Shifting Moon Ch 7
I felt closer to Jasper at that moment. It sucked that he had a rough childhood, but at the same time, it was nice to see there were others dealing with trauma and making a normal life for themselves. Seeing Jasper and Alice together gave me hope that there was someone out there that would understand and accept me.
"Thanks Jasper, you and Alice have made this move to a new town bearable. Don't tell that little Sprite, but I think in this last week you two have been better friends than I have ever had before besides my sister anyway. Sad as that may seem." It was true, sadly my anger and intensity had always made people avoid me. Well except for Bella, she was a stubborn one that wouldn't let me get away with chasing her away. No matter how bad-tempered I was towards her she just stuck out her chin and challenged me right back.
I felt something wet on my face and it slid down my cheek. I was mortified, please don't tell me I'm man crying right now. About to die from embarrassment until I noticed that it was snowing, I let out a laugh. "Bella is going to love waking up to this," I said with sarcasm.
"She not a fan of the snow?"
"Not in the least, I imagine she has cleared her memory of ever having seen it outside her TV shows."
Jasper just chuckled, "Bad place to have moved then."
"She will get over it. That girl is a lot more susceptible to change than she likes to admit. Though if you see her driving towards you in the snow or ice and you like the vehicle you are in, I would be very cautious." I laughingly told him.
At this point, the run was over and we were approaching the police station. I was a little surprised that I hadn't worked up much of a sweat, though I chalked it up to the chill of the snowy weather. I opened the door and called out. "Ken! Is it you working today?"
"Hey Kid, yeah, I got the night shift this week. Oh, you got company today huh."
"Yeah, this is Jasper Hale. He has been working out with me the last few days."
Jasper waved at Ken who looked at him a little weary. "You guys have at it; I will just stay here finishing up some paperwork."
Thinking nothing of it, I just moved to the weight room and Jasper followed. "Must have been a weird night, he seemed a little spooked at us coming in."
Jasper just frowned and didn't reply.
"I got some new weights so I can start increasing my lift weight. I was thinking about trying 370 and going from there. Are you comfortable with spotting me at that weight?"
Jasper just smirked behind Thomas where he couldn't see. "Yeah, I think I can handle that. But I better keep it around 320 for me. I am not all bulked out like you and Emmitt. I prefer a balance between fast and strong, not the extreme of strength like you two."
Jasper felt it was a pain to keep up the charade, and the line about Thomas thinking Alice and himself being great friends made him feel bad. But it would keep Alice safe, so he buried the discomfort. He wondered what his new friend would think if he could see him lift 400 pounds with two fingers.
Smiling at the thought, he admitted that Alice's idea of spending time with Thomas was a good one. The slight comradery he felt helped him to push back on his thirst. Now if he could just feel this for other humans maybe he wouldn't be the weak link of his family. He hated the weakness, especially as it put Alice in danger. The idea that he would be the one to expose the coven to danger put a lot of pressure on him.
Thomas added the weight of the bar (45lbs) and plate weight together to get to 280 and told Jasper to start his warm-ups. Jasper took his turn at moving the weight up and down on his chest. Remembering the posture and struggle of the guys on the TV show he watched to help him blend in and keep Thomas unaware of his nature. The deep breaths caused some discomfort as the smell of Thomas and the deputy's blood burned the back of his throat, but it was bearable. Jasper jokingly thought that resisting the thirst was the true workout he was getting.
When Jasper was done with his routine at 320, Thomas used that weight as a warmup and was surprised at how easy it seemed. He increased the weight slowly until he got to his desired weight of 370. He sat up after doing a rep of 10 and looked at Jasper, "That seemed too easy, maybe we can push the lift a bit farther. Do you mind spotting me another 20 pounds?" I asked Jasper.
"No problem, even if I do struggle with it, we have the deputy to help if needed."
"Let's do it, I am just not feeling the burn from the lift I expected."
