Thanks to SoccerTeas for the idea, and them and Jessica314 for the awesome reviews. :)
"Edward! Come on!" I watch as Alice shouts for our brother. "Hurry up!"
"I can't find my shirt!" He hollers back. I chuckle. The shouting is unessesary for him, as we could hear him if he whispered. Unfortunately, however, since the vampire attacked Edward about three years ago, his hearing has been muffled to the point of a human's along with his gift being damaged. He can still read minds, but he can't focus on one voice. It's all just humming to him, now.
"Well where did you last see it?!" Alice yells, impatient to get to school. We are starting a new school today, and my wife is all for first impressions.
There is a shocked silence that follows Alice's question as all heads turn her way. She realises her mistake a second too late, and I can feel the misery setting in. We hear Edward's breathing stop upstairs, before he throws himself onto his couch, the leather seeming to let out a breath of air as he does. "That's it!" He exclaims, and we listen intently, waiting for what we know he will say next. "I'm not going to school."
We understand his nerves; this is the first school he will be going to since he went blind. There was something in the vampire's venom that destroyed his eye sight entirely. He hasn't really been the same since. In fact it's taken us the entire week to convince him to go at all. "Nice going," Rosalie growls to my wife. I growl back. Carlisle and Esme sigh.
"I'll talk to him," Carlisle volunteers, and begins to ascend the stairs. I follow him, for emotional support. "Son," The patriarch of the family says through the door. A small yes sounds from the other side.
We walk into Edward's room quite loudly, so he knows it's not only Carlisle with him. One thing about Edward's room is that it's always very neat. Everything has to stay in a particular place so he knows where it is, and with his vampire memory it's not hard to remember.
He is sitting - shirtless - on his couch with his head in his hands. Every morning one of the girls, usually Esme or Alice, set out clothes for him on his couch. Today is the same as every other day, but my brother's mind must be in another world as he has knocked his shirt off the couch, and then kicked it under it by mistake. I kneel to pick it up for him while Carlisle sits beside him.
Our father feels the most guilt for what happened to Edward. A vampire with the Volturi crest hanging from his neck showed up at our home one day and just attacked. He went straight for Carlisle but Edward saw his intentions and got inbetween them; the vampire bit him instead. Emmett and I destroyed him moments before our brother went blind.
"Edward..." Carlisle doesn't seem to know where to begin. "Why don't you want to go to school?"
He shrugs in reply, flinching as I grab his wrist unexpectedly. Pulling his hand away from his hair, I give him the dark t-shirt. He takes it without question. "I don't want to go because..." We know what he'll say, he'll say it's because he won't know his way around and he'll get lost.
But he surprises us.
"I can't hear them," He whispers. Carlisle and I look at each other, surprised. "Whenever we went to a new school Emmett would ask me if they were afraid of us, and then we'd laugh about some of them afterwards and whenever there was a new student he'd ask the same thing... And it feels like that was the basis of our relationship. But now I can't hear them, and I feel like there's nothing left between Emmett and I. We weren't very close anyway, and now it seems like we don't share anything in common at all."
As he speaks he pulls his shirt on, finding the label so it's the right way round and pulling it over his head. Just as he straightens it over the top of his jeans Emmett bursts through the door. "Dude," He breathes, staring at his brother like he's seeing him for the first time. "You don't want to go to school because you think we won't have anything in common?" Edward shrugs, bowing his head. "I'm going to hug you!" Emmett announces before pulling our brother into a bear hug; Carlisle and I chuckle. "You're insane! You're actually insane. Edward... You're my brother, okay? I don't care if you can't read minds or you can't hear us properly or you can't see. You're still my brother."
Edward grins widely, and his emotions change abruptly. It's as if a huge burden has been taken off his shoulders. "You've been thinking about this for a while, haven't you?" I guess. Edward nods as Emmett releases him from the hug.
"You ready to go to school, son?" Carlisle asks, and Edward nods again, grinning. Without another word, Emmett tosses Edward over his shoulder and sprints down the stairs. We hear Emmett throw Edward onto one of the cream sofas in the sitting room.
"Alice, get his bag before he changes his mind," He orders. "Jasper, get down here!"
