Hi, guys! The last update on the tenth, like promised.

The weather here in the Netherlands is amazing. We finally have the good weather that mother nature owned us, seeing as we had a lousy spring :( .

I'll keep it real short, seeing as you guys are probably curious about what will happen between Rachel and Edward, seeing as she's going to confront him. A little heads-up, it's nothing like Bella's confrontation.

ShadowsOfTheDay and DreamUnicorn247, thank you for your reviews. And authorstage, thank you for the private message. Here's the update, like promised.

I think I'll update again after my summer break is over because I have one chapter after this one and than they're up. So I really need to work hard on this story in the summer. Hope you guys will understand that. I might update a little sooner but I can't make any promises about that yet. Really sorry :(

Please review to let me know what you guys thought about this chapter and about Rachel's reaction. And I hope you guys will enjoy this chapter.

Happy summer break! :D

XxX Emmetje

New Girl in Town

Chapter 13

The Finding Of The Truth

Rachel didn't know how she had gotten herself so far to get up but eventually she managed to get out of bed and to the bathroom where she took a very short but very hot shower. It calmed her down a little and woke her up some more.

She was still feeling nervous, though. How could she not when she was going to confront a potential Vampire about what he was in the woods all on her own?

Edward had perhaps told her that he felt very protective of her and that he would never hurt her on purpose but she knew how unpredictable Vampires could be and how fast they could change their minds. And there was nothing more dangerous than a Vampire changing his mind, especially one with mood swings like Edward.

Wrapping a towel tightly around her and grabbing a smaller towel to dry her hair with, Rachel walked back to her bedroom. She didn't want to go to school. She just wanted to stay at home and get some more sleep. But the sooner she confronted Edward, the sooner she could let it go. She had already spend too many nights and days wondering about this mystery. It was time to find some closure.

Suddenly something caught her eye. Something that was lying on her windowsill and that wasn't supposed to be there. It was her mobile.

Frowning she walked towards it and picked it up. Where had it come from? She certainly hadn't placed it there. And hadn't she lost it in Port Angeles?

Still frowning, Rachel unlocked her phone but saw nothing out of the ordinary. That was until she opened her notes. There was a note saying: To Miss Grey.

A shiver ran down her spine when she realised who had called her that and she got the feeling that she hadn't lost her mobile but that someone had taken it. Someone who was so fast that she wouldn't notice.

Her suspicion was confirmed when she read the note. "Good luck with your search for answers and until next time."

Rachel narrowed her eyes and glared at the note. "Stupid Vampires," she muttered angrily to herself while throwing her phone on bed and getting dressed. "They're all the same. All have the exact same arrogant, cocky attitude. Think they can get away with anything."

"Rachel!"

"I'm coming, I'm coming!" called Rachel back, still glaring at everything she passed. "Hold your horses!"

Still muttering things about how ignorant and extremely annoying Vampires were, she grabbed her stuff and hurried downstairs.

"Oh, you look like someone just insulted you in the most horrible way ever," commented Janet when Rachel walked into the kitchen with a scowl on her face.

"Don't ask," threw Rachel at her. "You don't want to know. Trust me."

But of course Janet still asked. She was Janet, always curious and always wanting to know everything. "Boy trouble?"

"More like arrogant British man who thinks he can get away with everything trouble."

"Oh, you met someone?" smiled Janet widely.

"No," corrected Rachel quickly. "I was being bothered by someone and he came to my rescue and told him off. I didn't even catch his name."

"Oh, you just got to love the British," sighed Janet with a dreamy smile on her face. "They're so civil and such gentlemen." She looked at her daughter again. "You think you will see him again?"

"I sure hope not," muttered Rachel. "Like I said, he wasn't exactly your stereotype Britisher."

"Was he handsome?" wanted Janet to know.

Rachel gave her a weird look. "I guess..."

"Oh, a handsome British gentleman. Why didn't you just jump his bones?"

Rachel glared at her and didn't answer. Instead she quickly ate her breakfast before hurrying out of the house and towards school. This morning wasn't going as she had planned it would go. And something told her things would only be getting worse.

