[Chapter Five]

It isn't until Renee is under the mentorship of the Cullens that the teenagers of the family decide to try and become more than mere acquaintances with me. Edward talks to me more before class, and offers to walk me to P.E. Alice comes and sits at the table with me and the rest of my 'school friends', conversing freely with everyone around her as if she's been a part of this clique from the beginning of her high school career here in Forks.

I've barely gotten my food from the lunch line and sat down in my usual spot when the social event of the season is mentioned, well one of two.

The Girls' Choice Spring Dance, which all the girls I know will be attending except for me. I'm not the dancing type of person. I'm not even very coordinated to begin with.

I made an offhand comment earlier, when Tyler and Mike had asked me to ask them to the dance, that I would be going up to Seattle that day and I couldn't choose any other day. Thankfully they don't ask me again, knowing there's no point because I've put my foot down.

I can partly thank the Cullens for that, they had found a woman's body that had been burnt incredibly horrible and set it up to law enforcement to think that Renee had been that woman. She was buried in the Forks Cemetery, and Charlie only stayed for an hour before he left.

He went to be with Renee not too long after, but I stayed there dressed in my only black dress that I used for funerals without letting one single tear fall from my face.

It had been over a month when they had come up with this body, so of course no one made a comment about my crying, I had already numbed myself to thinking Renee had died even before finding out that Renee is a vampire now.

"I know that you aren't going to be coming to the dance with us, but would you like to come with us when it comes to going dress shopping in Port Angeles?" Jessica offers, holding her plastic fork in her hand but loosely, it swings back and forth as she twirls it in her fingers.

"Oh! Can I come too? I would love to give you advice!"

My eyes flicker over to Alice, where she is beaming brightly at the other people at the cafeteria table. I notice how she uses that softer tone in her voice, cranes her head to the side and pouts in hope she will be accepted. I know the only reason she is asking to come with us is because I owe it to her family for letting them mentor Renee.

Renee hasn't complained to me, but I can tell that she's struggling, she's just smiling brightly but it doesn't reach her eyes. I want to talk to her, but I know there's no point. She's probably thinking that this will be a small part of her penance for what she has to go through. Sure, she should learn to be better, but she shouldn't feel a complete prisoner when she's learning to be better.

Jessica smiles even brighter, her blue eyes sparkling with excitement, at how by asking me to come to Port Angeles she can also get Alice Cullen to come with her. She nods her head, and it is with this that I clear my throat and ask Alice to head outside with me because I need to talk to her about something. Jessica arches her eyebrow but knows she can't sneakily follow after me, especially when she's at someplace like the school cafeteria.

The cafeteria doors shut behind us when we head outside, and I sigh before folding my arms against my chest. "Alice, I really appreciate you and your family mentoring Renee on how to be a vampire, but you don't have to follow me everywhere."

The sweetness that usually radiates from Alice slowly disintegrates from her.

The blinds on the cafeteria windows are more down right now than they usually are, so one can't see outside too well when someone is outside of the cafeteria. It's enough for Alice's eyes to darken some, enough for a shiver to run through my spine at the look she has given me.

"Bella, we're already having difficulty with Renee. She's not doing good with changing her diet to animal blood. She's almost fallen off the wagon plenty of times. In order to remind her why she's asked for our help, Edward and I will be keeping you close to us," Alice informs me, giving me a sweet smile at the end again, as if she's talking about something simple and light instead of something heavy and quite disturbing. Very manipulating.

"You're basically holding me hostage from her, making sure that she has no way of communicating with me and I can't communicate with her if she's not doing every little thing, you ask her to do?" I can't help but probe, my hands on either side of me tighten enough into fists. A part of me wants to deck her for keeping Renee away from me.

Before either of us can say anything, or I can say anything that could jeopardize the safety of Renee, the bell rings from inside. I go back into the cafeteria and grab my things, almost jumping out of my skin from the polite clearing of a throat behind me. I don't even turn to look at the person, knowing it's Edward coming over so he can walk me to our class we share together. I push pieces of my hair to the side of my face to create a wall between him and me.

"Did…what Alice just said is the truth? Renee and I can't talk to each other until she gets better?" I whisper, hoping that Alice had thought something different than the rest of the family.

