Disclaimer: I do not own the characters of Twilight. I wish I did though. Does that count for anything?
"MOM!!" Renesmee yelled out. "Emmett won't tell me where he hid my bag of clothes that Alice and I just bought last weekend! I need it to finish up packing!!" She was upstairs in the condo we had been living in for the past 5 years.
I stomped up the stairs. "Renesmee, you do not need to yell. You know very well I can hear you. Secondly, you are better off waiting until Alice gets home. She will be able to tell you where it is, and she will make sure Emmett is punished for hiding clothes that she helped pick out." I turned to give Emmett a glare. He smiled back at me sheepishly, even he was slowly realizing the error of his ways. Picking on Renesmee or myself was one thing, but getting Alice involved was another. For someone so little, she could cause a lot of trouble for others. "And for that matter," I continued, "I am sure your aunt Rosalie will be very interested to hear that Emmett has been causing you grief."
Emmett let out a low growl and disappeared. "Sometimes you can be no fun, little mother." He said from far away. Renesmee flashed me her best grin. "Thanks Mom or Bella. I guess I should say." I swatted at her playfully, "Careful young lady, I also know how to invoke the wrath of your father." I joked with her. She was referencing our new cover story for the public knowledge, for our upcoming move.
With our large numbers it was getting harder to fabricate a story. It had been nice in New Hampshire. At Dartmouth, we were just all cousins or friends that had ended up at the same college. Nobody really paid that much attention. They were too focused on their own problems. We stayed 5 years, taking our time going through college. It was a happy blissful time. Rosalie and Esme stayed at home and home-schooled Renesmee. Rose was loving being a teacher. She set up the most elaborate classroom ever, and I had to admit she was one of the best teachers I had ever seen. Esme liked to help Rosalie with the teaching and she also was really getting into cooking. It was kind of ironic since she didn't actually like to eat food but she was so good at it. She has been studying part-time under a chef at a nearby 5 star restaurant and from recent reviews, it sounded like she had surpassed the chef in talent already. Renesmee had grown so fast and was an avid learner. She finished high school 2 years ago and was currently working on her teacher's certificate. Jacob traveled with us to Hanover, of course, and enrolled at a nearby community college and studied automotive technology before getting a job as a mechanic. He loved the work and he was really good at it. Better than Rose, although she would never admit it. School was never a big favorite of Jacob's, and he was able to work close to home so that he was not so far away from Renesmee.
Emmett, Jasper, Alice, Edward, and I all enrolled in Dartmouth. Emmett majored in engineering physics. He was a lot smarter than I gave him credit for. I figured he would have gone with one of the easier majors but he really wanted to challenge himself. He was a star student, his professors loved him. All of our professors loved us, really. Jasper finished a double major in psychology and sociology. I assumed he already studied those because of his "gift" but he hadn't. He found it really interesting to learn about the human emotions and felt that this really helped him understand his talent. Alice majored in theater and worked a lot in costuming. It was a wonderful fit for her, she was fantastic on stage of course. But she was even more fabulous at set design and costuming. Edward decided it was time to work on another doctoral degree, and ended up finishing a PhD in cognitive neuroscience. I begged him to study music but he wanted to attend a more serious music composition program- something that Dartmouth didn't offer. It worked out best in the end because he had very few classes he had to take besides working on his dissertation. So we had plenty of time to spend together. I took college the most seriously, I think, because it was my first time experiencing it. It was wonderful to study what I wanted to study. I have to admit that it was hard at first, because Edward and I had no classes together of course, and at first the time apart was excruciating. But I have learned to love my classes and the time apart during the day made our time together that much more amazing. I majored in comparative literature. It was great. I loved reading but I was finding that I loved writing even more. It gave me something to do when I was alone. Not that I was alone that much. It had been seven years since our marriage and we still spent as much time together as possible. It was amazing. There were no words to explain my relationship with Edward. It was so powerful and consuming. I was never satisfied. I never felt like I had spent enough time with him in a day. Thankfully, our day never really had to end.
