I felt the warm sunshine hit my face and I smiled, eyes closed and body relaxed. I was in the meadow that Mom had described to me. "It was a place your father and I went to escape reality. It was so beautiful." She had told me when I was little, usually to put me to sleep. She had described it so well; I could picture almost every detail, down to the pretty blue flowers. I wish that Mom wasn't a mental mute, and then I could get EJ to get the whole complete picture out of her memory.
I heard shallow breathing next to me and I opened my eyes to see the mysterious werewolf, or shape shifter as Dad had called it, sitting next to me. He was the same one that often came into Dad's and, I assumed, Mom's thoughts. His name was Jacob and it was he who my Mom partially named my brother after. The human Jacob now spoke; telling me made-up human memories of Mom, for he only knew her as a human, of course.
Werewolves hated vampires, and when Dad was forced to change Mom into a vampire by the controlling Volturi, he had no choice but to follow—much to the werewolves dislike, as Mom had told me. It was the law after all. Mom told me how vampires had to create their mates. Also, unlike the myths that silly humans believe in, female vampires can conceive children. Living proof for that was EJ and myself— born a half-vampire, half-human— from our vampire mother. We would become a full vampire by the time we turned thirteen, just like every other vampire's kid.
EJ is technically sixteen—already a vampire—but he appears thirteen, due to the never aging, never changing effect that vampire venom has. I am twelve, but I'm turning thirteen next week.
I was interrupting by my thoughts by Jacob, hearing his breath stop short. He was staring into the forest. His eyes went oddly wide when he saw something that my eyes could not detect. I saw him whine, stand up, and sprint into the opposite direction, turning into a humongous wolf—the same wolf father had thought of through his memories— and disappearing.
"What the-" but before I could finish, Mom stepped out of the forest, skin glistening in the sunlight. I smiled at her and beckoned her to join me here. This was her happy place, after all. She opened her mouth as if to speak, but what came out was a voice that was not her own, but annoyingly familiar.
"Oh Renesmee! Renesmee! Time to wake up, my lovely niece! Wake up! Wake up! Wake up!" I groggily opened my eyes to see Uncle Emmett shaking my bed. I groaned and told him to go away.
Usually, I'd have school at the middle school here, but it was Saturday, so I was allowed to sleep late. But not too late, apparently. At school, I told everyone to call me Vanessa, saving me years of being made fun of for having a odd name such as Renesmee—which I love, if I might add. I liked my real name but that was a change I had to survive with, along with my brown colored eyes, while everyone else's was topaz. I had to wear topaz colored-contacts so I'd have the same eye color as everyone else. I was portrayed as my father's niece, since I looked more like him than Mom. Emmett interrupted my thoughts.
"It's time for breakfast!" He shouted in my ear. I brushed him off.
"Who cares? Shut up already!" I shouted, fully awake, thanks to him. He finally stopped saying my name.
"OOO! I'm going to tell Edward and Bella how you talked back to your own uncle!" He said in such a stern voice, I was positive that this would be the time he actually told on me. My eyes went wide as I sat up and my voice turned all soft.
"C'mon, Em. You now I was just kidding, right?" I practically begged him with my pleading eyes not to tell. Instead of saying, "whatever" like he usually did, he burst out laughing. I stared at him, questioning his sanity when he actually spoke.
"Aw, I was just kidding, Renesmee. You should've seen your face, though. And your hair is ridiculous." He broke into another fit of uncontrollable giggles. I rolled my eyes at him and stood up.
Huh, I thought they brought me back home when I fell asleep watching T.V. I thought to myself. I was in the Cullen house instead of my cottage home. I shrugged and left Dad's room, heading towards the bathroom. I combed my hair and then went downstairs to find Aunt Alice and Aunt Rose bickering about which designer had made a better summer line this year. I rolled my eyes and Alice looked up at me.
"Your parents are at the cottage," I heard Emmett's laughter from upstairs, but it could've been from anything, "and EJ's outside with Jazz. Here, I got an outfit for you." Alice handed me a simple white blouse with skinny jeans and black flats. I thanked her and went back up the stairs and into the bathroom to change. I took my PJs, folded them, and then placed them neatly on Dad's bed.
I rubbed my eyes as I traveled to the kitchen, the horrid smell of bacon in the air. Rose served me up a platter of eggs, toast, and bacon, and then poured me a fresh glass of orange juice. Hiding my disgust, I genuinely smiled and thanked her while I dug in. She seemed very pleased.
"Jasper, Alice, Emmett and I are going hunting. Carlisle's at the hospital and Esme's outside fixing some outdoor plants. Give me a call if you need anything." Rose messed up my hair playfully and then disappeared into thin air. When I turn thirteen, I'll run so fast, I'll be able to have a fair chance at beating Emmett in a race.
EJ strolled in, sitting in the chair next to me, while whistling some old tune that Dad fancies.
"Morning, sis." He said, breaking in the middle of the song.
"Morning." I replied back. He looked at my plate in disgust.
Urgh. He thought.
I know, I know but I didn't wanna hurt Rose's feelings. I thought back. He shrugged and dumped the remaining food into the trashcan, sprinted up the stairs—much too fast for my eyes—and then came back with a pouch of Grandpa Carlisle's donated blood.
