AN: Do not own twilight.
Song of the Chapter: Here Comes the Sun - The Beatles
Chapter 3 - here comes the sun...
Just three more periods and then my first day is in the books, Lily assures herself as she walks with Bella to lunch, who apparently picked up two stragglers. One of them is Eric, who looks a little sheepish from their encounter earlier - much to Lily's amusement. The other is a jock type dressed in a Letterman's jacket - boyish smile and short blonde hair, and he kept looking at her sister like a little puppy. This is Mike, Bella signed the introduction, looking a little uncomfortable at Mike's attention.
"Shall we, ladies. Forks High's fine dining awaits us," Lily reads from Eric's lips, Mike immediately perking up at this, turning toward Bella.
"Yeah, you guys can sit with us," Mike says, leading the way toward the cafeteria.
Bella turns toward Lily, how are the classes so far?
Lily shrugs, Not too bad. Calculus was weird.
Bella frowns, immediately getting concerned. What happened?
Lily just shakes her head, giving Bella the 'I'll tell you later' look, which Bella recognizes and nods. She smiles, Mike has a little crush, huh?
Bella glares at her, shut up.
Lily smiles, just as Mike and Eric hold the doors to cafeteria open for them. The smell of food hits Lily's nose, causing her stomach to rumble a bit. Need food now, she thinks as the boys lead them over to the line to grab their food.
As they wait in line, Lily finds her eyes wandering around, searching for a certain face. That encounter in Calculus was admittedly weird.
As soon as she looked up, she felt all of the air leave her body at the sight of the blonde guy looking at her. A very handsome, very tall blonde guy. Legolas, she had immediately thought of to her embarrassment. Lily had a love for The Lord of the Rings movies, spurning her to read the books that inspired them, and she had a big crush on the bow-and-arrow, shield surfing Elf and this man looked like a modern day short haired Legolas.
His height was one of the first things she noticed, he was incredibly tall, towering over her as she sat in her desk chair. His hair was blonde, falling to his chin in soft curls, and his eyes were a deep gold, unlike anything she had ever seen. His skin was so pale, almost chalky and marble like which was amusing because his face looked like it was carved by Michelangelo himself. Dark eyebrows and dark eyelashes framed his eyes, his jawline chiseled and his lips full.
"...for Legolas was fair of face beyond the measure of Men..."
As she locked eyes with him, her heart quickened and time stood still. She didn't know if it was her imagination, but he looked bewitched, like he was seeing the sun for the first time.
Bella nudges her as the line moves and breaks her out of her daydreams. Eric and Mike lead them over to a table, Mike - ever the gentlemen - pulls out their chairs for them. As soon as they sit down, all of the eyes at the table turning toward them.
"Hi, I'm Jessica," a pretty brunette says, reaching out to shake their hands. Lily identifies her as the bubbly type and judging from the muscles she can see in her tight long sleeve shirt, she was an athlete. She also takes charge of doing the introductions.
"This is Angela," she points to a pretty black-haired girl with glasses who smiles and waves at them, "Ben and Tyler," she points to the brown haired boy and dark skinned kid who pause their conversation to wave to them, "Lauren," a blonde cheerleader type looks over at them a little bored before going back to looking at her phone, "and you know Eric and Mike."
Bella fields questions from everyone as Lily takes a bite of her sandwich, finally satisfying her hunger. She glances around the cafeteria, which is a lot smaller than the one from Phoenix. While it is categorized by cliques judging from the table of jocks dressed in football Letterman jackets and the table full of people holding a different variation of instruments, there are tables like the one she's sitting at, a hodgepodge of personalities.
She watches as people ask Bella about what they think of Forks, questions about Phoenix, and sees Jessica look adoringly over at Mike, who is watching Bella with entranced puppy dog eyes. She finds that she truly like to just fade into the background and people watch, finding it entertaining. Jessica is obviously pining over Mike who has developed a puppy dog crush on Bella. She sees Angela sneak shy glances at Ben, who doesn't notice as he continues talking to Tyler. Lauren has her eyes glued to her phone, Tyler unconsciously placing his arm around her - they must be an item.
