Soul Fliers

Chapter 2: Emerald

"The road to the City of Emeralds is paved with yellow brick." – L. Frank Baum

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"Well, this is definitely shocking," were the first words out of Carlisle's mouth after we explained to him about Isabella Swan.

"Shocking? This isn't shocking, it's terrible! She knows, and Edward can't read her mind; we have to do something, she's a threat to the family," Rosalie snapped, angered that Carlisle didn't have more to say about this situation than that.

"Rosalie, we don't even know for sure that she isn't human; as long as she doesn't tell anyone about what we are, I don't see a problem with her knowing about us." He spoke calmly yet assertively; he made the final decision, and we had to listen to him. We all chose to follow Carlisle, and that is what we did.

I can't say that I wasn't relieved that he didn't want to 'get rid of the problem' in Rosalie's words; that odd feeling that had first awoken when her smile had dimmed slightly had only grown - didn't want her to be 'taken care of'. She didn't deserve to die, not someone as happy and pure as she seemed to be. She wasn't a monster, like I was; she had a life in front of her to live, and I was going to do everything in my power to make sure she lived it.

Rosalie wasn't going to stop me.

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The next day at school began just as the day before had, except now we knew what to expect from the newest addition to Forks High. We were still slightly wary, but Alice said the first time we would run into her would be when she came to join us again for lunch; we had all agreed to try to figure out how she knew about us, and what she was; we had thought about it over the night, and decided once and for all that Isabella Swan couldn't be human – not with a scent like that.

The thoughts of the humans were once again circled around her – and her bright clothes. They were once again confirmed when she entered the cafeteria decked out in yellow converses, red pants, and a long-sleeved red sweater. Her bag was yellow, and her accessories were all red. It was easy to tell that she adored bright colours, and even the whispers about how different she was weren't going to turn her away from them. At least she didn't seem acceptant to peer pressure.

Once again, she grabbed a small salad from the queue, this time grabbing a water bottle as well, before turning around. The difference today was that she didn't hesitate; she walked directly over to our table, taking the same seat she had yesterday and smiling brightly at us all. "Hello, again!"

"Hi, Bella," Alice said, a little more reserved than yesterday – but who wouldn't be if their biggest secret had been discovered somehow by the new girl? "How are you?" She asked, hesitantly.

"I'm fine; just great, actually. How are you guys?" She opened up the container her salad was in, taking a few bites, before opening her bottle quickly and swallowing about half of it. We watched her for awhile, before she glanced at us in question and we realized that we hadn't answered her yet.

"We're all good," I answered stupidly, without going into detail. She looked at me, the – by now – familiar smile on her lips, before nodding and looking over all of us.

"That's great; I mean, I don't want you to be unwell, or anything," she rambled slightly, smacking her lips shut when she finished talking, and nodding again, as if she approved of what she had just said.

We weren't sure how to bring up the fact that she knew what we were, and that we knew she wasn't human, but she didn't leave that up to us. Her next words opened the conversation quite solidly. "So, I'm sorry about that bomb I dropped on you guys yesterday – I'm not very good at being subtle; I'm more of a blunt talker," she said. "I didn't really think about it, I kind of just... said it," she looked up at us sheepishly, blushing.

"It's alright; we were just a little... surprised," Alice said after we all turned towards her, getting ready to talk to her.

"A little surprised? If somebody had said something like that randomly to me my jaw would still be lying somewhere on the ground. Seriously, I'm sorry; I should learn how to use tact and manners," she mumbled the last part, but of course we heard it. You don't miss much with vampire hearing.

"Bella, really, it's okay," Alice insisted, trying to speed the conversation along a little bit.

Bella perked up a little at Alice's insistence, smiling again at us. "Okay, if you say so." She seemed to bounce back fast; poor Jasper. I could hear him wondering at her rapid mood swing in his mind. She remained quiet, and I looked at her, trying to delve into the pool that was her thought process. Was there something wrong with her? Why couldn't I hear her? Was there something wrong with me?

After another attempt at reading her, she turned to me and for the first time irritation sparkled in her eyes. "Will you stop doing that?" She snapped at me, sounding a little angry, but mostly annoyed.

"Doing what?" I asked, surprised. Nobody had noticed before when I had tried to read them – though, I had never had to try before; my talent came naturally to me.

"Whatever you are doing with my head, stop it," she told me, narrowing her eyes at me as I widened mine – so she had noticed, but how?

"Okay, okay, I'll stop," I told her after she didn't move her angry brown eyes away from me. That same feeling in my chest strum through me again; I didn't like it when she was angry, especially when she was angry at me. I wondered if Jasper would be able to tell me what the feeling was... I would need to ask him later.

"Thank you," she brightened up again. It was like flicking a light switch with her; one moment she's sad or angry, the next she's the happiest person I'd ever met. Her smile even surpassed Alice's, as if it were natural for her to be happy – as easy as breathing. "Now, I know you guys want to talk about, you know, me knowing and all that, but I think it's best if we did so away from prying ears," she motioned towards the group of humans a couple of feet away, who were constantly glancing in our direction and returning to their gossiping.

"Yes, I think that is best," Jasper spoke up for the first time, catching on to the eavesdropping humans, as well; you weren't allotted very much privacy in a small town. Everybody always thought they had the right to know everything, which they didn't. Nobody had the right to pry into other people's business. The problem is, humans had forgotten that over the decades since I had been human myself. The era I was born into was much different; it's hard to believe that it was just over a hundred years ago.

"Good," she smiled again, before turning back to her salad. She finished it in five minutes, drinking the other half of her bottled water, before once again reaching in her bag and pulling out a sketch pad. She started drawing, and it seemed that not even Rosalie could hold back her curiosity, despite her obvious hostility.

