As the
car door opened.....I immediately recognized the shoe that stepped
out. My jaw hit the floor! It was the one and only friend I ever had
in Salem. It was Brooke. She stepped out of the car, staring at the
house, then looked over at me and smiled.
"What? Did you honestly think I wouldn't find you? You know me
way better than that! Now come here and give me a hug!"
I ran over to her, and tackled her to the ground. "How did you
find me? I thought you were studying abroad!"
She graduated last year, and was fascinated by the topic of hybrids
I brought up to her. She decided to continue the study while she was
in college.
"What happened to you?" She asked.
"Well, the cancer never went away, and it finally got me a few days ago!"
"Then how are you alive?"
"Well, this is my new family!"
"What were they?"
"Vampires, until yesterday! We are now hybrids."
"OH MY FUCKING GOD! ARE YOU SERIOUS? THIS IS PERFECT! I HAVE SO MUCH TO TELL YOU! I HAVE FOUND OUT SO MUCH INFORMATION ON HYBRIDS....AND YOU WILL WANT TO HEAR THIS!!"
"Ok, do you guys mind if we hold off for one more day to go see Jake?"
"Not at all! You need to catch up with your friend." Carlisle said.
I'm so sorry, Brooke, this is Carlisle, Esme, Alice, Jasper, Rose, Emmett, and Edward Cullen. Guys, this is Brooke, the only friend I had in Salem."
"So, is she a wiccan as well?" Rose asked.
"Yes I am and I'm proud to say that I am now a high priestess!"
"CONGRATULATIONS!"
"Can we go shopping now? I'm really wanting to enjoy this nice sunny day since I am finally able to!" Alice said barely able to hold back the excitement.
"Ok Alice! Let's go! Can Brooke put her things up in her room?" I asked.
"Come on Tess, I'm already one step ahead of you! I took her things up while you tackled her!"
"Ok, are you ready for the longest day of your life?" I asked her.
Brooke and Alice were the best of friends as soon as we walked into the mall. Rose was still a bit unsure about her, but I knew that she would grow to love her as much as I did. While Alice and Brooke ran around the mall picking out random things, the rest of us followed them laughing at their excitement. They managed to transform me into their own personal Barbie doll....again. I didn't mind this time! I was ecstatic that Brooke found me. Once their shopping fit was done, we all headed down to the boardwalk to enjoy the sun. Alice, Rose, and Esme were looking for shells along the beach while the guys played in the water. Brooke and I caught up on old times.
"Tess, I need you to do me a huge favor...for research purposes. I need you to change me into a hybrid."
"You know it takes 24 hours right? We are going to La Push tomorrow to visit our friends down there. We will have to leave soon. I really want you to meet the Quileutes."
"Werewolves?" Jesus Tess, how did you manage to find all of these creatures?"
"Just my luck I guess!"
Everyone finished up, and we headed home. The car was soaked from the guys, so as soon as we got home, I dried the car out, and sent them upstairs to get cleaned up and ready for dinner. I decided that I would cook for everyone. I didn't separate the food from Brooke. Since I had to put a drop of blood in every dish I made, I decided to change her that way. I didn't know if it would work or not, but sure enough, half way through dinner, Brooke passed out in her food. Emmet got a few pictures, then Alice took her upstairs to get her cleaned up and comfy. We decided to make it an early night. They were all worn out from today's activities. I cleaned up dinner and we all headed upstairs to get some sleep.
The next day, I ran into the room to check out the new and improved Brooke. She was still sleeping, so I ran into her room and jumped on her bed. "WAKE UP BROOKE!" She jumped 10 feet out of her skin, and pushed me off of her bed. As she got out of bed I looked her over. The transformation worked! She was the same height and weight as I was, her long blonde hair falling just past her shoulders, the only thing that changed was her eye color. They went from a deep chocolate brown to a brilliant golden green like mine. When she looked herself over in the mirror, she was very pleased with the results.
"How did you do it?"
"Well, you did notice that we all ate human food right?" The light bulb turned on.
"I'll have to add that to my research notes!" She giggled and ran to the closet. Each room had their own bathroom, so I left her to get ready to go to La Push.
Once we were all ready to go, we all piled
into the car, and headed down to the reservation. As we pulled up to
Jake's house, I saw that he pulled the curtains back from the window
to see who just arrived. As we all filed out of the car, Jake ran
outside, and gave us all hugs.
"I'm so glad you see you guys!" He looked terrible. He
still wasn't over the shock of Bella killing Nessie, and then me
killing Bella. I did notice a light come into his eyes when he
caught a glimpse of Brooke.
"So, what are you guys now?" Jake asked noticing that we were out in the sun and not sparkling.
"Tess turned us into hybrids!" Carlisle said with excitement in his voice.
"Hybrids? Oh, I see
now! I can hear your heartbeats!"
Just then he looked over at Brooke and smiled. That's the first time
we've seen him smile since.....well, you know when.
"Who is this?" he asked with a bit of fascination in his
voice.
"Jacob Black, this is Brooke, my bestest and only friend from Salem."
"Nice to meet you Brooke!" he took her hand and shook it, causing her to sheepishly look at the ground and blush a deep shade of red.
I couldn't have been more pleased with myself! Jake and Brooke were getting along so well. They were even flirting with each other. We all knew that Jake would never imprint again, but maybe he would grow to love Brooke as much as he loved Nessie.
Jake invited us to a bonfire down at First Beach. We all agreed to go and hang out which made his night, especially since Brooke was the one to make that decision. As we walked out of his house to head down to first beach, I heard rapid footsteps, like someone was running towards me. As I was turning around, I was tackled to the ground.
"Embry! Let me up please? Where's Cheyenne?"
