𝘾𝙃𝘼𝙋𝙏𝙀𝙍 𝙏𝙒𝙊
ミ★ ( obsidian, act one ) ★彡

     It had been weeks since Amias Blackwood arrived in Forks. He had mainly stayed in the Cullen home; helping Esme with various projects she had been working on while Carlisle was at work in the hospital, and the Cullen children were at school. Word had apparently gotten out that Carlisle had adopted another child, and soon was under scrutiny that the child was not attending the local high school—Amias should've realised that such a small town would find out eventually, but he didn't care. He wasn't there for them and their gossip, he came to heal.

     During this time, his red eyes were slowly turning to the golden colour that matched the eyes of the Cullens. Since word had gotten out, he didn't want to risk anyone stopping by the house to question them, only to come across Amias with blood red irises. It would also raise suspicion if the townspeople started to go missing from being fed on. He didn't want to direct any of that onto the Cullens after they had graciously let him into their home.

     Esme was a lovely woman, so warm and calming. She always hung around and made sure that Amias was content and it was nice having her around for the meantime. He knew he stated he wanted to be alone, but with the help of Esme, he was starting to feel a twinge better.

     Carlisle had met her towards the beginning of the 20th century. She had fallen out of a tree and Carlisle had treated her since the local doctor was out of town. Soon enough, she was married to an abusive man and fell pregnant after the first world war. Esme had run away several times to escape her ex-husband, and eventually gave birth to her child in 1921.

     Her child has unfortunately died two days later due to lung fever, and Esme had grown so devastated; feeling as if she no longer had any further reason to live that she jumped off of a cliff in an attempt to commit suicide. When she was found, her condition was so bad that no one even bothered to try and revive her, and brought her immediately to the morgue—even though her heartbeat was still beating faintly—where Carlisle was working at the time. Carlisle had recognised her as the young girl that he has treated a decade prior and changed her into a vampire to save her life. Once Esme awoke and Carlisle explained what had happened, she was surprisingly not upset and easily accepted her new life. They shortly fell in love and became a married a few years later.

     Since then, Esme has been the warmth that filled Carlisle's letters to Amias over the decades despite the tragic past that she had gone through. Carlisle always depicted her in a beautiful light, and Amias was glad that his old acquaintance had met a companion to share his life with even though he didn't see the appeal himself.

     He had learnt a lot about the Cullen family in those days he spent with Esme. She had told him all about her adoptive children and everything that they had gone through in their lives before they joined the family—and even the trails and tribulations afterwards.

     Edward was the first person Carlisle had turned. They had met sometime after he had left Volterra and the boy's parents had already died from the Spanish flu, and he was going to be next. Carlisle agonised over it for days before he eventually turned him just in time before the last minute was up—Edward's own mother having previously begged him to do everything in his power to save him.

     Rosalie was next. She was a socialite during the 1930's, born to a wealthy family who surprisingly wasn't affected during the great depression period as much as the rest of the town. Her story was as equally as painful as Esme's, and Amias could tell it pained her to talk about it. The look in her eyes was clear when she spoke about Rosalie's assault by her would-be-fiancé and his friends as if it had happened to her. Carlisle had found her on the street after her attack from all the blood and turned her on the spot to save her.

     Even though Amias was not close with any of them, he did wish he could've gone and handled the men himself, feeling a sense of relief when Esme told them how Rosalie had gotten revenge on all of them once she had turned, all without drinking a drop of their blood. Apparently she was quite proud of her clean record, so much so that Amias commended her for it.

     Carlisle had apparently also turned Rosalie in hopes that she would be a good companion for Edward, but was only left disappointed when he realised that they disliked each other immensely and they were better off as siblings.

     However, a few years later, Rosalie had come across Emmett after he had been mauled by a bear. Upon inspection, she noticed the uncanny resemblance to her friend, Vera's, son and she knew she had to save him. Believing she wouldn't have the strength to turn him herself; she brought Emmett from deep within the woods all the way to Carlisle and begged him to change him. Since then, Emmett had been apart of the family, too.

     Alice and Jasper were a completely different story, however. Jasper was a soldier during the civil war, and was turned by a vampire who was creating armies with newborns in the South to create power via territory. Once his ability showed to be useful to her in a way to manage her army, he climbed the ranks and was put in charge of managing the newborns; killing them after they got too old and weaker than what she needed.

