Chapter 20: Starting School

(3 years later ~ 6 years old)

"Hold my hand, Daisy." I said, trying to grab her hand.

"Mom!" Daisy said, snatching it away, embarrassed.

We reached the school gates and I stopped her, crouching down so I could get to her height. "You're going to be okay today, aren't you? Because we could always wait until next year-"

"I'll be fine!" Daisy said, looking towards the stream of kindergarten kids heading towards the doors.

"You remember what I told you?" I asked.

"No talking about vampires." Daisy said, "Or wolves. And no running fast or showing people images. If it gets sunny, stay in the shade when possible."

I nodded, glad that she'd taken in all my instructions. I was still worried. Jasper put a hand on my shoulder, and looked down at Daisy, "Nessie will be in school if you need help. We'll pick you up at the end of the day. If you need us before that, you have our number."

The cell phone had been Jasper's idea. Yes, she was only six, but we wanted her to be able to contact us at any time. If she ran into a vampire-type problem, she couldn't exactly ask the school receptionist to ring home.

We took Daisy up to her classroom, where her new teacher was waiting. "Hi! I'm Miss Murphy, and let me guess...you must be Daisy-May!"

Daisy's eyes widened, wandering how on earth her teacher had guessed that. I didn't ruin the illusion by telling her that we'd had to send in a picture of our daughter when we registered her to the school.

Miss Murphy turned to Jasper and I, hesitating, "Are you Daisy's parents?"

Jasper and I glanced at each other, seeing what she saw. The similarities in appearance were undeniable; Jasper said that Daisy grew to look more like me every day. Still, the teacher couldn't believe that the pair of us could be old enough to have a six year old daughter.

"I'm her Aunt. My sister passed away and I adopted her daughter." I said, "I'm Alice Cullen, and this is my husband, Jasper."

"I'm sorry to hear that." Miss Murphy said, looking at Daisy with a new sympathy which I resented instantly. I didn't want people giving her pity for the lie I created, "Well, Daisy, I hope you enjoy your time in my class."

Daisy smiled up at her angelically, "I'm sure I will, Miss Murphy."

I crouched down and kissed Daisy quickly, "Have a lovely day, sweetie."

"You'll be fine." Jasper said, ruffling her hair. Daisy and I instantly shrieked and batted his hand away. Did he not understand how long I'd spent on her hair for her very first day of school. Jasper just rolled his eyes and laughed as I smoothed her hair back into place.

"See you later, baby girl." I said, letting her go into the classroom.

I started freaking out on the walk home, "She's growing up so quickly, Jasper!"

"She's growing at the same rate any human would." Jasper said.

"She's going to school. She's a school kid." I said, "Oh my God, can I even call her 'baby girl' anymore? What's next? Graduation? Marriage?"

"Calm down, Alice." Jasper said with a laugh, "It's her first day at school! We've got a long way to go before she starts adding graduation caps to Esme's wall of fame."

"I miss her already, Jazz." I said, "The next six hours are going to be pure torture!"

"Better get used to her not being around 24/7." Jasper agreed.

I paused, "Do you realize this is the first day we've had to ourselves in six years?"

Suddenly, Daisy starting school didn't seem so bad.

~o.O.o~

Daisy ran straight into my arms at the end of the school day, not even saying hello before she launched into a speech about how 'totally awesome' the day had been and how 'epically amazing' all her classmates were.

"I'm glad, Daisy." I said when I could get a word in edgeways, "What did you do today?"

"We got to make name tags," Daisy said, showing me the sticky label on her t-shirt, sporting "Daisy-May" in neat swirling writing with little flowers and hearts for a border. Comparing it to the wobbly attempts at letters on the other kid's shirts, most people would wonder if Daisy's teacher had done her tag for her. I knew she had not. Daisy had become increasingly talented at all things artistic, and although she was limited to crayons, pencils, and markers, she produced beautiful pieces of artwork. "And we played an 'ice-breaker' where we had to tell the person next to us all our favourite things; colours, animals, food..."

"Pink, Giraffes, Gummy Bears." I said and Daisy nodded with a grin.

"I had so much fun! Can I go again tomorrow?!" Daisy asked.

"And the next day and the next and the next." I told her, "You have to go in every weekday."

Daisy only smiled at this, "Good! I love school!"

I'd remind her of this ten years into the future, I decided, when I was trying to drag her out of bed on a Monday morning.

When we got home, Esme was waiting in the kitchen with cookies, "How was your first day, sweetheart?"

We then got to hear the whole 'totally-awesome-epically-amazing' all over again.

Jasper and I went hunting, leaving Daisy to eat her cookies and re-tell the story of her first day to anyone who walked into the kitchen. When we returned, she was outside with Emmett, practicing soccer.

"Don't kick it towards me Daisy! I'm on the other team!" Emmett was scolding, "Kick it this way; towards the goal...good, now line up your foot like I showed you...great! Now shoot!"

Daisy kicked the ball, sending it flying into the 'goal' (two giant oak trees in the back yard). I screamed as she fell backwards, landing in the mud and covering her yellow dress in brown. She laughed and rolled around in it. I screamed again, "Daisy-May, get up at once!"

Her smile disappeared. She knew we rarely used her full name. She stood up carefully and looked at the floor, tears pooling in her eyes. "Sorry, Mama."

"It'll wash out." Jasper said, grabbing Daisy and spinning her, "Just don't give your Mom a heart attack."

I frowned. I loved that yellow dress.

"I'm sorry." Daisy said, looking genuinely ashamed of herself as she looked up at me.

"It's okay." I said, smoothing her hair, "Just...next time you wanna play dirty, change into something less...adorable."

"Okay!" Daisy said, and her big smile reappeared again, "Since I'm already muddy, can I play some more?"

