A/N: Are you there? I… I know it's been awhile since, well, I updated. But I hope you can forgive me once again. I'm definitely not perfect, and Min has constantly reminded me of my overlooked responsibilities, I assure you. I've just been putting off for a great number of reasons, the latest of which has been six hours of PE I've taken up over the summer, which has left me more in the mood for sleeping than writing. Please forgive me; I promise good things are coming if you do.
Alice and Jasper's reflections partially blocked Bella's view out the window. Jasper's nearly transparent figure impatiently paced from one side of the window frame to the other in rhythmic certainty while the ghost-like Alice remained stationary on the far right. It remained like this for another five minutes, broken then only by the phone ringing. Bella shot across to the phone and answered it before it finished the first ring. "Hello?" she answered breathlessly.
"Bella. I've got him." A warm, tingling sensation spread through Bella as she heard Edward's voice. But, as soon as she relaxed, she tensed up again as questions and concerns came spilling out of her.
"Is he alright? Where was he? Where are you now? When will you be home?" she blurted, squeezing the phone dangerously.
"Are Alice and Jasper still there?" Edward asked calmly. Bella was instantly bewildered. That was definitely not a satisfactory answer, but Edward was already speaking. "Try and get them to leave if you can. I don't think Zander's quite ready to meet them right now. We'll come in after they leave." With that Edward abruptly hung up, leaving Bella with a dead line.
Bella turned and looked at Alice and Jasper, who had abandoned their previous positions and were now poised behind her with curious looks on their faces. "I'm sorry…" Bella began, but Alice just shook her head with a knowing smile.
"We heard him," she answered with a slightly bitter tone.
"I really am sorry, but…" Bella struggled, "…things are a little rocky right now. Even I'm not completely sure what's going on."
"Of course," Alice said as she danced toward the door with Jasper in tow. "But you can't keep us on the outside forever. We are family."
Bella watched them both disappear into the snow and she relaxed a little. Almost immediately, another knock came at the door. She ran forward and ripped it open, embracing her half frozen son on the doorstep. Zander barely had time to complain about the hug before the cold forced him inside, leaving his mother and father on the step. Edward smiled warmly, but Bella was still slightly upset at him and did not return it.
"Bella," Edward said calmly, "I'm sorry about the vagueness, but I wanted to wait until we got home before I got into any details."
"Is he okay?" Bella demanded, narrowing her eyes slightly.
"Yes—well, a little surlier than normal, but fine otherwise."
"What about the cliff?"
"Our child's remarkably resilient."
"What?!"
"He did fall off the cliff, but Sam Uley saved him."
"Sam Uley? The—"
"Yes, the werewolf; and also the father of that girl Zander has recently been found in the company of."
"Oh no."
"Hey Dad! Why don't you tell her about how much of a freak I am while you've got a chance? As if things aren't screwed up enough," Zander yelled resentfully from the kitchen doorway, brandishing a freshly made peanut butter and jelly sandwich as if it could bear testimony to his 'freakishness.' Edward shot Zander a warning look, but Bella could tell that there was a lot of sympathy in his gaze.
"What is he talking about, Edward?" Bella asked, concern flooding back over her as she stared at Zander.
"Well, it might be nothing. I'm not su—"
"Nothing?" Zander yelled. "Of course to you it's nothing! You'd love for me to waste away into normalness…"
"Zander!" Edward shot back forcefully. "Go upstairs." Zander locked eyes with his father for the briefest second before he sulked out of the room, leaving his sandwich lying disheveled on the floor where he'd dropped it. Edward moved past Bella into the house where he stood stiffly looking at his feet before he turned to Bella again. Shocked at the sudden upheaval of things, Bella could only stare.
"Zander almost drowned," said Edward bluntly.
"He almost drowned? Is he…?"
"He shouldn't be able to."
"Shouldn't be able to what?"
"Drown."
"Well," Bella started, "he isn't full vampire. Why shouldn't he—?"
Edward stopped her quickly. "He didn't even need to breathe when he was born."
Bella became stiff; she had forgotten that. As she was still at a loss for what to say, Edward continued. "That's the complication. We talked about it for a while and I came up with a conclusion that didn't exactly conform to what Zander wanted to hear. I merely suggested that maybe, since he's going through puberty and all, meaning his living, human cells are in overdrive, that maybe the living cells are causing more of his human characteristics to be represented. Well, he did not like that at all, of course, and he got rather upset with me. Now he's under the impression that I somehow planned all of this, to make him human, which is completely ridiculous."
"Well, it's not a secret that you're against him becoming a full vampire."
"Bella, please."
"I know he's being rash, but he's probably scared and looking for a scapegoat right now, and you happened to be the closest living thing."
"There was a deer that wasn't too far off."
"Edward, go talk to him."
"I don't think that that's the best idea. He's pretty angry at me right now. He feels like he's vulnerable and thus lashing out at everything, especially me."
"Fine, I'll talk to him. But you should really come, too."
"I will in awhile. After he's calmed down."
"Alright."
Bella moved up the stairs to Zander's room, which now seemed to have an aura of anger around it. Knocking on the door, Bella waited for an answer, which never came. She pushed through the door tentatively to see Zander curled up on the bed, glowering at an unfortunate fly on the wall that seemed to whither under such an intense glare. Bella slid on the bed and rubbed his back comfortingly.
"I don't know," she finally sighed.
"What?" Zander asked, obviously bewildered.
"I don't know how you feel right now."
"Yeah," Zander replied uncertainly, after having his best argument thrown back at him.
"Although I do know how annoyingly stubborn your father can be."
"Oh, do you?"
"You have no idea how hard it was to convince him to change me. Mortality's very important to him."
"I don't see what's so great about it."
"Well, you've never had to face it fully, now, did you?"
"…I guess not."
"But that's beside the point. I want to make you a deal."
"What kind of deal?"
"A deal that'll allow you to get out of the house and away from your father for seven hours a day at least."
"Sounds good so far."
"You'll also get to interact with others that absolutely despise their parents."
"Therapy?"
"High school."
Bella could tell Zander was about to protest, but something stopped him. Opposing thoughts were obviously battling viciously in his mind. One of the most appealing things about school would be that it would spite his father, Bella thought, but it would also show that Zander found mingling with other people tempting, which would contradict much of what he said earlier. Bella watched as Zander struggled with the decision, and tried to keep her face as noncomplacent as possible.
A creak from the hall betrayed Edward's early arrival, but it also renewed Zander's vigor to annoy his father as much as possible. "Fine," he spat out angrily, "but this bites."
A/N: There's a nice chapter. A little too much dialogue, but there was a lot that needs to be said. Well, who else is excited about Harry Potter? I think the world might just end right before I read the end. Everyone wants to spite me. Yeah, I'm a little paranoid, but it's HARRY POTTER! In honor of Harry Potter, the metaphor (actually a simile in disguise) will be Harry Potter-inspired. –ahem- Getting reviews is just as good as reading a chapter of the new book. That's how much you all mean to me. So please review. Please… pretty please with Harry Potter 7 on top. Well, I hope to hear from you soon—DAI