Disclaimer : Neither the Covenant or Twilight belongs to me. Surprising, I know.
Author's Notation : I really like Rose, because she's not all sweet and nice, and she has depth. She seems to be the only one that really cares, besides Edward, that Bella is giving away her life. I really kinda liked that. So I'm gonna go with a Rose and Bella friendship here, more than the Bella and Alice friendship.
Author's Question : Anyone wanna help me with the whole first reunion? I have no idea how to play Edward, since I don't really know him as a character. If someone, I don't know, wanted to give me a first sentence and let me run with it, it would be wonderful. I'd give you props.
Chapter 2 :
I groaned as I stared out my dorm window. It was raining once more. The rain and clouds here rivaled Forks, which is a big thing, considering. Of course, the similarity might be the reason why I was more at home in Forks than Arizona, but who cares? I still hate the rain.
Dropping the towel, I rummaged through my drawers, wondering, once again, why I hadn't just opted to move back in with Renee. There had been no uniforms back in Phoenix, and it had rarely rained, and the sun shined every day. But, the voice peeped up from the back of my head, Phoenix was never home. Forks was home, and this is home. Where family is.
I shook away the thoughts and finished rolling my knee high socks on. Straightening, I touched the hot iron and smiled; it had finished warming up. I curled the ends of my hair inward, so my face was framed by dark brown and platinum blonde. Even if I hadn't planned to do it, my hair looked cute in the new style.
Tucking the now curled strands behind my ears, I tested my smile in the mirror once, then frowned. Earrings, earrings...Where were those stupid earrings? Ah, there they were. The sapphire earrings were a gift from Charlie, the last thing I'd gotten from him. I had a matching tennis bracelet from Renee. Both had been birthday gifts, and I'd taken to wearing them every fourteenth day of the month for some reason.
Now I was ready. Grabbing my binder and purse, I bolted out the door and slid the key home, locking the door behind me. I nearly ran into Sarah as I whirled around, letting out a small scream as I jerked back.
"God, Sarah, don't be so quite!" I snapped, pushing back my hair as it invaded my vision.
Sarah laughed, "Sorry, sorry, didn't think I was."
Maybe it was wrong of me, but I sorta replaced Alice with Sarah. While Sarah was blonde, tall and slim – more like Rose – she was also bubbly, happy and loved to shop. All trade marks of Alice Cullen. So maybe it was wrong, but Sarah was here and Alice was not, and Sarah knew the truth about me and she hadn't run screaming. I could be so sure about Alice; I had no idea how Vampires reacted to witches.
She linked her arm through mine and started dragging me down the hall, both of us laughing. "My fault, I guess. I'm not as awake today as usual." I finally said with a smile.
"What's so funny?" Caleb asked from his position against the wall. The elevator button glowed next to him, indicating downward.
"Nothing, nothing." Sarah muttered, moving to kiss him without reserve. I rolled my eyes and looked away, a ping of regret in my heart. Edward and I could have been like that, if we'd both been human, normal.
"Will you two stop sucking face? We've gotta get to class, or we're gonna be late." I snapped irritably, only to be ignored.
Finally, I stepped past them and into the elevator, pushing the door closed. They joined me five seconds later, Sarah with red in her cheeks and Caleb smirking. Dammit, wasn't be supposed to be the boy scout? The polite one? Oh, wait, sorry. That's me, and to a lesser extent, Tyler.
"Oh, don't be so unromantic," Sarah gripped playfully, hanging her arm around my brother.
I snorted, "That is not romantic. That's just..." Uck, no word for it. "Well, its not."
"Maybe not your idea of romance, but I'm not gonna argue with it," Caleb informed both of us, rather smugly, from where he was wrapped around his girlfriend. At Sarah's glare, he elaborated. "It makes you happy, so then its romance."
There was silence for a second, then I laughed. "Oh my god, Caleb, you are so wrapped around her fingers." Another way of saying pussy whipped when in company.
See? Polite.
I darted out of the elevator just as Caleb lunged for me, darting around a student and bolting out the dorms. Reid caught me as I slowed to a walk, an arm around the waist dragging me back to him and Tyler.
"What did you say now?" Tyler asked, exasperated.
"Called Caleb pussy whipped," I announced smugly, causing Reid to burst out laughing. Tyler, ever the serious one, rolled his eyes.
"I see that I have taught you well," Reid said sagely after he was finished laughing, "in the form of annoying Caleb."
"Well, its only too easy." I threw back.
Tyler snorted, "Why, again, do they always assume I'm your brother?" People would always assume I was Tyler or Caleb's little sister, or even Pogue's, before they guessed Reid. Guess it was the hair color. "Because you two act exactly alike."
"Except that I don't sleep with everything that moves," I protested, sticking my tongue out at both of them.
