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Chapter 5
(Iggy's POV)
Things had sorted themselves out rather nicely I think. Carlisle took my father to the hospital and said that I, his son, found him and presumed he was mugged. Carlisle also mentioned that earlier that night I'd explained to my father that I was an adult and wanted to live by myself. I told them that he'd been angry over it and gone off alone. They said that they'd talk to him about it and he'd agreed that I was an adult and could live with Fang and Max. His back had been hit a certain way though that if she hit slightly upward and to the left he might have been paralyzed for life.
That was all last night, this morning Carlisle had made me go upstairs and pull up my shirt to show him the bruises that were starting to form.
Down and across my stomach was black and blue and once I'd shown him, I immediately pulled my shirt down and made sure no one else could see them. He'd asked if he could take pictures of them so he could report what my father did but I told him he couldn't. I was free now; my father and mother had backed down. They've let me go and I could do what I wanted.
I walked downstairs to see Fang and he smiled at me. "How's it going?" he asked.
"Okay, how's the valedictorian speech going?" I asked him.
He chuckled, "Nearly perfect."
"Well you've got till 3 o'clock to make it perfect, because if it's boring, I swear I'll start snoring," I teased him.
He rolled his eyes, "You know I think some nerd was glaring at me yesterday in math. It was pretty weird."
"Well he probably was working to be valedictorian all his life," I said chuckling and Fang sniggered and shrugged.
Fang looked out to the front where Jim was pulling up, "Hey, I'll talk to you later; I need to talk to Jim."
I nodded and went to the kitchen for breakfast.
(Fang's POV)
I took a deep breath as I walked outside and towards Jim's car. Casey and Jim got out and Casey waved at me. I nodded to her as I walked past her and she went inside. "Hey Jim, can I ask you something?"
"Sure," he said shrugging.
I took a deep breath, "Can you teach me how to drive?"
He stared at me for about ten seconds before he clicked his tongue, "Sure, why not?" I got the feeling it was more to himself.
"Well… not right now, don't I need a driver's education book or something…" I muttered and Jim just shook his head as I talked.
"No, no, no, I'll teach you, come on, jump in," he said nodding to the car.
"Uh… okay," my breath picked up a bit as I climbed into the drivers' seat.
I took a deep breath, "What now?"
Alice suddenly walked out of the house and opened the backseat door and got in. "I want to see this," she said after we stared at her for a few seconds.
"Hold it. We should teach him somewhere were it's less likely that he's going to ruin my car." Jim said his hand flying up and he got out of the car. I opened my door as he came around the front of the car and we changed seats.
"Hey, go over to our old house, we've got that field in the back, it should be good," Alice said and Jim nodded.
We pulled up to the Cullen's old house and Jim parked the car in the middle of their backyard and we switched seats again.
"Okay, so, put on your seat belt," Jim instructed and I obeyed. "Turn on the car, so turn the key all the way." I followed the instructions and my left hand shook as it held the wheel as the car purred to life.
"Are you sure about this Fang? Maybe you should read the book before driving…" Jim said biting his lip.
"No, I want to do this, so what now?" I asked him. I'd driven once before but I wasn't that good at it and I was kind of winging it. I wanted to learn this right.
"Okay, put it in first and you don't even need to push the pedal yet," Jim said and I did what he said. My hands were shaking as the car moved forwards without me even making it to.
"Jim! It's moving on its own, how do I make it stop?" I asked panicking slightly.
"Oh, right… the pedals. The left one is the break, put your foot on it." Jim said and I wondered if I should really be learning from him. I looked down and put my foot on the left pedal and the car instantly stopped.
Alice giggled, "See Fang, it's not as hard as it looks."
I sighed and leaned back in the car seat. "Maybe we should wait…" Jim muttered.
"Shut up Jim and teach me," I said now determined.
We spent a good hour and a half teaching me how to drive. It was actually okay. I had a few internal panic attacks but all in all it was alright.
When we went back home I actually drove back on the roads. As I pulled into the driveway, Max came out of the house with a surprised look on her face.
