I hope you guys enjoyed this segment of Edward and Bella's lives. It was fun writing it, and I hope that if you haven't read Halfling you will now. I've tried to explain as much about Madison's fate in this one as I can. Sorry about all the typos, but you type with a 6 year old banging on your back yelling "get off! you're hogging the computer!" Oh well. I hope to keep writing so keep an eye out for me! cyber hugs to all the great fans. And Stephenie Meyer rocks!
"MADDY JOY, SLOW DOWN!" screamed my best friend Mikaylah from the passenger's seat of my red firebird. I rolled my eyes and took my foot off the gas. The speedometer needle fell back to 60 mph.
"Happy?" I growled. I looked over to my friend, but that only made matters worse.
"KEEP YOUR EYES ON THE ROAD! The speed limit's 40 now slow-down!" I let out a huge sigh and pressed on the break until we reached 45.
"I'm not going any slower. This is why I tell everyone to let me take them and not my sister or brother-in-law."
"Why, so you can kill us?" she snorted. I rolled my eyes again and turned up the radio. Maybe this is why vampires shouldn't teach humans how to drive.
"No, because they drive even faster than me!" Mikaylah wrinkled her nose at my choice of music.
"No human could drive faster without crashing and dying-NASCAR doesn't count."
"You're probably half right," I laughed as I turned onto the main road and back into town.
Other than the fact that Mikaylah hated my driving, we were very close friends who were sometimes misunderstood. She was an outstanding artist who purposely drew controversial truths hidden in everyday scenes. Unfortunately, people often shunned her work away in denial. I was misunderstood because I tended to be too cautious around people (a result of being raised by overprotective vampires), and my writing was too real for some audiences. My favorite subject was about the half vampire child and her struggle for total immortality. Both were traits that I could hide, but my semi- vampric abilities weren't so easy. I was too fast, too strong, and too graceful to be considered human. Sadly, I was human until Dad changed me, a controversial topic in the Cullen family.
Mikaylah lived down the street from us, and usually liked to walk home after a while in the car with me at the wheel. So when I pulled into the driveway of our two-story, white brick house in Montpelier, Vermont, she, literally, jogged home. Any other day I would've raced to fitness nut to her house, but next to Mom's blue jaguar was a black Italian sports car: Alice and Jasper were here!
I ran through the door and saw Mom and Jasper watching Dad and Alice playing mental chess. Each had only moved two pawns, and Dad had a bishop out in the middle of the board.
"How long have they been playing?" I asked as I sat down next to Mom. She pushed her brown hair out of her white face and smiled at me. Her topaz eyes were soft and happy.
"Just a few minutes, but Alice is lime green, and Edward's true blue." I was sued to her color talk. Translation: Alice was worried about Dad's next move, and he was happy because he was going to win. Jasper laughed and agreed.
"Give then a minute or two. Edward will win; there's no doubt about it." And sure enough Alice flicked her king over and sourly looked up at Dad.
"Hey, Madison! What's up?" cheerfully greeted my aunt. I ran over to her and hugged her. Dad was smiling behind me.
"Not much. I just finished my latest vampire story, but Mom and Dad won't let me publish it though," I added pointedly, looking back at them.
"No fuchsia," said Mom.
"I can't control how I feel."
"But I can, so watch it," warned my uncle. Lucky me had a mind reading father (annoying and convienent at the same time), an emotion reading mother (highly convenient, yet slightly annoying), an emotion changing uncle (dangerous), and a physic aunt (depends of the situation). Before Jasper changed my fake angel I changed the subject.
"So, what are you guys doing here?" I got up and went into the kitchen for a pop.
"We need to talk to you-all of you," called Alice from the living room.
Uh-oh. How bad is it, Dad?
"It's your choice," he answered as I walked back with my Mountain Dew. My choice? What exactly did that mean? Usually the vampires made the desisions because they'd lived longer and knew when to do what. My only choices were dinner, hanging with friends, and that sort of thing- me stuff.
"Esme wants the family back together again. Alice and I would like that, too. If you guys came back Emmett and Rosalie would, too."
"We're moving?" Mom, Dad, and I had lived in Montpiler for a year and a half; I'd made close friends, but now they wanted to move? I let my vampire instincts take over. Logically my family would have to move before my junior year because my "older sister and brother-in-law" were starting to look the same age as me. Well, in just a few months I'd be as old as my father. I shuddered at the strange thought.
"If you want to finish your sophomore year here that's fine," soothed Mom. She was always understanding; maybe that was because she saw how news affected me and the girl factor helped.
I looked over at my family. They were probably worried about my color, emotional feeling, and thoughts. Alice, however, seemed patient and relaxed.
Crap. She already knows I'll say yes, doesn't she? Dad smiled and nodded. For the hell of it I thought about saying no, just enough to send Alice into a vision.
"Hey! Madison, please?" she begged after a second. I laughed evilly and smiled at her.
"So where are we going?" Mom, from the corner of my eye, beamed.
"Carlisle got a job in Seattle," said Alice. Seattle? Washington? Being raised by two to eight vampires, I was used to the cold, the clouds, occasional snow, small towns, and living outside of city limits, but the cold, wet rain Mom always used to describe Forks wasn't really my cup of tea. I swear some of her Phoenix blood was passed on to me.
Speaking of Forks wasn't that only an hour's drive from Seattle? An hour's drive from Grandpa, Mom's past life, wolves, adventure!
"When do we leave?" I asked excitedly. Dad laughed, no doubt hearing my reasons, and shook his head.
"We'll have to talk about some of that, Madison." Meanwhile Mom and Jasper were staring at each other trying to figure out why I suddenly changed my mind.
"Did you do that?" Mom asked Jasper. He stared back from her to Dad looking for answers.
"No, Seattle just sounded more and more exciting. Bring the family back, hear from Grandpa, a chance to start over," I explained. Moving to Seattle would change me life: I could feel it!