ch-3 : sleep overs

At first, I was sure I had to be dreaming - this had to be one of my friend's rooms. But as I took in every detail of it, from the bed in the corner to the shelves opposite it, even the purple curtains - I knew that this was indeed Bella Swan's room. It even smelled faintly of lilac, paper, and some unknown warmth I couldn't describe.

"Wow," I muttered, utterly incapable of believing my own eyes. The room was neat and I could see that Bella liked to keep things in her own order. It wasn't disorderly, but rather I could see a pattern in how Bella kept her stuff. I pinched myself in the arm just to see if I was really dreaming.

"Well, it doesn't look like much," Bella's embarrassed voice came from behind me, "but it's a room."

"Are you kidding me?" I asked and turned around to face her. "I love it!"

The interior design was not far from the way I had arranged my room. Her desk was under a window, the bookshelves on the opposite side - she had four of them, two on each corner of the wall and the door to her room just beside two of them. A large closet blocked the view of the bed from the door, creating a sense of privacy. On the right of her desk - placed with its back to the corner was a cozy, velvet, purple lounge chair with armrests.

I bet this is where she reads all of her books.

"Thanks," she mumbled and blushed again. I simply smiled. Bella never felt comfortable about getting compliments. Well, it was just something that she had to get used to from now on. If Edward could compliment her in the book, then I could too. And besides, I had to make her forget the name Edward Cullen before we got to Forks, and I had no idea when we were leaving.

"So," I began. "Where do I sleep?"

"I was thinking you could borrow my bed," she pointed towards it, "and I could use the spare madras."

Ever so humble Bella, But I'm afraid that won't work on me. "I can't take your bed," I told her and pointed to the bed too. "I'm a guest here; I shouldn't take it from you."

Exactly, you're my guest," she contradicted and crossed her arms. "That's why you should be the one using my bed."

I felt the urge to slap my face with my palm. Instead, I ran a hand through my red hair. Did she have to be so stubborn? "Let's compromise," I said before I'd end up arguing with her about something so trivial. "You use the bed today and I will tomorrow." That should sound fair enough, even to her.

"That's not really going to be possible," she told me while biting her lip again. "It's tomorrow that we're supposed to go to Forks." Her arms were still crossed, but her hands were clutching her upper arm tighter than before.

I stared at her. My arms fell limp to my side. "Wait, so soon?" were the only words that escaped my lips.

"Yes."

Suddenly, an epiphany hit me and I smiled widely. If we were leaving tomorrow already that meant I wouldn't, somehow, have time to get transferred into Forks High School, Edward wouldn't read my mind, and "Twilight" was saved! How would I even get transferred? I probably had no papers from Salem High School here. I wasn't even sure I had a social security number, let alone money to live after I had spent the small amount I had on me.

"You're kind of scaring me with that smile, you know," Bella said and I snapped back to reality.

"Oh it's nothing," I said, but I was still smiling. "Twilight" was going to be saved and I wasn't going to mess up as much as I thought or perhaps nothing at all.

"And I still don't know your name," she said while looking me directly in the eyes - daring me to lie to her about my name too. I merely smiled wider at her and flopped onto her bed. If there was one thing I was never going to lie about, it was my name. I rather liked it, so why change it to something else? Might as well give her some truths while I'm here.

"Sorry for that," I told her honestly, "I'm Katherine Henderson." I extended my hand for her to shake.

She took it. "And I'm Bella Swan, but somehow you

already know that."

I merely smiled as we shook hands, and afterward, Bella excused herself to go and find some linen for the madras, while I got up from the bed again, got my bags, and placed them next to the velvet chair. Then I went back to sit in her bed. The linen was softer than mine was at home and was also a grayish lilac. Her pillow was shiny, and I mused that it had to be a satin pillow cover.

I'm sensing a theme here. I mused. Bella must be especially fond of purple.

"Please tell me this is some kind of dream,", I asked no one in particular, and pinched myself in the left arm once more, just to be sure I actually was awake. A bigger part than I had realized wished that I would wake up in my bed as I felt pain. I closed my eyes.

"Um, Katherine?" Bella's voice alerted me, and I opened my eyes again. Her head popped through the door. "Is purple okay, or would you rather want orange linen?"

"Purple's cool," I answered - I was almost offended that she would choose something different than her obvious favorite color for my bedding- and added, "And you can call me Kath you know. Or Kathy if you prefer that." I smiled widely at her. "Or you could just go 'Pride and Prejudice' on me and call me Kitty." I shuddered a little, hoping she wouldn't. When I looked up at her, we both smiled at my "joke".

Then Bella shook her head. "I think I'd prefer to call you by your full name if that's okay," she looked at me uncertainly and I nodded yes to her question. "I never really was a fan of the name Kitty either," she continued with a sly smile and went out of the door again.

For a moment I sat a bit in shock. Bella had a sense of humor! But then I snorted and had to clamp my hand in front of my mouth to keep myself from laughing too loudly. I wouldn't want to wake up either Renée or Phil. Suddenly I wondered how different Renée would look from Bella, how Charlie was going to look, heck even what Mike and Jessica were going to look like. I began to wonder how drop-dead gorgeous the Cullen's were actually going to be, and that I was probably going to be very surprised to find them even prettier than I was imagining right now. I remembered that Bella had said in

New Moon" that her memories of Edward never did him justice, so neither were my mental images of the entire Cullen family now.

As I slowly began to mentally return to Bella's room again, I was surprised to find that the madras was already lying in front of me, made, and Bella was sitting by her desk typing something on her computer. I went over to her and asked what she was doing.

