Changing Tides

Ch 26 – Unexpected

…..

"So what happened?" Seth asked eagerly when I got back to our room.

"What do you mean?"

"You weren't at hockey practice, and we ran into Zack and he said that his fearless leader Greg got one over on you." Embry said. Damn, I forgot about practice. Oh well, one of the coaches is Emmet, and I could care less about skipping out on him.

"Yeah, I have to admit, Greg had me down and his nasty clutches were on Ness, but it was in public and the cops came. I'm not too worried about it though, because I was the one who attacked him first. If I didn't punch him, he probably would have left us alone."

"So you and Nessie are back together then?" Seth asked.

"Yeah, it was just some stupid misunderstanding, but we're better than ever now." I said confidently.

"You might want to make sure that you wash yourself like with extra soap before going to school in the morning, because her scent is really strong on you and it may piss off a certain vampire." Embry suggested.

"I'll keep that in mind." I smiled at myself and climbed into bed. I wanted her scent to rub off of me and onto my sheets so I could sleep smelling her all night. I'd shower in the morning…maybe.

The next morning, I woke up early and decided to hop in the shower after all. When I was ready for the day, I walked past Nessie's room to see if she was still there, but she wasn't so I guess her and Bella got an early start. I went to Geography, but the hours just seemed to drag on and I knew that I still had a whole other class to suffer through until lunch time.

Geography finally ended, and it was on to English. I sat in my normal seat and started daydreaming about Ness, when I had to force myself to immediately cut off those particular thoughts, because Edward walked in and handed the teacher a slip. Great.

He narrowed his eyes at me, but didn't say anything and quietly took the last remaining seat, which was wonderfully (inserts sarcasm) right next to mine.

It was like when someone says 'don't think of the color blue', and you can't help but think of the color blue as a response. I had already been thinking about Ness before he got there, and it was like torture to not think of her now, in fact my brain actually hurt because of it.

So I tried to give myself mental pep talks. Ok Jake, think of something mundane like eggs; I had eggs in the cafeteria for breakfast. I wonder what came first, the chicken or the egg; my guess would be the egg because if the chicken came first, then there would have to be another chicken to mate with to produce the egg. How did chickens mate anyway? I can't imagine that they do it like people do, especially not the way Ness and I….CRAP.

I looked over at Edward, and he wasn't looking at me, but I could see that his jaw was clinched tightly.

Ok, new train of thought. I started thinking about cars; I passed by an old junker Ford Mach 1 Mustang in town the day before yesterday, and thought how great it would be to fix something like that up. I went over what I'd need in order to get it working properly, a new axel, new carburetor, and new paint. Ness and I could work on the car together; she would look so amazing in cover alls and even better without them…Damn it.

Edward accidentally broke the pencil he was writing with.

Sorry. – I thought to him, but it didn't really help. The more I tried not to think of Nessie, the more she came to my mind. Ugh, this was going to be a long several months until this school year was over.

I peeked over at Edward again, and he had his head bent over and was banging it against his desk trying to, no doubt, get my images out of his mind.

The class period couldn't have gone by slower, but to my relief, the end did eventually come. Edward collected his things quickly but instead of racing out like I expected him to, in order to escape my inappropriate mind, he actually waited for me.

"God, you take forever to get your crap." He said when I was finally ready to go to lunch.

"Well sorry if I'm not as agile as you are. These desks are freaking tiny and it takes me forever to just get myself out of them."

"You know, Emmet is pissed at you for missing practice last night." He smirked as we walked down the hall.

"Do you mind telling him that I said 'bite me'?" I chuckled at my joke.

"I don't think you'd taste very good." Edward said casually. "I'm sure even Emmet would rather drink a bunny than sinking his fangs into you."

"I bet I'm delicious." I disagreed with him.

We walked over to the cafeteria and Bella and Ness were already in line to buy food, so Edward and I just cut in. I felt a little awkward greeting Ness with her parents there at first, because I really wanted to kiss her; but I soon realized that it wasn't an issue because the whole cafeteria could have burning down and they wouldn't have even noticed. Edward and Bella were lost in their own world, looking like they were trying to see who could swallow the other's tongue first.

"Ugh, get a room." Nessie said disgusted with her parents' PDA. But then she reached up and kissed me almost as intensely.

The lunch lady cleared her throat at the sight of the kissing teens holding up the line, so we broke away from each other and took our food to the table in the furthest corner of the cafeteria. Several minutes later, my pack came and joined us. I thought about our little group, and had to smile to myself at the thought of what we must have looked like to anyone informed about real monsters. Four wolf people, two vampires and a hybrid, what was the supernatural world coming to?

"So, how are you liking high school Bella?" Seth asked. "You know, you're my sister too, so if anyone messes with you, just let me know and I'll kick their ass."

"Uhh, well, thanks Seth. If any scary humans start to pick on me, you'll be the first to know." She said while shaking her head with a disbelieving smile. Leah rolled her eyes.

