I have a problem. Well, actually, I have four problems. The first problem is probably the easiest to explain, but the hardest to believe. So maybe I would start with my second or third, slightly more believeable problems, if it wasn't for the fact that in order for it to make since, you need to understand my first problem. And therein lies my fourth problem. We'll start with that

one, since I'm already on the subject.

You see, my life is just a little too complicated for my liking. I always end up in bad situations. I never find the easy way out, and more often than not I manage to make a fool of myself while getting out of these less than appeasing incidences. I guess it probably has something to do with my first problem, which I will explain now because it only makes since.

I was raised by vampires. There it is. The easiest to say but the hardest to convince you of. Already you have judged me, probably placed me in the catagory of people who need to see a shrink, or maybe visit a nice padded room, but I can assure you that (most of the time anyways) I'm not insane.

When I was younger, I had an extreme fascination with all things supernatural. My fascination was so eccentric, that I managed to figure out that there was a band of not so friendly vampires living in my town. And there I went, galloping off to meet them. Of course, if I had known they didn't exactly like people knowing about them, I never would have gone. Except I didn't know that, and I did go. And I told them I knew exactly what they were. They weren't happy, to say the least. I think it's safe to assume they would have killed me, if a certain shape-shifter hadn't been out and about, visiting his imprint and having a fun time racing her through the trees. They got there in time to save my life, but the damage had already been done. I knew. I had seen. There was no going back.

Eventually, after they had managed to stop my tears, I learned that the man that could be a wolf was Jacob. To my little six year old brain, this was all very exciting. And Renessme, who he was desperatly in love with, (I could tell even then, as a tiny little girl. He was very obvious about it in my eyes.) was a half vampire. Again, I couldn't help but think that it was the coolest thing

ever. But then he told me that I had to go with him, because I couldn't go home. And the waterworks started up again. I cried the whole first half of the drive and then slept the next half. When I woke up, surprise surprise I was in the company of more vampires. Only these ones weren't interested in my blood. In fact, they wanted to keep me. It was all very exciting for a while. Living with vampires makes everything look new and shiny. I became the new toy of Alice, and the unofficial, adopted daughter of Rosalie. But my favorite of them all was Jasper. He reminded me of my older brother, and for the first few months of my homesickness bout he was the only one I would let bring me food or talk to me at all. The homesickness set in about a week after I got there. Then the depression followed. Then of course a stream of tantrums that, looking back on, I am ashamed of. Then, finally, at the ripe old age of 8, I learned to accept life. I learned to accept that this was my family. And I loved them. I spent most of my days with Jasper, watching old war movies and talking about dinosaurs. I was a bit of a tom-boy back then, and some would argue that I still am, but I really don't care anymore.

Edward and Bella were the most distant with me for a while, for some reason I didn't yet understand. Eventually, they warmed up to me, and Edward taught me how to play the piano. I was never as good as him. Emmett played video games with me. I could never beat his high score. My passion was in writing. It was one of the only things I was really good at. By the time I was ten I had written hundreds of little story-books made with computer paper and crayons, that were taped all over the fridge and in other odd places in the house. I think that it was my escape from the truth. In my stories I always pretended that I had always lived with the Cullens. Sometimes it still hurt to think about my parents. Because it did. They were good parents, and they had never gotten an explanation. They never would, not if I wanted to keep them safe. I learned very early on that vampires are not keen to other people knowing what they are, and so I was never stupid enough to go blabbing about it to my school friends. I pretended that Carlisle was my dad even though Jasper felt more like a father to me. I pretended that Alice was my sister, which felt basically true. I pretended a lot of things in front of other people, but the thing I faked the most was liking them. After spending years with wise, and learned vampires, it was hard to understand the immaturity and humor of people my own age. Most of the time I just sat there wondering how on Earth they could be so stupid. Really, sometimes it hurt my head.

Speaking of headaches, I had bad ones, but only when I wrote my really weird stories. The ones that were just pieces, scenes of a plot I hadn't come up with. Carlisle told me when I was eleven that I was special. That I was like Alice only different. I wrote dialogues from the future. Effing cool right? Wrong. Those headaches were the most painful things I ever experienced. It felt like someone was drilling through my skull and writing didn't help. When I wrote the only thing I knew was that the headache would fade. It was times like those when Jasper was the only one allowed to sit with me. He could calm me with his power. I hadn't

learned about their powers until I was nine, but it hadn't come as much of a shock. They were supernatural beings after all. But the fact that my amazing writing talent wasn't even my own sometimes irked me. Emmett took to calling me Luke, like the prophet. How he knew bible references, I never knew. Most of the time, the events I wrote weren't even labelled. I could only guess at who was saying what. There was no, "'blahblahblah' emmett said." I had to work it out based on what I knew about everyone. And I was always a participant in the conversation. Eventually I just started carrying pieces of paper around in my pocket to sribble the

words on when a migraine hit. Then I'd practically over-dose on pain medication. I wasn't a drug addict or anything. My head just hurt extremely bad.

But we're getting off subject. You didn't read this to find out about my history. You read it to find out what the hell I'm doing. So, instead of killing you with the long, boring tale of how I grew up with vampires, I will instead move on to my second problem.

When I was fifteen, someone fell in love with me. I know, I know, it's not a problem, it's a miracle. Except it wasn't. It was a werewolf that fell in love with me. There's a difference between the imprinting with a shape-shifter, and with a werewolf. Shape-shifters imprint, and then they love that person unconditionally forever. When werewolves imprint, all they can think about is breeding. They want little werewolf babies, and they want them immediately. That was a problem that had two parts to it. The first part was the fact that I didn't like the guy in the slightest. He had bullied me for years and then BAM! WEREWOLF! and suddenly I'm his mate. Or something along those lines. The second problem is that werewolves usually take a seperate wife for each child.

