Hello, you happy little monkeys!

You know by now that this is my second fic, my "fun" one... Like the gas-guzzling sports car you drive on the weekends just because it's loud. Everyone is invited to review, read my other fic, review, favorite, alert, and then over to my house for cookies! Everyone likes cookies, right?

The usual disclaimer applies: all the characters and associated material are the property of Stephenie Meyer. No cookies for her.

I Want to See Red Chapter 3: Red Tape

"Whoah, Cupcake!" Emmett exclaimed as he climbed into my car after school. We didn't really have to drive anywhere, given our considerable running skills, but it would raise a few eyebrows if the good people of Forks spotted us trekking home on foot – even if we simply walked at human speed. While few knew exactly where our house was located, pretty much everyone could reasonably deduce that we didn't live within a normal walking distance. Not to mention the 5/6ths of the year we would show up to school dripping wet; Carlisle might be a respected doctor in this town, but his aptitude for parenting would be questioned for damn sure.

"You want to explain what's going on with you today?" my brother demanded. "I thought you were going to fall out with a fucking conniption in Spanish."

The truth was, I had gone into Spanish class with anger towards Bella. Anger and curiosity. And then the curiosity won out. I had started wandering through all the mental voices in the school, trying to pick up on Bella's, and finding that I couldn't. That was so frustrating! How the hell did she do that?

I did, however, stumble across a number of minds that fixated on her, and those proved more torturous than her closed-off mind. One of my more charming classmates was wondering how long it would take to get her into the back seat of a parked car. Others admired her physical allure. One was close to her – this was the worst – and could actually smell her. Granted, the mind I was borrowing was oblivious to the delicious scent of her blood, which was, at that moment, accented beautifully by just a hint of her sweat as she sat on the sidelines in gym. But I could just detect a shade of its sweetness, and venom coated my teeth. I could still taste it as I sat behind the wheel of my car.

"Whoo!" punctuated Jasper, climbing into the back seat. He said nothing more but raised his eyebrows at me and stared expectantly. I didn't have to hear the thoughts in his head to know that he was feeling the tension winding me like a spring, the thirst burning in my throat and my brain. I met his gaze in the rearview mirror and saw his eyes beginning to darken to match mine.

Jasper smacked Emmett in the shoulder.

"What's up with Pollyanna?" he asked. "Not playing the 'glad game' today?"

I rolled my eyes at the sarcastic nickname.

"I think it's the new girl," Emmett answered over the offended shoulder.

Fuck.

"Where are the girls?" I interrupted, before my brothers could hash out any more (correct) theories about my mood.

Just then, the sound of Rosalie's high heels clacking across the parking lot reached the car.

He'd better 'fess up about what's going on, she was thinking. If he's gonna go all emo on us, I'll drag his ass up to Denali faster than he can say -

"Hey, darlin'," Jasper drawled, and a door opened. I hadn't even realized Alice was with Rosalie. Despite my super-sensitive hearing, she had made it all the way across the parking lot without making a sound, physical or mental. Probably not a good sign for me.

The girls slid into the back seat, and for a moment no one said anything. Everyone was pretty used to keeping their thoughts at a low volume during our drives; it was harder for me to unintentionally listen in on them if they relaxed their minds while we were in that close proximity. But they had all gotten so curious over my behavior at lunch that their mental whispering got my attention anyway – every other word was my name.

I hope Edward's not acting like a puss over that dumb girl. She's not even very pretty.

Ed's got some sort of major jones for that Swan chick. She's got nothin' on my Rose, but I've never seen him interested in a chick before! That's gotta be good.

. . . thirst radiating off him is intense . . .

Dear God, please let Edward grow a pair and ask her out! I sososo need a girlfriend who isn't related to me. Amen!

That was interesting. Alice thought she was going to be friends with this girl. I hadn't gotten anything like that from what I'd seen of Alice's vision, but no wonder she changed her mind. Alice was the type of girl who loved nothing more than a "Girls Night" every night, but given our situation, the possibilities for a Girls Night were pretty limited. Did Alice think she could be friends with a human girl? Or...

