PREVIOUSLY ON SOLSTICE:
SHE RUNS AWAY
GETS HIT BY A CAR
DR. DRACULA TURNS HER INTO A VAMPIRE
GETS "KIDNAPPED" BY EVIL DICKHEADS AFTER RUNNING AWAY FROM DR. DRACULA
PLOTS ESCAPE FOR 30 YEARS
AND NOW ON TO CHAPTER 4
Chapter 4
Once I landed, I got off of the plane in Seattle. It was a bigger city than I had expected, but still not my final destination. I knew there were a few things that I needed to take care of when I arrived such as, living arrangements, a form of transportation, and most importantly, money. Since I borrowed some jewels and stuff from the Volturi and had already exchanged them for cash, I knew I wouldn't have much trouble for a little while, however, I still needed a way to make money. In the meantime, I went to the nearest bank to open an account, so I had some place, other than my duffel bag, to hold the cash. Before I went to the bank though, I opted to find a car dealership of sorts in order to obtain a car.
After finding a dealership, I walked in and almost completely forgot that I needed a driver's license. Fortunately for me, I had managed to get a pretty decent looking fake ID when I had a layover in New York. I wasn't sold on it working out for long, so I definitely needed to figure out a way to get a better driver's license. I was soon broken out of my thoughts by a salesman, looking extremely eager to sell me a car.
"Hello there," he said with a smile on his face. "My name's Steve. Is there something I can help you with today?" 'Well this was going to be an interesting experience,' I thought. And that it was.
After about an hour of looking around the lot, and a lot of effort on my part, I walked out with, not one, but two modes of transportation. The first one was a motorcycle, some apparently really expensive make and model as well, which made it all the more flashy. It was some weird name that started with a D. The other was an SUV, as I figured I'd need one to get around when it rained. This one was a Jeep, and that was as much as I knew about it, other than that it was small, but big enough to fit the motorcycle in the back. I had also managed to get an amazing deal on both purchases, but that may or may not have been because I used my gift on Steve and his manager.
After obtaining everything I needed, I left the dealership, and headed to the bank to open an account. While I was there, I had asked the woman who was helping me if she knew the name of any good contractors, as I was interested in having a house built. She assured me she knew of the perfect person and gave me their phone number. I thanked her and left the bank, ready to head to Forks to pick out the perfect location for the house.
I knew it would be a while before the house would be built, but I was hoping that the sooner I found a location, the sooner the construction on the house could begin. As luck would have it, I found the perfect location out in the middle of the woods off of a secluded highway. God knows I needed the privacy of a place like this, so I called up the contractor, told him exactly what I wanted, where the house should be built, and that cost was nothing to worry about. Within a day, the contractor and his team came out to the location and began to work on the house. In the meantime, I decided to go hunting in order to make sure that I always stayed full. I still had trouble dealing with my thirst for human blood, but I managed to handle being around humans so long as there were no open wounds.
After a few days of hunting, I went back to check up on the progress of the house. I was surprised to see that in just a few days, they had already made some pretty good progress; the base of the house had been put down and the driveway had started to get paved.
"Hey Bill," I said, as I approached him at the worksite.
"Well good afternoon there, Miss Dubois," he replied. I did need a last name, and the only thing I could come up with was the one my parents gave me, my real last name. My parents ended up hating it and decided to change their last name to something really ridiculous and hippie-ish. I mean seriously, it's bad enough that my drugged up dad couldn't even manage to spell Iris correctly on my birth certificate, but to force me to change my last name from Dubois to Moonbeam just because they hated the sound of a traditional last name, well, shoot me in the face six times please. I mean seriously, Moonbeam?! What the hell kind of last name is that supposed to be?
"I see you're making good progress on the house."
"We're trying," he said with a laugh. "It's a good thing we know how to work around all this rain." The area had to be tarped off, with giant tents over the area they were building. I knew it was going to be risky, but I had hoped that since it was summer, it would rain a lot less than it normally would. "On the plus side, it should be pretty clear for the next few days. We should be able to get a lot more done."
"Sounds great, Bill," I said with a smile. "Keep up the good work." I soon left them to go see if there were other things to do around the area. I knew I needed to keep a low profile for a while, but as long as my house was being built, I needed something else to do. So, I decided to take my car and head into the closest city to see if there was anything for me to possibly entertain myself with in the meantime.
