Twilight Fan Fiction / Twilight Fan Fiction ❯ Glow ❯ Glow ( Chapter 1 )

Glow

A Twilight Fanfiction by: Natilie Sawada

 

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"And I know that it's so cliché

To tell you that everyday

I spend with you

Is a new best day of my life"

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-"The Best Thing" By: Relient K

 

Even after a hundred years, I still wasn't used to it. The chattering ceased as I rounded the corner, my boots clunking loudly—echoing in the suddenly quiet hall. All eyes…and I mean that literally. All eyes were on me, and the man beside me. They had been all day.

“Its okay, Bella,” he whispered in my ear—only for me; his voice to low for any human to hear.

“I know,” I whispered back. His arm around my waist tightened. “What?”

“High school boys all think the same,” he commented. I cringed. It had been bad enough when I was still human. I couldn't imagine how horrible it was for him now…when I looked like this. He steered me abruptly right into the classroom.

This was the first time the Cullens (and that included me now, I thought with a smile) had been back in Forks since Edward and I had left for Dartmouth in the fall the second year I was a vampire. Slowly, after that, each of the family had slowly drifted away, leaving only Carlisle and Esme. Then they too had left, leaving no evidence that the Cullens had ever existed in Forks except some school records (which we'd destroyed except for mine which Edward insisted we keep for nostalgia's sake) and memories of a strange family with pale skin and golden eyes.

We had then spent years drifting from place to place. And now, that everyone we had known, or had known us, in Forks was dead, we were free to move back and live once again in the only place that would ever really be home.

The house was untouched—obviously. No one dared get near the creepy Cullen place. So we'd moved back in and enrolled in high school.

As Edward and I sat down at our table together, I examined the crumbling walls and scuffed tile floor. And I had thought the school looked old when I first arrived here. It was apparent no one had attempted anything in the range of restoration since we had left. Even without my super human strength, I was sure it would be easy to pick away at the crumbling walls. I could see the marks bored kids had made—the chipped, peeled paint and deep groves in the tables.

But I loved it, none the less.

I had always been a sucker for antiques.

I laughed and smiled at Edward. He gave me a questioning glance.

“Nothing,” I told him, and then realized what class we were in and giggled. A couple people in front of us—the ones who weren't already staring at us with wonder—turned around to the sound of my musical laugh.

“What is it?” Edward asked patiently.

“We're in Biology,” I explained. After a split second, recognition sparked in his eyes and he laughed too.

“Last time we were here, I wanted to kill you. Who would have thought…I'd be married to you.” I glanced around, suddenly anxious. But his voice was, again, too low for humans to hear.

“With a daughter,” I continued. “By the way, how's she holding up?” I asked. Edward tilted his head to the side, listening. Renesmee had decided to enroll in high school with the rest of us. It was slightly unnerving, going to high school with your daughter. She'd already attended school with us once, but we still hadn't gotten over the awkwardness.

“Good. She charmingly convinced the male secretary to schedule all her classes with Jacob.” I sighed and rolled my eyes. What a little tease the girl was. But it just made her more loveable. Though, it was good she'd learned to control her power. It would be disastrous if, every time she bumped into someone, they got a flash of what she was thinking.

Edward shook his head, and his eyes focused back on me.

“Something wrong?” I asked, suddenly concern rising in me.

“No,” he said. He sounded annoyed. “She's just daydreaming about Jacob.” I rolled my eyes again.

“Lovely,” I commented. “Doesn't it get really annoying—being in everyone's head all the time?”

“Only annoying because I can't get into your head,” he corrected. I laughed (two heads turned in my direction) and gave him a sidelong glance.

“Well, I'm not going to let you hear my thoughts on a regular basis. You know that. That's for special occasions only.” He sighed.

“Please?”

“We'll talk later,” I whispered as the teacher walked into the room. I found, despite all the homework he used to give, I actually missed Mr. Varner. Or maybe it was just the fact that I had now grown to love every thing that connected with my first few months in Forks— the first few months of my human life that had any meaning to me.

Of course, Edward and I knew more about Biology than the teacher. We'd both gone through college a dozen times, earning masters in as many subjects as you could imagine. Out of the corner of my eye I could see him stealing glances at me. I smiled and let my shield slip for minute.

