Chapter 11

As Nessie finished her (extremely long) story, Carlisle walked into the room. I couldn't help but stare at him. He definitely didn't look over four hundred years old. But since vampires didn't age, according to Nessie, that wasn't saying much. Whenever anyone came into the room, I could only think of their story. I had a feeling that Nessie hadn't told me absolutely everything, just the basics. For instance, I could tell she'd skipped a lot with Rosalie's story, and even more for Jasper; surely there was more to his story than he'd been in the war and was changed by someone named Maria, then found Alice and then the Cullens? But i didn't ask. I trusted that Nessie wouldn't keep anything from me without a reason.

Bella drove me home in a shiny red Ferrari ("a gift from Edward," she said, wrinkling her nose in distaste). Kit's eyes were wide when I came in, and I immediately knew that she had seen me climbing out of the fancy car.

"Who was that?" she asked, peering out the window as the Ferrari disappeared around the corner.

"Bella," I said, as if it were no big deal. Then I shut myself in my room as usual.

kateluvsthesun: Can u talk now?
paisley23: Ya. Sorry about b4.
kateluvsthesun: It's ok.
paisley23: How's it going w/Liliana?
kateluvsthesun: She's actually not so bad. Went 2 c a movie w/her last week.
paisley23: Really?
kateluvsthesun: Don't worry, I'm not replacing u or anything. :P

I didn't know what to say to that. Yes, but I'm replacing you? I couldn't tell her that.

***

Monday rolled around and when i woke up, I mindlessly started getting ready for school before realizing that it was the summer holidays. I wandered aimlessly around the house, bored, trying to think of something to do. Finally I looked up the number I wanted in the phonebook.

Cullen C & E ........... 627-4185

"Hello?"

"Hi, Nessie," I said, for some reason immensely relieved that she was the one who answered the phone.

"Paisley?"

"Called it!" I heard Alice say excitedly.

"You know, you really should learn to look at the caller ID, Ness," came another voice in the background.

"Shut up, EJ," grumbled Nessie.

"Yeah, it's me," I said.

"Hi, what's up?" asked Nessie. There was an awkward pause.

"Nothing, really. I just wanted to know if maybe you could come over."

"Um, yeah. Sure. When?"

"Eleven o'clock sound okay?"

"Sure," she replied. "See you then."

I hung up and then realized that I should have asked Dad first. I headed upstairs to tell him that Nessie was coming over, but discovered that he'd left for work early in the morning. When Nessie arrived, we decided to walk down to the shopping center. At first, I was unsure, because we would need to cross the highway, but Nessie quickly convinced me that it was okay, as there was a crosswalk. And so we set off. Down the hill, across the highway, along the road past a tall, dense forest and the swimming pool and the bus stop. Along the way, we played a random game that basically consisted of taking turns asking each other random questions.

"What did you say when you found out that you were going to be a big sister?" asked Nessie.

I blushed, remembering the day that I'd found out my mother was pregnant. I hadn't had a reaction to Kit, as I'd only been a year old, but I'd been six when the twins were born. "I said, 'I'll believe you when I see the baby come out.'" Nessie laughed. "How come you asked that?"

Nessie grinned at me. "You were thinking about it, I guess. Daddy was laughing and I asked him why, and he said to ask you that."

Daddy? I was puzzled for a moment until I remembered Nessie's story; Edward and Bella were biologically her parents. Now that was a shocker. Never saw that one coming.

"So how come your dad can read minds?" I inquired.

Nessie answered quickly, like she'd been waiting for this question. "Some vampires have powers," she explained. "Daddy can read minds. Momma's a shield. Jazz can manipulate peoples' emotions. Alice can see the future."

"See the future?"

"Well, objectively. Only if a decision's been made. Say you decided to go buy some milk. She'd see it. Say you then changed your mind and decided to go to the movies instead. Then she would see that." Nessie paused. "Except she usually sees more important things."

"Could she see us when we decided to go for a walk?"

"Like I said," replied Nessie, "she usually sees the more important stuff. But if something was going to happen, she wouldn't see it, because Alice can't see me or EJ or Jake or the rest of the pack. Like when Daddy left Momma and Momma went cliff-diving. Alice saw Momma jump, but then Momma's future went blank, 'cause Jake saved her. That's the only reason that Alice came back, was she thought that Momma's future went blank because she'd died. She wanted to make sure Grandpa could deal with it."

