Disclaimer : I own nothing but the idea. Maybe not even that.
Review-y Stuff : Thanks to those who reviewed! You're really amazing, and I totally wrote this chapter because and for you guys!
Oh, and to respond to y'all.
Yana : I really, really like Reid as a character, and I wanted him as a major character. I couldn't put him with Bella, because she's with Edward (so yes to the BxE (; ). Besides, putting her as Caleb's sister seemed like I was making her too powerful, too special. Plus, Caleb and Pogue are the two characters I have the hardest time writing. Best to write Reid, who I like a lot.
marie potter riddle : Thanks so much for the compliment, and I know. I totally went through the entire Covenant x Twilight crossovers, and was sad that there wasn't one that fit my mold. So I made my own, yay! And hopefully you'll like the reunion scene; not very good, but I'm not good at the emotional love stuff. Oh well!
Chapter Three;
She sighed and shifted her weight again, hoping she hadn't gone too long without moving. She was the worst in the family at playing human, next to, of course, Jasper. She hated having to pretend, having to mess with her amazing hair and blink every few seconds. She hated having to pretend to eat, breath and shift her weigh, and she hated having to pretend as if she were stupid, as if she knew nothing.
The worst part, though, was school. She had to act human all the time, she had to pretend she hadn't been through the same process a million times. She had to pretend that she hadn't seen the second world war in live action, that she hadn't watched the riots during Vietnam. She had to keep herself from answering in her ever-board tones the truth behind several historical mysteries. God, maybe that was the hardest thing about school - watching a football coach butcher your time period.
"Yeah, well, its not so much fun for me, either." Edward snapped from across the table, talking too low and fast for a normal human to hear.
In fact, the only human motion worth any trouble at all was the rolling of the eyes, which she demonstrated to Edward. She didn't bother to curb her thoughts, she never did. She didn't care if he could hear, though he mostly tuned her out, complaining that she was too vain for him. Didn't matter to her; Emmett loved her, and she was beautiful, and that was really all that mattered.
Besides, Edward found most everything annoying now. Ever since that disgusting...catching his glare, she changed her thoughts. Ever since Bella has left, ever since she'd vanished into the night with no trace, most likely at the hands of Victoria, Edward had become a grumpy vampire. He'd snarled and growled at anyone who had come near him for the first month, then he'd turned mopey.
She really didn't get it. Edward had been planning to leave Forks, and Bella, after her birthday, after Jasper had attacked her and Edward himself had hurt her. So what if Bella had left before them, and without a goodbye and I love you? Humans were fickle that way, not able to grasp the love that life mates shared for each other as vampires, so it wasn't much a surprise. And really, Bella leaving had saved them the trouble, or so she'd thought.
Edward had still picked up and left, and the family after him. Annoyed the hell out of her, as she now had to start high school all over again. This time, Edward, Emmett and herself were playing the seniors, and Jasper and Alice were the juniors. They had kept the same story, changing minor things. Her and Jasper were still the Whitlock twins, though Jasper had been held back. Alice, Emmett and Edward were siblings, Alice the youngest, Edward and Emmett just ten months apart, making them both seniors.
Charlise was a doctor once more, though he wasn't a surgeon this time – he'd opted for ER doctor, though the pay was less. Something about helping people, and in between the lines, she just knew that he'd felt guilty about Bella. He hadn't said anything, sure, but her father wasn't one to really say. Still, they all knew that he felt guilty about letting Bella get hurt, then thinking about running off. Didn't matter that she left first, he was feeling guilty.
Esme, on the other hand, had gone for a new story. Instead of Jasper and Rose being her niece and nephew, they were her rather young step-siblings. Their father had died, along with the twin's young mother, in a car crash, and Esme, around ten years or more their senior, had taken them in. More had changed than that, though. Esme had also taken a part time job, which surprised us all. Maybe she'd wanted to be closer to us, to keep an eye on Edward? Rose didn't care, because the outcome was the same: Esme was a school counselor.
Rose was started by the elbow to her side, and looked to her left, to Alice. "You haven't twitched in three minutes." Alice whispered, though too rapidly for anyone but a vampire to catch anyway.
Rose shrugged, then yawned. "Sorry, was lost in thought." She flicked her glance to Edward, who was glaring at her, his expression one of anger. "As Edward probably knows."
Edward did nothing but glare at her, shifting without thought, as he'd done for decades of pretending to be human. Then he froze, as did the rest of the table. The door to the cafeteria, the one leading in from the outside, had been thrown open, the wind whipping into the room. A scent hit the vampires as four figures stepped into the room.
Rose quickly took stock of the new figures, noting three males and a female. Two of the males were dark in coloring, one was bleached blonde, and the girl was...Bella.
Fuck.
Then Rose looked closer and relaxed. The two girls could be twins, but there was no way this girl was Bella. As the scent swirled around them, everyone but Edward took Rose's cue. Bella had smelled weak, pathetic and terribly human, so appetizing, even to those not Edward. This girl, oddly enough, smelled strong, and Rose imagined that her blood would taste horrible. Well, maybe not horrible, but not as good as Bella's would have.
