What The Hell?
"She grew up so fast," I whisper to Edward as we watch Emmett, Alice, Jacob and Nessie playing freeze tag in the garden.
"Come inside!" I hear Esme call. She has just made dinner for Ness and Jake and I suppose she would prefer them to stop playing before Emmett crashes into the house.
Carlisle is home and soon the whole family, including Jake, is seated in the living room. Edward, my Edward, sits next to me, holding my hand as we watch Jake and Ness laugh together. Its been twenty years since the Vultori came and they're married now, much to Edward's annoyance.
A knock sounds at the door and Carlisle goes to open it. A man with his face hidden by a black cloak stands there, and what we can see of his mouth smirks before smoke fills the room and everything goes black.
"Ugh," I moan as I wake up. I run a hand through my hair as I realise I'm on a bed, and not just any bed. My bed. At Charlie's. Holy crap.
I raise my line of sight to the mirror in front of the bed and my mouth drops open.
I'm human.
My cheeks have a definite blush, and my eyes are the deep chocolate brown colour Edward fell in love with.
Edward...
As I inspect my face further I realise I look younger too. My face is ever so slightly rounder and a tad more childish. Almost exactly like when...
No, no way.
Turning on the ancient computer on my desk, I check the date.
Ho-ly shit.
Its the day of my first day of Forks High.
Again.
What the fuck is going on?!
What if..? The Cullens, Jake and Nessie were all a dream. No, Jake is most definitely real. I knew him long before the Cullens, and there is no way I dreamt twenty one years into my future.
Is this how Alice feels after every vision?
And if I didn't dream them, where the hell are the others? Maybe... They all went back to their human lives too...
I'll never see them again. I'm at least one hundred years younger than the lot of them, and Nessie will never exist without Edward.
As I realise this I feel wetness on my cheek and it takes me longer than it should to realise the thought of my family has caused me to cry. The feeling is so familiar yet so... Odd.
Well, it should be expected since I haven't cried in over twenty years.
"Bella?" Charlie asks, knocking on my door, making me jump. Damn.
"Yeah dad?" I turn around to see him in the door way. Without thinking I throw myself at him; the Charlie I knew with the Cullens died of a heart attack five years ago.
"Woah, Bells, what's wrong?" Charlie chuckles, slightly alarmed as he hugs me back gently.
"I just missed you so much," I sob, tears running freely. Truth rings in every word, and I know its perfectly okay to say this as, if my suspicions are correct, I only moved in with him yesterday.
"Bella, I missed you too," Charlie replies, rubbing my back. "Now, you better get ready. You don't want to be late on your first day!" He pulls away and rushes down the stairs to get to work.
Oh God.
I pull up at the school in the rustic old Chevy I used to love, but now I seriously hate. I guess its what happens when you get used to twenty years worth of fast cars.
The moment I slip out of the cab of the truck, my eyes land on a very familiar blonde walking into the front office. My eyes widen as I rush to get to the office at the same time. I'm only a few seconds behind them as I hear them introduce themselves to Ms. Cope, who in the life I knew is long dead.
"Jasper Whitlock, ma'am," Jasper smiles. "I just moved here from Texas."
My jaw drops. His shouthern accent is more potent than I have ever heard it.
Ms Cope smiles, "Ah well, we have a new girl coming into school today too," She informs my brother. My brother. Thank God he's here. Maybe he can explain to me what's going on.
But I'm pretty sure none of the other Cullens were born in Texas, so where are they?
"That would be me," I smile, stepping towards the desk.
Jasper turns to me and says, "And what might your name be, pretty lady?"
What?
WHAT?
He doesn't recognise me...
And he's human, definitely. The warmth and squishiness of his hand as I shake it tells me that much.
"Bella Swan," I answer, suppressing the tears that threaten to spill. One of the boys I have thought to be my brother for twenty one years doesn't know me.
Does this mean the others don't remember me either?
Probably...
Okay, things to do.
Make friends with Jasper.
Make friends with Alice.
Set Jasper and Alice up if they don't remember each other.
Find Edward.
Jasper's eyesbrows furrow together in confusion as he releases my hand. "Have we met before?" He asks, "Only, your name and face seem familiar."
YES! I want to scream at him, but I hold it in. Relief floods me as I realise that maybe I didn't dream my vampire life after all. The recognition is there.
"You seem relieved," Jasper says, and I hold in a laugh. After all, Jasper has always been good at sensing people's emotions.
I smile politely, "Probably because I thought I recognised you," I tell him, hoping I'm still not the worst liar on earth. Well, its only partly a lie; I know I recognise him.
Jasper laughs, the deep, amused laugh I am so used to hearing. But it sounds slightly different, less like music without his enhanced vampire voice.
"Here are your schedules," Ms. Cope smiles, handing them to us before we leave the office.
As I walk out I glance at Jasper's schedule and find that we have the same lesson first. Math.
Considering I've already gone through Junior and Senior year in this school, I know my way around. "Come on," I instruct Jasper and lead him to building five.
