A/N: Okay, I'm sorry the last chapter was so depressing and the first couple paragraphs of this chapter are, too. Things will get brighter. Not to mention Leah will begin to get introduced in this chapter. Hooray! No more flashbacks, I promise. Unless you liked them... let me know. And on a random note, the Christmas cactus that is mentioned? Really exists. It inhabits my room.
Disclaimer: Unfortunately, I do not own Twilight. I just manipulate the characters to suit my own personal storylines. I also don't own Keeping You A Secret, although that is another one that goes on the list of I wish I did. There's also several references to other books in here, if you pick any of them up let me know. Any whoo, onto the chapter...
Each year was a bland monotony. Days blurred into years, years blurred into decades. I graduated one high school, attended college, then enrolled in another high school. I lost track of all of the places I went. Places in New Hampshire, Alaska, even places in England where I attended University. Soon it became apparent that I could earn any degree I wanted at any school I wanted. I could go to Harvard for law, Dartmouth for nursing, and so much more. But none of that mattered because every day no matter what test I aced or what college gave me a degree, my thoughts would always flutter back to one thing.
Kristina.
Every day, at some point, my mind would always find its way back there. Was it every day? Maybe it was more often, maybe it was less. Time means so little when all it's doing is separating you from the person you love.
Now, however, the year was 2008. I had just gotten my PHD in psychology, or as Edward called it, my ADD in being psycho, because I had such difficulty paying attention these days.
We were all sitting in the living room of our home in northern Vermont. Carslile had wanted to go to Maine, but when he had suggested moving there I had told him that if he was doing that I was leaving. But the news he was giving us now was almost worse than him trying to move us to Maine, where Kristina had come from.
Our family was in a dilapidated circle. Carlisle and Esme sat across the circle from me, with Edward and Jasper on one side. On the other side were Rosalie and Emmett.
Now, Carlisle was telling us that we were going to go back to Forks.
"No." That was the first thing out of my mouth after Carslile proposed the idea.
Esme looked at me. "Alice..." She started.
"Don't you 'Alice' me!" I said it harsher than I really meant to. "You've all asked me to try to move on. This won't help. My heart may be a long way from healing, but it's also come so far. This could just undo all of it. We can go somewhere else." I finished, with a little bit of hopefulness in my voice. Maybe we could find somewhere else...
Rosalie cut in. "It makes sense to go back to Forks." Good job Rose. As she spoke, she stood up, and walked over to me. She took both my hands in hers, looked me in the eye, and continued talking. "We have the house there. We know the weather, we know the land. We know that seventy years later, everyone who would remember us is either dead or won't be taken seriously if they say they remember us." And just like that, all my protests were forgotten. Plans began to be made for our move back to Forks.
I was sitting in my room that night, and Jasper came in. No mood entered with him, he had learned a long time ago not to mess with my emotions. I was sitting, correction, lying, in the middle of my floor with a very dilapidated book in my hands. It was a personal favorite of mine, Keeping You A Secret.
He came and plopped down next to me, and smiled as I glanced over the top of my book at him then continued reading. It was my favorite part of the book, where Cece and Holland share their first kiss. Truly remarkable.
After a few seconds, Jasper asked "You okay?". What a guy. He falls head over heels in love with me just to find out that I'm not into guys. Then he proceeds to become my best friend in the world, and is always looking out for me. Every girl should be so lucky to have such a good friend.
I knew what he was asking in his question, too. He was asking if I was okay to move back to Forks. He had told me a long time ago that he'd follow me anywhere. No questions asked. As I said before, what a guy.
I got to the end of the scene, then looked at him and nodded. "Yeah, I think so." He smiled and nodded back at me.
"Good." He said while getting up to leave. "I'll leave you to pack then."
- - -
Two months later, I sat in my room. My room in the Cullen mansion in Forks, Washington. My four boxes were at the end of my bed, and my shoebox was on my nightstand. The Christmas cactus I had adopted was also on my night stand. The move had gone well.
My 'siblings' and I were to start school tomorrow as sophomores at Forks High School. Yes, we looked a little old to be sophomores. But nobody really ever questioned the Cullens.
Suddenly, I had an urge. I had promised myself I wouldn't do it, but I knew I had to do it anyway.