In a matter of just three months, my house was completely finished. I was so surprised that they had managed to finish so early, considering it normally took around six months to finish a house. Seeing that I sort of stepped in a bit to do some of the smaller tasks when they left, it really shouldn't have been that much of a surprise. I just really needed the house done so I could get settled in and being homeless for any long period of time after pretty much living in a luxurious prison for the last thirty years really killed me. So, once the house was built to my specifications, and the furniture that I had ordered was all moved in, I was more than ready to settle in and relax for a while.
I was quite surprised that Demetri hadn't called me yet, but at the same time I was hoping that it was just because they had forgotten about me. I knew that would never happen as vampires had perfect memory, but one could hope. That hope died down though, once my phone rang and I saw it was Demetri calling.
"Hello?" I said, knowing full well who was on the other end.
"Roxanne," Demetri said. "We're on our way to get you."
"What do they need me for this time?" I asked.
"Interrogation," he simply replied. I cringed. I hated performing the interrogations, but I knew that if I wanted to continue with the current arrangement, that I was going to have to uphold my end of the deal.
"Alright," I said. "How long will it be until you get here?" I started to quickly change and grab what I would need, as there was no way I was going to let anyone see that I had actually decided not to travel.
"Two days," he replied.
"Okay," I said. I then grabbed the change of clothes, threw them in the small bag, and made my way out the door. "See you then." I hung up the phone and ran as far as I could away from my house. I needed to at least make it out of the state and figured that the closest place I could get to in the span of two days was probably Canada. I knew it was a long shot, but I couldn't let anyone know what I was up to.
When Demetri showed up, I didn't expect him to have brought others with him, but I should have anticipated that Aro wouldn't trust me not to run from them. What was surprising was the fact that he had Jane, Alec, and Felix with him. Felix looked as grumpy as he always did when I was around, while Jane just looked annoyed, and Alec looked bored out of his mind. Nothing new there.
"So, Canada?" Demetri questioned.
"I thought I'd try moose," I said sarcastically. "Let's go." I followed the four of them back to the private plane that would take me back to hell─ I mean Volterra.
Throughout the long plane ride, I sat there in silence, just waiting for this to be over with as soon as possible. The less time I spent with the Volturi, the better off I was. Being around them almost made me physically ill, but since I could only get that way if I ate human food, I would just settle for the nauseating feeling that I got whenever they were mentioned or seen.
We finally arrived and made our way back towards the entrance of the castle, making sure to stay in the shadows so as not to be seen by the humans in the city. We made our way down the various hallways and through the main reception area where I noticed that they had gotten a new receptionist. 'I hope the old one went quickly,' I thought sadly. I really hated how they dealt with things in this place.
"Eris!" Aro greeted us happily as we walked through the doors. "It's so wonderful to see you again."
"Likewise," I said, placing a fake smile on my face.
"I hope the traveling is going well?" I knew he really couldn't care less about my happiness, so I simply replied that it was fine. "How wonderful. Do you mind?" He then held out his hand, silently asking to see what I had been up to. I really hated his gift, but luckily, I was able to limit what he could and could not see, so I did just that. "Ah, lovely," he said when he was finished. "Well, we won't keep you too long. I'm sure there's much more you'd like to see." I nodded.
There was something about the way he said that that made me feel like he was on to me. I knew I hid what I was doing as best as I possibly could from him, but there might have been some way that he had found out. I continued to think about this the rest of the time that I was required to stay with the Volturi. Even throughout the gruesome interrogation, where Aro had Jane got involved, I couldn't shake the feeling that my plan was not going to last all that long.
I continued to think about that even throughout the trip back to the United States, where I told Demetri to drop me off in Montana. When he asked why, I simply told him it was because I wanted to see the entirety of the United States. He just stared blankly back at me before returning back to doing nothing. I sighed; he really had changed since I'd gone and was definitely back to the way he had been when we first met; very formal and all about business.
By the time I had gotten back to my house in Forks, I was completely drained of any thought or emotion. All I knew was that I really needed to lay low for a while. I decided to go hunting to clear my head and get rid of my thirst. After draining a few close by deer, I was satisfied and had figured out what I was planning on doing. It was the exact opposite of laying low, but there was not much else to do in such a small town and blending in would definitely be a better way to lay low than just hanging around my house forever.
