Author's note: hey Everyones! This is the third book in a series, the first two are Waking Up and Angels and vampires and you can find them on my profile so READ THEM and reveiw!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! OR you could just skip them and read this one, because I guess its not strictly nesicarry. Whichever.
TO PEOPLE WHO REVEIW: YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY! You are wonderful. Absolutely wonderful. Even if you wrote that you hated it. You get a lifetime supply of COOOOOOKIES!
TO PEOPLE WHO DONT REVEIE: You break my heart. See look, there's a tear.
Cathryn's POV
House Day.
That was what I was calling it. A very fitting name, in my opinion.
The reason being that it revolved around houses.
We would start said lovely day by driving up to Canada with Nessie to have a look at her new house. The Cullens had finally decided that they'd been in Forks too long and had moved roughly two hours away-they couldn't move too far because of Jacob-to Canada. Renessmee had yet to see her new home on account of going to college at Washington State with me. But this Saturday, a week before school let out for Christmas, she'd get to see it. And I was the lucky one getting to see it with her.
Not.
It wasn't necessarily as if I didn't want to see it with her. I just didn't want to see it with her when I had other things to do. I mean, college was no joke. You can't just breeze right by it like you do high school. I had to actually pay attention. And do my homework and study in places other than the previous class. And, as it turns out, homework and studying take up a lot of free time.
And I had to dance. I was assistant teaching classes on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays at the ballet school in Seattle, so those days, from three to seven, were taken up. And, okay, so it wasn't so bad. It turned out, I worked quite brilliantly with kids. Claire, of course, wasn't nearly as surprised as I had been coming to terms with this little piece of information. Apparently, back in the day when she was too young to stay at home by herself, I'd been brilliant.
She was eleven now. They grow up so fast. Sniff, sniff.
Anyways, I loved the kid thing so much that I had decided to go for a degree in Education. I was going to become an art teacher. And a dance instructor in the afternoons and summers. My three favorite things, dancing and art and kids, all rolled up together.
Well, three of my four favorite things. My number one favorite thing-or person-fit into an entirely different category. Embry's Cathryn time had gotten severely diminished since I'd headed off to college. So severely, in fact, that I had to sneak out of my sorority at night, after curfew, to see him at all.
So, you see, I was rather crushed for time during the week, and I really do not see how it was such a huge deal for me to want to kick it on the weekends. Especially since it was the last weekend I had before the holidays, and I hadn't even started my Christmas shopping list.
But I guess it was.
Visiting the Cullens wasn't even the only thing I had to do! That afternoon I would have to go straight from Canada to La Push. Embry had saved up enough for a house, and was getting it built. And I, being his imprint, was going to have to live in said house for the foreseeable future once we got married. So Embry had invited me over to the place while it was still a work in progress to make sure he wasn't letting the construction workers create something monstrous.
And then, after that, I would arrive, weary and sore, to my sorority, Kappa Kappa Gamma, and be greeted by the new sorority member. I can understand how you would not see the huge deal in this. I mean, sorority houses usually housed like fifty girls, right? If you don't like one, it should be fairly easy to stay away from them.
Ha! I wish.
I was only in my first semester in college, my first semester at the house, and I'd made more enemies than I could count. Turns out, nonstop sarcasm, smart remarks, thoughtlessness, irresponsibility and constant daydreaming can get under the skin of some people.
Who ever would have guessed?
Fortunately I had Nessie, Keilly, and Leslie on my side and, with their help, had made enough friends to just outshine the enemies. People who saw the spunky, loyal, and brave side of me. After all, not all people were humorless bores.
Just most of them.
"This feels so weird," Nessie murmured, stepping over the threshold and into her new home. Or rather, her families new home. Nessie wasn't actually going to do much living in it, seeing as she was in college now and once she and Jacob got hitched she'd be living with him in Lap Push.
Nessie didn't actually know about that last part thought. Jakey was taking his sweet time.
"I like it!" I lied.
Nessie pressed her hand to my forhead, as if she were feeling for a fever. I felt my eyes haze out. I saw the old Cullen entrance in my head, light colors and glass back and all.
