Author's Notes: Thank you to everyone who's read and especially left reviews! I love to hear from you! Here's a short little chapter for Saturday ^_^
Disclaimer: The Twilight saga and all characters therein are the creation of Stephenie Meyer. No profit is being made from this fanfiction and no copyright infringement is intended.
Chapter Three
Generous
By Monday it was still sunny and, except for Jacob and me, everyone stayed home from school. A few of them were hunting, including my parents. I was looking forward to a long, lonely day at school when, after homeroom Chemistry and a texting war with Alice at home, I was intercepted in the crowded hallway.
"Let's play hooky," Jacob whispered in my ear, grabbing me by the elbow. "Your dad's not here to read our thoughts. Alice can't foresee us. Hurry, before any of the teachers catch us."
"Okay!" I blurted.
We raced slowly (at human-ish speed) out to the parking lot. Jacob hopped on his motorcycle and tossed me the spare helmet.
Giggling, looking behind me to make sure no one was following us, I fastened the strap and hopped on behind Jacob. My balance was superb and I didn't need to hold on, but I put my hands on his waist anyway. He threw a dazzling smile back at me and the motorcycle bucked like an eager horse as he throttled out of the parking lot.
The wind was cool on our faces and my long hair was a tangled stream behind me. Jacob went fast, but not too fast, until we were out of the city limits, and then he punched forward. I squealed with delight and wrapped myself closer.
I was very much aware of my legs, and the hard strength of his muscled back and abdomen, and how broad his shoulders were, and the feel of his leather jacket against my cheek. He'd always been there for me, a solid protector, a giver of great big hugs, but there was a sudden dangerous edge to his presence.
It felt as though we'd moved from Forks and left our old personas, our old patterns, behind. Here in Rochester, something new and dizzying was in the air.
Jacob made a wide turn down a small country lane that cut through the thick forest. I knew where we were headed: Esme's restoration house. Haunted House, I decided to start calling it. It was haunted with the possibilities of what my family could have become… not victims, but killers.
In all, a delicious fear.
We roared up the drive. The sunshine in the clearing made the blank windows of the house seem all that much darker. A quick sniff of the air told me we were alone. Esme was hunting today, too.
"Did you sneak me out of school so we could do a painting job for my grandmother?" I accused, reluctantly removing myself from my perch on the motorcycle.
Jacob laughed. "No. Although we could, if you want to."
I touched his cheek with the back of my hand. It tingled with my thoughts. I want to hear what you have in mind first.
"I have something to show you. You're gonna love it." He pulled his helmet off. His black hair stuck up in all directions.
You need a haircut.
He ruffled his hair so it was even wilder and gave me a wolfy grin. "Come on." He grabbed my hand.
I followed him into the house. Something smelled new in here. Like… electricity, and plastic, and circuit boards, and paper.
I smell computer!
Jacob laughed. "An early birthday gift."
Ah, yes, my birthday was in a few days. September was always an important month for us. We Cullens celebrated not only my birthday, but teased my mother about hers.
Jacob led me up the stairs and into a large room with a square bay window. There was a fireplace on one wall, a wrought iron bed covered with a white sheet on another wall, but my eyes were drawn to the center of the room.
"Wow," I said.
Sunlight streamed through the old glass windows, glinting off the surfaces of a computer system, the best in the world: a Spider Quantum 3000 mainframe, manufactured by Cray, and it hummed happily, blue power lights glowing. The massive, paper-thin screen showed a twisting ribbon screensaver. The keyboard called to me.
On the top of the tower, Jacob had placed green stuffed animal, a sea serpent with a pink tongue. The Loch Ness Monster.
"Jacob, I…"
"It's yours."
"How did you… When did you… Do you know how expensive these things are?"
"I know very well," he said, grinning. "I expect a return on my investment."
I stared up at him. This was too good to be true. I flung my arms around his neck. "Thank you, thank you, thank you!"
He swung me around once and set me down on my feet. "You're welcome!" Then he pressed his lips to the top of my head, where my hair was flattened by the helmet.
I stood still for a moment as he ruffled my hair back into place. His fingers lingered in my curls for an instant too long, and then he cleared his throat and made a sweeping gesture toward the computer. "All yours, my… Nessie."
With a cry of anticipation, I flung myself into the chair and started exploring the system. It was blazingly fast, and I was in heaven. It was everything I could want in a machine. I was glad that I'd thought to wire the upstairs with the best cables, and that I'd thought to piggy-back onto a fiber optic connection. I was invisible here. The main cable used so much bandwidth that no one would ever notice my activities.
