Author's note: ooh! Here's another chapter!
Disclaimer: You know that I don't own it.
Chapter 8
"Tanya"
I chuckled as the three so-called vampires in the music video hypnotized some girls to walk toward them and they began to dance. When I was done searching for new things, I wanted to look for the music videos. When I got on the website for videos, I realized that I had never seen "A Little Less Sixteen Candles, A Little More Touch Me" by Fall-Out Boy. Watching that now, I saw that it starred vampires, which was cool, but they were way off! I don't think that we could be killed or hurt so easily! I laughed a little more as Pete Wentz battled a choreographed fight with other "vampires", defeating them with loud kicks and punches. I closed the video and went back to my music file.
When I had gotten on the computer, I had first started a search of the best and latest songs of 2007 and came up with a ton of them. Logan had taught me a few useful skills with computers so, using the knowledge he gave me, I had opened a new file on the computer, and found a couple different downloadable websites that allowed me to download free music. I thought of a website that I had once used for getting music and skimmed through the links and packages until I found it. I remembered that when I got it I had to pay a sort of fee for it, and as I looked for a price next to it, I saw that the price had raised since then.
Logan told me that there were types of computer hacking that allowed you to get things like that for free, but you had to "cover your tracks", so to speak; if you were caught, you would most likely have to pay a fine or be charged with illegal computer hacking. He mentioned the 'back doors' then (even though he said he wasn't supposed to) but didn't say more than that.
Biting my lip, I clicked on the package for the website and skimmed through the information on what you would get. It was definitely more expensive than the price I had gotten for it a while ago, and I wasn't about to go and ask Carlisle or Esme or Tanya or anyone else for money to have access to a website priced like this! I wasn't sure how to go about hacking into this website. I knew that I was going to try, but it would be hard to 'cover my tracks' - how did you do that, anyway?!
I went back to the page I found the link on and highlighted it. I had absolutely no idea how to do this, so I randomly typed in a key combination. The highlighted words blinked but didn't do anything else. I furrowed my eyebrows and tried another key combination. From the speakers next to my computer screen I heard a 'ding' and a little pop-up thing came up. I scanned what it said and found that I had successfully hacked into downloading it for free! I clicked 'Yes' on the option for downloading it and answered a few other things. It asked me again if I wanted to download it and again, I clicked 'Yes'. A little bar began to fill with red, making it's way to the right end of it. When it had completely filled, another pop-up thing came up and said that there was a shortcut on my desktop to the site. The mini pop-up thing closed and I stared at the computer screen for a few seconds.
"Holy crap." I whispered. "I just did it!" I had just hacked into getting a website for free… Logan would be so proud! I smiled to myself as I thought of what his reaction would be.
Then I stopped; it made me kind of sad again. And besides, I think that what I just did was illegal! Holy cow. I focused on the screen again. Maybe now is a good time to cover my tracks! I thought nervously. How did I even do that?! I closed the window with the page of downloadable websites and stared at my desktop. There was the icon for downloading music, but was closing the page like I just had good enough?
I began to turn my computer back off. Maybe I'm overreacting as usual I thought. But it's worth not getting caught for this… better safe than sorry.
After my computer turned off completely, I turned it back on. I remembered a few titles or artists of the songs I found when I searched for new ones, and got to downloading.
OOOOOOOOOOOOO
"Shawty had them apple bottom jeans (jeans)
Boots with the fur (with the fur)
The whole club was looking at her"
I bopped my head to the beat of the song. It was Low by Flo Rida and T-Pain.
Before I heard any of the songs, I searched new ones, downloaded them and put them in the new file I had reserved for music on my computer. Now, I was listening to the new songs (getting rid of the few I didn't like) while making sure I had gotten all of the songs that were currently on my iPod.
If we got presents for Christmas, all I wanted was a charger for my iPod -- it's current supply of power wasn't going to last much longer -- and I was going to make sure I could put new songs on it, too. I liked a lot of these new ones!
I like a very wide range of music; rock, pop, hip hop, heavy metal, alternative rock, indie, emo, punk, and even classical. You could get me to listen to just about anything , with the exception that I only like a few country songs and, in all honesty, if I listened to it for too long, rap tended to bore me after a while.
