The door opened quickly by a very excited Alice. She quickly wrapped Lily up in a tight hug before grabbing the notebooks out of her hands.
"I'm so glad you came! This is going to be so much fun! What are you drinking?" Alice raddled out one sentence after another in the same breath it seemed.
"Breath Alice! Thanks for helping me with my stuff, I was afraid I would have to sacrifice my work for my coffee. Did… Esme already tell everyone why I'm here?"
"Oh, don't be silly. I already knew you were coming! I'm a little put out you didn't invite me for the girls' weekend but that's ok! I have you now!"
"Um… how did you know I was coming?" Lily was confused. Today had started out so fresh and kind when she first woke up. Now she's been used, abused, confused, and… what else rhymes that fits? It was only the afternoon, so Lily supposed she would come up with another work before she finished with the Cullens.
"Oh, that's easy. Some vampires have special abilities that come with them from their human life! I can see the future." Oh. Well… that was a thing. Lily wasn't sure how to take that, as she was someone who firmly believed she made her own destiny. It probably comes with being a slight control freak, but the idea of not be in charge of her life and future did not sit well with her.
Whatever Alice saw had really freaked Lily out.
"Don't freak out! I can only see the future based on the choices of others. You change your mind, your future changes. Its not the most exact skill, but its super helpful with tests!" Alice tried to calm Lily down. She didn't want to scare her away when they had so much to accomplish!
Lily just stared at Alice. She blinked slowly before coming to her senses.
"Alice… why would a vampire need to worry about test scores? Haven't you already done all this before?" Lily asked in her deadpan voice.
This apparently tickled Alice's funny bone because she burst into pretty bell like giggles.
"Silly! Just because we've done it before doesn't mean we can't get thrown a curve ball. Besides, its important to strive for excellence. Speaking of- "
"Alice, darling, please let our guest breath" Esme interrupted. Esme was like a breath of fresh air and… was that chocolate chip muffins? Esme was officially Lily's favorite vampire.
"Welcome dear! I made some chocolate chip muffins for you. We need to keep you energized while we get into experimental mode. A little birdy told me they were your favorite. Alice, can you go get the dinning room ready? Thank you!"
Alice left just as quickly as she came.
"The speed takes some getting used to, don't worry." Esme said kindly before handing Lily a muffin.
Lily gladly took the muffin. She knew she shouldn't but it was still warm for goodness sake! It would just be rude to deny such a deliciously made treat. Besides, she ran earlier. That should count for something.
"Thank you, Esme, these smell amazing! Yes, chocolate chip muffins are my favorite. Anything sweet really does it for me. I have an awful sweet tooth."
"I'll make sure to provide some veggies to help even things out then dear. Now! Let's head to the dinning room. Alice and I have whiteboards, markers, and a few dead plants to try and test on." Esme explained as she started to lead the way. The house seemed more… furnished than the last time she was over. Lily guessed the Cullens were planning on staying for a while this time.
"Now, Alice will be our notetaker. Alice dear, you have everything you need right? Perfect! We are going to read through what you and Leah have already written down so we are all on the same page. Just eat your muffin sweetheart, it won't take very long."
Lily happily obliged. She watched, or rather she tried to watch, as the two women read through the notebooks at an alarmingly fast speed. Lily wasn't sure how they were able to absorb so much information so quickly. Maybe she was just flattering herself. After all, how scientifically interesting could the writings of a 17-year-old and a 19-year-old girl be.
After a moment or two, Alice began writing a time line on one of the white boards, starting with the date of the first known incident. Esme was directing her on the flow that she wanted it to go in.
Lily enjoyed watching them work. The two seemed extremely close, almost like a mother and daughter duo would be. She wondered how long they had spent together before they developed that easy camaraderie. Lily took another bite of her muffin and a sip of her coffee before looking over at the various arrays of plants on the table.
Some were young little seedlings while others were older and wilted. Some flowers had been cut and spread out while others seemed to have been gathered haphazardly. It was obvious that some of the helpers that had been corralled into gathering had been less than thrilled to join in.
"Alright loves! I think we have everything caught up! Lily dear, if you could tell us in your own words what has been happening please?"