I quickly made the phone call and was glad that I had just made the deadline. Luckily, it would only be a few more days before I could start my next adventure as a high school student. Yes, it sounds crazy, but I never got to attend school when I was human, and I thought that I might give it a try considering I had all the time in the world to do anything and everything that I had always wanted to do; well almost anything.
There were a few things that I made sure to do to make sure that the humans at the school would leave me alone as much as possible. The first thing I did was get colored contacts, and plenty of them, to keep my eyes a normal color. This way, I was less likely to draw attention to myself through the color of my eyes. I made sure to test them out as well, so I knew how long they lasted and when it was time to change them. I had also pretended to be my American aunt when I called the school, stating that I was a French transfer student coming to live with her after my parents died. I had also stated that my "niece" was very self-conscious of her accent, and only spoke English when it was necessary. It was a tragic story really, but I knew my parents were long gone by now.
This was going to be the weirdest experience of my life, and I couldn't wait for it to start. So, on the first day of school, I got ready quickly, making sure to check that the weather would be cloudy, grabbed my brand-new iPod and headed out the door. I decided that after going through town, any car that I drove was bound to attract unwanted attention, so I figured I might as well get the attention now rather than later. With that thought, I decided to take my motorcycle. I slipped my headphones in, put the iPod on shuffle, put the helmet on over my head, and headed out to my very first day of school.
I sped down the winding road and made it out onto the highway, passing by various cars that were either on their way to work, or also on their way to school. I made sure to drive at a normal speed, even though I was so tempted to drive at top speed because traffic was a bitch.
When I finally arrived at the school, I slowed down considerably to make sure that I didn't run anyone over, and that I could find a parking spot, preferably away from a lot of the students. As expected, the minute I arrived, the students were already staring at me trying to figure out who I was. 'Well,' I thought, 'might as well go with it for now.'
I cut the engine, got off my bike, took my helmet off, and then began to shake my hair out. I quickly slipped on a pair of sunglasses, just in case the contacts wore off. I kept the earbuds in my ears, to make it look like I was ignoring the humans around me, but really kept the music on low and allowed myself to hear what they were saying about me, to see if there was anything I should be worried about.
"I heard she got kicked out of her last school for doing drugs," one girl said to a group of her friends. I rolled my eyes at that one, especially since I lived my entire human life with two people who did enough drugs to kill Steven Tyler from Aerosmith.
"I heard she got arrested for vandalism, and the only way she could get her record expunged was to move," one guy said. That didn't even make any sense. Nobody gets their record expunged by moving. I was starting to wonder if these rumors were going to get dumber.
"Well, I heard that her parents forced her to move because she was sleeping with one of her teachers," another girl said as I passed by. The rumors seemed to continue as I made my way over to the office building.
I walked inside and looked around, noticing that the office seemed to be rather small. I walked up to the front desk, slid my sunglasses onto my head, and took the headphones out of my ears. I searched around the desk to see if anyone was there but couldn't see anyone. Finally, I got tired of waiting and decided to call out, hoping someone would come to my aid.
"Allô," I said, keeping up with the cover story of being French. At least this way, they might be more likely to realize who I was.
"Oh!" A woman said as she rounded the corner behind the counter. "I didn't know anyone was here. You must be the new student." I nodded my head. "Um...Roxanne, right? Roxanne Dubois?"
"Oui," I replied with a heavy French accent. It really paid off having learned so many languages over the years, especially since I had perfectly nailed all of the accents to go along with them.
"Oh dear," she said. "Your aunt was not kidding when she said you didn't like to speak English." Good, at least I wasn't going to be bothered. "Don't you worry dear, there's nothing wrong with having an accent." I tried so hard not to laugh at that. It really did sound ridiculous, but at least it might keep the humans from bothering me too much. "In the meantime, here is your class schedule and a map of the school. Have a lovely first day dear, and welcome to Forks High."
"Merci," I replied with a smile, and made my way out the door. I slipped the sunglasses back over my eyes and quickly studied the map and my schedule to make sure I knew where I needed to be and when. I then folded up both pieces of paper and put them in the pocket of my leather jacket.