"I just remembered that you wanted to check your bank account," she told me and entered the name of my bank into the search bar. Not long afterward she was on the homepage and left to let me log in. The sight that met me was not quite what I had been expecting.

I stared at the screen in shock as I took in the amount of money that was placed in my account. That could have been some rich kids freaking college-found staring back at me! My family didn't even own that much! How had it gotten there?

The longer I stared at it, something also seemed.... off. I couldn't pin what it was, but there was a distinct feeling in my gut, that what I was looking at was wrong. Not what it seemed.

"Are you alright?" Bella asked, appearing behind me. She must have heard me gasp as I had first glimpsed the amount standing on the screen. I quickly logged out and turned to face her. There was no need for her to know that I had suddenly turned rich. Or get the same feeling I had just experienced. Besides, I had just found out that I didn't need to get a fake ID after all. I did somehow exist after all in this 'alternate world'. Maybe I was the daughter of some rich guy here. She probably wouldn't notice if I used a bit of her... stash.

Keep telling yourself that.

Then there was of course the matter of my school records. On a whim, I logged into my email and saw a draft named "records". I clicked on it and a large file opened, full of grades, GPA, and extracurricular activities. What the hell? The same feeling from before - that something wasn't right came right back as I stared at the screen.

"Yeah, I'm fine. I just didn't expect to find that I actually

existed here." Bella looked skeptical as I turned my head to tell her that.

"Of course you exist here," she said though she was still frowning. "Just because we strangely can go from Salem to Phoenix through our closet doors, doesn't mean you don't exist on the other side of the world." Edward had been right about her again, she was completely and utterly unaffected by things that really shouldn't be able to happen.

Then again, so was I, since I was sitting here and having a normal conversation with a character from a book. It made me think that if she got to know Edward, she was never allowed to really tell how I got to know her or even came here people might get suspicious of me and then I'd have to go into hiding.

"Could you promise me something?" I asked as carefully as I could, turning the chair so I could face her.

"That depends on the promise," Bella stated and folded her arms across her chest.

Still the same old demanding Bella. She knew not to consent to something before getting the exact details. Except of course when Edward dazzled her. When he was going to dazzle her, I reminded myself that it now was. Everything in "Twilight" had yet to happen, and from how things were developing right now, I could tell that they were rapidly changing.

I sighed before telling her, "Could you please not tell anybody about how I got here? I mean about the door in our closets and that I know you even though you don't know me and things like that." My right hand found my left upper arm and squeezed. I wasn't entirely sure why, but my head hung in shame. Maybe it was because I knew she wasn't going to tell anyone and still asked her to keep the secret.

"Of course, I wasn't going to tell anybody," Bella exclaimed, but I still didn't look up. "It's not like I want us to spend the rest of our lives in straitjackets." This time my head snapped up to look at her face, which was friendly and open. "Besides," she added, "I still expect you to explain some things to me." She crossed her arms again. A part of me was expecting her to begin tapping her foot impatiently. Do something, unlike Bella. Once again, she

disappointed me.

My eyes closed and I sighed. This whole "I can't tell you anything business" was going to be harder to convince her about than that vampires could sparkle in the sun - I was sure she was going to believe that one much easier.

"I can't," I told her and stared into her eyes so that she could see I wasn't lying. "And even if I could I wouldn't do it." If anyone asked you if you would want to know your entire future or how you were going to die, would you want to know? I knew that I wouldn't. No character or person would want to know what lay ahead of them. Dustfinger in 'Inkheart' was an excellent example of that. "I'm sorry."

There was slight pain in my upper arm, as I squeezed it tighter.

Bella groaned in frustration and closed her eyes. "Are you some kind of empath or precognitive person, since you can't tell me?"

I actually laughed out loud at her theories and let go of my arm. Empath? Precog? I was sure Alice Cullen would have laughed with me had she been here right now.

"What?" Bella asked, scowling, and I practically laughed even harder.

"You-should-have-seen-your-expression!" I told her while clutching my stomach. She was still scowling at me but through my tears of laughter, I noticed a small smile set at the corner of her mouth.

After a while, I finally stopped laughing and dried my eyes with my sleeve. I knew that I was entirely exhausted now, so I didn't even bother looking up at Bella again, but instead at the white ceiling of her room.

"Well, are you?" Bella asked after a couple of minutes in silence.

"Am I what?" I asked back, without moving my gaze.

She hesitated. "Any of those... things?"

Painfully slow I lowered my head to look at her again, putting my elbows on my legs as I rested my chin onsilence.

"Am I what?" I asked back, without moving my gaze.

She hesitated. "Any of those... things?"

Painfully slow I lowered my head to look at her again, putting my elbows on my legs as I rested my chin on my hands. "Nope," I answered her with a smile. "I'm a one hundred percent perfectly normal, boring, ordinary human."

She frowned. "I never said you weren't human."

I could figuratively feel the billions of slaps Twihearts were sending my way right now. Way to go Kath!\ chided myself. Just keep on getting her more and more suspicious. I'm sure you'll have the story ruined in no time. Now she's practically going to guess what Edward is just by seeing him!

"Maybe it's better if we go to bed now," I suggested. "We're going to be worn out in the morning."

Bella looked like she wanted to argue with me some more until she looked back at the computer.

"You should probably forward those to Char- my dad first," she said and sighed.

Crisis averted!

"Yes, probably," I agreed as she proceeded to give me Charlie's email. Her slip-up before had been adorable, yet I knew that Chief Swan longed for her to actually just call him dad, and not Charlie. Even when he wasn't there.

It didn't take long afterward for the lights to get turned off, and I didn't even bother to search for my pajamas in my bags before I was already sound asleep.