Twilight characters and content specific to the book belong to Stephanie Meyers.
May 31st, 2014
Port Angeles, Washington, USA
"Cassandra, darling, wake up. I just returned from my meeting and I have news for you," a petite blond woman called into the room to the lump who was now groaning under the sheet. A messy head of matching honey blonde hair peeked out as the blanket was lowered enough for hazel eyes to squint out at the sharply dressed woman in pearls. After giving the disturber a sufficient glare to express as much extreme displeasure as one can shortly after waking up, the form retreated back under the dark grey duvet.
Tutting her impatience, the woman walked over to the heavy curtains and threw them open with the intent to flood the room with sunlight, frowning as she saw the heavy rain that seemed never ending in this new city.
She tried a different approach, "Cassandra. Get up! "
An unintelligible mumble sounded through the room as Cass sat up to appease her mother.
"Mom, please explain why you decided to wake me up at this ungodly hour."
"It is 9am, lazy. I have already had a session with my personal trainer and went my charity board meeting. Which is what I want to talk to you about. Vicki, the Vice President of the board, has a son your age, Blake, and he invited you to go to the under 21 club with him and his friends tonight. Doesn't that sound lovely?"
Cass's fair skin drained of its color, "What did you do, mom?"
"I simply told Vicki that I was worried about you since you haven't left this house since we moved here two weeks ago. I mentioned you didn't know anyone around here to attend events with and she told her son," Eleanor Douglas explained shrugging her delicate, Marc Jacobs covered shoulders.
Cassandra Douglas, Cass, stared aghast at her mother, taking in the carefully crafted façade of the cold, elegant heiress her mother was molded to become. Cass had always been in awe of her mother's ability to meddle in others affairs and get away with it, but it always annoyed Cass when it was directed at her.
"Mother, I don't need you to get pity friends on my behalf. I'm not going."
"Yes you are. Get up, get ready, and put a smile on that face. I'm not kidding Cassandra. The reason we bought you that ridiculous car was for you to actually use it before you go to college."
Cass hadn't been thrilled when her parents told her they were moving from her childhood home in Chicago across the majority of the continental United State to Port Angeles, Washington. Population size: minuscule. The only way they had convinced her to move with them for the summer before she attended Northwestern University in the fall, was by buying her a cherry red '62 Triumph Spitfire.
The more she was badgered by her parents to go to the University of Washington, the more she was regretting the trade. This outing with Blake was another indicator of her mother's quest to convince her to stay by finding her friends.
Knowing her mother wouldn't be swayed, Cass sighed glumly and watched defeated as her mother nodded in triumph and sashayed out the door. Standing slowly, she gazed morosely at the boxes cluttering her new room. Up to this point she had neglected to unpack any of her possessions because she would just have to reassemble them when she moved back to Illinois in the fall. Her packed away clothes were starting to bother her so she made a split second decision to hang them in the closet, praying her parents didn't notice. She knew they would take it as a sign that was adjusting to this hell hole.
After several productive hours of therapeutic organization and blasting angry Fall Out Boy, Cass dragged herself to her en suite bathroom to shower and get ready for this night from Dante's third circle.
Cass expertly curled her hair into flawless waves that would make a Victoria's Secret Angel sell her soul to the devil to achieve, but she needed some motivating music before she could even think about doing her makeup. The bass from her eardrum-shattering music slightly shook the walls, and as she sang off-key into her curling iron she could hear her brother, Theo, pound on the wall from next door. Not that it made a difference. Interrupting Blink-182's First Date AKA One of the Most Perfect Songs Ever Written would be sacrilege, not to mention hazardous to Cass's mental health. The music was adequately drowning out her worries.
With one last glance in the mirror Cass headed for the stairs to find her pity friends to awkwardly ensure her they wanted her to come, and then spend all night ignoring her. Her grumpy internal rant about the situation was rudely interrupted by a head bursting out of the door on her left. A head full of brown hair peaked out and she saw the impish grin of her brother Theodore.
Letting out a yelp of indignation, Theo snatched her wrist and pulled her into his room, slamming the door shut.
