Chapter One: Some Things Will Always Change

Edward's POV

It was raining, but no one in the parking lot of Forks High School took that as a bad sign for the start of the year, just a normal everyday thing. In fact, most of the students that were getting out of their cars, or chatting with friends that hadn't they seen since the beginning of summer, didn't even noticing the rain. There was one thing, well actually seven people to be exact, which held most everyone's attention. It was rare that Forks ever saw anyone new, but the gossip around town for three weeks had been about a family that had just moved into a house a little ways out of town. The father was some hot shot at the hospital, while the mother was a stay at home mom of the adopted children. Everyone that stood in the parking lot that morning were itching to get a look at the new comers, wanting something to talk about and entertain them, on what was bound to be a very boring first day.

That family--happened to be my family. Even if I hadn't been able to read their minds and known that they were all thinking about my siblings, daughter, wife and me, I would have been able to feel their stares. The thoughts behind those stares were what had a slight smirk on my face. It was always the same things, no matter how many times we stepped onto a new campus: wonder and amazement from the simple minded ones, fear and worry from the slightly smarter ones. The girls all wondering if my brothers and I were attached to someone; while the boys made my control walk a thin line in regards not only to my wife but my sisters and daughter. Protectiveness was just something that ran deep and could not be helped. Emmett and Jasper were thinking the same things, wondering which one would be the first stupid one to even look at Bella, Alice, Renesmee or Rosalie wrong. Outside of those feelings and amusement, I couldn't help but feel at home. In the half century we'd been away from Forks, I couldn't think of one place we'd lived that had felt like this. It was like being able to breath with ease again. Not only that, but I could tell that Bella was happier then she'd been in a while. As her eyes scanned the school, I could almost see her coming alive with the idea of being within the walls of the buildings again. What a novel idea.

As Bella wrapped her hand around mine and squeezed as hard as she could, we started toward the building that housed our first class. Jasper and Alice were sticking closer, but behind as they said their good byes. Jasper, pretending once again to be Rosalie's twin, was taking junior classes and that meant hours away from his mate. I could hear Alice's whines in her head at how unfair it was that she was the only one who had to spend time away from her mate. It made me smirk even more, anything that gave the little pixie as much torment as she gave me made me do that. Her whines stopped almost as quickly as they started the moment we all heard a roaring motorcycle pull into the lot. We'd heard it from miles away, but assumed it would move past the school. In less then a half a minute the thoughts of the people around us moved from my family to the figure on a black Honda Interceptor. A name sounded through their thoughts, one that had my feet stopping and a sinking feeling wash over my entire body.

Cassidy Swan.

In moments the motorcycle had parked in the back of the lot and the person stepped off. I never looked at her; I was too busy pulling my schedule out of my bag, and making sure I was wrong. Of course I knew I wasn't. I had the small white piece of paper memorized, as did Bella. Sure enough, beside the first class of the day, Advance English was the name C. Swan.

"Edward, move it. It's just a motorcycle; Jasper's is a lot better." Emmett's voice hissed behind me. With a shove he sent Bella and me forward, making it possible that neither Bella nor Renesmee got a look at the figure on the bike either. But Alice had and from the worried tone of her thoughts she'd caught on rather quickly to the possible problem we were all about to face. Dread washed farther over me when Rosalie, Emmett, and Jasper split off to find their own classes. I didn't understand the worry though, it had been fifty years and it was possible that Swan was a common name. Even if not, it was possible that person it belonged to had never been told anything about the woman beside me that had worry in her eyes as she watched everything I did. When we'd left Charlie had promised that there would be no talk of us, so that we could come back one day.

I was so wrapped up in my concerns that I didn't feel Renesmee come up beside me and wouldn't have if she hadn't wrapped her arm around mine, purposely making sure her bare hand touched my forearm.

The image she sent me was of the entrance of the motorcycle, circled with the confusion she felt from my reaction. I couldn't help but smile down at the copper haired beauty that held her mother's human eyes.

