My Strength Chapter 22

School was only half over and Bella was sorely tempted to ditch it. Part way into her first period, she received a text saying Caius and the other guard members had arrived. She wanted to go and greet them, a part of her felt rude that she wasn’t there to at least welcome the others, especially Caius to Forks since she was that lived there. She wanted to know what they were planning, what Caius thought about everything. She just wanted to see him.

Since she received the text, she felt on edge waiting for school to end. Everything that happened in school seemed to only make the day drag on for far longer than what it should have. She found she didn’t have nearly as much patience as she normally did with her gossipy friends. She had practically ignored all of the questions Jessica asked her about her disappearance, not that the brunette realized she was being ignored. She only had to assure Angela that she was okay before her tall friend left her alone and tried to reign in Jessica. The boys didn’t really care one way or another.

She almost asked her dad if she could leave early with some lame excuse about being tired or something but she didn’t think her dad would let her since she technically was on thin ice from coming back from Italy. She had to be careful to make sure she didn’t get on his bad side so that she could finish her high school career in peace and then leave for Italy on good terms. She loved her dad dearly, he was so much better to live with than Renee, but after meeting Caius and Athenodora, Bella was starting to believe she would be okay saying goodbye to him. But she wanted to do that on good terms with him, regardless of how absentee he was with her living with her.

So she was stuck at school, putting up with Jessica’s gossiping away about anything and everything to get her caught up on all she missed out on over the weekend. Thankfully she already had lunch, so at least school was mostly done. Even better, after coming back, Edward was told in no uncertain terms that he was not be in any of Bella’s classes and per Bella’s request to Athenodora, the blonde made sure not even Alice was in any of her classes. Bella didn’t want either of them, especially Edward, in her classes. That was another topic Jessica couldn’t let go: why she wasn’t hanging out with the Cullen’s.

She couldn’t very well tell everyone she had a very stoic Amazon and fiery redhead that would likely kill Edward sooner than let Bella hang out with him when she didn’t want to, waiting for her at home. She briefly thought about asking if Jane and Alec, since they both looked young enough, could go to school and take her classes just to get Jessica off her back with her wild theories, but she couldn’t guarantee Jane would kill anyone who annoyed her.

Bella diligently wrote any and all notes all of her teachers demanded and even took extra notes in hopes of looking busy enough at all times to help persuade any of her friends in her classes to not talk to her because she was busy.

When the last bell finally rang, releasing all of the students from their classes, Bella couldn’t be more thankful. She had been given a ride to school from Charlie, she wasn’t allowed to use her truck as punishment and Bella was just thankful that was the only thing Charlie did for her impromptu trip to Italy. She took her time gathering her things and packing up. Charlie wasn’t able to pick her up because he was at work and none of the vampires had any vehicles; she didn’t want them to drive her truck in case word got back to Charlie that someone else was driving her truck and then Charlie ask questions she didn’t want him to. Thankfully she didn’t have any of her friends in her last class so she didn’t have to worry about making up excuses to not hang out or explain why she wasn’t with the Cullen’s.

After a minute or so of lazily putting her things to together, she was finally walking towards the exit. Not far from the exit, she saw there were a lot of kids surrounding something, making a big commotion over something. It reminded her of when she had gotten hit by Tyler’s van, how the kids were crowding over something and trying to see themselves. Out of pure curiosity, it didn’t hurt the crowd was long her path to get out of school to walk home, Bella made her way there to see what was going on.

She stopped dead in her tracks when she realized what everyone was staring at. A huge grin broke out over the face, she wasn’t even concerned that there was going to be more problems with Jessica and her gossip than there already was. But she didn’t care, her sour mood was immediately remedied when she saw who was creating all the commotion. Charlie would definitely be asking questions later.

She pushed forward through several students she didn’t know, so she didn’t feel bad about pushing them harsher than what was called for but she was too excited to care.

“I didn’t know you had a car here.” Bella said as she just barely managed to stop herself from hugging the man. She had to watch herself because everything they did and said would be reported to Charlie and there was already a lot of lies she was telling him.

