School was the same as always although the Cullens, and Maya and Bella by association, were receiving more looks due to their sudden return. What truly made today different though was that at lunch Alice dragged Maya and Jasper with her over to the table Bella and Edward were sitting at with Jessica, Eric, Mike and Angela.
Usually the three sat with Rosalie and Emmet at their old table, while Edward sat with Bella and her human friends. Mostly because Maya and Rosalie struggled to stay civil with those two. Maya may have only just declared that she would no longer put up with Bella and her shit today, but when those two annoyed her she was never afraid to show it. Which made for some very uncomfortable lunches and given that Emmet, Jasper and Alice always took the side of Maya and Rosalie, it had just become an unspoken rule that Edward and Bella couldn't sit with them. As such Maya and Jasper were confused at this change until Alice opened her mouth practically the moment she sat down.
"I've decided to throw a party!"
"After all, how many times are we going to graduate High School?" Jasper joked, easily going along with Alice and her mood. Which earned a laugh from Maya.
"A party? At your place?" Angela asked.
"I've never seen your house" Jessica stated.
"No one's ever seen their house" Eric reminded her.
"Another party Alice?" Edward whined.
"It'll be fun" Alice said, defending her idea.
"Yeah. That's what you said last time" Bella said rudely. Maya's head whipped around to face Bella then and her foot shot out to kick Bella in the shin, causing her to yelp.
Maya meant it when she said she was done with letting Bella get away with saying whatever she wanted. She was no longer going to limit her comments to when Bella said something truly stupid or mean. And who knows, maybe she could Pavlov the girl she lived with into being kind by teaching her to associate pain with the mean comments she said.
Just as Maya began to smirk at the thought, Alice got lost in a vision. Maya was quick to distract the humans by asking if Angela, the only one she was really friendly with, wanted help with her invitations. Meanwhile, Jasper was paying attention to Alice's emotions and growing concerned. Whatever she was seeing, it was not good. He subconsciously pulled Maya and his sister closer to him and Maya placed her hand on his arm in comfort. Alice eventually came out of her vision and carried on like normal, signalling them that they would talk about it later when there were less people around.
~~~~~~~~~~~~
During study session, Maya and Jasper finally managed to find a place where they could talk with Alice undisturbed and unheard by humans. They were all sitting in a currently unoccupied classroom with the door locked.
"So what did you see?" Maya asked the minute they were settled, unable to contain her curiosity any longer.
"Victoria. I saw her running through the woods near here this weekend." Alice stared off into nothing, her eyes unfocused as she attempted to see more.
"Really? Sweet! My game of tag is back on!" Maya did a fist-pump as both Jasper and Alice turned to stare at her with looks of worry.
"What do you mean 'back on' Darlin'?" Jasper asked in a deceptively calm voice. He had a feeling he knew what she meant and the thought of it scared the hell out of him.
Maya blushed and looked down. She had forgotten that she had never told him about Victoria being back in town. "Well ... while you guys were away Victoria showed up a few times. When she began to kill hikers the wolves and I would chase her off. It was kind of like a new game of tag." She finished with a bright smile, hoping to get rid of any worries they had, but from their looks it was clear she had failed.
"You mean to tell us that you were chasing Victoria around and never told us!? During all the times you texted us, you never once thought it a good idea to mention her?!" Alice accused her.
"Darlin' do you have any idea how dangerous that was?!" Jasper asked at practically the same time.
Maya shrugged, "it wasn't that dangerous. Any time we got close she took off. That chick is fast and she never actually tried to fight any of us." Maya growled in frustration, remembering all the times Victoria had managed to slip away from them. "Besides" she added, focusing back on them, "you guys were too far away to actually do anything to help so I didn't want to worry you. Especially if the most we ever did was play tag with her."
"Wasn't that dangerous? What about Laurent?" Jasper questioned unbelieving that Maya would be so reckless. Actually scratch that, he could believe that part just fine. What he couldn't believe was that his mate had been in danger and he hadn't even known!
Maya just made a dismissing gesture with her hands. "When we faced Laurent he also pulled a chicken. Ran almost the second he saw us. Plus with all the members of the pack there, there was practically nothing for me to do" Maya told them, brushing the whole matter aside. She turned back to face Alice. "So any chance you can pin down where she will be? It would be so funny for her to run right into our waiting arms."
"I can see a few distinct land marks that I think I recognize, but I will have to take a run to check and see."
"Awesome" Maya declared. She was happy to finally have an advantage against the red-head in their next, and hopefully last, round of tag.
"We will have to talk this over with everyone else before we make any solid plans. And get Carlisle's permission" Jasper cautioned. He knew there was very little chance that Carlisle would say no given that Victoria was obviously targeting their family, but since he was the leader if he said "no" that would have to be the end of it.
Both girls nodded their agreement and the conversation turned to a much lighter topic, all of them putting the issue on the back burner until they were joined by the rest of the family.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Later that evening after Maya, Bella and their dad had had dinner and Carlisle had returned from the hospital, Maya headed over to their house for the meeting. Arriving, she was surprised to note Edward's absence. She had assumed that since dear old Victoria was hell bent on killing Bella that he would be here, attempting to take charge of the meeting.
Noticing her confused look, Alice filled her in. "Edward is with Bella. He doesn't want her to worry, so he's not telling her and attempting to convince her to leave town this weekend. So he won't be here for the meeting as he doesn't want to make her suspicious."
