A NEW BEGINNING

Prologue Hi. I'm Renesmee Carlie Cullen. I'm a 30 years-old woman in an 18 years-old body. I have long, bronze color hair, slightly curly, with big brown eyes. I'm not tall, but not exactly short. I'm 5'6 to be exact. My parents are Bella and Edward Cullen, and I love them. It doesn't bother me that both look the same age as me. Sure, it can be weird, but I don't care. My momma and my daddy are the most precious people in my life. I live with my whole family. Apart from my parents, there are my Aunts Rosalie and Alice, my Uncles Emmett and Jasper, and my grandparents, Esme and Carlisle. It's a big family, I know, but I don't know what I'd do without any of them. We used to live in Forks, Washington. I loved it there, it was very peaceful, and I had my grandpa Charlie just a few minutes away. I love him, we always had a good time together. But it was time to move on to a new city, to start over. And that's where I am right now. Vancouver, Canada. Far away enough to maintain our cover, but still near enough so I can visit my grandpa every once in a while. You must be wondering why we had to move. Well, we are a very strange family, even for creatures like us. See, we are vampires. But we only drink animal's blood, because, truth be told, not one of us want to be a monster. And, to top it all, I'm the freakiest of them all, seeing as I'm only half-vampire. My momma gave birth to me just before she was turned into one of us. She fought for me, and I'm forever grateful for that. I grew up really fast; I was full grown by the age of seven. I got all the vampires features from my dad, including super strength, speed, and acute senses, along with pale skin. But what I like most about myself are my eyes. They are just like my mother's when she was human. I used to have a boyfriend, Jacob. But I don't wanna talk about him. He made my life hell, and that's another reason for our move. I guess you'll find out soon enough, though. There are no secrets in this family. But for now, it's for me and momma to know, and the rest to find out. The reason only she knows is that, she is a mind shield. My daddy can't read her thoughts, unless she wants him to. And, after a while, my own power developed into something just like hers. Since I was born, I was able to show people my thoughts. Now I can show them, and protect them as well. My shield is nothing compared to my mother's, but it's useful when you need a few minutes of privacy. Tomorrow is our first day of high school. Well, first day for me. Ever since we left Forks, we've been traveling all around, before we settled down in Vancouver. So, I never really experienced high school. I'm a bit nervous, but I think it'll be fun. Everyone else in my family has been to high school at least once. They say it's boring, mostly because all of them already have college degrees, and know everything there is to know about high school subjects. It's all new to me though, not the subjects, but the high school concept. I guess I'll enjoy myself.

Chapter 1 I woke up extremely excited. It was my first day of class in Hills High School. I quickly got up and took a shower. By the time I was done, my mother had made her way to my room, and was waiting sitting on my bed. "Morning, Mom" I greeted her. "Good Morning, sweetie, did you sleep well?" she asked. "Yes, I slept through the whole night with no nightmares. I think the excitement made me sleep better." She was the only one who knew I had nightmares regularly. "I'm glad, baby. Now, go put some clothes on, and I'll help with your hair before your Aunt Alice has the chance." I headed into my closet a second too late, because I saw said aunt come barging into my room, glaring at my mother. "Bella, how could you say something like that? I promised I'd stay away from her this morning, just like you asked!" her tone was playful, but you could see the anxiety in her eyes. You see, my aunt didn't trust anyone but herself with fashion. That included our clothes, hair and make-up. She loved playing dress-up with me, and oh so often, my mom, but I guess today she wasn't going to. "Al, please. You'll have the rest of the year to do that. Let me have some bonding time with my daughter for today." My mom said that looking at Aunt Alice with the best puppy eyes I've seen. I was agreeing with her without noticing. "Yes, Aunt Alice, just for today. You know my mom can do my hair just as nice as you." I said. "Don't gang up on me, I'm already leaving." She was already half way down the stairs when she finished the sentence. I looked at my mom with a puzzled expression; Aunt Alice never gives in that easily. I went back into my closet, and five minutes later, was fully dressed in a dark blue skinny jeans, along with a purple long sleeved V-neck top and matching ballerina flats. I was in the mood for purple. I sat down on my bed and my mom started brushing my hair. After a few seconds of silence, I said, "Mom, just spit it out. I know there's more to it than just mother/daughter bonding time!" I knew my mom pretty well, I could see she was struggling with her words. "It's nothing, sweetie, I promise. I just wanted to make sure you were okay. Seeing as you didn't have any nightmares at all for once is a good sign. I wanted to come and stay with you, but I got caught up with" I put my hands to my ears, and interrupted her. "Mom, please, I don't need to hear about yours and dad's sex life!" I am close to my mother, but no kid wants to know about what their parents do at night, right? "Sorry." She said guiltily. I just smiled and said it was nothing. By then she had finished with my hair, and I was pleased with it. It was curly and put up in a half ponytail, with my bangs straightened and clipped to the left. Very girlish-y.

We were about to continue our conversation, when we heard a knock. I yelled the person to come in. It was my dad; he walked to the bed, and gave me a kiss on my forehead, greeting me good morning. He pecked my mom on the lips, and looked at me. "Everything okay in here? You were taking longer than usual." He pointed. My dad knew I had nightmares, but he didn't know how often I had them, or about what they were. "Yes, daddy, we're fine. Just having a little bonding time, right momma?" "Yes, nothing to worry about." She said with a smile. She got a lot better at lying; actually, she totally mastered the art of lying! My dad looked at us with a smile and said, "We're having a family meeting downstairs, they're just waiting for you." He left the room, expecting us to follow him. I grabbed my jacket and school bag, reached for my mom's hand and walked out. Everyone was sitting in the living room, already dressed and ready to go. I noticed the couples were coordinated. Mom and Dad were both in blue tops, dark blue jeans and blue sneakers, Aunt Alice had on a pale yellow top with black knee length skirt, and black boots, while Uncle Jasper had the same color shirt, with black pants and black tennis shoes. Aunt Rose and Uncle Em were both in red shirts and white pants. Aunt Rose was wearing high heels while Uncle Em had sneakers. Mom and I sat beside my dad on the sofa, and my grandpa, Carlisle, started speaking. "You know we need stories for each of you for the start of school. Any ideas?" "Yes, Carlisle, I have it all figured out already." Aunt Alice replied. Of course, only the pixie that knew the future could have that figured out so fast. "Jasper and Rose will be the Hale twins, as usual. They're Esme's niece and nephew, and came to live with her when they were 10. Edward and I will be brother and sister, and Emmett will be our cousin. His mom and ours were Carlisle sisters, and they died in a car accident when we were little, and we had no fathers. We all had Cullen as our last name, 'cause our moms weren't married. Bella and Nessie, you'll be the Swan twins. Your parents were best friends with Carlisle and Esme in college, and they named them as your guardians, should anything happen. They both died in a fire, and you came to live with us." It all made sense. When I started looking like a teenager, when I was about 5, my face changed a bit, and now I looked a lot like my mom, except for the hair and eyes. We could pass off as twins, no problem. While Aunt Alice, or only Alice from now on, was explaining our backgrounds, my dad went to the kitchen to make me some breakfast. Being half-human, I needed some human food in my body as well as blood. He made an omelet and gave me a glass of milk. We were ready to go.

Chapter 2 The School Bella POV First days of school are always hard. Even if we've been through this already. People staring, whispers that we can hear very well, unfortunately and new classes. Or not new, I guess, 'cause what's the point of high school English when you have a degree in American Literature? My only worry is Renesmee. It is her very first day of school ever, and she's still a bit nave when it comes to people. She's so innocent, and I'm afraid she'll get hurt in the process. We got out of our cars, us girl from Rosalie's old BMW that, according to her, was a 'nice, charming car' and she wasn't able to get rid of it, and the guys from our new black Mercedes. By the way, it looks just like Carlisle's old one. We all reached out for our husbands' hands, and made our way to the office. Nessie was holding my other hand so hard, I was afraid she'd break it. Not that she could, though. "Ness, relax hun, you'll end up hurting yourself." I told her. She looked at me with scared eyes, and whispered back, "I'm scared, Momma. What if people don't like me?" She really was afraid of being left out. "Don't worry, Ness. You just need to be yourself, and people will love you. Just remember, we are all different, and people will talk and all that. But I'm sure you'll find yourself a very good friend in here." I tried to reassure her. "You think so?" "Oh, I know so. I am your mother after all, right?" I winked. She smiled and relaxed her grip on my hand. "Or rather, your twin!" We all laughed out loud at that. Edward reached a hand behind my back and put a strand of hair behind her ear saying, "You know you'll be just fine in here, sweetie. If anything, there's always your big, crazy family to help you out!" "Yeah, and we can always beat them up for you, if you want." Emmett decided to try and cheer her up. Impressively, it worked! She was laughing out loud. We reached the office and Alice went to the secretary. "Hi there, we're the Cullen's, Hale's and Swan's. We need our schedules?" She said a bit uncertain, trying and not succeeding to look a little less bubbly. The secretary looked at her with a puzzled expression and asked, "Who are the sophomores?" Alice just replied, "Bella and Ness Swan, and I." "Okay, here they are. And for the juniors, here you go" She said handing Edward the other schedules. We left the office and headed towards the lockers. They were ordered alphabetically, making mine right next to Nessie's. We put our things away, grabbed our books and starting heading to our first class, AP English. It was a small school, so we had

most of our classes together. Alice caught up to us in no time, and we went into the classroom looking for seats. We sat at the last row, and waited for the teacher, Mrs. Steveson, to start the lecture. It was boring, like always. She only went over what we were going to learn this year, and gave us a list of books to read. I've read them all more than once. After English, we had History, which's always boring, no matter what. Then it was time for Gym. I haven't really mastered the whole don't-use-your-full-strength thing yet, and I was afraid I'd hurt someone. Like I used to when I was a human. But it wasn't as hard as it looked, we were playing volleyball in pairs, and I was paired up with Ness playing against Alice and a girl named Sara. She looked like a cool girl, and we actually enjoyed ourselves. By fourth period, we were already the talk of the school. We didn't interact with other students, not even a hello, which I admit is a bit rude, but you should hear what they were talking about us! It's disgusting! I'm just glad I don't have Edward's mind reading ability; he must be suffering a lot more. Before I knew it, it was lunch time. Alice and I walked to the cafeteria, with Nessie just behind us. Alice was planning our weekend even though it was still Monday! and was trying to convince me to join her in what she called 'sister bonding time', meaning shopping. She was giving me the whole puppy eye and don't you love me crap, and I was agreeing to it before I could think properly. She was so excited though, and it made me excited as well. She and I would be going all the way to California, why I still don't know. We entered the full cafeteria and looked around, trying to find someone from our family. We spotted Emmett and Rose sitting on a table all the way to the back. So, we grabbed ourselves some food and walked to them. By the time we were seated, we were joined by both Jasper and Edward. They had the weirdest looks on their faces, and it would be comical if I weren't so worried. "Edward, what's wrong?" I asked. He took the seat next to me and said, "Some stupid seniors were driving me crazy with their disgusting thoughts. And Jasper was feeling all the lust, it was driving him insane as well." "Oh, I'm so sorry, Edward. It must be really horrible. I was disgusted just by the looks, I'm glad I don't need to hear what they're thinking as well." My poor husband was suffering, I could tell. But then, it really is hard to hear what stupid, hormone driven teenagers wanted to 'do' with us. I shuddered just to think about it. Then I said, "I'll shield you. Would that be ok?" He looked at me pleading, "Yes, please, love. I'll do anything!" "Anything!" Oooh, he was in for it! "Okay, then. I'll think of something later." And I winked at him, putting my shield over him. "Thank you, love." He sounded relieved. I pecked him on the lips. Our little moment wasn't noticed by anyone else in the family. Rose and Emmett were too busy, kissing each other. Alice and Jasper were talking so low, I couldn't make out the words. And Renesmee was staring at this boy. Wait, what?

Renesmee POV We headed towards the table where Emmett and Rose sat. I took the seat opposite them, looking at the doors. After my dad and Jasper joined us, they all started talking, or doing whatever, with each other, leaving me to my thoughts. That was when I saw him. He was walking with a bunch of kids surrounding him, and it looked like he was trying to be rid of them. He was very tall, about 6'1, with short spiked brown hair and the most beautiful eyes I've ever seen. They were sort of greenish, but looked gray, and it looked like you could see into his soul through them. He had a nice body, not very tan and kind of athletic; he was probably a basketball player. And popular. And he would never want to go out with a freak like me. Wait, what am I talking about? I didn't even know his name, and I wanted to date him? What's wrong with me? But I couldn't stop staring. It was a good thing that we sat far away from everyone, so he wouldn't catch me looking at him. He laughed about something, and wow, he had the most beautiful smile. Uhg! I have to stop thinking about it. Focus, Renesmee, focus! I tore my eyes from him, and looked around. My parents were looking at me, shit! "Hey Bella, is something wrong?" I asked, trying to make them forget what they just saw. An impossible task, but I girl can try, right? "Yes, you know there is. Who were you staring at, just now?" "No one M- Bella, just looking around, you all looked busy." I wasn't to call my mom Mom out loud in public. For obvious reasons, it'd freak everyone out. "Don't lie, Ness. You know we can tell when you try to do that." My dad said. It's a good thing I learned how to protect my mind with my weak shield. He'd find out that I lie more than he can imagine. "I was just looking, Edward. That guy looked uncomfortable surrounded by so many people, I was just trying to figure him out." I told as honestly as I could. I was trying to figure him out, but for different reasons. "Uhm, ok then. Just try and stay out of trouble." Edward said. What kind of trouble would I possibly be? "Yeah, sure, daddy" I whispered to him. The bell rang, thankfully, right after that, and I got up to get to my next class. It was the only one I had without anyone in my family. Calculus. For some weird reason, I actually enjoyed Math. I got into the classroom, and was looking around for a good seat, when I spotted him. The cafeteria guy. I went and took the seat next to him. He looked at me, smiled a little and went back to his drawing. I started an internal debate. Should I talk to him? Should I stay away? I could get hurt, but the not knowing would be agonizing as well. What if he hated me? What if he wasn't what he looked like? I sighed and made a decision "Hello" I said. 'Keep it simple', I told myself. He looked at me, his face with a shocked expression.

"Hi", he answered. He was still a little surprised, I wonder why. "My name is Renesmee", I said, holding out my hand for him. He shook it and replied, "Nicholas. But call me Nick." Nicholas, such a beautiful name! "Nice to meet you, Nick." I would have continued, but the teacher was in class, asking for order. Before I knew it, it was time to go home. I sat in the car silently, my mom next to me. She kept staring, probably trying to figure out what was wrong with me. I know she'll get it out of me later somehow, but for now, all I had in my mind was Nicholas.

Chapter 3 Can We Hang Out? RPOV The week passed like a blur. One day I'm almost breaking my mom's hand 'cause I'm so nervous, next it's already Friday and I'm talking to my new friend, Sara. Yeah, the girl from Gym. Turned out she has a few classes with me, including Calculus. She was sitting next to me in English, 'cause I couldn't stand Alice's and Mom's excitement. I mean, Bella was actually excited about the trip. A shopping trip, with no one else but Alice. I'd be going crazy by now, and yet she is genuinely happy about it. My mom's a freak! They were leaving right after lunch, 'cause apparently they wanted to make it to L.A. before nighttime. I must have zoned out a bit, 'cause Sara was poking me, "Ness, are you okay?" She was concerned. I gave her a reassuring smile and replied, "Yeah, just great! Just thinking, sorry." Yeah, I totally zoned out. "About what?" "Oh, ahm, just the fact that most of my family will be out for the weekend. Alice and Bella are going to Seattle, shopping trip. And the boys are going to drive around to try and find a nice camping site. It'll be just me, Rose and Esme." A weekend trip to Seattle was more believable than L.A. Didn't want to scare my only friend away with too much info. "That sounds cool. Hey, you want to hang out sometime this weekend?" "Really?" I was hopeful! I mean, I never had a human friend before, to do normal stuff, like well, hanging out. "Of course!" she replied, looking confused. Did I really sound that eager? "So, I have plans for Sunday with Rose, but I'm free on Saturday. I just need to ask my mom for permission, I'll give her a call during lunch, how about that?" After saying that, I looked beside me to my real mom, she just smiled and nodded. I don't think my smile could get bigger. "Great! We'll have so much fun, we can go watch a movie" Sara kept on listing the fun stuff we'd be doing, but I was in another world. I had a friend. A human friend that talked to me, that showed no fear of being close to me or my family. Sara was great, actually. She was shy, and quiet, but once you got to know her, she just couldn't shut up! She was tiny, maybe 5'2 with shoulder length black hair and hazel eyes. According to her, her eyes turned green when she cried. Weird. What was also on my mind was Nick. After that awkward introduction on Monday, he never talked to me again. I didn't force him, I know my family and I can be intimidating. But the problem was that I couldn't stop thinking about him. I haven't thought about a guy in like, 15 years, not after Jacob. And I thought I'd never be able to love again. Ok, love is a little too much right now, I didn't think I'd want to date someone. And a human at that. But he didn't like me, and I'd have to live with that. Or maybe, I could pester Edward to get into his mind for me. Would my dad suspect anything? Uhm, I guess not. I'd wait till lunch to talk to him.

The hours passed so fast, it was already lunch time. I was a bit sad, but that's understandable I guess. My mom and Alice were leaving soon. I'd miss my mom. A lot! People don't understand our relationship, it's really strange really. She literally gave up her life for me. She fought for me, didn't give up. I'm forever grateful for that. She was the first person I ever loved, from inside her womb. And now we're 'the same age', we both look 18 and have a very alike mind. We have a mother/daughter/sisters relationship I guess. It's quite fun actually. "Ness, you've been very quiet today, what's up?" That was Rose. She's like the big sister, always needing to protect me. "I'm fine, Rosie. Just thinking I guess. Oh, by the way, I needed to ask. You don't have anything planned for Saturday, right? Just Sunday?" "No, not really. Why?" She asked. "My new friend, Sara, asked if I could hang out with her tomorrow. Mom already said yes, but I wanted to make sure you didn't need me for anything." I smiled at her. "Oh, no, honey. You go and have some fun! We have plenty to do on Sunday." She actually wanted me to have some human friends. That's right, Rosalie Hale, the one that hated my mom when she was human, wanted me to have human friends. Talk about 180s! I was eating a slice of pizza, waiting for the rest of the family to show up. For now it was only Rose and Emmett. Emmett was staring at me with a funny face. It was getting annoying, so I just spat "What!" He looked at me and laughed, mumbling something that sounded like 'so much like Bella', then looked at me again and asked, quite amused, "how can you eat this," pointing to my pizza. I laughed, finally understanding, and shrugged. "It tastes okay, nothing like our usual, but still. I need some sort of food from time to time, and pizza is one of the few I actually like." I laughed a bit. Really, most human foods are disgusting! I like junk food though, pizza, popcorn, candy! I guess it's a good thing I don't need to worry about calories. I heard my dad before I saw him, "Emmett, please, stop pestering the child. It's not like you ever will, but yes, we get it, it's disgusting. Done!" Ok, so my dad can be a biiiit overprotective sometimes. Or most of the time. That's why I still haven't got the courage to tell him about Jacob. Oh, well. My whole family was sitting on our table already, looking at me, again! Gee, can't a girl have a minute to herself in this family? I tuned into the conversation, that turned out to be about the 'camping' trip the guys were planning. "So, what exactly are we looking for?" Jasper asked. "Ahm, new places we can hunt without decreasing the animal population by much," Emmett replied in a duh tone. "No, really?" Jasper answered sarcastically, "I meant, any specific kind?"

"Ah, no, not really I guess," Edward said, quite amused I guess. He loved mountain lions, but it's not like he can find them anywhere he goes, so he settles for whatever is there. Emmett can't stop complaining if he didn't get at least one bear. I mean, it gets annoying after some time. "You know, I don't care what you get, as long as you get something! The three of you are with really black eyes, I don't know how you managed it." I guess Rose was getting annoyed as well. "I agree with Rose." Bella and I said at the same time. We both giggled a little, it is kinda freaky when we do that. Our family doesn't like it a lot. They all rolled their eyes at us. We continued the conversation as if nothing happened, "So, Bella, what exactly are you going to do there?" I wanted to change the subject, the whole hunting thing was making me thirsty. "I have no idea!" She said, quite exasperated. "Alice won't tell me a thing, and she's blocking Edward, so She's one mean pixie" she whispered. Alice glared playfully at her, "Yeah, yeah, we all know that, but you still love me." "Course I do Al, you're my favorite pixie sister." "But, Be-lla! I'm your only pixie sister!" They always did that, but somehow it was still amusing to watch. "So, there you go, you're my favorite by default." Bella said, winking at Alice. They both laughed, making us wonder if we missed an inside joke. The bell rang, warning us we had five minutes to get to class. Alice and Bella were hugging everyone, lingering a bit with their husbands, "I love you" I heard my mom tell my dad, and he replied with "Have a safe trip, love, and I love you too." Mom came to me and gave me a hug, saying "Be safe, baby, and I'll miss you. I love you." I said I'd miss her too, but not to worry because I was pretty safe in here. She kissed my forehead and started to walk out. Alice gave me a hug and I whispered to her, "Keep my momma safe, ok?" I know Alice took it seriously. They both waved at us and left for the parking lot. The rest of the family started to head to their classes, but I still needed to talk to my dad, "Edward, can I ask you something?" He stood behind while everyone went their way, and looked at me, not answering, "Ok, ahm, can you do me a favor? There's this guy in my Calc class, and I-I I tried to talk to him, and h-he hasn't talked to me since" I don't think I was making any sense. I took a deep breath and started again, "Daddy, can you try and hear his thoughts? I, I don't think he likes me that much, and I wanted to know why. Please?" He looked at me suspiciously, probably wondering if I liked the guy or not. Apparently, my face didn't give anything away, cause he just answered with a simple 'sure', and left.

Calculus was a bit weird again, he didn't even looked at me when I entered the room. I took my seat beside Sara, and she immediately started talking about her plans for tomorrow, "So, can you go?" I just nodded, "Awesome, we're going to have so much fun, my mom said she'd give us a ride, if that's ok?" I'd forgotten we were pretending to be 15. Our birthdays were in January, I think. I just want my license already! "Oh, ok, so where do you want me to meet you?" I asked. "We'll pick you up at your house, Ness, if that's ok." "I- yes, I guess that'd be fine." Truth time I guess. Our house was a bit, how to put it, well, huge! Would Sara still be my friend after finding out we were well, loaded! I sure hope so. The last class of the day went by with no incidents, and I was walking to the parking lot when Sara stopped me. "Ness, you forgot to give me your address." Right. DUH Renesmee. I quickly explained it to her, and drew a little map so she could explain to her mom, and waved goodbye. I wanted to talk to my dad right away. He just looked at me and shook his head. Uh-oh, not a good thing. "He's a bit intimidated by you, Ness. I guess, we all are quite scary, but you went and talked to him, and that scared him a little; I don't think he intended to behave like he did. My bet is that he wasn't sure if you meant to talk to him, or you were just being polite. It's probably a good idea to try and talk to him again, sweetie. That is if you want to." "Oh, I want to. Thank you so much, daddy." I hugged him and got into the car. It was going to be an interesting weekend...

Chapter 4 They're back It was Saturday afternoon. Sara just called letting me know she and her mom were coming to get me, and that her mom wanted to meet my mom. 'Quite impossible, seeing as she's in L.A.' I didn't say that out loud, of course. Esme is my mom for this kind of stuff. I find it quite weird to call my grandma 'mom', but hey, keep the pretences, I don't think Sara would take it very well if I told her Esme is actually my grandma. I heard the car approaching our manor, and took a very deep breath. Rose and Esme were with me in our living room, which was how do I put this? huge! It had three big couches, with a flat screen hanging on the wall. It was painted white, very serene. There was a game's room across the room, with every kind of videogame, and some other games to keep us occupied for decades. The staircase was in the middle of the room, dividing the games' room from the music room. The music room was actually closed, so we could at least try and have some privacy. My daddy taught me how to play the piano, and Uncle Jasper taught me how to play the guitar. We have quite a bit of instruments there to entertain ourselves. I heard a faint gasp, coming from Sara I guess, so I went to open the door. She and her mom were standing there, in awe, and it was making me a bit nervous. Is she going to hate me? I hope she doesn't care about it. "Wow, Ness, this place is awesome!" I was relieved. Ok, so she doesn't care. "Thanks" I said, quite embarrassed. "Please, come in." They entered, and Esme introduced herself, "Hi, I'm Esme Cullen, nice to meet you. You must be Sara." She said, extending her hand for her to shake. Sara shook it with a "nice to meet you too, Mrs. Cullen." "Please, just Esme." Esme doesn't like being called Mrs. I guess she looks too young for that. "You must be Mrs. Jones." She said, looking at Sara's mom. "Karen," she said, shaking Esme's hand. Sara and I went up to my room to get my bag while the two of them talked. Sara was, again, amazed by what she saw. "Wow," was all she could say. My room was fairly big. It had purple walls, three light and one dark, with white furniture. My laptop was lying on my desk, along with a modern sound system. I love music! My closet was quite big, - courtesy of Alice and full of clothes I never wore. My bed was queen size, really comfy with white and purple bedding and some purple cushions. I had a bedside table that was stacked with some books that I've been reading. On the wall beside my desk was a bookstand, already full with my favorites. I grabbed my purse, while asking Sara, "Do you like it?" "Like? I love it! It's so cool, you have the nicest room ever!" I laughed at her reaction, "Thanks, I think. I like it, it's very peaceful."

"It sure is." I turned off the lights, and we were back downstairs. Rose came down and gave me a kiss on my forehead, "Have a good time, sweetie." "Thanks, Rose. I will!" They said their goodbyes, and we left. Sara's mom left us at the mall, asking to call her when we wanted to be picked up. We decided to go watch a movie. We bought our tickets, deciding on a comedy. The movie was hilarious, we laughed from beginning to end. We got out of the movie theater and headed to the food court. "So, Ness, what do you wanna get?" Blood was my first thought. Okay, not a good idea. I've never been to a mall's food court, there was no need. I kept thinking, "I guess I'll settle for a hamburger." "Me, too." She replied. We made our way to a Burger King, got our combos, and sat down to eat. We finished a few minutes later, - the burger tasted disgusting - but didn't get up. We were in a comfortable silence for a while, till Sara asked, "Nessie, can you tell me more about yourself?" I only hesitated for half a second. "Ah, yeah, sure, but only if you tell me more about yourself." We both laughed. "Okay," she agreed. "What's your favorite color?" "Purple," I replied in a duh tone. We laughed again, "what about yours?" "It depends on my mood I guess, but it's been blue for a while. Favorite song?" "Right now, it's Decode by Paramore. What about yours?" "Probably something by P!nk. I love her!" We kept going with our twenty questions sort of thing, until it got a bit more serious. "What is it like, living with such a big family? What are they like?" "It's awesome and horrible at the same time. I mean, there's never a dull moment in that house, but we all have very different personalities and tastes, and there's always someone meddling with your life, it gets annoying. Sometimes you just want a bit of alone time, a very rare thing to get. But I wouldn't trade it for the world. Esme and Carlisle are the best, they let us be ourselves, and they don't really act like our parents, more like our friends. Emmett looks scary, but he's really sweet, and a bit protective of his little sisters. Rose's a bit shallow, but very loyal when it comes to family, she fits perfectly as the big sister, she's always there to help and guide us. Jasper's really quiet, but so smart and funny. We have the best conversations. Alice's always happy and hyper. She loves shopping, it drives you insane! She's very caring and an amazing listener." Sara was looking at me with her mouth open. I guess I do really love my family, uh?