Around us everyone moves without any issues, most of them think Edward and I are dating but that can't be further from the truth. I don't want to date him or be part of his manipulative family.

It's no wonder he's not had a mate yet, partly because he has no boundaries and another being he can read minds. He can read everyone's except for mine, so at least I don't have to deal with him probing my mind. I can't say the same for Renee, I hope she is holding on strong.

"It's true, Bella. Your mother needs to learn that there are consequences in vampirism. She can't slip up, even if you and Charlie don't send off her bloodlust. It's the best for all of us," Edward remarks, making me have to bite the corner of my lip hard enough it will end up loosening up and hurting when it snaps back in place or be hard enough that it bleeds.

"She didn't ask to be a vampire."

"Very few people do. It's a good thing that she came here, otherwise she would have eventually focused solemnly on the blood and not on things that are more important."

Knowing there's no point in saying anything else, because I'll just have another person tell me that my opinion is wrong (when I know it's not). I don't have that big of a temper but when it comes to protecting and defending those, I love some people say I'm terrifying to be around. Everyone else is a human when I do this, while I can't do that with this family, they're much stronger than me.

Mr. Banner barely pays attention to everyone as we enter the classroom and head to our table.

My fingers dance across the surface of the dissecting table as I try to not think about what is happening at the Cullen House with Renee. I don't even notice when my phone starts buzzing in the pocket of my pants until a few students turn and look at me. Even Mr. Banner turns and looks at me, holding his hand out to me and asking me to bring up my phone to him wordlessly.

Getting up I blush as I head up to the front of the room to hand him my phone, pausing for a moment to see that that the person that is texting me happens to be Renee (we had to give her a new phone number so no one would think that someone was using her original phone number). I begin furrowing my eyebrows at the sight that greets me on the phone but don't have any other time to process what to do next when Mr. Banner sweeps my phone out of my hand.

"You can pick this up after class. Since it's your first offense I'm letting you off with a small warning. The next two times you'll have to go up to the front office to get your phone instead," Mr. Banner warns me, earning a nod from me before I go back to my spot.

By the time I get to where I can actually look at my phone and respond to Renee the call has been deleted. It doesn't take someone with a high I.Q. to know one of the Cullens had decided to sneak by and delete the phone call. I almost want to demand a verbal confirmation that one of them had deleted the phone call, but I know there's no point.

I still haven't gotten into contact with Renee when it's the night of the trip to Port Angeles.

I wish it was just me along with Jessica and Angela, instead we will have Alice following us.

She's the one that we're carpooling with.

Her stylish red car is just another reminder how her power has helped with wealth.

She had informed me she has precognition, and her family will never have to worry about falling into poverty when she can see the fate of stock markets. Her mate, Jasper, on the other hand has the power of controlling emotions and is considered an empath. The both of them together don't even have to look at each other for them to use their powers in its own orchestra.

Add Edward into the mix and the Cullens could be your worst nightmare if you ever fell on their bad side. They can make sure that you have no social life, receive depression, and eventually fall onto your knees in front of them and demand for help. You'll have to follow their rules or else you won't be getting rid of the trauma and torment.

Charlie is currently at La Push, the Quileute Reservation, and watching a match of one of his shows with Billy.

I can imagine them sitting in that small and cozy cabin living room with the old school television set in front of them and worn-out carpet underneath Charlie's feet and underneath the wheels of Billy's wheelchair. The coffee table that rests in the middle of the room that an ancestor of Billy's had handcrafted and carved himself. Everything smells just like their culture, everyone feeling as though they are part of the tribe.

Alice is wearing a designer deep purple jacket that swallows her body, with a lightweight band t-shirt underneath, dark washed jeans and some tennis shoes. Her hair has different jeweled hair clips in random places, reminding me of the 80's. In fact I look closer as she sits in the front driver's seat and notice that it's The Go-Go's that is printed on the front of the t-shirt. The purple looks perfect with the red, black, and white band logo.

Sitting next to her in the front passenger seat is Jessica.

She's drenched in whatever body spray she must have gotten at Victoria's Secret.

