The next day at school was quiet, yet nerve-wracking. The Cullens were a no-show. To be fair, it was sunny today, but that didn't clear things up for her exactly. They were either avoiding the sun or they left town. Penelope checked the minds of the students to see if anyone had heard of the Cullens skipping town. 

Nothing. But from the office ladies, she did hear snippets about Esme calling in to pull them out of school for the day to go hiking. Lucky bastards...

After school, she decided to pay a visit to her aunt at the hospital. Her aunt Anastasia's office was light and modern- the complete opposite of our family. There were tasteful bursts of colors which was at least something. If you're going to stray away from family tradition, at least make it tasteful.

When she entered, she cringed away from the light. After a few moments, her eyes adjusted to the bright rays coming through the big window. Somehow it was brighter in here than it was outside.

Anastasia chuckled and motioned for me to sit down. "Sorry, dear. I'm trying to get all the sunlight I can. It is a rarity in the winters here."

She looked over suspiciously at the plush white chair her aunt motioned for her to sit in before reluctantly giving in. "Oh, you don't have to apologize, Auntie. It's your office."

If Gomez and Morticia taught her anything, it was to be respectful of everyone's differences, even if they're a bit... weird.

Anastasia looked over at her with a giddy expression and Penelope knew what was coming. "You've come just in time. I need a little break from work and I heard from your parents that you brought a boy home for dinner. Edward Cullen, no less. The new kid."

She had almost forgotten that her aunt wasn't there because she was working late. She could see the assumptions she was making up in her mind. Penelope and Edward all dressed up, letting her aunt and parents take pictures, and watching them go off to the dance. Ugh.

"Auntie, it's not what you think. We're friends and nothing more. I'm not considering asking Edward to go to the dance with me at all. So please, do not get your hopes up."

Her aunt visibly deflated at the news. "Why not? He's handsome, he's single, and he's new. You're the prettiest girl in town and you're also single."

"Wait- how do you know all of this about Edward?"

Anastasia tried to act coy. "What? Nurses talk. And those nurses have kids that go to that high school. Plus, your parents told me some things this morning."

"Hold on... you didn't tell the nurses that Edward had dinner with us last night... did you?"

Her aunt looked away, suddenly interested in her pen holder. Penelope could already see the answer in her mind.

"Auntie..."

She looked up at her with slightly guilty eyes. "Well... if you're participating in an exchange of information-"

"Gossip-"

"Exchange of information. When you're participating in an exchange, it's simply polite to give just as much as you take."

Oh god.  "Why?"

"They were discussing what their daughters had told them. Edward was acting as if he were hard to get so the girls were competing over who could get him first (when in reality he didn't want anything to do with them and it was probably best for their safety that they don't get with him). Rebecca Stanley was bragging that her daughter was the closest, so I had to break that illusion for her. I told her that you and Edward went on a walk together, spent time in the ballroom, and in the library, and that he stayed for dinner."

Penelope groaned and dropped her head in her hands. "You told Jessica Stanley's mom all of that?!" Mrs. Stanley was the biggest gossip in town and happened to be the mother of the biggest gossip in school. If the girls at school were already weirded out by her, they would hate her by tonight.

"I'm sorry, honey. I should have kept my mouth shut."

Anastasia was genuinely remorseful. She knew that it was hard for Penelope to make friends because of their family, but now that she made it seem like Penelope was going to have the boy everyone else wanted, it would be even harder.

However, Penelope wasn't too worried about that. She still had five extra years of wisdom in her mind from her other life. She understood that high school was not the only place she could make friends. At least, that was Penelope Marlowe talking. 

Penelope Addams had conflicting emotions. Yes, she valued and enjoyed her ability to spend time alone with herself, but... it was still nice to have a friend. Even if it was Edward. Were they friends? Surely they were acquaintances at the very least. She still wasn't sure if he was going to leave town or not, he was too far away to read his mind right now. If he left... she would be back at square one. No friends and possibly some enemies. Not that they were a big threat to her safety. Besides, she probably didn't want those people as friends anyway after all the years they had spent isolating her.

She took her face out of her hands and took a deep breath. It was going to be ok. She would be ok. "It's alright, auntie. It's not the end of the world, I suppose."

Her aunt reached over, placing a comforting hand over hers and giving it a gentle squeeze as if to say, "Everything will be fine."

