✓ | 𝐒𝐔𝐏𝐄𝐑𝐍𝐎𝐕𝐀, j. hale [2]

I. Eighteen

Evelyn hated feeling rushed in the morning almost as much as she hated waking up early.

Unfortunately, she had been forced to endure both because she had slept through her alarm again, and now she was not going to be ready by the time her best friend, Bella Swan, arrived to pick her up for school. She was especially angry at herself for sleeping in because today was also Bella's birthday, and unsurprisingly she had procrastinated wrapping her present until the last minute.

The girl rushed around the kitchen in an attempt to grab all of the items she needed while her aunt Marie sat at the dining table, grinning at her niece's antics while she sipped her first cup of coffee.

"Marie, have you seen my knee pads? I can't find them anywhere," Evelyn said, breathless and half dressed in her sweater and pajama bottoms with a bundle of notebooks, snacks, and her volleyball uniform in her arms.

Her aunt raised an eyebrow. "I told you last night that they were in the laundry room. I keep telling you that you need to start packing up your things the night before..."

Evelyn rolled her eyes and hurried to the laundry room, and she couldn't help but feel a little annoyed that her aunt had been correct at the location of her kneepads. "I know," she sighed, grabbing them and moving back into the kitchen. "I can't help it, though! Maybe it's my alarm clock."

"You and I both know that you sleeping like a log has nothing to do with your alarm clock," Marie said, giving Evelyn a knowing look. She smiled softly, as if recalling a fond memory. "You get that from your dad, you know. I remember always seeing him running around this kitchen in the mornings just like you do."

Evelyn smiled, too, remembering that he used to oversleep all the time when she was growing up. It was getting easier to think about them without being sad, and it felt nice to be able to talk about her parents without feeling like her heart was breaking all over again.

She shoved everything in her arms into either her school bag or her volleyball bag, then looked at the time. Shit. Bella was going to be here in under ten minutes, and she wasn't even dressed; she hadn't even brushed her teeth yet this morning. Evelyn grabbed Bella's presents and placed them on the table in front of her aunt.

"Can you pretty please wrap these for me while I go get ready?" At the cock of her aunt's eyebrow, she started began to feel desperate. Her aunt had this frustrating habit of not helping her when she was late to "teach her responsibility." She knew it was well meaning, but on days like today, it was very inconvenient. "Please, Marie? I'll work a whole extra shift this week!"

Marie Masen stared at her niece for a moment before letting out a long, exasperated sigh, and Evelyn grinned knowing that she had caved. "Fine, but only because your wrapping skills are worse than a five year old's. Go brush your hair, for God's sake, you have a rat's nest on your head."

Evelyn laughed, pressing a quick kiss to her aunt's cheek as she got up to get the tape and scissors. "I love you!"

Marie scoffed, but she was smiling. "Yeah, yeah, sure you do."

Evelyn flew up the steps and into her bedroom, which was currently in a state of disaster with clothes and papers strewn everywhere. It had been six months since she had moved to Forks, and her once plain room now was a reflection of her and the life she had built. She had drawings all over each wall, mostly of nature scenes and a certain blond vampire that had become her favorite subject. She had pictures of both her human and vampire friends hanging from clips on her string lights, but her favorites sat in frames on her desk. One was of her and Jasper on prom night, both of them grinning and staring into each other's eyes. They had both been truly happy, and she always smiled when she remembered that night. She knew Jasper liked it, too, since he always seemed to pick it up to look at it every time he came over. The other was of her and Bella eating pancakes at Marie's diner, courtesy of their photographer friend Angela.