Happy Guy Fawkes day!!

Remember, remember the fifth of november and such... but anywho...

Heeeeeeeeeeeeeere's chapter eight, which will explain Claudia's power a little bit more, and her past and stuff.

"She," Alice continued, "She saw my vision. And, before she was turned, whenever she touched either Edward or me, she gained our powers until she lost contact. My best guess is that it would have happened with Jasper also, but she never was in physical contact with him, was she?"

"So, you mean to tell me that Claudia has the ability to use others' powers at her own will?" asked Carlisle.

"I guess so, Carlisle." said Alice, perplexed.

"Well then, there's only one way to find out. Edward, Jasper, come here for a moment, would you?"

The two of them gracefully walked over and stopped before me. At first I was confused, and then I got it. Carlisle had wanted me to test it out and see if I could use their powers too.

"Claudia, try to hear someone's thoughts, anyone's in this room, through Edward."

I tried. I tried a lot. That was all I thought about until finally I could hear a little bit, a faint tinkling of words.

"God this has to be a joke," thought Rosalie, and at the same time, Alice was worrying about the Volturi finding out about my power and coming for me. That gave me a shock. I hadn't thought about that. Edward smiled and thought, "Good job." I smiled back. I went around the room, listening to their thoughts, most of them about me.

"It worked." I said at last, a little stunned at my own ability. One week ago, if someone had told me that in one weeks time, I would be a vampire with the ability to use other vampire's special powers, and would have to hunt down and possibly destroy, I shivered, my almost-fiancée, I would have called the cops. No, I would have called the cops, the National Guard, and the nearest mental institution.

Edward chuckled. He must have been reading my thoughts at the moment.

"Claudia, you remember Jasper's gift, don't you?" asked Carlisle.

"To be able to change emotions right?" I wasn't sure; I thought that was what they had told me.

"Yes," Carlisle smiled, "so go ahead and try."

I fixed my eyes on Jasper's and thought of making everyone very upset, and though my first try with Edward had taken longer, this time it only took a few seconds, and then everyone had a worried frown on their face, but seeing them all together looking so upset made me feel, somehow, panicked and feeling an opposite déjà vu so I quickly fixed them back to happy.

"Yes, you did it. I'm guessing that with practice you will be able to, ah, borrow other's gifts from a longer distance, and it will come to you faster." smiled Carlisle. It was clear by the look on his face hat he was in fact happy about me becoming a vampire.

I smiled and faintly wondered what I would be able to borrow from Bella once she was a vampire.

Edward growled. Oops.

"Sorry," I thought.

He frowned. I winced.

"So, what do you do for fun around here?" I asked, trying to get Edward's mind off of ways to 'convince' me that Bella wouldn't be turning into a vampire any time soon.

"We read mostly, or listen to music, or in Edward's case, write and play music, but the premise is the same, I guess." said Esme sweetly.

"Or stare into each others eyes and canoodle for hours at a time." Alice laughed, punching Edward's arm, just for the hell of it, it seemed, as I knew that there would be no pain, therefore, no intended pain. At least I was going to be living with a very familial and happy environment for the rest of eternity. And just then it hit me like a ton of bricks that I was immortal, that no matter what, unless I provoked the Volturi or got in a fight with a werewolf at least, I could not be killed, and once we moved from Forks, we wouldn't have to worry about the werewolves. Wow.

I came back to earth and everyone was laughing at a joke that I had missed.

"Or, of course, we think. That is my personal favorite." said Carlisle with a knowing smile; knowing that his option would be the one I would pick.

After the party had disintegrated, I decided to try Carlisle's option. I wanted to think about my life up until then, and try to remember what I couldn't.

I had been born in New York City. I was the product of my mother's 'rebel artist' phase. She had a non-serious relationship with a starving artist, just to make my grandfather angry. I shouldn't say that my mother was a bad person, she was very likable and kind and sweet, she just had some superficial ideals. My father had found out about the pregnancy just after my mother via a letter from my grandparents, their hopes were of making him leave her so she would come home. It didn't work. The idea of having me made them fall even farther in love and they got married two months later.

After that I need to take a moment to try to remember what came next. Then I got it.

Then they moved to my first home, which was a reluctant gift from my grandparents. Once I was born, my grandparents forgot about my father, even to the point of ignoring his presence, but adored me. Naturally I grew up extremely spoiled. I had a walk-in-closet the size of a rather large bedroom, filled with clothes from every designer who was anybody in the fashion world. I grew up attending fashion shows and having birthday parties attended by famous artists, or models, or stage actors, and all their children. Needless to say I lived a pretty good life.