"What are you drawing?" She asked Bella, a hint of wonder in her voice. So, she had noticed how different this girl was, not just with not being human. There was something about Isabella Swan that made you care for her, made you want to know her.

"I'm trying to draw my mother; I've been trying to draw her for years, but I can never seem to get it quite right. I'm determined this time," she spoke quietly without looking away.

"May we see?" Emmett asked, holding out his hand slightly, hesitantly.

She looked up at him, her face set in a mask of determination and annoyance – whether it was directed towards herself, or at us, I didn't know. After all, I couldn't read her mind. And, no, that little fact did not bother me at all.

Ah, Denial. As Emmett would say, it's not just a river in Egypt.

She didn't answer us, just handed the pad over to Emmett, who looked at it. I got a glimpse of it in his mind, but waited until he handed it across to me so that Alice and I could see it. Rosalie and Jasper had looked over his shoulders, and had seemed a little in awe of her talent. And, looking at it, I must say she was an amazing artist.

It was as if I was looking at a photograph, not a picture she had drawn. The woman had the same brown hair as Bella, though it was shorter and straighter. Her eyes were a mix of green and brown, a pretty shade of hazel. There was a slight smirk on her face, as if she was thinking of some private joke. She didn't look more than thirty years old, but it looked like she had a good life, if you could judge that fact by the number of laugh lines a person had.

"You're very talented," Rosalie told her while I was still looking it over. We all were shocked – Rose, while not completely rude and selfish, wasn't one to willingly give out compliments very often. It was a very high praise to hear a compliment from Rosalie Hale. We all nodded, agreeing with her; on the subject of Bella's artistic talent, there was no doubt that she was good, very good.

"Thanks," she whispered, taking the pad back from me and continuing to add little details to it. "I just, I don't want to forget her, you know?" She asked, though it was obviously rhetorical. I suppose, nobody would want to forget their mother, but wasn't she emancipated? It's your choice, so she must have chosen to go through the emancipation.

"Why would you forget her? Can't you still go and see her, even though your parents can't legally support you anymore?" Jasper asked, confused. He knew the details of all the legal acts, especially emancipation; you could call it a hobby of his, though obsession might be more correct.

She looked up at us, surprised. "Wow, I would have thought in a small town like this someone would have found, and told everybody," she laughed humourlessly. "No, I can't go and see my parents. I didn't get emancipated from them, I got emancipated from the government," she told us, as if that would clear it up for us. She sighed when she noticed the blank looks on our faces, knowing that we still didn't understand. "My parents died when I was young, and I didn't like being in the foster care system, so I filed for emancipation.

Oh. Oh. If there were ever a time I wished that I could rewind time, it would be now. I wish I could go back and take back the question, somehow make Jasper just accept what little she had said. We didn't need to pry about her family when it was obvious that not all was well there; if she wanted to tell us that they had died, she would have – right? Well, I hope she would have told us. I hope she knows that she can trust us with keeping a secret; after all, we physically are the best-kept secret in Forks. Nobody even suspected anything about us being nonhuman. We were good at hiding it.

She didn't look as sad as I expected her to be, but even so... "Sorry we pried," I told her, hoping to take her mind off of it.

"It's alright; it happened a long time ago, I've gotten over it. I just, don't want to forget them, so I draw them. I got my Dad right years ago, but there was just always something about my mother that kept me guessing." She smiled wistfully, most likely remembering something far off, a memory long since passed of people who were already dead. I could empathize with her, there; the not wanting to forget. I hung on as best as I could to the few human memories that had survived the change, not wanting to forget my birth parents even when Carlisle and Esme did a more than perfect job of filling that parental role. I was very lucky to have them, but still, they weren't my birth parents; it wasn't quite the same.

I nodded in acknowledgement to what she had said, and was just about to say something, when the bell signalling the end rang. It spooked us a little – for once, we hadn't been paying any attention to the time; Bella wasn't moved at all, just simply did the same thing as the day before, slipping her supplies away and throwing out her trash. She turned around, watching me for a moment with an emotion I couldn't decipher in her eyes.

"Edward, you have Biology next, correct?" She asked me, smiling when I nodded. "So do I; walk with me?" She asked sweetly, looking at me from under her eyelashes. I was powerless to refuse her, so I answered by placing my hand on the small of her back and leading her in the right direction. She was so warm...

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There ended up being a pop quiz in Biology so Bella and I couldn't talk, even though I was happy that the only available seat was next to me. We also shared the next class, Gym; so basically, my afternoons would be filled with Bella, which I found myself quite looking forward to. I enjoyed spending time with her, and wanted to do it more often.

As the last bell rang, we separated to head into the change rooms; I beat her out, so decided I would wait for her. When she came out, she was once again decked in her bright colours – I still thought they suited her. I don't think darker colours would look quite as good on her, but then again she might surprise me.

I walked her to her car, which was beat up old truck that I was honestly surprised was even running, and she told my siblings and I – who had joined us – that she would just follow behind us, since she didn't know that way. We agreed, and drove off; Alice had already called Carlisle to tell him to come home.

The entire ride was spent in anxiety; we were anxious to get the conversation over with, to know how she knew, to know why told us she knew...

...to know what she is.

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Another day, another chapter. Don't you just love reading and/or writing? I do!

Hope I didn't disappoint with this one; I'm looking forward to seeing where I take this. And, no, if you ask me I won't tell you what Bella is; you'll just have to find out as Edward does ;).

Review, please!

Remember me, XlaraC