Chapter 5

-Ava-

It was a Tuesday and I was feeling pretty good. I'd only had two releases in the past month and a half and I'd ended up working out a way to keep up with my increasing energy that needed to be funneled somewhere. I still struggled a little when it was too high or too low, but for the most part I was handling it pretty well. Carlisle, Jasper, and Alice were quite helpful with the whole mess.

Carlisle had always been helpful. He was fascinated by other creatures, human and non-human alike, and always wanted to know more about the fae. His knowledge on mythology and medicine had helped me in a lot of ways. We'd been able to test the limits on my abilities and try to come up with new, safe ways to handle being away from other fae with my growing prowess. We spent hours upon hours in his study every night and on the weekends hypothesizing how to handle everything without me having to move to a less-populated area.

That was where Alice came in handy. Being able to see the future, even if it was never set in stone, helped us greatly. Carlisle and I liked coming up with new ways to control my magic, and sometimes they were rather outlandish. Alice was able to search into the future best she could and see if these solutions would work how we wanted them to. Only about a third of them would actually have a chance at working, but it was worth a shot. She also was able to predict slightly beforehand when I would have a release.

Jasper was key to helping me control myself. Carlisle and I had noticed that whenever I was about to have a release, I got angrier, more impatient, and restless. I would get annoyed at any little thing. The more these emotions grew, the less control I had. All it took to help me gain enough control to let go of energy in a safe way was a little bit of emotional manipulation by Jasper. He would keep my anger and negative emotions to a minimum until I had the excess energy gone. Past that, Jasper could sympathize with me the most. He was the least in-control of my siblings due to his past. He understood the frustration and embarrassment that I had at not being able to completely control myself. It helped us not only become closer siblings but also for him to understand how to help me.

We had a rather good system for working it out. A lot of it was luck, too. Every time my energy grew in excess, I was at home. It was easier to control it when there wasn't a need to hide everything from the humans.

I had woken up early that morning, my skin feeling itchy and hot. I could feel the energy running under my skin and I groaned as I rolled out of bed. I pulled on jogging pants, a t-shirt, and trail running shoes before swiftly making my way downstairs.

Carlisle was in his office and had stepped out to meet me. I quickly explained as I passed him and told him I'd recount everything when I got back. I could hear Rosalie and Emmett in their bedroom doing some not-so-PG things. While my hearing wasn't as good as a vampire's, I could still hear them and I shuddered at the mental images the noises produced. Edward was no doubt at Bella's again...he liked watching her sleep. In my opinion, it was creepy, but I guess I didn't understand his point of view. At least, that's what he'd told me. Esme was nowhere to be found, but Alice was skimming through a magazine and Jasper was playing a video-game in the living room. I felt waves of calm wash over me as I ran out, causing me to feel slightly more relaxed.

It was still dark when I jogged through the forest, the thick canopy of leaves and blanket of clouds blocking the stars and moon from giving any light to the wooded area. I was grateful for my fae eyesight and ability to run in the dark. As I ran, I let my energy feed into the woods around me. It wasn't long before I reached the top of the small mountain I had sprinted to and was able to release a lot more of my energy.

When I had it to a pretty good level, I started off home. Sun had just started to peer over the trees in the east, and I reveled in seeing the beautiful sunrise that came with living on the Olympic Peninsula. I aimlessly let out energy as I ran, not really keeping track of how much. I just wanted there to be enough gone that I could get through the day and then come running again in the afternoon.

I reached home about the same time Edward did. He was still wearing the clothes from the day before. We exchanged a few brief, teasing words to each other before Alice shoved me in the shower, complaining about how I smelled sweaty and gross. I'd retorted back that it was because I was an actual living and breathing creature, but she just rolled her eyes and told me to get clean and change into what she'd laid out on my bed.

By the time I got downstairs, Edward was changed and twirling car keys around his index finger. Emmett and Rosalie were sitting on the couch, talking in low enough voices that I couldn't hear. Alice was sitting on the barstool next to my usual one, thumbing through a novel.

