Chapter 2

Good news?

I was quiet on the journey home. I hated lying about my life, my mother was Bella, not Esme, and as much as I loved them both, things just seemed a little too creepy at times. I was always afraid we'd get caught out. But I knew it was for the best. Sometimes I thought that Bella and Edward were ashamed of me, that's why they agreed to the cover up story, but deep down I knew better than that.

We turned into the drive of our home; it was covered in gravel stones all the way to the right side of the house. The house itself had a very countryside feel to it, like something from 'The Secret Garden'. Flowers followed the driveway on both sides, and a tall oak tree stood to the left side of the house. The front door was a large wooden arch shape, and a heavy brass knocker hung at the center. The house was the size of a mansion, enough room to hold eight vampires, a vampire/human, and a bunch of werewolves from time to time. The garden was much larger, stretching out to the wide forest that surrounded my secluded home. There were garden ornaments everywhere, scattered with tasteful style, and a metal table and chair set on the patio (not that we used it much) at the very bottom of the garden was a light blue summer house, also decorated with flowers and ornaments.

I grabbed my bag from the seat next to me and clambered out before the car had completely stopped. I slammed the door once more and headed into the house.

"What's wrong?" Bella asked after me, barely shouting, as she knew I would hear. I didn't want to answer, but Edward was doing that for me anyway.

"She's embarrassed of us." He explained. "The students were…admiring us."

Bella sighed and walked after me, Alice towing behind along with Edward. The hallway of the house was a pale cream, with hardwood floors. Paintings hung on the walls, and two identical sculptures of a mother and baby stood on either side of a large staircase that separated into two parts in the middle of the hall. The stairs reminded of the infamous scene of Titanic, when Rose walked down the stairs in her beautiful flowing dress. Ironically, our very own Rosalie was standing at the top of the staircase, no doubt listening for our conversation to continue. Esme came from the room to the left (the living room, although I was the only one doing the living. I threw Edward an apologetic glance, knowing he had heard my thought. I hated him being able to hear into my head.)

"What's going on?" Esme asked me, my frown drooping lower down my face. I couldn't help feeling a little guilty over something so minor. I was making a big deal out of nothing.

"No your not, Renesmee," Edward started, still hearing my thoughts. This conversation was turning serious, because Edward doesn't use my full name all that much. Only Bella does. Esme raised one perfectly arched eyebrow, pressing her question further.

I let out a small groan and whispered in a sheepish voice "It's nothing." I dumped my bag on the foot of the stairs and strutted to my room. I drowned out the voices of Edward explaining to the others what I was upset about.

I turned down the corridor of the third floor and headed towards the end door. My room. My hide out. It was a lime green colour on the right wall, and white on the left. The wall directly in front of me was completely glass, a top to bottom window with a small balcony. The carpet was a darker shade of green, almost like fake grass, and a thick white rug lay on the floor next to my bed. My room had a forest like feel to it, Esme said it was inspired by my view outside the window; a constant layer of trees, with a long stream running through the middle. A tranquil place; a refuge of my own.

I slumped down on my bed and let out another groan. I grabbed the remote from my bedside table and allowed my stereo to play. I couldn't remember what I'd been listening to (so much for child genius, I can't even think of the last song I listened to?) The soft exhale of breath started the song, the guitar, and then the quiet voice of Bret Michaels began to sing,

'We both lie silently still, In the dead of night'

I twitched my toes to the beat of the music, and closed my eyes, breathing softly as I let my comfort zone surround me. My tension blew away whilst I lay comfortably still, singing along in my head,

'Was it something I said or something I did, Did my words not come out right'

I now remembered why I had been listening to this song two days ago;

Jacob and I had been bored out of our brains on Saturday afternoon, the slight heat of September breezing in through my window. Jasper, Edward and Emmett were out hunting, and Rosalie and Alice had dragged Bella off to the deepest ends of Alice's closet. Downstairs in the kitchen, Esme was baking all sorts of food for me and Jacob, and his pack, though the pack didn't hang around as much anymore. Esme was thankful that I could eat human food, as it gave her an excuse to be constantly cooking. I was reluctant to admit it, but Esme's food was pretty amazing. It wasn't the same as drinking blood, but it was a good substitute. Carlisle was working at the hospital, but was due home soon. Jacob was sifting through my stack of CD's that my dad had let my listen to, and stumbled across the rock ballads selection. We scanned a few covers, and found "Open Up and Say…Ahh!" by Poison, and Jacob decided to put it on. I flipped through the songs when Jacob took me by the hands and swirled me around the room, as we sung in deliberately bad voices, screeching at the top of our voices. We were in fits of laughter as the CD changed through random songs, we hadn't noticed that the sun had set and the clouds had turned a light pink-purple colour. We also hadn't noticed that the men were back from their hunting trip, and the vampires had gathered at the foot of the stairs to listen to our bad singing. It wasn't until I was laughing so bad I was crying that there were more laughs ringing in my ears from downstairs.

