Chapter 5: Avoiding Notice

We walked instead of ran, and talked about lots of stuff. Rosalie and Emmett were encouraging the idea of the swim, but Alice argued that she wanted to go to the mall. A long time later, when the votes were equal –Renesmee and Jacob for the mall because he couldn't swim, and I hated shopping- we reached the lake. Rosalie, Jacob and Emmett jumped, Jacob using the rocks especially placed for him. Renesmee and I followed. We made our way up to the house, when suddenly, there was a splash.

Alice?

I turned and saw a dripping wet figure standing in the middle of the lake. Her face was completely blank. Her eyes were staring unseeingly, and I knew she wouldn't be aware of anything. Jacob tried to use his teeth and pull her out from his rock, but almost fell in too, so I waded in myself.

I dragged her out, and waited. The she finally opened her mouth. 'The girl...' she spluttered, 'she... she...' Alice fell into a coughing fit as she regurgitated water and I patted her back. When she finally finished, she didn't leave anytime to recover, instead leaping to her feet and starting to run.

'Alice!' yelled Renesmee and Rosalie, starting to follow, 'where are you going?'
'We have to get there before she revives. Hurry!' Alice called back without turning.
We ran to the private meadow, a place the rest of us other than Bella and Edward, usually avoided. We met a shocked looking couple, who were staring at a small smear of blood on the tree trunk of a tall fir.

'Alice! What happened? It was so quick. She just tumbled in and ran off,' Bella automatically said. 'We have to go after her,' continued Edward, 'she's fainted. Her mind is completely blank.' Alice shook her head. 'We can't. She'll know Jessica was right and we can't risk that!' Bella said, her eyebrow creasing with worry. 'What on Earth happened?' asked Renesmee, as confused as I was. 'The girl fell into the meadow, and she saw us. I don't know what she was thinking; her mind was so confused it was shutting down. She forced herself to run away, and fainted someplace off. Then you barged in,' Edward explained, and then added, 'she it her head pretty badly too.'

'She might think she imagined it?' asked Rosalie. 'True,' agreed Emmett, 'but can we chance that?'
'I say we clean her wound and get her back to her car. She'll think she slept off.' Everybody stared at Jacob, stunned. 'Not all of my plans are bad!' he exclaimed.

'Should we get Carlisle?' asked Bella. 'Edward can handle it,' Alice replied quickly, and then we set off, following the girls scent. We found her sprawled on the floor amongst leaves and twigs with a trickle of blood running down her forehead. I couldn't help licking my lips, although I'd almost completely overcome the bloodlust problem I'd once had. Alice, however, decided not to take a chance.

'Go Jasper. Go and take Renesmee.' She saw that I was about to argue, so she added, 'someone will need to tell Carlisle and Esme.' She was right. Renesmee cursed under her breath and stalked off. Alice gave me a sympathetic glance, and then I followed Renesmee.

'...and hopefully thinks she fell asleep. To be continued...' Renesmee finished narrating when we were back. 'Good. You did the right thing. I'm proud,' said Carlisle. 'Will she be OK?' asked Esme, feeling worried. 'I'm sure. She wasn't bleeding too badly. Just a cut I think. But Edward said it looked bad, but he was really confused,' I comforted her.

At that moment, the rest arrived.
'It's absolutely fine. We cleaned her cut, put her in the car –pretty cool one too- and started the engine just as she was coming too. We stayed behind a bit to hear if she fell for it, but we needn't have. You could have heard her cussing from the next state when she thought she'd fell asleep in the midst of driving,' Emmett narrated. 'I know it was foolish, but we thought that it would be easier for her to believe she had just imagined the meadow if she didn't wake up in the middle of the forest,' explained Bella upon seeing Esme's disapproving look. She sighed and nodded.

'Alice? What has she decided now?' Carlisle asked. Alice closed her eyes and held her fingers at her temple. A minute passed. Two minutes. Three minutes. Then, very suddenly, both Edward and Alice jumped to their feet and gasped simultaneously. 'Oh no!'