"W-what about Edward and Bella?" Uh-oh. How does one talk about her parents, without telling anything suspicious? "Edward's really cool. He's really over protective, mostly over Bella and me, but he really loves us all. He taught me how to play the piano when we were younger, he loves music, and cars. And Bella, well, she's my twin. She and I have very similar minds. She's my rock, my everything. She's always there when you need it, and she helped me through some dark times. I wouldn't be here today if it weren't for her." I guess my eyes showed my adoration for my parents, 'cause Sara was quiet for a few seconds, before saying in a low voice, "Wow, Ness. You really do love them, don't you?" "Yes." I told her, no hesitation. "Enough about my family, what about yours?" "Well, my mom's awesome, she helps me a lot, but you know I can't talk to her that much. Sometimes I don't trust her with my secrets. My dad's fine, but he travels a lot because of his work, so I barely see him. I try to make the most of it when he's home, though, we enjoy each other's company. And I have a little brother, Ben, but he's only 3, it's not like I can talk to him about stuff." "What about your friends?" I asked her. "Well, I never really had any good friends before, Ness. I'm not a sociable person, I usually keep it to myself. You're the first real friend I had." I was so shocked. She was such a sweet girl, I couldn't believe she didn't have any friends. I told myself she'd find the best friend ever, in me. "Okay, you know, you can trust me. We're gonna be the best of friends, I promise you." She smiled at me, hugely, and I swear I could see a hint of a tear on her eye. "Thank you, Renesmee." Wow, she never called me by my full name. "I really hope so." We wandered around the mall after that, just looking and not really buying anything. I must say, it was a whole new experience, to actually walk around without rushing from store to store. We were walking down the corridor, when Sara stopped suddenly. She was staring at a very pretty dress, almost drooling over it. I could see it was designer, but I didn't know which one, I can't keep up with them. I grabbed her hand and pushed her into the store. I asked the saleswoman for the dress in Sara's size and almost forced her to try it on. It looked perfect on her. Really lovely. It was a dark blue V-neck, just above knee length. She looked gorgeous! Somehow, I don't know how, I distracted Sara long enough to buy it, along with some other clothes for myself, so she wouldn't suspect when I left the store with a bag. My first move as a best friend. We decided to hang out at my place after that, so I called Esme to pick us up while she asked her mom if she could stay for a while. Esme arrived ten minutes later, and we both started talking about everything we did, the movie and shopping. Esme was really happy that I found a friend, too. We got home and went straight to my room. I told Sara I had a surprise for her, and asked her to close her eyes. She did that, and I reached into the bag and took out the dress. It was gift wrapped.

"It's my first gif as your best friend. I hope you like it, and before you say anything, I never had a friend to buy things to, so please accept it." I told her before handing her the present. She opened it carefully, and looked shocked when she saw it. "Ness, how what when" I just waited. "Awww, Nessie, I love it. Thank you!" She gave me a huge hug, and I smiled back at her. "You looked so gorgeous, I just had to buy it. It'll be perfect for the dance next month." I told her. "If we don't have dates till there, we'll go with each other, okay?" "It's a date." She said. We both laughed. We kept talking, listening to some music and getting to know each other. We found out we both had the same weird taste for music, and we both loved collecting weird stuff. I collected postal cards. She collected key rings. She had a hard time expressing herself most of the time, but we'll work on that. Much too soon, her mom was here to pick her up. We said our goodbyes, and she left. Not two seconds later, Rose was pushing me towards the living room couch, asking me, "How was it? Did you have fun?" I smiled, and told her everything. She seemed really happy that I found a friend. I touched her face, showing her my thoughts, and she replied, "I really am! Sometimes it's good to have someone normal to talk to, and to do normal stuff. Don't you think?" I was still touching her face, so I just thought 'I couldn't agree more.' She laughed. It was still early, so I went to the music room to play a bit. Rose followed me. We played some duets, and talked a bit, it was great. It's rare to have quiet moments in the house, so we really enjoyed it. I was getting tired, and a big yawn escaped. Rose looked at me and said, "Okay, young lady, it's time for you to go to bed." I rolled my eyes. Sometimes she's worse than my mom. "Yeah, I'm going. Goodnight Auntie Rose." It felt good to call her that again. "I'll see you tomorrow." I pecked her cheek and passed through the living room, giving Esme a hug and saying 'goodnight grandma' before going to my room. I got ready for bed, and in no time, I was asleep. I was restless. The nightmares were back, full force. I kept tossing and turning, wanting to wake up, but finding it impossible. Flashbacks were going through my mind. Jacob. Anger. Hurt. Jacob's eyes, filled with rage. Mom and Dad, looking pissed off. Pain. 'No, Jacob, don't.' I mumbled. 'It hurts, stop.' His faced showed up in my mind again, and I woke up. Screaming. I was trashing, punching the air, and I kept screaming. Till two pairs of strong hands stopped me. "Nessie, what's wrong?" Both Rose and Esme were there. They looked worried. I guess my face gave me away, I was so scared, I hid my face on Esme's chest while she hugged me and tried to comfort me,

"Shhh, child, it's ok. You're safe now, it's ok. Take a deep breath." I did as I was told. "That's it, calm down." She kept saying in a low, reassuring voice. "I want my momma." Was all I said, in a voice lower than a whisper. "Ness, I'm sure she's busy now, just calm down and" I cut her off, "I need to talk to my mom, NOW!" I was never one for a temper, but I just need to hear my mother's voice. Rose was out and back in less than a second, holding my cell phone in her hand. I quickly hit speed dial #1 and waited. "Renesmee?" My mom said, "Momma," I said in a small voice, "they're back. Please, help me."

Chapter 5 Shopping Saturday Bella POV We got to L.A. at night on Friday. There wasn't much to do, Alice planned out the whole Saturday, so we just checked into our hotel and watched movies. We got ready for the day, and we left. Alice's plan consisted of hitting as many stores as possible. There was going to be some sun during the afternoon, so we'd stay inside a shopping mall. In the morning, we drove around the city a little. It was my first time there, so Alice caved and gave me a small tour. We got to see some famous faces, it was quite weird. About 10 a.m., we started shopping. I was actually having a good time. It's been such a long time since it's been only Alice and I, I missed it. I decided to speak out, "I missed you." I told her. She gave me an odd look and said, "Bella, you see me every day." "Yes, I know that. I meant, we haven't had alone time for a while. I missed hanging out with my favorite sister." I said with a smile. Rose and I were in better terms, but there is still a bit of resentment. Alice smiled back, "That was the point of this trip, silly. We needed some bonding time." She laughed. I agreed with her, "I know, that's why I came without a fight." She glared at me, "And here I thought you wanted to come for the shopping." She said playfully. "Shopping can be fun, Al. Especially with you. You get so excited with the tiniest thing it's quite fun to watch." We had arrived. She parked her car, and got out too fast for a human, barely waiting for me to get out before giving me a huge hug. "I thank whoever it was that put you in my life. You balance me out quite fine, don't you think?" "Yes, we're so different, yet so alike. It's creepy." We were still hugging, both laughing. "I love you, B. I'm so glad to be your sister." We both would be crying, if we could. "Love you, too, Al." After our little moment, we walked around the city, arms linked, talking nonsense and laughing. Mostly acting like teenagers. We went from store to store, trying things on and buying whatever we wanted. I was really enjoying it.

When it hit 2 p.m., the sun started to show up, so we went back to our car, and drove to the mall. Alice parked in an underground parking, so there was no way the sun would hit us, and we went in. Just as we left the first store, Alice stopped. Her eyes were unfocused, she was having a vision. It was over in half a second, no one noticed us. She just smiled and said, "Ness is having a good time with her friend. I just saw them both talking." I smiled at her. Alice could see Renesmee as easily as us now. There was no more Jacob to blind her, and Ness became clearer after a while, probably because Alice got used to her. "Thank you for letting me know." She just smiled at me. We were half way through the mall when, once again, a vision hit Alice. It was quite fast, but she came out of it looking puzzled. "What was it, Al?" "It was weird. I didn't see anything, just that we were all very gloomy. Our moods were weird, I don't know, it was so strange." "Okay, so something is going to happen that's going to get us in a foul mood." "Apparently." She said, and suddenly, her face brightened. "I have an idea, come on." She took my hand and dragged me to this cool store that had costume made shirts. She ordered four tank tops for us girls, and t-shirts for the boys. The saleswoman said it'd take about two hours, so we resumed our shopping activities. We went around, looking for nice stuff to buy. It was almost September, meaning mine and Renesmee's real birthdays. I wanted to get her something special. While Alice went back to the store to get our shirts, I went looking for the best present. I looked around, till I found it. It was perfect. I quickly went inside and bought it, and went to find Alice. It was almost closing time by now, we spent almost the whole day walking around and shopping. I had to admit, I loved it! It wasn't a usual Alice-shopping-trip, I guess she really tried to make it pleasant for me. She IS the best. I grinned like an idiot and hugged her. She laughed out loud, confused. "Thank you." I said. She was still confused. "I'm guessing you made quite an effort to try and not buy the whole mall, instead you actually tried to be a normal person. I'm thankful. This was the best day ever, sis." She was beaming. "I did try, and I have to admit, it was quite fun. We had time to talk and laugh, it was great." She pecked me on the lips, "Thanks, B." We walked back to the car, driving to our hotel. We didn't bother to unload it, I just grabbed one bag and took it with me, while she did the same. We both laughed, realizing we'd, again, thought along the same lines. We got into our room, and sat on the large bed. She handed me something gift wrapped, with a card saying 'to the best sister in the world', making me smile even more. I carefully opened it, revealing the most beautiful dress I've ever seen. It was light blue, knee length and just perfect. "For the dance, next month. We'll all be going, and you needed a dress."

"Thanks, A. It's perfect!" I said, still amazed. "I got you something too." I said, giving her a gift wrapped box. She probably saw me deciding to buy it, but it's still nice to try and surprise her. She opened it, and gasped. "Bella, wow. It's gorgeous!" I smiled hugely at her. She hugged me and asked me to put it on her. As soon as I was done, she looked into the mirror. I could tell she loved it. It was a silver necklace with a pendant shaped as two intertwined hearts, one gold and one silver. It had a small diamond encrusted where both hearts were joined. "So you'll always know, you're forever in my heart." I told her. I guess she'd cry if she could. We sat back on the bed, and kept talking. We were having such a great time, I forgot about everything else. Suddenly, I heard my cell phone ring. I checked the caller ID, and found it strange. Why is Nessie up at this hour? I answered before the second ring, "Renesmee?" I said. "Momma," she said, barely in a whisper, "they're back. Please, help me." I was confused, and scared. Who's back? What was going on?" "May, what's wrong? What happened? Are you okay?" Only I ever called her that. "Momma," she was crying. "I had the most horrible nightmare. It was horrible, Jacob was there, and and" She couldn't finish. I tried to calm her down. "May, listen. Take a deep breath, sweetie. That's it. Now, is there anyone with you?" "Yeah, grandma and Auntie Rose." Good, at least she wasn't alone. "Do you want me to go home?" I asked, already knowing the answer. "No, momma, it's ok. I just needed to hear your voice. I'll be okay." "Are you sure, baby? We can leave now if you want." "I'm sure, mom. Thanks." Her voice was a little louder. "Okay, try and go back to sleep. You can ask Rose to stay with you if you're scared, and if you can't sleep, just call me, okay?" I guess Rose heard me, 'cause I heard her talk to me in the background. "I'll stay with her, Bella, don't worry." "Okay, momma, I'll try and sleep. I just wanted to hear you, I guess. I miss you." She said in a small voice. "I miss you, too, May." I know she loved it when I called her that. "I love you." "Love you too, Momma." She hung up. I turned to Alice, saying,

"I guess I know where our bad mood will come from." Alice looked worried, "Is she okay, Bell? She sounded scared." I sighed and started talking, "Yes, she's fine. Just another nightmare. You know, Jacob." The family didn't like to talk about him. No one else knew exactly what happened, except Ness and I, but they knew that she got hurt and it was Jacob's fault. There was no need to explain anything else. "It's not her first one, is it?" I sighed again, "No, it's been like that since that day. Edward knows she has them from time to time, but you know no one else but me knows what happened. And I won't tell anyone until she tells me to. And you can't let Edward know about it either. Please, Al?" "Of course, Bella. Don't worry, I won't tell." I rested my head on her shoulder and said, "Thanks. I just wish she'd get better soon. It hurts so much to see her like that." Alice wrapped her arm around my shoulder, comforting me, "We'll help her, Bells. She's not alone." She got up, and suddenly looked at me. "We'll leave in a few hours. We can go back through Forks, if you'd like to visit Charlie for a while." I gave her a small smile, "That'd be nice, thank you Alice." Charlie was rounding his seventies now, but he was still as strong. I missed my dad; it'd be nice to see him again. We checked out a few hours later, and started making our way back. We were in Forks in no time, thanks to Alice's driving. I was used to it by now. I could hear Charlie talking to someone, probably Sue, while we made our way to the doorstep. I knocked twice, and heard the door being unlocked. I looked up, ready to greet my dad, when the door fully opened. No, that can't be. I hissed, "Jacob."

Chapter 6 The Visit "Bella? What are you doing here?" Jacob asked me. "I'm here to see my father, what are you doing here?" "Leah is here, so I am here. Charlie's in the living room." He said and moved out of the way to let me in. He was so close to me, I had to take a deep, unnecessary breath to calm myself. I was about to rip his head off. I can't believe he's at my dad's house, after everything he's done to my family! I noticed he hasn't aged since the last time I saw him, meaning he was still a werewolf. Easier to hurt, good! I made my way, with Alice right behind me, to my dad's tiny living room. He was sitting, watching TV and shouting at it, when he spotted me. His reaction made me laugh. He looked up, and his mouth opened involuntarily, it was funny to see. "Bella! Alice!" He screamed. "Hey dad," we both replied. Somehow Charlie convinced Alice to call him dad, quite cute, I think! "How are you doing?" I said while he hugged me. "Better now that you're here." Wow, time has made him all mushy. "Great to see you too, dad. I missed you." My dad noticed, a long time ago, that we didn't change a bit. He never mentioned it, though, probably so he wouldn't freak out while saying it out loud. "Missed you too, girls." He said, while hugging Alice. The coldness of our skin didn't bother him anymore. I noticed that we were alone in the living room, I turned around to notice Jacob going up the stairs to my old room, I think. Good, I don't wanna see his face so soon. "Where's everyone else?" My dad asked. "They're all home. Al and I were on a small trip to Seattle, and decided to drop by before going back." "Good, good," he said. "How's my granddaughter doing?" he asked, his eyes sparkling at the mention of Renesmee. "She's okay, she's still hurting a little, emotionally. But she's doing better. By the way, why is the mutt in here, dad? I thought you didn't like him either!" "I don't, Bella. But Sue does, and you know Billy passed away a few years ago, so Sue's taking care of Jacob. I- he doesn't really talk to me, though, he just spends his time here with Leah." Dad married Sue a year after I was turned. Yeah, Leah and I were step-sisters. We hang around the house for some time, and were ready to leave, when Jacob came in and said,

"Bella. Can I talk to you for a minute?" I was going to say no, but I looked at Alice and Dad, both trying to make me say yes, so I just replied 'yes' and walked out to the back yard. I know Alice will hear me if I need help, but I'd rather not let my father hear what I have to say to him. "Talk" was all I said. "What happened to you, Bella? I used to be your best friend, and you barely look at me now." "What happened to me? You still need to ask what the hell happened to me?" I started screaming. "Do I have to remind you? YOU FUCKING TRIED TO RAPE MY DAUGHTER! YOU BEAT THE HELL OUT OF HER, YOU TOLD HER SHE WAS WORTHLESS AND YOU ALMOST RAPED HER, AND YOU ASK ME WHAT HAPPENED TO ME?" We were far enough so my dad couldn't hear me, but still, I didn't want him finding out about it. He'd do something stupid, so I started walking towards the forest behind the house. "SHE'S STILL HALF HUMAN, IT TOOK DAYS FOR HER TO RECOVER. YOU MANAGED TO BREAK HER WRIST, AND WORSE, HER SOUL." I couldn't scream anymore. I had no strength left, I was emotionally drained. "She still has nightmares, she can't be herself again, all thanks to you. What did you thing I'd do if I saw you again? Hug you and said I missed you? You're wrong" "I'm s" "If you say you're sorry, I'm ripping your head off!" "I don't know what happened to me that day, Bella, I swear." "I don't care. You broke her heart, and her soul. You were fucking drunk, and you should be glad it wasn't Edward that found you. He WOULD have killed you, even if it meant war." "I am sorry. I promise" "It doesn't matter anymore, Jacob. You'll never touch her again, you won't be near her again, you won't speak to her ever again. I don't care if you're hurt, if you fucking imprinted on her. The imprint was broken the moment you hurt her. You used to be my friend, but not anymore. And be glad I can control my temper, or you'd be dead by now." One bite and he'd be down. Our venom was like poison to werewolves, they'd die rather than be turned. With that, I turned and went back to the house. Alice was waiting me by the back door, arms open. I ran to her and she hugged me tight, saying I did a good job. I smiled a little, and we went inside. We both said goodbye to Charlie, and walked to the car. Charlie was in the porch, he waved and said, "Love you, girls, say hi to everyone." "Love you too, dad." We both said at the same time.

Once safely away, I started screaming. Alice probably saw it coming, I didn't scare her. I screamed and screamed I was furious. I'm glad I wasn't a human anymore, or I'd be crying right now. Alice waited for me to calm down. When I finally did, she grabbed my hand, - the other still on the steering wheel and squeezed it. She looked at me for a second, and after looking back to the road, started talking, "You did great, B. Really. You know we all hate the guy, but I'm glad you didn't kill him." Alice believes everyone needs a second chance. "You controlled your temper so well, in front of Charlie especially. I'm proud of you, sis." She smiled a little at me. I smiled back, mumbling 'thanks'. She wasn't done though, "Now, why the hell didn't you tell anyone that that dog tried to rape my niece? Bella, this is huge, you should've told us!" Alice was hurt, I could see it in her eyes. She thought I didn't trust her, which's just absurd. "Al, please. Renesmee asked me not to tell anyone, until she was ready. She still isn't. She has nightmares, she cries a lot, she's just not ready to let the whole family know. You know how everyone is, they'll overreact and she'll never see the light again. Everyone will be by her side 24-7, and that's not what she wants. She's trying to live a normal life again, and that'd be impossible if the family knew, and you know it!" "I yeah, I know it. Sorry, B. You did well, though. Not telling anyone was the best, back then. But it's been 15 years, they have a right to know. And you should probably start with Edward." I looked at her. Damn pixie was right. "Yes, Alice. You're right. I'll talk to her tonight, and we'll tell Edward this week, ok? Just please, please, don't think about it around him, let us do this on our own." I was pleading, pathetic I know. "Of course, Bells. You know me, I wouldn't do that to you." I sighed in relief. "Thanks, Al." The rest of the trip was uneventful. We talked about stuff, the dance next month, and all that. We arrived home it was about 9 p.m. already. The boys weren't back yet. Good. I was barely out of the car, when someone sprinted down the front door and hugged me like there was no tomorrow. Renesmee. "Mom!" she said, while hugging me, "I missed you."

Sunday RPOV Aunt Rose stayed with me the whole night. I slept throughout the night with no more nightmares, which was a good thing. I'm sure Rose was 'seeing' into my dreams to figure out what happened. She woke me up at 9 a.m. to get ready for the day. She had planned some things for us to do, human things like cooking and stuff. We went grocery shopping, we wanted to make something special, even though it'd be thrown away later. I decided I wanted cookies. I can't help it! So, we got all the ingredients for that, and started on our mission. We

looked like two little kids cooking, flour all over us, and the kitchen was a mess. But that was only because we were having a great time and 'fought' over the ingredients. The cookies turned out great. I don't know how, though. We cleaned up after, and I saved the cookies for later. I wouldn't throw them away, they looked so cute, with different formats. After that, Rose said we'd watch a movie. I made some popcorn and settle on one of the couches, snuggled on Rose. We decided on Pride and Prejudice, it's a great romantic story, and it reminded me of my parents' story. I think she was trying to make me forget the nightmare, and I have to tell you, it was working wonderfully. When the movie ended, we decided on a musical next. Esme joined us, and the three of us were singing along with Chicago. I love that movie. After it ended, we were so in the mood for more, we started watching Across the Universe. I love the Beatles, and the movie was just awesome. Really, combining Beatles songs with a movie like that was just amazing. I was so into it, I didn't hear the car approaching until it was already parked. I ran out of the house, full speed, right into my mother's arms. "Mom," I said, "I missed you." I hugged her tightly. "I missed you, too, May." I loved when she called me that. No one else did, which made it her special name for me. I smiled at her and let her go. "We have to talk." She said, looking serious. I just nodded and went inside, after greeting Alice with a hug and a kiss. They unloaded the car, and went to put the stuff away at their bedrooms. I waited in the living room. My mom was back in no time, and motioned for me to follow her. "Let's go outside for a walk, baby." I nodded and off we went. She was quiet for a while. I knew she wanted to talk about the nightmare, I wanted to too, but I don't think she knew where to start. "I saw Jacob today." She said, with an angry voice. She didn't look at me while saying that, but I didn't need Jasper to feel the anger emanating through her body. It was obvious. I was shocked, though, that she'd tell me that. "W-what?" I replied, my voice barely a whisper. "We went to visit Charlie on our way back, and he was there." "Oh." Was all I could say. I felt her arm around my shoulder, as she pulled me closer while we walked. We found some sort of meadow, and sat down. She leaned against a tree, and I leaned against her legs. "It took all my will to not rip his head off. I was so mad that he was at my father's house, after after everything. I spent the whole day ignoring him, but as we were leaving, he asked me to talk to him." "Did you?" I asked. "Oh, you bet I did. I told him everything, everything he did to you, and that he was to never even look at you again. He tried to say he was sorry, but I told him to well, ya know." She said, laughing a little. "He just said, 'I thought we were friends' and I told him, he used to be. But not anymore."

"Wow, Mom. I knew you were brave, but that was great." I said, turning around to look at her. She wasn't done, apparently. "May, we need to tell the family. I know I said we'd wait till you were ready, but it's been 15 years, - as Alice pointed out and he's not coming back, ever. I won't allow him to be near you. Alice found out, 'cause I well, I was a bit too loud, while talking to him. Okay, I was screaming really loud." I laughed, that's my mom! "And she heard me, so she knows. We have to tell your dad, sweetie, and soon." I sighed, "I know, momma, I know." I don't know how we kept it a secret for so long. "I was thinking about it, and I guess it's time. But, let me tell dad first, and then we'll tell the rest of the family, ok?" "Sure, baby." She said, and kissed my forehead. I went and sat beside her, and she wrapped her arms around me, snuggling me close. We stayed like this for a while, not talking, just being there. "I brought you something from L.A." My mom said suddenly. "But it's for your birthday, so you won't get it till September." I pouted, and she laughed. "I picked it out, and I loved it. I hope you will too." "I'm sure I will." I told her. And it's true. She knew me better than anyone, she'd know what I liked or hated. She sighed, and started getting up. It was getting late, and I needed to talk to daddy before going to bed. Good thing I didn't need the full eight hours of sleep. We ran back to the house, and everyone was sitting in the living room, waiting for us. Dad went to Mom and gave her a kiss. Really passionate. I turned around, and I heard a faint 'I missed you' while I walked to the nearest sofa and sat down. They stopped kissing, but kept staring at each other, embraced. I saw mom tense up, and guessed that was the time. "Bella, love, what's wrong?" My dad asked. "Renesmee needs to talk to you." She said, and looked at me. "Alone." My eyes went big. No way, my mom needs to be there. "Momma, please!" I told her, "Can't you be there?" "No, I think you both should talk alone, and you know it too. It's better this way." I sighed, why does she always have to be right? "Ok. Daddy can we go for a walk?" "Sure," he said. I was afraid of how he'd react. "He won't overreact, baby." Mom said, "I told him what it was about, and he promised he'd listen, okay?" "Thanks, Mom." I said, in a whisper.

And we were off.

Chapter 7 The reaction RPOV My dad and I started running through the woods. He was faster than me, but tonight he kept up with me. We reached the same meadow me and mom were not twenty minutes ago, and I sat down near the same tree. "Dad, there are some things I need to tell you. I think I'm ready, but you have to promise me, you'll listen first and react later, okay? Please, don't overreact!" I pleaded. We all knew how my dad was prone to overreact and be overprotective. It gets annoying after some time. "I promise." He said. I hope he sticks with his promise. "Okay," I took a deep breath and started. "You remember Jacob." He hissed. "Yes" "I I didn't tell you everything that happened." I looked down, a bit embarrassed, but mostly afraid. My dad put a hand under my chin, and lifted it up to look at him, "Don't be afraid, baby. I promised I'd listen." "You remember what happened, right?" "Yes," he replied. "Well, Mom just ran into Jacob today, and," I was interrupted, "WHAT?" my dad shouted, "Let me finish, will you?" I got a little angry. "So, she ran into him at grandpa's and she told him well, everything, how he's not to be near me and all that, and Alice heard her. I wasn't ready to tell anyone till some time ago, but I feel ready now. And before you ask, yes, mom knows everything, okay? Don't get mad at her, I was the one that asked her not to say anything." "Okay," was all he replied. "That day, everyone was out. Grandma and Grandpa had gone out, Emmett and Rose were on a date, as were Jasper and Alice, and you had gone to hunt. I was hanging around the big house with mom, we were watching some movies. I was tired, so I decided to go back to the cottage and sleep. She asked me if I wanted company, but I told her to wait for you at the big house, that I'd be fine." I started crying. It was so hard to remember all of this. "I took a shower and put on some PJ's, and I was almost asleep when I smelled Jacob. I decided to wait up for him, he probably wanted to wish me goodnight. He he got in without knocking, and went straight to my room. I-I could smell his breath, he was reeking of alcohol, he was probably very drunk. I asked him what he wanted, and he said he said" I couldn't finish, I was crying a lot.

"Shhhh, child. Calm down. Deep breaths," my dad's soothing voice told me, "just calm down." I did as I was told. What's it with me losing control twice in two days? I calmed down a little and continued, "He said, 'I'm here to get what's rightful mine'. He grabbed my wrists, and I tried to fight him off, but he was stronger. He broke my left wrist, and I started crying from the pain. He slapped me in the face, and told me to shut up. Then he started saying that I was a worthless piece of shit, that I never gave him anything he wanted, and that I've always been his, so he was going to get me. "He then started hitting me, and I was so surprised I didn't even defend myself. I looked into his eyes, and I could see the rage in them. I was really scared, I had never seen him like this at all. He hit me again, and I curled up in a ball near my bed to try and lessen the blows. He he pulled me up onto the bed and he" I took a deep breath. The worst was yet to come, and I could see my dad's face go from concerned to angry. I didn't worry about it, or else I wouldn't finish, and I needed to finish. "He ripped off my top, and started touching me. He was on top of me when I came out of my trance, and started screaming really loud, hoping that someone would hear me. He tried to silence me, but I kept on trashing and screaming. Two seconds later, I didn't feel him on me anymore. I opened my eyes, and sighed in relief. Mom was standing there, yelling and hitting Jacob so hard, she must've broken at least four of his ribs. He ran out and phased. "Mom was by my side in a flash, asking me where it hurt and all that. I told her, and the first thing I asked her was for her not to tell anyone. She didn't agree at first, but after some time she caved. So she helped me shower and clean the room, and carried me to your room. She stayed with me while I slept, and that was the first night I had nightmares since the Volturi. I woke up crying so much, she held me tight. I screamed in pain. "She looked at me, and gasped. I got up slowly, and looked at myself in the mirror. My left wrist was purple and it hurt so much. My back and sides hurt as well, so I lifted my shirt to see the damage. I had bruises all over. Mom helped me change and carried me to her car, and drove straight to the hospital. It was already 10 a.m. and grandpa Carlisle would be there. We got there, he casted my wrist and asked mom what happened. She just told him Jacob hit me, and broke my wrist. That was what we told everyone" Dad was more than angry. He was fuming. I knew he'd be like that. "Daddy," I said in a small voice, "I'm sorry." His face immediately turned to concern. "It's okay, sweetheart. I just can't believe I didn't know about this. I am going to kill that, that dog." He got up, and for the looks of it, he was ready to run all the way to La Push, "NO! Daddy, don't! Don't go there by yourself, please, what if anything happens to you, I can let that happen, please, daddy," I was crying again. He walked back and wrapped his arms around me. "Shh, sorry, I'm sorry Ness, I'm not thinking straight." "It's okay." I buried my face on the spot right under his neck. I was feeling so tired.

