That Girl

CHAPTER ONE

I climbed in my red charger and put the key in the ignition. It had been eight years, eight months, and twelve days since I was born. Today was my last day of High School. My name is Renesmee Carlie Cullen, and I am a vampire/human half-breed.

Lots of things have changed since the day I was born. Let me start at the beginning. Quite a few years ago, a little after I was born, several new young men had changed into wolves over in La Push. Their names were Caleb, Jeremy, Matt, Lucas, Nathan, Kyle, and Wyatt. About six months later, a new, and very different kind of wolf had emerged. His name is Joel. Joel is different because he changed at the age of twenty-one. He was late because Jacob's dad's younger brother had been his father. He had never met him, seeing as he died before he even knew the girl was pregnant. He had grown up not knowing any of his father's family, and none of his father's family knowing about him. He had imprinted on Leah Clearwater, in the same second that she had imprinted upon him. They were now married with three kids; Nicholas Sam, Alexis Jane, and Cole Andrew. Sam and Emily were married with three kids as well; Jennifer Rose, Brandon Michael, and Allison Grace. All of these births had happened at the same time. The wolf gene in these kids was funny that way.

There was also another new wolf in La Push. Her name was Brooke. She was Jared's little sister, and had changed when she was sixteen. She and Embry had imprinted upon each other, in the same way Leah and Joel had. Brooke had given birth to twins about six months ago along with Kim, Rachel, Leah, and Emily. Brooke and Embry had named their babies Madison Grace and Marcus John. Rachel and Paul had named their son Joshua Kyle, and their older daughter was named Kristen Skye. Kim and Jared named their daughter Kelsey Renee, and their older son was named David Tyler.

The newest wolves were twin girls named Kaylie and Lauren. They had imprinted on Collin and Brady, at, you guessed it, the same second they had imprinted had imprinted on them… yeah it had been totally crazy.

And now more on my vampire family. Mom and Dad worked at the hospital now. They had gone to med school, and with hard work, dad had become a doctor, and mom a nurse. They both enjoyed working at Forks Community Hospital. There were four new vampires at my house now. Connor had come when I was only about a year old. He lived with us for a year-and-a- half before he began High School with me. There… he had met a girl named Julia Bird. I had watched them struggle through three years of hardships… sometimes involving me. You see, the Volturi had found out about Julia and had set us an ultimatum. When we didn't turn Julia fast enough, they attacked her, injuring her severely, but not unrecoverably. When we still didn't change her, they attacked Connor, putting thirty-four bites across his body. The last person they had attacked, about a month after Connor and about fourteen months after Julia, was me. They had beaten me to a pulp… and scared me half to death. I was terrified… It had all ended when Connor and Julia were married and Julia was turned into a vampire. They had got their happily ever after and I was happy for them. Connor had a tendency to be logical about things; it was kind of his talent. Julia's talent was finding people. She saw an image of them wherever they were, kind of like Alice's visions. It only worked on people she had met though; she couldn't do it with everybody. She could do it with me and all the wolves though.

The other two vampires were named Andrea and Zach. They had found us when their coven had tried to attack us while on a hunting trip. They hadn't fought, and had talked to us and learned about us. We had accepted them into our family immediately. Zach's talent was seeing people's pasts, like Alice saw futures. Andrea's talent was seeing the amount of good in people. She described it as a gift and a curse, sometimes making her terrified of people she barely knew. They had never been separated since the time that they became vampires. Today was Zach's last day of his junior year, and Andrea's last day of her freshman.

Tanya, along with Eleazor, Carmen, Kate, and Garrett, all still lived in Denali. Kate and Garrett had gotten married a few months after my first birthday. Tanya had also gotten married, only a few weeks ago. The vampire she had married was named Andrew. He had a certain talent for… hiding. When he didn't want to be found, there was a good chance that he wasn't going to be. He was a great guy though, and he was doing excellently with our very… different… lifestyle.

