"Oh but ain't that America for you and me,
Ain't that America something to see, baby. Ain't that America home of the free, Little pink houses for you and me." -John Mellencamp
The entire journey to Washington was very odd. I saw so many things that I had only read about in books. First we hiked up to Egypt, that only took six hours. It felt so weird to be running for so long and not get tired. Even my parents, carrying multiple suitcases, never let up. The five of us ran through the jungle, stopping once to feed. I absolutely refused to kill an animal. Of course, I ate meat, but killing something just seemed a lot more cruel.
When we got to Cairo I phased back into human form. I was still getting used to this whole phasing in and out thing. Mom gave me a dress and accessories to dress in. Cairo was such a huge city... again, I had only read about such huge places in books. There were so many people, I found myself clinging onto my father's arm.
He laughed. "You're hanging out with vampires and you're afraid of a few mere humans?" I laughed with him, glad to see he was back to his normal self. I still held onto his arm though, afraid I might lose him in the crowd.
Though, that might have been impossible to lose four vampires. They were beginning to smell quite foul to me... too sweet, that is. I could pick out their scent for miles away, it seemed like.
We got tickets to New York. I asked mother why we couldn't just fly to Washington, and she sighed. "Flights aren't always convenient. When we get to New York, we'll see if there's one to Seattle."
Alice chimed in. "There is. I'll call the airport to make sure they reserve five tickets."
I was still getting used to her odd, physic power.
The airport was huge... I wondered how much jungle could fit in such a place? I was already missing all the green. In cities, everything seemed to be white. It was such a cold color.
The plane ride freaked me out. I sat by the window and felt like crying when I saw how high we were off the ground. We flew over jungles, which relaxed me. When we reached the ocean is when I really began to freak out. I grabbed on to my mom. "What if we crash, ma?"
She laughed. "We won't, sweetie. Besides, if we do, we're first class. We'll get a parachute for you and we'll survive the drop. Then we'll swim to New York."
That didn't make me feel any better.
Finally, I saw land up ahead. An hour later we hand landed in New York. Quickly, we hurried out of the plane and ran across the airport to make our next flight. We could only run human speed, and that bugged me a bit.
Our tickets were second class... that was all that was left. We were spread out through the plane, I ended up sitting next to this boy and his father. The boy looked my age. He offered me the window seat and I thanked him. I was getting a rush, talking to all these new people.
"What's your name?" The boy asked, after ordering himself and I glasses of water.
"My name is Amber," I said. "What is your name?"
He smiled. "Amber's a pretty name. I'm Nate." He reached for my hand.
I stared at him, wondering what I should do. I put out my hand and he took it in his, then brought it up to his mouth and kissed it. I gasped and pulled my arm back to my body. "What the hell do you think you're doing?" I screamed, not caring who heard.
My father came up and looked at me. The flight attendant tried to get him to sit down, but he wouldn't budge. "Amber, what's wrong?"
"He kissed my hand!" I said, pointing to Nate beside me.
Dad chuckled. "So?"
"So what? I believe that is highly improper for a guy who has just met my acquaintance!" I yelled in just a whisper.
Dad rolled his eyes. "You're too much like your mother. Come on, we'll trade seats, all right?" He pulled me out of my seat and led me to another. I thanked him and he left to go to sit down.
I sat next to a couple who were sleeping. I yawned, realizing just now how tired I was. I felt the plane take off, and I fell asleep myself.
I woke up, what must have been several hours later, to mother shaking my shoulders. "Amber! We're here, wake up sweetie!" I opened my eyes and smiled at her.
"Is Leah going to be there?" I asked, hopefully.
She shook her head. "We'll be greeted by Esme. They didn't want to send too many people to Seattle." She lowered her voice so it was too quiet for a human to hear. "They're expecting the Volturi any day now."
I nodded, disappointed. But I was sure I'd get to meet Leah and everyone else at some point during the trip. I couldn't wait to meet the pack... People like me.
