Year Five, Chapter Thirty-Seven

College (and Trouble) Begins

Renesmee's Point of View

Jacob was just pulling his Volvo into the Dartmouth parking. Today was going to be my first day of school, ever. I did not count the homeschooling I had received from my family.

This place was huge! I was now very glad that I had agreed to attend classes with Jacob. Not that I was scared of being around so many humans, We went hunting yesterday, so I wasn't concerned about losing control and attacking someone, it was all just a bit overwhelming.

Jacob told me that a few of the friends, he made last year, had called him and he agreed to meet them on one of the picnic tables outside of some main building. I was unaware that he had made that good of friends before. He never went to hang out with them, or even mentioned them to me more than a few times last year, and only then when I pressed him on the subject.

"You know how I mentioned that Rob and Andy were more classmates, than anything, Nessie. We only had a couple classes together. I was as surprised as you when Rob called. He said that Andy checked the class rosters online and saw that we would all be majoring in Engineering together and wanted to meet before class started. You don't mind do you?"

"No of course not." I am happy that you made friends, Jacob. I added with my gift. We were holding hands as we walked and I loved communicating with him this way.

"Look," he said, pointing over to a couple of humans, "there they are. Come on." He was practically dragging me over, while looking very excited to see them.

"Jake, dude. Long time no see." A tall guy, with blond hair, that was cut so short it almost made him look bald, and deep set baby blue eyes, said. He looked to be about the same height as my father and was almost as good looking as some of the men in my family. Of course there was no way a mere human could compare to the perfect flawless skin of my family or the chiseled physique of my Jacob, but for a human I could see how others would think he was not bad looking.

"Hey Jacky, we missed you. You couldn't pick up the phone so we could hang out once over the summer?" Added a twenty something woman. I thought we were meeting Rob an Andy. Who was this? Some other friend? Jacob had only mention one girl that I could recall. I have a perfect memory, and this woman was nothing like the woman he described. Whoever this is was the exact opposite of Jenny. Jacob had described her as a behemoth, with an overbite, freckles and curly red hair. This person was of average female height, 5'5" I ascertained, her teeth seemed reasonably straight, her skin appeared unblemished, again at least by human standards, and she had straight brown hair. Whoever she was, she was rather pretty, and she smiled, a lot. While she seemed pleasant enough I just didn't seem to like her for some reason, but I could not figure out why. I had, after all, just met her. I didn't even know her.

And what was up with the names? Jake? Jacky? They sounded so strange.

"And who is this?" the guy asked.

"Andrea, Robert, this is Vanessa." It was more than a little weird hearing Jacob call me that, but I was enrolled in school as Vanessa Wolfe. It was almost as strange as hearing his friends call him anything other than Jacob, especially with him being so formal with all of our names. I know that my mother called him Jake, as well as his family and Pack, but I never really gave it much thought. I was just so use to my own family referring to him as Jacob. It was all I ever called him.

"Nice to meet you, Vanessa . . . wait you're not Nessie are you?" Andrea (well Andy I guess) asked more as a rhetorical question than anything. At least this solved that mystery. Nicknames! "We were starting to think Jacky made you up. He would talk, and talk, and talk about you all of the time, but never brought you around."

"Can you blame him. Look at her. If I had a girlfriend that looked like her I would keep her locked away too." Rob smirked. I could tell Jacob was not happy with his comment but I was taken completely off guard by it.

Girlfriend? Was I Jacob's girlfriend? Traditionally, for humans, I knew a girlfriend was a person one dated, before marrying or mating with. Which before I started considering Nahuel, I guess would have meant that that would have been me, for Jacob. And since I have not mentioned my indecision yet, and temporarily rejected Nahuel last year, I could see where Jacob might think that, I guess. But didn't people normally "go out" on dates? Of course, up until now, I was pretty much confined to the house, with the exception of hunting. Were our hunting trips dates to Jacob? I think I needed to clear this up and let him in on my plans sooner than planned.

But at the current moment, I was getting a little uncomfortable by the way Rob was leering at me. It reminded me a bit of that Demetri pervert from the Volturi. I could now see why Jacob had insisted on accompanying me through college. Were all men like this?

At least Jacob moved slightly in front of me, effectively blocking Robs direct line of sight.

"Dude, I'm shocked you failed to mention the girl you're dating is so hot." Rob added with a wink while he tried peering around Jacob before he readjusted his stance again.