     Alice hadn't remembered her life. The first thing she remembered was her first vision about Jasper and their life with the Cullens. She had waited nearly thirty years to meet Jasper in a diner in Philadelphia, adapting to the animal diet quickly before she met Jasper. By 1950, Alice and Jasper became a part of the Cullen family and they had been together ever since until the arrival of Amias.

     "Amias, can we talk?" He heard Carlisle ask him from the entrance into the attic. Like the rest of the house, Esme had designed it to be as open and light as possible and Amias would spend quite a lot of time up there just admiring the view and how different it was from his usual view in the castle.

     "Of course." He nodded and motioned for Carlisle to enter and sit down.

     Carlisle almost looked nervous as he sat in front of Amias and interlocked his hands together, "There has been some rumours going around at my workplace. They know that there is someone else living under my roof, and unfortunately, you're too young looking to pass off as an adult. They're going to ask questions, and we can't bring too much attention to us."

     Amias looked down at his feet. He knew that the town had rumours about his stay with the Cullens, but he didn't care about that before, but now, he just felt guilty because it was causing Carlisle scrutiny at his work place, "Do you want me to leave?" He asked him quietly.

     The blonde haired man let out a look of offence, "No, of course not. I was asking if you were willing to attend school with the rest of the children." He suggested and Amias looked intrigued by his offer. Settled covens often created backstories and gave themselves jobs and tasks to do in order to stay in towns longer until people started to notice the lack of ageing. The younger people start out, the longer they get to stay.

     "I think I'm a little too refined to pass as a teenager in school as well." Amias pointed out to Carlisle, pointing towards himself. The rigid way he stood seemed to be like as if he was security guard in a boy's body. He talked too stiffly and elegantly, he moved too strangely, he didn't slouch or do anything like most modern male teenagers. He would stick out like a sore thumb.

     Carlisle let out a small chuckle, knowing that he was right. He had seen the kids that his adoptive children go to school with and they were nothing like how the kids acted centuries before, and he knew that Amias was in for a shock if he agreed. "If you agree, I believe Emmett and Alice would be happy to help you blend. They can give you some pointers."

     Amias thought it over. Carlisle was helping him big time by letting him stay with him, it was only fair that he does something for him in return, and it would give him something to do throughout his day. He would just feel a little guilty leaving Esme by herself. He raised an eyebrow, "And this would... help you?"

     Carlisle nodded stiffly, "Immensely." He couldn't risk an unexpected visit from child protective services because there was rumours of a minor staying in his home that wasn't enrolled in school. An investigation would be created and they would have to make sure that they had all the subtle things in their home to pass as a regular human family. Things like going to school regularly and having food in the fridge to make it seem like they ate.

     While Alice would see them coming and they would have time to prepare to look the part, they didn't want everything they would need to go to waste since it wouldn't be used immediately.

     Amias sighed, he came for a distraction after all and attending school for a couple of years before he returned home looked to be like fate calling, "Okay." He agreed, "But only for a short while."

     "I will make the arrangements." Carlisle informed him, "We'll get you started next week to give you time to prepare."

     Carlisle left the attic and Amias let out one more sigh. What did he just get himself into?

     Next week came by quicker than expected and Amias was given the quick rundown by Alice and Emmett on how to act like a regular human teenager, with the added commentary from Rosalie as well. He could tell that she was a perfectionist and couldn't risk anything exposing their secret—so much so that she couldn't even leave it in the hands of a Volturi member.

     Carlisle had contacted Forks High School to enrol him into Edward, Alice and Jasper's grade, and had explained the story as to why it had taken them so long to get him there.

     Amias' fake story was that Carlisle was a very distant relative of Amias' family who died recently. He had no other family and was left in the hands of Carlisle while he mourned the death of his parents, and leaving his homeland of Italy to get settled in. Everyone ate it up easily and welcomed the new addition of the Cullen family, while it gave Carlisle extra points with the public eye for taking in yet another child.

     According to Edward, everyone was buzzing and couldn't wait to meet him and see what he was like. Amias was already beginning to regret his decision as he could tell that the humans looked at the Cullens like they were some sort of freak show, and Amias wasn't going to help them in anyway as he learnt how to get a handle on acting like a teenager.

