Yay, I actually have time to write this! :) I got my spacers on the first and I'm getting braces on the eighth and finals week is that week, so I'm going to be miserable. :( I will write this instead of trying to (I can't really) study for finals, not like I ever need it. Now, onto the story!
Disclaimer: (I forgot this last chapter)
Me: Seth!!!! Yes, you're mine!!
Seth: Uhh… I kind of belong to Stephenie Meyer, not you.
Me: Darn, my plot to take over Twilight has been foiled! Until I can succeed I don't own Twilight. :(
Emma's POV:
Sigh. Yet another boring school day.
I am considered an outcast in Anchorage High, home of the Polar Bears. How lame is that? Of course, I can't really say anything bad about anyone else.
I felt my golden bracelet on my slender left wrist as I reached up to check my snow white hat that I never took off. I did not want that falling off. You see, both of those things are important for different reasons that are connected by the same thing. The reason: I'm an elf.
I'm not the kind of elf that is popular in modern day culture. I'm tall (about 6 feet) but don't look too much like what you would see in Lord of The Rings. I don't mess around with some big dude who laughs all the time. I have fire red hair that reaches my waist while my eyes are the weirdest shade of green, like mint. I do have the problem of pointed ears, hence the hat. I had the excuse that my ears get cold easily and amazingly the teachers took it well in stride. The bracelet… I didn't like to think about it either; it reminded me for some reason of my dad.
My real dad was a normal human while my mother was the elf. He had known but had thought that I would turn out normal and relied on that as he had to watch my mother die from "too much stress" at birth and all the unneeded chemicals the doctors had put into her, not knowing that they would kill her. When I started to show signs at age four of my abilities and the ears started to develop, well… my father lost it. He would be gone all day at some bar and would come home late at night, knowing that elves needed very little sleep though he didn't recognize that I still needed a good amount of sleep, and would beat me until I went unconscious. I hadn't developed my strength and other abilities yet so I had to put up with it. Luckily some neighbor had noticed one night and had called the Child Protection Services on my dad and I was taken from that horrid place.
I was stuck in foster home after foster home, people being repelled away from me as I developed my abilities. I learned that I had a slight affinity for fire (hence the color of my hair) and also had telekinesis, which is when you can move things with your mind. I could eat lots of food (though I didn't prefer to and usually ate very little) and wouldn't gain an ounce and I became super strong. I also became very intelligent, being able to do calculus by age 11 (that foster parent was a college professor). I kept on being traded from one foster parent to another until I met John.
John Uchwa is one of the Native Americans that live in the area, preferring to live off the reservation and work daily for a living. He took me in when I was 12 and I've been staying with him for three years. He leaves me alone and is a cool sort of guy, not asking questions like some of my other fosters did. I really like him; he is a great guy.
Deep in my thoughts I almost didn't hear the first bell ring. I opened my locker which I had been standing next to and grabbed my books for English 9. All my classes were boring since they were so easy so my books were mostly props so I wouldn't stick out like a sore thumb. I walked at a quick pace for a human, getting to my class in record time. I always made sure to get here early since my class was one where we got to pick our seats.
It only took about half a minute longer for the rest of the class to walk in, stomping the slightly brown snow off of their boots and removing their coats and hanging them up on the coat hooks near the door as they chatted away annoyingly. They flopped down into their seats into their usual groups, still talking incessantly. To my relief and joy they all avoided my table. The few times people had sat by me they had learned that I was not the interactive sort of person and they had avoided me since. I didn't really feel that I fit in with anyone.
There was a minute of time left before class started when several girls I had never seen before entered the classroom. Two were Native Americans though they looked different from the ones here in Alaska. I had a feeling that they came from somewhere else along the Pacific Ocean, perhaps Washington or Oregon. They looked to be twins, dark eyes and long ebony hair swaying as they talked amongst themselves. They were really tall too, muscles noticeable. The last girl looked quite a bit different, pale skin and average height contrasting with the other two girls greatly. She had chocolate brown eyes and bronze colored hair that hung to her mid back in small ringlets. She was the one mostly talking, hands waving slightly for effect. She appeared to be wearing normal clothing, a pink long sleeved shirt with faded blue jeans, but on closer inspection you could see designer origins while the other two appeared to be actually wearing everyday wear if it was a little odd for Alaska, t-shirts with long shorts.
The threesome hung up their coats on the hangers before walking in my direction. I looked around quickly to see that all the other seats were taken and my table had exactly three seats left. Oh no. New students wouldn't understand that I was to be left alone and would attempt to talk to me. It wasn't that I was unsocial; it was because I didn't want to risk letting something slip or my temper for that matter. I had a horrible temper when I got mad; that was another reason why people avoided me like the Bubonic plague after trying to sit with me.