Lily explained everything she could think of that was relevant. Her being a member of the gardening club at one of her schools, helping the reservation with the community garden, healing Emily, everything. Alice would stop her every once and a while, trying to get more detail on one thing or another. Had she been upset at the time or happy? Was she hungry when she healed, or did she get hungry after? Things along those lines.
It wasn't until Lily began talking about the bouquet of flowers that things began to get tense.
"you were able to read who had picked the flowers? How long have you been able to do that? What brought that idea to try?" Alice seemed intrigued but nervous. That was odd. Why would she be the nervous one?
"I was watching some silly paranormal shows last night with Leah, and one of the psychics claimed she could touch things from the past and see its story. I thought it sounded silly, but nothing ventured nothing gained. I still can't believe it worked!"
"Neither can I! I've never heard of a gift like yours, let alone a human possessing something so strong before they change."
"Change?"
"Well, like I was telling you earlier Lily when we go through the change, some of us bring our strongest skills with us into our next life. For me, I was able to tell the future or have visions before I changed. I only recently found out that my family had me placed in a mental asylum because of it." Alice explained, growing sad as she spoke.
"Alice, I am so sorry that happened to you. Nobody deserves to be instituted for something like that…" Lil said quietly, thinking back to all the documentaries she had watched of old mental asylums and hospitals.
Alice quickly shook off the sad thoughts before continuing. "Oh, its fine! I finally figured out what happened to me! So, when I changed, I brought that skill with me. Its stronger now that I am a vampire. Some of my siblings have skills too. Its not uncommon, but some are more useful than others."
"That still doesn't explain why you brought up me being human with a gift so strong before changing. Did I miss the initiation oath?"
A growl came from the other room, causing the three women to look in the direction it came from.
"Sorry about that, you know how guys can be with games! No, I wasn't saying you would be changed or forced to change or anything like that I promise! It was just an easy way to compare what we have seen before and what we have going on now. I'm so sorry if I scared you!"
Lily immediately felt calmer, more relaxed. She didn't need the added stress of some other new transformation forced on her.
Esme took over at that point.
"Lily, we want to record you working on different plants to start off with. I want to see if you can force a plant to grow quickly, to bloom, and to wither. Then, I want you to go to the plants that are already withered and try to heal them, whether by restoring their health or reverting them back to a younger stage of growth. Finally, I would like to see if you can do the same for plants that have been already collected and removed from the earth, hence the separated flowers. But I want to change that test a bit. I want you to also try and read which of my children collected the plants and any other information you can gather.
"While you are doing that, we will have you hooked up to a monitoring system my husband borrowed from work so we can measure your vitals in real time. We have your previous vitals from the last time you were seen, so we can compare them and start building a medical file relating to this. Is that alright with you?"
Lily could see no reason why she shouldn't wear the medical equipment. After Alice helped hook her up, Lily got ready to begin.
First, she stepped up to the plant seedlings. She could tell they had been freshly purchased as they were still sitting in their black plastic cups. Lily took her time trying to center herself and feel for the energy within her. It was hard, finding it with an audience but she eventually felt the strand of energy that existed within her chest.
She tried to direct the energy through her arms, down her hands, and out her fingers as she touched the seedlings. Nothing seemed to happen at first, but ever so slowly one of the seedlings started to grow.
And grow.
And grow.
It kept growing until it broke out of its plastic cup, its roots started to grow off the table. Lily wasn't sure how to stop or if she could stop. She tried, but the plant kept growing.
It stopped after turning into a fully grown sunflower, tall and bright.
Lily couldn't believe her eyes! She had never forced something to grow as hard as she just had, and she was feeling tired already. She was also feeling some guilt as the table and surrounding carpet had dirt everywhere. Alice looked thrilled, while Esme was admiring the flower appreciatively.
"Lily, this is beautiful! Did you try to grow only one at a time, or were you trying to grow several? Did you put more energy into this than before?" and so on and so forth. The questions kept coming, and Lily tried to answer them as thoroughly as she could. Esme offered her another muffin when she noticed Lily seemed tired.
"Lily darling do you want to continue with the experiments or do you need a break?" Esme asked concerned. Alice interrupted at that point saying they couldn't stop yet. Esme looked at Alice intently, before turning back to Lily.
