I sighed. Her story wasn't as complicated as mine. Even taking into consideration the turmoil her story held, it had a happier ending. I wasn't saying that I didn't like my life or family; but not being entirely sure of the pain my mother went through is something no one else can imagine.

"Well, honestly," I hesitated, "I don't really know much." Jenna looked at me confused but didn't interrupt as she waited for me to continue. "I'll start from where I know… I never met my father. I have no idea who he is, or where he is, and the stuff that I know about him is only from what other people have told me, not from my mom."

"So, did your mom know him? Or was it like my mom - a quick fling?" She asked.

"From what I gather, they were in a relationship. My mom's not that type of person. She was human, he was vampire, and she loved him."

"What happened?" She pried.

I was slightly reluctant to tell her but she had told me everything about her, and the way she was asking told me that it wasn't out of morbid curiosity, it was out of concern.

"I'm not entirely sure; no one likes talking about it that's why I don't know much about him, his family or the situation." I glanced at Jenna before continuing, "I know that he left her heartbroken and that it took her ages to heal, and even then, I don't think she has fully healed and there will always be a part of her missing." Thinking about it now made my body vibrate with anger. "I'll never forgive him for that. 'Father' is just a name for someone who shares your genes. The word means nothing to me."

"Kind of like me then, huh?" Jenna joked.

I turned to her with a smile. "The mind-reading vampire I told you about earlier was him. He's the one that could read minds. It's one of the only things I know about him."

Jenna smiled sweetly and genuinely before placing a hand on my knee. "Let's forget about how lousy our dads are, yeah? We'll talk about something else," she added with a smile.

I smiled in return. It felt good to have a friend; someone who wasn't actually immortal.

It occurred to me then that that little word I thought about could change everything. She was easily one step away from immortality and I couldn't imagine her growing old whilst her family stayed the same age.

I proceeded with caution. "Jenna, I just thought of something, and you don't have to answer if it's too personal, but is your plan to become a vampire like your family or are you staying mortal?"

I bit my lip, analysing her features for any form of reaction. I was treading on soft ground and I could see slight reluctance in Jenna's expression so I quickly backtracked, "Sorry, I didn't mean to pry. You don't have to answer if you don't want to."

Jenna shook her head. "No it's fine. It's just..." she hesitated, "just that, it's something that my family disagree on sometimes. My mum says that she'd like me to change because she doesn't want to have to say goodbye to me, but that it's completely my decision. Justin doesn't want me to change at all. He likes me the way I am and doesn't want to see me go through the agony my mum did. Shane's neutral and says that it's my decision." She smiled when she mentioned Shane's name. "He says as long as he gets to see me fight a lion, he's cool with me changing."

I smiled with her in both amusement and sympathy. I'd never have to make that decision and for once I was thankful. Sometimes I hated being different, but in reality, I had the best of both worlds and I couldn't imagine the conflicting thoughts Jenna would be faced with; or my mom for that matter. I'm sure the choice between life and death came somewhere down the line for her, even before I came into the equation.

"But what do you want? That's whose decision is the most important," I spoke reasonably.

"I know," she replied. "I want to be changed so that I can be more like my family and if the Volturi find out then I'll have to be changed or be killed anyway. I know I won't change my mind, but knowing that my brother isn't at all receptive to the idea kind of hurts."

She shrugged it off and I felt my eyebrows pull together. Part of me was surprised that she knew about the Volturi, but I really shouldn't have been - they are the most feared vampires in existence.

She gave a meek smile before she added, "Mum's agreed to turn me after college."

I smiled with her and thought to change the subject. "If you talk American, why do you pronounce 'mom' as 'mum'?"

I thought it was a lighter topic and it was indeed something I wanted to know. It was a rather strange human factor that I hadn't learnt about yet.

She laughed. "Well obviously my mum is British and refuses to give up her accent claiming she's 'a born Brit'," using finger quotes. "Because I was young, my accent changed but I still talk with a twang, I suppose. Justin grew up here so he speaks with an American accent too which made it harder for me to keep British like my mum wanted – especially going through school. The only thing she demanded from me and Justin is that we call her 'Mum' rather than 'Mom' because it reminds her more of her heritage. And it's amusing listening to Justin say it." She chuckled before adding, "If you ever see me talk to my mum you'll not know where I'm from as I tend to flick between the two accents more when I'm around her." Her eyes opened wider the slightest fraction as she realised something, "Yeah, I suppose it depends who I'm around. With you I'm speaking American, but if I lived in England again for a few months I would most definitely get my full British accent back."

I nodded in understanding.

