Tania

As I stirred the tea, the spoon chinking on the inside of the mug, I wondered how no one could hear me in the kitchen. Even with the soundproofing, it still wasn't quite enough for our supernatural hearing. Were they being polite? Did they not want to embarrass me? Or maybe Jasper had given everyone a stern look.

I raised the mug a millimetre from my lips. Of course, Jasper knew. He knew everything about me. Hiding anything from him was almost impossible.

Almost.

I inhaled the steam until the liquid was no longer hot enough to emit any more. Then I poured the tea down the sink, washed up the mug, and put everything back in its rightful place. Checking my phone, I saw the time was nearly seven in the morning.

In the living room, Alice sat opposite Edward. A chess board battlefield between them.

I walked in and sat down. With Edwards mind reading abilities and Alice's sight, their games were always interesting.

Narrowing her eyes at her brother, Alice moved her knight. Edward started to smile, but suddenly it flickered into a frown.

Alice grinned, glancing at me. "Did you finish studying at last?"

I nodded. I had spent all night buried in texts books and sketch pads, snapping at anyone who came near unless they had notes to offer. "Turns out school work isn't so bad when there's no teacher to humiliate me in front of the class."

"I'm glad," she said, turning her attention back to the game.

Edward moved his queen and she scowled.

"You'll have a matching Cullen 4.0 in no time," Edward exclaimed.

"I have no idea what you just said, but ok."

Jasper and I stood under an umbrella in the car park, with the rest of our siblings, waiting for school to start.

"I hope you have a good morning," Jasper spoke, reaching out to touch one of my curls with his free hand.

"At least I might not be the dimmest person in school like yesterday," I mumbled.

He shook his head. "How can you say that?"

I shrugged. "It's true."

"No," he frowned. "Tania, you know I only date intelligent women."

"I supposed we're over then-,"

Jasper kissed me, full on the mouth. I placed my hand on his coat, surprised at first before tilting my head, moving my lips against his.

After we pulled away he murmured to me, "you're the smartest lady I know, and if you want this relationship to be over, you'll have to kill me. Sorry."

An exaggerated sigh interrupted the moment. "Seriously, get a room," Edward joked.

Jasper caught my eye and I couldn't help but give him a small smile. Neither of us apologised.

And then I heard Mike's voice float across from the other side of the car park, over the pitter patter of the rain.

"…should've seen that new girl in class yesterday. Couldn't answer the simplest question ever…"

My smile faded as I listened.

"I thought all the Cullens were supposed to be, you know, smart?"

There was another male voice, except I didn't know the owner's name.

"Wow, sounds like she was dropped on her head as a baby."

Laughter.

My jaw tightened.

"So hot though," Mike continued. "And that accent." He hummed.

"Too bad she has a boyfriend," said the other boy.

"Come on, man. It's not like she's married."

I looked up at Jasper, and the expression on his face confirmed he had been listening, too. He was gripping the umbrella tightly in his fist, glaring at the pavement.

Rosalie scoffed and rolled her eyes. "Idiots. Don't listen to them."

The bell rung, ending their conversation. But their words echoed in my head the whole morning.

Fortunately, the lessons were much better than the previous day. However, this also gave my mind plenty of time to dwell on what Mike had been saying to his friend. I even ended up hitting the ball a bit too hard in gym, a loud bang sounded through the hall as it hit one of the walls. Alice grabbed my wrist, a warning flashing though her eyes.

In art, a group of girls at a table behind me started laughing and while I hadn't been listening to their conversation to know if they were laughing at me or not, my brain tried to convince myself they were. I snapped my paintbrush under the desk, dropping the pieces into my open backpack below.

Rosalie glanced up from her watercolour painting. "Are you-?" she started.

"I'm fine." I picked up a new brush.

Instead of walking with me to the canteen, Rosalie headed to the bathroom to sort out her make-up. As I walked across the path under a dark purple umbrella I breathed in the smell of the rain on the concrete, trying to keep calm.

Most of the students were inside, out of the rain. I could only hear one set of footsteps behind me, splashing in the puddles. When they caught up to me so we were beside each other, I could feel my hand distorting the plastic under my fingers.

"Hey, Tania, right?" Mike grinned, holding out a hand towards me.

I didn't take it. I didn't say anything as we headed towards the building. But after a second I nodded.

"So…" his heart beat stepped up as he trailed beside me, nervously, "I was wondering. In Algebra, yesterday-,"

I stared at him, blinking.