"You know I'd never do anything to hurt you, baby. But, I'm not going to let that stupid mutt get away from this, okay. But I promise I won't go alone." I nodded. He spoke again, "For how long have you been having nightmares?" I was dreading this question. I sighed and replied, "Almost every day." He looked confused, "But, I never heard you. How could I have missed the obvious signs?" I could tell he was angry at himself now. "Daddy it's not your fault okay? I usually didn't make any sounds, and when I did, you heard me. You knew I had nightmares, just not how often. Mom knew cause I'd tell her. No one else knows okay?" "Okay," he replied. "How come your mother knows everything?" "Daddy, she saved me. She knew right away. And as for the nightmares well, sometimes she'd sleep with me when you were away, and she'd 'watch' my dreams. She'd hear me cry at night, and come see me. She's also the only one that can shield you, so you wouldn't need to worry." I'm so glad I learned how to shield him too. He was so angry back then, and he didn't know the whole story. He almost broke the treaty by going to La Push, but mom and I didn't let him. He wouldn't find anyone there anyways, we knew Jacob was 'on the run' and was nowhere to be found. A month after that, we decided it was time to move on, and started our trips throughout the world. "I'm sorry, I just still can't believe you both kept this from me for so long." "I'm sorry, daddy, I really am. But, mom knew I wanted to keep going on with my life and, if you knew, or Uncle Jazz or Uncle Emm even Rosie, you'd never let me out of your sight again, and I didn't want anyone's pity. Mom helped me, she saw what I really wanted and supported me, instead of becoming an overprotective parent, like I knew you would. Please, please, don't get mad at us and please, let me live my life without the over protectiveness." I said all this without even moving from my spot on the crook of his neck. I was really comfortable. "I'm not mad, love. I'm just frustrated. The two most important girls in my life were hurting, and I didn't do anything." He was right. Mom was hurting just as much, mostly because she had to see me break down every other week. It hurt her to see me so broken. "I told you, it's not your fault, dad." I yawned. "I love you, daddy." "I believe you. And I think it's time to go back, you need to sleep. And I love you too, my love" I just nodded, I was really tired. He got up with me and carried me back to the house. Everyone was in the living room, probably waiting for us. Dad passed them and took me to my room. I heard someone following behind, and I looked up to see mom with a worried expression. Dad put me on my bed, and kissed me on the forehead. I could see he was really angry. Mom hugged him tight, and whispered, "calm down, Edward, please." He looked at mom, nodded

and took a deep, unnecessary breath. She kissed him on the lips and said they'd talk later. He went downstairs, and I could hear him start the lullaby he wrote for me when I was little. Playing the piano was one of the only things that calmed him down. Mom laid down beside me. She held me close, and I put my head on the crook of her neck, just like I did with dad, and sighed, contently. She kissed my forehead and whispered, "Sweet dreams, my Renesmee." I was feeling somewhat lighter, after talking to my daddy, it was like a weight lifted off my shoulders. I kissed my mom's neck, - that was all I could reach and drifted off to sleep.

Chapter 8 Vegetarians RPOV I woke up the next day feeling relieved. Mom was still lying next to me, so I sighed contently and buried my face on her shoulder. She had such an amazing scent. She hugged me and whispered, "Time to wake up, sweetie. We have to go to school, and Alice and I have something for you." I looked up, confused. "You'll see it soon," mom said. I got up, and started getting ready for school. Took a shower, brushed my teeth, and combed my hair. When I was done with that, I heard Aunt Alice calling a family meeting. I just put on some jeans and a shirt and went barefoot to see what it was all about. I got into the living room, and Alice and Mom had this smile on their faces, it was quite amusing, really. They were holding some bags, most likely from their trip. Dad was looking quite confused. Mom must've been protecting Alice's mind. What was all that about? Like she'd read my mind, mom started speaking, "Alice had this vision while we were shopping. Apparently, we were all going to be in a bad mood today. Now we know why," she said while looking at me. I blushed a little and looked down, "so we decided to get all of us something different to wear to school today." She finished with a smile. Alice handed each one a small bag, and said, "I think we should all wear it today. We'll get a kick from the funny faces staring at us all. And it'll make us a little less sad." She laughed a little. We all grabbed our bags, and went into our rooms to change. Everyone trusted Alice's instinct and fashion sense, no one doubted about it for a second. I finished getting ready, putting my hair up in a ponytail and putting my top on. It was purple. We all met at the cars, and looked at each other. Everyone laughed, but you could hear Emmett's laugh the loudest. He was always in for some joke, even a small inside joke like ours. We arrived in school in no time, and started making our way to our first classes. Mom, Alice and I were heading to English, while the rest were going to their classes. Everyone looked at us when we passed, it was really amusing. Everyone in the family had a t-shirt, with different colors, saying simply 'Vegetarian'. I had to say, it was quite an inventive idea from Alice and Mom. And it did help with our mood, just seeing the face some of the students made was worth it. We got to English in no time, and I sat next to Sara while Alice and Bella sat behind us. "Nice shirt," Sara said, quite amused. "Pretty creative." "Thanks," I replied, "Alice and Bella got one from each of us when they went to their trip." "I didn't know you were a veggie, though. I mean, you had that burger at the mall." Sara looked confused. It took all my strength not to laugh at her face. I couldn't tell her the reason behind it, so I settled for a subtle lie, again,

"Yeah, well, I wanted to try something different. But, that burger tasted disgusting. I'm keeping to my diet from now on." I laughed a little. "Cool," she replied. "So, the whole family's vegetarian?" She asked innocently. I laughed a bit. If only she knew. "Yes," was all I said. The teacher then started the lecture, so we had to pay attention. Before I knew it, it was lunch time. We all walked into the full cafeteria, and went straight to our table, not bothering to grab any prop food. Alice was the first one to talk, "They're really entertaining to watch, don't you think?" she laughed a bit, talking about all the students that were still staring at us. "Their thoughts are quite amusing as well. I must say Alice, that was a great idea. I can't even remember why I was in such a bad mood," he winked at me, giving me that crooked smile only he knew how to give. The one that always makes mom weak of her knees. Yep, I know this kind of stuff, weird, isn't it? "Thanks, Alice," I said, smiling, "it did help me a lot." I gave her an one armed hug, since she was sitting next to me. She pecked my cheek, and smiled. "I knew it," she said, pointing to her forehead. Of course, the pixie fortune-teller would know. I smiled back and said, "Of course," like it was the most obvious thing in the world. I wanted to tell the family right away, about everything I told dad last night. I was thinking of how to do it, when I hear mom whisper to me, "Let's wait till we get home, sweetie, please." She was touching my hand, and I unconsciously let her into my mind. "You know how they are, they'll make a scene, and we don't want that, do we?" She kept whispering, no one on the family heard us, but they were staring, "Want to share what you were whispering, Bella?" Dad asked, "What's with the sudden fear?" Jasper asked right after dad, "It's nothing," mom replied to both of them, "just talking, is all." She gave dad a pointed look, and he must've known what it was about. He nodded and said 'ok' and went back into the previous conversation. The bell rang, and I remembered. I had Calc next, with Nick. I haven't thought about him for the whole weekend, but now it came back full force. I have to talk to him, and show him I'm not some snob slutty girl. I headed to class with Sara, and we headed to our usual seats. I spotted Nick right behind us, so I turned around to talk to him. "Nick, hi," I said excited, "how are you?" He looked at me and blushed a little. Why? He was the most popular guy in school, he shouldn't be embarrassed or anything, right? "Hi, Nessie," he replied, shyly. "I'm good and you?" I took that as a good sign.

"Oh, I'm great," I smiled at him, "I had the best weekend ever, what about you?" He looked stunned. Shocked, even. I guess people aren't at all interested in him like that, they just want to be near him for the 'fame' he had on school. We continued with the small talk, he asked about the shirts - till the teacher arrived in class. He was really a sweet guy, and I couldn't imagine why people were only his friends for his popularity. I gave him my cell number, telling him we should talk some more later, and he smiled at me. A real smile, the one that makes you go weak on your knees. I smiled back, and started paying attention to the teacher. Sara was looking at me quite perplexed. I gave her a small smile and mouthed 'tell you later' and went back to the lecture. The day ended quite fast for my liking, and we were back home in no time. I was to tell them all about the whole Jacob thing, but I didn't know if I could repeat it all. It hurt so much just to think of it, imagine talking about it, twice in less than 24 hours. We all sat down at our living room. Mom and Aunt Alice sat beside me, while Rose and Emmett sat across us, and Jasper sat on the floor next to Alice. Dad was sitting next to mom, holding her to him. Grandma joined us, sitting on a chair next to Rose. I took a deep breath, and started talking. "I have something to tell you all," I said, "and it's serious." They all looked at me, expectantly. Rose spoke up, "Is it about the nightmare?" I nodded. Emmett looked puzzled, "What nightmare?" Rose told him, "She had a nightmare on Saturday, and it was so horrible, she woke up screaming and crying, and she even yelled at us that she wanted to talk to Bella at all costs" she was interrupted, "Renesmee!" Mom exclaimed. I looked at her apologetically, and mouthed 'sorry'. Rose continued with her story, "She talked to Bella and seemed to calm down immediately. She went back to sleep and I watched her dreams, but she slept soundlessly and dreamlessly." Mom looked at me again, and smile a little. She liked the idea that she could still calm me down, even after I grew up. I smiled back, and heard Emmett complain, "Why didn't we know about it?" I was the one to tell him this time, "I didn't want anyone to know, Uncle Em, sorry." "But Bella knows." He was still complaining, "Yes, of course dear Uncle, she's my mother, and she was there. It wasn't like I could hide it from her." He decided to let it go. I took a deep breath, and looked up. I was leaning into my mother, who was leaning into my father. It would be comical, if we weren't in need of comfort. My parents gave me an encouraging smile, and Aunt Alice squeezed my hand to

show she also would help me. I took another breath, and began my tale. I told them everything, from the beginning. I told them about the attack, everything he said, what he tried to do to me. I told them how Mom saved me, how she must've broken half of Jacob's bones. How dad wanted to hunt him down, but we didn't let him. How he ran away. I told the encounter mom had with him at grandpa's. How Alice found out, how I told my dad everything last night, and made him promise not to go after Jacob alone. Jasper nodded, approvingly. I bet he just did that cause he wanted to take part on the 'fight'. I also told them why I didn't tell them all before, "I wanted to have a normal life, I didn't want anyone's pity and really didn't want anyone hovering over me. I knew that all of you would be totally overprotective, and stay on my back 24-7, and I didn't want that. I'm sorry I didn't tell anyone, but I wasn't ready. And don't get mad at Mom either, I made her promise not to tell anyone, okay?" They nodded, and I looked at Uncle Jasper, "Uncle Jazz, have anything to say?" I asked. They all had perplexed faces, probably trying to figure out how I managed to keep it a secret for so long. As if reading my mind, he asked, "How did you keep this a secret? It's an impossible task in this family!" "Obviously not. And no one was here, so no one heard anything apart from Mom, and she's a shield, and I also learned how to protect my mind, so it wasn't all that difficult. We just didn't tell the whole story, that was all. I'm sorry." I looked down, "It's okay, Nessie." Aunt Rose spoke, "I understand how you feel, and why you didn't want to tell anyone." Of course, Aunt Rose was raped just before she was turned. "We're still going after him, right?" Uncle Emmett asked, quite hopeful. I looked at him, than Uncles Jasper, than Dad. They all had the same looks on their faces. They wanted a fight. "W-what?" I stuttered. What if they got hurt? What if they killed Jacob, and started a war with the wolves? There weren't that many left, most of them stopped phasing, but there were enough to make some damages. "I promised I wouldn't go alone, Ness," my dad said, "and I'm keeping that promise. The three of us are going there, we'll leave in a few hours. We just need a strategy." All the women looked at them, fear all over our faces, "No way!" mom said, "it's too dangerous. What if you get killed? What if they declare war?" "We don't care. He hurt our niece, we hurt him." Emmett said. Their minds were made up, there was nothing we could say to stop them now.

"You better call every hour, or we will make sure you're dead," Rosie threatened. She always hated the wolves, she must think Jacob deserves it anyways. They started planning, and I left the room. I couldn't stand it, how they were so careless with their lives, for me. A few hours later, they were set to go. They all kissed and hugged us, lingering a little. Mom and I hugged Dad as if there were no tomorrow, and he kissed our forehead, whispering 'I love you' to us, "We love you, too, Dad," I told him, "please, be safe." He nodded, and left. Jasper and Emmett followed him, and they were off to Forks. I really hope they don't get themselves killed.

Chapter 9 The Fight EPOV We got into Forks within two hours. It was already dark, but it wasn't a problem to us. We went straight to Charlie's house. According to Bella, Jacob spends most of his time there now. Charlie was the one to answer the door, and we all stepped inside. "What a surprise! What brings you by?" Charlie asked. "Jacob." Was all I answered. He probably heard us, he was in the living room in a second. "Edward?" He asked, surprised. "Jacob," I hissed, "how about you accompany us on a walk in the forest?" I said, in an authoritarian voice. I didn't want Charlie witnessing what was about to happen. "Ah o-kay." He replied, confused and scared. He followed us into the woods, and soon Leah and Seth joined us. "What's this all about?" Leah asked. "Jacob knows, don't you, Jacob?" He didn't reply, but I could hear his thoughts. "Guess Bella told them about our little talk." "You're right, Jacob, she did. But let me refresh your memory once again. We're here, after all these years, to make you pay for what you did to Nessie. Did you know, it took her 15 years to come clean with us? Because she was afraid of how we'd react. Because you scarred her for life, Jacob. Did you know that?" He still didn't say anything, but Leah and Seth were looking at us with their mouths open. "You think you'd beat the crap outta her, try to rape her, and not feel the consequences?" "You tried to rape Nessie?" Leah asked, her mouth still open. "I can't believe it! After all you made us go through because of her, you go and hurt her? What are you, insane?" "I-I, I was drunk!" He tried to defend himself. "I don't care if you were fucking high, what were you thinking? Oh right, you weren't. You're never thinking of the consequences, you just act. Why? To get a thrill out of life? To show off? I can't believe you." "I didn't mean to" he started again, but this time I interrupted,

"Didn't mean to? What? Do you think you just got drunk and decided 'oh, let's go hurt Nessie now' and that was all. You know, this idea must've been in your head for some time. You just needed the guts to go with it. Did you really think my daughter would go out with a scum like you?" I was so enraged, I was spitting out venom while talking. "She didn't talk to me about any of that, she learned how to shield her mind, I had no idea of what happened. How do you think you survived all this long?" He was scared now. Good. "My niece, the most amazing and innocent little girl, almost had to go through such a burden because of you. You should really be scared, you know." Emmett said, while flexing his muscles. "I knew you didn't have a good mind, I just knew it. You showed your true self that one day, when you kissed Bella by force. Then, if that weren't enough, you made her believe you were actually going to try and kill yourself during the battle against the newborns, just so she'd kiss you again. Seriously, Jacob, I don't know what got into me when I thought you'd actually be a good partner for my daughter." "I I" he couldn't form a full word. "I'm glad we're living far away from here, just so I don't have to look at your face every day. I don't care if the wolves declare war on us, we're getting our justice tonight." "No one is declaring war after this, Edward, I'll make sure of it." Leah said. It actually surprised me, she always loathed us. "Thank you, Leah." My brothers and I got ready for the action. It seems like he'd be by himself, Leah and Seth are disgusted? Oh wow. Jacob looked at us and thought, "It's coming." Damn right it is. I saw both Leah and Seth step back, trying not to interfere. We started circling him. He was crouched in position, but he knew he didn't stand a chance. Not against the fastest, the strongest and the strategist. But none of us came to kill. At least not tonight. I think. Emmett approached him, and in a second, had Jacob in a firm grip. I looked right into his eyes, and started, "That's for my daughter," I punched his face, "and that's for kissing my Bella by force." I couldn't do anything back then. Now was my chance. "You're never laying your eyes on them again," I punched him again, this time on the stomach. He tried to hit me back, but only gotair. I hit him harder, and he fell to the floor. Emmett kicked him on the ribs. Jasper threw some punches as well, I think he broke Jacob's nose. Good. We weren't getting tired, obviously, but the anger was starting to fade away. We hit him some more, just for the fun of it. It really was a good exercise!

When we were done, we high fived each other. We were all in control, didn't go for his neck once as well. We stopped, and he was on the floor, almost crying from the pain we inflicted. Leah and Seth were still looking, still like statues. Maybe they thought he deserved it. He never told anyone about what he did. Seth was looking at us with a strange face. Amazed, scared, confused. I don't think he understood everything. I tried paying attention to his thoughts, "What the hell was all this about?" Yep, clueless. "You did hear us before, right Seth?" I asked him. Surely that kid couldn't be that dense. "Yeah," he replied. I sighed and started explaining again, "He went to our cottage one night, everyone was out. Nessie was getting ready to sleep when he barged in, and started hitting her, saying things like 'you're worthless' or 'you're mine' and all that, and he grabbed her so hard he broke her wrist. He tried to hurt her, and she finally came out of her daze and screamed. Luckily for her, Bella was at the big house, she heard Ness and ran right onto Jacob. I think she must've broken half his ribs. Nessie shut down for a while, and Bella only said Jacob hurt her. We didn't know all that happened until last night. But I guess we had our justice tonight." Seth looked at me, his face shocked. I figured he couldn't believe Jacob would do something like that, to the girl he imprinted on nonetheless. "If I'd known about this, I would've made sure he wasn't anywhere near her again." Seth was still loyal to us. He had a good mind. Leah helped Jacob to get up, and looked at us, "He got what he deserved. Now, I'm gonna go take care of him." We just shrugged. We all got all our anger out. Seth looked at us, and asked, "You didn't come here to kill, did you?" We all shook our heads. "Making him suffer like that is more rewarding. If he's dead, he doesn't feel the pain he should for hurting my little girl. We all decided he needed to learn a lesson, not get killed." We started walking back to Charlie's. He was in the front porch, waiting for us. "What happened? Leah passed through with Jacob and disappeared." I didn't want to tell Charlie the whole story, I know the guy was strong, but he wasn't getting any younger and he sure would go after Jacob. With his gun. We looked at each other, and I spoke, "We just needed to set some things straight with Jacob. He'll be fine in a few weeks." Charlie just nodded and sighed. He didn't want to know, and we didn't want to tell. Could this be more perfect? "Well, that was why we came here. We should go back now."

We said our goodbyes to Charlie and Seth, and started our way back. A few miles away, I heard Jacob's thoughts, "Damn leeches. I'll get my revenge, just wait and see." I just looked at my brothers, and told them what I heard. They sighed, and Jasper said, "Is he stupid or something?" Most likely. So, instead of going home to our families, we went back to our old house. We needed a new plan.

Chapter 10 The girls BPOV They were going to Forks in a few hours. I was so scared, but I couldn't let him know. Edward needed to get his anger out somehow, and I was sure I didn't want to be near him when he did. He and Jasper were talking, probably some sort of strategy if the wolves ever decide to stand up to Jacob. Emmett was with them, but not caring much about it. He just wanted a good fight. A few minutes later, they came out. I got up from the couch, where I was still holding my crying daughter, and went to Edward. I grabbed his hand, and took him to our room, upstairs. We lay on our bed, just holding each other. I was really scared, and he must've noticed. I looked into his face, and barely whispering, asked, "Are you sure?" He looked at me, and kissed me on the forehead, "I hate to leave you girls here, but I need to do this. He needs to pay, I don't care if it's been 15 years, he still needs to pay. I'll be careful, I promise, love." He said, and then gave me a sweet kiss on the lips. "I'm scared," I admitted. "Don't be, love, I'll be okay." He tried to comfort me again, kissing me sweetly. I cuddled up more, and he kissed my hair. We were like this for a while, till we heard someone come into our room. We looked up, and Nessie was standing there, with her tear stained face. She looked so broken, it hurt to look. "Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to interrupt," she said, her hand already on the door knob. "You're not interrupting anything, baby, come sit with us." Edward said. She sat on both our laps, her head resting on my shoulder. We were all silent, just enjoying the company. Edward would be leaving soon. As if on cue, he sighed, "Jasper wants to talk to me," he said, getting up. He blew us a kiss and went to talk to Jasper. "You'll think he'll be okay, Momma?" Nessie asked me, quietly. "I don't know, May, I hope so." "I'm so scared," she said, "Me, too, baby." I admitted. I hugged her closer, and she held onto me. I heard Edward calling us, so I just picked her up and went down the stairs. When we got down, I heard Renesmee whisper,

"I do know how to walk, Mom." I laughed a bit, and gave her a kiss, "I know baby, but you looked comfy." She just looked at me, and nodded. We looked at Edward, and he approached us, "It's time, we're leaving, but we'll be back before you know it." He said. Then he hugged us both, and we clung to him like there was no tomorrow. He kissed our foreheads and whispered, 'I love you'. Nessie looked at him and said, "We love you, too, Dad. Please, be safe." I lifted my shield, and thought, "Please, be careful, Edward. I love you so much." He nodded, and they all left. I was panicking already. I took a deep, unnecessary breath, and tried to calm myself. I excused myself from the room, and went back to ours. I sat there, looking out the window, not really doing anything, just being there. I couldn't think straight, so I just gave up on that too. I was sure that, if I could cry, tears would be coming down my eyes right now. I couldn't believe they really went there. The wolves could declare war because of that, and I was not sure I was ready for something like that. What if my Edward got hurt? Killed? I knew Jacob's pack was short, just him, Leah and Seth again, and the other pack was only made of young wolves, because everyone had stopped phasing to be with their loved ones. But young wolves were even worse, they didn't know what they were doing, and they probably didn't know about us. I shuddered, remembering how it was when I was human, among the wolves. They were more dangerous than us, the vampires. At least we reasoned better, and did not jump to any conclusions before attacking. I didn't know exactly what was going to happen. I guess that was what scared me the most. I sat there for what seemed like hours. It was already dark outside, and I hadn't even noticed. I decided to check on the girls, to see what they were doing. I found them on the living room. Renesmee was cuddled up with Rose, watching a movie, while Alice and Esme were sitting on the music room, talking so quietly I didn't understand what they were saying. I went to them first, to see if they needed anything. "Bella," Esme exclaimed, "how are you, dear?" I went to her, and just like a little kid needing her mom, sat on her lap and rested my head on her shoulder. "I'm so scared, Mom." I admitted, yet again. "I don't know what I'll do if anything happens" I was almost crying or dry sobbing. "Bella, shhh, they'll be fine, honey. They'll be back home in no time, you'll see." She hugged me tighter, and rocked me. "You think so?" I asked in a small voice.

"Yes, honey, I do." She replied. "They'll be fine, B. You worry so much." Alice said. I laughed a little. "I know but I can't help it sometimes. It's just who I am, I always worry." "We know," Alice said with a smile, "that's why we love you." I sighed, and let Esme comfort me. It felt good to let go of all responsibilities for a while, and be held by my mom. Esme is as much a mother to me as Renee. We talked a little, telling Esme about our shopping trip, which we didn't have time to share with anyone because of this mess. She was delighted to know Alice actually controlled herself, and enjoyed herself more. We laughed a bit, after we told her about how our customized shirts were the talk of the school this morning. She really liked it, and we promised to get her one too, as soon as we could. Maybe I'd order it online. I looked at the clock, and it was 11pm. Still. I gave Esme another hug, and got up, "Thanks for the chat, Mom, and for distracting me. It worked, I'm calmer." I winked at her. "Now, it's my time to be the mom." "It's no problem, Bella. Anytime. I should see what Carlisle is up to." She got up and went upstairs. I walked into the living room to see that the movie they were watching had just ended. I went over to where they were, and kneeled down next to them. "May, baby. It's late, come on, let's get ready for bed." I said gently. She didn't argue, just got up and kissed her aunt goodnight. She said a goodnight a bit louder so everyone else would hear, and we went to her room. While she took a shower, I grabbed her PJ's and laid them out for her. A second later, I heard my phone ring. I answered it before the second ring, barely checking the caller ID. "Edward?" I answered the phone, "Bella," Edward said, softly. "How are you? Are you hurt? What did you do? When are you coming home?" "Calm down, love. I'm fine, Jasper's fine, Emmett's more than fine. No one's hurt can't say the same for Jacob though. We hurt him pretty badly." Relieved, I said, "I miss you, Edward. Are you guys coming soon?" "I miss you too, my love. And I'm afraid we'll have to stay a little longer. Apparently, the beating didn't do Jacob any good, he wants revenge. Leah said she'd make sure there was no war, but we'll stay a while to be sure, okay? We'll be careful, I promise, Bella."

"You better. If anything happens to you, I'll kill you myself." I told him, trying to disguise my anguish with sarcasm. "Don't worry, love. Nothing's going to happen. I have to go now, but I'll call you later, okay?" "Yeah, okay. I love you, Edward." "I love you, too, Bella. Tell Nessie I love her, will you?" "Of course. Bye." I hung up. Renesmee got out of the bathroom, showered, teeth brushed, and ready to bed. She looked at me and asked, "Momma will you stay with me tonight? I'm scared." "Of course, baby. Lie down." She did as told, and I lay down next to her. She snuggled close, and I hugged her to me. "Your dad just called. He asked me to tell you that he loves you." I informed her. "Is he okay?" She asked. "Yes, he is. They beat up Jacob, apparently, and now he wants revenge. They're staying a little longer to make sure it doesn't turn into a war." I told her honestly. "Thanks for letting me know, Mom." "Sure, baby. Now, tell me, how was your weekend? We didn't get a chance to talk after all this." She smiled and looked up, "It was the best, Momma. Sara came over, and she didn't care about the whole being rich thing. We went to the mall, watched a movie, and ate. I tried to eat a burger, but it was horrible," I laughed a little, "then Esme picked us up and she hung around here. We talked a lot, she asked about the family, so I told her, everyone was so awesome, and that I loved you all, and she said she could tell by the way I was talking about you. I found out she didn't have any friends, so I vowed to be the best friend she'll ever have. I bought her a dress for the dance next month." I smiled and kissed her forehead, "That's so great, hun. I told you you'd make friends." "Anyways, after I had the nightmare, Rose stayed with me the whole night. The next day, we had a lot of fun. We baked cookies, and they were really good. We watched some movies. Pride and Prejudice, which reminds me of you and dad, and" I interrupted her, "Why does it remind you of us?" "Well Mr. Darcy and Lizzie hated each other at first, like you thought Daddy hated you, but in the end they realize they're in love with each other, just like you and Daddy." She smiled again. It kinda made sense.

"Okay, continue." "Then we watched Chicago, and we had just finished Across the Universe when you and Aunt Alice arrived." "Sounds like you had a good time, sweetie." "I did! And today I talked to Nick at school!" she beamed, "he was so sweet." "Nick? Oh, the Calc guy?" She had told me about him briefly. "Yeah, he's nice and all, and I kinda like him," she said, barely in a whisper. I smiled at her and said, "I'm glad you do, baby. Means you're starting to get over the thing." It was still hard for me to talk about it. She smiled again, "Momma, will you tell me something?" "Of course, May." She beamed. She loved being called that. "How was your weekend?" I laughed, "You know, it was awesome, too. Your Aunt Alice actually behaved herself, and we had a great time. She didn't jump into all the stores, we just acted our age for once, laughed and talked a lot. I really missed being with Alice, you know?" "Yeah, I know, Mom. You and her are perfect for each other, you know? Like you complete her and vice versa. I think it's really cute." She smiled at me. I touched her nose with my index finger, "I think so, too. Anyways, after you called, Alice started asking some questions, so I just told her you'd tell everyone when you were ready. She decided to drop it, and told me we'd go back through Forks so I could see Charlie. We arrived there, and the dog was there, but we ignored him for the whole day. We talked with Charlie a bit, and as we were leaving, Jacob asked to talk to him. The rest you know. Then I got home, and was attacked by my daughter, that almost hugged me to death," I laughed, hugging her a bit tighter. "Sorry about that, Momma. I really missed you." "I'm not complaining. I really like it that you still rely on me so much. Most kids usually hate their parents. I'm glad you're not one of them." "I have the best parents ever. I could never hate you, Momma. I love you. More than my own life." She quoted the inscription on the locket I gave her all those years ago. She still wears it. "Nah, I have the best daughter in the world." I told her. "I love you." She snuggled closer, and I kissed her hair. I knew our little moment would be ruined, though. I needed to tell her about my past.

"May, before you go to sleep, there's something I've been meaning to talk to you." "What is it, Mom?" I took a deep breath, and said, "It's about Jacob." She shifted a bit, but I held her close. "One day, thirty-something years ago, he kissed me. By force. I broke my hand trying to punch him." I told her, "I'm sorry I never told you, he had this illusion that I loved him and would trade your father for him, and he went and kissed me one day." "I can't believe it!" she almost yelled, I held her close, and whispered, "I'm sorry." She looked at me, shocked, "Why, Momma? It was not your fault. I'm mad at Jacob. He just keeps ruining my life." She confessed, "I'm sure your father gave him what he deserved for hurting both of us, sweetie. Now, calm down, it's really late and we are going to school tomorrow. Do you want me to watch your dreams?" "I'm okay, I'm calming down. And yes, please, Momma." I kissed her hair once more, and said, "Sweet dreams, baby, love you." "Love you, too, Momma." And she was asleep.

