2If you recognize it, then I probably don't own it
Someone to Watch over Me
Preface:
So much has happened in such a short period of time. It had been five years since Renesmee was born, five years since Jacob voluntarily left his pack to watch over Bella and Nessie. He was doing this for Bella, she knew that much. Still keeping his promise to protect her. He hadn't, like most of the pack assumed, imprinted on her newborn daughter, but he let them believe it. It was the only way he could think of to stop them from killing a baby. Now half a decade later, he's confident that just convincing them she was a baby would have been enough. Bella's still not sure, but she wasn't exactly present for that…So they relocated again. Nessie was growing bigger and bigger everyday looking closer and closer to the age she'd be when she stopped. With Jake, we moved. Esme and Alice forged documents to restart high school with Jake in our steed. Bella wanted to stay home with Nessie like she had for the past five years. But Edward convinced me she would be best with at home with Esme. So they chose Newton, New Mexico. A valley in a crater made by a meteor millions of years ago. It was part of Crater Valley, but Newton was different than the other towns in Crater Valley, it was nestled in the mountains of mesas. And the heavy rain and snow that poured overtop the peaks left Newton covered in thick fog almost every day of the year. She'd never thought now of restarting her life past Forks. But Newton seemed like the perfect place to spend the next ten years in dense fog that blocked out the daylight.
Chapter 1: Night
Their new home, built into the mountains with red rocks and stucco, and the ginormous windows that Esme loves. New Mexico is as close to Phoenix as Bella would get now-a-days. The air is thick with humidity and smell of desert. It smells like coming home after a long day. Edward and Bella had their own section of house, as did everyone this way around.
Bella sat on the bed with Nessie, brushing her wet hair as the young vampire kicked her legs out. She would go to bed soon, her little gift, sleep. Edward is in the shower, and when he returns to their bedroom he would plug his headphones into his electric piano and play while Bella reads through the night.
Nessie doesn't look like a normal five year, she looks nine years old already. Bella turns her daughter's damp hair over in her hand, twisting the dark tendrils over to brush the knots out. As she brushes, Nessie turns a page in her book. Speaking the words to mother as she read.
"Mommy? Are you paying attention?" she asked, as Bella placed the brush down.
"Yes." Bella murmured. "You were just telling me about the fish." She picked up the hair tie, small enough that it would snap if she tried to push it down her hand to her wrist. But big enough to tie all her daughter's hair.
"No!" She insists, her small voice louder than the telekinetic speech she preferred. "I was past the fish!"
"Past the fish? I don't think so." Bella teases.
"No," she repeats, as she twisted her hair into a braid. Hair broken into thirds, Bella took the left hank and crossed it over the middle, then took the right hank over the left so it sat in the middle, and with the original middle she tightened the knot she made by crossing it back over the new middle. She repeats this twist down Nessie's head. Her fingers aren't as deft as Rose or Alice, and Esme could braid anything from bread to daisies to leather. "I was past the fish and onto the dolphin."
"I suppose you won't let me slide because a dolphin is a kind of fish?" Bella smooths her daughter's hair, regathering the three hanks to equal parts as she continues the braid.
"I guess… unless Daddy says you're wrong." She says. "Daddy knows everything."
"Everything?" Bella asks as she ties the braid off. "Even where you're ticklish!" Her fingers flutter to her daughter's side.
Nessie wiggles with giggles, pushing at Bella's hands. Bella hears the water in the shower stop and knew Edward would be out in a moment. She stops fluttering her fingers and smooths her daughter's hair again. "Daddy will be out of the bathroom soon and then we'll put you to sleep."
"Will you be here when I wake up?" She asks turning towards me, her eyes full of confusion. This would be her first time without her family at her beck and call.
"No, Daddy and I will be starting at Newton High School tomorrow." Bella reminds, "But Grandma Esme will be here with you until 3."
"What about Auntie Rose?" She asks, "And Uncle Jake? They'll be here? Won't they?"
Bella shook her head, "They're coming with us too." The mother took her child in my lap. "You'll have a fun day with Grandma Esme." She promises. "You're going to learn so much and you'll get to play."