They basically imprint tons of times. Why? Because most women don't surive the birth. There was no way in Hell I was going to let that guy implant me with his nasty sperm if he was just going to get some other girl pregnant after I died. It might have been different if I had loved him, and had a good chance of survivng and WASN'T 15. So, we moved. He already had my scent though.

We've basically been on the run ever since, until about a year ago. Finally I was going to graduatre high school! And not be moving to a different school every two second! At 16 years old I had done it a year early. That was the perk of living with vampires. They were bloody brilliant and made amazing tudors. But, then came gallopping along my third problem. YAY! No, actually, just

kidding. It was possibly the worst problem to come.

Worse? Worse than the possibility of being kidnapped, raped, and killed by a hormonal teenage werewolf? Yes. Worse than even that.

My third problem was the Volturi. How the hell they found out I was living with the Cullens will be explained, but as for right now, all you need to know is that I was walking up the drive-way, minding my own business, when I saw the mail. I thought I'd pick it up on my way in, like a good little human. God I wish I hadn't.

As soon as we got inside Carlisle was in front of me, hand extended.

"Something doesn't smell right." He said, and I would have laughed if he hadn't looked so serious. It took him less than a second to pull the thick, off white, fancy envelope from the stack. His eyes flicked over the words on the front faster than I could see. Jasper must have sensed his stress because sudenly he was at Carlisle's side, Alice in tow.

"What is it?" He asked, looking over his shoulder. Suddenly his eyes flicked up to me, and they showed me something I hadn't seen before. He was scared. "I'll get everyone else." Jasper muttered, before he was gone. No matter how long I lived with them, I never got over how god-damned fast they were. Alice took my hand and tugged me into the kitchen, sitting me at the table. I hadn't dared speak yet.

Soon, everyone was crowed into the kitchen, including the pack down from LaPush. I sudenly felt very hot, as Embry took a seat next to me, and Paul sat on my other side. Did they always have to have a fever? Dear Lord...

"We've recieved a letter," Carlisle began, and I suddenly hated how he was speaking so slowly and calmly. I wanted him to say it quickly and just get it over with already. Had someone died? "From the Volturi." Carlisle finished. I had expected some kind of uproar. Growling. Hissing. Something. But everything was as silent as a grave-yard and that scared me even more. Of course I knew who they were. I had learned about them when I was thirteen. I had just forgotten how fightening they were. I was instantly reminded.

"What's it say?" Paul finally shattered the silence, and I was instantly grateful for his loud mouth.

"Let's see." Carlisle said, slipping a finger into the envelope and opening it. He pulled out a thick piece of paper. Parchment, my mind corrected. Who the hell used parchment these days? Just send a freaking e-mail. "Carlisle, It has been a long while since we have seen one another. I deeply regret the way we parted at our last meeting. We have known each other a very long time and I would hate to see such bonds broken by so silly a thing as a child. Although I'm sure by now she has grown into a lovely young woman. My brothers and I greatly wish to see her, as well as the rest of your family. This is our formal invitation to Volterra. We expect to see you here by the end of the month. I also very much wish to meet..." Carlisle trailed off, his mouth hung open as

if in shock. Which wasn't possible. Vampires couldn't go into shock, could they?

"Carlisle what does it say?" Esme suddenly asked, and looked over his shoulder. Her eyes scanned the page quickly before she drew a hand over her mouth. Then she looked at me. I felt my stomach drop.

"I also very much wish to meet the newest member of your family, the human Miss Riddely Grey. I am sure I will not be disappointed. Cordially yours, Aro." Carlisle finished, and I was sure that my world was falling apart because Embry was holding me by the shoulders to keep me steady but the room was spinning anyways. And Jasper wasn't even trying to help control my mood because he was already out the door, growling with rage and slamming it so loudly that the whole house shook and the glass of the front window cracked. I had never, ever seen Jasper so angry. Carlisle sat in the chair and rubbed his chin.

"What do I do?" I asked, but my voice didn't sound like my own. The voice that echoed in the kitchen was stronger than I was. It was braver. The silence stretched on before me like a death sentence. Carlisle always knew what to do.

"Well you can't go! I mean...she can't go Carlisle." Embry cut in, but his second sentence sounded an awful lot like a question.

Carlisle didn't respond for a moment, and I got that throw-up feeling in my stomach, where you know something bad is going to happen, and there's nothing you can do to stop it.

"She'll have to go. With any luck, Aro with think her gift is unique enough that he'll allow her to live. But of course..." He trailed off, and I didn't need for him to finish his sentence.

"I'll have to be changed." I said, and I heard Esme choke out a tearless sob. Rosalie looked like someone had just blown out the candles on her birthday cake and then told her that the cake wasn't actually for her after all. Not that she'd ever eat cake.

"You'll have to be changed." Carlisle nodded, looking solemn. I had known, somewhere deep down, that this day would come. I knew that I'd eventually have to be changed. Hell, I almost wanted to be changed. But I had always hoped I would be changed by Carlisle or even Rosalie. I knew Jasper wouldn't be able to do it. He'd loose control and just kill me. I was starting to wonder if tears would come when I heard a sob that sounded all wet and heart-broken and horrible. It took me a second to realize it was coming from me. Embry pulled me tighter against him and for once I was glad his body was so warm. I wanted to be warm. Now that I knew I was going to be cold for the rest of eternity, I wanted nothing but warmth.

"Oh my god." I heard Bella finally say, as if the information had sunk in. I felt her cold hand on my shoulder. She knew what I was going through. The Volturi had threatened her. They had practically forced her to be changed. She knew what I was thinking.

I was fucked. With cherries on top.