Yeah, okay, soooo…I just finished Breaking Dawn and I have a predictable urge to write a fanfic about it, so here it is. I hope you all like it. Here's a longer Summary. Oh, and also, for now this is just a one-shot, but if I end up liking it a lot I might write a few more chapters. Don't get your hopes up though, because I'm super busy. Anyway here:
Summary: It's Renesmee Cullen's first day of Middle School, and despite the fact that she's got everything going for her, she's a little nervous. Basically just what she might be feeling as someone who doesn't belong in either group, vampire, human or werewolf. And the fact that every boy in school seems to suddenly revolve around her as if she's the sun.
Oh, one more BTW: I made up Port Angeles Elementary School since I was too bored to actually see if there was one. Also, I'm sort of pretending that all of Bella's former classmate's moved away, so they don't exactly run into anyone they know.
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"Don't worry, sweet, you'll be fine," murmured my father as he leaned over me to gently pushed open the passenger door. He glanced down at my black frown and ruffled my hair. "Don't forget you'll be the most beautiful girl there," he reassured me, then glanced briefly to the back seat. I followed his gaze, and smiled quickly as I met my mother's soft, purple eyes. She grinned at me, exposing a row of perfect pearly-whites.
"Go get 'em, Nessie," she hissed, just the faintest hint of a feral snarl behind her words.
I couldn't bring myself to smile back. For the past three years (it had taken me about that long to reach an approximate 12 years of age) I'd been home schooled by my grandfather, Carlisle. It was a better education than most people got in all their years of high school and college combined, and it had given me plenty of time to master the 'vegetarian' diet that my family subsisted on. But now, to my horror, my parents had decided it was time for me to attend regular school. My accelerated growth rate was slowing down enough for me to pass as a changing adolescent for at least one year, and maybe I'd move to another school after that. Personally, I would have been fine avoiding all of it, but when my father and my mother ganged up against me, and the rest of my aunts and uncles were at their backs, it was hard to resist.
Just then came the roar of a car engine, and all three of us flicked our heads (disconcertingly fast to human eyes) towards the old Volkswagen that was sliding smoothly into the adjacent parking space. As the window rolled down, a delighted smile lit up my impossibly beautiful face.
"Jake!" I cried, pushing open the door and leaping out in one fluid movement that was hardly even perceptible unless the person watching had vampire senses, like me.
"Nessie!" he greeted me in his husky voice. He also climbed out of his car and picked me up, his wide, warm hands grasping my thin shoulders and hoisting me into the air.
"I knew you'd come!" I murmured into his ear, twisting my hands into his thick black hair as he settled me onto his impossibly wide shoulders. I had to remind myself that Jacob Black was barely seventeen, because he always seemed far older and wiser than that to me.
I heard a low hiss from the back seat, and turned to peer through the tinted glass of my father's sleek black BMW to the hard gaze of my mother.
"Oh, come on Bells," muttered Jacob, knowing that she could hear him no matter how quietly he spoke. "You didn't think I'd miss her first day of school, did you?"
"Bella, you knew he was coming," Edward muttered in her ear. She climbed out of the car and stood erect in front of us, an exasperated frown on her face.
"I keep tabs on her even when I'm sleeping," Jacob defended, his grip tightening on my legs as I rested my chin on his head.
"Give it a rest, Momma," I murmured to her from my perch. After a few seconds of what I guessed to be silent fuming, Bella reached up and grabbed my hand, following a few paces behind us as Jacob led the way to the front of the school. We lived in the same house I'd been born in, in Forks, but I was going to Port Angeles elementary school instead of the closer Forks Elementary. My parents didn't want to risk running into anyone they had known during their high school years. They were planning on postponing any furthering of their own educations until I was well on my way to maturity – a couple years, at most.
Other kids were streaming in from the parking lot, and I was momentarily stunned by their ordinariness. So far, almost all of the people I knew were either vampires, and subsequently stunningly beautiful, or werewolves, who were also beautiful in their own, wild, wolfish way. I thought of Jacob and absent-mindedly stroked his thick head of hair. I'd always loved him more as a wolf, but I could deal with him in his human form.
