Growing Up
By BetterInTexas
Chapter 08:
“Hello Jenks. What’s going on?” Jenks never calls just to socialize. Not at 2:30 AM.
“I just received a call from our friend. He wants new IDs and backgrounds for his family.”
“Already? That’s soon.” What was he up too now? Did he give up already?
“Yes but just for Edward, Rose, Emmett and Carlisle. The children are going to be attending Reicher High School in Pittsburgh. Jasper said the IDs for he, Alice and Esme are fine for now.”
“He is splitting up his coven. He plans to continue searching for Bella and the others are going away. Why?”
“I would bet it has something to do with a girl he asked me to find information about. A young lady who attends Reicher High School by the name of Nia Simmons.”
“Give me what you got on her, Jenks.”
“Well, she is definitely not a steel town girl looking for the fight of her life.” He laughed. I cringed.
“Really Jenks? This young girl is being targeted by the Cullens and you are referencing 80s movies.”
“Right Peter. Sorry.”
“Tell me about her.”
“Well she is a m…”
“Don’t say maniac Jenks. Just don’t.”
“Fine. You need to get a sense of humor Peter. 16 year old girl, about to be 17 and enter her junior year of high school. Pretty much stays out of everything. No extracurricular activities, no school clubs, No credit cards to her name. Believe it or not I am pretty sure she doesn’t even have a cell phone. Raised by her Dad who works at American Steel as a night shift foreman. Mother died when she was 6 in a car accident. Lives a pretty quiet life. Library card from school and the public library system indicated she likes to read. A lot. No Facebook or any other social network pages. Doesn’t appear to be any internet connection in her residence. She seems like a shy, quiet, wall flower. Any idea what they would want with her?”
“Yeah, I got an idea.” I told him, not elaborating.
“Want me to feed him some disinformation?”
I thought about it.
“Nah. He will find her anyway. Or one of his coven will if they are going to be going to school with her. Keep an eye on the situation and let me know any events that arise. Especially if they ask for a new ID for her. What about the girl he was searching for?”
“He told me to call off the investigators I never actually hired. I didn’t get to tell him that she was seen with a red head. Figured I would let it go since he wanted the search closed down.”
“You did good, Jenks.”
“I don’t think he is giving up though. I asked him if he found her. He said he had others working on it and for me to focus on the new girl.”
Fuck. I was afraid of that. He has figured out by now that humans don’t have her and humans won’t find her. He is calling in our kind.
“Thanks Jenks.”
“No problem Petey. Talk to you soon. Oh one more thing about the new girl.”
“Yeah?”
“She’s dancing like she never danced before. Night Petey.” He ended the call before I could respond. Idiot.
“Who was that?” I heard her ask. I listened to her wake. I knew her door cracked no matter who quiet she thought she was.
I turned from the window and my breath caught in my throat. I had seen her naked so often I thought I would be used to it. I had every single centimeter of her body memorized. Still the sight of her nude body walking towards me still left me speechless for a second. Why did I want to wait until September? I couldn’t remember at the moment.
“A friend. The guy I told you about who Jasper uses.”
“He was on your mind before that call, wasn’t he?”
I shrugged my shoulders. No point in denying it.
“What gave me away?”
“I woke up and instead of feeling your hands softly rubbing me like you do all night, my bed was empty. Usually when that happens I know you are staring out the window, thinking about killing him.”
She walked up behind me and wrapped her tiny arms around my waist leaning her head into my back.
“You think I should forget about it?”
“No. He wronged you. He wronged us. We won’t forget about it. But Peter…”
“What?”
“You have to promise me you won’t go after him until I am ready to fight with you.”
I turned and kissed her on her forehead and brought her into my bare chest. I loved the feel of her chest rising with each breath while pressed against me.
“I wouldn’t dream of it. We always fight together.” I whispered.
“So what did your friend have to say?”
“Mostly that Jasper is splitting up the Cullens. He, Alice and Esme are going to continue to search for you. The rest are going to Pittsburgh. They are interested in a girl. Probably a girl like you. Potentially gifted. They are enrolling in school. They are going to try to draw her in the same way they drew you in.”
“Peter we have to stop them!”
“We can’t. There is nothing we can do right now. I won’t risk you. Besides what would we do? Take her and hide her? Her father is a widower. That would be no better than what the Cullens did to you.”
“We could tell her to stay away from them!”
“So they take her by force? We wait. We hope for the best. Until we can kill them all this won’t stop.”
“How did they know?” Bella whispered after a minute.
“Know what darlin?”