I reached out and clasped Jacob's hand. It's a dream. Thank you.
The sun was setting by the time I pulled my attention out of the computer. At first I couldn't think why I'd emerged; Jacob was running laps as a wolf outside, and there was some noise distracting me.
Oh. My phone. We're in trouble, I realized. The screen told me it was Edward. "Hello?" I said, unable to kept the crack of guilt out of my voice.
"Young lady."
Shoot. "Hi, Dad."
"Where are you?"
"Hanging out with Jake."
"And how long have you been doing that?"
It was pointless to lie, I knew. I bet the school called home and told them about my unexcused absences. "Since first period. I'm sorry, Dad – I mean, Edward – I mean, school is just so boring."
"I don't care if it's boring. You need to go. You realize that all of us were missing today? That's going to attract attention. All eight missing. On sunny days. Renesmee…"
Shoot. He was calling me by my full name. "I'm on my way home," I sighed.
"That's right, you are." He hung up.
I waved to Jacob out the window. He phased out of my sight and was dressed by the time I shut down my computer, caressed it once, and slid down the banister and out the front door. "We better get back."
"Edward?"
"Yep."
We were subdued on the way home. I hadn't thought about what it would look like to the rest of Brighton High School… especially if the security cameras would show how I'd taken off on the back of Jacob's motorcycle. The administration might already be classifying the Cullen kids as potential troublemakers and we did not need that kind of attention.
This wouldn't endear Jacob to Rosalie any more, that was for sure.
It would do no good to try to sneak in by jumping through my window. They would have smelled us already, and Edward would have sensed our chagrined thoughts.
Rosalie met us at the door, arms crossed. "Hi, Ness." She pointedly ignored Jacob.
"Hi, Blondie," he said.
She sniffed dramatically and turned away.
"Sorry, Rosalie," I said as she closed the door behind us. I decided it was best to head off the lecture by apologizing outright. "Hi," I said, seeing my parents standing in the living room in front of the white plaster fireplace. "I'm so sorry. We didn't think. It won't happen again."
Jacob added, "It was my bad idea. I didn't consider how it would look. I'll make it up to you."
"Oh? How's that?" Edward said.
"Um… thinking up the world's best blond joke?"
Edward's mouth showed a twitch of humor.
"You have to admit, they don't need to be in class every day," said Bella. I could count on my mom to stick up for my adventures with Jacob. "I seem to recall skipping some days ourselves, back in Forks."
It was amazing how being in love could make a person chill out. Edward smiled, his eyes lifting to the ceiling in a reminiscent glow. "Yes, we did." He squeezed Bella's shoulders and she smiled up at him.
He didn't used to be so laid-back. Alice had told me how uptight and intense he'd been before he was married and before Bella was vamped. I could only imagine.
Off the hook, I wandered through the house and found Esme in the dining room, official-looking papers spread out in front of her. She frowned down at them.
"What's wrong?" I asked her.
"Oh, it's nothing. Just the house."
I touched her hand. What is it?
"I've been denied the permits to rebuild the destroyed wing. They won't accept my designs because I'm not associated with an accredited architectural firm."
"What? How ridiculous!"
"I know," Esme sighed. "The government is cracking down."
"I hate the government," I growled. "They should base permits on independent assessment of its structural integrity! Not on fear! There are plenty of architects who are incompetent." At the forefront of my mind was the famous Patriot Tower construction collapse in New York City several years ago, as a result of inadequate bracing of the foundations. I was sure Esme was thinking of it, as well.
"Anyway, there's no use fighting it. I'll keep the deed to the house and hope that they change their minds. Reason prevails eventually." She gave a tight smile. "After all, I have forever to wait."
I reached out and touched her face with my fingers. I'm sorry.
"It's all right, dear. Maybe I'll redecorate Carlisle's study. I've never liked the proportions of those bookshelves up there."
Smiling, I pictured poor busy Carlisle having to move all his books around, and probably hang curtains, too.
Esme laughed at my mental image.
I found Jacob in the kitchen, eating peanut butter out of the jar. I touched his elbow and showed him the problem with our haunted house. But then again, it meant that my new office there would be undisturbed.
"Hmm," he said. "True."
It could be our hideaway, I thought. It even looks like something in The Matrix. All decrepit. No one around.