What? Hot?

"No, Nessie and I are not dating . . ." Jacob started denying Rob statements, but he also needed to calm down and continue to block me from Rob. I guess he didn't like other people commenting on my physical appearance, whether positively or negatively. Was I hot? Perhaps I should ask Jacob at a later time. Right now I needed to deal with the current situation.

"Jacob and I live together." I ended up blurting out to Andy while Jacob was busy with Rob.

"Really, you too are sleeping together?" Andy seemed surprised. How much had Jacob told them about me? About us? And why was Jacob looking so strange now?

"Yes, well only for the past few weeks. My parents would not let us before that. They thought . . ."

Jacob quickly turned around to face me. "NESSIE, stop, please. Some things are . . . um, private." He stated barely above a whisper.

He looked so upset. What was wrong? Jacob actually looked . . . worried.

And why did Andy look so sad? Whatever was going on Rob thought it was hilarious. He could not stop himself from laughing even though no one else was joining him.

"I think we had better go, honey. We'll see you guys in class." Jacob said as he started dragging me away gently, but hurriedly.

As we were leaving I tried to say how it was nice meeting them both and how I guessed I'll see them in class, but I don't know if they heard me.

When Jacob was done relocating us, and finally stopped, I used my gift to ask him what was wrong. Did I say something incorrect? Should I not have said anything?

"Nessie," Jacob huffed, "you can't go around telling people we are sleeping together. It doesn't mean the same thing, to them, as it does to us. They don't know that you are only four years old."

I wanted to scream at him that I was not four years old. When was he going to realize that? But he was so worked up already, I didn't want to risk upsetting him more. We were still in public and he needed to calm down. But I needed to find out what got him so upset in the first place.

"You and I know it's perfectly innocent sweetheart, but when you tell humans that you're sleeping with someone" he continued, "you're implying that you're having sex with them." He got quiet for a second, like he was trying to figure something out. "It is still innocent for you isn't it?" Jacob questioned.

Oh, I guess I understand why he got so upset. Especially if he still saw me as a child. Stupid human rules. But I needed to make this right, at least until his thinking of me changes.

Of course it is Jacob. I didn't mean to imply anything . . . improper going on between us. I'm sorry. I forget sometimes that our situation isn't normal to humans. I will try to adjust my speech to fall in line more with what I have observed on television and movies. "You're not that upset are you?" I added out loud.

"No, not upset, but Rob tends to blab about things. It might get out around school, a bit."

"Well if you didn't want people to think that, then why did you tell your friends that we were dating?"

"Nessie, I did not do that. They must have just jumped to conclusions. Looking back, I guess I can understand why. Last year I was always talking about you to them, I missed you so much when I was here, and you were still stuck at home. And then we came here today, together, holding hands, and I guess they just . . . I tried correcting them when Rob said that, but then you started talking over me. And I don't even want to think about what is going to happen if Edward hears about it in some random kids mind."

Yikes! I don't want another indecent between the two of them. I need to fix this myself and fast.

"Don't worry Jacob, I'll speak to my father before anything gets out of hand. Maybe I should call him right now. He doesn't have class until this afternoon and if Rob really is a person prone to gossip then it will probably be in enough people's minds, even in a school as big as this, that my father will definitely hear something and overact before we even have a chance to explain."

Jacob let out a small sigh. "Thank you Nessie, that will probably be a good idea. Right now I think we need to be going to class, we don't want to be late for our first day, why don't you call him on the way."

As expected my father was not too happy to hear the news, but at least he would not try to tear Jacobs head off.

"Do you think we will have time to explain things to Rob and Andy after class, Jacob?" I asked as I sat down in an open chair.

"Um, honey, we can try but I am not sure how effective that will be. Saying one thing and then taking it back a little later is not the way to make people believe you. But I will try anything to convince them, and will continue to for as long as it takes, if it is something that upsets you to have people think that about us."

"Oh, no that's alright. You don't have to do that for me. I don't actually care what humans think, I just don't want things to be awkward for you." Especially when I actually get my courage up and talk to him about Nahuel.

"Well, let's just get through this class, maybe nothing will come of it. This is college, most people probably won't care. They're all dating on and off, all the time, no one really cares who's seeing who, or who broke up with whom. If this were high school, we might have a problem, I am probably just overreacting over nothing." Jacob added.