Chapter One

Renesmee POV

I can say with 100% certainty that my life is a life of uncertainty, as ironic as that may be.

I have been many people. Vanessa Wolfe. Carlie Doyle. Renee Pate.

I have lived with many families. Isaac and Carla Cunningham. Scott and Davina Parker. Paul and Wendy Newton.

I have had many friends. Nina James. Bobby Noon. Margaret Cassidy. Veronica Marcessi. Oliver Keegan.

I have lived in 9 cities in 5 countries, some stays were longer than others.

Despite all outwardly appearances, I am 8 years old.

I am Renesmee Carlie Cullen. Only daughter of Edward and Bella Cullen. Half-human, half-vampire. Granddaughter of Charlie Swan and Renee Dwyer on my mother's side and Carlisle and Esme Cullen on my father's side.

I am best friend's with a werewolf named Jacob Black.

"How was your day sweetheart?"

My foster mother interrupted my random thoughts at dinner, which almost always centered around finding a way to dispose of this mush she called food. It lay tauntingly on my dinner plate but I couldn't make it obvious I wasn't going to eat it without questions arising.

"Fine." I replied with a shrug, idly shifting my peas from one side of the plate to the other, "I got an A on my physics exam."

"That's fabulous." She grinned, looking up at my foster father Gary for his reaction too, "The better you do in physics the more likely you'll get that scholarship to UCLA like you want."

"That's not what she wants Brenda. That's what you want." Gary smiled and reached out to squeeze my hand which rested on the dinner table, "USC is just as good and they have a better pre-med program anyway."

I didn't need to say a word for them to begin bickering over the selection of colleges I could choose from. Brenda preferred UCLA because that was where she had obtained her physical therapy degree. Gary preferred USC because that was where he had played football. I didn't have the heart to tell them I wouldn't be attending either colleges. Not yet.

Even though I am only 8 years old, I look, act, and think as if I am 18. I was no longer growing so as far as I could tell, I would always be 18. Just like my mother. No more aging. No dying. Immortal… at least as far as we knew.

Immortality both intrigued and scared me. I wished with all my heart that my parents, the ones whose genes had created me, not the ones who continued to discuss my trivial college career path, were still around. If they had been, they could have answered questions, soothed me, explained immortality to me. As it stood, I had no more idea what to expect of immortality then I did of the wind. Which way would it blow the next time I stepped outside my front door? I had no idea.

"Can I be excused?" I blurted out, immediately halting their discussion.

Brenda's wide blue eyes met my chocolate brown ones with confusion. One single piece of her straight blonde hair had fallen across them but she made no moves to remove it from her line of sight. Gary was staring at her with his hazel orbs, a look of perplexity etched in his furrowed brows. He ran his fingers absentmindedly through the small patch of deep black hair he had left and nodded.

Without another word I grabbed my plate from the table and headed for the kitchen, swiftly releasing the contents of my dinner into the trash can, dropping the plate into the sink and then running upstairs to the confines of my bedroom before any questions could be asked. With my enhanced hearing I could hear them whisper downstairs, wondering what had suddenly gotten into me and whether one of them should come to check on me.

As hard as they tried, they were not my family, and they never could be. I wish they would just understand that.

"Hey."

I jumped three feet into the air when the baritone voice whispered to me in the still darkness of my bedroom. I was prepared to quite literally kill whoever happened to be waiting for me there but when I switched on the lights I was relieved. It was just Jacob.

"Do not scare me like that!" I hissed at him, eyeing the way he lounged lazily on my bed, flipping languidly through the book I had left on my bedside table, "I could have killed you!"

"You could have tried." He grinned at me, that lopsided grin which echoed his personality perfectly, "Fat lot of good enhanced senses do you if you can't even sense a werewolf hanging out in your bedroom. What if I had been the one come to kill you?"

"You could have tried." I threw his words back at him hastily and then sighed, "What are you doing stalking me anyway? I thought we agreed that it was too dangerous for you to hang out in here while Brenda and Gary are awake."

"I'm making an exception for your Birthday." Jacob tossed the book back onto my nightstand and stood up from the bed.