"True!" There was even more enthusiasm in his voice now.
I dipped my finger into the peanut butter jar and stole a dollop. He tried to tickle me as I escaped, but I was too fast.
My sixteenth birthday and, according to the state of New York, I was legal to drive. I'd known how to drive for many years – since I was six – but the family liked to draw out my childhood as much as possible. Thus, I didn't have my own car… yet. I knew something was in the works for my birthday, because I was told not to enter the garage under any circumstances, and late at night I heard Rosalie working on something in there. I honored the request but I still pestered Bella about the surprise. She hated surprises and I could see that she wanted to tell me… but she didn't.
Oh, well. I could be patient.
The night of my party, I was told to wait up in my room, and while Alice decorated the downstairs, I occupied myself by challenging my Internet friends to some creative alterations of famous actors' fan pages. I sat back and laughed, watching their handiwork.
The best, by far, was PeuChen91. All I knew about her was that she was roughly my age and lived in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. I watched live as she expertly Photoshopped one of Hollywood's hottest teen heartthrobs: now, in every picture on his website, he had a mullet hairdo and wore a flowered woman's dress.
There was a knock on my door. "Happy Sweet Sixteen," said Bella and Edward together.
I opened the door to find them on the landing, grinning broadly. "Alice is waiting," said Bella.
I wore a party dress that Alice bought me for my fifteenth birthday – after all, I hadn't grown a bit in nine years – and matching heels. The dress was fawn-colored silk, worn with a royal blue leather belt. The shoes were pale pink. My hair was in a pile on top of my head.
"Ness, you look lovely," said Edward, pride in his eyes.
I descended the stairs into the dark. As soon as my toes crossed the living room threshold, the lights blazed on. The art nouveau wall fixtures cast shards of golden light across the smiling faces of my family. "Happy Birthday!" they shouted in unison, except for Jacob, who just grinned at me, never taking his eyes from my face.
"Thank you!" I said, noting the silver and orange roses, the pile of gifts, and the stunning tower of a cake made to look like a silver maple tree, complete with fluttering leaves. "Alice… you've outdone yourself. That cake!"
"I know! It's a wonderful bakery. I had a vision of it and they were able to replicate my description perfectly… which gave me the vision in the first place! Ah, time." Alice clapped her hands in delight.
"Open your gifts, dear," said Esme. "I can't wait for you to see this one." She handed me a small box.
"That was my idea," said Emmett. "Because I'll benefit, too."
Sitting down between Bella and Edward, with Jacob hovering at my shoulder, I tore into the package. "Fallout: Doomsday!" I read aloud the title of the video game. "This isn't even out yet!"
"It is for you," said Alice.
"For us," corrected Emmett, rubbing his hands together. "It's on, little niece."
"It's on!" I agreed. "You'll never beat me."
"I'll beat you," Jasper said.
"None of you stand a chance," added Jacob.
"That's right… against me!" I said.
The rest of my gifts were clothing from Alice, shoes from Alice, jewelry from Carlisle and Esme, and finally Edward rose from his seat and plucked a tiny box from the mantle. "From us," he said, nodding at Bella.
I untied the bow and opened the box. A car key. The logo flashed in the light. "A Jaguar?" I leapt to my feet. "Can I?"
"Go, go!" said Rosalie, laughing. "It's out front!"
I was out the door in a flash. Someone had trained a spotlight on the car – my car – and I gawked at it.
It was an antique Jaguar E-series convertible, finished in a deep, gleaming midnight blue. The interior was cream leather with a black steering wheel. The curves were classic 60s, the front grill looking like teeth bared for speed.
I was speechless in love.
"Do you like it?" Rosalie asked from behind me.
"We've done some modifications to the engine," said Jacob.
I whirled around. "You guys? You both worked on this? For me?"
They glanced at each other, a look filled with old disagreements, but they both nodded.
"Edward helped, too," said Rosalie.
"Helped keep the peace," said Bella, stepping out onto the porch.
Gratitude and excitement warred within me. Giving in to both, I squealed and flung my arms around Jacob, and then Rosalie, and then Bella, and then Edward who was behind her… my fist clutched the key and I couldn't wait.
"Can I?"
"Go!" said Edward, laughing.
I took a moment to touch the car, to appreciate it. Then I was in the driver's seat, feeling grown-up at last. "Come on, Jacob first!" I shouted.
Then we were off, me the happiest high schooler to ever sit behind the wheel of a car.
