Chapter Twelve

We were still at the Cullen's house, Jasper had taken one of the vials I brought and was somewhat back to calm mode.

Once I finished my task of delivering the stuff to Carlisle, Emmett herded me into the living room and threw a game controller at me. So we sat on the couch side by side, playing a random game which I was obviously winning.

Alice, Jasper and a calmed down Rose sat around us, just hanging out.

Esme and Carlisle were in the living looking out the window, Esme was smiling, I could read her mind knowing she was listening to Edward's laughter and found myself a little happy.

I didn't pay attention to the conversation because I knew that it was a couple moment.

"Oh man, this sucks." I heard him tell me and smirked at him.

"Don't be a sore loser." I retorted.

"You're cheating." He exclaimed. "You have to be, some kind of cheaters, cheating spell that allows you to cheat."

"That would fall into the category of personal gain." I told him rolling my eyes in amusement.

"Speaking of games, I saw that there's going to be a storm rolling in... a big one." Alice said drawing my attention.

I smiled big.

"Does that mean what I think it does?" I asked raising an eyebrow.

She grinned nodding making me grin.

The tv screen flashed I was the winner.

"I demand a rematch!" He told me throwing his remote down making me chuckle.

"You're on." I told him shrugging before I caught sight of the large grandfather clock seeing the time and sighed. "But I can't, Bella and I have to get going, it's diner night and if we aren't there Charlie will be worried, he'll get suspicious and that's the last thing I need right now."

He sighed in disappointment but nodded, I glanced upwards.

'Edward Bella and I have to go, are you back yet? We have to get home.

"We're here."

I heard him tell me and turned spotting the two coming into the room, I stood up. Bella had a frown on her face.

"Sorry I hate cutting this short but Charlie's expecting us at the diner." I told her gently. "We're already a few minutes late."

She sighed, nodding.

I gave hugs and goodbyes to everyone, before heading to the jeep.

Edward stood by the front door watching us leave.

We got into the jeep, and I started backing out.

We made small talk and drove off.

-----

Once home, we went in and got changed before getting back into the jeep and headed over to the diner.

Getting out, Bella came to my side and we walked together.

I spotted Mike walking over to us, with a large smile on his face his basketball teammates watching. I saw the look on his face and knew he was going to be pigheaded today.

"Yo Elena! Arizona! What's happening?"

"Just meeting Charlie for the usual Saturday dinner night." I told him smiling politely reminding myself Mike was one of my friends.

We tried to walk around him to get inside but Mike blocked our path, making me look at him firmly.

"So you and Cullen huh?" Mike asked scratching his head.

Bella and I shared a look, she had a smile on her face not hiding it. I smiled at her, happy that my cousin was happy.

"That's... I don't... I don't like it."  Mike added.

Bella stared at him frowning while I glared at him.

"Sorry Mike your a good friend and all but it's not really any of your business." I told him firmly, taking my cousin's side.

I grabbed Bella's hand and pulled her into the diner without saying anything more.

"Thanks." Bella mumbled quietly.

I smiled at her.

We found Charlie at a table and slide into our normal seats.

"Sorry we're late." I told him regretfully. "Was working on a project with Quinn, Bella tagged along and time just got ahead of me."

Cora came over setting a top sirloin steak in front of Charlie, a plate of sea food in front of Bella and a portabella mushroom burger in front of me.

"That's okay." Charlie said smiling at me. "I hope you don't mind I ordered for you."

"No, it's fine." I told him feeling my mouth water at the taste and made a mental thank you in my mind. "I've been craving a good veggie burger."

"You should try ordering whatever Elena ordered." Bella told him teasingly. "cut back on the steak, cause that looks good, even I want one."

"Tastes good too, you wouldn't even tell the difference." I told her.

"Hey, I'm as healthy as a horse." Charlie retorted.

"Of course, you are because I make sure of it." I told him jokingly and grabbed the ketchup and added a drop of it in my burger and fries, before picking my burger up and took a bite.

