And now, the second part of this totally awesome Dancing With Fire One Year Anniversary Update!!! I especially love this chappy because everything sort of comes together in a totally awesome piece of writing. Maximum Ride and Twilight are finally together in one room. YAY!!!

DISCLAIMER: See previous twenty seven chapters.

Oh, by teh way, Happy Belated Thanksgiving to all the Americans reading this, because I know that other people from Britain, like "Jacob Black...Ooft Phitt", read this. And, once again to only the Americans, Happy Ugh-I-Really-Shouldn't-Have-Eaten-That-Last-Turkey-Leg Weekend. (aka Recovery Weekend)

And now, ON WITH THE STORY!!


-Valerie POV, 2 and a half months later-

I pulled the earplugs out of my ears as the clock struck 8 and Kami shifted in my arms. We had moved to the Canadian border, to another overshadowed town that rarely ever had any sun called Wesley, and I knew that Demon and the others knew that I was okay, but I was hoping to whatever higher power there was that they had some clue as to where I was.

I mean, I hadn't exactly given Gina that much to work with before she got to them in Arizona, seeing as she had to make up a location for the Cullens to move to on the spot to avoid Demon's jumping to conclusions and then running off to find me, like I knew that he would do. But she somehow managed to keep him from bolting, so I had even forgiven her for the not telling me about the Refugees being vampire hybrids; she had managed not to screw up the situation even more, and that meant a lot to me. Hell, she had even partially made up an excuse for the obvious physical change that had come over me, which made explaining the situation a hell of a lot easier for me to navigate. I owe her one now.

Also, I understood now why she couldn't tell me or Demon or anyone else about being a vampire; Alice had explained the entire situation to me two days after I had "moved in" with the Cullens.

--Memory—

"We have to go on a shopping trip soon. I honestly can't believe that you have no other clothes than this!" Alice had learned about my clothing situation after I had moved my stuff into the attic where my new room was, and was now throwing a mild tantrum. Jasper looked at my face, looking completely bored, compared to Alice's, who looked like she had just seen the Easter Bunny, and nearly started to cry with laughter.

It's going to be fun living with you, Val, Jasper thought at me, and then left me alone with the shopaholic pixie from hell that he called his wife. I hate you right now, Jasper. I hope you know that.

"Ok, so Val, I needed to tell you about the Volturi since you're going to be living with us for a while as far as I can see. Your need for clothes can wait… just not for that long." Alice led me over to my new bed, piled high with pillows—Damn it, they know my weakness—and sat me down on the edge of our bed. I raised an eyebrow, signaling for her to start.

"Ok, so the Volturi are like the CIA for the vampire world. And they reinforce three rules: no one can tell regular humans about our existence; no vampires can change a child, which was the source of a huge immortal children crisis years ago; and no one can change too many humans in one area to cause suspicion.

"Gina was right to not tell you about her being a vampire, otherwise they would have attacked her and killed her, along with the rest of your friends. Now, just while we're still on that topic, I need to tell you about their relationship with us.

"We aren't exactly favored by the Volturi because we shattered their confidence a few years ago on the Renesmee topic. To make a long story short, when Bella was human, she got pregnant by Edward and had Renesmee, who Jacob imprinted on. Nessie looked like an immortal child, and no vampire was allowed to make them any more. One of the Denali sisters whose mate we had killed saw Nessie and told the Volturi that she was an immortal child, which made them all rush over here ready to attack us. We had to persuade them otherwise, and they have been monitoring us ever since, waiting for us to do something against their beliefs so they can destroy us. So you have to be careful while you're living with us, okay? Ok!"

And with that, Alice twirled out of the room, leaving me with my thoughts. Way to lay it on thick, Alice.

-End Memory-

So now, Kami and I were living in what could have been considered a mansion compared to what I was used to with a bunch of vampires who were under suspicion for treason by the vampire government. I'm really not sure how to label this situation.