"Nope, you freeze them with that Ice Bitch look of your's," Reid teased back, causing me to huff. I did not have an 'ice bitch' look. Nope, no way.
Tyler smirked, "Good thing, too, otherwise we'd have to beat the crap out of a bunch of lowly high school guys."
A small inside joke; I refused to date, at all. Some girl had spread the rumor that I thought I was too good for high school boys and dated older men. Kate and Sarah crushed the girl, amazing as they were, but the boys had picked up on it. Now they teased me about liking 'older men', which was kinda true...Except he could also be considered younger than me. A paradox, ha.
"Oh, shut up." I snapped back, though we all knew I wasn't serious. "God, I thought Sarah and Caleb would be here by now."
Reid smirked, "If I were him, I wouldn't let her out of the dorms for another hour or so." Tyler laughed, and I giggled, though I covered it with a cough.
"Good thing you aren't him, then," Sarah's voice came from behind us, and then she pushed Reid forward, taking his spot next to me. I turned my head to smile at her, and winked at Caleb, who rolled his eyes at me.
Reid managed to get on Tyler's other side, leaving Caleb to Sarah's left. The boys walked a bit ahead of us, doing their 'protect the girls' thing, though they probably didn't even know it. "So where are Pogue and Kate?"
"Mental health day," Caleb answered, the one with all the knowledge, or at least the knowledge about his group.
"Which means he and Kate are having some fun," Reid put it, smirking. He always did that, taking away the euphemisms and cover ups, no matter the situation. The joker, that one.
"God, Reid, don't be so crude," Sarah said, disgust in her voice. She didn't have a real spot in the group, besides Caleb's girl, but we let her have her way because she was Caleb's girl. Sorta like me with the Cullens; an outsider accepted because of love.
Someone snapped in front of me, and I jerked my eyes up to meet Tyler's gaze. "You were staring off into space, and..." He squinted, "Your pupils are the size of walnuts." And there went the observant, caring best friend and baby of the group.
"Sorry, lost in thought." I explained, giving him a slight smile, though everyone caught it. I could tell he was worried, because I'd always been grounded, not one to daydream. Just one more thing that they were wondering about, one more thing that had changed since I had last seen them.
"'bout what?" Reid asked, running a hand through his hair and taking the bleached blonde back from his face. "Musta been interesting."
"Just...our places as a group, our dynamic..." And the Cullens, I added in thought, and I was pretty sure, by the sharpening glances, that everyone but Sarah knew it. Sarah, in fact, had no idea about the Cullens.
"Whatever," And boyscout to the rescue. "Sarah was just telling me about Luke and Terra?"
And so the gossip started up again, and we got to hear the juice on Luke, who was part of the swim team, and his brother girlfriend. Again.
Fun.
First period,the history of classical music, was a drag, since I only had Kate and Pogue with me, and neither were there. Which meant no note passing and that I would actually have to do my own work, dammit. Second was a little better, since Tyler and Caleb were both with me, and English lit. was an okay class to start with. Third sucked, as I had Arron Abbot as my advanced math buddy, but fourth? Always rocked.
Study hall was my fourth period, the hour before lunch, which we all had together. Tyler actually used the period to study most of the time, while Reid slept and Caleb and Sarah made out. Kate and Pogue skipped most of the time, as evident as the not so surprised look on the teacher's face. God, those two were going to flunk out if they kept sneaking away to have sex at the house.
I flipped the next page in my book, Gone With The Wind, and sighed. All I could think about when reading book was that is was highly unrealistic. Jasper had seen me reading it once and commented on it, something on how it hadn't happened like that. After the very real history lesson I'd gotten, I'd given up on reading the book.
Apparently, even with Jasper gone, I still couldn't read the damn book.
Slumping, I slammed the book closed, and Reid jerked up, blinking sleepy light green eyes at me. Caleb paused in his conversation with Sarah and blinked at me, Sarah staring at me from behind him. Tyler ignored me, though. He was rather good at that.
"I'm incredibly bored." I announced in a light voice, though quite enough to not draw too much attention. "And I'm being ignored once more."
Reid snorted and propped his chin on his hand, while Caleb just rolled his eyes. Sarah looked as bemused as ever, poor girl. "Well, there's not much to talk about. Nothing new has happened, except the new students." Reid told me, looking sleepy and bored.
"Wait, new students? Why didn't I know about that?" I demanded. Why was I always the last to know?
Sarah looked startled. "I thought you did; Kate told me she was going over to talk to you about them and watch a movie?" A question, really, not a statement.
"We watched Never Back Down, did our nails, but fell asleep before any good gossip could be explored. Now tell me about the new kids." I commanded, waving a hand to show the French tipped nails, my bracelet glittering in the light.
"Just five new students, rich kids, ya know? The normal daddy-changed-jobs move? From Oregon or something." A shrug, showing Sarah could really care less about their past. "They don't live at the dorms, but all of them are seniors, which is odd. I know that three of them are adopted."
