Friendly reminder that this is a AU version of X23, She's a little different compared to the canon one. Chapter 3 will be up tomorrow.
Chapter 2
"Hi you must be Bella. I'm Jacob Black, I don't know if you remember me." The native American boy said.
"Isabella Swan yes. Nice to meet you I can't say I remember you Jacob unfortunately, my memory isn't that good I'm afraid." Isabella replied. "I do recall the name from what I found in the real Isabella's personal effect and from my research, she hung out with him when she visited Charlie back in the day." Isabella thought.
"You used to always insist everybody called you Bella, we used to play together when you were still allowed to visit Charlie, but that was a long time ago of course." Jacob said.
"What brings you here today Jacob, can I help you with anything?" Isabella asked.
"Oh, my dad sent me, He and your dad were best friends he wanted to ask you over for dinner to see how you're doing. I guess he figured you would have checked in on the rez when you got to town." Jacob said.
"Sure I'll never turn down a free dinner. When do I have to be there?" Isabella asked. "If I alienate people who have some history with the real Isabella, it could raise more suspicion than pretending to have memory issues." Isabella thought.
"Er tonight at six, will you need directions?" he asked.
"Yeah I could definitely use directions. I'll drop by after returning the excavator to the place I rented it from." She admitted.
"Are you actually really planning to live in this old cabin?" He asked.
"Sure, why not? I'm making some improvements of course, such as the trench I've dug for the septic system I'm putting in. But I'm still living in the truck camper for now. You're welcome to hang out for a while so we could catch up."
"I'd love to stay a while Bella, I'll even help out, I'm more of a mechanic but I'm a quick learner. Put me to work."
"First things first, my coffee needs to be topped up. Want some too?"
"Got any soda?" He asked.
Isabella got Jacob a soda and refilled her travel mug, with Jacobs help the trench was quickly finished, she loaded the excavator back on the trailer that was still attached to her truck. She worked inside the cabin with Jacob helping out, he hadn't lied though, he really was a quick learner.
"Where did you learn to do all of this?" He asked.
"Well with the way Renee preferred to spend her money I had a need to earn money so I could take care of myself, you know to cover the basics like clothes and food. I worked a lot in construction, it paid pretty well." She lied skilfully.
"Couldn't you use the money you inherited?"
"I wish, I would've moved out of Renee's place if I could. But that's not how it works, I didn't have access to any of it. It was all supposed to be sealed until I was 18, you're considered an adult then. But with the emancipation I'm legally already an adult now, it's a little weird at school and everything but I make due. I've been on my own for a long time in many ways anyway." She said.
"I'm sorry you had to live like that. My dad he's in a wheelchair so there's a bunch of things I have to do that normal kids don't have to do, since my sisters moved out I've had to raise myself as well. Not saying it's the same thing though." He replied.
"It's the same thing in many ways, at least you still have your dad, I'm sure he loves you even if he doesn't say it." She said.
Soon it was time for her to take the excavator back to the place she rented it from. Jacob gave her the address and directions before they parted ways. "I need to go, they knew Charlie, avoiding them from the start would raise suspicions. The real Isabella hasn't visited them in a long time so I'll get away with it if I play ball." Isabella thought to herself. She dropped off the excavator and picked up supplies for the septic system. She dropped them off at the cabin and went in the truck camper to get cleaned up and changed. It hadn't been hard to find the Black's house on the reservation, she parked her truck and got out. As she walked up to the front door it opened and a older man in a wheelchair appeared.
"Bella, I am so glad to see you. Jake told me you couldn't remember him so you probably don't remember me either, I'm Billy Black, I was your father's best friend. I'm sorry for your loss." Billy said.
"Thank you and I'm sorry for yours. You're right I don't remember you either, but I remember your name for what it's worth." She replied.
He led her inside where they were soon joined by Jacob. She hung out on the couch with him after Billy insisted he didn't need any help finishing dinner. It wasn't entirely surprising Jacob was watching a car program. Soon billy called them to the table, Jacob quickly helped to put the pots on the table. Billy had made spaghetti for dinner, when Jacob and Isabella sat down he gladly announced that he had made the world famous Black family spaghetti.
"Ok you're not entirely bragging, it's pretty good." Isabella said after her first bite.
"Glad you like it Bella. We had a hard time finding you. Once we heard you were in town and registered at the school we started looking. Are you really planning to live in that old cabin?" Billy inquired.
