what a woman! i.

seize

●○●

Tatum was exhausted by lunchtime. She let Jasper keep her scrunchie and she noticed that he would always play with it when he was bored. It warmed her up inside. But it also made some people give the two cold, stone glares. 

During lunch, she sat down with her sister and Keith, who had gotten acquainted with each other. They talked as they normally would, but today was a different day. Jasper had walked passed their table with Rosalie and sat down next to Tatum.

"Do you want to come over tonight? I need help with my history project and Jasper's already helping Emmett and Alice," Rosalie asks emotionless. Bailey and Keith look towards each other uneasily before looking at Jasper who had his eyes fixated on something on his wrist. 

"Bailey, do you have work tonight?" Tatum turns to her sister and asks. Bailey hesitantly nods and looks between Keith and her sister. "And dad has tonight off, so I don't have to babysit."

"Can she bring him along anyway?" Rosalie asks, forgetting that they weren't supposed to know about Avery. Bailey gives her sister the most furious glare ever. The older grabs her sister by the bicep and drags her to the empty hallway. Tatum pries her sister's painful grip off her and looks at her sister guiltily.

"You told them! Tatum, no one  is supposed to know!" Bailey quietly shouts angrily at her little sister. Tatum intertwines her hands together in front of her and looks at her shoes. She knew she shouldn't have told them. She knew it would get her in trouble. She always said something that made her sister mad. 

"I trust these people, Bail-"

"No. Tatum, I thought you were smarter than that. You can't trust anyone here. I want my senior year to go by without people knowing I- the secret," Bailey whispers, even angrier. "Maybe you should've listened to Aunt Mary and gotten homeschooled! You can't hang out with those people anymore, understand?" 

Tatum doesn't respond; she stays looking down at her shoes. Tatum didn't want to look her sister in the eyes, she was too scared of the disappointment. It was normal for her sister to get really angry. It was normal ever since she had had Avery. 

"Go and tell those pale assholes that you can't," Bailey scoffs. She shoves passed her little sister and goes off to her next class early. Tatum waits until she knows Bailey was in a different hallway before taking a deep breath and leaning against the wall. Tatum hangs her head in shame before shaking her hair and looking at the ceiling light. 

She stands back up and starts walking into the lunchroom to where Jasper and Rosalie had rejoined their siblings. Tatum got quite a few stares as she walked nervously towards the designated Cullen/Hale table. She noticed an extra chair and Alice's happy expression, which went from her to the chair before the pixie vampire nodded. Tatum slides into the seat and gets the attention of every single vampire.

"My dad got called to take an extra shift so I have to babysit Avery. He has the stomach flu so I have to watch him tonight," Tatum lies perfectly. Edward knows the real reason because Tatum was replaying the conversation between her and her older sister in her head the whole way to their table. 

"We know the real reason, Fern Tree," Emmett speaks up, flashing a look of pity at her. Tatum sighs and shakes her head, she obviously didn't want to talk about it. The Cullen's had heard the conversation of the Fernsby sisters and they were upset for obvious reasons.

"You can still come over, I'll pick you up after school," Jasper says, placing his hand on her forearm. The two look each other in the eyes before a fake cough interrupts them, making Jasper pull his hand away from her.

"Tate, come with me to class quick," Keith asks, anxiously looking from her to the rest of the family. Tatum looks back at her friends for verification before getting up from her seat. She walks passed Keith before turning back to face him.

"Don't call me Tate."

●○●

Tatum had absolutely nothing to do at home. Her dad wanted some alone time with Avery so she was kicked out of the living room, she had finished her homework, she didn't have an actual job, and she wasn't allowed to go to Jasper's house.

So she took a trip into the woods.

"Oh, my fricking- am I lost?" Tatum asks out loud, mainly to herself. She hears a rustle in some trees on her left. She snaps her head in that direction to see a pair of eyes and a growling sound. Her breathing stops when she realizes it could be a bear or a wolf. The bear/wolf back away and almost a second later, a male voice comes from the trees.

"Are you lost?"

"Depends on who you are," Tatum says, still very scared. Tacoma didn't have much free-roaming wildlife around. A tall, native man with short black hair and an upper bicep tattoo comes from the trees...shirtless.

"I am Sam Uley of the Quileute tribe. Now, let me ask you again. Are you lost?"