Chapter One:

I knew I was dreaming. In another family, this would not be a cause for speculation, but as I was the only one who could sleep, I both valued and disliked it for this. I stood on a beach. Clouds covered the sky and turned the sea gray from the reflections, the day was cold but I didn't feel it. Being what I was, I wouldn't.

I heard a familiar voice calling my name and I turned willingly towards it. I felt a big smile cross my lips as I saw my Jacob loping quickly towards me. His black hair cropped an inch from his head and his red-brown skin contrasted against the white of the sand, sand that matched my own skin so well. His eyes, I could see, were a lovely brown, not too different from mine. This similarity was one I relished, even asleep as I was. He reached me and stroked my face. His burning skin causing me to blush as I closed my eyes. I leaned forward to press my lips to his when he murmured my name.

"Nessie. Nessie" He repeated. "Nessie, wake up. We have school in an hour."

My eyes shot open and I sat up. School. I thought. I was excited. I was seven years old and today was my first day ever of formal education. I was officially in High School.

"Hi, Jake." I said, for once not communicating through my projections. "Do you know where my mom and dad are?"

"Sure, they're cooking breakfast for us. C'mon, the bacon smells really good." I made a face. My parents knew I disliked human food, I much preferred blood. Only then did the smell of eggs, bacon, toast and homefries register in my head. As did the concentrated scent of eight vampires in the same room. I sighed and stood.

I reached up to touch Jake's face and showed him an image of my family in the kitchen. I gave him a puzzled look. He grinned.

"You know they can't resist sending you off to your first day of school without some kind of special send off, honey." I sighed again and took his hand. This was going to be an interesting day. It was not only my first day of school, but my entire family – except, of course, my grandparents Carlisle and Esme – would be attending along with me.

I entered the kitchen to see my family waiting for me. I smiled at them, starting with my Aunt Alice, short and pixie-like, and my Uncle Jasper, tall and exuding happiness – literally, next to them was my favorite uncle, Emmett, and Aunt Rosalie. I saw my grandparents standing next to the window and finally my parents, Edward and Bella, standing in front of the stove. My father held a skillet in one hand and a plate in the other.

"Good morning, Nessie!" Mom said, putting down the plate of bacon that had smelled so good to Jake. She flashed around the counter to give me a hug. "Are you excited for your big day?"

"Of course she is, love." My father said with a smile. "Though I believe she has some reservations." I stuck my tongue out at him. He was right, of course. It was just about impossible to hide things from my mind-reading father.

"What kinds of reservations?" My mom asked me.

"I am going to school with my parents, Momma." I rolled my eyes. Everyone laughed at my expression.

"It won't be that bad." Emmett assured me with a grin. "It's not like anyone else will know they're your parents." While at school, we were all assigned parts. It was necessary to hide from humans the existence of vampires – and werewolves – and, as such, I would be playing the part of my father's younger sister. It had been decided we looked too much like each other to try anything else. We, along with Alice, Emmett and my mom were to be the adopted children of Carlisle and Esme. Jasper and Rosalie will pass themselves off as the Hale twins, Esme's orphaned niece and nephew.

Jake would use his real name of Black; he was simply a friend of the family come to stay with us for a few years. Our family's getting too big for this. I thought. My father snickered and nodded. Jake and I were to be freshmen; my father, mother and Aunt Alice, sophomores; and Uncles Emmett and Jasper and Aunt Rosalie, juniors. Uncle Emmett had considered playing the part of the twenty-five year old man he technically was but had then decided that he wanted to watch my first years of high school up close.

I had argued that I should be the same age as my parents, at the very least, but my father reminded me that I had never attended high school before and he didn't want me to miss anything (my mother had smiled at that one). My Jacob, of course, simply wanted to be with me. Anyway, he hadn't finished high school either, even though he looked the same age as Uncle Emmett.

I sat at the kitchen table next to Jacob and ate a portion of the food placed in front of me. Jake ate all the remaining food. I felt he would have eaten the table too, if he could have. I grimaced as I ate, I really would have preferred to go hunting instead. Then again, the white on white color scheme favored by my family would not go well with any spills.

We were living in a large house a few miles outside of a small town. The town had been picked carefully as it was cloudy most days and was small enough that there were not that many people to see us and remark on the peculiar qualities of my strange family.

I finished my breakfast and was immediately dragged to Aunt Alice's room to her enormous closet and she proceeded to dress me as she did when I was little. She had already made my mother promise to wear the clothes she had picked out for her, so much more stylish than what my mother would have wanted to wear. I didn't pay much attention to the clothes I was given; I was a bit like my mother in my disinterest in clothing styles.

Finally, Jacob rescued me from my aunt's well-meaning clutches and led me downstairs to the door. I trailed after him, admiring again the picture that made up my Jacob. He had always been mine and always would be, there had hardly been a day in my whole life where he hadn't been there with me. He was the best person I knew, calm and caring and unselfish, always putting me first. He was the one who could make me laugh and I loved how he could turn into a great big wolf who could take me flying across the ground, clinging to his fur. My family always joked that he smelled but I was human enough that his woodsy smell was prevalent.

We got into my father's Volvo, it wasn't his fastest car but he liked to drive it due to it being his least flashy car and for "sentimental reasons." The age he was pretending to be was just old enough to warrant his having a license, but only just. Uncle Emmett had won the argument to bring his jeep, rather than his mate's M3 convertible.

Had we been any other family in the world we wouldn't have gotten to school on time, but my family's love of speed got us there with time to spare. As we stepped out of our cars, every head turned to look at us. Eyes went wide as they took in our pale skin and unnatural beauty. I glanced at my father who had just helped my mother out of the car.