Her pink quarter sleeved shirt is in different shades and is in the patterns of flowers. Bell bottom inspired jeans and pink heeled tennis shoes (like the tacky ones that are a converse but have a high heel underneath it) finish off her look. She's texting someone rapidly on her phone, her acrylic nails moving in a steady speed as she writes like she's writing the next Famous Broadway Play.

Sitting in the backseats, behind Alice's car, is the only kind girl that doesn't have a second agenda to her, Angela Weber just like always she's not showing much of her skin. She has a vibrant orange scarf nestled around her neck, a blouse and jacket that I've seen her wear numerous times at school, along with some jeans and slip-on shoes. Her hair is pulled in a low twisted bun, and her glasses send out a little flicker towards me from the sun rays. She brings her hand up and waves at me awkwardly, while Alice gives me a knowing look from the front driver's seat.

"I'm so glad that you decided to come with us after all. Alice was telling us about some stores she's gone with her sister and mom to," Angela informs me, her voice soft and smooth. She's so oblivious to the truth behind Alice and her double agenda. She is a sunshine kid, she's not someone who deserves to be pulled into something like this.

"I got you some gift cards from some of the stores, in case you wanted to get anything. It's my treat," Alice says as she shoots that inhuman beautiful smile of hers. My stomach twists uneasily at how she can act like this but can go completely different in a split second. She's nice and kind on one hand but dark and controlling on the other hand.

"Oh my god! Thanks Alice! My family never gives me the gift cards from the cool stores in Port Angeles. It's always the cheap or normal priced stores they give me gift cards to," Jessica remarks, rolling her nose back in a scrunch at the thought of her family giving her gift cards to only places they can afford to go to even with gift cards.

I climb into the car and shut the door behind me before Alice drives out of the street. I note quietly that it's going to be raining in Forks while we are going to be in Port Angeles.

Depending how long we spend in the city we will have to drive back in the rain, or it will already be gone. I'm hoping for the latter, the last thing I want to deal with is crappy music while I'm having to acknowledge my mom is being held hostage by a group of vampires all because she isn't automatically adjusting to being a vampire herself.

By the time we arrive at Port Angeles I'm more than ready to get out of the car. I want to turn and look at Angela, tell her not to become friends with Alice.

No one should have to deal with Alice and the rest of her family, no one deserves to be manipulated by them. Heck, even the doctor and his wife allow their talented children to control the family more than they should. They should be the ones in charge, when it comes to everything, and not allow them to be in charge during times of crisis.

Getting out of the car, I stretch when we park against one side of the street where most of the stores we are going to are. One side is where the buildings are and the other side is where the ocean is. There are boats in the distance, from those that are fishing and those that are just casual boaters. I stand there and peer out at the blue ocean, momentarily thinking of California and then of the chlorine swimming pool back in Phoenix.

I almost jolt out of my skin when a hand falls onto my elbow, making me turn and see that Alice is next to me. She peers up at me, those golden eyes so unnerving, and anger comes rushing out of me. I don't like them; I would rather they have red eyes. At least they wouldn't be pretending to be someone else, they would just be who they are.

"Come along, Bella. It's time to go shopping. You want us to help Renee, don't you?"

The anger in me becomes hotter, and hotter. I can burn cities down, but they won't matter even if I try and put the Cullens in them. Just burning them in the buildings won't do anything. Sure, the buildings will come crumbling down and nothing will remain of them except for skeletons but the Cullens will have no scratches or bodily harm to them. They will be pristine, still in perfect tact.

Quietly, dutifully, I follow Alice and force myself to keep any negative emotion from my face.

Jessica rushes around with such excitement that I can't help but wonder if she, herself, would do the same thing as Alice is doing if she were the vampire and had the ability to have precognition. Would she hold people's loved one's hostage because one of them won't play by the rules? Or would she actually not let her precognition be used for darker uses?

My eyes turn towards Angela, and I know she wouldn't use the ability for bad things.

I know that she would be in torment.

She would be cursed by the visions and would be obsessed with trying to prevent anything that was wrong. She would ask to be put out of her torment and they would do so, because she is so innocent and pure. A truly light soul, a servant for God.

"You need to try on some clothes too, Bella. I mean if you're not going to be using your gift cards then you should just go ahead and give them to me," Jessica jokes, as her eyes longingly look down at the pocket of my jeans where I had put the gift cards.