I watched as Edward and Bella played with their food and pushed it around their plates, and I couldn't help but wonder what would happen if they actually ate something. Edward smirked at me and picked up his fork and stabbed the pasta before putting it into his mouth, chewing and swallowing.

"EWW!" Nessie said loudly and Bella looked like she was going to puke. "Why would you do that?" Nessie asked him.

"What, Jake was curious." He defended his actions.

"What will it do to you?" Leah asked inquiringly.

"Nothing." Edward looked surprised that she would think otherwise.

"So why don't you eat then, if it doesn't hurt you?" Embry asked.

"Dirt wouldn't hurt you if you ate it, but that doesn't mean that you would want to." Edward explained.

"I'm not kissing you again until you wash your mouth out." Bella said with a disgusted tone.

"Oh come on Love, it's not that bad. Here, just have a taste." Edward picked up another fork full of pasta and lifted it to her mouth. She wrinkled her nose at it then pushed it away from her face.

"Edward, keep that foul smelling stuff away from me, or I'll rip your arm off." She warned him, but he just chuckled at her.

"So where are the rest of the Cullens right now?" Seth asked

"Jazz and Emmet agreed to be teachers, so that's two classes where Renesmee has protection, I have two classes with her and Bella has two with her as well, so she's never alone. Rose is actually working as a guidance councilor here, so she's close if we need her. Rose and Emmet are married and going by Emmet's human last name McCarty. Esme and Alice are working in town at a floral shop, and Carlisle's spending time at the local clinic and as the on call school doctor." Edward explained.

"So why are you two students? Wouldn't it have been easier to just all be teachers?" Leah asked

"It was hard enough Getting Em, Rose, and Jazz in here; two more teachers would have been next to impossible. We thought about us all coming back as students, but that would have been difficult as well; this was the best that we could come up with on such short notice. I'm Edward Mason, Vanessa Mason's cousin, Bella's last name is Dwyer; she's just a coincidental new student."

"Dwyer, as in Phil and Renee Dwyer?" I asked surprised she would pick that name.

"Well, I couldn't go by Swan because that can be traced back to my human high school experiences, and I couldn't go by Cullen, or Mason, so what is there left to go by?" Bella defended her choice.

"Ok, so why did you guys come back here in the first place, why not just relocate and start over somewhere far away?" Embry asked

"Those witches have location spells, so they could find us anywhere we went and they made it clear that they planned on finding us no matter what. So we figured, why hide? It's better to face this head on and be done with it, rather than always having to wonder if or when they are going to attack." Edward told us.

"I guess that makes sense." Embry said while nodding. "Well between all of us, we should be able to handle these twitches."

"Twitches?" Leah asked

"Yeah, teen witches." Embry said like it was obvious.

"You are such a girl." Leah joked.

"Yeah, well maybe you should take lessons." Embry teased back.

"Well, well, well, look what we have here." Greg and his posse stopped in front of our table. "What is this, the monster cast off table?" He started chuckling and it was Edward's turn to snap. Edward knew that Greg had grabbed Nessie by the neck, and he wasn't about to let him get away with it. It was a good thing that he was sitting so close to my pack, because it took Embry, Seth and Bella to hold him back from fighting Greg right there in the cafeteria.

"This isn't the place honey, too many witnesses." Bella whispered in his ear. And it was true; many people stopped eating to look over at the commotion that it caused to restrain Edward.

Edward relaxed, but his raging eyes stayed locked to Greg's. "Let's not keep putting this off, name a time and a place and we'll end it once and for all." Edward fumed.

"Oh come now, what would be the fun in that?" Greg answered him.

"Either we do this properly away from human bystanders, or I take you out in front of the whole school and worry about the repercussions later. You decide how you wish this to be over." Edward threatened him.

"We'll get back to you on that one." Greg smirked and then walked off. Edward's glare didn't leave Greg's back, and even lingered on the door that they exited through.

Bella got in Edward's face and put her hands on either of his cheeks, forcing him to look at her. She was whispering something so low that I couldn't even hear, but it seemed to calm him, then she kissed him quickly before pulling him back down to a seated position. We spent the rest of the lunch period discussing the witches' power and how to not get shocked, but Edward was quiet, stuck in his own anger; I actually knew exactly how he felt, but I had better control of myself.

Edward had his next class with Nessie, and I'd be lying if I said that his stability didn't worry me at all while being alone with her; what if he came across them again and we weren't there to stop him. If he attacked them alone, he'd get himself killed along with My Nessie.

"What?" Edward looked back at me full of anger in his eyes.

"What Edward, what's wrong?" Bella asked full of concern.

Edward just stared at me with an offended, angry look in his eyes. Nessie looked back and forth between us confused and worried, "Daddy?" she said quietly.

"You really have the nerve to be worried about me getting her hurt. Seriously?" Edward said to me.

"Yeah seriously. That was stupid, you getting all pissed at them like that, you are going to get someone hurt, and for both of our sakes, I just hope it's not Ness." I got angry back at him.