“How did they know she is gifted? Or potentially gifted? I mean I fell into their laps but this girl? They are purposely setting out to draw her in from the start.”
It was a good question. I’m ashamed to say it hadn’t occurred to me by that point. I figured they just took advantage of Bella being where they were. But she was right. This was a target, not luck.
“They must have someone who can sense gifts that other vampires have.” I told her. I didn’t have a better explanation.
“So he is collecting. It wasn’t just me?”
“Jasper? Yeah, looks like it.”
“Peter why? He and Alice joined the Cullens after Rose, Emmett, Edward and Esme had already been turned. They hadn’t added any new vampires. Why is he suddenly interested in collecting now?”
I actually had given this a lot of thought.
“Jasper’s main problem in the war was controlling newborns and having to constantly kill them. He always kept the gifted but they were rare. You can’t just turn a random human and hope there is a 50/50 chance of them having a gift. This lead to killings which bred distrust. Jasper probably came up with the idea of drawing you in once he found you were gifted. Instead of making you fight he could add you as part of the family. Now though he knows he can draw a human in. At least the family can. If he has someone who could find gifted vampires for him, he could have a loyal gifted army. A much better idea than controlling newborns.”
“So I gave him the idea of building an army?” she whispered.
“The seed was probably always there. You gave him an opportunity to test his theory.” I admitted.
“Great.” She said quietly. I started rubbing her shoulders. She needed to relax.
“Let’s get you back to bed. You have to be up in a few hours. First day of school. I can’t wait to see you in your uniform.”
“You asshole. Stay with me? In bed?”
“You won’t sleep then and I will have to smell your farts.”
“You fucking asshole!” she yelled playfully.
“Fine. I will suffer. Let’s go if it will get your ass to sleep.”
She was nearly asleep when she said something that kept my mind running for the rest of the night.
“Peter, what is he building an army for?”
That was the question, wasn’t it?
BPOV
On the drive to school a few things kept running through my head. The poor girl who was being targeted by the Cullens was chief among those things. Peter was right. We couldn’t do anything about it. They would just back off and come back later or target some other girl. I should be changed now. I should change and then we could fight them together. But Peter… he wanted me to go to school. I wanted to make him happy. Plus I really did not want to place him in a position where he would have to fight with me unable to fight by his side. Peter said he would keep an eye on the situation through his friend and if it looked like they were preparing to take her away from her father he would become involved then and we would do what we could. His theory was Edward would take his time with her, just as he did with me.
I hoped he was right.
The second thing on my mind was this damn uniform. The jacket was very uncomfortable. The skirt was not easy to walk in. The buttons on the shirt were rubbing me the wrong way. Oh good. We are here. Hundreds of other girls were dressed just like I was. Now we would all be awkward and uncomfortable together.
I sat and waited for Peter to kiss me goodbye. Then I realized he couldn’t. I looked and him. He was smiling like he won a prize.
“Do Uncle Petey proud there, niece. Go make you some friends and study hard so you can get into a good college.” He patted my leg.
“Uncle Petey? Did you like that thing I did with your cock and my tongue yesterday?”
“Yeah, I liked that a lot.”
“It’s a good thing you have a vampire memory because that little memory is going to have to last for a while. Have a nice day.”
“Uh…”
I walked up the steps to the gothic cathedral and every girl was looking at me. They didn’t even try to pretend they weren’t. This was worse than the first time Edward drove me to school. I went to the office and a nice lady in a sort of nun uniform smiled and gave me a locker number and a locker.
She smiled and she wasn’t dressed completely like a nun. She must be in training or something. She also gave me a map of the school. I was basically four halls. Shouldn’t be hard to find.
No one spoke to me. I got quite a few stares. No smiles. At least I seemed to be a topic of discussion. Glad I could entertain them.
Classes were actually quite boring. I was ready for rigorous academics. They really were just regular classes. History was history, math was math. Theology had me a little worried but that wasn’t until this afternoon.
I sat down at lunch at the end of one of the long rows of tables. No one sat near me. I swear, at least at Halbrook, Melody was friendly. I was not going to attend this school all year. Peter was being ridiculous. This had to stop. I could just home school myself.
“Ms. Locke?”
I looked up and it was the same nun in training from the office.
“Yes ma’am?”
“Mrs. Decker needs to see you in her office.”
“Mrs. Decker?” I was under the impression all of the teachers were nuns.
“Yes ma’am. The athletic director? Her office is in C wing at the end and to the right.”
Alright then. My salad sucked anyway.
I knocked on the door and was granted permission to enter.