"This is math with Mr Gallagher, right?" I ask an ususpecting Mike Newton, just to make sure.
He jumps and straightens up. Smiling he replies, "Yeah, the name's Mike. You must be Isabella."
"Bella," I correct, already getting annoyed by the boy I know for a fact will end up marrying Jessica Stanley, become an English teacher at this very school, have five daughters and die at the age of fourty drink-driving. "And this is Jasper."
Mike takes one look at Jasper and shrinks back. My confusion dulls when I follow his gaze and see that even as a human Jasper is covered in scars from fights. I've been so used to his scars from the New Born Wars in the South that I never noticed.
Jasper and I take places at the back of the line waiting to enter the classroom. It doesn't take long for the teacher to arrive though and soon we're standing in front of the class waiting to be appointed seats.
"Right, Bella sit next to Mike and Jasper sit next to Rosalie, raise your hands Mr Newton and Miss Hale," My Gallagher instructs.
At the sound of her name my eyes fall on another very familiar blonde. She's beautiful, the most beautiful by far. But not vampire beautiful, telling me she is human, and the fact she shows no sign of recognition to our names or faces tells me she is just as clueless as Jasper. Maybe even more as he at least recognised me a little bit.
After math I don't have any lessons with Jasper, Rosalie or any of the other Cullens. Until lunch, that is.
At lunch I enter to see Jasper with two trays of food in front of him, alone at what I once knew as the Cullen table. "Hey Jazz," I smile, sitting next to him.
Relief clouds his expression as he pushes the second tray of food towards me, "I hope you don't mind," He says sheepishly.
"Of course not," I reply, taking a cautious bite of my bagle. What can I say? Human food has repulsed me for twenty years, although I do find it amusing to see Jasper practically ripping apart a sandwhich as if he hasn't been repulsed by such things for a hundred and fifty years.
Well, to him, he hasn't.
"So what do you think of Rosalie?" I tease, "I saw you eyeing her in math."
Jasper frowns, "She seems too snobby for me," He admits, "But there is one girl in my Art class."
He points across the room to a black haired, hyper girl who I know for a fact wouldn't ask any questions if I went over there right now and demanded a makeover.
Alice.
Well that didn't take long.
"PIANO PLAYING FREAK!" I hear an extremely familiar voice scream. Jasper and I turn to see a scary looking big brother of mine punch an unprepared husband of mine.
I almost scream Edward's name but I hold it in. I almost punch Emmett but I don't. I can't draw attention to myself. I can't tell these people that they're meant to be vampires. I can't kiss Edward and ask him to help me find Renesmee. I can't go to Carlisle and ask...
Or maybe I can.
Maybe Carlisle is a vampire.
Its a long shot, but I've always found it hard to imagine my second father human. Maybe he's out there. Maybe he remembers. Maybe I didn't dream anything.
The teachers soon sort out the fight and I'm a little sad I didn't get to see Edward's face, but I will, I'm sure.
My afternoon lessons are like my morning ones, lacking any kind of familiar family member. They obviously don't know each other as siblings, I mean, why would Emmett punch his brother?
At least they're all here.
Except my daughter, and my parents.
Until...
In my final lesson, Chemistry, I listen to the end of the register as a familiar name is called.
"Vanessa Wolfe?"
"Here."
Vanessa Wolfe. The name I put on her fake passport when the Vultori were coming and Alice left me clues only I could know to save my daughter.
My eyes scan the room, and there she is, with my eyes, Edward's hair colour and Charlie's curls.
My Nessie.
She obviously doesn't know me though, so that causes the tears to start again, but this time I can't stop them. My eyes burn as they fall, splashing soundlessly on the desk.
After a lecture the teacher tells us to partner up, and 'Vanessa' comes straight to me. "Are you okay?" She asks, sitting down and setting up the practical task.
"Yeah," I reply weakly, letting more tears spill.
"Don't cry," Ness begs, and I almost laugh at the memory of her telling me not to cry when I thought Aro and his guard were going to kill us all.
My little girl.
My tears soon stop and instead of getting in my truck I decide to walk home. I need to think.
This is what I have come up with today:
I didn't dream anything, and the cloaked man at the door did this, and he is definitely from the Vultori. My opinion on why they did this is so the Cullen clan will never have come to exist, as we were the only coven that could possibly overthrow the Vultori, and the fact my timetable has only one difference to my original schedule, indicates that Edward and I are being kept apart, which is why I didn't have bioligy today.
Carlisle could maybe be a vampire. I don't why, I just think he is. I just need to get to the hospital to find out, and with my clumsiness that shouldn't be hard to arrange.
The only reason I still remember everything is because of my mental shield, but because becoming human was a physical thing, I couldn't stop that.
Jasper likes Alice, no surprise there.
Rosalie is a narcissistic snob, no suprise there.
Edward plays the piano, no surprise there.
Emmett is a complete ass in this life, and that is actually surprising.
I have no idea where Esme is.
Okay...
Things to do:
Find Carlisle and Esme.