The room (which, to me, was more like an apartment) that Alice had prepared for me was beautiful. It was dark blue and black, which Alice somehow had known were my favorite colors, with white carpeting. I had a rather grand and elaborate bed for someone who was never going to sleep in it. (Alice had said something about what type of bed it was, but I honestly wasn't paying attention.) I also now owned a fully- equipped bookcase and my own laptop, which already had iTunes on it. Alice saw me coming, apparently.

The ceiling had been redone with the night sky painted on it, and there was a huge window on one side of the room for easy access in and out for flights. My closet was nearly empty, which Alice was planning on "fixing" as soon as possible, and there was an easel and drawing station in one corner of the room. Apparently she saw me being some sort of art prodigy as well…

The first time that I had seen it, I had stopped dead in my tracks. Esme and Alice had worked hard on making it as perfect as possible for me, and I had been speechless. It was the first time that anyone had gone so far out of their way to do anything for me. Honestly, I nearly cried, but I managed to hold myself together enough to say "Thank you." They had both beamed, and Alice had gone running back downstairs, saying, "Everyone! She likes it! I knew she would, but I want you all to know!" I had chuckled at that, and then I had to try to get my eyes to stop burning when Esme hugged me and said, "Welcome home, Valerie."

Honestly, I might be able to get used to this "home" thing.

Carlisle, on the other hand, took a little more getting used to than Alice or Esme. He wanted to know everything about my anatomy, and then conducted a few experiments. Of course, I was bit skeptical, since the word "experiment" was accompanied with some mental images of the Eraser playroom at the Institute. But he was nicer about it than I had been used to.

He had taken me right after hunting two weeks ago with Emmett, Jasper, and Edward to a nearby town, where we had learned that human blood was not so tempting to me since I didn't try to run away from him and the boys, squealing at the top of my lungs "FRESH BLOOD!", or anything along those lines. I think he think it went rather well, actually.

After that, Carlisle said it was okay to allow me near civilization. His theory was that since I was already part eagle, and eagles hunted other animals as their prey, this might have changed my blood preference so that I was already a "vegetarian" vampire. I agreed, seeing as I had woken up from the change with golden eyes already, and that was the only logical explanation that I could think of. It was also the only explanation that Carlisle could come up with for my not minding the smell of Jacob, Leah, and Seth as well.

I grabbed my notebook (once again provided by Alice), kissed the sleeping Kami on the forehead after tucking her under the covers, and ran down the stairs. I was getting a crash course from Bella on all the stuff I would be learning this year in the school that it had been decided that I was attending; Esme had taken it into her own hands for me to actually go into the town and do something, not just rot away in my room doing nothing.

"Besides," she had said, "Your family who you're looking for also needs to find you, and they can't find you if you're sitting in the house all day."

So Bella was teaching me all the stuff I would need to know for sophomore year in high school, which was where I going to be placed when I went into school with the Cullens. I already knew some of the basic stuff- I'm not completely uneducated.- but Bella had to teach me a lot of the more advanced stuff, seeing as being on the run for your life does not make time for dropping into a classroom to learn how to prove if a parallelogram is really a quadrilateral.

But, at least I know that if they ever ask about getting out of a life or death situation without dying or fully maiming yourself, I will ace that subject.

Plopping down on the couch, I watched as a few minutes later, Bella entered the room with Edward, and immediately averted my eyes. I mean, granted, they weren't as bad in terms of the public displays of affection as Rosalie and Emmett, but they were still pretty bad.

After about three minutes, I moved a tiny bit on the couch, alerting them of my presence once more, and Bella jumped away, looking a lot more sheepish than Edward could have ever even tried to look. I rolled my eyes, and Edward gave her one final kiss on the cheek before he left the room and she looked at me.

"Ok, so now we're moving onto Shakespeare, since math gets a bit tiring after a while." Bella said, and I instantly perked up a bit. Then I frowned a bit.

"Is that the guy who wrote the play with the two people who loved each other and died?" I asked her. Bella chuckled, and then nodded.

See? I'm not completely stupid book-wise! There are just a lot of gaps to fill…

About 3 hours later, having spoken at vampire speed, I was now somewhat educated in the history and literature of Shakespeare. I was extremely happy that I had a vampire memory now, which basically meant that if I even heard it once, I could recall it with ease. There was a lot of stuff about Shakespeare to remember.

