"…the expensive, delicate ship that must have seen

Something amazing, a boy falling out of the sky

Had somewhere to get to and sailed calmly on."

- W.H. Auden

I stuck my hand out the car window. My fingers drifted through the humid air in a last-ditch attempt to catch some of the warmth and drag it along with me. I coughed a little, and worked on keeping my face serene. In truth, my stomach was tying up in knots at the thought of leaving my home behind, but I'd be damned if I was going to let the four boys in the car with me in on that secret. I felt a hand lightly squeeze my shoulder, and smiled at Aidan in gratitude, ignoring the smirks dominating the faces of the other three.

"I know, Addie," Steven sighed, managing to pull off a perfect sneer despite the distraction of watching the road.

"I'd be distraught if I had to move to a new state, too. But I have friends I would be leaving behind. You, on the other hand…" His voice trailed off, and his comment elicited a small snort from Lucas and Jamie. But luckily, they allowed the 'let's rip our sister to pieces and see if we can make her cry' moment to die there. They were both too miserable at having to share my fate. Well, my fate of being unwillingly dragged to a new state/home/school, not my fate of being friendless.

I rolled my eyes and stuck out my tongue at Steven in the rear-view mirror.

Steven had never approved much of my friends; it had been easier for him to just phase them out completely. Not too difficult a task considering he'd moved out to his college dorm last year, and now only showed up periodically with his arms full of dirty laundry.

Since he no longer lived at home, Steven was the only one of us granted immunity from the move. San Francisco, California to Forks, Washington. I sighed deeply, and slumped back in my seat.

"You know, it might not be so bad." Ever the eternal optimist, Aidan's voice broke through the quiet.

"Of course it won't. We're moving to a place with a population the size of a shoebox, where it rains about 350 days a year. What could possibly be bad about that?" Up in the front seat, Lucas was irritable. And when Lucas was irritable, everyone knew about it.

"And Addie, if your foot hits off the back of my chair one more time I'm going to come back there and remove it for you, okay?"

My foot froze in place, a centimetre away from where it had been about to make contact once more.

Luke settled back into ignoring us, satisfied that he had terrified me into keeping myself still. I waited until he was glaring out the window, probably a million miles away, before I slammed my foot into his chair once more, with all the force I could muster. Which wasn't all that much in the grand scheme of things, but it was enough to make him grunt and attempt to twist himself over the chair, no doubt to surgically remove my limb. Steven's hand was there though, pushing him back into place.

"Oh grow up, would you both?"

Steven might have been exempt from moving to what was probably going to be my own personal hell, but he had been enlisted to help ferry us across the state lines. My mom was driving the car I normally shared with Lucas, filled with stuff. My dad was driving his own car, filled with stuff. Steven had generously offered his car too, to take the four of us, and some more stuff. Plus, there was a movers van following us along the way, also filled with stuff. It was amazing how much crap one family could accumulate over the years.

I shoved my iPod earphones in, drowning out the embarrassing background noise Steven was blaring out the car stereo and referring to as music.

Leaning my head against the window, I willed myself to fall asleep. It didn't happen. Of course not. Why would I want to sleep away God knows how many hours trapped in an enclosed space with my four brothers? It would mean missing so much intelligent banter. I popped one earphone out long enough to hear Aidan and Luke debate the difference between big city and small town girls, with Luke declaring the winner to be city girls because they had "less morals".

I shook my head in wonder and put the earphone back in place, giving myself over completely to the talents of Billy Corgan.

We stopped eventually to regain movement in our legs and have some food, finding our parents at a table in some generic diner at the side of the road.