・・・

Later that night, Penelope was at her desk working on the last of her homework. It was all easy enough to not stress about, considering she'd done it all before. Her mind was elsewhere though. Earlier, she went near enough to the Cullen house to read their thoughts, but they weren't home. Again, it was unclear whether they had left town entirely or just went on a hunt.

"Penelope." 

Edward's voice popped into her mind and she could see through his eyes. He was coming to her house. In the next moment, there was a small tapping on her window. He was there, sitting on the ledge and looking into her room.

She flinched at his sudden appearance and felt her heart rate pick up for a moment. "Holy fuck!"

She shook her head in annoyance and went over to open the window just a crack. "What the hell are you doing? You look like a wraith."

He chuckled quietly, causing her to smile in response. Despite her initial scare, the Addams part of her delighted in feeling terror for a moment.

"Let me in?" He asked softly as if it were the most casual thing for him to be at her window like this. He sure did like windows.

She opened the window completely and let him through. He appeared at her desk, inspecting her homework and checking for accuracy.

"Boring, right?" He asked with a little smile. If anyone knew the dullness of high school homework, it was him.

Though she appreciated a casual moment as much as the next person, she wanted to know if the Cullens were leaving or not, but he was purposefully hiding that information from her by thinking of other things. 

"Big time."

They were quiet for a minute while he inspected her room. Sure, he had been in it yesterday, but he didn't take the time to really look at it. He picked up a framed photo of her with her parents holding antennas during a big storm. It captured the moment just before they got struck.

"What are you guys? No human could survive this unscathed."

She smiled mysteriously. She shrugged her shoulders and replied casually. "We're Addamses."

"Is that the only explanation I'm getting?"

"If you were from my world, you'd get it."

He hummed and went to the next photo. It was taken during one of her ballet recitals. She played the Black Swan in Swan Lake. "You didn't tell me about ballet."

"Small detail. I don't do it anymore." She was starting to get impatient with him. Why wasn't he telling her anything?

He was about to ask a follow-up question, but she beat him to it. "Is your family leaving Forks or not?"

Edward continued looking through her photos, his mind forcing thoughts of his curiosity about her family.

After another minute, he finally spoke up. "We're not leaving. You're not exactly a threat because you are well aware of the dangers that come with knowing about vampires. Your mind is closed off to mind readers like me and Aro, so you could get away with lying. At least no one would be able to prove otherwise. The family... Rosalie, in particular, wants to stay here for reasons you already know. But..."

"But?" She felt relief for a brief moment that they were staying but then there was a but.

"We wouldn't be able to hang out in public. People might see my family as approachable and friendly."

She smiled. "Or people might stay away from you if they see you guys hanging out with the goth freak."

"That's true. I hope you don't take offense if I say that you're not very well-liked at that school." He had read the minds of the other students so it wasn't hard to tell.

She waved her hand dismissively. "That's old news. But I don't think matters were made better when my aunt told the nurses at the hospital that you and I hung out yesterday and that you stayed for dinner with my family."

He simply nodded, but his mind raced with the potential outcomes of that. He was tired of Jessica's vivid imagination and the scenarios that usually involved him. If he and Penelope were seen together more often...

"You're not seriously considering fake dating, are you?" She asked in disbelief.

"It doesn't have to be fake dating. Maybe just a public friendship would be enough to keep Jessica's imagination at bay-"

"Unless her imagination turns more to fantasies about her copying my style and stealing you away."

They both laughed at that. The idea that Jessica would start dressing in all-black clothes and acting all surly was a hilarious possibility.

"Alright. How about we present a public friendship, and if that doesn't help things, would you consider a fake dating situation?"

If Penelope were being honest, that possibility had crossed her mind and it didn't exactly repulse her. Fake dating Edward Cullen was certainly not on her 2004 bingo card. But it might not be something she had to worry about if their friendship was enough to turn the girls away. But what if, somewhere down the line, they actually felt things for each other? And then what would happen once Bella arrives on the scene? 

Edward was controlling so that could turn her off, for sure. But he was kind of cute...

No. Her heart was already set on a particular Volturi member. Just the thought of him was making her heart race.

Edward was utterly confused and surprised that this idea was making her heart race. When she noticed him questioning things in his mind, she put a quick stop to it. "I wasn't thinking about you, relax. I'm thinking about someone else. But if it is necessary for you sanity that we fake date, I will consider it. Happy?"

He desperately wanted to know everything she was thinking about. She wasn't just a regular human. First of all, she was an Addams, which was an experience all on its own, but she also has another life where she knows everything that's going to happen here. The fact that her mind was closed off to him made her a complete mystery.