"Just wondering how a teacher could afford it, that's all dear."

She gave me a look that clearly stated she didn't believe me, but let it go so that she could skip up to join a pouting Alice.

"She seems happy to be here." Bella's voice came from my other side. It was barely a whisper, as if she didn't want the humans around us to hear and she probably didn't for good reason.

"She is. It's her home more then ours. She was born here."

"I doubt we'll have an easy time when it comes time to leave again." Bella tended to understand our daughter's reluctance to leave a place better then I did. As nervous as it made me, everywhere, we went Nessie made more friends then was healthy. She hated leaving them, but here would be different. She already had friends here. Jacob's pack mates, those that were still living, that is; and those that weren't there were the families of them that had quickly pushed their way into her huge heart. However, with the thought of the figure on that motorcycle in the front of my mind, it seemed like my wife was going to be right about this. Lluckily we were here for a while…or maybe not so luckily.

It felt like days before we stepped into the classroom that we would spend that next hour in, listening to the person that could possibly be the undoing of my wife and child. It was a small class, only about fifteen of us. Alice and Nessie had already found four seats in a square at the back of the room and were waving at us. Bella slipped into the seat behind Alice, most likely so they could pass notes the whole hour and gossip like always. I took the seat behind Nessie and waited anxiously for our teacher, hoping I was right about their last name being common and not meaning what I assumed it did.

Everyone in the rows in front of us straightened up from their goofing off when the sound of heels come from outside the door. There was a laugh that sounded slightly like sleigh bells, but it cut off as soon as a tall dark haired woman walked through the door, sending more clicks of her heels through the room. Every male in the room sat straighter in their chairs, eyes falling to the woman's legs. None of them wondered how she wore the mid thigh length thing on that motorcycle, however none of them had the world's most beautiful woman so it was forgiven. My own eyes stayed on her face, studying it. Not one feature reminded me of Bella when she'd been human…until I got to the eyes. They weren't as dark as my daughter's, but their shape was the same. Her hair was wet, which would have explained why she'd been pulling it up in a pony tail when she walked through the door, but I could tell it was a dark brown, just not much else. Her skin wasn't pale at all, but not as dark as my son-in-law's. Aside from the short skirt that I still had no clue over how she wore her on mode of transportation, she wore a blouse that was dark blue that buttoned down the front and had a ruffled collar. It struck me for a moment that she really did look the part of an English teacher, minus the skirt. The only part of her that held any resemblance to Bella, was her eyes, and they weren't even a complete match like Nessie's were. I swallowed hard as Alice looked back at me, curiosity lacing the thoughts she sent toward me.

"Good Morning everyone, I hope you're well this morning."

The woman, who had yet to confirm that she was the C. Swan that was on everyone's schedule, greeted us. She smirked knowingly at the mumbles she received from everyone and went to the board after dropping her briefcase off beside her desk chair. She started writing on the white board in a loopy handwriting, Cassidy A. Swan. When she turned around the smirk was gone and in its place was a smile that almost seemed to light up her whole face…except her eyes. She walked around to the front of her desk and leaned back against it. I tried to pull out her thoughts, and almost thought she was like Bella and was going to be blocked from me, but at last I saw them. However, there wasn't anything there that could help me, just the name Ben and worries about how she was going to start the day off. Oh, and if she was going to be yelled at about her short skirt, that caught my attention since it seemed odd for a teacher to think about.

"As I'm sure most of you know, I'm Cassidy Swan, seeing as some of you use to know me as the babysitter you can probably block out the next few minutes, but there are some faces and names I don't recognize, so for them I'll tell you a little bit about myself." She crossed her arms under her breasts and of course lost the attention of about four of the guys in the first and second rows. Nessie and Alice's attention were fully on her, and Bella's was a mystery but at a glance I could see her eyes tuned in on the girl at the front of the room.

