Disclaimer: Stephenie Meyer owns all things Twilight. No copyright infringement is intended.
Beta-in-Chief: Lola...she was a showgirl, but she gave that and her yellow feathers up to beta my little story. (Additional disclaimer: Barry Manilow owns the lyrics to Copacabana)
The Cullen Sextuplets
Chapter 1 – Meet the Sextuplets
Carlisle, are you sure about this?" Esme's voice rose to a slight panic, as it usually did when they started over as a family. Sure, there were always risks associated with registering a group of vampires for school where humans walk the halls. But this was different. And now they would be registering six instead of the usual five, but something kept giving her an uneasy feeling.
They inched forward in line, arms linked together, much the way an old fashioned couple would have done. Of course being together since the early 1900's, they usually gave in to what was comfortable for themselves, and not popular for everyone else. They took note of the other parents milling around, standing together, but not really together. Men and women, both on their phones, but obviously not speaking to each other. Not true with Carlisle and Esme Cullen. When they were together, they wanted no interruptions. Esme and Carlisle worshipped each other, not their lives. There was nothing, no phone call, no email, or update to their social networking sites that was more important than the opportunity to simply be in each other's presence.
"Relax Dear." Carlisle let go of Esme's arms drawing her in for a hug. "It's going to be fine. You're always nervous when the children start over at a new school. This is just a new procedure they had to instill nowadays to make ensure the children's safety. They just want to meet the parents and verify residency requirements within the district." Carlisle kissed the top of his wife's head and gently blew his breath over her, trying to take her focus off the registration.
"No Carlisle, it's more than that. It's Bella I'm worried about. Are you sure she's ready? I know she feels she is, but when I think back to that poor hunter in Alaska." Esme's voice was low enough to be only heard by Carlisle. The lovely couple was going unnoticed to those around them, apparently, being a breathtakingly beautiful couple was no match for today's shiny new objects of smartphones and iPads.
"Is that what's truly bothering you Dear? Bella? I'm sure she's going to be fine. No one was more horrified than she herself by what she had done to that hunter. Edward thought she was with Alice and Alice thought she was with Edward. No one saw anything because Bella herself didn't know. She was still so young to this life. Besides, that was years ago now. She did fine at the soup kitchen with you, Alice and Rose. Look, we have everything we need now. Our family is all put together. There are no more 'missing pieces'. Edward will keep a close watch over his mate, I'm sure. They'll all be fine. I promise." Carlisle pulled Esme's heart shaped face up to stare into her eyes. "I promise you Esme, they will all be fine. We have nothing to worry about. They're all so excited about going back to school; Emmett even volunteered to do all the paperwork this time." He smiled at his wife and she caved.
"You're right. I don't know why I am worrying so much. Edward wouldn't let anything happen with Bella. Wait Carlisle! Did you just say Emmett filled out the paperwork?" At Carlisle's nod Esme's panicked look returned. "Did you look it over?"
Both Carlisle and Esme's pale skin paled even further as the thought hit them. They each took three of the folders and began shuffling through the papers inside as fast as possible while trying to maintain a human appearance.
"I think it's all okay. I don't see anythi…" Esme's voice trailed off as they heard the woman behind the counter call out.
"CULLEN. CULLEN. CULLEN. CULLEN. CULLEN. CULLEN." An older woman yelled the names out loud while making checkmarks on her clipboard. Looking up, she pushed her glasses higher on her face and smiled after she made eye contact with Carlisle.
"That would be us. Come on Dear, it'll be fine." Carlisle put his arm around his wife and followed the woman into the tiny office behind the counter.
After making introductions and small talk about the weather they began the registration process. The secretary leaned forward.
"How is it that they have no prior school record?" She had her pen in hand and waited on an answer.
"I did the homeschooling myself until last year. Will this be a problem?" Esme looked over at the woman confidently.