I parked the car like we'd practiced and turned off the engine. I sighed and leaned back on the seat.
"See it's not that bad," Jim said smiling.
"Well… not really… I guess. Driving on the road was… interesting." I didn't want to admit that it had scared the hell out of me to be on the road with other cars.
Alice patted my shoulder, "You did amazing Fang, come on, we need to get ready."
I nodded and climbed out of the car. Max walked down the steps and walked over to me. She flung her arms around me, "Are you okay?" She asked.
I smiled, "Ya, of course."
"Why were you driving anyways? I thought you were afraid of cars," She whispered pulling back slightly to see my face.
I nodded, "I was, I am, but I kind of reasoned that I need to get over it… you know? I mean… she's dead, oh well, what could I have done? Nothing, so I don't know… I thought I might as well try it," I muttered looking into her eyes.
She hugged me and I stood there, a little like a statue, "Well, okay, but just… go at your own pace, okay?" She said holding my face in her delicate yet strong hands. I smiled and nodded. She grinned, "Well okay, now come on, it's nearly time for you to put the nerds to shame."
I chuckled and wrapped my arm around her shoulders, "Alright, as long as you'll be my nerdy fan girl."
"Should I wave a textbook or an 'I love the valedictorian' banner?" She asked sarcastically and I chuckled as we headed towards the house.
Once we were on the porch I paused slightly. "Just clap at the end… I don't know how good it'll be and I want at least someone to clap," I said with a laugh, but on the inside I was kind of worrying. What if everyone was like 'what the hell?' and didn't clap at the end.
Max reached up and kissed my cheek, "You'll at least have… 18 people clapping for you… and that should jump start the applause."
I did the mental math, "Who're the extra three?" I asked her.
"Sam, Seth and Billy are going," she said and I groaned.
"Great, that old Billy goat gets another opportunity to judge me," I grumbled.
She looked up at me with gentle eyes, "Well maybe you shouldn't judge him before he judges you."
"What do you mean? He thinks I'm some bratty delinquent teenager." I said feeling confused. She was siding with him?
"Ya, he did… but he saw how you acted with Lilith and learned your story so he figured you at least deserved the right of a closer look," Max said smiling.
"How do you know that?" I asked frowning slightly.
"Angel told me," she said calmly.
"How did she know? She's been here for one night." I felt frustratingly confused.
"He was at the talent show," Max explained easily.
"You've just got an answer for everything don't you," I sighed and she grinned and nodded. I squeezed her shoulders and led her inside.
I shook out my hands as I waited for this to get started. We'd done a million pictures and we had all gone up for the weird scroll things, diplomas or whatever, and I had to go up soon.
Max squeezed my hand as the principal called me up after delivering her famous 'simmer down, simmer down' line. I kissed her cheek and whispered, "Wish me luck," as I got up.
She instantly whispered back, "You don't need it," as I walked away.
I stepped up on stage and I felt like the whole world was staring at me. I took a deep breath and focused in on one face, Max's. I smiled at her, she smiled and nodded back, showing me that she believed that I could do this.
I breathed out slowly, making sure my breath didn't mess up the microphone in the process. "Hi everyone," I started.
Almost instantly I heard several voices shout out the words, "Hi Nick!" I could pick out every one of them. They were all my close friends and family.
I chuckled and looked down, "Nice guys, well, I guess I should get down to business." I said and I got a few chuckles here and there.
I glanced at Max and she smiled encouragingly. "Well as most, if not all, of you know that I've had a pretty hard year." I paused for a second, "After the death of my parents for a long time the fear of losing everyone else I loved was my constant companion. Throughout this year I've learned that fearing that won't do me any good." I looked at Max and she smiled at me, showing me that she was proud of me.
I looked out among my classmates, "When I first came here I made a subconscious effort not to make friends. I didn't want to go through the pain of losing any more people. A few weeks later I realized that keeping to myself was not going to work. My first friend here in Forks is now one of my best friends. He's stuck by me no matter what problems I've made and helped me solve them. He's been by my side when I needed him the most. Here in Forks, Jim Creek made life better." I looked down at Jim and he actually blushed and a few people reached over to ruffle his hair and push his shoulder.
