Chapter 5

I hadn't realised how angry I'd become, enough to lose control of my temper completely and let Lindsay into my head for a split second. She was still staring at me, her eyes as wide as my own.

"How did you do that?" she repeated slowly and I just looked at her, trying to think of some excuse that would make what I'd done sound normal. There were none. Suddenly, Lindsay froze beside me. "Is it... Is it true, then?" she asked fearfully, edging away from me. "Those rumours? That you're a..." I looked at her and my expression must have confirmed what she was asking because she screamed quickly before clapping her hands over her mouth, her eyes full of fear as she backed away from me, nearly falling over the coffee table. I just looked back at her sadly and I think she must have realised that I wasn't advancing on her menacing because she stopped and just looked at me with less fear and a little more confusion. "Am I wrong?"

"No, you're not wrong," I answered truthfully.

"So you're a- you're a... vampire?" she whispered.

"Not quite," I replied and she narrowed her eyes, trying to figure out if I was lying or not.

"What do you mean?" she asked cautiously, still keeping her distance.

"Well," I sighed. "I'm only half." She looked at me with surprise.

"Half?" She repeated and I nodded. "How can you be half vampire? Is that even possible?"

"Well it would seem so, since I'm standing here. No one thought it was possible but my mother was human and my father was a vampire and they fell in love and he was able to refrain from killing her when-" I blushed. "When I was conceived. But I was a total accident and since there was hardly any record of it happening no one knew what to do and I nearly killed my mother," I finished unhappily, remember the look of pain forced into a smile that was the first memory I ever had of my mother.

"Wait," Lindsay said. "So Esme is human?"

"Well, no. That's another thing, you see... Esme and Carlisle are not my parents," I waited for her reaction but she just continued to look confused. "Edward and Bella aren't my siblings."

"But they're both so young!" she argued back and I sighed again as I realised I had a lot to explain.

"Well, when you're turned into a vampire you get frozen at the age you were when you were a human. So actually, dad's over a hundred and ten and mum is nearing thirty."

Her mouth opened in shock. Then she seemed to remember she was talking about vampires and took another step back, narrowly missing the bowls of popcorn we'd abandoned on the floor. "So, wait... vampires drink blood, and you said 'when you're turned into a vampire'... does that mean you're turning people into vampires here?"

"Lindsay, I'm not going to hurt you," I told her and she looked relieved but still not entirely trusting. "And it's Carlisle that does the turning. He doesn't care for human blood anymore, that's why he's at the hospital. And he only turned my family because they were close to death and he couldn't bear to let them die when he could save them, in a way anyway. The rest of my family don't touch human blood either. They're got the restraint to survive on the blood of animals so absolutely no one is in danger here." Lindsay looked a lot less worried now and even seemed to be calming down.

"But what about what you did. Before, when you slapped me. Is that a vampire thing?"

"Kind of. Some vampires are born with a power. Like I can let people see my thoughts, my dad can read people's minds, Alice can see the future-"

"What!" she almost shouted. "Slow down! Edward can read minds?!" She groaned and threw herself down on the sofa. "So every time I've been at yours thinking about him he's knew?" she groaned again. "I've been crushing on your dad?" It was silent for a few minutes then we both started to giggle. She smiled at me. "So you're really vampires?" I nodded. "Wow. So, what do you like sleep in coffins?"

"No!" I said, laughing. "That's a total myth! I sleep just like any other person; my family on the other hand don't sleep at all."

"Oh my god!" she said, amazed. "Anything else I need to know?"

"Umm, all those times we've been off school aren't because we were camping. I can go out in the sun but the rest of my family can't."

"Cause you'll burn, right?"

I laughed. "Not exactly. If they go out in the sun, their skin sparkles."

"Wow! You have to show me that sometime. This is so cool. Wait until Nadine, Sarah and Nicola hear about this."

I froze, wide eyed. "You can't! I mean they can't! Find out about this, I mean. Well, you saw the way you reacted. Well, you didn't actually see but-" I reached over and put my palm on her cheek and thought hard about how she'd looked at me after I'd slapped her.

"Oh, right," she looked at me when I took my hand away, smiling apologetically. "Yeah, I see what you mean. Don't worry, Nez, I won't tell anyone." She smiled again, and this time I could tell she meant every word she'd just said. I smiled back, grateful that she'd taken everything so well.

"How was your sleepover?" mum asked when she picked me up from Lindsay's the next day. Lindsay had helped me carry my bag all the way to the car and then she had given mum a wide grin before running back to her house.

I suddenly realised I would have to tell my family that Lindsay knew about us and I gulped nervously. I'd seen that she was telling the truth but would they be able to see the truth in her eyes just through my thoughts?

