Chapter one:
"Bedtime Bracken, your first day at school tomorrow" Anastasia McCanse said as she walked into the room, "Mama, do you think father will allow me to finish the school year?" Bracken asked as she placed her book on her bedside table. Anastasia smiled and ruffled Bracken's blood red hair "do not worry my little wolf cub, I did promise you", Bracken smiled "thank you mama, I'm glad". Anastasia smiled "you are not like your brothers, I am glad. Good night my darling one", Anastasia's Russian accent was thick. Bracken loved that about her mother, it gave her distinction. Bracken laid down and closed her eyes, tomorrow was looking brighter already.
Bracken grabbed her lunch bag and rucksack and headed out the front door, it took her all of a few minutes to run to school even though the manor was outside of the town's limits. The benefits of being a werewolf she thought to herself, as she slowed to a stop and casually walked though the school's car park. Bracken stopped and looked at the school, a huge smile cutting across her face. "Hi are you lost? I can show you around if you want" a sweet voice asked from behind, Bracken turned around to see a girl with long black hair smile at her. Bracken sniffed up quickly she smelled of vanilla and cherry blossom, bracken realised she got lost in the new scent and didn't notice that the girl was talking. "I'm Bella Swan" the girl said as she held her hand out, Bracken took the offered hand "Bracken, Bracken McCanse. Um.....where do I go to get my timetable?" Bella pointed at the main building "admin, I'll take you up there".
Bracken walked into biology class with Bella and sat down most of the class was pretty boring, Bracken knew everything being said and spent most of the lesion helping Bella understand what was going on. "Bracken's an unusual name where's it from?" Bella asked, Bracken smiled "if you think that's unusual, you haven't heard my middle names". "Which are?" Bella asked, wondering what could possibly be more unusual that Bracken, "Vladimir Rasputin" Bracken said with a shrug. Bella put her hand over her mouth to stifle a giggle just as the teacher looked up, Bracken nodded and carried on talking "my father is Welsh and Scottish Celtic so I was named bracken with McCanse being my surname, Vladimir and Rasputin are cos my mama is Russian". Bella nodded and carried on with the lesion, "so.....do you speak Russian then? Cos that would be cool if you did" Bella asked. Bracken nodded "and French, Gaelic, Latin, Mandarin and Cantonese, Italian and Japanese", Bella's jaw dropped at the long list of languages. Bracken just shrugged and scribbled on a piece of paper as the teacher looked at them, as the paper was handed to Bella she noticed the scribbled not was an impeccable slanted script that read
I was homeschooled and we moved a lot, mama placed a lot of emphasis on languages.
Most of the day was pretty boring after that, Bella asked endless question and Bracken answered as best as she could without letting on that she was a werewolf. Lunch wasn't any easier, Bella's friends asked even more questions and Bracken had trouble keeping track of them all. Mike and Jessica were the nosiest of them all, "so what else can you do?" Mike asked as he took a big bite of his chicken salad sandwich. Bracken looked at him in confusion and shrugged "same things as you, I'm not a Martian", Jessica laughed "sorry about Mike, he doesn't think before he speaks. He should have said is there anything else you can do, like play an instrument?". Bracken nodded "I'm taking music, I play piano, guitar, violin, flute, drums, cello and harp", everyone's jaws dropped at the list, it was obvious that Bracken was an incredible person with so many god given talents. "Do you even have a life?" Mike asked, Jessica hit mike on the back of the head and sent Bracken an apologetic look. Bracken laughed "yes I do have a life, I live for music and play it in my spare time. I do other things as well, I'm just able to pick things up quickly".
Bella nodded, thinking that Bracken reminded her exactly of the Cullen's. All were very talented, all had their own skills, only difference was they had a long time to perfect their talents. Bracken was a 17 year old teenager , a teenager who must have devoted a lot of energy in that short time to her skills. Bracken, at that time looked to be a very remarkable girl. Eventually the bell rang and everyone left for their respected classes, Bracken headed off to music after agreeing to meet Bella after. As Bella arrived at Music to wait for Bracken, he heard a beautiful melody being played, the only thing that equalled it was the lullaby written for her by Edward. Bella poked her head in through the doorway and saw Bracken on her own at the piano, her eyes were closed and she was nodding in time with the music. Once the song finished Bella approached and clapped, completely in awe of the song played a moment ago. Bracken blushed and bowed her head "did you like it?", "you wrote it?" Bella asked in amazement, Bracken nodded "when I was about 10, I like playing it from time to time". Bella's jaw dropped "10? No way, that was beautiful", Bracken blushed even more "thank you, I appreciate it".
Bracken got up and walked over to some mother instruments in one corner of the room, "music is my life, mama and I would play for hours together. It bonded us closer than anything else could have" Bracken said thoughtfully as she stroked her hand over the top of a violin case on one of the desks. Bella watched Bracken as she walked around smiling, Bracken reminded her so much of Edward in that sense, she thought of how Bracken and Edward would make a good choice of friendship. They talked the rest of the day, about each of the Cullen children, and Bracken listened intently to the descriptions. "They're not here today but they'll be in school tomorrow, I'll introduce you to them at lunch" Bella said as they walked out of class, Bracken nodded "cool, I like making friends. So I'll see you tomorrow then?". Bella nodded and they both separated. Bracken wandered towards the woods slowly until she was sure no one could see her, one quick look back to make sure and she broke out into a full sprint home.