Chapter 11 - Plan? EPOV We went to our old house, and started setting up. It was a good thing we had most of our stuff there. As soon as we got in, I called Bella. She answered immediately, she was probably waiting for the call. She sounded so scared. I tried to comfort her the best I could, but I knew she'd only calm down after we were all home. I told her about Jacob's thoughts and that we'd take a while to go home. She didn't like that, but I reassured her we were all fine. I heard Jasper call me while I was talking to Bella, so I just tried to comfort her one more time, "Don't worry, love. Nothing's going to happen. I have to go now, but I'll call you later, okay?" "Yeah, okay. I love you, Edward." She didn't sound at all convinced about it though. "I love you, too, Bella. Tell Nessie I love her, will you?" "Of course. Bye." I heard her say and she hung up. I sighed, and went to Jasper. "So, what are we going to do? Hit him again? It won't work, you know that." I said in one breath. "Calm down, Edward," Jasper said, sending a calm wave my way, "we'll talk to Seth and figure out what Jacob wants to do, and we'll go from there, okay?" I just nodded. It was probably a good idea to talk to Seth before doing anything harsh. I mean, as much as we liked beating up Jacob, that wasn't really the solution. We decided to go hunting while waiting for a reasonable hour to wake up Seth. And also we needed full strength if anything were to happen. After we were all full, we went back to the house and waited At 8 a.m. we were knocking on Charlie's door. Seth was already up, so we went straight to his room, which I noticed was Bella's old room. He and Leah shared it on occasion, apparently. Leah mostly stays in La Push, though. Seth told us that Leah calmed Jacob down after the fight. And that he was hurt badly, even for a wolf, so it'd take a few days for him to be fully recovered. He didn't know about any plans, and reassured us that there'd be no war. The other wolves were young, and very few, so there was no need to worry at all. We decided to stay for a few days though, to make sure it'd be all fine. I was hoping it would.

Three days later, and a message from Leah saying she knew Jacob was up to something was all we got. Jacob knew I could only hear him from a distance, and he's been very cautious about it, but I knew he was around. I just didn't know what he was up to. Leah reassured us that none of the other wolves heard about our little incident, and that they wouldn't know anytime soon. So we decided to go back home.

Jacob POV right after the fight I couldn't phase, because I was really hurt. Leah walked with me to the forest, then phased and carried me on her back. When I thought we were safely away, I thought about my revenge. Hopefully Edward didn't hear that. She brought me to my house, and helped me onto the couch. She disappeared for a while, and came back with some gauze and peroxide to clean my wounds. It really stung. After she was done, she left again. This time, she went far, no idea where. But I didn't care. I was furious. Those damn leeches. Seriously, beating me up for something that happened fifteen years ago? Gee, they sure knew how to hold a grudge. I mean, okay. They had their reasons. I did something really stupid. And, as Bella said, I was glad it was her and not Edward that found me that day. But that was a long time ago, and I should get over it. Should. But I won't. Because despite it all, I still loved Nessie. I imprinted on her, damn it. I vowed to protect her, no matter what. And I don't care who gets on my way, I'm going to get her back somehow. A plan started formulating itself in my head. Did that even make sense? Whatever. I wanted revenge. Those leeches had to pay for what they did to me. And Seth too. And probably Leah, but she's been helping me, so she's free. I mean, how could they just stand there and watch while I got the crap beaten outta me? Seriously, not something I intended on letting go easily. Seth had looked at me with a disgusted face. Why? Okay, so maybe I was out of bounds with Nessie. But she was mine. No one can deny that. Leah was back. She told me she had gone out to talk to Seth while I rested. She looked at me, and asked, "What are you doing?" I was confused. I was just sitting here, thinking. "What do you mean?" I asked her. "I know that look, you're planning something. And knowing you, it's probably something really stupid. So, forget it. Whatever it is, it's not going to work." Some way to break my good mood.

"Leah, please," I said, dismissively, "I'm not planning anything. I was just thinking." "Yeah, right." She said. She knew me well. "I just want revenge." I told her, truthfully. Her eyes almost bulged out. She looked at me like I'd lost my mind. "Are you insane? Look at what they did to you. They're stronger, more prepared than you. And" she stopped. I looked up and prompted, "And?" "I think you deserved it." She said lowly. "WHAT?" I screamed. "How dare you?" "Please, Jacob," she sneered, "you just up and go to her house, try to have your way with her, and expect things to be perfectly normal? I don't like them, you know that, but liking or not, they're family. Bella's my step-sister, making Nessie my niece. Right now, I don't care if they're vampires, witches or whatever. You hurt family, I had every right to let them hurt you. Seth thinks the same. Except for the fact that he really likes them all." I looked at her, dumbfolded. What the hell just happened? "And so, if you plan on getting any sort of revenge on them, make sure not to let me know. Or else, you better run fast." I gulped. She looked serious about the whole thing. "I didn't know you felt that way, Leah." I told her. For me, she always seemed like the cold hearted bitch that no one liked. "You don't know many things about me, Jacob Black." She took a deep breath, and continued, "Charlie helped us after after dad died. He helped my mom, and he seemed to like it. She was happy around him. And, if she were happy, so was I. No matter what. I grew used to the idea of being sisters with a vampire." She didn't even call them bloodsuckers. "We didn't get to know each other that much, but Bella is okay, and Nessie was really sweet as a kid. They saw me as family, even though I didn't. Tonight I felt like repaying them." I was angry, "By letting them beat me? What the hell, Leah?" "As I said, you deserved it. You hurt a sweet, innocent girl. You didn't deserve her, you know. She was too much for you. I guess that was why you tried to hurt her like that." Okay, enough with the pep talk. It was driving me insane.

"Whatever, Leah. I'm going to bed, thanks for taking care of me. I'm healing already, no need to get stuck here with me." I told her, resentful. "I wanted to help, Jacob. You really don't know me at all." With that, she stalked out of my house. Not that I cared. I decided that I needed a good night of sleep before really planning anything. So I just turned off the light, and in an instant, fell asleep. The next day came sooner than I hoped. I was feeling better already, most of my cuts were healed, but some ribs were still hurting. I decided to take a walk around the beach, to clear my head before planning anything. I went to all the places I used to hang out with Bella. And then with Nessie. That just brought back some memories, which were not a good thing at the moment. After being deserted by both members of my pack, I knew I'd have to deal with it myself. I decided to phase, and check out the forests for any sign of the Cullens. I was good enough to phase and take a run, I just shouldn't overdo it. I went to their old place, and sure enough, could smell them. I tried to keep my mind blank, cause I knew Edward would be listening. I tried to listen to them, but I couldn't go too near the house, or they'd find me. I needed to find out where they were living right now. I really needed to know. I put it in my head already, and there was no turning back. So I waited and waited. Three days later, they started to pack up to leave. They must've decided I wasn't going to attack. So I waited until they were a few miles away. And I followed them.

Chapter 12 Not again RPOV They were taking so long to come back. I missed them. And I was so scared, what if something bad happened to them? It's been three days already. Sure, daddy called almost all the time, letting us know what was going on, but I still worried. Mom was, if that was possible, worse than me. She kept her face light, trying to look okay, but I knew better. She was suffering. She missed my daddy a lot. I didn't think they'd been apart for such a long time. We were all at the school lot right now. Rose drove us on her BMW, just us girls again. People were talking already, but I didn't care. I just wanted them home. Is that too much to ask? We made our way to English, and took our seats. Sara was next to me a few seconds later. One look at me and she knew, "They're not back yet, are they?" I just shook my head. I had told her that the guys decided to go camping again, but the day long trip turned into a longer trip, because they couldn't leave due to the bad weather. "Do you have any idea when they're coming back?" I shook my head again and sighed. This sure would be another long day. The class was almost ending, when I heard Sara call me, "Ness?" I looked at her, "Yeah?" The teacher let us talk a bit before the bell, so we were safe. "Do you want to do something today? We could go to the park or something. You could ask Nick if he'd go with us." So, Nick and I had been talking a lot. I enjoyed his company, and he was really smart, so conversations just flew. And he became some sort of big brother to Sara already, always trying to protect her from the gossips and all. "Ah yeah, I guess, I just need to ask Esme." "Cool, this way we can help you, distract that mind of yours." She smiled. She really was a great friend. I smiled back. During lunch, I sat with the girls, and Sara. I was still feeling sad and, as childish as it may seem, I just curled up on my mom's lap and rested my head on her shoulder while we talked. I guess I inherited the worry gene from my mother. We both worry too much, usually for nothing. But today, I just felt that something was going to happen. No one was bothered by our current position, except for some girls a few tables away. They were saying some nasty things that my vampire hearing could, unfortunately, hear. But I didn't care. Both mom and I needed some support, and that's what we were doing. She kept

her arms around me, making soothing motion with her hands on my back and arms. It was really good, I was almost falling asleep. Till I heard Sara talking to me, "Hey, Ness, you're coming, right?" "Coming where?" I heard Rose ask. Sara blushed a little, Rose usually didn't talk to her. "To the park with Nick and me. We want to try and keep her mind off of things for a bit." She smiled at me a bit. "I think I'll go. Can you let Esme know, Bella?" I asked my mom, kind of asking her permission without blurting the words. "Of course, sweetie." She said. I grabbed my apple from the tray, and ate a bit. I wasn't really hungry, but I felt the need to occupy myself with something. "Okay, I'll just ask my mom then, and we're set." Sara told me. We spent the rest of lunch talking nonsense to try and forget what was going on at the moment. The bell rang, and Sara and I walked to Calc. Nick was already there. He didn't sit with us during lunch. I usually sat with Sara, because she couldn't always be with my whole family, she'd notice their lack of appetite. But anyways, we went to him and Sara asked if he'd like to join us on a walk at the park. He smiled at me and said 'sure'. I felt better already. Right after class, we walked to Nick's car and he drove us to the park. We spent most of the day walking around, talking, laughing, and doing childish stuff. It felt good to be away from home for a while. Despite my pleads, most of my family was hovering over me. I knew that they would be a bit protective, but I was hoping they'd listen to me and leave me alone for a while. Like mom and Aunt Alice did. They were the only ones that didn't ask all the time if I needed anything or if I were okay. Rose was the worst. I didn't know how she just didn't stop me from coming here today. We were sitting on one of the benches, laughing about I had no idea. Oh, right! Nick was talking about some of the things he used to do as a kid to piss off his parents. He sounded like one of those dare devil kind of kid. It was getting a bit late, and we need to head back. Nick said he'd drop us off at home. So, we walked to his car, but I suddenly froze. 'No', I thought, 'it can't be.' I smelled the scent I knew so well. I couldn't believe. I was so shocked, I stopped right in front of Nick's car, and looked around, trying to find him. Just the thought of him scared me. I felt like running home and hiding, but that would be impossible. Apparently I wasn't fast enough on my reflexes, cause next thing I knew, I felt a really warm hand on my shoulder. "Nessie?" Jacob asked. I looked at him, and started shaking. I wasn't over the attack yet, I was still scared of Jacob. I took a deep breath, and tried to be brave,

"Leave me alone, Jacob. And don't call me Nessie, you have no right." He looked at me again, this time with rage. "I want to talk to you." He said, grabbing my wrist. Both Nick and Sara were at my side now. "No, Jacob. There's nothing to talk about. Can't you see that?" "I said I want to talk to you, and I will." He said, furious. Before either Nick or Sara could do anything, Jacob grabbed me and ran to the woods. He phased, never letting go of me. I didn't even try to move, I was too scared to think straight. He took me somewhere. I had no idea where I was, all I knew was that it was in the middle of nowhere. He suddenly stopped and dropped me. He phased back, right in front of me, and put some shorts on. Then he looked at me, his eyes holding some sort of adoration look that made me sick, and said calmly, "Can you hear me out now?" "Why? Why should I?" I asked him, trying to toughen up. "I love you, Nessie, can't you see? We're meant to be together, why do you act so scared around me?" Okay. When did he hit his head and got the illusion that I wanted to be with him. I looked at him, getting angry, and said, "I told you not to call me Nessie. And why am I scared? You have to ASK?" I was yelling now, "YOU HURT ME." He looked at me, trying to give me a loving look, but it just scared me more. "No I didn't," he said, "I just wanted what was rightful mine." He was freaking me out. Seriously, he sounded so crazy. Like an obsessed lunatic. "I was never yours. I never loved you, I went out with you because I felt pity. I thought you were hurt enough, but I could never love you. Can't you understand that? I DON'T WANT TO BE WITH YOU." I yelled, saying each word carefully, as if I were talking to someone mentally incapacitated. "You're mine! I was always there for you, I loved you." He yelled. "No, you weren't. You were just there because of some supernatural force. And since we're talking about the past, what was that I heard about YOU kissing MY MOTHER by force? What, you loved her too, like you love me?" I said sarcastically. I hit a nerve, though, I could feel. "She liked it." He said. I snorted, "She punched you, Jacob. Wasn't that enough? No, you had to go and try to break my parents up. By lying to my mom and making her believe you'd actually kill yourself for her, so she'd

dump my dad and run to you, begging you to stay with her. And here I thought you just started to go mental." I was seething. I wanted to avenge my mother, even though it's been longer than well. He still needed to hear it though. "She never loved you as well, did you know?" I told him, "She, like me, just felt pity. I mean, seriously, you have no idea what's good for you, do you? If not, let me tell IT'S DEFINITELY NOT MY MOTHER! AND NOT ME!" I was making him angry. Furious, even. I didn't care, I wanted it all out now. "Mom thought of you as her best friend. And that was it. So did I, by the way. But you hurt us so much, you just you're not even worth the fight." I told him. I wanted to make him feel what I felt when he first hurt me. I made him so angry, he was barely containing himself not to phase again. He took a deep breath and lunged himself towards me. But I was more prepared this time. I learned how to defend myself. I hit him with all my force, and he stumbled back a little. Sadly, I was still half-human, so I hurt myself in the process. My wrist again. Unbelievable! He jumped on me again, and restrained me. I screamed and trashed, but he didn't move. It felt like a really bad dj vu. He tried to hurt me again, but this time I bit him. I'm not venomous, he wouldn't get killed, but the bite would surely hurt. Before I could react though, I felt his fist connect to my face. I was falling unconscious. And I was delirious. I swear I could hear my mom's voice, just like the last time, yelling my name. Before I could put any more thought to it though, I was out.

Chapter 13 Another fight? BPOV Renesmee went to join her friends by Nick's car while I walked to Rose's. Nessie said Nick was going to drop her off later, so we didn't worry. Or rather, Alice and Rose didn't. I had this weird feeling that something was going to happen today. We got home in no time, and before I could even get out of the car properly, I heard someone call me. "Bella." Edward's voice was like music to my ears. I got out of the car and ran to him, hugging him. "I missed you," I whispered to him. He looked at me and kissed me, passionately. I kissed him back with the same passion. I swore to myself that I'd never let him out of my sight for so long again. He picked me up and ran up to our room. I kissed him again, this time sweetly, and sighed contently. He laid us on the bed and hugged me tight. I rested my head on his shoulder, my favorite place. We stayed like this for a while, till I broke the silence, "How was it?" I asked, barely whispering. "He learned his lesson. Leah and Seth were on our side, apparently. They didn't like it either, so. I heard Leah's thoughts, and it amazed me." He told me. "How come?" I asked. "She was thinking something about Jacob hurting her family." My mouth fell open, "Oh, wow. I never thought" "Me neither, love. But it's true." He laughed a little. It felt so good to hear it. "And Jacob?" I asked, afraid of the answer. "He phased after he healed a little, but he kept his distance so I couldn't hear his thoughts or smell him. I don't know where he is." He told me, truthfully. That made me panic more. I mean, Jacob can be very dangerous when he's angry. Edward continued, "Leah said he had this plan, but she didn't know what it was. She didn't know what he is going to do, but I'll be here to protect you all." He said, kissing my forehead. He could sense my desperation, "Bella, love, calm down. It's okay." He said, reassuringly. He hugged me tighter, and I felt in heaven. I missed his touch, his scent, his laugh. I was glad he was back home with me. I snuggled closer to him, if that was even possible, and started running my finger aimlessly on his chest. I was feeling calmer.

"Bella?" Edward asked, "Yes, Edward?" I looked up to him. "Where's Nessie?" He asked, rather worried. I smiled at him, "You only remember her now?" I asked teasingly. "She's out with some friends from school. She was so worried this week, her friend took her to the park to get her mind out of things. They should be back later." I told him. He smiled that crooked smile of his, and I melted. I kissed him fiercely. I had missed him so much, I wanted to be near him like this forever. "I love you," I told him. "I love you, too, Bella. Forever." We stood there, just enjoying being in each other's arms, when we heard a car approach and the doorbell ring. We got up when we heard Sara talk to Esme, rather panicked. "I.. I, he" She was crying so much. I made my way downstairs and hugged her. She was sobbing, so I gently guided her to the couch and sat down with her. I tried to calm her down, but it wasn't working. Jasper sent a wave of calmness her way, but that didn't work as well. Nick came in behind her, and he too was rather shocked. But he was calm enough to explain, "What she's trying to say is that we were walking back to the car, and I was going to give them a ride home, when Nessie froze. Then suddenly this huge guy walked up to her and said he wanted to talk to her, but she said no. He said he was going to talk to her, no matter what. So he grabbed her and and ran to the woods. We couldn't do anything." He said, scared. "So, we came directly to you, to let you know." "Did she say his name?" Edward asked, already knowing the answer. "Jacob, I think." I froze. Not again, "NO!" I yelled, startling everyone. "Not again, please, no" I cried. Dry sobbed. Edward came to me and held me tight. "Shhh, love, we'll find her. Calm down." I couldn't calm down. That dog already ruined her life, what more did he want? I continued to cry on Edward's shoulder, and the whole family now was trying to console me. I snapped, "What are we still doing here? We have to find her!" I said, not caring about the humans, still in shock, that were there as well. Everyone started getting ready to leave, except Nick and Sara. I looked at them and said,

"Thank you for letting us know. You can stay here with Esme if you'd like. If not, we'll call you as soon as we find her, okay?" They nodded, but decided on staying for a while. Sara was still in shock, she couldn't think properly. Esme would be able to take care of her. Sara looked at me and mouthed, 'sorry'. I hugged her once again and told her it was not her fault. I promised to explain it to her when we got back. She nodded, and went straight into Esme's arms, sobbing again. We piled up in two cars and drove to the park. We split in groups, and Edward, Alice and I went north, while Jasper and Rose went south. Carlisle and Emmett decided on going west. We tried following his scent, but got nothing. We ran and ran, trying to get a glimpse of the smell, with no luck. I was starting to panic again. Until Alice stopped and her eyes unfocused. A minute later, she snapped back to reality. I looked at her expectantly, "I saw us going through here," she said, and pointed to a general direction, "and suddenly our future disappeared." That must be it then! She can't see the wolves. "Let's go." I said, pulling her to the direction she pointed. I ran as fast as I could. I could almost keep up with Edward now, and he was going full speed. Suddenly I froze. I heard the screams. And suddenly silence. I forced myself to go faster. We got to a clearing and I saw Jacob punch my baby. Before I could do anything, though, Edward jumped and tore Jacob away from her. He punched him, and Alice called the others. I went to Nessie, pulled her onto my lap, and held her to me, murmuring that I was sorry. She was out cold. Not a minute after Alice called, they showed up. Carlisle ran straight to where I was with Nessie, and checked her out. "Broken wrist," 'not again', I thought, "and she's unconscious, but shall be coming around soon." I nodded and thanked him. I looked up to see what was going on. Alice was kneeling next to me, worry all over her face. I gestured to her to come closer, and hugged her to me with my one free arm. The three of us sat there, watching as the fight continued. Emmett and Jasper had a hold on Jacob, so he couldn't escape. Edward and Rose were hitting him so much, I was afraid to look. I could hear Jacob's pleads, but chose to ignore it. I couldn't believe he hurt her again. My baby. I wanted to join them and kill Jacob myself, but I wasn't going to leave her alone, no matter what. I could see how both Rose and Edward wanted to finish them off. Jacob couldn't even get up, he was hurt pretty badly. The only reason they hadn't finished him off yet was because they knew Carlisle didn't approve of killing. They were still hitting him, calling him names and whatnot. I tried to pay attention only to Nessie, she was still unconscious, but the fight was catching. Edward and Rose moved in unison, not even giving Jacob a change to defend himself. I was quite concentrated on the fight. That was, until I heard, - and smelled another wolf. Leah. She quickly phased and put her clothes on, before anyone could see her.

"No," she screamed. "Please, stop." She pled. She was next to them in no time. "Don't kill him, please." She was crying. Everyone just stared, not sure of what to do. They let him go, and she knelt beside him. I could hear her talking to him, "You stupid fool, why did you have to come here? I asked you not to do anything stupid. I told you, you didn't deserve her. Didn't I?" She was talking to him, but he could barely breathe properly, I didn't think he heard a word. She kept going though, "You can't see what's right in front of you, can you? Why? Why did I have to fall in love with such an idiot?" She was ranting. I got up, still carrying my unconscious daughter, and walked to where they all were. I handed Nessie to Edward, and knelt next to Leah. She didn't even flinch. "Leah," I started, "thank you." She looked up at me, with a puzzled expression. "Edward told me what you did for us. And I know we never got along that well, but I I'm glad you're here now." I told her, sincerely. She nodded once, and the tears started falling again. I hugged her, ignoring the smell, and tried to comfort her. She hugged me back, and whispered, 'thank you'. We both got up, and she started to carry Jacob away. She looked back to all of us, and said, "I'm sorry. I should've known he would try something like that. I'll keep him away, I promise." I looked at her and said, "It's not your fault, Leah. And thank you." She nodded and went back into the woods. I ran to Edward and took Nessie from him. I needed to be close to her. I heard Carlisle speak, "We should head home. Nessie will be coming around soon, it'll be better if she's not here." We all nodded and ran back to our cars. We got home a few minutes later, and found Esme and Sara waiting by the front door. Nick had gone home. Esme came to me and hugged me and Ness, - whom I was still carrying and kissed both our foreheads. I whispered to her, "She's okay, Mom. She's going to be okay." I didn't know who I was reassuring, her or myself. Sara looked at us, relieved. "Where did you find her? What happened?" She asked. "Let's go inside and I'll tell you." She nodded. I went straight to Nessie's room, still carrying her. I didn't care that it looked strange, the way I could carry her without even breaking a sweat. Edward and Sara followed. I put her onto her bed, and lied down beside her. Edward sat down by my side and Sara took the chair. "So" Sara started. I looked at her, then Edward, and took a deep breath, "Jacob tried to hurt her once. A few years ago. He hurt her pretty bad, then. Broke her wrist and, and" I couldn't continue. "Tried to rape her," Edward finished for me. Sara was shocked, her mouth opened,

"No," she whispered, "why?" "He thinks she belongs to him. He loves her, and wanted her to love him back. But she didn't. One night, we were all out and he attacked her." I told her. "Why would someone hurt such a sweet girl?" She asked, rhetorically. We stood in silence for a while. Until I noticed it was pretty late, and Sara should go home. "Sara, does your mom know you're here?" I asked her. She shook her head, and said, "I should go home." She got up, and I called, "Esme?" She was up there in no time, "Yes, dear?" She asked me. "Could you take Sara home? It's getting late, her mom will be worried." She nodded and Sara walked over to us. She kissed Nessie's forehead and asked us, "Let me know how she's doing, please." I just nodded and she left. A few minutes later, Nessie started coming around. "Mom?" She whispered, but she didn't wake up. "Shhh, it's okay, baby, I got you." I say, soothingly. Then I spoke a bit louder, "Carlisle?" He was there in a few seconds. He looked her over, and gently examined her wrist. Once he was done, he looked at us, "I'll just put her wrist on a brace, no need to cast it. And she'll be fully recovered in a few days." I sighed, relieved. Carlisle left after putting the brace on her. She started to whimper. "Momma, make it stop, don't let him hurt me." She seemed to be having a nightmare. I tried to wake her up, along with Edward. "Ness, baby, wake up. Wake up." I said gently. She suddenly woke up with a start and seemed disoriented. Then she started crying. "It's okay, it's over." Edward told her, "He's not coming back." I held her tight to me, not wanting to let her go. She just kept crying, not saying a word. Eventually, she calmed down a little, so we could talk. I looked at her, and asked, "May, baby please tell me what happened?" I pleaded. "I can't, Momma." She said, curling herself closer to me. Edward went to her other side and started making soothing motions on her back, to calm her down.

"Can you show me? Ness, please, baby. I can't stand to see you like this." She looked up at me, and nodded, "I'm sorry." She said. "What for?" I asked her. "For letting him do this to me." She started crying again. I calmed her down and told her, "It's NOT your fault, okay? May, he's the only one at fault here, not you," I said gently, "please, show us what happened?" She nodded again, and touched both mine and Edward's hands. She showed everything, from the moment he arrived, till she fell unconscious. I was horrified, but also glad to see that she defended herself. "I'm proud of you, May," I told her, "you did your best to defend yourself. I'm just glad we found you when we did." "Me, too, Momma." She replied. "Sleep now, baby. We'll be here when you wake up." Edward told her. She fell asleep in a second. The family kept coming to check on her, Rose especially. She sat down on the chair by the desk and stayed there for a while. Edward and I watched her dreams, but her head was blank. She was so drained emotionally that she didn't have the strength to dream. She woke up screaming, though. I held her to me, and tried to calm her down. I was suddenly glad it was Saturday. We stayed in bed the whole day. Sara came over with her mom later on, and Nessie tried to keep a conversation with her, but it was hard. She was still healing, her face was better, - I still couldn't believe Jacob punched her on her face the swelling was down to almost nothing, a small bruise on her cheek was the only evidence of the punch. Sara left after a few hours, also feeling better from knowing Nessie would be fine. Sunday was spent the same way. No one came to bother us. Sometimes the family would check up on her, but otherwise we were left alone. When Monday morning came, though, Nessie started panicking. "Good morning, baby." I greeted her. "Morning, Mom." She said. "Let's get up. We have to get ready for school." "School?" She asked, fearfully. "We have to go, Ness. The sooner we go back to normal, the better. Remember, the whole family knows this time. They'll be hovering over you non-stop from now on, if you don't show them that you're getting better." I told her,

"You're right why are you always right?" I laughed a bit. It felt good to hear her joking like this again. I kissed her forehead and got up to get ready for school. Edward had left a few hours earlier to take care of some things. We all went to school this Monday. Nessie was, again, clinging to my hand. It felt like our first day all over again. We got out of the car, and I whispered to her, "Ready?" She only looked at me and nodded. It was time to go back to reality.

Chapter 14 How do they know? RPOV We walked inside the building and suddenly, everyone was staring at us. "But she's fine." "What happened, do you know?" "She's not even hurt?" That was some of what I heard. Who told them? How did they know? It wasn't Sara, she knew I was okay. I was starting to feel overwhelmed. We walked to my first class, English, and I was at the door when I heard, "Nessie!" Sara called me, "you came to school today." She was wondering. "Yeah, I needed to get back to reality, you know?" I explained. She nodded and said, "I'm so glad you're okay," she hugged me, "I feel so guilty for leaving you there." "Hey, it's not your fault okay? Nobody's fault but his." She nodded again. We walked into class, and people were still staring. "How do you think they know?" I asked Sara. She shrugged her shoulders and answered, "No idea. Not from me, I'm sure of that." She smiled a little. I returned it, half-heartedly. I wasn't feeling that well. I was really uncomfortable with all the staring, and I was feeling some pain on my wrist. There weren't any kinds of medicine that I could take. The class started, and I tried to distract my mind, but it wasn't working. Halfway through the lesson, Mom looked at me. I motioned for her to give me her hand, to show what I was feeling. I showed her that I wanted to leave, and she nodded. She raised her hand, and the teacher asked, "Yes, miss Swan?" "Mrs. Steveson, my sister isn't feeling well. May I accompany her to the front office and call my father to pick her up?" She looked at me, and I was sure I looked sick, cause she just replied with a 'yes, you may'. She got up and helped with my stuff. I said a quick bye to Alice, and we left. While we were at the corridor, Mom said, "I called your father, he'll take you home okay?" She must have left her shield down for a moment. "I'm sorry I made you come to school." She said.

"Not your fault. I had no idea everyone would know what happened. It was not nice." I told her. She gave me a hug and we arrived at the office. Before we got in, she called Carlisle and asked him to excuse me and Dad from classes today. Two minutes after Carlisle called the school, my dad was at the office with us. "Are you okay?" He asked. "No, she's not, Edward. Can you take her home?" Mom said. "Of course. C'mon, Ness." He said, while grabbing my bag. I gave my mom a peck on the cheek and said, "Thanks." "No worries, sweetie. I'll try and find out how everyone knows, okay?" I nodded and walked out with my dad. We went to his car, and hopped in. He turned on the radio, letting some calming music play. He turned to me, and asked, "Do you want to go home, or do something?" "I don't care, Daddy. Take me wherever. Anywhere but here." "Do you want to go hunting?" I looked at him and nodded. He drove until we found a good spot, somewhere in a city nearby. We got out of the car and my dad smiled at me, sheepishly. "Race ya." And he took off. I laughed and went after him. He sure knew how to improve my mood. He was too fast for me, but I caught up to him once he slowed down a little. We both stopped and smelled the air, trying to find our prey. We ended up playing a game of 'who gets the biggest prey', which I won with some sort of bear. After we were done, we both sat on some sort of meadow, and relaxed. Hunting with my daddy was always fun. We sat in a blissful silence for a while, until he broke it, asking, "Wanna tell me what happened today?" I looked at him, and just nodded. I'd let him ask the questions. "Okay, was it too soon to go back to school?" He asked. I shook my head, "No, everything was okay, but everyone knew. I don't know how, but they were all staring. I felt overwhelmed. I didn't know what to do." "I heard it. In their thoughts, I mean. They were all thinking you were kidnapped, killed, something like that. Some were actually hoping it was true." I felt so shocked. Why? "I never talked to any of them, why would they want me dead?" I asked, crying a little.

"I don't know, Ness. My guess is that, you're just too beautiful for them. Inside and out. You sort of reject everyone. You're only friends with Sara, and she was like an outcast." "I don't care. She's my best friend." I told him. He smiled at me, and said, "I know that, and I'm glad it is her. Her mind kind of reminds me of one of our friends from Forks High. Angela. She was the only one, among them, that actually cared about Bella." He smiled again. I smiled back, "That's good, Daddy." I told him. "Yeah. Everyone else was just jealous. Probably just like everyone in this school." I nodded. I went to get up and sit closer to him, but I stopped when I supported my weight on my broken wrist. I winced, and he noticed. He got up and sat next to me instead, "Does it hurt much?" He asked, grabbing my wrist gently and putting it on his lap. I just nodded. He kept his cold hand on it, and the pain decreased a bit. "Thanks," I said, "that feels good." I told him. He nodded and continued, "You should've just stayed home. I don't know why I let Bella take you to school, you should be home, safe." The over protectiveness started. "Daddy, it's not her fault. I said I was okay to go, and I was. I didn't expect to feel so weird, with all the whispers and all that. I thought people wouldn't even know about it. I mean, Sara didn't tell anyone, I don't know how they all found out." I mused. "No matter, I'm not letting you go back until I'm absolutely positive that you won't get hurt." See what I'm talking about? I sighed, "Daddy, please. Don't go all overprotective on me, please? You know that was why I didn't tell you when it happened back then. I knew you'd be like this, and look at you now, trying to control my life. Please, please, daddy, let me live my life without the hovering. Please?" I started crying. It felt good that my dad cared that much for me, but I really wanted to get my life back on track. He wrapped his arms around me, bringing me closer to him, and held me there while I cried. "I'm sorry, love. I just hate to see you hurt." I nodded and said, "I know, daddy." I stopped crying, but stayed in the same position, with my head on his shoulder, and took a deep breath, inhaling his unique scent. It always calmed me down, whenever I was upset. I kept talking, "I just don't know why this had to happen to me. Why me? Did I do something so horrible to deserve this?" He hugged me tighter and said, "Of course, not. Baby, you did nothing wrong, okay. You're you are so much like your mother, you know. You try to make everyone feel good, even if you're not. You care too much about others, and forget that sometimes, you have to take care of yourself as well. You

have to stop worrying so much. You're such a wonderful, sweet, caring, beautiful girl. You did nothing wrong, got it?" I nodded, and teased him a little, "You're only saying that cause I'm your daughter." I smiled a bit. He looked at me, smiling and said, "Maybe," I frowned and he continued, "baby, I'm saying what I see. You have such a pure heart, I really don't know why someone would try and hurt you. You, of all people, did not deserve what happened to you." I leaned into him again, and whispered, "thank you, daddy." He had a way with words that always made me feel better. He hugged me closer. I was feeling a lot better now, the pain on my wrist barely noticeable. He had kept his cold hand on it the whole time. I sighed, and he asked, "Better?" I nodded and said, "Much." He laughed a little. "Daddy?" "Yes, sweetheart?" "Can you tell me something?" I asked him, "Sure, what do you want to know?" "Can you tell me more about you and mom?" He smiled at me and nodded, "How did you meet? How did you know it was her? I mean, the love of your life and all that?" He mused a little before answering, "First, I was very intrigued. I couldn't hear her thoughts, and she smelled delicious," I laughed a little, "when I first saw her, her scent was overwhelming, she thought I hated her because of the way I looked at her." "Did you?" I wondered, "No, I didn't. I hated myself, for almost losing control. Then, she was almost crushed by a van one day. I couldn't just stand there, so I ran to her and stopped the van. She grew very suspicious." My eyes were wide open, "She almost died?" I asked, surprised. He laughed a little before answering, "Your mother was a danger magnet. She almost died a lot of times. Anyways, one day she went to Port Angeles with some friends, and she was almost attacked."

"Like me?" I asked. He nodded, "Yeah, like you. But I heard their thoughts and got to her on time. I took her out to dinner, and when we were driving home she told me she knew what I was. She told me that she didn't care what I was. And one day I took her to our meadow, and showed myself out on the sun. That was when I told her I loved her." "That was when you realized you loved each other?" He nodded again, "But I only found out I couldn't live without her when I when I left her." He told me, "Why did you leave?" I asked him, wondering, "I thought I was putting her life in danger by being with her, but it turned out that wasn't the case. One day she decided to go cliff diving and Alice thought Bella had killed herself. I went to Italy to have the Volturi kill me. But it turned out Bella wasn't dead, and she and Alice went to Italy to stop me. They did, and that was when I vowed to never leave Bella ever again." "That's beautiful, Daddy." I said, sincerely. "I wish I could find someone that loves me just like you and mom love each other." I knew my parents loved each other, I never knew the whole story behind it though. It felt nice, you know, hearing it all. I had only heard bits and pieces every now and then. "You will, baby. Just give it time. I waited almost 100 years, I'm sure you'll find someone someday." He smiled. We sat in silence, both lost in thoughts of the past, when I remembered to ask him something else, "Daddy?" I started, "Yes, Renesmee?" "Can you promise me something?" I asked, hoping he would, "What?" "Promise me you won't become your usual overprotective parent? And I promise I'll let you know if I'm hurting or if it's too much. Please? I'll really, really love you if you do that." He laughed. "You know I can't promise that." I was about to interrupt, "but I'll try okay? It's just hard for me, seeing my little girl so grown up." "Aww dad. You know I'll always be your little girl. No matter what." He kissed my forehead and said, "I love you."

"Love you, too, Daddy. And thank you." "For what?" I looked at him and said, "For letting me be me. I knew you'd try to make me feel better, but I'm glad you let me get it all out. Thank you." "You know I'd do anything for you, love. Anything." He sighed, "I'm afraid we should get going. The family will start to worry. We'll probably give your mom a heart attack." I laughed out loud at that. Even though she couldn't have a heart attack, she worried so much that well, let's just say a heart attack would be nothing. We got up, and I looked at him, mischievously. He caught my look and asked, "What now?" I smiled and said, "Can I have a piggyback ride?" He laughed and turned his back to me, saying 'hop up'. I did, and he took off. He started running, zigzagging the trees. We laughed the whole way to the car. It felt refreshing. When we got to the car, I kissed his cheek and said, 'thanks'. We drove home, and when we got there, he opened the car door for me, and told me to hop up again, cause he had to show everyone that I was fine. I laughed from the feeble excuse he got, but got onto his back, and laughed when he spun us around, you know, like you do with a kid. I rested my head on his shoulder, holding my hands around his neck, while he walked to the front door. Everyone was waiting for us in the living room. We were still laughing, with no reason this time, and I saw my mom smile, relieved. I looked at her, and just like a little kid, waved at her and said, "Hi, Momma!" And laughed again. She looked at me with her beautiful smile, "Well, seems like you're feeling better." I nodded, and told her, "Thanks to my daddy." Before I finished the sentence, my dad took me out of his back and started tickling me. I laughed, getting slightly out of breath. I tried to tell him to stop, but only more laughter came. I was lying on the floor now, while he tickled me, "What do you say, Ness?" He asked. We had a code for him to stop tickling me, "Oh, father PLEASE STOP!" I said, not bothering to tell him the code word. He smiled, but didn't stop. "Not before you say it." He told me. I was laughing so hard, I could hardly get any word out. "Alright, alright!" I smiled at him, and whispered, "toodles." He laughed, but stopped it. It was kind of embarrassing, you know, the whole secret word thing, but we always did that, since I was a little girl.

He helped me up, and I looked around. My eyes stopped at one person I saw, coming out of the kitchen Sara. She had heard the whole thing. No one even considered thinking about her when we got home, everyone was too distracted with me and dad. Even he was too distracted to think about listening to her thoughts. She looked at me, then mom, dad, and back to me. Oh man, we were in deep trouble.

Chapter 15 Found Out RPOV Sara just kept staring. Her mouth was open, and she was frozen into place. I looked at her, and knew I'd have to tell her the truth. I touched my dad's hand, since he was closer, and asked him if I should tell her. He just nodded his head. "Sara?" I asked, "Sara, please, look at me." She seemed to have just snapped back from a trance. I slowly approached her, and said, "Please, don't be scared. Please, let me talk to you." I pleaded. "Are you going to tell me what's going on?" She asked, "The whole truth, I promise. Please?" She nodded, and I approached her. "Can we go for a walk?" She just nodded again, and I said, "Okay." Then I looked at everyone else, - they were all sitting still, staring at me and said, "I'll call you if I need anything." They all just nodded, and I walked out with Sara. We went into the woods, and sat in a clearing near my house, but far enough so that no one could hear our talk. Sara started, "Did I hear you right? You called Edward 'daddy'. And Bella 'momma'. And you kinda look like them, too." "You're right," I told her, "I'll tell you everything, okay? I'm tired of hiding it from you. But please, hear me out first, and I promise I'll answer every question you have." She nodded. I thanked whoever it was for a friend that was quite that understanding. "Yes, Bella and Edward are my parents. I'm not I'm not human." I whispered the last part, but she still heard me. "What?" She asked. "I said, I'm not human. Or, fully human." She laughed a little. Okay, so not the reaction I was expecting. "Sorry, Ness. I shouldn't be laughing. But, since I met you, I knew there was something different about you and your family. I knew that you had a secret very well hidden. I noticed that you never ate anything. And the way sometimes you'd stop talking when I came too close. I'm just glad I'll know it now." I smiled at her.

"Aren't you afraid?" I asked, "Well, you still didn't tell me what you are. And I've been your friend for a while now, and I feel safe around you and your family. I don't think I will be afraid." I decided to just get it over with, "I'm we're all vampires." I whispered and lowered my head. She looked shocked, her eyes were wide open, "Vampires?" She asked, "Yes." "Like the whole blood-sucking, can't-go-out-in-the-sun, sleep-in-coffins kind of vampires?" I smiled a bit. Clichs. "Not really. We do have to drink blood," her eyes went as big as flying saucers, "but we only drink animal's blood. That's why their eyes are gold and not red." I told her. "But yours they're brown." She stated. "Yes." "How come?" I hesitated a bit, "Aren't you afraid?" She shook her head, "well, you know about my parents. I might as well tell you the whole thing." She looked at me, expectantly. "I'm half-human, half-vampire. I was conceived," I shuddered just to think about it, "and born while my mother, Bella, was still human." She looked puzzled, so I explained, "My dad fell in love with my mom, when they studied together in Forks. They fought very hard for it to work, and when they graduated they got married, and well, here I am." I smiled a bit. She still didn't say anything, "Sara?" "Oh, wow. Wow! Ness. Wait, how old are you?" I sighed, and told her, "Thirty." That made her step back a little. "But you're old!" She laughed. It was my turn to look stunned. "I'm not getting any older, though. I I grew up very fast, I was fully grown when I turned seven." She nodded. She was taking this too calmly. "Aren't you even remotely horrified by all I just said? I mean, I just confessed I'm a halfbreed that goes to high school with her parents, that by the way, look as old as their daughter. And, we drink blood. Why aren't you running away, screaming?" I asked, scared of the answer. "Ness. I never had a friend like you before. I I don't care what you are. I only care about who you are. And to me, you are my best friend. I actually feel relieved to know this all. I

knew you were hiding something from me, and I feel" she searched for the right word, "grateful that you trust me enough with this." I walked to her and hugged her. "Thank you, thank you, thank you. Daddy was right, you are the best friend I could've gotten." I said without thinking. "What do you mean?" She asked. "Oh well, since you know it all, and isn't scared" I mused, "but before I say anything else, you have to promise me you won't tell anyone. No one can know about this, okay? We work very hard to keep the secret, no one can know. It can be dangerous to us and to you." She nodded, "Of course, Ness. I'm not telling anyone. Not that they'd believe me anyways." She laughed. "Okay well apart from being a you now, some of us have special abilities." I told her, "like Aunt Alice can see the future, and Uncle Jasper can manipulate emotions." She nodded, "my mom she's a mind shield, it's kind of hard to explain, but basically anyone that tries to hurt her psychologically just can't. And my dad, he's a mind reader, can't read her mind." "Edward can read minds?" She asked. I nodded, "That's why I said he was right when I chose you as a friend. He told me, you have one of the purest minds he came across." I told her, smiling. She smiled back, and blushed a little. Then she asked, "What about you?" "Well, mine's kind of complicated. I have two, I have some sort of shield, just like my mom's, but it's very weak, it basically just protects my thoughts. And I can show people my thoughts." "How can you do that?" "Can I show you? It won't hurt, I promise." She nodded and I touched my hand to hers. I showed her some of our time together, the mall, the talks, and all that. I let go and she whispered, "Cool." And laughed. "We're also not your ordinary vampires. As I said, we only drink animal's blood. We call ourselves 'vegetarians'." I told her, and she interrupted, "That was why you were all wearing those shirts that day?" I nodded, and she smiled, "I noticed you were kind of checking out people's reactions. But wait. You did eat with me, you eat all the time." "Yes, I'm half-human! I need some sort of human food, but I only like junk food." I told her smiling. She laughed. "Also, being half-human makes me warmer than humans, and my

heart beat is faster. All full vampires are really cold though." She nodded and said 'I noticed'. We both laughed. Then she suddenly stopped, and grew very serious. "Ness, can I ask you something?" "Of course, Sar. Anything." "Who's Jacob?" She asked. I looked down, and she continued, "you don't have to answer, you know." "No, I want to. It's just still hard. You see, he was my best friend for a long time, and my boyfriend for a short time." She nodded, urging me to continue, "we were just dating, nothing too serious. He's sort of a werewolf." I told her. "Say what?" "Werewolf. Or shape-shifter. He can turn into a giant wolf. They're also mortal enemies to vampires," she was so shocked, "too much info?" I asked her, "No, no. I'm good, please, keep going." "Okay. So they have this thing called imprinting, which's basically love at first sight. And he imprinted on me. But I never loved him like that. One day he came to the cottage I used to live in Forks, and attacked me. My mom saved me that day. That was 15 years ago." I told her truthfully. "And why did he come back just now?" She asked. "Well, remember that shopping trip mom and Aunt Alice took a couple of weeks ago?" I asked, and she nodded, "well, they went to California," she was about to interrupt, "don't ask, I'll explain in a sec. Anyways, on the way back, they went through Forks to visit my grandpa, my mom's dad. And Jacob was there. My mom kinda yelled at him, and Alice heard her, and well, me and mom had kept the whole attack thing a secret, sort of. Anyways, Alice found out he tried to rape me, and she said we had to tell my dad and everyone. So we did. And the boys went after Jacob, and hurt him. A lot. "But he's a werewolf, he heals fast. And he wanted revenge. So, he followed the guys here, and caught me alone at the park. My family found me just as he punched me into unconsciousness." She hugged me, "I'm sorry, Ness. It must have been horrible to you." I just nodded. She felt my uneasiness and changed the subject, "So, how come your mom and Alice went to California and back in less than three days?" I smiled at her, "Well, you see. All vampires have different senses than humans. We have very acute hearing, eye sight and sense of smell. We are also really strong and really fast. We can run faster than most cars, so we like to drive fast. A two days trip usually takes us half a day. That's how they got there so fast. We also don't sleep. Or, they don't sleep. I do, but I don't need the full eight hours of rest."

"That's sooo cool. How fast can you go?" I shrugged, "pretty fast, I guess. I can show you later." I smiled at her. "Is there anything else? I don't know if I told you everything." She nodded her head, "How can you come out in the sun? Aren't vampires sort of allergic to it?" I laughed. "No. We can't come out in the sun, but for a different reason. We sparkle with the sunlight. My skin isn't so pronounced, so I'm fine to go to school on sunny days, but my family can't. One day, I'll ask them to show you. What else?" She shook her head, signaling there were no more questions, "Okay," I said, "if I remember anything else, I'll tell you," I smiled, "thank you for not freaking out on me. I was so scared you'd hate me after this." I started crying. She hugged me again and said, "Ness. Renesmee, I could never hate you. I told you, you are my best friend. My sister. I love you." I smiled at her, "I love you, too, Sar." I wiped away the tears, I was feeling so happy right now. "So, wanna go for a ride?" I asked her, "it's getting pretty late, and my mom's gonna freak out if we're not back soon. Do you think your mom would let you sleep over tonight? I'd feel better if you didn't have to go home right now." She looked at me and said, "Let me call her, I'll be right back." A few minutes later, she was back, "She said okay, as long as we both go to school tomorrow." I laughed. "So, ride?" She nodded, "Hop up," I said, turning my back to her. "Ness, I'm not that light, you know." She said. "I'm strong, I told you!" With that, she hopped up onto my back and I told her, "If you're anything like my mother, keep your eyes shut. She felt sick the first time." She just nodded. I started running. I ran into the woods and back, it was exhilarating. After a few minutes, I asked Sara if she was okay, and she replied, "More than okay, this is freaking awesome!" I laughed out loud. We reached my house, and as soon as I let Sara go, my mom came out, hugging me, "Nessie, are you okay? How's Sara? I was so worried!" I laughed again, "Mom, we're okay. Sara took it pretty well, sort of like you did. See, she's not even scared." I said while pointing to a smiling Sara. "She's staying the night, by the way." My mom just nodded, and we all got inside. I looked to Sara and said,

"I think it's time for some proper introductions." I turned to the whole family, all in the living room, "That's my grandpa Carlisle and my grandma Esme," they waved at us, "and those playing video game are my uncles Emmett and Jasper," Emmett replied with a 'howdy' and Jasper waved, "those two trying to look busy, are my aunts Alice and Rosalie," they both stuck their tongues out to me, and I laughed, "and those sitting there looking lovingly at each other are my momma and my daddy." They smiled sheepishly. "Esme made dinner for you girls. You should eat something." My dad said. I nodded and took Sara into the kitchen. We ate in silence. After we were done, we went back to the living room, only to hear someone playing the piano. I noticed both my parents weren't there, and assumed it was my dad playing. He had taught both me and my mom how to play it a couple of decades ago. I took Sara's hand and pulled her into the music room. We both sat and listened to my dad play. Sara was in awe. When he finished playing, I told him, "That was beautiful, daddy. Is it new?" He nodded, and Sara exclaimed, "You wrote this?" All three of us laughed. "Edward loves the piano." My mom explained, "He loves to write music, and play. This is a new piece he's working on. And" she looked at my dad, and he nodded, "it's for you." She said. Sara started crying, "For me? But it's beautiful. Thank you." I smiled at my dad, "This is great, thanks dad!" I exclaimed. He explained, "It's a gift for her because she is such a good friend to you. And as a thank you for not leaving you." She smiled. "And now, you should go up and finish that pile of homework you've got." I rolled my eyes, but got up and went to my room with Sara. We decided to watch a movie after the homework was done. As soon as it ended, Sara asked if she could borrow some PJ's and a towel so she could shower and get ready for bed. I handed her one of my shorts and tank tops I used to sleep and a towel, and pointed to my bathroom. As soon as she got in, I heard the door open, and my mom walk in. She sat on the bed next to me, and asked, "Is she doing okay?" I nodded and smiled, "She's just like you, you know. She didn't even flinch." We both laughed. "Are you feeling better?" I nodded again, "Yeah, daddy took me out to hunt, and we talked I feel better, and I'm ready to go to school tomorrow." I reassured her.

"I'm sorry I made you go, Ness." "Mom, I already said it was not your fault. By the way, did you find out who knew about it?" She nodded. "Who was it?" She put her arm around my shoulder. "Some girl. Her name's Lucy something. One of those stupid, prep kids that think someone else's life is their business," she said, "apparently, she was at the park as well, probably stalking Nick, and saw you." I laughed at the stalking part. "Eh it doesn't matter anymore anyways." Sara was done with her shower and came out of the bathroom. My mom looked at her and smiled, "Well, I'll leave you two be. Don't stay up late. And May, if you can't sleep, just yell." It was her way of telling to let her know if I had any nightmares. "Thanks, Momma." She kissed my forehead and said, "G'night. Love ya." "Love you, too, Momma." I replied, and she said a good night to Sara and left. "Aaww, you guys are so cute." Sara shrieked. I laughed, and she continued, "must be weird, you know, having parents the same age as you." She said, "I don't think so," I replied, "I think it's cool. I mean, they usually act like my siblings, and I can talk to them about anything. I like it." She smiled, "You do look a lot like Bella, but I noticed your hair is the same shade as Edward's." I nodded, "Yeah I got a lot of things from my dad," I laughed, "except my eyes, they're exactly like my mother's when she was human." I told her, and took a picture out of the drawer, "see." I showed her a picture of their wedding day. "Wow, that's Bella?" She asked. I nodded, "But she's so different." I laughed, "Yes, she is. She technically died, after giving birth to me, so my dad had to change her. You know, into one of them. I guess that's why we're so close. I mean, she gave up her life for me. I can't ever hate her. You know?" I told Sara, sincerely. She merely nodded. "That's beautiful, Ness." Then she yawned. I laughed, "We should sleep, you know they can hear us if we're not asleep by midnight." She smiled and got under the covers. I lied down on the other side and we both slept peacefully, not worrying about what tomorrow would bring.

Chapter 16 Back to School RPOV "Knock, knock." I heard my mom say. She came into the room, carrying what looked like clothes, to wake us up. "Morning, girls." She said. I was already awake, but Sara just started to wake up next to me. Mom came to my side and said, "Time to get up and get ready." She said and gave me a peck on the lips. "Sara," I shook her, "get up." She looked disoriented for a minute, and then smiled. "Morning." I smiled back at her, and my mom spoke again, "Alice lent you some clothes, you're both the same size. You better start getting ready, though, before Alice has a chance to" "Someone said my name?" My Aunt Alice came floating into my room. "Al, please. Don't do anything." My mom pleaded. Alice feigned hurt. "Or anything harsh." My mom finished, in a whisper. I just laughed at Sara's confused expression. "Alice loves dressing people up." I explained to Sara, "And apparently, you're her next victim." "Victim?" Alice said, "Why is it that both of you can't appreciate my sense of fashion? Why, oh why did you have to inherit your mother's disgusting taste in clothes, Nessie, why?" Both me and mom were laughing. Sara was, again, confused. She looked at Alice, and shrugged her shoulders, "I don't mind." Mom and I looked at her, shocked, while Alice's eyes shone. "Perfect!" Alice yelled. She grabbed Sara's hand and dragged her to the bathroom. "You have 10 minutes to shower and change." She said. I looked at Sara apprehensively, and told Alice, "Please, don't scare my best friend away, Aunt Alice." Now it was time for Alice and Sara to laugh. "Ness, after you told me that you and your family are vampires, do you think a makeover is gonna scare me away?" I saw her point. "Whatever. But you're not touching me, Aunt Alice." Alice nodded, too excited with her new vic- ermm, friend, to argue with me. Twenty minutes later, and we were all ready to go. Alice didn't go overboard, which's cool I think. Or not. She told Sara she was going to give her a full-Alice-makeover soon. But for

now, all Sara had was some make-up that brought out her hazel eyes beautifully, and her hair was up in a nice ponytail. Her clothes, or Alice's, were simple but elegant. All the girls drove on Rose's car, while the guys drove the Mercedes. I was so happy, I could sing out loud. And that was what happened. Rose turned on the radio, and we were singing along with some CD that Rose had playing. There were really upbeat songs, and we arrived at school laughing out loud. All eyes were on us, again. I guess the whole leaving early yesterday just brought more gossip. But I was in such a great mood, nothing would ruin that. The first part of school passed really fast, it was already lunch time. We made our way to the cafeteria, and Sara and I grabbed some food. The rest didn't feel like getting any props. We all sat down and talked. "No props today?" I asked, "Nah," Uncle Emmett said, "we're not hungry." And he laughed. We kept talking for a while. Emmett was in a really good mood today, making us laugh all the time. We were all laughing about something he had said when I heard, "Nessie!" It was Nick. I got up and he came towards our table. "Are you okay? I looked for you yesterday, but your sister said you had to go home." He pointed to my mom. I nodded, "Yeah, I'm fine now. I was just too overwhelmed yesterday, but I'm all good today." I told him, and he gave me a hug, "I'm so glad you're okay. I felt so bad, I should've done something, but that guy was so huge, and I knew I didn't have a chance, especially after he took off. He ran so fast." He said, "Nicky, I'm alright. Okay? It was not your fault, and it's over." He nodded, and looked around the table. Everyone was busy with their loved ones, except Sara, of course. She was looking at us. Nick caught her eyes, and he exclaimed, "But it's Sara!" He said, jokingly. "I was wondering who was sitting with you today, Ness. Wow, Sar, you look great." She smiled and blushed. "Thanks to Alice." She said. I said Alice smile really big. The bell rang, and we started making our way to Calc. Before we got into the classroom, Nick stopped me. "Ness, can I ask you something?" I just nodded, "Willyougotothedancewithme?" He said, in one breath. "What?" I asked. He took a deep breath and asked again, "Will you go to the dance with me?" I smiled at him, "Of course I will." And I pecked his cheek. I saw him blush while we walked to our seats. Once we were seated, Sara whispered to me, "What was all that about?" I looked at her, smiling,

"He just asked me to the dance!" I yell-whispered back. She smiled at me and said, "This is awesome!" I nodded my head, "Now we need to find you a date." She laughed, and said, "Good luck with that." That was my mission for the week. Get Sara a date for the dance in two weeks. The last classes were really boring. I already knew all this stuff. Seriously, I didn't know how my family could go through this over and over. It's so boring. I was walking to the parking lot with Sara, when I noticed Alice perk up when she saw me. Not a good thing. I walked to the car, seeing both my mom and Rose already sitting and smiling at me. Another bad sign. "Nessie," Alice said, in a singing voice, "guess what?" she asked. "What?" I replied, dreading the answer, "We get to go shopping today!" She shrieked. "NO! Why?" I asked, while getting in the car. Sara and Alice got in behind me. "Cause I saw someone being asked to the dance, and that someone needs a new dress." She said, laughing. "Evil psychic, annoying little pixie." I said under my breath. That only made them all laugh harder. "Sara," Alice looked at her, "are you coming with us?" I intervened, "She already has a dress," I told her, "besides, she needs to go home. Her mom must be worried about her." I tried to save her from being tortured by Alice. "Uhm, okay. We'll drop her off, then we'll drop Bella and we're off to the mall." Alice announced. "Mom's not coming?" I panicked. She looked at me from over her shoulder, with an apologetic look, "Sorry, baby. Alice already bought me a dress in L.A. and I really want to stay home." "You're really not going?" I asked her. "Nope." She said, popping the 'p'. "Not even to save your favorite daughter from being tortured over and over again?"