They reached my table in very little time and their smells hit me. Yes, I said smells. As far as I knew (my dad never told me anything other than that I was an elf) an elf's senses were greatly improved along with other things. The twins smelled faintly of all things dog but not like a domestic dog. It smelled wild like a wolf perhaps. The third girl smelled even stranger, like strawberries and something else that I couldn't identify.
I didn't have much more time to think or to try to get them away when the bell rang and class immediately started. I felt like fuming as Mr. Nesher talked on and on in his dull monotone voice. He then gave us our work before sitting down at his desk and doing whatever he does.
I tried to ignore the girls at my table but couldn't help but to be curious. That was one of my faults: I was way too curious of anything I didn't understand. I didn't understand these girls at all. Unlike the rest of the talkers in the room once class started they got right down to work and the talkative girl's work was about as good as mine which never usually happened. I barely finished our classwork before her and I had been writing quickly! The other two seemed to have some troubles with the English worksheet but still kept on working on and finished it faster than the other girls that were talking, whispering among themselves so loudly that there was a noticeable buzz among the room.
"Hi," A voice beside me said. I almost jumped out of my seat in surprise before I saw that it was the bronze haired girl. "My name's Renesmee Cullen. I'm new here as you probably could already tell."
"Hello Renesmee." I said calmly, actually glad that someone was talking to me which was surprising. I never wanted anyone to talk to me and was never glad when they did before now. "I'm Emma Lake."
The girl smiled in response. "Please call me Nessie. Renesmee is way too long of a name in my opinion. These two are Alex and Alison." She continued, indicating the two that were now looking at me intently like two wolves that had cornered a rabbit. I resisted the urge to nervously gulp as Nessie glared at the two when they didn't say anything and kept on staring at me.
"I'm sorry about my friends. They're usually not this unfriendly." She apologized.
"Don't worry about it," I said. "Most people ignore me, so glaring is welcome." I gave a small smile and a weak laugh, hoping that it would reassure her. Glaring was slightly more welcome right now than being ignored. My curiosity had gotten the better of me.
The rest of class passed by relatively quickly, Alex and Alison eventually warming up to me slightly as I did my best to reassure them that I was an okay person. Nessie had no problem from the beginning so she had done most of the talking. Our teacher never noticed any of the excessive noise because he was partially deaf and Jamie, another freshman with curly brown hair, came over to our group for a couple of moments to talk to the three new kids. She soon left but you could tell that all three felt a bit more accepted not that that would have fazed Nessie for a moment; she was a talking machine.
Strangely enough we all had the same classes except for Advo so we spent a lot more time talking to each other after doing our class (and home) work. I found out that they, along with a whole bunch of other kids, had been adopted or were currently being fostered by Carlisle and Esme Cullen. Carlisle was the new doctor at the local hospital. She was related to several sophomores and a junior while the Native Americans, some junior twins and a sophomore were foster children. In return I told her my cover story since I let no one know about any of my past, which was that I had been traded from foster parent to foster parent since I was 7 because my parents died. It was close enough to the truth that I usually didn't feel bad saying it like it was the truth but today I felt really guilty. She sounded so sincere, honestly caring about my situation though she had said that she had never met her parents; they had died only months after she was born.
When lunch arrived, I declined to sit with them and the rest of their family. Though I hadn't met them yet I really didn't want to be with so many people. We split off after getting our trays of food, the twins stacking their plates full of food. Looked like they had an appetite to match their size. I walked over to my usual empty table as the others walked not too far away to the large table that housed all of her family.
I only caught a quick glance but yet was fascinated with what I saw and smelt. There was more of the dog smell and the smell I couldn't name and they all looked either like muscular Native Americans or very pale and golden eyed. Most of them were in pairs except for some of the Native Americans. Nessie sat by a huge (and I mean huge by extremely tall and muscular) Native American who immediately smiled at her and gave her a hug. I guessed that that was Jacob by what she had said. The boy that sat by Alex and Alison must have been Embry from what Nessie had described. The two blonde twins were Jasper and Rosalie, the one that looked like a pixie must be Alice, the muscular teen by Rosalie Emmett, and the bronze haired boy and brown haired girl Edward and Bella.
I had taken that all into my head in one glance that lasted seconds so, to not attract attention, stared at my food. I was too curious to really want to eat. I stared at my food for the entire lunch period, thinking about the strange family that was seated not too far away from me. There was something…not right about them, like they weren't completely human.