It was easier this way, instead of enrolling her in public school with them. She's only spent time around other vampires (and one werewolf), sending her with other humans without her parents to watch her, will only end in disaster. It isn't like they don't trust her, but she doesn't like talking with her voice. That's what this reading is for. To train her to assimilate with humans. Alice checked too, she'd have more fun with Esme then she would stuck in a regular elementary school.
The bathroom door eked open, steam whistled out first, followed by Edward. He was already dressed for tomorrow. He smiles at them, his lips lifting higher on one side.
"Dolphin's aren't fish, Bella." He says in a velvet voice.
"It's a mammal." He continues as he lifts Nessie off her lap and into his arms. He holds her on his hip, secured with his left arm. "She's most ticklish—" he lifts her right arm with his, "—on her palms."
Before he could attempt to tickle her she balled her fists. "Will you read me to sleep, daddy?"
He nods, "Mommy and I will."
They take her to her room, and tuck her in.
"Are you sure you want us to read?" He asks, "Do you want to read to us?"
"Daddy, read me music." She insists, as Bella wraps the quilt she got for her last birthday around her daughter.
"What song?" He asks, knowing the answer.
"Mommy's lullaby." Nessie and Bella say at the same time.
It was harder to live with them than Jake thought. A big happy family, just like the one's he'd seen in TV commercials. It still hurt to be away from his family, lying to them about imprinting just so they wouldn't snuff a life at its beginning. To think, they believed he could ever find a mate in an infant. It was different for Claire and Quil, where one party didn't know and the other kept his distance until she was old enough to find him. But their immediate acceptance, if they saw her. Small and innocent, not like the vampires we killed. An innocent child, her birth wasn't a break in the treaty or the start of a war. He wished he'd known that then. But still he promised Bella he would protect them, and as far as he was concerned he had twelve more years on my self-imposed sentence. Then he could leave without guilt, Bella and her baby would be old enough, experienced enough to handle everything on their own. He would miss them, but they would outlive me.
He would start high school, again. He thought once was too much. But he had to live like them for now. His story was that he was a Cullen adopted by the good doctor after his mother passed away and his father's disability was too much for the Elder Black to take care of Jake's need… it hurt to use his parents in this way, in a lie. But he couldn't not be a Cullen this time around. At least Bella was not going by her married name. She was a Hale now, the niece of the good doctor's wife, the younger sister of the blondes. Better for his ego that she couldn't use her married name. Worse for the reality that her eyes glowed amber and her heart no longer beat. Worse that every breath she took was only for comfort's sake and habit.
Tomorrow, he would start anew, Jacob Cullen. He grimaced and rolled over in his bed. Luckily, the good doctor's wife had the sense to give me a room far away from the rest of them. Empty night meet him as he drifted off to sleep, early unfortunately. As tomorrow, he would be a senior in high school again. Maybe this time he could graduate.
The morning came too early for his liking. Maybe it was the time zone, maybe it was that even though he was the first one awake, the only one (other than the baby) who slept. The house was still bustling. By the time he made it to the kitchen, he'd passed Carlisle who was in his study, watching a webinar of a new surgery technique, Alice and Jasper in the living room meditating, or searching for what today held, Rosalie was watching the news in the tv room, and Emmett was outside exercising.
Esme was in the kitchen going through all the food dumping out what had rotten or expired. She smiled at him, but didn't say anything.
"Milk still good?" He asked, grabbing a bowl from the cabinet.
"For the next few days at least." She took the jug out and set it on the granite island.
"Shame we don't eat." She says absently as she dropped some rotten kale into the trash.
He pours cereal into the bowl and adds the milk, "I eat what I can."
She looks up, "Oh yes, and we're eternally grateful all the food isn't going to waste." She went back to depositing rotting vegetables from the crisper into the garbage.
"If you're going to the store today, can you pick up some deodorant for me please? Nothing to intense."
"Of course Jacob." She says, "I was thinking of making a roast beef tonight, does that sound doable?"
They took two cars for the first time. Rosalie, Jasper, and Bella in one car—a red one sports car—and Emmett, Alice, Edward, and Jacob in his silver Volvo. As much as Jake disliked his current living situation, he really liked the cars. The cars were the best part of the whole deal. Dr. Cullen was letting him rebuild whatever he wanted in the garage, instead of salvaging parts for whatever dump or totaled vehicle, the good doctor just ordered them.
