Forever Dawn

1. Strange Encounters of the Nessie Kind (Ness's POV)

My name is Renesmee Cullen. I'm five years old, but I look seventeen. It's a little annoying, because until I have children, I'm the baby of the family. And I can't wait to marry Jake.

I admired my beutiful ring. It sparkled under my bedroom's light. It looked like it had grown on my finger. I felt stupid taking it off, but what seventeen year old walks around wearing a wedding ring? I'm already strange enough as it is, coming from a family who adopted eight kids, six of whom are impossibly beutiful.

I can't imagine myself as being Mom's sister. l don't look anything like my mom. She's so much prettier. Even with ugly brown contacts on her eyes. My hair is my only pretty feature. Rosalie and Jasper wear the contacts too. Theirs are a perfect coppery green. They do help us blend in at our new school, though. It's such a nice school.

It's large, sprawling, and has such a pretty veiw of the mountains. Mom says I shouldn't be spending so much time looking out windows, I've only gone to high school twice.

I disagree. It's the most boring thing I've ever attended in my whole life.

I twirled my hair around my finger. I remembered how alarmed my mom and Aunt Alice had been when they had to face working with it after I accidentally chopped it all off. Don't ask me how. My mom told me she hoped it grew back before I stopped aging. It was only half the length it used to be, and I didn't really mind. It ws just as pretty. But my mom kept whining about how perfect my hair used to be and how she wanted me to look just perfect for my first wedding.

I tried to just not worry about it.

I stared in the mirror in front of me as I fumbled to clasp my necklace. It was my favorite, a bright red ruby hanging on a silverywhite chain. It nestled right in the center of the hollow at the base of my neck. I liked how cool it felt on my skin, though I prefered Jake's warm hand clutching mine.

The thought of Jakob sent shuddders up my spine. He was so perfect. So, so, natural. Being with him was like breathing. Being away from him was holding my breath.

I thought ruefully that I was holding my breath right now.

Jake was in La Push this week. I missed him terribly. He's not perfect, that's for sure, but he completes me and he's the most human thing in my life. Even though we should be complete opposites.

I missed his musky smell. I told myself again that today was Friday and he would be home tomorrow. But tomorrow sounded too far away.

I couldn't wait till we were married. Then we could go back to La Push together. I loved that house because that was the only place I ever saw Grandpa Billy. Jake loved that place because it held all his memories. His mom, his dad, his sisters, every single minute of his life centered around that place till the day he met me.

I searched around my bag for my lipstick. Yeah, I'm allowed. Something about fitting in with girls my own age. I smeared some onto my lips. It was bright cherry, "The perfect shade!" as Alice put it. I knotted my hair back, and let it fall again. I'd look silly.

I grabbed my denim jacket off the back of my desk chair. I took one last look at my bedroom, rumply bed and lavender walls, before quietly shutting the door.