Caio miei cari! Hello my darlings! Welcome to my first fanfiction story ever written. You have a front stage pass. You are the first guests. You are here for the unveiling. You are awesome. All of you.
Disclaimer: I do not own Twilight, New Moon, Eclipse, or Breaking Dawn. If I did, Renesmee's name wouldn't have sounded so much like a disease.
My entire life I had been controlled by someone. There was always some person telling me to do one thing at one time or a bunch of things at the same time. In my fucked up family, it was usually the other.
"Rosalie, by the time I get home, the house needs to be cleaned, and you need to be away," my mother would frequently hiss in my ear before backhanding me if I didn't say "Yes ma'am." like the good little daughter I was supposed to be. Even when I was taken away and put into that shit hole foster family, my supposed "mommy", "daddy", and "older brother" were always giving me crap to do; whether it was the dishes, the cooking, or even "older brother" himself.
I had never known a life of no consequences. I guess no one in the world really had, but me especially. If the house wasn't cleaned, and I wasn't out of sight, I was used as a personal punching bag to the woman I thought was the devil incarnate. And "older brother"? Yeah, don't get me started about his consequences. It was usually, "I'll pass you around again, if you don't buck up and act like you want it. I know you do." Or sometimes it was the knife. Yeah, those times were fun.
Stop with the inner monologue. Class is going to start soon.
I spun away from my desk in which I was looking for my lesson plans for the week and had gotten distracted. It was the first week of school, so there was nothing that I couldn't make up as I went along if I couldn't find them.
Standing at the white board, I picked up a red marker and proceeded to write:
"Pre-AP English 10", on one side of the board, and "College Bound English 10" on the other side. College Bound English was for the people that found regular English too boring, but didn't want to do the summer reading that Pre-AP English required. This year it was To Kill a Mockingbird, and Jane Eyre, and the students had assignments they had been given in English last year which they would be presenting this week.
I continued to write out the plan for the class period which would be ninety minutes, because the county in which I taught decided to switch to a block schedule.
Getting to know you activity
Hand out syllabus and go over it.
Distribute textbooks
Talk about class rules
Give out seating chart
Talk about summer reading
Go over plans for the week
I hoped that my plans for the day would fill up the time period, and if it didn't, then I would give them free reign to talk to one another. It was my second year of teaching in Roanoke, and the children were usually easy going, so I wasn't nervous. I was Rosalie Hale for God's sake.
The warning bell rang, letting the students know that they had two minutes to get to class, and the first of my students started to trickle in.
"Have a seat wherever for right now, I told the three girls and two boys that stood in front of me. "Oh! Wait right there, I said, jogging over to my desk as fast as I could in my Chinese Laundry heels. I grabbed the hat that I had the pieces of paper folded up in and had each of the students pick out a piece.
The bell rang and the rest of the students came in, grabbing a paper and sitting in random places. I had some sitting on the table, which didn't bother me. As long as they were paying attention, I didn't care. I leaned against my desk in the front of the room and took in the scene. The students were still a little rowdy, but since it was the first day of school, I expected them to be.
I cleared my throat, waiting for me to make the first move to tell them about the rest of the year.
This was why I had worked so hard. So hard to get out of that hellhole CPS called a home. So hard to keep my grades up, because I knew I would be alone in the world, and I knew I would be the only one helping me.
I worked hard so I could become a teacher. So I could have some way of helping to make sure our future leaders turned out okay.
"Hello, students, and welcome to the first day of school. I'm Rosalie Hale, but to you, I'll be Ms. Hale. This is Pre-AP English in room 310. If you're not supposed to be here, then I suggest you leave now."
One student looked at his schedule. He blushed red, and then stood up. "I guess I'm just eager to see you today, Ms. Hale."
I smiled, knowing that there would be one of them. "It would appear so. I'll write you a note so you can get into your actual class." I quickly scribbled a note on a piece of paper, saying that Kevin was in my class, and he was to be permitted into his actual first period. He thanked me and left.
"Okay, moving on. We're going to do a little getting to know you activity. I want everyone to look at the piece of paper they have. If you have a green dot on it, then you're going to come up to the podium and tell me and your classmates one thing about yourself. "
The students did as they were told. I heard some groaning as some of them realized that they would be up here, but oh well. Public speaking was a part of high school, and they would definitely find it next year in their AP English class. Better get used to it now.