This one was different.
Oh, sure, there were similar aspects. They were both was out in the woods, where no human would ever end up. Where they had their privacy. They were both big, both nice, both expensive.
But that, as far as similarities, was where it ended.
This place was long, spacious on the outside. Only two stories high, but the foundation took up so much space that it made up for it. And this one wasn't white. On the outside or the inside. It was oak, woodsy, through and through. Like a lodge in Colorado or something. And this one wasn't spacey. The rooms were smaller, and the house itself was like a maze, al hallways and doors. The colors were dark, the few things that weren't constructed of some sort of wood were bold, heavy colors like green and read and purple.
And when I said I liked it, t wasn't technically a lie. I did like it. Loved it, even. That afternoon I fully planned to talk whoever was making Embry and My house into making our house as much like it as possible. It just didn't feel Cullen-y to me. This was not the home of a coven of vampires.
The others, however, seemed to disagree.
"Nessie, Cat!" Esme cried, smiling hugely and taking us both into tight hugs in her cold hard arms. "We've missed you!"
Once I'd gotten my breath back, I looked over her shoulder at Bella and Edward. Both of whom had their eyes fixed on their daughter. Had they been capable of it, I'm sure they would have cried.
Nessie did get misty-eyed. "Momma!" She whispered, stepping away from Esme and into two more sets of ready arms. Her parents smiled hugely and kissed the top of her head-well, Edward did. Bella actually kissed her jaw on account of Nessie being like five inches taller than her now. She took after her father, height wise-and pressed her hands to their faces, eager to give out images of the past couple of months.
Alice rolled her eyes at me. "Parents." She said scornfully.
I laughed and walked eagerly to her and Jasper. I'd missed them the most.
"How've you guys been?" I asked.
"Eh." Alice shrugged. "Bored. I never thought I'd say this, but I actually miss the werewolves!"
"More the imprints, I think." Jasper said.
"True." Alice amended. "I can only give Rosalie so many make oers. Bella, of course, won't let me. I miss my girls!" She wiped away a fake-tear.
"I'm sure you'll live." I told her.
"I guess." Alice sighed doubtfully.
She looked so sad, so small there, leaning against Jasper as if he were the only thing holding her up. Her little shoulders slumped as if she were carrying on them the world. I almost felt sorry for her.
Almost. Thankfully, I caught the wink Jasper sent me before it was too late.
"Oh, no, Alice!" I cried, dancing away from her, towards Emmett. "You are not giving me a make over. You can't."
"Oh, Please, Kitty?" Alice pleaded, throwing caution to the wind. "I've been so lone;ly here with only guys, and mommies to keep me company-"
Rosalie cleared her throat pointedly.
"Oh, all right, and a mommy wannabe, but you get my point. I need girl time. Desperately." She took my shoulders and gave them a little shake, proving her point.
I wasn't swayed. I swear. Not even a little bit. I fully intended to go outside with Rosalie to check out their cars for the rest of the morning. I didn't care a lick if Alice got mad at me. Or was scarred for the rest of her existence, or whatever. She was like I spoiled child, I swear. Got everything she wanted.
But when Ness came up behind me and put her hand on my back, sending images of little dollar signs dancing through my head, well….
I started seeing things Alice's way.
Chapter 2
Embry's POV
When Cathryn pulled up to the almost-but-not-quite-house, I could tell right away that something was up. Not in her mind. But physically. She looked different.
She opened the door. "Hey, Cat." I greeted her. "Did you…get your hair dyed or something?"
Cathryn looked horrified. "No!" She squeaked, her voice an octive too high. "I DID NOT get my hair dyed?" She ducked back into her car and turned down the dashboard window, checking her reflection carefully. "Does it look that bad?"
"No!" I said quickly, backtracking. "Er…what DID you do?"
"Not me." Cathryn muttered scornfully, getting back out of the car. "Alice. Look what she did to my hair!"
She turned around, exposing the mountain of pinned up auburn ringlets sitting on her head. It looked good. It reminded me of her hair the day Rachel and Paul tied the knot.