I rolled my eyes, "Sure...but you know this means you gotta take a bath later."

Daisy pulled a face and ran off towards Emmett, "I gotta take a bath because of you!"

Emmett grabbed her, "You could take a bath, or I could just chuck you in the lake!"

Daisy screamed as he slung her over his shoulder and carried her towards the lake at the bottom of the garden. She made feeble attempts at fighting him, but I think she knew there was no way she could ever be stronger than Emmett.

I was convinced that Emmett had been joking, but then he really did throw her into the lake and it was me who was screaming, running towards the water. Daisy bobbed her head up, laughing and shrieking "Again! Again!"

I glared at Emmett, "Don't you dare!"

Jasper touched my arm gently, "They're just having fun. Besides, she's indestructible!"

I looked at him doubtfully, then back at Emmett, who was holding a giggling Daisy in his arms. He was waiting to throw her in again; waiting for my permission. Daisy looked at me expectantly, as if to say 'What are we waiting for?'.

"Just be careful, please!" I said, and I went into the house before I could see Daisy flying through the air towards the water. Jasper followed me inside after a minute.

"You have to stop worrying all the time." He told me, wrapping his arms around my waist and kissing my temple, "Nothing bad is going to happen to her."

"Alice! Jasper!"

Emmett was calling from outside, his voice obviously alarmed, though he tried to make it sound calm. We both shot outside, our eyes trained solely on Daisy. She was stood behind Emmett, clinging onto his hand and peeking out from behind him. She didn't look hurt.

That's when we turned our attention to the five other vampires in our garden. Aro stood at the front, smiling at Daisy. Felix and Demetri stood behind him, and Jane and Alec behind them. Jasper and I crossed immediately to Emmett and Daisy, standing in front of them and blocking Daisy from sight. Why hadn't I seen the Volturi coming?!

"My, how she's grown." Aro was saying, his eyes trained on Daisy.

"What are you doing here, Aro?" Jasper asked.

"I mean no harm, I simply came to visit little Daisy-May." Aro said. His eyes flickered to me, "But of course, Alice, you must have seen us coming."

I didn't want to admit that I hadn't, so I nodded, "I did, but my visions don't tell me your reason for coming."

"Daisy-May is...special, to say the least. I simply want to keep track of her developments as she grows." He said.

"She isn't an experiment." I snapped, "You can't just observe her!"

Aro offered me a strained smile, "Of course. I did not mean it in that way. Won't you allow me to say hello to little Daisy-May?"

Daisy by this point had obviously gotten tired of not being able to see anything. She jumped onto Emmett's back and looked over his head. She was looking at the Volturi with a sort of disgust in her eyes. I doubted she remembered her first encounter with them, as she had only been a month old at the time, but she could see all our memories of the coven and our memories were less than pleasant.

Daisy climbed up onto Emmett's shoulders; something she always did when she was scared or nervous. She said that she was safe up there, because it was so high and no one could possibly reach her. She looked at Aro, and with a surprising confidence she said, "You have red eyes."

Aro smiled up at Daisy, "I do not deprive myself of our natural diet."

"I don't like them." Daisy said, blinking down at Aro, "Gold is prettier."

Aro stood speechless for a second, then his control came back, "You are quite right, of course. You are rather intelligent for your age, are you not?"

"I don't like you either." Daisy told him bluntly, ignoring the question. She tapped Emmett on the head, "Come on, Emmy, let's go play inside."

Emmett glanced at Aro, then walked towards the house, holding Daisy firmly on his shoulders. When they were gone, Aro spoke again, "She has quite a personality."

"We will ask you kindly to leave Aro." Jasper said, "You are trespassing on our land."

"We are here on a friendly visit-" Aro began.

"We are not your friends." I cut in sharply, eyes narrowing at him, "You will have nothing to do with Daisy's life. Nothing. Now please leave."

Aro's own eyes narrowed at me, "Very well. I see you do not want to do this in a friendly manner. Goodbye Alice, Jasper."

And then they were gone, but Aro's words stuck with me long after. What did he mean? What were his intentions? Why hadn't I seen him coming?

Jasper put an arm around me, "We're not going to let anything hurt her."

I nodded, "I know."

Even if it meant risking our own lives.

A/N: Helloooo :) Soo, some fluff and some drama...opinions? Leave a review ;) As usual, if you review you'll get a sneak peak of the chapter before I update!

Thank you to everyone who's reviewed, favourited or followed! :):)

In a review Razzburry17 asked if I had any advice for writing fanfics...hmmmm, I'm not sure what advice I'd give you. With any story I write, I have someone that reads through the chapters before I post them (usually Jalice2254!). It's not a beta thing, it's just getting someone's opinion on that chapter, and checking that it will make sense to your readers (because although it's easy for YOU to follow your writing, sometimes readers will just get totally lost, and you realize you've left out a whole chunk on information!). It's also good to have that person to bounce ideas off of; do they like this name or this one? Is this funny or cliché? When should this character do this? Etcetera...my chapters would never get finished without a little help every now and then!

Also, plan ahead. You don't have to have your whole story planned out, but you should have some idea of what's going to happen next. Once you've posted something, you can't really go back and change it, so you need to plan ahead a little and think about what you're going to want in those chapters. If you've got nothing planned, you'll just end up writing loads of filler chapters. Hmmm...what else can I say in advice? Be consistent...don't make your character allergic to strawberries in one chapter, and then have them eating strawberries in a later chapter! You need to remember the little details you've written so you don't contradict them later on.

I guess that's all the advice I have for now...good luck with your writing and you can always ask me for advice :) ((Razzburry17, if you get an account you can PM me and we can chat :) ))

ANYWAY, I'll update again soon and remember to REVIEW! ;) Bye for now ;)