Chapter 10
Bella and I walked slowly towards the house with the sun rising behind us. The pale outline of the light glowed through the clouds. Overcast again. Alice wasn't anticipating a sunny day in Enumclaw until next Wednesday. I held Bella's hand in mine as she suppressed a giggle.
"What's so funny," I asked with a raised eyebrow.
"I feel like Adam and Eve. We just got kicked out of the garden and now we have to face a world full of problems."
"That's a good way to put it. You know, we could call in sick if you wanted to. I know a doctor who could get us a note."
"Please don't tempt me. We have way too much on our plate right now to be that selfish. Let's run back and get dressed to see if Ness and Jake got in safe last night."
I gave her a quick smile and started running full stride. Bella kept up well enough, but the tricky part was going to be getting back into the house without being seen. I held in my right hand a bundle of ripped fabric that had once been our clothes. Nothing had really been salvageable.
"Shhh," I whispered. Not that any alert member of my family wouldn't have heard me. I took my chances though and led Bella to the back part of the house where the basement door was. "Wait here."
I walked forward and listened intently for any thoughts inside the house. Carlisle was in his study typing away at his computer. Esme was in the upstairs craft room cutting paper with scissors. Jasper and Alice weren't present, but I could hear Emmett and Rose having at it in their own bedroom. Two doors away in the basement, I heard Nessie's breathing and Jacob's heavy snoring next to her. So much for separate rooms…
"Okay, coast is clear," I whispered. Bella took my hand again as we walked forward to push the door open. Unfortunately, the hinges creaked giving us completely away, and I could hear Emmett and Rose becoming alert of someone entering the house.
"Run!" I yelled dropping the clothing at the threshold. Two seconds later, Bella and I were behind the door, locking it behind us. Not that the lock held any purpose at all, but the gesture stated enough.
"Hey Edward, you left something out here!" Emmett came stomping around to the front of our door.
"Great," I moaned.
"What is it?" Bella asked.
"Our clothes. I dropped them when we ran into the house. I think Emmett found them."
"Emmett! Not a word! Don't make me bring up our arm wrestling match! Not one word, do you hear me?"
"Aww come on Bells, I think we're long overdue for a rematch. Eddie, why on earth were you carrying old cleaning rags inside the house? These aren't your clothes are they? Now what could you have been doing- - in the woods, on a hunting trip nonetheless that involves stripping naked? Mauled by a bear perhaps?"
"Emmett," Bella growled. She was now dressing herself in a pair of sweats left on the dresser next to us. I would have fought for her to stay undressed until at least six in the morning, but I knew Emmett would only make matters worse if we let him continue. She handed me some pants, and I slipped them on. "Emmett, put the clothes down and walk away. Ness is still sleeping, don't wake her up."
Bella opened the door for us to find Emmett wide eyed and grinning standing in front of us. He held my ravaged pair of pants up to his waist while making a little swirly motion with his hips.
"Give them back Emmett," I said as I tried to grab them from his hands.
"Nuh uh uh dear brother. I believe I just found some leverage over you two. Now listen to me, if you don't want me waking your precious daughter this early hour of the morning only to tell her that you spent the majority of the night sexing it up in the forest like the animals, you'll do as I tell you."
"What is goin' on out here?" Jacob came out from the hallway wearing a pair of sweatpants and no shirt. His eyes were squinting open and his hair was flying in all directions.
"Nothing Jake, just go back to sleep…In the guest room this time. I won't ask you again."
His eyes sprung to life as he turned his head realizing which door he just came from.
"Oh crap. I'm so sorry Edward, we were just talking last night and we were both so tired that before we knew it, we were asleep. I totally didn't mean for it to happen, it'll never happen again I promise, I'm so sorry." His words were flying a mile a minute.
"It's okay Jake, but don't make any promises you can't keep. I doubt that in the rest of your existence, you can promise never to spend the night in Nessie's bed again."
Jake gulped looking over at my wife, arms folded and toe-tapping.
"Right, ugh, I'll just go back to bed then. What time is it?"
"It's five," I replied. "We'll wake you in an hour or so."
He turned with his head hanging, slumping through the door next to Renesmee's.
