*Sorry for the horrible title! It will change eventually, don't worry! Hope everyone enjoys this chapter. I'm not entirely sure where I'm going with this story yet. Please, please, please review!*
It had been two years since I had been turned immortal. We stayed in Forks for about another year after our encounter with the Volturi, but since we remained physically unchanged, our family moved away to a large house, just off the coast of Vancouver, afraid that a human would figure out that we weren't aging. Jacob had put up a protest with us all moving; he didn't want to be that far away from his pack as he was now the sole Alpha wolf, but as soon as Edward and I broke the news to him that Renesmee was coming with us, he changed his mind with a promise that he'd run down to La Push ever-now-and-then.
I still kept in touch with Charlie, by phone only, but it was nice to have some contact with my former human life; at times I missed being able to breath in fresh air and not have to worry about my thirst for blood. Still, I knew deep down in my heart, I had chosen the right path for my – existence. Renee was a different story; I hadn't seen or talked to her since my wedding day, which seemed like forever ago. I missed my Mom dearly, but unlike Charlie she was too observant and would easily hear the difference in my voice, so that left me with no option of contacting her.
As soon as we had arrived in British Columbia, our family enrolled in high school. Renesmee was now physically old enough to pass for a high school student; she had grown faster than Carlisle had anticipated. Jacob had decided to arrive at the school a few weeks after us, as he had no similar features to us whatsoever and wanted to make sure everyone knew that he wasn't related to us at all. Rosalie and Jasper were still pretending to be twins. Their 'parents' had died in a car crash just months after they were born, and had been left to their mother's much younger brother, Carlisle. Edward, Alice, Renesmee and Emmett were posing as the children of Esme's older brother who had been a single parent and died of cancer ten years ago. I myself was a lone child who had been abandoned at birth, left to die in one of the previous hospitals Carlisle had worked in.
Edward, Alice and I were Juniors at our high school and Emmett, Rosalie and Jasper were Seniors, just like it had been back in Forks. Renesmee and Jacob, the new additions to public high school, were supposed to be Juniors as well. Nessie – the name had grown on me – was almost fully mature now; she looked to be about sixteen or seventeen, but in reality she was just over four years old. It felt like just yesterday that she had been a baby in my arms, when I had been unsure if I could deny my thirst for her blood that ran through her veins.
Today was just another ordinary day of school. I looked out the window at the scenery as it flashed by me; I must've been driving easily over 85 mph, but going fast didn't bother me anymore. Since I was supposed to be an orphaned child, I got a car all to myself; we took it upon ourselves to travel as 'families'. I was sad to see my beautiful Ferrari go when we moved here, but the car I was in now was spectacular in its own right. It was a BMW Series 6 Coupe, black – leather interior – absolutely gorgeous. Driving in front of me was Edward in another Volvo – he seemed to have a fetish with that car brand; in it with him were his 'family', Alice, Emmett and Renesmee. Behind me were Rosalie and Jasper; they were driving some brand of car that I didn't know – not that I was an expert on cars.
We all arrived at the school just before the bell rang, a thing we had become accustomed to, allowing us to be in contact with the humans as little as possible. Jasper was still having some difficulties with our family's lifestyle diet, and every once in a while I would feel the burning in my throat as I walked past a human.
As I stepped out of my car, I felt Edward's eyes rest on my back. Turning just a bit too quickly, I saw that he was now making his way over to me. I heard Renesmee say in a low, inaudible voice to the humans, "Come on Dad. Do you have to always go to Mom immediately?"
Edward laughed quietly, but continued on to where I was standing.
"Bella, love, you might want to slow down your speed just a little bit. Remember, humans don't move as fast as us."
I felt the need to blush, but knew that my vampire body wouldn't allow me to. "Sorry, I keep forgetting."
Edward kissed me passionately on the lips. "You don't need to be sorry. You're doing so well as it is."
I shut the car door slowly behind me with my foot, and then opened my mind to his. Come on, let's go to class. We're going to be late.
Edward shook his head subtly and took my hand as we walked gracefully to our first class, Math. Behind us, I heard Renesmee talking frantically to Alice about where Jacob was. We had only been here for a few weeks now, and had already planned that Renesmee wasn't to meet Jake until the three month mark. After all, he hadn't even started school here yet; today was his first day.
"Renesmee," I spoke in the same tone she had used just minutes before, "You can't talk about Jacob. You're not supposed to have met him yet!"
I snuck a quick look at Renesmee, whose cheeks were flushed from embarrassment. Immediately I felt sorry for her; Nessie had a way of wrapping everyone around her finger.
"Bella, she's going to be fine." I heard Edward say beside me.
We took our familiar seats at the back of the classroom, farthest away from the humans; Renesmee followed close behind. It was coming to my attention that they knew to stay away from us, as if they knew that we were dangerous to them, but they didn't know why. I didn't get why they felt this way though; I knew that we really were dangerous and that it was a good thing for them to stay away from us, but when I had been human, the Cullens had never seemed to be scary to me.