“You needed to see me ma’am?”
“Yes Isabella, have a seat.”
I sat and looked at her. Early forties, medium length brown hair, pretty face. Obviously in good shape.
“I was going over our athletic schedules this year trying to assign teams with coaches. I noticed that there was no sport chosen on your admittance form.”
“Yes ma’am. I don’t really play sports.”
“It is a requirement at our school. All girls participate in one activity. More if you like but at least one.”
Oh shit.
“Ma’am I think I have all my gym credits before…”
“This isn’t a credit issue, it is a school policy. We believe exercise and competition is important in character development. You have to participate in at least one sport. Which one would you like?”
“Could I be a water girl or something? Hand out towels? Yell go team?”
“No.”
Mrs. Decker wasn’t smiling now.
“Ma’am I am extremely clumsy. I have never played a sport in my life. I would just get in the way. I couldn’t possibly begin to help any team win.”
“I didn’t say anything about winning Isabella. I said this was to build character. I could care less about how many events this school wins. I am more concerned about the character of my students. How are you going to survive in the real world if you can’t even the stomach the idea of competing in a high school event?”
“I told you I am very clumsy.”
“Probably because you were never in athletics before.”
Damn it. I was trying to make Peter happy. I was trying to keep a low profile. But this bitch was pissing me off.
“What would you suggest I do, ma’am?”
“You are clumsy. Uncoordinated. You are worried your little fragile body will be injured. I think I can accommodate you. Last period be at the pool. There is a small natatorium behind the gym. I will have your suit ready, along with a swim cap. You won’t need anything. Just bring yourself.”
“Pool?”
“Yes. You are going to be on the swim team.”
Oh. Okay. That didn’t sound so bad.
“Wow. Okay. I can handle that.”
“You have swam before I am assuming?”
“Yes ma’am.”
“Good. Not drowning is a start. I will teach you everything else you need to know.”
“You will?”
“Yes. I am the swim coach. I will be taking a personal interest in you this year. Since you have no athletic background I will give you special attention. We have a lot of time to make up for. But I have faith that we can do it. Just be prepared to work hard.” Now she was smiling. It wasn’t a pleasant smile.
I attended my next two classes. Theology was bad. I was apparently supposed to already know a lot of things that I didn’t know. I would be doing a lot of reading.
Then came Gym.
“Coach” Decker was there. She was in a jumpsuit. I figured she would be in a swim suit. I was. A black one piece. I snapped my head four times trying to put on this swim cap. That got quite a few laughs in the locker room but still no conversations. The goggles made me feel weird. They sucked to my eyes.
There were twelve of us. Six lanes in the pool.
“On the blocks!” Decker blew a whistle. The five girls in my line stood up on the blocks. I stepped up on mine. I looked to the side and they were all bent over. This reminds me of what Peter and I did the other…
“Get set!” They rocked back on their heels and gripped the front of the blocks. I did the same. I could swim. This wouldn’t be hard. I was a pretty fast swimmer.
A whistle went off and they jumped. I was so surprised I didn’t move.
“Go Locke!” Decker yelled. I jumped after them.
I thought I would kind of glide into the water. Instead I went down hard and landed face first into the water. My goggles came loose. Water was in my eyes. I popped up to the surface and took off, not taking the time to fix my goggles. Finally after what seemed like forever I reached the end of the lane. The other girls had already gotten out of the pool.
I heard Decker’s whistle go off again while I sat down and tried to catch my breath.
I was looking at the ground when her shoe was directly in my line of vision.
“Ms. Locke?”
I peered up. She was smiling.
“Yes ma’am?”
“Never look defeated. Stop staring at the ground. Losers look at the ground. Winners stand up and try again.”
“I’m pretty sure I just lost that race, ma’am.”
“Lost? Isabella you never got started. I didn’t figure you would be a champion swimmer or even a competitive one but that was… wow.”
“Yeah. So can I be a towel girl?”
“Are you a winner or a loser Isabella?”
I know what she expected me to say. I was supposed to say I’m a winner and jump back into that pool. But this didn’t matter.
“I don’t know.” Maybe I used to fight Saxons but that was literally another lifetime ago.
“What do you want to be?” I looked up and saw the other girls were doing laps.
“I want to be a winner. But I don’t know how.”
“Okay. Stay out of the pool today. I’ve seen what I need to see. You aren’t going to be much of a sprinter, no matter what I teach you this year. I think you would be better at distance. 800 and 1600 meters.”
Wait a damn minute.
“Isn’t 1600 meters like a mile?”
“Yes. Sister Carol will be happy with your math skills.”
