A/N: Yay, it's chapter one! Woot! Now it shall all make much more sense. XD ::rubs hands together and laughs evilly::
So, just remember, review, critique, I can take it. I'm experienced. ;D Just be polite about it, not all "OMG THIS STORY SUCKS YOU ARE A HORRIBLE WRITER I HATE YOU U DISGRACE TWILIGHT" and such…please. :D
Connections- Chapter One
"Ooh," I cooed as I looked at my new gift, two CD's of my favorite bands. "Thanks!" I smiled at Carlisle and Esme, thanking them repeatedly.
"Now my gift," Alice said, giving me a grin. I sat there, waiting, and she stayed motionless, staring out a window.
"Well?" I asked a bit impatiently, then suddenly gasped. Bella groaned a second later as I ran to the window, pressing my face happily to the glass as little snowflakes started falling to the ground, the dirt already covered in a thin layer of snow.
"Oh my god, Alice!" I cried gratefully. "You knew it would snow!"
She smiled. "And we have the perfect yard for a snow-ball fight," I grinned widely at her response. Bella groaned in response, muttering something under her breath as Edward gave a low laugh and pulled her close. I threw my jacket on, ready to leap outside in the snow. It had unfortunately only snowed twice this last month, and one of those times I was asleep. I heard Bella murmuring to Edward under her breath, asking to stay inside, and I threw her a pleading face, wanting all my best friends to celebrate with me on my birthday.
"Don't you want your gift?" Alice asked with a sly smile. I paused, tilting my head like a confused puppy.
"I thought this was my gift…?" I questioned.
She held out a box, and I lunged for it. She pulled it back fast with a laugh.
"Ooh! Yes! Alice I want my gift! You know how materialistic I am!" I reached for it, hands stretching though I knew if Alice wanted to keep it from me she would.
"And I'm glad for that every day." She grinned. She loved to take me shopping, and on a few occasions we were able to drag Bella along as well. Just last weekend she had taken me to Japan for a "sleepover"; though since Bella insisted in staying home, she spent the "sleepover" with Edward, and we went shopping throughout Tokyo. I saw more of that foreign country in two days than I ever had of my home state of Florida in my entire life.
She handed me the box, and I tore at the gift wrap as Edward and Bella paused to watch me open my gift.
"Ahhh!"I squealed in happiness as I tore at the remaining paper fiercely. "Thank you, thank you, thank you!" I grinned widely at Alice and Edward, clutching my gift to my chest. Both of them had done a good job blocking their thoughts all week. Today, all Alice had done was hum 'Happy Birthday' all day long.
"At least someone lets us spend money on her birthday," Edward teased Bella. She rolled her eyes and looked back to me. I hugged my brand new iPhone happily. "I love you," I cooed to the phone. "I shall call you Steve." I smiled, still cooing. Edward looked at me with raised eyebrows while Bella and Alice laughed.
"Coming?" Emmett asked from the doorway with a wide grin, and I laughed, heading out the living room. As I headed out, I touched the decorations with a faint smile, a large 17 circle, only a piece of a long chain. Alice had gone all out with decorating the room for my party, which she had insisted on being here, at the Cullen house.
I looked out the window again, a big smile on my face that I didn't bother to hide, and ran outside to join the others. As I left, I slipped and nearly fell flat on my face on a patch of ice, but Emmett caught me by the arms, laughing.
"Are all humans this clumsy?" He asked me jokingly, thinking of how the only two humans he interacted with both fell on their faces a lot.
"No…" I scowled, but ironically, Bella stumbled out the door and was only saved by Edward, who caught her and wrapped his arms around her waist for safety. Emmett roared now, his statement proven only because there were no other humans around to disprove it.
Suddenly, I caught a snowball in the face. I coughed, and spit out a bit of mushy snow. Emmett was grinning widely, and I bent down to make a snowball, but another ball caught me in the back, Alice giggling from a few yards behind me. I made some deformed snowballs and tossed them fast at Emmett, than spun to get Alice, but of course, being the vampires they were, they dodged them, Alice let one smash her shoulder just to be fair. I let out a playful scream as they started to attack me with the wet snow, Edward joining in on the fight while Bella raised her arms in defense. I managed to dodge a few by picking up the thoughts of who was going to throw them at me, but I was mauled by snowballs nonetheless, ducking down low while the fight continued above me. I fell back into the snow, now a much thicker layer, and covered my face, raising an arm.