"Alright 'simmer down, simmer down,'" I said in a near perfect mimicry of our principal. Several kids laughed and I smiled. "
"We're leaving high school, and this is huge people. When we walk out those doors on the last day of school we are official adults… physically, unfortunately some of us are still five in our minds…" I looked meaningfully at Jim and several people laughed.
I took another deep breath, "So what I'm saying is we're going all over places, all over the world to chase our dreams. Our friendships will be spread far and wide and what's to say we won't lose contact or drift apart? What I'm saying is that you can't let that fear get in the way. Everyone has their own path and their own destiny, we can't just jump to our friends paths to rid ourselves of a little heart ache. You may not be on the same path but it doesn't mean you can't be a part of each others lives.
"This year we had to choose a lot of stuff about life. What college to go to, if you're going to work for a year, or if you're doing a little of both," I chuckled. "To those who are doing the work/college thing, I seriously bow to you. I know I've got a long year of work to go before I can even think about being able to pay for more school so to all of you whose parents are paying for your college or who've saved up since elementary school, I envy you. Your parents love you very much to pay for something so huge and if you saved it up yourself you have some serious will power. I can't even save up money for a new computer these days, but that's totally off topic." I took another deep breath. I was sounding close to Nudge. I needed to just relax; everything was going smoothly, and as far as I could tell, I had the audiences' attention.
I smiled, "The point I wanted to make is that you can't let fear hold you back. It held me back for a while but not any more. It'll only hurt you and the people who love you. Your friends and family will always have your back, no matter what, so just relax! Take a deep breath. No matter where you go, if you stay here or you travel the world, you'll always have friends somewhere to look out for you." I glanced back at the principal who I noticed quickly glance at her watch. "Well it seems my time is up, so… stay safe, keep your friends close and I hope to see you all at our high school reunion." I said with a smile and stepped down.
I walked down to my seat and Max held my hand, she whispered, "That was awesome."
"That was terrifying," I whispered back.
She kissed my cheek, "Regardless, you did great."
After we were let out we all met up to have dinner at Alison's and Jacob's house.
It was fun; I was sitting at the table with Lilith when Emeric came into the room. He looked down at us and frowned slightly, "Were you somewhere important just now?"
"Graduation," I said kind of quietly. "I was the valedictorian, so I kind of needed to go," I added.
He looked down at me, "Sorry I couldn't be there, my brother was holding a meeting."
Alice walking to the room just then, her eyes on Emeric and I. "Fang," she said her voice was worried.
"What is it Alice?" I asked getting up and walking towards her. She looked very worried.
"Your future just disappeared…" She whispered too quietly for Lilith to hear.
I took in a deep breath, I swallowed, "Are you sure? I was just talking to Emeric… I'm sure it's no big deal."
She nodded, "We're leaving later tonight… are you sure we shouldn't stick around a little, I'm sure we could stay a few days…."
I smiled, "Alice as nice as that would be, you have a home and I'm sure your presence here sends Sam on edge… I'll come visit you this summer though, alright?"
She nodded she gave me a hug and said, "I'll call you to see when you want to head up there."
I smiled, "I'm sure you could just predict it if you wanted."
She giggled slightly; I could tell my sudden disappearance of my future worried her. There was nothing to worry about though, we were among werewolves; of course my future was going to be sketchy.
She was turning around as I felt like the whole world was shattering in my mind.
I blinked in effort to make the pain reside but it was too much. Pictures flashed across my mind at rapid speed and I groaned. In a split second, Alice was facing away from me and in another she was facing towards me.
She held me up as it all passed through. I could see wolves running through the forest and it suddenly switched to Randle walking in a house to some scientists at the school to the people in the room watching me.
I winced and my legs felt like jello. "Alice… something's wrong," I whispered before it all faded into darkness.
