I am so sorry this took so long! I really didn't have any ideas for it! Plus our computer got a virus, I just got my braces off, and I've been practicing my driving. Please forgive me! Oh, and their night is over. I had something planned, but I'm gonna move it around a bit.
Bella-
"Bella, please look at me." I glared down at the notebook that I was pretending to take notes on, because I couldn't just look up and glare into his eyes. One glance and he would make sure I never looked away again. Him and his stupid mind games and velvety voice.
We were in math class, and he was turned completely away from the teacher, as he had been all hour, trying to convince me to talk to him. I had been trying my best to ignore him all during science class and had pretty much reached my breaking point.
"Please." My pencil snapped between my fingers and a growl too low for human ears escaped my throat.
He'd left me alone the first week after the dance, simply staring at me from a distance, but now he had decided to take action. He was starting to sound angry, and that was the only thing that kept me from reacting to his persistence.
"Mr. Cullen, perhaps you could leave Ms. Swan alone for a moment and answer the question." Before he'd even finished the suggestion I had the teacher's mind protected by my shield, and listened in pleasure as Edward stumbled around for the answer.
After a moment he sighed in defeat. "Um, could you repeat the question?"
A collection of gasps rang out through the room and I smirked at the song written on my notebook. In the nearly two months Edward had been at our school, never once had he needed to ask a teacher to repeat a question, even when it was painfully obvious he hadn't been paying attention. The teacher ignored him and turned to Devin, who proudly answered the should-be first grade question.
The bell rang soon after that and I rushed from the classroom, ignoring his insistent calling. I stopped in front of the empty music room and in a snap decision decided to skip my study hall and work on the song that had been taking course in my head.
--
"Hey, has anyone heard about the killings in Portland?" Natalie questioned the table at lunch.
"Oh yea! There's been three deaths in the last week!" Gabe announced from his seat by Wendy. He was holding her hand in between them, and it was sickeningly adorable. "The weird part is that every body has been drained completely of blood!" Natalie glared at him, as though that had been what she wanted to share. This information go the attention of the six vampires at the table.
"Really?" Edward asked cautiously, trying to sound casual. "What else?"
Gabe pulled a newspaper out of his backpack. "My mom made me carry it as a reminder to be careful and blah, blah, blah," he explained at everyone's confused looks. "Here." He tossed it to Edward who began reading it aloud to the five of us, just quiet enough so the humans wouldn't hear.
Basically it was saying the victims were found at night, not an ounce of blood in their bodies, though there was a bit of it on their clothes, and they each had teeth marks over their pulse point.
"Maybe it's vampires," Anna joked, waving her fingers in a spooky fashion while "Ooo-ing"
The accused didn't find that funny one bit.
Later that night, Erin and Wendy mentioned this to Simon while I read a mystery novel. "Do you think we should have a meeting?" Erin wondered, and my head snapped up.
"No!" I shouted. "I mean, well, it's not our business if some nomad wandered into a city and decided they were thirsty."
"But the work sounds sloppy, like that of a newborn," Erin argued. "And if it is a newborn, they're likely to get us exposed by the end of the month. We shouldn't risk it."
The three of us stared expectantly up at Simon, Wendy seeming highly amused by the situation. Bitch.
"I think we should give it another week. At least then you'll be on winter break and we can spend all the time in the world making plans." We nodded, and I prayed it was just some nomad passing through. "Bella, you might want to let Jake and the pack know, just in case."
I really didn't think we'd need their services, but I texted him anyway.
Did you read about the killings in Portland?
He didn't respond until I was lying down for the night.
Yea, it's definitely a vamp job. Need us to take care of it?
I typed quickly, hoping he would leave so I could relax.
No, not yet. We're gonna wait and see if anything else turns up. It might be a newborn, but it might not. If there're any more killings within the week we'll have a meeting with the others this weekend.
Aw, but we're bored! Fine, but I'm coming up this weekend anyway.
Oh, how cute!
Shut up.
Night Jake.
Later.
Over the course of the next four days five more bodies had been found, and that, unfortunately, meant we had to invite the Cullens over on Friday night. The killings were becoming the main topic of gossip at our school, and they'd also been moving closer to our town. Portland was almost two hours away. But the latest death, which took place in Melville, was just under thirty minutes away. Kids were getting scared.
"My mom won't even let me out after dark!"
"I had to cancel all my plans for the weekend!"
"We're spending Christmas in Alaska. Dad decided he wants to 'visit the rest of our family'."
