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Chapter 3 - Secrets

The following weeks were much the same for Renesmee. She was still excited to go to school, still excited to see her new friends, still excited to get homework. As much as Jacob adored Renesmee, the homework thing is a part of her that he thought he would never understand.
He and Renesmee had always had a healthy relationship. He had been her big brother and protector when she was a child, and when she grew older, he was such a part of her life, that she realised they were soul mates.

Jacob had decided that since moving with the Cullens every place they went was an inevitability for him, he was going to get a job wherever they went. As well as enjoying the independence it gave him from a house full of vampires, it meant he was earning his own money, so that he was able to buy Renesmee gifts every now and again. Her favourite gift had been a bracelet he bought for her, which was just like the one he gave to her mother all those years ago. It had the same wolf figure on it.

He had waited until the night before her 16th birthday, for her to fall asleep, before making his way back to Forks. He ran all the way to the Hoh Rainforest behind the Cullens old home, to her favourite Red Alder tree. He used to sit underneath it with her when she was a child, and tell her all kinds of stories – about her vampire family, about her wolf family, about her mother when she was human…she was always hungry for information.

He knew that Renesmee had always loved her mother's bracelet, and she enjoyed sitting beside Jacob and touching his cheek every now and again to show him the memory of her and Bella sitting together, admiring the bracelet when she was a child.
Bella would happily tell her about the 2 precious elements of the bracelet - the small wooden wolf, which Jake gave to her as a graduation present, and a small but perfect diamond which Edward added to it, to remind her of him.

"It's so pretty Momma" Renesmee reminisced saying to her mother one day, many years before. "It's pretty, like you, and Aunt Rosalie, and Aunt Alice, and Grandma" she reeled off, not wanting to leave anyone out. She felt strong loyalty to each and every member of her family, and thought they were all equally stunning.
"It's not as pretty as you though my little darling" Bella crooned to her whilst stroking her bronze curls, making Renesmee giggle. She loved being called pretty...and beautiful...and wonderful, it made her feel important. "You are the most beautiful thing that has ever existed, my angel. You are truly irreplaceable".

Even though Renesmee had made lots of friends at school, Jacob was her main focus, sometimes going for walks, sometimes watching TV, and sometimes just sitting there showing him memories of her childhood, seen as though he was in most of them. Jacob would say it was like watching old family movies.

When Renesmee was at school, Jacob often reminisced about those times, sometimes for longer than he expected. He could while away full afternoons dreaming of his favourite person. She was his life, his love, his whole being. In his eyes, she was the reason the world turned and the sun would shine.
He never thought he would love anyone after the way he loved Bella, but in more recent years, he couldn't remember loving Bella as anything more than a sister, a best friend and someday maybe a mother-in-law.

"Hey Jakey" Renesmee called, after walking in from school one day, drawing him out of one of his daydreams. She was closely followed by Emmett and Rosalie.
"Hey beautiful" Jacob dropped what he was doing to rush over to the front door to greet her - he made it in 3 steps before she had even had chance to take off her jacket.
He pulled her into the biggest hug he could get away with when he reached her.
"Where are Alice and the others?" he asked, noticing that Alice, Jasper, Edward and Bella were not coming in after them.
"They went to...erm...eat" said Renesmee, not answering directly.
Jake was confused with her cryptic description, but didn't want to break the hug, to him; those moments were far too precious. Looking over his girlfriend's shoulder, he could see a small, black haired girl stood in the doorway and it all made sense. She didn't want to say they were hunting in front of a human - that would just spark a line of questions that no-one wanted to answer.

"Jake, this is Hannah, she is my best friend from school" she announced proudly, reluctantly letting go of Jake.
Hannah showed no fear at all, even though she was never in any danger, the Cullens seemed to give off a vibe that told strangers to stay away, that it was for the best.
Hannah crossed the room, and held out her hand to shake Jake's. Jake took hers, his huge, russet coloured hand completely engulfed Hannah's small, delicate hand, but she smiled at him regardless and shook.
"I've heard so much about you Jake" she said, completing the handshake. "Ness never shuts up about you, I feel like I know everything about you" Hannah said laughing.