It was hard enough being a father. But being a father of a girl who aged prematurely was fiercely more difficult. When did we cross the line with her grown up tendencies? Realistically, we should be raising a seven year old, but in many ways she was more educated and mature than any parents; however she was encased in a sixteen year olds body with raging hormones, and a crush on a werewolf. I loved my little girl, but at times I wished for a life where I could raise her like any other parent; controlling, all knowing and overprotective. At least I was one of those things.
"Well that was close," Emmett snickered.
"Emmett, hand the clothes over to me right now. You will also not utter a word of this to anyone else. Got it? Or else I'll spill about the time I walked in on you wearing that absurd teddy bear costume while Rose groped you and called you were favorite toy." Bella puckered her face while she lifted her shield letting me witness the scene she had just described.
"Agh! Bella! That is something I never wanted to see." I started laughing hysterically, depending on my knees to support my upper body.
Emmett was compromised. His jaw was still hanging open as he handed the shredded clothes to Bella. "Not a word," he muttered, flying back towards the stairs. As soon as he was out of sight, we both lost it.
"Did you see the look on his face?" Bella cackled from the ground. "I thought he was going to pee his pants!"
"I bet if he had a functioning bladder he would have!"
For the next few minutes we let ourselves laugh at our leisure, finding it even more amusing when we caught eye contact.
When my phone alarm beeped at 6:15, I stood from the bed, leaving Bella with a kiss to her forehead, heading into Nessie's room.
"Goodmorning sweetheart," I said sitting on the edge of her bed. I wiped the hair from her face as she opened her eyes up to me.
"Morning," she mumbled scrunching her eyes, trying to hide under her covers.
"Nuh uh Ness, school remember?"
She growled "Right. School." She shot up in alarm pushing the covers off her legs. "Crap. Crap crap crap crap!"
"What's wrong hun?"
"My Introductory English essay. I didn't do it last night. I got so distracted with everything going on, and then Jake and I fell asleep early."
"Get dressed sweetie. I'll type up something quick for you to hand in. Try and keep up though, I don't want you falling behind, even if you are smarter than the rest of the class."
"You're supposed to say that because you're my dad."
"No, I'm saying that cause it's true. I'm supposed to ground you for not doing your homework."
"Am I grounded?"
I had never grounded her in her life. I wasn't going to start now. "No, but just cause Jake is a teacher does not give you a free pass to toss aside school work. You wanted this remember?"
"Yeah I know. Sorry. Won't happen again Dad."
"That's the second time I've heard that this morning. I came in here to wake you up to remind you that Jake and you need to sleep in separate rooms. I get last night was a mistake, but make an extra effort to get to your own beds each night. Deal? Or else you will be grounded."
"Got it."
I left to knock on Jake's room to wake him. He was already up and dressing in the suit Alice had laid out for him the night before. When I got back to our bedroom, Bella had already showered, dried her hair, and gotten completely dressed, so I quickly got dressed and headed up the stairs to greet the rest of my family. I sometimes wondered why we bothered with the whole "human charade." Not that I was willing to go out and tell the world that I was what I was, but that we even bothered with high school. None of us had learned anything new in decades at a high school. Usually if we craved an education, we started off at a college. Before we had moved to Enumclaw, I tried convincing Bella to let Ness start out at a community college, rather than the high school. Her answer was of course no, that she wanted Renesmee to have every experience she did as a teenager. It made me shudder to think of all the things Bella and I did throughout our high school experience, fervently hoping Ness wouldn't have to go through any of it.
"Morning everyone," Jake said marching into the kitchen grabbing a muffin on the counter. "Wow Esme, these are great, did you make them?"
"Yep, fresh out of the oven dear. Take some with you, there's plenty. Also I packed you a lunch. Edward told me this morning how horrid the school cafeteria was.
Jake's face lit up. Esme's cooking was the equivalent of a child getting to eat chocolate cake for a meal. Not that I had any experience enjoying any of it. It always smelt like rancid dirt and smouldering muckus. Nasty.
"Thanks!" He exclaimed pulling her into a giant hug. "Seriously, I didn't even buy lunch yesterday. It looked like they just warmed up some canned baby food or something."
"Jake, grab a muffin and join Carlisle and me in his office. We've outlined a pretty simple plan for your first lesson. More of a get to know you day. I thought we'd review it before I let you loose to a pack of crazed teenagers."
"Sounds great, meet you there in a sec."
By seven thirty, we had perfected his first lesson. He'd have to tell his classes his personal life history; which we'd tweaked just slightly so it didn't reflect too much on his Quileute heritage. He'd then ask for examples from the class if they knew their heritage. He would write them on the board, and tell them which histories they'd be studying this year, which was outlined on Mr. Flemming's syllabus.
He all headed out the door and Jake took stride over to Carlisle's Mercedes again. After he pulled out, I turned to Carlisle and said "Looks like we may need to get you a new car Dad."
He smiled. "Or get Jake one. I think he'd find it more enjoyable to go out in search for his new family car."
"You know he'd never agree to it."
"He will if I say I'm taking mine back and he won't be able to keep up his image with that little red rabbit he's so insistent on fixing."
Not to self, take Jacob car shopping this afternoon.
We got to school with time to spare as always so we headed to our lockers to relieve ourselves of some textbooks. Bella for once was giving Alice a hard time on her appearance today.
"Did you even shower today Alice? Your hair looks a little tussled."
Alice just giggled as I got a peek of her and Jasper playing around the old boxcar behind our house.
"Alice!" I exclaimed.
"Whoops, sorry brother." She smirked. She turned to Renesmee to bring up conversation, straying her thoughts somewhere less inappropriate.
Today I was keeping an intently close eye on Renesmee. She would have her art class again today, and I was trying my best to find any stray thoughts that resembled anything unusual. Unfortunately, I had never heard Ms. Alvarez's voice in person, so her thoughts were as foreign to me as any other persons. To my dismay, she was doing a good job at staying hidden.
"Everything okay? You look a little worried." Bella came to my side, delicately tracing her fingers up and down my arm.
"Just fine. I'm trying to find Ms. Alvarez though. No luck so far."
"Alice said everything is fine at the end of the day. If we could only get a clue in on who or what she is, it might ease my mind a little more."
"Everything will be fine," I said pulling her into an intimate hug. I kissed the crown of her head while I heard her sigh. I had a feeling we would be going back and forth with this throughout the whole day. Each taking turns assuring each other everything was fine. When I saw Jacob approaching us in the hallway, I broke free of our hug, and immediately turned to Renesmee who looked like she would jump out of her skin at the attempt to keep from giving us away. I didn't need to read her mind that what she wanted more than anything was a hug from her best friend. Jacob held a stack of papers in his hand that he was trying to rustle into his book bag while walking.
"Damn briefcase…" he muttered. I nodded in his direction.
"Good morning Mr. Black."
"Morning Edward, Bella. And how are you today Renesmee?"
She giggled at his awkward grown-up impression.
"I'm fine thanks for asking."
The door next to us opened in the middle of our awkward exchange in the hallway where a tall, long haired woman emerged. She wore a dark red skirt suit and ruby lips. Her face was a light olive color and her eyes seemed almost black with the shadows of her makeup heavy on her lids.
"Ah, Mister Black," she muttered in a light accent. "I'm sorry we haven't officially met. I'm Nina Alvarez. You're our new history teacher are you not?"
Jacob gulped and nodded, but not before exchanging a quick glance at me screaming in his mind it's her.
"Ms. Alvarez," I chimed in. "It's a pleasure to meet you. My name is Edward, I'm Renesmee's brother. She's already told me so much about your wonderful class."
The rest of my family had now slowly gathered around us, Rose nearly livid and ready to rip this woman's head off. Emmett kept his hands on her shoulders as a precaution. Alice looked at her intently trying to get a read on her with no luck, and Bella's shield was obviously around us all because the rest of the hallway had fallen silent.
Damn it Bella, let me go I thought. I looked in her direction swiftly, raising my chin to tell her to lift her shield off of me. She understood at once and the hallway became a buzzing mess.
"Ah yes, so nice to see you again Renesmee. I look forward to seeing what you'll be able to whip up in class today. Your drawing of Rio the other morning was quite mesmerizing. You have such a talented sister Edward."
The more I looked into her mind, the more drawings and paintings I saw. She was unveiling several students' work until she remembered Nessie's in her brain, keeping me out of her immediate thoughts.
"Yes, she's always been our little Picaso," I replied.
"Well it was nice to meet you all. See you later in class Renesmee."
I thought for a moment that I had failed. I had retrieved nothing. I looked at her one more time before she swerved her head around in a quick motion, yelling in her thoughts.
GET OUT OF MY HEAD!
Then she continued onward, towards her classroom, leaving me with a stupefied face.