Things defiantly felt like they were getting worse with each inch she came closer to school. Her throat was sore and she had the feeling that she would soon be reunited with her breakfast, which was not a good thing.

The drive to school was long because Rachel deliberately was driving very slowly. She didn't want to be early because then more people would suddenly notice her disappearance. She also really really really didn't want to go to school.

Finally Forks High came into view and she parked her car in the parking lot. Apparently the bell had already rang because it was crowded by the entrance with students who wanted to get inside and the parking lot was nearly deserted.

"Okay," whispered Rachel to herself, taking a deep breath and closing her eyes. "There's nothing to worry about. He isn't going to hurt you. You're just going to get out of the car and walk into the forest instead of into school and when he appears, you'll confront him and he'll answer your questions. It's as simple as that."

She opened her eyes and looked at the entrance again. No one seemed to notice her car standing there and her not getting out of it. Maybe it was better that way.

She took another deep breath and her hand went to the coat pocket, clutching the pepper spray that was tugged away in there tightly before letting it go again and opening the door.

Rachel stepped out of her car while pulling her bag over her shoulder and glanced around again. She was the only person left standing in the parking lot. All the other students were already either inside or trying to make their way through the crowd by the entrance to get inside.

She threw her car door close and locked it before taking another breath and walking away from school and towards the forest, not once looking back.

Her heart was trying to jump out of her chest again and her hands were sweating. But that were the least of her problems. She was much more focussed on where she placed her feet because her legs were shaking uncontrollably and one wrong step would send her to the ground.

The trees that surrounded her were increasing in numbers with almost each step she took and the air became thicker and the sounds of civilisation became less until they all had been replaced by snapping branches, moving leaves and the singing of birds.

Rachel finally stopped walking when her feet were starting to ache and placed a hand against a tree, holding it for support. Her breathing was too fast again and came out rather shaky.

She closed her eyes and pressed her other hand against her still too fast beating heart. "What on earth am I doing?" she asked herself in a small voice.

"I was about to ask you the same thing." Rachel's eyes snapped open and she turned around, seeing none other than Edward Cullen standing a few feet away from her. "Why aren't you at school?"

Rachel swallowed, her heart was trying to jump out of her chest again, and tried to make him believe that she was brave. She straightened her shoulders and gave him a stubborn look. "I could ask you the same thing," she threw back at him. "Why aren't you at school?"

"I saw you walk into the woods on your own," Edward answered, staying where he was: a few feet away from her. "It's not safe to wander around here on your own, Rachel. I thought you would be smarter than that."

"I'm smarter than that," answered Rachel. "But my curiosity wins it every time from my sanity."

Edward frowned slightly. "What do you mean?"

"You're never willing to give me any answers when your siblings are around so I had to get you away from them," started Rachel to explain. "I knew you would see me walk into the woods and I knew you would follow me."

Edward's face became stone like again. He didn't let one single emotion show. "You lured me away from them."

"And away from others who would be listening in," continued Rachel. "They're quite curious, aren't they?"

Edward's face didn't change but for a moment a flash of anger passed through his eyes. "Why?"

"I want answers," answered Rachel immediately. "I thought it would be obvious by now. I want to know what you are." She saw him grind his teeth. "What are you, Edward Cullen?"

But he shook his head while turning around and he started to walk away. "I can't..."

"You're impossibly fast," interrupted Rachel. "And strong." Edward stopped but staid with his back turned to her. "Your skin is as cold as that of a corpse and it's so white that it looks like you could drop dead in any moment, if you aren't dead already." Slowly he turned his head towards her. "You don't eat human food, you disappear whenever the sun shines, your eyes change colour." He moved his whole body to her direction. "You can do something like reading minds when that isn't possible for a human being and sometimes you speak as if you were born in a complete different era." She wetted her lips. "How old are you?"

"Seventeen," answered Edward. His voice sounded very off.

"How long have you been seventeen?" demanded Rachel to know.

Edward remained silent for quite some time before he finally answered: "A while."

"How long?" repeated Rachel, determination burning in her eyes like fire.

"Since 1918."