Would you stop that? I thought at him. It's really uncomfortable.

He only shrugged and continued to glance at me as I let my shield snap back into place. I laughed quietly to myself at his downhearted expression. Time passed not as slowly as I would have imagined. I guess I just felt so at home here.

I couldn't keep the smile off my face as I walked to lunch, hand in hand with Edward. As a result about half the people we passed in the hallway actually stopped in their tracks and turned to stare. We entered the cafeteria, immediately spotting the others at the same table that had sat at the first time I'd seen them. What a weird sensation—like double vision. Half of me was seeing the crystal clear room full of unfamiliar faces, and half was looking through murky eyes, seeing old friends, and inhuman beautiful, mysterious creatures—one of which was glaring murderously at me from across the room.

“Déjà vu?” Edward asked. I nodded vigorously. We made our way over to the table, only to be caught half way by my daughter and my best friend.

“Hey, Bells!” Jacob greeted loudly. I glared as more heads turned in our direction than already were.

“Hi, Jake.” I turned to my daughter, who now looked almost older than me. “Hi, honey,” I said, unable to resist hugging her. “How's your first day going?”

“Great, Mo—I mean…Bella.” She blushed and I grinned. That particular trait of mine had transferred. Edward came up and hugged her too.

"I'm glad you'd doing all right, Nessie," he then murmured under his breath, "Love you."

"Love you, Dad," she said, just as quietly. My body was radiating excitement at the love that emanated from the two. I was about to squeal with joy before Jacob interrupted my thought process.

"We should probably go sit down. You guys already look freakish enough without the joy-fest in the middle of the cafeteria." I was suddenly aware that over half the cafeteria had turned in our direction and was staring at our little gathering.

"You're probably right," Edward said, and slid his hand around my waist (probably trying to banish any of the boys' thoughts of me from his mind) and led me towards the table where Rosalie, Jasper, Alice, and Emmett sat, chattering and laughing quietly. As we approached, Alice sprang with unnerving grace from her chair and leaped at me, throwing her arms around me.

"Hi, Bella!" She exclaimed. I smiled at Alice's enthusiasm. We only had one class together, so we didn't get to see nearly as much of each other as in the past.

"Hi, Alice! How's everything going?"

"Good," she said, a slightly smug smirk lighting her face.

"What?" I demanded. Out of the corner of her eye, she flicked a glance at Jasper, who was picking a bagel to pieces with the same smile.

"We missed second period..." she leaned in closer, to whisper in my ear. "We were in the storage closet on the second story." She leaned back and beamed. I gasped.

"Alice!" I exclaimed.

"What? It's not like you and Edward haven't done anything like that before! Remember up in Canada a few years back? You guys broke the chalkboard." If I was still human, my cheeks would have been the color of tomatoes.

"Alice..." I hissed, giving a sideways glance over to where Renesmee was smiling at Jacob. "Not in front of the children!"

"Oh," she mouthed, "sorry." Edward sighed audibly as we took our places at the table.

"So, other than the, ahem, incident with the closet this morning, how is your day going, Alice?" Edward asked casually.

"Great!" Alice exulted. "It's so great to be back in Forks! I can't believe they haven't fixed the school since we left. It's like this place is about to fall down around our ears!" I laughed.

"Yah, I noticed. I kind of dug a hole in the wall with my finger last hour." Emmett chuckled, and I just glanced over at him.

"You could have done that without the walls being decades old, love," Edward murmured.

"That's beside the point," I said, waving my hand.

"I never used to get this many stares in Canada," Rosalie commented quietly.

"Rosalie, there weren't this many people in that little place in Canada," Alice informed her. She just shrugged, and gazed at her reflection in the window she was seated next to.

Jacob and Renesmee were wolfing down food like there was no tomorrow. I beamed. They were just so...perfect! Renesmee caught my stare and smiled at me, shoving another bite of hamburger into her mouth, and grimacing the slightest bit.

"You still not liking human food, honey?" I asked.

"No," she commented as I reached across the table and wiping a bit of ketchup from her cheek. "Mom!" She protested. Edward chuckled.

"Yah, Bells, that's my job," Jacob informed me, a huge smirk lighting his face as he swept on finger lightly across her lips. She blushed furiously scarlet again.