The only reason I had even been allowed to go to High School in the first place is that my growing had slowed down greatly, to the point of human speed. I was completely growth-stagnant now, and would stay this way for the rest of forever. My grandpa Charlie had married Sue Clearwater last summer, and had moved to La Push with her and Seth. Seth had imprinted upon Abbey Nixon about seven years ago, and they were planning on getting married in a few months.

As for me, I spent every second of everyday either with Jacob, thinking about Jacob, dreaming about Jacob, or wondering where and what Jacob was doing. Lately, I had been spending more time then not doing the first, but school got in the way sometimes. That's why I was so excited to be finishing High School today. I was top of my class, but my extra-quick mind hadn't had to try very hard to accomplish that task.

I had bought the charger with money I had been saving for a while, and my dad agreed that if I bought the car, he'd pay the insurance. I only had a few mortgages left until I completely owned the car, because I put down such a big down-payment.

Today was an early release Thursday because it was the last day of school, and tomorrow was the graduation ceremony.

Andrea and Zach jumped in the backseat of the car just as I began to pull out. I immediately started off at a speed at least ten miles above the speed limit, and got faster after that. I wasn't as crazy as my parents when it came to driving, but trust me; I wasn't one to drive at the speed limit.

As the pointless hours where we heard pointless reminders ticked by, I felt my over-active heart rate continue to go up. I was going to see Jacob in two hours. One hour. Forty-five minutes. Twenty minutes. Ten minutes. Five minutes. One minute. Thirty seconds. Ten seconds. Three…Two…One… ring. I cheered with the rest of the seniors as we were literally set free into the world. The rest of the kids were almost as excited as the seniors, because they had the whole summer laid out in front of them, just like we had our whole lives laid out in front of us.

I literally didn't stop as I drove past the big white house, I just slowed down enough to let Zach open the door as he and Andrea jumped out. I was on the road to La Push within minutes. I let my nose take over as I searched for where Jacob was at the moment. I found him after only a few moments. He was at Sam's house; it seemed he was trying to help out with the kids. It was the last day of school for the La Push kids as well, and only a few were still milling about. Wyatt, Lauren, and Kaylie were graduating on Saturday, but La Push graduations were a little different from the Forks Graduation. It had to do with their Native American culture or something…

I whipped the car into Sam and Emily's driveway, parked it, and yanked the key out of the ignition. I slammed the door, and Sam yelled, "It's open," before I had even knocked.

I opened the door, and was immediately greeted by almost-three-year-old Brandon, who held his arms up and started calling, "Ness, Ness," in his little boy voice.

I picked him up and swung him onto my hip after sneaking a kiss on his head. He laid his head on my shoulder. I checked my watch. It was nearing one o'clock, or in other words, naptime. "Hi," I spoke to him. "Where's Jacob?" I whispered to him.

He giggled, and pointed toward one of the three small bedrooms in the house. "Sissy," he giggled.

I took that to mean that he was playing with Jenny, or at least in Jenny and Alli's room.

Sure enough, as I rounded the kitchen, waving to Sam and the baby, I saw Jacob helping Jenny put together a puzzle in her small bedroom. Her bed was pushed against one wall, with a white crib on the other side of the room. The pale pink walls were perfect for her and Alli. Her closet doors were shut, and the room looked clean and neat. "Hi," I said as I came in with Brandon.

Jacob looked up with a smile that made my racing heart stop. "Hi," he said back.

"How was your last day of pre-school Jenny?" I asked her.

"Good," she said. "But it was very short."

In La Push and Forks, there was all day Kindergarten after two years of half-day preschool. "I see," I said. "What are you going to do this summer?" I asked her.

"We're having a bonfire tonight," she said.

"Really?" I asked.

"Yes," she said. "You're invited."

"Well I'll probably be there then." I said. "What else are you doing this summer?"

"I don't know," she said brightly. "Maybe I'll get to go swimming at the beach again, if it's not too cold."

