It had always been a game the Cullen's' played when first moving into a new house. This activity had no name, but determined personnel rooms, increased their water bill, and served as a recurring joke until being removed to a new location.
This had begun slowly. They had received a visit from police when their billing company alerted authorities that the family living in the house was not using any water. After this alarming situation, the Cullen's brought it upon themselves to run the facet more often. A hassle which, over time, grated against their nerves in, no pun intended, the manner of a drippy facet. Always ones to try and enjoy the existence they had been given, a new game had been formed. The only rules were that they couldn't look over any blueprints or pictures of their new residence and they weren't allowed to harm anyone's sharpie markers.
Forks, Washington had been one of the most interesting and intense rounds they had ever played.
It started as soon as Carlisle opened the front door. Edward, as all knew, was the fastest to find their first destination; one of the three first floor bathrooms. Three quick flushes and an elegant signature on the wall and he was flashing past the runner-up; Jasper.
Jasper was attempting to finish his second flush when Esme appeared. Although not often a competitive person, these routines become a sort of loosening up of every member of the family. She threw a graceful arm against Jasper chest and pushed him away, a playful match broke out. Esme being the less powerful of the two ended up kneeling on the floor, her arms spread over the small area in between the toilet paper roll and lever. Both froze at the noise of six more draining toilets.
In another first level bathroom, a fight between Edward and Emmett was coming out not so nicely for Edward. Pushed up against the wall, Edward's arms were held down, Emmett stepping on his feet to keep him from kicking out. Even the great mind-digging powers of the ever-fast Edward couldn't stand to the enormous power from his larger brother.
It was a smell everyone of the Cullen's despised; permanent marker. Emmett got a nose full when Edward whipped it out of his pocket, drawing a line along the front of Emmett's shirt. Faster then Emmett could gain back his senses, Edward had scrawled off his name on the wall, his arm behind his back the whole time.
At Emmett's begrudging writing of his own, a returning crooked grin lit on Edward's face. Before the younger of the two could pass over the threshold, he was pounced upon, an act which had come from a spur-of-the-moment decision, resulting in Edward not having enough time to react.
Alice, Carlisle, and Rosalie were stuck at an impasse at the third bathroom. With Alice's futuristic knowledge, Carlisle's stealthy footing, and Rosalie's straight forward attacks, all were tangled in a fight for dominance. They hadn't even made it past the sink before the match had started. Each were trying as hard as they would to reach the toilet, every once in a while one would get as far as pushing the lever and be hounded down by the other two. Carlisle was the first to get three swills out, quicker then lightning his marker was uncapped and pointed at the other two occupants of the bathroom.
Alice looked upset and indignant for a moment before her adoptive father slashed a small line across the bridge of her nose. The expression deepened. Carlisle triumphantly wrote out his own name, then turned and fell over the outstretched foot of Alice. Picking himself up he darted out the door as Rosalie and Alice both attempted to get past the other.
Emmett, a feat unusual for the oldest brother, finished that round first. He sustained a black marker line along his shirt front; a blow dealt by Edward, and had created a dent in his fourth bathroom wall from pushing Edward after said blow. Three more cavities, two scratches, and one scuff mark in other random bathrooms and hallways, were caused by various struggles and trials.
Edward was second, supporting Einstein like hair; a look Alice had given him in her excitement to climb over him to get to her first and his second lavatory, a torn sleeve; which had become an inconvenience when it snagged on a nail sticking out of a door frame, and he had given his last bathroom a long black line along the shower divider. Carlisle had also marked him across his hand in a weird squiggly pattern.
Third was the timid Esme, who seemed to use all the pent up energy stored during her everyday life in these games. All her contained competitiveness earned her not a scratch but she had broken one mirror after her husband had been too enthusiastically trying to write his name on her sixth and his fifth restroom. Oh, well, they could afford seven years of bad luck.
With all of his military background and training, Jasper was fourth. His biggest damage was the loss of his shirt, which, in all her excitement (the same excitement which had caused harm to Edward's hair), Alice had ripped clean off of him. His bare chest had received a number of black markings courtesy of a fight between Carlisle and himself.
The kind and caring Carlisle had come in fifth, he earned the title of "Black Plague" after the recurring wielding of his sharpie marker. Impeccable, Carlisle retained no damages and gave none besides the black markings over most of his family.
Rosalie was next, her straight forward attacking earning her a number of dark "plagues". In her haste to pass Edward at her third and his fifth bathroom she smashed into a door, splintering it into pieces.