Our last days in Forks passed without incident. It was almost unnerving for things to be so normal, knowing my inclination towards trouble. Edward seemed to find this amusing and insisted I could find just as much trouble in our new home as in Forks. I bit my lip and settled into his chest, enjoying the last few moments of peace before I was to say goodbye to the town that had given me so much.
We had vacated our cottage early so that we could spend the last few nights in the Cullen family home. And as much as he wasn't going to admit it, I had a funny feeling that Edward was going to miss Forks as much as I was. The memories it held for us seemed too precious and fresh to discard for Montana. Emmett, however, seemed to revel in the opportunity to hunt wolves, along with his continued wrestling with the grizzlies. I tried not to listen when wolves were brought up, the thought of leaving Jacob was painful at best, and I was doing my hardest to put it off.
We sat on the lawn outback, listening to the stillness around us. Carlisle and Esme had gone hunting for the last time, Alice and Jasper were muttering quietly to themselves on the porch, and Emmett and Rosalie were doing something that made me regret having amplified hearing. At least I didn't get a visual like Edward. The dawn wobbled behind a blanket of cloud and spread an eerie glow through the mist over the lawn. More sounds stirred: birds calling out, the occasional rush of a car on the distant road, the unsteady waking beats of warm-blooded hearts in the forest.
I could hear two voices inside the house, raised and angry, growing louder until the tumult arrived into the garage. Edward sighed deeply into my hair and stirred his hands from around me. There was no denying it; the last day in Forks had now begun. He slid his body from behind me and held out his hand to help me up. I ignored the offer of help and lightly flicked my legs out from under me, landing gracefully with my feet on the floor. I was still enjoying my new found abilities too much to resist teasing him sometimes. I gave a small smile of satisfaction, before looking into his face to find him grinning back at me. Linking hands, we made our way towards the quarrel coming from behind Emmett's jeep.
'Emmett, I refuse to sit in that heap of metal all the way to M.O. state!'
'Come on Rose!' he said patting the jeep 'I want just one bite of a grizzly before we have to settle in and I can't see your car doing the off-roading up the Rockies. It'll be fun!' He put his arm around her stiff shoulders and, absent-mindedly, ruffled her hair. As soon as he had made his move, he knew it was a mistake. Rosalie's eyes widened in incensed horror, and she seemed on the point of bursting. Her features, although beautiful, were fierce and dangerous. Emmett, on seeing this, planted a quick peck on her cheek before darting into the forest, eminently aware of the carnage that was about to ensue.
'EMMETT CULLEN! I'LL GIVE YOU A GRIZZLY BEAR!' At that, she sped off into the trees after him, whipping the leaves up as she went. Over the few months I had spent as a true affiliated member of the Cullen's, I had come to notice that these arguments were not only frequent, but were part of the cogs that kept Rosalie and Emmett's relationship going. The argument would only last a short while before they made up again and peace would descend. This was something that the family had all learnt to look on as an amusing part of life with the pair, otherwise I had a funny feeling they would have all gone mad.
Alice and Jasper had entered the garage unnoticed, clearly also intrigued as to what the noise had been about. Alice, perched casually on the work surface, rolled her eyes in a sort of exasperated amusement and Jasper looked unmoved by the whole scene. Clearly, his abilities would render more harm than good if he were to diffuse the situation – Rosalie and Emmett were meant to keep their relationship at varying extremes. I breathed a short laugh that came out more like a smooth peel, and looked at Alice. Her eyes were glazed over, so that to a casual observer, she may look bored, we all knew it was more than that.
'Anything interesting?' I enquired, vaguely intrigued by the crafty smile passing her lips.
Her eyes met mine and they danced with a sort of lightness, not with the heavy shadows they had in the last few years of premonitions. Those years hadn't been kind, but they had given me him, the Adonis beside me now that I loved so much.
'Not really. One of our investments is about to fund our wardrobes for the next ten years, and it's going to be raining for most of the trip West'
'What was the smile for then?' I asked, still wondering what had sent the spark through her eyes. Edward gave a short warm laugh and I looked up to him for an answer, before looking back to my sister again.
'You'll see!' A mischievous grin stretched across her face and she reached for my hand, pulling me back inside the house. Edward and Jasper kept the pace leisurely behind us, Jasper let out a low chuckle and I could only presume he had been let in on the joke. As she pulled me towards Carlisle's study, my anxiety only increased. She carried on into the empty room, the shelves having already been cleared of his books, the only surface to be packed away was the cluttered desk in front of us. Without relinquishing my hand, she whipped us around the desk and pulled 6 pieces of paper from a carefully marked folder. As she flicked through the sheets I read the bold names printed in the corner, above a school crest:
CULLEN; Emmett, CULLEN; Edward, HALE; Rosalie, HALE; Jasper, BRANDON; Alice
The last sheet was then flourished in front of me and I tried to read the paper as it wobbled around in Alice's excited hands. Alice let out a squeal and watched my face for the reaction she had clearly foreseen. I didn't know what to say, I had thought so much about leaving Forks that I hadn't left much time to think about our new lives. I read my name on the sheet again, BRANDON; Isabella, and something struck me. It was typical that Alice could be excited by something like this, but my reaction I hadn't imagined. A pride always swelled within me when I called myself a Cullen, and that same pride rose again at the thought of using Alice's old surname. I had always been close to her, even sisters before we shared the same name, but now we were truly family. There was no Cullen, apart from Edward that I loved more than Alice, and I reached forward to embrace her in a crushing hug.
A few moments later, I heard Emmett guffaw from the doorway, clearly he and Rosalie had returned from their chase into the forest.
'And here was I thinking Rose and I were making up!' He boomed. Rosalie finished doing up the buttons on a new top, and elbowed Emmett in the ribs.
'She may not need oxygen Bella, but that doesn't mean you need to break her lungs!' I could hear the smile in Edward's words, and it was only then I realised my strength and released Alice from my concrete grasp.
'Oops!' Her features were frozen for a second in a steely statue, before she relaxed. I shuffled back defensive and embarrassed; it dawned that it must have taken some control over her vampire reflexes not to attack me as I had crushed her. If I was still human, I was in no doubt that I would be furiously blushing about now. As it was I mumbled a remorseful apology, 'I'm sorry Alice.'
A beaming grin returned to her features and she punched me playfully on the arm. Before I could return the punch, forcing Jasper to whip her away where I couldn't break her, we heard the steady paces of Carlisle and Esme approach the house.
Alice flitted to Jasper's side, 'We ought to go downstairs,' She looked back at the rest of us scattered about the study 'They want to talk'.
'Team talk!' Emmett cried and clapped his hands enthusiastically.
Rosalie tucked herself under Emmett's arm before trailing out the door, mumbling something about 'every time we move'. Alice and Jasper followed suit, her hand curled over the crook of his arm. Edward chuckled and shook his head as he linked his hand around mine. I looked up at him wondering what was so funny – there seemed to be a lot of jokes that I wasn't let in on today.
'Packing' He said, leaving no other room for explanation. Clearly it was another one of the Cullen family inside jokes. I slowly nodded my head.
'Rosalie hates it' I said. It wasn't a question, why would the beautiful Rose lower herself to manual labour, when it only resulted in packing dust and chipped fingernails.
'Yes' Edward pondered for a minute before adding, 'but it doesn't stop her from remembering her mirror'
As we walked down the stairs, I stifled a laugh at the low hiss echoing from downstairs.