Chapter 1
Sometimes it's hard to look in the mirror. I see this ethereal creature looking back at me, shimmering in the sunlight and smiling, always smiling. Sometimes I wonder if it's real, or am I just dead, in a coma or dreaming? Then Edward stands behind me and envelopes me in his warm, protective arms and I know I'm real, because the rush of emotion I feel could never be a product of even the most over active imagination.
"Ready?"
"As I'll ever be", came my instinctive reply. Today was the first real day of our new lives in Alaska. Forks was far behind us, and after waiting until Renesme was mature we left, leaving everything we'd known as a family behind us. Rosalie and Emmett stayed behind, keeping an eye on Charlie and Billy Black. Of course Jacob couldn't leave Nessie and travelled with us, keeping her warm during some of the bitter nights. It broke my heart to say goodbye Alice and Jasper but they planned on enjoying some freedom, travelling the world, coven by coven. So today it began, Nessie started her first High School as a freshman and Edward and I were the two foster kids from Washington, who just happened to be madly in love.
"Kids! School! Now!", Esme's dancing voice called up the stairs. She was enjoying this, back to being a real family, back to living the dream and mothering us all, especially Nessie, to within an inch of our existences! We'd already yelled our goodbyes to Jacob, who was working on a local reservation, the cold didn't bother him one bit! I'd spent a few days experimenting with make up and fake tan, I remembered how pale and ghostly the Cullen's had seemed to me as an ignorant human and didn't want to scare any potential friends away, I'd settled on something called "Sun Blush", it warmed me up considerably and I'd compared skin tones with Nessie and I wasn't far off. Edward grasped my hand and I took Nessie's, we marched out of our new home like the family we were.
The first thing that struck me about Copper River High was the smell, the delicious, tangy smell that was taking over my senses from more than a mile away. I'd come to expect this, Carlisle had, in his ample years, experimented with blood and it seemed adolescent blood was by far the most appealing and the scent travelled easily through the air. I took in one last deep breath and then began the irritating routine of making my chest move up and down without actually breathing. It was an annoyingly conscious act which, when I got caught up in any excitement I often forgot to perform but thankfully, few humans noticed unless they looked incredibly closely. We walked, crunching with every step, up the snow covered path to school, seeing everything, every battered Jeep in the parking lot and every kid walking, despondently into homeroom. Here we go again.
I had to fight the urge to hug and kiss Renesme in the school's office, I was fairly sure that wouldn't be considered normal behaviour between sisters, as we were claiming to be. The similarity between me and Nessie had grown over the years, her hair curled gently in a chocolate waterfall down her back and the shape of her eyes matched mine perfectly though she had the advantage of hers not being a shimmering gold. I had no doubt she'd make friends, nobody leaves a pretty girl like her alone during the lunch break, but it still wrenched at my soul to leave her with all these strangers who didn't love her as I did, who didn't know her as I did, what right had they to even speak to such a precious creature as my daughter? Edward gently rested his hand on my shoulder, "Bella, she's going to be fine. I promise." He calmly whispered in my ear. Still, his velvet voice sent shivers down my spine; I replayed every syllable in my head, just to savour it once again.
"Ok sweetie, go in there and knock 'em dead!" said Edward, hiding the fear and anticipation I knew he was sharing with me. Nessie giggled at his choice of words and replied, "I promise to try my very best not to" and in a whisper added "Dad." Edward smiled his heavenly smile and waved her off into the 9th Grade homeroom, once again he took my hand as we slowly headed towards our homeroom; just before we reached the door he gave me a gentle kiss, and then dropped my hand carefully. I had insisted we try our very best not to alienate ourselves from everyone the second we walked in the room and so, for now at least, we were Edward and Bella, just two regular kids. Not married, not parents and most definitely not vampires.