A/n I made up the word WeiHa. I needed a name for the bracelet. It's done, call it what YOU want, I did ;)

Of course my parents were standing in Billy's kitchen when I came out of my room, buttoning my new - new to me - flannel shirt.

"I'm sorry I didn't come by last night. I had to do some shopping." I smoothed my shirt over my ripped jeans. I blushed now, feeling their eyes on me. What were they thinking? Were they mad about my hair? Did they think I didn't plan on coming home tonight, because I did. Did they regret agreeing to this, seeing me as I was? I put my eyes to my bare toes sticking out of the frayed bottoms.

Edward broke the silence, "Happy Birthday, Renesmee."

I looked up with a very small smile. "Thanks, Daddy." I walked over and hugged him and Mama together. "I'm really, really sorry. It was just so late by the time I got a whole new set of clothes, and then I had to track down a raven..."

"Not another bird." Mama snickered.

"Class project," I admitted.

Edward tugged on one of my locks. "All sorts of new things."

I tucked it behind my ear. "Yeah. I'm still learning how to blend in."

Mama looked sympathetic. "I remember how that goes."

I blushed a little, drawing a circle with my toe. "So, am I all that brings you onto treaty grounds?" I teased. Billy chuckled behind me. "Keep laughing, old man. You're the one letting a half-breed live under your roof." I smiled at him. "I'll try to keep the cold ones off your doorstep from now on."

Edward growled lightly. Only teasing.

"How was your first day?" Edward asked, prying slightly. I gave him the highlights reel. Picking fights, being late for class, nodding off, crying in the bathroom.

"About that well," I replied. Mama looked a little miffed so I took her hand and showed my day to her. "It's OK. I'm sure today will be better. At least no one will tease me."

I looked at the clock behind my parents heads. "Where's Jacob?" I asked Billy over my shoulder. "He's going to be late. I'll be right back," I told my parents, turning to go.

Mama stopped me. "We'll just be another minute, sweetie. Partly we wanted to make sure you were coming to dinner at the house tonight. Carlisle and Esme are making it a goodbye and birthday party in one."

"Of course I will! I really was planning to be at the cottage tonight - "

"You need to finish getting ready," Mama interrupted. "We just wanted to give you one present before you left. It might make misunderstandings like last night easier to avoid. Happy Birthday."

It was the most normal birthday present I'd ever gotten. A cell phone. It rang as soon as I picked it up. "Hello, Alice!" I answered.

"Happy Birthday!" she cheered.

I laughed. "Thanks." I kissed Mama's cheek and gave Edward another hug before turning to wake Jacob. "Can you do me a favor, Alice?"

"What would you like?"

"I'm going to put this on speaker. Help me wake up Jacob, Okay?"

"Oh, sure. Just give me my cue."

I tiptoed up to Jacob's head, pushed the speaker button, and held the phone over his head. "What time is it?" I asked.

"Time to rise and SHINE!" Alice said as brilliantly as only she can. Jacob's head snapped up.

"Bwah? huh? Whasat?" He peered around the room and tried to snag my ankle, but I skipped out of reach, which is to say out of the room, laughing.

My second day went much more smoothly than the first. I still got very few names, though the one I did get surprised me. Joseph came up to introduce himself and apologize for ragging on me. He was skinny, slightly taller than me and had long straight hair which he held back with a braided leather throng.

"I really shouldn't have done that. I mean you wouldn't be here if you weren't supposed to be, right?" He stuck his hands in pockets and rocked on his heels. "And then... I made it worse. So, I wanted to apologize." He tucked his chin and looked up at me from under a long set of lashes.

I pursed my lips, considering making him sweat, but I had far too few friends here. "No sweat. I mean, I look like my mom, so I get that a lot. Just pisses me off."

"She had brown eyes?" He'd noticed my eyes? Well, I guess I had stared him down.

"Yeah." He moved to sit beside Ruby and me. Ruby was diligently ignoring him, slicing small pieces off her apple.

