Sorry, guys, I posted the wrong chapter accidentally. If any of you noticed that that something seemed to be missing it was because I skipped over an entire chapter. Sorry again.

V

Relationships

The next two weeks went by in a blur. Rose, Amber and I became increasingly closer and I was even making friends in some of my other classes. School must have been wearing me out because I went to bed earlier and woke up later. Alice didn't come to do my hair or pick out my clothes so I wound up in jeans and t-shirts. My hair tumbled down my back unbraided or pulled back.

I was still exceedingly beautiful, but I knew Alice would have had a fit if she had seen me dressed this way. Good, I thought, I'm tired of always trying to please her when she obviously wants nothing to do with me.

When I got to the garage my car was gone and the Volvo was in its place. I growled under my breath. It was fine that I couldn't drive my car to school, but for them to take my car willy nilly was an outrage. I took a deep breath before climbing into the car and driving to school.

Jacob had come over a few times, but we hadn't spoken since that night. I had overheard him talking to my mother about leaving at the end of the week. They had only waited this long because Sue had found out about Seth's kidnapping and had become a wreck. Leah decided to stay with her which meant Sam and Jacob had to find a replacement.

"Nessie!" I heard Rose call as soon as I pulled into the parking lot. She was flagging me down from the cafeteria. Amber and Sebastian were with her along with a few new faces and I smiled and hurried over to them. My worries from last night were overlapped by my joy at seeing my friends again.

"Good morning," I breathed as I approached.

"Nessie, this is Travis, Hailey and Jason."

"Hey," Jason said, "we have Spanish together, right?" I eyed him carefully. He had short brown hair and green eyes and was only a few inches taller than me. Did I remember seeing him yesterday? I was racking my brain when the girl answered for me.

"She's not going to remember everyone she meets, Jace," Hailey told him. He looked disappointed. He had clearly hoped to make a strong impression on me. I gave him a halfhearted smile and shrugged.

"Travis is from La Push," Amber told me, "but since he lives on the border, he came to Forks High." I nodded an understanding and reached out to shake Travis' hand. He was Quileute, I was certain. He had the same tanned skin and black hair and eyes as the wolves, but he seemed small to be a wolf. I wondered if he knew who I was, but he just smiled and took my hand.

"It's nice to meet you," I said. I wondered what had happened to the regulars, but decided not to ask. Hailey was as short as Amber and a bit rounder with big, hazel eyes surrounded by thick, black eyeliner. She was blonde, like Amber, and it hung past her shoulders. It was obvious that these three were friends with Rose and the others by association only.

"We have to go, Rose," Sebastian told her. Rose nodded and let him lead her away. I thought it was strange that he hadn't said a word of good-bye to Amber, but she didn't seem bothered by it so I let it drop. As they disappeared I realized they had left us alone with nothing to talk about. We stood uncomfortably for a while, each of us trying to think of something to say.

"So, Nessie," Hailey piped, "a bombshell like you must have a dozen boyfriends, am I right?" She said the last bit as though it were one word. I flushed.

"No, I don't have any boyfriends," I replied. My mind brought up a picture of Jacob unwillingly.

"Why not?" Travis demanded, "No one good enough?" I shook my head, flustered at the choice of topic.

"No, I just haven't been around many boys in my life. At least, none that I wasn't related to." They didn't push it and I was grateful, but as the conversation died the awkwardness returned and we finally left to our classes in silence.

"Those are some of Rose's other friends," Amber explained, "She has several groups that she mingles with and they don't really mesh well together. So she spends different parts of her week with different groups."

"They don't get jealous of each other?" Amber laughed.

"No, but every year on her birthday when everyone gathers there are obvious rifts where the groups are split." Amber shook her head at a memory.

"How many groups does she have?" We entered Mr. Mason's class then and took our seats in the back of the class. We had finally moved past Macbeth and on to Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre.

"Five, I think," Amber told me at our desks, "maybe more. I'm really not sure since she's always with new people."

"Do you have another group?" Amber seemed confused at my question, "Luke and Owen told me that you didn't become friends with Rose until you started dating Sebastian."

"Oh, well I did, but they don't really talk to me anymore."

"Why not?"

"I suppose there was conflict between them about my dating Sebastian because everyone liked him. Eventually it became so bad that I broke up with him, but when they still didn't want to talk to me we got back together."

"I heard you two broke up, but I didn't know the reason." Amber nodded.

"Yeah, well after that I stopped hanging out with them and Rose introduced me to all of her friends."

"You know, I can't help but notice that everyone reveres Rose as a sort of superhero. I can kind of see why, though," Amber thought about that before replying.

"I suppose we sort of do because, in a way, Rose has saved us all," I stared at the chalkboard Mr. Mason had been writing on.

"I wish people thought of me the way you all think of her." I thought about everyone that had met me. I wasn't a superhero, I hadn't saved anyone. I was something fragile. Sometimes more trouble than I was worth.

I shook my head and the depressing thoughts fluttered away. These mood swings kept catching me off guard and I wished they would stop.

"People don't know you yet. I'm sure if you give it time everyone will see you the way you want them to." She said this with such confidence that I believed just what she was saying.

When we finally got to Mrs. Tanner's class, my usual good mood had returned. Rose bounded over to us and engulfed us in hugs before pulling us into the almost empty classroom. We were a few minutes early and there was only one other student in the classroom. He was a small boy that had secluded himself in the desk furthest from the door and closest to the teacher's desk. He had glasses that seemed too big for his thin face and greasy hair.

