Chapter 17

I woke up at five in the morning. Bella was asleep and I focused my hearing on the rest of the house to figure out who was awake. Edward's room was silent so Stefan wasn't there. Edward might be, but he does have a habit of being weirdly quiet sometimes. In the kitchen, I heard Rosalie and Emmett arguing over something but I stopped listening for their privacy.

"Just go for it," said Jasper when I focused on the living room.

"I just don't want to mess up," Stefan responded.

"You won't," Jasper reasoned. I had no idea what they were talking about. "It's been long enough."

"One wrong move and I'll mess up everything," he said, frustrated. I could feel my heart beating faster. It sounded almost like-

heard a clattering noise and Stefan sighed loudly. "Dang it," he exclaimed. Confused, I ran down the stairs to see what they were doing.

"More like Jeng it!" Emmett called from the kitchen. "Oh my god, Jasper stop, I'm sorry."

Jasper was frowning and his hand was clenched. "What are you doing?" I inquired.

"Just making him feel the pain I feel," he responded casually. On the coffee table was a mess of Jenga bricks from the tower that they had toppled over. Stefan's face lit up when I sat down next to him.

"You guys are playing Jenga?" I asked. "I haven't played that game for years."
"Bella found a bunch of old games so she brought them over yesterday. I've never played this one before, but it is interesting," Jasper said. "Want to join in?"

"Sure." I picked up the blocks that had fallen on the floor and helped them put the tower back up again. "What's the order?"

"How about youngest to oldest? I'll go last." Stefan suggested.

"1844." Jasper gave a sly smile.

"Oh, then you'll go last, nevermind. 1846."

"1992," I said. Stefan chuckled.

Emmett walked over to us and sat down next to Jasper. "And I'll go second. You two are so old, I was born in 1913," he bragged.

"Fifteen, Emmett," Rosalie called from the kitchen.

"Sorry, 1915," he corrected himself. "Let's play."

Going first, I pushed the middle block out from the bottom of the tower and placed it on the top. "Your turn," I told Emmett. He cracked his knuckles. I watched him anxiously as he pulled the side piece from the layer above the bottom slowly. But the tower didn't fall.

"Okay, go, Eddy," he said, smiling triumphantly. "I mean Stefan. Stefie?"

"Please never call me that," Stefan said, laughing. He swiftly pulled out the side piece from the other side. The tower was looking really unstable now. Without having to be reminded, Jasper pulled a side piece from the layer above that one. Copying him, I carefully took the one from the other side of Jasper's.

"You know what would be really cool?" Emmett asked. He quickly pulled the single brick that made up the second layer and the entire tower fell straight down but not over. The third layer middle piece fell into the bottom side pieces and when he put the block back on top, the tower looked exactly the same way it had when we started.

"Woah, that was cool," I agreed. We both grinned at each other. For reasons unknown, Stefan looked strangely uncomfortable. He looked at Emmett and then back at me, frowning for a second, but then went back to playing the game. Jasper looked at him quizzically but he shook his head dismissing him. When he pulled out a brick from near the bottom, he moved it wrong and the tower collapsed. I was surprised; Stefan was never clumsy.

We thought of going hunting in the morning but Bella was very limited by having to avoid the sun and Angela was out on a date with Ben so she couldn't come over. As soon as the sun set, we took off for the woods to look for animals to drink from. Bella seemed nervous since it was her first time drinking blood from a living thing and to be completely honest, so was I. I had only drunk from humans and blood bags before so a rabbit didn't sound entirely appetizing.

So not to overwhelm Bella, it was just Stefan, Edward, and I out with her. Stefan and Edward both were used to this diet already so they would be good at teaching. I was just here because I felt guilty for causing all of this.

I don't care if Bella says that she is thankful that I indirectly turned her. She's happy now but I can tell she won't be when she first kills someone; it's bound to happen. Of course, I am weirdly better as a vampire.

"So," Edward started, "Animal blood tastes different than human blood. Less filling."

"Great," Bella mumbled.
He smiled at her. "I'm just warning you. Okay, when you hunt, listen for the sound of their heartbeat. It's easier to tell where they are that way."

"What am I supposed to be looking for?" I asked.

"Eat whatever you want," Stefan said.

"I prefer mountain lions, but I don't think we will find them here," Edward said. We weren't all that far from their house and we were in a forest that apparently surrounded "their meadow".

I pounced on the first animal I saw; a squirrel. But seeing it squeak and try to get away made me feel bad so I set it back down on the tree. "How do you bring yourself to eat these things?" I asked the doppelgängers.

"You drink from humans," Edward commented.

"Yeah, well you can compel humans to not scream." They exchanged a look.

"This makes me nervous." Bella fidgeted.

Just then, a rabbit hopped past. I took a deep breath and then grabbed it, sinking my teeth into its neck before it could make a sound. It didn't feel good but the blood wasn't as bad as I thought. I was expecting liquid garbage as Elena had said. Of course, it didn't compare at all to even the blood bags. "Bella, you can drink these just fine. It doesn't really taste that bad." She nodded slowly, looking grossed out by the rabbit carcass I had just thrown aside.

Bella froze, crouching down to focus on listening. She put her hand to her ear and closed her eyes. "I hear something," she whispered and then took off running. We jogged behind her and watched as she tackled a deer to the ground. She pierced its neck with her fangs and the veins on her face bulged. The animal struggled at first but fell limp after maybe ten seconds of being used like a water bottle. "You're right," she said after she drained the deer. "It does taste okay."

"That's wonderful, love," Edward said, staring in amazement as she wiped the blood off of her mouth.

"Why don't you two take that side of the forest and Caroline and I take the other?" Stefan contributed. "That way we don't run out."

"Okay," agreed Bella. We decided on a boundary line and then set off to look for more deer. I had never seen Stefan hunt before and he acted differently when he did. He was much quieter than usual and he walked carefully to not scare animals away. I tried to imitate his steps but it didn't really work. After a couple of minutes of me breaking sticks on the ground, he gave up on trying to be sneaky.

"We're probably aren't going to find any animals soon," Stefan said.
"Yeah, and to be honest, I'm not really craving any more rabbits."

"I respect that."

"So, you're friends with Jasper now?"

"Yeah, I guess. I can relate to him easily. The only other person around my age I know, I mean, knew was, well, Damon." He added, "And you're friends with Emmett."

I nodded. "He's pretty great." Stefan wore the same look he had earlier during Jenga but I didn't ask about it.

"It's good that Bella is adjusting well," he said, changing the topic.

"Don't you find that kind of weird?" I asked, having been thinking about this very thing. "No one ever has it this easy."

He furrowed his brow. "It is weird. But Elena didn't have much of a hard time either, maybe it's a doppelgänger thing."

"Until she killed Connor. And turned off her humanity."

"True." He put his hands in his pockets and looked up at the trees. "Well, I think it also might be because she wants to be a vampire. She's not panicked like everyone else."

Before I could respond, I heard a rustling in the bushes. We both fell silent to listen. It was a noise too loud for a rabbit so I crept up, waiting for a deer to appear. Suddenly, the figure rushed out, too fast for me to see who it was. "What was that?" Bella called out. We ran in her direction and saw that a bush in front of her had been trampled.

"It had to be a vampire," Stefan said. "They were so fast."

"There's more?" Edward asked.

"Well, we never killed Victoria," I pointed out.

Bella nodded. "If that was her, she saw me."

"So?" I looked at her trying to figure out what that would mean.

Edward pinched the bridge of his nose and then turned to Bella. "She had thought you were dead."

Sorry for the late update! School is killing me :/. I'll try my best to update soon. The reviews are great though, thanks everyone.