Second semester was in full swing for Ness and Star. Which meant both couldn't wait for eighth grade to be over. Since Ness hadn't change much age wise it meant she would be able to stay enrolled in human public school and continue on to high school with her best friend.

Love ya, Ness thought squeezing her mom's shoulder and gave a quick image of a cheek kiss both her parents heard and saw as she shut the car door making her way to first period.

"She's changed so much," Bella sighed as they pulled out of the drop off lane, "What are we going to do next year when she's in high school, going to dances and football games, talking to boys."

"As if Jacob would let her. I'm more concerned about her getting really good at hiding her thoughts," Edward swallowed angrily.

"You know it's not like that with them. Jacob wants her to be happy and have a fulfilling life. That's all," Bella said, "What do you mean hiding her thoughts?"

"I feel like I only hear her when she's wants me to, like speaking. I'm worried that she's hiding something that we need to know about as parents for her own protection. She's still our baby girl and I'm worried that we give her too much freedom."

"She's mentally a middle schooler. I find it relieving to have her acting her age. I was slamming doors in my mom's face and thought having a secret MySpace was the definition of badass when I was in eighth grade. Let her be a middle schooler. I hate seeing how sad and alone she is being surrounded by adults every day and not having kids to connect to."

"So we just pretend everything is fine!"

"Edward, it's not fair to have a mind reading parent. She needs to feel like we trust her, not snooping. And trust me, soon there might be thoughts that really should be private for a teenage girl."

"Like what?" Edward said incredulously.

"Like awkward body stuff," Bella said shutting the conversation down with a classic Bella face and noise.

"Did you do the reading last night?" she asked Star who was picking at her nail polish.

"There was homework?"

Ness sighed, "Here give me your hand. I'll try to be quick to make it less weird."

She quickly showed Star all the information she would need for the reading quiz trying to make it more of a cluster of images than a long line of words. She didn't mind helping her friend. If anything, doing this helped her process the reading better and made sure her friend was still doing well in school. In return Star was always her gym partner and sat with her at lunch so no one got close enough to see that she never got winded or rarely ate more than a handful of food occasionally. Plus, Ness never knew how much to express how she loved having a best friend who knew her secret and was okay with it.

"Who needs spark notes when you have a vamp-"

"Not out loud remember? Already it's hard enough not making big deal out of you knowing," Renesmee covered her friend's mouth, "And I'm only half remember?"

The girls made their way to class finding their seats in the back as always. Earlier in the year the teacher had asked Ness why she didn't sit in the front like the other smart, pretty kids and gave her a well-meaning talk on "peer pressure". Ness was smart enough to know it was really a conversation about how she should be with the pretty, pink covered, perfect girls not a dyed black basket cases who got caught occasionally smoking cigarettes under the bleachers of the muddy sad excuse for a field. She remembered telling the teacher some made up sob story how Star has been helping her cope with losing her parents in the made-up accident and adoption since Star too lost her parents a year ago. Only Star's story was real. And Ness's parents were technically kind of dead depending what light you looked at it with.

Ness remembered the awkward chat after class full of crocodile ugly tears and even slightly pushing feelings of sympathy and sadness when the teacher gave her a side hug. She was finding ways to subtly push ideas into other heads so it seemed like their own ideas and thoughts.

The teacher didn't bother her after that. And no one else really for that matter.

"Want to spend the night at my house tonight? I saw Supernatural has a new season on Netflix."

"Will your aunt be home? You know how strict my parents are," Ness rolled her eyes. Or parent.

"You know her," Star shrugged, "Working two jobs, the third being the resident Friday night martini lover at the biker bar down the road."

She texted her mom knowing she'd say yes and find a way to convince her dad to say yes with the same old "She's getting distance from Jacob" argument.

She got an instant reply of "yes, if it's ok with her aunt" and an email of a coupon for a free domino pizza and coke. Ness found it embarrassing at times that her family always seemed aggressively generous at every occasion but was thankful none the less since the two jobs part of Star's aunt wasn't a lie.

The day passed quickly with only one mention of yet again another person assuming her and Star were dating. Ness knew it was her fault for always using her gift to talk to Star during class and having it just be seen as two girls always holding hands and looking at each other deeply while whispering. At least it kept a good amount of boys from asking her out. Ness didn't care. A small, close minded town like Forks could use a bit more exposure to modern thought. If the town thought two girls holding hands was the end of the world, they definitely weren't ready to hear about their friendly neighborhood vampires and werewolves.