And then Alice came bounding down the stairs, Nessie in tow, singing, "Valerie! I have a question!"

I wrapped my arms around my knees, preparing myself for the interrogation that was sure to come from that tone of Alice's voice. "Huh?"

"I never asked you, but where is Kami from?" Her eyes were wide and innocent as she asked me. I nearly started laughing, because Alice was anything but innocent when she wanted to be.

I stared blankly off into space as I answered her truthfully. If I was being honest with myself, I would say that answering these questions truthfully is getting easier. "I found her on the street when she was maybe a few days old in an alleyway in the city, and I took her in with D." And then I realized that I had said too much.

"Who is D?" Nessie asked, her voice holding an undertone of giddiness at possibly getting an answer to one of her many questions.

"Demon." I told her shortly, because I knew that I had mentioned that name before to everyone.

"Val…" Alice said threateningly, then her face went blank. When some sort of film started running in her head, I realized that she was having a vision.

And nearly had a heart attack- which was impossible-, seeing as she was watching Max, Fang and Demon walking down an aisle in a small grocery store. I was hit with a wave of emotions: familiarity, happiness, excitement, relief, and that one other emotion that kept hitting me in the gut without warning that I couldn't figure out for the life of me…


--VISION--

"We aren't enrolling in school again. You remember what happened last time," Max was stating her case to Fang, who seemed to really want to go back to school.

"But last time was with Anne…"


The rest of what Fang had to say got cut off—Though I don't think that, knowing Fang, it was that much more-- as he started to get blurry and then he disappeared completely; Alice had lost the rest of the vision, and I pulled out of her mind as it cleared completely.

"That was strange," she muttered to herself, but I was extremely happy. They're all right! They're ok! They're here! Damn it, Fang, persuade Max. I need to see you all again.

"What did you see?" Bella asked, now turning her full attention to Alice, who was now wearing a slight frown on her face.

"Three random kids—"Alice cut off as she saw me getting up with a huge smile on my face."Val?"

I simply smiled at her, the first genuine smile that I had ever let them see, and nearly danced back up the stairs. I could not contain my joy.

Climbing up the final set of stairs that led to my room, I twirled in happily to where Kami was sitting up in bed. "Mommy?" she asked, watching as I danced around to her side of the bed.

I projected into her head while still moving my mouth, "Your daddy and aunties and uncles are all okay, Luz!" Kami's eyes got really wide, and then she squealed and wrapped her arms around me tightly, just as happy as I was.

After finally calming down about five minutes later, I heard Luz's stomach growl. I held her away from me at arms length. "Is bebe Luz hungry?" She giggled and nodded, and smiling slightly less, I walked back downstairs.

Everyone was staring at us as we moved down the stairs, but I paid them no mind, waltzing with Kami into the kitchen. Setting her down in one of the chairs, I went straight to the cabinets.

"Now, what does Baby want for breakfast?" I asked, and Kami perked up. "Pancakes!"

I mock sighed. "Again?" I whined, and Kami giggled, nodding her head.

"Fine," I droned, and then turned around and began to gather everything necessary for the process of chocolate chip pancakes. Then after a while I started humming because the kitchen was much too quiet, and my paranoia was settling in.

"No good. You're up to no good. But damn you look good and I'm drunk," I sang to myself, suddenly swinging around and picking Kami up when the pancakes were ready to be left alone. She squealed. "MOMMY!"

I continued to waltz around the kitchen with Kami, humming out loud and taking care not to spin fast enough to get Kami dizzy. Finally, after checking the clock and realizing that the pancakes were going to burn if I didn't get back to them soon, I set Kami down and flipped them, now to the tune of "Build God, then We'll Talk."

I could see Kami bouncing in time to the music out of the corner of my eye, and I smiled to myself, pouring more chocolate chips into the batter.

Five minutes later, she was happily munching on the pancakes, and I rested unnecessarily against the counter to watch her.