Movement catches the corner of her eye and she she turns to see a group of abnormally beautiful people walk through the door. All of them look like they stepped out of a magazine. The first two are obviously a couple judging from the big man's arms around the beautiful blonde's narrow waist. Following them is...
The sandwich in her hand drops to the table as she sees Legolas walk in behind them.
"A human?" Emmett asks, a little skeptical. "Are you sure?"
Edward's heavy statement had hung in the air for a full fifteen minutes before Emmett broke the silence. They had never dealt with something like this before, mating to a human, and they weren't sure it was even possible to do. Predators were not made to mate with their prey, they were made to feast on their prey.
Vampire mating was quite the same as wolves mating - you have one mate and that mate is for life. They are your safe harbor, your protector, your guardian, and sometimes your lover. Not all mating has to turn romantic, though it can go that way. Such was the case for Carlisle and Esme, Rosalie and Emmett. Romantic feelings can grow naturally, just as they do with humans, but it's not an automatic love at first sight storybook romance. Love takes time, the supernatural and human world.
"I can't think of anything else that would cause that reaction from him," Rosalie says, crossing her arms.
"Can humans even feel the mating pull?" Emmett questions, genuinely curious.
"Esme was human when Carlisle met her the first time," Edward points out, "Perhaps they can give us more of an insight."
"I'll text him and Esme," Alice says, taking out her phone. "We'll need a family meeting tonight."
"This is super weird," Emmett comments to Rosalie who rolls her eyes. "But this is a good thing. Congrats, Jazz Man, welcome to the mated club."
Jasper smiles genuinely at this, "Thanks, Em."
"Esme is going to call Carlisle to let him know," Alice says, putting her phone away. "We'll see what they have to say tonight and go from there, sound good?
The Cullen siblings nod in agreement as the bell rings, signalling the end of the period. Lunch is next for all of them, Jasper's least favorite part of the day. Not only does he have to deal with humans hunger through the day, in the lunchroom - the place they can satisfy their cravings - it's magnified.
The family hang outside for a couple minutes more, giving Jasper some time to gather himself before they go back inside. The blonde notices Alice's eyes glaze over in a vision, a smile spreading across her face as she watches whatever plays out. Jasper looks at her curious, reading her emotions as joyous, happy, and excited. He's about to ask her what she saw when Rosalie walks up to him. "Jasper, maybe you should skip out the rest of the day and go hunting?"
"No!" Alice says, sounding alarmed. All eyes turn to her and she explains, "Everything will be fine. I've seen it. Come on, let's go to lunch!"
Alice's visions, while they could change at any moment, once the decision was made they were concrete. Her word - and visions - were trusted as law to the family. They had gotten them out of many potentially exposing situations, not to mention have made all of them very rich over the years.
"Okay, let's go to lunch." Emmett gives a nod of support to Jasper and wrapping an arm around Rosalie's waist, leading her to the lunch room. Jasper sees Edward looking at Alice in confusion, possibly having seen the vision that played out in her head. Jasper scans his emotions, reading trepidation and uncertainty.
Edward?
The copper haired Cullen looks over to him, shaking his head. "Everything's fine, Jasper. We'll talk to Carlisle later."
Jasper nods, walking next to Alice as they head toward the doors to the cafeteria. He feels nervous, walking back into the building. His mate was in the building. His human mate. His very fragile human mate who he probably freaked out with his staring in class. Maybe this wasn't such a good idea-
"It'll be okay," Alice assures him with a smile as they walk into the room, which he returns with one of his own. She's in here, he can feel it as he sits down at their usual table. A quick scan of the lunchroom, he can see her sitting at a table across the room. His dead heart leaps.
"She's here," Jasper tells them, discreetly nodding over at the table she's at.
"That's Chief Swan's daughters," Alice informs him. "They're new, just moved here from Phoenix. The one in the green shirt is Isabella, the one in pink is Liliana. She's deaf."