"Oh no, we have several children that were homeschooled. This isn't a very large town so you'll probably get to know the other families rather quickly. I do believe that your family is the only set of multiples that have been homeschooled. Of course Mike and Fran Digby's triplets were up until I believe junior high. Seemed like after the kids hit puberty she just couldn't wait to get them out of her hair."
"Triplets?" Carlisle's voice was faint as he and Esme looked over at each other. She reached for his hand nervously.
"Oh yes. We have several sets of multiples. However, until your family showed up, I believe our highest number was a set of quadruplets. We're quite excited to have your group join us."
"My group?" Esme's voice shook slightly with nervousness. She tightened her grip on Carlisle's hand.
"Oh Honey." The secretary shook her head sadly and continued in a whisper. "Infertility is nothing to be ashamed of. My own sister had to try dozens of times before she got pregnant. Course, she only ended up with twins though." The secretary looked knowingly at Esme, as if she shared some secret with her. "Not that she wasn't happy with the twins, she just never felt a need to keep trying."
"Oh." Had she have still been human, Esme Cullen would have blushed with embarrassment. As it was all she could do was look over at Carlisle for help.
"Mrs. Ruby?" Carlisle took a moment to clear his throat before he spoke. "I assure, it was never my wife's and my intention to have such a large family. We did actually try to make our family bigger several times. The fact that we are now the proud parents of sextuplets is a bit of a shock to us as well, but we manage on our own just fine." Carlisle glanced at Esme, who was now catching on to what was being said. "Our children are very close and very protective of each other. They have no behavior problems aside from enjoying a good joke every now and then. They should give you no problems whatsoever."
"And I have to add, that I will be working from home, so if there's any problems that come up, please do not hesitate to call me right away." Esme gave a fleeting thought to her youngest daughter.
"Of course. Just out of curiosity, which one was first? It's not mandatory that the school know, I am just so excited to have them here. I don't remember seeing them on the news though." The secretary looked back and forth between Carlisle and Esme.
"I'm sorry, we tried to keep it out of the papers as much as possible. There were so many concerns over their safety. Um, if you don't mind, we'll just register them in alphabetical order to make things easier?" Carlisle tried to move the conversation along to get the needed task accomplished.
"Right, sure. So, let's start with A. Alice Cullen? Now, tell me all about Alice Cullen." She looked expectantly from Carlisle to Esme and back to Carlisle with a huge grin on her face. They could tell this was going to take a lot longer than anticipated.
Back at the home, the Cullen 'sextuplets' fared no better as they turned on each other. Emmett was pacing in the living room as Alice came running in and jumped on his back. "How could you be so stupid Emmett? Do you realize what you've done?" Alice's voice screeched loudly and they were soon joined by the rest of the family.
"Relax Alice, I just made us all share a birth date. We're still siblings." Emmett reached behind his back trying to pull his sister off.
"Wrong you idiot. When siblings have the same birthdate they're called twins. You gave us all the same birthyear as well. Idiot!" Alice screeched again directly into Emmett's ear this time smiling when he winced.
"Alice, twins means there's two. Count us up and you'll see there's six of us. You should know that by now." Emmett's voice was ringing with sarcasm as Rose and Jasper tried to intervene with their mates. Edward and Bella stood nearby with Edward pinching the bridge of his nose and shaking his head slowly.
"Emmett, you gave all six of us the same birthdate?" Edward groaned at the thought while Alice groaned as Jasper pulled her physically off from Emmett's back.
"What is the big deal? Jasper and Rosalie had the same birthdate a couple of times. So did Edward and I for that matter. And Alice and Edward too." Emmett clearly didn't see the problem yet.
"Emmett, what did you do exactly?" Rose stood in front of her mate crossing her arms in front of her.
"I just gave us all the same birthdate. What's the big deal?" Emmett removed his shirt and peeked over his shoulder to see if Alice had left any marks.
"Wait, you mean the same date only, right?" Rose's eyes became huge as the realization of what her husband had done hit her. "Emmett, tell me you didn't give us all the exact birthdate?"