I'm almost tempted to throw them at her, and tell her to catch them, but from the stone-cold look that Alice gives me I know that it's best to play along. I shake my head and laugh some before replying, "sorry, Jess. I just have a lot on my mind. I'm ready to go shopping for myself now."

"I'll help you choose some of the clothes too. I have a keen sense of eye for fashion," Alice offers, grabbing my arm and pulling me around the shop so she can throw whatever clothes she sees me wearing the best into my awaiting arms. She hums as she places the clothes into my hands, never saying anything to me and I don't make comments on how some of the clothes are clothes I could never see myself wearing voluntarily.

I'm soon ushered into one of the dressing rooms and I walk over to where the little chair is for people to lay their clothes on if they want or for a parent to sit in or a kid if the other is trying on clothes. I sit the clothes down onto the chair and move backwards, peering at myself in the standing mirror in front of me. The lighting of the dressing room is horrible and off putting, it would make anyone look horrible in it. Except for the Cullens, and any other supernatural beings out there.

Tears start prickling in the corner of my eyes and my hands shake. I bring my hands up and press them against my mouth, as my heart starts to race in my chest.

Everything is closing in, suffocating me and before I can really process it, I fall backwards and hit the glass mirror. The whole thing shatters behind me, making some of the glass hit my bare skin.

The last thing I process is the sound of screaming, and I feel bad when it is Angela that comes and finds me. Her precious, soft voice is wobbly as she falls onto the ground around me before she demands for them to call an ambulance. Apparently, I've lost a significant amount of blood, more than I had really thought I could.

I wake up peering at the white tiling above me, and a terrible headache.

My body hurts when I move and I let my head turn to the side only to see that Charlie is sitting in the visitor chair, sleeping.

My heart pangs at what I'm seeing, at how much he's had to deal with in these short three months since I had moved here to Forks. I can't even go on a freaking shopping trip without having a panic attack and breaking a standing mirror during said panic attack.

"D-Dad?"

Charlie's eyes snap open and he sees me, before he leans forward and presses his hand against the side of my face. I close my eyes for a moment, relishing in the comfort of his human warmth. I relish being in the safe proximity of my dad.

"I'm sorry. I just…I can't…"

I can't believe I'm blubbering like an elementary school kid, not knowing how to put into words how I hate disappointing him. I hope Renee won't get into trouble.

I feel trapped by the Cullens at school and during this trip that Alice invited herself to.

I can't imagine her being trapped by the Cullens twenty-four seven without having the ability to take naps to get away from them. It would be a living nightmare; I would be in hell but would continue to stay in said nightmare and hell in order for me to have a happy life with my loved ones.

"I had a conversation with Carlisle, and they've decided that they are going to supply her with blood bags. They didn't expect that this would affect you as much as it did. It's been too long since they've been human, some things just don't click with them as they should," Charlie comments, rolling his eyes at the end of the comment as though letting me know he doesn't think that it's appropriate they are trying to make excuses for what they've done.

"Is she okay?"

"She's fine. She's at our house, waiting for you to come home. They had to do a blood transfusion on you. The glass from the mirror hit a good amount of your major arteries. If your friend hadn't found you as fast as she, did you would have bled out completely," Charlie states, and my eyes widen at what he's said. I could have died in that stupid clothing shop's dressing room.

I almost start to push the hospital sheets off of me to get up and have us moving but I have some in my wrists that are supplying me with some vitamins and minerals to give me some strength before I leave. I glare down at them, tempted to yank them out of my wrists. I can't stand having needles in my skin. They are useless, even when they are useful.

I'm forced to stay in the hospital for two more hours after the doctors and nurses make sure I'm awake. I'm glad that Charlie instructed them to not let any visitors come into the room. It turns out Carlisle had decided to come here and check on me, and probably reassure me that everything is going to be okay with Renee.

When we reach the lobby of the hospital my blood almost runs cold, and no it's not because of the air conditioning. Carlisle is conversing with one of the doctors near the receptionist desk, both him and the older man are laughing and holding cups of coffee. The human doctor has the coffee not only for social reasons but also because of warmth in his hands and the actual ability to drink the coffee. Carlisle can't say the same thing about the latter parts.