"What happened to her?" he asked, referring to my mother.

"She ditched me." I said coldly. I hated lying. I preferred to make the topic taboo.

"Oh, that's rough. Sorry, I'm being a snoop. My name's Joseph." He offered his hand

"Vanessa, but I prefer Ness." I took his hand. He was a werewolf. Well he wasn't, but he could be. How could I know that by touching him? That didn't make any sense.

"I think your friends are looking for you," I told him, nodding toward his clan and extracting my hand. That was a disconcerting feeling. It made me itch to show him something, and that would not do at all.

He shrugged. "They can see me."

Ruby saved me then. She didn't even look up. "Scram, Joe."

"Yes'm," he said with a grin.

"Thank you," I whispered to her, rolling my eyes.

"Next time, just grab his throat again," she said with a lop-sided smirk. "He'll take the hint."

I laughed out loud with her. "Oh, hey. I see someone I meant to say hi to yesterday, catch you in class?"

She just nodded and continued whittling away at her apple.

I approached the group of girls slowly. I had made a reputation for myself already and I didn't want to frighten them. As it was, half of them backed away wide-eyed. Not the one I was looking for. "Heya Claire!" I put a hand on her back and remembered us playing on Grandmother's porch, in Grandpa Charlie's yard, on the swings off First Beach.

She smiled up at me. "Hi, Ness. I wasn't sure you remembered me."

"Of course, I remember you! How's Quil?" I asked. Her friends tittered.

She scowled at them but not at me. "As well as Jacob."

"I'm really glad to hear that," I stroked her hair a couple of times. I showed her the worst parts of being alone here. How glad I was to have one friend in Ruby. Did I have another in Claire?

She smiled at me, and I knew that was a yes. "Quil is taking me to Port Angeles to see a movie this weekend. Will you and Jake come, too?"

I could just imagine what movie the nine year-old Claire would have chosen and couldn't resist. "Of course we will. Saturday matinee?" I asked. She nodded. "Jacob and I will pick you up in his Rabbit." I promised her.

"Great!" she answered with pride. She liked having older friends. I understood that. I was actually a younger friend, but these girls didn't know that.

When I got back to Ruby, she announced she was ditching Lore. I really wanted to accompany my new friend, but Lore was the one class I really couldn't afford to miss. "Drat, couldn't skip math eh?" I answered truthfully.

"Nah, I need to pass math," she said a little sheepishly. "It's one of the only things I'm actually good at."

"Only things?" I scoffed. "I don't know you, so I can't say, 'Oh comon, Ruby, you know totally rock at singing' or some nonsense like that. But I've never met anyone who is only good at ONE thing."

She spat out an apple seed. "Yeah, well, now you have."

"Well, I'm not skipping Lore. I missed too much of that stuff as it is."

She nodded. "S'ok, Ness. I skipped plenty of classes on my own before I met you." Then she turned and wandered off.

I was painfully curious what she did on her own so much of the time, but I knew better than to pry this soon. I wandered back into the building.

Lore was very interesting. We opened with a friendship circle dance. I pulled off my flannel revealing my black tank underneath. I felt eyes on me immediately. Now what? Too much skin? I pulled out my ponytail shaking my hair over my shoulders to cover some of it. The stares didn't cease. Joseph came to take my right hand. "Hi, again," he said.

"Hi, and thanks. Am I just that much of a freak, or what?" I asked. Another boy took my left hand and Joe nodded to him.

"That's John. Thanks, man."

He shrugged. He was broader than Joe, a little taller again. "Just don't strangle me," he requested.

I laughed out loud. "Nah, I save that move for runts with skinny necks." I cocked my head toward Joseph.

The dance was simple enough to follow. It felt good to get my blood pumping. Joe pulled me aside as people started moving into the building. "Wait a minute. You have a WeiHa."

"Umm, I do?"