You're a lifesaver. I thought to him. Gratefully, I took the pouch, unscrewed the lid off, and chugged the whole thing down. He looked the other way, not wanting to be tempted to rip it out of my hands. He was a vampire, after all. Vege vamp or non-vege vamp; vampires found it hard to resist human blood. Except, maybe for Carlisle.
Mostly, everyone was trying to get me to only drink animal blood and eat human food so I wouldn't be so familiar to the taste of human blood before I fully transformed. EJ's pretty cool with it, but slips some donated blood here and there when I don't annoy him so much.
After I finished, I wiped my lips of the evidence and stuffed the empty pouch at the bottom of the trashcan.
Thanks. I thought to him.
No problemo. He thought back. I don't know why, but we somehow inherited part of our parents' powers. No one could hear my thoughts at all, except for EJ. I could read his thoughts as well, but nobody else's. EJ, on the other hand, could read everyone's thoughts, except for Mom's, but can't block his head from a mental attack, such as our father's mind reading intrusions. Usually, when I want to know what someone else is thinking, I pick up their thoughts from EJ. Whenever he doesn't want Dad reading his thoughts, he tunes in to mine, because I usually think of something random. Also, Alice can't see our future that good, because we were vampire/human hybrids. That was a plus when we were doing something bad so Alice couldn't see us. Usually if she can see us, it's blurry and gives her "headaches".
"Where are Mom and Dad?" I wondered aloud. EJ gave me a look that clearly said, "How stupid are you?"
"What?" I asked defensively.
"Think about what Alice said before. How they're still at the cottage when vampires don't sleep. How they made you sleep here instead of there. Why they're still there now and not here." He looked at me, expecting my horrified and disgusted reaction. Of course, he wasn't disappointed. I made a hissing sound of disgust and shook my head, as if I could literally shake the image of my parents having…URGH!
"Well, it's not the first time…" I trailed off, unable to finish the sentence. EJ nodded in agreement, not speaking.
We were silent for another five minutes when Esme broke the silence. We could easily hear her noisily open the living room glass door and step inside. I loudly washed my breakfast plate, letting her know that we were in the kitchen. She was in the doorway before I could put it on the rack to dry.
"Good morning, Renesmee. Good morning, EJ." Esme greeted us.
"Morning, Esme." We said in unison. She smiled sweetly and gathered her sketchbook from the kitchen counter.
"I'll be sketching in the living room if you need me." She said as she left the room.
"Kay." I replied after her. EJ looked at me, adventure gleaming in his eyes. I knew he had something fun planned for the day. He beckoned for me to follow him so I got up and half-ran, half-jogged out the door while he tried to keep a human pace. He slowed down a little so I'd catch up and we opened the front door.
"Where are you two going, may I ask?" Esme asked us, suspicion filling her voice.
"Out in the forest for a hike. We'll only be a thirty second run away. Come on, Esme. It's Alaska. We'll be fine." EJ said truthfully. Esme nodded and returned to her detailed picture of the vase of flowers sitting on the table in front of her.
We walked out the door and disappeared into the forest. When I had just turned one, my family moved here to Denali, Alaska from Forks, Mom's, EJ's and my birthplace. They had to move because my other grandfather, Grandpa Charlie, was getting suspicious about our behavior. Also, I used to complain/cry that I had to wear topaz colored-contacts over my brown eyes because my brown eyes made me look so much like their child, that without it, Charlie would know that I am not Dad's niece. The eye color would be able to dilute once I'm thirteen. Then, I could have topaz eyes like everyone else.
"Sing, will you?" EJ asked. I looked at him, surprised. EJ hasn't asked me to sing since I was ten.
"Sing?" I asked in confusion. He nodded.
"I like how every living thing gets silent when you sing. You have a beautiful voice, for a human." He joked. The sunshine came through the tree branches in scarce rays of light. It made his tousled brown hair turn auburn, like our mom's. His skin sparkled and I stared at him in fascination. He had our Mom's hair color and our father's tousled hair. I had my father's reddish-brown hair and used to have Grandpa Charlie's curly hair, but now that I'm older, my hair turned slightly wavy.
"Okay." I replied. I thought for a moment before singing the same lullaby Dad hummed to me while putting me to sleep when I was younger. Now, I added words to the lullaby, singing of a safe, happy meadow, like the one Mom described and how no one dies or gets hurt. EJ closed his eyes and smiled, as the whole forest grew silent. I hadn't sung for a long time, it felt nice. I drifted into the last few notes of the song, and EJ opened his eyes. When I finished, the whole forest came back to life, birds chirping and insects buzzing. We both grinned and continued our stroll.
"Why don't you sing anymore?" He asked. I shrugged my shoulders.
"No one's ever asked me to. I never really had a reason to, I guess."
"Oh." He went silent after that, enjoying our hike, listening to nature. We were about two miles out when EJ stopped.
"What?" I asked, halting abruptly.
"Wanna go really deep into the woods? Not scared are you?" He asked, eyes filled with mischief. Now there was the EJ I knew.
"Yes!" I said with growing enthusiasm. I hopped onto his back. We had done this many times before, with or without our parents watching. When our parents did see me piggybacking on EJ, they'd have growing grins, claiming that we reminded them of their younger days. Mom used to piggyback on Dad because she was slow and human, like me.
I locked my arms around my brother's neck and hung on for dear life as the forest suddenly slew by me at a deadly speed. I've never traveled this deep into the forest before.