I was in gym when the rumors really began to circulate. Between the basketballs flying at people's heads, the rumors also flew.
There had been an accident at the high school. At first that didn't catch my attention, it was when someone mentioned who was involved, that was when my attention was grabbed, Edward's name was not brought up in the conversation, but her name was.
I'll admit, I panicked, I feel ashamed that I had such little faith in my brother that the mention of an accident with her involved would automatically trigger a panic response in me, it shouldn't have and the second it did I felt bad, from what I've heard, she's not exactly the world's most graceful human being, something about tripping on a flat surface.
But walking through the halls towards study hall, the random tidbits began to form the actual story.
A junior at the high school had come into the parking-lot to fast, he had hit a patch of ice and the out of control van had nearly crushed Bella Swan. Both her and the driver were taken to the hospital and were fine.
The driver was cut up pretty bad, but the Swan girl was treated for a concussion and released to Chief Swan.
No mention of any Cullen in the story, and yet I felt my cell phone in my pocket, willing, silently praying for it to ring. Part of me hoping that it would ring to lay my concerns to rest and part of me feared it ringing, wondering what kind of news it brought with it.
I had a feeling deep in my stomach, not a part of my abilities just a general human gut feeling that somehow Edward was involved in the incident at the high school.
I walked into study hall and saw Marie sitting at my usual table. Usually Marie sits by herself at one of the few computers, but then I remember, we were helping each other with the memoirs. Normally I use study hall to do anything BUT my homework and studying, but I had a feeling today I'd actually have to work.
She smiled at me as I walked in and I slowly returned it.
"Hi Chris," she said as I sat down
"Hi," I replied "how's it going?"
"Fine." She smiled shyly "watch out for Mr. Jones, he's in a bad mood," so what else is new I thought grinning, Marie has him first period, so if he was in a bad mood FIRST period, then it was probably in my best interest to not space out during class. He hadn't seemed in that bad of a mood in homeroom, but then again, I didn't really pay attention to him I make it a point to ignore him. "So did you start your memoir?"
"I mentioned it to my family, my parents said they would help me if I needed it and my brothers and sisters said they'd help as well. Thought it might be interesting to add to the story what was going through their heads when our parents brought me home."
"Having a big family like that must be nice especially with something like this." Marie said softly.
"It comes in handy, but having extra brothers means extra people to pick on you. And older sisters mean they try to play fashion police and succeed." I reminded her, gesturing to the jeans and shirt that Rosalie and Alice bought me at the Mall of America. Marie's an only child, which partly explains her quiet shy personality. I could easily imagine how she would handle a family such as mine, even without the vampire part of the equation, just because of the sheer size of it. After all, I was a kid from a very small family where I was an only child, and I was suddenly thrown into a large family. So it's easy to relate to how Marie would handle it, because our personalities are pretty similar. "What did your parents say 'bout the assignment?" I asked, trying to defer the conversation away from myself.
"Same thing that they would help me if I needed it, but my mom pulled down our family tree and told me that would be a good place to start."
"Makes sense, knowing where you come from is the first part to where you're going."
"So, is your brother ok?"
I raised an eyebrow, how could Marie even have noticed that Edward was gone for a week? That was all happening at the high school and didn't involve the middle school at all, maybe she had noticed that he hadn't been picking me up, but it wasn't like I was being picked up in a different car, it was the Volvo like it always is, but seriously how observant was this girl?
"What do you mean?" I asked, trying to figure out exactly that she was talking about; she looked taken aback by my question, which really made me question what she was thinking of, 'cause it obviously wasn't the same as what I thought.
I read body language, not minds. I study behavior and facial expressions to get my answers. I could tell she knew something that was completely unrelated to who had been picking me up at school the past week, the concern in her eyes and on her face gave me the distinct feeling that I had been right in panicking this morning, but I was hoping I was wrong, please let it be something else…
"I heard that one of your brothers was in that accident this morning at the high school, you know with the van nearly crushing Chief Swan's daughter."
Damn, I hate it when I'm right. Edward was involved, somehow. But I wondered how the heck did Marie know that one of my brothers was involved? I may not be on top of all the gossip in this school, but I've got better hearing then any of my classmates.
"Uhh…" I started to say, tripping over my words
"Edward, he is one of your brothers, right?"
"Oh, yeah, I…er…"
She smiled "You have no idea do you?"
"Actually I just started hearing about the accident; I haven't had a chance to talk to any of my family."
"Oh, I'm sorry; I thought you knew about it"
"Nope-"
Just then my phone began to vibrate; I waited, as it vibrated two short times, then was still.
It was a text message, I knew without looking that it was from Alice, her and I are the only ones who text in the family.
I looked around quickly, keeping an eye on the teacher, and flipped the phone open to read it 'efbsf . Lu.'
Like I said, Alice and I are the only ones who text in the family and since it's not exactly allowed in school, we use a code to talk to each other just in case someone not in our family sees the messages, someone like a teacher.
