Mom pulled the car into its space in front of the house we'd lived in for the past two years. I stared up at it through the windshield for a minute before un-clipping my seat belt-something Daddy insisted I do, over and over, despite the fact I'm just as inhuman as the rest of them.
"What are all the lights for?" I asked mom as she opened her door and stepped out onto the driveway.
Mom glanced up, where half a dozen paper lanterns hung from the eaves of the colonial-esque front porch. Around each of the four towering pillars, twinkle lights had been roped with the utmost perfection, not a millimeter of asymmetry between each row.
The lights reflected in her butterscotch eyes, which fixed on my face now. She was wearing her 'I'm pretending not to know anything about this' face, which immediately made me suspicious.
"I'm not sure," she said, pulling open the back door. On the back seat was the bag of books we purchased earlier. She took me out this afternoon to buy the few that were on my wish list for my birthday. We went on a short hunting trip, and had a great chat about what had been going on in our lives recently. How much we missed Grandpa Swan, and that we'd have to visit sometime soon. The ongoing renovations to the house, how mom's college courses were going. My homeschooling, which had been enforced on me since I was little. I hated it. The one thing I'd been begging my parents for all summer was that I be allowed to go to high school, finally. I wanted a sense of normalcy to life, a routine, predictability. But more than that, friends. We talked about Jacob, a bit.
Jacob… My Jacob.
As the years had passed, and now, as my seventh birthday dawned-or rather, began to fade, techinically, as the stars started to twinkle over the trees bordering our property-my feelings toward Jake had ebbed and flowed, changed and grown. He'd lived with us my entire life, this strange alliance between vampires and werewolves, something I'd never heard of, and that was obviously not the norm. There was always an immense amount of tension when Grandma and Grandpa's friends came to visit. Jacob tended to go for lots of long walks.
Knowing that my family didn't exactly meet the norms of the supernatural world-from their diet to their cohabiting lifestyles-I realized that this just had to be our norm. But I had to wonder, and that curiosity peaked when Jake moved with us two years ago, why he was around so much. I knew that he was a family friend, that he and mom were close before I was born, and I couldn't deny the intensely close relationship that had bloomed between the two of us-had always been there, really.
But what was so much more important, here with us, that he would leave his dad and his pack back in La Push for?
When I asked anyone about it, they always got this strange, pinched look on their face, this thin-lipped, secret-eyed expression that told me they know plenty more than they were willing to tell me.
"Jacob has strong ties here," Mom once told me, and that was the closest I'd come to uncovering this big, vague secret.
Now, Mom and I headed toward the wide front door. She pushed it open, stepping back to allow me entrance first. I stepped into the front foyer, and through the wide archway, I saw my family gathered in the living room, in front of a table laden with cream-paper-wrapped gifts, gorgeous periwinkle blue candles, and a ginormous three-tiered cake, iced in white, laden with lavender and periwinkle butter cream roses. I knew most of it would be gone in two days time, thanks to Jacob..
Nine familiar faces stared back at me, smiling hugely, pale and golden-eyed, all except for one. Jacob stood slightly off to the side, black hair brushing his jaw, copper skin glowing in the candle light, white teeth gleaming against his dark skin. My gaze lingered on him, his simple perfection in rugged jeans and dark blue henley, with the sleeves pushed up to his elbows.
"Happy birthday!" everyone chorused, and my attention was brought back to the rest of the crowd. Auntie Alice darted forward to wrap her arms around me, squeezing affectionately.
My mouth opened to release words, but nothing came. I shot my mom an accusing glance, who knew how much I hated surprises, a lot like her in that way. She gazed back at me, shrugging apologetically, a small smile on her lips as Dad wrapped an arm around her waist and kissed her hair.
Auntie Alice was dragging me toward the table, chattering away, probably so that I wouldn't be able to get a word of protest in edge-wise.
"Blow out your candles!" she trilled, gesturing to the glitter-laden candle topping the trifecta of a birthday cake.
A seven. Technically, I'd only existed on this earth seven years, yes, but my physical body told me otherwise. According to it, I was closer to seventeen, maybe eighteen years. Along with my intellect, mental and emotional capacities.
"Auntie Alice-" I began to say.
"Oh, don't start," she chided, jutting out a pouting bottom lip, "Just let us celebrate. Heaven knows we don't have a lot of birthdays around here."
I sighed, immediately feeling sort of guilty.
I let them sing happy birthday and blew out the candles. Alice served Jake and I each a slice of cake. As she was dishing them out onto the small crystal plates, Jake came to my side, wrapping a comforting, warm arm around my shoulders.