I thought back to my first few days at Forks High School, back into my fuzzy human memories when I barely knew anything about the Cullens. I remembered the way that Angela and Jessica, along with all of the other guys all stayed away from the Cullens, but I never remembered them to be afraid of them.
"It's because they were in love with us, love."
I wondered how Edward could know what I was thinking, and then I realized that I hadn't closed my mind. I felt the exterior wall of my shield collapse back into my body; by the heavy sigh Edward made I could tell that he could no longer read my mind.
"It's not always a bad thing for me to be able to read your thoughts Bella. I find it kind of peaceful actually. Some of these people are very opinionated about us."
"Yeah, and I prefer to have some privacy." I answered back smartly, before realizing that I was talking to Edward, the love of my life, my true soulmate. "Sorry. I didn't mean it like that." I added, not wanting to hurt his feelings.
Before Edward could say anything else, my sensitive ears picked up a very familiar voice out in the hallway. I saw Edward's head turn ever so slightly through my peripheral towards the door at the front of the classroom. It was a husky voice, one of someone who shouldn't be in high school. It was Jacob. I wondered why he was outside our door; Jacob wasn't supposed to be in this class; we had gone over that before coming to school.
I heard Nessie's heart beat accelerate quickly, her blood beginning to pump faster and faster through her veins. The sound of this made venom begin to form in my mouth, and the killer instinct my body was designed to do started to kick in. Edward felt me becoming tense and placed a white marble hand upon mine as a gesture to calm down. I cleared my thoughts of every feeling of killing my daughter and settled back into my chair. As I did this, I felt Edward relax as well.
Jacob walked through the door then. He strode through and stopped at the teacher's desk, exactly fifteen feet from where the three of us were sitting. Our principal followed him through the door, and had a very brief and quiet conversation to the teacher, not knowing that Edward, Renesmee and I could hear every word, crystal clear.
"Mr. Lee, allow me to introduce a new student to your class. This is Jacob Black. He just moved here from Manitoba. Please, make him welcome."
Edward and I exchanged confused looks.
"Of course. Welcome to Vancouver Jacob. It's a pleasure to have you in this class."
Jacob didn't answer; I didn't need to be Edward to figure out that he was focusing very hard on not turning to look at us, his real family. Edward laughed quietly at what must've been the thoughts going through Jacob's head; knowing him it was probably something completely irrelevant, like potato chips or hot dogs.
The principal left then and Mr. Lee pointed Jacob to an empty seat, the one right next to Renesmee. I noticed how slow Jacob moved; it was the exact speed that a human should walk, and I made a mental note to ask him later on about how he remembered to do that before I killed him for ruining our plan. Although Jake was no vampire, being a werewolf made him faster than humans as well. As he walked by Edward and me, his hand shook slightly; a small gesture to say hi. We gave him expressionless faces in return.
The seat made a loud scraping sound as Jacob pulled it back and sat down. I knew that behind me, the intensity level was about as high as mine and Edwards urge to stay locked up in our room all day long; the air was humming with their affection for one another.
Mr. Lee started up on his lesson for the day; we were learning about more trigonometry. Edward and I pretended to be paying attention and taking notes, both of us knowing that we were going to ace this class; I had already taken it once before in Forks, and Edward had been learning Trig for over ninety years. I opened up my shield again and told Edward. He's got some explaining to do after this.
Edward simply glanced up at the ceiling and then down at the desk.
I snapped my mental shield back in place and then actually focused in on the lesson. I needed something to distract me from reaching behind me and ripping Jacob's head off. The hour long class seemed endless, a strange thing for an immortal to feel; a mere hour should seem like nothing when compared to an endless life. I felt myself holding my breath, waiting for the bell to ring.
As I heard the sound of the highly anticipated bell, Edward spoke to me, "Having problems controlling your thirst Bella? We can go hunting tonight if you wish."
I opened my mind again, still so angry that I couldn't speak for myself in words. No, why would you say that?
"You've been holding your breath all period, love."
I exhaled loudly and then sucked in a deep breath of air.
"I see you have some very violent methods created to handle Jacob's surprise appearance." Quickly I shut my shield; Edward laughed beside me. "You don't need to be embarrassed Bella. I've heard some pretty bad things in the minds of people over my years. And besides, I know you wouldn't hurt him. Jacob, not matter how annoying he is, is with Reneesme."
I sighed, knowing that what Edward was saying was true, and stood up from my chair, making sure to move slowly. Edward did the same, and we headed to the door. The hallways were crowded, humans running around at what they thought was quick, rushing to get to their next class. Edward had to stop off at the office; his class schedule didn't match completely with mine, and he wanted to switch into my second hour English class. We made our way through the hallways, crawling at human pace, and received a wide birth from the students around us, most just giving frightened looks our way.