"I'm right here!" she called walking up to us. "He saw the car, and took off running. I'm sorry, are you ok?"
"I'm fine!" I chuckled as she helped me up. Before we knew it, Embry grabbed us both, tossed us over his shoulders, and took off to the beach. Emmett and Edward and Jasper were laughing so hard, they were crying. I was trying to fight and worm my way off his shoulder. That didn't work out in my favor, so I gave up. Embry put Cheyenne down first, then proceeded to try and drop me on the ground, but Edward caught me just in the nick of time.
After about 3 hours, the
Cullens and I were ready to head home and get some sleep. We had
been down here all day and were exhausted. It didn't help that we
all had school tomorrow.
"It's been fun guys, but we have to get home. We have school
tomorrow. Brooke, are you coming back with us?" I asked.
"Actually, I'm gonna stay here for the night, hope you don't
mind! My research is in a folder inside my black suitcase."
"I'll bring her home tomorrow after you guys get out of
school." Jake said with complete admiration in his eyes. We all
knew that he only had eyes for Brooke tonight. At that thought, I
felt so much better about the news I had to deliver to him.
"See you guys tomorrow! Good night!"
As soon as we
got inside the house, I ran upstairs to get her research. I glanced
through it, and noticed that this was all of the research that
Carlisle and I couldn't find. It had all of the answers that Rose
wanted to hear most of all. I handed the folder to Carlisle and told
him silently that this was what we needed to complete the research.
He smiled and took it upstairs, put it in his briefcase, so he could
look it over when he wasn't busy tomorrow at work. On that note, we
all went to bed. Tomorrow was going to be a long day!
Now that I was finished with playing match maker, I decided to focus
on my own love life. I was still crushing on Edward, so I decided to
start there. It was Monday morning, and I decided that I would start
flirting hard core with him today. I woke up pretty early to make
myself extra scrumptious for him. I found the perfect outfit over
the weekend. While I was at the mall, I wandered off by myself and
checked out this new store. I found the perfect outfit. It was a
black skort with butterflies on the top of the slits. It reached mid
thigh. The top I chose was a baby blue tank top with a sheer white
butterfly top to go over it. I looked so cute in it, I couldn't
resist buying it! I'm sure Alice, Rose, and I will be hitting the
new store hard this weekend. I fixed my hair, and put on my makeup.
When I was done an hour later, I didn't even recognize myself.
Everyone is going to shit a golden brick once they see me today. I
grabbed my stuff and headed out the door.
When I finally got to school, the Cullens were standing in the parking lot waiting for me. As soon as I got out of my car, all of theirs jaws hit the floor, along with the rest of the school population. I walked over to them. Alice and Rose were surprised and giddy, while the poor guys were literally drooling. Alice and Rose both nudged Jazz and Emmett in the ribs causing them to jump out of their trance. I gave them all an apologetic smile, walked over to Edward, closed his mouth, held out my arm and said, "Shall we?" We all headed into the school.
When lunch finally came, Edward was finally out of his trance. I walked over to our table where they patiently waited for me to give them their "lunch".
"Where did you find that outfit?" Edward asked.
"Well, I wandered off on my own when we went shopping and found this new store called DEB. We'll go this weekend and shop." I said to Alice and Rose mostly.
"Can.....um...can we come?" The guys managed to stammer out. This time, our jaws were on the floor.
"Yeah...sure!" I managed to choke out over my lunch.
At this time, I went and threw my juice bottle in the trash when I heard someone whistle at me. It wasn't one of those whistles to get your attention, it was the rude one. I turned to see who whistled at me, and noticed the entire football team gawking at me. I gave them an embarrassed smile and walked back to the table. Edward was furious.
"Don't worry about them jocks. They didn't mean anything by it."
"That's what you think!" he said with a hint of jealousy in his voice.
"Oh really! Guess I should do something about it then huh!"
He
turned to look at me, with a confused look on his face. This was my
chance to get started. I looked over at the football players, waived
at them, then proceeded to entwine my fingers in Edward's hair. I
pulled him to me and passionately kissed him. We both ended up
looking into their minds and ended up laughing at the looks on their
faces. It broke our kiss, but I did manage to take his breath away.
When we were finished laughing, he took me in his arms, dipped me,
and took my breath away. When we finally broke away, he asked "What
does this mean?"
"You tell me!" I replied.
We headed to our next class, hand in hand. He was actually blushing. Over what? I HAVE NO IDEA! We took our seats. We were watching a movie in class. I removed all of my books from the desk, and laid my head on my arms to get comfy for a boring ass movie I didn't really want to watch. As soon as the lights went out, that's when the note passing began.....not just for us, but for everyone.
"What does this mean?"
"I'm not sure Edward! You tell me!"
"Will you go out with me?"
"What do you mean? Like on a date?"
"No, I mean, will you be my girlfriend?"
"Well, let me think about it and I will let you know!"
"ARE YOU SERIOUS?"
"I'm just playing.....yes I will go out with you!"
As soon as
I passed the note back, I watched him read my answer. He looked over
at me, and smiled that crooked smile I love so much. He didn't have
any use to write any more notes, so we just sat there and watched
the movie. We almost fell asleep.......then the bell rang. The day
was finally over! He grabbed my book bag, and held it up so I could
put my arms through the loops. He did the same, and we walked hand
in hand to the parking lot where the rest of the family waited for
us. Edward tossed his keys to Alice.
"I'm riding home with Tess! I'll see you guys at her house!"
Alice was jumping up and down squealing "FINALLY!"
"So what are we doing today?" he asked once we were in my car.
"Going over Brooke's research. You can join Carlisle and I if you like!"
"Sure! I can't wait to see what all she found. Hopefully it's what we need to finish the research.!"
"It is!"