Charlie wraps his arm around my shoulder and keeps me close to him.

I try not to fidget with the sleeves of my shirt, not only because of nervousness but also because I could accidently grab the wrappings underneath the sleeves of my shirt. I would tear at the medical wrappings and cause the cuts to start bleeding again. Best not to do that anyway, when it comes to a vampire being within rage.

"Ah, here they are. I told you not to worry, Carlisle. Your daughter's friend is fine. Just a little clumsy, that's all. She's patched up, spent two hours on watch, and now she's ready to go home. Tell that daughter of yours that everything will be okay."

Carlisle lets his golden irises, still warm and friendly despite the real reason on why I even ended up here, land on me. He nods his head at the human doctor, who happens to head off so he can continue his shift. He follows us a moment later, hands folded behind his back after he throws his coffee cup into the trash can. I can see some of the coffee splash out and hit the trash and trash bag. Not even one sip of coffee was consumed.

"You will not use your children like this ever again when it comes to my daughter. Understood?" Charlie mumbles, low enough that one wouldn't be able to hear unless they strained their human ears but for someone like Carlisle it would sound like a normal level of volume.

"Of course. I will start having Renee drink from blood bags, but she cannot go outside. We have a treaty with the Reservation, on no one drinking human blood. If they caught sight of her in the woods without one of us there to protect her, then things would turn sour. I hope that you understand that I need to protect my family also."

Charlie wisely doesn't say anything, just acknowledges the agreement/underlying threat that Carlisle has just said. He opens the passenger door to the police cruiser and lets me in before I buckle myself in. I flinched some from the stitches I had received. They are dissolvable stitches, so I don't have to worry about going back and getting them taken out.

When we arrive back at the house, I notice the twitch of the curtain in the front room. Barely there but if you were looking at the spot right when it happened, you'd see it. It's a reassurance that she's still alive, and the Cullens haven't killed her in retaliation for ruining the shopping trip.

Getting out of the cruiser after Charlie has parked the car, I head up the stairs of the porch and wait patiently for Charlie only because I can see Renee at a certain angle in the curtain. She has worry present in her features as she's biting the corner of her lip. Her crimson eyes are warmer, comforting to me than those butterscotch ones that I'm always surrounded by.

Charlie barely unlocks the front and opens it before a slim, pale hand reaches out and grabs my wrist. Yanking me inwards I almost lunge away from the cold and stone-like embrace of Renee. She holds me nestled against her, kissing me on the forehead and holding me hard enough that I'm afraid if she pulls away too fast, she'll rip pieces of my skin off in the process.

"Renee, let Bella go. She's still human, and she just got out of the hospital."

Something seems to snap into place with her, she slowly pulls away from me.

There are tears that are in the corner of her eyes, faux tears.

Venom takes the place of human tears, but they are not able to fall from her tear ducts.

They are stuck there, a mockery of something you'd take for granted when you would still be able to cry. A reminder that what release of emotions you could have, after a good cry, will never happen when you are a vampire. You are meant to keep that emotional turmoil locked inside you, and it can never escape.

When she does pull away from me, I notice she's dressed in clothes that are meant for more comfort than fashion. She's not dressed in the too beautiful clothes like the Cullens always dress in, though she's often complained about being forced to wear clothes she never would wear in a million years. She's not comfortable with the too perfect and beautiful world the Cullens live in.

In fact, Renee is wearing a plaid button up shirt that looks like quilted fabric sewed together to make a more unique spin on it. Some comfortable loose jeans and some hiking boots. Clothes that might have been in one of the boxes in Charlie's closet that had all the clothes Renee had during their marriage. I'm certain that this outfit was one of them.

"I like your outfit, Renee."

Renee beams brightly at the compliment. She almost looks sheepish as she lets her eyes turn towards Charlie.

At least things are better between Charlie and Renee.

AUTHOR'S NOTE: the Volturi Guards come to take care of Renee only for Bella to offer herself to them instead. So of course, we'll finally meet Demetri. He looks like the book version of Demetri. Paler tan skin, black shoulder length curly hair. Still a big flirt though.

anyway, Twilight doesn't belong to me.

-it'semmynotemma