"Don't worry, Nessie." He said, too quickly and softly for any of the humans to hear. "This is normal. None of them know anything." I smiled at him and turned to Jacob, the one exception to our pale pallor.

"What is our first class?" He looked at his schedule and groaned. "Algebra. That's just my luck."

"Don't worry." I told him. "I'll help you." I already had been taught most of what I would learn in high school, a by-product of having family members who had an average of three master degrees each. My father and grandfather each had a few doctorates as well.

The eight of us split up for our classes, my father frowning slightly in concentration as he read the minds of every single human in the building.

Algebra class was just as bad as Jake thought it would be. The only up side was that, for once, we could sit next to each other without the supervision of my parents. Momma was understanding about us, but Dad, well, he tried. But whenever he saw us holding hands I could tell he was grimacing inside.

I could see his point, though. I was his little girl. I was seven. Regardless of the fact that my body was that of a matured young adult and would stay that way forever, and that my mind was as mature as my mother's was when she was turned, – to him – I wasn't old enough.

But I had always known that Jacob Black, rightful alpha of the Quileute shape shifters, was mine. He was mine and I was his. Dad knew it as well: I remember his words at the confrontation between my family and the Volturi.

My father leaned his head against the same shoulder where he'd placed me. "Goodbye, Jacob, my brother… my son."

I knew what my father really thought. He didn't fool me.

I went through the rest of my morning, bored. We weren't taught anything I hadn't learned when I was two. I was relieved when the time came for lunch. Jake and I went through the lunch line, where I bought a soda and a slice of pizza. In contrast, Jake piled his tray with everything he could reach. He was the only one to touch his food when we joined our family.

"How is your first day of school, Nessie?" My father asked.

"A little boring, Dad." I knew I was safe not calling him by his given name as I had answered much too low and fast for a normal human to understand. "I've already learned everything we're going to learn this year. Chinese next period will be fun, though. I haven't learned that one yet." I had been taught a long list of languages by my family growing up – including a remote South American language that apparently had special meaning to my parents. At least whenever Dad was teaching me, they had looked at each other like newlyweds and mentioned turtles, eggs, and feathers in a way that made me really not want to know what they were talking about.

"Don't worry, you get used to the boringness after a few decades, Ness." Uncle Emmett teased. I groaned, much to his pleasure.

"I'm not used to it." My mother muttered.

"Well, it is only your second time through, love." Father reminded her, smiling crookedly.

"How are classes going for you, Jake?" Mom asked after a short pause.

He shrugged. "Alright, I guess. It's school, what do you expect?" He said the word 'school' like it was a disease.

I half-listened to their conversation as I caught the many glances to our table, especially Aunt Rosalie. I looked at Uncle Jasper and Aunt Alice to see if they could feel or see any reason, respectively, for worry. They didn't.

I leaned over to my father. "What is everyone thinking, Dad? About the strange looking Cullen clan, I mean."

"They are curious, mostly. A great many are thinking themselves in love with certain of us." Apparently Uncle Emmett heard him, as he immediately leaned over to Aunt Rose and kissed her flashily. "Now," Dad continued, a smile growing on his face, "a few are thinking ugly thoughts about Em." He abruptly scowled. "Some of those humans had better stop thinking what they are thinking. She's not even eight." He muttered so low I wasn't sure if that was what he had said.

Jacob frowned and took my hand possessively. I smiled at him.

The rest of the day passed in the same monotonous fashion, though I had been right about Chinese. The nice thing about being a half-vampire was that I never forgot anything. My memory was same perfection as a full vampire. Once I learned something, I never had to be taught it again. I had to say, it gave me an edge over my human classmates. Jacob, however, was relying on his previous high school education and his college degree, not to mention me and the eight other vampires we lived with.

I frowned to myself. Sometimes it wasn't just eight vampires, one werewolf, and the one half-vampire. Sometimes there was another hybrid living with us. Nahuel from South America often visited along with his aunt. Nahuel was a fascinating person. He had spent the first hundred and fifty years of his life blaming himself for his mother's death, but when he came to testify to save me and my family, he realized that it was possible for the mother to survive if the father loved her enough.

When he realized that, he had begun to heal.

His fascination with my mother in the beginning had bothered her but, after seven years, it had dimmed.

My father pulled into our driveway, and I sighed. I didn't like this house as much as the one we had lived in while my parents had attended Dartmouth. Dad made a face at me in the rearview mirror.

What? I'm not allowed to prefer one house over another?

"I never said that."

Sure, sure. Umm, can I go to the movies tonight? There's a good one playing nearby.

"Sorry, no."

Why not? I really want to go. I tried to stop the next image but according to my dad's grimace I didn't do it quickly enough. Well, of course Jake would come too, Daddy.

"License?" He asked innocently. I fumed.

We'll run. It's not fair; I'm old enough to get my license.

"How?" He inquired. "You're seven."

Well, Jake has his.

"Not here. Freshman, remember?"

We'll run. I repeated.

He shook his head. "Secrecy. How would people think you got there?"

Easy. I thought. We'd run there, then walk around before the show. Then afterward we walk around more until no one's paying attention then blend into the forest and run home.

He opened his mouth to speak then grimaced again and closed it. "Fine." He said.

Jake turned to look at me. "So, what did I miss?" He was used to these kinds of conversations between my father and me. Well, everyone and my father, really.

"Do you want to go to the movies?" I asked.

"Sure." He grinned.

Momma turned around to look at us. "You have to finish your homework, first." She said.

"Mom." I whined. "Come on!"

Dad grinned crookedly at her then looked at me. "You heard your mother. You can't go until after."

"Fine." I told them sulkily.

"Oh, come on, Ness. It's only going to take a moment. We already know everything."

I sighed again and wrinkled my nose at him. "Sure, sure."