"1918," repeated Rachel, quickly doing the math. "That makes you a 107 years old." Edward remained silent so she continued. "According to the Quileute Legends you and your family are Vampires."

"And you believe that?" wanted Edward to know. His voice still sounded off.

"I don't know what to believe," answered Rachel, now looking frustrated. "Apparently you're a Vampire yet you don't fit most of the boxes." She crooked her head slightly. "Or do you?"

Edward's face remained stone like. "Do what?"

That was the only answer Rachel needed and she immediately started her cross examination. "Do you burn in the sun?"

"No."

"Stake through the heart?"

"Neither."

"Can you change in a different form?" Edward shook his head. "Do you have fangs?" He shook his head once more. "Can you compel people?" Once more a shake of the head. "Does wood harm you at all?"

"No."

"Vervain?"

Edward frowned slightly. "What's vervain?"

Rachel rolled her eyes. "See what I mean. Everything I know about Vampires just doesn't describe you. Just the speed, the strength, the immortality and the blood drinking. How is that possible?" She gave him another demanding look. "Are there two different types of Vampires?"

"No," answered Edward. "It's just us. Everything humans know about us, we made up. In that case we could prove that we weren't Vampires if they ever caught us."

"Are you sure?" asked Rachel, just to be sure.

Edward nodded. "Positive."

Rachel stared at his face and noticed he wasn't lying. He really believed there was only one kind of Vampire: his kind, Cold Ones. She knew something he didn't. Should she tell him? No, she had promised to keep it a secret.

"So you're a Vampire," said Rachel, still not really finding it right. She got a stiff head nod. "Aha."

"Are you afraid?" wanted Edward to know and Rachel frowned a little. Not because he asked her that but because there was such a great amount of disgust in his voice.

"Afraid?" she asked him before letting out a snort. "No. Defiantly not."

His face became stone hard again. "Then ask me the most basic question. What do we eat?"

"Well, apparently not humans," was Rachel's response. "Or else there would be a lot more persons missing and there would be a lot more animal attacks reported. And since that is neither the case I'm guessing: animal blood?"

That was clearly not what he wanted to hear and anger again flashed through his eyes. "How can you be so calm about this?!"

"Simple," answered Rachel. "You're not going to hurt me."

Edward moved and was suddenly standing right in front of her nose. "Rachel, your blood is like nothing I've ever smelled before. When we first met I wanted to kill you so badly."

"But you didn't," pointed Rachel out, not even blinking once.

Edward gave her a cold look. "I still want too."

"And that's why you tried so hard to stay away from me," concluded Rachel. "But let me tell you something, Edward Cullen. You wanted to kill me but you didn't. You still want to kill me? Well, I'm here, all alone in the forest with you, and I'm still standing. Still talking. You still haven't killed me yet." She stared deep into his eyes. "If you really wanted to kill me, I would be dead but since I'm not, I know you're not going to kill me."

To say Edward was not happy with her answer, again, was an understatement. "How can you say that?!" he nearly yelled in her face. "How can you be so stupid?!"

"Don't you yell at me, Mister!" snapped Rachel. "Just because you're a Vampire doesn't immediately give you the privilege to act like a jerk and start yelling in my face!" Edward let out a growl and walked away from her. "Asshole," muttered Rachel while sinking down on a fallen tree.

"I can hear you, you know?" threw Edward at her.

Rachel just rolled her eyes and answered: "That was the point, you bloody idiot."

Edward let out another growl, clearly feeling annoyed. "I did warn you that you would be disappointment."

She snorted. "Sorry to disappoint you but I'm not disappointed. Frustrated and confused perhaps but not disappointed. Although it would actually be a lot cooler if you had been able to change into something else, like an animal." Her thoughts wondered off. "Like a crow..."

"Why a crow?" wanted Edward to know.

Rachel immediately looked up and quickly said: "No reason."

He eyed her as if he didn't believe it but didn't press on, causing silence to fall yet again between them. He moved around a little, almost like he desperately wanted to leave but something was holding him back.

Rachel followed his movements with her eyes while drawing things in the sand with a branch. "If you don't burn in the sunlight, then why don't you come out into it?" she wondered out loud, her curiosity getting the best of her again.