"Guess what I found two weeks ago in the mail?" he asked, speaking faster than she had ever heard from him before. Seriously, he wasn't even this excited when the new Star Wars trilogy was announced.
"I don't know, you got jury duty?"
"That's absurd, try again."
"Just tell me. I have some place to be tonight. I don't have time to play $100,000 Pyramid with you."
"Is that why you look like a hooker?" Theo questioned opening his eyes wide trying to achieve a look of innocence.
Giving Theo a withering look, Cass turned to walk back into the hallway. Clearly too excited to share his news with her, Theo muttered a quick apology that was lost in the hurricane of flailing limbs as he ran to his bed, picked up a paper and thrust it millimeters from her nose. Craining her neck back, the paper slowly edged into focus and she felt a pit in her stomach when she saw who it was from.
"A letter from Grandpa Rhett?" she whispered yelled at him, "You know what I don't have time for this. You just better not let dad see that, you know he absolutely hates his father!"
At this Theo's excitement hardened faster than lava and he looked murderous.
"Just because dad is a freak doesn't mean I shouldn't get to know my own grandpa!"
Cass took a deep breath, pushing aside her own hateful feeling for that man, and began to calmly and logically explain to her normally smarter than her brother, "I just think you are writing Grandpa to piss Dad off because he moved us to Washington. But that isn't grounds to... to throw this temper tantrum and contact that loon!"
Well that went well. Just give me the caring sister of the year award for that one. She thought to herself after she realized where her statement had ended up.
"That's easy for you to say. In 3 months you'll head back home and forget about this nightmare that I'll be trapped in for another 4 years. Some of us don't get classic cars handed to us on a silver platter every time we go crying to daddy."
The words hit Cass like a freight train and she involuntarily took a step back. She and Theo were supposed to be closer because of the move. They were supposed to band together and commiserate, pining for home and openly opposing anything and everything that infiltrated their freshly trampled lives. Instead, Theo resented her for a rite of passage she would willingly pursue come August.
"Excuse me? We were all ripped from normalcy and dropped in the middle of the armpit of Washington. We all made sacrifices to be here. I want to be in Chicago as much as you do."
"Yeah, but you'll be back there in 97 days and step back into your ace life, not to mention the arms of What's-His-Face."
"Jared. And we're broken up."
"Still don't care."
Cass couldn't help but feel slightly guilty. Theo was right. Theo was always right. That was one of the things she loved about him. He was so incredibly bright; his intelligence surpassed those of most adults Cass knew, but he never boasted about it. Cass often wondered if he even recognized his sheer brilliance-ironic considering the unmatched observational skills he possessed. He could read someone accurately and wholly the instant he met them, and he was that person that spoke the things everyone else thought but were too afraid to say. Everyone thought of him as the quick-witted prodigy, so he not only got away with his brash comments, but he was expected to make them. This was one of the only moments Cass wished Theo would pull his punches.
Theo finally broke the silence with a relenting sigh. "Look, I'm sorry. I just feel uneasy about this move anyway, but Grandpa's letters make me think maybe there's something to it. Yeah, it sucks that I had to leave my friends and my school and my team and the city I love more than most people, but this is different than being a little butthurt over Dad's decision to uproot us. There's something off about this place, and not just because there's a freakishly low population in this 'city'."
Cass crossed the room to close the distance between them and sat beside Theo on his bed. "I know it's unsettling to make such a drastic change, and this is the last place I want to be, you know that," Cass tells him as she gives his hand a squeeze. Comforting and affection were definitely not her strong suits. "But we have to try to make the best of it. You need to quit grasping at straws and just roll with the punches." Theo pulls a face as she wraps up her poor attempt at empathizing.
"Can we talk about this tomorrow? I'm ridiculously late to meet up with Blake and his friends."
Theo gave her a small smile and dissolves his frustration for the moment. "Yeah, go have fun."
Cass was flooded with gratitude that she has such an easy-going brother to balance out her anal tendencies and harsh opinions.
"Thanks, Dor!" she calls as she begins rushing out of his bedroom and down the hall.
"Not my name!" he returns. "Make friends, not babies! Hugs not drugs!" Cass barely hears his half-serious warnings and rolls her eyes as she grabs her shoes and runs out the door.
