Rating/Warning(s)/Note(s): T, Shadows
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Prompt: Annoy

The rest of Thanksgiving weekend went relatively smoothly, considering the fact that my mother was sure that young adults needed constant feeding and two of them were vampires. Edward explained they had a special diet, but Renee wasn't to be deterred. Phil finally stepped in and told her to stop pestering the kids about eating and to leave us be.

The evening before our flight Edward took off, presumably to go shopping. Alice told me later he was tracking some deer in the woods, making sure he was well-fed before being stuck on an airplane next to me for hours. "Better safe than sorry," she said with a wink, making my heart clench with worry for a moment. I needn't have bothered; Edward returned with golden eyes and a much more relaxed attitude.

With only a few weeks separating Thanksgiving and finals my mind was focused solely on school work. My brain simply couldn't work through 'one day in the future you're going to go up against the king vampire' and 'the quadratic formula is' at the same time. Since it was the quadratic formula I would undoubtedly be facing first, that became my center of attention, along with term papers, essays, memorization of famous paintings and music and Marta talking about how Edward was always around now and could I please hook her up with one of his friends.

At first I was confused by Marta's request. The only friends Edward had were his coven, not that I could tell her that. That's when she pointed out the others. There weren't many of them, but they were interspersed throughout the student population, often glancing away when I looked directly at them. All of them beautiful. All of them deadly, except the killings had unexpectedly ceased.

Edward and I were walking to class together, not an unusual thing since his visit to Jacksonville, when I saw another vampire skirt through the shadows of a building. "They're beginning to annoy me," I complained, watching the latest male try to appear engrossed in a textbook while keeping a watch on me.

"At least you can't hear their thoughts," he whispered while wrapping a protective arm around my shoulders. The textbook reader had the grace to look embarrassed. "He's wondering how I can be so close to you and not feed."

"I wonder that myself sometimes," I said, then gave it some thought. "Although, I suppose if I became the meal it'd make it difficult for me to help your family."

Edward pulled me to a stop, bringing out a few grumbles from the students forced to walk around us. "That's no longer the only reason, Bella. In the past year we've all come to care for you deeply and look forward to the time you will join our family."

A furtive movement beside me alerted me to yet another vampire, this one more brazen and willing to almost bump into us as he listened to our conversation. I noticed a grimace on his face before he continued on. "Why does that bother them?"

"Because it means we haven't broken any laws," Edward tells me, pulling me forward once again. "As long as our intentions are clear, leaving you human until threat of discovery passes is acceptable."

"They're waiting for a mistake?"

He ran a hand through his hair, nodding to yet another passing us by. "These are. They're watchers, working almost indirectly for the Volturi. Their loyalty lies there, because they believe in the law completely and will do anything to uphold it." Edward walks with me into the building, holding my elbow as we climb the stairs. "Our interest in you drew their attention."

"Are they the ones responsible for…"

"Some are." His mouth thinned as he glanced over his shoulder. "It's hard for them to be surrounded by so many who willingly risk their lives and not partake." We walk into my classroom, and many of the girls, and a few of the boys, turn to look at my companion. It's not just other vampires who've noticed his interest in me.

"Many of the ones who drew the attention of your police have been dealt with, though, so your father will feel more at ease in the coming months," he continued, handing me my books as he took a seat next to me. This is what really drew attention, he wasn't attending this class before Thanksgiving. At first the professor invited him to leave, but Edward talked with him after class and begged to be allowed to stay, just so he could be close to me. The professor was an old romantic, so allowed him to remain as long as he left during the tests and didn't distract too many of the other students.

"Dealt with?" I asked just as the professor began to review the course material.

"Don't think about it," Edward replied, and somehow I knew it wasn't a good thing for those others. Was it wrong to feel guilty for being happy over another being's death when you knew it would preserve the lives of many others? "You're thinking about it."

I forced my mind back to what was being discussed on the board. After about five minutes Edward leaned over. "You can ignore this, it isn't on the final."

"You're not supposed to tell me that," I fussed back.

He chuckled. "You don't need to be a mind-reader to know when he's talking about something that isn't in the test. Watch his eyes."

For the next fifteen minutes Edward pointed out when the material was important and when it wasn't. That's when I saw it, the professor grew more animated with information he was going to put on the test. Edward noticed when I came to the realization. "All humans do it, by the way."

Two weeks later, my mind stuffed with only pertinent material, I breezed through my finals. Marta gave me a thumbs up from across the room in the classes we shared, grateful I had let her in on the observation. Now I just had to face my father for Christmas.

I'm off work for the New Year holiday (throws confetti), so should be able to post something earlier tomorrow.