"Jake" Nessie said to me trying to get me to back down.

"Ok first of all, you are the one who got into it with him yesterday, when you two were completely alone. He had his hand around her neck, Jacob. She could have died right then, but here you are, getting all possessive and untrusting of me. I'm her father, and I have to just sit back and listen to all the crap that goes through your mind and still trust you with her, and you can't seem to give me even the smallest respect in return and actually trust me back. I've managed to keep her alive for eight years, this isn't the first time her life was threatened you know, but the minute you meet her, bam, all hell breaks loose."

"Oh, so this is all my fault?" I asked him in disbelief.

"No, it's not your fault," Edward said more quietly "but you have no idea what it's like to be a father and have your daughter threatened like that. And for some guy to come in and think that he's more responsible then you are to take care of the child that you created, it really sucks. You know, I hope you never feel that; I hope your children are safe and never have to worry about someone trying to kill them, but we live in the world of monsters and that's not likely to happen. So when the time comes that your child is threatened, you'll understand exactly where I'm coming from." Edward looked at Nessie and shook his head before walking away. Bella looked at me then back at Ness, before turning and following after Edward.

Ness, my pack, and I, just stood there quietly for a minute.

"Damn, that sucks." Embry said finally.

"Dude, probably now's not the time you want to be getting on Ed's bad side." Seth said to me.

I looked down at Nessie and she looked upset, but didn't run off after her parents like I expected her to.

"Nessie, I'm sorry, I really have no idea what that was about." I said honestly

"That was about my dad being very stressed out. Jake, I think you should just stay away from him for the rest of the day, just to let him cool off. He hates not being in control, and he hates it even more when I'm in danger." She said quietly but it was obvious she was worried about him.

"Do you want to go find him?" I asked her not wanting to make her take sides.

"I'll see him in class, but I should be going." She told me.

"It's still lunch break." I said.

Just then the bell rang.

"Ok, well let me walk you to class."

We walked holding hands, and I peered inside the room to make sure Edward was there before heading to my own class. I felt really bad for getting into it with Edward, but no matter how hard I try not to, every once in a while I still saw him as the vampire that was going to get someone I cared for hurt, or dead. Old habits die hard, and old emotions die even harder. But the truth is that I do trust Edward, in fact I trust him more than Sam, and my level of trust in him is right up there with my own pack; it's just hard to trust anyone with Nessie.

I figured I needed to apologize to Edward, so I snuck out of class early and got back to his and Nessie's class before the period ended; I had hockey practice that I couldn't miss right after school, so this couldn't wait.

"Hey Jake." Nessie greeted me happily.

I kissed her quickly before turning to Edward.

"Hey, I'm really sorry about earlier" I told him sincerely

"Yeah, me too. I shouldn't have snapped at you like that." Edward said, but I could tell he was still pissed at me; I guess I should just listen to Ness and give him some space.

Nessie was going to sneak off campus with her parents for the afternoon, and go to the house Carlisle bought near town, while my pack and I went to practice.

"Well look who finally decided to grace us with his presence." Emmet announced as I came onto the ice struggling with my balance at first, but finding my center after a few moments.

"Suck it." I said under my breath, but I knew he could hear me.

"Hey man, glad Eddie didn't kill you." Seth joked

"If he was going to kill me, he would have done it long before now." I responded.

"Don't bet on it." Emmet said menacingly as he skated by. "Ok, drills lines. Come on ladies I want to see some real speed." He hollered at all of us.

Embry and I were doing opposite drills, when we both lost control and collided into each other; damn I hated ice skates.

"Ahh, are you girls men, or animals? I don't want to see a bunch of dogs out here, I want to see warriors." Emmet yelled at us. God, I really wanted to kick his ass.

Another couple of days went by, and there hadn't been another instance with any of the witches, in fact, none of us had even seen any of them since the cafeteria confrontation. Things hadn't really gotten better between Edward and me, but they didn't get worse either. We would speak casually to each other, but I think he was having a hard time knowing that his little girl wasn't so little anymore and she didn't need him like she used to.

We were all on high guard still, waiting for any signs of the witches to attack us, but there was nothing. The beginning of the following week however, brought a change that none of us saw coming. It was late and we had all turned in for the night, when there was a loud banging on the door.

"What the hell?" Embry asked as he flipped on the light. "Seth, go see who it is."

"No, screw you; you go see who it is. Ass." Seth said refusing to get out of bed.

"I'll get it, morons." I said as I hurried to the door. I really didn't think it was anything to do with Ness, because if it did, then whoever it was would have just broken the lock and come in.

I opened the door, and both Seth and Embry flashed to my side in an instant, ready to phase at a moment's notice. "Oh wow, I never would have thought you would have the guts to just show up like this." I said to Greg, who was alone.

"Jacob, I didn't come here for a fight and I know you have no reason to trust me, or ever believe me, but I need your help; in fact, I'm begging for your help." Greg said desperately.

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