I talked with Nessie and the twins throughout our last classes and I didn't find out that much more of interest about her life. I didn't say that much more either, choosing to talk more about trivial things. Her whole family perplexed me, and I had no clue how to make heads or tails of it.
After my classes I left school as soon as possible, heading out to the old Honda Civic that I used more as cover than anything else; I could have easily run here even through the snow though I wouldn't have liked it. Being more partial to fire caused me to shun anything water like.
It didn't take too long to reach the small house I stayed in with John. The house had only one story, the roof appearing crooked with the weight of the snow bending it slightly in places. The exterior was painted a bright red to contrast with the ever present snow, and the roof was black to contrast even more. It appeared on the outside smaller than it really was.
I smiled as I hopped out of the small maroon Civic and speed walked to the black door. I did say that I didn't like to walk through snow after all, and it was totally true. Every step I took made me feel less energetic, more lethargic and depressed.
I finally reached the door, pulling the brass colored handle. It was never locked; there was no need to. There hadn't been any crimes for many years other than several cases of shoplifting. No one dared to aim for the houses. Everyone was known to have stashed in several places in their homes at least one pistol and several shotguns along with the little kids owning BB guns and pellet pistols. Want to rob a store? Most of the time there are several legal concealed gun permit owners, not including the cashier and others without their permits. They wouldn't hesitate to pull a gun on you either. The shoplifters were all daring teens too, so mostly they got laughed at when caught in the attempt and walloped over some big guy's knee and would be sent scampering for home. No one bothered to call the police for something like that. The only times the police were called were when some big guys would get drunk and start arguing at their homes and the neighbors would get nervous. They usually left fairly quickly because the men's wives would start to yell at their husbands for being such drunken idiots and the cops for thinking that a woman couldn't handle her husband. So there was virtually no crime at all here.
I stepped into the small entryway stomping my gray boots across the hard linoleum floor. I pulled them off my socked feet and put them by the door before strolling into my tiny bedroom.
The room was not that big, plastered walls painted a bright orange-red like the flames of a fire. A long twin sized bed lay beside one wall while a small dresser and bookcase stood by another wall right across from my bed. The walls contained several shelves that held more books and a few of the items I had been able to keep a hold of while I was being passed among adults. The primary among them was a box my mother had left with my name engraved on it. I had found it in my father's attic when I was 6 years old. It contained several different pieces of jewelry and only later discovered that they had different purposes for elves. We weren't invincible after all as proven by my mother's death after giving birth to me, a smaller than normal baby.
I removed the box from its normal spot on the shelf, the various engravings of some ancient language on the sides and top of the large box. It had been pretty hollow for its size when I had found it those years ago, only containing a couple of items that appeared like normal jewelry. It now contained random pieces of real jewelry to hide the abnormal specimens among them. I opened the box, taking out the ones I wanted to look at and set them on my bed, delicately setting the box back on the shelf and settling on my bed beside the items.
The only bracelet in that box matched the one that was on my left wrist. It was a solid band of gold, quite harmless to a human but something different to an elf. It enhanced an elf's skills and powers but also had a great price. You could only wear one on your wrists and one on your ankles, though I definitely did not want another on me. If you pinched my right wrist at the top and bottom of it and pulled at that bracelet it would come right off along with most of my freedom. I would have to obey whatever the person who held it said but I could delay it as much as I could or be grumpy about it. The person could give the bracelet to others, whom I would have to obey them. The worst part would be that I would still have the strengthened abilities that the bracelet gave me when it was on me. I would only stop obeying people when someone returned it to either of my wrists or my ankles. It hadn't happened yet but I knew from a note my mother had left in the box. I would have moved it to my ankle if it weren't for the fact that I had foolishly put it on my wrist first and I couldn't take it off myself. I could be literally a prisoner to my foolishness.
I eagerly moved onto the next piece, a coiled silver chain that looked like several small ropes of metal wound together delicately. A small ruby hung from the middle of the chain in the shape of a raindrop. I put this piece on, the very long chain cinching itself strangely so that it fit around my neck like a choker necklace. I touched it, feeling happier immediately. Unlike the bracelet the purpose of this necklace was a purely good one. It helped elves with an affinity for fire handle the cold and wet that is in this world and the depression that comes with too much of that. I grabbed a nearby scarf, black and blue stripes racing down it from end to end, and wrapped it over the chain and pendant. The scarf actually matched my long sleeved black shirt and dark blue jeans. I chose dark colors not because I felt a bit depressed at times but because they absorbed the sun's heat better than lighter, cheerier colors. That was another reason why the majority of the student body at my high school avoided me.