The car's windows were rattling from the loud bass as Cass pulled up to the valet of the club and she cringed at the name. Solstice? Really? She curled her lip in disgust at the pulsing lights that could be seen every time the door opened. She used to love parties and crowds and dancing, really she did. Back in Chicago every weekend was filled to the brim with them. But, after the move, parties felt like inhumane punishments, crowds made her homicidal and dancing held as much pleasure as falling into a shark tank that was on fire, in a dress made of raw fish.
Knowing she would never hear the end of it if her mother heard she hadn't at least made an appearance, Cass handed the keys off to the hunk in the penguin suit who she payed to park her car. Normally Cass wouldn't have trusted someone else to drive her baby, but she had no connections to get into this club. She supposed she could try and name drop Blake to get in, but she wasn't willing to risk it, so she decided on the tried and true method of acting important.
It wasn't that hard really, all you had to do was have a nice enough car, enough money to tip the valet and a confident walk and hairflip towards the bouncer. Cass had never been turned away from a club using this method. Some she wasn't even supposed to be allowed into because she was underage.
Cass figured it didn't hurt that along with plenty of money and a nice car, she wasn't too hard on the eyes. When Cass got ready, she was gorgeous and she knew it. She was naturally pretty, but curling her hair a certain way and adding the right flourishes of make-up really set off the genes her mother graced her with to their best advantage.
Tonight was no different, strutting to the front door, not even sparing a glance at the line, Cass tossed her hair and grinned at the bouncer. The large man didn't miss a beat as he opened the door for her.
The club was just a raucous as Cass had anticipated it being. Writhing bodies were thrashing like eels as loud music pounded into her skull. She looked around for Blake's beach blond, perfect hair. She knew what he looked like because she was somewhat of a Facebook P.I. There was no one she couldn't find.
Suddenly a hand was placed on her lower back and Cass whipped around ready to utilize all she learned in her women's defense course her dad had made her take. Instead she was staring into the crystal blue eyes of Blake.
"Hey, you're Cassandra right?" he yelled over the cacophony from Hell.
"It's Cass" she corrected trying not to cringe at her full name, "You must be Blake."
After a few more shouted get-to-know yous, they gave up talking and Blake asked her to dance. Outside she was smiling, but inside she felt like a prisoner being led to the gallows. Blake was nice and could be a Calvin Klein model, but she really just wanted to be Netflix bingeing because she couldn't be with her own friends in Chicago.
After two songs, Cass made an excuse to go sit at the non-alcoholic bar. As she made her way through the crowd she cynically observed to herself the bar probably only carried Capri Suns or Welch's 100% grape juice if you were feeling extra frisky. Cass ran her hand through her hair as she sat on a stool.
"Shit, your hair is perfect!" someone yelled at Cass. Looking toward her right, where the voice had come from she was startled to see a very small teenage girl. "Hey, I'm Renesmee," introduced the sprite next to her. "Everybody calls me Nessie."
Cass looked at "Nessie" and found an enigma. The girl was no taller than 5'2", had glossy chestnut brown hair that was starkly contrasted by electric blue streaks, and was wearing a blush pink sundress with a leather jacket that looked like it belonged on one of the Hell's Angels. Her petite feet were swallowed whole by the leather studded booties that had the same chains on them that were on the shell of her ear.
"You're a long way from the Scottish Lochs, Nessie," Cass deadpanned.
Cass's joke was awarded with the edgy girl's tinkling laughter, "Well, with a name like Renesmee, you take any nickname you can get."
"I feel that," Cass was quickly growing to like this girl. "My parents like to call me by the "very respectable, high class" name Cassandra. But if you call me that, I can assure you endless amounts of pain," she introduced, air quoting the ridiculous points her parents had always made when she asked them to call her Cass.
Renesmee cringed sympathetically and Cass continued, "I'm Cass, and I don't feel right about calling you Nessie. All I can picture is a terrifying monster that has the propensity of eating humans. I think I will call you Ren for now."
Ren didn't respond and when Cass glanced away from the drink menu she had been picked up, she saw the girl's widened eyes quickly blink and her face light up with a grin, "Ren is perfect."
