บท 4: Chapter 4- Back To America
BPOV (Bella is now 8)
Not long after my eighth birthday, I found out that the author mum worked for had retired, and Renee, who had always been rather flighty, decided that it was time for us to move back to America.
I was distraught for days when I found out I was leaving, and all of the vampires were depressed to find out that their favourite little human was leaving Volterra. Felix and Demetri had especially grown attached after spending four years as my guards, and even volunteered to go with me until they found out that Renee wanted to move to sunny Phoenix, Arizona.
Seeing how upset we all were, Aro managed to charm my mother into a different deal. In the end, the new arrangement was that I would spend six months with mum in phoenix every year, then "board at school" in Volterra for the other six months of the year so that I could maintain my advanced education course.
Once I heard the new plan I was relatively excited, although a bit scared. I'd never been to a real school before, and I was worried about having to try and fit in with so many other people. The only real friends I currently had were vampires.
Heidi and Didyme tried to reassure me, they were sure that the other children would love me, and they thought that it would be good for me to experience some normal human activities, such as school.
Bearing these assurances in mind, I packed the stuff I was taking to Phoenix, and had Felix and Demetri take everything I was leaving in Volterra to the castle.
I was to be given my own tower, with an extremely large living area including an open lounge, kitchen and music room on the first floor. My large bedroom, with an ensuite and an enormous wardrobe (Heidi insisted so that she had somewhere to put all the stuff she bought me) was at the top of the tower, with floor to ceiling windows giving me an uninhibited and picturesque view of Italy.
Sulpicia, Didyme, Heidi and Jane had helped me pick out a white, silver and blue colour theme for my tower, and promised to decorate and furnish it while I was away.
With a saddened heart, I bid my vampire family goodbye, hugging each of them in turn and hopped in the car with my mother for the long drive to the airport. As we drove I fingered their parting gift to me. It was a ¾ inch wide, 24ct white gold cuff bracelet engraved with a pattern of ten freesias linked with lavender sprigs. At the centre of each freesia a clear ½ ct diamond was embedded.
The freesias and lavender represented me, and was because to them my scent smelt like a combination of both flowers. The twelve diamonds represented each member of my vampire family, for their durability, and because, like diamonds, they sparkled in the sun. It was my favourite gift from them because of its sentimental value. I smiled as I looked down at it, now secure safely to my wrist. I had no intentions of ever taking it off.
The flight to Phoenix was uneventful, and I slept most of the way. When we finally collected our luggage, left the airport and found our way to the house mum had bought, I was surprised to find how much I liked the small yellow house in front of us.
The house was situated within walking distance of the beach and the school mum had enrolled me in. I would be in 3rd grade there, Aro, Marcus and Caius had warned me to act like I didn't know the answers to everything, because I would stand out, and we didn't want anyone asking questions.
Over the next week we quickly unpacked, brought new furniture, and settled in to our new home. I found myself loving the beach, and I regularly dragged mum there so that I could play in the waves. I mentally added learning to swim to my To Do list, absently wondering whether I could convince my vampires to install a pool at the castle.
School was an interesting experience for me. Due to spending a lot of my time with vampires, my hearing had developed to the point where I could hear a vampire whisper from about 20 feet away- a trait that was useful for overhearing Felix and Demetri's plans to ambush me. My sense of sight and smell had also heightened, along with a sixth sense for knowing when people are watching, or creeping up on me- also handy to for foiling Felix and Demetri.
Because of my excellent hearing, I could hear the whispers about me. People were making up wild rumours for the first couple of weeks about the pale new girl. I hadn't even considered the fact that everyone else in Phoenix had a tan from spending time in the sun, while I was very pale. In addition, my Italian accent, developed from my time in Italy, stood out like a fox in a henhouse.
Some of the snider comments made me wince;
"I heard she was locked up in a mental institution and they just let her out. That's why she isn't tan"
"My mum said that she heard from a lady at the library that she's from some weird country, so she's not like us."
I rolled my eyes at that, surprised that they thought being from another country was weird.
After the first few weeks though, the rumours died down, and I fell into a regular routine. I kept fairly quiet at school, never volunteering to answer questions, and avoiding talking to teachers when possible. At home, I enjoyed spending time with my mum, and I soon took over the cooking duties when I found out how much I enjoyed it.