"You said your mom was a shield. What does that mean?"

Nessie shook her head. "You've asked three questions," she smiled. "You're only supposed to ask one." Of course, after she'd asked me another question I asked that one again.

"There are lots of types of shields," answered Nessie. "Momma's blocks mentally. Daddy can't hear her thoughts and my power only works on her if she takes her shield down."

"You have a power?" I said, surprised.

"I'm not done yet," laughed Nessie. "Anyways, Alice can still see Momma's future because it's not a mental power. Jazz can still manipulate her emotions, too."

"Tell me about your power," I begged.

Nessie shook her head again, her bronze curls bouncing back and forth. "Nope, I get to ask you a question now." She couldn't avoid telling me, though, because I asked her right away after answering about why I hate cherry-flavoured candy. "Okay, okay," said Nessie, and stopped walking. We stood facing each other on the street corner and I couldn't help but wonder what the people passing us in their cars were thinking. Nessie looked like she was concentrating on something. She ordered me to close my eyes, and then her hand brushed my arm and I saw a brief picture of a girl with dark red hair, wearing a plaid skirt, black leggings, a pink tank top, a purple scarf and grey boots, sliding down in a greyish-blue plastic chair in a classroom that I recognized immediately. It was... me. On my first day of school in Canada. My eyes flew open.

"What was that?" I asked in a hushed voice that I could barely hear over the traffic around us.

Nessie smiled. "My power. I can show others what I'm thinking, but only on contact. Before you knew what we were, I had to be very careful not to touch you at all. I can't control it that well yet, I have to concentrate a lot to show people particular thoughts. If I'm not concentrating, they just get whatever I'm thinking at the moment."

We continued walking and reached the shopping center quickly. We bought hot chocolate and wandered around at random, just like Kate and I used to do before the move. Did that mean that Nessie was my replacement for Kate? I tried not to think about it.

"Hey, I'm going to go over to the gas station across the street," Nessie said suddenly. "Do you want to come? They have all these different kinds of candy for only five cents."

I shook my head. "I'm out of hot chocolate," I said, tossing the coffee-to-go cup in the nearest trash can. "I'm going to go back and get more. I'll meet you back here after?"

I walked quickly back to the place where we'd gotten the hot chocolate. As I waited in line, I glanced out the window. I had the perfect view of the gas station, with Nessie walking across the street towards it under the blinking yellow lights at the crosswalk. The perfect view of her glancing over into the shadow and doing a double-take, appearing to think carefully about something. The perfect view of her teeth digging into her lower lip as she looked around towards the coffee shop I stood in, then darted away, disappearing into the forest behind the gas station. The perfect view of the four black-robed figures that followed her.

***

Author's Note: I really do love writing cliffhangers! Now, are you proud of me for not taking a month and a half to update? I don't have much news, aside from the fact that my ex-best friend got a minor concussion when a stop sign fell on her (don't laugh). Tristan was swinging around on a stop sign and there was this huge CRACK! and it fell and it hit Caitlin and then she started forgetting things! Little things, like song lyrics and who people were. Like celebrities and stuff. (Apparently one of them was Kelly Clarkson, that made my day! Except for the fact that that was one of the ones she couldn't remember ANYTHING about or something...) Oh, and my fish died. He lived for 2 years and a bit, plus however long he was in the pet store before I got him. My sister cried. :( Now, thanks to my reviewers from last chapter... . (I find your response entertaining -- "But I think EJ and Paisley need to hook up!") and HPobsessssssed7 (whose favourite line of last chapter was "I admired Chelsea for having her (incorrect) facts straight" and whose sister got to see KC in concert! I've seen Kelly once in concert, last November, and I swear I'll see her again someday!). And I'm sorry this chapter's pretty short and definitely not my best writing. I admit it, I'm a failure. :( My KC obsession has been distracting me. Seriously, there's so much to DO on the KC forums! Oh, one more piece of news -- there's a KC fanfic board! Not on here, but someone made one. And I have a story! :) It's called "All I Ever Wanted" and it's a Kraham fic (for those who don't know, that's KC and Graham Colton. They dated in 2005 and broke up in 2006 because they were both too busy for a relationship, but Kelly said something once about being able to see herself with Graham again when they weren't as busy). If you wanna read it I'm putting the link on my profile page, somewhere near the top. :) And if you do read it, make an account and comment because only one person does that for me right now :(