I nodded, pulling the plate of food Esme had left on the counter towards me. I was starving.

By the time I'd shoveled down all of the food I had noticed that this was becoming a common occurrence in the household. Everyone was gathering in the kitchen in the mornings, probably to get me to eat faster so that we could get to school on time. But there was also a bit more family bonding going on with teasing remarks thrown at each other or brief conversations about new occurrences.

"So," Emmett started. Rosalie and I had gone with him in the jeep while Alice rode with Edward. "You up for a little game of football after school?"

I laughed slightly. "You know I always am."

Football with vampires was interesting. Obviously, my brothers were stronger, faster, and overall bigger than me. Getting tackled by one of them hurt like a bitch. However, I was allowed to use my fae abilities to level the playing field. It was easy to use fae energy to trip up my siblings or to make myself faster.

"Good, cause we need a rematch."

Emmett and I had convinced Esme-yes, prim and proper Esme who didn't generally mess around-to join in our game of football last time we'd played. We'd needed an extra player to make the teams even: Carlisle, Edward, and Jasper against Emmett, Esme, and myself. Between Edward anticipating what we were about to do and Jasper messing with our emotions, it hadn't really been a fair game. We'd called for a rematch without Jasper's use of manipulation and Edward's promise to not mess with our heads, but we hadn't gotten around to a game yet.

"It'll just be you and me against Jasper and Carlisle, though," Emmett added. I shrugged, not really minding that we'd dropped two players. Edward being out would up our chances to win.

Bella wasn't in English when I got there, and it was after class started that she walked in late. As she blushed and took her seat, I leaned over and whispered a quick greeting before Mr. Mason called attention again.

We did get to chat a little in Spanish that day, though. I was doodling the same freaking doodle I'd been drawing for three weeks when Bella turned to me.

"So…" she started, looking down at her notebook and playing with a frayed edge. "Mike and a few others are planning a trip to La Push this weekend...and I wanted to invite you."

"Me?" I was dumbfounded. I knew Bella and I were friends but she'd never tried to include me with her other friends.

"Yeah...but only if you want," she added quickly. I smiled.

"That sounds fun," I answered. "I'd love to come."

Bella looked surprised that I'd said yes, but recovered quickly.

"Great, I'll call you tonight with the details."

I smiled to myself as the teacher called class to attention. I was going to go out and enjoy a day at the beach with Bella and be like a normal teenager, even if I was older than they could count.

The smile slipped off my face as I turned to look out the window and saw Edward's Volvo, reminding me of my siblings. The Cullen clan, apart from myself, were banned from La Push. I could already imagine the blowout scene with Rosalie, assuming I even told my family. I blew out a breath. Even if I tried to hide it, Edward would catch me thinking about it.

When the bell rang I was more than ready for lunch, my stomach growling with every breath I took. I was surprised to see that Edward was not there when I sat down, pulling food out of my bag. A quick glance across the cafeteria showed that he was sitting at a table...with Bella?

"That's new," I murmured to myself. Of course, my siblings being the vampires that they were heard it.

"Yes, apparently he wants to be friends with the human," Rosalie muttered in an icy tone, a sharpness to the word 'friends'.

I chose not to respond and instead avoid an argument. I was happy that he was actually putting in effort and not being rude anymore. It would be a lot easier to keep my friendship with Bella if he was on my side. Then it would be the two of us against the family-specifically Rosalie-instead of just me.

I tilted my head slightly and focused on Edward and Bella's conversation, letting the noise in the rest of the cafeteria drain away.

"Please tell me just one little theory."

"Um, well, bitten by a radioactive spider?" I couldn't help the chuckle that escaped me. They were discussing the incident again.

"That's not very creative," Edward scoffed. I rolled my eyes and focused back on my other siblings.

"Why is school a necessary thing again?" I inquired, stealing Emmett's slice of pizza-I had already finished off my own.

"It's all about keeping up appearances," Alice told me, placing her slice of pizza on my plate as well.

I shrugged. "We all know it's boring and we all already know what they're teaching us, so why keep going back to this hell?"

