*Disclaimer for this chapter: There is a phone conversation between Marie, Ellie, and Ashley. Ashely and Marie are together in one place and Ellie is on the other end. Ashley is talking with Marie, and her dialogue is Bold Italics and Marie's is just Italics.*

Chapter 9

I didn't say anything to my mom. What was I going to tell her? That there were two vampires living in our town? I mean, what could she do besides tell our father and send us packing to New York?

Which, to be completely fair, was a very tempting offer.

However, I kept my mouth shut for two important reasons. One: Emi would never talk to me about anything ever again and I would basically lose my best friend over my big, fat mouth, and Two: Mom loved her job, and she would stay here even if Emi and I went home… Leaving her alone and vulnerable.

And I loved my mom too much to leave her here by herself.

So I kept my mouth shut, burying the information so deep down in my mind it was like I never knew it at all. I was pleading the fifth, and feigning ignorance all at the same time, so when this blew up in our faces, it wouldn't be me getting in trouble this time.

However, Emi was making it increasingly hard to stay quiet when she kept spending time with the one and only Gabriel Black.

It was a gloomy Tuesday afternoon when Emi and I pulled into our cobblestone driveway. Sitting there was another car, and it wasn't our mother's. It was sleek and black and I knew exactly who it belonged to.

"Why is he here again?" My voice was a little higher pitched than normal and whiny. Emi cut her eyes at me, her glare burning a hole in the side of my face.

"Ellie_"

"No, why is he here? Last time he was here you guys dragged me to dracula's castle and I was stuck sipping on water in the kitchen in front of his very nice, but creepy aunt." The anxiety was building up in my stomach once again, like little slippery snakes curling around in my gut.

"We're just studying here, calm down. We have to finish our paper then we never have to hang out again… Okay?"

I felt myself pout and Emi reached over and gently pinched my cheek. The gesture itself reminded me of mom.

"Come on, and be good." I rolled my eyes and tumbled out of the car and started the brisk shuffle up to my front porch. Gabriel exited his car and waved to both me and Emi.

"Hey guys." It was hard for me to make eye contact with him, but I shoved my anxiety down and forced a smile. He smiled back at me, but it didn't quite reach his eyes. It was almost like he could see through me, and there was concern on his face.

"Hey. Sorry I took so long, I had to pick up Ellie from school. There was a long line today, and then there was that freak burst of rain_"

"Don't worry about it Emi." His eyes never looked away from me for more than a moment, and it made the slithery sick feeling in my gut worsen. I looked down at the chipped white paint of the front porch and nearly ran up the stairs to get to the front door.

As we made our way inside the house, I tossed off my shoes and immediately made my way back to my bedroom. Pulling out my desk chair, I plopped down and pulled out my phone. Two missed calls and a text from Marie.

'CODE GREEN'

"What the hell is a code green?" I muttered to myself and scrunched up my nose in confusion. Calling Marie back, the phone barely rang before she picked up.

'OH MY GOD_'

'Oh my Gooood_' I could hear Ashley in the background.

"Oh my God what?" The two of the chuckled and I rolled my eyes.

'Girl, we have a code green.'

"What the hell is a code green?" I played with one of the seal plushies on my desk, rubbing the soft tail in between my fingertips.

'Code Green, like green the color'

'No duh the color Marie, its like green to go ahead'

'I was getting to that, green the color, and green to go ahead with the plan_'

"Woah, woah, woah, stop. What plan, what's green, when did we even discuss codes and colors?"

'We discussed it when we were at Ash's house last Tuesday, remember?' I thought back to last Tuesday. We were hanging out in Ashley's room doing more gossiping than homework, when they just started rambling on about something. I was kinda focused on a practice math test and wasn't really paying attention to what they were saying to me. I was just nodding my head and humming in response when it was necessary.

"Oh… um_"

'Code green, go ahead and ruin Candy's life. Code red, it's getting too hot to handle, and code yellow is proceeding with caution. It's kinda like we're driving.' I hummed in response and moved my fingers back to my hair.

"Okay, so why are we code green?" I heard Marie take in a deep breath and I braced myself for her verbal avalanche.