"Who'd like to go first?" I asked, looking around, not expecting any volunteers.
A tall boy in the back of the class raised his hand, and I called on him.
"Yes, you. What's your name?"
"Jack," he said, standing up.
"Come on up."
He walked up to the podium and was about to start talking, when my door swung open. The class and I looked over to see what it was about, and a girl walked in. She had strawberry blond hair that went halfway down her back. She had a fresh looking face and an apologetic smile on her lips.
"I'm soooo sorry I'm late, Ms. - Ohmygod."
As she walked closer, I was able to recognize her better.
"Tanya?" I asked, breathlessly.
"Rose?"
All of the sudden, memories of a life I had left behind, a life I hadn't thought about in a very long time, came flooding back to me.
Emmett. Emmett and I, lying in his bed as he slowly caressed my bruised cheek.
July 15th 2002
"Rosie, you have to get out of there. I can't stand to watch you get hurt anymore."
"I'm fine, Emmett. Edward and I over here for the majority of the time, anyways." I chuckled lightly, trying not to upset my ribs.
"Can you at least get checked out by dad while you're here? Please?"
"No, Emmett. I'm fine."
June 7th, 2001
"Emmett!" I shouted.
I tottered lightly in my heels and leaned against my desk. "Okay, Ms. Denali, please sit down. You have one free pass before I count you tardy."
"Yes Ro- Ms. Hale, But, it's Cullen now," Tanya said, still looking at me.
Of course the Denali sisters took over the Cullen's last name. I remembered Esme was so excited to get new foster children.
May 23rd, 1997
"Rose, honey, can I talk with you for a minute?" Esme said as she walked into Emmett's room.
'Sure, Esme," I said pausing the game I was playing on his Nintendo. I loved coming over to their house and bringing Edward with me. Emmett's mommy didn't hit like mine did, and if I brought Eddie over I wouldn't have to worry about him being hurt. Six year olds shouldn't get hit by their mommies.
Esme and I walked into the room with the table that we all ate at, and we sat down.
"What would you think if Carlisle and I added more kids to our family?" She asked biting her lip.
"Why are you asking me? It's your family. It's your choice," I said, confused at why my choice would matter. She wasn't my mommy. Sometimes I wished she was, though.
"Because you're part of this family too, Rose. Both you and Edward are." She said, grabbing my hands.
"Thanks. Um, I don't care. Are you pregnant? Do you and Carlisle use those round things in the little packages when you have… the S word?" I asked looking up at her. I was a little confused at how Esme and Carlisle would "add more kids" to their family if she wasn't pregnant.
"No honey, I'm not pregnant. How do you know so much about those round things?" Esme asked, her eyebrows crunching together.
"Um, sometimes when mommy brings men over, she gives me money to walk to the store and buy them. But I can't normally buy them, so she takes the guy up to her room and I hear strange noises. I usually cover Edward's ears. But mommy gets mad when I can't get them for her," I whispered, looking down at my lap. I had said too much. Now Esme would talk to mommy, and I would get in trouble again.
"What does your mommy do when she gets mad, honey?" Esme asked, walking over to me. She kneeled so she could look me in the eyes.
"She puts me in a time out," I said, telling her what mommy and I had planned for me to say in case anyone ever asked.
Esme looked like she didn't believe me, but I just wanted to move on. "So how are you going to get more kids in the family?"
"Well, we're going to adopt them You see, when parents die, or aren't very good parents, they give them up to the government. They're put in something called foster care, and then they can go to live with different people. There are going to be three girls coming to live with us."
"But there's already Bella and Alice," I said, speaking of my friends that had just moved in with the Cullens. Their daddy had died because he was a police officer and a bad guy shot him. And they're mommy died when they were born. They were born at the same time because they're twins.
"Are you going to get rid of Bella and Alice?" I asked frantically, not wanting my new friends to leave me.
"No honey, we are most definitely not going to get rid of them. Though, after we get these girls, Washington says that we can only take in one more child."
'Well, it sounds good to me. What are their names?"
"Tanya is the oldest, and she's three. Kate is the middle girl, and she's two, and Irina is the youngest, and she just turned one."
"Okay, Jack, continue."