I decided to walk towards my first class of the day, which, ironically enough, happened to be English. I found the room without any problems but could not help but hear more of the ridiculous rumors as I entered the classroom. I just pretended to ignore them and sat down in a seat in the back of the classroom.
"Dude, she totally got expelled for fighting," one kid whispered to his friend as he stared at me from across the room. "She got into like ten fights before the first semester was over." I rolled my eyes, and put my headphones back in my ears, allowing myself to be distracted by the music.
Thankfully, the class was easy as the teacher just went over what was going to be studied throughout the school year, so not much learning was required. I also was happy to note that none of the humans in the room attempted to speak to me at all throughout the class, mostly because they were too busy spreading dumbass rumors about me.
"I heard that she got suspended like six times for vandalism," I heard one kid say. "She never got arrested or anything, but her parents were so embarrassed that they had to transfer her to another school." I snorted at that, causing a few people to look over at me. I decided to take out a notebook and start doodling. At least then they'd go back to gossiping. The strangest thing though, was that none of these people got the fact that I apparently transferred from another country right. I guess they all thought I was from Washington. What morons.
The bell rang soon after and I quickly, well as quickly as a human would, gathered my things and started heading off towards my math class. As I was walking, this human boy decided to stop me in the hallway to talk. 'Great,' I thought. 'Can't they just all go back to gossiping?'
"Hi," he said, a little too friendly for my liking. "My name's Mike, Mike Newton. You must be new." I just stared at him, willing him silently to move along. Of course, I could always use my power on him, but that might draw more attention than I wanted. "What's your name?" Well, since he insisted on talking to me, I might as well have some fun with it.
"Bonjour petit cerveau, narcissique, fou," I said. "S'il vous plaît aller se noyer dans vos propres douleurs avant que vous me parlez encore une fois." He just stared at me blankly for a minute, trying to figure out what he just said to me.
"Um, I don't speak Spanish, but nice to meet you," I mentally slapped myself on the forehead. Was this kid serious? "Do you need any help walking to your next class?" I was just about to insult him, yet again, when a girl came over to me.
"Excuse me," she said shyly. I noticed she was trying to hold back from laughing, and I wondered if she possibly understood what I had said to this kid. "My name's Angela, and Mrs. Cope said you might need someone to help translate for you." I was curious if that woman actually sent this girl, or if she just thought I needed help getting away from this kid. Either way, she didn't seem all that bad.
"Oui," I replied with a smile. "Merci beaucoup." She smiled back at me, before saying something to that weird kid, and walking away with me to math class.
"Did you really just tell Mike that he was a small brained, narcissistic, lunatic?" she asked. Oh, so she did understand what I was saying. I just smiled and nodded at her, causing her to let out a small laugh. "Do you really not speak English?"
"No," I replied with my perfect French accent. "I just do not like to speak Eenglish. My accent bozers me. My name eez Roxanne by ze way." She smiled at me again and said she already knew, causing me to smile in return.
"I don't really think there's anything wrong with your accent," she said shyly. "But I won't tell anyone." I smiled my thanks and we parted ways once I reached my math class.
The rest of my morning was pretty uneventful, save for the few rumors I heard going around about me. Again, none of them were even remotely close to being right, and they still didn't include the fact that I was "French." The male population of Forks High continued to attempt to gain my attention after every class as well, but I just continued to insult them in French, buying myself enough time to get away while they stared at me with confused looks on their faces. By lunchtime, I had changed my contacts for the third time, and was ready to be completely over with school forever.
I walked into the cafeteria and, as expected, the ridiculous rumors continued.
"She supposedly robbed a bank, and as punishment, she was forced to live with some weird relative here and is on house arrest or something," some kid said. What the fuck is wrong with these kids? Did they actually think before they spoke? Honestly, the things that come out of their mouths, I will never understand.
I continued to walk through the cafeteria until Angela calling my name got my attention. I turned my head and saw her waving me over to where she was sitting. I gave her a weary look, as I had been eyeing a table in the far corner of the room, but she insisted, so I slowly made my way over to her.
"Hey Ang," one of the girls said. "Who's this?" Angela seemed to get a little quieter when she was called out.
