Storyline: Cassidy Ákil is a seventeen year old girl from Iceland. When she moves to Forks, Washington at the beginning of New Moon, she discovers dark, hidden secrets. But Cassidy has a secret of her own.
A/N: Italicized sentences are from the real Twilight Saga: New Moon book. Absolutely no copyright infragement intended. Stephenie Meyer owns all the brilliancy that is Twilight. I own nothing but myself.
I got a question the other day, asking me who was my favorite Twilight character and what character I most related to. Alice and Emmett are definitely my two most favorite characters, but I relate most to Leah. Yes -sigh- I know. She's the werewolf bitch who nobody likes. But I don't see it that way. Leah had her heart broken. Sure she takes it out on the rest of the pack, but she was still betrayed by the one she loved. In my opinion, Jake and the others should be more supportive. No one should have to carry such a burden as a broken heart, all alone. And besides, I have exactly the same sarcastic humor as Leah, and a overly optimistic brother named Alec. He may not seem like it in this story, but he is an annoying optimistic who loves any challenges. Kind of like Seth, only he's older than me. So yeah, Emmett and Alice are my favs, but Leah's the person I relate to because we're so alike (only I'm not as bitchy as she is.. I think).
Review, please. :)
Chapter four: Running free.
The next day at school, Alice didn't show up. I waited anxiously for lunch to arrive so I could start interrogating Edward. As I walked into the cafeteria, I noticed how different he was from yesterday. Yesterday at lunch, he'd been so alive. Smiling, laughing, joking. Now, his face was a hard mask. His golden eyes were cold and solid. He looked very much like the vampire he was. He looked.. dead.
As I sat down at the table, next to Bella, she was asking him about Alice.
"She's with Jasper," Edward told her.
"Is he okay?" Yes, a glitch in her brain. She was worried about the vampire who'd tried to kill her yesterday.
"He's gone away for a while." Edward's eyes flickered to me in a hostile way, like I was an intruder. Which I kind of was. But I really didn't care.
"What? Where?" Bella's eyebrows pulled together, creasing her forehead with wrinkles of worry. She still looked very beautiful. With her warm brown eyes, she reminded me of a sad puppy. A wolf pup. Dogs didn't have such deep, wise eyes.
Edward shrugged. "Nowhere in particular." Geez, the guy couldn't even give her a straight answer.
"And Alice, too." The quiet desperation was clear in Bella's voice.
"Yes. She'll be gone for a shile. She was trying to convince him to go to Denali." Because you're making them leave, I thought angrily. Edward was such a... I ran through swear words in my head but didn't find anything that really fit, so I just settled with bitch. Edward Cullen was a bloodsucking bitch.
"What's in Denali?" I asked.
"Denali is where the one other band of unique vampires, good ones like us, live," Edward said in a bored voice.
Bella swallowed with a quilty expression. Like it was her fault the vampire named Jasper didn't have self-control. What a strange girl.
"Is your arm bothering you?" Edward asked her solicitously. He was very blind for someone with supersight.
"Who cares about my stupid arm?" Bella muttered in disgust.
"Don't know. But you definitely should," I said with a weak smile on my lips.
The rest of lunch went by in silence after that and I didn't see either of them for what was left of the day.
It wasn't raining that day, much to my relief, so I walked the few blocks to my new home. My mother was still at work, and Alec had gone to Seattle for the day to check out some aparments, so I was alone in the house. It felt odd, but still nice.
I finished my homework in less than an hour and went downstairs to watch movies, since I had absolutely nothing to do. I was a very creative person, but I could never seem to find anything to do. Especially in a town this small.
I'd finished watching Honey with Jessica Alba and Step Up 1, when I decided dancing was a good way to make time go by. So I got up from the couch - which had arrived this morning with the rest of our furniture, and car - and stalked into the kitchen to find a knife. I went back into the living room and cut open one of Alec's boxes which I knew had CD's in it. I picked out some of my favorite hiphop music and returned the knife back into the kitchen. Then I drew all of the curtains back over the windows and put a Destiny's Child CD in the stereo. As the music began playing, I began dancing.