And it wasn't like that at all with them. The only time they ever seemed to make physical contact was Ness using her gift. Star was pretty non-touchy, no warm fuzzies, lover of big personal space bubbles. They were close because they could be themselves. Ness didn't have to hide who she was and Star had someone who believed what she saw the night her parents died. Plus they both loved horror movies and the same shows. And more importantly making fun of the same movies and shows.

Kicking their shoes off at the smaller, more rundown apartment just off Highway 101, Ness made a comment about needing to do homework first. "Why? I'll do it Sunday," Star said.

"You mean I'll do it Monday morning as we walk into class?" Ness raised one eyebrow, "Here I'll even help you. There is no way in hell I'm going into freshman year alone, so you better take school seriously."

Ness knew the reasons why Star never took school seriously. Partially it was not having a responsible adult pushing and believing in her to do well. Another was that she knew Star didn't see a way out of Forks. Only a slim percent of the smartest went on to a four-year university after graduating and almost all those kids had the family bank account backing it. Star was smart enough to realize the best she probably would get was a retail job in Port Angeles, a diner waitress until society deemed her not pretty enough, or knocked up and shot gun married to the areas many loggers. A life of Rainier beer, losing Mariners games, and always having wet socks.

"Who knows? Maybe some royal Prince Charming will fall from the sky and fall in love with my obvious feminine charm," Star said airily rolling her eyes. At least she had a sense of humor about a restricted future. "Yeah 'cause bleach blonde, noble goody-hero jocks that kiss your hand and ride pretty white ponies in rainbow castles are totally your type," Ness said while pushing an image of star dressed like a toddler in tiaras train wreck mashed with Prince Charming from Shrek.

"How the hell are you so smart?" Star asked an hour through. Ness was happy she made studying last this long. "Vampire memory skills. Plus I was home schooled before I came here so I'm a bit ahead." They closed their books and turned on the TV.

"Horror film or you drooling at Cas?" Ness asked which earned a pillow to the face.

"What I got a thing for dark hair guys? And Crowley, the all mighty King of Hell I might add, is my favorite you sad excuse for a mind reader," Star smirked getting the pillow thrown back at her as they decided on Saw. It was great for making fun of and of course the blood bath and vampire puns had to end.

"Speaking of blood bath and food, my mom sent a coupon for pizza. You can order what you want, I'll probably just eat the crusts." She handed her friend her phone open to the page to order.

"I'm guessing hold the garlic and extra red sauce?"

"How about an extra toping of," Ness flipped her off before saying, "Actually no red sauce. I don't really like tomato or veggies. And low garlic. It smells terrible after a while."

"Remind me again why your royal family lives in Italy: land of crosses, garlic, Catholics, and sunshine?"

Ness just rolled her eyes laughing. She sometimes wondered if she has told her too much, but then again it was better she knew the full risk of knowing.

"Because you have watched too many B-rated movies and set the bar unusually morbid and inaccurate."

"Any cute princes in the royal family who don't mind small town orphans with a heart of gold?" Star batted her eyelashes in a way Ness couldn't tell if she was kidding or not before shrugging since she never really thought about it.

"Only met them once when I was really small,-"

"So last week"

"Aaand I was too busy trying not to be mass slaughtered with everyone I ever met by that royal family. So I was a bit too preoccupied and young to think which ones I'd bang."

"Fair point but if any are dark haired, I'm just putting it out there I call dibs. Hell, if all vampires are as hot as you and your family I'd even fall tits out for a vampire prince unless all vampire families have weird sibling fucking traditions like yours does apparently".

Her phone vibrated signaling Jacob was texting her.

How's the sleepover?

Good. Watching Saw

Don't those movies make you hungry?

I'm fine. Hunted last week with Jasper

Is he still teaching you to fight behind your dads back?

"Jacob texting you again?"

Ness blushed, "Is it that obvious?" Star raised an eyebrow while sticking her tongue in the side of her cheek.

"It's not like that. He's like an older brother."

"Like Cullen version of 'sibling' or normal non-creepy version."

"Oh no, I can't hear you over the sound of murder." Ness ignored her turning back to the TV.

The night progressed as usual and expected. The girls did their usual game of making fun of the predictable deaths and thinking up logical plans of if they were ever in the movies. It always stunned them how many clever twists and turn and rules to the game jigsaw always had. How he could bend the fates of the characters by playing these games with them. Ness always felt bad for the one character who had been stuck in his game before and how being aware of their fate and of the game made everything all the more horrible. At least the dumb ones could stumble around with hope that they would be free one day. It was the smart ones who were aware of the game that always seemed to suffer the most.

"To be honest I'd just bite the guy chasing me. Dinner and a show. Serves him fucking right for trying to hurt a little girl."