I sensed someone at our table and looked up seeing Cora still standing there. She looked sad.

"Uh say Chief, boys want to know." She said gesturing to behind her where a group of older men were sitting, they looked over at us. "Did you find anything down by Queet's River today?"

"We only found a bare human footprint." Charlie told us sighing. "But it looks like whoever it is, is heading east, so Kitsap County Sheriff's gonna take over from here."

I looked at him, doing my best to keep a blank face, my eyes flickered to Bella's, she was looking back at me.

I shook my head at her.

"I just hope they catch him fast." Cora whispered before walking off.

There was an awkward silence, I ducked my head eating my burger and sent a mental message to Quinn and Jazz.

"Looks like your friends are flagging you." Charlie said drawing me from my thoughts, nodding his head at the window behind Bella.

We both looked over and saw Mike and his boys with straws in their noses and making faces, Mike was shaking his butt, my nose kind of went in disgust mode, hiding it I took a bite of my burger. Bella turned back around embarrassed, glancing at me.

"It's okay if you wanna join them." Charlie told us. "I'm just gonna turn in early anyway."

"Yeah me too." I added making Bella nod.

"Girls it's Friday night, go out" Charlie said sitting his fork down and looked at us. "Go hang out with Leah or Jacob or something. And Bella, Newton boy's got a big smile for you., nice boy."

"He's just a friend." Bella told him.

"None of the boys in town interest you?" Charlie asked her before looking at me. "Elena?"

I stared at him as an image of a certain bad boy friend of mine, I haven't talked to him in a while... I shook it off.

"Uncle Charlie, we're not really going to talk about boys are we?" I asked smirking playfully.

"I suppose not."

"Great because Mum and I talked about that when I was ten" I told him, smiling slightly at the mention my mother and remembering how gross I thought it was, I was only ten years old.

Charlie gave me a small, pained smile, thinking of his sister.

"I just feel like I leave you girls alone too much." Charlie told us letting out a sigh. "You should be around people."

"I've never minded being along." Bella said at the same time, smiling warmly. "Guess I'm a lot like my dad in that way."

I watched a small smile form on Charlie's face.

As we finished our food, Cora came over and sat two smaller plates in front of us.

"For Elena a piece of pumpkin with extra whip cream using Lacy's recipe." She told me in a whisper. "And berry cobbler with two forks."

Cora walked away, I glanced at her back side, hearing my mum's name and frowned in thought, my eyes glanced around the diner spotting all the kids with their parents...

"You okay honey?" Charlie asked drawing my attention. He had a knowing look on his face.

I stared at him for a few minutes before masking my emotions and nodded.

"I'm fine." I said faking a smile.

Smiling we ate our deserts, I found myself staring at Charlie and Bella a little in envy, it was times like this that I really missed my parents.

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Night came quickly I sat in my room, mediating.

Jazz and Quinn were at their own separate homes, doing the same thing I was.  Our minds were linked together, candles lit around us in a circle, legs were crisscrossed and my door was locked so no one would disturb me.

Magic was amazing.

Bella was in her room talking on the phone with Renee. It was a little hard for me to focus but I held on.

The girls and I were doing a very important witch task, using our combined powers to see who was in town.

I had my eyes closed, feeling peaceful when something hit the side of the house. My eyes snapped open, hearing the noise coming from Bella's room. I had an idea of what or who it was.

'Edward?'

'Yeah?'

'Just making sure, the girls and I are working don't be so loud please' I told him sighing in relief and closed my eyes again, taking in a deep breath inhaling the smoke and went back to the girls.

'Sorry Edward's here'

'Oh that's okay' Quinn thought

'So what else have you found?' Jazz asked.

'Just the same dream as before' Quinn said.

'There has to be something we're missing, Sam shifted because of Edward, I didn't tell the Elders that... But there was no reason for Jared... unless one of those passing through crossed the line they weren't supposed too.... if something goes wrong both the Cullens and the Rez are in trouble... We'll be in danger too.'

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4/15/2024