Seattle
Disclaimer: Twilight isn't mine but this story is.
This was one of those days I wished I could die. I wasn't suicidal just bored and death, permanent death at least, is one of the few things I have never experienced and sounds interesting. Nothing around here ever seems to change. The monotony of the past two-hundred and fifty-six years was wearing on me. I let out a sigh wishing for something, anything to happen.
Maybe if I got lucky a meteor would fall from the sky vaporizing all life on earth leaving only myself and a few others to rebuild civilization. That would kill a few decades at the very least. Oh and maybe the meteor strike would open a hole in the Earth's crust exposing an underworld in which dinosaurs had been trapped for millennia, allowing them to return to the surface and learn to co-exist with the survivors. Humm… I wonder what dinosaur blood tastes like.
Why doesn't anything cool like that ever happen to me?
Over the past hundred years or so I've begun to feel that life has gotten rather stale. Sure I'd been around to see the invention of cars and watched the moon landing but still, every day holds the same unavoidable routine of getting dressed, maybe hunting, and finding something to occupy my time until my next class. Being unable to sleep regularly made life quite boring.
With another sigh I put down my dog eared copy of Wuthering Heights and glanced over at Jasper. Studying as usual, I wonder if he'll pull his nose out of that textbook anytime in the foreseeable future.
Sensing my gaze, Jasper glanced up and winked, then went right back to staring intently at his massive textbook his shaggy blonde hair falling around his face.
"Jasper," I asked, "What exactly is it that you are studying this time?"
"Psychology," he mumbled distractedly.
"Don't you already have a doctorate in psychology?"
"Yes," Jasper sounded slightly annoyed, "but that was from 1952, the field has changed a little since then."
"Oh."
I could see that trying to talk to Jasper right now was going to be difficult and decided to give up. It was nearly impossible to distract him from his studies.
I love to read just as much as Jasper does and when I say we love to read, what I really mean is that we're obsessed with reading, it's like an addiction. A good book is like a drug. I personally find myself jonesing for a good book on a regular basis and I go through withdrawals if I can't find one. Reading is the number one way Jasper and I usually spend our time since neither of us have mates. The difference between Jasper and I is that while I read fine literature, he reads textbooks and war stories.
Just then the alarm on my phone went off pulling me from my musings. Ugh time for school. In less than five seconds I was dressed and by the front door. Super speed had its advantages, it was just too bad that I have to appear as normal as possible and drive to school like everyone else instead of just running. It's pathetic really how slow cars go; there isn't a car on earth I can't outrun.
Grabbing my keys I slipped out the door quietly so as not to disturb Jasper and went to my Jeep. I would have preferred to drive my Corvette to work but that would attract too much attention in a small town like Forks, Washington. I'd have to save it for the next time that I escaped from Forks to the city.
Outside Emmett was throwing a football back and forth to himself. To anyone passing by it would have appeared as though he was simply standing still he was moving so fast.
"Hey Bells," Emmett called pausing long enough for the football to become visible again, "Off to school again I see".
"Yeah well someone around here has to appear semi-normal at least part of the time," I answered shooting a look at his two new Hummers currently taking up far too much room in the garage. Emmett refused to drive anything that wasn't big, flashy, and loud, just like him. I'm not sure what Carlisle was thinking when he turned him, he tends to draw far too much attention to us.
"Hey I can't help it if I have a sense of style which must be maintained," he shot back with a shrug.
I just rolled my eyes and climbed into my reliable yellow 1979 CJ-5.
Don't get me wrong, I do love Emmett and I really couldn't ask for a better big brother when it came down to it but sometimes I really wonder if he was dropped on his head a lot in his past life or perhaps his soft spot had been poked one time to many as a baby. Maybe the damage was so extensive that even the most powerful healing force on Earth wasn't enough. My god what had he been like before? I think perhaps somewhere out there a village has been missing its idiot for quite some time now.
The engine roared to life and I made sure to gun it and drive straight for Emmett. He stepped out of the way at the last moment like he was moving out of the way for an old woman with a walker and stuck his tongue out at as I drove past. Hitting him wouldn't have hurt him in the least but my poor Jeep would have been destroyed.
On the way down our long gravel drive, I began to wonder why it was that I seem to be the only one around here who was tired of the same thing day after day, year after year. No one else seems to be bothered by it as much as I am. Emmett is too easily amused to notice much, Jaspers always so engrossed in his studies I'm not quite sure he is aware that it was no longer 1932, and Carlisle and Esme are just so happy with each other I'm not sure they even have the ability to be unhappy. The only one who seemed to understand even a portion of what I felt was Rosalie and that was just because she has never really been happy with her immortality.