Mike let out an anxious laugh, "Well, I just thought maybe you'd like a tutor. We could start right now, if you want."

I stopped walking and turned to face him. "I don't think that's a good idea."

He screwed up his face, "What? Why not? I could help you. We can see how it goes. Look, I won't even charge you for today."

"As if I'd want to spend a minute in the same room with you, Mike." I spluttered, raising my voice.

"Wow, Jesus, there's no need to be like that. I was just trying to help!" Mike stepped back.

"What by helping yourself to a buffet, like I'm a piece of meat to you? I'm not interested." I couldn't stop the words tumbling out of my mouth. The poor umbrella handle was about to snap. "And I'm not an idiot." I added.

Mike eyed me and sneered, "Could've fooled me."

Before I could think, my fist shot out in front of me. I expected blood, bone, a dead boy on the ground, his blood pooling in the rain puddles.

My knuckles hit stone. Rosalie stood next to us, her hand cupping my fist right in front of Mike's face. All the colour had drained from his horrified expression, slowly filling back up with a light shade of green.

With wide eyes, I stepped back.

"I'm sorry," I said, quickly to the speechless boy. "Please, just forget this ever happened."

He stood there for a second and finally blinked. Then he turned and walked away.

"Rosalie, I-," I started, trying to find something to say. I came up with nothing.

"Let's go," she muttered, taking the umbrella from me.

As we entered the canteen, the moment I looked towards our table, Jasper stood up. Alice and Emmett were watching us, and Edward had a deep frown on his face. They had all heard everything.

"I knew it was too soon," Edward sighed.

When we were close enough, Jasper took my hand. I took a seat while everyone at the table stared at me.

"I- I'm so sorry." I told them, "I just got so angry."

"He's not going to tell anybody," Alice assured me.

"For now," Edward grumbled. "What if he changes his mind?"

"She could've killed him," Rosalie interjected. "But she didn't. No one got hurt."

"All teenage humans lose their temper," Emmett pointed out, poking a salad leaf with his fork.

"The point is," Rosalie explained, "Nothing happened. They argued. That's all."

I kept my eyes on a tiny blob of spilt ketchup on the table. I hadn't meant to say any of those things. I'd just been so angry at him. Somehow, I'd ignored everything my mind was telling me and just lashed out.

"This can't happen again." Edward said flatly, almost like a command. "Who knows if one of us isn't there to stop it."

He stood up, the chair scraping on the floor, taking his tray full of food with him. He dropped everything into the bin, left the tray on the side and walked out.

I slid down in my seat, exhaling and hiding my eyes with one hand. Couldn't things be normal for one day?

I felt Jasper's hand on my leg and it didn't move for most of lunch as I leant my head in my folded arms on the table, listening to music to drown out any possible gossip about me.

When the bell rang, dread surged through me.

"I wouldn't worry," Jasper said. "He isn't making a big deal out of it. Actually, he's hardly mentioned you."

I lifted my head up and searched for him across the room. Mike was laughing about something with his friends. He didn't look nervous or scared. In fact, he looked as if nothing had happened at all.

I wasn't sure whether to be suspicious or relieved.

In biology Edward hardly took any notice of me. When Mr. Banner had everyone work in pairs, Angela started to talk me through what we were doing but smiled as I gave her the correct answers.

"Someone's been studying," she said.

I nodded, "Yep."

We talked through the whole lesson, about things I'd never even heard of until the previous night. I couldn't help thinking if my mother knew she would be impressed by how much I'd learnt so quickly.

As I knew too well, time passes.

I hovered by the doorway to algebra. My seat and Mike's were both empty near the front. For a split second I wondered if he was skiving.

"Hey, Tania, right?" Mike stepped around me and took his seat.

Confused, I froze. He really was carrying out my request.

Slowly I took my place next to him, unpacking my books.

"Mike," I started, keeping my voice low. "I'm really sorry about earlier, ok? I didn't mean what I said. I was angry at something else."

He paused and then started to smile, "Uh…" he cleared his throat, "What are you talking about?"

Had I completely misjudged this boy? He seemed to be pretending that whole argument hadn't happened. "Ok, I see." I smiled knowingly at how sweet he was being.

The teacher started talking, signalling the start of the lesson.

Except Mike continued eyeing me with a furrowed brow. I didn't understand. Why was he being so weird?

"Tania," he whispered, "seriously, what were you talking about just now? We weren't talking earlier? I haven't spoken to you since yesterday."

