Chapter Twelve:

Homework Turns Into a Secret Agent Dance Party

On Sunday, I woke up in my room, not sure how I got there. The last thing I remembered form the night before was staying up late with Jake and falling asleep in his living room.

I sat up and looked around. I saw Jake sitting on my window seat, his feet propped up on the wall and his head leaning against the pillows I had there. I knew he was awake; he had his Blackberry in his hand and he was typing something on the little keyboard. "What are you doing in here?" I said, my voice horse.

He shot up, knocking the pillows to the floor and nearly breaking the mirror to my vanity table. "Hey, you're awake," he said, sliding his phone into his pocket.

I nodded. "Yeah, I guess I am." I pushed the slippery silk sheets off my legs and stood up, stretching. "But again, what are you doing in here?" I asked, sauntering off to my closet and grabbing a pair of slipper socks.

He followed me, scratching the back of his head. "I fell asleep on your window seat last night when I brought you up here." I looked at him, thinking 'Duh.'

He came over and sat down next to me on the unnecessary couch Alice had insisted on putting in my closet. I looked at him, sliding my feet back and forth on the wood floor. He leaned over, placing his lips carefully on mine, as if he was afraid he'd break me. Without thinking, I leaned into him, deepening the kiss. He parted my lips and I felt his breath in my mouth, his hands snaking up my arms, slipping between my arms and rib cage to pick my up and place me on his lap. I slipped my arms around his neck just as someone cleared their throat.

I broke away from Jacob and Emmett was standing there, the phone in his hands. "Here," he said, handing it to me.

Confused, I took it and pressed it to my ear. "Hello?"

"Hey, Nessie, it's Annie," she said form the other line. "I'm sorry to be calling so early, but I have a question."

I looked at my clock on the wall. It wasn't that early, only eight thirty. "Yeah, Annie, what's up?"

She was silent for a minute, than spoke. "I need help with homework. Could I come over?"

I thought for a minute, going through the day in my head. Nothing was happening, why not? "Yeah, sure, you can."

I heard her sigh with relief. "Thank God. I was so confused on my math homework. I'm not as smart as some people." She said it in a way that made it sound like she was talking about me. "Okay, so I'll be over in a few minutes?"

"Yeah, no problem. We'll have breakfast ready for you by then, I'm sure."

She laughed. "Okay, great. See you then. By Nessie!"

The line went dead and I pressed the 'end' button, tossing the phone on the couch next to me. Jacob was looking at me with his eyebrows raised. "What?" I said, twisting my hair around on my fingers.

He shook his head. "Nothing. Let's go have breakfast," he said sliding me off his lap and taking my hand.

We walked down the hall and slowly descended down the stairs. I was surprised when Seth was sitting on the couch with Emmett and Jasper, watching the flat screen intently. I looked at it too. The football game. Scoffing, I went to the kitchen. "What's Seth still doing here? Hasn't school started for him and his students?" I asked, sitting down at the table and kicking my feet onto Jacob's lap.

Esme put three plates down on the table. When I looked at her, she smiled. "Alice can see almost everything, honey. She told me Annie was coming before Annie told you she was coming."

I shrugged and picked up my fork, stabbing a piece of pancake. I was about to eat it when the bell rang. "How did she-"

"I'll get it!" Emmett shouted, cutting me off. "Hey, Annie. Ness is in the kitchen."

A few seconds later, Annie came marching in, her backpack slung over her shoulder. "Hey, Nessie!" she said, sitting next to me. Jacob raised his eyebrows at her and I kicked him under the table. "Good morning."

I stopped, my glass of orange juice halfway to my mouth. "Hi, Annie," I said, confused. She smiled at me. "Are you okay?"

She laughed in a high pitched tone. "Of course I'm alright. Why wouldn't I be?"

"You're acting a little weird," I said, looking at her.

She furrowed her brow. "I am? Well, I guess that's because on last night, after I went out with Kyle, he asked me to be his girlfriend and I said yes," she said, pretending to think about the statement.