"That's what everyone was staring at. I've never seen someone our age wear one. Who gave it to you? He's ballsy." He was examining my bracelet. Jacob had continued to replace the first one he gave me on Christmas as I out-grew them. This one was just starting to pinch my skin. "And it's not the first?" He sounded stunned.

I started blushing. Ruby was approaching us. "You harassing her again, Joe?"

"Shut it. She's got a WeiHa. Did you know that? It's her fourth one."

"What?" Ruby sounded as shocked and surprised as Joe had.

"Okay, seriously, what's the big deal?" I asked

"He didn't tell you what it was?" Ruby asked, incredulous.

I blushed more furiously. How could I say, no because I was a baby at the time. I opted to not answer at all, hoping they would continue.

"Ness, husbands give these to their wives before they get married." Joseph explained, not letting go of my hand.

A smile swept my face, and I looked down at the braided piece on my wrist. Of course they do, I thought. Then I frowned slightly. Was he trying to claim me too? "So... does this mean I'm not allowed to..." I didn't know how to phrase my question.

Ruby caught on. "No, you can have more than one, but that almost never happens. Usually the girl chases one or the other off first."

I nodded, still very confused. Joseph was pulling on my hand now, "We'll be late for Math. Come on." I tried not to think too hard about my WeiHa. I'd learn about it in Lore at some point, and I could ask Jacob about it later. Who knew, maybe Claire had one, too. I'd never looked.

Thinking about Claire, instead of Jacob and the WeiHa, I was all prepared to spring my surprise on the way home. I was sure Claire would have picked some lovely sappy animated flick for the movie. Jacob was going to hate it. I really played it up too. "Guess what guess what guess what!" I said bouncing beside him.

He groaned. "First you wake me with the pixie and now you channel her?"

I laughed out loud and planted my feet. "I booked us a double date for the weekend."

He almost seemed angry. "You what? I mean, not all the guys here know about us. They might think.. I dunno, that I'm some kind of perv or something."

I laughed. Then I stopped and laughed harder. "You're dating a five year-old and think you're not a perv?" I teased. I caught my breath while he glared at me. "Relax. It's with Quil and Claire. You pervs gotta stick together, right?" I laughed harder, and he started to snicker. He grabbed me around the neck and pulled me along with him.

When I got back to Billy's, I changed into some of my old clothes. Which is to say Alice's clothes that I had worn a few times before replacing last night. I looked smart in a pair of green pants and a mustard colored blouse. At the last minute I swapped the top for a red v-neck. The golden color had been perfect with my bronze hair, but with black it made me look a bit sickly. The red gave me a much more sallow color, more like the pictures I'd seen of Mama when she was human. I pinned one side of my hair up and went to find Jacob.

"Hi Billy." I greeted him as I came out of my room. "Sorry I didn't get supper tonight. Tomorrow night, it's spaghetti a la 'nesmee," I promised.

"Can't wait," he said. "Oh, and I have something for you. Jake told me you were looking for one." He held a beaded and feathered drum.

"Wow! Thanks!" I bent to hug him and lift it from his lap. "It's so pretty," I murmured, turning it in my hands to see the different colored beads and follow their pattern around the outside edge.

"Happy Birthday," he said.

I kissed his cheek. "Thanks. Thanks for everything."

Then Jacob came out. He had changed after class too. He wore black jeans and a new white shirt. "Will I pass?" he asked, imitating me the other night.

"Never." I said with a smirk. "You ace every time."

He smiled back at me and took my hand as we headed out. He drove us in the Rabbit. It seemed easier than half-running the whole way. He kissed my cheek before getting out. "They're going to freak." He told me.

My face fell. I'd forgotten that only Mama and Edward knew about my hair change. I bit my lip but stepped out and walked up the porch.

"Happy Birthday!" resounded as we opened the door. I blushed and smiled. There were two gasps as I stepped into the room. I pushed my black curls behind one ear and bit my lip again.

