After the Dawn
Okay. I'm not too sure if I'm good at writing yet, but (deep breath) here goes nothing:
Prologue: Bella's POV
We were losing. I could feel it. Everyone was putting up a fight, but there were too many of the Volturi. The only spark of happiness that I could feel was the knowledge that Jacob had managed to flee with Renesmee. I just hoped that they were able to find Alice and Jasper in Rio de Janeiro and that they stayed safe. After all that I'd gone through for Renesmee, she just couldn't die. She couldn't! And if she didn't survive, Jacob would be heartbroken. I don't know what happened to a werewolf once the object of his imprinting dies, but whatever it was, it couldn't be good. I felt a twinge on my mental shield just then. Alec was sending out more mind-numbing waves, and Edward had just stepped outside the safety of my shield to combat Chelsea. All thoughts of Renesmee and Jacob slipped from my mind as I fought to extend my shield to cover Edward.
Chapter 1: Surprise
It's my thirteenth birthday, but I don't feel thirteen. I have always felt weird on my birthday. But I, Rachel Caitlyn Canterburry, have never been normal. I have always been the outcast. It might be because my parentage is a mystery since I was adopted when I was a newborn, or how I always seem older than my real age, or maybe even my strange eyes, which seem to change color. But whatever it is, I have always been different.
I don't have any friends at school. My best friend is my neighbor, Jacob. Despite our age difference (he is seventeen and I am now thirteen) we fit together like two puzzle pieces. It just feels… right whenever I am with him. I have known Jacob all of my life. In fact, he was the one who brought me to the Canterburrys.
Emma and John Canterburry are my adoptive parents. Their only biological child, Maddie, is my younger sister by three years. The Canterburrys have treated me like I was their own child. I have a large room in their Connecticut house and I go to school at the local middle school. I basically live the life of any regular teenage girl. Except that I seem different in that weird way. But on this August day, I felt content.
I was hanging out with Jacob. We were lying on the lawn in front of my house, watching the clouds. We didn't talk. That is one of the many reasons I loved Jacob. We could stay in absolute silence for however long and it would never feel awkward.
Jacob broke the silence.
"Look, Nessie, don't you think that cloud looks kinda like a tree?" Nessie is his special nickname for me. I don't know where it's from, or why he calls me that, but I like it.
"It does!" I exclaimed. "And that one looks like a car!"
"A house!"
"A dress!"
"The moon!"
"A wolf!"
Jacob was silent after that one.
I flipped onto my stomach and looked over at him. "Jake? Are you okay?"
"Yeah, I'm fine. Sorry, Nessie. I'm just kinda tired." Jacob yawned.
"You wanna get some lunch? I can heat something up really quick," I asked him.
"Yeah, sure. Gimme a moment." Jake said. He still seemed out of it.
"Come on!" I said. I stood up, grabbed his hand, and heaved upwards. That seemed to wake him up.
"NESSIE!" he roared, but in his goofy, joking way. But I was off and running around my yard in the August sunshine. Jake ran after me. He caught me, as usual. He always did. But then he started to tickle my feet. And I am extremely ticklish.
"Jake!" I giggled. "Stop it!"
"Not until you say sorry, Nessie!"
"I'm sorry, I'm sorry!" I squealed. He released me.
"What was that about lunch?"
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Jacob skimmed through TV channels while I made lunch. The doorbell rang. "I'll get it!" I hollered to Jacob. I dashed into the front hall and unlocked the front door. It swung open. Standing on the porch were two of the most beautiful people I had ever seen.
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They both had golden eyes. The man was tall and muscular, with tousled bronze hair. The woman had dark, wavy hair and a beautiful smile.
"Hello, Rachel," the woman said in a musical voice. "My name is Bella. This is Edward. May we come in?"