I Am NOT A Baby!

It was late evening when I awoke. Tom was still there, being intimidated by Jacob and Seth by the looks of it. He was sitting between the two giants, his eyes wide. He was staring straight ahead, while the werewolves glared at him. Everyone else was out hunting.

The sight of Tom so terrified made me laugh. At the sound of my laughter, all three boys turned to stare at me as if I were mad. Jacob got up and hurried as fast as he could with a human watching.

'Ness, are you okay?' he worried as I sat up, Seth followed Jacob.

'Are you feeling dizzy?' Tom stayed on the couch, looking left out. The doorbell went off and I sensed and heard the human outside.

…it must really suck, his first chance to make a friend and she faints and I have to pick him up! It was Joan; I stood up despite my brothers' arguments.

'I'll get it.' I said, everyone in the room followed me, Jacob and Seth because they were worried; Tom because he really wanted to leave.

When I opened the door Joan was indeed standing there, a beat up car on the drive.

'I don't believe we've met properly, I'm Jo.' She held out her hand, a smile on her face. I looked at her hand then mine, my gloves were off, I couldn't touch her.

'Nessie.' I tried to smile but Jo's annoyance was crashing over me like waves to rocks.

'C'mon, Tom, let's go.' The rest of my family was in the house now, Tom brushed past me, and I felt an inexplicable sadness.

'I'll see you in class tomorrow!' I called before retreating into the house. I was engulfed by my family, all worrying over the fragile baby.

Why do I have to be treated as if I'm so breakable all the time! I screamed in my head, Dad froze to stare at me. JUST LEAVE ME ALONE!

I broke away from my family and ran up to my room. I didn't slam my door but I locked it. It wouldn't keep a vampire out – or a werewolf for that matter – but they'd know I didn't want them in.

I despised the way they treated me. As if I were so damn breakable, as if I had no more than mortal strength and endurance. I was about as vulnerable as the werewolves! I was not a baby! I turned 56 this year!

I turned on my music with a word and rolled over onto my stomach.

A rule my family had made completely certain was stamped into my mind before I started high school flashed through my head.

Never get attached. I f you got attached, you gave that person the ability to find out what you were. I laughed out loud, why would that thought have any relevance to the fact that I'd been forced to study with a boy who –

I sat bolt upright, eyes wide, mouth hanging open. A boy who appeared not to like me. Impossible. Everyone liked me. It was one of my supernatural gifts.

Tom was an exception to my gift.

Downstairs my father remembered what happened the last time someone was an exception to a member of the family's mental gift.