I've never given her credit, but Alice actually picks decent clothes for Kami to wear. In the middle of my little reflection on Tinkerbell, Kami stopped eating and watched me. And then she proved to me that six year olds are a lot more observant than I ever gave them credit for.

"Mommy, why didn't you make any for yourself?" Kami asked completely innocently, and I immediately made up another lie.

"Mommy's been up for hours, bebe linda, so she already ate," I cooed to her, and then admired my lying abilities as she believed me and went back to eating.

I hadn't realized it consciously, but we had attracted an audience. Rosalie, Esme, Jasper, and Carlisle were all standing there, watching the scene silently. I stared for a few seconds, and then re-averted my attention to Kami, opting to reach out to read their minds silently.

Carlisle, according to his train of thought, thought that the maternal side that I was showing to Kami alone had to do with my being part avian. I rolled my eyes, just choosing to ignore him and his attempts to understand the way that I operate. Trust me, Doc, Demon's been trying for years and still can't figure me out.

Esme's mind was an entirely different matter. She thought that it was a nice change to see me smiling instead of the impassive face that I had on all the time. The way her thoughts were going, you'd have thought that she was my mother. I wasn't sure how to react to that.

Rosalie was jealous, plain and simple. First of all, she and I hadn't exactly gotten off on the right foot, and then the fact that I had Kami and she had no kid even though she desperately wanted one was sort of adding to the pile of things going against me in her book. I rolled my eyes. I don't have time for her and her problems.

As I was about to get to Jasper's mind, he interrupted me. "Val, since when do you know Spanish?"

I shrugged. "I picked up a few words here and there." Not to mention that I'm apparently already supposed to know it, since my biological parents are Spanish- speaking.

Kami finished her food, and I laughed a little when I saw her face, which was covered in maple syrup. "I think Luz needs a new napkin." She giggled at herself, and Rosalie's anger at me flared.

Putting the dirty plates and pans in the sink, I turned around with a wet paper towel, wiping off Luz's face gently. Then her eyes focused again on mine, and I thought of Demon again as I saw her vibrant green eyes.

"Mommy, what's wrong?" She asked me, hooking her arms around my neck. I shook my head, effectively clearing it, and then said to her, "Nothing, baby. Mommy's just thinking."

"Ok. Mommy, later, can we go for a fly?" Kami asked, her face beginning to brighten., and then she gave me the Bambi eyes.

Damn it. I should have never done that look on Demon when she was in the room. "Fine, sweetie." I said, caving almost instantly.

"YAY!" Kami squealed, and I sighed, reminding myself that I needed to really strengthen my defenses against adorable six year olds with supreme begging abilities.


--Two Weeks Later--

I hopped out and leaned against the jeep. I stood there, looking at the gigantic school building named "Wesley High School" –How original--that I was now supposed to be going to every day until I found Demon and the others and was able to get the hell out of here. I sighed. I'm not going to enjoy this. Or that could be Max influencing me what with her horrible memories of school in Virginia and the Red Haired Wonder.

"Here we go." Emmett muttered as we went to the registration building. Almost every single head turned towards us as we walked to the building, and it did not help that some of us could hear what they were thinking. Honestly, are there no non-perverted minds in the teenage world anymore?

After yet another mental scarring that will last me a lifetime, we finally got to the registration building and were able to get our stuff. Although Emmett and I being forced to stifle our laughter because the receptionist was shamelessly flirting with Edward, oblivious to the fact that Bella was struggling not to rip her head off. Damn, and Bella is usually the level headed one.

After that episode which added to my list of cons about "Why Bird Children named Valerie Should Not Be Going to High School", I looked at my schedule and saw that I had English first. I walked with Bella, who had Algebra first, to Building three and got in the class just as it started. The teacher immediately stopped me and said, "You must be the new student. Please, stay up here and introduce yourself."

I already instinctually hated the teacher. I hate giving away information to anyone. But I can't just ignore the woman. I mean, this is her job... Ugh, Esme has been pounding too many good values into me…

"My name is Valerie McCarthy." I started to walk back down the aisle, having spotted a lonely seat in the back of the room.