"Well, Nessie – here we are," Jacob murmured as he neared the front of the school. He swung me effortlessly from his shoulders, but I could feel my mother cautiously holding me, just in case I should slip. I laughed to myself – there was no way I could get hurt just by jumping down from Jacob's shoulders. The mere notion was somehow humorous.
I stared at the doors for a long time, then slowly reached backwards, without taking my eyes off the wide blue entry way, and touched Jacob's flaming cheek. I projected an image of the other children around me, some of whom were turning in my direction and staring, awestruck, at our strange little family group. With the image was a question that I knew my Jacob would understand – where did I fit in here?
"It doesn't matter, Nessie," came a reply, but not from the voice I was expecting. My father, Edward, was at my side in a sixteenth of a second, having read the image in both my mind and Jacob's. I glanced up at his godlike face, disgruntled. Sometimes it was annoying that he could read my thoughts, and once again I envied my mother, the only person in the world whose mind was closed to him. He arched a perfect eyebrow at this thought.
"You can be whoever you want," said Jacob gruffly, clapping my shoulder. A bell rang harshly in my ears, and I pinpointed the sound without thinking, using my enhanced hearing to trace it back to a remote corner of the school, invisible even to my keen eyes. Too bad I hadn't been born with X-ray vision.
My father laughed silently, and then pushed me gently forward. The others followed. I could feel the stares of the normal children burning into my back as we proceeded through the front doors. We came to a stop at the front desk, where a stout woman with graying hair was bent over a pile of papers. She looked up, and I could the see the momentary lapse of attention that claimed all human people when they met my father's intense topaz stare.
"I'm here to sign in for my daughter, Renesmee Cullen," he murmured, and I could see her mind whirl as his sickly sweet breath blew in her face. But then I grimaced at the mention of my cumbersome given name. Renesmee, I scoffed. Nobody wanted to say that out loud. I caught my father's warning frown, and looked away.
"Certainly sir," she breathed back, and through the curtain of confusion I could see her disgust – This boy, the father of a twelve-year-old? He barely looks twenty! Is that even possible? I swallowed a grim chuckle. How surprised she would be if only she knew the truth. And even more so when she knew how old – or young - I really was.
She handed a folder of crisp white papers to him, then bent back over her own pile of documents. Dad turned back to us and grinned, habitually keeping his lips over his weirdly glistening teeth. I suppressed another laugh when I pictured what those teeth could do – my father, effortlessly incapacitating a mountain lion. I'd seen it done, and it was almost as impressive as the time my uncle Emmett tackled a fully-grown male grizzly bear. I had a hard time not grinning at that memory. I heard my father chuckle behind me.
"What's funny?" Jacob and Momma asked at the same time. I sighed, turned around, grabbed their hands and showed them the image. Jacob laughed, but my mother merely sighed and shook her head, casting Edward a stare that clearly said 'These are not the proper thoughts for a three-year-old.' Everyone paused, and then we all started laughing, drawing even more stares from the people around us.
"Okay, Nessie, I think it might be time for us to go," said my father apologetically as a second bell rang and a group of kids scurried past us.
I nodded, and gave my mother and father each a fierce hug, simultaneously showing them an image of the three of us together on a trip to South America that we'd taken last spring to visit Zafrina and Nahuel. They smiled, patted my head in unison, and strode gracefully away. Jacob stayed by my side, and neither vampire turned around, knowing full well that this was the way it was.
"I'll walk you to your classroom," Jacob muttered in my ear, grasping my shoulder and steering me down the hall. I reached backward like before and laid my hand on his cheek, showing image after image of how much I was going to miss him that day. The longest I'd ever been away from Jacob was four days, when he'd had to follow Leah somewhere – he never told me where. He'd come with us to South America – the longest I'd ever been away from home. Despite it all, today felt like the first day he'd been out of my sight since the day I'd been ripped from my mother's bleeding body – the only picture I had of her human face popped up, and Jacob let out a low wolfish whine.