"Happy birthday, Nessie," he mumbled in my ear.
"Thanks, Jake," I muttered, turning to give him a full-on hug. Everyone else was always complaining about how much Jacob stank, but I couldn't see it-or rather, smell it. As I pressed my cheek into his broad, firm chest, all I caught scent of were evergreen trees, maple and spearmint.
The family sat around patiently, chatting, as Jacob and I ate our cake, which was, admittedly, delicious, when it came to human food.
I'd barely swallowed the last bite before Grandma was clearing our plates and Alice approached with an arm load of gifts.
A First Edition of Jane Eyre from Grandma and Grandpa, both of whom I hugged tightly in thanks. Despite the fact I'd memorized every word a good long time ago, I still read the book over and over again. It was one of my favorites.
Then I started opening things like rugs, and throw pillows, and empty lamp boxes. Now I was confused, but when I looked up at Auntie Alice, standing beside Uncle Jasper, there was pure, unadulterated thrill on her face. Uncle Jasper looked from her to me in amusement, in his typical Uncle-Jasper-way.
"The rest is upstairs," Auntie Alice nearly squealed, reaching for my hand again.
Everyone followed us upstairs to my bedroom, where a huge blue bow was stuck on the door. Auntie Alice pushed the door open and ushered me inside.
Soft light illuminated my bedroom, which looked nothing like it did when I left with mom that morning.
The walls, in the time I'd been gone, had been painted a soft blush pink. There were fluffy white carpets everywhere, a plush grey-silver chair in the corner with a bookshelf, a huge round bed draped in fairy lights and a gauzy canopy.
To my immense surprise, I loved it. It was girly and soft and romantic, and with a few touches of my own, it would be perfect.
"It's gorgeous," I gushed, "Thank you."
Dad gave me a hug and kissed my forehead. "Happy birthday, Renesmee," he whispered.
I hugged each of my family members in turn. They each wished me a happy birthday, subtly sneaking off to their respective nightly routines.
"Seven now," Uncle Emmett joked in his booming voice as he squeezed me tenderly in his big arms, "I tried to buy you a fake ID, but your dad wouldn't let me."
I giggled as he ruffled my hair, tucking it behind my ear as Auntie Rosalie rolled her eyes in playful tolerance, and hugged me next.
Finally it was just me and Jake left in the hallway. He leaned against the wall opposite my bedroom, hands in his pockets. The way he was watching me, when I turned my gaze on him, made me blush.
"Want to take a walk?" he asked.
"Sure."
…
We headed back downstairs and left through the back door, starting across the expansive back yard, toward the cover of trees. Our house sat on a heaving property about fifteen minutes out of town, surrounded by forest, and beyond that, the ocean.
It was very familiar, aside from the ocean, and reminded me of home, which made the transition easier. For the longest time, I didn't feel comfortable in the new house, despite the fact it held all the same furniture, all the same people. I'd take a book and a blanket and retreat into the forest and just read for hours, until someone-usually Jacob-would eventually find me and call me home for dinner.
Almost unconsciously, our hands linked as we stepped beyond the cover of the trees. I didn't know who made the first move, Jacob or me, but it didn't matter. It was as easy as breathing, holding Jake's hand.
Again, that heady, flushed feeling ignited in me, burning first in my cheeks, and then traveling outward, making the surface of my skin tingle, electrical currents in my fingertips. It was new, this sensation, these feelings. I wasn't used to contemplating Jake in this way. We'd always been close, the best of friends, but never in this new, exciting way I was starting to feel, and I just wasn't sure about it.
Jacob stared straight ahead as we walked, the forest debris crunching underneath our feet, and I took an opportunity to stare openly at his face.
He really was beautiful, my Jacob, and he'd always been beautiful, of course, but he was becoming so perfect in such a different way recently. Butterflies batted their wings against the walls of my stomach as I entertained the idea of us, holding hands with more meaning, embracing, kissing...
There were two sides to this newly blooming equation. One side told me to go for it, to tell him how I felt, because the way he sometimes looked at me, or talked in cryptic little codes, told me that maybe, just maybe, he felt the same way about me. But the other side vehemently disagreed, that we were good friends, the best of friends, and that is all we were, and that is all we should ever be, that we had a great thing going, and telling him how I felt would ruin everything.
I sighed, tipping my head back to stare at the stars.
"What?" Jacob asked.
"Nothing," I told him.
"You sighed. That means you're deep in thought."