"Where did you move here from?" Annoying teacher said, interrupting me just as I was about to sit down. I mentally growled.

"Washington."

"Any favorite things?" What the flip is this, Twenty Questions?! Spanish Inquisition?! Let's See How Far We Can Push The New Girl Before She Blows Up the School?!

"My iPod. The outdoors. Fighting."

After this, she let me sit down –Thank Bird children, for her sake.—and I pulled out the book the teacher, whose name I finally learned was Ms. Clifton, was starting to tell us about. Romeo and Juliet. Joy, a love story. Note heavy sarcasm. But at least Bella told me what to expect.

About 40 minutes later, I found that Romeo and Juliet was a pretty okay book. But there could be more fighting and blood in it… Then I was interrupted as I felt Edward trying to make a connection.

What's wrong?

How are you holding up? All the girls are staring at me, and I'm sitting in the back of the classroom!

Fine. Not sure if I have that problem, haven't been paying them any attention. Who put you up to this?

I could imagine Edward sitting there smirking discreetly. Way to speak in complete sentences, Val. And no one put me up to this. Can't a guy just check on one of his sisters?

I raised an eyebrow skeptically. Edward, really.

There was a pause, and then: Fine. Esme told me to keep an eye on you to make sure you get the hang of high school.

... Thanks, Esme.

I'll let her know during my free that you appreciate it. And I have to go, my teacher thinks that I'm not paying attention.

I scoffed to myself. I wonder why.

Oh, shush Valerie. Bye.

Later.

We broke off the connection at the exact same time, and I didn't have to really pay that much attention to anything else seeing as in 15 minutes, the bell rang. I grabbed my things, heading straight for Science. Luckily, Alice was waiting for me when I got outside of the classroom. As we walked in, she took one look around and smiled. "Hopefully none of them will stalk you home." I looked around to see what the hell she was talking about and groaned. We were the center of attention.

Once again, whatever higher power there is decided that now would be a wonderful time to screw with the life of the one person in the world who HATES attention.

That class, Spanish and History passed in exactly the same way. By the time lunch came around fifth period, I was ready to freaking punch somebody's lights out. I was extremely jittery. Bella, Alice, and I all walked to the cafeteria and waited for the rest of the family clan outside the doors; Alice had a plan. Which obviously can't end well for me…

"Ok, Rosalie and Emmett, since I know how you two love the spotlight, you guys go in first. There will be a table at the far end of the cafeteria. Head towards it, that's where were sitting obviously." What did I say?

"Next are Edward and Bella. Oh, and Edward, control your temper. Seriously. No blood on the floors.

"Jasper and I will be going next, and then finally Val. Sorry about you being the lone ranger, sis."

I shrugged, "It's fine."

Before Rosalie and Emmett went out, Alice gave out more instructions. "Stroll along, take your time getting to the table. And make it seem like everyone else isn't there. Okay, ready? Rose, Em, GO!"

They walked into the cafeteria, and it automatically got silent. Oh, great. All eyes on me. I hate attention, Alice, weren't you listening?

After about 10 seconds, Bella and Edward glided through the blue double doors. Out of the glimpse I got of the people inside the cafeteria, everyone's heads snapped their way as soon as they heard the sound of the doors creaking open again.

Jasper and Alice stepped up to the door next. Alice turned to me and whispered, "Good luck. I'll signal you, and Jazz'll be sending you calm waves all the way." I nodded, extremely thankful for Jasper's being an empath. And then they danced into the lunchroom too.

I have never wished that Nessie was older than fourteen more than in this moment.

I took a deep breath, calming myself –No one is going to attack you as soon as you walk through the doors. Just breathe, and think that Kami is waiting for you at home. You need to avoid committing mass homicide for her.-- and finally, I walked through the doors myself.

You know that dream that almost everyone seems to have where everyone stares quite openly at you and you glance down to see that all you're wearing is your underwear? That was the feeling of walking into that lunchroom as a McCarthy. Geez, I might as well be carrying a giant neon sign with the words "HI! I'M THE NEW KID!" written across it with a giant spotlight on me. You couldn't get any more obvious. It's like being a prostitute in a nunnery.

