A/N: This is the first of about three outtake I have written. The outtakes all from Carlisle's point of view span from 2002 when the Cullens move back to Forks, through to 2005. The last two outtakes correspond with my fic The Sun Never Sets, so hopefully if you are reading this you have read that. These were all written when I was bored and playing around with different events in the Cullens life. Also as a side note regarding the date. According to the time line provided in the Twilight Saga Guidebook, the Cullens moved to Forks in 2003, but Twilight begins in 2005 and I could've sworn I read somewhere that the Cullens had been in Forks for 3 years before Bella arrived, if someone has a correction to this please let me know, but for now I'm going with my gut instincts and putting it as 2002. I hope you all enjoy these chapters, I'm actually pretty proud of how they came out. Next outtake uploaded shortly.
2002
We pulled up in front of the house and all slid out of the three cars to look up at our new house. I could see the wheels turning in Esme's mind as she and Alice planned how she would turn the large farm house into a dream house, while Emmett, Edward and Jasper were eyeing the yard's size to determine how much rough housing they could get away with.
Chris and Rosalie on the other hand were staring at the garage and whispering between them what needed to be done to turn it into a car mechanics paradise.
"This house is going to be beautiful." Rosalie commented, "we have to keep the porch Esme."
"Of course," Esme replied hugging Rosalie's shoulders "it is the best feature of the house." She smiled mischievously "at least as far as the outside goes."
"Well, what do you six think?" I asked, all six of our children tore their gaze away to look at Esme and I.
"Not bad," Emmett said
"It's in pretty good shape, garage needs some updating." Chris spoke up "I mean the three cars we have here in the driveway are barely going to fit in there, let alone the Martin, the Beemer, my quads, it barely leaves us any room to do any work on them as it is."
Rosalie nodded in agreement, she had just gotten a new car a month prior to our moving and was very particular about where it would end up, hence why it was safely in storage and not here with us.
"Don't worry Christian, the garage is on my list of things to do, I promise by the time you guys have been at school for a week the garage will be set to go." Esme said hugging his shoulders.
All six groaned at the prospect of school, starting over has never been a highlight for any of us, but for our children it comes with the territory of new schools, new teachers, and starting over in a grade they have already completed many times over at an age that they have long since bypassed.
"Ugh, sophomore year again" Emmett muttered to no one in particular.
"At least you guys GET to go to high school right off, REMEMBER?" Grumbled Chris as he stared up at the house, being the youngest has never really bothered Christian except on two items one of those being high school, he always manages to get up to sophomore year before we either move or have to pull him out.
Academically speaking he is far beyond his peers, in some cases he's far beyond his siblings, but physically he will never keep up with his peers in high school, others in his class will turn fifteen and sixteen during their sophomore year while Chris, despite our best attempts will forever resemble a thirteen year old, the girls do their best to change his appearance to appear he is growing older, but there is only so much that can be done to make it believable.
It frustrates him to no end, as he constantly gets close to completing high school before we're forced to send him back to middle starting the process over again.
It is necessary to start Chris out as young as we possibly can, and that means he typically starts in sixth grade as an eleven going on twelve year old. At least here in Forks he will be attending the middle school straight away.
The last school Esme and I had enrolled him at sixth grade were still considered elementary school level, much to Chris's disgust and aggravation I could only imagine Chris's reaction when he found out he had to participate in recess.
Seeing Chris start to focus on the negative, I quickly changed the subject away from school. I would have a talk with Chris later after he had a chance to see the room we had chosen especially for him.
"Why don't you guys go pick out rooms?" I asked. I had barely finished the sentence before they were gone, leaving a cloud of dust, Esme and I with me holding Chris's jacket. He raised an eyebrow and gestured patiently towards the house, obviously confused.
"Dad is there a particular reason you aren't letting me beat everyone to my new room? I mean its like giving them a head-start, little unfair don't you think?"
"Go to the top floor Chris, the last door at the end of the hall way leads to a set of stairs, I want you to check that out first." He blinked suspiciously, his blue eyes beginning to get that childish gleam in them that we don't get to see very often but always welcome. "Go Chris before Rosalie finds it and turns it into a beauty parlor." I added and with a horrified look on his face Chris was gone.
