T.J. POV
Well here I am 17 years old about to turn 18 and I haven't phased...yet. Apparently that's what it's called, phasing. I guess this gives a whole new meaning to the phrase "going through a phase". I know lame joke but you gotta admit it was alittle funny. Anyway, for the past couple of years, I've been getting a bit more insight on the wolves and the vampires. I think it's kinda funny how so many people think Sam started a cult. If they knew the truth, they'd probably shit their pants. Honestly horse sized wolves? how much fun is that?
On the vampire end, well it's a little more grim. A while back, I had a vision about three nomads coming into the area to have "fun." They picked off a few humans during this time. All the humans thought it was some kind of animal, but the Cullens knew better. Hell they even took out the sadistic one called James after he tried to kill Bella. Speaking of Bella, I really need to talk to this girl, figure out what her deal is. I mean either she has the worst luck ever or she's a monster magnet. Add the fact that she's clumsey as hell and well...it amazes me that she's still amongst the living.
Anyway, as for the other two, Laurent met his end at the hands, or in this case paws of my brothers. Then there's Victoria, the red head on a mission to get rid of Bella. This vendetta started after the Cullens got rid of her mate. To her, this is an eye for an eye situation. Because of her, alot of people started phasing. As far as I'm concerned her ass needs to go.
Other Vampires in the loop include the Volturi and their Guard. There's Aro, Caius, and Marcus or the big three as I like to call them. To be honest, they're a little creepy. They're so pale that they would give Casper a run for his money. Aro is just the personification of creep, Caius is an arrogant and vicious bastard, and Marcus...well he kinda looks like he doesn't want to be there. The guard consits of Alec, his sister Jane, Demetri, and Felix. The only ones that give me cause for concern and the last three I mentioned. Jane is psychotic in every sense of the word. No one can out run Demitri and while Felix doesn't have a gift, he's still pretty imposing.
The only reason they got involved was because Edward wanted them to kill him. They refused, citing that they needed a reason to do it, i.e. he needs to expose their world. He would've succeeded if Alice and Bella didn't stop him. That became another problem because Aro wanted to meet her. Despite protest from Caius, Aro let them go because Alice showed him one of her visions where Bella became a vampire. He told them to make preperations and let them know when it would happen. Edward saw Aro thinking about making him and Alice join the guard. He wants Edward but Alice is someone he wants the most. He says he wants her gift and he saw Aro thinking vividly about her and Edward in black cloaks with red eyes.
After that the family decided to have a vote. All of them voted for Bella to be changed except Rosalie. Not that surprising considering her attitude towards Bella, but her reasoning did throw me for a loop. She said she never chose this life and wishes she had someone to say no for her. Now that I think about it none of them chose to be a vampire. I think Bella might be the first person to ever choose this life. Again, a conversation with this girl is a must.
The pack's not taking this too well either, especially Jake. He and Bella got really close after the Cullens left, but her heart doesn't belong to him. I've seen it, she chooses Edward in the end. Sam's kinda pissed with her, because he thought she would have just as much cause to hate the Cullens as he does. Paul is...well he's Paul doesn't take much to piss him off. Jared's almost always busy sucking face with Kim when's he's not, he's kissing Sam's ass. Quil and Embry are neither here nor there on this subject. As long as the Cullens stick to their land and abide by the treaty, they really don't care. Leah's just mad at the Sam half the time and just takes it out on us. And she directly blames the Cullens for her phasing, even though they weren't aware of the effect they had on our people. Seth doesn't mind being a wolf or hanging out with vampires and neither will I. Hell he and Edward become good friends.
I've been growing a little impatient with not phasing yet. For the better half of 4 years I've been focusing hard on how to tune everything and everyone out. I don't want anyone knowing my secret just yet. Besides it's not so easy to fill your head with mindless chatter as it is to just think naturally. But I was getting better at it and I wanted so desperatley to try it out. I tried to force it by going to meet Carlisle at the hospital. I "fell" down a flight of stairs and dislocated my shoulder. Mom took me to the hospital and lucky me Carlilse was the one to patch me up. I was a little pissed when nothing happened, but it just reinforces my belief that he and his family are not dangerous. On the drive home, mom asked me how I fell I told her I threw myself down the stairs. Let's just say she wasn't too happy with that.
"Why the hell did you do that Thomas? You could've died!"
"I was trying to phase. I was trying to force it."
"Why? and how?"
"I'm just tired of waiting mom. I should be out there already, a lot of people have gotten hurt and I'm tired of sitting on the side lines."
