Just when we thought everything was going good. Things were back to normal. The kids at school had lost interest in us, for the most part. The town as a whole had bigger things to worry about in this up-and-coming era. We were in the middle of Summer, and things were easy.
Summer is great for the Cullens because we can go do whatever we want to do, and nobody notices. No-one wonders if we miss school when the sun is out. No-one cares if our clothing looks too trendy because Alice orders them all out of fancy magazines from New York. (It's her new hobby, and we all comply- it's better than the 'trends' some of these local kids wear these days.) No-one even cares if we ignore everyone except each other. They all are too busy doing their summer fun activities, and keeping busy making sure they are living each moment to the fullest- because summer is short for humans, after all.
This summer hasn't shaped up to be so good for us so far. And we are learning a lot about ourselves we didn't already know, thanks to the recent events. Let me back up and start from the beginning. It started with Alice's vision.
We had all gone up to a creek in Monongahela National Forest, which is usually a good spot for some hunting and we made a day out of it. If the Cullen Family went on picnics, this would be our version- a day hunting together in the woods, playing games and being silly.
While we were gone, Alice got a vision of a small group of local boys breaking into our house. She recognized them as some of the trouble makers from the high school. She said it looked like a spur of the moment decision, and little or no planning took place before they took off for our house. We had almost no time to get there. Even with our speed, we were about an hour away because once we got out of the forest we had to drive east on the roads in broad daylight, which meant we had to stick to the speed limit at least somewhat because traffic in this town was horrendous. You can only weave through cars so quickly when they are packed together.
By the time we got to the house, five boys dressed in ripped jeans, with black shirts, black gloves and black lumberman's jackets on were already inside the house. How cute, they match. This made us wonder how dangerous they were. Were they armed? This wasn't a problem for us so much as for them. We stood outside, collecting our thoughts and debating our next move. We had things in our house that implicated what we are. We had obviously blown our cover. Or had we?
I decided our best bet was to go in there, be authoritative, and figure out what they knew. Carlisle thought that it was a bad idea to hold them here while we tried to learn what they knew, as they could grow suspicious. Alice couldn't see anything, since we were all so undecided, and it was making her head hurt. Then we got the idea that saved the day.
"I can just make them feel calm while Edward sorts out their heads. If they know too much, we have little choice but to deal with them as best as we can. If they don't know anything, then we can either let them go or call the cops for breaking and entering. Your choice, Carlisle." Jasper said. We all stared at him for half a second, surprised because he is normally so quiet, and he had a really good idea. Not that any of us wanted to "deal with them as best as we can," but making them calm was the best option we had.
We went in there without making a single sound. Between Carlisle, Jasper, Emmett and I, we were able to round up the boys without them seeing our immense strength or speed and gather them in the living room. Esme gave them the lecture of a lifetime while Jasper emitted his soothing emotions. It distracted them from noticing that I was staring at them all, one by one, like a wierdo while I sorted through their thoughts. I didn't know them well enough to tell whose thoughts were whose, so I had to do it this way.
The only thing four out of five of them were thinking was that they were in really deep trouble. Most of them had a lot of four letter words running through their heads related to that fact. The leader, however, had worse thoughts. He had gotten into Carlisle's office hoping for some money, a cash box or some jewelry in a safe or something. Instead he found Carlisle's medical journals, the ones Carlisle had collected himself. These journals documented our medical histories, checkups and any minor injuries or issues any of us have had since becoming vampires. It would be quite the interesting reading selection. The leader was under the impression that he had discovered we were vampires- which of course, he was right- and that he was going to tell the world and get rich, with Carlisle's journals as proof.
I pulled Carlisle aside and told him what I knew. This was bad. This was very bad. We had a lot to deal with here, and obviously, we couldn't let this kid go home to tell the entire world and let him- and us- be destroyed by the Volturi. I could tell instantly from Carlisle's thoughts that he didn't want to harm a young boy who had parents at home worrying about him though, either.
So now what? Do we face his destruction- or ours?
TO BE CONTINUED...