We use the excuse that our phones are acting up and turn themselves on, it sounds like something that couldn't happen, but our honest look and sincerity is enough to make our teachers not even think twice.
Basically the message translates into this: 'Edward is fine, Bella Swan is fine. Be ready to go on time, we're having a family meeting, it might get serious. Love you.'
No one could translate that sucker 'cept a Cullen. So I wasn't concerned when Marie leaned over to see if everything was ok.
"What's that?" she asked
"My sister's phone's been acting up, it sends random distorted text messages and it calls people at random. And for some reason it likes to mess with me." I lied "we're taking it to the store to find out what's going on, the sooner the better."
"Oh, I was about to say." Marie laughed, she looked at my neck and I followed her eyes down, wondering if I had something on my shirt.
Emmett had managed to nail me with a snowball/slush-ball this morning, as we were leaving for school right in the chest and now I panicked for a second, thinking maybe it hadn't been just snow in that Emmett deployed cannon ball, but mud as well, I wouldn't put it past him. But my blue long sleeved shirt was spotless.
She reached forward and took my gift from the Denali clan looking at the charm, holding it in the palm of her hand.
"This is beautiful."
This was the closest Marie had ever been to me, I could smell everything about her, a sweet scent entered my nose and I felt a minor ache in my throat. For a moment I wondered if that was what hit Edward, only worse than what I was experiencing.
I've never tasted human blood, but that doesn't stop me from getting the same ache from my body wanting what it truly desires, what it was designed to consume, human blood.
My mouth filled with venom and the minor ache began to shift into a burn, nothing sever, it was like touching a piece of metal that has been out in the hot sun to long, something I could ignore, but only by concentrating on ignoring it.
Quickly, I did what Carlisle always tells us to do, if someone is close enough to us that the scent is overwhelming or there's a potential of blood being in the picture, I held my breath.
I continued to move my chest in and out as if I was still breathing, but that was just for show.
I looked over at Marie, not realizing for a moment that she had been calling my name and looked concerned that I wasn't answering.
"I'm sorry, what?" I took a breath so I could speak and not sound out of breath, a slight burn filled my throat, but I could ignore it.
"I said your necklace is beautiful, where'd you get it?"
"Oh, sorry," I forced out a grin "yeah, I just got it, some friends of my parents from where we lived in Alaska sent it down to me, they know I like wolves."
"Does it mean anything?" she asked tracing the Celtic knot.
I shrugged.
"Probably, the symbol in the middle is a Celtic knot," I explained I took a sheet of paper from my notebook and sketched another version of the symbol, a more familiar symbol, four circles crossing each other. Most people know that symbol and Marie was no exception.
"Oh, I've seen that before."
"Same thing, it's called a Celtic knot." I paused "you asked yesterday if I remember anything from England and this is one of them. My family moved to London when I was four, we were originally from Glasgow, Scotland. But I remember this symbol; it was on a necklace my mother always wore, that my father gave to her."
"it's beautiful." Marie finally said softly, dropping the charm from her hand. I heard it ping as it connected with my cross under my shirt, but Marie of course didn't hear a thing. She reached forward again and lifted up my crest, eyeing it carefully "you've always worn this right?" I nodded. "what is it?"
"When my godparents officially adopted me this was my adoption present. The crest goes way back, my godfather's ancestors were also from England and symbol has been passed down through the generations. My godparents wanted me to feel a part of the family completely so my last name becoming Cullen and being given this necklace did that."
"I like it, its cool looking, is that a dragon or a lion?"
"Lion," I answered "means strength, dauntless courage, and the clovers are what's called a Trefoiler, they mean luck as well as the perpetuity, and the hand means faith, sincerity, and justice." Marie's eyes went wide
"Wow, that little charm says all that?"
"All crests have a story behind them all families have a story to make their own. My first last name was Callaghan, our crest is pretty unique in the fact that it shares its design with our Irish counterparts and another clan that merged with ours centuries ago, the Callahan's and the O'Callaghans, three clans all sharing the same link, it doesn't happen very often."
"What does the Callaghan crest look like?" Marie asked, she was obviously curious this wasn't an act.
"Um, its green and white, it has four trees in the back ground and a black wolf standing guard, on the top of the shield is the head of a knight in full armor." I paused "it varies between the three additions to the clan, depending on which one you're from, but its roughly the same design."
"You should write your report on the clans and crests, that would be really interesting."
"Glad you think so, but I don't think its going to work, I've got something else in mind that's even better, something you guys are gonna like." I added mysteriously,
"Tell me?"
I shook my head and grinned
"Anyways, how were you planning on starting your memoir off?" I quickly asked changing the subject, Mrs. Brown was right; bouncing ideas off each other was not a bad idea.
A/N: Do you guys realize NOW why chapter 11 is going to be so long? When I talked about in the first chapter about some parts being lifted directly from Midnight Sun, chapter 11 is one of those parts, so tomorrow at some point chapter 11 an extremely long chapter will be uploaded. Till then! Have a good night!