I laugh and shake my head at my brother before I hear Alice's soft voice travelling up the stairs. "Jasper, could you get Ed's jacket? He says it's on his desk chair." Turning, I find it on the floor by his desk. Edward knocks a lot of things over.
"Here," I hand Edward his jacket and he pulls it on. It's inside out. Esme sorts it out for him quickly. knowing we would let him go to school like that. Picking up our bags and tossing Edward' his, we all pile into the Volvo Carlisle bought so we could remain inconspicuous. Rosalie is driving.
When we arrive at the school, Rosalie and Emmett climb out immediately, most likely to show off, but Edward, Alice and I stay in the car. Mostly because Edward has begun shaking. "It's going to be okay," Alice soothes. "You only have two lessons alone. You're excused from gym. You can call Carlisle whenever you want and you can go home if it gets too much. The teachers are aware and you have all your text books in brail. You'll be fine."
He smile weakly and nods before feeling around for the car door handle. Once he finds it he climbs out the car, lacking the grace he used to have. Alice gives me a worried look; clearly she doesn't believe her own advice. "He'll be fine," I mutter, trying to convince myself more than her, before I get out the car.
Later that day I'm standing outside the cafeteria, waiting for Alice and Edward to arrive. Children pass me on their way to get lunch, unaware that they could be my lunch if I was so inclined. The stench of food only just manages to put me off my thirst for them. "Give them back!" I hear from down the hall, louder than the other voices. As the hall clears I see Edward slumped against the lockers, just behind a girl from my chemistry class, Angela Weber. She's very kind, but now she seems angry, which from her emotions isn't something I would expect from her. But then again... Once I see what's making her angry, I'm seething.
The contents of Edward's bag are strewn across the linoleum. A group of five boys in Edward's year are laughing and grinning at Angela and my brother. I stand rooted to the spot with shock as one of the boys, Mike Newton I believe, picks up Edward's history book opens it. Unlike some books we saw, Edward's books don't have the words printed underneath the brail. We saw it as unnesessary. Mike squints at the small bumps on the page before ripping it out and holding it up to the light. Anger flashes through me, but I still remain rooted to the spot. Mike proceeds to pull the rest of the pages out of the book before picking up another one. His friends do the same, but the rest are easy since they just rip the pages out sections at a time. Just as I move forward Jessica Stanley leaves the cafeteria, and seeing the scene at the other end of the hall, goes back inside. The smell of her blood is tantalising. My blood lust spikes. It's not safe for me to move forward yet.
My brother straightens up and attempts to move forward, but Tyler Crowley smirks before shoving him into the lockers, hard. Luckily, they only dent where his head collides with them, which could happen if he was human. Edward slumps to the floor in shock, not used to being so vulnerable. "Tyler!" Angela screams.
Red clouds my vision, but before I can walk forward I feel a hand on my arm. I turn to see Alice and Rosalie standing behind me. "Watch," She urges.
Suddenly Emmett appears at the other end of the hall without noticing us. "What's going on?" He growls, and I can tell he heard Edward crash into the lockers. The boys look around to him, and fear fills them, but they're just brave enough to sneer at our brother, who is very dangrous right now.
"We're showing him who's boss," Mike says, but as he says it his fear spikes considerably. Saying that was a bad move.
Emmett picks him up by the front of his shirt, and pulls him up off the grouns. Inhaling, he smells us. "Alice," He growls without moving his lips, keeping his eyes trained on the Newton scum. Only us and Emmett know he's talking at all. "Get a teacher; get them to call Carlisle. Edward's in shock and I'll doubt he'll move without either him or Esme. If Carlisle's in theater, get Esme."
Alice nods before running down the hall to get a teacher, at human pace of course. "Listen here," Emmett seethes, and Newton trembles. I grin. "Edward is my brother. And, yes he is blind. He is my blind brother, and no one hurts him and lives to tell the tale, do you hear me?"
Newton nods, and Emmett lets go of him. He cumples to the ground, his face twisting in pain. "Leave!" My brother screams, and the boys run for their lives. Rosalie giggles. Angela follows them slowly, smiling at us as she passes.
Alice comes running back a few minutes later, and we're still trying to console our brother. "Carlisle's in surgery," She informs us, and we hear the sluggish footsteps of a teacher a few feet away. "But Esme's on her way."