Some students in the class looked around, confused at the display of their new teacher with a student that she was supposed to have never seen before. They looked like they wanted answers, but I sure as hell wasn't going to give any.
Tanya sat down, and I motioned for Jack to continue.
"Uh, well, I went to Italy over the summer. And my older sister got into Harvard. And,"
"That's enough, Jack. We don't need your entire life story." I interrupted. The class chuckled lightly, and Jack returned to his seat.
The rest of the students with green dots went, and I found it somewhat interesting to learn a little bit more about them. I gathered up copies of the syllabus that I had put together.
The class rules were discussed. Compared to some of my colleagues, I was lenient on my rules. I just required that the students tried their best, respected me as their teacher, respected their classmates, and listened when others spoke. If they wanted to have their cell phones, or iPods out when they were finished with their work, or sometimes when they were working, they could have them out.
"This year, class, we'll be reading many different books. We'll first look at The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain, The Chosen by Chaim Potok, Ellen Foster by Kaye Gibbons, Antigone by Sophocles, Hamlet from Shakespeare, Fallen Angles by Walter Dean Myers, Twelve Angry Men by Reginald Rose, and Our Town by Thorton Wilder. Of course, these books will be accompanied by projects, and some will have questions with them. They will be separated by four nine weeks periods and we will have a test at the end of each. Tests and essays count fifty percent quizzes and homework will count twenty-five percent. You will have five days or one school week, to turn in makeup work if you miss a day, and you have two chances to turn in work after it is due if you haven't turned it in on the due date. Is everything understood?" I asked, looking out at the students.
They didn't nod, but looked at me blankly as if they had no clue what I was talking about. Ah, welcome to the start of school.
"For homework, I want you to give these to your parents to sign and bring them back. If you bring it back tomorrow, you'll get four points of extra credit. The next day, will go down to three points, and the day after that, to two. Then, if you don't turn it in by Friday, then it is just a homework grade, which if you were paying attention, is twenty-five percent of your grade. You may as well start the school year off right.
"Alright. I want everyone to go and pick out a grammar text book, and a literature text book. You are to bring it by my desk so I can record the number and after that, take your seats and write your name in your book."
The students quickly got up, anxious to be moving around. They walked around my desk in a line and gave me their names and their numbers. Tanya stopped by and I rested my hand on top of hers for a second. "See me after class."
She nodded and walked back to her seat. After everyone gave me their information, I stood up and gave them the news they least wanted to hear: seating charts.
"Okay, guys, I know you don't want this, but it's so I can learn your names better. At the end of the first nine week period, you can chose your own seats. Everyone stand up and move to the wall so I can give you your seats."
The students groaned, but did as they were told. I distributed their seats, and once they all got comfortable, I made my move to go on.
"Now, I know all of you did your projects, and you are completely prepared to present tomorrow," I said sarcastically, smirking at them as their eyes shifted around.
"Projects are due tomorrow at the beginning of class. We will go in reverse alphabetical order, and I do expect you to have your projects ready. You cannot use your get out of jail free card for this assignment, for that is only to be used for homework. Any questions?"
A red haired girl with black glasses raised her hand. "Yes, you in the blue shirt. What's your name?"
"Savannah," she replied. "I was wondering, if for the essay, the modern connection could be a fictional character, or if it had to be a real person."
"It can be a fictional character, as well as a real person."
Some other students had questions that I answered to the best of my ability, but it was difficult, because I wasn't the one coming up with the project this year. It was the other tenth grade English teacher, and her teaching style was very different from mine.
"Alright, if there are no other questions, then why don't we go over the plans for the week?"
I walked around to the white board and picked up a blue marker. Monday was already written out, so I began with Tuesday.
"On Tuesday, we will begin to present our projects. We will start with the dialectal journal, in which we will also talk about the mask. On Wednesday, we will continue with presentations, and this will most likely last us until the end of class on Thursday. On Friday, I will pass out the Huck Finn books, and you will have a vocabulary assignment, as well as chapters 1 through 3, and questions to go along with the chapters. Any questions?"
As far as I could tell, no one had any questions. And if they did, they certainly weren't making any moves to ask.
"Okay then. We have about five minutes left in class, so you can talk quietly amongst yourselves, or read."
I went around and sat at my desk, my shoulders sagging, and I wanted to lose the cool I was trying so hard to keep.
