"I wanna know, can you show me?
I wanna know about these strangers like me.
Tell me more, please show me,
Something's familiar about these strangers like me."
-Phil Collins
I woke up quite unpleasantly. My bed was bouncing me up and inches off the bed. I opened my eyes and saw Nessie shaking my mattress below me, using one hand. I was starting to learn that this girl was cute... yet lethal.
"Wake up! Come on! We've only got an hour for you to get ready for your first day! Plus, Esme made you this amazing breakfast! You like omelets, right?" She went on and on, continuing to shake my bed.
"Nessie!" I screamed. "Stop!"
She stopped suddenly and gave me a smirk. "There you go, girl. Be assertive. You'll need plenty of that for today." She came over, grabbed me by the arms and pulled me out of bed. I towered more than a foot over her.
I ran over to the mirror. "Oh no! I must have grown again!" I felt on the verge of tears, until I realized that my hips were slightly poking into the material of my shirt. I pulled up the hem right below my bra and saw two defined curves on both sides of my body. "Oh!" I felt a smile pull onto my face, something I had hardly seen myself wearing for days. "Nessie, look!"
She appeared behind me in a half-second and grinned. "Told you so. Now, with those hips, you're going to have to borrow some of my clothes. Oh, my! The boys are going to be all over you."
I blushed. "Wh-what do you mean?" I saw, placing my shirt back down and folding my arms over my slightly bigger bust.
"Boys love girls with curves, Amber. But, don't fall into their charm, okay? What you need is some one who loves you for what's on the inside and not the outside," she told me assuredly.
I shook my head. "I really don't plan on meeting boys that way anytime soon, Nessie."
She came and hugged me from behind. "Right. I forget you'll be leaving as soon as this fight is over. I'm going to miss you."
And in some odd way, even though I hadn't known her for more than 24 hours, I felt I might miss her too. I closed my eyes as she rested her head on my shoulder. I truly felt that Nessie was just like a sister to me.
Before I could get too mushy, I pulled away. "I'm hungry. Let's go eat." For once, I found myself not being led around by Ness, and I found my own way to the dining room. When I entered, I found at least twenty vampires staring back at me. There were absolutely silent.
"Oh, um. Sorry!" I apologized and turned to walk out of the room.
"Amber Hale Cullen!" I heard my mother hiss at me and I turned back to face her. I folded my arms across my chest and glared at mother.
"What?" I asked, with probably the least respect possible. I wasn't in the mood to hear my mother fuss about my hair or something.
"What are you wearing! I brought you up better than that! Pajama's in public? What are you thinking? And did you shower last night? Your hair's a-"
I had enough, so I cut her off. "I came down for breakfast, I didn't know the population of Washington would be sitting in the dining room!" I screamed at her.
Esme came up to me and handed me a plate of food, more than enough for Nessie and I both. "Sorry, honey. We were just discussing the arrival of the Volturi. Apparently, from Alice's visions, it may be a little while before they start to head West. Go ahead and eat your breakfast in the living room, if you please." She said sweetly, patting my back and pushing me slightly out the door, and into the living room.
"I am deeply sorry for the adversity with my mother," I told her and put my breakfast down on an end table.
She shook her head. "Don't apologize. It's natural to fight with your mother. It's hard to believe, but sometimes even Renesmee and Bella get very mad and throw things if they're fighting... well, usually it's just Nessie who has that tendency..." She trailed off.
I shuddered. Nessie throwing an object was just imaginable and yet frightening.
"Oh, yes," Nessie's voice approached from behind. "Remember that time I threw the couch and put a good hole right through the entrance wall?" She laughed and Esme sighed.
"How could I forget?" She smiled and gave Nessie a quick kiss on the cheek. "I trust you'll get Amber to school on time?"
Nessie nodded quickly. "Of course. Jacob's coming by to pick us up and bring us. After, we'll drop her off and then I'm going to stay the nights at the apartment for the rest of the week."
Esme scanned Nessie's face for some sort of emotion. "Try not to get Amber into trouble, all right? Or dirty. You know Rosalie." She gave Nessie one last knowing glare before leaving into the dining room again.
I looked over at Nessie. "Is there something I don't know about here?" I asked.
She smiled and shook her head. "Nope, nothing. Now, eat your breakfast." She shoved it at me and I gladly devoured it. It was strange how I almost inhaled the food. I was still hungry afterwords also.
Once I finished, Nessie took me upstairs and gave me a couple options about my wardrobe.
She ended up putting me in a mid-thigh dress that fit me pretty well.