"It's not old, it's rustic. And as I told Jac- Jake, I'm living in my truck camper until the cabin is fixed up." She answered.
"Bella the woods around here are dangerous, it would be much safer if you lived in town. Or you'd be more than welcome to stay here instead. Jake can move back into his old room." Billy said in a warning tone, the last part earning him a glare from Jake.
"I'm good, I'm enjoying living there, it's peaceful and quiet. It's nice, really. And I can take care of myself." Isabella said defensively.
"Bella there are things roaming the woods around here that you can't defend yourself against. Billy said in a warning tone.
"I'll take my chances." Isabella replied coldly
Billy seemed to have gotten the hint that he'd be unable to convince her. They had a more generic conversation during the remainder of dinner.
"So what are your plans, from what I gather you didn't have to come here, the emancipation means you're legally an adult right?" Billy inquired.
"I couldn't stay in Phoenix, too many bad memories, you know. With the estate and being the beneficiary of my dad's police pension, I don't need to get a job, at least not right away. So I'd like to use it to finish my last two years of high school. I may do some traveling after that, it's why I have the truck camper, I'll be the first to admit that I took my sweet time getting here. With technology nowadays you can get a good college degree online so I'll combine that with traveling. Yes legally I'm an adult and technically I don't have to attend high school, but I just wanted to finish it. Despite everything I always worked my ass off to get good grades in school, no reason to stop now." Isabella explained.
"That's admirable, I know if Jake was in your position he wouldn't go to school anymore." Billy said jokingly.
"That's only because school here is boring." Jake said defensively.
Isabella hung out a little after dinner until Billy insisted Jake showed her around the small reservation they lived in. He took her to the beach, to the Alteara family general store and a few other places. They came across a trio of strange looking buff men.
"Who are they?" Isabella asked.
"That's Sam, Paul and Jared, the La Push gang. They call themselves protectors but you wouldn't believe the shit the council let's them get away with. See the way they look at me? Like they want to recruit me next." Jake answered.
"They can't force you into a gang Jake, you always have a choice. Besides you shouldn't take steroids like they seem to be on, that stuff is bad for you."
When they got back to Jake's house, Isabella bid her farewell, Jake had offered at Billy's insistence to help out at the cabin whenever she needed a hand, they exchanged numbers to keep in touch. Though she wasn't planning to ghost the kid, she would let it slowly fade out, it's not uncommon for people to lose touch, even in a small place like Forks and the Blacks didn't even live in town. She settled outside her camper under the awning to smoke a cigar while listening to the radio.
On the other side of Forks, Alice Cullen was being comforted by her mother Esme. Suddenly she no longer needed it anymore.
"Her future is back, I can see her again, she'll be in school Monday." Alice said in a single breath of relief.
"Has it ever happened to you before that somebody's future disappears?" Esme asked.
"Only when we meet - Oh no she must have been hanging out with those dogs. I need to make sure she's fine. Come to think of it I can never see her future, it always involves part of somebody else's future. Is she? No, she cant be like them." Alice blurted out
Esme held her smallest daughter with a firm grip.
"Alice if you can see she'll be in school Monday then you already know that she's fine. We have discussed this before, you cannot force yourself on her. She is human, we don't know enough about it, she probably doesn't feel the pull that you feel. You need to let it happen naturally honey."
"You're right, But what if she isn't gay? Can you stay with me a while longer?" Alice asked.
The Cullen family matriarch quickly agreed to staying a while longer and kept comforting her smallest daughter. She continued to comfort her youngest that she wouldn't be alone much longer but also reminded the Pixie again to be patient and that it would work out if they were soulmates.
Isabella's mind wandered again while smoking her cigar, one of her many bad habits. It had been something she had picked up in her very early teens, feeling a strange urge to smoke, one could say it was just one branch of the large tree of self destructive behavior she has engaged in over the years. She didn't like the way Billy black had warned her about the dangers in these woods, of course he had no clue as to her true identity, let alone her abilities. But his warning seemed to carry weight, there had been that thing she briefly saw and heard when she had only just arrived. Then there were the Cullens, a kind of strange bunch, she'd have to watch them, especially Alice who was often on her mind and whom she felt pulled towards. When her cigar was finished, she went to bed, there was a lot of work to do on Sunday.
