Renesmee

My eyes blinked and fluttered open, adjusting to the darkness. It was pitch black compared to my bright green dream... my dream of Forks and the surrounding forest. I missed Forks more than I thought I would. I dreamed about that place almost every night, waking up in my newest room in pain and in tears. My only comfort was that Jacob and I often visit La Push... but now that was going to change to.

Tell me why nothing changes, and yet everything is different?

I pushed myself out of bed, angrily wondering again why I slept and my parents did not. Walking to the large mirror on my closet door, I stared at myself. Bitterly I took in my bronze-colored hair, my brown eyes, my pale skin. Seventy eight long years and still I looked barely older than seventeen. I was prettier in Forks. I hated Spoon Lake.

And yes, I am serious. Our newest home is called Spoon Lake, what a riot. I thought Daddy was kidding when he told me. But he was despairingly serious.

Spoon Lake, Virgina. Hell on Earth.

I turned my head slightly, letting my soft curls fall over my shoulders. "Hmph," I said. "Maybe today won't be so bad. Maybe I'll make new friends at my first day at school. Maybe I'll like trying to be human."

"Renesmee?" Uncle Jasper peered into the room. "Why are you awake?"

"What are you doing here?" I asked curiously, sitting on the bed as he did, hugging him gently. "I thought you had gone on to Grandpa Calisle's already with aunt Alice."

"I was leaving when you woke up," he explained. "And I felt your distress."

Good old Jasper. Always there when I needed someone to talk to. I smiled up at him and poked him in the shoulder. "I just miss Forks, that's all. I had a dream about Forks... and Grandpa Charlie was in it."

"You think about him a lot don't you?" He said softly. "Edward tells me you are still very sad about his passing years ago."

"Sure I miss him," I shrugged.

"And you also want to go back to Forks, right?"

I looked down, mumbling to myself, and he laughed.

"Amazing. Your mother detested Forks and you want to go back." Patting my hair, he looked at our reflection in the mirror. "So pretty. The boys at the High School you'll be going to will go insane, and the girls will be jealous."

I giggled. "Yeah, and I'm gonna hate it, right?"

"This is your first time in High school, and it is in a small town where everyone knows everyone else's name. Of course you're going to hate it. But soon, we'll move again and Alice and I and your parents will go to school with you."

"Oh no," I gasped in mock horror, putting a hand to my throat.

He laughed. "Go to sleep, Nessie."

"I will," I said, yawning. I crawled into bed, just the slightest bit suspicious that my uncle was forcing me to be tired, but at the moment I didn't care. I felt much better now, and I was determined to make the most of Spoon Lake and its High School.

Even if it killed me.

Erik

School.

I hated school. School was Hell as far as I was concerned. Erik Wolfe Thompson, imprisoned at Spoon Lake High, home of the Crawfish. For God's sake our school mascot was a crawfish. How can things get any worse?

"I don't want to go today," I said quietly to Gramps. He looked at me from the driver's seat, his golden eyes locked on me. "I don't want to go to school. Take me home."

Ben laughed from the backseat. "He's not going to do that!"

"Shut your mouth," I snapped at him.

"Boys," Gramps said calmly. "Stop fighting. Erik, you must go to school. Think of our image. Would an old man such as myself allow one of my grandchildren to skip school?"

"And that's what we're playing this time," Ben reminded me. "An old man and his two grandchildren."

"Why do I have to play your game?" I snapped. "I'm not even a Vampire like you two."

"You're a werewolf, Erik," Gramps answered. His pale, see-through skin made me shiver for the thousandth time. He seemed millions of years old, staring at me with ancient eyes.

His exact opposite was Ben. Ben was young, happy, and excitable, revelling in his new form with his new telepathic abilities. Ben was a newborn in most respects, besides the fact that he found the very idea of drinking human blood to be repulsive. He was only six months old when he and Gramps found me stumbling through the woods, half-naked and starving.

And now I had to go to school, back to school now that I was so different from everyone else, even from Ben. Not even Vampires were like me. As far as I knew, it was just me and the wolf that bit me. I knew no others of my kind. I did know that the Vampires that were in charge hunted my kind down.

Thank God for Gramps and Ben, protecting me from the Volturi.

"Fine," I muttered. "I'll go. Whatever."

"Good werewolf," Gramps said fondly. "Have fun, children."

"Will do, bye Gramps," Ben said as he shot out of the car and opened my door.

"At least PRETEND to be normal," I snapped. "Man, do you want to be caught or something?"

"It's more exiting than nothing," Ben shrugged, laughing at me again.

I snarled at him and grabbed my bookbag, walking two paces behind him all the way into the school building.

Renesmee

"Where the heck is this class?" I muttered to myself. "Man, I wish I had some direction."

I was standing next to my locker, looking hopelessly up and down the hallway, waiting for someone who knew they were doing to come along my way. I sniffled to myself and looked hard at the map again.

"I wish mom and dad were here with me," I said. "Or at least Alice."

I shook my head when I realized I was talking to myself again. It was a bad habit I had picked up from Jacob... hanging around with the shifter was turning out to be dangerous to my health.

My back stiffened as the hairs on the back of my neck rose. I had caught a scent that was both familiar and alien at the same time, and the smell would either mean something very good or something very bad. I looked in the direction of the source of the scent as someone rounded the corner, chatting animatedly with another boy. I sniffed again-- maybe I had mistaken the scent. But I knew it as well as I knew the back of my hand.

Vampire.

I watched him approach with wide eyes. He looked at me as he passed, suddenly looking surprised. He squinted at me and put an arm around his friend, almost protectively. I watched them pass, staying completely still until they rounded the other corner and were out of sight.

Taking a deep breath, I dug for my cell phone. I dialed frantically, watching the place where the two had left my view.

"Grandpa Calisle?" I said shakily. "I think this is someone else's territory."

NEXT: The Wolf and the Chess Club Kid