"That dress is supposed to be to your knees..." she said. "But, since your tall, it's sort of short." She was pointing out the obvious for some reason. "But, with your new found curves, it hugs you in all the right places!" She clapped her hands.
I tried to clap my hands with her but ended up just dropping my necklace that I had been trying to attach together. I bent over to pick it up and Nessie gasped. I stood up right immediately. "What?"
"Amber, you can't just bend down like that! If you do that at school your dress will ride up and everyone will be able to see down your neckline..." She informed me.
I blushed and put my hands around my waist as if to make me less uncomfortable. "Oh, sorry. I didn't realize this was so low cut.." I vigorously tried to move the neckline up a little but Nessie swatted my hands down.
"No! It's meant to be that low, Amber. Just be cautious during the day, okay? You'll do fine." She smiled her smile and grabbed the necklace from the floor, bending her knees instead of bending down from the waist. "See? This is how you grab things. Now, this necklace... No. It overpowers the dress. Now let me get you some heels and a curling iron."
I ended up getting my own heels from my suitcase because my feet didn't fit in Nessie's shoes. She tried over and over to curl my hair, but it was still as flat as a board. I sighed. "Nessie, just leave it. I wasn't meant to have curls in my hair."
She frowned but quickly put mascara on my eyelashes and applied a little layer of lip gloss. I had never worn lip gloss before. I kept rubbing my lips together but Nessie said I'd smear it if I kept doing so.
Finally, she got me a jacket from her closet and tossed it to me, while retrieving one for herself.
"I don't need one, Nessie. I don't get cold." I was sure she already knew that, though.
"Right. But it's March, Amber. If people see you without a jacket they're going to think something's wrong with you. Plus, it helps cover up part of your dress so your dad doesn't see," she smiled slightly and put her own jacket on over her long low-cut shirt and tight jeans.
"Why does it matter if dad sees my dress or not?" I asked her, still holding the folded jacket in my arms.
She laughed. "Oh, Amber. Just... take my word, all right? Now! Here's Jacob! He's coming down the driveway!" Again she pulled me along until I was out the door and in the front yard. A blue vehicle came down the drive and a man stepped out of it. Jacob, obviously. He held his arms out and Nessie was in them in a dash. He kept kissing the top of her head and twirling her around in the embrace. Both of them were saying "I missed you" over and over under their breath.
It almost felt like I was interrupting a reunion. I turned back to the house and saw my parent's standing outside on the porch. I ran up to them and gave them both a hug.
"Have a good day at school, honey," my mom whispered into my shoulder after kissing it. I gave her a weird look. After all that had happened not long ago, she was seemingly nice. "And stay ladylike, that's an order." She walked back in the house. Ah, that was just more like my mother now. I rolled my eyes and turned to stride away.
Dad grabbed me from behind. "Don't talk to any boys, all right? Trust me, they only want one thing that you're not giving to them." I turned around to give him a strange look. Since when was dad worrying about me meeting boys? What was going on with my parent's today?
I nodded and he kissed my forehead. Again, I began to head towards Jacob and Nessie. Jacob had his arm around Nessie's waist and he was staring at me. I felt heat rush to my cheeks suddenly.
"Amber..." Jacob said. That was all he said in fact. He smiled, looked down at Nessie, then said my name again.
So, I did the only thing I was taught to do in these sort of situations. I reached out my hand towards him. "Pleased to meet your acquaintance, Jacob Black. May I take this time as an opportunity to thank you tens of times over for your giving rides to myself?"
Jacob boomed in laughter, sort of like my dad would do. He let go of Nessie and reached forward to shake my hand fast and vigorously. "Sure, sure. Nice to see you again, Amber..." His eyes looked from the house and back down to me. "Uh, Amber..."
"Cullen," I responded.
Nessie giggled and stepped forward to be side to side with Jacob. "Good, you can just pretend you were adopted by Esme and Carlisle, then..
Jacob leaned down to kiss her softly and I pretended to be fascinated with my shoes. "Now, Miss Cullen," I heard Jacob's voice call up. My head shot up and his hand was outstretched towards me. I finished the gesture by meeting our hands. Jacob led me to his truck and helped me in, though I am sure I could have gotten in myself.
I sat on the very right side of the truck while Jacob addressed Nessie as 'Mrs-to-be-Black' and helped her in to the other side. She scooted in to the middle and Jacob jumped in and made his truck roar to life. Nessie showed me how to buckle a seat belt and it felt quite odd.
Most of the ride, Nessie was humming 'some old tune' and Jacob was making his own words to go with it. It was quite random and childish, but I couldn't stop laughing. Nessie started laughing herself because she said I had the funniest laugh she ever heard.