'Because Candace was on the phone with her best friend Erin, who is actually not that bad but she can be a little bitchy sometimes when her blood sugar is low_'

'She had type-one diabeties_'

'But other than that her main flaw is that she is friends with my sister, but they were friends back when Candace wasn't a total diva so I mean, I guess Erin just stayed in the pot to boil if you know what I mean, but yeah, so basically they were on the phone and Candace was being totally loud and smacking her lips really loudly 'cause she has this new habit of chewing gum for weight loss

'Which I think is a myth, doesn't gum make you more hungry?'

'You know, I'm not really sure, but she read it on twitter or something and now she just smacks her stupid ugly lips all damn day and night. Ugh, it's so freaking annoying she has this like extra shiny lip gloss and she always applies too much so when she smacks her damn lips I just see the lipgloss sticking to her lips and it's probably all in her mouth and it's just so gross_' I cleared my throat and she gasped 'Oh, yeah, well I heard her smacking her lips together and and that's how I ended up listening to her phone call with Erin and she was going on and on about how she hopes her period isn't going to start this weekend.'

Marie finally paused, and before she could begin again, I cut her off.

"What does her period have to do with a code green?"

'Welllll, Candace doesn't like being on her period when she goes to parties because she says alcohol makes her bleed harder, so by hoping she doesn't get her period this weekend, we can logically deduce that she is going to a party. So all we have to do is figure out what party she is going to and we can embarrass her!'

If Marie was here in front of me, I would have hugged her.

"That's fucking brilliant. Marie, you had me in the first half, not gonna lie, but this is a great plan in the making."

'Thanks, but Ash was the one who told me that this was a great opportunity for code green.'

'I mean, I've seen 'Mean Girls' like a thousand times, so I know it always goes down at a party or dance.'

"Okay so if we're using mean girls logic, that just means we find some more ammunition to embarrass her for a dance." I, too, have watched Mean Girls a thousand times.

'Or we can just slash her tires.'

'JESUS CHRIST MARIE_' I thought for a moment, a wicked little smile splitting across my cheeks.

"No, no, Marie is on to something, continue Marie…"

'My parents gave Candace a car for her sixteenth birthday to make up for the fact that they were out of the country. Candace, being as terrible as she is, crashed that car when she was out drinking with her friends… So my loving parents bought her another car and basically told her that if she was caught drunk again she was screwed. So if we slash her tires at the party she will either A: get a ride home with someone else and get the car towed, B: call my parents and cry about the car, or C, and this is the good one, be so drunk she still tries to drive the car.'

"Marie, are you at all concerned your sister will get in an accident?" I wanted to ruin Candace's life, not end it. However, Marie didn't seem to have the same concerns as I did, because she chuckled gently on the other end.

'I mean, I'm pretty sure cars with flats can't drive, so she'd only really make it like a foot… right? And that would damage the car even more. Also, all of our car statements get faxed to our parents and she'll have to explain why she was out at like 11pm on a Saturday night when she was supposed to be home with me.'

I shrugged my shoulders and swirled around in the chair.

"Ms. Scott… You're an evil genius."

'Thank you Ms. Kirkland, so are you.'

We chatted for a little longer before I hung up the phone and started on my homework. I was falling behind pretty far in biology and if I didn't do all my homework and all my classwork, my grade would slip below a C- and my mom would be 'oh so disappointed' in me.

Biology was something I didn't understand why I personally needed to learn. It was just boring stuff about cells and organisms that didn't really apply to me. When I complained to my dad about studying biology, he just chuckled and patted me on the head.

'It's just the American curriculum dear, don't fret over it too much.' He was really good at biology however and always helped me whenever I had trouble.

'Maybe I should call him…' My eyes flickered to my phone for a moment before a knock on my door dragged me out of my thoughts.

"Come in."

"Hey baby, working hard in here?" My mom was still dressed in her work clothes. A flattering black dress with a cherry red belt and matching red heels. Her long locks were piled on top of her head and her golden earrings dangled so elegantly from her ears. My mom was breathtaking.

"Yup. I'm just doing my homework." She smiled at me, and walked over to give me a hug.

"I ordered some chinese food for dinner, I got your favorite; shrimp and broccoli." I smiled at her, and there was a sudden urge to tell her everything.

"Thank you."

"Hm, is everything okay Elaine?"

"Yes." My eyes flickered back to my phone and my mom followed my gaze.

"Is it about your father?" Her voice softened and she crouched down to meet me at eye level. Her eyes were nearly unreadable, but the one thing I could see was sorrow. "Did you want to talk about it?"