My eyes widened and a smile formed on my lips. "Really? Annie?" She nodded. "Oh, my God, that's great!" I said, getting up and hugging her. When I sat back down, Jacob was staring at her in astonishment. "Isn't Jacob?"

I kicked him again. "Oh, yeah, congrats, Annie."

She smiled and looked at me. "I never thought it would happen. I was just standing there after he dropped me off at my house and he went out to his car but came back two seconds later and kissed me. Than he asked me. I was in shock, but I said yes. Than he kissed me again. Oh, Nessie, it was so amazing." She rested her head on her hand.

I smiled at her and rested my head against Jacob's. "That's great, Annie," I said, actually happy for her but wondering inside if he was only doing this to make me jealous. Nice try, Kyle, I thought, smiling deviously. This girl is just fine where she is.

Annie, Jake and I finished our breakfast before she and I went up to my room to do her homework. That plan didn't work out that well. We ended up getting distracted by my closet. We were pretending to be secret agents, decked out in leggings, black t-shirts and black boots with ray bans dancing/sneaking around to Love Drunk by Boys like Girls when Emmett came knocking on the door.

"Come in!" I screamed as Annie grabbed my hands and spun me around. I looked at Emmett as best I could. He was laughing. "What do you want?"

"Esme says lunch is ready," he said, still laughing.

Annie and I stopped, sliding off our ray bans and I pressed pause on my iPod. "Really, it's lunch time already?" she said, looking at her cell phone.

He shrugged. "Apparently," he said, stumbling out of the room, laughing harder when he closed my door.

I shrugged. "Well, if Esme says so, than we better get going." She started to unzip the boots on her feet. "What are you doing?" I said, smiling deviously. I slid my sunglasses off. "We are secret agents for the rest of the day." I reached down and tightened the laces to my Converse boots before taking her hand and running down the hall. We slid down the railing and landed on the floor in a spy crouch. "This is Red 1, reporting that there is no food in sight, sir. We'll check the kitchen."

Annie laughed at me and we stood up, walking into the kitchen. Jacob, Quil and Claire were already there. "Annie, this is Quil and Claire, friends of Jake and I." I looked at them. "Quil and Claire, Annie. Where's Seth?"

Jake pointed to the door. "He went to get some soda from the tiny store on the corner," he said, crunching into a big pickle. I raised one eyebrow at him and he extending the pickle to me. "Want some?"

I laughed once, sitting in my spot and taking a bite from it. "Thank you, love," I said, picking a chip up off his plate and eating it. I looked up and Annie was standing there awkwardly. "Well, sit, Annie."

She plopped herself in the empty spot in between Claire and where Seth would be sitting. "So, Annie, did you meet Nessie at school?"

Annie nodded. "Yeah, I did. I had asked her brother, Jasper, to the dance and he said no, than told me to go out with Kyle, my boyfriend." She squealed. "So than Nessie invited me to eat lunch with her family and now we're here, dancing around in her room and pretending to be secret agents," she said, shrugging.

I laughed. "Yeah, we're real losers," I said, anticipating the moment Seth was going to get back with the sodas.

Annie looked at Quil and Claire. "You are you two, like…"

She moved her hand between them asking they were together. Claire nodded. "Yeah, he's actually fathering my child," she said dully, dramatically putting her hand over her small baby bump.

Annie's mouth opened in surprise and she quickly closed it. "Oh, well, that's… that's… great," she said, not really sure what to say to that.

Claire's eyes became sad. "Yes, I remember the night I received the information like it was yesterday," she said, becoming the actress we all knew she was going to be.

I rolled my eyes at her. "Stop with the dramatics, Claire," I said, eating another chip.

She glared daggers at me, but took a sip of her water, scowling into her sandwich. A few minutes later, I looked up and saw Seth standing in the door. "Hey, what took… you… so…" My words slowed and finally quieted when I saw Seth looking at Annie.

