Swan Goin' Wolf

Forward

 It was three more days before the doctors allowed me to go home. I was on strict orders to stay home and move as little as possible to allow the wounds to heal properly. The guys came over everyday and helped in every way they could. They seemed stress when they came over and I was starting to understand, the guys told me more and more everyday and I began thinking more and more about the legends. The more I heard and thought the more dots I started connecting. Edward and the Cullens were vampires and my sister had been putting my father and I at risk for the last two months.

My feeling about my sister were like a roller coaster. I was angry that she had brought this danger into our lives, I was mad that she didn't seem to care about the danger Edward and his family were presenting to not only us, but to the whole town. But she's my sister, half or whole, and I couldn't find it in me to hate my sister. I wanted to keep my promise, but to what end could I uphold it if it was only going to put dad and myself in my more danger. I thought about talking with Bella about it, but figured now wasn't the time, maybe when I could move around on my own and was allowed some real privacy again.

Sam had been great since I've come home. It had started off rough between Sam and my dad, but he came around when he saw how Sam was around me and got over the newness of Sam and I being in a relationship. He backed off from extremely over protective to only over protective within a week of me coming home. He had even started a search party for the bear that had attacked me. He had made it his mission to stop the bear from hurting anyone else.

Today was my 'birthday party'. Even though I had been in the hospital for my birthday, dad insisted that we still celebrate my twentieth birthday. We were having a small party at the house with only Paul, Sam, Natalie, Greg, Jared, Billy, Jacob, dad and Bella. The guys insisted that Edward not be invited much to Bella's disappointment, but dad had agreed that it was best not to invite Edward. He didn't really like the boy and took any chance to avoid him being around my sister even for a couple hours.

The guys and Natalie had the living room decorated in yellow and gold balloons and streamer. There was a pile of gifts on the coffee table and Natalie had talked everyone into wearing a bright yellow party hat. She even had a couple noise makers. My bandages made me a little self conscious, but I was working on controlling it. I would have to get used to people staring at them where ever I went. I hated the pain that flashed through Sam's eyes every time he looked at them.

I sat on the couch with dad on one side and Sam on the other. My gift from Natalie and Greg was a large photo album with pages big enough to hold pages from my sketch book. Billy and Jake gave me a necklace with a carved black wolf as the pendant with a matching bracelet. I marveled at the details that they had been able to capture in the tiny figurine before having Sam help me put them on. I knew that the wolf was supposed to be Sam and it made me love the gift even more. Jared got me canvas picture that Sam, Paul, Jared and I had taken at one of our movies nights. We were all smiling at the camera that Jared was holding up. Paul gave me a t-shirt that read 'It took 20 years to get this awesome' and a new pack of pastels. Bella got me an art book about different techniques. Dad got me a couple canvases and an easel. I had been wanting one for years, but never managed to save up enough money to get one for myself.

I thanked everyone for my gifts and hugged them the best I could with moving my arm as little as possible. It didn't hurt as bad as it used to, but it still flared with movement. Next was the cake. Natalie had decorated a large cake and frosted it white before piping 'Happy 20th Birthday Sunny' on it in bright yellow. I had a really great time celebrating my birthday with the people that were so close to me. I thought my face would be frozen in a smile for how much I smiled all day. Eventually everyone started to trickle out.

"Charlie, you won't mind too much if I kidnapped your girl to go down to the beach for a little while, would you?" Sam said as we were cleaning up the wrapping paper and dishes from the party. Dad seemed to think about it before nodding.