"Ah yes, because that makes total sense" Maya said sarcastically. Honestly, if he wanted to truly keep her safe, step one should have been giving her all the info needed to better watch out for herself. You know, like give her a warning to not pull a red riding hood and cut through the woods to grandma's house. Although in this case the wolf would probably be the hero of the story, Maya mused getting lost in thought.
As everyone settled down, Maya was pulled out of her thoughts as Carlisle turned to Alice. "Have you seen anything else that might help us trap her? Or is it still just the small glimpse?"
"I haven't seen anything more yet. But the area that she runs through is very clear and has not changed, so we will definitely have a starting point."
"Alice and I also took a run through the woods. We found the spot that matches Alice's vision" Jasper told them. Leaning his head back in thought while absently stroking Maya's hair, he began to think aloud. "The area is not one that we typically frequent seeing as its so close to the border. Maya told us that her and the wolves chased Victoria a few times while we were away. Its possible that now that we are back she is attempting to find paths through the woods that would allow her to get close without being detected or give her the best chance of escape if spotted."
"That would make sense" Carlisle acknowledged, thinking it through. "Any suggestions for what we could do then? We could spend some time there, spread our scent. It might make her back off."
Jasper shook his head, still deep in thought. "No, if she is looking for routes all it would do is make her change where she will run through this weekend. Which would only lessen our advantage. Our best bet is to, not avoid, but stay clear of that area. Give her a path that she will believe safe to follow. If we know it ahead of time then it would give us an idea of which way she will head if she slips by us."
Everyone nodded in agreement to his proposed plan. "What about the wolves?" Rosalie questioned. "You said that the spot was close to their territory. What's to stop her from crossing over?"
"I can let them know to be on the look out" Maya offered. "I can tell them that Alice saw Victoria coming this weekend and tell them to be on alert as well as give them a vague idea of where she will be and when. That way if she crosses over the wolves will be there to intercept and if they stay on their side, and Victoria on ours, Alice should still be able to see."
"That could work" Jasper mused. "At the very least they will make Victoria less inclined to flee that way."
The rest of the family nodded along in acceptance, following Jasper's lead as he had the most experience with this kind of thing.
Now that they had a basic plan, they moved on to begin hammering out details. "We should wait directly in her path. According to your vision Alice she simply runs by it. With any luck she will come directly at us, but if not then hopefully we will be close enough to adjust as needed" Carlisle reasoned.
"Our biggest problem," Maya told them, "is going to be her speed. Me and the wolves chased her plenty of times and she is fast. Though she never managed to out run us, we also couldn't ever really close the distance. The times we came closest to catching her was when one of us would come at her from the side as they joined the chase."
"Well that shouldn't be too much of a problem. Edward is faster than all of us. If he can trip her up or slow her down that would give us the chance we need to force her into a fight." Emmet was practically bouncing in his seat at the thought of this weekend.
"Emmet's right, Edward should give us the advantage" Jasper agreed.
They continued on, working out how to best box her in. It was eventually decided that Edward, Jasper, and Emmet would take the lead. Jasper and Emmet would keep her contained and going as straight as possible so that Edward could run her down. It would also allow them, as the best fighters, to be right there once Edward had stopped her. While Carlisle, Esme and Rosalie watched their backs in case Victoria had any hidden tricks or traps, such as another old friend like Laurent. Maya would be in charge of keeping Alice safe, as she would be splitting her focus between the chase and scanning her visions to call out a heads up if anything changed.
It was a little over cautious of them, but as Maya's experience with her proved, none of them really had the speed to out run her. As such, mainly their role was to just keep on her tail and not give her time to think as they tried to overwhelm her with numbers.
Just as they were finishing up Edward arrived home and came to join them in the living room.
"Welcome home" Esme greeted.
"Yeah. Alice, have you seen anything more?" Edward asked, completely disregarding Esme's greeting.
"No, but we do have a plan worked out for this weekend."
"Good. I'll be taking Bella to Jacksonville so that she is safely out of the way while you guys are handling Victoria" Edward informed them. They all stiffened at this, upset that he had made this decision by himself without first consulting them.
"Edward, you can't do that" Carlisle informed him gently but firmly.
"Why not?"
"Because you moron, we need your help to catch her!" Rosalie yelled. "Our plan hinges on you being here to out run her!"
"And if I do that then who will protect Bella?! You?!" Edward yelled back, angry that his family did not seem to understand that Bella had to be their first priority.
"Dude, she's going to Florida. Isn't it like super sunny there? How are you supposed to protect her when you can't even go outside?" Emmet asked, genuinely confused.
Edward just snarled at him and ignored his points. "I'm going. I will protect Bella while you deal with Victoria" he declared before storming off to his room.
As they all heard the door slam, Maya turned to face them. "You know ... we could just hand them over to Victoria." She didn't mean it of course. Well, not completely. No matter how frustrating they were or how angry they made her, she would never do that to her dad. But that wouldn't stop her imagining how much easier their lives would be without all the drama that came with them.
The family all laughed at her suggestion before Carlisle suggested that they watch a movie. He stated that they were all too tired and worked up at the moment to continue planning. It was his hope that they could convince Edward to stay before the weekend came. However, if Edward continued to act as he had been and ignore all common sense, then they would have to come up with a new plan.