"That's a good idea," I told her. "Did you forget though? There's going to be a wedding in a couple of weeks. And Seth and Abbey are getting married after that!"

"I did forget!" she said matter-of-factly. Collin and Brady had proposed to Kaylie and Lauren a month ago on their eighteenth birthdays. It would be a quiet backyard-style ceremony, with just family and close friends.

"That's okay," I said. I patted Brandon's head, which was still drooped on my shoulder. "I think," I said. "That it's definitely time for your brother and sister's nap."

She looked at Brandon. "I think your right," she whispered.

"What do you do during naptime?" I whispered back. Jacob was smiling at us.

"I be quiet and watch a movie," she said automatically.

"Which one do you want to see?" Jacob asked. "I'll start it for you."

They got onto their feet and Jenny pulled Jacob by the hand out of her room and into the small living room. I listened to Jacob inserting the disk into the player, and heard Jenny settling into the couch. I held Brandon close to my chest, and rocked him until he was completely asleep. I laid him on his small bed, and kissed his head. I flipped on the fan as I walked out of the room, and met Sam in the middle as he laid Alli down in her crib.

"Thank-you," he whispered.

"No problem," I whispered back.

Jacob was sitting on the couch, with Jenny laying across his lap, curled into a ball. "How was your last day?" Sam asked.

"Incredibly dull, but hey, we were all excited to be finally free towards the end," I shrugged.

He smiled. "High School was… well… really different for me… but it was good. I like where my life is a lot better now."

I smiled and raised a brow. "Yeah, High School was really different for me too."

He guffawed. "I'll bet it was."

We were standing in the living room by now, and Jacob was rubbing Jenny's back as they watched the movie.

"Jacob!" I whispered extremely loudly.

He smiled at me again as he looked at me. "What?" He whispered back just as loudly.

"Can we go?"

"Sure." He patted Jenny's head and slid out from under her.

"Bye," she whispered.

"Bye," we both said at the same time.

We walked out of the house and slid into my car. "Where to Ms. Cullen?" he asked.

I sighed. "I don't know," I said. "Let's just drive."

A few hours later, I was parking the car along the side of Sam and Emily's road. It was a cloudy twilight, but not rainy, and fairly warm for June. I could hear that most of the others were already here. We had gone all the way up to Seattle, but we hadn't actually got out of the car… We had done some sight-seeing, and window shopping, and had screamed the lyrics to the song on the radio as we flew along the highway at eighty miles an hour.

Jacob grabbed my hand as he pulled me around back of the house. They already had the fire roaring, and had started a huge pile of roasted and unroasted hot dogs. Jenny and Nick were looking at a picture book together, and they were attempting to read to their siblings. The little kids were coloring in coloring books, with washable crayons fortunately. The babies, who were now five months old, were all laying in a row on a separate blanket, rolling over each other, or pushing up on their hands and knees. They we being watched very carefully by Claire, who was now ten years old. Though she was going to be in sixth grade in September, she was small for her age.

"Hi," I said as I sat down next to Abbey.

"Hi," she said back. Abbey was now nineteen years old, and was in college studying to become an OB/GYN.

"How's college?"

She rolled her eyes. "Way over rated."

I smiled. "Yeah…" I shrugged. "One advantage of being immortal, you can go to college as many times as you want, get as many degrees as you want… and with my grades, get accepted at any college you want."

She raised her eyebrows and nodded thoughtfully. "Wow. I guess you're right." She looked at me. "So I guess you're graduating tomorrow."

"Yeah, I guess I am." I sighed. "Like my mom says, you can't look back, even if you're running forward with your hands slapped over your eyes."

Abbey laughed. "That's something to keep in mind."

I heard a thud, and two of the babies started crying. I looked over to the blanket and it looked like Madi and Alli had bumped heads, and they were both screaming hysterically. Emily and Brooke were already on their feet, and soon the babies were quiet again. Sometimes I wondered about what my life would be like if I had a baby. Sometimes I wondered whether I could even have a baby. I mean… sure… I should be able to… I guess the question was more what the baby would be like, once I had him or her.