We got off the plane and were welcomed by the brunette lady named Esme who looked the same as she did in the picture, only her hair and clothes were a bit different. She gave both my mother and father long hugs. She smelled repulsive, just like the others. She opened her arms to me and I gave her a polite hug. "Amber," she whispered. "You're so grown up!"
I smiled at the comment and we left the airport. We climbed into a Jeep. My father, for some odd reason, was very excited. He drove very fast through Seattle. After an hour, I started seeing more trees. They were odd-looking trees though. Even though it was cold outside, they were still green. They were very tall, just as tall as the ones back at home.
It took us almost two hours to get to our destination, even with father's insane driving. He turned into a dirt road that took minutes to get down. I could smell more vampires up ahead.
The house I saw was quite exquisite, to say the least. I grabbed my two suitcases and got out. I followed everyone up the front stairs and into this home. Many people greeted us.
I recognized Edward, Bella, Carlisle, and Nessie from the photos I had seen. They all hugged my parents for long periods of time. My mother wouldn't let go of Nessie. "Renesmee! You're so beautiful, sweetie!" She exclaimed, multiple times over and over.
Bella came over to me and pulled me in a gentle hug. "Welcome home, Amber." She said sweetly, though she reeked. After that, the entire room stared at me, now realizing I was here.
Nessie ran up to me and pulled me into a bone-crushing hug. "Hi Amber!" She said enthusiastically. "Wow, I can't wait until Jake gets home from work! He'll be so excited to see you!"
"Jake?" I asked quietly. "Is he the man in this picture?" I asked, pulling out the picture of her and the dark man that I had kept in my jacket pocket. I showed it to her and she nodded, smiling very widely.
"Yes, that's my Jacob!" She laughed, and I tucked the photo back in my pocket.
After that, Carlisle introduced me to everyone else in the room... Some had very odd names and some had dark red eyes that scared me. "They're only staying temporarily, they'll be leaving after the Volturi have come and gone. I know the smell must be driving you insane, but I assure you, you'll get used to it," he spoke calmly.
How did he know that they all smelled horrible to me?
Another smooth voice chimed in. "Vampires and shape shifters have never smelled that great to one another." It was Edward. I gave him a peculiar look. "Rosalie and Emmett must have forgotten to mention that I can read minds."
My eyes widened and I tried to keep my mind blank, afraid he might pick apart my thoughts.
Edward laughed. "Don't worry about that, Amber. I don't like to pry. I'll give you your privacy."
Thank you, I thought. Nessie came and grabbed me by the arm.
"Come on, I'll show you to your room. I got it all ready for you and everything!" She held on to my elbow tight and pulled me up the stairs in the next room. I hastily grabbed my suitcases and tried to familiarize myself with the decor. It was just so different than what I was used to.
Mother preferred everything to be purple's, red's, and brown's. She said that it made the house warm and more dramatic. Mother just loved to dramatize things.
Everything in this house was much more warm than ours in Africa was. It seemed that even though they had mostly white walls and pops of colors with the shelves, candles, and drapes it was more relaxing and warm.
Do you like the house? The random question popped into my head. It wasn't my thought though... it sounded like Nessie's voice. I popped my eyes open at her.
Oh, right. The voice said. "Sorry, Amber. I forgot to mention that I can push my thoughts into other people's minds just by touching them with my hands." She stopped suddenly and pressed her hand softly on my cheek. She showed me a picture. My apartment, she thought. It was very big and spacy. That's where Jacob and I live.
"Oh," I said thoughtlessly. She smiled and removed her hand from my cheek and placed it on a door knob behind her back. She opened it slowly.
"I welcome thee to thy room!" Nessie said theatrically as she twirled around the room. I didn't even look at the room as I watched her dance so quickly. I had never seen some one with so much energy. She stopped to look at me. "Oh, sorry. I tend to get a little over excited about some things," then she carried on.
I gave her a weird look. "Can you read my mind also?"