Suddenly my phone rang disrupting my musings, Glamorous began playing.
"Hey Rose," I answered, already knowing who was calling.
"What is up my sista?" Rose asked brightly.
"Not much just heading to class like I have every day for the past semester."
"Oh, right I should know that," she paused and then continued slyly, "well I guess if you have class then you wouldn't want to go to Seattle with me for a girl's night out, am I right?"
"Don't be stupid Rose. Of course I want to go into the city," I chided her, "I'm dying of boredom but it'll have to wait until my class is over. Can you handle that?"
"I guess if I must I must," Rose replied playfully hanging up the phone.
I knew that at that very moment she was be beginning to tare through her closet and would continue to do so for the next four hours while I was at school stopping only to preen in front of her mirror once she found the perfect outfit. Rosalie loved to get dressed up to go out, mostly because she loves attention she gets from humans. We were all beautiful to humans but Rosalie puts supermodels to shame and needless to say, she's a little vain.
I would have thought the novelty of all the staring would have worn off by now but apparently I was wrong. I mean seventy plus years of making men's jaws drop and women's self esteem to drop even lower had to get old eventually, right? Apparently not for Rosalie.
Rose's love of the spotlight is probably one of the reasons she and Emmett are so perfect for each other. They always look like the Posh and Becks of Forks, always up on the latest fashions both in clothes and in cars. I'm not sure that I have ever seen them wear the same thing twice and as for cars, well I've never seen them drive anything that had been around for more than six months.
Rosalie and Emmett were truly meant for one another. Rosalie had been saved by Carlisle in the 1930's and had been so unhappy with what she had become until two years later. She had been out hunting in North Carolina when she came upon a bear mauling Emmett. She had seen something in him and had controlled her bloodlust enough to carry him over one-hundred miles to beg Carlisle to save him.
Immediately after waking up from the change Rose and Em were inseparable, they complemented one another perfectly. Where Rose could be stubborn and a bit stand offish at times, Emmett was always warm and open, in essence a giant teddy bear. The connection they share is obvious, even to an outsider, they're like two puzzle pieces that fit together perfectly.
I reached the Forks city limits and prepared myself for the hour drive to Port Angeles. I plugged in my I-pod and flipped through my songs until I settled on Seattle by The Classic Crime, I let myself get swept up in the irony of the lyrics.
My real estate
My life is dull
And dried up like the sound
A voice makes when the heart grows cold
And it's going that way
I think I'll move out of state
Somewhere far from Seattle city lights
They burn my eyes
California sounds nice but California's a lie
Maybe I'm out of luck
Or maybe I'm just blind
All this time
Rain on my hopes
Rain on my soul
Rain on everything that I know
It feels so ludicrous
The pursuit of this dream
We thought we'd be there long ago
My life is like a rolling river
So muddy and absurd
And although I might be mistaken
I know that I'll be heard
And I find the sec I try to pull away
I'm thrown back in line
All this time
So
Rain on my hopes
Rain on my soul
Rain on everything that I know
It feels so ludicrous
The pursuit of this dream
We thought we'd be there long ago
Rain on my hopes
Rain on my soul
Rain on everything that I know
It feels so ludicrous
The pursuit of this dream
We thought we'd be there long ago
And we are all looking for the same thing
The same thing
Seattle is calling me back home
Back home
So
Rain on my hopes
Rain on my soul
Rain on everything that I know
It feels so ludicrous
The pursuit of this dream
We thought we'd be there long ago
Rain on my hopes
Rain on my soul
Rain on everything that I know
It feels so ludicrous
The pursuit of this dream
We thought we'd be there long ago
Too soon, I rounded the last bend and drove toward at the striking brick buildings that make up Peninsula College. I was so not in the mood for school today.
We have to move often, starting over about every seven years or so, otherwise people start to get suspicious that we never seem to age. Usually Rose, Emmett, Jasper and I pose as high students while Carlisle works at the nearest hospital and Esme works from home.
The younger we start out in a place the longer we can stay. This time though, I begged Carlisle to let me start out in college because I just couldn't take high school anymore. After much begging and many sad puppy dog faces, Carlisle finally gave in. Jasper, Emmett, and Rosalie began their Junior year at Forks High and I am attending college in Port Angeles as a Freshman.