At 390 pounds Thomas still frowned but didn't want to waste any more of Jasper's time. He would need to ride back to his house so he could go to school with Alice and the rest of his family. "Let's call it here Jasper, I am beginning to think something is wrong with the weights I bought, I will test them out later tonight. You be careful riding back home."
Jasper told Thomas he would see him at school and walked out the door to his bike. He didn't bother with a helmet today and just maneuvered the bike like it was a sunny day. Thomas just shook his head and went back to the weight room and did his cooldown routine.
Once Charlie got there, Thomas took his shower, but the entire morning routine didn't seem to have made him sweat much today. He shrugged it off and went to the door to wait for Bella to pick him up. Charlie came out of his office and walked up to Thomas. "You got an idea what you want to do for your birthday this year kid? If memory serves it should be coming right up."
"Wow, with the move and all I nearly forgot my birthday. How weird."
Charlie looked up at Thomas, "It's your big 18th, we can't just ignore it now can we? You better come up with something or Bella will, and we don't want that now do we?"
"No sir we don't, I'll come up with something."
As if on cue, I heard the big red truck pull into the parking lot and looked over to see Bella gripping the steering wheel like it was a life preserver and looking around cautiously. "See you after school, Charlie."
When I hopped into the truck with Bella, she tossed me a few yogurts. "Sorry, I woke up late today."
"All good Bella, you know I appreciate the effort you put into feeding a pig like me."
She blushed in true Bella fashion and started down the normal side roads for school. When we parked, I turned to Bella and said "Well it's the start of a new week. Let's hope it's better than the last."
I got out and walked to art class and saw Ms. Ross unlocking the room. When I entered, I gave my good morning and went to my seat.
A few moments later two students walked in and went directly to Ms. Ross's desk. I tuned them out and waited for Alice so we could talk about our project. Finally, she came in and sat down, so I jumped right into my idea.
"Ok, Alice let's combine a couple of our ideas. Tell me what you think of the idea that we each paint 3 different people in our lives, one in each medium. I was thinking of the main ones like Oil painting, Watercolor painting and Acrylic painting. But we have to add some randomness to it like drawing lots to see who we paint."
Alice seemed excited, "Do we draw the same person drawn from the lot or is it one lot for each person?"
"Well, seeing as it's a partner-themed project we should probably do the same person we draw from the lot. But we can choose which of the three mediums to use. We can use it to show the different takes an artist personally adds to the subject. What do you think, should we run it by Ms. Ross?"
"I love it. Let's do that." She was so happy she clapped and bounced in her seat. We went to tell the Idea to Ms. Ross who seemed to like the idea but wondered if there was enough time left. We assured her we would put in the work to meet the deadline of two weeks before school ended.
Art class moved along at its normal pace and Alice was in a very good mood, When I asked her about it, she just said "My family is whole again." I didn't know what to make of that but was just happy that she was happy, I guess.
Jasper didn't make it today to walk Alice to class, so I walked her alone. We just talked about art and some of the ideas we had. I dropped her off at her math class and proceeded to Government, not really paying attention.
When Government class was over, I opened the door to see it snowing again and laughed at Bella's look of distaste. Snowballs flew around occasionally but no one tossed one my way. I was happy for that, of course, the thought of the size of snowball my hands could make along with some idea of the force behind me throwing something, could have been the reason no one tossed one my way.
Regardless I was happily dry when I made it to Biology. Mr. Banner was placing microscopes on everyone's table along with a box of slides. As I sat down, Mr. Banner came to my desk "Don't worry if you can't answer all the slides Thomas, I will take into consideration you are working solo on this lab."
I just thanked him and looked it over; it seemed like we were identifying the phases of an onion root. Sorry to disappoint Mr. Banner but I had done this lab before and with the much more difficult Whitefish blastula. It took me all of 10 minutes to get them all done. When Mr. Banner saw me just sitting there, he came to me, and I explained how I had finished so quickly. He looked at me suspiciously and just walked back to his desk shaking his head.
