Chapter Thirty-Seven

Rosie's POV

I guess I should have been used to change by now, since that was all that had been happening my whole life and I was now twelve, but I was still caught off guard when I first learned that Carlie had phased.

I mean, we had all expected it-you could smell the werewolf genes in her-but at thirteen? I was expecting fifteen or sixteen at the earliest. Dad, the Alpha of Quilluite tribe, didn't phase until he was seventeen and started hanging out with Grandma Bella and reacted to the vampire smell of her new best friends.

So, for Carlie to phase this early, it had to mean something, right?

I myself had only phased so early because of the vampire DNA in me. The two forces triggered the other one, though my human side kept me from aging normally.

Dad and Carlie took a trip down to La Push to make sure that it wasn't unusual. Tribal legends were something that were not allowed to be discussed over the phone. I was offered to tag along, since I'm part wolf too, but I declined. Ever since meeting our cousins and having nightmares about Joey's hurtful words, I had never visited La Push again.

Besides, I had Jesse here so I didn't see the point in taking a weekend to travel to see people who clearly didn't want me there. I could see it in their eyes that I was a freak and I wasn't putting myself through that if I didn't have to.

"Hey there, sweetie." Speak of the devil and the devil shall appear...

I grinned at my imprint as he ruffled my hair. Though I was still too young to be considered a "lover," I was allowed to flirt with Jesse and progress my crush now that I looked fifteen. That was how old my mom was physically when she and Jacob started progressing their own romance. She had been five and a half at the time.

"Hi-ya." I said, trying to push his arm away so he couldn't mess up my hair anymore. I let out a giggle when my arms were too short to bat him away. "Qu-it it." I teased, giving up and trying to fix my hair as he messed it up. "You're messing up my hair."

"I'm sorry, Jazzlyn." Jesse said, biting his lip to keep from smiling at the mess he caused. "But you know..." He grinned now, and my heart nearly skipped a beat as I took in his pearly whites. "You look kind of cute with your hair like that..."

I gaped. He thought I looked cute when my hair wasn't perfect? That didn't make any sense.

"R-really?" I asked, my heart beating violently against my chest and I hoped that he couldn't hear it.

"'Course." Jesse said, shrugging his shoulders, though he smirked to show me that he could indeed hear my heartbeat. "You always look cute, Jazzlyn."

I was blushing beet red when EJ came into the room.

He shot the two of us a glare, but didn't say anything.

I knew that EJ never fully approved of my imprint (only because he was so much older than me) but after years of living down the street from Aunt Becca's family, it's hard for him to deny that Jesse is innocent. Me, on the other hand, EJ has every right to be worried about.

It's so hard to be patient when I know that my soul mate is sitting right next to me. I don't know how my mom managed to wait for hers. Then again, she only had seven years to wait-I've already endured through twelve. I would go crazy if I didn't start growing again soon.

"Did you have fun on your hunt?" I asked EJ, trying to veer his thoughts, and mine, away from the fact that I was practically sitting on Jesse's lap.

Mom and EJ went hunting once a month so that neither would be too thirsty while we ate human food the rest of the month. I went occasionally, but hunting as a vampire was hard for me since I wasn't as fast or strong as even a half vampire like the two of them.

Besides, I figured that I was slowing them down. Neither ever said it or thought it when I was around, but I knew that that was just because they were working around my ability. Their unheard subconscious thoughts were practically screaming at me to let them go by themselves.

"Yes, I snagged some deer." EJ said, though his thoughts told me that he didn't exactly like deer blood as much as our mother did.

"Yummy." I said, a bit sarcastically and smirked at my brother.

Though he was a shield like Grandma Bella, he frequently forgot that he was supposed to put it up. Not that it took effort or anything, but it was just so easy to let it slip if he didn't think about it when he woke up.

"Stay out of my head." EJ hissed lightly, though I could see that he didn't mean it harmfully.

"You're the one who doesn't have your shield up." I teased back, trying not to get distracted as Jesse played with a piece of my curly black hair.

Nessie walked in the room and I smiled at my mother. "Deer good this time of year?" I asked. It was getting colder as fall drifted into winter, but that just made hunting even more fun and challenging.

"Always." Mom replied, You should come with us next time, Rosie. You haven't hunted in such a long time.

I nodded at my mother's thoughts, though I wasn't really sure if I was going to hunt again anytime soon. Since I had been perfecting my ability to stay phased so that I could hang out with Jesse more, I had been neglecting my vampire side.

I wished that I could chose to be who I wanted to be, instead of being this half human, quarter vampire, quarter werewolf creature. Sometimes I wished to be more like my sister or brother.

But you know what they say about wishes...