Grace's POV
I sat staring at the screen of my laptop, tapping my finger impatiently, Alice sitting next to me. "Alice I'm dying… what time is it?!" I growled slightly when Alice laughed at me.
"You are staring at your laptop Grace." I sighed and looked up at the corner of my laptop screen. I groaned seeing we still had 2 minutes left. "I can't wait 2 more minutes… I need to see how we did on our exam…" I nodded laying back on the bed pulling a pillow over my face. I heard foot steps coming up the stairs and to my bedroom. I pulled the pillow off and took a deep breath.
"Come in T…" Tanya opened the door and flopped down on the bed beside the two raven haired girls.
"What are we moaning about?" She asked raising an eyebrow at my dramatic sigh. Alice rolled her eyes as she sat up and refreshed the page on her laptop. My head whipped around as she squealed in delight. Tanya laughed sitting up and placing her chin on Alice's shoulder. "Ah final grades. Nice job Al."
I bit my lip as I sat up and opened my laptop open again. I refreshed the page and scrolled down, stopping at the final grade. I felt my dead heart drop as I focused in on the grade. C-. I slammed my laptop shut, a little to hard and stood throwing the device on my pillows. I saw Alice and Tanya look over at me with confused looks on their faces.
"I need air." I muttered as I stepped out on to my patio and jumped down to the ground. I let my mind wander as I ran. I didn't have anywhere specific I was going, I just ran. I knew I wasn't good enough. I'm almost 100 years old and I can only get a C- in a math class. I mean its not like I have to sleep at all or don't have photographic memory.
I stopped mid run and turned around. My fist collided with a tree, sending it flying across the clearing and smashing into another tree. I looked around and noticed I had no idea where I was. I fell to my knees and landed on my face burying my face into the muddy grass. I heard someone come into the clearing and I whipped my head up to face them. I saw the blonde hair and the golden eyes of my mate.
"You need to stop running away Grace." I grimaced and flopped my face back down into the mud pile under me. I felt her walk over and hoist me up placing me on my feet. I turned to face her and grimaced when she started laughing. "Your face is all mud love." I reached up and used the sleeve of my jacket to wipe my face.
I turned my head and leaned into Kate, she pulled me into her arms and ran her fingers through my hair. I felt her head leaning against mine as she rubbed my back with her other hand. "One grade is not the end all be all love…" I shook my head squeezing my eyes shut.
Obviously she didn't understand. My father will always be stuck in my head. I will never be good enough. I will never be smart enough. I could see the first time I got a C- in a report card. He was… angry.
-flashback-
I sat at the desk in the library of our house tapping my pencil against the paper that sat in front of me. I flinched hearing father coming in the house, slamming the front door behind him. Esme had barely been gone for a week and with not sleeping, I hadn't done so well on my latest arithmetic exam. I closed my eyes and took a deep breath preparing myself.
When I heard him call out my name drunkenly, I stood, smoothing the creases of my dress out and grabbed the paper. "In the library father!" I called back and felt my heart rate increase as he stumbled through the hallways. The door flung open and I stumbled towards me, I instinctively took a step back. He clutched on to my hand that held the paper to catch himself.
He straightened up, my test paper going up with him. His eyes narrowed in on the 63% I had gotten. My breath hitched in my throat when his eyes looked up and made contact with mine. "What is this grade?" He hissed, I internally flinched and looked down to stare at my feet.
"My latest arithmetic exam…"
"This is why she left us. Because you're dumb and she was disappointed with you. You will learn to get better grades young lady." The next thing I knew I was lying on my back, my head leaning up against a bookshelf, my dad stalking towards me.
-end flashback-
Kate was holding me up by my shoulders, zapping me lightly as I was brought back to the future and where I was. "GRACE!" She called out, barely ducking in time to avoid the fire ball that fired from my hand. I whipped around and made eye contact with her. I saw where I was and felt the fire calm down. Kate pulled me into her arms and cradled the back of my head again. "Baby, where did you go my love?"
I shook my head burying my face into her chest. "She left because she was disappointed in me…" Kate just sighed and pushed me back holding my shoulder with one hand, the other cupping my face.
"She did not leave because of you or anything you did. You know that. She left to keep her son safe." I stared into her eyes searching for something. I didn't know what but something. My hand flew up to hold her face with my hand and pull her in to kiss her deeply. She kissed me back then pulled away. "What was that for?"
"For being my voice of reason." I laughed lightly when her face broke out into a grin and she started laughing. "Come on K. Lets go home?" She just nodded and took off, me following hot on her heels.