"May baby, I'm sorry. I really don't want to go. Forgive me?" She asked, already with a sad puppy face. I pouted, "Fine." She smiled, "But think positively. You're going to spend some quality time with your two favorite aunts." I laughed at that. "Rosie will protect me from the evil pixie, won't you, Auntie Rose?" She laughed, and looked at me through the rear mirror. "Of course, Nessie." I smiled at that. At least someone will be there to slow Alice down. If that were even possible. We dropped Sara off at her house, and they let Mom out somewhere in between our home and the mall. We lived on the outskirts of the city, with lots of vegetation around, she could run home. We arrived at the mall ten minutes later. I was barely out of the car, and Alice was already dragging me into the first shop. We went into most of the shops on the first floor, and so far only Rose had found her dress. I was getting frustrated. Twenty minutes later, and Alice found the 'perfect dress' as she said. I was getting really frustrated. "Rosie," I whined, "I'm hungry. Can we stop a little?" "Sure, sweetie." We went to the food court, and I had a piece of chocolate cake. Maybe the sugar would make me cheer up a little. After I was done, Alice dragged me into another one of the shops. That was when I found it. It was perfect. It was light purple, with spaghetti straps, really delicate. It had a dark purple ribbon right under the chest, and it came down to your ankles. Perfect. "I found it." I whispered. Both Alice and Rose were by my side in a second, pulling me into the store and asking the clerk for the dress in my size. It fitted perfectly. I smiled, and sighed in relief. One, because I had found the perfect dress. Two, Alice would stop pestering me. At the same store, I found my heels and accessories, so I was good to go after we paid. We got home, and I went straight to the music room, where I knew my parents would be. I looked at my mom angrily, and said, "Don't do that to me ever again! Alice all but forced me to dress into the most disgusting dresses I've ever seen!" She came to me and hugged me, "I am sorry, Ness. I really am. I know how Al can get. But, I really needed to talk to your father, and Esme. And, you're still in one piece, so it wasn't that bad, was it?" I pouted, but shook my head,

"I found the most perfect dress," I told her, "I'll show you later." She let go of me and sat beside my dad. I walked up to him and gave him a kiss on his forehead, "Hi, daddy." He chuckled, and said a quick 'hi'. "I'm going to find Esme." I told them. They both nodded, and I left them be. "Grandma?" I called. "In the kitchen, sweetie." She replied. I went to her and gave her a hug. "I missed you." I told. She chuckled, and hugged me back. "It seems we never have time together." I said. She nodded. "I know. How about we go up to your room, and we get your Grandpa to tell you one of his stories." I smiled widely at her and nodded. It was a bit late, around 9p.m, and I was really tired from all the shopping. I went up to get ready for bed, and when I came out of the bathroom, wearing one of my tank tops and boy shorts, both my grandparents were waiting for me. "Grandpa!" I squealed and hugged him. "It's so good to see you!" I told him, happily. You'd think we'd been apart for years instead of hours. "You too, my grandchild. Now, lie down and we'll stay with you." I nodded, and got under the covers. They lied down on top of the covers, one on each side of me. I snuggled closer to Esme, and she put her arms around me. "Grandpa?" I started. "Yes?" "Will you tell me a story?" "Of course. What do you want to hear?" I pondered for a minute. "How did you and Grandma met?" And he launched into his tale, telling how he saved her and how they fell in love. I already knew this story, but it was nice to hear it all over again. Half an hour later, I was almost asleep. I felt cold lips on my forehead, and drifted off to dreamland. Wednesday came and school was the same. Sara was going home with us today, cause she was getting the whole Alice makeover thing. She had asked her mom permission, because she was still only 15. We had barely parked the car, and Alice was out carrying Sara up to her room. We, the girls, followed right after. Alice had her seated on her chair in the bathroom, and was looking around her, trying to figure out what to do. Sara's hair was really beautiful, long and a bit wavy, and really dark. It contrasted great with her pale skin.

"Don't cut her hair, Aunt Alice, it's so pretty." I asked her. She nodded, "Wasn't going to. Maybe a little, to give it more movement and all, but not much. Don't worry." She smiled. "She has this whole gothic thing going, I'll stick with it." I nodded. "Sara? How mad would your mom be if we dyed your hair?" She looked at Alice, "Not mad at all, she doesn't mind." Alice smiled, and started getting ready. She threw us out of her room, and wouldn't tell me what she had in mind. Two hours later, Alice came down. "You might want to know, your friend is in one piece, and she looks amazing." With that, Sara came down the stairs. My mouth fell open. WOW! There was no other way to describe it. Alice did an amazing job. Her hair was a bit shorter, but not much, and now it had red highlights. It was straight, and beautiful. Alice made her make-up really nicely as well. Some dark eyeliner, that brought out her light eyes, and light red lipsticks. She looked like a gothic princess. Her clothes were the opposite of her face though. She had on a light pink tank top, and black skinny jeans, with pink converses. "Wow, Aunt Alice. WOW! Sar, you look amazing! You're sooo going to rock the school tomorrow." She laughed. "Thanks." And she blushed. We spent the rest of the day talking, laughing and having fun. We took Sara home, and promised to pick her up in the morning. I went to bed late, feeling a little too giddy for tomorrow. Thursday came! Finally. I got ready in record time, and we were off to pick up Sara and go to school. She was looking as amazing as yesterday. We got to school in no time, and I noticed something different right away. People were staring, which should be the usual, if they weren't whispering things like, "Do you think he's related?" "But his eyes are blue, not gold." I looked around for my dad, and us girls ran to them. "Daddy," I whispered, "what is it?" He looked at us and said, "We got another hybrid in school. He starts today." He informed us. Great. Just great.

Chapter 17 The New Guy RPOV We got inside the building, still hearing whispers and gossips going around, most of them about the new guy, but a lot were also about Sara. It's a good thing she couldn't hear them, they were saying some disturbing things. Not bad, oh no, just really, really not so innocent comments. I tried not to pay attention and distracted myself with thoughts of the hybrid. I wanted to know this new guy. I had a feeling something was coming out of it in the end. So far, he wasn't in any of my classes. Maybe he was a junior or something, no classes with me. Lunch time came, and we headed towards the cafeteria, as always. Mom and Alice were talking, and Alice had her arm linked through Mom's. I was holding my mother's free hand. We didn't get to see the newcomer yet, and we were a bit nervous. As we entered the cafeteria, though, I saw him. His skin was almost as pale as ours. That's a good sign, because I was thinking he'd be related to Nahuel. He had dirty blond hair, short and spiked up, and he wasn't very tall. Maybe 5'8 or 5'9. His eyes were blue, and he was dressed quite nicely, in a black button up shirt and jeans. He didn't seem to be bad or anything, he had a nice, serene face. We noticed he was heading towards an empty table. Alice let go of my mother's arm and walked to him. She was probably going to invite him to sit with us. When I saw him smile and follow her, I knew it was it. I grabbed a tray with some pizza and a Coke, and dragged my mom to our table. She sat next to dad, pecking his lips and resting her head on his shoulder. I sat next to her, and started eating. I was suddenly very hungry. Alice started talking, "Guys, this is Cole Williams. Cole, this is everyone, Nessie, Bella, Edward, Rosalie, Emmett, and Jasper." He smiled at us and said 'hi'. "So," Emmett began, "you're like us?" he asked. Cole nodded. "Well I'm half." He whispered the last part. "We noticed," Rose informed him. "You're like Nessie." He looked at me, a little amused. "You're half and half too?" I nodded, smiling. During lunch, we kept talking to try and get to know him. We found out he lived with his father, and they just decided to start over in a new city. They were like us on their diet. We told him most of our stories, and he said I did indeed look a lot like my parents, and was amazed by how humans hadn't made the connection.

The bell rang, and Cole followed me. He had Calc with me as well. We got to the classroom, and Sara was already there. I took my seat next to her, while Cole talked to the teacher. "Where were you during lunch?" I asked Sara. "Library." She answered. Cole took the seat in front of us, and turned around to talk to us while class didn't start. He looked at me, and then Sara. And kept staring at her. She smiled a bit and blushed. I noticed this, and smiled as well. "Sara, this is Cole. He's the new student. Cole, this is my best friend Sara." They smiled at each other, but before they could talk, the teacher started the class. As we were heading to our last class, I told Cole to come over to our house later with his father, so he could meet everyone else. He nodded and went on. I headed to my last class, Music. We got home and Alice went straight to Esme to tell her what happened. Sara came over with us today again, and we went into my room to finish our homework. After what seemed like five minutes, but was actually an hour and a half later, there was a knock on my door. The door opened, and my dad walked in. "Ness, Cole and his father are downstairs, if you'd like to join us." He said, smiling. "Sure, Daddy. We're almost done in here. We'll be right down." He nodded and left. Ten minutes later, we made our way downstairs. Cole looked at us, and smiled. "Sara, how nice to see you again." He said. "You, too. We didn't get a chance to talk at school." She said. His smile got bigger. I looked at them and got thinking. Sara was usually really shy. How come she's talking like this already? I was snapped out of it by my grandma, "Nessie," Esme called me, "this is Cole's father, Arthur Williams." I walked to him and shook his hand, "Nice to meet you, sir." He looked at me, "You're just like Cole, aren't you?" He asked. "Yes, sir. I'm half and half as well." He nodded and asked, "And who's that?" He asked, looking at Sara. "Oh, that's my friend Sara." I told him, "She knows." I said. He nodded again. We talked a bit, grandpa Carlisle got home from the hospital, and started a conversation with Arthur, while us, 'young' people talked with Cole. He was a really nice guy. And he seemed really interested in Sara. This is going to be so cool.

A few hours later, they bade us goodbye and left. Sara was, again, sleeping over. We got up to my room and I went to take a shower, while she surfed the net on my laptop. When I was done, I went to my closet to get some clean PJ's. I looked around, picking up a tank top and sweatpants, and remembered to tell Sara something. "Sara?" I called. She came into the closet. "Yeah?" She asked. "While we were shopping, Alice decided to buy you some things for when you sleep over," I showed her a small portion of the closet, "a few pair of jeans, a lot of shirts and tops, a couple of jackets, and some shoes. Oh, and PJ's!" Her mouth fell open. "Ness, you didn't have to" I interrupted her, "I know that. But Alice is Alice and she likes to make people happy. In her mind, it means a whole new wardrobe. But she has the best intentions." I told her. She nodded and said, a little bit louder, "Thanks Alice, you rock." We could hear her laughing downstairs. Sara took her shower and got ready for bed. She started lying down, but I stopped her, "Sara Louise Jones! No sleeping yet. We need to talk." I informed her. We sat facing each other, both cross-legged on my bed. "What?" She asked. I smiled, "Cole? Ring any bells?" I told her. She blushed. "You like him." I stated. She nodded a little. "I I guess. I don't know, though. I barely know him." I nodded, "He seems nice enough. And" "What?" She said, with no patience. I giggled, "I think he likes you, too." She blushed. "Really?" I just nodded. "I don't know. I mean, what's there to like? I don't think he does, Ness." "You don't, do you?" I said, somewhat teasing her. She shook her head. "Let's see then." I spoke a little louder, "Daddy, can you come here a sec?" She looked like a tomato, she was so red. I giggled again, and a few seconds later, I heard my dad come in. "Yes?" He said.

"Dad, can you do me a favor, and convince this best friend of mine that Cole does indeed like her." I smiled, seeing Sara put her hands on her head, hiding the embarrassment. "Nessie does have a point, Sara. I could hear his thoughts all day. You showed up a lot in his mind." He smiled. She looked up, "Really?" He just nodded. I looked at him and said, "Thank you for your services, father." He chuckled and came over to me. He kissed my forehead and replied, "My pleasure. Now, don't stay up late." We nodded and he left. I started laughing again. "Not funny, Renesmee." I shrugged. "You didn't want to believe me. Now how can you deny information from a mind reader?" I smiled at her. She sighed in defeat. "Whatever. Now can we sleep?" "I'm sorry, Sar. Are you mad at me?" She smiled and shook her head, "Of course not, Ness. But we really should sleep." I just nodded. We got under the covers and were asleep in no time. My sleep was restless. I started tossing, and turning. I woke up with a scream, and startled Sara next to me. Before she could say anything, though, I was enveloped in a cold embrace. I knew this embrace, it was my mother's. I clung to her and started crying. She didn't say anything, she just held me. I heard Sara ask, with a shocked voice, "Is she okay?" she said, barely whispering. I felt my mom shake her head. I was trying to calm down a little, but couldn't. I felt my mom lifting me up and putting me on her lap. She kept rocking me, making soothing motions on my back, until I was calm enough to speak, "Momma," I said, in a small voice, "make them stop, please." I hated myself for being like this. It hurt my mom to see me like this, and I hated it. "I'm so sorry, baby. I'm so sorry." She kept on saying. "I wish I could." I looked up at her, and saw the hurt in her eyes. "I'm sorry, Momma. I don't want to see you hurt." "Ssh, babe. It's not your fault, you know that." I nodded. I was feeling calmer. "Deep breaths now." I obliged. "Good. Now, can you show me what happened?" My mom asked. I put my hand on her face, and showed my dream. Jacob was back, but he didn't come after me this time, he went for my mom. I watched as he tore her apart, and I did nothing. I finished showing her and whispered,

"Please, don't leave me, Momma." "Oh, May, don't worry. I'm here, and I'm not leaving you, okay?" I nodded. "I love you, May, more than my own life." "Love you, too, Mom." I whispered. I looked up, and saw Sara with tears in her eyes. I motioned for her to come to our side, and put my arm around her. "I'm sorry I scared you, Sar." "It's okay, Ness. I'm fine. Are you okay?" I nodded, "I'm better." "Okay, girls," I heard my mom say, "let's go downstairs and grab a glass of milk, so you can go back to sleep." She kissed both our foreheads, - she was already going all motherly on Sara and made to get up. I looked at her before she did, and whispered, "piggyback?" She just smiled and nodded. I hopped on her back, and she turned to look at me. I smiled a little and pecked her lips. I held my hands around her neck and rested my head on her shoulder. "Sara?" Mom asked. "Are you coming?" Sara nodded and grabbed her hand. We went down slowly, and when we reached the kitchen, I saw my dad leaning against the counter, with a glass of milk on his hand. He handed it to me, and gave one for Sara before checking on me, "Are you okay?" He asked. I just nodded. "Do you want to stay with us tonight?" I shook my head. I finished my milk and rested my head on my mom's shoulder again. I hadn't moved from her back, and it didn't bother her anyways. We waited for Sara to finish, and went back to my room. Mom tucked us in, and sat by my side, caressing my hair. "If you need anything else, just yell, okay?" I nodded. "Thanks, Mom. Love you." I told her. She smiled at me, and pecked my lips, "Love you, too." She got up and went to Sara's side, kissing her forehead and saying, "Goodnight, sweetie." And as soon as she closed the door, Sara turned to me and whispered, "Your mom is awesome." I thought so too.

Next day, when we arrived at school, we noticed Cole already there, waiting. When he saw us, he smiled really big. It made some people around him to steer away from him, scared of his perfect white, deadly teeth, - not that they knew, it was instinct. He was at our side in a second. "Good morning, Ness." He said, I replied and he looked at Sara, "Morning, Sara. You look great today." He said, and she blushed. I just stood there, smiling. "So, how did you like my family?" I asked, starting a conversation. "Oh, they're great! I liked Emmett a lot, I'm sure we'll be great friends." I laughed at that. Emmett was a very easy-to-like person. "Everyone was great, and I feel like family already." He said, smiling. I just nodded. We started making our way to the building. We went to our lockers, and grabbed the necessary books, and headed to our classes. We didn't have any morning classes with Cole. He shared most of them with my dad and uncles. He walked us to our class before going to his, though. And he kept asking Sara a lot about her. I just smiled, and pretended to be busy so I wouldn't interrupt. When we sat on our seats, I heard Sara sighed, content. I giggled, before teasing her, "Someone's in looooove." I said. She gave me one scary glare, but didn't deny it. I heard Alice squeal behind us, and turned to see what was going on. She looked at me, and talked low and fast, so Sara wouldn't hear, "He's going to ask her to the dance." I squealed with her. "What? What did you say, Alice?" Sara asked. We both shook our heads and tried not to laugh. We were so happy for her. She was very anxious the whole morning. It was amusing to watch her. Finally, the lunch bell rang, and we both got up, not even waiting for mom and Alice, to go to the cafeteria. Cole was waiting for us, I mean for Sara, at the doors, so we made our way to him. He smiled and led the way into the cafeteria. We all got some food, and went to seat with my family. Everyone else was already there, talking among themselves. That left us three to talk. We talked, and ate, and laughed. It was really easy to converse with Cole, he was really well read, and he was a lot older than me. When Sara asked how old he was, he replied, "Around 70." She giggled. He looked at her, puzzled. "And I thought Nessie was the old one." She explained. "Sar, my dad is more than 100 years old. Carlisle is more than 350! I'm still a young, innocent hybrid, you know." I said, teasing her. It only made her laugh harder.

"I'm hanging out with all these old people." She said. It did kind of make sense. But why was it so damn funny? I'll have to ask her sometime. The bell had just warned us that lunch was over. We walked to our Calc class, and caught up with Nick on the way. We kept talking about the dance, and all that. We reached our classroom, and Nick and I went to our seats, while Cole asked Sara to stay behind. I knew what was coming, and even though they were outside, I could hear them. "Sara, I know it's a little early, and all that, but would you like to go to the dance with me?" I heard Sara's faint 'yes' before tuning them out. I heard Sara sit next to me, and giggle. I looked at her, and saw her eyes shining. I smiled at her, and thought, 'Mission accomplished.'

Chapter 18 Surprise I was woken up Saturday morning by a very hyper Alice. Seriously, what did they feed her? She made me get up and get ready for the day. Very slowly, I got up and went into the bathroom. And I took my time. An hour later, I was ready. But for what? That was when the doorbell rang. I went to get it, and was shocked to see both Sara and Cole outside. They were smiling at me. I told them to get in, and asked, "What are you guys doing here so early?" Sara was the one to reply, "We have specific instructions from Alice to get you out of the house. She said you've been spending way too much time in here with your parents, and that you need to go out with younger people." She smiled. I looked at them, then at my mom and Esme there were sitting on the couch in front of me. They both shrugged in a way that meant 'it's Alice, what did you expect?' Okay, now I'm more confused. But agreed to go out. Cole drove us to a park, because it was still too early for us to go to the mall or anything. It was cloudy, but hot. The sun would surely show up sometime today. We sat down on the grass, leaning against a tree, and got talking. "Hey Cole, do tell more about your life. Where did you live so far?" I asked. "Well, I was born in England so we lived there for a while. I just never stayed in my hometown, though. It brought bad memories." He said, with sad eyes. "Why?" Sara asked. "I we weren't able to save my mother." He explained. "She died at birth. I still feel guilty." I nodded, "Yeah. I'd feel the same way. I remember how my mom looked right after birth, and if if my dad hadn't been a quick thinker, she wouldn't have made it." "I envy you, Ness," he told me, "for having both parents with you, and parents that love each other and you with such intensity." I looked at him, a tear escaping my eyes. We kept looking at each other for some seconds, till Sara broke the stare. "Ness?" I looked at her. "You said you remember your birth?" She asked, amazed. I chuckled without humor and nodded. "I remember a lot. I remember when I was still inside her womb, and hearing her voice, and understanding that that was the voice of someone that cared deeply for me. My dad told me later that he could hear my thoughts by the end of the pregnancy, and that I was thinking of how much I loved the owner of that voice. The first person I saw when I was born was my father, and then I looked at my mom and I bit her." I said, laughing a little. "But I'm not

venomous, so it didn't help her at all. I was told that my dad injected his venom directly into her heart. That was what saved her. And I thank whoever it is that she is alive." "How can you remember all that?" Sara asked. "It's a vampire thing. Our minds work really well." I told her, smiling. "We don't forget stuff, it's really hard to get distracted, but not impossible. Sometimes I wish we could forget some things though." I told them, sincerely. Sara nodded, but Cole looked puzzled. "How come?" He asked. "Well there are a few things I'd rather not remember. Like the Volturi almost killing my whole family, because of me." I told him. "It was your family that stopped him? I've heard about it, but I had no idea. Wow!" I nodded. Now it was Sara's time to look confused. "Who are these Volturi dudes? Why did they want to kill you?" She asked. Cole and I looked at each other, but I decided to explain, "The Volturi are some sort of royalty," I sneered, "they exist to make sure our secret is kept from humans. It could be dangerous for you if they knew about you," I told her honestly, "but we really scared them the last time, I'm not really worried about it." She nodded. Nothing scared that girl! "Anyways, a few months after I was born, there was this vampire, - her name was Irina - that saw me, and thought I was an immortal child. They are completely forbidden in our world, because they cannot be tamed. So, she went to the Volturi, and Alice saw it. We gathered lots of others from our kind to witness for us, to prove that I grew and was not an immortal child." She nodded, telling me she was keeping up. "So, about a month later, they came, and it was horrible. Aro, one of them, can read minds like my dad, but he can see everything that ever went through your mind. He has to touch you, though. That was how we proved that I could grow up. But Caius, another of them, wanted to kill us, and believe me, he tried. But my mother's shield protected us all from their attacks, they have this way to make you blind so they can kill you, but they couldn't do that to us. So they retreated. And never bothered us again." Both were with the most amusing expressions. I laughed a bit, and they came out of trance. "I always wanted to know what happened that day." Cole said. I smiled at him. "And I'm glad they didn't do anything. I don't like them as well." He said. "Your world is so complicated." Sara said. I laughed again, and nodded. "Sara?" Cole started. "You know a lot about our kind, right?" "Well, I wouldn't say a lot. But I think I know enough. Why?"

"How can you be so calm about it all?" She and I looked at each other and laughed. Cole looked at us, not understanding a thing. I stopped laughing and explained, "That was one of the first things I asked her, after I told her. 'Why aren't you running away?' You know what she replied?" Sara interrupted, "I said I don't care what you are, just who you are. And it hasn't changed, I really don't care. I already see them as a family, and I swear I could feel Bella going all motherly on me that other night." I looked at her and laughed again. "I thought the same thing, when I saw her tucking you in and all that." I smiled. She nodded. "Hey guys, it's late enough. Wanna go grab some lunch and maybe catch a movie at the mall?" Cole asked. "Sure." We replied. We made our way slowly to his car. I got into the back seat, letting both my friends to 'get to know' each other better. They were already great friends, and I was hoping it would turn out into something more after the dance. I could hear their conversation, "So," Sara started, "you're English?" Cole nodded. "How come you don't have an accent?" "Who said I don't have one?" He replied, with the cutest accent ever. I swear I could feel Sara melting in the front seat. "It's so cute." I said. He laughed and said, "Yeah, whatever. I learned the American accent to blend in more easily. And I kind of like it too." He said. We all laughed. We arrived at the mall, and decided on an early lunch before catching a movie. It was already 11:30a.m. anyways. I grabbed some pizza, and both Sara and Cole got a burger, and we sat down to eat. "Cole," I started, "do you eat a lot of human food?" He looked at me, and replied, "Ahm, well, I like some stuff, like meat and pizza, but not much. I prefer the other option." I smiled at him and nodded my head, "Yeah, me too. Sometimes eating looks so wrong." He laughed. Sara looked at us and said, "Hello! Poor human here trying to eat without being disgusted." That only made us laugh harder. "Sorry, Sar," I said between laughs, "we didn't mean to gross you out." "Yeah, no problem."

We finished our lunch and headed to the movie theaters. We were all in a good mood, so we went with a funny movie, "Yes, Man". I really liked it, especially the funny songs from that band with a weird name. When the movie was done, Sara got a call from someone, - she wouldn't let me see who and left to talk to the person. A few minutes later, and she came back telling us we should get going, and that she would spend the night at my house, so Cole just had to drop us off there. I nodded and started making my way back to the car. As I predicted, - or not, that's Alice's thing the sun was out. My skin sparkled a little, but nothing too alarming. Sara looked up at me and whispered, "cool." I laughed. We arrived home, and I could swear there was something going on in there. Everything was so quiet. Too quiet. We exited the car, and Cole followed us. Okay, now I was sure something was going on. I opened the door, slowly, and suddenly, I heard some people shout, "SURPRISE!" I looked up at them with my mouth open. I was so shocked, and amazed. I had forgotten my own birthday. My new birth certificate said my birthday was in January, so I didn't even think about the real one. I was still in a daze when I heard my parents call my name. I came back to reality, and ran to them, giving them both a hug. How did they pull this off without my knowing? That was when I remember, "Is this why you didn't go shopping with us?" I asked my mom, "You said you had to talk to dad and grandma." She just nodded. I hugged her again, and went to greet everyone. There weren't many people, but everyone that mattered was here. My Aunts and Uncles, and Grandma and Grandpa, of course, and also our friends from Denali. I screamed, "Carmen!" And went to give her a hug. She laughed, and hugged me back. "Well, look at you. No longer that beb linda, but surely una mujer muy bella." I smiled and said thanks, blushing a little. I hugged everyone, and sat down to open the stack of presents from them all. From Kate, Tanya and Garret, I got a new messenger bag, and from Carmen and Eleazar, I got a new purple bedspread (how did they know I like purple?). My grandparents gave me new books, my aunts stocked my closet yet again, and my uncles bought me some new CD's. Sara was next. She handed me her gift, and I took my time opening it. When I saw it, I gasped. It was a homemade scrapbook, already filled with some pictures of us, but nowhere near complete. I felt some tears threatening to fall, and looked at Sara with watery eyes. "Thank you. It's beautiful." I told her, then got up and gave her a hug. "Love you, Sar." I told her.

"Love you, too, Ness." We broke apart and I sat back down to finish my presents. Dad gave me his next, and I opened it carefully. My mouth fell open. It was a bracelet, with one red heart as a pendant. "It's gorgeous, Daddy. It looks like Mom's." He nodded. "Thank you." I said, pecking his cheek. My mom's was the last one. I was actually looking forward to seeing it since she told me about it. She handed it to me, saying I was finally going to find out what it was. I smiled back at her, and took the gift wrapped box from her. I opened it slowly, again. And gasped, again. It was the most beautiful thing I'd ever seen. She got me a new necklace, silver with a beautiful pendant. It was my nickname, May, that only she ever uses. On the back of the big 'M' was written a tiny 'I love you'. The tears were back again. "Thank you, Mom. It's wow" I didn't have any words for it. She just nodded and kissed my forehead. "Can you put it on, Daddy?" He did and I sighed in contentment. Then we heard a car approaching. Who would it be, everyone I loved was here already. The doorbell rang a few seconds later, and Mom went to get it. She was as confused as me. She screamed in excitement when she opened the door, and yelled, "Dad!" "I hope I'm not too late." I heard my grandpa Charlie reply. "Course not, you're just on time." She said, while hugging him. They got inside and I ran to him. "Grandpa!" "Nessie!" He said, as enthusiastic as me, and hugged me. "I missed you." I told him. Both mom and I guided him to the couch and sat beside him. "What are you doing here?" Mom asked. "Well, Edward told me about the party, and that he'd make sure I could come and surprise both my girls, Bells." "I'm glad you came, Dad." She replied. "Me too, Bella." He handed Mom a package, and then gave me one. "Happy birthday, girls." He said, smiling. Before we could open them, though, Sara interrupted, "It's your birthday too, Bella?" She asked. We laughed a bit, but she replied,

"Well, I was changed when she," she pointed to me, "was born, so you could say that. My ahm, human birthday is in three days, though." "Cool." She replied. Grandpa looked confused, so I decided to introduce her, "Sara, this is my grandpa Charlie, grandpa, this is Sara, she's my best friend." I told him. He smiled at me, then her, "Well, nice to meet you, Sara. I'm glad to hear my Nessie found such a special friend." Sara blushed. Mom and I opened our presents and laughed. Grandpa gave us the same t-shirt. He looked at us and said, "You look so much alike, you can pass off as twins. Thought I'd give you something to confuse people." We laughed harder. If only he knew. The rest of the day passed uneventfully. Grandpa Charlie was going to spend the night, so we didn't worry about the time. We talked about everything, and nothing. But no one mentioned the latest attack I received. We all knew grandpa would freak out and go after Jacob, and we didn't want that. Mom and I stayed by grandpa's side the whole day, we missed him a lot. When it was time for bed, Mom went with us to tuck us in. "So, good surprise?" She asked, while she sat at my bed. I was already under my covers. "Best surprise ever!" I told her, smiling. "And grandpa being here was even better." She nodded. "Thanks, Mom." She just kissed my forehead and said, "Love you." "Love you, too." I replied. She went to Sara's side and, again, kissed her forehead, while saying, "Good night, honey. Sweet dreams." Sara said a goodnight, and drifted off. I followed her right after. The next day was just as uneventful. We just hung around the house, sometimes playing the piano, or playing some video games. Uncle Emmett beat everyone, so we gave up on that. Grandpa Charlie left in the afternoon, and that made me a little sad. But as the night came, I was suddenly looking forward to school. I wanted to see Nick again. I think I might be falling and hard.