She spent Sunday working on the cabin, the electrical work was as finished as possible for the time being, so she moved onto plumbing for the kitchen sink. Since winter was fast approaching she also went to buy a couple of cords of firewood, something that was easy and reasonably cheap in a logging town. It took a lot of trips in her truck to get the firewood moved to the cabin. The good old boys always insisted on helping her load her truck, they considered it wasn't a woman's job, but they could never keep up with her. She made a note to pick up some wood from the hardware store after school to build a roof over the woodpile, for now a tarp would have to do. In the evening she had resorted to self harm again to make the memories go away. She made a note to wear long sleeves to school, while they immediately closed up for some reason there were always scars for a day or two when she caused injuries to herself deliberately.
Monday she went back to school, she had decided to politely ask people to call her Bella, wanting to further immerse herself into her assumed identity. The schoolkids quickly picked up on it. Mike had started to get really on her nerves, she'd have to put him down a few notches soon. During lunch she felt herself drawn to staring at Alice Cullen again, the Pixie stared back, turning her attention back to her lunch group eventually had been a hard thing to do. There was something she had started noticing about the Cullens, for all being adopted, they were so alike, but so similar at the same time. All of them were incredibly beautiful, pale and they all had the same eye color. At the same time they were all so different. Had Dr and Mrs Cullen been very picky or something when they had adopted them, was a question on her mind. Biology, the class she shared with Edythe was awkward again, but this time the broody bronze haired girl had introduced herself.
"Hi I didn't really introduce myself last week, it wasn't polite of me. I'm Edythe Cullen.
"Bella Swan, you're right it was downright rude." Bella snorted before looking to the front of the class again.
"I hope we can be good biology partners for the year." Edythe said sheepishly.
"At least you don't start by insisting we'll be the best of friends, partners I can do." Bella said in a confronting tone.
"Ah yes, my sister Alice. She gets over enthusiastic from time to time." Edythe admitted.
"She told you about that?" Bella inquired seriously.
"Yeah, uhm. We don't really have any secrets in our family. With so many of us keeping secrets doesn't really work out." Edythe said
They quickly got started on studying slides of onions root cells and ordering them in the phases of mitosis. Bella had prepared well over the decades through self study to , so she had found it somewhat easy. Edythe was pretty good at biology though she did feel the need to double check the slides Bella had identified. They were the first lab partners to be finished, Mr Banner was sceptical at first thinking Edythe had done all the work, but Edythe told him that Bella identified 3 out of 5.
"Did you have this lab before in Phoenix?" Mr banner asked.
"Yeah I was in the advanced placement program." Bella answered.
"Well it's a good thing I paired you up with Ms Cullen then." Mr Banner said before he went to check on the rest of the class.
The rest of the class went by quickly. Both Edythe and Bella kept to themselves. But before the bell rang Edythe had something to say.
"You know you should give my sister a second chance, we talked to her about coming on so strong." Edythe said.
"I meant what I said to her, I'm not a good friend to have, I'm dangerous. And frankly you should want better for your sister." Isabella said when the bell rang.
When she walked to the history classroom she decided to ignore Alice as well as possible, she didn't go in until the warning bell rang, quickly sitting down. Aside from exchanging the usual pleasantries out of what's considered basic politeness. Bella found it a little strange that Alice had called her Bella despite not having been told that Bella was her preferred nickname, but it could have been overheard from other students. Bella paid full attention to the teacher and hadn't noticed her sleeves had been riding up.
"What happened to you?" Alice asked silently while touching the heavily faded scars.
"Fucking slowly fading scars when it's self inflicted. And Alice's touch while soothing feels cold." Bella thought while pulling her sleeves back down. "Nothing serious. You ok? Your hands feel cold." She said without facing Alice.
"Bad circulation." Alice said quickly, almost too quickly.
When the class was finished Bella got up as quick as possible and darted for the door, not noticing the sad looking pixie she was leaving behind. She hurried over to gym, looking forward to the scalding hot shower that comes afterwards. After gym and her lovely scalding hot shower she walked to her truck. Before getting in she looked over her shoulder as usual, she saw the sad looking Alice looking at her and felt her heart break.
"I'm sorry Alice, you deserve better than to be friends with me. Even if I wasn't living this lie, you'd get hurt sooner rather than later." Bella thought and with a sad look on her own face got into her truck.