"Mum," I started. "I have to tell you something."

"Don't worry, Renesmee, I already know."

"What?" I asked, looking at her with disbelief.

"Lindsay knows what we are. Alice saw it before you left, and we could see it would turn out ok in the end so we decided not to worry you with it and to just let you sort it out yourself."

My mouth dropped open. "Mum! You could have given me some warning!"

"If we'd told you then what would you have done? You'd have tried to pull out of going to Lindsay's or it would have ruined your night because you'd have been worrying." I guessed she had a point but I still felt a bit annoyed that they hadn't even given me a hint.

We pulled into the drive and Mum got both my bags with one hand as I walked ahead of her into the house.

"I'm home!" I called, running up two flights of stairs to Alice's room. She was sitting cross legged on her bed, a number of fashion magazines spread across the duvet around her. She looked up and smiled, moving a copy of Vogue so there was room for me to sit down on the bed.

"What are you doing?" I asked curiously.

She sighed, shutting the copy of Elle that was on her lap and swapping it for Grazia. "I've been getting behind on the clothes planning," she told me "You, Rosalie and Bella need a few more outfits winter outfits for school and I need to find them before the shops start getting all the spring stuff in again. But, don't worry-" she looked off into the distance for a few seconds and then snapped out of her trance and smiled at me. "I'll get it done in time." So what did you want to speak to me about?"

"You knew!" I whined. "Why didn't you tell me?"

"Because you'd already left with Emmett and I could see that you two would work it out so I didn't see any reason to cause a big panic. And you two are still friends aren't you?" I nodded. "Then there's no problem!" She looked back down at her magazines. "Sorry Renesmee, but I'm not going to be very good company. I really need to get this done."

"Ok," I shrugged, getting up and walking along the corridor to Rosalie's room. She was sitting at her desk straightening her hair but she put the straightners down and turned round when I came in.

"I asked Alice to straighten my hair to see what it would look like," she explained. "But she said she was busy so I decided to try and do it myself." She looked at her perfect reflection and sighed sadly. "It looks horrible."

"What are you talking about!" I argued back. "You look like a model! You always do." She turned back round and smiled gratefully at me.

"So what did I do to honour myself with a visit?" she joked. "Or do you just want me to get you some food?"

I laughed. "Actually I did have a reason for coming to see you." I sat down on her white leather sofa and she swivelled round on her desk chair so we were facing each other. "I'm guessing Alice told you about the sleepover before it even happened?

"Yeah she did," Rosalie smiled guiltily.

"Well, at the sleepover Lindsay basically admitted that she liked Jacob... and I don't really know what to do."

Rosalie looked shocked. "Alice didn't tell me that bit. What's bothering you about it? You don't need to worry about Jacob, he loves you."

"I know that but what about Lindsay?"

"Don't worry Renesmee, you're his soul mate not her. My guess is that now you've trusted her in our secret she'll feel obliged to keep her feelings to herself. You know your dad and Alice would have stopped you if they thought she wouldn't be able to keep a secret like ours," a small smile played on her lips, "And you do realise she's probably quite scared of us now?"

I held my palm to her cheek and showed her how calm Lindsay had looked when she'd smiled at mum.

"Yes, but that was just Bella," Rosalie laughed. "I don't think Lindsay will ever look at Emmett in the same way again."

I remembered back to when I was younger and Jasper telling me that some people thought Emmett was scary. I hadn't been able to see it myself- Uncle Emmett resembled a big teddy bear more than he did a grizzly bear. I remember putting my hand up to Jaspers cheek and him laughing at my perception of Emmett. Of course now I was older, mentally at least, I would have been quite stupid not to see how Emmett's powerful physique might seem more than a bit intimidating to some people.

I grinned back at Rose and got up from the sofa as she turned back round to her mirror and started fussing with her hair again.

"Rosalie, leave it. You look fine," I told her in an attempt to stop her from worrying about the many faults she found in her flawless appearance. She stopped for a minute, raising an eyebrow in a way that said it's hardly fine. "I promise!" I said, laughing at her expression. "You'd still look beautiful even if you fell out the window headfirst into a bush. It kind of comes with the whole being a vampire thing." She grimaced, probably imagining being clumsy enough to do exactly what I'd just described but then she stopped and the corners of her mouth turned up in a small smile.

"Ok, then. Right I'm going to go give these back to Alice," she stopped and sniffed the air, a disgusted look on her face. "And someone's made you some human food."

A/N – The next chapter will probably just follow on from this one. Reviews mean quicker updates ;)