perennial - rosalie hale of twilight

Chapter 1

Rosalie Hale's POV

[SEPTEMBER 2004]

It's the first day of school today. I woke up an hour before it started.

Well, I didn't actually "wake up," as I did not even sleep-I can't. Sleep, I mean.

Sometimes I like pretending, though. It's one of the (many) things I miss about being human. You run out of things to do as an immortal. If you spend seventy plus years as a non-sleeping, non-aging, yet fast-moving vampire, I bet you'd get bored too.

Being frozen and having all the time in the world wasn't exactly my dream life. To me, my life ended in 1933-when I was 18; before immortality stole my once perfect life.

I tried to shake the thoughts out of my head. I don't really like thinking nor talking about what happened on the night that changed my existence-not just because my adopted brother, Edward, can read every thought that goes in my head and I don't want him feeling sorry for me-but also because everything in my life before that night happened was perfect.

I was young; I was beautiful and adored by humans. My parents were wealthy, and I had two younger brothers, William, who was four years younger than I was, and Arthur, three years younger than William.

Life was simple and things weren't complicated. A beautiful life was ahead of me and I had hundreds of possibilities. Thinking about it makes me sad . . . and furious.

I don't resent Carlisle for saving me. I know he meant well, and I do respect him and Esme-his mate and my adoptive mother by all means. They are my parents now. I'm thankful for them and my adopted siblings, Jasper, Alice, and yes, even Edward. Even though they get under my skin every single day. And that's a lot when you've spent almost eighty years with them. But I've got to say, they help ease the boredom.

Of course, there's Emmett. He's adopted by Esme and Carlisle too but he's more my mate-my soulmate. We all treat each other as real siblings, but Emmett and I are together and Jasper and Alice are, too. That's why I've decided to keep my last name: Hale. To avoid confusion from the humans. Carlisle, Esme, Edward, Alice, and Emmett all carry the last name Cullen.

Carlisle thought it best if Jasper and Alice took different last names as well, as they are together like me and Emmett. Our cover story would be more believable, he'd said, as most of us are physically in our teen years.

I will forever be eighteen. Emmett is twenty. Edward is seventeen. Alice and Jasper are nineteen. Carlisle is twenty-three and Esme is twenty-six.

We could learn all the knowledge in the world, but we would all be in our unchanging bodies, our brains frozen at the age we were turned.

Jasper and I have similarities in physical appearance-blonde hair, pale complexion, golden brown eyes. We looked similar enough to pose as twins. He carried my surname. He wasn't exactly happy about the idea, according to Edward, but he never said anything about it. I didn't want to take his last name, though. Rosalie Whitlock doesn't have the same ring to it.

I try to put my deep thoughts away as I brushed my long, blonde hair because Edward might be back soon with Emmett and Jasper. Carlisle had them run an errand. I hate it when I get too deep in my thoughts and someone knows exactly what I'm thinking. Thus, when Edward is around, I try my best to think about just the shallowest things and pretend that these are the only things I cared about-like my physical appearance, fashion, things that he doesn't bother with.

I like thinking about Emmett a lot too, which makes Edward cringe. I know that's when he stops paying attention to my thoughts.

Edward claims he tries not to listen to our thoughts to give us some privacy, but he still heard most of them.