Having made a trip to the hardware store for wood, she found out the things she ordered would be arriving this week. She went to check her post box, there was a letter from school there, nothing important, just a letter to confirm her registration. She went back to the cabin and built a roof over the woodpile, did her schoolwork and ate a hungry man. While sitting under her awning she saw a shimmer flashing by in the distance again. Her adamantium claws came out rapidly and she scanned the area with her heightened senses, whatever it had been, it was going away again.
Alice arrived at her house in a slight panic, something her family members could clearly see. Edythe with her mind reading gift saw the memory play back when Alice though again of what happened.
"I think she saw me." Alice said with a panicked voice.
"Alice what did you do?" Carlisle asked when he came out of his office.
"I just wanted to take a quick look, I stayed as far as I could, she suddenly stood up and was holding knives." Alice explained.
"You were at the limit of your own sight? Where there any animals in between the cabin and you?" Carlisle asked standing in front of Alice by now.
"Yes, I didn't want to go close. No there weren't any animals."
"Honey, maybe you're imagining it." Esme said to comfort her smallest daughter.
"Esme, I saw Alice's memory of it. Bella saw her, I don't know how but she saw her." Edythe said.
"Carlisle are there any cases of humans having such exceptional sight?" Esme asked to her husband.
"Not that I'm aware off, to see one of our kind at the limit of our own sight is exceptional. Though we do know the girl is gifted since Edythe's gift doesn't work and Alice has great difficulty seeing her future." Carlisle said.
Emmett was struggling to reign Rosalie in, when he could no longer hold onto her she darted to the hallway.
"You're putting the entire family at risk for your own selfish interest." Rosalie snarled at Alice.
Alice lunged for Rosalie but was quickly captured by Carlisle while Emmett had caught up with Rosalie and pulled her back. Jasper made both girls calm down somehow.
"That's enough from the two of you! Rosalie you're not to go to your workshop for the remainder of the week and Alice you're not going shopping this week! And neither of you give me any excuse for your bad behavior or I'll double it!" Esme said in her stern maternal voice.
"Yes, mom." Rosalie said sadly.
"Sorry mom." Alice said sadly.
"Calling me mom now isn't going to get either one of you off the hook. Learn to live together again, you two used to get along so well." Esme chided them both.
After the fight was avoided they both were let go and went their separate ways. Alice severely disappointed by the punishment handed out by her mother for all intents and purposes, but she respected Esme and feared her enough to accept the punishment. After all she had already seen multiple scenarios of what Esme would do if she went shopping anyway. Edythe caught up with Alice not much later and told Alice of the conversation she had had with Bella during biology, this having been the first chance they had for a private conversation.
The week progressed well for Bella, she felt uncomfortable around Alice in the classes she shared with her, Bella wanted to be on friendlier terms with the pixie, every time she saw Alice looking sad it felt like she was being stabbed in the heart, surprisingly it felt worse than actually being physically stabbed or shot in the heart. On Wednesday Jake had come over to help out finishing the septic system, it was overkill for now but she was planning on adding a functioning bathroom so it would work out. She had also picked up the solar panels and the rest of the stuff needed. She figured she could be finished making it liveable by the end of next week, from there on it will be more about making the cabin more comfortable. It had become standard to have a little small talk with Edythe during the class they shared, Rosalie had become somewhat hostile, the death glares she could give were impressive to say the least, Bella wasn't affected by her bitchy attitude though. By Friday the heart pain had made her decide to be a little nicer to Alice but she did lay down the rule to herself to not make any plans whatsoever with her, strictly just making a little small talk here and there and still determined to make it clear to Alice that a little friendliness didn't mean she wanted to be friends with her. So when the Friday history class came around Bella went in earlier than usual, sitting down next to the surprised looking Alice Cullen.
"Hello Alice." She said
"Good afternoon Bella." Alice said.
"Any plans this weekend?" Bella asked.
"No not really, I am. Uh well you could say I'm kinda grounded. I'm not allowed to go shopping this weekend. What about you?" Alice said once she recovered from the shock that Bella seemed interested in striking up a conversation.
"That sounds like a severe punishment for you, I wonder what you've done to deserve such treatment. I'm gonna work on my cabin. I've been invited to go to a bonfire in La Push though but I haven't made up my mind yet, I don't want my friends dad to nag at me again for living in the woods. There's unusually dangerous predators roaming these woods around here according to him." Bella said with some friendliness in her voice.