The next thing I picked up with disgust. It was another necklace and one I disliked. This one was a single band of gold, a clasp at the back. When closed it wasn't easy for someone without the improved eyesight of an elf to find the clasp. The necklace controlled the opposite of the bracelet- it let elves control humans, except it had to on their necks to control them and taken off to give back their freedom. Humans were much more gullible to this than elves to the bracelets, actually wanting to do whatever the elf told them to do and it was only the elf that put the necklace on them. Once again I had never seen it in action but my mom said in her note that she had watched it in use once and it had been horrible. I had a reason for taking this out though, and put it into my pocket, the band shrinking to such a small size that it was barely noticeable. I wanted to figure out a bit more about it, and who knew what would happen that would help me?
The last items of interest were two rings, one silver and the other gold, both with the strange writing that was on my box engraved on the outsides of them. Their use was complicated and my mother hadn't even fully figured them out. It created some sort of bond between two people, one of those having to be an elf. My mother had used them as wedding bands, her wearing the silver, and she had been able to keep my father in love with her and not worrying about her true identity. Before that she had worn the gold one and had given the silver to a friend that was a girl; she had been able to communicate with the human through her mind no matter the distance. It seemed like the use varied depending on whom and what used the rings and which they chose to wear. I tucked them back into the box; I didn't have any need of them or wanting to analyze them.
I settled back onto my bed and took the next 10 minutes to do all my homework which would have taken a normal teenager hours to finish. I then decided to draw since I had nothing else to do.
I took out my sketch pad and slowly sat down on my bed, careful not to cause anything that would break through the ambient mood I was trying to set myself in. Once I got settled down onto my bed I started to sketch, not even bothering to look at my paper. I wasn't really focusing on anything, floating in a rest-like mode. After an undetermined time I recognized that my hand had stopped drawing and looked down as my eyebrows rose in surprise.
The sketch was very detailed with several people in it. Looking closely at them I realized that they were Bella Swan, the Cullen siblings, and the Hale twins. I saw Nessie hesitating in the background staring at them in shock and possibly fear. They were in a dark clearing, the only light provided by the moonbeams reflecting off of the thick sheet of snow. I saw some lines in the foreground and soon realized them as my red hair, lightly shaded so it would have the right shade. Everyone but Nessie was staring at me hostilely and I noticed that their eyes were no longer a light shade but a deep black. They seemed to be attempting to stare me down but I was sure that I wouldn't give in. I was stubborn to the bone when I had decided something. But what had I decided that would get them so mad? Why were their eyes a different color? And why was Nessie appearing so nervous? This piece confused me more than clarifying anything. I had no clue why I would draw the Cullens; I had only seen them today after all. This drawing confirmed that I was too curious for my own good, being so obsessive that I would draw things about them. But why were they hostile and not happy or something?
I was mulling over this for some time before I heard John driving up the driveway and not too long after saw his beat up old white F-150. It had almost failed him so many times that now I could identify it from way off by all the random clunks, ba-bums, and chug-a-chugs it made. I walked up to the door as John got out of his truck and gave him a small hug when he entered, which he returned. John was the closest thing to a dad I had ever had so I always made sure to show my affection for him in some way that both of us were comfortable with. We didn't really talk too much either; we both were the thoughtful and silent type.
I started work on dinner as he walked into the living room to watch the news and some soccer games. The meal was the size for two only because he ate so much to make up for my lack of an appetite. I had trained myself not to eat so much so then I wouldn't appear suspicious when I kept off weight and lost it so well when I didn't like to run around outside and I ate tons of food. That would be sure to raise questions. John, on the other hand, works on different construction projects and so needs the extra calories for energy throughout the day. We were totally different and yet we were living together as foster child and foster parent and were fine with it.
Dinner was soon finished and we ate quickly and in silence. I left the table and decided to try to get a full night of sleep. I rarely did due to my lack of need for it but it gave me something to do during the dull night hours. I finally succeeded at my task after thinking for another hour about the mysterious Cullens and the foster kids they had with them. Why would any sane person, never the less a doctor, adopt and foster so many kids? There had to be a sane reason. I fell asleep, still fully clothed with the scarf around my neck, with several ideas in my head that totally did not work and ideas about who- or what- they are that didn't match up with what I had seen. Who were they?
Yesss!!! I wrote over 4,300 words in this chapter. That is so awesome! :) I am working on all my fanfics but I still have that evil writer's block over Seth's Chance. :( Anyway, please tell me what you thought of this chapter. Did you like Emma? Did you like her POV? Did you like the fact that she is an elf? Did you hate the fact that she is an elf? Please review with all the thoughts you had about this chapter. I really appreciate it when you do review and absolutely love it. That's all for now then. REVIEW!!! :)