Renesmee - Chapter One
"I moved to Forks a long time ago…"
I loved it when my mother told me stories about her eighteen years of mortality – or at least what she could remember of them; the change had erased a lot of her human memories. They taught me a lot of things.
I wasn't like the rest of my family.
I'd been born with myimmortality.
I closed my eyes and listened to the soft flow of the piano's music. It was the same every day, as I sat here, beside my dad and listened to him play. "Jacob's here!" I jumped from the piano chair where I'd been sitting next to my father and flitted lithely towards the front door.
My dad had stopped playing for the tiniest fraction of a second – imperceptible to the human ear – and that's when I knew he'd read Jacob's thoughts. That and the wafting stench of werewolf that travelled into the room as he approached the house; a smell that had become so dominant in this house over the last eight years.
The smile was huge across Jacob Black's face as he bounded up the front steps and greeted me. "Hey, Nessie!"
I threw my arms around him and the collision between stone and muscle threw Jacob back down the steps while I clung onto him. We both landed on the grass with a soft thud.
I felt the tiniest blush sweep over my cheeks. "Guess I don't know my own strength, eh?"
Jacob reached out, chuckling, and tousled my hair. "You'll get used to it eventually, Ness. I remember the first time I phased. Man, that was something…." His eyes gazed off towards the surrounding forest nearby and I wondered then, what he was thinking about.
"I know."
Both our heads turned, looking towards the front doorway of the big, white house in which my family lived. Standing there was my father, Edward Cullen, with his arms crossed over his chest while he smiled down at us knowingly.
I frowned in confusion. What did he know?
My father nodded once towards my friend, who looked up at him in annoyance. "I know what Jacob's thinking. He's admiring himself. He's thinking about the first few weeks of his phasing and his strength." He chuckled, shaking his head. "He still imagines what it would be like to fight against me."
"Never got the chance," Jacob grumbled, rubbing a sore spot on his elbow that had hit the ground. He frowned at the grass beneath him.
I jumped in fright a little when someone cleared their throat from behind my dad. He stepped aside with a mischievous smile on his face and revealed my mother, standing there and glowering down at Jacob.
"Jacob Black," she said in her most stern tone possible – this type of tone was hard for my mom because she was such a nice person. "What have I told you about keeping those types of thoughts to yourself?"
Jacob sprang up to stand upright onto both of his feet. He grinned his cheesy grin in Mom's direction. "Hi there, Bells!"
I stood up and straightened out my purple sweater, one that Alice had picked out for me to wear that day.
Mom glared down at us both. She raised one of her eyebrows and Jacob looked away guiltily.
"I'm sorry," he murmured. And then he looked up, instantly defensive. "But he can't say he's never thought about it! Gee, Bells, even you've thought about it! Remember when you broke Seth's collar bone 'cause you were going to jump me?"
I giggled quietly. I loved that story; the one when my mother found out that Jacob had imprinted on me when I was just born and he called me "Nessie", the nickname my family had donned me. The story where Mom was going to attack Jacob because he named me after the Loch Ness Monster.
Har, har – the Loch Ness Monster. Of all the stories that silly mortals could believe in, they chose to believe ones about fictional sea creatures…
My dad chuckled at my thought but Mom continued to scowl.
"I'm sorry," Jacob apologized again quickly. "I promise I won't do it again." He made a cross on the middle of his chest with a finger. "Cross my heart and swear to die."
The evil glare lasted on my mother's face for less than a second and then, just like the typical Isabella Swan, she was no longer angry. "It's good to see you again," she said with a smile.
Jacob hesitated for a second, unsure if he was safe to speak.
I nudged his ribs obviously and he reached out and pulled Mom into a tight bear hug. "Whew! You reek especially bad this morning, Bells!"
Mom rolled her liquid gold eyes with a wry smile and shoved away from him, putting her arm around my shoulders. "Come inside, Jake. Edward was just playing for us." She smiled adoringly up at Dad and he stared back at her, just as lovingly.
The love between my parents was amazing. I'd seen love: love between my grandparents, Carlisle and Esme; between my Aunt Rosalie and Uncle Emmett; between Aunt Alice and Uncle Jasper. Even the love between me and Jacob. But the love between Edward and Bella Cullen was something very special. Something unique.
I put my arm around my mom's waist and I turned around when I realized Jacob wasn't beside us. He was still standing on the grass and fidgeting uncomfortably.
Dad chuckled again.
"What is it?" I asked Jacob, my eyebrows creasing. Although, it wasn't hard for me to guess.
