{{Charlotte's POV}}

Great, my first day at a new school. I woke up this morning at six and couldn't go back to sleep. I decided to get dressed and wait until it was time to leave.

"Charlotte! Come on, you're going to be late!" I looked at the clock. It was 7:34a.m. Had I been sitting here that long?

"Charlotte!"

"Coming!"

I hurriedly threw a notebook and a few pens into my oversized pursed. What was the need of having a backpack and this huge purse? It surely was big enough. I'd already lost many things to it, only to have them turn up days later.

I ran quickly down the stairs and headed out the door. It was sprinkling.

"You are so slow in the mornings." My dad was standing next to his truck.

"Sorry." I unlocked my car door and got inside.

"You know how to get there?"

"I think I can manage." I buckled my seatbelt and pulled off. I glanced at my watch. "Crap. Late on the first day."

Seth had completely disappeared. I haven't heard from him in a few days and that was weird considering he was constantly here trying to talk to me. I wondered if he had given up. My dad hadn't even said anything about it. He was waiting for me to talk to Seth.

The roads were only slightly wet from the morning drizzle. Even though I liked it a lot, I just didn't like to get wet. Unless it was the warm rain. I sighed. No more warm rain for me. It was cold up North. The only warm rain I would have were the showers in the morning.

I pulled up a few minutes later, parking in the closest spot to the door. There were already people here running quickly inside to get out of the rain. I took a deep breath and walked towards the front entrance. Time to get on with this, I thought. I pushed open the double doors and followed the signs that led to the office. It was very small, almost closet-like. There barely looked like there was room for the huge oak desk and the few chairs lined against the sides of the walls.

The woman looked up over her glasses. "Oh! Hello. May I help you?"

I stepped forward. "I'm Charlotte Duckling. I transferred here."

"Your grade?"

"Senior." I was happy this was my last year of high school.

"Duckling. Duckling..." She mumbled to herself, looking in the over-crowded baskets. A high-pitched noise sounded. I looked around curiously.

"Oh that's just the bell, sweetie."

I nodded. I was getting restless. I wanted to hurry to class; I hated being late. I waited impatiently.

"Found it!" Her outburst startled me. "Here you go. Do you need someone to come and show you your classes?"

"Oh no, I'll manage. Thanks." I quickly left. How hard could finding my classes be? Even though it did seem to be larger than my last school.

I was getting lost quickly. I arrived at my first class about halfway into it by the looks of it.

"Nice to see you that you would be joining us," the teacher announced.

"S-sorry." I blushed and stumbled to an empty seat.

"Would you like to introduce yourself?" I looked at my teacher. A tall male with blondish-brown hair and brown eyes and glasses. He was a little on the small side for a male.

"Uh...No, I'd rather not."

"Nonsense! I'll start it off. I'm Mr. Broads, the Public Speaking teacher. You are...?"

"It would be best to just get it over with," the girl next to me whispered.

"I'm Char―"

"Stand."

"Pardon?"

"Stand. As in 'get out of your seat'."

I stood. Was this teacher serious? I know I have only been in this room for about two minutes, but where was the happy "Good morning and welcome" friendly gestures? Had I missed it?

"Uh, I'm Charlotte Duckling."

There was a slight pause as I stood awkwardly.

"That's all you have to say?"

I nodded.

"We need to work on your shyness. Sit."

He turned his back to me and continued to talk to the rest of the class. "One thing that you will learn from this class is to not be shy." Hs looked directly at me. "Being shy drops your grade."

So I was going to fail this class from being shy...wonderful. Why did I sign up for this class again? I would never have picked this class. I think my dad had something to do with this…

"Also, no gum." He put a trashcan under a girl's nose. She groaned and spit it in. "No sleeping." He picked up a ruler and walked behind me and the girl that sat next beside me. He stood over another girl whose head was in her arms on the desk and slammed the ruler on her desk. Surprisingly, she did not jump. Instead, she slowly looked up into Mr. Broads's face and smiled.

"Dude. That was so not cool. Can't a guy sleep?" Why did this girl have a deep voice?

I realized it wasn't a girl...but a guy! He had some wickedly long hair.

"Don't 'dude' me Xavier, seems like I'm going to have trouble with you…just like your brother. You need to learn to pay attention. " Xavier gave Mr. Broads a salute as he turned to the front again. The whole class laughed.

