Let me tell you, being a 21-year-old adult and pretending to be a senior in high school is still the weirdest thing despite doing it for the last 20 years. It was fun the first… eh, 5 times graduating high school. But after the 6th time, graduating in a small town in the furthest corner of Canada and learning that wolverines do not make the best pets, I'm starting to question why I need to keep going.

"We have to keep up with the rest of the world so we don't stick out," Edward whispered close to my ear. His wedding band, around his neck by a silver chain, brushed against my shoulder. My own wedding ring rested against the hollow of my throat on a loose choker. As far as the last 10 graduations were concerned, we were honoring the death of close loved ones by wearing their wedding rings.

"We make goths look like they tan and people are drawn to us, love," I retorted. But I looked up at my husband and I just couldn't help but feel the same thing I've been feeling for the last 23 years. "I love you," I murmured, my arm linking with his.

"I know." He murmured back.

"I will never get used to these looks we get though," I muttered, trying hard to ignore the looks I was receiving from a teenage boy.

"Just ignore them," Edward wrapped an arm around my shoulder, bringing me close. "That's what everyone else does."

"But not you?" I wrapped my arm around his middle, pinching his side knowing that he won't feel it but it amuses me.

"Kind of hard when I can hear their thoughts." He smiled cheekily at me, leading me up the steps to the school. Since we had received our schedules the day before, all we really had to do was go to class.

My first class of the day happened to be art class. It was my favorite class in every school we went to, simply because every teacher had a different way to teach others how to draw and shade and I always learned something new.

I kissed my husband's cheek and winked at him before skipping on my way towards my own class. "See you next period!"

I could hear him chuckle. I made it a point to drop him off at, at least one of his classes and he knew not to argue with me.

I took my seat at the paint splotted, old, blocky wooden table on one of those creaky old metal and plastic chairs that- oh hey, Gary from 2006's sharpie mark is still… wait, how old are these chairs?!

I pulled my sketchbook out of my bag. Having taken up sketching with Alice for the past 20 years, I'd like to say I've garnered enough skill to be passable. I still can't draw backgrounds as well as Alice can but my people are damn good, my favorite activity is drawing my family doing whatever it is they're doing. Mostly Edward playing piano or Jasper reading.

The classroom slowly filled and soon enough, the only empty seat being across from me. I didn't look up when it was taken until the boy cleared his throat for the third time.

"Do you need a cough drop?" I asked lazily, looking at my apparent froggy throated neighbor when… No...

I was greeted with familiar curly brown hair and freckled cheekbones, a gap-toothed grin meeting me as well.

"Hey, sis, long time no see." His voice had deepened since I had last seen him but the tenor was still familiar to my ears.

"Max," I whispered, eyes wide as I met his amber gaze. "What?" His skin was several shades paler than his usual healthy tan. Actually, his skin matched mine.

He held a finger up to his lips. "I'll tell you later." He promised. "I'm happy to see you again, Jess."

I gulped down some air for a second and nodded. But I didn't focus for one second in class.

~~~/0o0\~~~

After our class was over, we found ourselves sitting in a secluded place behind the school, surrounded by trees and a solemn air surrounding us. He sat slouched next to me, though it didn't really do anything to make him any smaller. Back then, he was only 5'5" and just hitting another growth spurt… and now he was well over 6 feet tall and large, not quite as built as Emmett but more built than Jasper.

"What happened?" I whispered softly, a blade of grass in my hands, flipping it slowly in my hands back and forth. "Why are you like this?"

"Mom and Dad…" Max started, before pausing. He stayed silent for a long while before he took an unnecessary, deep breath. "We were going on a trip, it had been months since we last saw each other after I had moved out and gotten my job." He smiled sadly, a glint in his eyes that didn't look right on his face. "We were driving down a long country road, planning to visit Nana and Papa's old farmhouse. The sun was just beginning to set, it was that awkward, not quite dark but not quite light out, you know, where it's hard to see even with the headlights." He chuckled. "Well… Something had came out of nowhere… we slammed into it and the car flipped…"

I watched his face closely as he talked, the way the muscle in his jaw clenched when he was trying to hold back tears when he was little.

"When I came to, I was lying on the road… and there was this man leaning over mom… Dad was already dead. I couldn't see him, but I couldn't hear him either…" He rubbed his face. "I thought he was trying to help her, but when he turned to me… I saw the blood dripping down his face… From his mouth, he smiled at me."

I covered his mouth with my hand. "Don't say anymore Max," I whispered softly to him. "It's okay, I think I got the rest of it from there."

He nodded. "I'm so happy you're here…" He let out a shuddery breath. "I'm not completely alone in this world huh?"

I smiled at him. "I told you didn't I? You're stuck with me. Now it's for forever." I stood up and dusted off my jeans. "Let's get back into the school before we're missed." I held my hand out to him. "I'm excited now, you can officially meet my family!" I quirked a brow at him. "And join it officially too."

"Is there a catch?" Max asked in a strained but light tone.

"Get used to deer blood?" I shrugged.

"Is it better than pigs blood?"

"Depends on how you boil it."

As I was walking away, Max grabbed my wrist and pulled me into a hug. "God, jess… I missed you. Thought you got hitched and then died on us."

"I technically did… sorry."

He shook his head. "No, I get why you did it. I can… Let's just be happy now. I can be mad at you for leaving us later."

The sound of the warning bell made us let go, and like the universe was playing some kind of sick joke, we had to split apart.

Stupid P.E.

I do feel bad about the length, but we had it planned like this. Currently a sequel is being planned. It probably won't be announced properly for a while yet. BUT! IHTBJ is finally finished! WOOHOO! MY FIRST STORY TO EVER BE COMPLETED! Not gonna lie I am pretty proud of myself! Thank you so much to everyone who's stuck around for as long as you have! The next sequel is going to be a OcxOc, JasperxOc, AlicexOc with a lot of twists and turns and villains! This is all that is currently planned so this is all you'll be getting! The sequel will have MalexMale relationships so if you don't like it you don't have to read it! It won't be the center focus but it will be mentioned.

Again thanks so much for sticking around this long! I hope you liked this as much as I enjoyed writing it!