Renesmee interrupted my thoughtfulness. "So… Mom, I have been thinking." I took a a deep breath and inhaled the sweet smell of my daughter. I looked at her, my 20-something year old looking daughter. She was beautiful, with her perfect curls in the perfect shade of her father's auburn hair. Her eyes were big and brown and worried as she faced me. "Now, I appreciate everything Esme and Rosalie have taught me. But I don't think I want to be a teacher anymore." She said. She studied my expression. "That's fine Renesmee. You know that neither your father nor I will judge you on what you want to do. You could try to attend high school with us. You are done growing now, we could try to make it work." I told her.
"No, no." She said quickly, "That would be too hard to try to do. We already have everything set up. Actually, I think I know what I want to do. I want to go to college too. Its my turn now." She said it all very fast, but I understood all of it. I took in this information. "Well…" I said slowly, thinking it through. "I guess we could stay here a little longer or we could look into moving somewhere else."
"No!" She nearly shouted it at me. "No," she began in a calmer tone, "I think Oregon is the perfect place. Charlie needs us there, and Jacob needs to be near Billy. It has been killing him to be so far away. Even with all the visits we make, its just not good enough for him. We have to go to Oregon. It's the perfect place. And everything is all set up already. Carlisle has a job…" she trailed off.
"Renesmee, you have to do something. You can't just stay at home all day. Jacob has his job set up. Esme will be working at the restaurant, Carlisle has a job, and the rest of us will be in high school. You will be bored stiff at home, you have to do something worthwhile with your time." I said. The possibilities for her were running through my mind but I hadn't been able to come up with something that was suitable enough for her.
THWACK!
Something landed in front of me and startled me. I crouched low in a defensive pose with a low hiss coming from somewhere inside me. I turned around to see who our attacker was.
Emmett grinned at me stupidly. "Thinking of Edward?" he said with a thick implication. "That's the only time I can ever sneak up on you, when you are preoccupied with him. But you'd think after last night—" "That's enough!" I said harshly, still in my defensive pose and growling at him. I had realized after a half-second that we weren't in any danger but Emmett's words were too much. I was going to get him back for that.
"Relax Mom, I'm not a child, although there really are things I don't want to hear Emmett." Renesmee said. I was still growling at Emmett. "Seriously Mom, can we finish our conversation, please?" She begged me. I slowly allowed myself to relax, Emmett may be spared my wrath but Edward would surely defend us when he got back home. Thinking of him made me miss him even more, he had only been gone a few hours but he would be gone until tomorrow evening. Hence, why last night had been so… intense. Esme, Jasper, Alice, Rosalie, and Edward had all gone hunting. I stayed behind to help Renesmee finish packing. She had a lot of stuff. Carlisle and Jacob stayed behind also to finish up their last few days at work. Edward didn't want to leave us but he needed to hunt. He had not had time to go hunting lately because of finishing up his dissertation. Even though Carlisle and Jacob would be here at nights, it wasn't enough for Edward so he roped Emmett into staying behind as well to protect us. I wasn't the world's best fighter but I was decent and a vampire, yet it didn't matter to Edward. I would always be fragile and breakable to him. It annoyed me sometimes but I understood. He loved me that much.
I focused my attention back on my daughter, "Emmett, could you please give us some privacy? We're having a talk." I emphasized the word talk hoping he would take it to mean that it was female stuff- a conversation he wouldn't want to listen in on. 'Blech," he made a face, "I'm going to watch the game downstairs. Call me if there's any trouble." He said the last part jokingly, he thought Edward was a little paranoid too.
"Okay, so back to me." Renesmee said.
I just shook my head. She may look like she's an adult but sometimes she acted so young. She really reminded me of my mother, Renee.
"Yes, back to you. Ness, you really can't stay home all day. You'd get bored, its not healthy…" She interrupted me.
"I know. I have a plan. I have been doing a lot of thinking and I think this would be a really great thing. Something that you and dad would really approve of." She said 'you and dad' kind of funny, like we would approve but someone else might not.
"I'm not following." I told her.
"I want to go to college." She said again,
"But there is no college in Astoria! So its either you find something there or we find somewhere else to live. Although I guess you could do another online college program. If you don't want to do the teacher certification thing." I mused.