"Oh yes. And finally no laughing!" The class died down to a snicker. "Ducky."

My head jerked to the front. "It's Duckling, sir."

He continued as if the hadn't heard me, "Tomorrow you need to have written an autobiography about yourself. Memorized. I expect a minimum of two pages. You'll have to speak to the class and answer all questions, including mine. Any questions? No? Okay then." The bell suddenly rang. That was quick. "Class dismissed." He promptly left out the door without a backwards glance.

Well didn't this suck! A two-page essay on myself? And memorized? What the hell was wrong with this teacher?

I stood with the rest of the class.

"Um, hi." I turned to see the only girl that had spoken to me standing next to the boy with weird hair. "I'm Skye. Skye Petterson."

"Oh, hi. I'm Charlotte." We shook hands and exchanged smiles.

"I think my uncle has a pig named Charlotte, like Charlotte's Web."

I looked at the boy. "The pig's name was Wilbur."

He scratched his head. "Or maybe it was Charles... I can't remember."

"Don't mind him. I think all that hair has gone to his head."

"Hey! Don't talk about me as if I'm not standing here." He poked her in the side laughing.

I giggled. These two were very amusing.

"I'm Xavier Alderwin." He smiled widely.

"Hey, so what's your next class?" Skye asked me.

I looked at my schedule. "Biology II."

"Well how about that. That's my next class too." Xavier grinned. "We better hurry. Don't want to be late for the second time, do we?"

"No. Definitely not."

"See you guys later." Skye walked in the opposite direction.

I walked slightly behind Xavier. We didn't talk which was fine with me. I had a chance to look around. My eyes landed on his hair. Now that I was closer, I could see that it was black with a solid blonde streak in the front. I thought it looked nice. He had on a black t- shirt and regular jeans. He looked normal to me.

We arrived just as the bell rang. I sat behind him. Everyone kept staring at me. Yeah that's right. Look at the new girl.

The class went by in a blur. I said goodbye to Xavier saying I could find my next class on my own. I didn't really want to slow the guy down with him leading me everywhere. I'm not one of those freshmen that look so helpless. I gathered my books and turned to leave.

"Hey wait!"

Someone grabbed my arm. "Hey, you're that new kid aren't you?"

"Yeah." I looked her up and down. Heels. Mini skirt. Shirt showing lots of cleavage. Blonde. Everything matching and pink. Ugh. She could be summed up in one simple word...prep. And so not worth my time. I turned for the door.

"Slow down a minute will you?" She grabbed my arm again and placed herself between the door and me. "Why are you hanging that loser?"

"Xavier?"

"Like I have time to remember his name." She waved her hand in an 'like I care' way. "You're way too pretty to hang with them." She flicked her long blonde hair behind her shoulders. "You want to sit with me and a group of my friends for lunch?"

Well it was rare that someone called me pretty. With my long, wavy, reddish hair─that was unnaturally not frizzy for most red-headed females─bright green eyes, fair skin, and small, petite body. I was pleased nonetheless.

"Um. Thanks but no thanks."

"Wait. No one has ever turned down an opportunity like this. This is a one in a lifetime chance."

"Well I guess there's a first time for everything." I tried to go around her, but she didn't move. "I have class to attend. Do you mind?"

She stared at me blankly, and then took a small step to the side. I quickly walked out. There was a murmur behind me, and then she shouted, "This is a once in a lifetime chance!"

Some people turned to look at her. I kept walking.

"May I help you?" She yelled at the on-lookers.

They quickly disappeared.

I snickered.

•_•_•_•_•_•_•_•_•_•_•_•_•_•_•_•_•_•_•_•_•_•_•

Trigonometry was my third class of the day. I sat in the back by the window. It was still raining…no surprise. Our first thing was a test to see how much we knew. Everyone groaned when they were being handed out. Personally, I loved math. I was finished before everyone. It was quite easy for me. I stared out the window while everyone else finished.

"Charlotte." Someone poked me in the side. I turned quickly.

"Alice? What are you doing here?"

"Learning from the educational system that you humans call school." She sat next to me.

"That's not what I meant."

"I know."

I waited for her to continue, but she didn't. "Alice?" I asked impatiently.

