Three
Bellatrix released me, saying, "Bell, you shouldn't be so reckless! What if I hadn't been there to catch you?"
I giggled, "But you were, and I'm fine! So really, there's no problem here!"
She sighed, hugged me again, and turned to my dad. "Hello, Mr. Swan, I've heard so much about you from Bella!"
She turns to the Cullens, who, on silent feet, have approached our position, and said, "You kids must be the Cullens! Bella talks- well, really, she complains about you a lot. Edward is the one she complains about the most in her emails, though."
Dad interrupted her, looking confused, "Excuse me, but how do you know my daughter? And how did you catch her when she was falling off the rafter?"
He then turned to me, and said, "Don't think you're getting off easy for that, young lady! When we get home, we will be talking about this!"
I smirked, and turned to Trixie, "Go ahead, tell him how you know me. Oh, and I do want to know why you're here. Not that I don't want you here, it's just that if you're here, it's usually because you have news that cannot be shared over email." I quickly added the last part when her face showed hurt.
Then she laughed and looked at my father, "Bella and I met at... a convention, we became fast friends, and now we run a correspondence service for each other and our families. And Bell, I'll tell you in a bit, the information is... private." Dad looked at us for a moment, then seemed to accept our story.
Edward, who hadn't said one word the entire time, despite his family's chatter amongst themselves, suddenly spoke up, "Why do you two seem to gravitate towards each other?"
I blinked, shocked, and looked over at Trixie, who was much closer to me than I had realized, and said, "I didn't even realize we were doing that, though it is probably because we haven't seen each other in a while for one, and also, we see each other as siblings. She's my older, overprotective sister, and I'm her younger, reckless sister." I glanced around at the people around us, I had forgotten that we were in the school gym, as silent as it was.
"Hey, we should probably take this somewhere else, there are too many people here for my tastes."
Trixie nodded, "I second that opinion."
My dad and a couple of the Cullens agreed, and we left.
I called out to my dad, "I know of a great place to talk. Here, I'll give y'all the directions."
I handed the directions to the Cullens and my dad, then said, "Trixie and I are riding together, I know the route by heart."
Dad looks at me, and said, "Who is Trixie?"
I stifled a laugh, realizing Trix never introduced herself, and nodded to her, "My friend's name is Bellatrix. To prevent confusion, she calls me Bell or Bella, and I call her Trix or Trixie." I skipped off, grabbed her sleeve, and pulled her onto my motorbike. We raced off, feeling the wind in our hair. But all too soon, the ride ended, and we got off at the abandoned building. I pulled around back and parked my bike. I walked back to the front, where Bellatrix was waiting, as I had dropped her off first. I checked my phone 'cause it was beeping, and I realized my dad was calling.
I quickly answered with a, "Hey, where are you guys?"
"The directions you gave us go to an abandoned building slated for destruction. Are you sure that's right?"
"I'm sure as sure can surely be, Dad!" I left out the fact that, incidentally, I own the property.
"Right, well, we're on our way." Promptly after that, I hung up.
It took them a little while, but finally, they arrived. I smiled and waved them over to where Trixie and I were sitting.
"Hey, I thought y'all liked to drive fast. We've been waiting for half an hour." I smirked at the Cullens. Trixie patted my arm and told me to stop antagonizing them. Edward sputtered for a moment, before giving some excuse about backed-up traffic.
"Alright, so what do you want to know?" Trix turned to me with this look on her face, like 'what the hell? are you actually going to tell them everything?'. I put a finger to my lips and half reached for a cigarette, before remembering that a) Dad didn't know I smoked, and b) that would kinda blow my cover.
Dad started with, "How did you get up on the rafter earlier?"
"Ooh, good question," I grinned, "I jumped up there, Dad. But of course, you wouldn't know that. You weren't there when it happened!"
Edward jumped in with, "Where did you learn to judo flip people? And where did you learn to jump, what was that, eight feet in the air from the top of the bleachers?"
I gave a slightly startled laugh, and said, "One question at a time, please. But the answer to those questions would be at a special school, and the second one is that I, back in Phoenix, was on the high jump team. I think the highest I've ever jumped was twelve feet in the air." That was a lie. I've jumped approximately thirty-two feet in the air. Granted that then I had used my magic to augment my leg strength so I could jump a lot higher than most normal people.
"Speaking of the school," Trixie cut in, "they've reopened, and are looking for you. They want you to teach there because apparently, you're their greatest student or whatever." I raised my eyebrows. I'd decoded her words as she spoke, and she had said that the... institution I had learned at and graduated from at ten, was looking for me. That was... interesting, and not good. Really, really not good. Like, fuck-my-life levels of not good.
"Fuck. Fuckity fucking fuck," I muttered, shaking my head, "'Trix, you better not be messing with me or else." My voice carried a hidden warning towards any jokes that she might make.
Bellatrix rolled her eyes, seeing the look on my face and hearing the hidden threat in my tone, "Sheesh, Bells, would I joke about a thing like that?"
I shook my head and got up, "Yes, yes you would, don't deny it, I put my hand on my chin and paced a bit, then looked at Trixie, "do me a favor and tell them I'm not interested. Oh, try not to get killed in the process, please. I'd hate to have to find a replacement friend/correspondent. Know what? I'll just inform them myself. Don't worry about it."
"Oh, wow, nice to know how much you value me and our friendship."
My dad sputtered, "Wait, wait-"
Alice asked, "Why are you warning her not to get killed?"
Emmett snorted, "In fact, why are you even sending her if it's that dangerous?"
"Hell, why are you even going," Edward and my dad said at the same time.
Then, my dad said, his words all in a rush, like water from a newly collapsed dam, "When are you even going to have time? In fact, you cannot go. I forbid it."
I sighed, knowing that I had to tell at least this part of the story. I pinched my nose, and said, "The school... it's complicated. It's a school for... erm... troubled kids, sort of. Like a military school," that was only partly true, "I went for a while, two years, actually. I graduated at ten, one of a very competitive class, as they were pretty much school, martial arts, weapons tech, defense against weapons class, using weapons class, blah blah blah weapons, and a bunch of others, all wrapped up together. I am, in fact, one of the youngest alumni in centuries."
Dad stared at me, spluttering once more, "Why the hell did I not know about this? Why didn't-wait, what do you mean, ten? Two years? You went missing when you were seven and a half, we only found you six weeks after your tenth birthday, when you said you'd run away because your mom and her then-boyfriend were arguing, and- actually, I never got the full story out of your mom. What happened?" I winced. The original Bella had told me about that. She'd run because her mom's boyfriend had abused her.
"I..." I paused, swallowed, and cast my gaze around at the others standing around me, finally landing on Trix. She gave me a look. I hugged her because I had to act like this was traumatic or something.
I took a deep breath, and said, "You guys might want to sit down for this, well, everyone except for Emmett, Edward, and Alice. You three should go home. I don't feel comfortable talking about this to a large group of people, sorry. Also, you should go and let your 'rents know where your siblings are, they're probably worried about all of you."
The aforementioned three glanced at each other, then Alice asked, "Wait, why is Rose staying? I get why you want Jasper to stay, but why do you want me to leave?"
"Rose has a better grip on her temperament, Alice. Edward is leaving because he is someone I really hate. You guys should go. I, unfortunately, do not have all day." They climbed into their car and sped off, leaving skid marks in their wake. I sighed and rolled my eyes. Vampires or not, they never change.
I waited until I could no longer hear the car engine, before beginning the fabricated-for-this-purpose story. "Well, you see, it really began two weeks before my seventh birthday."