"Yeah I did. So what?" Emmett stretched his shirt over his head putting his shirt back on, oblivious to the realization that had already hit on everyone else.
"You made us sextuplets? Emmett? Are you kidding me?" Rose's screeching was louder than Alice's as she looked around at her siblings and then back at her husband.
"Yeah, I thought it'd be fun to you know, goof off like that a little." Emmett's mouth turned into a lopsided smile as he looked at his wife.
"Rose, hold on a minute, Carlisle and Esme are coming and they're going to want to talk about it." Alice was standing in front of Jasper, clearly his soothing calm was taking effect on her.
As Carlisle and Esme entered the living room, their glares fell immediately to Emmett.
"I suppose you all figured out what has happened by now?" Carlisle rested both of his hands on his wife's shoulders as they faced the group.
After hearing Emmett explain to the group about how he thought it would be fun to have them all share a birthday and that he didn't think to change the year. Carlisle and Esme were less amused, it was Carlisle himself who burst their balloon when, after giving his own mate a long deep kiss in front of everyone, mentioned that they better make use of their time while they were home. He then pointed out that once they were in public, they could no long show affection to their mate in any way that could be misconstrued by the townspeople. Leaving their sextuplets behind, he and his mate made their way upstairs, leaving Emmett to take on his siblings alone.
"Okay, so I really didn't think that all the way through." Emmett said, defending himself as he plopped down into the couch. As his siblings let him have it, he tried to shift the blame. "Alice, why didn't you say something?"
"I didn't see it. How am I supposed to know what will be decided? You know I don't see anything until the exact moment the decision is made so don't pin this on me." Alice flitted over to Jasper crawling up onto his back laughing. "Come on bro, I have a few things I want to show you upstairs before morning comes." As Jasper turned his head and laughed with his spouse, they took off for their bedroom upstairs.
With one last disgusted look at her husband, Rosalie stormed off in a huff toward the garage. As she reached the door, she turned around to face Emmett, Edward, and Bella. "Don't follow me." It wasn't exactly clear who she was talking to.
"Don't worry Bella, we'll work something out." Edward drew Bella closer to him and stared over her head at Emmett. "You know Em, we've all pulled some pretty stupid stunts. Can't think of any that top this one right now, but I'm sure we've done worse." With a nod to let his brother know that he wasn't so mad at him, he led Bella upstairs where they spent the night getting as close as possible before their impending day of separation.
The first day of school started out with the usual groans from everyone except Bella. The first day of school ended with groans from everyone including Bella. During the course of the day, one kid had taken a liking to Bella. She was teased about it endlessly from Emmett and Jasper both. The fact that Edward couldn't touch her, really touch her during the day was torture for them. He could think of no way at all to mark Bella as 'his' and put off others from pursuing her. Bella, having taken a creative writing course that none of her siblings was interested in soon found herself having to face the kid alone. Her only comfort during those times was the fact that Alice was watching out for her, to make sure she didn't hurt Stevie O'Malley.
After a couple of weeks, he had made it clear that Bella was his intended target. Trying to play it cool, Edward defended his 'sister' without losing his temper around the boy, which would have brought them all into the limelight. It was only after Jasper had seen him trying to corner her and was forced to come to her rescue that the boy, Stevie O'Malley, backed off.
Bella had been backed against the wall, her eyes showing the same fear as that of a caged animal. Her next class was creative writing, the one that no one else in her family had, she had already said her goodbyes and separated from them all. Edward, unable to pick up Bella's thoughts at all, didn't hear Bella's mental screams for help. Her thoughts flying in every direction made the future too uncertain for Alice to pick up either.
As she clutched her books to her chest, Bella's thoughts raced ahead of her. She concentrated on Alice, hoping that she wasn't blocking her. Bella didn't think she was, but all she could focus on was Stevie, and not killing him. She tried in vain to focus her attention on Alice.