Bracken stopped at the front door of the large manor house, it was a gothic style with large windows. The door was a large double door and the house was a dark grey colour, Bracken shivered when she thought about who was waiting inside. She slowly opened the door and poked her head inside, Bracken walked up the stairs and stopped outside a door. She opened the door and walked in, as soon as she opened the door she was tackled by a speeding lump the latched onto her tightly. "Bracken! Your home your home!" came a cry from the lump latched onto her stomach, Bracken laughed and hugged her younger brother tightly "yeah Cubby, I'm home. How was your day?". Cubby shrugged and let go "father took me hunting, I wanna go to school too", Bracken looked at their mother sat on the bed sewing a ripped pair of trousers "mama?". Anastasia looked at Bracken and shook her head "It was hard enough for me to persuade your father to allow you to attend, it would be impossible for your brother".
"Where is father?" Bracken asked as she walked over to her mother and hugged her, "with your other brothers, hunting on their own" Anastasia replied as Bracken took her place at her mother's feet. Cubby pulled a book off his shelf and sat at his desk to read, one of Brackens old physics books. Bracken watched Cubby sadly as he studied, it seemed unfair that she could attend school and make friends and be young. Cubby had to stay at home and study from books and hunt with his older brothers, never being allowed to be young, never allowed to make friends. Bracken hated her father for what he was doing to her brother, "I made a friend today, and she's going to introduce me to her friends tomorrow" Bracken said as she looked up at her mother. Anastasia smiled at her daughter "that is wonderful Bracken, what is her name? Is she in your class? Tell me everything", Bracken laughed "her name is Bella mama, she's in some of my classes. She's really nice and kind, we get along really well and it's like we've been friends for years". Anastasia nodded and stood "well I must leave you both, I have things do before your father and brothers arrive home", she kissed both of her children on the head and left the room.
Bracken got out her homework and sat on Cubby's bed, it took her no more than an hour to complete it all as she'd had already completed this year and remembered all the work. Once she had finished her work, she tutored her brother and checked his work. She ran his bath and made sure he got cleaned up, then took him downstairs to say goodnight to his father and took him back to his room. Bracken read Cubby a story and tucked him in, "goodnight Cubs" Bracken said as she gave him a kiss on his forehead. "Goodnight Brackie" Cubby yawned as he closed his eyes, Bracken smiled and headed out to hunt for her supper. The hunt didn't take too long and Bracken hated doing it, but the problem with being a werewolf is that hunting is a necessity. Bracken always made sure the kill was a quick and as clean as possible, she hated thinking that an animal had to suffer for her needs.
The next day Bracken ran to school in record time and waited for Bella's truck to arrive, soon enough the red truck pulled up and Bella hopped out. She gave Bracken a happy wave and walked over, Bracken smiled at Bella and the two fell into step with each other. "At lunch your sitting with me and the Cullen's, your gonna love them" Bella said happily, Bracken nodded mutely and waved goodbye once they arrived at Bella's first class. Classes were boring for Bracken, she got all the answers right and all her homework was done on time. Bracken found herself counting down the seconds until lunch, not just because of Bella but also because she was unusually hungry.
Finally it was lunch time and Bracken hurried to the lunch hall, she froze when she walked through the doors. Bracken sniffed up and creased her brow in confusion as she tried to work out the scent, she looked over at the table Bella was sat at and shock set in as she realised what the scent was. Bella was sat at a table with five vampires! Did Bella know she was sitting at a table with five bloodthirsty vampires? How could she? She wouldn't be there if she did. One of the vampires, a tall boy with brown hair sniffed up and looked over at Bracken. Suddenly the other four sniffed and looked over, with looks that signalled they wanted to rip her heart and eat it. Bracken's heart stopped and she backed out of the lunch hall just as she saw the brown haired boy and a blonde haired girl whisper to each other. One thing she did notice as she was leaving was a small girl with messy black hair, she was sat watching Bracken with curiosity not anger. Bracken ran down the halls to the only room in the school that she knew she'd feel calm again.
Bella walked to the music room and looked in, Bracken was not sat at the piano, but this time was stood with a violin. Bella walked in and sat on a table near to Bracken, she folded her arms and looked irritated at the girl. "What was that Brack?"Bella asked as Bracken looked up, "what was what Bells?"Bracken asked trying to play it off casually.
"Running out of the lunch hall"
Bracken looked down "oh"
"Yeah, oh. So what was it?" Bella asked in frustration
Bracken shrugged "they made me uncomfortable"
Bella shook her head "uncomfortable" she repeated
Bracken put the violin away in its case and paced the room as Bella watched "Bella, they looked at me like they wanted to rip my head off or something. It's clear they don't like me, no point in pushing anything". Bella shook her head and walked out of the room.
The five vampires sat at the table in the lunch hall, speaking so quiet that only they could hear. The brown haired boy spoke up "does Bella realise that she's friends with a werewolf?", "don't think so Edward, she'd have said if she did" A blonde boy spoke. A third boy spoke "We should tell her, could be dangerous", a blonde girl spoke up "Emmet's right, she's not like the La Push wolves. We don't know what she's capable of". The pixie like girl finally spoke "we should let Bella Make up her own mind about her friends", "Rosalie is right Alice, we should tell Bella" Edward shot at Alice. "We cannot reveal another's identity, it's unfair and immoral. We should leave it up to the wolf to reveal herself to Bella in her own time, Bella will be fine until then". Alice was the first to leave the table and the lunch hall, followed silently by the others.