"Oh, this is Roxanne," she said. "She's the new student I told you Mrs. Cope wanted me to help out."
"Oh yeah," she said. "Hi, I'm Jessica." She smiled over at me. "It's nice to meet you." I just smiled and nodded at her secretly wishing I could die all over again right now. "Okay, so this is Lauren, Tyler, Mike, Ben, and Eric." As she said this, she pointed out everyone at the table, and I didn't fail to notice that the majority of the guys sitting at this table were the ones that I had insulted earlier. Oops.
"So, is it true that your parents, like, sent you away because you, like, got pregnant by the teacher you were sleeping with at your last school?" that Lauren girl asked. I just stared at her like she had grown twelve heads.
"Lauren!" Jessica yelled. "You can't just ask her things like that."
"What?" she replied. "I was just trying to get to know her." I could tell right away that we were not going to be on good terms. I turned to Angela. "Well?"
"Juste leur dire que je suis un étudiant étranger ou quelque chose," I said, hoping she'd just tell them something along those lines.
"She said she's a foreign exchange student," Angela translated.
"Oh yeah," that Mike kid said. "Yeah, you're from Spain, right?" I literally looked at him with the are-you-serious look until Angela corrected him and told him I was French. "Oh, right." He seemed extremely embarrassed after that. I just continued to listen to their conversations, occasionally have Angela unnecessarily translate something for me. That was when it hit me; that all too familiar scent. It wasn't a scent that was particularly appealing to me, but I recognized it all the same; vampires.
I whipped my head around in the direction of the scent and saw them. Not one, but five vampires just casually walking into the cafeteria. What drew my attention to them more was the fact that their eyes were the same golden color as mine. 'Shit,' I thought. 'Looks like I may have to move sooner than I thought.' With that thought, I saw one of the vampires whip their head up and look around the room in search of something. My eyes widened, and I quickly turned my head back towards the table, before anyone could notice where I was looking.
I continued to observe them out of the corner of my eye, wondering if they knew I was here. I secretly hoped that they didn't because as long as we didn't cross paths, we would be perfectly fine to coexist here. In order to distract myself from thinking about them further, I started thinking about some random songs that I had been listening to recently and began reciting the words in my head.
I started to feel pressure in my head soon, the same kind I felt whenever Aro tried to read my thoughts. I really hated that and decided to push against it like I normally did. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw the one vampire that was looking around earlier scrunch his face up in confusion. 'So, he must be a mind reader,' I thought. It was clear that he had been trying desperately to read my thoughts, but each time he tried, I pushed him away. I noticed he soon got very frustrated, causing me to smile.
The bell soon rang, and Angela had offered to walk with me to my next class. However, when that Mike kid found out I had Biology next, he said he'd take me since he was in my class. I mentally groaned knowing I was going to be stuck with that moron for quite some time. So, instead of listening to what he had to say as he babbled on about random shit, I snuck my headphones into my ears and just listened to music as we headed towards the classroom.
Once we reached the classroom, I was happy to find that we were some of the first few students to arrive. I quickly hid behind some other students to grab one of the lab tables in the back of the room. The last thing I wanted was to be stuck working with that Mike weirdo. I took the seat closest to the window and stared out, watching the rain fall. It had been so long since I had gotten to observe the rain that I got lost in my own thoughts, just wondering what it would be like to be out there.
Students began filing into the classroom, and I was glad to note that no one had opted to sit next to me, the weird French transfer student that was kicked out of her last school for drugs, vandalism, and all of the other ridiculous things I had heard today. I smiled slightly and went back to staring out the window, continuing to listen to the music playing through my headphones. I pulled out a notebook, and began to draw random things while tapping my foot to the rhythm of the music.
I suddenly stopped, as that familiar smell wafted towards me. I whipped my head up and saw that mind reading vampire from earlier. 'Shiiiit,' I thought. He whipped his head up, and before he could spot me, I went back to doodling, making sure my thoughts were all in French so as not to draw anymore attention to myself. My plan failed, however, as the smell intensified, and the stool next to me scraped across the floor.