The only kid that didn't seem terrified was Gabe. He walked with us to our car after school, same as all the other days this week, but stopped a few feet away. Because we definitely wouldn't be able to hear what he was saying from all the way over there.
"Hey, um, I was wondering if you wanted to see a movie tonight."
"You're not afraid you-we'll get eaten?" she teased, catching herself. He didn't need to know that she would be one hundred percent safe. And, since he'd be with her, he'd be fine too.
"I'll take my chances." She grinned. "So, pick you up at five?"
"Sure!" She pecked him on the cheek and skipped to the back door, waving once more before she got in.
"Wendy, why would you do that?!" Erin asked once we'd pulled out of the parking lot. "Have you forgotten that we have plans as a family tonight?! Wait, I can answer that for you."
"I'm sorry Erin, but I really want to go! And I bet you're working tonight anyway, and Devin has football practice, so I'm not the only one going out tonight."
"Yea, but my shift gets done at six, and Devin gets home by 6:30 every night, giving us both plenty of time until seven when they come over!"
"Well then I guess it'll have to start late."
"People are dying, Wends! You're just going to ignore that."
"No one's gonna die in the three hours that I'm out seeing a movie with my new boyfriend." Erin shook her head as she sped down the road.
"Ok, how about a new topic of conversation. Oh, I know! You guys can help me memorize my very difficult vocab words!" Sara suggested, sarcasm and fake enthusiasm dripping in her words. I chuckled, taking the list from her hands.
"Ok, foreshadowing."
"Oh, um, that's s toughie. I'm gonna guess it's a literary device in which an author drops subtle hints about plot developments to come later in the story."
"Wow, you're right! Sara you're so smart!"
"I know!"
We continued to make fun of the list of words until we got home where, after Wendy dressed for her date, I was forced into trashy, stylish clothes. "You want to look like you don't care," Wendy explained after she had pulled my hair up into a low ponytail, a few loose pieces strategically left out to hang in my face. She pulled a white V-neck out of my closet and across the front you could barely make out the words "I'm not doing shit today", written in a brighter white than the shirt. At the same time Sara pulled out a pair of ripped black skinny jeans. They got into an argument when it came to my bra.
"She can't wear a black bra under a thin white shirt!" Sara stated the obvious. "Everyone will be able to see it!"
"That's the point!" Wendy argued back. "It would drive Edward crazy!"
"Well," I intervened, "since that is not the point of the day, I'm gonna have to go with the strapless white bra." Wendy slumped, but I grabbed the lace black panties from her before shoving them both out of my room.
To top the outfit off, of course, were my still pristine white leather converse. The black heels sat untouched by my closet. Even I had my limits.
The wolves showed up at 6:30 and I called them down into the basement with Sara, Devin, and of course myself to listen to music and whatever else. Erin, the goody-two-shoes that she is, was upstairs helping Simon get ready for our guests.
Right when Jake and I were three and a half minutes in to singing Dead and Gone we heard the sound of a front door slamming across the street. "Perfect timing!" I grinned wickedly, turning up the volume.
"I turn my head to the east, I don't see nobody by my side. I turn my head to the west, still nobody in sight. So I turn my head to the north, swallow that pill that they call pride. That old me's dead and gone, but the new me'll be alright. I turn my head to the east, I don't see nobody by my side. I turn my head to the west, still nobody in sight. So I turn my head to the north, swallow that pill that they call pride. That old me's dead and gone, but the new me'll be alright!"
I couldn't believe it took them that long to cross the street, even if humans were watching, but our doorbell rang as I started in on the chorus. Still, there was no way they missed my little performance. It was probably loud enough for some humans to hear.
"The old me is dead and gone, dead and gone. And oh, I've been traveling on this road too long, just tryin to find my way back home. The old me is dead and gone, dead and gone."
"Bella, the Cullens are here!"
"Yea, and-?" I asked back as the thirty second musical ending to the song played.
"Come say hi."
"I'm entertaining company down here!" The wolves sniggered. "Hey, my singing is entertaining!"
"You could say that again," Embry muttered, earning him a pillow to the head. "Hey!" Being the mature, two year older one, I stuck my tongue out at him.
"I'll come up when Wendy gets home!" That wouldn't be for at least and hour.
I heard Simon mumble apologies for my rudeness. The next thing I knew Jacob had the laptop in his hands and the Cullens plus Simon and Erin were in the downstairs living room. I glared at my 'dad'.
