A/N: Hello one and all! Here's a late update present for you all. It's been hard getting time to update stories with all that life has been hurling at me. But I haven't forgotten my projects, I promise you that. I hope that you enjoy this little update while it stands.
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Sadie woke up to a knock on her door later that next morning. She lifted her head from her pillow and peered through her curtain of disheveled hair to see Alice looking in on her. The pixie-haired vampire smiled happily and moved into the room with light footsteps.
"Do you think you're up for a little adventure?" Alice asked, standing next to the bed.
"What kind of adventure?"
"Carlisle wants you to come to school with us," Alice explained, smiling as she sat on the edge of the bed. "Since no one's going to be here all day with Carlisle going to work and Emmett and Rosalie still out hunting, he doesn't want you to be alone. Not while you're still recovering from your trip through the great woods…We'd like to have you with us too. We have you enrolled partially, anyway."
Sadie let out a small groan and pushed herself onto her elbows. "You guys enrolled me at school? How could you do that when I didn't go fill in any papers or anything?"
Alice's smile grew. "Well, Carlisle decided that he should adopt you into the family and since you're sixteen, he thought it would be wise to keep your education going on as normal. That way you don't wander around pointlessly and can socialize with people."
"While letting you all keep an eye on me as I recover," Sadie guessed, earning a wink from Alice. "Fine…Am I going to run into more wolves while I'm at school with you guys?"
"Nope," Alice said, bounding over to the wardrobe and peering within it. "They all live on a reservation outside of the main town. We aren't allowed to go onto their territory, but you shouldn't have a problem with that if you want to go over. More than likely, Sam is waiting for the moment that you decide to cross over that invisible line and join his pack. They don't have a lot of females there…It's like an all boys' club with one exception at the moment."
Sadie threw her legs over the side of the bed and rubbed at her face. "I don't plan on ever crossing over into anyone's pack, Alice. I've had enough of that to last me three lifetimes." She slowly climbed to her feet and watched Alice sort through the clothes. "What about your other coven mates? Rosalie and Emmett, are they going to meet us there?"
"They actually won't be back from hunting for a couple more days," Alice admitted, pulling out a pair of white-washed jeans and tossing it at Sadie. "They got distracted by a promise of finding a really big bear….among other things." The pixie-haired vampire shuddered. "I think you'd better count yourself lucky. The longer it takes for you to meet them, the better it will be for you to build up a resistance to Rosalie's bitchiness."
"Oh."
Alice shoved a purple shirt into Sadie's hands and reached back into the wardrobe. "Put those on while I find a pair of decent shoes. And you're going to need to pack an extra pair of clothes for when you go to your gym class. So, I'm going to pack this and this for you in your backpack." Alice turned with a pair of shorts and a black t-shirt in her hand while holding out a pair of sneakers. "You're going to be in gym with Bella, so you're going to have to be careful around her. I hear that she's deadly in there."
"Really? She didn't peg me as the athletic type."
"She's not. That's the problem." Alice shook her head. "That poor girl has no coordination and is a danger to her surroundings as well as herself. So be careful to avoid any ball that is sent from her."
"I'll keep that in mind," Sadie promised, watching Alice move around the room. "Will I have any classes with you or Jasper?"
"Oh yes. You'll have one with me and another one with Jasper, but none with the both of us. Is that okay?"
Sadie nodded. "Yeah."
"Good." Alice moved back towards the door to the room, still holding Sadie's gym clothes. "Well, we'll see you at breakfast in a few minutes. And don't you worry, Sadie. You're going to love it here."
Sadie stood there silently, even after Alice had closed the bedroom door and left. Her thoughts were running through all that had happened and remembered what had led her here. She rubbed her arm and tried to force away those painful memories, smelling things that she knew that weren't really there. A shiver passed down her spine and she winced at the dark memories. It took her a moment to recall that one person in the house could read her mind like an open book. Her eyes widened in alarm at the realization and she hurriedly tried to change her thoughts away from the painful ones.
This is going to be a pain in the ass to deal with, Sadie thought, stripping out of her nightclothes and grabbed her jeans. A really big pain in the ass.