Finally, I sighed and produced a picture of a wooden door that was painted in peeling, commercial gray. The door we were standing in front of. Some other kids were hanging around outside, where a row of lockers was set into the wall. They all turned to stare as the half-breed girl and her werewolf stopped in front of the classroom. Of course, they didn't know that's who we were, but I couldn't help feeling conspicuous all the same. I gripped Jacob's hand anxiously, firing image after image of anxiety into his head, until I could a hear growl beginning in his chest and I stopped. Sometimes a forgot that my own emotions were multiplied tenfold in his one-track mind – that one track being my happiness and my happiness alone.
I showed him an apology, and he nodded, yanking playfully on one of my perfect bronze curls.
"Guess you should go in, Nessie," he murmured, and carefully opened the door. The tiny brass doorknob disappeared in the russet folds of his massive hand, and I could hardly tell when he turned it.
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I pressed my cheek against the cool surface of the desk, focusing only one part of my mind on the droning of the teacher. I'd already forgotten her name in the ten minutes we'd been sitting in the classroom. As far as I could tell, she was still prattling on about school policies, and safety and respect and all of that junk I'd been expecting.
Another section of my mind was controlling the dull ache of my thirst. It was merely an itch in my throat at the moment. Being half human, my thirst was never as bad as my parents, and since I'd practically been raised on a diet of animal blood, except for the first few days of my existence when I'd fed out of a cup, I was nearly immune to the scent of human blood. Every now and then I got a good whiff and I had to just clench my fist the tiniest bit, but it usually went away as soon as it had come. It wasn't uncomfortable really, just a slight annoyance.
Suddenly, the teacher part of my mind flared up, and I raised my head so I could pay attention to what she was saying.
"…new student this year. Renesmee Cullen, would you like to come up and introduce yourself?"
I winced at the sound of my name, but rose from my seat anyway and danced to the front of the classroom. When I turned to look at the class, I met 13 shocked faces. The dancing was part of me, but the speed…I'd have to work on that.
I plastered on a smile (barely registering the flames in the eyes of every male human facing me), and then introduced myself, as the teacher had directed.
"My name is Renesmee Cullen, after my two grandmothers, but you can call me Nessie," I began. I'd practiced this at home with my aunt Alice for a few days prior to the start of school. Now I was suddenly intensely aware of the warbling, bell-like sound of my voice – too perfect for a normal human. I blinked (hah, a real human fidget!), but then the sound of my heartbeat flooded into my ears, and I pressed a cold finger to my wrist, where a strangely fast pulse was beating. It all took less than half a second for me to make these observations, and the class was still waiting expectantly when I looked up.
I'm really a vampire, and my very best friend in the entire world is a werewolf, and I can project my thoughts into your mind or kill you in a matter of minutes, I thought wryly, but instead I spoke aloud, "I live with my mom and dad, Bella and Edward, and some of my other relatives in an old house in Forks, and we like to hike a lot." Whatever.
Indicating that I was finished, I nodded to the teacher, and danced (more slowly this time) back to my seat. Awestruck gazes followed me to my chair.
I sat through the rest of the class, unaware of anything else around me, flicking through pictures in my head with an absent-minded frown on my face. If this was what every day at school was going to be like, I wasn't sure I could sit through it.
Finally, the teacher-tab alerted me once again and I looked up, concentrating on her face. She had finished speaking and was staring at me expectantly. I nodded automatically, hoping I wasn't agreeing to anything dreadful. Instead, two other students jumped sluggishly to their feet and beckoned to me. Unsure, I rose and took a few hesitant steps toward them. They didn't seem to be frustrated with my slowness, and then I realized that I was probably walking at a normal human speed. This gave me some sort of consolation (I was better, faster, stronger and more clever than them by one hundred times, so what did I have to fear?).
"Come on!" called the girl. "We're giving you a tour of the school!" She was a short and tan, with frizzy brown hair and wide, innocent brown eye. I mused that they weren't as deep and all knowing as mine, which brought a smile to my face. She seemed to take this as some sort of answer, and hurried to the door, waiting for me to follow. Follow I did, at a sufficiently human-like pace. A taller, black haired boy followed, his eyes never leaving me as we walked out the door. As soon as it clicked ominously shut behind us, the brunette girl turned to me and grinned.