"We sparkle."

Rachel's head snapped up when he said that. "You what?" He just gave her a blank look. "You're kidding." But he looked dead serious. "Seriously?" asked Rachel. "You sparkle?"

"Yes." Rachel stared at him for a few moments before the corners of her lips shifted up and she burst out in laughter. His face turned annoyed, even slightly hurt. "It's not funny!"

"Actually it is!" brought Rachel out, still laughing. "A Vampire, the worlds' greatest predator, sparkles in the sunlight! God, it's hilarious!" She fell from the fallen tree and onto her back because she was laughing that hard. "I can't believe this!"

Edward looked at her, still with a cold stone expression. Apparently he didn't think it was that funny. "Are you done?" he asked after a while.

Rachel, still laughing a bit, nodded and got up again. "Yeah, I think I'm." She rubbed the tears away and then noticed the look he was giving her. "Oh, don't be so boring. You got to admit it's funny." The look he gave her told her he wasn't agreeing. "Then place yourself in my position. Your entire life you've been thinking that Vampires are big bad monsters, hiding in the shadows and preying on the innocent. Only to find out that they sparkle in the sunlight. I mean, little girls will never be scared of your lot ever again if they find out about that, seeing as they like everything that sparkles." She gave him a waiting smile. "Still don't think it's a tiny bit of funny?"

He glared at her. "No." Rachel rolled her eyes. "And you shouldn't find it funny either."

"Give me one good reason," dared the girl. Maybe she shouldn't have said that because in a flash he was standing in front of her and pulled her up. "Hey!" she protested. "What the hell are you doing?!" He didn't answer and started to drag her away from the place they had been and deeper into the forest. "Edward, let go of me!"

"No," Edward answered with clenched teeth. "You need to see."

He dragged her on. "Where are you taking me?" demanded Rachel to know.

"Up the mountain," answered Edward. "Out of the cloudbank. You need to see what I look like in the sunlight with your own eyes. You need to realise."

"What?" asked Rachel, a little shocked. "No way! I'm not going with you all the way up to the mountain!" She planted her heels into the ground and pulled back. "Forget it!"

Of course Edward was having none of that and with one quick move he had pulled her onto his back and was running up the mountain with inhuman speed.

Rachel let out a scream and hid her face in his coat while closing her eyes and tightening her arms around his neck. Yes, it had defiantly been a very stupid idea to dare him.

The wind whizzed past them, making her shiver and making her deaf to all the sounds around her. She hated it and just clung onto Edward, begging that he would soon stop and put her down and let her leave.

After what felt like hours but what probably only had been a few minutes, Edward stopped running and started walking. Rachel immediately tried to get of his back but he refused to let her go.

"Edward, put me down!" she ordered angrily. "Right now! This is kidnapping!"

He let her go and Rachel's feet landed on the ground. Only her legs gave in from under her because of the sudden weight they had to carry again and she let out a small yelp when she fell on the ground.

Edward hurried towards her, looking slightly concerned. "Are you alright?"

He offered her his hand to help her up but she glared at him and slapped it away. "Stay the hell away from me!"

Edward frowned slightly. "I just want to help."

"I don't need your help, stupid Vampire!" snapped Rachel angrily. "I wouldn't even be on the ground wasn't it for the fact that you bloody kidnapped me!"

"I didn't kidnap you," disagreed Edward, his face standing cold again. "I just need you to see and understand..."

"You didn't kidnap me?!" interrupted Rachel. She was the one who did the yelling this time. "I'm here, up a bloody mountain, against my will because you dragged me here! How exactly is that not kidnapping?!" She pushed herself up from the ground and quickly grabbed hold of a large tree when her legs started shaking again. "Take me back."

"I will," promised Edward. "As soon as I showed you. As soon as you understand." Rachel narrowed her eyes and wanted to protest but he gave her a pleading look. "Please, Rachel. Just hear me out."

Even though she was still angry at him, Rachel sighed frustrated and gave in. "Fine."

Edward gave her a small nod as a thank you and walked towards the ray of sunlight that fell through the trees. She couldn't see what exactly was happening because he was facing her with his back.

