Bella
"Ness, you gotta get up for school" I whisper at her gently, her eyes blink open and slowly to me, but to any human it would be as quick as lighting, adjust to the light around us. The morning was bright, the sun clear enough to shine in through the bay window but Alice had assured us that living here would be enough coverage to stop the sun glistening against our skin. Renesmee (Nessie), my own half human-half vampire daughter looked like a 15-year old, there again she had looked that age for a while now; her growth seemed to have stopped. I on the other hand was frozen in a world of 18, although I could pass off for being 16 or up to about 25, which meant another time through high school.
This one was only my 3rd, but I already knew it was going to be boring. Except my family were going to be with me all the way. Emmett, Rosalie and Jasper, Jake and Leah were all going in as juniors this year. Myself, Edward and Alice were starting as sophomores and Nessie and Seth were starting in freshman. Carlisle had found himself a job at the local hospital, and Esme was looking into charity work in the area that she could volunteer in. It made life easier, living in a big home on the outskirts of town, and it was a big home that we needed.
Even though we were mostly coupled together we all still wanted space. Our home was a modern mansion, corridors leading to corridors and rooms leading to rooms. Underground, over ground and round the grounds; it was an impressive building. The main bedrooms were on the top floor, all were totally sound proofed, and Nessie's room was furthest down the corridor to the left of the stairs, it faced south the way she wanted it to.
"Mom, give me five minutes more" my beautiful bronze-haired daughter replied sleepily. Trying to put her face back down into her pillow.
"I would but Jake is downstairs, and there's food cooked so if you want to eat before our first day it's now or never" I smiled at her. It was a true thing, with the wolves in the house that if my daughter wanted food she'd have to be down first. Although Jake would just about always save her some as she was his imprint. The love of his life, and she had been since he first laid his eyes on her when she was mere hours old.
She smiled back, using the same adorable grin that her father uses on me "Ok, I'll be down in a few minutes...I can't use the same vamp speed that you can"
I rolled my eyes and left her to get up. Knowing my daughter I'd have to send Jacob or Edward up in a few minutes to get her out of bed. I used my 'vamp speed', as my daughter calls it, to get downstairs where I was met with the stench of the wolves which we'd come to live with. It just takes a few mini-seconds to get used to. Jacob, Seth and Leah all sat round a table digging into what looked like scrambled eggs on toast with bacon, and then American style pancakes with syrup and then Lucky Charms cereals - these were wolves with appetite.
"Is she awake?" a highly recognizable voice said behind me. Edward, I leant back onto him, relaxing into the formed muscles of his stomach.
"For now" I whisper lightly, knowing that everyone else in the room would still hear anyway. I could feel Edward smile as he pressed his lips to the back of my neck. I let the sensation of it ride through my body, sparking at the ends of my nerves and through my heart, it brought heat to my chilled body and it brought beat back to my full heart. My soul lived, and I was proving to Edward that his did too.
"Ready for school, Bella?" Grinned Emmett as he jumped down the stairs. He looked showered and presentable as if Alice had got to him. In fact it looked as if Alice had got to everyone. Having only been in the town for a week no one knew we even existed yet, it was all of our first days. We were half way into the semester already, which allowed us to settle down as the 'weird' family at the back of the cafeteria. The strange pale kids who were coupled and had were adopted by really young looking parents - that was what the humans knew anyway.
Emmett had walked over the pale stone floor in the kitchen to me, and bear-hugged me. "I am ready. This year is gonna be easy" I replied back to him.
"Mom, Seth ate all the lucky charms" my daughter whined at me, as she entered the kitchen. Seth was wondering around looking far too innocent. Nessie looked at me, I looked at Jake, and Jake looked at Edward who looked at me. Fine, I'd have to deal with this.
I wandered into the pantry "Ness, we always have lucky charms here for you" I said, grabbing a box for her. She was almost addicted to them, it was her blood equivalent. She had sugar; we had blood sugar...fair deal. By the time Nessie had got her box of charms to the table Jake had got her a bowl and spoon from the draw and was now looking at her, everyone else in the room could see the love in his eyes.
I used to mind that my best friend was in love with my daughter. The first few months were awkward as my daughter was very junior to him, so he's been like a big brother, a friend to her whenever she needed something. And they were close; you could see that just by spending a lot of time with each other. But someday he'd have to tell her the truth about imprinting, and then she'd love him. Edward was still a little pickier about the idea, but there again Edward had never really liked Jacob.
"Are you all ready to go?" Asked Esme as she glided into the room with Carlisle not far behind her. They looked so young still, but after having spent the past 6 years with them you get used to it. I still get to see Charlie a little, he's still on a 'need to know' basis but as Sue Clearwater (now Sue Swan) is a member of the council my dad is a little more in tune with the pack.
"Once Ness has finished her breakfast, yeah" said Jake, who was still watching my daughter. It was true, and normal, that it was Nessie who we were waiting for, but that was due to her general lack of speed. Our bodies worked that much faster than hers did just for the lack of any human blood in our bodies. Though she did finish quickly.
By 7:30am we were all out the house and wondering through the garden over to the garage where the cars were parked. Since Nessie was now 'old' enough to drive by human standards Edward had done his normal thing of going out and buying her a car, a sleek shiny new white Audi R8 Spyder to go with Alice's canary yellow Porsche that she seemed to be addicted to. But Ness was happier on the back of the motorbike that Jake had bought her, but we all thought it'd look a little strange if she showed up in that.
Edward and I were taking the brand new BMW that wasn't even available in Europe yet, let alone America. It was my car of choice, something not too flashy and sporty because I had a better car to do that in. And we would have the Leah and Seth riding with us. Emmett was taking his new, though already muddy, jeep with Rose, Alice and Jasper. Nessie was riding in Jake's car that he'd built over the summer, it was faster and stronger and prettier than any other build he'd done when I was human, so it was perfect to use.
The journey we had would take a human 30 minutes, but to us, with our awareness it took a mere 15 minutes...storming down the interstate at 150kmph. By the time we got into down we had to slow down; there were humans about. Our cars got stares of jealously a lot, some very odd looks and just some glances of curiosity.
We got into the town's only high school about 30 minutes before the bell. Like Forks high school it was a group of buildings off the main road in town, the buildings were a grey stone color except a newer looking gym building that was connected to the farthest building. All the buildings were connected by a plastic coated walk way, and the parking lot was in the center. The lot was quite empty and there were a few groups of people moving round the, what felt like, cool air. Our convoy picked the furthest edge of the lot, out of the way of the normal glancing student.
The reception was the furthest building to the right, so we walked over to it underneath the white cloud covered sky.
"Excuse me" Alice murmured to the thin, old, and stick like lady in reception. Mrs. Clough, her sign read. She slowly looked up from her computer and blinked a few times at the group of us, probably to check if she were seeing things.
She pushed the glasses on her face up the bridge of her nose. "Yes, how can I help you?"
"We're the Cullen family. We just moved into the area" Alice continued.
"Yes, yes you are. Your father rang ahead. I have your schedules...give me one moment" She got up from her seat and wandered down the reception a little way to piles of paper next to a printer.
"She thinks you look like a vogue model" Edward chuckled in my ear, lower than any human could hear. I smiled, knowing that I did look like a model to a human. Mrs. Clough eventually returned with a stack of papers.
"Okay, each of you is getting a map, and a schedule and a sheet for all your teachers to sign today...first up is Alice" said the receptionist.
Alice stepped forward and picked up the few sheets of paper. Then myself, and Edward and through all of us in alphabetical order until Nessie who was going under the more human name of Vanessa as it would fit in more at school. After we'd got our schedules, we stepped out of the reception, and back out into the lot area.
Alice, Edward and I all had the same home room, which was one of Carlisle's requests. Alice and I then had AP trig whilst Edward had English, I had AP history and AP English on my own but Alice and Edward both had Classical civilizations, and then Alice had Fashion and Edward had Music. Then Edward and I had AP Russian, AP Biochem and then the three of us all had Gym and then AP statistics. So it wasn't so bad, we were with each other most of the time.
Seth and Nessie were in all the same classes, because Nessie had never been to an actual school before Carlisle asked for her to be with one of us at all times. The juniors had a similar situation to us as well. Luckily, we all had lunch at the same time which meant it was a time for us all to gather and be strange together.