"I'm Danny," she introduced. At my puzzled expression she clarified, "short for Danielle."
"Oh," I said, nodding and smiling slightly. "You're lucky. It's not as bad as Renesmee."
She giggled quietly. "Yeah, no offense, but that is kind of a weird name. I mean, it's pretty and everything, but I've never heard it before."
"It's a combination," I explained. "But please – everyone calls me Nessie."
Then I turned to the black-haired boy, waiting for his name. After a moment of awkward silence, Danny murmured, "That's Colton," she explained in hushed tones. "He's kind of…quiet. And weird."
I shot Colton a curious glance, meeting a pair of sharp blue eyes. He didn't look away, as I usually expected from a human boy, but merely met my gaze and blinked, as if this was nothing new to him.
"Yeah, he does seem a little weird," I agreed, somehow falling easily into the pattern of a nearly teenage girl. Maybe today wouldn't be so bad after all.
"So," muttered Danny, leading me down a hallway that seemed to have no end. "Who was that big kid you were with?" Never mind. This was going to be a very bad day.
"That was…well, that was Jacob," I explained, unable to think of a better description. After all, that was who he was. Just Jacob – my Jacob.
"Jacob?" she questioned, her eyes round with eager curiosity. "Is he your brother or something? You don't exactly look alike…"
"I guess…you could say that," I struggled. "I mean, we're not related…" then it came to me. "He's a really close friend of our family, and he's pretty much like my big brother. I grew up with him around, and since I don't have any other siblings, I guess he's a stand-in." That sounded very good…very…human.
"Oh wow, you're lucky. I have an older sister and she's always mean…" her words trailed into silence. I paused, staring at her. Her eyes were trained on my shirt, and I looked down, wondering if there was a bloodstain or something – nothing.
"What?" I asked, squirming under her scrutiny. Could she tell? That I wasn't...like her? That I wasn't human? How?
"Is that…" she gasped, raising a finger and pointing at my shirt. "Is that…Ed Hardy?"
I looked down at my shirt again, puzzled. It was turquoise, with the design of a butterfly accompanied by colorful swirls. I hadn't even noticed it after I'd put it on. Since I was a baby, my aunt Alice had stocked my closet, and I'd never paid much attention to what I put on in the morning.
"Um…" I hesitated. "Yeah?"
Her eyes bugged out even further as her gaze drifted to me pants. "True Religion Jeans?" she wheezed, wringing her hands. My breathing began to quicken, and I replied again, "Yeah?" my voice was a squeak.
"And…" This time her entire face turned a weird shade of purple. I took a step back, suddenly afraid. "FRYE BOOTS?"
"I don't even know what those are, my aunt buys all my clothes!" I explained desperately, flinging the words out like a shield. She was opening and closing her mouth like a dying goldfish, and I had to fight the urge to run away.
"Are your parents like…billionaires or something?" she questioned skeptically, her face slowly returning to its normal color.
I bit my tongue, wondering what I should say. I mean, of course they were billionaires. I was pretty sure they were much more than billionaires, but it had never really occurred to me what to say when the question of finance came up in daily life. At home, money was never even given a second thought. We didn't have much need of it anyway, so most went towards fast cars and expensive clothes, or high-tech stuff that didn't exist in the U.S. yet for my grandfather's studies.
"My…uncle-" Carlisle could never pass as a grandfather "-is a super good doctor," I replied, hoping this was explanation enough. "And my mom is…a lawyer," I added, thinking of another high-paying job.
"Oh," Danny breathed. I was relieved to see that she seemed to have gotten control of herself. "Wow. You're really lucky."
"Um…thanks?"
She turned abruptly and continued walking. I heard another set of feet and turned around, surprised. I'd forgotten about Colton – he had been watching us the whole time, his eyes sharp and emotionless. It kind of gave me the creeps, but I didn't comment on it.
"So…" I muttered after a while. "What's the tour supposed to be?"
Danny laughed, and I nearly jumped at the strange grating sound. I was so used to the musical laughter of my vampire family, or the gentle, rough werewolf laughter that had accompanied me throughout my life.
"There's not much to show you," she explained. "I just sort of wanted to ask you about that big kid – Jacob. You had your hand on his face like…" she hesitated, looking away.