The hamburger I ordered looked questionable, and didn't taste much better. Much as he got on my nerves, I wasn't quite at the stage where I wanted to hurl my load in the back of Steven's car, so I pushed it away after a few bites and delicately sipped my Coke. Aidan pushed half his macaroni cheese towards me, an offer my rumbling stomach gladly accepted for me. Aidan was my twin (non-identical), and I guess on some level it made sense, but it never ceased to amaze me how attuned to my feelings he always seemed to be. The three idiots we were sharing the table with were less concerned about my hunger, their mouths hanging open at the very thought of giving half their food to someone else. My mom shook her head at them, finally ceasing her flow of questions: how had the trip been so far, was Steven driving carefully, were we all too squashed in, had there been any bodily harm yet, and so on. My dad just laughed, clearly insanely happy that we were finally on our way to our new life. The move to Rain City was all down to him; his bookstore hadn't been doing too well among hundreds of others in the big city, and he wanted to see how well it would do in a smaller location. Why Forks? I genuinely had no idea, besides my theory that he was a closet sadist.

The time passed too quickly, and before I knew where I was we were back in the car, ready for part two of the journey.

I pulled out my somewhat weathered copy of East of Eden, and set about losing myself in the wonders of the Salinas Valley for the umpteenth time. Aidan laughed at my predictability. Any time something was changing for me, from the beginning of high school to my first boyfriend to moving to a new town, this particular book would make an appearance. I had no idea why, but reading it always calmed me down. Lucas and Jamie were shooting me disgusted looks. I figured it was best to kick that habit in the head before they really got into it.

"Yes kids, this is what we call a book. I know you illiterates don't see them very often but try not to act so shocked over it, you'll give yourselves away."

Luke muttered something about people who read being boring (startlingly original, I know), but at least the two of them stopped staring at me. Given that our father owned a bookstore, it never failed to astound me that I was the only one to really inherit his love of reading. Steven did it when he had to (textbooks for his university course mainly), and Aidan had been known to pick up the odd Chuck Palahnuik when the mood took him, but Lucas (one year my senior) and Jamie (one year my junior) treated the act of picking up a book like it was the end result of a serious mental illness.

The long drive passed faster with my head in the novel, a few more stops for food and toilet breaks and then Steven was telling us all we were nearly in Forks. I put the book away immediately and stared outside with interest like everyone else; we had never seen the town or our new house before. Our parents had settled everything themselves, wanting to surprise us with the house when we got there. I was somewhat dubious about this plan since the five of us had such varied tastes that it would be impossible to please us all. There was going to be a tantrum from someone, I could feel it.

Returning my attention to the outside, I noticed a lot of people on the rainy streets staring at us open-mouthed. I realised with our three cars and the big van, we must be making quite a procession. But I still sighed, irritated. Back in the city, you could wander around carrying a mutilated goats' head and no one would take any notice. I could already tell I was going to hate the small-town experience. I loved the anonymity of the city and the feeling that no matter what earth-shattering thing was happening to you, there was still life carrying on nearby, that there was still people who didn't give a shit about your misery because they had their own lives to lead. I got the feeling that anything affecting you here would be dissected and discussed by small minds that nothing could get by. I wasn't too keen on that at all, I preferred my pain to be passed over by others. It only made it easier to get past myself. I made myself ignore the inquisitive faces, staring at the landscape instead. Not that there was much to stare at besides the rain on the pavement and a load of green everywhere.

We pulled up to a large house behind mom's car, all six of us pelting up the front steps with blatant curiosity. So far, so good. No one seemed too horrified by the outside of our new home. Shock to end all shocks, the same was true of the inside. The rooms were big and airy, and it had three bathrooms: always good in a house full of teenage boys.

Yeah, I could actually find myself liking this house. I wandered through the three big bedrooms, contented.

Until it hit me. Three bedrooms. My mom and dad had promised me and Luke our own bedroom each (because Lucas was the oldest and I was the only girl), and unless my math was supremely off, there definitely weren't enough rooms for that promise to be kept.

The tantrum I had been sure about earlier was suddenly erupting.

"Moooooommmmmmmmmm!" I screeched, thumping down the stairs.

