A second chance

Chapter 11

Bella spent the next 2 weeks getting to know everyone. She was often asked to recount Volturi stories which the others seemed to find fascinating. She did not agree. She , however, was intrigued by all of their backstories.

Everyone liked her at once. Some of them were seriously concerned for Esme's welfare, they had never seen her so happy. Emmett commented one day that he was scared she was about to explode.

Usually she would go hunting alone with Edward, but occasionally Jasper tagged along.

It was starting to get really uncomfortable, not having human blood. Like, the animal blood was just.. there.. It didn't mean anything. It started to mean something, though, when she kept counting down the time every three days til she could hunt again.

It was into the last week of the summer holidays now. Jasper wanted to move forward with the training somehow. But he didn't think it was time to go longer without blood, yet.

Bella was sitting incredibly still on the couch.

"Are you okay, love?" Edward asked.

She nodded, then sat still again.

"Throat?" He suggested.

She nodded and turned to Jasper. "Can we please go hunting?"

"Sorry, Bella," he said. "It's only been 2 days. I promise it will get easier, though."

She nodded, and sat still again.

"If it helps," he laughed. "I'm a little jealous how well you're doing."

She smiled.

"I was thinking we could try something with your strength,"

"My strength?" She asked, puzzled.

"So you can join us at school at some point, or go out in public."

"Uhm.. okay? How do we do that?"

"Basically like façade tricks. Blinking, breathing regularly, fidgeting, walking at human pace, and so on."

"Façade tricks are the easiest," Emmett told her. "It's the strength you want to mind."

"I don't quite follow."

"But it's easier, because you can control yourself." Jasper said. "We may not like the Volturi but they're as civilized as human blood drinking vampires can get. For instance, you can hold a pen and paper. Anyway we shouldn't be getting close enough to humans to shake hands or something anyway, so actually we should work on your speed.

She nodded.

"Okay, walk around the room."

She stood up and walked around the various sofas and armchairs, then sat back down on a different chair.

"See, that, Bella, would look like teleporting to a human," Jasper chuckled.

"Oh."

"Try walking as slowly as you can, love," Edward advised.

She stood up again and raised her legs one by one slowly. It looked like one of those videos you took where you accidentally slowed it down to the max.

They all laughed. "Now a human would just think you were insane," Alice commented.

"They would think something was insanely wrong, too, if I teleported," She grumbled. "And that's more practical."

"Well," Carlisle said. "It's always better that they think you're insane. So, when in doubt, go slower."

She huffed.