I don't know about that, though. Once or twice, Nessie actually snorted while chuckling away. That caused Jacob to join in and me to clutch at my stomach. I am sure that everyone who may have looked in our vehicle would have thought we were insane!
When we stopped in front of this large building, I couldn't help but gasp. It was twice the size of the Cullen's mansion and full of people. Before I could get out myself, Jacob was already helping me out, and then Nessie.
Those two shared a kiss and then a secretive look. There was obviously something somebody wasn't telling me. Before I could try to guess, Nessie took me and dragged me through the school to the office. She easily enrolled me. I could tell she was using her eyes to charm the man who was signing the papers.
Nessie led me to this place called an 'English' class. It was full of pictures of Shakespeare, Charles Dickens, and various other authors I didn't know the names of. I took a seat next to Nessie and a man stood in front of the class and gave us instructions on what to do.
He looked at me briefly. "Oh, hello. I didn't see we had a new student. Stand up and introduce yourself," he told me.
I nodded, standing up onto my feet. "I'm, uh, Amber Cullen."
"Where are you from, Amber?" the man asked.
I looked down at Nessie in fear. She stood. "She's from Arizona, Mr. Collins. My parents just adopted her."
Mr. Collins nodded. "Well, kudos for the Cullens for being able to handle so many teenagers at once. Well, welcome to Kalaloch High, Amber. If you have any questions about the school, stay after class, all right?"
I nodded and sat back down. I felt very embarrassed, standing in front of all those people like that.
For the next hour, Nessie and I worked together to finish a packet about the book 'To Kill A Mockingbird' which she had already read. She answered most questions, but let me answer a few about differences of similes and metaphors and picking out different kinds of pronouns.
If this was all that school was, it was going to be quite easy.
The 'bell' rang, it was more of an annoying beeping noise, Nessie led me to her locker. She pulled some stuff out. "Now, we go to American History," she announced.
History was a bit harder, because we were not allowed to work with anyone else. I read the chapter that we were supposed to read, and tried to pick out importance and idea but my brain felt fried after doing that for twenty minutes. I eventually shut my book and just sat there with my thoughts.
Nessie told me my next class I would have to do alone, since she was in Advanced Biology, and couldn't get me in that class. I just had to take the regular biology.
For once, I felt afraid in a classroom. The bell had rang just before I had opened the door to enter, so the entire class was staring at me. The female teacher instructed me to sit "over there". I looked at where she was pointing, and saw my familiar lab partner.
It was Nate, the boy from the airplane. I approached him slowly and sat down next to him carefully. He was smiling at me. "Amber! What a small world!" He said loudly, causing people to look at us with scowling eyes. Especially, a man who sat one table up from me. He just rolled his eyes at Nate, but kept glaring back at him every now and then.
For the first while, the woman explained what we were to do. We were going to be looking through microscopes and drawing what we saw. Nate was doing most of the work. But, his mouth kept wide open.
"I can't believe it! I mean, just yesterday I was on a plane with you. And now we're both here! Sitting at the same table, looking through microscopes! You know what? This must be a sign, Amber. You and I. On a plane, at a table in biology. We oughta hang out sometime! You know that?" He kept telling me over and over that we have to get together some time. He suggested over dinner or maybe a movie. I never responded to him, other than nodding. "How about Friday?" he asked. "What's your address? I got a GPS that will take me right where I want when I type in an address! Come on. I'll meet your folks, well.. I already met your father. Big guy. Big guy!" He said over and over, again.
It was weird, to feel that urge that I wanted to strangle some one. I felt like I would rather be lost in the Antarctic, or face nuclear weapons!
"Takoda Storm, Amber Cullen," the teacher's voice rang out louder than the dismissal bell. "The office just called. There's some one here to pick you two up."
I was astonished. I grabbed my books and ran out of the classroom. The guy who had been shooting glares at Nate was jogging at my side. I looked at him. His name was Takoda Storm.
He kept looking forward, as we went along to the office. As we went, two others came up to Takoda. "Hey, Tako!" one yelled. "What's the rush?"
Takoda didn't say anything, I was beginning to wonder if he was made of stone.
We reached the office quickly. When I stopped, the guy behind me ran right into my back. I gasped and turned around to apologize. That didn't happen, because somebody else had already grabbed me and was swinging me around like a toy doll.
"Amber!" He said, setting me down. "Remember me? I'm Elan!" I suddenly recognized him from the picture Alice had showed me. "I'm you father's younger brother." Elan smiled widely and hugged me.