In my little hunt for new songs, I had found a lot! Some of my new favorites were Kiss Kiss by Chris Brown, Misery Business by Paramore, Take You There by Sean Kingston, and Love Song by Sara Bareilles and a couple more. And of course I still loved Apologize by Timbaland and One Republic, The Way I Are, Holiday, Le Disko, Time Is Running Out by Muse, Linkin Park songs, and a lot more!
I looked at the light green clock on my wall with little blue flowers on the clock's face, and saw that it was almost three in the afternoon! I had completely lost track of time - I've been on the computer now for at least four hours! Closing up the windows, I decided that I'd had enough computer time for now.
I stood up and looked around my room. I could watch TV, I thought when my eyes fell on the TV on top of the armoire. No, don't be all anti-social. Go see what's going on. I told myself.
I headed towards my door and looked both ways down the hall. I didn't see anyone. I headed down the hall, went around a corner, and headed down that hall and to the stairs. When I went down the stairs, I found Esme and Carmen talking on the couch. As they continued talking, Esme smiled and nodded at me. I smiled and nodded back at her and Carmen turned around.
"Hello, Courtney." She said. I smiled and said,
"Hi." Carmen turned back to Esme and they continued talking, and I walked into the kitchen. It was a pretty, shiny, nice kitchen with granite countertops and all. I continued through the kitchen and past a door. I went through another arch that opened up to some huge garden room. It kind of reminded me of the Reptile Room from "A Series of Unfortunate Events", just not quite so big. I strolled into the room and glanced around myself as I went. Even though it was the dead of winter in Alaska, they still had a few healthy-looking plants and shrubs growing. It was very peaceful in this room. I turned around and walked back out. As I passed through the kitchen again, I saw the door and opened it. It was a garage.
The lights were on, and Rosalie's BMW was in there. I went down the little steps and walked closer to her car; someone's legs were coming out from under the BMW! I went to the side of her car and ducked down to see who was there. Rosalie turned her head and smiled at me. Even with a few smudges of grease on her face and her hair coming out of her bun, her beauty was stunning.
"Hi, Courtney." she said. She turned back to what she was doing and kept tightening something. Or was she loosening it?
"Hi, Rosalie?" I said. "What are you doing?" She kept cranking as she replied,
"I'm fixing my car."
"What's wrong with it?" I asked her. Did something happen on the drive that did something to her car?
"Oh, there's nothing wrong; I just like playing around with the parts and stuff." Oh. Rosalie was kind of like a mechanic.
"Oh, that's cool…. Is it fun?" It seemed like it would be fun to configure the parts of a car and things like that.
"Yep. Sometimes, with the right parts, you can go faster or break quicker." She said.
"Well that's cool." I didn't really know what else to say, so I decided to leave her to her fun. I straightened back up and said, "See you later, Rosalie." I turned to leave and I heard,
"Bye, Courtney." from under the car. I laughed silently to myself and went back into the kitchen. I leaned against the counter as I thought of what to do now. I wonder if anyone's gone hunting I thought to myself. Within the next couple days, I could probably use a hunting trip. I looked out the window and thought abut when the next time I could go hunting was. I wonder if the Cullens hunt in groups. Thinking about hunting brought back yet another memory.
It made me think of the man I killed after I had woken up from my 'change'. What had happened when I was changed? Who did it? When Edward, Alice and Jasper were telling me their stories of how they were… made into vampires, they told me that Alice had woken up alone. That the one who changed her had left and that that was a weird thing. Why was I left alone too? I knew that you had to bite someone in order to turn them into a vampire, but you must have some sort of purpose for biting them other than just to feed. It was a mystery to me why I was bitten. It couldn't have been something like love that I was bitten and not… eaten. Seriously, what are the odds of THAT happening? I certainly wasn't in love with any vampires, and no vampire loved me… to my knowledge, anyway.
I remembered that me attacking that one guy was an accident and I briefly wondered if I was an accident. Maybe the one who turned me just caught themselves before they could finish the job, but not before the effects of the damage. I thought. I was right on the line where you were saved from dying, but you weren't at the same time. Wait, what? I tilted my head to the side as I tried to make more sense of that. I'm saved, but I'm not saved?… Courtney, that doesn't make any sense! I just rolled my eyes at myself and tried to clear my head.