Lollipop began blaring through the rather loud Macbook speakers, and suddenly I was smirking. Jake handed it back to me, his look matching my own. I looked at the playlist he'd chosen; the one Wendy had cleverly named 'Inapropro'. Simon looked annoyed.
Four minutes into the song and Simon couldn't take it anymore. It might have had something to do with me and Jake singing degradingly to each other while the other wolves laughed and Sara and Erin ignored us, but I couldn't be sure. "How long is this song?"
Before I could answer, Esme spoke. "Five minutes." The whole room got silent, minus the laptop, as we stared at her in open mouthed shock. The only one who didn't seem surprised was Emmett. "I can't tell you how many times Emmett's played that song at full volume," she added, seemingly unaware of our surprise.
By the time Wendy was supposed to be home Jake, Embry, and I had sang our way through Smack That, Sexy Can I, Turnin Me On, Hey Sexy Lady, Touch My Body, Push (Enrique Iglesias version; Emmett asked if that was legal, since his name meant Church in Spanish, and he got a smack on the head from his wife), and Shake it. I'd gotten bored and bought a new song that I'd set to play next.
"Whatcha doin Bells?" Jake asked, leaning his head over mine to look at the screen.
"Buying a song we heard the other day. Wendy wanted it." Sara perked up, knowing which one I was talking about, and came to sit by the love seat I had spread myself out on. It was a pretty amusing song.
"Oh come on, Mariah Carey?!" Jake exclaimed, and his pack laughed. We glared.
"It's a fun song!" Sara argued.
"Sure, sure."
"Well then go text Amy if you don't want to listen to it."
"I did, she's eating with her family."
"Sucks for you then." And with that I pressed play.
Sara sang the beginning part because she'd actually listened to the entire song, whereas I'd only heard the chorus. So that's where I joined in.
"Why you so obsessed with me? Boy I wanna know. Lyin that you're sexin me, when everybody knows. It's clear that you're upset with me. Oh, finally found a girl that you couldn't impress. Last man on the earth still couldn't get this. You're delusional, you're delusional. Boy you're losing your mind. It's confusin yo, you're confused, you know. Why you wasting your time? Got you all fired up with your Napoleon complex. See right through you like you're bathing in Windex. Oh, oh, oh, boy why you so obsessed with me?"
"You know, at the part where she says last man on the earth couldn't get this, kinda makes Mariah sound like a lesbian," Emmett noted, staring directly at me with challenge in his eyes. He definitely didn't mean Mariah.
"Maybe she is," I responded easily. I ignored the shocked looks and the laughs at my joke, only smiling a little at the screen of the computer. I sang along again with the choruses, chancing a glance up at Edward. I was pretty sure he was looking at me out of the corner of his eye while he pretended to listen to the conversation around the large glass table we had set up for decoration across the room.
After Obsessed was Don't Trust Me, and Jacob joined in the singing again, and I found it very funny when he sang at Edward, "Tell your boyfriend, if he says he's got beef, that I'm a vegetarian and I ain't" (word to naughty for young eyes) "scared of him."
The songs that followed included Sexy Bitch, Birthday Sex, She Wolf (which I normally would have skipped, but decided "What the hell?". Edward looked pissed.), and Temperature (again, for the wolves).
Simon kept glancing at clocks. The meeting should have started at seven, but we weren't expecting Wendy home until 7:30. It was eight by the time my playlist reached Good Girls Go Bad, and there was still no sign of our sister.
Jacob was having so much fun messing with Edward that I was laughing through the whole first verse. I calmed down by the time he got to, "She was so shy, til I drove her wild. I make them good girls go bad! I make them good girls go bad! You were hanging in the corner with your five best friends. You heard that I was trouble but you couldn't resist. I make them good girls go bad! I make them good girls go."
In the five seconds between Jake's part and mine, Sara and Devin got up and announced that they were going to go for a walk, and Simon warned them not to be late. They were gone before he finished the warning. I had a feeling I knew the reason for their sudden need for exercise, and put all my acting and flirting into Leighton Meester's parts of the song.
"I know your type. Boy you're dangerous. Yea you're that guy, I'd be stupid to trust. But just one night couldn't be so wrong. You make me wanna lose control." There was eyelash batting and suggestive smirking and Jacob was fighting very hard not to laugh, same as me.
"She was so shy, til I drove her wild. I make them good girls go bad! I make them good girls go bad!"