We all said our goodbyes and headed off in different directions to our homerooms. Alice, Edward and I headed right to the back of our classroom after having got our forms signed. We took the seats furthest back and got very odd looks when the students arrived in packs.
"What're they thinking?" I mumble to Edward, who is to my left.
"Who're they? Wow, they're good looking? I wonder if he has a girlfriend? Are they new here? She's hot, etcetera, etcetera" he smiles at me gently. Yes, he's taken. It wouldn't take long for them to get that. And Alice, and I were also very much taken.
Our teacher had written 'Welcome class' on the blackboard. And by the time the class was full and the bell was about to be rung everyone had been giving us strange glances.
"Good morning sophomores" said our teacher smiling once the bell had rung and he'd gotten us all to shut up. "Ok, when I call out your name say if you're here"
The teacher, a graying man, flicked through a book to a page with a pen in hand.
"Cathy Ashdale" was followed by a 'here' from the front somewhere.
"Scott Azure" had a deep 'here' from the middle of the classroom...jock stereotype in one piece he was.
"Daniel Baverly" was followed by a delayed 'here' which was the sound of a guy with his nose in a book.
"Rihanne Bingham" had a "not here" shouted by Cathy, followed by a "she's on holiday till Thursday"
"Grace Cameron" was followed by an English sounding 'here'
"Lucy Creader" had a "here" and then a giggle from the seat next to her.
"Alice Cullen" was followed by Alice's chipper 'here' and a few glances backwards.
"Edward Cullen" preceded Edward's 'here' and some more glances.
"Isabella Cullen" had my own, bell-like 'here' and just about all of the glances in the room expect Daniel who still had his head in the book.
"Mike Evans" the teacher continued as if the whole class wasn't staring at us. 'here'.
"Yasmin Fisher" was followed by a 'here'
"Melony Flints" had a moments silence and then a 'she's not here sir, I think she's ill' which was followed by a flustered girl walking into the room, her blood was alluring pulsing through her veins as it did. She carried a tardy slip in her hand and passed it to the teacher.
"Ok, Melony. But this is not a good impression. Don't be late again" said the teacher. Melony walked back slowly to our row, which had only one seat left and that was the seat next to me. She reminded me of me when I was human. She looked like one of the quiet kids, the ones who, Like Daniel, would rather spend their time in a book. Her breathing slowed slowly, until at last, after the rest of the register had been called, it was a normal sane pace.
"So, as you may have noticed we have some new students in our class...so could I ask Alice, Bella and Edward to come up and introduce themselves" this was one of the parts of being new in school that I didn't like too much. Alice was up first and with a spring in her step danced to the front followed by Edward and myself who just moved gracefully through the seats. We probably looked postcard perfect students stood up in front of the 'welcome class' blackboard.
As per usual, Alice was the first to say something...she was the most sociable however. "I'm Alice Cullen, and I and the rest of my family have just moved down here from Alaska. I love fashion, and am very close to my sisters."
"I'm Isabella, but I prefer Bella" My confidence seemed to come out of nowhere, maybe it was because i knew no matter what I said people still looked at me, and Alice, stunned into silence. "I love reading, and my favorite book is still 'Wuthering Heights'.
"And I'm Edward Cullen; I don't like Ed or Eddie. I love music and play the piano, the guitar and the violin"
By this time even the teacher was looking at us with wonder. We weren't the normal type of kids, really. We had talents far and beyond most...what with our lack of sleep. When we reached the back of the room Melony was reaching for a book, it was old and had ruffled up pages, like it had been read a hundred times. I caught the title and held my non-existent breath. Wuthering Heights. It reminded me of my own copy which had been left at Fork's high school...it couldn't be. It was exactly the same.
Once our teacher had got through the very boring, and near enough unnecessary notices we were allowed to talk. There were shallow whispers about the three of us, gossip and who is dating who and what happened over the summer. Melony had her nose in her book, but kept glancing my way as if the interest just couldn't go away.