"Thank you."

He watched the trees sway gently outside her window for a little while, lost in thought. She turned off her mind reading to give him some sense of privacy while she went back over her homework- just so she had something to do.

"You and I are more alike than I initially realized."

She looked up and nodded. "I agree."

It didn't really need to be said out loud. There was the obvious fact that they were older than what their physical form might suggest. They one day woke up in a life that they didn't ask for, despite still enjoying some aspects of it. They were mind readers, though Penelope had the upper-hand of being able to turn it off. They come from families that are perceived as strange by others. And... they were lonesome. It was almost eerie.

"Is that why you've been so comfortable with me?" She asked softly.

He smiled and huffed. "I guess so. I can't exactly hide from you, can I? You already know so much about me and you haven't gone off to tell anybody else."

"And considering my family history, you're a much milder 'monster,' if you can even be classified as one."

He looked at her curiously. "You don't see me as much of a monster?"

"This might sound surprising to you but I don't believe that monsters exist."

"You don't? Even considering what I am?"

A memory popped up in her head which she smiled fondly at. "You know, one day- in my other life- I was sitting in class for the first lecture of a human rights course I was taking. The professor came in and wrote in big letters on the board "Only monsters commit genocide." He polled the class to see if they thought that statement was true. When he got a few answers that agreed with it, he simply said, "Monsters don't commit genocide because monsters don't exist. People commit genocide.""

He scoffed. "Clearly, your professor never met a vampire."

She shot him a glare. "You weren't always a vampire. You were human once. No vampire is born a vampire. I think that inherently qualifies you as not a monster. And as much as people like to poke fun at my ancestors and at how some of them were 'abnormal', they were human. Just because they were different from the dominant society, it did not diminish their humanity. So I repeat: Monsters do not exist."

He really didn't want to believe her words even if it did make him feel a little better. "Well I'm not human, so what am I?"

"You're you. Edward Cullen. Or Edward Anthony Masen. A vampire by nature, but that doesn't mean your inherently evil, soulless, or a monster." 

She saw that he was about to protest again so she added, "And before you come at me with your "I have no soul" bullshit, let me tell you this. Whatever a vampire has done, I promise you that a human has done something just as bad or even worse. You think we get all our medical knowledge from good and honest research? No. You think humans haven't done truly awful things to each other in combat? Hell no. Why do you think we need human rights? Because humans are fucking demented!"

Clearly, she had a lot of thoughts on Edward's denial that he had a soul and it felt good to finally say it out loud, directly to him.

"So you killed some people. You made it fast and you targeted rapists, creeps, and murders. You did society good. You got justice for victims who otherwise would have not gotten any at all. And you might think that you had no right to take those lives, but considering your ability, I say you got a pass. And I say that qualifies you for a soul."

There, she was done. She calmed her breathing and looked over at him, expecting for him to argue back, but he didn't. He was quietly staring up at her as if he just had his mind blown or something. Maybe he took her arguments seriously because she knew his background already.

Clearly, no one had ever advocated for the existence of his soul as passionately as she had, except for Carlisle and Esme, but it was a different experience hearing those words come from someone who is not in his family. Her argument wasn't based off of religion, but just off a normal sense of morality. He wants to use the excuse that she doesn't know him, but that's quite the opposite. She knows everything and still, she does not believe that he is a monster.

Finally, he stood up and gently took her hand in his. She certainly wasn't expecting that.

But he simply held her hand, though his golden eyes locked onto her brown ones, almost as if he were trying to see her soul. "Thank you, Penelope."

For some reason, her heart did a little flip. She didn't even mind his cold skin. Neither Penelope Addams nor Penelope Marlowe had ever held the hand of a guy like this. She honestly felt a little flustered- especially now that she could see why Bella would get lost in his eyes so much.

"Um... no problem..." she answered quietly.

"I'll see you tomorrow at school?" He asked casually, though she could tell he was looking into her eyes as deeply as she was his.

"Mhm..."

He held onto her hand for a few more moments before letting go and motioning over to the window. "Walk me out?"

That seemed break her out of her spell and make her laugh a bit. "Of course."

She opened the window for him and watched him slip out onto the ledge. "Goodnight, Edward."

"Goodnight, Penelope."

And with that, he slipped off into the night, faster than her mind could compute.

What the hell happened?

・・・

Author's note: Guys, even I didn't see this coming.