“We rented one as soon as we landed, how else did you expect us to get here?” Caius said with a smile, only slightly put out that his daughter didn’t greet him with a hug like he had hoped. He supposed meeting her at her school with so many witnesses wasn’t the best option when he would have preferred a more emotional reunion.

“He was too impatient to see you again, I decided meeting you here would be alright.” Athenodora said from her spot next to Caius, their arms wrapped around each other to make it clear they were a couple and to help lessen assumptions made about their daughter.

Athenodora and Caius could already hear the rumors about not only them but their daughter being in a very unorthodox relationship with them. Caius couldn’t stop the sneer from briefly appearing on his face from everything he was hearing. Athenodora was more than happy to ignore them all, they weren’t important to her or her mate and daughter, instead she focused on their daughter.

“We should head back to the Cullen’s house, they invited you over to visit while we’re visiting them, we figured we could all… hang out together.” Athenodora said, struggling with using the right words for the lingo the kids were using in this century. She had to watch what she said as well to make sure nothing came from their very public appearance that they normally wouldn’t do. But her dear husband’s need to see his daughter again after being away was too strong for him to resist.

Bella grinned, knowing what the ancients were doing, “I would love to go over.” Bella said with a grin, not even worried about what Charlie would say. They had Heidi and as much as Bella didn’t want the guard member to use her gift on her biological father, but she wanted to be included in what she knew they would be talking about and knew Charlie wouldn’t let her go after her Italy stunt.

“Hey Bella!” Mike yelled over the crowd, hoping to be able to get closer since he actually knew Bella unlike all the others that were closer to the newcomers then he was, “Who are your friends?”

Everyone in the crowd started mimicking him, hoping if they joined in she would answer one of them. They all wanted to know who the hot couple was and how they knew Bella. They wanted to know how Bella got so lucky with being friends with all the models that happened upon their little town.

“There is a lot to catch up on.” Caius said, realizing his wife was smart in acting more human around the humans. He would have likely said something these children wouldn’t expect coming from someone that looked as young as he did. “We are excited to visit with you and learn all that you’ve been up to since we last saw you.” Heidi was already working on making sure the memories of Charlie was adequately for them to be relatives of the Swans that happened to also be friends with the Cullen’s. it also didn’t hurt that Heidi was going to make sure Charlie didn’t question anything or gossip, it was a lot for Heidi to make happen, but it was possible, if not a bit annoying for the guard member. But that wasn’t his problem. “Come Bella, let’s go.” Caius said as he gestured for Bella to get into the S.U.V. He spotted his daughter’s backpack as she got into the vehicle, both he and his mate already making their way into their own spots. Athenodora drove of course because his mate had control issues worse than he did, “We’ll have to make sure your homework is done before it gets too late.” Caius said with a grin, happy he remembered a basic parenting rule.

“There will be no short supply of assistance if you should need it.” Athenodora added.

“I don’t have any.” Bella said with a smirk, amused at how much the two ancient vampires were trying and failing to parent her, “But thanks for the thought.”

“Good, there is a lot for us to go over that we couldn’t do while we waited for you three to get out of school.” Caius grumbled, annoyed that he couldn’t just take her out until they fixed everything. It wouldn’t be a problem if wasn’t for the human his daughter was still attached to. Oh well, such was the life of a parent that received a child that was older instead of a newborn. It was all be fixed in the end anyways.

“You waited for me?” Bella asked, shocked that they hadn’t already come up with a plan while she, Edward and Alice were at school. The Cullen’s would have done so already.

“Of course we did.” Athenodora said with assertiveness. “There is much for you to learn about planning a war, how could we teach you the art of war if you’re not there?” She said with the most feral smirk she could muster.

“You will be amazing with us as your teachers.” Caius said, planning out future battles against newborns and wayward covens. He and his mate were already making plans for their daughter to be just as feared as they were and it would be a glorious journey.