I was doodling masterpieces on a new notebook that by the end of the day would have something worthy of an art gallery...it'd been one of the skills I was learning and by the second semester I would pick art up as an extra subject. Edward was chuckling to himself about what I was drawing with my mind halfway out. I'd draw Jake, Seth and Leah as wolves, but there were cubs around them, except they weren't cubs but actual wolves so they were all normal sizes, not the horse sized creatures that the shape shifters turned into. It was actually very cute, them getting along like that.
"Wow, how'd you draw like that?" asked Melony finally after a while of me sketching from memory.
"It's just a hobby, and I just start somewhere and draw" I say gently. Not even knowing, myself, how I could draw like that.
"But it looks so real...anyway...I'm being rude...I'm Mel" She said, introducing herself.
"Bella, it's a great book you've got there" I pointedly look at the cover of the book.
"Yeah, it's my favorite too. I didn't know other people liked it, I thought I was the only one" she gushed.
"Could I have a look at your copy?" My hopeful question grants me the book, which I handle delicately. I open up the front page, and stop my face from scowling as I see in the dead center of the page 'Property of Forks High School, Washington'. So it was from Forks. I flicked through the book, noticing how yellowed it looked since it'd been in school's possession. Right on the last page in the top left hand corner was two names.
B Swan. E Cullen.
That was my book. My book. Here, 6 years later. If I weren't looking at it right then I would've thought it impossible. I pulled in my guard, probably accidently shouting a thought at Edward because he wasn't used to it so much, but it got his attention.
'Look' I think at him. Telling him to use my mind to see the picture of the names. I shut my mind off quickly because it takes a lot of effort to keep it open.
"That's our book" He whispers so quietly that I hear it as a whisper, I discretely nod to him.
"Looks like an old copy. How'd you get it?" I say passing back my book to Mel.
"I lived up in this small town in Washington State called Forks, and the teacher there said I could keep it, because he wanted someone for a passion for books to keep care of it. I transferred down here last year. During Spring semester" She says, running her hand over the cover. I didn't recognize the surname though, and Forks was a small enough town to know most of the people.
"I heard it rains a lot up there" I replied, trying to stay away from any chances of me knowing the area.
"Yeah, it did a bit. But you get used to it" she smiled back.
By the time Homeroom was over Mel, Edward, Alice and I had become friends. And Daniel too had come and talked to Mel, we found out that they were dating, or had started dating over the summer. Daniel, who preferred Dan, was a sweet guy. He reminded me a bit of Eric from Forks high, and Mel was like Angela - except not quite.
It turned out that not many people from our homeroom had AP trig, so Alice and I made our way there on our own. It was a nice thing with a small school I guess, there weren't too many people to learn. The high school was bigger than Forks but not by much.
AP Trig started with a register and Alice and I had to introduce ourselves again, and then hid at the back of the classroom again looking at some very easy Math work. The teacher picked on us because we were new but we never failed to struggle on an answer, even though Alice and I chatted quietly all the way through class.
After that I was glad to find I had Dan and Mel in my AP history, because I needed someone around. Even if I couldn't talk all the way through class because they were humans who didn't know, I could zone out a little. It was history after all, and I knew my history well. About half way through the lesson I got very bored, so I opened my mind up to Edward for a small amount of time.
'Hey' I think at him, whilst still copying down the notes for class.
'Hello love' he replies softly, it's something we'd been working on...the talking during mind reading.
'Is Ness okay, I hate not knowing' It'd been a while since I'd been away from her, so I was worried like a normal mom would be of their 15-year old looking 6 year old.
'She's fine. She and Seth are in a physics class right now, they both look bored' I smile mentally. 'I'll see you at lunch' he adds.
'Love you' I say, shutting my mind back off and focus on the dribble of Second World War German tactics.
By the time English had started I'd already done another introduction and had made friends with the teacher because I'd read everything on the suggested reading list. Plus I'd read the main material for the course already. I had Mel in this class as well, she was surprised by the fact that I'd read what was a 50 book suggested read list.
"I said I loved to read" I'd said to her, as she blinked at me. "I don't sleep much so I read instead" That in fact was a lie, I don't sleep at all so I read a bit, and do some other stuff for the rest of the night.