"I'm here to keep an eye on you."

"From what?" I asked. "My mother?" How much damage could a human cause?

"Seth didn't tell you?"

"We haven't talked much lately."

"I noticed. What's with you two? Is this because of your mother? Charlotte, you can't stay mad at him forever. He was just trying to protect you."

"I've heard this same speech before. Can you just drop it please? I promised my dad I would talk to him…eventually."

She nodded and stared out the window.

"Do you know where Seth is?"

"Somewhere being depressed." This was not helping my mood.

"You'll tell me if something bad happens to him, right?"

She glanced at me. "Yes. Whether he wants me too or not."

The bell rang signaling the end of class. We stood and headed for the door.

"Jasper's here too. I'm sure he'll be in one of your classes."

"Didn't you all go to school before?"

"A couple years ago."

"So won't someone recognize you two?"

"This is completely different school. And we are being careful."

I only nodded.

•_•_•_•_•_•_•_•_•_•_•_•_•_•_•_•_•_•_•_•_•_•_•

AP English was fourth. We were given a booklist. We had to write a paper that was due in two months on four books. Each had to be a page long. At least I loved books.

Lunch was next. Alice walked through the lunch line with me but didn't pick anything up for her. I raised an eyebrow at her.

"Vampire remember."

She pulled me outside where we sat on a wall that faced the woods and let our feet dangle. Jasper soon joined us. He sat on the other side of Alice. We all stayed silent until I remembered something.

"Jasper, what's your ability?"

He raised an eyebrow at me. "Seth didn't tell you?" His voice wasn't deep but it still held a depth to it.

"We're not talking at the moment." I was starting to get annoyed with this.

"I can sense and control emotions."

"That's helpful…"

"It is when you need to calm down someone."

"So Edward can read minds, you can control emotions…Alice?"

"I can see the future but it's not always set in stone. It changes when people change their decision. The better I know someone, the more in tune with their future I can see. Except werewolves." She wrinkled her nose. "Not only do they smell awful, but I can't see past them. Drives me crazy. I can't even see Renesmee or you most of the time."

"Renesmee?"

"The child that you saw earlier. Although the next time you see her she won't look like one anymore."

"What do you mean? She is human, right?"

"Not exactly," Jasper said. "She's only half human half vampire." He held up a finger before I could ask anything else. "You'll have to ask Bella and Edward about it. It's their story to tell. Besides, we better get to class, lunch is almost over." He jumped from the wall and landed softly on his feet. Alice climbed onto his back. I dumped my uneaten lunch into the garbage and followed. I absently wandered where Skye and Xavier were.

The rest of the day ended quickly. I had AP History, then Spanish III, and finally gym. I thought I had gotten rid of gym at my other school. We only had to take one class of gym there; here was all four years…

Both of them were in my AP History. Only Alice was in my gym class. Neither of them would take Spanish III with me, they didn't want to have to learn it again. Jasper would be transferred to my AP English class tomorrow and Alice to my Public Speaking class. I already had a load to do for homework. They had already finished theirs in class.

I drove home quickly. My dad's truck wasn't in the driveway.

I grabbed an apple from the kitchen and headed upstairs to start on this long list of homework. I noticed there was a box sitting on my bed wrapped in gift wrapping paper. I tucked it under my arm and went up to the little room. My dad had put a few chairs, lamps, and a table up here for me. It was like my own little personal study area, like a library all to myself.

I sat at the table and opened the box. It was a laptop. I had wanted one for a while. I looked for a note as to who bought it for me. There was a piece for folded paper that had landed on the floor. It must have fallen out when I ripped the gift wrapping paper off. I picked it up.

Here is something that I thought might be useful.

It was signed by my mother. There was an address under it. My eyes grew wide. How had she gotten it here? How did she know where I lived? How had she gotten in my house?

My first thought was to call Seth and tell him she had been in my house, but then I remembered that I haven't talked to him for a while. He probably wouldn't care…

I looked back down at the address. Obviously she had given it to me for a reason. I grabbed my keys and raced outside. I would get to my homework later. Maybe if I was lucky I wouldn't have to go tomorrow, that would give me an extra day.