I was a very good hiphop dancer, but I was always way too shy to show it to anyone besides my brother and a couple of my best friends. The only people who would never judge me. I realized that Alice could probably see me dancing, too, what with her future seeing and all. I blushed as I thought about that.
Alice had to be a way better dancer than me; simply by walking, she could make any ballerina die of envy, her movements were so graceful. I tried to imagine Alice as the lead chick in Step Up and Jasper in baggy jeans, dancing with her. The image in my head would pretty much have been hilarious if the two people weren't inhumanly beautiful vampires.
After about one and a half hours, I turned off the stereo and took a shower. The hot water was refreshening in a strange way. Water had always been my escape from life. Back in Iceland, I'd been on my hometown's swimmingteam. I could have won every single race if I'd wanted to. But that would've meant cheating, and that wasn't fair. I had both superstrength, speed and I could also hold my breath for about four hours straight. So swimming came very natural to me. I loved being in water, swimming, diving, or simply floating. Underwater, it was a world full of silence. I could dive down deep and with my eyes closed, listen to nothing but the silence of the water.
My father had been very much into astrology, and he'd always joked about how water was my true home, Pisces being my astrological Sun sign. I knew my astrology map very well. I had Sun in Pisces, Moon in Scorpio, Mercury in Aquarius, Venus in Capricorn, Mars in Leo and a Rising Virgo. Of course, I had absolutely no idea what the hell that all meant, but my father had. He'd understood me better than anyone else on the planet. I'd always been his favorite child, while Alec was our mother's. I was so much more like my father; full of hopes and dreams, with a mix of sarcasm. Creative visionaries, he used to call us.
My mother and brother were both way more practical. My mother thought prophecies, destinies and dreams were just nonsense. She was a very down-to-earth kind of type. My brother too, but in a different way. He had his creative side, she didn't. He had his music. Sure, he was a great rap-artist, but that was nothing compared to listening to him play the violin or the piano. It was.. heavenly. My mother had been a total geek when she was younger. Always beautiful and funny, but a geek. A math and science nerd. She believed in things she could touch, feel and see for herself. That's why she didn't believe in the prophecy about me..
I turned off the water and stepped outside the shower. I had been longer than usual, being so lost in thought. Thinking of my father always made me lost in my own thoughts.
I got dressed quickly and made an attempt to brush out the knots from my hair. After about ten minutes of struggling with the hair mother nature had left me with, I sighed and put the hairbrush down. I'd just have to wait till it'd dry so I could brush my hair. I had very thick hair, which hung in loose curls in a chaotic way around my head. It wasn't messy - actually, most of my friends said it looked pretty hot. My best friend, Lyla Williams, had called it 'sex hair'.
I smiled to myself as I thought of Lyla. She had been my best friend since we were.. well, born I think. She had dirty blonde hair and bright blue eyes that constantly sparkled with excitement. She was pretty short and very athletic. She was on the cheerleading squad back in our hometown. She was the only cheerleader there who wasn't a total arrogant biatch. Lyla had a great sense of humor, and was a total tom-boy despite the whole cheerleading thing. Her favorite thing to do was skateboarding. She was great at it, too. She often reminded me of the singer Avril Lavigne. Not that much in looks, but they had the exact same personality. Lyla was extremely cheerful, very outgoing and always the life of the party, though she could be very serious and supportive when she put her mind to it. I could tell Lyla anything. She was a true best friend. She also happened to be a Loup Garoux, like me.
I went into the living room to find my brother sprawled across the couch, playing Grand Theft Auto.
"Hey, Alec. How was Seattle?" I asked, sitting down crosslegged on the couch and placing my chin in my palm.
"Oh, hey, sis. It was awesome man, I find the coolest aparment! There are other buyers and stuff, but I'll probably get it. The owner's son is a total fan of mine and Kilo's music, so it's probably a done deal." He grinned at me and I grinned back. Kilo -or Richard, as he was rightly named- was Alec's best friend and co-rapper.
"Neat."
"Mhm." He nodded, his eyes glued to the TV screen. "Hey, you wanna play Need For Speed?"
"Yeah, sure. I've got nothing else to do."
"Don't you guys have homework at this school, or what?" he asked, handing me a PlayStation remote control.