"What are you? Insomniac?" Mel joked back at me, lightly, but her tone was guarded in case I was offended by it.
I shrugged in a very human like manner "Something like that".
So I spent that lesson doing more doodling on my notebook whilst the teacher read a section of an Edgar Allen Poe story to the class, which I could remember word for word so I did not need to listen, and occasionally when our teacher checked if people were listening by asking them to repeat the lines he just read...well I could keep going so I had to be careful to stop and only read the words he'd already read.
However by lunch time we were all very glad to be back together again. Everyone got some food, even though only the wolves were going to eat it. Probably eat all of it, knowing their appetites. I was standing in the lunch queue with Mel behind me.
"Do you, Alice and Edward want to come and sit with me and Dan at our table?" she asked, sounding like she really wanted us to sit with them.
"We're sitting with the rest of our family today but you're welcome to come and join us" I smile back at her, she looks ever so slightly saddened, but agrees to ask Dan if he wants to sit with us. Luckily he agrees when we find him at their table so I find the table where Rose and Emmett already sit with their untouched plates. Jacob is walking over with Leah next to him, and the others are all in the queue.
"Hey, this is Dan and Mel" I say, motioning to the pair next to me who shifts uncomfortably. "I'll introduce everyone when everyone's here"
It didn't take long for everyone to migrate to our table, Seth and Ness brought along three new friends, one of which turned out to be Dan's younger sister, Liz. Our table was only just big enough to fit all of us in. I saved the seat next to me for Edward like I usually do.
"Okay, so I'll go first. Everyone this is Dan and Mel" I say again for the benefit of anyone who wasn't there before. "Dan and Mel this is Emmett, Rosalie, Jasper, Alice who you already know, Leah, Seth, Vanessa (Ness), Jacob and Edward" I say completing the round of the table.
"And this is Liz, Drake and Robin" said Nessie motioning to the 3 freshman who I'd missed out on the introductions because I didn't know who they were. Everyone said hello to each other, all the humans and wolves and Nessie were tucking into their food, whilst we vamps played around with small apples or bits of pizza that we slowly passed to the hungry looking wolves.
"So are you guys all related?" Drake, one of Seth and Ness' friends asked.
"Well Leah is my sister, and Jake's my cousin" said Seth.
"Alice is Edward's twin and Ness is their cousin, and Rose and Jasper are brother and sister" said Emmett in his normal booming voice.
"And Emmett and Bella aren't related to anyone" finalized Alice.
"But we're all adopted by Carlisle and Esme our parents" Added Jake so it all fitted together as one story. We'd come to the conclusion that as Edward and Ness looked so similar they were either cousins or brother and sister...because it was purely impossible for her to be our daughter in school.
"Wow, that's...complicated" said Dan, he looked as if he was still trying to get his brain around it.
"And Alice is going out with Jasper, Bella is going out with Edward and I'm going out with Rose" said Emmett, again complicating it for the humans.
"Oh I know, I know...I'm going to throw a start of school party at our place. All you guys should come" Alice bounced at the idea.
"Another party Alice?" Edward groaned at her.
"Yes, Edward, another party...how about Friday? Can you guys do Friday?" Alice was bouncing again, like usual.
"I'll have to check, but I think so" was the general response by most of the non-Cullen's. It was Alice's usual style to throw a party as soon as she could when we met new people. She'd probably go all out and have like a massive circus or something over the top like that...but that was just Alice.
Edward and I headed off to Russian after the warning bell so that we could get good seats. The class wasn't full though, because Russian wasn't a popular choice there were only 8 of us in the class so we all had to sit in the front two rows. I recognized Scott and Grace from homeroom, and another boy from English called Luke. Two girls from Trig called Henrietta and Olivia, and one other boy who I didn't recognize who I soon found out was Finn, the star striker on the junior soccer team. He and Scott were good friends.
Our teacher, a young woman with a strong Russian accent called 'Miss Dimitrova', was entertaining and polite and fair to our small group. We ranged from Olivia and Luke who knew no Russian, to Scott, Edward and me who already knew a lot (Edward and I were fluent but that was beside the point). So we were moving slowly, half the class doing different things.