The wolfish grin on Ren's face made Cass uneasy. This girl, who was very forward in approaching her and complimenting her could potentially have more than friendship in mind. Cass would be fine being friends with anyone of any sexual orientation but certainly was not into girls herself. Awkwardly she tried to gauge Ren's intent as she dropped some hints, "Every time I go to a club these days, all I can think about is how my ex-boyfriend would refuse to dance with me."
"Yeah, boys are the worst, that's why I try not to deal with them."
Cass gulped, not sure she liked where this was headed, "Can't live with them, can't live without them."
"The second of the two isn't too hard for me," Ren said as she leaned in closer to Cass.
Cass stiffened and was silent for a moment as she decided what to do next,"Erm... well... the thing is..."
Her eyes were drawn to the girl and noticed she was trying hard not to laugh. Peals of laughter spurted out of her as she forced out the words, "You, "laughter, "Should have," giggles, "seen your face!"
Cass felt like she had just missed the punchline. Wiping tears of mirth from her eyes Ren clarified, "I'm not gay."
Cass felt her face flame red as she tried to grasp at what little dignity she had left, "Well it would have been okay if you were... I just... I mean I wanted to let you know that I wasn't... that I don't... how did you know what I was thinking?"
"People don't generally start talking about their ex's out of nowhere."
At that moment Cass' heart soared. She had made a new, albeit weird and kind of evil, friend. After sharing funny stories and talking for the better part of an hour Ren apologized, "I should go, I have to make curfew."
"Yeah absolutely, do you want me to help you find your friends that brought you here?"
Ren squirmed and then mumbled, "Someone dropped me off."
"They left you here? What are you supposed to do, run home?" Ren looked even more uncomfortable at this remark. "What part of Port Angeles do you live in exactly?"
"I live in Forks actually."
"No, I'm giving you a ride. Don't argue with me. You should never hang out with those friends again. Can you imagine what could have happened to you here alone?"
"They agreed to take me home, but if you're sure..."
"Yes, let's go."
Cass stormed her way to coat check and retrieved her things before hesitantly looking back at the grinding masses debating whether or not to tell Blake she was going. She decided against it when she remembered he hadn't even checked on her once after they danced and marched Ren to the valet stand and waited for them to get her car. Her beautiful red baby was returned into her safe care again and she turned to Ren, her good humor returned by the glinting paint.
"Meet 'chino," she told Ren proudly.
As Cass circled around to the driver's side Ren asked, "What kind of name is 'chino?"
"It's short for Maraschino, like the cherry."
Ren expressed her approval of such a perfect name and they took off onto the street.
"You're going to have to direct me where to go, I'm new here and haven't bothered to learn the roads because I'm leaving in the fall. Although, it would probably only take 15 seconds to memorize a map of this place as small as it is."
"Port Angeles isn't small! It has nearly 20,000 residents, I mean it's not the size of Chicago, but it's still a city."
Cass snorted but said nothing. She changed the subject and followed Ren's directions. While they chatted, Cass couldn't help but think about what Ren had implied. Am I really so much of a snob, that if it doesn't have a large crime rate and a Starbucks on every block, it isn't a good enough city for me? Sure she had been a little bias against Port Angeles but that didn't mean she neglected to acknowledge it had charm right? The more she thought about her prejudices against the city, the less she was able to justify them. She had left the house only when forced, and was so determined to hate everything that she hadn't stopped to give the city a fair chance.
Cass was so distracted trying to maintain a conversation, ruminate on her own shortcomings, and drive, she had completely been trusting Ren's directions and was ignoring the road signs. One snapped her out of her stupor, "La Push five miles ahead?!" I thought you lived in Forks. As I recall we are too close to the coast to be in Forks."
Ren looked rightfully sheepish. "I actually was hoping you could drop me off at my boyfriend's house. He had work all day or he would have gone with me to Solstice."
Cass was momentarily distracted by the pathetic name of the club before she reset her focus, "Don't you have to make curfew? How will you get home?"
"Oh, he can drive me. My parents like him and trust him. It will be fine."