I knew that look. It was the look Jacob had given me countless times. The look that was saying 'You are my goddess and I'll do whatever you want me to do.' The look that said, 'I'll love you forever.' The look that said 'You're beautiful.' I knew what was going on.

Seth.

Imprinted.

On.

Annie.

This was not good.
~*~

Chapter Thirteen:

Bright Yellow Couldn't Make This Day More Dreary. Irony Much?

Seth still stood there, looking at Annie. She was oblivious to him, chatting away with Claire about Claire's favorite show, Big Bang Theory. Seth was dazed, his eyes sort of glazed over, looking like glass. Jake and Quil looked from him, to each other, than to me. I did the same, sneaking peaks of Annie when I could. She was still talking to Claire.

While Annie was gabbing away, Claire looked up to see why the room had gone silent. When she saw what was going on, she got a terrified look on her face, her eyes widening like a dear in the headlights. She sort of reminded me of Bambi. She quickly continued her conversation with Annie, trying to distract her.

I looked at Seth one more time before looking to Jake frantically. "What do we do?" I mouthed, my eyebrows creasing together.

He shrugged and looked to Quil. So did I. Suddenly, he shouted Seth's name really loudly. "Seth!" He looked away from Annie and the two girls looked up, startled. "What took you so long? We've been waiting for the soda for, like, ten minutes," he said, catching Seth's attention only briefly.

Seth came over and sat down next to Annie in the only available spot left. I felt my hear beat quicken. "Sorry," he said in monotone, looking at Annie out of the corner of his eyes. I fought back the urge to kick him under the table. "The, uh, line was long," he said, putting a six pack of Cokes on the table.

Annie reached out and broke one off. "Anyone mind if I have one?" she asked, popping the can open. We all shrugged and she turned to Seth. "I don't think we've met." She stuck her hand out to him.

"And I don't think you should meet," I hissed under my breath. Ugh, Dad's just going to kill me, I thought, burying my face in Jake's chest.

"I'm Annie," she said, completely unaware of what I just said. Seth took her hand and shook it. They both jumped, probably feeling the adrenaline rush I feel whenever I touch Jacob. I smacked my hand to my forehead and Annie looked at me for a split second before going back to Seth.

"I'm Seth," he said, his eyes shinning like the sun after it's been raining for a week straight. "Nice to meet you."

My hands clenched into fists. My blood felt like it was churning around and it was going to boil over. I was getting a feeling in the pit of my stomach that made me want to run to the bathroom and throw up all that I'd eaten in my entire life.
~*~

When Annie left at around ten thirty that night Dad called a family meeting, obviously knowing what was going on in each of our heads.

So there we sat, the whole family plus the werewolves lingering from the party, which happened a week ago. Honestly, people, don't you have lives? I thought, settling myself into Jacob's lap.

Dad stood by the fireplace, his head pressed against the wall and his hands gripping the mantel. "As some of you may know, Seth has imprinted on Renesmee's new friend, Annie Fitzgerald," he said into the wall, his hands loosening on the wooden mantel and falling to his sides.

Alice started bouncing in her seat, shacking the whole couch, her hand raised high in the air. "Ooh, ooh, I knew! I knew!" she said, smiling proudly.

Dad sighed. "Yes, Alice, we know you knew," he said, turning around to face everyone. "So, naturally, we're all pleased for him, but there is conflict blocking it all."

Seth's face got all twisted. "Like what?" he said, crossing his arms over his chest and leaning against the railing to the stairs.

I forced a laugh. "Well, first, she's got a boyfriend," I said, raising one eyebrow at him. "And second, she's human and knows nothing about me, my family or any of the wolves. I doubt she even believes that stuff exists more than I believe that a witchwill save my life."

Seth made a real laugh. "Well, do you believe a witch will save your life?"

"No!"