Esme's POV
I sat on the porch of our house watching Renesmee, Irina and Bella work on the garden. I loved how close the two had gotten to Irina, forgetting the past. When Alice came bounding up the steps with her backpack on and a huge grin on her face, I turned to face her. "Good grade then?" She just laughed and nodded with a huge grin on her face. I smiled until I saw her face glaze over.
She looked over at me. "Call Grace." She said then went inside without saying anything else. I stared after her unsure as to what just happened. I heard a soft laugh come from the garden and looked up at Bella.
"You look like you saw a ghost Esme." She sent me a sly grin and turned back to the tulips in front of her. I sent her a look then sat up and reached into my pocket to fish my phone out. I dialed Grace's phone number and held the phone up to me ear as it rang.
"Hello?" I heard her quiet voice come through the phone.
"Hey sweetheart. Alice told me to call you?" I said with a questioning tone.
"Oh uhm…" I heard her pause and mutter something to the person she was with. I then heard Kates voice right before Grace came back to the phone. "We'll be there in 5 minutes." I heard the click of someone hanging up the phone and then nothing.
"Ghost back mom?" I heard from Bella and shot her a look only to be met with her smirk.
It was about 10 minutes later when Kate and Grace walked through the forest line hand in hand. Grace grinned when she spotted me and ran towards me and tackled me into a hug. I laughed and hugged her tight. "I'm happy to see you to love however it hasn't been that long." I pulled back when I noticed she wasn't laughing and frowned at the look on her face.
"What's wrong my love?" I placed my hands on her shoulder. She bit her lip and looked up at me. "Did you get your grade back?" I was surprised when she stepped back and clung to Kates arm chewing the inside of her cheek.
"I uhm… I got a C-…" She flinched back which shocked me to the core until I realized why she flinched.
"That's fine babe. I know how hard you worked on that class. I'm proud of you." When I didn't reprimand her or get her in trouble she looked up at me with her gold eyes. She grinned at me and nodded quickly when she realized I had said I was proud of her. She jumped into my arms and hugged me tightly.
"Thank you mom. At least I did better in my ASL class. I got an A!" She squealed and jumped up and down clinging to my arms. "I also got a B in my Psych class." I smiled and kissed her forehead.
"Good job kiddo." She turned on her heel and wrapped her arms around Kates neck. The two girls ran off towards the Denali house. I look over at the three still in the garden. Renesmee looked at her mom then at me.
"Why did she look so scared when she told her grade nana?" I looked at Bella who nodded and nudged Renesmee towards me. I sat on a chair, her sitting beside me in the other chair confusion written all over her face.
"Do you remember my story?" She nodded slowly. "Well that was her dad. He used to get angry at her when Grace didn't get good grades. I'm assuming that the last time she got a pretty bad grade he wasn't so nice about it." Renesmee bit her lip and leaned back in her chair. I watched her face drop as she realized what that meant.
Bella came up and helped the smaller girl stand up. She took her upstairs to talk to her. I closed my eyes leaning back until I heard Carlisle's car pull up. He parked in the garage and wandered into the kitchen obviously looking for me. "Esme love?"
"Out here babe." I sat up when he pushed the door open. He scooped me up and sat in the chair, placing me on to his lap. His arms wrapped around my waist and his chin sat on my shoulder. "Grace didn't get a great grade on her math class… she was really worried. I think she needs to actually talk to someone about things. Charles did some serious damage to her mental state."
I felt more than heard him hum behind me, vibrating his chest against my back. The small motion felt relaxing as I slowly relaxed into his chest. My body slowly relaxed even more into my mates arms as his humming turned to purrs. He purposely was trying to calm me down to relax my tense shoulders.
"Don't worry my love. I will talk to Eleazar and see what the two of us can set up for her. She will be okay. She has an amazing support system behind her to help her." I buried into him closing my eyes trying to allow my body to relax.
Carlisle's POV
As I pulled into the driveway I was wondering where my beautiful mate was and what she had been doing all day. I closed the door behind me and made my way through the kitchen. "Esme love?" I called out peeking my head through the door to the living room.
"Out here babe." I smiled and opened the patio door to see Esme sitting on the deck. I pulled her up so I could pull her back down on my lap and wrap my arms around her waist. I placed my chin on her shoulder. "Grace didn't get a great grade on her math class… she was really worried. I think she needs to actually talk to someone about things. Charles did some serious damage to her mental state."
I sighed then started humming softly hoping the vibrations in my chest would help calm her down a bit. She seemed quite tense which was not normal for her. When she didn't calm down right away I knew I had to step it up a notch. I turned my hums into purrs so she would relax a bit.
"Don't worry my love. I will talk to Eleazar and see what the two of us can set up for her. She will be okay. She has an amazing support system behind her to help her." When she relaxed and buried into my chest I felt the tension in her shoulders relax.