"It keeps Carlisle's reputation in a positive standing. It also keeps us all together as a family," the shorter of my sisters said.

"We could do that at college, at least. Just think: partying, drinking, dancing, loads of guys who actually know where to stick their-"

"Woh," Emmett interrupted. "I don't need to be hearing my sister saying those words."

"Emmett, you're almost ninety years old, I'm sure you've heard a lot worse, especially from me," I shot back. "Besides, it's not like you and Rosalie are ever discreet about your trysts. I had to run over a mile before I was able to escape you guys this morning."

Emmett looked like he was about to retort when Rosalie rolled her eyes. "Don't listen in then."

I shot her a blank look. "It's not that easy to do when you have advanced supernatural hearing, or are we forgetting about that?"

Alice interrupted before we could begin a full-fledged argument about Rosalie and Emmett's not-so-discreet sex life, an argument that we'd had numerous times over the past years.

"College wouldn't be as fun for us as it would be for you," Alice explained. "We can drink, but we'd have to throw it up later and it doesn't intoxicate like it does to you-and even then it takes you hours of heavy heavy drinking to even get tipsy. As for parties and dancing, well, it's not the kind of dancing I like to do and I'm sure it would be dangerous for a group of vampires to be with such uncontrolled impulsive humans."

"When you put it that way, I get what you're saying. But at the same time, you wouldn't have to go to parties with me. You'd go to class later, be out earlier, and not have to worry about what your peers thought because many of them wouldn't even know who you were," I countered. "Reliving college would be a lot more fun than reliving high school."

"I still find it odd that you like a lot of the modern advancements in music and dancing," Jasper commented. "I can barely stand being in the same room as all these teenagers with their earbuds full of rap and hip-hop." Jasper said the two genres slowly, as if they were foreign to him.

"I long ago learned that one of the joys of being immortal is getting to experience new advancements as well as the stuff from my time. I don't like all of it, but there's quite a bit that's new that I adore," I shrugged. "Besides, I'm from 1600's, it's not like that music was particularly impressive or enjoyable."

I shoveled my third slice of pizza into my mouth and glanced at the clock, almost choking when I saw that I only had five minutes left to finish eating. I saw Alice and Rosalie giving me distasteful looks as I resorted to speed eating, but I also saw Emmett and Jasper grinning and holding their fingers up at each other. Those turds were betting on me.

"You know it's not attractive to eat so fast," Rosalie told me. I swallowed and took a brief pause between bites to respond.

"It's also not attractive for me to drop because I don't have enough energy or calories in reserve."

I finished with two minutes left before the end of lunch and smiled, leaning back in my chair. I saw Jasper do a slight fist-bump and Emmett growl as he slapped a ten-dollar bill into Jasper's palm. I rolled my eyes and started collecting lunch trays.

"When y'all are done being five years old maybe we can head to class and hopefully get the rest of this day over with," I said, giving them a smile so that they knew I was joking around.

I passed by Edward and Bella's table and projected my thoughts towards Edward. I see you two are getting along. Am I getting a new sister?

Edward glanced up at me as I passed and rolled his eyes, giving me a slight glare. I laughed as I kept walking. I dumped the trays and then Emmett and Jasper were walking on either side of me as we made our way to our next class-Government.

We were watching another movie today and I groaned when the teacher announced that it would take three days to watch. Sometimes movies in school were fun-but other times they were the most boring things I'd ever watched. This was one of those times. It didn't help that this was another repeat of high school for a class I'd already taken and a movie I'd already seen. I yawned and leaned back in my chair as the teacher turned off the lights, scooting my chair closer to Emmett's as Jasper scooted his across the aisle to sit by us. I was sandwiched between the two and I ended up leaning my head on Emmett's arm, enjoying his cold skin. I was a little bit warmer than I liked and the perk of having vampire siblings was that they were essentially ice packs.

I didn't realize that I had dozed off until Jasper was shaking my shoulder. The teacher had flicked the lights back on and was fiddling with the VCR, not yet having seen me and approximately three other students sleeping. I murmured a thanks to Jasper and yawned, reaching to fix my hair that had gotten slightly squashed from sleeping.