"I broke a family rule and nearly fought with my sister. Might be interesting going to the bonfire though, you never know it might be fun. My family and I go hiking in the area all the time, we've never come across any unusually dangerous predators." Alice replied.
"Breaking rules and fighting, huh? Guess you've been sitting too close to me, I've been rubbing off on you. I tried to warn you that you should stay away from me Alice. As for the supposed unusually dangerous predators I don't believe in it, he's an old man telling tales, seeing ghosts." Bella said sarcastically.
"Old men tend to do that. You're not a bad influence Bella, I don't know why you talk about yourself like that, but you're better than what you claim to be."
"I'm the best there is at what I do but what I do best isn't very nice, Alice. I meant it when I said you should stay away from me, I am dangerous and not dangerous as in the bad influence kind of dangerous." Bella responded deadly serious.
Alice had wanted to respond but didn't get the chance when Mr Smith started the class. Once the class was over, Bella muttered a quick goodbye to Alice and bolted for the door again. Her mind was running in overdrive.
"Why does she have to smell so nice? So lucky Mr Smith started the class when he did. I need to stay away from her, for her sake. Why do I feel like I can fly when she looks at me with those golden doe eyes of hers? What is happening to me? Why can't I get her out of my head? Why cant I resist her?" she thought on her way to the school gym.
She was very distracted throughout gym, which wasn't a good idea since they were playing dodgeball. She got hit right in the face by a ball, hard enough to raise some suspicion, she got hit straight in the nose and didn't even flinch. The coach came running over to ask her if she was ok. She answered she was fine, something he didn't want to believe but after she insisted he let it go. Since she was out, she went to sit in the bleachers. She was worthless this gym class, too wrapped up in her own thoughts. And people took notice, some of the girls asking her if she was ok once the class was over and everybody was in the locker rooms. She shrugged it off, claiming to be tired. She did take a scalding hot shower, before heading home. Work on the cabin was difficult, she had a hard time focussing. Around dinner time she got in her truck after cleaning up a little and went to the diner for steak and cobbler. Continuing the tradition that the real Bella's father had was good to blend in.
On the other side of Forks, Rosalie had been waiting for Carlisle to get home from the hospital before she decided to say something, she had been building cars in her head since gym to keep Edythe out.
"I need to say something about Bella." She said to her family gathered in the living room for their traditional Friday family movie.
Alice had wanted to hiss, but the look Esme gave her made her think twice.
"Ok Rose, we're listening." Esme said diplomatically.
"First of all I want to make it clear to Alice that it wasn't me who did it and to prevent her from seeking revenge I wont reveal who did it either. As you all know I have gym with Bella. Today the coach had us play dodgeball. Bella has rapidly become known for being quite the athlete, she was very distracted today though, she seemed loss in thought. Somebody and I repeat again it wasn't me, threw the dodgeball hard at her, the school still uses the harder style balls, she got hit straight in the face." Rosalie said causing Alice to hiss which in turn caused Esme to stand next to Alice and lay a hand on her shoulder
"Is she ok?" Carlisle interjected in doctor mode.
"That's the thing, I saw her get hit, it sounded like you threw the ball at a metal wall, she didn't flinch, wasn't injured. She was completely fine. I don't think she's human, it wasn't normal and a lot of people noticed, she should have been on the floor with a broken nose or a nosebleed at the least, but she was completely fine." Rosalie finished.
"I have to side with Rose on this, I don't think she's human either." Edythe said.
Alice was getting furious and wanted to defend her mate.
"Alice, stay calm. Bella not being human doesn't necessarily mean it's a bad thing. We know she's gifted and durable. We have reason to believe she has eyesight as good as ours. But we have enough reason to strongly believe she isn't a vampire. She cannot be a werewolf or a Quileute shifter, we'd know. Could she be? No there's so few of them…" Carlisle started saying then switched to thinking out loud.
"Could she be what Carlisle?" Alice demanded.
"A mutant. It would explain some things. Some humans have a activated gene that makes them different from others, their gifts vary wildly and in all my years I've never seen the same mutation manifesting in multiple mutants. There's not many of them that we know of, humans tend to fear that which they don't know, so mutants tend to live in hiding for their entire lives." Carlisle said in full scientist mode.
"She has told me multiple times that she would be a bad friend for me to have, that she's dangerous." Alice said.
"Maybe it's her way of saying she's no ordinary human, honey." Esme tried to comfort Alice.
The Cullens spent the rest of the evening contemplating and debating it.