"I am Police Chief David Swan's daughter, a few of you have probably met him recently over at the cliffs. I'm slightly disappointed that I wasn't invited to such an interesting gathering." I tried focusing on her words, since her thoughts seemed to circle around the same topics, hoping the words gave me a little more insight. "I'm twenty five and for the last two years have been teaching at a private school in Atlanta, Georgia. I have a degree in Education and a minor in English. I refused to follow in my father's foot steps, much to my mother's pleasure. And as unlikely as it seems to most of you, it really wasn't all that long ago that I was sitting in one of those chairs and because of that I will try my hardest to make sure you stay more entertained with what you learn then what I happen to be wearing." I head Bella snicker at that and grinned a little myself.

She walked back around the desk and leaned down to pick up the brief case. I did have to say, if she was kin at all to Bella, which was becoming clearer by everything she said, she sure hadn't gotten that clumsy gene. Bella hadn't been able to wear heels until she'd been changed, but this woman walked in them without missing a beat. Which was probably a good thing, since the more Bella watched her the more it looked like she was about to explode out of her seat at the poor teacher. There were a few people that shuffled in their seats while our teacher, Ms. Swan, pulled out some papers and handed them to the first person at the top of the rows, gesturing that they pass them back.

"I'm being punished for all the trouble I gave Mr. Howards when I was a student here. Why , you ask. Simple, I was given this class to teach, a class about romantic fiction and its effect on modern works. I will say it once and you won't have to hear it again." She paused, that smirk playing over her lips again. "I have never been a lover of the romantic genre, in fact I have long believed it isn't a real genre at all. However, I was told what to teach and teach it I will. We're going to start with the ever loved play of Romeo and Juliet."

At that she walked to the back of the room, down the middle of the center two rows and luckily far away from Bella and myself, toward the book shelf there. Before she started speaking again, and I knew she was going to, her mind was wrapping itself around what exactly she wanted to say about the play that most everyone she knew loved…but oddly she hated. She'd been right about not being a lover of romantic literature. She started passing out books, copies of the play that had been badly treated or maybe just never been updated since the last time I had used them.

"My freshman year of college I had to study this play. My professor hated it, thought that it was clearly the worst play Shakespeare wrote. At first I disagreed with him. I mean really who could hate Romeo and Juliet? But he did and I remember the first thing he told me."

By now she was back at the front of the room and still the only thing I was getting from her was what she was going to say next, nothing past what was at the very forefront of her brain. I was becoming annoyed by it, I could have really cared less about what she thought of what she was teaching, but she seemed to feel it was important. I had to force myself to listen.

"He said that in the years he'd been teaching that he'd had students come into his class that would argue until they were blue in their faces about how wrong he was about one piece of literature or another. He would stand his ground and give his reasons for his thoughts. At the end of the eighteen weeks most of those students had seen the light, as he said. Now, I'm not here to tell you to hate the play you now have in front of you. But to start off, here is a major reason I do."

She walked back the board and her black marker and wrote a single question under her name in her loopy handwriting.

At what age can a person say they know what real love is?

She turned back around to see confused faces, one of which was my daughter who looked back at me with her confused pout. I nodded back to Ms. Swan and heard Alice laugh at her.

"I'm sure you've heard that saying, 'You're too young to be in love.' I know I heard it a few times when I was your age and at the time I thought the people telling me that were crazy. If that heart pounding crazy feeling I felt every time I was around my first boyfriend wasn't love, then what was?" She smiled again, and yet again it didn't reach her eyes.

"In the context of Romeo and Juliet, I want you to remember that the characters Shakespeare wrote weren't meant to be the adults that normally portray them. They were twelve and thirteen, mere children in our minds, but in that time, practically adults because of the life span." She laid her marker back down and pulled out her chair.

"We have about twenty more minutes, start reading the first act and get as far as you can. For homework I want you to write up an answer to the question on the board. I want an actual number and if you can't come up with one, don't write the paper. It must of course be at least three hundred words, but the more the better." The smirk played back over her lips as she sat down and waved her hand for us to start.