I opened my mouth to reply, but the teacher stepped in front of us. "Something to share, Mike?"

He leant back in his chair. "Nope."

"Good, let's continue then."

I watched Mike. He was genuinely confused, like he really had forgotten me almost punching his face in when I'd asked him.

But I hadn't asked him.

I'd ordered him.

The muscles in my chest suddenly tightened.

No.

No, no, no, no, no.

It wasn't possible. Before I came to any conclusions, I had to know if he was really telling the truth. That he really couldn't remember.

I clicked my pen and lifted a corner of my notebook. 'Mike, tell me exactly what you did on your way to lunch. It's important.' I underlined the word 'exactly' a few times, before gently elbowing him and showing the note whilst the teacher's eyes were elsewhere.

After reading it, he frowned and shook his head. 'I walked to lunch,' he wrote on his book. 'Talked with my friends… why are you being so weird?'

I didn't reply. He tried to get my attention again and I ignored him.

He was telling the truth. He really didn't know.

There was only one person I could talk to about this.

In less than a second I had my phone out under the desk, sending a text to Jasper to tell him I wouldn't be meeting them after school. A minute later, a reply flashed up.

'Where are you going?'

My fingers tapped across the screen. 'To the hospital. I have to talk to Carlisle and I don't want Edward to read my thoughts yet. Trust me.'

'I trust you,' he replied, 'What's wrong? I can't help you if you don't tell me.'

My hands trembled at the thought of Jasper knowing. How could I even begin to explain?

'Later. I love you.' I wrote. I put my phone away without waiting for a reply. I already knew what it would be.

I couldn't breathe.

There was so much blood, everywhere.

I'd ran to the hospital, holding my breath once the smell hit me about a mile away from the building. In the emergency room, a woman held a bloody rag on her hand and I kept my eyes forward towards the nurse behind the desk.

I had to take a breath to talk, though, and the pain seared the inside of my throat like I'd swallowed a razor blade. "I need to see Dr. Cullen," I told her as fast as I could, trying to get as many words as possible out with the breath, "I'm one of his kids."

She pointed me towards his office with the promise that she'd grab him once he finished talking with a patient.

After shutting the door behind me, I took a seat and pressed the fabric of my shirt onto my nose and mouth. Taking another breath, I held it. My muscles relaxed at the cleaner, blood free air. I didn't dare take another, allowing whatever I had swallowed to stale in my lungs. My throat hurt and I was sure my eyes probably looked terrible. How the hell did Carlisle do this?

Stiffly, I took a moment to glance around the room. The office was pristine. Not a book stood out of place on the bookshelf, and there was a neat stack of coloured files in a tray on the desk beside a computer. I wasn't waiting long.

A minute later Carlisle opened the door.

"Tania?" he asked. I'd heard the nurse tell him I was here, though he watched me carefully, closing the door behind him, "It must be difficult for you to be here."

I nodded, getting to my feet. "Something's," I hesitated, "wrong with me. I didn't know what else to do."

He paused. "How do you mean?" He stayed by the door and I distantly wondered if it was in case I suddenly turned ravenous.

I looked away for a second, trying to work out what to say. "I got really angry earlier, with a human. Something he said, I couldn't get it out of my head. We argued."

Carlisle kept a straight face, though there was no denying the sad look in his eyes.

"I didn't hurt him, though I really wanted to. Rosalie stopped me in time. But before we walked away, I-," my words didn't sound like they were coming from my mouth, as if somebody else was saying them, "I told him to forget the whole thing ever happened."

Carlisle listened, grave faced.

"And he did, Carlisle."

There was a moment of silence before he spoke. "Are you certain, Tania?"

I nodded, "I spoke to him later and at first I thought he was doing what I asked him to. And then I realised he didn't have any idea. He's completely forgotten."

"No one else saw you?" he asked.

"No." I sat back down. "This is impossible, isn't it? Vampire's don't get the powers of their creator."

Carlisle slowly took a few steps towards me. "There are still many things I don't know." He sat down in the other chair.

"It might be hard to accept, but-,"

"No." I cut him off swallowing, "She's dead." I spat out her name, "Caroline's dead. And her bloody power died with her."

"You don't believe that." Carlisle spoke, calmly.

I stared at the carpet. I knew he was right.

Shit.

Would just like to say I'd really appreciate some reviews so I can know whether you guys like where this is going or not. Thanks for reading!