Scott kept looking at me like I was a piece of meat that he wanted to have for his gourmet supper, he was a player for sure. You could tell by the pull in his eye that said 'fuck me and I'll drop you'. Edward grumbled lowly for most of the time he was doing that. He was a silly jealous fool sometimes, even when he knew I would never leave him - especially for someone like Scott.
He tried to drip his voice in sex when he spoke in Russian to me, he probably expected me not to understand as what he said literally translated into 'I want your body tonight' which didn't exactly please my husband. I replied back with a much better accent as if I'd been Russian all my life 'you're a player, you ruin people and leave them, even in Russian you're rude. Nice try but no thanks'. He glared then, as if I'd just created an enemy.
He scribbled something down on a note, in what looked like the Siberian version of Russian.
'Fuck you bitch, I'll get you soon. Then you'll see how to talk to me' I smiled at his note, knowing that he wouldn't get very far if he tried. So I wrote back, again in the same Russian that he wrote the note in. 'You don't want to get into a mess with my family, believe me, you don't. You don't want us as your enemy'
I chucked the note at him, though gently so it didn't give him a paper cut because with the proximity of him that might be dangerous for me, and would ruin the chances of us staying here if I accidently sucked the life out of someone.
He glared at me after he read, and understood the note. It was a 'you're on' look. But it really wasn't worth trying. I was so glad when the bell rang and Edward and I rushed out of the room towards Biochem. Maybe Russian would be a little more painful than I expected it to be.
Walking into the Biochem classroom I was reminded of a time when I used to go to school just to see if Edward was in Biology, but these memories faltered, they were pushed down and kept quiet by my new mind. But the look of the place, and even the smell was the same as our old classroom. The wood tables, sterilized beyond recognition. The strange creatures filled with plaster to keep them from going moldy. The grim light that flicked in through the darkened windows - it all fit.
Edward and I went for the usual style of taking the desk right at the back of the classroom, where the teacher would notice if people were looking at us. Made watching people easier too, and it wasn't as if we wouldn't be able to read what was on the board.
"Have you seen the Cullen's? I was talking to Josh and he says that they have family in Junior's as well, and there's this one native guy whose huge, he looks like he could be in college" said a blonde girl in the row in front of us, she was leaning over the passage way to another cheerleader looking girl, who was giggling.
"Yeah, I saw him at Lunch. He's hot, I wonder if he's dating anyone...and Edward too, I mean OMG he's just soooo hot" replied the other girl, her voice squealing by the end of it, it sounded as if she'd ran out of other things to say by description except for 'hot'.
"He's in this class, I saw his name on the register" and at that moment, both girl's peaked back at Edward and I who were trying not to laugh at their conversation. "She's gotta be fake though, look at her pale skin, who does she think she is?"
If only they knew that we could hear every word they were saying. And Edward every word that they were thinking. "I know, right. She looks like she spends all morning in front of a mirror applying foundation." This girl laughed. Little did they know that I had no make-up on whatsoever, this was my natural light colored skin.
"Right, Mace. I mean, seriously, who is she trying to impress? And they're so snobby. Gucci bags, top of the market clothes - trying too hard". I rolled my eyes at this comment, as if it were my choice I'd be in jeans and a hoodie...Alice's style still hadn't caught on. Even though I looked good in this, I'd much prefer to just be comfy.
Our teacher, Dr. Palidon, started the class as soon as the bell rang.
"Ok, I want everyone who is sat at the left side of their desk to pack up their bag and move to the desk in front of them" This was followed by a groan from all the class. "Quickly, hurry up". I picked up my bag, and moved to the desk next to this Mace girl. She flicked her blonde hair at me, and shuffled to the edge of the table. I was glad; her blood wasn't appealing when it was covered up with cheap perfume that almost made me choke on thin air. So I too, slid to the far side of the table.
"The person sitting next to you now will be your lab partner for the rest of this semester" said Dr. Palidon, who had just finished writing up 'Introduction to Photosynthesis' on the blackboard. Great. Just great. Well at least I knew the topic back to front considering I aced Biology and Chemistry the first two times. Most of the class already hated the teacher for moving them away from their friends.