Cassidy's POV

Part of me wanted to run screaming from the parking lot the moment I pulled my motorcycle into it. I wanted to be here--I did. I wanted to be in Forks, minutes away from the middle school, so that if Ben needed me I could be there in no time. I was right across the street from the house I'd grown up in, that way I knew dad and Ben both had home cooked meals. So, while I wanted to run away again, I knew why I was doing this. I had to stay for my family, I couldn't leave them alone. I pulled into a spot and stared into the small line of trees in front of me. I could do this; it was no different then what I'd been doing for the last two years anyway. I had enjoyed high school, even if I hadn't wanted to stay around in the small town that housed it.

When I stepped off my motorcycle into a puddle of water I couldn't help the groan. Two years of endless sun had spoilt me. I was going to hate the weather man again, I could see it already. I forced myself to ignore the stares of my future students. Small town, stares were a given and seeing as I was the hometown girl that had left for seven years, it was also given that I would be on everyone's minds. I headed straight for the building that housed my classroom, beating myself up about not having put an umbrella somewhere on my person. By the time I reached the building my hair was dripping wet, probably ruining the back of my shirt. Yet another thing I ignored and just decided that pony tails were going to become my best friend.

"Look what the cat dragged in." A loud, booming voice came from behind me. I spun around to see the face of the very last person I ever expected to see in the halls of my old high school. Jason Newton, Forks once upon a time heart throb. He'd been the prom king to my queen when we'd been seniors and then ran down to California to UCLA. Like many of the people that had gone to school with me and not on the reservation, I hadn't spoken to him in years, almost a life time.

"I think it may have drowned me first and then dragged me in." I smirked at him as he wrapped his arms around in an awkward hug; everything was awkward with the guy that had been smitten with you for years. My smirk turned a smile when he laughed again and I noticed the wedding band on his left hand, one less thing to worry about.

"It's good to see you, Cas. You look…hell I'll be honest, you like sex on two damn fine legs." I couldn't help but gawk at him before he wiggled his eyebrows at me.

"I have a class to teach Newton, I'll see you around."

I fought a laugh, but I couldn't control it as I started for my room again. Some things in this town would never change. The laugh fell away quickly, they all did. I pulled my hair up, and started in on the day. I tried not to sound like I was lecturing and had to remind myself more then once that this wasn't my first class. I had been doing this for two years. I knew what I was teaching; I knew what I wanted out of this class and the others I had.

I had chosen Romeo and Juliet, not to turn the students off of the romantic genre, but to show them that what everyone said was great, wasn't always great. Plus, it was a given that most of them had probably already read it. It would be a breeze to start with.

I didn't allow myself to take in the faces of who was in the class until I was finally done talking and had them reading. It was as I sat down at my desk that I noticed them. In the back left corner, farthest from the door sat four children that couldn't be real. They were beyond beautiful, and I felt odd saying that since three of them were girls. Their skin was pale, paler then what should have been normal. When the small girl in front lifted her head, her face looked like it had been sculpted by one of the world's finest artist. I was staring, I knew it. I just couldn't tear myself away from them, studying every detail about the four of them. It wasn't until the bell rang that I thought to look down at my class list to see who they may have been.

Alice Cullen

Edward Cullen

Renesmee Cullen

Isabella McCarty

The names bounced off the paper because they weren't names I knew. I knew every family in this town, curse of being not only the current Police Chief's daughter but the granddaughter of the former one. They had to be four of the children that belonged to the new doctor at the hospital. I felt dazed, I couldn't figure out why, but something inside told me that I should know their names even if it was clear I had never met a Cullen or a McCarty in my life. I didn't pull myself out of my stupor until my first class of seniors had taken their seats. I'm sure me staring off into space was an amazing welcome to the class look.

"Good morning, hope everyone made it through our wash out in one piece…" And off I went, another class, another type of writing. But those four children stayed in the back of my mind for most of the hour.