It was Jenna's turn to change the topic and she did that presently. "You said you had a friend of the family," she stated. I raised my left eyebrow in question, "Well, who are they, are they human too?"

I took my time contemplating whether or not I should mention the history of the wolves at all given that it wasn't really my place to relay a secret despite my close connection to Jacob. Eventually, I rationalised that if she knew about vampires and the Volturi then she undoubtedly knew about wolves.

In spite of the acknowledgement I still wavered in my response. "Err, well... Jacob isn't entirely human." I wasn't paying attention to Jenna's face, but I could easily sense the confusion roll off her in waves. "He's more human than me; not quite like you. I mean, he is human, just with an added bundle of power." I sighed, "He's a shape-shifter. Werewolf."

Jenna's eyebrows shot up under her swept fringe, "We-Werewo...Werewolf!"

I simply nodded.

I heard Jenna's heartbeat pick up. She blatantly knew all about them. "As in... Wolves! Actual, wolves! As in, wolves-that-can-rip-a-vampire-to-shreds-without-so-much-as-needing-to-be-groomed-afterwards, kind of wolves!"

I nodded each time she said 'wolves' and I secretly thanked my intensified hearing considering that no human would have understood that rabble.

"Is he the only one or…"

"There are two packs who live close by."

"Wow," was the only word Jenna uttered for a few minutes before regaining her composure and continuing the conversation. "How does that work then?"

I laughed. "One of the wolves and my mom grew up together. He didn't know anything about vampires until after my 'dad's' family had left town and he began to phase. Like puberty for wolves. He was mad at my mom for trusting them, but then when it was obvious she was pregnant he tried to help her. They love each other like siblings now and they'd do anything to protect each other.

"Because we don't hunt humans, they respect us, and they knew my mom as a human so now they just consider her a smelly friend; vampires smell gross to them," I explained. "They had a treaty with my dad's coven when they lived around Forks because they hunted animals too, but I'm not entirely sure if that's still in effect considering everything that happened to my mom because of them. I suppose the main reason we are co-habitable though is because I'm his imprint – Jake's imprint," I smiled at his name. "It's there most absolute law that no wolf is to harm the subject of an imprint because of the pain it would cause their brother."

I saw Jenna nodding, but then she stopped abruptly and turned to me sucking her lips in her mouth. As she opened it to speak her lips popped. "Nessie, what's an imprint?"

I couldn't help laughing. "It's hard to explain. It's like an everlasting connection that wolves can sometimes have with someone. An imprint becomes the only thing that matters to a wolf; like they're their gravity and nothing else but them is important. Jake said that a wolf will become whatever their imprint needs them to be whether that's a friend, a lover, a protector or a brother," I broke off for a second, "you still with me?"

Jenna nodded and motioned for me to carry on. "He's never been my brother, but he's been protective like one and he'll always be my protector whether I like it or not. Recently, he's become my friend and someone I can rely on profusely. We'll be lovers one day; it's inevitable. I know he feels that way, but he won't show it until I do."

"Do you like him that way?" Jenna nudged with a cheeky grin on her face. I couldn't help but smile and bite my lip. It felt natural talking about normal, human gossip.

"I think so. I couldn't imagine anyone else. I won't have anyone else; I don't think it's even possible. I suppose you could describe it as an arranged partnership from birth. But it's a partnership I cherish and want so much. If I had the choice I can honestly say I wouldn't choose any different."

"So, you're still a virgin?" Jenna asked.

I scoffed. "Obviously! I'm technically only nine-years-old."

"Nuh-uh, age is a man-made concept, and you are not man-made," she protested.

"Well, Jake's not going to rush me into anything."

"But you're not together yet. Surely he'd understand if you had boyfriends along the way, wouldn't he?" She wanted to play match-maker; I could tell.

"He might not mind, but I know it would bother him. I think it's too late to even think about it now anyway. I don't think it'll be long before something happens between us and even if I did have other boyfriends, I don't think I could live with the guilt. We might not be together yet but I'd still feel like I've betrayed him," I concluded.

I seriously hoped Jenna would drop this conversation altogether now. My skin wasn't as weak as a human's but blood could still rush to my cheeks and therefore I could still blush.

She protruded her lips, "Fine. We'll talk about something else... umm, vampire gifts!" She shouted an octave higher than her natural voice. "You said you wanted to know about my family's gifts so we'll talk about that."

I perked up at this lining of conversation as it was something I did want to discuss. "Okay!"