Once in the office, I watched as Edward used his dazzling effect on the secretaries to persuade them to change his schedule. He still managed to use this on me, but since my transformation I had come to grow more immune to it. Within a matter of a minute or two, he had a new schedule printed off in his ivory hands, and we were back in the halls heading to English. We walked hand-in-hand, strolling, neither having a need to get to class on time, and knowing that the teacher would simply look the other way.
We passed by a group of kids, standing harmlessly against the lockers, which brought back old human memories of my friends in Forks. I wondered what they were up to now. I wondered what Jessica what up to, or Eric, or Tyler, even Lauren. During my last phone call with Charlie, I had found out that Mike was off at a college somewhere out east, and Angela and Ben were still together, with rumours going around town that he was going to propose sometime soon, but that all was old news, as the last phone call had been nearly six months ago. Every-now-and-then I would think about if I would have still been friends with them had I not chosen to become a vampire. My thoughts returned to the present when I heard the chiming of the school bell, signifying that second period had begun; Edward and I were officially late for English.
We were now approaching the door, which was closed, as per usual; Mr. Banner made it a habit to close the door as soon as the bell rang. I placed a marble hand upon the doorknob, turning it with ease, and pushed the door open. Mr. Banner was standing behind his pride and joy, the podium, and was giving a lecture about the use of punctuation in essays. When we entered the class he stopped and stared for a moment, then assigned the class with a few questions before turning to face us.
"Go to your seat Bella. I'll be there in a moment." Edward spoke in a low and quick voice.
I turned my back to him and walked to the back of the class, taking my seat, but listening with perfect clarity as to what Edward and the teacher were discussing.
"Hello. My name is Edward Cullen. I just transferred into this class."
"Can I see your timetable, Edward?" Mr. Banner looked sceptical that Edward was supposed to be in this class.
"Certainly." Edward answered and handed his newly printed timetable to Mr. Banner.
He looked it over briefly and handed the timetable back to Edward, seeming satisfied, and then said, "Well, Mr. Cullen. It is nice of you to join this class. Please, take a seat at the back of the class."
Edward turned on his heel and strode towards me, a slight smile on his handsome face. He took a seat next to me, pulling out a binder and pencil, and began to take notes in his perfectly scripted writing. I scribbled away in my own notebook, only pausing to shake out my hand, pretending to be releasing it of the pain of holding a pencil for such a long period of time.
Mr. Banner droned on about the importance of commas and semicolons for the remainder of that hour, and soon, the bell for lunch was ringing. Edward and I stood up from our desks and made our way towards the door. Just before leaving the classroom, a girl, about the same height as me, bumped into Edward. I froze, as did the two of them. No one had ever made physical contact with the Cullens, that is, no one but me.
"Oh, sorry." The girl said after a few moments, and continued out into the crowded hall, but I could tell from the fact that her muscles had become tenser at the time of contact with Edward, that she knew that he was different, that we, all of the Cullens, were different.
"Edward…" I hissed.
"I know Bella, I know, I'm listening right now." He paused, and I could tell that he was in the middle of reading her mind, "She doesn't know what we are, not yet at least, but she did notice that I was cold, much colder than I should be." There was more silence from him, "She's trying to convince herself that it was nothing strange, that it was merely a fabrication in her head."
"What do we do?" I spoke this quietly, seeming to have lost most of the volume in my voice.
"I don't know. I have to talk to Alice. She'll need to know to keep an eye out for anything strange involving this girl, Corey Madison."
We rushed quickly to the cafeteria, finding the rest of our family sitting around a table in the far corner. Alice came up to us before we reached the table, a concerned look on her beautiful face.
"What's wrong?"
Edward and I explained the scenario to her, and Alice's face turned from concerned to worried.
"I'll keep a look out for her, just in case, but from what you're telling me, it sounds like she's trying to forget about the incident herself."
"That's what I thought too at first," Edward said, "But no matter how hard she tries to forget, that memory will stay fresh in her mind. She won't be able to forget it. Bella agrees with me."
"It's true. To this day, I still remember what it was like when Edward and I first touched in Biology, and that was two years ago."
"Well, maybe we should just eliminate her." Jasper's voice rang clear in my ear; I turned to see that he was standing beside me.
"Jasper…" I began, but was cut off by him.
"I'm sorry, that was rude of me. We shouldn't kill the human girl. She hasn't done anything to harm our existence… yet."
"It's alright Jasper. We know you just meant to help." Alice spoke in a very understanding voice, much more than I would have been. Dangerous, or not, this Corey Madison was still a human being, one who very much so didn't deserve to die when she hadn't done more than bump into Edward.
The four of us glided to the table, Edward and me sitting next to Emmett, and Alice and Jasper next to Rose. In the distance, I could see Reneesme walking towards us. She was standing next to a girl whose face I knew all to well. It was Cory Madison, and she was heading over to our table.