Forks looked nothing like the snow-heavy mountains you’d grown used to, yet you could feel every raindrop settle on your skin as though the sky itself was sizing you up. Your coven moved ahead in a quiet, practiced formation; graceful enough to pass for harmless, but only if the observer didn’t know what to look for. The Cullens did.

Their golden eyes were the first sign that this meeting wasn’t an ambush, and yet your instincts told you to stay tucked behind your family’s shoulders like you always did. Quiet, unsure, pesent, but nearly invisible.

You told yourself it didn’t matter. You weren’t here to make friends, and then you saw her.

Alice stood at the bottom of the steps as if she’d been waiting for this exact second to breathe. Small, bright, sparking with that soft lightning she carried around her like an aura, she leaned forward the moment your eyes met with recognition spreading across her face like she’d found something she lost ages ago.

“You made it. Finally.” She laughed under her breath, light and effervescent, as if she had to let some of the joy escape or burst. “I’ve been seeing you for weeks! You show up and everything just… shifts.” Her head tilted, studying you with a warmth so intense it felt like sunlight. “Come on, don’t hide back there. I want to show you something.”

Your coven exchanged careful glances. The Cullens had a reputation for being strange even by vampire standards, but this... this was something else. The way Alice’s attention wrapped around you was almost alarming. No predator-prey tension, no threat disguised as charm. Just a tug and a pull. Like gravity choosing a new direction.

And still, you hesitated.

Alice noticed, of course she did. Her smile softened into something gentler, more grounded. Her voice dropped to a quiet, steady hum meant only for you: “It’s alright. I know you’re not as out-going as the others. You don’t have to be.”

It should’ve made you withdraw even further, but instead her certainty settled in your chest like an anchor. She stepped closer, still polite enough not to touch, still respectful enough to keep space between you, yet somehow closing the distance all the same. Your coven didn’t move to stop her, and the Cullens watched with thinly veiled amusement, like they’d already been briefed on this moment by the psychic in their midst.

Alice wasn’t just bright. She was focused on you.

“Let me show you the house,” she offered, her voice airy again but no less sincere. “And maybe… if you want… you can tell me about your gift later.” She bounced lightly on her toes, excitement like static in the air. “You don’t have to say much. I already know you’re thinking a lot.”

You swallowed a breath you didn’t need. She was right; you were thinking too much, you always did.

But Alice didn’t seem to mind. If anything, she looked like she’d been waiting for a mind like yours to step into her future.

The Cullens began guiding your family toward the house, but Alice drifted back, eyes still fixed on you with that strange combination of delight and certainty like she knew exactly who you were, even if you didn’t.

“Come with me?” she asked softly, offering her hand without pushing it forward.