Jacob Black never ceased to amaze me. His height and mass always overwhelmed a room but more than that, his musky aroma invigorated my senses. I was indeed amazed, now that I thought about it, that I hadn't recognized the scent before I had even opened my bedroom door. With him standing near me, it was hard to breathe and it wasn't because I didn't like the way he smelled, it was because I liked it almost too much.

"Oh please, let's not start that again. I already told you this afternoon while we were hunting that I wanted no presents, no celebration, no…"

"I didn't get to argue with you about it then but I can now and I say that I don't care what you say. You get a present. Just one, because I'm the only one who knows today is your real birthday, but one present." Jacob took one large stride and he was by my side, reaching out for my hand.

My breath hitched, like it always did when he touched me. He gently lifted my hand to his face, closing his eyes but not pressing my fingertips to his face. He would wait for my okay. He wouldn't make me tell him my thoughts unless I wanted to.

"Will you tell me about your day?" Jacob asked hesitantly when I didn't automatically let my hand rest against his cheek. He peeked between his eyelashes and flashed me another devastating smile.

Luckily I could control what I told him about or else he would have gotten nothing but flashes about himself as I let my fingers lightly graze the skin of his cheek, communicating the events of my day through pictures which transmitted directly into his head.

"Thank you." Jacob opened his eyes slowly to stare directly down into my eyes as he guided my hand away from his face but didn't let go, "You know I love hunting with you in the afternoons but it's just not the same unless we can be face to face, like this."

I wasn't sure when our dynamic had changed to this. Jacob was the one constant in my life. He had been there for me from the very beginning. He was my best friend and my protector. He was the one person in the world who knew my true identity and yet, sometime in the past year, and I couldn't pin point exactly when, he seemed to be adding a new role to the list of things he was to me. I wouldn't go so far to say boyfriend, it definitely wasn't that… yet. I could only say it was electric, magnetic, and all very new to me.

"So a present?" I half squeaked, half spoke.

"A present." Jacob brought my wrist up and held it in one of his gigantic hands while using his other to search through the pockets of his cargo shorts, "Hold on. It's here somewhere."

After a few minutes of digging around with one hand he finally got frustrated and released the hand he had been holding up, turning in circles trying to reach the pocket with both hands and being unsuccessful. I giggled, holding back the full belly laughs I wanted to release.

"You know, I understand when you're chasing your tail as a dog but this? This is too good."

Jacob stopped, his eyes flickering to mine as he glared at me. I was still smiling. I knew he wouldn't take my joke seriously.

"You're lucky you're parents are still awake. I would tickle you to death." He threatened.

"They're not my parents." I retorted quickly and all trace of laughter escaped from the room.

Jacob's eyes met mine sorrowfully. I knew he hadn't meant anything by the remark but my defenses flew up anyway. No one would ever replace the void my parents death had left in my steadily beating heart. Jacob of all people understood that.

My hand locked itself around the locket my mother had given me on my first Christmas. The tears sprang into my eyes and before I knew what was happening Jacob had gathered me into his arms, holding me tight.

"I'm sorry. I didn't mean it." Jacob whispered quietly in my ear, "Please forgive me Nessie. I'm so sorry."

"Vanessa!" Brenda called out from the hallway.

"Quick." I hissed urgently, "Get out, get out."

Jacob took a running leap at the open window, diving out of it without a second thought. I would trust he had landed safely. I didn't have time to go check on him. I wiped away the tears that had been threatening to spill over and quickly glanced at my reflection in my wardrobe mirror. It would have to do.

Knock, knock.

The quiet rap on my bedroom door gave me enough time to whisk myself into my desk chair on the other side of the room before the door cracked open. The chair was still spinning in circles, a smile on my face as I stared up at the ceiling, as if nothing in the world delighted me more than making myself dizzy by spinning in a chair.

"Hey sweetheart."

I looked up at Brenda and she grinned at me.

"Just thought I would come check on you. You left dinner so abruptly, I just wanted to make sure nothing serious was wrong."

