(Bella's POV)
Now I haven't been one to be surprised for quite a while. The fact that I had the most perfect boyfriend in the world-whom also happened to be a "Vegetarian" vampire-helped that. However, you have to admit, learning that a cousin you haven't seen in nine years is coming to live with you for a long period can be shocking.
"Bells could you please come in here for a minute?" Charlie called from the Living Room as I was picking out ingredients for the Meatloaf we were having tonight. It was one of those rare evenings that I wasn't spending with Edward, out of respect for my dad whose concern for his daughter was ever growing.
"Yeah dad?" This was odd, according to him there was supposed to be a game on tonight.
"Do you remember your cousin Emma?" He straightened up. Weird, not that I didn't remember her but I hadn't seen her since she was three and I had almost forgotten about her.
"Emma? Yeah I remember her, why?"
"Well her aunt is two months pregnant and the doctors are putting her on bed rest because she's broken her leg. They have to send Emma here because her husband has to take a lot of time off from his job to help his wife, and they can't afford to have Emma there until the baby's born. They just called a few minutes ago."
"Oh." I remembered how Emma's mother had died giving birth to her, and no one knew who her father was. It was sad, but from what I had heard, she coped with it well. It had to be sad for Charlie, losing a sister and her twin breaking a leg while pregnant.
"She'll be here in a couple days. I hope it's OK, since she can't sleep on the couch…. Well she'll have to sleep in your room."
"That's fine, dad." Then it dawned on me, Edward spent every night in my room. Charlie looked relived though.
"I'm going to go pick her up from the airport, if you want to come that's fine. We can order pizza." I shook my head knowing that I'd never get a chance to call Edward to warn him if I went.
"No it's OK dad. You go, she'll probably like a homier meal her first night."
"Thanks Bells. I hope you'll like her."
After Charlie headed out on Friday, I started heating up the chicken and getting the noodles cooked for Chicken Alfredo. This took a while, and I had procrastinated to clean my room 'till the last minute, so I had to wait a couple hours to call Edward. That and the last minute cleaning of the house didn't help. When I did get to call him though, he picked up on the first ring as always.
"Yes love? Is anything wrong?"
"Listen Edward, you can't come over after Charlie's asleep tonight."
"Why? What's wrong?"
"Someone's coming and-" Charlie opened the door and came in the house with Emma earlier than I expected, so I was forced to hang up early. "Sorry Edward I'll explain tomorrow." Then I walked out into the hall to meet my new roommate.
My first impression that for a twelve-year-old, she was quite small, smaller then Alice even. She looked a little like Charlie, but looked a lot more like her mother. She had light brown hair and dark brown eyes. She was tan, too bad she was going to lose that soon, she looked good with it. She needed braces and wore glasses. Dragging behind her was a battered bright red suitcase that looked like it could burst at any minute, but in her other hand she held a Jane Austen book, which impressed me. Her face was filled with freckles and she was just beginning to get some acne. Her clothes which looked like she had thrown them on quickly suggested that she constantly switched from Goth to bright, a dark purple shirt with small black stripes and light orange shorts with a butterfly on the pocket. Just by the way she stood; I could tell she was going to be extremely sarcastic. I couldn't explain how she did so and how I knew that, but of course it could have been just me. We all somewhat just stood there for a minute, scanning each other. Her eyes were odd when they were looking at me, as if somehow she knew I had a huge secret, and that I wasn't going to tell her if she was right or wrong; even if she guessed right. Finally Charlie spoke.
"Hi Bells, so this is Emma. Emma, Bella. Um, how about I get your stuff up to yours and Bella's room and, um, get your sheets on the bed." He then shuffled upstairs dragging one huge bag and two smaller ones. The uncomfortable silence continued for a minute before she sniffed the air and finally spoke.
"That smells good, are you making chicken?" I led her into the kitchen.
"Chicken Alfredo. I thought you might like it." She licked her lips.