"What I am saying is that I want to GO to college. Away. I could do it. I look more human than the rest of you, besides Jacob. And even he is so big that people look at him funny. I've done all the research, I even applied and got in. Its not far from Astoria- only an hour and 45 minutes away, and for Dad that's like 45 minutes away. I would come home all the time. It wouldn't be like I was gone at all. Anyway, the university, its called Pacific University and I want to major in Biology. Dad has already taught me a lot. I have been watching Carlisle and he has taken me in a couple times to work and I want to do what he does. Pacific has another program that I could do after I finished called a Physicians Assistant. I could work with Carlisle. I could help people!"
I thought it through. It wasn't a bad idea. But I knew Edward would be a tough sell, and even worse than Edward would be Jacob. He would not go for it at all, not unless he went with her. And then Edward would surely be unsupportive. I had to admit that I wasn't particularly thrilled with that idea either. They weren't romantically involved yet, though I reluctantly agreed to myself that I couldn't be against it anymore. She was technically old enough. However, Jacob was still her best friend. Her very, very, very overprotective best friend. And Jacob would absolutely hate this idea unless he went with her. And he already had his own shop set up in Astoria, and it would be difficult for him to throw it away. He hated that we had fronted him the money to open up his own business already, he wouldn't let that money go to waste after all the fuss. And I really hated the idea of the two of them moving away from me. But how could I deny my daughter her right to be an adult? And she wanted to do something really positive with her life. How could I be a good mother and not support this? I couldn't, I decided. I would support her and fight for her to do this. It would be hard to live without her, I couldn't imagine. But she would be very close and would be home a lot. Maybe not as much as she promised but I could see her. Yes, this was the right thing for her.
She sat there watching the various emotions play out on my face, and she grinned. She could see there at the end that I was going to say yes.
"Thank you, Thank you, Thank you." She said hurriedly as she reached out and hugged me tightly, her warm skin, like a hot pan on my ice cold skin. I raised one of my eyebrows at her.
"I will support you, because I think that this is a very mature and good decision for you. And I will talk to your father for you if you want me to, although I am sure he will know as soon as he enters the house. But I draw the line at Jacob, you will have to talk to him on your own. And I am only assuming that since things haven't been completely chaotic around here, that you have not yet."
She shrugged and looked away. That was a no.
"I wanted to talk to you first. Do you think it would be a good idea if I talked to both of them at the same time? That way everybody knows everything and neither one will get offended that they didn't know before the other."
"Sure, I won't say anything until you want me to. And that might be a good idea. You know how much your dad and Jacob hate to agree on something. One of them will have to change their mind to support you." I winked at her.
Its not that Jacob and Edward hated each other. They got over that as soon as Renesmee was born. And my friendship with Jacob had evolved into a great relationship. I wouldn't say that we were best friends, we didn't talk as much as we used to. He had Renesmee to fill that void. But we were still good friends and it was a nice healthy relationship. Jacob and Edward didn't really get around to being friends so much as two people with mutual interests: Me and Renesmee. And they understood that they would always be family. It was stressful at times because they loved to argue, but it worked for me. It was better than them trying to kill each other. Arguing was much, much healthier.
I heard a motorcycle rumble in the distance. I frowned. Jacob loved his motorcycle but he was trying to get Renesmee to learn how to drive one. I wasn't a huge fan of the plan. I vaguely remembered spending time at the hospital when I was learning. And Renesmee was half-human, although much more graceful and coordinated than I had ever hoped to be as a human. "Jacob's home." I said. She squealed and ran out to meet him.
I don't know how she did it, Renesmee was never a good one with secrets, but the rest of the evening passed by without any trouble so I guessed Jacob never found out about her college plan. I got a lot of writing done, I was working on a novel based in the late 1800s in England. My favorite era, really and it was so easy to do with Carlisle and Edward around to help. I didn't have to do barely any research. I wrote in Renesmee's room while she slept that night as I always did on the rare occasions that Edward was away. I couldn't bear to spend time in our room alone. Watching Renesmee sleep was so peaceful and fascinating. I sighed watching her sleep. It was no longer strange to think of myself as a mother. It was a role I had been born to play. And I had had a lot of practice growing up since I basically parented my own mother. Now it was time for me to let go. She had only been in my life for 7 years but she knew enough to be an adult. She was just so childlike sometimes. Like Renee, I thought again. But I had to let her go. And I had to find some way to convince Edward to do the same.