He frowned. "Renesmee Carlie Cullen," Dad snapped, stroking my hair. "Calm yourself." Jasper snickered in the corner but I felt relaxed instantly. I nodded once to him. Dad stood still for a minute, his hand placed on the back on my head. I did my best to shift the memory of seeing Seth standing there in the doorway when he first saw Annie, but it was hard, considering my anger. "Thank you, Renesmee," he said before returning to the mantel.

Everyone was staring at him. "What are we supposed to do?" Rosalie said, snuggling into Emmett's side.

"Yeah, we can't keep Seth and Annie apart like this forever. There's going to come a time where they won't be able to keep their hands off each other if we do," Emmett piped up, twisting his fingers through Rosalie's hair.

Everybody was silent. "We'll tell her," Carlisle said, leaning forward on his elbows and looking around at everyone. "We'll tell her tomorrow."
~*~

When I woke up, for some reason, I was in an unusually good mood. I looked across the room into my full length mirror and there was a smile on my face. I pushed back the silk covers and crawled over to the end on my bed, looking at the clock on the wall. I nearly fell off the edge when I saw that it was five thirty, but at least now I had all the time I wanted to get ready for school.

"I am going to take a bubble bath," I mused aloud, walking through my closet and into my bathroom. I filled up the tub and poured half the bottle of soap inside, sloshing the water around before getting undressed, putting my hair up into a hair clip and sliding into the steaming hot water. "Ah, I think I should get up at five thirty every day."

"Nessie?" someone said. Jake, I thought, sliding down lower into the tub, hiding the body parts he didn't need to see. "Ness, where are you?"

"I'm in the bathroom!" I said, grabbing the sliding glass door and pulling it closed, the sound of the wheels on the metal tracks squeaking as I yanked it harshly across the rim of the tub. "What do you want?" I asked, hiding behind the door.

Jacob walked in wearing only a pair of sweatpants turned into shorts and sat down on my sink. "Hey," he said, crossing his arms over his chest. My body shook when his muscles tightened, making the water splash around in the tub.

I raised my eyebrows at him. "Jacob, is there some reason you are interrupting my very relaxing bubble bath?" I said, pushing my bangs out of my face.

He nodded. "I was talking to Seth this morning and he was wondering if you're going to tell Annie at lunch. If so, he might be paying a little visit."

I let my head fall onto the door. "I guess so. I just feel so bad because she just got together with Kyle and now she has to tell him she doesn't love him, because, you know, she doesn't," I said, running my bubbly hand over my face.

Jake laughed and grabbed a towel, sitting on the floor next to the tub and wiping away the bubbles on my face. "Well, that's the way life is, pumpkin," he said, giving me a quick peck on the lips before tapping my nose with his hands and walking out of the bathroom.

When I finished my bubble bath, I wrapped the towel Jake used around my body. I took a deep breath and I could smell him, not cologne, but Jake, the musky, woodsy smell he always had and I loved. I smiled again and went into my closet, putting on my undergarments and walking around, trying to figure out what to wear. I looked out the sunroof above me. The sun was up and it was nice and sunny out today and I felt like wearing something bright and bubbly. Ha, bubbly! And I just took a bubble bath. Go figure. I smacked myself in the head and grabbed a yellow sundress, tugging it over my head and looking in the mirror.

"Shoes, I need shoes," I said, walking over to the place where Alice stored my sneakers. I grabbed a pair of white Chuck Taylor converse and stuffed them on my feet before walking out of my room and down stairs.

Jake and Seth were sitting on the couch, Jacob giving him a look of encouragement. "Seth, it's going to be fine. I was just as nervous when I told Nessie about the imprinting thing. And she was only two. Annie is seventeen. It'll be fine."

I sat down next to Seth, feeling badly about what I said last night. "Seth, honey," I said, stroking his cheek, "it's going to be okay. I promise. And if it doesn't work out today, well, we'll keep trying, okay?"

He nodded. "Yeah, I guess you're right," he said, patting my knee and standing up, grabbing the remote.

I gave him a small reassuring smile. "Boy, I sure hope so."