Not only that, but Bella would never had worn her own skin like this girl did. Bella had been timid, shy, quite and unassuming. The girl in the doorway was standing with power, though she looked less aggressive than the males. She wore the normal school uniform - gray skirt, navy blazer and white shirt, nothing odd. Her hair was different, though. Most girls in the school wore their hair long or pixie short, like Alice. The girl in front of her had a layered, punk look to it, with bleached streaks.
All of Rose's thoughts were contained in the span of a second, her advanced vampire mind working as fast as always. Then the girl stepped into the room, hips rolling in a gait that shouted 'queen bitch'. The taller, obviously older guy stood behind her, reaching up to push his thick hair out of his face. His hand landed on the girl's shoulder and grazed off, and Rose would have suspected that they were a couple if not for the other two guys.
The other dark haired guy, this one looking the youngest but still pretty tall, was holding her left hand, farthest from Rose and her family. He looked angry and pensive, and Rose had to wonder what made him look so constipated. Then she brushed it away, not really caring as her eyes flickered to the blonde, albino-looking guy.
He looked a bit like Malfoy from Harry Potter (everyone had watched for Teen Vampire Night, as the human had coined it), blonde and pale. Even his damn eyes here pale green. He was holding Bella-look-alike's right hand, and for some reason, his glare seemed to be centered on their table. While all four had been looking at the table, only Blondie was actually glaring with what Rose knew was hatred.
"Bella..." They all snapped around to look at Edward, who was staring at the girl with wide eyes. Rose narrowed her eyes. It seemed to be her duty to be the bitch...again.
"Look, Edward, she may look like Bella, but she's not." Rose spoke too fast to be heard by the humans. "She smells different and she moves different, and would the Bella you know actually look like that?"
Edward took another deep breath, watching the group. Two of the guys were moving away, towards the cluster of tables on the other side of the door, opposite the vampires. The other two, the blonde and the girl, were making their way towards the former Cullen's area of the cafeteria.
"No! That's Bella!" Edward hissed, not moving his eyes from her as he stood slowly. Trying to keep up the human charade, Rose guessed. Ever the responsible one, even faced with a lost love, or rather, the face of a lost love.
The pair had quickened their pace, arriving at the table before Edward could take more than two steps away from it. Rose felt her eyes widen; the girl looked even more like Bella when up close. Rose almost wished it was, because then Edward would stop moping...then again, maybe not. Humans were kinda annoying, more annoying than a mopey vampire.
The cafeteria seemed to decrease in volume, until all was silent. "Bella," Edward breathed my name, his hand reaching up to touch my cheek. I shuddered at the cold as it touched my skin, feeling the power dance along me.
I felt Reid shift at my side, but we'd talked about it before coming in. He wouldn't spas just because my boyfriend was in the room, or at a casual touch. Of course, I'm surprised he'd listened, and hadn't tried to take Edward apart with his bare hands. That would have been bad...Two insanely powerful creatures pissed over a female? Not. Ever. Good.
"Hello, Edward." My voice was soft, almost too soft for my own ears, but I knew every vampire heard it. Reid probably did, too, but only because he knew me well enough to have guessed what I would say in a situation such as this.
We were frozen in what seemed like forever, golden gaze hitting solid brown. Then something hit me and wrapped me in a hug, and I heard Reid let out a slight yell. "BellaBellaBella! I missed you!" Alice squealed in my ear.
"Isy..." Reid spoke from behind me, and I didn't bother looking at him when I gave a thumbs up from my side. He seemed to see it, even though my arms were pinned to my sides by Alice, because I heard him step a bit behind.
"Alice, I need to breath." I gasped out, and she let me go, or mostly – she still kept my hand, smiling up at me.
"Alice." Edward's voice came from my side, and I realized he'd moved so that Alice could hug me. I turned my head to look at him, then at Alice. "I know you missed her, but I need to talk to her." Then he switched his gaze to me, and it felt like a punch to the stomach. "Outside?" It was phrased as a question, but we both knew we had no choice.
Except, just as I was about to speak up, Reid decided to make his presence known. "No way in hell, pretty boy. You are not taking her anywhere, outside or inside."
Everyone looked at him, and that included the people who weren't supposed to hear. "Keep your voice down, Reid, or everyone is gonna hear this conversation. You want that to happen?"
We both knew that if it did, if everyone heard what we were about to say...bad things would happen. As much as we like to think we're all powerful, even we have our limits. Memory wipes took a lot out of us, even Reid, who was a master with the mental. We could only use so much before out life force was drained to the point of death...
Making people disappear was a whole lot easier.
"Anything for you damn protection, princess." Reid snapped back at me, scowling as he lowered his voice. He reached out to touch me, probably to tuck hair behind my ear, as it was how we grounded ourselves. Nervous or angry? Brush the Power against another, and you felt immediately better. Hell, you didn't even have to Use, you just had to touch.
Edward's hand flashed out at inhuman speed, catching Reid's hand in midair. My eyes flashed around to see if anyone was staring, and nope, thank god. Then I went back to the problem at hand. "What the fuck, dude? Let me go." Reid was snarling now, and I winced for Edward. Not good.