April 13th, 2002
I laughed loudly as Tanya showed me what she had done to Emmett while I was napping. As the oldest out of the Denali sisters, Tanya thought it was her responsibility to humor her sisters, Kate and Irina.
"He let me put Esme's makeup on him, and then we had a tea party!" she exclaimed with glee.
I chuckled as Emmett licked his lips to try to speak; only to find that the lipstick didn't taste as good as it seemed.
"Wow, Tanya. I'm glad you could entertain Emmett so well. I'm sure he had a great time at your tea party."
"Well, I think he did."
August 21, 1992
"Hey, Rosie!" six year old Emmett shouted from the swings.
"Hi Emmett. You should be careful. You're going to get hurt," I lisped out as I ran over to the monkey bars that were next to the swings.
Emmett giggled at the way I talked, but it wasn't my fault. I lost my two front teeth because mommy was angry last night, but that was okay. It was time they went anyway. "Whatever you say, Rosie. Hey, isn't today your birthday?" Emmett asked, looking around excitedly. Emmett always loved what a birthday party brought: cake.
I looked down and blushed, which was strange for her. Rose was never shy. "Um, I'm not sure."
Emmett gasped. "What do ya mean, you're not sure?" he asked, jumping off the swing. "You gotta know when your birthday is!"
I shrugged my shoulders.
"Come on," Emmett said, grabbing her hand and dragging her to their teacher.
"Where are we goin'?" I asked, my leg hurting from last night.
"We're going to find out when your birthday is!"
I smiled against my chair, wanting to get lost in memories of long ago. The bell rang and I was brought back to the present.
"Bye, guys! See you tomorrow."
The students packed up, but Tanya took her time. I stood up shaking and walked over to Tanya's table.
"Rose!" Tanya sobbed and went in for a hug.
I tensed up for a second, due to reflexes, but quickly relaxed into the hug and wrapped my arms around the young girl.
"It's so good to see you again, Tanya. I thought I never would again."
"Trust me, I understand."
"What are you doing in Virginia?" I asked, confused. Roanoke was very far away from Forks, Washington.
"We moved when I turned seven. Emmett couldn't take living without you there. God, Rose. We've missed you so much. The family hasn't been the same since everything happened."
"I know. Neither have I."
"Please, at least tell me you went somewhere better? That you had a good home?"
"You don't remember the Kings when they came to pick me up. Tanya, I consider you a younger sister, so I'm not going to lie to you. I wish I could say I went to a better home, but I didn't have that privilege. Now moving on from me, how's your family? Carlisle and Esme? How old is Irina now, thirteen?"
"Rosalie, you know they're your family, too. We always have been and always will be."
The warning bell rang to say there was two minutes before second period was to start, and Tanya and I both stopped talking. My second period students were already starting to come in so I greeted them in the same manner as my first period.
I turned back to Tanya. "You have to go. I'll see you tomorrow in class," I said, cutting off emotion from my voice.
Tanya looked up at me with hope. "Edward is picking me up from school today. Bella has an OB/GYN appointment, so they were going to take me. Do you want him to come inside? To see you again?"
"No," I said with little conviction. I wanted to see my younger brother again. I had missed him so much. But I couldn't just walk into their lives again.
Emmett was the main reason I stopped keeping contact with the Cullens, and my baby brother. It was Emmett that stopped contacting me, so I figured that he wouldn't want to see me again.
Tanya's face fell.
"You should get to class. I'll write you a note."
"Rosalie, please, I know-"
"No, Tanya. Get to class," I said, my voice cracking with emotion.
Tanya gave me one last look before turning around and walking away.
The bell rang and I stood up from my chair. "Hello class, and welcome to Pre-AP English 10. My name is Rosalie Hale, but to you, I will be Ms. Hale."
I didn't want to stay at work. I wanted to go to the gym and run, or punch away all of the memories that had been pushed to the surface. But I knew that I had to continue on with some semblance of normalcy, because if I didn't, then there would be no coming back from it.
You know how I said you were all awesome in the beginning? Well you're still awesome. And you'd be even more awesome if you left a review :)
Here's a link to some of the pictures that will be used in the story. You won't get all of them, but you will in time ;) http:/www(dot)flickr(dot)com/photos/collidestory/