Esme and I watched as the dust cleared, laughing, before she turned to me and kissed my cheek.
"This house is going to be good for us, its beautiful, but it needs work, so it's perfect."
"Do I dare ask what kind of work you had in mind?" I asked chuckling
"That main room, I've decided to remove the walls, really open it up, and the outside wall, that has got to go, we should put up a glass wall around the front area of the house, it will also open the house up and when it gets to sunny we can simply cover the window. It will be perfect."
"Its peaceful out here too, so calm, it will be nice to listen to the river and the sounds of the forest at night-"
"I saw it first!" I heard Chris shout from upstairs, interrupting the peaceful moment, I sighed, I could only imagine what or even who the argument was about. Esme and I exchanged a look and walked inside the house. No sooner had we crossed the threshold when I got my answer, though I wished momentarily I hadn't.
"Forget it Chris, the only reason you got here first was because I was checking on my piano. Your room is in the attic, Carlisle and Esme picked it out especially for you, it's the biggest bedroom in this entire house!" I heard Edward counter, much to my surprise.
Chris rarely argues with any of his siblings, but to argue with Edward is even rarer. Thanks to their uncanny abilities, Chris and Edward are usually on the same level on most arguments, if any arguing was occurring in the house it was usually between Edward and Rosalie, with Chris and Emmett watching and egging on from afar.
"The attic only overlooks the front drive, look at the bloody view you have, the river, the mountains come on. You take the bloody loft, it has room for your ruddy piano and you can sit there composing all day, go hang upside down from the rafters for all I care. You've never cared about views before, why now?"
"Inspiration!"
"ARGH you bloody ùmaidh!" I heard Chris shout, calling Edward an idiot in Scottish, followed by a thud. Quickly I bolted upstairs, Esme right behind me, by the time we got up to the third floor the argument had gone to the next step.
Jasper was holding Chris up by his waist off the floor while Emmett held Edward, his large arms wrapped securely around Edward's chest. Alice and Rosalie were standing in the room as well, both dumbfounded as they stared at the boys.
"Boys what is going on here?" Esme exclaimed glaring at all four of our sons, before looking at Alice and Rosalie for a more definitive answer, both girls shrugged however and nodded back at the boys.
"Ask these two lunatics," Emmett replied shaking Edward "I came up here when it sounded like they were coming through ceiling," which unfortunately was entirely and physically possible.
"Christian?" I started; it was his voice I had first heard on this situation.
"You said pick out our rooms; you said check out the attic first. I did and I appreciate it I really do. But" he looked out at the window "look at that!"
I sighed and went towards the window my youngest was pointing at. The view was spectacular, the Olympic Mountain range was spread out before us and to the left of the window I could see the river. But it was the mountains that made me understand why Chris was so desperate for this room.
"He's insane!" Edward spoke up glaring at his younger brother, who was delivering a glare of his very own.
"Edward." Esme reprimanded
"He is! He's starting a fight over a room."
"I did not start a fight; you're just being bloody selfish!" Chris shouted
"Christian, language," Esme scolded though it fell on deaf ears.
"Selfish? Look who's talking, you're being an idiot!" Edward countered
"Edward," I reprimanded, rubbing my temple, hoping that Edward would be the older more mature one of the situation, which he was clearly not going to be this time around. By this point, I half expected both of them to be saying the old childish rhyme 'I know you are but what am I?' or perhaps the equally childish if not more so 'I am rubber you are glue.' I was honestly surprised when neither of them did, that is how ridiculous this entire argument was.
"ARGH!" Chris shouted again as he fought to get out of Jasper's thankfully firm grip, his feet swung in the air as he tried to lunge at Edward, and under difference circumstances, it could have been quite comical.
"Ok, that is quite enough!" I exclaimed, everyone in the room stopped what they were doing and stared at me. "You both are acting more like teenagers then the adults you really are. This is absolutely ridiculous. Chris, I understand you want this room because of the view, but Edward does have a point."
