Disclaimer: All Twilight characters and related events and ideas belong to Stephanie Meyer.
All original characters and related events and ideas belong to me.
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The Perfect Daughter
Chapter 11:Man These Times Are Hard
Venus
Monday, June 4, 2024
5:12 PM
"Bye!" Venus yelled from her mother's car. She had spent the last two days with her friend Jane. Kim smile to Venus was missed by her as she continued staring out the window long after they had left. The overnight bag was slumped on the floor of the old minivan. Although there were many fine mechanics in La Push, the best had been gone for far too long.
"Something wrong?" Kim asked her youngest daughter slightly worried by the fact she wasn't animatedly chatting Kim's ear off. Venus threw a smile her mother, but it didn't quite reach her eyes.
"No. I'm fine," Venus replied in an innocent way. Kim who had raised four children and felt she could usually tell when one was lying decided to leave it alone. Sometimes some things had to be worked out alone.
The car ride was quiet and when they stopped at the grocery store for milk, Venus stayed in the car. She sat there with her head leaned against the glass window. It was raining again.
The truth was, Venus did not know why she felt so melancholy this morning. Perhaps it was that her sister had started ignoring her again. Maybe it was her feeling the strain of the Pack without its Alpha. It could have been a childish way of her getting attention from her family or just a bad day. Or it might have just been the rain.
Whatever the reason, Venus felt hollow and sad. Her mother came back with two, two gallon milk jugs and the pair continued home. At arrival, Venus grabbed one bottle and her bag and her pillow before running inside. Kim shook her head and slowly picked up the other milk jug and stuck her keys in her pocket.
Venus threw the milk in the fridge and ran upstairs. She bypassed Capri's room and came to a stop. The door was cracked slightly open. The younger sister knocked lightly on the door and called Capri's name. When no answer was returned, Venus pushed open the door expecting a cold look from Capri which would make her close the door and retreat.
But the room was empty. And there was no one to tell her not to go snooping around. The eleven year old tiptoed into her older sister's room, and while she snuck around, she didn't touch anything yet. At first, anyway.
Capri's room looked as hollow as Venus had felt this morning. The bed was perfectly made and the books and scrapbooks in the white bookshelves were neat and tidy. It smelled nice but it was a scent that could not be placed. There were sunflowers in a vase on her dresser as well some bamboo in a separate container by the window. The wood floor was vacuumed and the small rug in the corner of the room was clean. There were no clothes strewn about on the floor nor were there any empty water glasses or any type of mess at all.
Curious about the bookshelf, Venus knelt down and dared herself to pull a book off of it. Taking a deep breath, she snatched a scrapbook with pretty colors on the cover from its place on the self.
Inside were photos of Capri and some of Venus. The beginning held pictures of Capri as a little newborn and as Venus flipped through more of the pages, Capri got older. There was one of a four-year old Capri in Jared's fishing boots and hat smiling largely and another of Capri and Ashler holding hands sleeping on a blanket on the living room floor of Sam and Emily's house.
At the end there few pages were dedicated to each of the members of the Cameron family. Venus's had a picture of her as a tiny baby and one of her and Capri holding hands at First Beach. Others of Kaden sleeping in his crib sucking his thumb and a few of Blaze in the middle of a temper tantrum were found. What surprised Venus the most were the pictures of their parents. There were two of Jared and Kim before they got married and three of after they were married but before they had children. One of Kim when she was most likely pregnant with Capri and there were family photos.
The very last page was filled of photos of Capri and a few unknown men. Most she assumed were old boyfriends- because Capri had many- but the very last photo was one of an old man's head smiling brightly with a smiling Capri smushed in next to him so as to fit both of them in the picture. Venus wondered who the man was.
Just as she was about to the scrapbook away, a lone photo slid from the book. At first, she panicked because Venus didn't know where the picture came from and where she would put it. But when the girl grabbed it up and examined it, a small gasp escaped from her lips.
In the photo, Capri looked around thirteen or fourteen and was kissing a boy's cheek and holding his hand. Normally, this wouldn't surprise Venus.
But the boy was not human. He was a vampire. Venus saw all the signs: the pale skin, the inhuman beauty, the absolutely predatory look in his red eyes.
What was the girl to do?
Venus tucked the photo back into the scrapbook and shakily put it away. Because that was how people in the Cameron family dealt with their problems. They tucked them away and forgot them. Maybe that wasn't healthy or good, but it was what they did.
So, after Venus left her sister's room and left the door pushed open just a tad, she decided to forget.
Capri also decided to forget that she saw her little sister slinking around her room and that the door wasn't closed exactly how it was before.
Blaze decided to forget the dark bruise he found on Adrian's cheek.
Kaden, too, made plans to forget his slight attraction to the man that he saw walking along the sidewalk.
Jared decided to not remember how many vampires he had killed, and how some had probably had a family just like him.
Kim always made an effort to forget that on this day fifteen years ago she miscarried her second child. After that, Jared and Kim had been too afraid to name their children until they were born.
The Cameron's liked to forget.