"Geez, don't hurt the poor girl," said some one from behind. I turned to face him, and I remembered him from the picture. It was Embry.
"I'll hurt her if I want," Elan joked from behind. "She is my niece."
I suddenly realized that I was standing in an office full of nine men and I picked out Nessie beside Jacob.
"Is something wrong?" Takoda went to Jacob to ask.
He shook his head. "Nope. I just figured, we'd do our honorary 'Welcome to the Pack' ceremonies for Amber," he pointed at me. The room that was full of laughter was now silent. Jacob went out the doors with Nessie on his side, and everyone followed in a line behind them. I was at the end of the line, behind Elan. He kept looking back at me with smiles.
Not that I should have commented on that, because I couldn't help from smiling at him myself.
We started walking toward the woods. By the time we had reached the tree line, the entire pack was back into yelling and shouting and laughing and moving. Delsin, I believe was his name, jumped on Embry's back and kept pulling on his hair as if he were a little child.
I felt an arm slither around my shoulder. It was Elan. "My neice," he smiled. "God, I just can't believe it!"
I smiled and agreed with him while an older pack member came up on my other side. He reached out his hand and I shook it. "Collin," he said, his dark brown eyes twinkling for some odd reason.
"Nice to meet your acquaintance, Collin." I kept my tone lady-like like mother would want me to be.
He laughed haughtily. "Nice to meet your acquaintance also, Amber." His hand was still clasped around mine, and neither of us were shaking them. He had huge, soft hands. I couldn't find it in me to pry it away.
I looked over at Elan to hide my red cheeks from this Collin guy, and what I saw made me laugh. Elan had gripped my shoulder tightly, sucked in his lips, and was staring wide eyed at Collin. He looked like he was trying to be mad, but he just looked silly to me.
"I swear to God, Collin..." Elan hissed. "If you just-"
Collin rolled his eyes and interrupted Elan. "I didn't, stupid. She's Sam's daughter! I wouldn't even think about it. Besides, if I had, it would have happened back when she was a baby."
I knitted my eyebrows together, very confused. "What are you talking about?" Well, I knew they were referring to me, but what did they mean by 'it'?
Elan lost his angry expression, and Collin jogged a little to catch up with another member of the pack.
Eventually, we had reached some sort of meadow. Everyone made a big circle around me, and I tried avoiding the attention by going over to Nessie. "Hey, Ness! What's going on?" I whispered to her.
She raised her hand to my cheek and showed me the latest member, Pat, getting initiated into the tribe. I saw brief images of Pat's hair getting cut with a knife, Jacob tying something around his ankle... and a couple other pictures.
Jacob left the circle and came back twenty seconds later with a log in his arms. He easily carried it towards the middle of the group and dropped it. Nessie grabbed me by the shoulders and sat me on the log. Embry came up to me and started to play with my hair randomly. To say the least, I was very confused.
"Ah, dahhhhling! Your hair's gawwwwgeous!" Embry cried out, using an odd voice. I looked up at him with very open eyes. "I'm just playing, geez," said he, with a more normal type of voice. "You got a sense of humor at all, Amby?" I suddenly felt the urge to reach up my hand and slap Embry something strong right across the face. His expression afterwords was absolutely priceless. At first he was shocked and then he was smiling.
The smile didn't leave his face as he grabbed me around my waist and threw me over his shoulder and hurdling toward the ground. Thanks to my new strength and agility, though, I was able to land on my feet and throw myself right back at Embry, tackling him to the ground. He quickly towered over me and had me pinned to the ground by my wrists, I wanted to try and kick him off me with my legs, but remembered my short dress.
"Say Uncle..." Embry laughed at my weak struggle.
"Never!" I giggled, remembering when my father used to play this game with me when I was younger, though, he always let me win. For a while I struggled, kicking and hitting Embry with all my might. With one powerful push, in which was the last of my strength, my feet contacted with Embry's stomach, sending him flying through the air. I took this as an advantage and ran over to him, bringing his hands behind his back and digging my high heel into his lower back.
"Say uncle..." I said while digging my heel further into his back.
"Uncle!" He screamed right away, gasping. I let go of him quickly.
"Oh my, I'm so sorry! I didn't mean to hurt you! Are you all right?" I asked, bending down to get a look in his eye.
Quickly, Embry tried getting me into the same position, and I retaliated by grabbing his neck and locking it in my arms. He stood frozen. "Holy fuck," he whispered. "Are you sure this one's a girl?" He asked over towards Jacob.
I laughed and let go of him.