"Dammit, Edward, let him go. I do not want a pissing match in my school," I hissed at both of them, watching Edward's face go impassive and Alice's eye widen.
Reid pulled his hand back, rubbing his wrist as he glared. Emmett finally spoke up from his seat next to Rose, smirking. "See you learned some new words, Bella," He teased, though he looked tense. In fact, everyone did, especially Jasper. In fact, Jasper looked kinda pissed.
"Why don't we all sit down and have a nice chat?" Alice bubbled up from next to me.
"No," Reid cut in before I could tell her sorry. "We need to leave. I don't even know why we're here."
"Who is he, Bella?" Edward asked, looking almost feral.
I sighed; this was not going the way I had hoped. Nice, neat and tidy? Nope, never for me, dammit. "Family, Edward, he's my family. And he's right; we've gotta go before we draw anymore stared." People were starting to catch on, finally, and staring. "But I have an address for a place we can meet. You can bring Emse and Charlise." I added as his face darkened.
"Bella..." His voice was a warning, and I almost smiled. He was so funny when he was trying to get his way.
"Here," I reached in my back pocket then frowned. I turned my head, eyebrows raised, to Reid. He sighed and pulled out his wallet, flipping it open and pulling out a torn piece of paper with a girl's number on it. "Man-whore," I grumbled to him, catching a wide glance from the vampires and a smirk from Reid.
A pen was held out to me by Alice, who smiled tentatively at me. Seems they were shocked my this 'new me', or rather, the real me. Oh well, they'd have to deal, or leave. Leaving being preferred for their health...
"Thanks, Alice." I muttered, taking the pen and clicking it. A second later, in my really crappy handwriting, the house address was scrawled over the back of the card. "We'll be home all evening, I think. We can talk there, but only there." For your safety and the safety of the humans, I added in my head.
"We'll be there," Edward growled, though his glare was directed at Reid as he took the card carefully. The paper vanished a second later, then Edward leaned down and brushed a kiss against my cheek. "Hope you don't mind," He whispered in my ear before moving away, eyes soft.
Reid grabbed my hand, squeezing it as I hesitated. "C'mon, Isy. We gotta go, or we'll miss the rest of lunch." Code for, hurry before Tyler and Caleb get anxious and break out the big guns. Okay, maybe not to him, but it was to me.
"See you tonight, Edward." I murmured to him, watching sadly over my shoulder for a few second as he and Alice joined the shell shocked table.
Reid's hand came around my shoulders as he hugged me to his side. "Sorry, Princess. I know you wished that could have gone better." He told me softly, clearing his throat. Reid never was an emotional one, but the comfort he gave was always true.
"Not your fault. Any reunion between star-crossed-lovers are bound to be horrible and angsty," I supplied, trying to be optimistic, "'sides, the second reunion shouldn't be this bad."
"I say we just kill 'em and leave it all to God to figure out," Tyler supplied as we both sat, Reid moving out of the hug to reach over and grab a fry from Caleb.
"Get your own damn food, Reid," Caleb growled without any real heat as he reached out and bumped fists with me. Then he went back to his conversation with Sarah, though I knew he had one ear open to us.
"Wouldn't that be Satan, baby boy?" Reid teased, popping the stolen fry in his mouth afterwards.
I rolled my eyes and smacked him on the back of the head, "They are not damned. We all know that." I snapped, scowling and picking at Tyler's food. He let me this once, of course, because I'd just had to see my ex-boyfriend and true love. Otherwise he'd have made me get my own.
"You got that right," Tyler muttered as we all watched the group of vampires leave the cafeteria. "Nothing damned to hell could look that beautiful."
"Hey! I take offense at that!" I joked, though only after the door had closed. "Besides, they're all taken. You know, the whole life mate thing?"
"Yeah, yeah, whatever." Tyler joked right back, flicking my short hair out of my eyes.
Reid stole a fry from Tyler this time. "Wanna bet I can steal Blondie away from her guy?"
I laughed, "Oh my god, you and Rose would be a complete disaster. You two are almost exactly alike!" Then I paused, "Well, actually, Rose and Emmett kinda remind of you, if you were split in half."
"Oh?" One eyebrow raised.
"Yeah. Emmett was always making sex jokes and teasing me, the big teddy bear, and flexing his muscle." I smiled to myself, remembering. "I don't know Rosalie that well, but she seems mean, cutting and really protective, or so Edward's told me."
"Huh. Well, what do you know." Caleb thought aloud, "The first thing the princess did in her town was find supernatural creatures who seem to act like us." Then he grinned. "Someone was homesick."
"Was not!" I pouted, only to burst out laughing when Tyler and Reid poked me, one for each side.
"Ha! Yes, you were! You missed your big brother!" Reid remarked, ruffling my hair.
"I did not!" I protested once again, looking to Tyler for backup.
Tyler merely smirked and said snidely, "Yeah huh."
I screeched and threw my hands in the air, and just like that, my mood was lifted.