Liliana. Jasper rolls the name around in his mind, a smile gracing his face as he watches her. Deaf. It makes sense since he hasn't heard her speak once, communicating in what he assumes is sign language with her sister. It doesn't matter, possibly a challenge to get through in the future but not to worry about now. She smiles at something her sister tells her and Jasper feels warmth spreading from his chest. Incredible.
"I can't hear her," Edward mutters, staring in their direction.
"What?" Jasper questions, thinking he is talking about Liliana.
"Not Liliana," Edward narrows his eyes at them, annoyance and confusion flaring in his emotions. "The other one. Isabella. I can't hear her thoughts."
"That's impossible," Rosalie frowns, glancing back and forth between Edward and Isabella.
"Apparently it isn't," Edward mutters, frowning in annoyance.
Just then, they hear Isabella ask about them to Jessica Stanley and Angela Weber. "The Cullens," Angela informs the girls with a smile.
"Forks resident celebrities," Jessica informs her, perking up at the chance to gossip. "They moved here two years ago, they're all adopted by Dr. and Mrs. Cullen. But get this, they're together."
Ah yes, the incestuous rumors that would scatter around Forks High about them. Despite the fact that only Rosalie and Emmett were together, they all assumed that he and Alice were also dating because they just had a close relationship. Jasper had once asked Alice if they were mated, thinking that when she meant her leading them toward their destiny, she meant them together. He was concerned because he wasn't feeling any mating pull but she had just laughed and assured him they were not mates.
"Jess, they're not related," Angela scolds her. Edward had once commented that Angela was a true genuine soul, not having a bad thought about anyone. Her mind was peaceful to read.
"Oh, come on, it is a little weird," Jessica says, turning back to the Swan sisters. "Mrs. Cullen is apparently a part time interior decoration-slash-matchmaker. They all live together in their big fancy mansion on the outskirts of town, I wonder if they share rooms."
Jasper watches out of the corner of his eye as Lilian taps her sister on the shoulder and signs something, "She wants to know who the blonde one is."
The man in question's eyes widen a bit, feeling his siblings glancing over at him concerned. Edward though looks a little amused, "She's just curious about who you are. She also thinks that you're the best looking brother."
Alice giggles at that, Emmett looking mock-offended while Jasper feels his chest swell with a little bit of barbarian pride, before questioning his brother. "You can hear her, but not her sister?"
The smile drops off Edward's face, "It like a bad connection, but I can still hear her."
"Well the blondes are Rosalie and Jasper Hale. They're twins. Jasper and Rosalie are apparently Dr. Cullen's niece and nephew he adopted after their parents died or something. Rosalie is dating the big guy Emmett and I think Jasper is dating Alice, the shorter girl, but it's not confirmed."
He groans, seeing Liliana's face fall a little bit at that. He half wants to go over there and assure her that he and Alice are not dating, and that she's the one he cannot stop thinking about...
But that would be a little weird, right?
Edward keeps staring in their direction, eyes locking with Isabella who looks at him, confused and intrigued. Edward breaks their staring competition, "Why can I not hear her?"
"I don't know, but let's talk to Carlisle about it tonight?"
Edward nods in agreement, Rosalie and Emmett are locked into their own little world, and Alice just looks over at Jasper who keeps taking sneak peeks over to Liliana. When he catches her smiling gaze, he asks, "What?"
She shakes her head, "Nothing, just...I think things are going to get interesting for us."
"He treated me like I'm diseased or something!"
Lily hasn't moved from this spot in half an hour - sitting on her bed, watching her sister pace back and forth as she rants and raves about her encounter with Edward Cullen in Biology. Apparently it was bad. Bad enough for her to want to try and change that class altogether and get into Lily's Biology class. Apparently Edward Cullen had the same idea but was not getting results. When they had entered, he turned to look at them, giving Bella a small glare before storming out. Bella had later explained in the truck that she said there was no more room in other classes so it was pointless for her to even try to switch.
"He acted like I smelled awful and would look over at me with a glare and-agh! What a jerk!"
Maybe see if you can switch seats with someone? Lily suggests to Bella.
"I'll try," Bella says, taking a few deep breaths to calm down. "Why would he act like that though?"
Maybe the whole family is weird?