"I love that stuff! If it's good, if it's bad you die." I laughed a bit when she said that, she was so small she probably couldn't even get flies with the swatter if they were too high on the wall. She gave me a look that said plainly, "I'm serious." I started on the sauce and she sat down at the table, sat Indian-style, and opened her book. I saw the title; it was one of my favorites, Emma. Quite fitting for her, I'm sure you can guess why. It was surprising that she was reading it though.
"So you like Jane Austen?" I asked, sensing that she was not one for quiet.
"I've only read this one actually, all that old-timey talk gets hard to understand."
"It's still pretty impressive."
"Thanks, I've always liked reading a lot. The reason I have these glasses is I read in the dark, I even had a special cabinet." She gave me this unnecessary bit of information as I raised my eyebrow and got the chicken out of the oven.
"A special cabinet?"
"Yeah, it was a cabinet that Aunt Theresa didn't use at all. I had a secret candy stash and everything in there." She explained kind of rushed, as if she realized how unnecessary it was to tell me all of this and I chuckled, knowing if she was anything like her mother, she already had a secret candy stash somewhere in this house already. I was right, I found one later.
"I know this is kind of rude since it's your first night but can you please set the table?" I pulled the chicken off the bones. She hopped up after marking her place in her book and skipped over.
"Sure. Where's everything?" I pointed out the right drawers and cabinets and she got to work. Five minutes later, everything was finished, and she started folding our napkins into cool shapes. I couldn't decide what I thought of her, she seemed nice and happy on the outside but something told me that she had secrets of her own. When she laughed, it was more of an evil-laugh-in-making than anything else. That gave me chuckles of my own, though it worried me.
Twenty minutes later dinner was ready and Charlie was enjoying his napkin a bit too much. His had a boat shape; mine a triangle, and hers was diamond. I suspected that her book was open under the table, as her head happened to stay bent down most of the time; except of course when she told me, "You will not die tonight, as I am greatly enjoying my dinner." For a twelve-year-old, she talked weird. An interesting conversation took place between her and Charlie debating over exactly how a McDonalds was needed in Forks.
"You see, practically everywhere has a McDonalds. This tiny town in Kansas that my grandparents used to live in has a McDonalds. Practically every neighborhood in Texas has its own McDonalds. That is why we need a McDonalds. Or an Arby's, I can live with that." She explained very carefully to my amused father.
"I'll keep that in mind. But not everywhere has a McDonalds."
"But that 'not everywhere' is probably referring to here. And I'll hold you to keeping it in mind, so help me I will." She finished off as if that made everything make sense. I snorted into my milk while Charlie returned to his Alfredo, but Emma was luckily once again absorbed in her hidden book.
"I heard that." And that little whisper that I'm not sure I heard confused me for a while.
After dinner, Charlie drifted towards the TV ever so slightly, and I took Emma up to 'our' room as of two hours ago.
"And this is the bathroom, and here's our bedroom." I walked into the room and stopped suddenly, not expecting another bed to be in there. I was grateful though, I was afraid I'd have to sleep on the floor. My bed was up against the window and Emma's was closer to the closet door. There was another dresser in the room. My bed looked the same as ever and hers had a light orange comforter and one small, white pillow.
"Cool." She said, looking around the room just as I had when I first came to Forks. Without thinking about it, I stroked the crescent shaped scar from the time a homicidal vampire bit me. Emma noticed and asked about it. "How'd you get that?"
"Oh, um, a while ago I tripped, fell down two flights of stairs, and went through a window." She flinched as I explained it, most likely picturing being in that situation.
"Sounds painful."
"It was very painful, but I heal quickly. I just get injured twice as much as a normal person." I explained as she laughed in a still-picturing-a-painful-fall sort of way.
"And your definition of normal is…" Emma referred to the people who actually wanted to live in Forks.
"Yeah yeah." I laughed with her. Maybe, it wasn't going to be so bad having her live with us for a while. She was funny, witty, and she helped me see a completely new side to the rain. The cons to this little situation were plentiful though. Starting with that later that evening, I spent my first night without Edward in months.