The Unwanted Imprint

Chapter 5

Six Months Later

Nichole and the Cullens were comfortably settled in Forks by this point. Nichole and her siblings had been enrolled in school, and Nichole's fifteenth birthday was quickly approaching.

"What do you want for your birthday?" Esme was sitting with Nichole at the kitchen table. It was a sunny Thursday morning....which meant that none of them would be going to school that day. Nichole still found it slightly humorous that vampires sparkled in the sunlight.

Nichole shrugged her shoulders as she jotted down some answers in her workbook. On the days that she didn't go to school, she had workbooks that she would do so that she didn't fall behind in her schooling. "We don't really have to do anything, it's just a birthday."

"You don't turn fifteen every day, you know. It doesn't have to be anything big, we can invite some of your friends from school-"

"You mean my non-existent friends?" Nichole was kind of a loner at school when she wasn't with her siblings.

"Oh, Nichole..." Esme sighed softly, and Nichole looked down at the table. "I'm trying Esme, I really am. But every time that an opportunity to make a new friend comes up, I just...I freeze."

"Maybe it would be easier to make friends of you joined a sport or a club or something."

Nichole could see that Esme wasn't going to be letting this go. Esme wanted her to hang out with people outside of her siblings, but Nichole just didn't see the point in it. They would be moving again in a few years anyway, so did it even matter? But this clearly meant a lot to Esme, so the least that Nichole could do was try. "Alright, fine. Emmett has been trying to get me to try out for the track team anyway."

Esme grinned brightly. "Perfect, Rosalie will bring you to your first practice."

Rosalie had chosen to enter the kitchen at that moment, and she stopped in her tracks, staring at Esme. "I'm going to what?" Rosalie had never liked Nichole, and Nichole could never figure out why. The others had all told her not to worry about it too much, but Nichole wanted to at least know why Rosalie hated her so much.

"It could give you two some bonding time." Esme said, causing Rosalie to scoff. "I don't want to bond with her. I've been against her being here from the very start, you know that."

"Rosalie-"

"No, I'm not being her chauffeur. Get Alice to do it, she adores the human, right? I'm sure that she wouldn't mind carting her back and forth." Rosalie stalked out of the kitchen, and Esme looked at Nichole, who was staring down at her hands. "Nichole, don't-"

"Don't worry about it?" Nichole shook her head as she stood up. "It's kind of hard to not worry about it when Rosalie clearly hates me." Nichole started to gather up her books. "I'm going to go and finish my work in my room."

Esme sighed as Nichole walked away. If Nichole knew Rosalie's reasoning behind things, then she would understand. But it wasn't Esme's place to tell her, the only one that could tell her was Rosalie.

Nichole's mind was too jumbled for her to focus on her schoolwork. She groaned in frustration, slamming her book shut. "Stupid algebra." She muttered, staring at the textbook spitefully.

There was a knock on the door before Edward entered the room. "Maybe you should take a break before you throw that out the window." He remarked, and Nichole rolled her eyes. "If that happened, then I would just steal yours to use."

"So that's where my biology textbook went." Edward said with a small chuckle.

"I'm guessing that you're here because of what happened in the kitchen." Nichole commented, and Edward nodded his head. "Don't take what Rosalie said to heart, it's nothing that you've done, she just isn't a big fan of humans in general."

"I've gathered that." Nichole replied dryly. "But that doesn't mean that she has to look at me like she wished that I was dead."

"She doesn't wish that you were dead." Edward let out a long sigh. "Look, I can't tell you everything about her, because a lot of it isn't mine to tell. But what I can tell you is that you have something that Rosalie wants, something that she wants but will never be able to have."

"And what might that be?"

"You're human. Normal. Rosalie would give anything to have that."

Nichole blinked in surprise. The thought that any of them wouldn't want the gifts that had been given to them had never occurred to Nichole.

"It's true that great abilities come with being a vampire." Edward continued. "But there are also great drawbacks as well. You have a lust for human blood that never really goes away, one that can take you years to learn how to control. We're still trying to get Jasper to learn how to control his blood lust. He's gotten better, but he still has his moments, as do we all."

Nichole was ashamed to admit that she hadn't really thought of that. What must it be like to not be able to control your lust for human blood? Nichole couldn't even begin to imagine what it must be like, to have a hunger for human blood that she couldn't control. She understood now why some of them were concerned about her being there, and if it really became a problem, then Nichole wouldn't hesitate to leave, she didn't want to be the reason why there was strife in the Cullen family.

"Carlisle and Esme aren't going to let you run off." Edward said. Him and his mind-reading was going to take a little while for Nichole to get used to. "Esme loves you like you were her own flesh, she isn't going to be letting you go all that easily."

"I just...I don't want to be the reason why you guys argue with each other."

"We're family." Edward said with a laugh. "We're going to argue with each other no matter what. Now, let me ask you something, Nichole. Are you happy here?"

Nichole didn't even have to pause and think about what her answer would be, the answer was immediate. "Yes, I'm happy here. I honestly haven't been this happy ever since my mother died." Nichole wondered why Edward had asked her that when he could have just read her mind to find out the answer.

Nichole glanced out the window, and her eyes widened at what she was seeing. There was a huge wolf there, pitch-black in color. It was larger than any wolf could or should be. "Edward, do you see that, or am I just imagining things?"

Edward glanced at the wolf, frowning. "That's Sam Uley, a..." He wrinkled his nose. "Werewolf."

"Werewolf?" Nichole gasped. Honestly, it shouldn't have surprised Nichole that werewolves were real. If vampires were real, then that would mean that other supernatural creatures were real too.

"Carlisle made a pact a long time ago with a werewolf named Ephraim Black." Edward explained. "We don't cross into their territory, and they don't cross into ours. We leave the residents of Forks alone, and they don't try to mingle in our affairs. We already have enough to deal with, and we don't need a bunch of dogs added into the mix as well. Stay away from them, Nichole." Edward left the room, and Nichole looked out the window again, but the wolf was gone.