"Yep, but I finished it already." I sighed.
"Then what the hell are you sighing about?"
"Boredom. There's nothing to do in a town this small when you have no friends, and the people you could call friends are vampires that are moving away." I sighed again.
"The vamps are moving out? Woohoo!"
I glared at him with my left eyebrow raised. "You shouldn't judge them so harshly. If you think about it, we're the same as them."
Alec stared at me like I had three heads. "We are not the same as those reeking bloodsuckers. Don't you ever say that Cassidy Joanne."
"Whatever. Alice is my friend, even if she is a reeking bloodsucker. And stop calling me by both names, Alec Vincent."
He narrowed his eyes at me, but let it go. We played Need For Speed in silence for a while before I yawned and stood up.
"That's enough video games for today," I said, walking into the kitchen. "When does Mom get off work?"
"Eight or nine p.m., I think."
I looked at the clock. It showed 07:00 pm.
"'Kay." My stomach growled. "I'm going to make early dinner. You want some?"
"Sure. What are we having?"
"I was thinking Thai - fried fish in soursweet souce."
"Cool."
While I cooked the food, I kept staring out the window. I didn't really know why. I just felt a sudden instinct - a need, almost - to watch the woods. Strange...
When dinner was ready, I called my brother and we sat down to eat. I put a piece of the food aside for mom to heat up when she got home and put it in the fridge.
"So, what'd you do today?" Alec asked while we were eating.
"Nothing special. Just went to school, did homework, watched a couple of movies and danced for a while."
"What movies?"
I blushed. "Honey and Step Up."
"Again? Geez, how can you stand watching the same movies and reading the same books over and over again? It's so goddamn.. repetitive!"
I sighed and poked the food on my plate with my fork. I wasn't really that hungry anymore. I wanted to go into the woods before I went to sleep. To run. There was nothing that could be compared to the feeling of freedom when I ran as a wolf. No bounderies, no laws. Just endless nature, and I was connected to all of it, but yet somehow distant. The feel of the light wind in my fur, my strong legs pushing me off the forest floor, fully aware of everything in my surroundings. So free, so untamed.
I stood up and put my dish in the dishwasher.
"I'm going out," I said to Alec and headed for the door.
"No, you don't. You're not going out to visit those bloody vampires!"
I narrowed my eyes at him. "I'm not going out to visit the Cullens. I'm going out running."
"Oh," was all he said.
"Yeah, oh."
Instead of putting on my sneakers like a normal human being, I took off my socks and pants and stepped outside into the cold in nothing but a T-shirt and female boxers. It was freezing. Just the way I liked it.
Part of the reason why we'd bought this house, was that it was surrounded by trees and stood up on a hill. No noisy neighbours.
I leaped up into the air and a familiar, silver light surrounded my body. A fraction of a second passed and I landed as a wolf on the wet ground. I looked down at my white paws and grinned my lopsided wolf-grin. I was free now. No one could ever catch me once I started running. I had my father's speed, while Alec had his strength. My brother was a huge black wolf with eyes the color of lightblue sapphire. My fur was snowy white and my eyes were a brilliant obsidian.
I was running through the woods at full speed when something caught me off guard. It was such a familiar sound, yet I didn't know the owner of it. It was a howling wolf. But not a normal one. I could hear the difference. It wasn't a Loup Garoux, though. It was something else. Something of wolf kind.. I couldn't quite put my finger on it.
I was at a beach now. There were ruins of a bonfire there, and driftwood lay all over the place. The island in the ocean before me told me where I was. I'd seen it on the map, it was James Island. I was at the First Beach, in La Push, where the Quileutes lived. The Quileutes! Of course! Emmett had said they were a werewolf tribe, once. A long time ago. But clearly not that long ago.
My head snapped in the direction of the east as I heard the sound of paws hitting the ground. Thud-thud, thud. Thud-thud, thud. Thud-thud, thud. Like a heartbeat. There were two of them, I guessed. Maybe three. And they were big. Way bigger than me. Bigger than bears. I swallowed hard and lowered my ears. They were coming closer.