"Yeah but that'd be a complicated police report and you'd probably like get taken away for being crazy or them thinking you're an alien or something."

"Just a thought. Or I'd just pull a kool aid man and keep breaking through the walls covered in blood. Oh Yeah!"

"This might seem like a personal question but…"

"Now you be polite?"

"I was curious if you've ever bitten anyone?"

Ness paused trying to think of what to say and where this conversation was going.

"Yeah, when I was a baby. Not much more than little nips. Kinda like when you get a new puppy."

"No, I mean like bite a human on purpose."

Ness shook her head feeling oddly uncomfortable.

"Let's focus back on the movie. Your aunt might be home soon and I don't want her to walk in on our conversation."

"Do you want to?"

Ness got very worried that sounded more like an offer than a question.

"You know what my family rules are. We don't harm humans."

Ness stroked her friends hand showing her images and sensations of what is was like to spend everyday with one half of you screaming for blood, scratching at the walls of a warm hearted conscience who did not want to become a monster. What true Thirst felt like and the fear that if she did try human blood, she wouldn't be able to stop. This mixed with the human social conscience and need for acceptance and fear of disappointing her family. This made it hard to tell if she was afraid she would kill someone feeding off them or afraid she would get caught. The battle between knowing deep down she needed human blood to be fully healthy, but was her life more important than another person's? She remembered drinking human blood from bags as a baby and how amazing it felt to have the burn in her throat go away completely and feel alive and healthy. Animal blood occasionally made her nauseous and lethargic but she did it because those were the rules. That was what Jacob wanted and the pack wanted and what was keeping everyone she loved from going to war. There were no real words to fully explain it such it was such a morally grey area.

Star just looked up at her with wide eyes and an almost pained expression as her other hand rubbed at her throat. Ness let go of her hand once she realized she was hurting her friend who sat on the couch panting in shock. "I'm sorry. I keep making my gift too real, but that's what it's like being half vampire," Ness apologized.

It was weird for Jane to have a boyfriend. She didn't know exactly what to do with the poor thing. They did a lot of cuddling and kissing in bed but she felt awkward and didn't really want to go further. She felt weird having to kick him out of her room each time she changed since she still wasn't used to being seen naked and although things felt amazing and intense making out, she instantly would feel uncomfortable as soon as clothing came off. She was worried he would think all the burn scars were ugly on her. Or at least that was the reason she was going with. Despite her confident, crazy outside, sex scared her.

"How are you still a virgin after all this time alone with him?" Felix once teased her. Once.

She didn't know what she had to be afraid of. It's not like she could ever get pregnant or worry about blood and hymen issues. A big part of her naively wanted her first time to be special and with the right person. She suddenly felt bad for teasing Alec about his whopping two unwanted, coerced hook ups and how both weren't so different after all. It was almost like they were twins and raised in the same environment and time period that viewed pre-marital sex and discussing vaginas as bad as murder. Jane just wasn't sure through her annoying teenage angst if Donovan was the one. Was she even the one for Donovan? They had in a way agreed to trust him even though he seemed to have a lot of baggage and secrets. She hated how he sometimes was trying to be texting someone on him phone but wouldn't say who. Or better yet "don't worry about it" with a distracting kiss. A guy finally liking her and showing her attention didn't seem fully panty-drop worthy to her once she took time to think in the little time she was alone. Part of her felt guilty he was living here and felt obligated to always be with him since he wasn't close to anyone in the guard yet. That she had to been seen on his lap or with his arm around her for them to seen as a couple. She felt that was bullshit. She had one of the most powerful gifts in the world and could bring a room begging to their knees. Not some guy's decoration.

B ut technically he was to be an ambassador of sorts for the dhampirs and worked as a shield for Aro. He was here whether they were an 'item' or not. Especially now that Aro was back on his crazy and there was still the mystery killer probably loose in the Building somewhere. Since they were at a loss of obvious enemies and the next potential target were the dhampirs and ones that hated the Volturi for some reason Jane couldn't understand. The Volturi were the good guys after all. Why was that so hard for the world to understand? Marcus had asked Donovan to invite several of their leaders to meet the Volturi formally and see if they had any insights to potential threats. Yes, they were not the most pleasant people to be around and most people only really got to know them when they were being tried and executed. But they still served a fundamental reason and purpose. Without the Guard there would be anarchy in the supernatural and the human world. Their existence would be known and they would be feared by the humans. Jane was not ready to relive the whole pitchfork and torches experience. Humans feared what they didn't understand and destroyed what they feared. It was in their nature to be ignorantly violent and cruel monsters unlike vampires who viewed things more rationally. Especially in the last century with the sophistication of bombs and weapons. In the ancient years prior to the Volturi, vampires didn't have nukes and missiles to worry about. It was in everyone's benefit that the Guard existed to maintain order. If that made her a bad person, then fuck'em and you're welcome.