My next class was still my favorite, I just loved working with numbers. They were a constant that never changed. Luckily my distaste for the teacher Mr. Varner didn't mean anything to my test scores. I sat in my seat and waited for class to begin, but just before the bell rang the door opened one last time. In walked the pail beauty of Edythe Cullen. I was again struck by her appearance, standing at 5ft 11in I guessed again, with her long bronze hair pulled back into a careless ponytail.
She had the fit girl look and moved with a grace and power that was easy to see if you knew what to look for. She handed a piece of paper to Mr. Varner and said, "I wasn't finding trigonometry very challenging, so I requested a change to this class." Her voice was matter of fact, and not at all asking for his approval. Hardly waiting for his response, she turned and headed for the only empty seat in the room, right next to mine. The funny thing is that I didn't notice the seat there last week, empty or otherwise.
I will say with confidence that I did not drool as this very attractive girl approached me, but that's about all I can say. My eyes took in her shapely arms and legs but still voluptuous body and there was a new file opened in my brain specifically for her. She wore a pair of low-waist blue jeans that were split up the bottom seam a few inches to flair over her shoes. A cream top that worked well with her bronze hair started at her neck and had long sleeves, but the lower half of the shirt was short enough to show off her toned abs and belly button. It was slightly scandalous for this small town, but I had seen much more skin displayed by the schoolgirls in Phoenix.
"Seen enough?" A velvet-smooth voice asked from beside me.
"Nope, I'll want to look again as soon as I get the chance," I replied instantly. Then, I blushed at my own response. "Sorry, that came out as rude."
She stared at me for a moment and then I saw a flash of pain come over her face for a brief second.
"Are you ok? You looked like you were in pain for a moment." Thomas whispered so as to not draw the attention of the teacher.
"I am ok, I pulled a muscle the other day. It hurts if I move wrong." She said, looking down.
Thomas looked at her pale face that was so like yet unalike Alice's. He barely noticed the feature any longer. "Even as young as we are, if we are doing something strenuous, stretching is always worth it." I offered her my wisdom.
She smirked at me, "I will try and keep that in mind. I am Edythe by the way, though I am sure you heard that from your lunch squad."
Thomas smiled, "My name is Thomas Raizel, it is good to meet you, Edythe. I haven't seen you since my first day, Alice said you had a family emergency. I hope it all worked out ok."
"Oh? Been here only a week and you already noticed my absence after the first day. Should I be charmed you think so highly of me already?" Her voice had a challenging tone to it that I didn't really like.
"Why would my opinion of you matter? Your absence made my friend sad, watching her draw pictures like that made me feel bad for her. You would be surprised how the emotions of an artist affect their work." The anger inside me was stoked a bit by this girl, and her stuck-up attitude.
She looked startled at my response and turned her head to indicate the discussion was over. I didn't mind the silence, I just started working on some math problems in the book to help me calm down.
The rest of the class passed by with me concentrating on how different theorems affected different problems. Not that many would work on the same problem, but it was fun to work the processes out. I remembered the movie Hidden Figures with a genius mathematician using old math proofs from hundreds of years ago to solve modern issues, well modern for the timeframe of the movie that is. Taraji Henson was terrific in the role, and it was an exceptional story.
(A.N.) Yes, I know the movie didn't come out until 2017 but I liked it enough to mention it. Besides it's an AU story.)
My random thoughts were interrupted by the bell that signaled the end of class and the beginning of lunch. As I stood up, I looked over at Edythe, "I am glad that you came back quickly, and I hope everything works out with the issues you and your brother had to leave for. See you tomorrow." Not giving her a chance to reply I made my way to the door and walked towards my locker.
As I put my books away and closed my locker. I was startled by Edythe who was standing next to me, but I hadn't seen her until I closed the door. I just looked at her waiting for her to say something, but she just stared at me, lost in thought.