She stopped again to look at me. "No. I'm just really good at reading people, which I get from my father," she giggled and I heard a slight chuckle coming from downstairs. "Noowwww," she grabbed my luggage from me and put it on to the bed in the middle of the room. "A tour around the room!" She gestured towards each object, telling me a brief history. She mentioned a couple things like 'cordless phone' and 'computer' that I had read about, but I still wasn't quite sure on their functions. She even showed me that I had my own bathroom. It was huge! I hadn't a clue why anyone would need such a large tub to bathe in.
I caught a glimpse of myself in the mirror over the sink. I frowned at my reflection. Some of my hair was messed up and I had a few hairs on my black shirt. I couldn't help but compare myself to Nessie's flawless figure. I felt insecure with my smaller hips and breasts. I also felt like a giraffe among a lion. Why was I so tall? Why was Nessie so beautiful?
"Oh, Amber! You've got plenty of growing to do!" Nessie told me, noticing how my face fell while looking at my reflection. "Well, not vertically... but you just became a wolf, right? Trust me, in a week, you'll have a beautiful figure!" She giggled and twirled out of the room. "Come on, now! I want to show you my guest bedroom!"
I followed behind her slowly as she danced out the door and down the hall. We came upon a room with a door that was made of red wood and had floral engravings in it. She opened it and I saw the entire room was like the door... red and surrounded by flowers. She had roses hanging from the ceiling, and tulips wrapped around her bedpost and a fair amount of other things.
She touched her hand to my cheek again. Jacob knows how much I love flowers, so almost every day he buys me some arrangement... I've run out of space at my apartment so I started decorating my room with them.
"That's really nice of him," I commented.
A buzz came from Nessie's front pocket and I could see a light glowing through the thin sweater material. She put one finger up towards me, turned away and brought the object out of her pocket and to her ear.
"Hello, honey! How was work?" She exclaimed, as if she were talking to some one. Perhaps it was some sort of telephone... but it wasn't connected to anything!
"Oh. No. No, that's fine. I'll stay the night here. Yep. I'll talk to you later. Good-bye. Aw, me neither! All right, all right. We have company over, darling. Now, good-bye. Of course, love you too." She turned back to me as the shoved the object back into her pocket. "Oh, sorry. That was Jake, he's stuck patrolling for the night... I guess that means you and I will have time to get to know each other!" She took my hands in hers and pulled me towards a small couch on the other side of the room. We sat down simultaneously.
"Jacob was trapped in that object?" I asked her, still confused on what had happened.
She just laughed and leaned forward to put her hand on my cheek. She gave me a brief introduction of this thing called a "Cellular Phone" which means it didn't need to have a cord. It worked through satellites. Needless, I was still a bit incredulous
She smiled at me for a reason unknown. "You know, your parents should really enroll you in school while your here. It will help you become more accustomed to Washington. And it would be super fun!" She squealed and jumped up. "Let's go talk to daddy!" She grabbed my hand and dragged me out of the room again. I stumbled behind her.
We ran into Edward just down the hallway. Bella was standing beside him, looking at her daughter precariously. Edward sighed. "I don't know if this is the best idea, Renesmee..."
My own father came up behind me and wrapped his huge arms around my shoulders. "What idea? I want in on the fun!" He told Nessie. I laughed and took his hands in mine.
Nessie spoke loud and clear. "I think Amber should enroll in high school with me. It's not like it would be dangerous, I'll be in the same building as her and so will most of the pack."
I perked up from hearing the last word. "Oh, daddy, please!" I found myself turning around and making a sad face towards my father. "I promise I'll be on my best behavior." Yeah, right, I said to myself.
He looked at me with a smile. "Of course, honey. I'll go talk your mother into it." And with that, he was off.
"Come on, Amber! I'll do your nails!" She squealed while pulling me off in a different directoin.
"Now, Nessie." Edward spoke up, "It's rude to hog our guest. Come on, Amber, and we'll all show you around to the rest of the house.
There was more?