This was starting to sound really familiar. "Are three of them dark haired, two of them blonde, the blondes being twins?"
"Yeah. See, Kate probably told you and you just didn't remember until now!" Sarah said, smiling.
Ohshitsitshit. Not good. "No, Kate didn't tell me."
The guys were now looking concerned, since it seemed as if I'd lost all color. Even Tyler had raised his head at my tone. "What name are they going by?"
Sarah frowned, her eyebrows snapping together. "Um, there's Alice, Edward and Emmett Brandon and Jasper and Rosalie Whitlock. The Brandon kids are the adopted ones, and the Whitlocks are the twins or something, the biological ones."
"And, wait, let me guess. Alice and Jasper are a couple and Emmett and Rosalie are together?" I weakly asked, and the boys were on board with me, even before Sarah nodded.
"What? Is something wrong? Do you know them?" Sarah looked confused again, not knowing about Edward.
I ignored her and sat back, head meeting Tyler's shoulder, since he sat directly behind me and was leaning over. "I'm not sure is Fate is being a bitch or if they tracked me down." I muttered faintly, though the people around me hear.
Reid growled, "Has to be a coincidence; I covered our tracks too well to be followed."
"Besides, they would have been here faster if they'd known, right?" Tyler asked, all business.
"Doesn't matter, does it." Caleb looked angry and resolved, a warning sign that shit was about to go down. "We'll treat them the same way we treat any of their kind that invade our territory."
"We can't kill them!" I hissed, "I considered them family for a while!"
Sarah looked shocked. Sarah and Kate sometimes forgot, that, while we may seem human, we really weren't. Sure, we ate, drank, slept and breathed, but that didn't make us humane or normal or even human. We had hellfire in our veins; we would never be mere humans.
We were predators, protecting our territory and pack.
"You aren't anymore, Isabella. You have us." Reid was, for once, completely serious, joking far from his tone. That, more than anything, was what warned Sarah that this wasn't her matter, I guess, because that was when she seemed to sit back.
"We are not going to kill my ex-boyfriend and his family, Reid, Caleb." I glared at both of them. "Besides, they aren't killers, or at least, they weren't when I knew them."
"That doesn't matter. They aren't human, they're in our territory. They've gotta die." Caleb tried to be gentle, but it wasn't working. I was still getting pissed.
"At least wait until tonight to get a vote, okay? Or hey, even better, wait until they start killing people!" I hissed back, lowering my voice.
Tyler sighed and joined my side. "She's right. We need to wait till tonight for a vote." He wasn't happy, I could tell, but he would back me up, forever and always.
"Dammit, Isy. You're going to warn them, aren't you?" Reid snarled, glaring at me. His eyes were black, and I knew he was looking forward into the future. While he wasn't as great at it as Pogue, or anywhere near Alice, he could look forward a few hours. We all could.
"If they leave this place first, or if we reach a compromise first, then there'll be no bloodshed." I argued to all of them, cutting off all argument. I knew they wouldn't like it, but they'd allow it. I could take care of myself, and they all knew it.
We ignored the bell as it rang, though Sarah stood up. "I'll, um, go get some seats in the lunchroom." She said, before leaving with the wave of students. Smart girl, not wanting to get in this.
Caleb tense, his jaw ticking. "Fine," He spat, "But you take Reid with you." Just like Caleb was best at fighting magic, Pogue at future telling, and Tyler at summoning, Reid had his own strong point : mind and mental magic.
"I don't need a mind reader." I clenched my jaw, "Besides, Edward can probably counteract him; he can read minds." Damn, this wasn't gonna be good.
"You let him read your mind!" I couldn't tell which one said it first, or who the cursing belonged to, but everyone was demanding an answer.
"No!" Dammit, no! "I could block a mind reader even before I ascended!" My best talent came in defense; I could block out mind readers and mental attacks before I ascended, and only gotten better afterwards. I could even make physical blocks now.
"You're still taking Reid." Caleb snapped, standing. "Or we'll stop you from even getting close."
Jaw clenched, I jerked to my feet and snarled out, "Fine. C'mon, Reid, I wanna talk and have time to eat."
I grabbed my purse as we left the room, leaving my binder for Tyler or Caleb – one of them would grab it for me.
We were both silent as we walked, at least until the cafeteria came into view. Then Reid spoke, "Isy...princess, you aren't still in love with him, are you? He did almost kill you..." For once, Reid seemed unsure of himself.
I sighed and stopped. "I won't ever not love him, Reid, but I know better. It'll only end in tragedy, and I don't mean for just me." I shook my head. "He probably hates me, anyway, for leaving. Most likely, they'll all be gone by midnight."
Besides, a vampire and a hell-bound, damned witch could never be together.
It just wasn't possible.