"N-No!" For once, my anxiety wasn't rooted in my mom and dad's marital issues. However, I wasn't rushing to tell her that. "I'm okay, I just have a lot on my mind and you know how I get when I overthink and stuff…" I fumbled with my words, and my mom nodded her head in understanding.

"You have my face and your father's personality." She chuckled. I fought the urge to touch my face. It was known throughout my family that Emi looked like my father, with her sharp perfect features, and face full of freckles, but she also was as beautiful as our mom. Me, however, I looked nothing like either of them. I was like a Mr. Potato Head, just random pieces plastered on my face with no rhyme or reason.

"Dinner should be here soon. Make sure you're on your best behavior though, because we have a guest." That pulled me out of my own self loathing.

"Is it Gabriel?" My mom smiled.

"Yes, so you two know each other?" I groaned and her brows furrowed.

"What's wrong?" I tossed my hands up and sighed.

"He's like… so annoying_"

"Well he is the first boy your sister ever brought home, so be nice."

"So, he's just her history partner_"

"Oh Ellie, you're still so naïve." She kissed the top of my head and sauntered out from the room. "Dinner will be here in thirty minutes."

"So you lived here your whole life?" My mother smiled at Gabriel and he smiled back at her. Emi and I were just glancing back and forth at the two of them as they lightly conversed about Forks.

"I spent about half my time on the reservation and the other half in Forks, but yeah. Spent my whole life in this area."

"The Reservation… I'm sorry, I don't know much about it, which tribe_"

"The Quileute. We've been there since the 1850's." My mom nodded her head and smiled at him again.

"There must be a lot of history on that land then, hm?" Emi couldn't hide the blush that was beginning to form on her cheeks. It was at that moment I knew what my mom had been alluding to earlier in the night.

She was trying to set Emi and Gabriel up.

"Emi is a huge fan of history, and would actually go to historical sites for fun. Every vacation we took, we just had to visit a museum_"

"Mom, please_"

"Well as much as she loves history, she hates the ocean so there is so way she is heading over to that Reservation." I muttered, playing with the shrimp at the end of my chopsticks. Mom glared at me, and Gabriel chuckled.

"Is that so? Well Emi already agreed to come and hang out on Saturday_"

"Oh?"

"What_"

"Um, yeah, only if it's okay with you mom…" Emi looked down at her lap and began to gnaw at the bottom of her lip.

"As long as you don't do anything crazy, which I don't really don't think you will, I don't mind."

"Wait, wait, wait, how come when I wanna go out with my friends, you have to do a whole background check and threaten me to send me to the shadow zone if I step one toe out of line, but Emi is just a 'Don't do anything crazy!'" My mom scoffed and Gabriel tried to hold back his laughter.

"Because Emi doesn't have a history as colorful as yours Ms. Elaine." She pursed her lips and gave me a look, daring me to talk back to her.

"Hm." I crossed my arms and slumped into my seat. Gabriel let out a laugh, a low, but hearty one.

"Wait, so you're going out this Saturday night?" I thought back to the party that Candace was going to.

"Yeah, only for a little bit." I nodded my head.

"Well, if Emi is going out, can I stay the night at Ashley's?" My mom's amber eyes widened.

"Well we'll just have to talk to Ashley's dad… but I don't think I have a problem with it."

It was all coming together no for real. If my intuition was correct, Emi and Candace were going to be at the same party, at the same time, and Emi owed me for keeping the stupid vampire secret. I couldn't help the sinister smile that split across my face, and I was lucky that Emi was the only one who caught it.

My mom and Gabriel went back to chatting about the town. I took a few more bites of my shrimp and rice before excusing myself from the table. Before I could leave the room however, my eyes locked on to Gabriel's one more time and I felt a shiver run down my spine. I don't know what it was about the way he looked at me, but it was like he saw right through me.

"Goodnight Ellie." His smile was kind and innocent, but it still made me sick.

"Night…" I trailed off and headed to my room without waiting for a reply. I pushed down my nervousness and got ready for bed; and later that night I was lulled to sleep with the piercing howl that was seemingly right outside of my window.

*Okay, sorry for the delay, but it was my birthday last week and I was on vacation with my family. However, I did finish the chapter and am able to share it! Thank you for the reviews as always (especially XOXMaximumcullenXOX, you really rock!) it really keeps me going! Please continue to review and tell me how you feel about the story, the characters, and what you think is gonna happen!*

XOXO RandomKay