I shook my head, once again the tears threatening to spill over as even the thought of what was really on my mind came back to me. My hand went to my locket again.

"I've just got a lot on my mind." I finally spoke when my emotions were at least partially under control, "College acceptances are starting to come in. Homework. Graduation. Finals."

None of the four were actually on my mind.

"Well I'm so sorry honey, we didn't mean to upset you. You know Gary and I will be happy with whatever college you choose. We have our preferences but don't worry about disappointing us okay? From the moment you showed up on our doorstep you have never ever been a disappointment and we don't foresee that ever happening."

She took the liberty to sit down on my bed and watch me as I contemplated how to answer her. The easiest answer was to thank her and tell her that I was worried about disappointing them and how I now felt so much better about it. I wanted to tell her that I wasn't going to college and see how much disappointment washed over her face despite her pronouncement that she would not be disappointed in me, but that would hurt her and Gary too much. No, I couldn't disappoint them. I liked them but then again, I had also liked the other foster parents who had come before them. In the end, none of them really mattered.

"Brenda, it's just… I know that you and Gary have all these plans for me and I appreciate it. I really do." I tried to formulate the nicest possible way of telling her that she wasn't my mother and therefore had no right to have any plan for me at all, "It's just that I'm 18 now and I appreciate that you guys were willing to let me stay until I graduated even though technically I am no longer a ward of the state but I just don't… I…"

My stuttering combined with the emotion that was still in my words from before must have struck a chord. Brenda started to cry and she immediately moved to my side to embrace me tightly.

"You're worried that when you go to college you won't have a place to come home to. That Gary and I won't be your family anymore just because you're 18." It wasn't a question. She stated it as if that must be the reason I was upset and who was I to argue? I couldn't tell her the real reason behind my emotion.

"Yeah." It didn't take much to bring the tears back and I let myself sob lightly while Brenda hugged me, "You guys have just been so great. I don't want to lose you but I know that I'm not your responsibility anymore."

"No sweetie, you will always be our responsibility. It doesn't matter to Gary and I that you're 18, or that you're graduating. This past year since you moved in with us… it's like you're the daughter we've been waiting for. We've had so many foster kids in and out of the house but you… You're special. And of course, it's your choice but Vanessa…"

I held back my laugh and smile that this woman who considered me her daughter didn't even know my real name. It wasn't funny really. I shouldn't be laughing in my mind. My emotions were all over the place tonight. Stupid birthday. Stupid Jake. I would blame him.

"Gary and I would like to officially adopt you."

The room went dark. Not just because it felt like my world could legitimately spin out of control from just that one simple sentence but because the room LITERALLY went dark. Downstairs, Gary began to call out to us.

"Brenda! Vanessa! It looks like the power went out. Just stay where you are and I'll go check the breaker box!"

"I'll go grab a flashlight." Brenda squeezed my knee and as my eyes adjusted to the dark I could see her smile as she stood and headed out into the hallway.

"Nessie!" Jacob hissed quietly and I turned quickly to see him perched on my window sill, "Get your stuff. We're out of here now."

"Jake?" Suddenly my mind was going in a million different directions. Erased were the worries of what I would tell Brenda when she wanted to know if they could adopt me and in the place of that one worry were ten others.

Had someone come for me? The moment Jacob and I had been preparing for since we ran away so many years ago? Was it the Volturi? Was it worse? Was there anything worse? Why had the lights gone out? Why were we leaving in such haste? What would be next on our journey and where was my MP3 player?

I watched him scramble around my room, quickly gathering clothes and the necessities into the emergency bag I always had packed under my bed. I grabbed the few things I wanted to keep from the life I had built with Brenda and Gary, tossing them into the bag as well. Jake zipped it closed and reached out for my hand, racing towards the window.

Our feet landed silently and soundly on the ground outside the window just as the lights of the house flickered back on. I could hear Brenda return to my room.

"Vanessa?" The panic etched into her voice clearly, "Vanessa where are you?"

Her voice faded into the background as we ran straight for the woods. There would be no looking back. There would be no hesitation. There would, once again, be only Jacob and Renesmee.