At the table, Edward hid his head in his arms on the table, and started— Oh, wait, no, that's laughter, not any warning signs of a seizure.

I casually glanced around, looking at all the different faces that were sitting together. A quick glance was all a vampire would need, and I could see all the details I wanted:

At one of the tables closest to the lunch line, a geeky looking kid with loads of acne and suspenders—I kid you not, suspenders—was not breathing.

A table full of scantily dressed girls was glaring quite openly at me, as if I was openly branding them. Or burning them at the stake. Or shoving a pitchfork down their throats. Hmm, that doesn't seem like that bad of an idea…

I heard Edward start to take deep, unneeded breaths, head still down on the table. I turned my attention back to the –ahem-- school children, and glared right back at them. They all cringed backwards into their seats. I internally smiled. You are so lucky that you didn't meet me in a dark alleyway, or you all would be roasting over an open fire.

Some skaters were sitting alone in one corner of the room, and one made eye contact with me. He smiled a little, and I couldn't help but smile a little right back.

A table over, some people dressed entirely in black –Like Fang. Sigh.—calmly regarded me, then the girls looked back out the window. The boys kept staring, eyes wide open, mouths hanging down. Ugh. I can't stand all this attention. Alice, when we get home, I'm burning all my clothes as a way of getting revenge against you for this.

Immediately, I saw Alice get that blank face that she always gets when she has a vision, and I took pleasure in watching myself throw a bonfire for all the clothes in my closet. After she wiped the look of horror off her face, Alice began to growl at me, and I fixed a small smirk onto my face for only her to see. Edward started to laugh silently again.

One of the preppy girls at the table in the center of the room looked at me, not hostile, but more like" I think that you could make a good friend". Peeking into her mind, I saw that she didn't even want to be at the preppy table. She had friends outside of where her social clique was, like the skater who had smiled at me before. She just didn't know how to rebel against the same forms that there had always been forever.

Meanwhile, I was trying to figure out if this was Mean Girls: Revamped, or a real high school. I can now stand readily by Max and say that I hated high school.

I finally got to the table after what seemed like forever and plopped down in a seat on the other side of Bella while Emmett laughed at my situation with Alice openly. Obviously, Edward had told him of my plan to burn all of the clothes in my closet when I got home as a way of paying back Alice for having been so kind as to make me the center of attention after I had clearly told her that I hated having all the attention on me.

Bella, who seemed to have noticed just how much Alice wanted to kill me –It's not that hard to notice…--, turned the situation away from us, instead asking me, "So, how are you liking high school so far, Val?" Thankfully by the time that I had gotten to the table, the noise level had started to go back up to its original deafening roar.

"Sexist pigs. All of them. Every single one." I said, and it didn't take much thinking for her to realize what I was talking about.

"Oh come on, they couldn't have been that bad." I stared at Jasper like he had two heads.

"I'm going to go on a homicidal rampage." I said lowly and ominously. Jasper winced as he saw that I wasn't kidding, and Alice went wide-eyed as she got the vision, seeing as I was actually considering it.

"You're not serious, right?" Alice asked, seeing as she had just gotten a rather realistic image of me going insane and killing basically everyone in the vicinity.

I rolled my eyes. "What do you think, Alice?" And then I froze at the strong scent of bird in the area. Please, let it be them…

I slightly turned to scan the cafeteria and very visibly lit up. Sitting four tables away were Max, Fang, Iggy, Nudge, Demon, Mira, Skye, Hope, Shawn, Blaze, and Jinx. YES!


And now, you review even more because you love me! I also must give a wonderful shoutout to chechuu-cullen, because I just posted Chapter 27 this morning at 8:06 and somehow this amazing person has already reviewed. YOU MAKE MY DAY, CHECHUU!!

NOW REVIEW!! ADN HAPPY ANNIVERSARY TO DANCING WITH FIRE!!

Peace, love, and "Wait! I'm breaking up with him! It's only going to take 5 minutes!!" "Moe! You fail!!",

Skittles31