I talked to my Volterra vampires a couple of times a week, glad that I didn't have to worry about the time difference since they didn't sleep. They were always encouraging, and eager to learn about my weeks, especially school, since when they were born there hadn't been school. I sometimes got the feeling that they were living vicariously through me.
I soon found that Santiago had gotten me subscriptions to Car & Driver and Road & Track car magazines. When I called to thank him he simply replied, "Well the chances of you getting to play with any real cars over there are pretty slim, and you need to keep up to date on the cars coming out. You can pick out the one you want us to get you as a coming home present. It's time we taught you to drive."
I couldn't contain my squeal of delight at this, and I spent a lot of my free time researching for the perfect car in the next few months.
Not to be outdone by Santiago, the others also regularly sent me things. The day I started school, I came home feeling a little sorry for myself after being subjected to everyone whispering and staring. I was cheered up immediately by what awaited me in the living room. A beautifully carved harp, a baby version of a concert grand harp, was sitting there courtesy of Didyme. It was a duplicate of my one in Volterra, made especially for me due to my size. Didyme also regularly sent me blank music sheets for composing, and music pieces to play, along with the latest CD's of musicians and bands that I liked.
It soon became common for me to come home after a particularly boring day of school to immerse myself in music for a few hours.
Heidi constantly shopped for me online, having everything wither sent to me or stored in my tower in Volterra, as well as subscribing me to five different fashion magazines. She also sent me complicated maths equations to do when I was feeling like my IQ had dropped 50 points from being in a normal school, while Sulpicia sent me medical journals and quantum physics books to read.
Marcus and Caius sent me many first editions of classic books, and any other literature they thought I would find interesting. They also had Jane send me a chess program for my computer, which I played to keep up my skills, although that soon became a bit boring when I won every time, even on the hardest level.
Taking a leaf out of Santiago's book, Alec got me subscriptions for National Geographic and History Magazine. "Pick out your favourite countries, and when you get back we'll take you to visit some of them," he promised. I spent the time I could spare from choosing a car, excitedly looking at different countries around the world to explore.
Jane subscribed me to six different computer magazines, and regularly sent me new parts and programs for the state of the arc laptop she had given me before I left.
Felix and Demetri sent me books on the different styles of fighting throughout the world, everything from ju-jitsu to aikido and boxing. When they found out that almost everyone else had gotten me magazine subscriptions, they immediately signed me up to receive 3 martial arts magazines.
Aro had a different approach. He sent me popular books and movies about mythical creatures so that I could laugh at how wrong the creators were. Dracula was a particular favourite.
They also got me subscriptions to two children's magazines to help me learn more about people my age, and so that I would understand what the other kids at school meant when they talked about certain celebrities, or TV programs.
All in all, at the start of every month I would receive 20 magazines in the mail, which I would eagerly peruse, then discuss with my vampires.
I did eventually make a few tentative friends. Chantal was a sporty girl in my class, who originally started talking to me because of my accent. We became friendly mainly because we were opposites. She was sport and loud, I was clumsy and shy, but I wasn't complaining, mainly because I was eager to have anyone as a friend, and I didn't mind not being able to get a word in edgeways in a conversation.
Being friends with Chantal meant that I met her best friend and neighbour, Breeze. Breeze was relatively quiet, but not shy. She would happily speak out quite bluntly when she wanted too, but only spoke up when she wanted to be heard.
I managed to fake my way through conversations about stars and their favourite TV shows, often discretely pulling out the iPhone Jane had sent me and googling information during the conversation. Occasionally I even watched some TV, although I preferred to read books or play music.
The weeks passed by quite quickly, and I found myself enjoying my new life quite a lot, I even got invited to a few sleepovers, which involved lots of talk about makeup, clothes and boys as well as lots of singing, junk food and manicures.
With the exception of junk food, and the actual sleeping part, the sleepovers reminded me of Heidi, and I was looking forward to seeing my vampires again.
When the time came to head back to Volterra I gave my mum a tearful goodbye after saying a reluctant goodbye to Chantal and Breeze. I was surprised to find that I was slightly nostalgic, but it was quickly brushed aside as enthusiasm to be back in Volterra took its place.
I had finally picked out the car I wanted and sent Alec a list of all the places and countries I wanted to visit. I excitedly hopped on the plane, eager to see my vampire family again.
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