"I was hanging in the corner with my five best friends. I knew that you were trouble but I couldn't resist."
I glanced over at the table, as a whole so as not to single anyone out, through my eyelashes. Alice and Emmett were laughing, trying to keep it under control; Jasper was trying to calm his wife; Rosalie was smirking at me-I felt like I should have been blushing- Carlisle was discussing something with Simon, and Esme was staring at Alice, Emmett, and Rosalie disapprovingly. Oh, and Edward was glaring at Jacob as if it was the big wolf's fault that I was so 'bad' all of a sudden. That was the last door he should have been knocking on. First on his list should have been himself, obviously, and P!nk with her bitter sarcastic song of miracles, and then a few other people that I chose not to remember visiting.
"Oh, she got a way with the boys in the place, treat 'em like they don't stand a chance!"
"And he got a way with the girls in the back, acting like they're too hot to dance!"
"Yea she got a way with the boys in the place, treat 'em like they don't stand a chance!"
"And he got a way with the girls in the back, acting like they're too hot to dance!"
Suddenly Sara, Devin, and a dazed Wendy came back downstairs, and I paused the music. This would be too good to have to try and hear over the loud playlist.
"Where have you been?!" Simon demanded the very millisecond she stepped through the door. Her smile didn't falter.
"At the movies." Even her voice was dazed.
"And how much of that movie did you actually watch?" I called out, smirking. She returned it.
"What movie?"
I shook my head, turning my attention back to the computer, pretending not to listen to her getting scolded.
"You said you'd be back by eight. It's now 8:33!"
"Sorry, his mom was late! She was doing some shopping and had to pick up Gabe's little brother from his grandma's house!"
Jake cut in then. "Hey, she's here now. So are we gonna decide how to kick some newborn ass? Cuz if not, then we're leaving." He wasn't gonna leave. He, at least, would stick around to visit Amy before heading back to wherever they were located now.
Sighing, Simon agreed, gesturing our visitors into the living room. "Bella," he stared at my jeans pointedly, and after a moment of arguing through our eyes, I pushed myself up into a sitting position, setting the laptop on the lamp table next to my armrest.
Edward, the annoying prick, took the open seat next to me, and Alice squeezed her tiny ass in between him and the other arm rest on the love seat. I gave them each their own specially designed scowl before ignoring them completely.
"So, we've been talking," Carlisle started, standing up to address our tight packed group. I was half tempted to jump up and lay out across the wolves, who were taking up one half of our two-wall couch. The thing was pretty big. But I sat still, a blank look on my face as I stared up at the man I once considered a second father. I had some manners. "And it's probably a good idea to fix this mess before higher forces get involved."
"Higher forces?" Seth asked.
"The Volturi." I hoped no one noticed my wince at the mention of our 'kings'. "They're like, the royal family of vampires. Basically, they enforce our law."
"Vampires have laws?" Jake asked skeptically.
"Just one. Keep the secret." The huge wolf's mouth formed an O."Newborns don't know this, especially ones that have been abandoned, which seems to be the case in this situation. What we've decided is that we'll explain the rules to them, and offer up our alternative, and if that doesn't work we'll let you boys," the five Quileute's eyes narrowed at the term, "take care of them. Agreed?"
Jake, Embry, Seth, Colin, and Brady shared looks before Jake turned back to Carlisle and nodded once.
"We have to find it first," Rosalie pointed out.
"Yes, well we'll have to have some of us running patrols through the town and the woods surrounding it," Simon added.
"We can take care of the woods," Jake chimed in.
"Those four can, Jake, I'm gonna need you for something else." Simon ignored Jake's confused look and continued. "Sara and Wendy, you two patrol the sidewalks."
"Rosalie, Alice, you two will join them," Carlisle instructed, and Wendy and Rose shared a glare and I fought back a grimace on my sister's behalf. "Edward, you and Emmett drive around the streets and keep an eye out."
"Devin, you and Jasper cover the roof tops to get a better view of things," Simon picked up, "And Bella and Jake, you two take the bikes." Jake and I shared a grin and a high five. "Erin and I will stay here and keep things in order." Cell phone numbers were exchanged, to my greatest discomfort, so we could all keep in touch in case something happens.
We all rushed to the entryway, Jake and I in the lead. It had been a while since we'd ridden the bikes together, and we were pumped. I was already pulling my leather jacket out of the closet when the rest of them caught up.