"You're taking his side? He got the pick of the rooms the last FIVE places, that's not fair!"
I looked at Edward dramatically, now more than before I was expecting him as the older brother to be more reasonable then his younger sibling. But Edward had a similar determined look in his eye.
"All right this needs to be settled right now. Obviously asking you two to share is out of the question." Both boys nodded furiously glaring at each other "and neither one of you plans on backing down on this. The only alternative is for me to make the decision."
I hadn't noticed that Esme was circling the room eyeing every detail, until she came up behind me.
"Carlisle, I'm not sure how we missed it, but this room is quite big. It wouldn't be all that difficult to run a wall right through the room. We can extend this window make it a large bay window and even put a small balcony on one of the sides." She looked at Chris whose eyes had grown hopeful. Sensing that things were calming down, Jasper relaxed his hold and put Chris down, he didn't however move his hand from Chris's shoulder, just in case. "Of course doing so Chris means you will have a much smaller space. It is only fair that Edward have the larger half because it would be originally his room he is giving up."
Edward and Chris looked at one another, they both seemed ok with that idea and I could only sigh in relief, thankful that Esme's talent for design and architecture had come through, not to mention her ability as a mother to find a way to compromise a very intense situation.
I was really not looking forward to forcing Chris to give up something he obviously wanted, especially something so simple, and listening to the two of them bicker some more was not on my list of highlighted items.
When the first day of school arrived, I made arrangements to go to the hospital for the afternoon shift, that way Esme and I could accompany everyone to school and make sure all the documents and transfer papers were in order. The high school of course was stop number one, the middle school started about twenty minutes after the high school so Chris ended up coming into the high school with us.
I could only imagine the initial thoughts of the student body as we entered Forks high school. Rosalie, Emmett, and Jasper all posing as sophomores looked nothing like their peers and were equally matched if not more so to the seniors, despite the attempts by Esme, Rosalie, and Alice.
Alice however fit the part of a freshman perfectly, her small size and choice of wardrobe for the occasion matched the age she was playing, she would change her wardrobe to make it appear she was growing up when in fact she wasn't.
Edward on the other hand resembled a fourteen year old freshman in only one way, the scowl on his face. Again the girls had done their best to de-age him forcing him into clothes that were much, much younger than him, it just worked easier on Chris than Edward, he still looked older than Chris's physical age.
Chris barely resembled his physical age of thirteen when Esme, Rosalie, and Alice were finished with him, he could easily pass for as young as eleven or twelve. Chris's small stature overall has helped with this in the past and it continues to help today, from all the rationing and lack of supplies in war-torn London, Chris like many others of his generation was emaciated and somewhat malnourished, something that became permanent when I turned him, even for his physical age of thirteen, there are times when Chris looks more like a eleven or twelve year old then thirteen nearly fourteen.
Though he was never all that happy with it, Chris takes it in stride, and as with Alice changing of his clothing style and the girls styling his hair made it appear he was getting older each year. The last decade or so we've only allowed Chris to go as old as fourteen, fifteen has always pushed it and the last time we tried it was in 1960 or so and it aroused some suspicion.
We were just about to enter the office when Chris came out of his book world, he looked around before he looked up at me, as if he had just realized he wasn't in the car anymore. He can become so lost in a book I wasn't surprised he had no idea how he got from point A to point B.
"I think I may wait in the car, I really don't think my presence is required at this point." Chris asked clearing his throat as he tried to keep his voice sounding young. His voice was on the cusp of maturity when I changed him so he's permanently stuck with the near adult voice mixed with a child's. He can flux his voice to fit whatever age he is pretending to be for the most part so to a normal human ear, Chris would have sounded like any other twelve year old and not the fourteen year old he really is.
"No Christian, this will only take a minute." I promised him patting his shoulders.
"Yeah Chrissy where's your sense of adventure, don't you want to see what you'll be coming to in a few years?" Emmett hooted, receiving more stares and whispers, however now those stares and whispers were directed at Chris, as the student body finally noticed him.