I began laughing at my memory, when there was a knock at my door, which brought me back to reality. I was supposed to be upset, angry even. The soft knock rattled against the wooden door again, and Edwards's soft voice came through the wood.

"Renesmee? Nessie? Can I come in?" The door had opened before I could answer, but I supposed that Edward had been in my head, again, and retrieved my answer. "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine." I lied.

"Nessie, I know this upsets you." He paused for a minute, and resumed his side of the conversation. "Why don't you tell me how you feel? I promise; no mind games."

"Well…Its just that...You are my dad, and your seventeen, but really your one hundred and fourteen, and watching people I go to school with look at you like you're my brother, or my cousin, when you aren't you my dad, its just-"

"-weird" He finished.

"You promised no mind games" I reminded him, my voice a slight whisper. I'd rushed all my words out so fast that I'd forgotten to breathe.

"I didn't, honestly… It's going to be weird. I know that. We'll try and act less…obvious in future; they won't even notice we're there."

"Thank y-" I stopped mid sentence, confusion splattered across my face. "What do you mean 'they won't notice we're there'?"

"Well..We wanted to talk to you about that, Nessie. We need to keep up appearances..We might be able to stay here longer, if…"

"If…You...Start school too!?" My voice broke out into a yell. My parents, going to the same school as me? In the same year? This was too much embarrassment!

"Nessie, it wont be that bad, we wont be in your class, and-"

"Damn right you won't! You can't go to school with me!! It's insane! You didn't go when we were in Paris, why now?!"

"Look how long we lasted in Paris, Nessie, barely six months, because the neighbours got suspicious as to why we weren't in school, six young intelligent seventeen year olds, all out of school, running around for the best part of the day and most of the night? We attracted attention to ourselves-"

"All of you are going!! Jazz, Alice, Rose-"

"Yes. We must all keep up appearances Renesmee. At least…for now"

I flopped back down on the bed face down. I hadn't even realized I'd got up throughout my tantrum. I let out a whimper on the bed, and turned to face Edward again.

"Okay then." I sighed. No matter what I said or did, I couldn't get out of this one. It made perfect sense. Besides, I could use them as a back up plan; if all else failed with making friends, I could hang out with them. Hanging out in the school cafeteria with my mom and dad? Oh the joy.

"I could have sworn I heard laughing earlier…" My dad hinted at me, trying to sift through my mind to see what I was laughing at. I flicked back to the memory, and we both laughed together.

"So then 'brother' when do you start?" I asked.

"Um...tomorrow" He whispered, barely enough for me to hear.

I closed my eyes and nodded, letting out a deep breath. "Okay." I smiled weakly as he left the room, leaving me to my thoughts. I got up from my bed and headed out to the balcony. I turned to face my bedroom again and leaped onto the roof of the house. There was a small flat surface, enough room for me to sit and hug my knees to my chest. A waited for a few seconds, and Jacob was jumping up the oak tree next to the house.

"Hey monster" Jacob smiled at me. He'd been the one to nickname me Nessie when I was born, but since Bella had shouted for nicknaming me after the Loch Ness Monster, this one was sort of a private joke between us pals.

"Hey mongrel" I joked back; I couldn't help the smile that was I beaming at him. I was always glad to see Jacob, not matter how I felt. Jacob sat next to me on the roof, imitating my actions, scrunching his long legs against his chest. We stared at the grey clouds, the rain still pouring down, but the slightest hint of sunshine trying to escape through the dullness of September. "So did you hear?" I asked him, wondering whether he'd heard the conversation about school.

"Yeah, I was in the kitchen with Esme, she makes really good flapjacks!!" Jacob beamed; pulling out a flapjack wrapped in foil and began munching. I rubbed my stomach, realising how hungry I was. My action didn't go unnoticed by Jacob, and held out the remaining flapjack to me. I waved my hand away, and started climbing back down the roof, Jacob followed, and without having to say a word, he knew I wanted to go hunting.