     "I hate this already." Amias stated as he stood in front of the high school with his bag on his back that was filled with textbooks for his classes that he would have. Alice had already picked up his schedule and books and made sure that all of his classes he would have at least one of the Cullens in it with him for company and security.

     The school was ugly looking and the people that occupied it were even worse. There was truly nothing enticing that made him want to stay there, and he really wanted to know what made it so invigorating that the government is forcing children to get an education that half of them didn't even want. It almost makes him miss his home—his castle was beautiful; a sight to see.

     Amias was all for natural selection and the Darwin theory.

     Edward chuckled, "I know." He told him after having heard his inner complaints for days now, honestly wishing that he and Alice hadn't told him about the students' wish to see him, "You seem to already have a couple of admirers." Students already stared at the Cullens because of their beauty, and their collection of expensive cars probably didn't help in anyway, so, having another addition to the very closed off and secretive family was setting the school off with excitement.

     "Perfect." He grumbled before following after Edward to their first class, trying to ignore the students that stopped and stared at them; parting across the hallway like the red sea. Edward smirked, trying to hide his laugh at the girls that started to think intensely about Amias' looks.

     Their first class was history and they walked into the classroom where Edward sat immediately by his assigned seat—unfortunately, the seat beside him was already filled by someone else and Amias held back the urge to glare at the innocent person sat there. Thankfully, the seat behind him was free and the vampire didn't hesitate to sit there before someone else did; not missing the hidden laughter that Edward was making which made him confused.

     As the students filled the classroom, eventually one particular scent stood out to him; not because it was amazing, but because it was so disgustingly strong, and stunk of cheap perfume that Amias had to subtly cover his nose and pray that the person that the scent belonged to stayed far away from him. Soon enough it became so strong that Amias could spot who it was coming from, and he slightly glared at the blonde haired girl that was walking in the room and towards the free seat behind him.

      He could hear Edward not being able to contain his laughter and it made him glare at the back of his head. One thing that Amias was definitely not ready for when he decided to attend high school for the first time was the smell—he could smell cheap perfume and body spray on the females, and the horrible body odour that was horribly covered up by an even worse cologne on the men instead of a proper shower.

    The blonde girl next to him, however, was clean but clearly over-sprayed her perfume that she had picked up from the local shop. She batted her eyelashes at him, and Amias made a face before returning his gaze at the front.

    What the hell was she doing? Was she having a stroke? He thought to himself and he could hear Edward laughing to himself once again. At least someone was enjoying themselves.

     The teacher discussed what they were covering for the lesson, and how there was going to be a mini pop quiz beforehand to see where everyone was at, and Amias knew exactly the time period he was talking about, remembering what it was like vividly as if it were yesterday and began writing down the answers to the questions. The vampire glanced over to the girl next to him and she scowled, quickly covering her paper, "Hey! Don't read my notes."

     Amias blinked at her, "Don't flatter yourself; it's kind of hard—you write like a monkey. But even then, I can see that your notes are wrong." He blankly responded and her jaw went slack before it clenched and she looked back at her paper silently.

     So while the girl stunk extremely bad, she was also a bit conceited thinking that everything was about her. Noted.

     "Are you done?" The teacher questioned Amias and the vampire nodded and held his paper out for the teacher to take, the man taking a quick double take at the perfect handwriting and correct answers—mumbling quietly to himself about how Dr. Cullen seems to somehow always adopt the perfect children.

     Amias sat with boredom at his desk for the rest of the lesson as he waited for the rest of the class to finish, realising within the first five minutes that he should've taken his time to utilise the class time better like Edward had done with his own test.

     Thankfully, time went by and the bell rang, Amias flinching from the loud screeching sound that pierced his sensitive hearing before standing up and walking out of the classroom, almost gasping for fresh air.

     He waited until the girl was far away from him before he turned to Edward, "What the fuck was that?" Amias seethed at him with harsh eyes.

     "That was Lauren Mallory." He almost winced in response, "She's been eager to meet you all week and wanted to impress you. Clearly, that didn't work."

     "She's revolting. I wish to never sit next to her ever again." Amias grumbled as he walked to his next class with Edward making a face at him knowing he wasn't going to get his wish.

      And he didn't because as he walked into his next class, Lauren Mallory was sat again at the only desk that held the available seat left in the classroom with a grin on her face that tells him she coordinated this perfectly so her circumstances left her sitting next to him.

     Just fucking perfect.