Suddenly, they were there. On the top of the beach, looking down at me. One was huge and black, - he reminded me of Alec - but I couldn't see the other one clearly. The black one was definitely the leader. He seemed to be giving the other one orders, sending him away.
When the other wolf had left, the black one came closer.
Who are you? Or should I be asking, what are you? he asked in wolf language.
My name is Cassidy. I come in peace, friend. I'm a Loup Garoux. A wolf shapeshifter. Much like yourself. Are you a descendant of Ephraim Black?
Loup Garoux? Never heard of them before. But no, I'm not Black's grandson. He barked a laugh. I'm Sam Uley.
Nice to meet you, Sam.
He grinned.
Nice to meet you too, Cassidy. He hesitated, then asked, Are there more of you?
Us Loup Garoux? Yeah, there's my brother Alec. But none other in America, as far as I know.
Okay. But what are you exactly?
We are the best of man and the best of beast. We are not men that turn into wolves, but wolves that turn into men. We do not harm humans, nor do we protect them in particular. We are what we are, and try to stay out of others' business. We were worshipped throughout Romania in centuries passed. Our history even leads back to Ancient Egypt. What are you?
Hm.. Interesting. We're basically just wolf-spirit-warriors, or something like that. We're the protectors of human kind, enemies of vampires.
Ah, yes, the Cullens? I asked.
You know about the Cullens?
Yes. Two of them are in my class. I grinned.
How old are you? he asked.
Seventeen. I was moved up a grade. What about you?
Twenty.
Cool. My brother's twenty-four.
How does that work? Does it run in your family to be Loup Garoux, or are you bitten..?
It's in our blood. Our heritage. It's the same with you, if I'm not mistaken?
Yes. But only males are wolves in our tribe.
Huh. Poor girls. The women in our family are the leaders. Being a wolf is awesome.
He growled and bared his teeth. Not for us, it isn't.
Why not? I pretended not to notice his hostility.
There are many reasons... We're dangerous for one thing. He winced at some memory that was hidden to me.
Yes, that can be a bit of a flaw. Having fangs and all.
He laughed without humor. Yeah. He raised his head up into the air and seemed to be listening to something. The others are calling. I have to go. Goodbye, Cassidy.
Calling?Oh, well, bye then. I wagged my tail as if to wave goodbye.
We can read each others' thoughts, he explained. See ya around.
Yeah, see ya.
But he was already gone.
When I got home, mom was waiting for me with an angry lecture. I cut her off before she could start.
"Just out running, mom. Nothing dangerous."
She narrowed her eyes a bit and raised one eyebrow. "You know, it's only for your own good that I'm doing this. You'll get in trouble one day, Cassidy, and I won't always be there to look out for you. Stay away from that vampire coven."
I sighed. "Don't bother, mom. They're leaving."
"Oh. Well, that's good then." She nodded to herself and went into the living room.
Rolling my eyes at her back, I dragged myself up the stairs. It was a good exercise to run around if you weren't tired enough to go to sleep. I was definitely tired enough now.
--
The next day went by pretty much the same. Alice didn't show up for school, but both Bella and Edward did. Edward's face was the same hard mask and Bella's eyebrows kept pulling together, creasing her forehead. She was worried, and I didn't blame her. I wondered what she would have done if she had known Edward was going to leave her - soon. Probably pass out or something. I could very much picture Bella as the fainting type. The damsel in distress. She was clumsy and shy, with blushing cheeks and lip chewing. And of course, like every other damsel in distress that you read about in books, beautiful. Edward wasn't the knight in shining armor, though. He was the fanged dark angel that had drained his own white horse of it's blood. And also a total bitch.
Bella had brought her camera to school that day, and had put Jessica in charge of taking pictures of everyone. And everyone included me. Mike Newton, the genius, got a snapshot of me with my mouth full of a granola bar. Great. So now everytime Bella was sad she could just take out the picture of me and laugh at the idiotic expression on my face. Fabulous.
The rest of the day passed by quickly, except for Gym. That was the only class I had to really focus in, because I was so good at all the others. Spanish was a bit tough at times, but I did good. In Gym however, you had to watch out so a ball wouldn't hit your head, and we had volleyball today. I got teamed up with Angela and got to know her a bit as we played. She was friends with Bella and Jess. Angela Weber was a really nice person. She was shy, thoughtful and caring. She was clearly a good friend. I'd liked her instantly my first day in Forks, since she was the only person who had talked to me that day. Well, besides the vampires.