Carlisle and Esme, who were sat on the sofa, watching TV shot each other a quick look, wondering exactly how close Renesmee and Hannah really were, and how much she had really felt she could reveal. They knew their Grand-daughter could be trusted to keep their secret, but they also knew she would get over excited sometimes.
Carlisle walked over to Hannah "It's very nice to meet you Hannah, and it's a pleasure to welcome you into our home" he said in a soothing voice. "I'm Carlisle, Renesmee's father" he said, keeping up the pretence that Bella and Edward were Renesmee's brother and sister. "And this is her mother, Esme" he held out a hand, as Esme rose to her feet, and wrapped her arms round her husband's waist, smiling sweetly to Hannah, as a welcome.
"It's really lovely to meet all of you" said Hannah, beaming. She seemed genuinely pleased to be there.

"You haven't met them all yet" said Renesmee with a wide grin on her face. "You still have to meet the others, they should be back soon" she said. "Why don't we go to my room and listen to some music for a bit until they get back?" suggested Renesmee. She practically bounced on her feet with excitement.
She had always had her Aunt Alice to shop with and talk to about boys (when her Dad wasn't around to read her mind),and her Dad would try to educate her on what he would class as 'good music', but now, she had someone her own age, who couldn't read her mind, or her emotions, or see the future.

"Well, it was nice to have a chat to your big brother in the car on the way up" she said smiling at Emmett, who was clearly confused as to why Hannah was not scared of him, but gave her a smile none the less.
Emmett, more than the rest of the Cullens freaked people out, not just because he was a vampire, but because he was huge, as big as a bear. Although the others had had centuries of Emmett's intimidating behaviour, he always enjoyed the reactions of people who were seeing him for the first time.

But there was something about Hannah that Emmett liked. Maybe it was the fact that his niece had finally found a friend who would probably stick around for more than a few weeks, rather than running away as soon as she brought them back to the house, to meet the rest of the family.

"So, have you done your Biology homework yet?" asked Hannah, whilst flicking through the mountains of CD's in Renesmee's room.
"Yeah, was easy" said Renesmee, totally relaxed, laid on the floor of her room on her front, with her legs entwined in each other in the air. "You done?" she asked back.
"Think so, done as much as I'm going to be able to do, it should scrape me a 'B', maybe a 'B+' if I'm lucky, but to be honest, it's not my strongest subject, so suppose it's the best I can hope for".

"Mr Connett has been giving us quite easy homework lately though, but I'll bet he's just working up to something big, he's going to spring a massive pop quiz on us, I'm sure" said Renesmee, her mind wandering across the latest celebrity fashions.

"Well I haven't dreamt it yet, so chances are it may not happen" laughed Hannah, who then immediately spun round to face Renesmee and looked like she had seen a ghost. She clearly hadn't meant to reveal what she just did. Being so relaxed with her new best friend was obviously bringing out a side to Hannah that she wasn't sure about.

"What did you just say?" Renesmee threw the magazine messily on the floor next to her and sat up straight.

"Nothing...erm...I was only kidding" said Hannah, and gave off a very nervous laugh. "It was just a joke...really".

"C'mon Han, I know when you are joking, and your face is saying more than just 'I'm-having-a-joke'. What is it?"

"Erm…it's, well…it's nothing, really". Hannah's eyes darted towards the floor, and she began to shuffle her feet.

"It's ok, you can tell me, I won't laugh or make fun of you, I promise". She could see the hesitation in Hannah's wide eyes. "You're my best friend; you always will be, no matter what. Anyway, I'm sure you can't be any crazier than me". Renesmee laughed and patted the floor next to her, so that Hannah could join her. She did reluctantly, wringing her hands in and out of each other, nervous at how the conversation was going to go.

"You promise?" she asked. Renesmee crossed her finger over her heart, and took hold of Hannah's hand.

"Well, I've had it since I was about 12 years old or so. It's nothing really, probably just a lot of coincidences, but I've never told anyone about it", she was talking to the floor, as if somehow it was easier to talk to the floor than to her best friend. After all, the floor couldn't stop being her best friend, once it found out what a freak she was. "Sometimes, when I go to bed, I have dreams".