My cover story this time is that I am majoring in English Literature at Peninsula College in Port Angeles while living with my foster parents and adopted siblings. Emmett and I are Emmett and Bella Cullen, Carlisle and Esme's foster kids and Rosalie and Jasper are the Hale twins, Carlisle's niece and nephew whom he adopted when they were little.
Peninsula College is no Dartmouth but it serves its purpose. I'm just ecstatic that I don't have to pose as a high school student for the gazillionth time. There's really only so many times you can sit through a high school sex education class before you try to gouge your own eyes out with a spork.
I took my time getting out of the car. I felt the warmth of the day wash over me as I closed the car door and for once I am satisfied to move at the same speed as everyone else. I just enjoyed the feeling, glad that the rain had let up for a moment and reveling in the knowledge that summer was almost here.
It had been a long winter and a wet spring and sunshine would be a welcome change although when the sun did eventually show its' face it would be time for me to hide mine, from the humans at least.
It's a good thing the stories about vampires burning up in sunlight are completely untrue, something that didn't even come into folklore until fairly recently just like the myths about garlic and holy water. I guess our supposed weaknesses make people feel better thinking they are safe from us at least part of the time although most don't believe we exist anyway. Too bad for the humans we do exist and those stories about our weaknesses are entirely false, there's really nothing they can do to hurt us.
"Bella!" I heard someone call my name and internally groaned when I realized who was coming my way.
"Hello Mike," I replied as politely as I could manage while Mike Newton jogged across the parking lot toward me with a big dumb grin on his face.
Mike was in my English 101 course in the fall semester and began to follow me around and ask me out periodically from day one which was a little odd. Although we are physically incredibly attractive to humans, most tended to stay away from us. Something on a subconscious level seems to tell them not to get too close, a little unconscious self preservation. Men may lust after Rosalie but few ever dared approach. Most probably chalk their fears up to her being way out of their league never dwelling on the otherworldliness of her beauty.
"Hey Bella," Mike began shifting nervously, "I was just wondering if you were free tomorrow night? A bunch of us from Forks are going to the movies after class then back to my house for a party. You could be my date." He glanced at me hopefully.
"Oh Mike, I would love to," I gushed while watching him grin with excitement only to be brought back down to earth by my next words, "but unfortunately I'm going camping with my brothers for the weekend."
It was a complete lie but I knew Mike wouldn't dare question it. He had met Emmett and Jasper when we had gone into his parent's sporting goods store to buy camping equipment a few months ago. He had made the mistake of letting them catch him staring at my ass and well, he won't be trying to mess with them anytime soon.
Mike looked flustered, "Oh your brothers, I see. Um well okay I've… I've got to uh go," he stuttered obviously remembering the threats they had made, "Bye." And with that he ran off in the opposite direction.
I chuckled to myself, free at last. Sometimes it's good to have very large over protective brothers.
I made my way to the math building and settled in for another boring math lesson, my least favorite subject, other than sex education that is.
One math class and a mind numbing introductory Spanish class later I was free. I jogged to the parking lot making sure to move at a human pace, eager to get home.
When I arrived back at the mansion Rosalie was waiting by the door for me wearing a form fitting red dress with my Rosalie approved outfit in one hand and a pair of killer Jimmy Choo heels in the other.
"Rosalie," I groaned, "you know I hate wearing heels, why can't I just wear some flats?"
"Because I said so," was the only answer I got as I was pushed upstairs to change.
When I reemerged moments later wearing a dark blue thigh length halter dress with a plunging neckline, Rosalie and Esme were waiting downstairs for me.
Esme gave me a loving smile and a warm hug when I reached the bottom of the stairs.
"You look beautiful Bella, dark blue is really your color. You two have fun tonight and don't get yourselves into any trouble. I'll make sure the boys behave themselves."
"Thanks Esme," I said with a smile. "Esme can you please make sure Emmett stays out of my room? Last time he snuck up there and toilet papered the whole thing and left a shopping cart in the middle of my room. I think he's been in high school for too long. I didn't even know we had toilet paper."
Rosalie shook her head and muttered something about her Emmy Bear under her breath. Just then as if on cue Emmett walked out of the den and let out a low whistle.
"Whoa Rosie baby you look hot! You too Bella boo. Maybe I should go with you girls so I can keep all those guys from throwing themselves at you."
Rosalie let out a giggle and reached up to give Emmett a long passionate kiss goodbye. Then she turned to me and quickly dragged me out the door to her waiting M3 convertible before I could muster up enough courage to run back upstairs and change into something more comfortable.