"Hang on, since when can you ride a motorcycle?" Emmett asked, pointing at me.
"Februaury of 2006," I answered with my signature glare.
"So you were still human?" he asked, incredulous. I didn't dignify his idiocy with a response. "Didn't you fall over?"
"Yes, and I took her to the hospital. She kept practicing." Jacob's voice was dangerous, and he was beginning to shake. He didn't like the way Emmett made it sound like I was helpless, and that Jacob was useless. Without another word he and I went out to the garage, grabbing our significant bikes.
We had, of course, traded up in the last thirty years, to get these monstrously huge things a few years ago. His was red and mine was black. He kept his with us, since he only used it for entertainment purposes anyway.
We took off out of the garage at full blast, water from a recent rainstorm spraying up behind us. An opportunity presented itself that I just couldn't pass up, so I took off around the cul-de-sac, spraying water from a recent rain into other yards, and all over Edward, Emmett, and a silver car that I had never seen them drive before. Jacob was right behind me with a second wave, and we laughed as we zoomed out onto the street.
We decided to stay together, that way we'd outnumber this newborn should we have come across it. The few people still on the streets stared at us as we laughed our way past, hidden by the helmets we wore to simply cover our faces, going over double the legal limit. There weren't any police out in our neighborhood. They were all in Melville or on some street close to there, looking for suspects they pretended to have.
At one point, about an hour or so into the ride, I got a call from Erin saying that a converse shoe print saturated with blood had been found on a street that Jacob and I happened to be close to. We slowed down then, because that meant police were back in town. We pulled up where police, news reporters, and a big crowd of people had shown up, removing our helmets to get a better sense of what was going on. I could easily smell the fresh blood, and there were mumblings of a body being discovered just off the side of the highway that led into Astoria.
I took quick breaths at first, desensitizing myself to the sweet aroma while Jake sat trembling on his bike.
"Jake, calm," I reminded him firmly, and he nodded, his eyes squinted closed. I examined the footprint the moment I could see it, taking everything about it to memory. What was now stumping the humans was that the print was in a deserted alley, with nothing but a dead end brick wall of a building that was at least twenty feet high. And there were no exiting footprints. There was, however, a few drops of blood on the wall about five feet up.
"Amateur," I muttered, putting my helmet back on before people noticed us. We started back up, Jake seeming a little calmer, and zoomed around the street to the other side, following the scent of the blood once the trail picked up.
It led us for ten minutes to the edge of the forest, and Jake took off momentarily to contact the pack. When he came back, rezipping his leather jacket, he explained that they hadn't been this way for a while, and that Embry was on his way over to check it out.
A minute later, the giant, thin, grey wolf that is Embry Call appeared at the edge of the trees, sniffing and whimpering what he smelled.
"What is it boy, what do you smell?" I asked, pretending to sound like a perky dog owner. He growled, but didn't turn his head away from the forest floor.
He took off, but was back a few seconds later, shaking his head. He quickly scratched marks into the earth where he last smelled the blood, Jacob explained to me, and then he took off again. I pulled out my cell phone to relay the news.
"Hey Erin, yea, we followed the blood scent to the edge of the forest, and Embry checked it out from there, but it got lost just a few feet in."
"Oh, well, good work. Hang on, Simon's getting a call." I listened as he answered. It was Wendy, and she was in hysterics. There was screaming from her end of the phone, and even though she wasn't on the phone with me I had to pull mine away from my ear because it was that loud. Someone was screaming, and it was a voice that I didn't completely recognize. It was definitely male, though.
"Wendy, calm down! Where are you?"
She must have handed the phone over to, or had it stolen by, Alice. She relayed the street address, and I told Erin we were on our way before hanging up. Jacob had heard everything too, and we followed along the forest edge until a building got in our way and we were forced onto the streets. We barely missed a red light, zooming down the street. A silver car was following us.
We made it there in just over two minutes, and what I saw made me gasp.
Haha, cliffie! Ok, time for a guessing game! So, I know I didn't add this in the last chapter, but who do you guys think is the mystery girl that is trying to help Edward with Bella? Who do you think was screaming over the phone, besides Wendy? The newborn? Someone else? And lastly, who do you think the newborn is? You can leave your answers in a review or a PM, and if you get it right I'll answer a question you have about the story. Won't that be fun?! Also, I added Edward's and Rosalie's cars, and the motorcycles onto my links page, so check those out!
Oh, and this is officially my longest chapter.
Luv Wendy! :)(: