A/N::: I love you all so much!!! So many reviews; I can barely process how much support and love I'm receiving from you guys! :D
Many of you asked for some Cullen POVs in this next chapter. So, in my thanks, here you all go:
-------!#$%^&*()¡™£¢∞§¶•ªº⁄€‹›fifl‡°·'--------
Emmett
Is it just me, or have Alice, Edward, and Jasper been quiet this past weekend? Hey, I didn't know. We were all fairly quieter these days. We all missed her, my baby sister.
So we got to school on Monday and went along with our usual day-to-day routine of playing human. Nothing too special or out of the ordinary.
Until I smelled her again for the first time in years.
I was in my third period class, sitting in a random seat before the bell had rung, and suddenly the room starts to smell like her. I look up; I'm sure she's somehow shown up here miraculously. But no, there's just some good-looking new kid in the room with Ray Bans covering his eyes and dark, expensive designer clothes. He has this weird deadly, authoritative aura to him. And he had her exact scent all over him.
"Ah, here you are. Class, this is Mister Salvatore, a new student. Would you like to introduce yourself?" Ms. Maybury asks him.
He just shrugs and says, "I'm Damon Salvatore. I am from Italy, and I just moved here with my girlfriend and some other friends and family."
He took to an empty seat with no bag or any belongings on him. He sat as the bell rang, and I watched him. He lived with his girlfriend and friends from Italy? I had a hard time believing that; that was kind of like what my family did.
Wait, did he have some sort of secret? His heart was definitely beating; there was nothing seemingly wrong with or different about him that I could tell. He didn't ever take off his sunglasses indoors, though, even though the room was dimly lit and it was overcast outside.
I looked closer at his face. My enhanced sight helped me to see what looked like a faint trace of lip-gloss or something on his lower lip. But I couldn't be sure, because he licked it away, but then he looked over at me, so I looked away. Damn it, what was up with this guy? It was like he could read my thoughts… but only Edward could do that; only a few vampires in the world could.
I felt his gaze on me for a moment longer, and he finally turned away. I waited a bit longer to look back at this new kid – Damon Salvatore was his name. Salvatore smelled just like her, all over him. I had to admit that he was intimidating to look at, even for someone as invincible as me. He was much shorter and less built than I was, with his black hair falling into his face slightly over his sunglasses. An air of unstable danger still seemed to swirl around him.
Bella couldn't be with him, could she? No, she had graduated high school a couple of years ago, and was probably at U of W or somewhere now. But I didn't know for sure, because Edward had basically forbidden any one of us to ever look for her or be in her life again. This Salvatore seemed much older than 18 in my opinion. Bella was 20 now; her birthday had been last week actually, a mourning day for my family.
Salvatore looked back at me, and I turned away after we made eye contact through his deeply tinted Ray Ban sunglasses. His eyes were a dark, dark color. And they looked irritated. I thought about what they had looked like, nearly coal black like the intense or thirsty eyes of my kind. But they were deep, possibly an uncommon shade of blue. But I didn't believe my own thoughts.
He turned away, and after a few minutes burst out laughing at nothing in particular. Everyone turned to face him, Mrs. Maybury clearing her throat in annoyance at his interruption. But he kept a smug smirk on his face and motioned that he was fine.
The Bella rang soon after, and I followed after him to my next class, which he apparently had too – French. I continued on through the door and sat down near the back of the room as always, but he was stopped by the teacher in the front of the classroom.
"Ah, Mr. Salvatore! I had another one of you Italian kids first period, who was it now… Oh yes, Miss Isabella Rosalini! What a nice young girl, a junior," Monsieur Marseille started, completely catching my attention at the word 'Isabella'. "You know her well, I take it?"
Damon smiled in a way that nearly made me cringe. "Yes, I believe I do. She's my girlfriend, and we live together," he stated arrogantly.
I froze in shock.
"Oh, really? Do you have parental supervision?" Monsieur asked, stunned.
"I am an adult enough for family, thank you," Damon argued.
"And who do you live with, then? As the adult of the family," Monsieur skepticized.
"My beautiful girlfriend Isabella. My brother, my cousin, and their girlfriends live with us. I own the house, and there will be no further questions asked," Damon sneered, placing his glasses atop his head and looking at the teacher right in the eyes. Monsieur looked confused and afraid, but relaxed after a few seconds.
"Very well then, Salvatore. You may take a seat," Monsieur dreamily said, and then began to speak something in French. But I didn't hear it, and I could care less. Isabella. Bella. Isabella.
This guy was with her, and she was here at school today. Bella was here.
Why? What the hell was going on with this? Bella wasn't from Italy, and she hated going by Isabella. And her last name certainly wasn't Rosalini. She was Bella Swan; she was our Bella. She didn't belong to this Salvatore.
But then again, there was really something up here. Edward, Alice, and Jasper knew about this; Alice had a vision, didn't she? That was why they had been acting weird. They were hurt, lost, confused, and kept it between themselves.
Huh.
Alice
I saw this coming. But I didn't think that seeing her would be this different and this difficult. She was with the two other girls in Trig class with me. She never looked my way once; she just sat around laughing around with the other girls. Sometimes they burst out laughing without a word. And sometimes they said the weirdest things that made no sense. It was as if they were two places at once or something, the three of them somehow having a conversation with people not here in the room.
She came to class five minutes tardy. That was so unlike her. They entered talking loudly and boisterously. The Teacher looked so offended, and so was I. But I was also hurt. She was so different. It was a strange feeling, I was almost afraid of her. The three girls had this peculiar aura around them.
They called her Isabella and B, never once Bella. She wasn't ever introduced, so I didn't know anything about the three girls' story together. And the three guys were absent from their group, but I heard then talking about a Stefan, a Damon, and a Matt often. It didn't take a genius to figure out who they were.
They said something about 'back in Italy' so I figured they had met there on some sort of something? I didn't know. I was so damn confused.
Edward
She was here. So different, and not my Bella at all.
"So this is what you guys have been hiding?" Rosalie asked in a whisper to Jasper, and he nodded solemnly. We were all sitting at our table, quietly musing about her.
"The senior one, Damon Salvatore, he called her Isabella Rosalini. And his… girlfriend. Edward, I'm so –" Emmett started in a hushed tone, but I cut him off.
"Don't say it. I, I, it's fine. We, we'll get her back," I breathed, trying to convince myself. This made no sense.
"And they live together with the rest of them," Emmett stated quietly.
"They talked about Italy a lot, and acted so strangely. Five minutes tardy for class," Alice whispered. "They seem so dangerous, it's weird. They act higher than everyone." The infamously bubbly Alice was sullen, staring at her fingernails. If she were a human, tears would be streaming down her face.
Rosalie might even cry if she were human, too. She had never like Bella when she were among us, but acted terribly after we left. She had said that being around Bella had made her feel more human. Then she broken down in tearless sobs - that had been a few weeks after we had first left.
Jasper seemed crushed in the weight of all five of our emotional sufferings. Emmett looked like a crushed little kid, but with a more mature air of pondering and confusion too him.
I would be sobbing. I felt almost dead. I had seen her and her family in the others who had seen them's minds.
And then her scent filled the room. Her intoxicating scent, send me near feeling again. But I wasn't thirsty for once. It was her, for the first time in years. I had to see her; I turned toward the cafeteria double doors. The rest of family did, too, hoping to catch a glimpse of the lost piece of our family and who she was with.
The six of them strode into the room with their heads held high and laughter shaking their shoulders. The redhead was buried in the hug of a blonde jock-type boy. Under his other arm was a football. The boy with dark curly hair was hugging and blonde girl and looking at her with eyes of adoration… I had to look away from the two of them. But then my eyes went to her.
Her long, flowing brunette hair hadn't grown or been cut an inch; in fact, she didn't look a day older than she had when we left, or even when we first met. Her skin was flawless and pale as ever. She was dressed in expensive boutique clothing that belonged on the pages on Teen Vogue or somewhere. Her chocolate eyes were wide and excited, and she was looking up at the boy with his arm around her… get your arm off of her right now… He was the Damon Salvatore guy Emmett had seen in his classes.
And for a quick moment, he took her lips in his.
After lunch, I was crushed by her kissing him like that right in front of me. But in Biology, I think I was too frozen in shock to think about a thing other than that my Bella was a psychic. She was trying to actually get at me. I didn't quite know what to think. She was Isabella Rosalini, messed with the teacher's head, and then she messed with mine. The Salvatore household was not human, now I was sure.
It was still sinking in that I was losing Bella when I walked out of Bio to see her intensely making out with her new boyfriend against a locker. If this was who she was, I didn't know who I knew back in Forks. She hadn't aged; how old was she? She was with a Salvatore; how long had they been together, and how long would they be? It couldn't be forever…
I went to Spanish in a lethal mood. I had to get her back. I was losing her every second, but she just couldn't be already gone. She had acknowledged me.
I found my family after school was all over for the day, and we took to the parking lot with somber attitudes of defeat. What would we tell Carlisle and Esme about today? We would all die in our sorrows; Alice practically had me on suicide watch in her mind. She didn't know that I wouldn't give up just yet. I hadn't even talked to this Bella yet. I had to.
I saw three ostentatious sports cars in the parking lot, and didn't need a second thought to know whose they were. A Lamborghini, a Ferrari, and a Porsche – European sports cars. I guess this Bella liked fast, pricey cars now. And there she was, leaning against the Ferrari with her posse. Her back was to me, and Damon was in front of her. He brushed her hair over her shoulder, sweeping it to the other side and revealing what looked like cuts on her neck. He leaned down a kissed them in an almost predatory way… He looked back up and smirked at me, showing his teeth. Bella turned then, too, her hands flying up to her neck. I got a better glimpse of her neck, and my eyes widened as wide as they could.
Punctures. Bite marks.
Isabella
Damon! I screamed at him in my mind. You seriously just did that? I have never loved you so much, but at the same time hating you is so tempting. I leaned up to kiss him, turning away from Edward and the other Cullens present to see what Damon really was now. A vampire.
"Get in car," I scolded him in a low whisper. "They'll come by our place later, anyway." We all got in the vehicles that we came in and drove away, not daring to look back at the family of other vampires. Damon drove us home at top speed, and we arrived on our front steps soon after we had left school.
"They know now. At least about you, and if they're stupid enough, they'll think you're holding me captive or something. I used my Powers on him; he should know we all aren't human, though," I stated as we entered through the front doors – open to us vampires for entry because no humans slept or lived here, and because Damon owned it, duh.
"So they'll definitely find us and come visit then," Stefan stated, coming in right behind us.
"Of course, in the end we'll win. How do we break them the news, B? 'Yeah, I was acting the whole time, Bella Swan died before you ever met her.' Sounds good," Matt considered, throwing the football he had found before lunch up and down in the air. "Stefan!" He threw it to Stefan from the doorway to where he walked up the stairs, and Stefan caught it fluidly as he reached the second floor balcony that overlooked the foyer area. Elena laughed and rolled her eyes at them, walking into the kitchen and grabbing a blood pouch she had swiped from the local hospital. Bonnie followed her, grabbing one too.
"I'm not going to tell them about her yet," I said, shrugging with a faint smile. Matt looked at me with a questioning expression, and I winked at him. He laughed, mumbling something about me appearing sweet to the unknowing stranger. I giggled and turned to the kitchen.
"Hey, B, come and grab one of these! Seriously, you can even put it in the microwave if you want. Get some Powers for the grand arrival of the clueless Cullen clan. Please?" Bonnie joked, motioning me over. I obliged, liking this new idea of microwavable human blood pouches.
The sound of an approaching car struck us sooner than we thought it would. Thirsty and now all drinking up our microwavable donated blood, the six of us reluctantly threw them back in the fridge under my rule.
"Okay, hurry up and be casual. They'll be here in under a minute, knocking on the door. If they smell blood, just motion to the fridge. Offend Carlisle only if it's necessary to something Damon, I respect him. Do please offend Edward though; even call him damned if it gets to that point. Matt, you look best with the football. Don't take off your glasses unless I do. Elena, light a candle or two. Damon, kiss me," I commanded everyone, and then I pulled Damon's face down to mine, He kissed me hard for a few seconds, and then the front door rang. I smiled, motioning for Bonnie to get the door as I scampered up the stairs to mine and Damon's room.
I heard the front door open, and there was some greetings, so I figured a grand entrance is what I did best. I threw on some skimpy sweats, messed up my hair in the mirror, and within seconds of getting upstairs in the first place, I was ready to head back down. Five total seconds had elapsed, and Bonnie was just greeting Esme at the door, I could hear.
"Isabella! They're here!" Bonnie yelled up to me, and in the blink of an eye I was right next to my redhead witch sister. I felt eyes on me, and I felt so unnatural being myself around the Cullen family. I was almost scared, but not really.
"Come in," I said, turning and looking them over. I didn't have a smile on my face and didn't look specifically at any of theirs. I just looked at them in general as they looked at me with brand new eyes. They looked so bewildered, and I was tempted to laugh. But I didn't.
I turned and walked in, looking about my home. Matt and Stefan were throwing the football, still from the first to second floor. Elena was in the living room, and Damon was walking out of the kitchen into the wide-open foyer.
"Seriously, dudes! Come on, Matt," I called to them, letting them know that this might get serious and we should just all sit down how. They turned to us, and Stefan ran down the stairs to join us. "Living room, you two. Elena, we're coming in!" I called to her, and motioned for everyone to follow me into the other room. Damon smirked and turned his back on us, walking ahead of me into the living room.
"Please sit, Carlisle, Esme," I motioned for them and called them by their names. They looked at me with small, longing smiles. I timidly smiled back, keeping the hostess complexion until I sat. When everyone else was seated, I sat on Damon's lap.
"Bella, we need to talk with you," Carlisle started, and was about to continue before I interrupted him.
"Isabella, please. Thanks," I said, and nodded for him to continue. He looked at me with puzzled eyes, but then took a breath and continued.
"Isabella, then, well, we are worried for you. You have showed up here in Rochester with a different name, as I have heard from my children. You are attending high school again, but you're 20. You have a different personality, live with no one you are related to, and have an apparent fortune. Would you care to enlighten us on the is going on here?" Carlisle lost his calm composure at the end. He seemed pained and almost angry. He should be. I'm Isabella Rosalini – crazy teen vampire on the loose since the Italian Renaissance.
I looked over the Cullens, really looking for the first time. Carlisle, Esme, Alice, Jasper, Rosalie, Emmett, and Edward. Wow, come tom think of it, the real me would get along really well with Alice, Rosalie, and Emmett. I had always really loved shopping with Alice, and it would be much more fun to go with Rosalie, too, and not have to be anyone else. I would really enjoy that; in a way, I still kind of thought of them as my distant sisters.
"Can I say something to Rosalie?" I asked, looking to her. She looked back at me with wide, surprised eyes. I knew no one was expecting that.
"Yes, sure," she said quickly.
"Rose? I now you always hated me, the me I was back then. And I'm sorry. I know exactly what you had to go through." It was true; I had seen her thinking about it before. "And now here we are, back in Rochester so much later. I know how the memories hurt, believe me." She nodded, a bit confused, but I smiled to her in reassurance.
"Isabella, what's going on?" Esme asked me in a worried voice. So I cleared my throat and started the speak.
A/N::: Review time, my people!!!! I love you all!! Sorry, I know it's kind of a cliffie, but I'll update again really soon!