"Ok! I surrender! The vampires win, humans are losers!" I cried out, but the snowball fight went on among them. I tried to get up, but was sunk in the snow, my jacket thick but dripping with the melted snow.
"Help!" I cried out in feign terror, flailing my arms. "Birthday girl stuck!" I let out a frustrated sigh, and Bella came over to yank me out.
"I don't understand why you hate the snow." I said to Bella as she wiped some snow from her jacket.
"It's cold and wet, the two things I hate," Bella replied as we watched the others throw snowballs at each other at speeds faster than they could follow.
"Come on, it's my birthday, let me at least shove a snowball in your face," I teased, a smile on my face. She rolled her eyes but smiled, giving a small snicker.
A snowball smacked into her arm, and Bella jumped, hiding behind me and using me as a shield.
"Please Bella, please!" I pleaded with a smile. "It'll be fun!"
"Claire, come' on, we'll let the human have some lenience," Alice called as Edward headed back to us. I watched him walk toward us in awe for a moment, looking amazingly graceful and beautiful with the snow in his hair, and I tensed, hoping he wasn't listening to my thoughts. But thankfully, he was paying attention to me, but to Bella, trying to read her expression. I wasn't sure if I felt jealous of that or not.
See, in the last month, as my friendship with the Cullens and Bella progressed, so did my crush…on Edward. One might think it would be difficult to hide from a mind-reader, but Edward so often paid attention to Bella, and only her. After all, they were…soul-mates. I shuddered.
"Claire!" Alice called to me, and as I turned, a snowball hit me in the chest. I opened my mouth in surprise, and then laughed cynically, bending down to make a snowball. I threw them at Alice and she played fair-game, letting them hit their designated targets. We played for a little longer, then I started to run out of breath. Alice didn't mind, heading back inside to find Jasper. I sat back on the cold snow, watching as Rosalie came out, and Emmett's attention immediately went to her. Edward and Bella were talking now; he pulled her close and was talking low to her, making her blush. Emmett and Rosalie were discussing dirty things, and I moaned in disgust, closing off my mind from any intruding and possibly dirty thoughts.
I looked up and saw the clouds high in the sky, hiding the sun. I should be getting home around now-my mom wanted me back after lunch, and I wasn't sure whether Esme would feed us.
I stood, and walked over to Edward and Bella. "Sorry guys, I'm going to have to go if I want time to stop for lunch-"
"Don't worry," Edward smiled, "we ordered a pizza."
Both Bella and I raised our eyebrows. "You did?" Bella asked in surprise.
"Well, it's good to do that once in a while. Makes us seem a bit more human," he teased as he pulled Bella close.
Apparently they had ordered the pizza a while back, because it arrived only a minute later, and the two of us ate it up fast. Well, me faster than Bella, because he cracked up when she began to stuff her face with pizza, and she scowled, eating her pizza more daintily. I watched the interaction between all the couples around the room: Bella and Edward, Jasper and Alice, Emmett and Rosalie, even Carlisle and Esme; and I felt jealous, that I was sitting alone, hands in my lap, humming an Elisa song.
"You know, you really shouldn't think like that," Edward said. I stiffened, singing the song in my head louder.
"Thinking like what?"
"Listening to your thoughts is like listening to a radio." He laughed.
"What?" I blinked in confusion. What was he talking about?
"No matter what you're thinking, you're always humming a song in your mind." He explained. "It generally goes with your emotions."
I crossed my arms. "And what songs am I humming right now?"
"Right now?" Edward paused. "You're thinking of 'Hysteria' again. You do tend to favor that one." You tend to hum a lot of sad love songs. He privately said in my mind. I stiffened but passed it off as a joke, rolling my eyes.
"Just wondering this, but I'm going on a limb since we got pizza; are we getting cake?" I asked with a smile at Alice. She went into another room and brought out two cupcakes. I cheered and clapped my hands together, jumping up and down happily. I took a deep breath and blew out the candles.
"We'll be back in a few days," Edward said to Bella, holding her hands in his large ones. He lifted them up and pressed them delicately against his face, giving her a worried smile. I could hear in his mind that he was nervous, as always, about leaving her to go hunting. "Emmett will be staying behind to watch," Edward continued, as Bella squeezed his hand, smiling up at him. They kissed and I turned to Alice, giving her a wry smile.
"So, just stuck around for my birthday party?" I joked.
"Of course." Alice joked back. "By the way, bundle up tonight." She winked. More snow.
I grinned happily, then watched as Edward and Alice left out the door. Bella stood at the door a few seconds longer than usual, then turned to me.