--
The day after that passed in the same blur. I sat by Angela at lunch that day, but I was secretly spying on Bella. I noticed her palms were sweaty, and her forhead was always creasing in worry. Edward's face remained the same bitter, hard mask.
When I got home, I started with my homework and finished it in less than an hour - again. We only had to do a paper on some of Faulkner's work and I knew that all pretty well, so I finished it quickly. Like yesterday, I went downstairs and watched a couple of movies. The Covenant and The Fellowship of the Ring, this time. I was in the mood for magic and stuff. And Steven Strait was just so damn hot, not to mention Legolas.
Just when Frodo and the others were meeting Queen Galadriel, the phone rang. I paused the movie and went to answer it.
"Hello?" I asked.
"Oh, Cassidy, good it's you! Listen, I need you to do something - a favor. And fast." I recognized the high-soprano voice instantly.
"Sure, Alice. What do you need?"
"Go into the woods and track down Bella's scent. But make sure you don't think about me at all while you're at it." Hm, what a strange favor. But I wasn't going to deny my friend.
"Okay. Sure. No problem."
Alice exhaled in a sigh of relief. "Thank you, Cassidy. I owe you one. But, I have to go. Bye." She hung up.
I put the reciever down and got a pencil and a piece of paper.
Went out running,
C.
Alec would probably not be home anytime soon, and mom was working till nine, but I left the note on the kitchen table just in case.
I stuffed a T-shirt, jeans, socks and my sneakers into my small leather backpack, strapped it onto my back and phased into my wolf form as soon as I was out the door. I wasn't sure if I was going to need clothes or not, but it was always best to be prepared.
Tracking Bella was easy, and I found Edward's scent intwined with hers. I tracked the scent deep into the woods, until it was just Bella's scent. Edward had gone back, I realized, and left her in the woods. Bella. The clumsy, damsel in distress. The danger magnet with a possible glitch in her brain. I knew what had happened. Why Alice had sounded so worried. He'd left. He'd left Bella all alone and heartbroken deep in the woods, and vanished. Sudden hatred began to boil in my chest. Who did he think he was, anyway? How the hell could he break Bella's heart like that, and leave her in danger? What the fuck was wrong with the guy? I didn't know, and I necessarily didn't care, but I knew one thing for sure. I wasn't going to fail Bella. I was going to have to take the Cullens' place, protect her. I didn't understand this sudden maternal instinct, but it was extremely strong.
It was dark when I finally found her. She was lying on the wet ground. It'd taken me long to find her because I had to avoid the humans looking for her. They'd probably shoot me if they saw me. But I couldn't track Bella with my human nose; I still had a cold.
I heard a voice near me that I recognized. A man's voice. I'd only heard the wolf version of it, but I knew it the moment I heard it. It was Sam Uley's voice. I ran in the direction his voice was coming from. When Sam saw me, I knew he recognized me, too.
"What is it, Cassidy?" he whispered.
I nudged him with my nose and gestured him with my paw to follow me.
"Alright, Cassie." He smiled and I grinned my lopsided wolfgrin. I suddenly realized Cassie rimed with Lassie and barked out a laugh. Sam's smile turned into an eyewrinkling grin.
I led him to where Bella lay, and then took off. It wouldn't be wise to stay, even though I was curious about Bella. I would visit her tomorrow and see how she was doing. Tomorrow she would need a friend, and I was going to be there for her, wether she liked it or not. I was going to be her rock. Her shoulder to cry on. And I was determined to heal her broken heart, one way or another.
A/N: Remember when Bella was in New Moon and after Edward left her, she wandered around in the woods and then:
"Suddenly, there was another sound, startlingly close. A kind of snuffling, an animal sound. It sounded big. I wondered if I should feel afraid. I didn't—just numb. It didn't matter. The snuffling went away."
That's Cassidy, in my story. It's probably supposed to be Sam in the actual book, but this is my version of what happened. Lol.