He sniffed the air once. Twice. A third time.
I laughed quietly. "She's not here, Jacob."
He looked at me uncertainly, eyebrows furrowed.
My mom turned to look at him for herself. "Rose went out to hunt with everyone else this morning."
Jacob's eyes narrowed. "You're sure?"
Mom and I both nodded in unison.
"Rosalie isn't here, Jake. Would you come in, please?" my father asked from behind us.
A vampire inviting a werewolf into his home. Who'd have ever thought?
Of course, this kind of invitation wasn't unusual to me, because I'd grown up for the last eight years to know that everyone got along.
Jacob straightened up, squaring his shoulders, and walked inside. He cringed a little at the smell but then went to sit in front of the big plasma screen television in the lounge room and switched it on, making himself at home like he always seemed to do.
I took my seat back next to my father in front of the huge, white grand piano on the raised platform, and looked down at the keys.
"Play that song, Dad," I asked him quietly. "That one that you wrote for Mom."
My dad looked over his shoulder towards my mother, who was gazing unconsciously out the huge window wall of the house; out into the surrounding forest.
He smiled warmly and, while he was still looking at his wife, his fingers glided freely over the keys.
The sound that escaped the piano was mesmerizing. The soft notes, clearly full of love, filled the room. My eyes were wet with tears.
Of all the human things I'd inherited from my mother, tears and blushing were just two of them.
I reached up with a steady hand and touched my Dad's cheek. I filled his mind with the images from mine. Mother and him; pictures from their wedding; the way they looked at each other; me.
"Yes," Dad murmured, looking not at me but at the piano keys now. "I love her very much."
Then I forced them into my mind; I filled his head with pictures of that day in the clearing with those people dressed in their long black cloaks, with their pale, chalky skin and their blood-red and thirsty eyes. "Yes," he said again, strained this time. "We thought we were going to lose."
Quickly, I changed back to the happy images and he smiled timidly. "You're right. We're very happy now."
My lips spread as I smiled, showing him my teeth. While he played, I rested my head on Dad's shoulder, keeping my hand on his cheek. I changed all the pictures in our minds and filled them with ones of only him and I.
I love you, Dad.
"I love you too, Nessie."
The arrival home of the rest of the Cullen family was unexpected that afternoon until my Dad stopped playing and casually looked over his shoulder. "They're home," he said.
I whirled around to see Jacob's reaction but he didn't move a muscle.
"I don't think that's a very good idea, Jacob," Dad said easily, answering an unspoken thought. Then he shrugged. "Don't say that I didn't warn you," and went back to playing the song.
My grandparents were the first to walk in to the house. Grandpa Carlisle walked to the arm chair that was beside Jacob and, ever so gracefully, Grandma Esme crossed the room to sit next to Dad. "We were slowly on our way back, but we heard you playing. I couldn't get back quick enough."
I smiled.
Esme loved to hear my Dad play his music. He had written her a song so long ago, years before he had met my mom. He liked to play it for her every now and then.
Now, as she took her place next to him, he drifted from the bridge of my mother's song, to the opening lines of Esme's.
With a happy sigh, I stood up and walked over to sit on the sofa next to Jacob. I watched the television screen and the hulking figures stumble around the green field, chasing after the ball.
It seemed silly, really.
"Why do they do that?" I asked.
"Do what?" asked Jacob in return.
"Chase that ball like that. There are so many other things they could be doing." I touched his hot cheek and filled his head with images of us together; hunting and having fun.
He shook his head and laughed. "Maybe they can have fun together, Ness, but they don't hunt."
I scrunched up my nose. "Yeah, I know. They eat real food." I made a sick noise in the back of my throat and he laughed at me again.
"Bella!"
I peered over my shoulder and towards the front door as Aunt Alice danced in, followed closely by my uncle Jasper. As soon as he walked in, every emotion was washed out of my body, leaving the whole room full of serenity.
Jacob noticed this too, and turned around. "Oh! Hey, Jazz!" he called and waved a big hand to motion Uncle Jasper over towards us. "Come check this game out!"
Jasper nodded once, touched Alice lightly on the shoulder and made his way over to the sofa.
I'd heard what Alice was saying to my mom and I went over to them.
"I told you that I'd picked out your clothes already," Alice said. "I didn't choose that shirt.
Mom looked down, innocently, at the blue blouse she was wearing. "Edward said it looked nice on me."