"Daddy," Brandon said. "Why's my baby sister crying?"

Brandon had started watching Alli the second she had started crying. "Because," Sam said. "She hit her head."

"Aw, is she ok?" He asked.

"Yeah, she's ok," Sam assured him.

Brandon went back to coloring his book. They were all so adorable…

"Where are you parents Ness?" Kim asked.

"Uh…." I said. "Work."

"Where are the kids?" Jacob asked. He had taken to calling both Connor and Julia and Andrea and Zach 'the kids', even though all four of them were technically older than me.

"I have no idea," I admitted. "But I probably don't want to know where Connor and Julia are… and Zach and Andrea are probably out celebrating the end of school."

"And the rest of your family?" He asked.

"Rose and Emmett are doing adult things," I said automatically.

"Adult things?" Jacob repeated with a smile.

"Yeah, we're leaving it at that. I pretend not to know what's going on and we all like it better that way."

"I see."

"I had an idea," Leah was saying to Emily. "What if we all went camping this summer?"

"Six babies, four three-year-olds, and two five-year olds going camping; are you crazy?" Emily responded.

"Probably, but don't we pretty much live on crazy?" Leah asked.

"I'm in," Seth said.

A chorus of people agreeing to come filled the backyard.

"How about a month from today?" Leah suggested.

A few people needed to check schedules, but it seemed like a good portion of us would be able to make it. The weddings would be over by then, and they should all be back from whatever honeymoon they were taking. Abbey and Seth weren't getting married until the end of next month, so they would be back in plenty of time.

I yawned and placed my head on Jacob's shoulder. He wrapped his warm arm around my shoulders and rubbed his hand up and down my arm. I sighed, content. I breathed in Jacob's scent.

"You smell good," I told him.

He took a breath in through his nose. "You smell like vampires," he told me. I could see his nose crinkle in my mind's eye.

I guffawed. "I live with them, that's generally what happens."

"Sure, sure," he said.

I closed my eyes. I was exhausted. I wished we were already on that camping trip…

Jacob's phone was vibrating in my ear. I jumped, startling myself awake. It was much darker outside now. I was still in Jacob's backyard, the only difference was I could hear the kids in the house either asleep or watching a Disney movie.

"Sorry," Jacob muttered. He flipped his phone open. "Hello?" He answered.

I could hear my mom on the other end of Jake's phone that was almost always on speaker. "Hi," she said. "I was just calling to make sure you have my daughter, and that she's okay."

"She's okay; do you want to talk to her?"

"No, its okay," my mom said. "Can you have her home by midnight?" She sounded… happy, but sad, like having me home by midnight was bittersweet.

"Definitely," Jacob said. He seemed to think about something briefly. "Are you okay?" He asked tentatively.

She sighed. "She's graduating tomorrow, Jake."

He nodded to himself. Everyone else around the fire was quiet, listening. "She is," he agreed.

My mom laughed a little. "Wasn't I lying on that couch fighting the world for her just yesterday?"

"A little more than that, but yeah, it was just the other day…" Jacob sighed.

I looked at him. He looked happy, but like he was remembering the past. "That's what I thought," she muttered. I could hear my dad's quiet breathing even over the phone. He was holding her.

"I'll see you at midnight then, Bella," Jacob said.

"Yeah," she said. "See you."

Jacob snapped his phone shut. I took a deep breath in, and let it out slowly. "I've always been a hell raiser, haven't I?" I asked quietly.

Jacob sighed. "Yeah… you've raised quite a bit of hell… but it's never, ever, been your fault… it's just what you were always supposed to do."

I raised a brow. "I was always supposed to raise hell?"

"Just like your mom was always supposed to have it the hard way, just like your dad was always meant to make the hard way easier for your mom."

I blinked, and nodded. "Right…" I smiled. "I guess some of us just get lucky like that."

He smiled back at me. "I guess so."