"Look at his eyes, how creepy is that, can he even see?" A girl whispered, which thanks to our superior hearing we picked up perfectly. I saw Chris resist the urge to look the girl's way to glare, I was proud of him for that, her comment was more surprise than cruel, but it was the comment that came after that I had to worry about.
"I don't see a dog or a cane." A boy replied to the girl laughing, I had to put a hand on Chris's shoulder stopping him from glaring as he struggled to ignore that comment. The sooner we completed our business at the high school and got him over to the middle school, the better.
When we finished up at the high school, Chris, Esme, and I piled back in the Mercedes and drove down the road to the middle school. Chris had been quiet since the comments about his eyes; he was staring at his book the entire time and I was a little concerned.
"We're here," I said as I pulled into the middle school parking lot. I looked in the rearview mirror and saw no acknowledgement from Chris, I know he wasn't as deeply absorbed in his book as he was pretending to be. "Hello?" still nothing "all ashore that's going ashore?" "No thanks I'd rather take the 9'oclock ferry back to Alaska, this isn't my stop."
I exchanged a smile with Esme who began to giggle
"Nice try Christian, out." I chuckled
Grumbling, Chris shoved his book into his pocket and slowly slid out of the car. Esme and I are constantly reminding everyone to use human speed, but the speed Chris was going was slower than any human I'd ever seen, it could be compared at a snail's pace.
"Christian." Esme ordered gently.
Chris could profile that she wasn't reprimanding him, but he still grumbled as he folded his arms waiting for us to join him.
We entered the building and headed to the office. The middle school was smaller then the high school, but not by much.
There was still a good fifteen minutes before the first bell was scheduled to ring, at least according to the student handbook Chris had received in the mail yesterday. We walked into the office, it was more chaotic then the high school's had been and a lot more kids in and out, running.
Esme pulled Chris closer to her as an eighth grader darted into the office nearly running Chris who still had his face buried in his book, over.
"Can I help…help you?" The secretary asked as she jumbled a pile of paperwork, it nearly toppled over when she set it on the desk, Chris reached forward not once looking up from his book and steadied the pile as she set it down, his ability clueing him into the potential topple.
Luckily the secretary didn't notice Chris's motion, but I gave Chris a warning look, which he ignored.
"Yes, we're the Cullens, we just moved to Forks. I called yesterday about enrolling my son Chris?"
"Oh yes, yes, the new family. I am so sorry. The first day of school is always hectic and for some reason today is extra hectic. I have all the paperwork right…ah here it is." She pulled out a stack of papers and I exchanged a glance with Esme, we had never had to fill out that much paperwork for any of our children, even with the once or twice we had to enroll Chris in sixth grade, when it was technically elementary school. "I know it's a lot, its emergency forms, medical information, extracurricular interests, things like that. All in coming sixth graders are required to, it's a big change for the kids so we try to make it as comfortable as possible by getting to know as much as can from both them and their parents."
"Understandable" Esme replied
"Thankfully we don't need all this done today, if you could just send it in with Christopher sometime this week that be great."
"Christian," Esme corrected politely
"Oh, sorry I assumed…well just send the paperwork with Christian this week and it will be all set."
"Of course." I replied
"Oh, I am Mrs. Klein, I'm the secretary here."
"It's a pleasure to meet you Mrs. Klein." I replied and elbowed Chris in the side without anyone noticing. He looked up at me and then looked at the secretary
"Hi," he said softly, barely loud enough for her to hear. She smiled at him warmly, obviously seeing him as a shy, timid child nervous about starting the first day of school.
"Hello Chris, welcome to Forks,"
"Thanks,"
"What are you reading?"
"Les Misérables." Chris replied.
Mrs. Klein looked at us with surprise
"That is very advanced for an 11 year old." I didn't miss Chris rolling his eyes, I was just thankful he didn't mention that he was reading the French text as opposed to the English translation.
"Chris was in an all advanced classes at his previous school. English and history are his strong areas, but he excels at math and science as well and speaks French." Esme explained
"Really?" Mrs. Klein asked as Esme smiled,
"It should be in his transcript."
