A/N Hey guys, I know that the preface was a little short to be expecting many reviews, but I've started uploading chapters now, so tell me what you think.

Brutal Honesty! Pretty Please :)

Thanks to Sunflower3759 for being my wonderful Beta!

Returning

"Nio, we are going to be late!" I yelled into my brother's mind, wishing he would stop acting out the "normal teen" façade quite so well. Our father, Charlie, had already left, and we needed to follow soon.

"I'm coming!" he said, walking down the stairs. "You know, you are awfully bossy, seeing as you are only 58 seconds older than me." He grinned and mussed my hair. "Chill Iz, we will be there in plenty of time, we don't eat breakfast anyway."

"I know that," I replied, "but no one has seen us in two years, I want to get the mobbing done before class starts."

He laughed. "Very true, who is driving?"

It was my turn to laugh. "Well, I am not sure about you, but I am taking my truck, you can take your bike if you want, but bring another set of clothes, you are going to get wet."

"Fine," he grumbled, "but I am putting it in the back in case the rain has stopped after school lets out."

"Good luck with that," I replied, heavy on the sarcasm, "this is the rainiest town in the USA, I doubt it is going to stop anytime soon." Nio just scowled and went to put his motorcycle in the back of my truck. I really do not understand his animosity toward my vehicle, at least it goes over 60 miles per hour, unlike my last truck. This one is newer, and in good condition. It is a blue Dodge Dakota quad cab, so it can seat more than two people, and our backpacks will no longer go flying out of the bed of the truck as we are driving to school.

When we arrived at Forks High, we were greeted by, as I predicted, a mob of our fellow students, all of whom were eager to claim our attention after our two-year absence. Though the interrogations were far from over, we eventually escaped the mob when the warning bell rang.

The first half of the day was uneventful, and to be honest, boring. I was in an Advanced Placement program the two years I was in Phoenix, so I already knew most of the information presented to me. I mostly tuned the teachers out, going over piano chords in my head.

At lunch, ignoring the numerous offers to sit at various tables, Nio and I sat at an empty table in a corner by ourselves, happy to escape the meaningless chatter of our schoolmates. I pulled out my laptop and began typing a set of lyrics that had been running through my head with the piano chords earlier in the day.

"What you got this time?" Nio said, asking aloud for appearances. He was used to my preoccupation when writing anything to do with music.

"Well, I only have what I think will be the chorus, but you can look if you want." I said, turning the computer to let him see.

When my time comes, forget the wrongs that I've done

Help me leave behind some reasons to be missed

Don't resent me, and when you're feeling empty

Keep me in your memory, leave out all the rest

Leave out all the rest.

"Wow, morbid today, are we?" He joked, but his eyes were asking me what was wrong.

"Not really," I assured him, "the words just felt important, I'll tell you why when I know."

"Alright." he said, accepting this.

Nio and I were talking, about nothing in particular, when I suddenly froze.

In order to understand what happened next, know this. I am what super-naturals would call a non-influential empath, meaning I can feel the emotions of everyone around me, but cannot manipulate them. I can however, remove a person's emotions completely, stripping them of their will, there very being. Needless to say, it is not an ability I use willingly.

"What is it?" Nio said urgently. "What is going on?"

"Can you hear that," I asked, lowering my voice, "on the far side of the room, to our left?" (Unlike vampires, werewolves, shape-shifters, or humans, our senses are centered on our hearing, though our sight is also important).

"What do you mean," he said quietly, "I only hear people breathing."

"Exactly," I replied, "now, what do you not hear?" He paused.

"Heartbeats." He answered, only mildly surprised.

"Which means that there are vampires here." I finished.

"Right, and you care… why?" He asked, "No one seems curious about anyone but us, if there are vampires here, everyone seems used to them by now, they are not in danger of discovery."

"Because there is also another empath here, and I believe he is in that same area."

"Oh." Having progressed to total shock, he turned with me to see how many vampires we would have to deal with. At the table in the corner across the room, but on the same side of the cafeteria, we saw five vampires. There were two blondes; a female who could have been a model, even as a human, and a male who looked as if he was struggling with something. There was also a dark-haired male with the body of a professional body-builder, and an extremely tiny, pixie-like female with short, spiky black hair. But the last of their group was the one who kept my attention. He looked to be the youngest, of the males at least, and had hair a curious shade of bronze. He was also feeling confused, though I was not focused very much on this. I was too busy staring at his face. It was, without a doubt, the most gorgeous face I had ever seen.

"Isabella!" Nio exclaimed.

"What?" I replied. "What's wrong?"

"You tell me, I only said your name eight times."

"Oh" I said, "Well, they probably think I am insane."

"You are." Nio joked, then turned very serious. "Do you think they hunt here?"

"No, look at the color of their eyes Nio," I said, "they are vegetarians."

"Ah, that is interesting, wonder why they moved here?"

"The cloud cover, I would imagine." I replied. "We need to go to class, there are hardly any people left in here." Nio and I stood up and walked toward the door, and as we passed the vampires, the bronze-haired one froze, his eyes going onyx-black. In response to his sudden hostility, I froze as well, and I could feel the self-preservation part of my mind reaching for his, trying to strip him of his emotions, of his very will. I could feel how much he wanted to kill me, and my mind was attempting to eradicate the danger. I saw the other two males attempting to calm him, but this was irrelevant, I only wanted the danger gone. Some part of my mind still understood that he was a person, that I could not simply hurt him without allowing him a chance to explain. This ever-shrinking piece of my mind was all that was keeping me still, but I knew if I even twitched a muscle, I would lose my already shaky control.

"Bella, walk away, NOW!" Nio desperately tried to talk me down, even resorting to using my common name.

"Can't move." I said, gritting my teeth. He nodded, a determined look on his face.

"Sorry Izzy." He said, and pressed his hand flat against the scars on my back, igniting it with pain. I gasped, and slowly gained a measure of control over my body. When I was sure I could move without attacking anyone, I nodded, and Nio began pulling me out of the room. Luckily, this exchange had taken place in less than a minute, and no one else had noticed. Once he had gotten me outside, Nio turned to me and was silent. Finally he spoke.

"Can you go back to class?" He asked simply.

"No," I spat, "I need to leave. Now." I ran to my truck, pulled Nio's motorcycle out, and sped away toward Seattle, calling in a plane ticket on the way.

A/N The next chapter is twice as long as this one, so don't give up on me yet, lol.

The next chapter is done, I think I'm going to upload by 4/25

How many of you are wondering how Bella got the bike out of her truck by herself? Hmmmmmmm.

P.S. The song I used was Leave Out All the Rest by Linkin Park