Alice closed her eyes and shook her head, moaning quietly. "When will you ever learn, Bella? It doesn't matter if Edward said it looked nice. Your pants don't match!"
I giggled.
Then Aunt Alice turned on me. "And you! I like that sweater but I don't remember those jeans!"
I blushed and looked down at the dark blue jeans that I was wearing. "Jake bought them for me," I told her quietly.
Aunt Alice opened her mouth to argue, but then sighed. She laughed lightly. "You are your mother's daughter, Renesmee. That's all I can say." She shrugged, kissed mother and I both on the cheek and went to stand by the piano where Dad was no longer playing, but talking with Grandme Esme instead.
"Mutt!"
My attention was drawn to the front door again when I heard my aunt Rosalie cry in outrage. It was the usual reaction she gave when Jacob was around.
"What are you doing here?" she demanded, violently stabbing a slender finger in Jacob's direction.
"Relax, babe," Uncle Emmett said carefully, standing behind her.
Jacob waved in Aunt Rose's direction. "Oh hey, Blondie. Nice to see you, too."
Aunt Rose let out a trill cry of frustration and stormed back outside, towards the car garage I thought, where she would take her anger out on her newest edition of motorized vehicles.
Now that was sorted, I turned around and looked out the big window-wall that Mom and I were standing in front of.
With her arms folded across her chest, Mom sighed.
I reached up and placed my finger tips on her cheek. Images of everyone from our family filled her mind.
Why do they always fight?
Mom laughed. "Rose has never liked Jacob," she told me. "The only time I can remember them being even the tiniest bit close to friends is when you were first born. Even then, they weren't very friendly to each other."
I swapped the pictures in her mind.
Why does she hate him so much?
Mom's shoulders lifted and fell in a shrug. "It goes a long way back, Nessie."
All the way back to when the Cullen's first came to Forks? I pressed quietly with more images.
Mom looked at me and smiled. "Why are you so interested all of a sudden?"
I dropped my hand and I shrugged. "It's hard for Jake to come around when Rose is so mean."
"He doesn't do a bad job of the blonde jokes himself, you know." She raised one eyebrow at me, still smiling.
I sighed. "I know. They're both as bad as each other."
I got a little startled when another of Aunt Rose's angry cries came from outside.
Curse super-human hearing!
"Sorry, Rose," I apologized at a normal, conversational tone, knowing she would be able to hear me from all the way out there.
It annoyed me, the fact that Aunt Rosalie and Jacob couldn't get along with each other. Jacob had imprinted on me. It was inevitable that we would end up together one day - as much as I may have been dreading it.
Sooner or later he would be around for good.
Werewolf and vampire; together forever.
That frightened me a little and I never liked to think about it and Jacob knew this, thus never bringing it up in conversation.
Jacob stood up and arched his back, stretching his arms up high. "Well, I told Seth and Leah I'd meet them down at First Beach. I better go."
"Rosalie says to tell you 'good and don't come back,'" Dad said, reading my angry aunt's thoughts.
Jacob scoffed and then his eyes lit up with something that looked like eagerness. "Hey, Blondie?" he called lightly.
I rolled my eyes and held my breath until Rosalie appeared in the doorway, scowling evilly at Jacob.
We all waited for it.
"I got a new joke for you," he told her with a proud grin.
"Oh really?" Aunt Rose asked, sounding as though she were encouraging it.
I knew something was building up inside her head; probably another stupid dog joke that she liked to make all the time.
"It is a new one," Dad answered my thoughts. He gave an impressed smile. "It's a good one, too."
"So, what's your joke, fleabag?" Aunt Rose asked with an impish smile.
Jacob's face brightened but, with my faster-than-the-average-human pace, I ran to his side and quickly touched his cheek. His mind filled with pictures of him and I together, and he snapped his mouth shut. With what looked like a great deal of pain, Jacob said, "Only because I respect Nessie, I'm going to leave before we cause any more trouble."
Rosalie smirked smugly.
Again, I touched Jacob's cheek, showing him the same pictures of us; thanking him. He smiled warmly at me, kissed my forehead and then left with a wave and murmured good-bye.
After Jacob left, I went hunting with my parents. We stuck to the north end of the forest, closest to our little cottage, the one that Esme had given my mother for her nineteenth birthday – or, as mom liked to look at it, her first day of immortality. After I took down two estranged baby elk's and watched Mom and Dad challenge each other to see who could get the biggest one out of the herd, we ran home with the cold wind blowing through the trees; through my long and curly brown hair.
Chapter Two to follow...