"What do you mean?"
Lily thinks back to Legolas - Jasper Hale - staring at her in Calculus class. Bella sees the look on her face and takes a seat across from her, "What happened?"
Jasper was staring at me in Calculus class. He didn't act like I was diseased, it was the opposite actually, she signs, feeling a flutter in her gut at the look on his face. He left the class after that.
"That's weird..." Bella comments, frowning in confusion. "He just stared? Maybe he has a crush on you. Maybe he fell in love with you at first sight and Edward fell in loathe at first sight with me."
The sister break into laughs as Lily teases, Bella Swan, ever the romantic.
"In all seriousness, did he make you feel uncomfortable?" Bella asks, the protective big sister coming out of her. While she tried to go out of her way to avoid confrontation, she wouldn't stand to see her sister get teased or threatened. When they were seven and eight, some schoolyard bullies would think it was funny to tease Lily about being deaf. Bella had ended up marching over to them and socking the biggest of them in the face. She had been gently scolded by her mom and her dad, who secretly approved of it. She had found that they were allowed extra ice cream for dessert that night. No one messed with Lily again after that.
Lily smiles and shakes her head, No, not uncomfortable. It was...
"It was...?" Bella urges her to continue.
Lily sighs, I know it sounds crazy, but it felt...warm.
"Warm?"
He looked at me like...I was the Sun.
"That's...wow," Bella says, Lily feeling a little embarrassed. Bella then smiles and nudges her, "I'm right, he probably has a crush on you."
Lily shrugs, kind of hopeful that it might be the case. She wasn't exactly experienced in the dating department of life. It was a little hard to communicate with someone when they didn't know sign language and you didn't want to speak. Lily had gone to speech therapy when she was younger, but was still self conscious about speaking, preferring to communicate with sign language. She'll admit, while she liked to say that new things were just new adventures, she was scared to open herself up out of her bubble. Bella, her mom, her dad, and eventually Phil were all inside her bubble and she was reluctant to let anyone in. She knew that adventure happened outside of the comfort zone, but she was still afraid.
Bella, on the other hand, did not understand that guys liked her. Her self confidence has always been extremely low, she truly didn't recognize how wonderful and beautiful she is. Lily always tried to remind her, but Bella - ever stubborn - would deflect and deny. She said she had bigger things to worry about than dating, like making sure Renee paid the bills on time, that there was dinner on the table, that her grades were still high. If she was distracted by dating, something would slip through the cracks and she needed to be nails on with things - especially for Lily.
Lily found she never really had an argument for that.
Sure, Lily signs, rolling her eyes at Bella. No way Jasper Hale, objectively the hottest guy at their school had a crush on her...right?
Bella goes to retort before she glances toward the door, "Charlie's home. Want to go get started on dinner?"
Lily nods, grateful for the distraction and follows Bella out of the room, inwardly chuckling at their conversation. No way Jasper Hale even likes her, there has to be some other explanation for his reaction. There has to be.
The Cullens sat around Esme's large table in the dining room, waiting for Carlisle to get home. While Jasper hoped that the rest of the day would go smoothly, it did...for him. Edward, on the other hand, it ended in disaster.
He and Alice had been waiting by Edward's Volvo - Rosalie and Emmett having already taken off in Rose's Mercedes - before he was hit with Edward's annoyance, anger, and-oh, no...
They finally saw him, storming over in the direction of the car, glare plastered on his face, eyes pitch black. He didn't even say anything to them as he slid into the drivers seat.
"Alice, did you-" Jasper started to ask before she cut him off.
"No, I didn't see anything." she responds, sliding into the front seat as Jasper slides in the back, Edward pulling out of the spot before he even closes the door.
"Edward, what happened?"
"You didn't see?" he hissed through gritted teeth. "You didn't see that my singer would be in my biology class? You didn't see that my mate was also my singer!"
The weight of the statement hits hard on Alice and Jasper, both sharing a look. A singer, a human who's blood sang to a vampire. Most who encounter their singer drain them in seconds, unable to resist the siren's song of their blood. Jasper had encountered his singer in the past and had drained her in seconds. Emmett had unfortunately encountered his singer in his newborn years with the same result. Even Esme, sweet wonderful Esme, had not been able to resist. That had devastated her for a full year.