That part of herself she knew. The other parts not as much. She just watched her nephew who seemed like a stranger to her now kill and nearly get torn to pieces by a dozen vampires that she had just delivered to them voluntarily. Her brother, who had always been her other half for the last thousand years barely talked to her and spent most of the time with the human secretary despite him also hating humans like her. But that didn't seem to really bother her since the human would probably be dead by the end of the year and if not would naturally die with in forty or so years. Joan didn't seem like vampire nor 'gifted' material otherwise Eleazar would have noticed and by extension Aro. Any attachments would just mean her dealing with cleaning up the emotional mess of her baby brother and now nephew who didn't seem to fall far from the tree. It was best for everyone if people just kept their emotions and relationships with each other in check and at a distance. She'd find sometime this week to do something with just Damien and her and Alec and her. Jane snuggled closer the warm Donovan who still was asleep and just wished she could go back to being just your average angry, angsty teenager.

Marina felt herself wake up in the middle of the night. She felt oddly hot and sweaty. She kicked off the covers on her half of the bed and looked over at Tiago. Yes, they shared a bed together and liked cuddling. But they didn't do anything besides sleep and sharing a bed helped them sleep better and feel more secure. She couldn't explain it but it just felt good to be close to him and feel him wrap his arms around her. Tiago lay there panting and squirming. She went to try and wake him up and found he was the source of feeling over heated. With scared eyes he felt relieved to wake up and see her.

"You okay?" she asked.

"Yeah, bad dream," he said dismissing it and rolling over to the other side.

"They've gotten worse for me too. What was yours about?" She rested her head on his arm.

He paused before saying, "I don't know. Was running through this dark maze and I just felt like I was going in circles and I'm getting chased by something and it just keeps taunting how dumb I am and how any of you guys could get out of the maze but not me. I eventually come to this locked door and I'm not strong enough to break it even though I should be and again I'm taunted that I can't even do the one thing I'm good at which is be the 'dumb strong one'. I was just so stupid. Like all the tasks Caius and Aro keep making us do. I don't know why either."

"They keep saying it to train us to protect ourselves and work in the Guard. It's for the best. We wouldn't have survived the Assessment without our training. We need to help maintain order and be used for the greater good." Marina felt she was just reciting what her father seemed to recite to himself. But the incident in the Throne Hall and being pitted against each other for completing the task and following the instructions was ludicrous and confusing. If they were supposed to being working as a judicial system for vampires, why haven't they learned any laws yet or the process for finding out if someone was guilty? They knew the obvious don't get caught by humans and don't create immortal children which was just an extension of getting caught by humans but nothing really more than that. Even now she listened to her father talk about how Caius wanted to shift the focus of their education away from knowledge and more towards being combative.

But she was thankful that her father with the help of Joan had given her special work books that none of the other kids had. He wanted her to be a guinea pig to see how the children compared to humans in more formal education paths. All the work books were in English and had different acronyms like SAT, ACT, and AP. They were from the United States and a country she guessed called Amazon Prime. Probably in South America. They were covered in slogans saying, 'college preparedness' and 'university entrance exam'. Mostly they were multiple choice tests that she would do in her free time and timed herself doing. Her father wanted her to make notes on the subjects she liked and she found challenging. She felt bad because when she did the first SAT book it took her all day and she got three problems wrong which wasn't like her. When she told Heidi how embarrassed she was she messed up, Heidi responded weirdly.

Doing the AP books she liked all the maths and science books. Especially computer science. It felt like she was playing games with it and had fun trying to find the bugs. When she showed her father the codes she was able to write, she didn't realize she was supposed to use actual computer software and had been writing all the codes by hand. Heidi was ecstatic and even said she'd find a way to convince Aro that Marina should continue learning to code and they needed to have someone on the Guard with a technology background and even consider going university once she looked old enough. Her father on the other hand suggested that for now she kept her 'hobby' secret and to not get too excited about university yet since there was still a chance she wouldn't be allowed to leave the Building.

With the order, Joan had ordered several other copies, especially ones for university prep for literature and English language. Those she was planning to give to Alec. She thought they could be a confidence boost and something to focus on constructively. Given how much he read and the content he understood he was well above the average high school level. She had also given him a journal. Joan knew Alec was naturally quiet and the more she spent with him, she saw different sides to him and saw that he wasn't a bad kid despite everything he'd been through. She encouraged him to try just even writing down what happened each day and writing the time & date to help make everything easier to process and face. He didn't need to dip into past things if he didn't want to, just focus on each day. He laughed saying that his human memories weren't too good.