"That's not so bad, everyone dreams" said Renesmee, trying to soothe Hannah. She didn't need her Uncle Jasper's gift to figure out that Hannah needed support right now.

"It's not just that, but it sounds really silly when I say it out loud", she said letting go of Renesmee's, and started wringing her own hands again. Renesmee said nothing, letting Hannah continue at her own pace.
"Well...my dreams...sometimes...come true. It's just little things, but it still freaks me out when it happens" she continued, all the time, never taking her eyes off the cream, furry rug that they were both now sitting on.

"I don't understand though" said Renesmee, in her most calm voice, with a small smile on her face, to let Hannah know she wasn't making fun of her, "You must dream all of the time, how do you know which ones will come true?"

"I don't, not until it happens anyway. Or at least if I can remember the start of the dream, I usually know what's going to happen next". She turned her face upwards, and took in a long sharp breath. Blowing out, she returned her face to Renesmee's and continued. "It was just little things at first, like I would dream that Mum was making me pancakes on my birthday for breakfast and then lo and behold, I came down the stairs and there were pancakes waiting for me on the table. Or the year I guessed I was getting a new red bike for Christmas. The weirdest time was when I was 13 and I dreamt that we were going to Rimini, in Italy…Mum thought that I had been eavesdropping, because I didn't even know Rimini existed".

"Well, don't worry, I will not tell a living soul, it will be our secret" said Renesmee, winking at Hannah, with a wide, trusting smile.
Hannah smiled too, for the first time since she had started speaking. Then she let out a small laugh.

"It's actually quite nice to be able to speak to someone about it. Since my Grandma passed away, I hadn't told anyone. She used to get it too you see, although she had more dreams come true than me. It was when I 'saw' where we were going on holiday that she guessed I had it too".
She looked sad, and started staring at the floor again. "She used to write a lot of hers down in her journal when she was younger, so she could remember them, if any came true, she would know what was going to happen. She was a very clever woman, my Grandma. I miss her so much, because she was more of a Mum to me than my own Mum".
She paused for a breath, but then continued straight on. She had obviously wanted to get this particular secret off her chest for a very long time. "My Mother never understood our...well...you can't really call it a gift can you?" she asked, though she sounded hopeful that Renesmee would disagree with her. She of course thought it was a gift, a fantastic gift that she should not be ashamed of.

"Of course it's a gift, just because you want to keep it to yourself, doesn't mean to say it's any less special...that you're any less special".

"Thanks, but Mum never thought so. When my Grandma passed away a couple of years ago, I moved in with my Dad. I took Grandma's stuff with me when I moved though, I couldn't bear to be away from her completely, and I even took her dream journal and her diary from when she was a little girl. It's fascinating to read". She looked so happy, talking about her Grandma, like she was back with her.

Renesmee thought about her own Grandma's for a second.

Esme - the one she would always have around, never aging or changing, always there whenever she needed her.
Then there was Renee - she hadn't seen Renee since she was a small child, and imagined that she preferred it that way, as she wouldn't want to see her Grandma aging, to one day be gone.

Hannah continued "Mum and Dad split up just after I was born, and although Mum never remarried, my Dad did. He had another baby, my little brother, Manny. The lovable pain in my butt. I've not spoken to Mum in months now - she decided to go travelling with her friend, once I was out of her hair she had no other ties, being an only child and all, and since he hadn't seen me in so long, Dad didn't think I would be too much trouble. He was happy to take me in. To be honest, that was one of my dreams I hoped would come true - living with Dad. I was always destined to live with Dad I think" Hannah finished, smiling.

Renesmee sat thinking, whilst Hannah started looking through the magazine that Renesmee had only moments before discarded onto the floor. She thought about all of the heartache she must have gone through, to get where she is today. To become such a strong, and independent person, but to have also lost someone so close to her.

"C'mon, let's go downstairs, you can meet the rest. I think they came back a few minutes ago. Oh, you're going to love Alice, she's just like us" said Renesmee, sensing that Hannah had told her enough for one day, not wanting to push her for more. She stood up and in turn took Hannah's hands and pulled her to her feet.