"Do you mind?" he asked. I turned my head slightly in his direction and shook my head, not bothering to really even look at him and continued to doodle in my notebook. The bell finally rang, and I pulled one headphone out of my ear, so it at least looked like I was paying attention in class. My eyes widened when the teacher announced that these would be our permanent seats for the year. 'Magnifique,' I thought sarcastically. The vampire sitting next to me smirked, and I felt that familiar pressure on my mind again. I pushed against it, causing the vampire next to me to get a frustrated look on his face while clutching the side of his head. I smirked. At least then he knew what it felt like for his thoughts to be messed with.
Throughout the entire class period, I could feel the vampire attempting to read my mind. I was getting so annoyed that I decided to just let him for a bit, and instead of allowing him to read my full thoughts, I gave him glimpses, none of which made any sense. The confusion on his face was enough to make me almost burst out laughing, but luckily, I was able to keep that from coming out. Instead, I just smiled and continued to doodle in my notebook. When I got bored of that though, I decided to have a little bit more fun with him, and started using my telekinesis to move his things. First, it was just his pencil, but only slightly; just enough that it confused him when he went to reach for it. Then I moved on to his books, however, I didn't anticipate how strong I was going to move them and ended up pushing them off of the desk. This caused the teacher to stop what he was doing and the rest of the students to stare at him. I just smiled, and put my hand over my mouth to stifle my laughter. By the end of the class period, I was ready to bolt.
I hurriedly collected my things and began to make my way out of the classroom, avoiding both the vampire and the Mike creep. I shoved the other earbud back in my ear and cranked up the volume on my iPod, letting the music flood my thoughts. I knew that the vampire was following me, so I went to the only place I knew he couldn't go; the girl's bathroom. I smirked as I saw the look of frustration fill his face, happy that he couldn't reach me here. I quickly went into a stall, and put in another pair of contacts, as the ones I had been wearing were almost completely dissolved. I took my time and flushed the toilet for effect, but I hadn't anticipated what happened next. As I walked out of the stall, I was confronted with the presence of one of the female vampires from that group in the cafeteria. 'Ah fuck,' I thought. 'Couldn't they just leave me alone?' I knew at this point it would probably be a good idea to move. And I was just starting to really like my house, too.
"Hi," she greeted happily. She didn't seem too bad. "I'm Alice, you must be Roxanne." I was a little bit surprised at how friendly she was, so much so, that all I could do was nod. She just continued to look at me with a smile on her face as I stood there speechless.
"Je dois aller en classe," I said quickly after regaining my ability to speak. Her smile faded slightly and, before she could say anything else, I quickly made my way to my last class of the day.
I quickly walked through the hall and off towards my class, all the while thinking about how nice that Alice girl seemed. She may have been another vampire, another one like me, but I couldn't afford to make friends. As long as I was stuck with the Volturi, there was no way I could drag anyone into the hell that I had made of my life. I wouldn't drag anyone into that.
I finally made it to my last class; art. I found a table closest to the window and hoped to God that nobody sat with me. I was surprised as all hell though, when that Alice girl walked through the door. My day was definitely not going as planned. Couldn't something go my way for once?
As soon as Alice saw me, she smiled and made a beeline towards my table. My eyes widened, and I quickly turned my head, so I was staring out the window, steadily watching the rain fall. I made sure to make my earbuds visible in my ears, hoping she'd get the hint and not talk to me;, however, things were definitely not going my way as she started babbling away, in French all of things.
"Je sais que vous parlez anglais," she said calling me out on my bluff, but still all smiles and in a friendly tone. "I heard you earlier." 'Of course she did,' I thought. And of course, I chose a language that at least one of those vampires spoke. "You don't have to be afraid of us." She thought I was scared of them. Was she for real?
"I am not scared," I whispered, still holding up the heavy French accent.
"Then why do you keep running away from us?" she asked. I looked over at her, and I could see genuine confusion and curiosity on her face. This was the first time that I had actually taken the time to look at one of them. Alice was smaller than the others, with cropped black hair, and this sense of general happiness that seemed to follow her wherever she went. It was a complete contrast to my morbid and pessimistic personality. The sad part was, in another life, I could actually see us being friends. That was never going to happen though, not as long as I was still employed by the Volturi. I wondered briefly if maybe Alice would have a way for me to escape. I quickly pushed that thought away though, because I knew the minute that I revealed my involvement with the Volturi, she'd never attempt to speak to me again. As much as I really would want that to happen, something in the back of my mind kept telling me not to say anything about that. I couldn't help but listen to it.