That Edward's mate was also his singer...
"Edward, I didn't see anything," Alice assured him. "Did-"
"I almost lost it! I almost lost control and slaughtered her. Then the whole classroom. I wanted to. I wanted to kill her," he grips the steering wheel, hard enough for it to audibly groan under the pressure. Edward's hunger is pinning Jasper to his seat, but he shakes it off, pumping calm into the hungry vampire in front of him. He reaches out and touches Edward's shoulder, the contact allowing his gift to become even more potent, focusing on calming the hungry vampire.
Once he feels that his brother has control again, he meets his gaze in the rear view mirror, "Thank you, Jasper."
"But you didn't lose control, Edward," Alice was focusing on comforting him him as he sped toward their house. "You didn't lose control. Everything is okay."
Esme had immediately knew something was wrong when Edward sped right past her up to his room, "Did something happen at school?"
"Kind of," Jasper told her, seeing her face become even more concerned. "We need to have a family meeting."
The purr of Carlisle's Mercedes purrs down the driveway and Jasper watches from his seat as Esme visibly perks up, her mate finally home from work. He smiles at her reaction as it is the same, every single day. While emotions were potent, vampire's especially, Esme's feeling of love was purest he had ever felt. She had such a welcoming, loving, warm nature people couldn't help but be attracted to it like moths to a flame. He would find himself gravitating toward Esme on bad days, helping out in her garden, baking cookies for children in the hospital, giving his opinion on houses she was helping design, just so that he could soak up the emotions she would give off.
He couldn't remember his human mother, but he was very grateful to his vampire mother.
Carlisle walks into the dining room, eyes immediately going to his mate as he kisses her head, "Hello, love."
Esme returns the affection before directing his attention toward Edward, who is sulking in his seat. Carlisle takes his seat at the head of the table, waiting for an explanation. Alice is the one to finally break the ice, "Would you like the good news or the bad news?"
Carlisle smiles at her, "How about the good news?"
"Edward and Jasper have both encountered their mates today."
"Well, that's wonderful," Esme gushes, turning toward Jasper with a smile that Jasper returns. She turns toward Edward with the same smile, him not reciprocating. He doesn't even raise his gaze from the table. "Edward, what's wrong?"
Carlisle looks to Alice for an explanation, "The bad news is that they are both human and Edward's mate, Isabella, is also his singer."
Esme gasps at this, grabbing Carlisle's hand. The vampire parents are radiating concern at this revelation, "Are you sure?"
Alice turns to Edward for him to explain, the copper haired vampire not taking his eyes off of the table. "I...wanted to kill her-to drain her. But, I didn't. I barely restrained myself."
"Edward, give yourself more credit," Carlisle says, wrapping an arm around Esme who was concerned for Edward. "Not many people can resist their singer. The mating pull helped you resist - the devastation if you had drained your mate would have been catastrophic. You resisted. You did extremely well, son."
Edward nods, still not taking his eyes off the table. Jasper feels his emotions are reading some resistance and determination, not truly believing the praise Carlisle is giving him. He instead absorbs the cocktail of praise and love Carlisle and Esme are feeling and focuses it toward Edward, seeing the vampire finally raise his eyes from the table. Jasper gives him a significant look toward Carlisle, telling him that is how he's feeling right now. Edward straightens a bit, eyes filled with venom and Jasper also projects his own pride and admiration to him. Edward truly showed amazing restraint today and he is extremely proud of him as well.
"Isabella...Isabella Swan, the Chief's daughter?" Carlisle questions. "Jasper, you met your mate as well, son?"
Jasper nods, smiling at the memory of her smile in the cafeteria, her questioning about him, perhaps she feels the pull as well, "Yes, Liliana."
Carlisle's eyebrows raise at this, "The Chief's other daughter?"
Jasper nods his confirmation. Carlisle and Esme shared a look at this, concerned, happy, worried, shocked. Jasper glances further down the table toward Rosalie and Emmett, the former is being uncharacteristically quiet about all of this.