I pushed myself off of the counter and headed back to the living room. This time, I went past the stairs going up, and went to the door to the stairs. I wonder who is down here. I thought to myself as I began down the stairs. These stairs were pretty wide, and I saw that once I got to the bottom, it opened up into a large living room about the size of the one upstairs. Except for this one had a big entertainment system!
A large couch and two smaller couches were surrounding a small round, glass coffee table on a big rug. Behind the couches on the far wall from me, there were three computers with chairs. A small distance from the computers was a circular, dark wooden table with a few chairs around that. In the far corner of the room, there was a fancy-looking pool table with a rack of cue sticks and chalk along the wall behind it, the balls in the pockets on the table. Oooh, fancy. I thought. To my right, there was a hall going farther into this lower floor, but I could check that out later.
I looked back to the couches. Emmett and Edward were playing a game of Halo or something, Jasper was watching their game, sitting on the left side couch, and Carlisle was sitting at a computer with Tanya. It looked like they were discussing something. Smiling, I looked back at Edward, Emmett, and Jasper and walked over to them. I leaned on the back of the big couch and watched their game. They were pretty good. I had only ever played Halo once, and I was horrible!
I didn't want to cross in front of them and block their view, so I braced my hand on the couch (careful not to damage it) and tried to lightly jump over it, not disturbing anyone. I landed in front of the couch, behind the small table and sat down. Jasper looked at me and said,
"Hey, Courtney."
"Hey Jasper", I said, giving him a slight smile. He turned his head back to the game. "Halo?" I asked him, even though Edward and Emmett were mere feet away from me. I looked back at them, securely engaged in combat.
"Yep." he replied. "They've been going at it for almost three hours, now." I smiled. There were more war sound effects, a very large explosion and I think that the game was over for one of them because Edward put his controller down and said,
"And I think we should either stop playing and do something else, or play a different game." He looked at Emmett and raised his eyebrows. Emmett, a little louder than usual, simply said,
"Oh, so you give up?" Edward just smiled, shook his head and said,
"I never give up, I'm just kind of tired of this game. We've been playing for three hours now, Emmett." Then he glanced at a clock on the wall. Emmett seemed only mildly surprised.
"Hmm, really?" He said, also looking at the clock. Edward stood up and said,
"Someone can take my place." He looked at me and winked, giving me and expression that I read as, 'Show him what you got, Courtney'. I smiled at him and watched him walk over to Carlisle and Tanya, still at the computer. I looked at Emmett who was now going through a stack of games next to a small cabinet with many more in it. I looked at Jasper who was also watching Emmett go through the games, his arms folded.
"What are you going to play, Emmett?" I asked, curiously. Maybe he could teach me how to play something, or we could have another round of racing.
"I think I'm going play Resident Evil 4." he said, turning a game over to look at the back of it. I watched as he put the game in and the menu loaded. It started out with a small video clip with come information giving you the low-down on what was happening and what you had to do. Basically, there was a guy named Leon who was supposed to safely retrieve the president's daughter and safely take her home. After the little intro, you were good to start playing. I watched as Emmett took this blond guy (Leon) around an old abandoned village and choose that as my time to ask.
"Hey Emmett, do you think you could show me how to play that?" He didn't look away from the TV but said,
"You don't know how to play this?"
"Not very well." I replied, sounding a bit embarrassed.
"Well, come sit down and I'll give you some pointers." he said, smiling. I walked around the small table and sat down my him. "It's really simple, you just have to lead him around and shoot anything that poses a threat."
He handed me the controller and began instructing me on where to go and what to do. "Now, there's going to be a zombie up here, so you just need to hold down the right trigger to aim and then press 'A' to shoot."
"Ok", I said, trying to sound just a teensy bit unsure but like I was trying to hide that. I saw him smile out of the corner of my eye, and knew that I had fooled him. Yes, I had to admit that I was pretty bad at this, but with Emmett's help, I would become a pro. Emmett seemed to like competition, and maybe I could surprise him and eventually be as good as he was. That would probably take some practicing, though.