"What?" I pressed, curious about how others saw me.
"Well, I mean, it sounds dumb, but like you were in love or something." She looked at me with a laugh in her eyes, as if she was telling me that it wasn't true, and she'd known it all along. I couldn't help smiling and giving a snort. What else? Unconditional love wasn't something anyone encountered in Middle School, was it? Then how could I explain my Jacob to her?
She blinked, her eyes darkening, suddenly wondering if I was laughing at her skepticism. It couldn't be true, after all, could it? He looked like he was twenty years old! After noticing her appalled expression, I bit my tongue again and replied grudgingly, "Of course not! He's practically a decade older than me." How strange – it was true, in two different ways. In real human years, he was more than a decade older than me, but at some point, while he stayed the same age (seventeen) by embracing his wolf self, I would surpass him in maturity (Age? Not quite the same thing in my case.) Then he'd have to start aging again, and stop when I stopped – forever, presumably. Poor Jacob, stuck with the defect vampire. I grimaced.
"We should be getting back," Danny sighed, casting the hallway a regretful look.
"Are you sure there's nothing you should be showing me?" I pressed, reluctant to return to the boring classroom.
"There's nothing down there but the fourth and third grade rooms. Besides, I don't want to walk all the way to the playground. It takes forever. Let's just go back."
She reached out. In a split second, ten different images flashed through my mind, the most prominent of which was a memory of my mother.
"Nessie, whatever you do, don't let anyone touch you, at least not yet. Your temperature will…well, just like us, it's different. Just avoid contact, if you can." I blinked, flexed my fingers, and then stepped away. All in about one and a half seconds.
Danny's fingers closed on air, where a moment ago my shoulder had been. She stared at her fingers, surprised. I didn't say anything, hoping she'd let it go as her own imagination, but what I didn't count on was my other strange observer.
As soon as I'd moved away from Danny, Colton's fingers closed around my arm. Startled, I ripped it away, breaking his grip as easily as I would tear a piece of paper.
It all happened so fast he couldn't have even seen, but somehow his expression registered everything, from my abnormally hot skin, to it's smooth, stone-like feel, and my impossibly fast movements. While Danny was still moving her arm back to her side, Colton was realizing something. Something that he definitely should not be realizing.
"Let's go back," Danny said again, and brushed past us to lead the way down the hallway to our classroom.
I didn't follow. I was too busy watching shock and fear flash across Colton's face. How is it possible? I screamed inwardly. How does he possibly know anything?
But it was obvious. He stared at me, his mouth slightly open, his fingers clutched to his chest, and I could smell his fear. He must know – he did know. But how?
Then he whirled and marched away, his footsteps echoing ominously around me.
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As soon as the bell rang signaling the end of school, I snatched the books out of my desk and ran for the exit, flinging all precautions to the wind. I didn't care if I scared the kids around me – I wanted to get out as soon as possible. Something was wrong here, something I couldn't control. I had to talk to my parents.
Apparently, this was not an option. As soon as I cleared the classroom door, a breath of air told me I was being followed. Seconds later, Colton was at my side, his electric eyes trained sharply on my face. His face was still expressionless, frozen in a look of nonchalance. Clothed in nondescript black t-shirt and jeans, he would have completely invisible in Middle School world. Or so I thought. But as soon as I had returned to class after my tour of the hallway, I'd begun to notice the odd things that had escaped my attention before.
People stared at Colton the same way they stared at me, albeit without quite as much interest. Obviously he had been here for longer than I had, and he was a thing of the past. But the way he moved and spoke, on the rare occasions that he did open his mouth, seemed to instill the same reactions in his peers as my actions did. I hadn't noticed at first because they didn't seem odd to me. Everyone else walked at a snail's pace, so I stared at them – Colton's strides were normal, so he faded to the back of my mind. Now, finally, I recognized the signs. I didn't know how or why, but Colton was like me.
"Who are you?" he whispered, his voice low and intense. I could hear sleepless nights and shadowy forests beneath his words, the kind of purring ferocity that accompanied any creature of the dark and cold.