"This is why we don't show ourselves in the sunlight," he explained to her. "People would immediately know we were different."

He finally turned around and Rachel's eyes widened. Where she first had laughed because of the fact that his kind sparkled in the sunlight, she had to admit it was pretty impressive to see. It were like millions of diamonds had been sewed into his skin and just like any other girl and any other woman, Rachel just loved those small, sparkling and very expensive stones.

"No more laughing?" asked Edward bitterly.

Rachel chuckled slightly. "Okay, maybe it was wrong for me to laugh but I still think it was rather funny."

Edward's face remained bitter. "Do you still think it's funny?"

She shook her head. "I think it's beautiful. You're like a walking diamond. How can I not find that beautiful?" She crooked her head a little. "Do you guys come in the shape of engagement rings too?"

"Beautiful?" snapped Edward, ignoring her last question completely. "This is the skin of a killer."

"Just because you have a skin that sparkles doesn't immediately mean you're a killer," corrected Rachel, her mind drifting back to a similar conversation she once had. "Being a Vampire doesn't immediately make you a killer. The bad choices you make as a Vampire do that."

Edward let out a snort and walked away. Rachel followed him slowly because her legs were still feeling a bit shaky.

"I killed people in the past, Rachel," he told her in an angry voice. But it sounded like he was more angry at himself than at her. "I took human lives."

"You're a Vampire," was Rachel's answer. "It's in your nature to feel bloodlust and to want to kill."

"THAT'S NOT AN EXCUSE!" Edward roared angrily, causing Rachel to jump slightly.

"Stop bloody yelling at me!" she snapped at him. "It's not going to make me change my mind and make me scared of you!" Edward breathed out in anger. "So you killed several humans. Big whoop. Humans kill other humans too but you don't hear them yell at me, now do you?"

"It's still no excuse," muttered Edward, looking away from her.

"You read minds," threw Rachel at him. "So those humans you killed, were they innocent?"

He remained silent for a moment. "No," he finally answered. "They were murderers and rapists."

"Then you probably did the world an enormous favour," said Rachel. "We're better off without them." The look he gave her told her immediately that he disagreed with her again and Rachel sighed before asking: "Did you torture them?"

Edward frowned. "No..."

"Did you let them know you were hunting them, making them feel terrified, before you killed them?"

"No..."

"Did you take your time and made them suffer?"

"No!" snapped Edward. "Why do you want to know all those things?!"

"Because in that case you aren't evil," snapped Rachel back. "I already told you before that I know you're putting on a mask and trying to make me believe you're the bad guy. And remember what I told you back then? I met the real bad guys and you're not one of them. The real bad guys would torture their victims, would make them feel what it was like to be hunted and to have that fear, they would make them suffer and they would take their time. But you didn't. And most of all, you killed bad people. The real bad guys wouldn't go after them but they would go for the loyal housewives, the happily married men or the innocent virgins." She crooked her head a little and gave him a small smile. "They would let their bloodlust take them over. They would kill whoever they wanted whenever they wanted and they wouldn't care about their humanity. They wouldn't try living off animal blood. They wouldn't even think about it. That you did and that you actually live of it, that's more than enough to prove that you are not a real killer."

Edward stared at her and she finally got the feeling like she was getting through to him. "You really think that?" he wanted to know. Rachel nodded and Edward let out a sigh. "You don't know how long I've waited to hear that. How long I've waited for you."

Rachel swallowed when she realised what he meant with the latter and it scared her a little. So she turned her head away from him. "Can you take me back to lower ground now?"

And when he spoke out the next two words, the pain and hurt in his voice was hard to miss and it made her feel incredibly guilty. "Of course."

How many of you thought she was actually going to run into his arms like Bella does in the movie ;) ?

You guys will have to wait a little longer before you see Rachel and Edward as a couple and it's going to take Edward some efford to get her so far. Because face it, Rachel isn't that easy.

Again, the next update will probaly take a while. Probably after my summer break has finished but I might just update a little earlier. But that's a big maybe.

Please review and enjoy your summer break (if you have one)!