I walked the game character around a bit aimlessly, waiting for when I would have to shoot the "zombie" or whatever it would be when it came. I found it and heard it shout something in another language -- which I recognized as Spanish -- and then it came at me. I aimed and shot, killing it, and looked at Emmett. He nodded and I just smiled and I turned back to the game.
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
We were a couple different levels later, I had yet to beat this giant fish-thing called Del lago. I got into the boat for the second time and drove around the lake a little until the fish showed up.
"Oh, boy, here we go." I muttered to myself. I couldn't beat the fish the first time around but I knew what it was that I had to do this time, and I was prepared. I kind of felt like an idiot, though; my reflexes were enhanced, helping me a lot, and the tips from Emmett were nice too. But if I couldn't beat it this time, and with all the help I was getting, I'd feel kind of stupid.
The rope attached to the boat was now on Del lago, I just had to keep throwing harpoons at it and avoid the pieces of driftwood threatening to knock the boat over. I tossed the first and almost missed. A huge chunk of tree root floating on the water was coming at me fast. I swung the boat around it and smiled to myself. It would be easy now. I leaned forward and began throwing harpoons in the game again. I threw one, then another, and then another. Emmett chuckled and I threw another one. I tried one more and was successful in killing the overgrown fish. The game saved and I leaned back and smiled at Emmett.
His laughing got louder and he said,
"Nice job, Courtney…. You are learning well, grasshopper." I laughed at him and said,
"Thanks." I put the controller down and stood up. "I'm gonna take a little break, ok?"
"Yeah, that's fine." he said, calming his laughter. He picked up the controller and asked,
"Do you mind if I play for a few minutes?"
"No, that's fine." I said.
I stretched my arms out in front of me then put them down. I tilted my head just a millimeter to the side. I didn't really need to stretch; I'm a vampire. Oh well, probably just a habit. I thought. I smiled and walked away from my previous spot on the floor. I kept an eye on what was happening on the TV screen and walked around to the back of the couch to lean on it.
"-- I know! But I told her --" I heard light laughter and turned around to see Tanya telling Edward and Carlisle something. Carlisle was at the computer, turned away from the computer screen, facing Edward and Tanya who were seated at the table. Tanya was telling them something about a past event that had probably happened while the Cullens were gone. I wondered why I hadn't heard them laughing before, but let it go. Something seemed off.
I focused on Tanya's face. Sure she was a nice girl, very pretty, too. But she was doing something different; she had her head slightly cocked to the side as Edward gave a short reply, and then she started laughing again. In my opinion, she was giggling and looking too interested in what was going on for this to be a casual conversation.
I studied Edward's face. It was polite and open, yet sort of blank. He had a kind smile on his face as he listened to Tanya. They looked comfortable as they were talking, but from what I was seeing, it didn't completely seem like they were just hanging out, talking.
Something on the computer screen caught Carlisle's attention so he turned back to the computer screen. As I kept watching Tanya and Edward, it finally dawned on me what seemed kind of weird about this.
Oh, my gosh…. It was partly an accident that I had let my guard down, but I also did it partly on purpose. In all honesty, I was trying to just stand off to the side, be out of the way as they were talking. But with my next thoughts, I tried to let my mind be open - let Edward read my thoughts even though it might be a little distracting to him.
Is she -- is Edward -- are they… ohmigosh!
I kept carefully watching Edward's face as I "accidentally" let him hear my thoughts, seeing if his expression changed. It did. Something flickered in his face but I wasn't quite sure what it was. I smiled; it was like I was back in high school, teasing Beth about something she thought for sure that I didn't know about!
Are you guys -- wait a minute, whoa! I laughed silently to myself as I saw that he realized that I saw what was going on. He seemed a bit surprised or frustrated -- I couldn't tell yet.
Is she FLIRTING with him?! I watched in amusement as Edward tried to focus on what Tanya was saying, trying to conceal the difficulty I was giving him. I couldn't blame him; I had totally lost rack of what she was saying! I laughed a bit harder, trying not to burst out laughing.