Jacob almost wished he was allowed to drive one of the restored cars, an old Pontiac Firebird. He was in the middle of rebuilding an Oldsmobile Cutlass, a Ford Falcon, and a Ford Mustang. Building cars kept him out of the house; out of the happy little family Bella built, and out of the way from the disgusting happiness of them all. Being stuck inside the car was the first time since they moved to Newton that he'd been confined with them. It wasn't an easy thing, to fight the natural repulsion he felt.
Newton was different to him, nothing here was green except the cacti and some cars they passed on the side of the road. Everything was a variant shade of red or brown. Red dust that stuck to the bottom of their shoes and their tires. The school they pulled into was different then then the small building that was the residence high school.
They got out of their cars, Edward and Rosalie parked next to each other. Partially out of habit, and partially out of convenience.
This wasn't a school Jake had ever seen. Most of the adults he knew went through the trauma of residential schools, and when they banded together to make a school on the Rez they made sure to include all the kids in one building; with the elementary classrooms on one end, and the middle and high school classrooms on the other. Forks High School was different; it was a series of buildings lumped my subject and need; principal and administration, science and math, history and English, and so on.
This school was different, it was a funky shape and only one story high.
"I owe you how much?" Emmett was asking Alice as he exited the car, as Jake surveyed the building.
"One thousand, but you can just buy me the watch I saw in Vogue." She pulls herself out of the car. Jasper is next to her in an instant, taking her hand and helping her gracefully complete her exit.
Jake pulls himself out next. Breathing in the heavy, humid air of the desert. He turned to Bella, "How long have you been waiting to smell this smell?"
She smiles sorrowfully at him, "Since the day I left Phoenix. It's not the same as Phoenix, but it's really close."
"How much longer do we have to talk unconcerned?" Edward asks Alice.
She closes her eyes for second. "Five more minutes, then the parking lot will fill up."
"I know I'm going to be a senior this year, and Bella is a freshmen, but what's everybody else?" Jake asks, suddenly aware of how little five minutes is.
"Edward, Alice, and I are going to be freshmen this year," Bella reminds him, "and Rose, Jazz, and Emmett are going to be sophomores. You're the only one being an upperclassman."
"Wait, I'm not going to be a senior either?" Emmet looks over at his wife, "I thought I was gonna rob the cradle this year?"
Rosalie's eyes soften, "We talked about this remember? Jake looks twenty-five he can't pass for anything other than a senior."
"I look old too!"
"Nineteen maybe." Alice agrees, "Not older than Jake, though."
"So it's already decided I'm a sophomore again, huh?" Emmett pouts.
"Yes." Rosalie rises on her toes to gently graze his cheek with her lips.
"So," Emmett rubs his hands together, "Are we allowed to join any clubs this time?"
As they talk about clubs, the parking lot fills up. Cars park and students pour out and enter the building in a wave.
Jake begins to follow the crowd, when Edward pulls him back. "We wait," Edward explains, "Until a majority of people go in."
"Why?" Jake wrinkles his nose, as the smell of death and animal blood waft into his senses.
"It's easier to go in two groups. Jasper, Bella, and Rose first, then us. Otherwise we draw to much attention." He nods at his siblings and wife. Who turn and blend into the crowd.
A small dark blue Nissan Altima is the last one to enter the parking lot; it's what Edward decides is acceptable for them to start walking in the building.
It's the slam of the car door that gets Jake to turn his head, it's the girl that keeps his attention as Bella's family keeps walking into the school.
Her glossy dark hair curls slightly at the ends, her eyes are big and dark green, and her mouth is a little too big for her inverted triangular face.
"Pippi!" The boy running after her is saying, "Pip! Seriously, can't you be cool for one second?"
She sets her jaw, and sucks her teeth, "No."
"Pip, c'mon, I need the car." He looks similar to her, the same dark hair—just short and spiked. Same dark green eyes, and inverted triangle face. He's taller than her, and has more muscle, and he's wearing a Newton High School shirt—part of the gym uniform from last year.
"No," She says still walking to the building, "And if you ask me again, I'm not going to pay my share of insurance."
"You wouldn't."
"I can afford my own insurance. Can you?" She bites.
"Jake." Alice says snapping him from the arguing twins, "Let's go."
…
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