I flitted down the stairs, saying something about going out. The boys were immersed in a video game, Rose had gone out for a little food before school, and Carslile and Esme were... um... occupied. But hey, what else are vampires supposed to do before actually starting school/work?
Minutes later, I was there. I could see everything. Yes, it was the middle of the night. But the view was still amazing.
I was on top of my hill. I sat down on the same patch of rock I had the last time I had been here. Kristina and I had been here together that night.
The night drifted away, with me drifting in my thoughts.
- - -
Forks High School. Shoot me now. It's tiny, and nothing happens. EVER.
My siblings and I arrived the first day of classes, and we didn't stop receiving stares the whole day. First period was latin II, with Emmett. Second was intro to drawing, and I was a loner there. Third was chemistry which I had with Rosalie and Edward. Fourth was world history, and Jasper sat behind me. Fifth was English.
I was the only one of my siblings in that class, like intro to drawing. The teacher, Ms. Widmer, started the class like every other teacher that day had. She passed out the course description, but instead of actually reviewing it, she just made some comment about how we could review it on our own.
Ms. Widmer then told us that she was going to pair us up to start our first group project of the year. After about ten minutes of explaining the project, she actually started assigning pairs. "Anne and Liza, Dan and Andrew, Battle and Isaac," She continued down the list, "Alice and Leah." she finished.
Leah. Huh. Sounded like some preppy cheerleader who talked in a really high pitched annoying voice really fast. I glanced around the room, wondering which one she was. Kids were getting up and moving desks. A girl came and sat in front of me while I was pulling out a binder to pretend to take notes for the project in.
I looked at her from the feet up. She had a pair of black converses on, with zebra striped shoe laces in them. Almost definitely not preppy. She was wearing a pair of jeans, probably from Hollister. Okay, maybe preppy. She wore a green tee shirt, with a v-neck. I stopped at her neck and did a double take.
She was wearing a silver heart shaped necklace. I glanced up to her face, and she looked just as dumbfounded as I'm sure I did. I wasn't sure what she was so surprised about, though.
In the moments I looked at her face, I saw a lot without really seeing anything. I saw that she had short black hair cut kind of choppy. Her eyes were almost as dark as her hair, only with more of a brown tinge to them. She had a square face, with strong looking cheek bones. Her eyeliner was applied in moderation, but heavy where it was applied. She was pretty, I realized.
"Can I see that for a minute?" I asked quietly, pointing at her necklace. She nodded, her mouth still open. Seriously, what was up with this girl? At least I had gotten my composure back.
I gently picked the necklace up off of the skin of her collar bone. I gently ran my thumb over the front before opening it. Seconds later, the locket slipped off of my fingers as I lost my composure again. I had never expected to see those words again. Guide her, keep her, with love always, and please bless her as I do now. I looked at her in the eyes. Who was this girl?
Now, she had seemed to get her composure back somewhat. She took a deep breath, then started to talk.
"I'm Leah. I'm from the reservation," Oh, that explains part of it. "I got kicked off of the 'res high because of attitude problems." I nodded. Okay.
"Where did you get your necklace?" I asked her, cocking my head a little.
Her face went into a bit of a snarl. But then, for some reason, her face softened, and she told me "It was my grandmother's, from her first and true love. Which one of your brothers was it?" Guess she knew about the Cullens. Figures, everyone from the reservation does. Wait, her grandmothers? This beautiful girl sitting before me was Kristina's offspring? I took a deep breath in.
I suddenly realized I hadn't breathed since she came and sat down. I breathed in through my nose, expecting the bombardment of information. I expected to smell the newly sharpened pencils, the smell of old books. I expected the smell of some poor guy getting turned on by the girl he had been partnered with, and I expected the smell of blood.
What I didn't expect was for her to smell like Kristina. Well, not exactly like Kristina, but almost. She smelled of wet dog, and of human. She didn't smell bad, though. It was an okay smell. Of course she knew. She was probably mere months old. Attitude problems my rear end. More like temper problems.
I shook my head, and knew that I had to tell her the truth. She would probably hate me, but she could handle it. I whispered the word, scared of what she would do. "Me."
Her eyes shot open with surprise. Oh, no.