"Good morning, Garrett!" Rose called cheerfully. Garrett looked at her, his face turned red instantaneously and he stammered a greeting back to her. As he turned back around, his eyes caught mine and I heard his heart slam in his chest. I ducked my head and took my seat between Amber and Rose.

"So that guy you were with the other day," Rose started, "is he your boyfriend?"

"No," I said, but it something in my voice had her arching her eyebrow.

"She said she doesn't have a boyfriend," Amber said coming to my defense.

"Well in that case, I'll tell you something good." I didn't like the sound of that.

"Rose, that isn't nice!" Rose shot Amber with a sharp look.

"You remember Jason, right?" she asked, but continued without waiting for my response, "Well, he's single and cute and he likes you." My cheeks were on fire and I stared at my desk, the only place I felt safe to look.

"Rose!" Amber scolded. Rose seemed unabashed, shrugging and leaning back in her chair.

"I think they'd make a nice couple."

"I don't think that I'm ready to date someone I met two hours ago." I finally answered. Rose frowned again.

"Well, you do have Spanish together."

"Come on, Rose, can't you drop it? She's been here two weeks."

"Yeah, yeah," Rose said a little grumpily. She folded her arms over her chest and stared to the front of the class. When another boy took the seat in front of her, she started a conversation with him, ignoring Amber and me completely.

"Don't worry about it, as mature as she acts, she's really just a five year old in a teenage girl's body." Amber told me loudly. Rose snorted, but continued to ignore us.

"It's a wonder we don't get along better then. After all, I'm a seven year old in a teenage girl's body." Rose turned to peer at me curiously. I froze. I had meant to say that in my head, but I had slipped.

"Ha." Rose laughed drily, "So you're a comedian. Good to know." I breathed a sigh of relief.

"You three!" Mrs. Tanner snapped and our heads bobbed up all at once. Mrs. Tanner was a short, plump woman with a pinched face and beady, black eyes. She had a permanent scowl on her face that was caked in make-up. She smelled like she bathed in perfume and the stench was revolting. "You can either stop talking or you can have detention, which would you prefer?"

"I was just trying to explain to Nessie the difference between sine, cosine, and tangent," Rose told her as she made her eyes wide and innocent. Mrs. Tanner huffed a bit about me raising my hand next time, but said no more as she continued her lecture.

After class ended, I told Amber and Rose that I would see them at lunch before heading to Spanish. Jason was flagging me down from his seat by the window. I really didn't have anywhere else to sit, so I took the seat beside him. He beamed at me as I sat down.

"Hello again," I greeted. That was all he needed before launching into an in depth run through of his entire life. He had been born and raised in Forks, but he wanted to go somewhere sunny after high school. I nodded, but I wasn't paying too much attention. I looked around the classroom and recognized several faces. I still couldn't put names to the faces, but I remembered them.

Just then, a face I hadn't seen before appeared. He was about as tall as my father with dusty blonde hair and eyes that were such a deep shade of blue they almost looked violet. He was incredibly attractive even by vampire standards and seemed to be popular. He seemed to notice me then, looking up into my eyes. I felt my heart twist and I wondered what had happened.

"New girl?" I heard him ask another boy in the class. The boy turned to look at me as though the gorgeous boy would have been referring to someone else.

"Yeah, Chief Swan's niece," the other boy replied seemingly reluctant. I held my breath as the blonde boy strode over to my desk. Jason shut up as the blonde boy stood in front of my desk.

"Hi," he said easily, "My name's Cole." I felt my lungs fill with air.

"Renesmee," I replied.

"Ruh-nez-may," he repeated drawing out each syllable. I felt my cheeks heat at my name on his lips.

"We were in the middle of a conversation, Braden," Jason said venomously from behind me, "maybe you should go back to Cancun." Cole looked up as though he had just noticed the desk beside mine. He seemed unperturbed by Jason's tone.

"You may have been speaking, but she was clearly falling asleep." Jason flushed and was about to retort when the Spanish teacher entered the classroom.

"Mr. Braden, welcome back. Now, if you would be so kind to take a seat we will be able to begin our lesson."

"Lo siento, Señora." He returned to the empty seat beside the boy from before. I was disappointed. I had hoped we would have been able to talk further.

Even more disappointing was that he didn't seem to be in lunch with me. I joined Rose and Amber for lunch surprised to find that they had already heard about the incident in Spanish. Rose was unnervingly quiet and I was dying to know what she was thinking.

"Cole Braden is the school's notorious play boy," Amber was telling me, "he's dated just about every girl in town and cheated on just as many. He was in Cancun, Mexico for the past three weeks because his father went on a business trip near there." I frowned. The angelic boy I had met earlier couldn't possibly be capable of such atrocities.

"Cole Braden…." There was a chorus of grumbles that sounded around the mention of his name.

"Did you even try to get to know Jason?" Amber demanded.

"I thought you were on my side with that?" I argued. Amber crossed her arms in annoyance.

"If Rose wants to hang out with Cole, we shouldn't stop her," Rose stated. The table grew very quiet.

"Rose…." Rose held her hand up to stop whatever it was they were going to say.

"People are free to make their own decisions and their own mistakes. Can we all agree that there are some things that people need to do on their own?" Everyone nodded mutely.

"Are you really okay, Rose?" I asked because she hadn't smiled since Cole's name had come up. Rose finally looked at me and smiled. She put her hands on Luke's––which were around her waist again––before nodding.

"I mean what I say." And I believed her because she hadn't yet said anything to me that wasn't what she really meant.