"I don't see how you could've done that by getting hurt."
I was dreading telling her this. She knows that there are other forces at work besides the wolves, but I didn't know how to tell her there are vampires. I sure as hell didn't want to tell her that she works with one. But she wanted to know about this life, so I guess I don't have a choice.
"Do you remember the story about the cold ones?" She nodded
"Well, that story is about...vampires." the look she gave was funny, but I held back my laughter.
"How long have you known?"
"About?" I asked.
"About the sky being blue. what do you think? I was talking about vampires" Over the years, my mom has devolped...a habit of sorts. When she was mad she was mad, but when she was concerned or annoyed she would get sarcastic. I was having difficulty trying to keep a straight face, but this is serious so I have to keep my cool.
"Well, since I was about 12"
"And you thought you didn't need to tell me about this? about the pe...things you need to kill?"
"Don't be like that mom. Some vampires have no regard for human life, I've seen it. But there are those who do value human life and make sure that no one gets hurt."
She snorted "Sure, next your going to tell me up is down and left is right." and she started to chuckle lightly.
I was getting a little irritated with her and I was still hesitant to tell her the rest. But I really needed to make this point.
"Mom please, I know it's hard to take in but they do exist. Hell they don't even feed on humans, they feed on animals."
"Really?" she said with geniune intrest.
"Yes. I'm going to fight along side them and..."
"And?"
"Part of it's going to be awsome"
"But?"
"But someone's going to get hurt. Before you start freaking out it's not me."
"Who is it?"
"Jacob"
"Black?" I nodded.
"How bad?"
"Pretty bad. Good thing one of the vampires is a doctor or..." That's when I realized my mistake. I was supposed to take this slow but she pulled to the side of the road and looked at me with concerned eyes.
"Did you say doctor? do they work at the hospital? tell me Thomas I need to know!"
"Yes mom, one of them is a doctor."
"It's someone on the night shift isn't? they can't come out into the sun right? they'll blow up or something. Wait what am I saying this is forks there's hardly any sun at all! it's the perfect place for them to thrive." I started laughing uncontrollably, I didn't mean to but watching my mom get worked up was funny as hell.
"This is not funny Thomas! we have to warn as many-
I threw up my good hand to stop her.
"No we can't tell anyone about this mom."
"Why the hell not?"
"Well A, this life is supposed to remain secret, and B if you go around telling people about giant wolves and vampires...well they'll have you commited" I said with a snort.
"But-
"No mom we can't. Besides mom I have a good feeling about all of this"
"If you say so." The rest of the ride was silent. When we got home, I decided not to tell about Carlisle just yet. She just found about vampires, I was going to let her process that first. I was kinda scared that she would flip out more if she found out. I mean my mom is not a violent person but she would throw a fit. Her heart would be in the right place of course, but she tends to jump conclusions without knowing everything.
When we got into the living room, mom brought me out of my thoughts by saying
"You look so much like him."
"Like who?" I asked.
"Your father."
I looked in the mirror and she was right, I had his nose, cheek bones, jaw line. But the two biggest differences are my green eyes and wavy hair. I get those from my mother. I thought it was odd she would just mention my dad after the talk we had.
"What brought that on?" I asked
"what brought what on?" she asked
"What brought on this talk of dad, especially after talking about...well you know."
"Before you got hurt I wanted to show you something. Come with me." She lead me out back to the shed and took out a key to unlock the padlock. I was never allowed in there when I was younger and as I got older, I only went in there if my grandma asked me too. I was kinda nervous about what she might show me, but when we got in she pulled a tarp off of something. It was a black 850 cc Norton Comando motorcycle. It looked like it was in great shape but something told that this was here for awhile.
Mom must have noticed that I was looking and said
"It was your dad's"
"Really?" I asked a little shocked.
"Yeah. He got it after he turned 18 and I used to ride it with him." she said with a warm smile.
"How come it's in here?"
"Well, don't take this the wrong way but it's in here because of you." she snorted.
I cocked my head to the side and said "Say what now?"
She laughed "What I mean is, after I found out I was pregnant, he decided to get something a little more practical. He wanted to sell the bike but I convinced him to keep it. I told him that it would make a great gift for our kids."
She went quiet for a bit I guess thinking about him not only brought up good memories, but reminded her that she felt lonely. I walked over to her and threw my good arm around her shoulder. Her head was rested on my shoulders.
"I miss him" she said.