"You must be Isabella Cullen" said Mace, her tone was bitter with intrigue. She didn't look pleased to be sat working with me; I didn't care because I had Edward behind me and she couldn't try anything.
"Bella. Yes, that's me. And you are?" I said, leaving the question open.
"Mace Parker, from the other homeroom class" She smiled slightly "I'm captain of the junior cheerleading squad; you weren't planning on trying out were you?"
"No, I'm no good with sport" I said as a way to excuse the fact that if I did do cheerleading I'd have to spend time out in the sun, which couldn't happen. Didn't want the whole school to know that my skin glistened like diamonds in the sun. That could turn out nasty. Mace played with her hair again, possibly to give her something to do.
"So, you guys just moved down here from Alaska?" She asks as a way to form conversation, though she didn't really sound that interested.
"Yeah. My adopted father got a job opportunity at the hospital here"
"Isabella Swan..." said our teacher, about to ask me a question. He picked on me because I was chatting; Mace looked almost smug like it was her plan to keep me in trouble.
"Bella" I automatically corrected him.
"Ok, Bella, can you tell me how the cells in a leaf and different to the ones in the stem?" he asks, he looks as if he was trying to catch me out but I answer in good detail, having revised that many times.
Once he'd stopped glaring at me and moved onto the rest of the class Mace asked "how did you know that, you weren't even listening?"
"We studied it last year in Alaska" Which I received an 'oh' and then she went back to listening to the teacher; I stared outside the window at the darkening skies. It looked like it would rain later on in the evening. To say I was glad when the bell rang was an understatement, but I packed up and moved out of the class quickly to find an Alice stood right outside our door.
"I knew you'd be here" She smiled, as Edward walked out the room as well.
"Of course you did" I reply, almost sarcastically because she would know, she's Alice.
"Ready for gym class?" Alice chirped as we walked down the hall to the changing rooms. Said our goodbyes to Edward as he went off to the door which had 'male' on the door whereas Alice and I went into the 'female' changing room and changed into our green and white gym clothes which Alice had to complain about for a few minutes as I told her they wouldn't let her style up her clothes.
But she came round after a while and we headed out into the gym.
Being hit by a volleyball isn't exactly something you expect for a vampire, but my sense of balance never seemed to improve as much as it should've done. I still had a little bit of humanity left in me, it did come from behind me anyway – and I was trying to pay attention to my game. It didn't hurt either, it was just a little annoying. Especially when I noticed who had accidently hit the ball at me. None other than Scott, who was being glared at by Edward and Edward had very sharp aim so by the end of the lesson Scott had got his fair share of balls in the face and was grumpy. Of course Edward had managed to sort out the game so that he wasn't getting into trouble for hitting him each time.
The team that Alice and I were on eventually won the girls' volleyball, the rest of our team consisted of two members of the school's volleyball team and two other girls who I didn't know. Jenny and Nina were also very good at volleyball but they told Alice and I that they were more soccer players, but the entire team got invited to Alice's party as well.
So Alice was all jumpy and chirpy by the time we had got changed back into our normal clothes and out on the way to statistics. We were back with Dan and Mel for Statistics so we took up the 5 desks on the back row. Dan then Mel, then myself, then Edward and finally Alice; it would be an interesting back row to anyone else looking. The nerds sat next to the weird kids like we were all at the back because we were different where in actual fact we were at the back because that's where we liked to be.
And as expected Stat was overly boring, except the long conversation that Edward, Alice and I had about Scott and his need to play every single girl in our year, and maybe even other years so we'd have to tell everyone about our new enemy. It wasn't like we needed another enemy, with the Volturi probably regrouping and there's always another group of vamps who want to kill us. We're just too happy for their liking, it seems like they'd prefer us to be monster human hunters.
For a first day it wasn't so bad. New friends, new enemy – never one without the other. The sky was very overcast when we walked over to the reception entrance. Dan and Mel had decided to come with us as they were heading to the library which was just off path next to reception. After they'd left we handed in our forms to the same old stick-like lady in reception and wandered into the parking lot.
All the other Cullen's were there except for Emmett and Rose but as their car wasn't there anymore we figured they'd already left. We had to fit 3 people in the back of the car as Jasper and Alice had come in Emmett's jeep. And Jake also had to have extra people as well. So we split into the two cars and drove back down the interstate to the long driveway which we seemed to have an obsession with.