"Can I help you? Do you want the assignments or notes from the last week of class?"
Edythe's eyes sharpened as if she had made a decision and she moved closer to me. She looked into my eyes with her light honey-gold eyes, and I felt lost in them for a brief moment. The shape of her eyes mixed with the unusual color made them all the more impactful up close. I was at a loss of what to do, so I just relaxed and resisted the urge to step back because of the overwhelming sweet scent coming from her breath.
"You need to convince your sister to stay away from my brother Edward for her own good, and forget I told you this." As soon as she broke eye contact with me, she stepped around me to walk away.
I was stunned for a fraction of a second. Then her words played in my head once again, and I was LIVID! I turned to look at her retreating figure "Just who the FUCK, do you think you are?"
At my words, I saw Edythe stop and turn to face me. She then looked around as if to see who I was talking to. She appeared to be shocked when she saw my eyes locked on her own. Surprisingly the hallway was empty at the moment except for the two of us.
"First of all, Miss. Cullen. I don't know what my sister thinks of your brother, so far as I know they have only had one class together before your emergency took you both from town. Second, if your brother is so weak that he needs his sister to help undercut Bella, then she will no doubt see that about him and step over the shallow puddle he is without a backward glance. Finally, if it is as you suspect, and my sister feels something for your brother and he returns that feeling, then good luck. She is one of the most stubborn people I have ever met."
(Edythe POV)
For the first time since the Spanish fever nearly killed her and the Vampire venom turned her, Edythe felt heat from another person. It radiated off the man in front of her in waves. How dare he speak to me like this. I am only trying to save your sister, and this is how you treat me? Looking at me with those glorious blue eyes filled with anger yet again. Her mind was a mess of thoughts.
As Thomas moved toward her all Edythe could think was. Don't come near me, I don't want to hurt you. She was relieved when he stormed past her in righteous anger. She wanted to reach out with her mind to see what she had done wrong and why he reacted this way. But every time she or Edward tried, it was like their minds were going through the vampire venom yet again. The pain was unbearable.
She moved to the wall and leaned against it, taking deep breaths as if she needed them. How was he invulnerable to both her gifts? Neither she nor Edward could read Thomas's mind and the compulsion she just tried to lay on him didn't work for even a second. This was unheard of in all her time alive. She didn't know how to make this better. Her power always saved her in the past, no one could deny her. Even the strongest vampire in their coven would be compelled for a day or two depending on what she compelled him to do.
The Coven will be pissed when they learn of this. Edward... Did I go too far? I was only trying to help. What will he say? Edythe couldn't calm her mind, but she moved her body towards the lunchroom. She skipped the food line and walked straight to the table where Emmett was shaking snow from his hair and Edward was sneaking glances at Bella through that bitch Jessica's mind.
When she sat down Alice turned towards her, "I lost sight of you again, did you go and talk with Thomas finally instead of following him around like a stalker?"
Edythe reached for her sister's hand, "Alice... I messed up. Badly, I think."
Hearing her tone Edward looked over at his sister and read her thoughts. His jaw dropped, and anger was shown in his eyes. "What do you think you were doing Edythe!" His tone was too low for humans to hear but the force in his voice left no doubt that he was upset with his sister. It took the rest of the table by surprise as they had never seen Edward and Edythe truly fight before.
Edythe turned to her brother with desperation in her eyes, "I was only trying to help Edward, I swear it. I don't want to see you go through this pain you are inflicting on yourself."
Edward stood up as the bell rang. "And how did that work out for you?" He walked out of the cafeteria trying to decide if he should still go to class or if his sister's actions made that impossible now.
"Everyone else go to class, nothing will happen today. Edward will be ok. I will take Edythe home and we can talk later. Yes, it is firming up. I see us all there in my visions." Alice's eyes came back into focus, and everyone stood up and left. Jasper kissed Alice as he walked by, "See you hummingbird."