Cass thought this was one of the worst ideas she had heard since she moved to Washington, which was saying a lot because her parents kept pushing her to get out of the house or switch schools. But she also felt she had mothered the girl enough for one night, after all she was... 16? Maybe? Cass had forgotten to ask. Whatever the age she was old enough to make a decision and deal with the consequences.
"So what's his name?"
"Jacob Black."
Cass made a 'go on' gesture.
"He's tall and dark and handsome. He treats me like I am his whole world and he would do anything for me. He sees the real me and accepts me for who I am instead of trying to make me someone I'm not."
Cass smiled softly remembering her first "love" she was 15. His name was Thomas. She had convinced herself that they were soul mates and that nothing could come between them. Until her best friend Becky came onto him, or under him as the case may be. She gave him what Cass would not, and Cass gained a newfound distrust for men. To see Ren's hope was inspiring, if not a little pity evoking, but Cass figured Ren was too far in for it to hurt anymore when this Jacob ripped her heart and fed it to the wolves.
Cass felt a jolt of pain go up her spine and linger as they crossed over the town limits but quickly brushed it off on sitting too long... or cramps. Yes, she decided it must be cramps as her lower back throbbed.
As the traveled on what Ren told her was main street, though to be honest she wouldn't have been able to tell, she got the strange urge to lock her car doors. Especially as they passed a auto garage with the name Sam's on it in neon lights. Inside the shop several big, hulking fellows who gazed hungrily at her classic car. As they made the last turn, all Cass could think about was being murdered and Maraschino being toted off by a psycho.
"There he is!" Ren exclaimed pointing to a looming dark figure sitting on the porch of a small house.
Cass could see the features of Jacob come into focus as they got closer. As she pulled off the road in front of the house, he opened the door enough to reach in his hand and flip on the front light. By the time Cass digested what she was seeing, Ren was already out of the car and throwing herself into his arms. Oh my... he is at least 25. How is she dating someone that old? She said her parents are okay with this. The little brat lied to me, no self-respecting parent would let their daughter date someone that much older than them WHILE SHE WAS STILL A MINOR. No, I have to get her out of here. She's too young and stupid for this. This isn't legal. She grew up in a tiny town and doesn't know what kinds of dangers are in the real world. Cass made the movements to get out of the car but pause as her hand rested on the door handle. If I leave this car and try to take her away from him, he could kill me. Look at the size of his biceps, he could squeeze the life right out of my body. No! Stop thinking like that, you will be fine and you need to stay calm and get Ren out of this situation.
Cass opened the door and stepped her Louboutin onto the gravel, "Ren?"
Cass hesitantly stepped around the front bumper.
"Cass, come meet Jacob!" Ren twittered happily pulling Jacobs hand like a dog on a leash. He followed easily chuckling at her enthusiasm.
"Ren, I need to..." Cass tried again.
"Jake, this is Cass, Cass, this is my boyfriend Jake."
"Did I hear you call her Ren?" Jake asked holding out his hand to shake.
Cass ignored him completely her eyes on Ren, "Ren, please just hold.."
Again she was interrupted, "Jake, don't you just love Cass's car?"
"Renesmee!" Cass finally shouted. Shocked by the sudden outburst, Ren looked at Cass like a deer in the headlights. "Please get back in the car and let me take you home."
The last part she said low and as soothing as she could with the panic streaming through her and her back in knots.
"Cass, what is wrong what are you..."
"In the car, Ren. Please just let me take you home."
"I told you Jake will..."
"Ren!" Cass exclaimed her gaze shifting onto Jake for a split second. Understand flashed through Jake's face as he gently pulled his hand away from Ren's and whispered quietly to Ren.
"Go with her."
Cass could see Ren's indecision but after they locked eye for a moment, Ren rested her palm on his cheek and his eyes fluttered closed. After a moment his eyes reopened and he smiled and nodded at her. Satisfied she walked back to the car and got in.
Now Ren was out of immediate danger, Cass could think again and she noticed how hard she was finding it to walk through the gravel in her tall, very expensive heels. As she focused mostly on walking a small part of her brain was screaming in pain and another noticed the fluttering of a window curtain and another man staring outside.
Embry watched through the glass as the tall beautiful blonde and his friend Nessie drove away.