"I could ask the same of you," I replied in a similarly frosty voice. I knew that I didn't need to keep up my immature pretenses around him, whoever he was. I might sound like an average kid to my human fellows, but inside I had had an extensive education with countless nights of study, I had traveled the world with souls who had survived the centuries, seen nightmares and dream worlds that no human could ever hope to see. Somehow, Colton knew this, so all of my cautionary shields were down.
"Where did you come from?"
"I won't answer your questions until I hear an explanation from you," I growled, coming to a sudden stop. We were far ahead of the rest of the class, almost to the doors at the end of the hall. Speaking in furtive whispers at the speed of light, there was no chance we would be overheard.
"This can't be possible," murmured Colton in an angry voice. His eyes had never left my face until now, when they flickered anxiously around the room. His pale hands were hanging by his sides, but by the way he clenched and unclenched his fists I could tell he was nervous.
"I've told you everything already," I reminded him with an annoyed shake of my head. "My name is Renesmee Cullen, my parents are Bella and Edward-"
"And you love to hike. I got it," Colton hissed, turning his furious glare back to my face. "That was a very helpful piece of information. How old are you?" he pressed.
I raised my chin a little in defiance. I knew that all secrets were out as soon as he touched my arm, but telling my true age felt like laying open all of my deepest secrets. Still, I needed to know about him just as much, so it couldn't hurt to give one little hint.
"I've lived for three years, but I'm much older," I replied ambiguously.
A great weight seemed to lift from his shoulders, and his eyes dropped to the ground as he released a sigh of fatigue. The herd of curious children was almost upon us, so Colton grabbed my hand and led me into the sunlight at the front of the school building. He looked around until his eyes rested on the unusual group at the very back of a crowd of overprotective parents waiting to check in with their little ones. With a raised eyebrow in my direction, Colton strode forward to meet them.
Edward reached us first, his facial expression hovering between a beastly snarl and a worried frown. Then Bella and Jacob, both curious, and finally Alice and Jasper, who hung back and watched with interest as Colton approached.
"Nessie, who is this?" Edward demanded, waving his slender fingers at Colton, who gazed at him with those odd blue eyes, not backing down even in the face of a much taller and stronger vampire. It seemed that he couldn't decide whether the boy was a threat to our existence or my very first boyfriend, and whether or not to decapitate him here or gently explain the rules of the house.
"My name is Colton Andersen. I assume you're Edward?" he asked, seemingly unafraid. He glanced back at me appraisingly. "And this is Nessie."
"That's right. I'm her father," Edward established, taking a hesitant step toward us. Colton placed a hand lightly on my shoulder. I stared at it in distaste, but decided against sheering off his arm.
"I live a little to the northeast. There are three of us," Colton said slowly. The slowly smoldering fire in his gaze was obvious enough, and we all understood the real meaning behind his words. A cloud seemed to pass over the sun as my family stared in surprise at this young half-vampire in front of them.
"Myself, my mother Adrianne, and my father Hans. I'm sure they'd be very happy to meet you," Colton explained, nodding politely to them. By this time Jacob had overcome his shock at seeing the boy, and he strode boldly forward, probably intending to break our contact.
Colton stiffened immediately. It seemed he hadn't been able to smell Jacob before, or hadn't noticed it. At once, his lip curled and his spine twitched so that he was bent forward slightly, his eyes blazing. Jacob responded in kind, beginning to shiver and clench his jaw. Before it could escalate, a feeling of warmth and peace rolled over the entire party, calming us. I gazed in exasperation at my uncle Jasper, whose lips twitched in a tiny smile as he met my gaze. Sometime my uncle could be a bit of a buzz kill.
Colton stared at his hands in confusion, anger brightening his cheeks. He looked first at me, questioning, wondering where his rage had gone, than followed my gaze to Jasper's lithe form. I could see recognition dawn on his round pale face, and finally a smile.
"It seems we have much to learn about each other," murmured the young boy, casting a meaningful glance at my Jacob, who had his arms wrapped protectively around me.
Edward, his hands now folded politely behind his back, smiled too. "Apparently."
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A'ight, the ending is kind of lame, but I couldn't think of any other way for it to end.