"Me too ma. Me too." We stayed like that for about 5 minutes before she said
"Ok enough of that let's get down to business." she said with a smile "It's yours but don't think your going to ride it just yet. I want you to get your motorcycle liscense, I want you to have a steady job, and you won't be riding it until way after your arm is healed. Got it?"
"Got it."
"Well consider it an earlier graduation present...you are graduating right? I mean this wolf business is not going to affect your studies is it?"
"Yes mom I am actually I might end up graduating early. I spoke to a few of my teachers and I got lots of credit so I can graduate at the end of this semester if I want."
"Ok well that one less thing to worry about I suppose."
"Don't worry mom it will all work out. Look I'll apply for a job at Dowlings, I'll work in the office or something."
"I don't know about that T.J. Mr. Dowling is not going to just hire anyone to work in the office or to work for him in general."
"Not to sound like an ass mom but have you seen his office staff? If their not fumbling around their losing important files. And if they're not doing that, they're just sitting on their asses. The mechanics seem to be the only ones who know how to do their jobs yet they get treated like dogs."
"Well you got a point there but I'm still a bit iffy about it."
"Don't worry mom I'll work my magic." I said with a smile. After I graduated at the end of the semester I did. Just like mom said, Dowling was hesitant at first but I told him that it would be a trial basis. I mess up once and I'm out. But I didn't, infact I revamed the entire office system and the delivery system.
I offered to do the books once citing that I had a love for numbers. He didn't mind but he said I needed to speak to the one who was in charge of accounting; Chester Banks. I met Chester one morning and he didn't give me a chance. I believe his exact words were 'I don't need a little brat like you screwing with my business. Now fuck of and die' I was tempted to rip his throat out but that would've done more harm than good. I was actually interested in why he felt so threatened by my pressence.
I spoke to Mr. Dowling about it and he said that was out of character for Chester, and he would look into it. Over the next few days with Dowling looking into it, Chester's behavior became a little more erattic. I had a vision of him and some blonde playing tonsil hockey in his office. Only I'm pretty sure that she wasn't his wife. The next day Dowling caught the two of them and he said that he would investigate these two. If he found anything more incriminating he would drop both of their asses. After a week of "investigation" he found out that Chester was skimming off a little bit from the earnings. It was enough to not get noticed but there was still money that was missing. Dowling personally threw Chester out on his ass and told him to never come back. He walked over to me and asked me to take his spot and to fix the problem. Didn't take to long too get all of his books squared after that. Banks didn't do much damage but if he kept up with it, things would've been worse.
Everything was smooth sailing for awhile. It was the middle of April. I started to get a bit snappy but I guess I'm close to phasing. My suspicions were confirmed when Jacob would look over at me as if he were waiting. He's been that way since he saw me a few weeks ago. It was a slow day today so boss man said we could head out early. On my way out I saw that asshat Banks waiting outside. When he saw me he just glared at me. I tried to avoid him like the plauge until he started yelling.
"Matthews!"
"Yes Banks, how may I help you on this fine afternoon?" I said sarcastically. He made his way over to me as anger took over his features.
"What gives you the right to ruin my life huh asshole?" I started chuckling when he said that. He had to be joking but when I looked at him he got even more pissed.
"So let me get this straight...you fuck the office slut behind your wife's back, get caught stealing from your employer, and it's all my fault? Are you fucking kidding me?" I started shaking at this point.
He pulled his right arm back and threw a punch. Well he tried to at least, I caught his hand and twisted his arm. I twisted it so hard and fast I felt and heard his forearm snap. He fell to the ground and started screaming.
"I'll get you for this Matthews! Your ass is mine!"
I didn't say anything because I couldn't stop shaking at this point. I felt this intense heat in the pit of my stomach. I started to walk over to him until I felt someone grab my shoulder. I turned around and it was Jacob. He leant forward and whispered
"I'll deal with him. You should go to the forest...now" There was a hint of anger in his voice but it wasn't aimed at me. I started heading towards the forest. I could hear Banks calling after me but Jacob silenced him.
"Can it asshat. That could of gone a lot worse for you be glad that it didn't. And don't bother trying to go the legal route, because any judge with half a brain would never take your shady ass seriously. So leave before I call the cops."
Despite being angry I had to smile at that. Me and Jake both thought Banks was, for lack of a better word an asshat. I ran deeper into the forest and let the heat take over. Next thing I know I was on all fours running as if there was no tomorrow. Today is April 15 and today would be burned into my memory. Today my life went through a rebirth of sorts. Today I became apart of something bigger than myself. Today I became a wolf.