I drove in the direction that I thought was La Push. It wasn't hard to find. The hard part was finding the house. I couldn't just drive up to the driveway, I had to park and walk through the woods. It was strange how the directions told me how many paces to go in which direction; I guess she had mapped it out. Wasn't that helpful?

I was starting to rethink this situation when I didn't see anything up ahead. I decided I would walk another fifty yards before I went back home. I finally saw that the trees were starting thin. I could see the outline of a small house and hear the faint sound of water. I must be near a cliff or something. I stepped out of the trees.

The house was like any other small house. It was painted a dark green that blended in with the trees. If I wasn't looking for it, I probably would have missed it. The trees created a small opening just enough for the little house. I couldn't really say there was a yard. It reminded me of The Wizard of Oz and how Dorothy's house ended up in Munchkin Land. It was as if the house was dropped in the middle of the forest. I walked up to the front door. Before I could knock, the door swung open. I jumped back.

"Come in, Charlotte."

I hesitated before I slowly opened the door and walked in. The room was dark. There was barely any light, just the light that came in from the windows. I noticed that the whole front side of the wall by the door was glass, like a giant window, but it was tinted so darkly that I could barely make out the outlines of the trees.

"Sit down, make yourself comfortable. I take that you got my gift." I looked around, but I couldn't make out who was talking to me. I guessed it was my mother though.

I felt my way to what seemed like a chair. A light flicked on across the room. I had to blink in the sudden brightness.

"I forgot you were human. Is that better?"

She was standing against the far side of room leaning against the wall. She just stood there and stared at me. She had the same red hair I did. It was just as long as mine and just as curly. She had the same green eyes that I had. In fact, she looked just like I did, just an older version. At least I knew what I was going to look like in the future.

"Comfortable?" she asked. I nodded. "You look well."

I didn't feel well. I felt terrible and empty. I was so sad that I hadn't talked to Seth in weeks. I felt bad for ignoring him. Since I was already in La Push, maybe I could go talk to him. It would seem as good a time as any,

"I'm sorry." I looked up at her. "I'm sorry for ruining your birthday party. I just wanted to see you. I guess I should have done it a different way. Werewolves can be so vicious sometimes. All I wanted was to see you and then they attacked us. They were the ones that chose the hard way." She sat on the white couch across from me. Now that I looked around more, everything was white. Did all vampires have glass walls and white rooms? She continued speaking, "They are just rude creatures, but then again vampires can be the same way."

I was finally able to register what she said. She had to know about the werewolves and vampires, but she referred to my humanity.

"Are you…a vampire?" I asked. I did think she was, but something told me differently.

"Yes." I did feel a slight urge to stay away from her, just as I did with Rosalie.

"Your eyes are green," I pointed out. I remembered Seth had told me that vampire's eyes were either golden or red.

"They're just contacts." She blinked a few times and then her eyes were red, bloodshot red. "I didn't want to scare you. It seems like you know more than I give you credit for. How's your werewolf by the way? I hope he's not giving you any trouble."

So she knew about my imprint. She knew so much about me, yet I knew little of her.

"He's fine…I hope." She raised an eyebrow at me. "We haven't really been talking in a while." It felt awkward sitting here telling my dead mother, who I recently found out was actually alive, about my love life.

"I'm sorry about that too." It was my turn to raise my eyebrows. "I had Kayla and Andrew make sure he didn't tell you I was alive. I wanted it to be a surprise."

"Some surprise. Just ruined a big part of my life," I muttered to myself.

"Sorry." I had forgotten that vampires had extraordinary hearing. I would have to keep that in mind.

"So why did you leave me your address?" The paces were way off.

She shrugged. "I just wanted to see you without your body guards. Werewolves smell awful." Seth smelled okay to me.

"Oh." I didn't know what else to say. I just sat there.

"I'm guessing you want to find Seth. You might as well since you're already here."

"Oh, yeah, okay."

She stood and handed me a piece of paper. "Call me if you need anything." I stood and walked to the door. I was halfway to the trees when she called out to me. I turned to face her. "I know you might think this was awkward, but I really want to get to know you."

"I'll come back," I blurted out.

"This weekend? I don't want you to fall behind in school."

"Uh, sure."

She smiled and went back inside. I was starting to like her even if I've known her for only a few minutes. That was one load off my shoulders…now it was time to find Seth.