She smirked. "Well, first off my mom and Justin had no idea about their powers until Shane noticed and taught them how they can be used. As you probably know, a gift comes from a trait they carried during their human life. Shane has incredible patience – which probably made him the best teacher – but he says that he doesn't think it's much of a gift. We do because he can go up to two months without needing to hunt."

My mouth fell open. Two months! The longest I'd known a vampire to last without feeding was a month. Sure they wouldn't die, but not feeding could make them incredibly vulnerable.

Jenna nodded as if agreeing with my oh-my-god reaction. "He only hunts once a month. Anyway, it was found that my mum can enhance a human's memory, you know make the details of it clearer, like refining a photograph. As a human she claimed she had a photographic memory so that connection was made. She is also one of the fastest vampires I've ever seen, too, because she's always been a good runner. So that's her." Jenna licked her lips and I noticed she began using subconscious hand gestures to help her describe what she was saying. "My brother's strange. He sort of inherited his powers, if that's the right word for it. See, he can sort of do the opposite to my mum. She can enhance a memory where he can cloud it – make it less clear for them – which is handy. If we accidentally slip and reveal what they are, he can make them unsure of what they've seen or heard. Not change it but fade it; like a blurry or dark photograph, unsure of what's there. Neither his or my mum's gifts work on vampires though."

"That's really cool! See he must-" I started but Jenna interrupted me.

"Oh that's not all," raising a finger for emphasis. I immediately shut up. "He has more than one gift. Because of how his and my mum's powers work, we believe that the other vampire," she hinted, obviously not comfortable stating the relationship of the 'other' vampire to her family, "must have been a tracker."

My eyebrows raised. I was interested to see what this would encompass.

"Again, it's like he does the opposite. Justin can sense when someone – well, a vampire – is tracking him or a close associate of his, like my mum. So like, the tracker runs towards a certain someone and Justin runs away from that certain someone. It's saved our skins god knows how many times! I think that's why I've remained human for so long, because when Justin knows someone is tracking us we have time to re-locate."

"How many times have you had to move?" I inquired.

Jenna chuckled. "Enough times. I just hope me being separated from them for a while will allow me to actually finish a round of school where I actually started it." She looked at me and as if reading the silent question in my mind and said, "You don't want to know why. Well... you do but it's kind of too personal to share just yet."

"It's okay, I understand," I replied before going back to the former topic. "I think the opposite power thing may apply to all hybrids now." Jenna sat up and turned her body to face me; curiosity creating a new face for her. I smiled at her knowing I wasn't the only one deeply curious by all this new information I was absorbing. "I have the opposite powers of my parents too. It's hard to explain my most prominent one, so I'll show you instead.

"You know how I said my 'father' was a mind-reader?" I asked. She nodded in response, "Well..." I hesitated before reaching out and taking her hand. When my thoughts reached her, she gasped. In that simple touch she was seeing how both my powers worked and my explanation of them. After a minute I let go and she looked at me; her mouth hanging uncontrollably.

"Oh wow," was the first thing she said. "So you can break through shields too?"

"Yeah, but I haven't really mastered it yet or seen if it can work anywhere else. My mom's the only shield I know."

Jenna nodded. "What's your mum's name?"

"My mom," I joked, "is called Isabella. But she prefers Bella. What about yours?"

"Veronica, but she prefers Dawn now."

"Why Dawn?"

"It's her middle name. She stopped being called Ronnie when she became a vampire, so goes by Dawn now," she shrugged.

I laughed and so did she. It felt good to laugh. Finding someone who was in a similar situation to me, and finding someone I could be myself around felt like an immense weight had been lifted from my back, and my muscles had uncoiled and relaxed somewhat.

"Oh my god!" Jenna exclaimed, breaking my train of thought. "It's almost dark, we should get going."

"How long have we been out here?" I said, equally as surprised. I finally paid attention to my surroundings and saw the masses of people had dwindled to just a few.

"Where are you staying?" She asked as she stood up.

"I'm in Hansee." I followed her.

"I'm Madrona which is right next door!" She squealed. "See, we're meant to be friends!"

"We're friends?" I asked, unable to hide the hopeful tone to me voice.

She smiled warmly at me. "Of course we are, Nessie! How could we not be?"

I grinned back at her as she hooked her arm through mine. She pulled me up and we walked towards the north-east edge of campus.

Friends. That's what we were and it made me smile. I'd never had a real friend before. I classed the pack as my friends, but this was different. Maybe Jenna had felt as lonely as I once had given that she travelled a lot. But who knows? I was just happy I could call someone my friend and I felt that Jenna felt the same way too.

I couldn't wait to tell Bella when I got back.

What do you think so far? Let me know your thoughts...