Alice got to me first. "You look like my little sister now! We should cut it!"

Rosalie reined her in. "Absolutely not! Well, at least it's a nice color," she allowed, running a hand through it. I looked at my feet.

Esme came and played with a curl too. "Do you like it?" she finally asked.

"I'm really glad I did it," I admitted. "I stand out far too much as it is." I hoped Edward heard the thought behind the words. I didn't prefer this color, but it was more convenient.

"So, tell us all about school!" Alice urged pulling me into the room. Jacob let go of my hand as I was dragged away. I told them about Ruby. That she was a nice girl, but didn't have many friends aside from me. I didn't tell them she had a tendency to skip class, or that she was a bit of a bully. I told them about my teachers. That wasn't a long tale. I'd only had a couple of classes with each, but they were all quite competent and made class as interesting as they were able.

This didn't appease my aunts though. They wanted to know about the other girls and boys. Did I have any other friends? Who did I eat lunch with? Edward kept trying to steer the conversation away, but they just shushed him and pressed me further. I told them a little about Joseph. That he seemed to be trying to be friends with me. And that I'd met his friend John who seemed nice. There wasn't much more to say about that. It was getting harder and harder to find things to say.

Jasper noticed my increase in anxiety and distress. He tried to pull Jacob into the conversation with Edward's assistance, but my aunts just sort of pushed the men aside. I sent thoughts of thanks to Edward with every try. Soon the pressing just became too much for me.

"So do you think maybe Joseph likes you? Does he have a girlfriend?" Alice was asking.

"Aren't there any girls that you sit next to..."

"Look!" I finally burst out. "I only know three people, Okay? I'm the freak. No one wants to know me." My voice faded toward the end as Jasper started to calm me. I blinked back a couple tears and took a deep breath. "Don't worry about me. Ruby's my friend. I will make more. Just - please - stop asking. Please." I covered my face taking calming breaths. "Thank you, Jasper," I whispered to him.

Edward came and kissed my head. He knew my first responses to each of their annoying questions. He knew that Ruby was ostracized and that meant I was, too. And even if she wasn't, I'd intimidated most of the school that first day. I was still shocked Joseph had approached me at all.

I continued to work on my resolve. I would make friends. I wanted to go to school. I was not giving up.

Mama came to me next. "You can come home."

I know she meant well, but my heart broke when she said it. I wanted to go home so badly. It would make her happier. It would make me happier. But it wasn't what I should do. It wasn't what I was going to do. Help me, Daddy? Jacob? I pulled him to me. He put an arm around my shoulders helping to build my strength.

"Presents!" Edward announced.

Alice jumped up, clapping, and Rosalie joined her in bringing packages from the other side of the room.

"Thank you," I whispered to Edward and Jacob, still standing over me.

"As long as you're resolved," my father told me. "I want you home, too, but I also want you to be able to make your own decisions and follow through on them." He kissed my forehead.

"So do I," I rasped, my throat still tight.

Jacob squeezed. "Why didn't you tell me it was that bad?" he asked. I just shook my head and plastered on a smile. The gifts were coming.

Alice and Jasper gave me a beautiful new chain for my locket. I quickly swapped it over and hugged them both.

Emmett and Rosalie gave me a laptop bag complete with computer inside. I gushed and thanked them even though I knew it would never leave the Black's house.

Esme and Carlisle gave me a CD library. Scans of all the books in the office. I looked wide-eyed through the labels on the disks. It would have taken him a while to compile it. "Thank you," I said, a little awed.

"Well, I'll be taking many of them with me," Grandfather admitted. "And I'd hate for you to fall behind in your other studies."

I smiled warmly and hugged them both. "I'm going to miss you so much."

"We'll miss you too, Nessie," Esme promised me.

"Well, Mama and Edward gave me my phone this morning, so... did I see someone baked me a cake?" I asked. My joy had finally returned.

"One more." It was Jacob who spoke and he moved to kneel before me.