God, no.

She thought I would turn the girl. I would pursue her, I would change her, and Alice would have a new friend. The thought was revolting... taking away a girl's humanity just for companionship. It was heartless. It was selfish. It was... entirely possible. Probable even, given how hard it was to not obsess over the girl's blood. Just thinking about thinking about her blood made my mouth water. Or venomate. Venomize. Whatever.

I drove up the winding driveway to our house and, the moment the car was off, threw myself from the vehicle.

"I'm going hunting," I growled, slamming the car door behind me.

"I'm going with you," added Jasper, half a pace behind me.

I tore off through the wilderness around the house, launched myself over water and into the trees. It was unfair of me to run at full speed, knowing Jasper could never keep up, but trying to slow my pace only made me feel more angry, more desperate to be free of my new reality. I had never before felt so powerful and so powerless at the same time; an innocent life hung in the balance, and if anything went wrong, the blood was on my hands. I ran until I smelled my prey, and then my focus went to the hunt. It was a welcome relief.

"So what's bothering you about the Swan girl?" my brother asked as we tracked a mountain lion through the dense undergrowth.

I sighed. "She's just..." I struggled to find the words. "She's like the devil incarnate!"

Jasper chuckled from the other side of an immense nurse tree. "I wasn't aware you two had spoken yet."

"She doesn't have to speak. She's going to be the death of me."

"Oh, really?"

"I don't know how, but she knows what I can do. She closes her mind to me."

She keeps you out of her thoughts? Jasper asked for clarification.

"It's like she's on mute," I replied. The frustration surged inside me and I slammed my fist into a spruce, completely disconnecting the majority of the tree from its roots.

Wow. His mind reeled with how the girl could know of my ability, how she could shut me out so absolutely. I thought I detected a shade of jealousy... He couldn't shut me out like that.

"And she blushes constantly," I went on, enumerating my grievances against the girl. "I've never met anyone who blushed as much as she does. And it's like torture every time she does it," I took a breath, catching a Bella-free whiff of air that nevertheless set my mouth to venom – we were almost on the mountain lion now - "because her blood is like nothing I've ever fucking smelled before. It's like she's trying to get me to kill her!"

"Are you going to?"

"I don't know!" I answered honestly, and I was thankful to spot the cat at that moment, because the thought of killing the girl was tempting and frustrating, and my throat burned in protest. My hunting senses took over completely then, and my brother and I only spoke again after we had quenched our thirst.

"What does Alice say?" Jasper asked, wiping a trickle of blood from his lips.

"Actually, she kind of told me to... go for it," I admitted.

"Well, that sounds good. She probably wouldn't advise that if you were going to kill the Swan girl."

"No, but..." I wasn't sure what Alice had seen, after all. I wasn't even sure if she was sure what she had seen. "Things change. People... change."

Jasper seemed to catch the double meaning in my words, because he fell quiet. I would have listened in on his thoughts, but he seemed to be choosing his words carefully, and I wanted to give him the opportunity to express himself the way he wanted.

"I know you don't think highly of our lifestyle," he said after a moment's pause, "but being like us is not the end of the world."

"But it is the end of a life," I muttered. My brother huffed in response.

"Or the beginning of one," he countered.

I rolled my eyes.

"I just don't want to put her in that position."

What position do you want to put her in?

I tried to give Jasper a glare, but I was met with eyes twinkling in amusement, a fresh yellow that I knew mirrored my own. And I'll be damned if I didn't imagine several positions I'd love to put that girl in. In fact, I'll probably be damned either way, so I might as well imagine her however the hell I want!

"Whoah," my brother interrupted. "I can't hear what you're thinking, man, but I can still feel it. If you can wait until you're alone, or at least until I'm around my wife -"

"Okay, okay," I mumbled, refocusing on the woods, the hunt, and the feeling of a meal that, while filling, hadn't quite rid me of the burn in my throat.

(A/N): So what happens next? Any ideas? I'm taking requests! Thanks for reading, and be sure and check out my other story, "Old Devil Moon: Bella Runs."