"I'm ok, the sugar helps. You want me to try and heal the older withered plants next right?" Lily asked, somewhat tiredly. At least it was Saturday, so she had all day tomorrow to recover if she pushed herself too far.
"Yes, that is the goal. Your vitals seemed stable during the last experiment. The only spike was in blood pressure when the sunflower started growing off the table. But that could have easily been because of how shocked you were. We have it recorded either way just in case it happens again." Esme said gently. Her eyes however were alight with curiosity. Everyone only seemed to think this woman baked all day and stood back while her children ran amuck. Lily was beginning to see that there was much more to Esme than she let on.
Alice had helped clean up the mess from the first experiment, so now it was just the wilted plants on the table. Alice had also spread a large plastic tarp underneath the table as a precaution this time. The sunflower had been moved to another room to avoid any cross contamination or distraction.
Lil stepped up to one of the wilted plants, easily able to tell that the poor thing needed water and sunlight. Lily was able to find the strand of energy easier than when doing the first experiment. Maybe the more she used it, the easier it was to find again? She shook the idea out of her head, choosing to focus on the task at hand.
She directed the energy into the plant, but this time her hands felt like they were stinging. It didn't hurt, but it didn't feel great. They felt like they were warming up and stinging, similar to when you have a sunburn and step into too hot of a shower. It wasn't the worst feeling in the world, but she didn't actively want to feel it often.
Lily hadn't realized she had closed her eyes while attempting to revive the poor plant. Once she opened her eyes, a beautiful bush of Begonias was in front of her where the withered plant had once been. Its pink petals looks as if they had just opened up to the world. There wasn't a single sign that the plant had once been on the brink of death that Lily could feel or see.
Alice had been scribbling down an incredible number of words that Lily couldn't focus on. Esme was inspecting the plant, including its roots, to see and compare it from before. Pictures were taken to help build the evidence of the experiment.
Lily was then asked several questions, similar to the ones from the first experiment. It was noted that healing seemed to cause the burning sensation in her hands and only seemed to work when her eyes were closed. Whether that was a habit or a method, they weren't sure yet. It was noted that Lily's eyes began to glow with a white light as she healed, so it was hypothesized that it was a method to using her skills.
Lily's blood pressure had dropped significantly while healing, causing some concern with Esme. She brought her a glass of juice and some carrots, deciding that Lily hat eaten more than enough sugar for the day. The juice helped, and her blood pressure seemed to return to normal after a few minutes. Alice seemed even more energized, which confused Lily. Maybe Alice liked to torture?
Esme was unsure if they should try the last experiment, given how tired Lily seemed to be. Alice was a huge proponent of continuing, but wouldn't state why. This caused Esme to look at her youngest daughter in exasperation, but wasn't going to force the information to be released. Apparently, the family went with whatever weird quirks Alice had when it came to these things.
Lily was the one to decide to continue with the final experiment of the day. She didn't have faith that she could even replicate reading the flowers like she had at her own house. She couldn't remember how exactly it felt to read them, nor did she know if it was just a fluke. She was going to give it her all either way. Besides, she remembered that it hadn't taken too much energy to read the flowers so it seemed relatively safe.
She picked up the beautifully arranged flowers first. They were different then the ones that had been dropped off at her house. These were different shades of blues and whites with some greenery artfully placed around. Lily closed her eyes again, trying to focus on the flowers themselves.
Lily felt like she was falling. She felt hands around her, holding her steady as she saw through the eyes of whoever collected these flowers. It was a female, she could tell. She was able to see Emmett in the distance with a clarity she wasn't used to. Is this what it was like to see things as a vampire? It was detailed to the point of distraction. Lily tried to focus on Emmett. He was laughing, but she couldn't tell why.
Lily felt a head rush as she returned to her own eyesight. She had been placed on a couch, still holding the bunch of flowers. She felt cold and shaken, but had a proud sense of pleasure at having accomplished it again.
"Rosalie collected this set with Emmett. He sparkled. They were in a meadow by a stream" was all Lily could get out before passing out on the couch. Her world went dark.