Thinking of killing Stevie was out of the question, as it would only cause her to act upon it. She did the only thing she could that would send one of her siblings to her rescue. She thought out in her head, a clear decision. What would happen if she let Stevie do all the awful things he was suggesting in her ear as she stood, trapped by his arms on either side of her, as she was backed against the wall. The thought repulsed and angered her further and she silently willed herself to wait for the help that she knew would be forthcoming any moment. She knew that once a definite decision was made, Alice would see her future shift that included Stevie and her eventual murder of him. Help arrived seconds later in the form of Jasper, who was sharing a history class with Alice that period and was able to get to Bella the fastest after Alice informed him what was happening.
Bella silently cried tears that never fell as Jasper cradled her in his arms and soothed her racing thoughts. To anyone else in the hall, it would look like Jasper was helping his sister. To Bella, it was so much more. It meant the world to her that Jasper loved her, even as a sister. The two of them had long ago buried the hatchet from the times when Jasper had tried to take a nip of Bella. Now, here he was, him comforting her as he knew he could no longer harm her. They skipped that period and went back into the lunch room, Jasper all the while touching Bella's arm so that he would be blocked from Edward's mind. Later, they rejoined their normal routine and were able to make it through the rest of the day.
That night, Bella had to explain what happened at the school to her 'parents', and the rest of the family. They had all went about their day blissfully unaware of what had happened. She explained it fearfully, thinking that Carlisle and Esme might not let her return to the school she had come to love in such a short time. During the 'family conference', it was Jasper who began explaining it for her.
"When Alice told me something was wrong with Bella, I had to go find her. When I got to them, Stevie had her pinned against the wall and she was definitely feeling afraid of him." Jasper threw Bella a confused look, letting her know that he was not attacking her, but that he was confused by her emotion at the time. "Bella, your feeling was one of being terrorized by him."
Bella stood to explain herself, looking around at her family, still seated at the table. Everyone looked concerned and Bella, still able to feel embarrassed, looked to Jasper for help. As she calmed her body down, she looked over at Edward, knowing that he would be the most upset and that he would be the one that she would find the most comfort in.
"Honestly, I don't know how that all happened. I said goodbye to Edward outside of the Algebra room and was almost to the English room when Stevie came up to me. I was looking down at my story so I didn't see him come up to me and by the time I knew what was going on I was already backed against the wall, then he was whispering such horrible things to me. That must be where the feeling of terror comes in." Bella's eyes sent an unnecessary apology to Edward as her embarrassment caused her skin to fake a blush. She couldn't even repeat the awful things that Stevie said he was going to do to her. "Jasper caught on that I felt afraid and he was right. But I wasn't afraid of Stevie himself. I could have easily killed him with no problem for all the disgusting things he was saying to me and I knew that. I was afraid that I actually might kill him and what it would mean for us all. I know we all hate moving on and on. But I really do feel that there is no family I would rather spend eternity with than this one right here." Bella looked around the room again and out of habit, blinked away the nonexistent tears before she began again.
"I know I was the reason we left Forks to start over in Alaska." Bella gave a brief thought to her newborn years spent being 'homeschooled' and babysat by Esme while the others went to a real school. She loved being with Esme but hated that she couldn't be around people, not yet. It was her own stupidity during a late night snowball fight with her siblings that she had come upon the solitary ice fisherman in the woods. It was her sibling's stupidity that she was left alone long enough to take the man down and kill him with her bare hands. In the seconds it took for Alice to comprehend what was happening and for them to find her she already had managed to try to bury the body and done a horrible job of it.
She had been standing by a tree pretending to examine it more closely when her siblings came up to her, Bella felt ashamed as she tried to hide the blood stains that dotted her clothing. She tried denying it at first, but after Emmett and Jasper had found the body, and Edward had confirmed it by looking at her eyes, she had to admit that yes, she had killed a human. That was the end of their stay in Alaska. They couldn't leave right away or it would look suspicious, but they couldn't stay either. Knowing that Bella had killed, and that she might again, they made plans to leave. This was how they ended up in Maryland.