Edythe allowed Alice to lead her out of the cafeteria and into the woods. Seeing that Edythe was still not able to focus, Alice took her in her arms and ran for home as only Vampires could do. If anyone saw the 4ft 10in Alice carrying the nearly 6ft Edythe like a princess, they would no doubt wonder what kind of dream they had just walked into. Luckily no one saw them, and they were soon home and sitting on the couch.
"Now, tell me what happened Edythe." Alice demanded.
After Edythe explained, Alice just looked at her. "Oh, you spoiled child Edythe. Your compulsion works on the mind, and it may have never failed at compelling a human to do what you want before. But neither has anyone managed to block you out of their mind until Bella and Thomas. You didn't even think of this, you just wanted your way with no effort as usual."
If it were possible, Edythe would be in tears by now. Her family warned her that she used her compulsion too often. But when it came to her compelling people to forget their suspicion of the Cullen family, they never said anything.
"Why is this so different than when I use my power to help the Coven? I didn't do this out of spite, I wanted to help my brother."
Alice looked her in the eye, "Do you not realize that since you started using your compulsion so much that all your interactions outside the family go exactly the way you want them to, or you change it to do so? You used to like arguing and bargaining with humans when you had the chance. But now you just compel them to think the way you want them to think. Like you are above them."
Alice stood up and finished by saying, "No one can fix this for you Edythe, this you will have to do on your own." Before waking up to her room to look at the picture Thomas drew of her. "I really hope this doesn't affect our friendship, Thomas. I am as frustrated as Edythe with you blocking my power somehow."
(Thomas POV)
Being in the presence of Edythe was just increasing my anger, the surprised look in her eyes when I spoke back to her was like the look on a child's face who had never been told no before. I had to get out of this hallway, and the fastest way out was to go past Edythe. Not stopping to look at her again I rushed past her refusing to stop as I hit the door to the courtyard.
This wasn't far enough, so I raced into the woods to find a place to let the last grip of control I had over my anger go. The trees passed in a blur, and I barely registered it, my feet moving on their own. My pace fell to a run instead of a sprint, running at this pace I felt I could go forever and have enough to sprint every once in a while. My head started to clear, and I started to enjoy moving through the snow-covered forest. It was peaceful and helped my anger return to the small white flame.
I started to ponder the girl that made me so angry. Was it her words or was it the way she said them, that made me lose it? If I looked at her words, then she was trying to tell me that Edward was dangerous for Bella, and she didn't want him to know she had warned me. But the way she said it made my back go ramrod straight. The tone of expectation that I would just accept her words with no reservations and more importantly no explanation for the one saying such things.
It could also be taken as Bella wasn't good enough in her eyes to be with her brother and I needed to explain that to her. No way in hell was that true in my opinion, Bella was a great girl, and any boy would be lucky if she liked them. Besides, if Edward didn't like her then he should be the one saying that, not Edythe. And I am sure as hell not going to get in the middle of it.
I came to a stop near a creek and knelt for a drink, it was ice cold and very refreshing. Getting another handful of water, I splashed my face just because I wanted to. Suddenly I heard a scream come from farther down the creek. I raced towards it without a thought. It sounded like it came from the other side of the stream so when there was a shallow spot I half jumped, and half ran through the water.
As I got closer to where I thought I heard the scream, I heard another one that was full of pain and fear. I also recognized rage surrounding all the other feelings. As I broke through a tree line, I saw a girl about my age with her face lifted to the sky and her clenched hands thrust behind her. Her chest rose and fell in quick gasps as she was breathing in after letting loose with another scream of pain and loss.
She must not have heard me due to her own screams and I stood there just watching her. She had on a pair of blue jeans and wore a red top leaving her shoulders bare. Her black hair was long and tied in two braided ponytails. The braid was loose, and many hairs had escaped the rubber bands.