"Trust me," I said, "You do not want to know."
"If I didn't want to know, I wouldn't have asked," she replied with a playful attitude. She was just not going to give up. I sighed and finally took the earbuds out of my ears for the first time since classes had started.
"Look," I said. "It eez just better eef you do not know." She didn't appear at all okay with that answer but decided not to bother me further. Instead, she decided to take the remainder of the class period to ask me questions about myself, where I had travelled to, if I liked living in Forks, and if I got tired of the rumors yet. And right before class had ended, she had asked me if I wanted to go over to her house after school to "meet her family."
"Come on please?" she asked. "I just know they'll love you."
"I do not zink zat ees such a good idea," I replied as the bell rang, signaling the end of the school day.
"Why not?" She did have a good point. It may not be all the bad to meet the rest of the vampires, at least to let them know that I wasn't going to cause problems for them. Well, at least I hope I wouldn't. Even so, as long as I was still stuck with the Volturi, I would cause problems anywhere I went. I sighed trying to think of a way to let her down gently, but just drew a blank.
"I will consider it," I finally said. She smiled brightly and got very excited.
"This is going to be so great!" she said. I smiled weakly at her, unsure if it was really going to be all that great or not. I knew it probably wasn't going to be the best idea to become acquainted with them, especially knowing that I'd eventually be torn away from them, or worse. I didn't even want to think of what the Volturi would do to them. The last thing I wanted was for any other vampires to be trapped there against their own will like me.
Alice continued to explain how great it was going to be for me to meet everyone, including how she knew we were going to be "the best of friends." When the bell rang, I was not surprised at how she just continued to go on and on about it.
"By the way," she said as we were leaving the classroom. "I know you're not really French." I stared at her in surprise for a moment, stunned that she had been able to figure it out so easily.
"How?" I asked.
"Your accent drops when you're nervous," she said. As far as I knew, my accent never faded once, so she either knew something, or she was screwing with me. "See you later." Then she zipped off to lord knows where. I just continued walking at the pace I set for myself. I slipped my earbuds back into my ears and began to make my trek towards the parking lot.
It had stopped pouring by now, and I found myself slightly disappointed. Although it would have sucked to drive all the way home on a motorcycle through the pouring rain, I just really wanted to experience running through the rain just one more time.
As I was walking towards my motorcycle, I passed by Alice and the rest of her "family" as she called them. She smiled and waved at me, while the rest of them stared skeptically. I smiled slightly and continued walking. By the time I made it to my bike, I was ready for this day to be over, so I could get home and relax. I really needed a break from the day's events, and could use some serious alone time, now that I knew I could get it, even for just one moment. As I was getting ready to leave, I noticed Alice walking over to me out of the corner of my eye. 'Oh great,' I thought.
"Hey Roxanne," she said. I noticed she wasn't alone; she had brought the mind reader over here with her. He didn't seem any more comfortable with the current situation than I was. "Are you coming over?"
"Uh, yeah, about that," I said. "Maybe another time. I think I just want to get settled in."
"No better way than to be among friends," she said.
"Alice," the mind reader said in warning.
"Oh shush," she replied. "So how about it?" I glanced back and forth between the two of them. Alice seemed genuinely excited at the prospect of me joining them back at their house, while the mind reader was very skeptical of me, no doubt wondering what my intentions were. My only intention at this point in time was to escape from the Volturi, but the less they knew about my involvement with them, the better off they were. It's no life for anyone.
"I, uh..." I hesitated, and then sighed. "Sure." Alice squealed with excitement, and I wondered what exactly I had just gotten myself into.
I would like to apologize for the severely long wait for this chapter. I only just realized today that it hadn't been uploaded. I know it's been a while, and there are no excuses, however, I do plan to continue working on this story as well as my others. Thank you for your patience and I hope you enjoyed this chapter.
Big thanks to my beta Res_CVX for editing this chapter for me. As always, for updates on the progress of all of my stories, check out my tumblr page (link is in my profile). You can also feel free to pm me with any questions you have about this story or any of my other ones. I'm also on AO3, and the link to that is also in my profile. Again, I hope you enjoyed it!