"Hey, hey, hey," I said, glaring daggers at Jacob. "You touch my daughter while I'm here, you die." Jacob gave me his puppy dog (ha ha) look.

"Awww," he pouted, putting his hand around Renesmee's shoulders. "But she just looks so darn cute today!" My daughter giggled and blushed. "You heard me," Jacob whispered in her ear.

"I'm sorry, Bella," Edward apologized, "but I have to agree with him there. Our daughter does look extremely gorgeous today." I beamed and gazed at my little miracle who was averting her eyes to the table, blushing like I would have been.

"When ever does she not?" I demanded. Edward only chuckled while Alice started humming “We are Family” quietly to herself.

"Well I'm about to get a cavity from just being in the same room as all this ooey-gooey sweetness," Emmett commented, picking up his tray still full of food, "so I think I'll see you guys later."

"Oh, come on, Emmett," Alice pleaded, "you know your feminine side likes it." Emmett snorted.

"Me? A feminine side?" Jasper chuckled quietly. Emmett glared at him, but Jasper didn't turn to meet his stare. "You say anything, you little punk and I'll knock your lights out. You got that, Jazz?"

"Sure. Whatever you say, Em," Jasper said casually, and I could see he was trying to keep the smile off his face. Rosalie sighed, also picking up her untouched tray and following Emmett as he stomped first to the trash cans to dump their food and then out the doors of the cafeteria.

"What was that all about?" I asked, turning to Edward with questioning eyes. He sighed.

"When you've lived as long as we have...and don't need sleep, you sometimes need to attempt insane activities to keep the boredom at bay. Let's just say Emmett smashed Alice's camera to bits that night." I stared at him with wide eyes.

"I shouldn't ask, should I?"

"No." He said shortly. Across the table, Jasper finally smiled fully, not being able to contain himself.

"Yikes."

At that moment the bell rang for lunch to end.

"Oh joy," I murmured. Edward laughed as he stood up, taking his tray as well as mine to the trash can. I followed along side him. Obviously, all our classes were together due to some very lovely convincing of our own on my and Edward's part. "Where are we off to next?" I asked.

"Gym, I believe."

"Oh, boy," I sighed, running a hand absently through my hair. He chuckled and I glared at him. "Is that in any way funny to you, Mr. Cullen?"

"Yes, Mrs. Cullen, in fact I find it extremely amusing." He just beamed at me. My glare loosened a little at the beauty of his smile, but I sent him one more watered down glare before turning my eyes back to the hallway.

Gym was relatively uneventful. Since it was the first day of school, we didn't do much...thankfully. I knew my balance had improved extremely, and my clumsiness had evaporated since I had been turned, but the ghost of paranoia always lingered on the edge of my thoughts. Overall, though, I had to be careful not to be too coordinated--to move with the unnatural grace that had made even me uneasy when I had first encountered the Cullens.

It didn't help that I could see Edward smirking out of the corner of my eye all hour as Mr. Ryans outlined the activities we would be attempting this year. I removed my shield for a split second--long enough to mentally stick my tongue out at him. He laughed mutely.

By the time gym got out I was about ready to smack him--not that it would do any good. I was pretending to be mad, but if I was being honest with myself, I was radiating contentment. Everything about today was making me burst with joy. We were back in Forks, I was with my husband, my daughter, my best friend, my family. And we were together. And everyone I loved was happy.

I was glowing on the inside.

Finally the last bell of the day rang to set us free, and we took off for the parking lot. Of course, in celebration of our return to Forks (and since all of us were complete suckers for nostalgia) Edward had bought us a Volvo.

Silver, to be exact.

Of course now, it wasn't as up to date as was humanly (in inhumanly) possible with our money, but it suited me and Edward just fine. Alice had wanted to buy another Porsche, but Jasper had convinced her--thankfully--that that would have been a bit extensive.

“Are you all right now?” Edward asked, squeezing my hand in comfort. “You looked upset earlier.”

“I was just nervous,” I explained as we reached the Volvo. “But now that I'm back here…where we first met…” I sighed in contentment as he pecked me on the check before striding around to his side of the car, and sliding in as I did. I slammed the door shut, and he turned on the car, pulling out into the line of traffic.

“I completely understand,” he murmured. “That reminds me, though,” he began, “Alice said the sun was going to come out around four o'clock.”