I was starting to feel kind of bad for doing this to him, though. When I first saw them, I could tell that he was just a bit uncomfortable. And if I could see that she was interested in him, that probably meant that at least one other person in this house had noticed. I tried to stop laughing before anyone else noticed what was going on - what I was doing . I turned around to see where Emmett was in the game and to make sure that both he and Jasper were still over in their little world with the video games. As I glanced at Jasper, he turned his head and gave me a knowing smile with a twinkle in his eye. I smiled mischievously back at him.
The emotions coming from me -- and maybe Edward too -- had probably alerted him as to what was going on. I looked back at Edward and Tanya and decided to have mercy on him. If he knew what I was doing -- and he most likely did -- he wouldn't like it. And I didn't want to be mean to him; I'd had my fun, so I decided to give it a rest.
Picking up from where my thoughts had left off, still giving him a bit of a hard time, I thought, Wow, she IS flirting with Edward! Edward didn't really respond, but I could tell from the way that he shifted his weight in his seat that he definitely heard me. I smiled.
…Do you need help, Edward? He was still listening to Tanya, but he perked up just a tiny bit; I was probably the only one to notice - me and Jasper, perhaps. I tried to explain with my feelings (through my thoughts) that I would somehow "save" him from Tanya's flirting if he needed me too.
Do you want me to leave you alone? He didn't respond. If anything, he froze in place. Can I join your conversation? I tried to find an alternative since -- what I read from his body language -- he didn't seem to want me to leave them alone. He relaxed a bit when I asked him that last question; it seemed to make things better. Do you want to be left alone, maybe want me to get you out of there? I tried to make up for making him so uncomfortable just seconds before. Still looking at Tanya, he nodded and said,
"Yes, yes." I had completely lost track of where their conversation was going, and I couldn't tell if he was agreeing with something Tanya had said or if he was answering me. Maybe it was both.
But, like I had been, I kept carefully watching him. I saw that he was not only talking to Tanya but also answering my thoughts when his eyes quickly flashed to mine then back to Tanya. I chose then to sort of "close my mind" again. I thought, Alright, how am I going to do this.
As I thought of something to say to interrupt them, but still be polite and innocent in my mission, I turned around and saw that Emmett was still into the video game, but Jasper was still watching with a slight smile on his face. From what he could sense from me and Edward, he could probably tell that I was about to intervene. He gave me a small nod and turned back to the game. That's it!
Having thought of something to say, I turned back to them. I walked a little closer and said,
"Hey guys, have you played that? It's so much fun! Emmett's really good!"
They looked up at me and Edward said,
"Oh, hi Courtney. Tanya was just telling me of a hunting trip they went on while we were gone." My idea of talking about the video games was kind of stupid, so I changed subjects, with Edward's help.
"Oh, hey, speaking of which," I walked a little closer and stood behind one of the chairs. I rested my hands on it as I continued. "When do you think the next time an opportunity for hunting might be available?" Ha! I thought. Not only was I helping Edward, I was also getting good information for myself at the same time.
As I was talking, Carlisle turned around. He spoke up and said, "You can go whenever you like, Courtney."
"Does it matter where I go?" I asked.
"As long as you try to stay a distance away from towns and things, it doesn't matter." He reassured me. I internally cringed; I really should steer clear of populated areas. Hopefully, the next time we go somewhere, I'll be able to contain myself a little better.
"Ok, thanks." I smiled at Carlisle and then quickly glanced at Edward. Come on, that's your cue. I thought. He probably didn't hear it, though; I wasn't quite willing my thoughts to him like I was before.
"When are you going, Courtney?" he asked, casually making a move to stand up.
"Uh, later tonight, maybe."
"Do you mind if I go with you?" He fully stood up. "I could use a little hunt, just in case." He then looked at Tanya and said, "It was nice talking with you, Tanya." She nodded to him and said,
"You, too, Edward." I smiled at her and she gave a smile back. It was still friendly, but I think that she didn't quite like me interrupting their conversation.
I didn't really know where I was going or what I was going to do just now, but I turned and walked up the stairs. Edward was almost to the top already.
I guess I was going to get ready to go hunting.
Author's note: Ello! I hope you like it! If you want, please give me some tips and Review!!!
-ELS