"Enough of the play," Jacob said sternly, though I could see his eyes look proudly upon me. He pulled out a pocket knife. Embry took the knife from him and pulled on my hair.
"If you don't mind me asking," I spoke before he could proceed to cut my hair. "Why is it that I must have short hair? Nessie showed me that all pack members have to do this, even Leah. But why?"
"If we don't cut our hair, it's really long when we're wolf. It's very inconvenient," Embry said, chopping into my hair without another word out of me.
I would have thought cutting hair with a knife would have hurt me, like Ponyboy in The Outsiders; a book my mother made me read, but it didn't hurt me in the least.
After he was done, Nessie pulled a small compact in her purse and handed it to me. I gasped when I first saw my reflection, my hair had been cut unevenly, coming down to a little below my earlobe. I couldn't deny that I didn't like it, though, it made me look dangerous. Mother wouldn't like it, and that made me laugh.
I turned to face Embry. "Thanks." I looked back at myself in the mirror and laughed some more, picturing my mother's face when she saw this. Then, I glanced up at Jacob. "Why does it matter to you all whether or not I have long hair when I'm phased?"
He smile quickly became serious. "Well, Leah's going to stop phasing soon, to have kids with her husband Dylan. That will leave us with only nine pack members, and no Beta's."
I shook my head. "No. I'm in no place to lead such a pack, Jacob." I did understand what beta meant, and I couldn't imagine why I would be chosen to do such a thing.
Some one spoke up, Quil, shouting and Jacob. "No way in hell, Jake! Look, I could tolerate Leah leading me around... but this girl's new, why wouldn't you chose me or Embry to take her place? We've been here a hell of a lot longer than her!" He looked furiously at me, and I felt myself shrink.
"You can't just pick some random person to be a leader, especially in a time as this! The Volturi will be here any day, and you trust her to fight along side of you?" Embry yelled at Jacob, just as Quil.
The outbursts led to more outbursts as Delsin and Brady joined in screaming at Jacob, and I couldn't believe my own ears.
"You all need to shut the fuck up," Takoda growled at all of them, out of nowhere. This caused everyone to grow quiet, .and I had a feeling that Takoda wasn't one who spoke very often. "I, for one, trust Jacob with this decision he's making, and if you feel differently you can just leave! We all saw how the girl won against Embry, she's obviously better than your pathetic asses."
I had to admit, I didn't like being called 'the girl', but I still felt grateful that Takoda had said that. And I guess I really hadn't noticed how I did beat Embry, the one who had been a wolf the longest in the pack.
"Thank you, Takoda," Jacob regarded him, and spoke to everyone else. "Amber is Sam's daughter, and a direct descendant of Levi Uley. She was made to be in this pack. And in a couple days, she's going to be runing the second night shift."
Everyone was absolutely silent after that. I had never felt like more of an outsider my entire life.
The next half an hour was Jacob explaining to me how they run night shifts: half the pack on one night, and the second half on the other night, alternating all the time. He then told me that I was to be on the first nights for a little bit, so he could train me himself. Leah would remain second night leader until I was ready.
"Where is Leah?" I asked him, very curious.
Embry laughed. "I told her to come, but she said she was 'busy' with Dylan," he snickered out.
"God, do those two ever stop to breathe?" Pat asked, chuckling himself.
Jacob then got a strip of leather out of his pocket, tied it to my ankle, and told me how I was to use it. He said it was best if I wore a t-shirt and shorts, and some that I'm able to get dirty. I looked over at Nessie.
"Don't worry, it's already arranged that we're going to see Leah tomorrow and she'll loan you some of her stuff. Then we can go shopping for anything else," Nessie assured me.
One by one, everyone left the small clearing. Once Jacob finally left for work, Nessie tried to get me to get back to school.
I shook my head. "No. I just want to go running a little," I told her.
"Well, okay... school's going to be over soon, so do you know your way home from here?"
I nodded. "Yes," I pointed West. "Trust me, I can smell home from miles and miles away." What I really meant was I could smell the vampire stench from forever away, but didn't want to offend her.
She gave me a quick hug. "Well, I'll see you tomorrow. Jacob and I will come pick you up," she smiled and left in a dash.
Finally, I was alone. All my anger that I had kept in could finally surface. I tore the heels off my feet and threw them at any trees around, digging holes through them. I knew I probably went a little to far when I started yelling profanities at Sam and Emily for leaving me, then at my mother and father for lying to me, then several members of the pack for thinking I wasn't good enough to lead them.
I would show them who I truly was, tonight, when I trained with Jacob.