"Oh." I said sarcastically. "Yeah. Awful."
"It is!" Cathryn insisted, walking around me and sticking out her hand to Mr. Marshal, the architect. "Hiya. Lady of the house, here."
I ducked my head to hide a satisfied grin. I loved the way she said that, sure but casual at the same time, like we were already engaged. The same way I felt. A few months ago she never would have said that.
"Hey." Mr. Marshal replied, taking her small hand in his large-compared to hers, not mine-one and shaking, his brow furrowed in confusion. I could understand his bewilderment. She looked so young.
Even younger than she actually was. Because it turned out that imprints did not age. Us wolves felt like pretty big idiots when we discovered this, seeing as we had had centuries and centuries to notice and never had. We'd just assumed that our imprints were still aging, so we stopped phasing so that we could grow old with them. And we started aging, so did our imprints. In our defense, however, this was the first time we had ever had a coven of vampires breathing down one of the imprint's neck. They and Jacob had freaked out rather considerably when Nessie stopped aging sooner than intended. A sixteen rather than eighteen. So they did some sniffing around, and discovered that Kim was around the same age, physically. Though she was supposed to be twenty-six, she had the body of a mid-teen. Same with Emily. And Rachel.
It took the lot of us awhile before we got it. Before we understood that imprints were so thoroughly, so completely connected to their wolf that they stopped aging at the exact same age their wolf had.
Which explained why Emily's tummy had showed no signs of stretch marks when she had Nate, no wrinkles on her face from sleepless nights, no laugh lines. She wouldn't have had many, she was only thirty after all, but those ten or so extra years were obviously not there even from a human's perspective.
Cathryn was thrilled when I told her. Every woman's dream, to never get old. At least, that's how the imprints were looking at it. Us wolves, however, were still a little skeptical. But we didn't think about it too much. When it came to our imprints, everything freaked us out. Even the good stuff.
Anyways. It made sense for Mr. Marshal to be unsettled. It wasn't every day you saw a girl that looked sixteen and a guy that looked twenty-five getting ready to buy a house together.
He handled it well though, I thought.
"Embry said you were here to observe, mostly. You know, get the feel of the place. Make sure-"
"That you weren't screwing it up?" Cathryn interrupted.
Mr. Marshal blinked, affronted. I chuckled to myself. Though she had had this effect on people more times than I could count, it never got old. "Well-not exactly-I wouldn't-" He stammered.
"Yeah." Cathryn patted him briskly on the shoulder. "Whatevs."
She walked past him and up the drive way to the house. Obviously, it was still a work in progress. They had the bottom part, the foundation, completely done, as well as the front and back porch. Other than that, though, it was all just a bunch of thick, wooden beams. The building's skeleton, I guess you could call it. It wasn't much, and I was fully prepared for Cathryn to be brutal.
But I was wrong. She surprised me. As per usual.
"Eeeeeep!" She squealed, turning and running back to me, jumping into my arms. I caught her in midair, laughing. "I love it!" She whispered in my ear. "Or at least," She pulled back and looked from me to Mr. Marshall curiously. "I think I love it. Its not really clear yet…."
"Yeah." I snorted and swung her around onto my back, where she promptly climbed onto my shoulders. "That's kind of why you're here."
"See, Mr. Call and I were thinking it'd be stone and brick on the outside, and oak on the inside." Mr. Marshall started to explain.
"Oak floors or oak walls?" Cathryn interrupted.
"We have no idea." I told her. "He won't be living here and I don't care. So…"
"Hmmm." Cat rested her elbows on top of my head. " Think that it should have, like, oak outlines. Like the corners and the top and bottom of the walls, and any structures…you know what I'm talking about, Mr. M?"
Mr Marshal tilted his head up to look at her better. "Oak paneling?"
"Yeah!" I could feel her nod her head enthusiastically.
"So what about the walls and floors?" I wondered.
"Painted walls…dark colors? Like a sort of cranberry red…you know. Warm. Cause its always so dark and cold here. Are you okay with that, Em?"
"Sure, sure." I borrowed Jacob's saying.