OOOOOOOOO
Sadie headed towards the gymnasium with Edward and Bella guiding her there three hours later. So far, her classes hadn't been too bad and no one had really asked her to talk about herself or introduce herself to the class. That hadn't really bothered her, but when she asked Jasper about it in the class that they had shared, he had shrugged.
"It's one of the good parts about being adopted into the Cullen family," he had told her on the pretext of helping her with her notes. "People tend to not bother us. We're too cool for them to hang out with."
Sadie brushed her hair back out of her face and glanced around the hall as she followed Edward. He was standing very close to Bella, his arm wrapped around her waist until the moment that they were within feet of the double doors. Edward pressed a kiss to Bella's cheek and opened the door for her to enter the gymnasium. The look in Bella's eyes as she parted from the vampire made Sadie want to vomit from the gushy lovesickness.
Edward frowned at her and threw his arm out, blocking her from entering the gymnasium after Bella. Sadie sighed and adjusted her grip on her bag.
"I'm sorry about that," she said with little sincerity. "I just don't like the lovesick thing…no offense to you and Bella. It's just how I am."
"It's not that," Edward said, lowering his arm once the door closed. "I need you to do something for me."
"What?"
"Today's gym class is going to involve dodgeball and there will be twelve balls thrown at people. Bella, she's not the most athletic and I don't want her to get hurt," Edward explained. "You would be doing her a kindness to keep an eye on her."
"Gee, I don't know if I could do that," Sadie muttered, rolling her eyes. "I mean, everyone's supposed to be keeping an eye on me…" She smiled at the look on Edward's face. "I'll do what I can to keep her out of harm's way, Edward. You'll get her back as a sweaty mess, but she should be okay when I return her to you at the end of class."
"Thanks," Edward said before moving away from the gymnasium.
Sadie didn't watch him disappear before heading into the class. She headed into the locker room and changed into the clothes that Alice had prepared for her in the bag. Her eyes sought out Bella, knowing that she would be dead if anything happened to the love of Edward's life. Playing the new sibling of the Cullen family, she moved over to the brunette and wrapped her arm around the girl's arm, smiling as she pulled the uncoordinated girl out of the locker room. Bella didn't seem to like the contact, but made no complaint as the class lined up in preparation for the dividing of teams.
"We got this," Sadie promised once she was assigned to Bella's team. "Trust me. I'm a beast at playing dodge ball."
Bella looked unsure and awkwardly stood on the line next to Sadie, waiting for the coach to blow the whistle to start the game. Sadie bolted the moment the whistle was blown and caught up two balls before scurrying back to keep close to Bella. The poor human girl flinched and held her hands up to protect her face whenever a ball zoomed by her, but Sadie blocked most of them. She threw her balls at her targets and hit them square in the chest each time.
"Hey Klark!" someone called from the sidelines on her side of the court. "You better catch some balls so that we can get back into the game!"
Sadie glanced around her quickly to count her remaining teammates and saw that besides Bella, there were only four other players on her side of the court. And Bella was trembling, so she wasn't going to be much use. Sadie turned her attention to the opposite side of the court and saw that one of the opposing team's best players was preparing to throw a ball at her.
No likely, Sadie thought, smirking.
The wolf jumped into the air and did a flip to avoid the ball that had been thrown at her. As she landed on all four, she caught another ball and ignored the sounds of surprise that had come from all the players. One of her evicted teammates came running back onto the court and clapped her on the back in passing.
"Keep up the good work, Klark!" they said as she caught another ball.
Sadie smiled and continued to throw and catch balls like it was nothing, keeping Bella out of reach. She made sure that Bella didn't have a ball either because something told her that it would more dangerous than the balls thrown from the opposing team. Three minutes later, the opposite team was all standing on the sidelines.
"And that's a game!" coach called out, blowing on his whistle. "Reset the balls, boys, and we'll have another round."
Sadie high-fived the few classmates, who presented their hands to her on the way to the back line and smiled at them proudly. Bella put her hand on Sadie's elbow and leaned in close.
"Are you sure it's wise for you to do this?" Bella asked in a low voice. "To be fast and do all those tricks?"