I fixed my gaze on him again, that deeper intuition rising again. Normal friends wouldn't notice subtle things about each other like that… would they? Maybe they would.
"I'm just… Thinking."
Surprisingly, he let it go. "I haven't given you your birthday present yet."
"Oh, Jake, you didn't have to get me anything," I insisted as he lead me over to a gigantic boulder, sitting down beside me, so close our shoulders were touching. The physical contact had that tingly electricity shooting all over my body again, zapping my nerve endings. I tried to ignore it.
Jacob pulled a little blue velvet pouch from his pocket and put it in my hand.
Inside was a gorgeous ring, gold, topped with a teardrop shaped peridot jewel, my birthstone.
"It's beautiful," I breathed, slipping it onto my right-hand ring finger. "Thank you." Without thinking, because it had always been that natural, I threw my arms around his neck and hugged him close. The gift was so thoughtful, so beautiful, so meaningful.
I planted a kiss on his cheek, in need of a shave, and pulled back to look into his face.
His expression had changed again, his eyes softening in that tender, melting way. My heart thudded in my chest, I was sure he could hear it, because something flickered in his expression, there and then gone so quickly I couldn't quite make it out.
I realized how close our faces were, his fresh, minty breath washing over my cheeks, and I pulled back, looking away, tucking my hair behind my ear timidly.
We sat in silence for a minute. It was dark now, probably pitch-black according to human eyes, but Jake and I could see easily.
Despite that fact, he said, "We should probably head back. It's getting dark."
I stared into the forest for a long moment.
"Yeah," I finally said, "Let's go."
…
When I walked out of my en suite bathroom, in sweatpants and a tank top, my parents were sitting on the edge of my new bed.
"Hey," I said to them, "I was just getting ready to climb into bed to watch some Netflix."
"We wanted to talk to you about something, honey," Mom said.
I slipped the hair tie off my wrist and flipped my head upside down so I could pull all of my hair up into a quick bun. If I didn't sleep with it up, it was a nightmare to comb out in the morning.
"Oh?" I sunk, cross-legged, onto the floor in front of them. The fluffy rug I was sitting on felt like a cloud.
My parents exchanged a look.
"We've been thinking, talking," Daddy started, serious eyes fixed on my face, "about allowing you to attend public school this year. Your mother and I have concluded," he continued, "that you're old enough now to manage high school on your own. We've registered you for the fall semester. You start on Monday."
I felt my lips pop open in shock. "Are you serious?" I cried.
"Dead serious," Mom said, a smile on her lips.
"Oh my god!" I shouted, aware they could hear me if I merely mouthed the words, but I was too excited to contain myself, "oh my god, you guys rock! Thank you, thank you, thank you!" I catapulted myself at my parents, hugging them with all my might.
Mom laughed, kissing me on the cheek. Daddy was a little more composed, appearing kind of stressed.
"We'll leave you to rest now," he said, standing. "Sleep well, Renesmee."
"Goodnight," I told my parents as they stepped out into the hallway.
I was so excited that I hopped up on my bed and jumped a few times.
"Yes!" I cried, leaping dramatically into the air, landing silently on the balls of my feet.
Even so, I'd been caught.
"Hey!" I heard uncle Emmett call up the stairs, "No jumping on the bed!"
And then he guffawed at his own, lame joke. I was so overjoyed that I joined in.
…
"Rise and shine, Sleeping Beauty!" Auntie Alice called the next morning, letting my bedroom door fall open.
"Unnghh," I groaned, rolling away from the glare of the overhead light and pulling a pillow over my head. "Too. Early."
"It's a quarter past ten," Alice argued, patting my behind through the white down duvet. "C'mon, get up, get up, get up! We're going shopping!"
Immediately, I was sitting up in bed. If there was one thing my Auntie Alice and I had in common that my mom and I didn't, it was a love for shopping and fashion.
…
An hour later, Auntie Alice and I were walking, arm in arm, through Bloomingdale's.
We siphoned through the racks, pulling items, draping them over our arms. I put on a fashion show in the changing rooms.
Jeans, dresses, skirts, cashmere sweaters, handbags, shoes, ankle boots, riding boots…
By the time we were finished, standing at the till, three hours had passed, and we hadn't even hit anywhere else in the mall yet.
"All that we've accomplished, and it's only one in the afternoon," Auntie Alice sighed serenely, passing over her AmEx.
"Thank you, Auntie Alice," I said, watching the sales associates behind the counter load all my new school clothes into bags.
"My pleasure," she said, waving a thin hand dismissively, and I believed it.