"Movie?" I asked with a smile.
"That depends on what you brought," she replied with a half-smile.
"How about Monty Python and the Holy Grail?" I asked hopefully.
"No way." She shot me down again. Darn.
"It's a classic!"
Rolling her eyes, Bella scoffed. "A classic tale of idiots running around in tights." She sighed in frustration and sat down. "Anything else you feel like watching?" She asked, sitting on the couch.
I sighed, knowing I'd never get my way. Bella and I disagreed completely on movie taste, despite our similar tastes in books and music.
"Depends, how do you feel about the classics?"
"My use of classics or yours?"
"Erm…" I quirked my mouth in hesitation. "A bit in between." Miiiiinneee.
"You want to see The Godfather again, don't you?" she asked in playful annoyance.
"Yes! You understand me so well!" I grinned. In the last month, she'd most definitely gotten accustomed to my movie choice. And the method I used to get my way.
"Fine. Start it up. I'm assuming you brought it?" True, she wouldn't have it in her house.
"All set with my movies," I smiled, holding up my sleepover duffel bag. Tonight I was sleeping over, with the consent of my parents and Charlie, and I'd come prepared to make sure Bella didn't force me to watch Romeo and Juliet again. The movie was fine the first three times around, but come on! She got so weepy, especially when Edward was here and they gave each other 'looks'.
There was a knock on the door, and Bella got up, walking over to the door. The phone rang, and I got up, following Bella to the closest phone in the hallway by the door. I picked it up and answered for Bella.
"Swan residence, hello?" I responded.
"Claire, it's Alice." Alice said in a fast voice, though I could've recognized her voice either way. "Don't let Bella open the door, it's a wolf-" she started, but I saw Bella open the door to reveal a tall, gorgeous guy, his dark hair chopped off messily, wearing only jeans and holding his shirt in his hand. I dropped the phone as my mouth fell open, but more than just his obvious looks, I felt strong waves of heat course through my body. He opened his mouth to speak to Bella, then caught my eye and froze, our eyes locked. I felt my body tingling as if I'd been stung by currents, my head spinning as I stared into his dark, chocolate eyes.
After what seemed an eternity, he dropped my gaze, muttering quickly to Bella that he had to go. He leapt up, and as he came down, suddenly a red wolf was in his place, streaking away into the distance, tearing off faster than I'd ever seen any of the Cullens go. I stared out the doorway for a minute, even after Bella closed it and gave me a strange look. She picked up the phone, eyebrows furrowed together.
"Hello?" She asked, and Alice was talking in a low voice, and I could tell it was slightly strained from over the phone.
I felt my blood pounding in my head, my chest constricted tight. I was feeling hot all over, suddenly dizzy and sick. I walked over to the couch in a daze, and nearly collapsed on top of it.
Bella looked over to me and spoke to Alice quickly while my head spun. Who was that guy? Why did he have such an effect on me? Could it be the vision Alice was trying to keep me from reading? If it was…then he was a werewolf. But that would mean…he imprinted on me…?
I slunked onto the couch, my head overloading with thoughts. Try as I might, to think about what just happened, the most I could picture of it were his eyes, staring into mine so intently.
"Claire?" Bella's voice called me a moment later, slight panic in her voice. I blinked and sat up, still looking off distantly.
"Claire, are you okay?" Bella asked as I sat their, motionlessly. I turned to her, thoughts still muddled.
"Yeah, fine, I-I just need to go home and think right now." I managed, though I wasn't sure how I'd get home the way my mind was overloaded right now. I stood and gave a wave goodbye to her, leaving the house. I paused on her porch, looking out into the woods by Bella's house. I had a feeling as if I were being watched, but my mind was too confused to try and hear the thoughts of those around me. I walked out into the rain, lifting my face to it for a moment in hope it would clear my head for the drive. Ready to face what had just happened, I climbed into my car and started it up, shaking my hair out as I turned on the air full blast, still feeling warm and feverish.
Letting out a sigh of frustration, I looked back into the woods, staring between the trees, where I could have sworn I saw a flash of familiar red fur…
A/N: Sorry guys, but I have no idea what imprinting is like, so I just made that kinda up. I know what it is; I just don't know what it feels like when it happens, obviously, because it hasn't happened to me. :) lol. Also want you to know, NO she is not turning into a werewolf, haha. So anyways, I'll post up the next chapter soon I hope, it's a good one, though a bit short. Hoped you like this one! Review!