Chapter 19 The Date We got to school on Monday, and I noticed something different. Nick was waiting for us at the building entrance doors. He looked at me and smiled. I smiled back, and he motioned for me to join him. I said a quiet bye to my family, and went to him. "Hey, Nick, what's up?" I greeted. "Nessie I was wondering if I could ask you something." He said. I just nodded, confused. "Would you like to go out, tonight?" I looked at him, "Like on a date?" He nodded. "I yeah, I'd love to!" I said, and kissed his cheek. He smiled at me, and said, "Awesome, I'll pick you up at 4." I nodded and quickly explained how to get to my house. The bell rang and I rushed to my first class. When I got inside, both Alice and Bella had this knowing smile on their face, and I knew then that Alice probably saw the whole thing before hand and told my mom. I just smiled dreamily back at them, and sat down. They didn't say anything during any of our classes together, but when we went into the cafeteria and sat down, both of them started asking, "How was it?" "How did he ask?" Alice knew how it went, but apparently she wanted everyone else to know. I just blushed and looked down. "How was what?" I heard Emmett ask. "Nessie's got a date today." Alice shrieked. "Awwww" I heard both Emmett and Rose say. I was blushing profusely. "Stop pestering her." I heard Mom say. I glanced at her and mouthed 'thank you'. She just smiled back. I vaguely remember Alice and Rose planning my outfit and what they were going to do with my hair. I didn't even argue with them, I knew they'd make me look great, and I actually wanted to. He was so worth it. I looked over at the table he usually sat with his friends, and kept glancing at him. He caught me once, and I blushed. He winked and went back to the conversation he was having. He looked bored. The bell rang, and he waited for me at the cafeteria door, to walk me to class. I really wanted to reach out and grab his hand, but refrained myself. When we arrived, he pecked my cheek and went to his seat. I smiled at a stunned Sara and sat next to her. She and Cole sat by themselves today at lunch. I just looked at her, and told her,

"I have a date today." She just smiled and nodded. That was one of the best things about her. She didn't feel the need to keep asking me about every detail. When the last bell rang, I all but ran to the car. Everyone was already there, waiting for me. I got into the car, and Rose drove off. It was only me, her and Alice today. The car was barely parked, and I was already being dragged upstairs to my room. Alice pushed me into the bathroom and said, "You have ten minutes." With the look she gave me, I made myself be done in five. I got out and was handed an outfit. I didn't even complain. I just put it on and sat down on the only chair in my room, so they could do my hair and makeup. Half an hour later, I was ready. That meant I had another fifteen minutes before Nick showed up. I made my way downstairs, and hard gasps and a loud wolf-whistle, probably Uncle Emmett. I blushed, and went into the music room. I was really nervous, and playing the piano calmed me down. I started playing some tunes, and after a few minutes, heard my parents walk in. They sat on each side of me, but didn't say anything. I continued to play for a few more minutes. I stopped and sighed. Dad looked at me, and started talking, "You look gorgeous, sweetie." He said. I blushed and said thanks. "Now, there are some things your mother and I want to tell you before you go." I just nodded, and he continued, "We know you know this, but be careful with what you say, and if you touch him, control your thoughts." I nodded, "Yeah, I know, Daddy." Mom continued, "Just be yourself, don't panic," I snorted, "and you'll be fine. Remember, he's human. Be as human as you can around him. And please, eat proper food and not junk. Okay?" I nodded, "Yes, I'll be good, I promise." I smiled at them. They smiled back, and Dad started playing the piano. I played along with him. He was trying to distract me, and it was working. It worked pretty well, because I barely heard the door bell and Alice's voice calling me. When I heard Rose call again, I froze. Mom looked at me, smiling, and said, "You can do this, baby. And you do look stunning." I got up and walked out of the room, along with Bella and Edward. When I saw Nick, though, all my worries were gone. He was so beautiful, in a black button up shirt and black dress pants. I smiled at him, and he gasped. "You look beautiful, Ness." He said. I just blushed again. "Shall we?" He asked, heading towards the door. "Yeah," I replied. "Bye, everyone." I said, and we were off. He took me to a cute restaurant downtown, nothing too fancy, but no fast food either. I actually ate some spaghetti, but didn't finish it off. We talked a lot while eating, he asked me a lot of questions about my family. I answered them as truthfully as I could, but that was hard. I asked about his family in return, and he told me he had two older brothers that were already in college. We shared dessert, and he reached for my hand, that was on the table, while we were eating.

My heart beat picked up when he touched me. Part of it was because I liked the thought of him holding my hand. The other part, because I was afraid to show him something. That didn't happen, though. We finished, and he paid our bill. He got up and reached for my hand as I got up. I took it, and quietly sighed. This was perfect. He drove us to the nearest movie theater, and when he parked, he ran to open my door for me. He grabbed my hand again, and we headed to buy our tickets. We decided on a romantic comedy, something light for a change. He kept his arm over my shoulders for the whole movie, and I started leaning into his shoulder as the movie progressed. The movie was okay, but the company made it all better. I smiled at him when we got into the car. I didn't want the evening to end. I stalled a little, asking him to tell more about him. "Can I ask you a stupid question?" I asked him. He laughed and said, "Sure." "Why were you named Nicholas?" He laughed again, "It's my grandpa's name." I smiled, "Really? That' so cool, I was named after my grandma. Sort of," he looked puzzled, "my mom was best friends with Esme since forever, and my grandma's name was Rene. So, put them both together, and you get Renesmee." "Cool. It is an unusual name." I laughed, "Totally. But I actually like it." "Now, can I ask something stupid?" I laughed and nodded. "Was it you playing the piano when I got to your place?" I nodded, "Yeah, I was playing with Edward. He taught me how to play." I blushed and looked down. He put his hand on my chin, and lifted my face to his, "You play very well, Nessie. What was that song?" "It was a piece Edward wrote for Bella. I love it, and I like to play it sometimes." He nodded. We talked a bit more, sharing weird and funny stories about each other, till he said it was getting late. I looked up and saw the dark sky, I was shocked. Time flew by. "Let's get you home." He said. I just nodded. We drove in a comfortable silence, with some music on the background. When we arrived at my house, he turned off the engine and looked at me. "I had a great time today." I smiled,

"Me, too. Thank you." He started to lean over, cautiously. I leaned into him as well, and he kissed me, sweetly, on the lips. I smiled, and pecked him again, before opening the car door. "I'll see you tomorrow." I said, lowly. He nodded, and I stepped out of the car. He waited till I got inside the house to drive off. I closed the door, feeling giddy. I leaned against the door, and giggled. Rose, Alice, Mom and even Grandma were by my side in a second, asking how everything went. I smiled at them, and made my way to my room, knowing they'd follow me. I sat down on my bed, leaning against the headboard, with my knees up. I rested my chin on my knees, and waited. Mom sat next to me, in the same position. Alice and Rose sat in front of me, cross-legged, and Esme sat down at my chair. "Come on, Nessie, tell us." Rose said, impatient. I smiled and started telling them, with a dreamy face. I decided to hold onto my mom's hand while telling everyone, so she could see how it went, and stop worrying, - cause I knew she was. "It was perfect. He took me to this small restaurant, and I did eat spaghetti," I told them, "then we watched a movie and talked a lot after that." I smiled, "And when we got here, he kissed me." I said, squealing a bit. I've been hanging around Alice for too long. "Aw, that's so great." Alice exclaimed. "You guys look so cute together." I just smiled at her. They kept on talking for a while, till I yawned, warning them to go about their lives while I slept. Grandma got up and kissed me on the cheek, wishing me a good night. Alice and Rose did the same. Mom stayed behind, and a few minutes later, Dad showed up in my room. I was finishing getting ready for bed, so they waited for me. I got under the covers, and sighed. Dad looked at me and asked, "Did you have a good time?" I nodded. "He didn't hurt you, nor did anything to you, did he?" I sighed, and motioned for him to take my hand. I showed him everything, but stopped before the kiss. He wouldn't take that so well. "Okay, I got the message." He said. I laughed a bit. "I'm glad you had fun, baby," Mom said, "now, sleep." I nodded and closed my eyes. I felt both my parents kissing my forehead, and Mom whispered, "We love you." I replied, sleepily, with 'love you, too', and was asleep before they could get out of the room. Next day at school, Nick was waiting for me again at the entrance. He reached for my hand as soon as I was close enough, and walked me to my first class. He pecked my cheek and left for his. At lunch, he sat with me, and Sara and Cole, instead of his friends. That made me even happier. During Calc, I traded places with Cole, so I sat next to Nick and he sat next to Sara. The rest of the week passed just the same, and soon it was Friday. At lunch, we were discussing the dance. It was tomorrow, and we were all excited, "So, we'll pick you up at your place around 6?" Nick asked. I nodded

"Yep, we'll be ready by then. Oh, and just so you know, everyone on my family will be attending, so the house will probably be a bit more chaotic than you can imagine. Try and ignore them." I smiled. Our plan for tomorrow was that Sara was to come over in the afternoon, and we'd all get ready together. Alice made us promise we'd let her do our hair and makeup. Nick laughed and nodded. We spent the rest of the school day talking about the dance. It was going to be great! Saturday came and, as I said, the house was chaotic. There were five girls trying to get ready, the huge house seemed really small at the moment. Alice got to me and mom first, and made our makeup. She went to do Sara's so Mom did my hair and I did hers. Rose helped Alice with Sara's hair. Everyone was running around, it was amazing how we didn't bump into each other. That would have been interesting to explain. The guys were all playing video games while we got ready. When it was around 5:30, they went to shower and get ready. They were done at 5:50. The door bell rang at 6 sharp, and we heard Esme open the door to let the guys in. We all made our way downstairs, and heard collective gasps from everyone. We all smiled, and went to greet our dates. "You look amazing." Nick whispered to me. I smiled and pecked his lips. "You don't look so bad yourself." I said. He took my hand and started heading to the door, when I heard grandma, "Wait!" I looked at her, "We need a picture of all of you." We all smiled at her, and took position. The girls were lined up beside each other, with their respective husband/date behind. Grandma took a few pictures, and we left. This dance would be life changing.

Chapter 20 Freak! RPOV We got to the place where the party was being held, and bought our tickets. Every couple had come with their own car, to try and have some privacy, so my family was already inside. Cole and Sara waited for me and Nick before going in. As we got in, we notice that the ballroom was half way full. It was still a bit early, not many people had arrived yet. I noticed my family sitting on one of the tables, talking and laughing. I smiled at them, they were making an effort on leaving me have a good time without being all over me. But I could still feel all of them watching my every move. Nick grabbed my hand and took me to get a drink. I gulped at the prospect of having to eat and drink the whole night, but shrugged it off. Nick was worth it. I grabbed a Coke, while he had a Sprite. He led me back to where Sara and Cole were sitting, and sat down next to them. We talked for a while, carefully avoiding any topics that could be revealing. Nick didn't know anything about us, and I wanted it to stay like that. "Nessie?" Nick looked at me. "Did you and Cole know each other already before?" I looked at him, then at Cole, "no, why do you ask?" "It just feels like you've known him for a while." "Oh, no, we didn't. But our families sort of connected, you know? I guess that's why we talk so much." I explained, smiling at him. Please, don't think anything else from it, please. I thought. "Okay." I let out a breath I didn't know I was holding. He didn't suspect anything. I smiled at him, reached for his hand and said, "Let's dance." He just smiled back and got up. The place was almost full now, and the music was blasting. The DJ was really good, playing cool song after cool song. We danced to Mika, Kaiser Chiefs, Lily Allen, Rihanna, Pink, The Killers, and even Spice Girls and Michael Jackson. We were having a great time, laughing and singing along to the songs. I loved every song that played, and kept dancing non-stop. It would be a while till I got tired, so I enjoyed my night. The DJ started playing slow songs, and all couples got together to dance. I could see my parents dancing and talking to each other. Same with Alice and Jasper, and Rose and Emmett. Sara and Cole were also dancing together, and I saw them share a kiss. I looked again, shocked. I had no idea! Those two were so going to hear it when we got back. The little inspection I made only took a second, so Nick didn't notice my distraction. He held my waist, while I put my hands around his neck, and we danced, slowly, to the rhythm of the music.

We spent most of the night like this, dancing and talking. I was having a great time. I had never attended a high school dance, so I was making the most of it. After a few more dances, Nick asked me to go outside for a while. I looked at him, puzzled, "O-kay, just let me tell my sister and I'll be right there." I reached my family's table and reached for my mom's hand, so I didn't have to ask out loud. She nodded and told me to be careful. I gave her a kiss and walked to where Nick was waiting. He was looking puzzled, but I let it go. We sat at one of the benches that were on the yard, and he started talking, "Why are you always holding hands with your sister?" He asked. Okay, what kind of question was that? I shrugged, and replied, "I don't know, she's my sister, do I need to have a reason?" "Whatever." He replied. "Is that why you wanted me to come out here? To ask why I love my sister?" I asked, annoyed. "No, no. I don't know why I asked that. I'm sorry, of course you love her, she's your sister. No, I wanted to ask something else." "Then ask." I said, a bit harsh. "Nessie," he continued, not noticing my harshness, "would you like to be my girlfriend?" He asked. I looked at him, shocked. Girlfriend? Am I ready for that? Am I ready to commit myself to a guy again? And so early in our relationship, we barely started dating. I grabbed his hand with both my hands, and started playing with his fingers. I started thinking about Jacob, what he did to me, and if I could handle another heart break. Jacob had already hurt me enough, would I be able to be with Nick without bringing my past along with me? Would I be able to fully trust him? Would I, a half-human, be able to love a human after all? I was lost in thoughts, when I felt Nick pull his hand away from mine, rather harshly. I looked up, and saw his face. It had an expression of pure horror. "Nicky, what's wrong?" He looked at me, this time disgusted, "What are you?" "Wh- what?" I stuttered. I reached for his hand again, but he pulled away and got up. "What did you just do to me?" He asked. "I didn't do anything, Nicky, I was just holding your hand." "Half-human? Is that what you are?" He kept going, without listening to me.

"Nicky, what are you talking about?" I went to touch him, but he took a step back, "Stay away from me, freak." He said, and ran away. He was scared. Of me. What did I do? Then I remembered. I was holding his hand. And I was so lost in thoughts, I didn't control my power. I showed Nick everything I was thinking. He saw everything, everything I was thinking about, even me being half-human. I started crying. I didn't know what to do. How could I have been so careless? I ran inside, still crying, and practically pulled my mom out of her seat. I barely saw my dad's expression, but I noticed he was shocked as well. He must have heard what happened through Nick's mind. I didn't care right now, though. I didn't want anyone else but my mom. I pulled her through the crowd, not caring about the people staring. They'd forget all about it in a few minutes anyways. "Nessie, slow down." I heard my Mom saying. I didn't slow down, I ran faster. "What's wrong?" So Dad didn't tell her what happened. Once we were safely away from everyone, I started running full speed. "Nessie you're scaring me." Mom said. I still didn't say anything. "May, baby, please." I stopped. And slid down a tree onto the grass, crying. Not a second later, I felt cold arms around me. I just kept on crying. "May," I hear Mom whisper. "Please, please, Renesmee, tell me what's wrong. Please, I can't stand to see you like this. Please?" I looked up to her, and saw her face. If she could cry, she'd be worse than me. I took a deep breath, trying to calm me down, and whispered, "I screwed up, Momma." "Why?" She asked, gently. "I wasn't paying attention, I was holding his hand, and he asked me to be his girlfriend. I was so lost in thoughts, I didn't realize I had let him into my mind. I showed him everything I was thinking, Mom, and I didn't even notice. How could I have been so stupid?" "May! Baby, you're not stupid, I don't want to hear you say this ever again okay?" I nodded. "Did you show him about us?" "No, I wasn't thinking about you but I did think about me being half-human. He he called me a freak and ran away. Momma, please, what do I do? I like him, I can't I can't handle another heart break." I started crying again. She held me, and whispered, "We'll fix this, okay? We'll talk to your father, and Carlisle, and we'll see what we can do, okay? Please, stop crying, baby, I can't handle it." I looked up at her, again, and saw all the hurt in her eyes. I had hurt her again.

"I'm sorry, Mom. I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to hurt you. Please, forgive me." I said, in a voice lower than a whisper. "You didn't, babe, you know that. I hurt when you hurt. I can't help it. Now, let's see Edward probably knows what happened already, and must have told the family. They'll know what to do, okay?" I nodded. "Do you think he's going to tell anyone?" I asked her. "I don't know, sweetie. You know him better than me, what do you think?" "I I don't think he will. Momma, his face he was so scared. Because of me. No, he was scared of me. He looked at me with so much horror, I I don't think he even processed everything that happened. He just ran away." I told her. "C'mon sweetie. Let's get home, and we'll see what we can do about it, okay?" She said, while tucking a piece of stray hair behind my ear. She kissed my forehead and got up with me. She put me on her back, like Dad used to do with human Bella, and ran home through the thick forest. As soon as we got home, everyone came running to me, asking if I was okay. Mom said I was fine, but of course, no one believed her. They kept asking me things, how I was, and what happened and all that, even though they already knew. I had enough. "I'm not okay, okay? I'm everything but okay, now leave me alone!" I yelled, and ran to my room, dragging mom with me. I heard someone follow us, it smelled like my dad, so I didn't argue. I collapsed on my bed, and started crying again. "I'm sorry, Daddy. I didn't mean to yell. I'm just frustrated." I told him, knowing everyone would be listening. They usually try not to, but I knew today everyone would be attuned to our conversation. "It's okay, sweetheart, we understand." I nodded, "Daddy, did you hear him?" He nodded. "What do I have to do? Please, I have to do something!" I begged. Mom came to my side and held me, again. "You'll have to talk to him. Okay?" Dad said. I just nodded. "Now, sleep, and we'll see what we'll do tomorrow." He continued. I nodded again, and turned to mom, "Momma?" I was going to ask her, but she interrupted, "Yes, I'll stay." She said, smiling a bit. I whispered a thank you and turned to dad, "Daddy? Would you play the piano for me?" He just nodded. I went into the bathroom to shower and take off my clothes and makeup. When I was done, I noticed Mom had changed as well, and was now wearing a tank top and sweatpants. I went to my bed, and lied down

under the covers. She was beside me in a second, and I snuggled close to her. I could hear the piano being played, and I recognized my song. I looked up to my mom, and said, "Momma? Tomorrow, can you would you go with me to talk to Nick? I I don't think I can do it alone. Please?" She nodded, "Of course, sweetie. I'll be there." "Thank you. Momma?" "Yes?" "I'm sorry." "There's nothing to be sorry about, okay? It'll be alright, babe. Now, try to sleep, okay? I'll be right here when you wake up." She comforted me, and pecked my lips. "Thank you, Momma. I thank you." I said. "I love you." I told her, closing my eyes. I had nightmares during the night, again. They woke me up, as usual, and mom lulled me back to sleep, as usual. When she woke me up, at 9 on Sunday morning, I felt like shit. I didn't sleep properly, I was feeling weak and vulnerable. But I had to be strong now, and talk to him. I got ready for the day, and went downstairs to eat something before we left. The whole family was sitting on the living room, waiting for me. I went into the kitchen first, afraid of how they'd react about my mistake. I ate, rather quickly, and went to talk to them. "I'm sorry about yesterday. I didn't mean to yell, it was inappropriate and disrespectful. I'm sorry." I told them all, honestly. "It's okay, Nessie. We didn't give you a chance to talk, and we're sorry too." Aunt Rose said. I just nodded. "Mom?" "I'm ready. Are you?" She asked. I looked at every face in the living room. Grandma and Grandpa looked at me, and smiled in encouragement. Rose and Alice had a worried look, afraid I'd get hurt again. Jasper and Emmett had a 'you can do it' look. Dad smiled and nodded at me, his way of saying it'd be alright. I didn't ask him to go with me because I thought Nick should have some privacy to think through everything. I realized mom was waiting for an answer, "I'm as ready as I'll ever be." I said, and we headed towards the door. We took Mom's old car, the Ferrari Dad gave her, and drove to Nick's place. I'd never been there, but I knew where he lived. I was hoping he would be alone, and that he'd listen to me. Please, let me be right for once.

We had arrived at his home, and I looked outside the car window. His house was nice, he lived in a good neighborhood. I took a deep breath, and looked at mom, "You'll be there, right?" I was so scared. "Through everything. I promise." She said. She got out of the car, and I followed her. I grabbed her hand, unconsciously, and squeezed it. She squeezed back, but didn't let go. I knocked three times, and took a deep breath. Please, let him be home. Alone. I could hear someone inside, walking slowly to open the door. I knew it was him, his sweet scent overpowering my nose. He opened the door, and I looked at him. He looked horrible, like he hadn't slept for days, his eyes were red and puffy, he looked like he cried himself to sleep. And it was my fault. I had hurt him, scared him. He looked at me, but this time not scared. His face was expressionless. He looked at me, then mom, and our intertwined hands. I still didn't know why he felt so uneasy with me holding her hand. I didn't let go though, I needed the support. "Renesmee? Bella?" He asked. "Nicholas. We need to talk. May we come in?"

Chapter 21 Explaining RPOV "Please? May we come in? We really need to talk." I said, again, to Nick. "Why would I talk to you?" He replied. I sighed, and squeezed my mom's hand once again. "Renesmee just wants to explain herself. We understand if you don't want to talk to us ever again, but let her explain before you jump to wrong conclusions." Mom told him, giving him a look that could convince the toughest criminal to confess his crimes. "Ah okay, I guess." He said, while taking a step back to let us in. "Thank you." My mom replied. He led us into his room, saying it'd be better to talk somewhere where his family couldn't see right away. I just nodded. He sat on his bed, knees bend up, leaning against the headboard, while mom and I sat on the floor, facing him. She kept her arm around my shoulder, in a protective manner, but otherwise seemed relaxed. I reached for her other hand, and held it with both of mine on my lap. I, on the other hand, was anything but relaxed. "Talk." I heard Nick say. I looked at him, and saw the hurt in his eyes. Yet again, I hurt someone. When would I ever stop doing that? "I'm sorry, Nicky. I didn't want you to find out like this." I said, looking down at my lap. "I was just so shocked, you know, and I didn't control myself. I didn't mean to scare you away like that, and I'm sorry." He nodded. "What what are you?" He asked, quietly. I looked up, first at him, then at mom, trying to see a way to explain it to him. He was definitely not like Sara, and would probably freak out again when I said the word. I took a deep breath, and started, "I'm not completely human." "I had figured as much." He said, sarcastically. "I'm half-human, half" I looked at mom, and she nodded, squeezing my shoulders and pulling me a little closer. "Half-vampire." I whispered the last part. "What?" He yelled, his eyes open wide. I hid my face on my mom's chest, and started crying. She just whispered calming words, too low for him to hear. "Please, let us finish." Mom continued, still calming me down. "Yes, we are vampires." She said in a whisper.

"Why do you go to school? For fun? To find your next prey?" He was scared, I could tell by his voice. I didn't move, though. "No! How could you say that?" Mom replied, harshly. "We do not feed on humans, only animals. We go to school to interact with people and try to have a normal life. We do not kill humans." She explained. I looked up, and saw him relax a little. "But you're not half." He directed his question to Bella. "No, I'm not. Only Nessie is in our family." "And you're not going to attack me?" He asked. She shook his head, "We had many opportunities, don't you think? If we ever wanted to hurt you, you wouldn't be here." She explained. He nodded. "You do have a point there." "Okay, we came here to explain everything. But you have to promise us first that you're not going to tell anyone about any of this. Got it?" Mom said. Again, he just nodded. "How how can she be a half-human?" He asked. "Nessie was conceived and born when her mother was a human. Her father is a vampire, though." She didn't tell him she was the human. I leaned into her, and she instinctively hugged me close to her. I was still holding her hand, so I showed her my question, "Should we tell him about you, Mom?" She shook her head, and I nodded. But he had other plans. He kept looking from me, to mom, and back to me. "Holy shit!" I heard him whisper. I knew he knew then. I sighed, but didn't say anything. "Bella Bella is your mother?" I didn't say anything again, but I heard mom sigh, and whisper a faint 'yes'. "But but, it's impossible. You're the same age! You look the same, you're you're sisters, you c-can't be mother and daughter." He stumbled through his words, scared again. "We don't age." My mom explained. "I'm stuck at 18 forever Nessie aged for 7 years, but now she's also stuck at 18. We don't get older, that's why she looks like my sister." She said, slowly, to make him understand. "This is so weird." I heard him mumble. "I know it's weird," he looked at me shocked, "yes, I heard you. But please don't freak out again." I asked him. I saw him nod faintly.

"That those things you saw. At the dance. It's because I can I can show people my thoughts. And I can control it most of the time, but you got me by surprise, and I showed you without knowing. I'm sorry. I'm sorry you had to see what was going in my head as well." At that, Mom looked at me puzzled. I showed her what I was thinking, and she frowned. I was thinking about Jacob and all he did to hurt me, and seeing it again was not very nice for her. I added a sorry on my thoughts. She kissed my hair and said it was nothing. Nick looked at us, intently, checking our interaction. "Is that why you're always holding her hand?" He asked. "Okay, what is your problem with me holding hands with Bella?" I retorted, not calling her Mom out loud, as to not freak him out again. He shrugged, "I don't know! I guess I feel jealous? I noticed you're always near her, more than the rest of your family, and you're always touching, or kissing, and I felt jealous, okay? At first, I wished it was me in her place, holding your hand. But that day at the cafeteria, when the boys were gone, I saw you curled up on her lap, and she looked like she was comforting you. You didn't care about people talking about you being in that position, and I could feel feel the love coming out of her. I I guess I wanted to have some sort of relationship like that with my siblings. We always fought. Still do. And my friends at school, they don't really care about me, just my reputation. I never felt close to anyone until you came along. And you two have this bond that goes beyond my understanding. I guess that's why I'm peeved when I see you holding hands." Wow. That was pretty intense. "Nicky. You don't have to feel jealous or anything. I we can't explain our relationship. You have no idea all I've been through, and Bella was always there to help and love me. I'm I'm sorry you never had that." I said, feeling somewhat sad for him. He nodded. "I'm still not over the shock, though. Of finding out you're not human. I'm gonna need some time to adjust. Is that will that be okay?" I smiled at him, "It's more than I could ask for. Thank you." I said. "So, can I ask questions now?" He said, with a small smile on his face. I just nodded, and he started. "First off, you won't attack me, right?" I just shook my head. "Okay is there something I really need to know?" I pondered his question. I felt my Mom pull me close to her again. I had forgotten she was there. I looked at her, and she just nodded. "Okay, so we're very strong, very fast and can hear really well. Some of us have different 'powers' like myself. We don't melt on the sun, but we can't go to school on sunny days. I have to sleep, but full vampires don't sleep at all. Oh, yeah, and Edward is my father, and he can read minds." I added, just to see his reaction. I actually giggled when I saw his shocked expression.

"Shit, I'll have to watch my thoughts around him. Oh, yeah, and what about Cole? I'm guessing he's one of you, since you've made friends with him so fast." "Yeah, he's he's like me. He lives with his father, they're like us, you know, on the diet thing, and we're together a lot, cause the only place he can see Sara is at my house, and she's always there, so" "Sara knows?" I nodded. "And she's okay with it?" I nodded again. "Okay" "Anything else?" I asked. I thought we should give him some space to think properly. "No, not really. I'm sure I'll have questions later, but I'll need some time to let it sink in. I'm sorry I freaked out on you like that." He said. "You don't need to feel sorry, Nicky. I should have been more careful. I'm sorry." I said. "We should go. Thank you for listening. I'll see you at school." I told him. "Yeah." Was all he said. "Let's go, Mom." I called her without thinking. I saw Nick cringe on his bed. He wasn't as comfortable as Sara with me calling her Mom. "Yeah, baby. Bye, Nick, and thanks for listening." She said, politely. She grabbed my hand and pulled me up. "We'll see ourselves out." He just nodded and we left. When we got into the car, I suddenly attacked her with a hug. "Thank you, thank you!" She laughed. I loved to hear her laughing like that, so freely. She pecked my lips and said, "Just give him time to adjust, and he'll be okay. I know it." She smiled and winked at me. I giggled, and gave her another kiss. "Thank you for being there, Momma. I don't think I would have done it without you." "Anything for you, sweetie, you know that. I love you." "Love you, too." "Okay," she said, breaking the moment, "now we should go home, and tell everyone to stop worrying. That is, if Alice didn't tell everyone already." She grinned. I laughed, and nodded. We got home a few minutes later, and as soon as we got in, Alice ran to me, yelling, "I already told them, I'm so happy for you, little niece! That's awesome!" She squealed. I just laughed at her. Dad had approached us, and gave Mom a sweet kiss. He kissed my forehead, and said,

"I'm glad it turned out okay. Are you okay?" I nodded, and smiled to prove my point. "Good. Now, we do not tell anyone that he figured out, okay? They could be in danger if any vampire found out." I just nodded. "Sure, Daddy. I'll keep it to myself. I'll tell Sara though, is that okay?" He nodded. "I'm just gonna go to my room for now, okay?" They just nodded, and I left. As soon as I closed the door to my room, I let a huge breath out. He didn't hate me. Sure, he was scared, but who wouldn't be? He listened and he understood, and I was happy with that. I was sitting on my desk, looking through random websites, with nothing else to do, when I heard my cell phone. I picked it up from the bedside table, and looked at the caller ID. It was Sara. "Hello?" I answered it. "Nessie! Oh my god, are you okay? I saw you running away with Bella, and you were crying, and I've been trying to call you since I woke up, but you didn't pick it up. What happened?" She said in one breath. I laughed a little. "I'm okay now, Sar. Promise. I kinda screwed up last night with Nick, but I sort of fixed it already." "Oh." Was her smart response. I laughed. "Can you sleep over? I'll tell you everything. I'll ask mom to pick you up." "Yeah, be here in 10. Bye." And she hung up. Nice friend. Thirty minutes later, we were both sitting on my bed, talking. "Tell me everything that happened. I was so worried!" She demanded. "I'm sorry. As I said, I screwed up. Nicky asked me to be his girlfriend. And I started thinking if I was ready for it, you know. After everything that happened to me. So, I started playing with his fingers, and I let him into my mind without realizing it. He panicked and ran away." I explained. "Oh, Nessie!" I held my hand up, signaling her to let me continue. "So, I grabbed my mom, and ran into the forest. We talked, and then today, she went with me to Nick's place. He listened to us, and we told him what we were, but not in so many details. He said he needed time to let it all sink in, but he didn't go ballistic on me again." I finished. "Gosh, Ness. I'm so sorry. I wish I could've been of help, but I just saw you run away with Bella, and I asked Edward what was going on, but he didn't tell me. He told me not to worry and let it calm down before asking for anything. Cole took me home right after that."

