ran over to Rose, ripped the dress out of her hands and went to go buy it. Rose looked over to me, confused. I shrugged my shoulders, feeling bad for the old lady that stumbled a bit after Alice let go so quickly. Alice came back, all smiles, holding the bag happily in her arms.

"How do you know that dress looks good on you?" I asked, remembering that she didn't even go to the changing rooms to check if it was a fit or not.

She winked at me. "Don't worry, I know."

I shook my head. Alice will be Alice.

***

"A-Alice, what is all of this?" I stared wide eyed at what Alice brought us.

She grinned. "Silly, Bella. You should know what food is. I got us all double cheeseburgers, two pieces of pepperoni pizza, one chicken nuggets bucket, each. As for drinks, I got three venti coffee flavoured frappacinno and a dozen donuts. Any complaints?"

"Yes! I wouldn't be able to finish all of this, I'll get fat." Rose whined.

"I wish you'd get fat," Alice whispered under her breath. I nudged her in the ribs. "Do what you want, Hale, but this food has to disappear one way or the other."

For a while, our break was pretty...nice and quite if you count out the death stares Rosalie was getting from Alice and the glares I gave her in return.

Alice's hand shot up to reach for a napkin which was right next to Rosalie's cup. Alice's hand suddenly snapped to the cup, spilling the cold drink all over Rosalie's lap. She shrieked in surprise, quickly putting a bag to cover the front of her jeans.

"Excuse me." She whispered, taking the bag so that she could go change into the ladies room.

I turned my head to see a snickering Alice.

"Alice!" I hissed. Rosalie was out of our sights, now. "Haven't you had enough of spillings to do on Rosalie that lasts for a life time? Really, Alice, you're being ridiculous."

She rolled her eyes at me and scoffed. "Please, Bella. This goody-two-shoes thing to make us see is an act. She's trying to make us forget about the bet so that she could stay on her stupid pathetic cheerleading squad. Poor Emmet has already faller for her; of course he's not going to notice that she's in reality using him. Now you've believed it too." She cried out in horror. Now she's being over-dramatic. "Look, Bella. She can never change. It's like a tiger wanting to lose its stripes, it will never happen."

I laughed at her statement. "You've got to be kidding me. Metaphors, too? I'm actually a pretty good judge of character and behaviour. Trust me when I tell you that Rosalie Hale is not faking. You can't forget that she's the one who picked the dress you bought."

Alice nodded. "You are absolutely right... I'm burning the dress once I get home."

I groaned in frustration. "This is hopeless. Do me a favour and be nice or I'll tell Jasper what you think of him." I threatened, her eyes widened at every word.

"You wouldn't dare!"

I raised my eyebrows, happy that she bought the bluff. Honestly, I'll be doing her a favour by letting Jasper know. The boy can truly be clueless when it came to girls, other than me. I'll be saving them the time and confusion that was bound to continue for another three weeks. "Try me."

She was deciding between her dignity and the chance of being embarrassed by your best friend who's also close friends to the boy she's crushing on. She eventually surrendered and went on to eat her pizza. "You win. I'll be nice to her."

Good. Maybe they'll get along. Maybe....

***

"What? Are you kidding me? That dress is a catastrophe. You want Bella to dress into something like that? She deserves better. I mean, honestly, green?! Might as well make her go to the dance as Flubber!" Alice shouted at Rosalie's dress choice for me. I rolled my eyes. I picked out, tried and bought my dress. Would they listen to me? No. It was like talking to a wall.

"You're worried about green, please girl, pink was so yesterday. Are you trying to make Bella pass as barf?" Rosalie argued back. She was kind of right about that the pink dress, it did look like barf.

"Pink is a classic color! It will never die! Oh and are you trying to insult my fashion sense?" By this time, the whole store was watching for the outcome of their screaming match.

Rosalie rolled her eyes. "I think your fashion sense speaks for itself. It clearly looks like you got it from watching people walk down the streets."

Hell went loose. Alice suddenly pounced on Rosalie, making both of them tumble down the ground. Alice quickly grabbing and pulling on Rosalie's hair as Rose did the same with Alice. Their shouts of profanities alerted the staff, making the manager come to the scene.

"That's it! I want both of you out of my store this instant! Please, remove yourself from here and don't ever come back." He warned, stomping back to the door he came from.

I rushed over to Alice, grabbed her arms and dragged her to a standing position, doing the same thing with Rose. Still glaring at each other, I pulled them out of the mall and made my way over to Alice's Porsche. I Alice opened it and everyone climbed in, that's when my shouts started.

"What is wrong with you? You promise me to behave and you don't! Instead, you both start a fight, getting us kicked out."

"She started it!" Alice yelled, speeding out of the parking lot.

I groaned in frustration. "I don't care who started it! All I know now is that I can never leave you alone before you start to rip each other's head off. I'm getting tired of this crap. You guys can't ever be civil."

"I can be if that bitch didn't have to take things too personally." Rosalie hissed.

Alice's eyes blazed in fury. "I'm the bitch?! Do you hear yourself or do your ears not function, apart from your brain." I blocked out their comments and I cheeked the speed monitor. I started to freak out.

"Alice! Slow down!"

Unfortunately, she decided to ignore my yelling and went back to her argument with Rosalie.

Rosalie rolled her eyes. "Oh please, you may be book smart, but you aren't even close to being fashion smart." I guess Rosalie's conceited side is back.

"Why you little Barbie doll! Fashion is not a bra or the shortest mini skirt if that's what you think the-"

"I don't have-"

That's it! I've had enough. "Shut up! Alice, slow down! You're going to get us all into a wreck!" I pleaded, hoping that she would listen to me.

She heard but she didn't slow down, though. "Calm down, Bells. My driving is perfectly safe. I've never had a ticket before. We'll be fine." She reassured. Not too long after her statement, sirens weren't far away.

I quirked my eyebrow. "You were saying?"

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What's going to happen next? :O

Sorry for the mistakes guys. And sorry for adding another cliff hanger.

Like for the last two chapters, I am sending out a preview for everyone who reviews, so REVIEW, REVIEW, REVIEW !!!!!!!! They make me happy.

Please review :D

-WW101