“About?” I asked. “Since when does Alice ever use the word “about”?” He sighed.

“Fine, she said four-oh-four and twenty seconds exactly when we were in the meadow.” He rolled his eyes.

“We're going to the meadow? Since when?” I asked. He was speeding, as always, too fast to be comfortable to a human along the roads of Forks. In fact he was going so fast that, even though it had only been a couple of minutes since we'd pulled out of the high school parking lot, we were already now on the outskirts of town.

“Apparently since now,” he told me. I smiled. We'd been so busy with counterfeiting paperwork to transfer, Edward and I hadn't gotten a chance to visit the meadow yet.

A hundred years was far, far too long.

We raced down the long driveway to Edward's old— and my new— home, parked the car in the garage next to Emmett's newly acquired Jeep. Rosalie had opted not to drive down memory lane in her M3 Convertible, but instead, had chosen to purchase a sleek new electric car that had been perfected since 2030, but had just been released to the market.

But, as always, it was red.

Rosalie always chose red.

I was completely content just driving around in the Volvo with Edward. Heck, what I wouldn't give to have my old red truck back. Actually, about ten years before my father died, we'd moved the truck into the backyard right along the tree line where it made a natural boundary to the yard.

There it sat for the rest of his life. He'd told me he kept it there to remind him of me when I was away with Edward. I'd emailed him frequently, letting him know how happy I was with Edward and Nessie.

And finally, at the age of seventy three, my father, Charlie Swan, had died in his sleep in the same house in the small town of Forks he'd lived in since he'd married my mother.

My mother passed too, not long after. She and Phil had stayed together, and she was happy with him until the end. I'd insisted they move into a retirement home (via phone of course) and as always, my mother let me talk her into what was best for her.

My mother died at the age of eighty one only four years after Charlie. Phil died the next year of kidney failure.

Edward helped me through all of their deaths, holding me tightly for days on end as I cried invisible tears for the loss of everything that tied me to my human world—for the loss of my family.

“Bella?” Edward interrupted my thought process, knocking on the car window beside me. “Are you all right?”

“Yah, I'm fine. Just too much déjà vu for one day,” I explained as he opened the door and helped me out of my seat.

“It must be worse for you. I know when Carlisle, Esme, Rosalie, and I visited Chicago, I could barely stand it. All things considered, you're handling this quite well.” He put his hand around my waist and pulled me closer to him.

“It's because you and Renesmee, and Jacob, and Alice, and all the rest of them are here. I can't think of any place I'd rather be.” I looked up into the beautiful face of my immortal love which held the strangest look. “What?”

“I can think of one place,” he murmured, his golden eyes smoldering in the dim sunlight that was threatening to filter through the clouds at any moment.

 

We burst into the meadow, matching the other stride for stride, our fingers intertwined.

At the same exact moment, the sun burst through the clouds, sending sunlight streaming down, sending rainbows glittering off my and Edward's skin.

I'm sure we were a sight.

I don't know how long we laid in the meadow under the brilliant sunlight, my head on Edward's chest, his arms around me.

“We have school again tomorrow, don't we?” I mumbled, completely unwilling to open my eyes.

“Yes, we do,” he replied, his hand reaching up to stroke my hair. I groaned.

“I don't want to go to school,” I murmured, feeling my brow furrow.

“Are you suggesting we skip?”

“Possibly,” I mumbled and felt him smile as he pressed his lips against my forehead in a swift kiss. I sighed. “I just want to lie here forever,” I told him.

“If that's what you want, love,” he murmured, his voice very close to my ear, “you can have it.” I smiled, examining the way the sun filtering through my closed eyelids made it seem like the inside of my head was glowing.

“Mmm, thank you.”

“Forever, Bella.”

Forever. That was his promise to me.

Forever. That was my promise to him.

Since the day we'd met, a force stronger than fate had brought us together, and nothing that existed on this earth so far had been strong enough to pull us apart.

Forever with Edward was what I'd wished for.

And against everything, against all odds, against all hope…I'd gotten exactly that.

And now I just wished we could stay together while the sun was still bright in the sky, making our skin shimmer, and the grass light up, and the colors brighten.

Now I just wished we could lay— forever in that meadow…where the world glowed around us.

 

~fin~