"Hey, there was nothing you could've done. I I panicked, and I made my mom panic, but now we're fine. Now you! You little liar, you have some explaining to do!" I said, in a playful tone. "What? What did I do?" She asked, nervous. "I saw you and Cole kissing! When did that happen? And why wasn't I informed?" She giggled. "It happened after we left here for the party. During the ride, he asked if I'd go out with him, you know, on a date. And I said of course. He was so happy, Ness. As soon as he parked, he leaned over to me, and pecked my lips. Really sweetly. And I guess we just connected after that." She said, dreamily. "Awww, you guys are so cute!" I giggled. I teased her some more, and then we both decided to go down to eat dinner. Grandma had made us lasagna, and I forced myself to eat some, even though I didn't like real food that much. After dinner, we called the girls for a movie. Rose and Alice said they already had something planned, - I did not need to hear that and since Dad was out with Grandpa hunting, Mom and Grandma joined us. We went up to my room, and cuddled up on my bed. I was at one end, cuddled up to Mom. Sara was on her other side, and she was lying against Grandma. We decided to watch a drama, so I took out the DVD case and put Finding Neverland on. I was crying so much at the end of the movie, you could hear my sobs. Sara was too. I felt Mom hug me tight, and I calmed down. Esme was calming Sara down too. Grandma left, saying she needed to take care of some things. Sara got up to shower and change. I stayed curled up to Mom till Sara was done. I went into the bathroom to get ready, and when I left, I heard Sara and Mom talking. "Just follow your heart, sweetie. We know he's a good guy, so don't be afraid. He really likes you, he'd never hurt you." "Thanks Bella. You're an awesome mom, you know?" I walked over behind Mom, and wrapped my arms around her waist, and kissed her cheek, "I agree." She just smiled. If she were still human, she'd be blushing. "Okie dokie girls. Now it's time for bed." We both pouted playfully, "Awww mom just five more minutes!" She laughed, and shook her head. "Nope, now c'mon, to bed." We sighed exuberantly, still playing along, and lied down. She tucked us in, and kneeled down on my side. "You know, right? If you need anything" I just nodded. She pecked my lips, and said "Good night, baby. Love you."

"Love you, too, Momma." She went to Sara's side and kissed her forehead, "Night, sweetie. Love you." "You, too, Mom." I saw Mom grin at that. I turned to Sara and whispered, once Mom was out of the room, "You just made her day."

Chapter 22 Talking RPOV Monday morning, we all piled up on our cars and drove to school. Yet again, people were talking about us, or more specifically, me. They had seen me run away crying, and they were coming to all kinds of conclusion. From Nick dumping me, to me being attacked again. But again, I just ignored everyone and went on with my life. I hadn't seen Nick when we arrived, and it was now lunch time. Sara and I made our way to the cafeteria, where we met up with Cole. We grabbed our food, and sat at one of the farthest tables, so we could talk in privacy. We had just settled down when Cole told me to look behind me. I did as told, and was shocked. Nick was standing behind me, with his tray, looking like he wanted to talk to us. "Nicky. Join us?" I said, to ease his fear. He nodded and sat down next to me. He kept looking down to his food, though, sort of afraid to speak up. "Nick, just tell me what you wanna say. Please?" I said gently, not wanting to scare him anymore. He took a deep breath, and started, "I'm so sorry, Ness. I I've had a lot of time to think, and I just realized how much I had hurt you with my outburst. I really didn't mean to, I was caught by surprise and I I'm sorry." "Nicky" I started to interrupt, but he held his hand up, to stop me, "As I said, I had some time to think, and I I decided that I don't care what you are. You're amazing, and I I'll just care about who you are, okay?" Sara let out a loud squeal and hugged Nick. I just looked at him, and grinned. I waited till Sara let go of him, and whispered, "Thank you. You don't know what that means to me." He smiled, and leaned over, pecking my lips. I heard some other squeals, and looked at my family's table. Alice and Bella were laughing quietly, but I could still hear them. They caught me staring, and smiled at me. I couldn't help but smile back. I looked back at Nick. "Nicky, I I don't know about the whole being your girlfriend thing yet. I mean I, I didn't even think about it after well, you know. Maybe we could talk after school? I have some things to tell you, and all" He looked a bit sad, but agreed to come. "Thank you." We talked a little more, about the dance, and all that. We were acting normal, and Nick was slowly trusting us again. He talked normally, and laughed along with us. I couldn't stop smiling.

We headed to class together, and Nick held my hand the whole way. I was very careful as to not let him see my mind, and scare him away again. We sat together in class, showing everyone that no, he had not dumped me. I was so happy to actually stop the rumors for once. I left for the parking lot as soon as the last bell rang, and I waited anxiously for Nick. I had told everyone that I was going out with him for a while, to explain the whole girlfriend situation. He finally got out, and came towards us. I smiled, "Ready?" He just nodded. "Do you have your car?" He nodded again. "Okay, let's go then. Bye everyone, see you later." I yelled to everyone else. He drove us to the same park where Jacob had caught me. I tried to ignore the feeling of helplessness, but it was still there. We sat on one of the benches, and I sighed, "I have some things to tell you. And I I'd like for you to listen first, and react later, okay?" I had a feeling of dj vu. Hadn't I said the same thing to my dad just a few weeks ago? Nick just nodded his head, and held my hand. Okay, I had to concentrate and make sure I didn't show him what happened. "The reason I'm not ready for a relationship is Jacob." I whispered the last word, and looked down. He put his free hand under my chin, and lifted up my face. "What happened?" He asked. "He he used to be my mother's best friend. Then he became my best friend. We dated for a short time, but it wasn't very serious. My dad didn't like him, and my mom well, let's say every time I mention his name, her mood changes drastically. But, he was once rejected by her, and I went out with him, feeling pity more than anything else. "We didn't go out much, tough. I didn't like him like that, and had told my mom about it. She helped me I'd go out with him one weekend, and then she made sure I wouldn't be able to go out for at least two weeks. It went like this for a couple of months. But the thing was that Jacob vowed to give me everything from the day I was born. He loved me, from the moment he laid eyes on me. It's really complicated to explain, and I don't want to scare you away again, so I'm going to skip that." I said with a small smile. He smiled back, and nodded. "One night, everyone was out but me and Bella. I was getting tired, and told her I was going home to shower and sleep. She asked if I wanted her to go too, but I told her to wait for Edward at the big house. At the time, we lived in a small cottage in the forest, and the rest of the family lived at the big house, as we called it. "I could smell Jacob coming after I had finished my shower. I decided to wait up for him, he was probably passing by to wish a goodnight. But he he barged in, and attacked me. He hit me, and said he was going to take what what was rightfully his. He started touching me, and ripped off my tank top. "I screamed as loud as I could, knowing that someone would hear me. Not a minute later, his weight was no longer on me. I opened my eyes to see Bella, giving Jacob hell. He disappeared, and she helped me. That was fifteen years ago." I told him truthfully, with

tears in my eyes. I looked into his eyes to see how he was taking it, but I only saw hurt and concern. I took a deep breath, and continued, "I hadn't told anyone in my family about all that happened. It was almost impossible to hide it, especially with a mind reader and a 'fortune-teller', but me and mom managed to hide it. But, a few weeks ago, some events made me have to tell them all the truth. That was where the boys were those days. They went back to Forks to avenge me. And that was why Jacob came back that day. He attacked me again, but I was more prepared and fought back. "You know, the reason I'm telling you this is after all that happened, I haven't thought about guys in a long time. I haven't been with anyone since that day, but that changed when I saw you on our first day here. I really wanted to know you, the real you. You helped me heal, even if you didn't know that. But, I'm not sure if I am ready to commit myself to you. "You know, for a relationship to work, we both need to give our all. And, despite everything, I'm just not ready yet. I'm still hurting." He nodded. "I understand that, Nessie. I do. And thank you for telling me. I'm so sorry you had to go through such a horrible experience. And I promise you, I'll never do anything to hurt you, at least not intentionally. I like you, I really do, and I'm willing to wait for you." He told me. I was speechless. I had tears coming down my eyes. I wiped them away, and hugged him. "Thank you, Nicky. Thank you so much for understanding. And I like you too, and I'm willing to be your girlfriend, you know. I just I just want to take things slow for now. We know each other for such a short time, I really need more time. But I want to try. Okay?" He nodded again, and smiled. He gave me a sweet kiss, and I responded eagerly. "Nicky?" I started, once he broke the kiss. "Yes?" "Would you freak out, if I told you the whole story?" "Well I'm better with controlling my temper. I'll try." He was making an effort to keep me happy. I just smiled and nodded. "Okay it's just that. Jacob isn't really human." His eyes grew wide. "But he's not like me or my family. Actually, his kind is supposed to be mortal enemies with our kind." I explained. He nodded in understanding. "He's a werewolf." I whispered to him. His mouth fell open, but he didn't move. "Like, the whole full moon, silver bullet werewolf?" He asked. I laughed a little. "No it's actually a shape-shifting thing. He can turn into a wolf. And he's also strong, that was how he dragged me so fast. He turned into a wolf. The thing is, remember I said he vowed to love me?" He nodded. "That's called imprinting. It's like a love at first sight thing.

Which's really creepy, if you ask me." He laughed. "That was why he came after me. He didn't know where I was before, or else he'd come looking for me." "He won't be near you again, Nessie. I won't let him." Nick said. I just smiled and kissed him. "Thank you." I told him, and he grasped the meaning. Thank you for not freaking out on me again. After that, we walked around the park for a while, hand-in-hand. We sat down by one of the trees, and stayed in each other's arms until it was dark. I was starting to feel comfortable around him, and not scared. I had a hard time trusting people, vampire or human. I was still a bit scared of the future, though, but that was understandable. He drove me home and pecked my lips as goodbye. He waited till I was inside to drive away. I had barely closed the door, when someone picked me up and ran to my room. It was Alice. She had a knowing smile on her face. Mom and Rose were already there, sitting on my bed. I knew what they wanted to know, but I decided to stall a little, just to see their reactions. I walked, slowly even for a human, to the bathroom, and washed my face. I had cried a little while talking to Nick, and wanted to get rid of the tear stains. I walked back, still slowly, and sat down next to Mom. I greeted her, pecking her lips, and rested my head on her shoulder. I sighed, and looked up. They were eyeing me, expectantly. "It went well." I finally said, with a smile. Rose and Alice squealed so loud, I swear I'd gone deaf for a few minutes. Mom just hugged me and said she was glad it worked out. I spent the next hour explaining what I told him, and what we agreed to do. I could see Alice was really eager for it to work out. We kept talking for a while, till Alice froze and stared into space. She was having a vision. We waited till she snapped out, and asked what she saw. She only grabbed Rose's hand and said, "Gee, we're out already, Bella!" I laughed out loud. My mom had such subtle ways to let people know what she wanted. I know she loved her sisters, I wish she had a better relationship with Rosalie, though. Anyways, she must want to talk to me alone, or else she wouldn't send Alice a vision of them being kicked out. "Okay, they're gone, spit it out." I said. She smiled, and hugged me. "What's going on?" I asked. "Nothing, baby. I'm just so happy." She said, with a huge smile on her face. She grabbed my hand, and started pulling me through the window. We both jumped and she guided me through the forest, till we reached what we now called our meadow. It was the clearing where we sat while talking about Jacob. We came here to talk whenever we need the privacy. "I just wanted to have a moment with you." She said, once we settled down. She sat against a tree, and I sat between her legs, resting my back on her chest, and my head on her shoulder. She wrapped her arms around me. "Mom, you're with me all the time." I reminded her, with a smile. She smiled back, and said,

"Yeah, I'm aware of that. But there's always someone with us, and I wanted to be just us, without the family and without you upset." I nodded, and closed my eyes. She continued talking, "I wanted to say that I'm very proud of you." I opened my eyes, and looked into hers. "What you did today was very brave and very mature. You showed him that you're willing to work things out, just not too fast. And that you're not ready to be in a relationship. For which I'm glad." She added the last part in a whisper. I giggled. "I'm not ready to see you all grown up yet." She explained. I just laughed. "Mom, I'm thirty-one. Can't get more grown up than that, can I?" I smiled at her. She tightened her embrace, "No matter, you'll always be my baby." She said, in a teasing voice. "You're right." I told her, "I'm not ready to be away from you. I don't think I ever will." She beamed. I didn't think I could handle being away from her for a long time. She suddenly grew serious, "Okay, I wanted to talk to you about something else too." I nodded, signaling that I was listening. "Promise me you'll be careful." She said, in a low voice. "I know Nick is slowly accepting us, and I'm really happy because of that. But that does not mean he will be like me, you know." I nodded, understanding where she was getting. "If if he decides to go on with his life, and not be turned. I want you to promise me that you'll not shut me out. That you'll accept his decisions, and one day move on. And that you'll let me know everything. Please, promise me. I don't want you to get hurt ever again." She finished, in a pleading voice. I shifted a little on her embrace, so I could face her fully. Her face was calm, but her eyes told everything I needed to know. She was scared. For me. "I I promise, Mom. I promise." I told her, in a whisper. She held me tight, and kissed my forehead. "I'm so glad you're okay now. Nick, and especially Sara, helped you in so many ways. Your eyes are sparkling again. And you're smiling a lot more. You're healing. You're going to be okay." She kept saying. It sounded like she was reassuring herself, not me. I heard her quietly sobbing. I wrapped my arms around her neck, and she tightened her embrace even more. "Sshh, Mom. I promise you, I'll be fine. Okay?" I said, while tucking a piece of stray hair behind her ear. "I'll be careful, and I'll never, ever, shut you out. Mom, you're the reason I'm here today, not because you gave birth to me, but because you held me together. I would be a mess if it weren't for you." I told her, with all my heart. "I'll never leave you. I love you, Momma." I whispered, touching the necklace she had given me on my birthday. She put her hand on top of mine, and started playing with the pendant. "You know why I started calling you May?" She asked. I shook my head, I really didn't know, but decided to tease her, "Because it is a part of my name?" I smiled at her. She laughed.

"That too. But May also means the spring of life. And that's you. Forever young." She said. I just smiled at her. "That's nice. I like it. And I like it even better because no one else dared steal that name from you." I said, smiling. "And no one will. It's mine." She replied, laughing. "I don't have a nickname for you." I stated, pouting a bit. She smiled. "You call me Momma all the time." She said. "I know that, Momma." I replied, teasingly. "But at school I can't call you that, you're supposed to be my sister. And sisters call each other by nicknames." I said as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. She just laughed at my childish manners. "Well, I already go by a nickname, you know that. Isabella is just too formal. And Emmett and Charlie call me Bells sometimes." She listed. "Yeah, well, it has to be something that only I ever call you. Like my special name." She laughed again. I guess I did sound like a little kid. "Okay, then. What do you want to call me?" I put my hand under my chin, thinking. "Uhm, I don't know, Mom. I like your full name, you know. It's beautiful." I added, as an afterthought. She laughed. "Is it?" I just nodded. "Okay, but you're not calling me by my full name. It wouldn't be a nickname then." She said, playfully. "You're right. I think I'll call you Beb." I told her. She looked at me, "Beb?" I nodded, "Yep. That's your new nickname. My special nickname. It kinda sounds like your name, but it also sounds like 'baby', which's like my second nickname." We both laughed. "Okay then, if you're sure." She said. "Oh, I am." I snuggled closer to her again. It was a good thing that we didn't have to move around. Well, she didn't have to move at all, she didn't feel tired nor had sore muscles. I felt some pain if I stayed on the same spot for long. But still, we were in the same position as when we got here. "Hey, Mom?" I decided to talk to her some more, since we were in such deep conversations. "Yeah, baby?" I smiled at her. "I just thought I'd say thank you."

"For what?" She asked, confused. "For always being there when I needed. For saving me. For helping me heal. For being a sister more than a mother. For for everything." I finished, with watery eyes. "Oh, honey. You know I'd do anything for you. Anything. I already did, I went against the whole family for you. Twice. And I'd do it again in a heartbeat so to speak." She added with a smile. I nodded. "Mom? You know what else would make me happy?" "What?" "If you and Aunt Rose worked out your differences, and got along like you and Aunt Alice do." I told her, honestly. Sometimes it pained me, the way they didn't talk to each other. Sure, they got along okay, but they didn't act like sisters. More like friends, but not even good friends. She sighed, "It would make me happy too, baby. But believe me, you are the reason we are in okay terms now. She really hated me when I was human." I already knew that, but I still didn't get it. How could she hate my sweet, caring mother? "May, we should head back. It's late, and we have school tomorrow." I made to get up, but she grabbed my arm and pulled me back down, facing her. She rested her forehead on mine, and looked into my eyes. I looked back, and waited for her to talk. She just looked into my eyes for some time, and then spoke, "No matter what happens, remember that I'll always, always love you." I could feel the tears threatening to fall. "I love you, too, Momma. Forever." I pecked her lips and stood up, bringing her up with me. We ran back home, only to be greeted by a furious Edward. "Where were you? I've been worried sick." I just gave him a kiss and ran to my room. I could hear Mom reasoning with him, and finally convincing him that we were fine and just needed some privacy. I heard them come up, and tuned them out. I didn't want to hear anything else going on with them. I fell onto my bed, exhausted. The day had been emotionally tiring. I felt a huge weight leaving my shoulders. Nick cared about me. I would live in the moment with him, and forget about the future, the one thing I was most scared of. And I was planning on keeping my promise to my mother. I closed my eyes, and sleep overcame me in a matter of seconds. I never had a better night of sleep.

Chapter 23 Epilogue RPOV Four months Four months since the day Nick found out about us. Four blissful months. Everything had worked out so far. Nick and I were dating, but still nothing serious. We were taking it slow. I couldn't just pretend that I was ready, when I surely wasn't. He understood, and was ready to wait. He hung out with us more than his 'old' friends. He said we were the ones that mattered to him, because we cared about him, and not his reputation. Sara and Cole were a thing. They were so cute together, every time I looked at them, I felt like cooing. Cole was a real gentleman, and Sara was happiness incarnated. They were always together, but not in an uncomfortable way. They always put their friends first, not shutting us out. Sara and I grew closer every day. She was like the sister I never had. So much that she got to call Bella Mom around the house. Mom was more than thrilled with that. Dad was very keen of Sara too, and was teaching her to play the piano. She was a very good student. The whole family made her feel very welcome. Christmas was a very eventful one. We had new people with whom we could celebrate it, so we threw a huge party. Cole and his father, Arthur, celebrated it with us. Sara and Nick also showed up after spending some time with their families. We exchanged gifts among us, and had a great time. New Year was also a nice celebration. We took a small trip to Forks, showing up inconspicuously as to not alarm the whole town of our presence. Grandpa Charlie, Sue, Leah and Seth went to our old house to celebrate it with us. Jacob was nowhere to be seen, thankfully. Leah had changed a lot since the last time I saw her. Not physically, no, but her attitude towards us. We stayed in Forks for five days, and she was over at our house every day, talking a lot to both mom and I. They were getting along great, almost like sisters. On our last day, she came to me and asked me if I would call her Aunt Leah. I beamed and gave her a huge hug. It was now the middle of January. And, according to our new birth certificates, mine and Mom's birthdays. Aunt Alice decided to throw us a party, seeing as we would be turning 16, so we needed some sort of party to 'keep up the appearances'. Yeah, that was the excuse Alice got just so she could plan a party. It didn't bother me that much though. I was just glad to be turning 16, again, so I could get my license. The party was going to be tonight. Alice had invited some people from school, mostly Nick's old friends and acquaintances, meaning most of the sophomore and junior years. Not that I knew who half of them were. Alice said that Mom and I had to wait upstairs for a while, whist people arrived. She wanted us to make a 'grand entrance', as she put it.

While we waited in my room, already changed and 'ready to rock', I decided to give Mom the present I bought her. It was custom made, so it didn't get ready for Christmas. I only got it a few days ago, and decided to wait for today to give it. "Hey Mom?" "Uhm?" She replied, not lifting her head from the book she was reading. I sat beside her on my bed, and poked her side, until she finally gave up reading and looked at me, annoyed. I just laughed. "I wanted to give you something before we went down there." She looked puzzled. "I had it customized, and it took longer than I thought. I got it just a few days ago." I said, smiling. Now that I had her full attention, I pecked her cheek and went into my closet to retrieve my package. I came back, and sat down, cross-legged, in front of her. I knew she didn't like receiving presents, - she loved giving them, though but I wanted to give her something. "May, you know" I interrupted, "Yes, I know. You don't like people spending money on you. But, I'm your daughter, it's my job to spoil you." I said, grinning. She laughed a bit, "Isn't it the other way around?" I just shook my head, "Nope." I said, popping the 'p'. I handed her the small package, and waited anxiously for her to open it. She did so, very, very slowly, enjoying seeing me almost take the present from her and open it myself. She just smiled when she saw my face, and finally opened it. She gasped, and chuckled. "Now we match." I informed her. She smiled at me and took the necklace out of the box. It was similar to mine, the one that she gave me, but with her nickname written. Obviously. My nickname for her. The silly one, Beb. And like mine, behind the big 'B' was written a tiny 'I love you.' "Put it on, please?" I asked. She grinned and nodded, turning her back to me so I could clasp it closed for her. She turned around and pecked my cheek, "Thank you. It's beautiful." I squealed and hugged her. "No complaining?" I asked, after releasing her. She just shook her head, "It came from your heart." I nodded. I was about to reply, when I heard someone calling us, "Ness? Mom?" It was Sara, of course. "Come in, Sar." I yelled for her. Hey, she's not a vampire, she can't hear us if we're not loud! "Hey guys." She greeted. "How are you?"

"Oh, you know, we're great. There's a party going on downstairs and we have to stay cooped up in here because Alice wants us to be the 'stars'." Mom replied, sarcastically. Sara and I laughed out loud at that. Mom just smiled, and decided to go back to her book. I turned to Sara, "so, did you just get here?" She nodded. "And where were you?" "Out." Was all she replied. "Care to elaborate?" "Out with Cole." She replied, smiling slyly. I groaned. "Sar-bear, enough with the games." "Nessie-wessy Ain't telling you." I raised one eyebrow, puzzled, "Why not? I thought I was your best friend in the whole world!" I said, pouting. "Aaaww, Ness, that's so not fair." She complained. I just smiled, sweetly at her. "Fine!" I could tell she wanted to tell me, but was just stalling. She motioned for me to come closer, and whispered it in my ears, really low as to try and make my mom not hear. But she was so engrossed on the book, I doubted she was paying any attention to us. "Cole told me he loved me today." I squealed, and hugged her. She laughed along with me. Now, that Mom heard. "What happened?" She asked, worried. We just kept on hugging and ignored her. "Sara? Are you okay?" We finally let go and Sara went to Mom and hugged her too. I just kept on laughing. "Okay, any of you care to tell me what's going on?" Mom asked again, clearly frustrated. Sara sat on her lap and rested her head on her shoulder, while I lied down on my stomach, and supported my head with my arms, looking up at them. "Mom" Sara started. "Cole told me today that he loved me." She finished in a whisper. Mom gave her a hug, "Aw, sweetie, that's great. And huge! What did you do?" She asked, calmly. "Well first I almost had a heart attack. My heart started beating so fast, it was a match to Nessie's." She said, smiling. "Then I kissed him, and told him 'I love you, too'." Both mom and I cooed at that. "Then he hugged me, and lifted me up, spinning us around. We were so happy. I am still happy." "We noticed." Mom and I said at the same time. We smiled, and Sara rolled her eyes at us. We were still smiling when Aunt Alice came barging into the room, "Okay, everyone's oh, sorry, did I interrupt anything?" She asked, with a knowing smile on her face.

"As if you didn't know, Aunt Alice." I laughed. She just stuck her tongue out at me, "As I was saying, everyone's here, so you can come down. C'mon Sara, let's go. Follow us in 2 minutes, girls." Sara pecked my mom's cheek and left the room, along with Alice. I took a deep breath, and closed my eyes. Why did Alice do all this? Ugh, I knew she liked to plan stuff and all, but seriously. We didn't need such a party, it wasn't even our real birthday. I opened my eyes, slowly, and was met with my mother's. She looked like me, bored. "Ready?" She asked, while grabbing my hand. "Let's get this over with." I replied, annoyed. She laughed, and kissed my hair. "It'll be fine." I squeezed her hand, and smiled at her. Ever since I started dating Nick, my mom's been less worried about me. It shocked me one night, I was late for my 'curfew', - I didn't have any, I just didn't like staying out late on school nights and she was nowhere to be seen. I thought she'd be by my side in a second, but she was playing the piano with dad instead, completely relaxed. She had just smiled at me when I got home. I'd smiled back, and gone to my room. We made our way downstairs, hand-in-hand, while everyone clapped. I blushed, and if she could, Mom would too. At the bottom of the stairs were Dad and Nick, waiting. Alice had insisted that we had a dance together with our partners. Rose and Jasper started playing a waltz, and the four of us made our way to the living room turned into a ballroom. Nick guided me, slowly, and started dancing with me. I had only eyes to him, no one else mattered at the moment. We stared at each other the whole time. The song ended, though, much too soon. Everyone gathered around us, and started wishing us a happy birthday. Uncle Emmett, being the big goofy that he is, decided to be himself and well, goof around. After giving me his present, he turned to Mom, and in one swift movement, threw her over his shoulder, carrying her around. She kept punching his back, but she gave up trying to get off him after a while. He laughed, and spun them around. "Happy Birthday, Bellsy! Oh, and just so you know, you're the best little sister ever." He said, still laughing. Mom laughed along with him, "Well, I'm really flattered, Emmy, but can you put me down?" He did. "Thank you, brother bear." Mom said with a smile, earning a booming laugh from Emmett. The family was around us now, in a small circle. Esme gave Mom a hug and whispered a Happy Birthday, while kissing her forehead. Carlisle did the same, and then both of them did the same to me. Aunt Rose gave Mom a quick hug and kissed my cheek. Aunt Alice gave us huge hugs, and pecked our cheeks. Uncle Jasper gave Mom a hug too, and talked to her some bit. They truly seemed like brother and sister. He pecked my cheek, and left. Dad kissed my forehead, and pecked Mom's lips, staying by her side and wrapping his arm around her waist.

We had to cut the cake, and all that jazz. It was rather difficult for Mom, she kind of had to eat a little of the cake. Let's say I was really glad I could digest food right now. Everyone seemed to be having a good time, even the humans. They were intimidated at first. We didn't interact much with people at school, and probably the size of the house, - we are a lot, we need a big place made them uncomfortable, but soon they started to actually enjoy themselves. I had to say, I was actually having a great time. As the night progressed, the humans started leaving. Soon, there was only the family, Cole and his dad, Sara and Nick. I was sitting on the couch with Nick by my side, and started looking around the room. Dad and Grandpa were sitting on the other couch, talking with Arthur and Cole. Grandma and Aunt Rose were removing the decorations, in human pace. Sara and Aunt Alice were sitting cross-legged on the floor, talking and giggling. Mom, Uncle Jasper and Uncle Emmett were also sitting on the floor, talking. Uncle Jazz had his arm around my mother's shoulder, and she was resting her head on his shoulder. Uncle Em was on her other side, talking animatedly, making both mom and Jazz laugh at whatever he was saying. I snuggled closer to Nick, resting my head on his shoulder, and sighed in content. He looked down at me, and asked, "What are you thinking about?" I looked up at him, and smiled, "Life just couldn't get any better."