She barely had time to look up in confusion before I continued.

"Are you freakin' kidding me? There are THREE bedrooms upstairs. Three. And unless I'm mistaken, that means I'm going to be sharing a room. When you promised! You promised me, Mom, that I wouldn't have to do that again. That's the only reason I agreed to move to this hicktown!"

My mom pursed her lips.

"Adalia Marie George, if you ever speak to me like that again you're going to find yourself without a room in any house of this family. Do you understand me?"

"But you promised," I whispered, unable to stop myself.

My mom sighed and walked up the stairs, barking "Follow me," over her shoulder.

She went to the end of the upstairs hallway, and pulled on a lever hanging from the ceiling. A set of stairs unfolded, and she motioned me to climb up them. After doing so, I found myself in the attic. The attic that had been renovated to make another bedroom.

I squealed, and threw my arms around her, apologising profusely for being such a bitch. She rolled her eyes. She was more than used to my rapid mood swings by now. We went back downstairs, and it wasn't long before she was ordering us all out the house. Apparently five teenagers got in the way of movers arranging furniture. Who knew, right?

Our many possessions had been unpacked from the cars, so Luke grabbed the keys for ours and I called shotgun. Being the only two besides Steven with licenses, our parents had given us a car to share. And now they had given us firm instructions to go and "explore the town". The very prospect was setting me alight with the fires of happiness. I informed my mom and dad of this, but they only rolled their eyes and told me to get out.

Which was how I found myself in some kind of sporting goods store at the edge of the town, when all I really wanted was to collapse somewhere and fall asleep. It had been a long journey.

The blond guy behind the counter had been eyeing me with interest ever since we walked in, but my brothers were too engrossed in whatever crap they were selling here to listen to my pleas to leave.

I stared around disinterestedly, and jumped when I heard a voice from behind me asking if I needed any help. I turned around to face the blond guy.

"Nope."

I wasn't in the mood for polite small talk, and I hoped my rudeness would put him off. I walked across the shop, pretending to be interested in something else. My luck was out apparently, and he fell into step beside me.

"Your boyfriend?" he indicated Aidan, who I'd walked in with.

A giggle escaped me.

"My twin brother."

"Oh." He looked pleased.

"So are you guys new in town? I don't think I've seen you around before."

"Just moved here today."

He nodded, stuck out his hand. I shook it reluctantly.

"Jonathan Newton. It's nice to meet you… ?"

"Adalia George."

"Nice name. So you'll be going to the high school here?"

"Yeah, I guess so. I'm trying not to think about it too much."

That pleased look was back on his face, and he was about to ask me something else when I noticed my brothers beginning to drift back outside.

"Ugh sorry Jonathan, I gotta go. See you around, maybe." I backed away.

He looked disappointed for a second, then recovered.

"Yeah, I'll see you in school!"

Of course.

I ran for the door and the safety of the car.

"Boyfriend already?" Jamie laughed. I only grunted in response.

We drove around for the rest of the afternoon, and returned home when my mom called Luke's cell to tell him the house was now in a half-decent state.

I looked quickly around, making the obligatory appreciative noises, before telling everyone I was tired and wanted to go to bed early.

"It's six o'clock and you haven't had any dinner, Addie," my dad pointed out.

I walked to the kitchen and made myself two slices of toast (we didn't have much in the way of food yet, only the few things we'd brought with us) before going back through and holding them up to everyone.

My mom murmured that toast wasn't a proper dinner, but didn't make any move to stop me as I escaped upstairs. My dad shouted a reminder that we were all starting school the next day. I grimaced involuntarily as I pulled on the lever and walked into my new room. Most of my stuff was still in boxes, but the essentials had been unpacked for me and I collapsed gratefully on the bed, barely making it through my toast before sleep claimed me.

A/N: Sorry there's no Embry yet, I wanted to set up Addie's character and background first. It won't be long before he makes his first appearance though!
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