Joan with the help of Demetri encouraged that he practiced writing in general since normally he only read. It didn't have to be about his personal life, but a new hobby to help make time move quicker. Every day Joan would give him a new writing prompt to try. Anything from creating a superhero and villain combo to creating his own endings to his favorite books to writing book reviews and travel critiques. She made sharing what he wrote optional since she knew writing could be personal, but the few excerpts she read, she realized he was an amazing writer and could potentially with the help on an alias be published one day. She sometimes found Damien and Alec together and Damien would also try the writing prompts but had a harder time sitting still and writing for long periods of time. But what was interesting was Alec would share some of his writing with Damien and Damien would draw the characters and they would make short graphic novels together at the kitchen table. Joan loved seeing the boys both get more animated and excited while finding joy in creating something more positive. In general both boys seemed to have more energy and mental wellness.

Damien and Joan still never told anyone about the DeLeale's and the human bully incident. Damien was still allowed to visit them once a week and even was now allowed to spend the night and would occasionally have sleep overs with Enzo.

As the weeks passed, everything seemed to go back to a normal boring slump. The kids continued with lessons and training and Aro and Caius no longer interfered. Marcus with the help of Donovan extended an invitation to several to several of the dhampir leaders and received a response that they would come together to help outlay how both vampire and dhampir societies would now exist together officially and legally. He thought it would be a better way to gain respect of the people they served and was trying to find a way to convince Aro and Caius it was a good idea. "There is no 'them'. They are not leaders. We rule over all of them and they need to accept that or else." Caius hissed. Marcus left that comment out of the invitation.

Spring came and so did the warm weather. This allowed the children's exercises to transfer outside with Felix hid under the tree shade. Slowly with permission they allowed the children to leave outside the Building as long as they were within the city walls. Donovan would help Felix think of different tasks for the kids to do. Often they would have to find objects hidden in the city or play variations of tag using the cityscape as an environment to get used to jumping over rooftops and stealthily sneaking around humans. Lots of capture the flag. It brought evenings of sitting on the fountain edge eating ice cream, afternoon football matches, and stain glass window evening walks. There was a suggestion to hire someone to tend the garden and courtyard a bit, but Donovan got volunteered to do it. That phrasing exactly if you need to read it again. He told Jane he didn't mind and it gave him an excuse to be outside and get some fresh air. But there were also constant comments from everyone, especially Chelsea, about how being half human meant he was suited for more janitorial roles than on the same levels as them. She and the wives made it a habit to purposely refer to him as the gardener or housekeeping or the 'help' rather than his actual name. They loved casually making messes and asking him to clean it up. He found his own ways to get back at them.

Demetri and Heidi spent their nights and evenings together making time move even faster. The idea of being a couple had been agreed on and they were now considering if they wanted to even be engaged and later married. Heidi told him if they were to be engaged Demetri had to ask her properly. But at the same time it seemed ridiculous and absurd to have a wedding when they already have lived together for centuries.

If Damien wasn't in lessons, writing graphic novels, or with his human family we would help Donovan out with managing the gardens. It worked as a great cover to work more on magic and learning more about dhampirs and witches. Damien found it easier to do magic outside than inside. He was getting better. He could now lift smaller object without touching them, heal cuts instantly, make plants grow quicker, freeze and melt water, start small fires, and change the color of objects by touching them. Nothing super useful or dangerous, by he was assured that with patience and practice he could get the hang of more challenging spells. He still didn't fully trust Donovan after meeting Hadley, but didn't see the harm in learning a new skill and keeping an ally. Just keeping that ally at a distance.

To get back at the wives and Chelsea for being royal cunts it became a game between Damien and him to use the minor spells to cause minor, petty inconveniences. Anything from freezing shampoo, to moving furniture slightly to cause confusion and disorientation, to hiding things, to having doors open and close, to even being skilled enough where Damien could untie shoe laces together telekinetically and occasionally tie them together…which he did twice to Aro and Caius earning a deranged hissy fit. He even got the other ghosts on it without letting Donovan know he was cheating. Damien was even happier to teach Didyme what the middle finger meant and he would often see her flipping Aro off after having a couple of his manuscripts slide off his desk and on the floor being ruined by dust and wrinkles.

Life was on such an unexpected upswing. Everyone seemed to be making the most of it as the date for meeting the dhampir leaders approached. Things could go very well and welcome in a new era of peace and understanding.

Or things could go terribly, terribly wrong.