Warning: This story is not for the faint of heart. Viewers must possess a strong imagination, an even stronger stomach, and a willingness to suspend not just belief, but good taste. If you are like me, you have heard or seen the Twilight phenomenon. You have either a) ignored it completely b) tried to understand it but eventually gave up in frustration c) read some parts of the book or watched a bit of the movie and was a little interested, d) have read every thing Stephanie Meyer has written, but only in a book store or library where you knew no one, or e) all of the above, in chronological order. If you chose e, or just like a good summer vampire story, read on. I'm hoping this will get picked up by Stephanie Meyer for her next series of books, in which I'll be her writing assistant and get introduced to her agent as "the up and coming hot shot writer who needs a book deal immediately".
Guilty Pleasure: Chapter 1
"Morning, birthday girl!" Grandpa Charlie beamed as I made my down the stairs. He had a miniature feast in the kitchen. I suspected Sue was involved, as all the food was in plastic containers and could get packed away easily. I sighed quietly as Grandpa passed me a banana. The fruit wasn't terrible, and honestly it was better than anything else. I slowly made my way to the blender. Some human food, like smoothies or milkshakes weren't so bad. At least I could pretend the texture in my mouth was blood. Father always said appearances were the most important thing.
It was pretty easy to keep up appearances with the humans. First, we were in Forks, Washington, a place that seemed to be allergic to the sun. Secondly, the Cullens were the masters of secret keepers. I should know, as I was currently the biggest one. Only a select handful of humans knew I even existed. Father and Grandpa Carlisle home schooled me every day. Since Vampire-human hybrids achieve full maturity in seven years, it would have looked odd to see a grown girl walking into a second grade classroom. Not to mention disturbing when she pulled out a mountain lion carcass from her lunch pail.
As I took a sip of a blood orange and banana smoothie, I heard the soft click of a digital camera. I pretended not to have heard it; it came from the other room. Grandpa C. was trying to sneak up on me. He was under strict orders, no doubt, by Grandma Renee and Grandma Esme. Each time it looked like I aged another year Aunt Alice and Aunt Rosalie would organize the entire family for portraits. The plan was to wait until I reached full maturity before I revealed myself to others. Grandpa Charlie and Grandma Renee knew the truth, sort of: I was a blood relative of Edward Cullen, but they thought he was my adopted father. Even though he was over a century old, he still looked too young to have a teenage daughter. Grandpa bought, or pretended to buy, the "orphaned niece" story when I was barely a year old. As for my rapid aging, well, Grandpa Charlie learned long ago that there are some things you don't need to know.
My increasing thirst for example. I tried not to breathe in his scent as he stood behind me. "Smile!"he teased and I paused, counted for ten seconds, and turned very slowly with my mouth full of shake. I was pretty good at acting like a human. Deliberately I arranged my features to look confused and disoriented. The light flashed in my eyes. "Gotcha!" Grandpa crowed. "Grandpa!" I moaned, "I'm trying to eat here". Grandpa chuckled as I pretended to take another sip. His warm breathe danced across my skin, and I tried to think of other things. Last night's chess game with Uncle Jasper had been increasingly difficult. We were reenacting the final battle scenes of the Civil War for my history assignment. Uncle Charlie walked next to me and put his arm around me. "See? Look at that. You look just like your mother when she turned 16. Shame about the red eye though. Maybe there's a feature on this thing your dad can show me." Charlie continued to mumble with his delectable scent clinging to his skin. Augh! I needed a distraction. My mind immediately fled to Jacob. What was up with him last night? After we had finished hunting, Jacob immediately ordered me to go back. I had never seen him like that before. My mind focused and I could feel myself regaining control. I wondered where he was now. The nice thing about Jacob was that he was always around when you needed him. I took another sip of shake and heard the sound of footsteps approaching swiftly. I sighed with relief. Half a second later the doorbell rang. I felt the heat of Grandpa's body leave me as he muttered "Who could that be?" I quickly put the rest of the food back in the fridge and cleaned up a little; Grandpa was leaving for work and didn't eat this much anyway. I caught up with him in two steps. Grandpa opened the door and there he stood, my own personal body guard. Or guard dog, as he liked to put it. Jacob Black had always been there for my family for as long as I could remember. His was my parent's best friend, and it was usually the four of us. Our coven was pretty big, but most often it was mom, dad, Jake and me. I could always count on him to have a huge grin on his face. Currently he was demonstrating my favorite smile at my expense. Grandpa was showing him the camera. "Nice picture Ness'" he teased. "You look like a monster." "Yeah, can you fix her eyes?" asked Grandpa. I grabbed the tiny camera from Grandpa and handed it to Jacob, making sure our fingers brushed. When our skin made contact, I sent him an image: running herds of elk. His grin stretched wider and he gave a slight nod as he pushed the microscopic buttons. I smiled. The thirst wouldn't last long. Jacob was here, with him around I would always get what I needed.
To Be Continued...
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