“You want me to swim a mile? I am out of breath from swimming that 25 meter sprint you made me suffer through.”
“I didn’t say you were going to swim 1600 meters tomorrow Isabella. But in two months or so, maybe sooner, you will be. But we have a lot of work to do. Meet me here every morning at 6 AM. That will give us an hour and 45 minutes to work on things like strokes, take offs, flip turns, breathing. Then in the afternoon you can work on distance and conditioning and not worry about sprints.”
“6 AM?”
“Yes Isabella. 6 AM. I hope your uncle won’t mind bringing you early?”
“No ma’am. I don’t suppose he would.”
“Excellent. We are going to make a winner out of you Isabella Locke. See you in the morning.”
“How many other girls are going to be here?”
“Other girls? Oh no Isabella. It will be just me and you. Don’t worry. You will have my undivided attention.”
Fucking great. A drill instructor at 6 AM.
I walked to the locker room and got dressed quickly, grabbing my book bag and heading straight to the parking lot. I saw a gathering of girls staring at something. I looked and saw him smiling. Sitting in the truck, window down, radio blaring soaking in the glow of being ogled by my classmates.
I think I just growled.
Stomping to the passenger door I jerked it open and threw my book bag at him. He was laughing.
“Hey sweet pea. You have a good day at school?”
“Get me home. Now.”
He tried to ask me about my day. I ignored him. We got home. I marched to my room and threw my book bag on the floor.
“Bella did you not have a good day?”
Did I? I don’t know. It was boring and then physical torture then I walk out and see my soul mate playing teen heart throb.
“When you come pick me up, you keep your window up and your radio down. I will not have those bitches staring at you. You are mine!”
Peter threw up his hands and backed up.
“Sorry babe. I was just havin a little harmless fun.”
“Yeah. Now the girls at that school are going to be talking about my hot uncle! You think I want to listen to that shit! Stay low right Peter?”
“You’re right Bella. I was out of line. It won’t happen again.”
I walked towards my room.
“Where ya goin? I said I was sorry.”
“I have homework. Apparently I need to catch up on the Bible thanks to you. Then I have to go to bed. Actually sleep. Because I have to be at school at 6 AM to learn how to swim! Swim Peter! For two hours. Then I have to do it again in the afternoon.”
“I didn’t know you liked to swim competitively.” He said missing the whole point as usual.
“I don’t! But this school doesn’t give you a choice. Now instead of staying on the sidelines I get special instruction by the coach. Every morning! I want out of this school Peter.”
“Didn’t you say we used to fight together in the past? We were warriors?”
“Yeah so?”
“So what happened this time around that turned you into such a fucking quitter? Mommy hug you too much and tell you to be safe every time you fell down and skinned your knee?”
“I am not a quitter. I just don’t like sports.”
“So basically you can’t quit because you are too afraid to even try to start?”
“Peter just shut the fuck up. Seriously shut the fuck up. I’m going to my room. I plan to stay there the rest of the night. Leave me alone. Find another place to put me in school if it is so damn important to you. Tomorrow we can enroll there. And make sure they don’t require sports!” I walked in and slammed my door.
A quitter? Just because I don’t like to compete does not mean I am a quitter. God he is such an asshole.
So tonight is lonely. I am barred from my sleeping mate. She hasn’t spoken to me all evening. I yelled through her door and hour ago that if she was really that against it we would find someplace else or get one of those at home courses and she could finish that way. Nothing. No response.
I didn’t know what to do here. I knew it wouldn’t be easy but I thought she may actually like going to a school where she could make friends in a safe environment and not have to worry about rich boys buggin her.
I guess I was wrong. I grabbed a book and read. My mind going between Bella and Jasper Whitlock. I admit though, I hadn’t been thinking of Whitlock as much. He doesn’t consume my thoughts anymore. She does now. But he and I still had unfinished business to take care of.
We had been doing a lot more physical things. I thought in a couple weeks when her birthday was here we would be ready to make love with me not breaking her in half. Now I was beginning to wonder if we were going to have to start the process back up whenever she decided to let me out of the fucking doghouse.
Her alarm went off at 5.
I heard her stumbling around. She finally stuck her head out the door.
“Would you do me a favor?”
“Yeah.” I told her, not knowing what to expect.
“Make me four slices of toast for me to eat on the way to school. I have practice in an hour.”
“I think I can manage that darlin.”
She nodded and went to the bathroom.
I knew she wasn’t a quitter. Maybe she was learning that fact too.
Bella MacLeod's Twilight Fanfiction 
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