"Well I will make sure Mrs. Cooper knows. We have only a few advanced classes here and the only advanced class for English is actually an eighth grade level, but we will make sure to challenge Chris as much as possible." Mrs. Klein assured us, Chris looked up at me expectantly "if you'd like to go in, Mrs. Cooper is ready for you, Chris why don't you stay here so we can go over your schedule and your locker ok sweetie?"
The look I got from Chris was his pleading 'don't leave me with these people' look and I chuckled a bit patting him on the head.
Mrs. Cooper stood up from her desk as we entered. She looked much younger then the high school principal, but the diplomas that scattered the walls of her office told of her experience in education.
"Ah, Dr. Cullen, Mrs. Cullen." She greeted us "I was hoping to meet you."
"How are you?" I asked shaking her hand gently as she shook mine then Esme's before gesturing for us to take a seat.
"Excellent, trying to maintain order on a first day of school is always amusing, challenging, but very rewarding" She sat down behind her desk and looked over Chris's records which I had faxed the previous day. "Now it says here that Christian scored advance on a placement test he was given two years ago in Alaska?"
"Yes." I answered
"His grades are impressive, even in first grade those are remarkable grades. I am curious however; there do not seem to be any records for kindergarten or pre-school."
"I brought those in." Esme spoke up handing over the forged documents Jasper had done up for Chris to fit his back story, though I wish there was another way, I had to admit these were some of Jasper's best work, it couldn't have been easy forging documents as an exact replica of British educational documents. "Christian began his education in the United Kingdom."
"Oh?"
"He's actually our godson, we were granted custody of him when he was five after his parents were killed in a car accident." I explained
"Oh my." Mrs. Cooper's face went sympathetic "the poor thing." She paused "if I may ask, how has he coped with it?"
"It was difficult in the beginning; we had to endure a number of night terrors and home sickness. But he is doing much better. He's not a trouble maker, but he is quiet, so if you could let his teachers know that he's not trying to be defiant, it's just his personality, he's very mature, but very quiet." Esme explained
"That is perfectly understandable." Mrs. Cooper replied, probably the first teacher or principal who has sympathized with Chris.
Most are suspicious as to why a thirteen year old (or whatever age Chris happens to be mimicking) is so reserved and unwilling to interact with his peers. For some reason the high schools never zero in on our other children for the same behavior, Chris always seems to be the focus.
We have even had multiple educators insist that Chris has certain psychological disorders, ADD being the most persistent diagnosis though a few years prior we had one teacher trying to convince us that she was certain Chris had autism.
Mrs. Cooper's sympathy was surprising as well as refreshing.
"Well, I know you are busy today, so we won't keep you." Esme said politely and Mrs. Cooper smiled "we just wanted the opportunity to introduce ourselves."
"I am very glad that you did, it is always a pleasure to meet new parents, I hope we see you both soon. We are always looking for parent involvement with the school, PTA, dances, field trips."
"Of course," Esme said happily "anything to be involved, Chris is still at the age where he doesn't mind us being involved, our older children are polite about it, but very insistent that we spend as little time as possible at their school." That was certain true, Esme loved the idea of the full parental role and took the opportunity any time she could.
"Oh yes, I did read that in the file, quite a full house. I must say I am so impressed and inspired by both of you, opening your home to so many children just because it is the right thing to do."
"Thank you," I replied shaking Mrs. Cooper's hand and waited as Esme did the same, before we bid her goodbye and went back into the office.
Mrs. Klein was going over what appeared to be a map of the school with Chris, who was being polite but looked absolutely bored. He perked up a bit when he saw us emerge. Mrs. Klein looked up as well. She smiled as he walked back to us and Esme hugged him.
"We're heading off now Christian," Esme said gently "have a good first day okay?"
"Thanks mum,"
"I'll pick you up this afternoon son." I added, "I have a split shift today."
"Okay dad," Chris replied, I patted his shoulder and thanked Mrs. Klein for her help. Chris may have looked bored, but he did not look as miserable as he had earlier, I had a feeling that Forks middle school allotted its students a lot more freedom and reasonability than other middle schools and for Chris, it was perfect, it would certainly help in his attitude towards starting over in middle school again.