My father died when I was only seven. My mother was at a party, and my father and I were at home. I was in my room with my friends watching a movie, and my father was in his studio. Me and my friends all had wanted some ice cream, so we went down to ask, and we went into his studio and he was lying on the floor. I don't remember anything between that time and when we got to the hospital. It wasn't the change to being a vampire, because my mother told me that I must have blacked out when I told her I didn't remember.

I met Louis when I was fourteen at a social thing with my parents. Once again, my mother had loved these kinds of things and my father liked to go along with it, so I did what he would have done in this case. I had been going through one of my 'rebel' phases, and had enough of the party, and so I had been trying to sneak out, via one of the multiple upstairs balconies. Louis was sitting below, all alone, when I had made a rather ungraceful fall out of the tree, half onto his lap.

"Um, hello?" said a more than surprised Louis.

"Oh my god! I'm so, so, so, so, so sorry!" I replied.

"May I ask what the bloody hell you were doing up there?" he said, more amused this time.

"Uhm... well, it's a funny story really... and quite long. And boring. You wouldn't want to hear it." I was furiously blushing by now. I shifted off of his lap so I was only sitting next to him, as it was kind of awkward.

"Really? Try me?"

"Eh... well I've really got to go... rain check?"

"No." he said with a flirty smile.

"Fine," I pouted, "I was trying to make a graceful getaway to somewhere not as horrifically boring as this."

He laughed. He laughed a lot.

"What's so funny?" I demanded.

"Two," he took a breath, "two things, one: so really you were just running away? And two: you think this," he gestured to himself, "is boring?" he raised his eyebrows, "And three: that wasn't long."

I frowned. "One: yes I guess you could call it that, and two: I was talking about the party inside, which is where I'm guessing you should most likely be at this moment, right? And three: shut up."

"Maybe. You've got a good point." he said to himself, and then he laughed again. "So what's your name?"

I eyed him suspiciously and figured that he was too cute and too young to be some sort of stalker/murderer, "Claudia Debeau. And you?"

"Louis Vonbé"

"Hello, Louis."

"Hello, Claudia. Did anyone ever tell you that you have a very pretty name?"

"Well, my great-aunt Susie, but she doesn't count."

That made him laugh even more than before.

By the end of the night when my mother found me, I had given him my phone number and my email address. The next month we were going out officially, and it had stayed that way, on and off, mostly on, until now.

Suddenly, my cell phone rang, breaking me out of my thoughts. I rummaged through my bag which was conveniently placed next to the couch I was laying on. Probably Alice's doing while I was spaced-out. I found it and read the caller ID. It was my mother.

"Hello."

"Claudia!" Hi honey! I'm sorry I didn't call sooner, I didn't get the chance, you know, stuff going on... so what's up? Have you started school? Do you like the people you are staying with? Whenare you coming home?" The last question hi home, as I would probably not be ever going home, and then I realized that this might be the last time I would speak to my mother, ever. That thought shook through me, and I was almost sobbing without the tears, but I had to put on a happy voice for mom.

"Hi mom. I'm good. I'm staying with a girl and her fiancé's family at my new school. She's nice and I really like her and the family so far."

"What's wrong with your voice?" my mother asked confused as to why my voice had changed in such a short time, of course it was because when I had left I was huamn, and now... well... I wasn't.

"Nothing!" I tried, "Nothing's wrong, I just, have a cold or something, and it's making my voice go all wonky."

"Oh," she didn't seem convinced, "Well, anyway, did you say fiancée? At this age?"

"Yeah, well, they love each other a lot. I mean seriously, it's really intense." It was.

"Mmm..." I could practically see her frown at this.

"So what's up with you?" I asked trying to change the subject.

"Oh, nothing really, oh! Honey, I have to go, I'm going to a party at the Henderson' house. I'll call you later, okay?"

"Okay mom. Bye."

"Bye, honey."

"Oh, wait, Mom!"

"Yes, hun?"

"I love you, mom"

"I love you too, sweetie. Bye."

"Bye."

I hung up the phone and if I could have, I would have cried. I started to sob without tears, my whole body shaking with the force. Immediately Alice was in the room, followed by Edward, who must have read my thoughts, and whispered something in Alice's ear, and she ran over to me and sat down and put her arms around me. Then Bella came in, and sat on my other side. Next was Esme, and then finally, to my surprise, Rosalie, too. I guess the guys left it to the women to be comforting, as I have guessed that they would kind of suck at it anyway.

Haha, you know what I just realized? It goes in alphabetical order, Alice, Bella, and Claudia! All we need is a D name then we'll have D... Esme!! Then... er... Rosalie... whatever. Not going that far down the alphabet.

Chapter nine will be up next week sunday.

love you all, saira