My Life as Renesmee Carlie Cullen

Future Plans

I spun the globe around that sat in Carlisle's study. Where should I travel to? I looked down and my finger landed on China. I smiled, imaging my mot

her and father's reaction when I gave them THAT news. Where in North America? I amended. I had decided to go to college. I wanted to be an English major. I wanted to be an author one day. If only everyone knew that so much of the fantasy genre is actually reality. I thought of all of the novels about vampires and shapeshifters with a smirk.

College. I had been interested in going for a while. While I had no formal education- when you grew as quickly as I did, you could never attend high school - my extended family had been a source of great knowledge. Carlisle taught me of the sciences, with a focus on medicine, and Dad taught me music history and how to play the piano. I'd taught myself how to play the guitar. Jasper and Emmett taught me history. I'd learned much about the American Civil War from Jasper's time in the war itself. Mom instilled in me a love of language and literature. Alice and Rose taught me to enjoy visual arts- they often took me to museums (capped off by a trip or two shopping, of course). Esme's love for interior design was infectious. I may have to consider that as a program of study, as well.

What I hoped to get from college even more than a degree was life experience. Again, my rapid growth had limited me there. Sometimes Mom and Dad would take me on trips to Seattle or Portland, but I didn't really have any friends outside of my family or Jake's pack. I knew from Carlisle's studies that I should quit growing and aging soon, which afforded me much more opportunities.

After much careful consideration and a lot of online research, I decided that I wanted to attend Reed College in Portland. Reed was a private liberal arts college with a reputation of great literature and language departments. It also had a beautiful wooded canyon as part of its campus, in addition to being in Portland, which had a thriving urban environment and night life, which was just what I wanted after living in a small town my entire life.

Don't be a coward, I told myself. It wasn't like I was confessing to a murder to my parents - I was confessing that I wanted to go to college. Why should they have any objections?

I heard a soft knock on the door of Carlisle's study, and my father poked his head in the cracked door. "Ness? May we come in?"

"Sure, Dad." He walked into the room, and my mom trailed behind him.

"Is there anything you wanted to talk to us about?" Mom asked. She and Dad sat down in a pair of leather chairs across from me.

I swallowed. "Actually, yes. I've been giving it a lot of thought. I am almost grown, and well... I think I'd like to consider going to college for a while. You know, spending some time on my own."

Dad nodded. "That's a reasonable request, and Portland is not very far away. Reed is a great institution. Perhaps a tour of the campus would be a nice idea first."

I nodded, realizing my concern over how to tell my parents was unnecessary. I didn't realized Dad had been listening to my thoughts. It was annoying at times, and I definitely had to guard my thoughts around him some of the time, but it also came in handy on occasion. "That would be great. I'm really looking forward to experiencing life in a bigger city."

"Let's not get ahead of ourselves, Ness," my mom said gently. "We'll consider it. If we do decide that Reed is the school for you, there are still a lot of arrangements to be made. We'll have to get your documentation together, for example."

I nodded. I knew that I would need a high school diploma, a driver's license and birth certificate that proved that I was over 18, and some other documents. Luckily, our family had an attorney that took care of such needs for us. I couldn't believe how well this was going. I had expected to have to plea my case a little more.

"There's also the matter of your diet," Dad said. "Living in the city, your options will be.... limited. Do you think you'll be able to stick to a more traditional human diet?"

I sighed. It was a small price to pay. "Yes." I thought for a moment. "Do you think Grandpa Carlisle would be able to get me just a little human blood from the hospital, so that I could have it occasionally?"

My mom and dad traded glances. "Don't you think keeping units of blood in the fridge may raise the eyebrows of your roommates?" Dad asked, stifling a grin. Truthfully, I wasn't sure about having a roommate. I was afraid it would be too difficult to keep my nature a secret, living in such close proximity to a human.

"You need to try to assimilate, Nessie," my dad said, obviously reading my thoughts again. "We'll eventually have to move from Forks, and blending in will become more of a part of your life once you're grown." Moving away from Forks permanently made me a little sad, but I knew it was just part of the life that we had to live.

"The new semester doesn't start for several months," Mom reminded me. "We'll have plenty of time to make these decisions." She walked over to me and embraced me. "It's hard to see you growing up so fast."

"It is hard, Mom, but we'll always be together. I can come home on weekends..."

"I'm fairly certain that Jacob will lose his mind if you don't," Dad stated with a laugh. "He's not going to let you go off that easily." This was something I knew. Regardless of where I went, I was bound to my family, Jacob included. Neither time nor distance would ever change that.