I looked at my watch. It was nine o'clock already; Jacob had let me sleep for almost two hours. "So," I said. "About that camping trip…"

Exactly twenty-nine days later, I hopped in and slammed the door of Emmett's truck as the engine roared to life. Collin and Kaylie and Brady and Lauren had returned from their honeymoon about a week ago, after a quiet, but beautiful wedding ceremony. Every single wolf from both La Push packs was going, as well as their imprints and families if they had any.

After some serious begging and pleading with Emmett, he had agreed to let me take his jeep. I think I had got him convinced when I told him that we needed to strap the car seats in safely and the jeep was best for it. Mom was letting us take her monster of a truck as well, but Jared was driving that. We also had Joel's truck, and Seth had borrowed Grandpa Charlie's hauler that he drove when he went fishing. We had also called around with friends and family until we had found enough car space, with cars tough enough for the trip, for all of us. We were all squeezing into corners and tight spaces, but the drive wouldn't be incredibly long.

The reality of the trip had just hit me last night; we were going camping with thirty-nine people. We were bringing one eight-man tent for the seven younger wolves, a smaller four-man tent for the six older kids plus Claire (in case they needed anything), a huge twelve-man tent for the parents with younger babies, and a fairly large ten-man tent that split down the middle for Quil, Brady, Collin, Jacob, Seth, Lauren, Kaylie, Me, and Abbey. We had a whole trailer full of our tents, and bags, even though we had all packed extremely light. All of our food for the four-day-weekend was secured down in the back of mom's truck.

"Hey," my dad said. I rolled down my window. "Have fun okay?"

"I will," I told him.

"Be safe," he reminded me.

I smirked the smirk that he had given me. "Of course."

I leaned out the window and kissed his cheek. He kissed the top of my head. "Miss you forever," I said lightly.

"Love you for always," he said back. He had been telling me that for as long as I could remember.

I rolled up the window and pulled out of the garage and into the sheets of rain. Jacob and I were taking the two designated cars from this house over to La Push this afternoon where we would load up and get on the road. We had done some searching and found a decent-sized, secluded campsite, a little way into the woods of Oregon. The drive would be about five hours, and we should get there about seven o'clock.

The drive was full of laughter as I expertly handled the jeep through the woods with four babies in the backseat, and Brooke and Leah up front with me. The other babies and children were somewhat dispersed amongst the other cars. We pushed our way through the last of the trees and into the open clearing right on time.

It wasn't raining or cloudy here, and the bloody pink sky above us made me feel unsafe, and a little homesick for Forks and my parent's protection, but I shook it off. It would be a dusky twilight soon enough.

The first thing we did was set up all of the tents, just in case it started to rain, because nobody wanted to get back in those warm cars. Since I had been camping and hiking before, I literally set up the two smaller tents before they even had the pegs in for one of the other tents.

Soon, it was getting late, and I helped Leah and Emily get their kids in their pajamas and make sure they were ready for bed. We had blown up about two dozen air-mattresses that could stay inside the tents for the whole weekend. No one would get much sleep if it was just the hard, slightly rocky ground beneath us. I sat inside the tent until one by one; all six of the younger kids were completely asleep. Claire was up reading by flashlight.

When I quietly zipped the tent door behind me, my watch said that it was nearing nine o'clock at night. They had gotten a decent sized fire going a few yards away, and had dragged logs and rocks and things like that over. Embry was holding both of his sleeping babies; he had Marc lying on his long legs, with his left hand on the baby's stomach, and Madi curled up in the crook of his right arm. He looked like he had definitely done this before…

Jacob was sitting on a log with room enough for me to squeeze my petite frame onto it. Joel was holding Cole, but his electric blue eyes were still wide awake as they peeked over his father's shoulder. It reminded me of a photo from when I was only a few days old. I had my head on my dad's shoulder, looking behind him, and Alice had snapped a picture. My brown eyes had been looking right at the camera, and they had been very aware.