"You ok?" Jasper asked.

"Yeah," I nodded. "That was just so boring that I fell asleep."

P.E. that day was just running sprints and time trials, and for some reason I was actually somewhat winded by the time I finished the two-mile run we'd been given. I was back to normal after a few seconds but I was still a bit confused as to why I was tired at all.

Edward pulled up outside the school right as I joined my siblings outside the front doors of the school. Alice was strangely absent from our group, and I furrowed my eyebrows at Edward as I got in the front seat.

"She's taking Bella's truck back. Bella passed out after blood testing today," Edward explained.

"Oh," I trailed off, relaxing into the leather seat, content. While it was terrible to hear that Bella had passed out, it did explain why I felt tired in P.E. Our bond would have sent that to me and I would have felt it. It was the only explanation that I could come up with.

I jogged upstairs to my room when we arrived back at the house and dumped my bag onto my bed. Esme was home but Carlisle was still at work, and we were going to wait for him before we started the rematch on football. Rosalie and Alice were still undecided on if they were going to play, but I was hoping that they would. Rosalie could be a powerful ally or a tough opponent if she wanted to be. I was going to make sure that I was on her team if she did end up playing.

I must have fallen asleep after setting my bag down because when I opened my eyes it was nearing dark outside. I jogged downstairs and found Alice and Rosalie on the couch perusing an online clothing website, most likely in search of clothes for the next dance.

"Ah, sleeping beauty finally decided to grace us with her presence," Emmett teased as he walked in from the backyard. "Now we can get this game going."

Jasper and Edward stayed outside, throwing the football as far as they could and then having the other speed off to go catch it and bring it back. I ducked my head into the kitchen where amazing Italian smells were coming from and found Esme and Carlisle chopping vegetables and grilling chicken. Jazz music was playing and they both seemed to be lost in the moment with the other.

"So, I'm assuming neither of you are playing then?" I asked, grinning.

"Not this time," Carlisle chuckled, tossing a handful of celery into a pot that was bubbling on the stove.

An arm wrapped around my waist and I laughed as I was tossed over Emmett's shoulder. He darted out the back door and I twisted out of his grip, landing in a crouch on the forest floor. Jasper turned to us as Edward jogged out of the forest from retrieving the other's throw.

"Finally," he fake-groaned. "We've been waiting forever."

I rolled my eyes and took off into the forest, the others quickly catching up and passing me on our way to the giant clearing where we usually played. Since we were all so strong and fast, a normal-sized football field was no fun and provided no excitement. But when we made it four times as big, then things got heated.

Emmett and I were paired against Jasper and Edward. While it was against the rules for Edward to use his mind-reading, it usually slipped through without him meaning to. However, I was allowed to use my abilities to make myself faster and stronger, and to get the others away from me. It wasn't a huge advantage since it took a lot of energy to keep the others away, so I typically just used my abilities to be stronger and faster than usual. It made the game a pretty even match after that.

We started off with the ball and I tossed it to Emmett. He sprinted towards our end zone, with both Jasper and Edward hot on his tail. I got in front of Edward and shoved him back, causing him to go flying about twenty feet before landing in a crouch. He raced me and we crashed into each other, a loud thud ringing through the clearing. He tossed me behind him but I twisted and grabbed ahold of his arm as he threw me, taking him with me. Emmett made it to the our end zone and I cheered as Jasper shook his head in defeat.

The game continued like that for a while until we stopped so that I could have a break. I had managed to grab my small drawstring bag from the hook as Emmett had carried me outside, and I was able to pull a bottle of water out from inside it. I was actually pretty tired, even after my nap, but I shrugged it off as just aftereffects of Bella's reaction through our bond. I chugged half the bottle of water as Edward's phone rang.

As I tucked the rest of the water back into my bag, Edward answered, "Alice, what's up?"