This tree lined drive lead down to the beautiful modern mansion that appeared out of nowhere, like it was buried in the forest and was there for someone to find. We had beautiful views over the state, and a lot of land. A river meets a tributary at the very bottom of our land, and an elk packed forest stood grandly before that. We needed to have that source of food close, and the wolves needed the forest so that they could become wolves and have a run around.
Our garage was off to the side, half underground, half over ground. It was big enough to be a commercial parking lot; but when filled with all the adrenaline packed machines it looked full. In total we had 10 cars, about 12 different bikes, quad bikes and even a golf cart that we could use if we really wanted to. The cars and the bikes were used the most for ease of transport. But sometimes it was easier just to run.
Once we were inside we all went our separate ways, leaving Edward, Jake, Ness and I in the living area.
"Ness do you have any homework?" I asked my daughter, but she was too smart for a 6 year old so she just responded with "mom, do you have any homework?"
In truth I did have homework to do as we'd been set homework in most of our subjects like a welcome back to school type of work load. Jake helped Ness with her math, and Edward and I did our Russian very quickly. Then Ness and I did our History as we were the only ones who had any type of case study course, even if we were studying completely different topics we still got through the work quicker than any other human would.
So by the time that the wolves were hungry again it was about 5:30 and we'd all finished our homework. It was something that the human's would be jealous of as they usually spend all evening on work. I'd done extra work for Biochem because I wasn't sure how reliable Mace would be as a lab partner so I did the work she was supposed to do too.
"You guys wanna play baseball tonight?" Alice smiled, as she danced into the room.
"There's a storm?" Emmett asked, he looked so hopeful it was funny.
Alice nodded, even doing that gracefully. "Yeah, should start at about 11 tonight"
"Then that's what we're doing tonight" Jasper said as he placed a kiss on Alice's cheek.
"Can I go, dad?" Ness asked Edward as he was the closest to her. He looked over at me, but I shook him off as he knew how to make this decision, even if he was a softy with her.
"No, Renesmee, you've got school in the morning. You need the sleep" he said.
"Please, I want to watch. It's been ages since I've seen you play. Mom…" she said, trying to get me to join in the argument. Edward shook his head at me, trying to get me to take his side.
"I'm agreeing with what your father said" I say matter-of-factly, her face drops slightly.
"Come on Bella, let her go. I'll take her home at midnight" said Jake who'd been listening to our conversation.
I nod at Jake, knowing I can trust him. "How about it Ness, one hour of watching us then you go home to bed, okay?"
"Yay, mom, thank you" she danced, looking a tiny bit like Alice.
Carlisle was home by the time that the light started to fade from the corner of the sky - the glass wall showed us that. Alice told him about the storm and she also told him about the party on Friday which he whole heartedly agreed to, because there was no way to reign her in. By Twilight everyone was back doing their own things again. Jasper and Alice were building yet another card tower under the stairs, it looked so stable that a human would think it had tape on it, but with no shaky fingers to ruin the luck of it, it stood grand.
Edward and I were in the Piano room where Edward was playing me beautiful songs on his baby grand. Each note rolled together through the time when he played as if they were matched together in perfect harmony. He played my lullaby, the song he'd written for me years before when he first met me. If vampires could cry I would cry every time I heard that song, but we couldn't cry. So instead, I pressed my lips to Edwards in a kiss so perfect that it matched the harmony of his music.
Like the last two pieces in our own puzzle, we fit together like the water and land, where one doesn't exist without the other. In a world where vampires are mythical creatures and scary and death machines, there's our family. Then in our world, where our lives are what we desire most, where we decide each other more than the blood that keeps us from anything else – we couldn't be anything better.
As the very last light drained from the sky I sighed in content. The dark world outside our glass window was that of our own world, our playground not to harm but to love and enjoy. To protect others from and to protect ourselves from. It was our land to live in, and would start another set of years doing what the Cullen's do best.
And our home was the start of the entire thing…if home is where the heart is and our hearts don't beat. Then our home stands so steady that it doesn't get broken down.