"And then hardwood floors? But not oak. Something else."
"All right." Mr. Marshal jotted all this down before leading us up the steps and into the house. As I stepped over the threshold, Cathryn grabbed hold of one of the beams and let me walk out from under her, so that she was just dangling there. She swung around experimentally, kicking her feet.
"I," She declared, "Like this."
I smiled huge. "Good."
"Hey." She said, swinging her legs up and over so that she was sitting on top of the beam as opposed to hanging from it. My heart irrationally skipped a beat. The house was only going to be one floor with a basement, so the beam wasn't high, but that didn't make it any easier for me to let her do that without running around under her with a net. "What's that?" She pointed to a structure to our left.
"That's going to be the kitchen countertop." Mr. Marshal sounded proud. "You know those that have chair along one side so you can use it as a table, and a washing machine or an oven on the other?"
"Yeah."
"That. Only Its going to have beams on either side, going to the ceiling and then over until they meet. It'll create a little window as well as a sort of wall separating the kitchen from the living room."
"Okay." Cat said cheerfully. "Hey, can the kitchen floors be tile instead of hardwood like everything else?"
"Sure." I answered for him.
We walked through the rest of the house, Mr. Marshal explaining and Cat or I occasionally commenting on what we wanted the color or flooring to be. Well, Mr. Marshal and I walked. Cathryn balanced precariously on beams, crawling and walking and swinging on them like a jungle gym. She was seriously beginning to stress me out.
Which was why, as soon as Cathryn had left, off to her sorority where she'd meet yet another sister, I turned to Mr. Marshal and made absolutely clear that if he put a skylight or dorm windows or a balcony or anything else Cat could ever use to get on the roof, he was fired. I was not spending the rest of our too-long-but-not-nearly-long-enough existences together freaking out about Cathryn falling off something and killing herself.
Chapter 3
Cathryn's POV
"Hello?" I flipped open my cell. "Mom?"
"Hey, sweetie. Have you found out about your new sorority sister yet?" Her voice bubbled over in excitement.
I took my time answering, stopping at a red light-obeying the traffic laws for once-and switching radio stations a few times. "No. The others know by now, but I was…busy."
Busy.
But it wasn't like I could tell them that. So our arguments about him usually ended up going stalemate. And staying that way.
"Well get there!" Mom said, either not noticing or ignoring my resentful tone. "You'll be so surprised…well, just get there. And call me when you find out!"
"Sure. Love you."
"Love you too!"
I hung up and entered the campus, slowing Jewel to a smooth crawl. Now that I knew my parents knew…. Well, obviously I'd changed a lot lately, and there were too many aspects of my life and personality that they weren't aware of for them to be able to accurately judge what I would and would not like.
Unfortunately though, I couldn't dawdle forever. And my sisters were only too happy for me to shorten the process for me even further.
"KIT-KAT!" Becca screamed, throwing open the door before I had even parked.
"Hey, Bex."I said unenthusiastically once out of the car.
I know that I give the impression of not liking Becca. That is not the case. I do. Really. Its just that she got here on a cheerleading scholarship. And she has the pep-filled personality to go with it. And I find that kind of…tiring. So I have to take her in small doses. When I'm well rested. And in a good mood.
And right now was none of the above.
"Omigod your going to FREAK when you find out who it is! Seriously. Your mom recommended her. You'll be so exited. Cat-"
And that was about where I tuned out. Instead of listening, I took deep breaths through my nose and focused on the smell of the rain I had come to love. Or tolerate, at least. I turned the knob to our front door and stepped inside, wondering ildly-
"Ah!" I screamed, jumping back. "You!"
I felt my lip curl angrily at the word. Can you believe, that after all this time, my parents still haven't accepted Embry? Even though they've known about us dating for a year now? And its obvious he loves me? They were so against it that I actually had to lie about it sometimes when I went to see him. Apparently I was too young to be seeing somebody seriously and should take my time and fall in love with just the right guy and all that crap. What they didn't realize was that all their parently wisdom went out the window anyway where Embry was concerned, because he wasn't even human.