I turned back towards my siblings and stumbled. Edward's eyes snapped to me as he heard what Alice was telling him and what he was watching. I doubled over as a pain ripped through my chest, dropping to one knee. I let out a gasp as all my magic drained from my body and I realized what was happening. I was dropping. I barely was able to look up at my siblings before my eyes swarmed with black dots and any pain I was feeling numbed away. I faintly registered hands pulling me up before I started shaking and I was lowered back to the ground.

My mind buzzed and I couldn't focus on anything-it was all a blur. What was happening? Everything went blank.

I awoke laying on the forest floor, confused and in extreme amounts of pain. I didn't know where I was or what had happened, just that I was surrounded by Jasper, Emmett, and Edward, and I was hurting. I barely managed to make eye contact with Edward and let him know what was happening before I was turned onto my side and I vomited. Hands pulled me to my feet, and then caught me as my knees buckled.

My ears were ringing as I was hoisted into Jasper's arms, feeling calming emotions wash over me as he started running, the others with us. I could see his lips moving, but nothing registered past the ringing in my ears. Thick hot liquid was coating my upper lip and trailed from my ears, while a different wetness soaked my workout leggings.

I blindly reached for my magic and cried out in fear when I couldn't find it. What little control I'd had over my breathing went away as I started crying. The house came into view and my hearing snapped back. I cried out as the yelled conversation of my family rang through my ears. I registered being transferred to someone else's arms and I yelled in agony as it jostled my contracting muscles. It was like a severe cramp that just wouldn't go away no matter which way you stretched.

I started hyperventilating. I didn't know what was going on, or where my magic was. Faces swarmed in my vision but I couldn't remember who they were. All I knew was that my magic had disappeared.

The pain in my head grew as my hyperventilating increased and air was blocked from my lungs. I barely felt being laid on a bed before everything went black.

Everything was blurry when I woke. I was sluggish and every part of my body was heavy. It took me a couple moments to be able to open my eyes fully, and when I did, dull pain throbbed through my head at the light. A quick glance at my surroundings told me that I was in my bedroom. My bed felt different, though, and when I finally got my head turned to look, I saw that my comforter and nice sheets were gone, replaced with white sheets that were drenched in sweat. An IV was stuck in each arm. Everything was blurry but I barely made out enough to tell me that the IV in my left arm was a sedative and the one in my right was morphine. My body burned through both fast enough that it looked like Carlisle had upped the dosage as much as he could.

As if he knew I was now awake, Carlisle walked in, a sleeve of crackers in his hands.

"How's the pain?" he asked, setting the crackers on my bedside table and checking the IVs.

"Four," I muttered, "what happened?"

Carlisle sat down on the bed and helped me struggle to sit up, shoving a pillow beneath my head so I was slightly elevated.

"How about you tell me? One moment all of you were outside playing football and the next they're bringing you inside, unconscious and covered in vomit." He ripped open the sleeve of crackers.

"I-I don't know." I groaned as I tried to move. It seemed the pain was manageable only when I was lying still. "All of a sudden I was exhausted and my magic was gone."

Panic rose in me as I remembered the feeling of emptiness before I felt the very faint thrum of magic under my skin, not quite at full strength but getting there.

"Was it a drop?" Carlisle asked, handing me a cracker.

"I've never had one this bad before," I said, nibbling on the corner, "but I think so."

He hummed, flicking something on the IV bag. "Well, fluids and food are the only things I can think of to speed along your recovery. Bedrest, too."

My siblings stopped in every now and then to check in on me but I mostly napped the rest of the evening, only eating crackers for brief breaks before falling back into slumber.

-.-.-.-.-.-

Author's Note:

Okay so here's a super bad chapter that I started writing a couple years ago and just now finished! Sorry for the long wait, but I can't promise regular uploads anymore. I'm working on an independent novel for one of my college courses and midterms are coming up and my blog and instagram have really taken off so I'm super busy. I'll upload when I can because I do have big plans for this story and Ava, but no promises on when those uploads will be! The same goes for my other stories :)

If you liked this unedited chapter, please leave a review!

xoxo

Lauren