"My health isn't in jeopardy right now, Bella," Sadie answered in kind. "I can do these things without hurting my body anymore."
"That's not what I'm talking about." Bella glanced around them and leaned in closer. "Showing off your abilities like that…aren't you worried that someone will notice that you're not exactly normal?"
Sadie shook her head and pulled her arm free. "I've been able to do all of those tricks since I was three, Bella. Way before anything about my body changed. People can look back in my history if they wanted to and see that I have been athletic all my life. So, chill. I'm not in any danger of showing anyone my true cards." She toed the line as the coach moved back towards the sidelines. "Now, how about we forget the chitchat and get back to the game. I need to work out some muscle pain."
OOOOOOOOO
Sadie pulled her hair up into a ponytail as she walked into the cafeteria with Bella at her side, surprised that Edward hadn't been waiting at the door to collect his precious girlfriend after class. Bella handed her a tray and moved over to the salad bar without saying much of anything.
She's kind of dull, Sadie thought, piling some Chinese noodles and chicken onto her plate. I wonder what Edward sees in her. She shrugged and helped herself to a couple cookies and then reached into a small freezer, pulling out a container of cotton candy flavored dip-n-dots. I guess there's more to her than I can see…Love's a funny thing, I guess.
"Hey Alice, Jasper," she said, making it to the table before Bella had even made it halfway down the salad bar. "Edward, I brought Bella back to you in one piece. Happy?"
Edward gave her a look before turning his gaze back onto Bella. Sadie rolled her eyes and sat down where Alice indicated, caging the pixie-haired girl between her and Jasper.
"Are you having a good time here?" Alice asked, bumping Sadie's side with her elbow. "I hope that you enjoyed that game of dodgeball."
Sadie smiled at Alice as she popped open a water bottle. "You hope I had fun? What's this? Was I not supposed to have fun? Did you think that I wouldn't, even with that special mind of yours?"
"Special is right," Jasper muttered, toying with his uneaten apple.
Alice stuck her tongue out at him, earning a small smile from the empath. "Futures aren't always exactly how I see them. The changing of minds makes it rather difficult to know everything, but yes. I knew that you were going to enjoy yourself in that game. It was just what the doctor ordered."
"Sure." Sadie tucked into her lunch, feeling a little awkward surrounded by people who weren't touching the full trays in front of them.
Vampires don't really eat, she remembered, looking away from Edward and Bella as they sat next to each other. It shouldn't surprise me. I just hate seeing all the food going to waste. Sadie frowned to herself. I can't believe how much I've been eating in these last couple of days. My stomach couldn't possibly need to hold all of this – not now that food is plentiful again.
"Hey Sadie," someone called, coming up to the table which seemed to surprise the occupants. "Some of the guys and I are going to be playing football after school. Do you want to come and be on my team?"
Sadie lifted her eyes to the boy from her gym class and saw that being around the table made him feel nervous. She was about to speak when Alice cut across her.
"She's going to have to take a rain check on that offer," Alice said pleasantly, though her smile seemed a little fake to Sadie. "Our new sister has somethings that she needs to take care of in town and will be busy for the rest of the week. Ask her again later."
Rude, Sadie thought, frowning.
The boy took a step back and his tongue swiped across his bottom lip. "Okay…Sure. Uh, I'll see you later then, Sadie."
"Sorry!" Sadie called after him. "What was that about Alice?"
Alice shrugged nonchalantly. "Your futures weren't aligned. I saved you from a mess of a time. Trust me. You'll thank me later once you find the one that your future does align with. You'll be all the happier."
"But you need to promise me that you won't always scare away the people that want to hang out with me," Sadie said, looking at Alice. "And I'll promise to not seek a romantic relationship with any of them unless you and your special brain give me the okay to do so. Deal?"
"Deal." Alice pushed her tray towards Sadie. "Here. Have some more food, my dear growing friend. You need it to fully recover."
OOOOOOOOO
A/N: Short update with not much accomplished, but it's an update nonetheless. I hope to have the rest of the Cullen gang show up in the next chapter update, if not the next. Please leave a small review in the little box and I'll do my best to get back to you. -Scarlet