Emmett and Rosalie are the perfect example of opposites attract, they balance each other very well - Emmett being the playful go with the flow type, while Rosalie is type A her way or the highway. She's extremely protective of her family, not wanting to put them in danger of exposure. Their mating balances them out, Rosalie's influence causes Emmett to be more serious in the right times, Emmett can tease out Rosalie's playful side every once in a while.
Scanning her emotions, she's feeling annoyance and resignation. While Rosalie is pleased that her brother's have found their mates, she's a little unhappy that they are human. This will end in two ways - either they are changed into a vampire (something she wouldn't have chosen for herself) or they ignore the mating bond and her brothers suffer. It's a lose-lose in her mind. She will always do what is best for the family though, even if she doesn't like it.
It's all too much for Edward though, everyone's thoughts flooding his brain with how wonderful this is, how they won't be lonely anymore, the visions he is seeing in Alice's mind, and the ticking time bomb explodes.
He explodes.
"My mate is my singer. My mate is my singer. How am I not supposed to drain her? This isn't right," Edward jumps up from the table, "I can't do this."
"Edward, if you reject the mating bond, it is only going to hurt you," Carlisle warns him, Edward shaking his head as he speeds up the stairs to his bedroom.
Alice's eyes glaze over in a vision and she groans, "Oh, no you don't!" She disappears up the stairs after him, "Stop packing because you are absolutely not going to Denali!"
Rosalie and Emmett hear this and immediately follow to support Alice in convincing Edward that pulling a runner is not the way to do things (and knowing how Alice is, she will always get her way), Carlisle and Esme, having complete faith that he is not going anywhere, turn toward Jasper. They smile at him, pure picture of proud parents, "Tell us about this Liliana."
"Well, I don't really know that much. From what Alice told me, her and Isabella moved here from Phoenix to live with their dad. She's in my Calculus class, though she's a junior. I think her and Bella are twins-"
"Irish twins, eleven months apart," Alice informs him, pausing her argument with Edward for a brief moment. "Edward, you cannot run away from this, it will solve nothing."
"She's deaf," Jasper informs them.
Carlisle nods, "Yes, the Chief had mentioned that to me."
Esme then brightens as she remembers something, "Give me one moment."
Once she disappears up the stairs, Jasper turns to the patriarch, "Carlisle, when you first met Esme, when she was human, what did you feel?"
A fond smile graces Carlisle's face as he turns toward the framed picture in the dining room of him and Esme at their latest wedding seven years ago. Jasper revels in the emotions he's feeling - the love, the happiness, the joy, not unfamiliar emotions when one is talking about their mate.
"I felt at home," he murmurs.
"Why didn't you act then and there?" Jasper questions.
"She was only sixteen, still a child. I wanted to," he admits, feeling a bit of guilt and shame at that statement, "I wanted to claim her the first moment I laid eyes on her, but I couldn't. Though, if I knew then what she would go through those ten years, I would have."
Jasper feels some of Carlisle's shame at not having acted then, Esme going through an abusive marriage, unhappiness, pregnant and running away from her awful husband, her son's death and her suicide attempt. It's amazing how she still maintains such a positive and loving presence in her vampire life when she lived through a world that was determined to break her.
"I don't..." Jasper starts, feeling so vulnerable - something he has never felt before in his existence. He maintains a calm composure, panic and insecurity leaving room for mistakes in his decisions. But this...this was uncharted territory, even for Carlisle. "I don't know what to do."
"Befriend her," Carlisle suggests. "It is ultimately her decision whether she would become a vampire in the future, but to deny herself, and yourself, happiness would not be fair - to both of you. Introduce yourself, get to know her, that's all I can really advise. We are going to have to take this day by day."
Esme reappears with a book in her hand, "I figure this might come in handy to you."
Jasper takes the book from his hands and smiles when he sees what it is - The Complete Guide to American Sign Language.
AN: I love Esme and Carlisle Cullen with all my heart. That Legolas quote comes right from Return of the King. Thanks for reading.