With so many states so close by and within driving distance, it provided a perfect cover for them as they traveled. It was decided that the family would begin serving homeless and indigent people, providing food and medical care for them. This was Carlisle's brainstorm. He thought that instead of isolating Bella, it would be beneficial to introduce her to human's that smelled…less than savory.
Carlisle could have picked no better place than this, they all thought grumpily. Indeed, the smell of a human's blood who existed on canned meat and sometimes ate out of dumpsters was far less attractive than those that existed on steak and real food. The whole Cullen family, including Bella, was for once, safe from the bloodlust that threatened to expose them all. This life lasted only a few years until Carlisle, sensing his family restlessness, decided that Bella might be able to try again and should be able to attend a real high school. He could have said no sweeter words to his newest daughter; who looked forward to school and loved to learn, or to his wife Esme, who looked forward to spending more time alone with just her mate. With happy thoughts of his children not being around them 24/7, Carlisle figured it was a win-win situation for them all.
Bella continued explaining her actions. "And I know I was the reason we had to leave Alaska. I can never apologize enough for that." Bella looked at Rose specifically, knowing it was she that hated to move the most. "I could have killed Stevie so easily. The only thing that stopped me was disappointing all of you. The thought of living in Siberia, or worse, sent back to work at the homeless shelter again, of dragging all of you down with me like that. It was unacceptable. Jasper did feel my fear, that's true enough. But it wasn't the fear of Stevie. It was more a fear of what would happen if I did kill. I don't want to move again. I love it here, and I have my thirst under control so much more now than I did in Alaska. Please Daddy, don't punish everyone for my mistake." Bella's words now came out as almost begging. She was so afraid that Carlisle would decide that it was time to move again that she was almost pleading with him to let them stay and that nothing was wrong at school.
"First of all Bella, you handled things perfectly. I am proud of you and how well you thought out this reaction to save us all from detection. For now, we are staying put. I see no reason to move just because some child has taken a fancy to you Bella. He's no threat to us as yet." Carlisle's words comforted Bella almost as much as Edward's embrace.
Unknown to Carlisle and Esme, the 'Cullen children' as they had called themselves held their own meeting later that night. It was decided that Stevie O'Malley would become to them, here in Maryland, what Mike Newton had been to them in Forks. They would pass up no chance at humiliating him and taking him down a peg or two. Where Bella had once been Mike Newton's friend and defended him on more than one occasion to the Cullen's while she was human, she was a vampire now, and her alliance lay not with pitying the Stevies and Mikeys of the world, but with the Cullen's as they tortured him endlessly. After what Stevie had done to her, she felt no regret in what they were going to do.
The next morning as everyone was getting ready to start their day, Esme ran into Bella in the dining room as she sat reading over her paper for English. She walked up to her and pressed a kiss on the top of Bella's head, a gesture that had always made Bella smile. She felt warm all over as she remembered her 'newborn' days. Although the overall feeling was happiness at Edward for finally having her as a mate, they had still, except Edward and his parents, teased Bella on occasion.
One particular gesture that had them nearly all on their knees howling with laughter, was a reflex that Bella, at the time, had no control over that was discovered quite by accident after her first hunt. She had needed to feed so badly, she was running with them in the woods in a erratic pattern, just hoping to come across something, anything, to drink. She had found a moose and sloppily started ripping it's flesh, trying to find the source of the warm scent that overwhelmed her. Watching her with fascination, her new family stood in a circle around her. Edward, thinking he would be helping, advanced too close to newborn Bella and she snapped at him. That was all it took for the family to give Bella a wide patch of land in which to make a mess with her food. Afterward, after she had filled herself with the creature's blood, she collapsed against its carcass while a drunk feeling overtook her. With Edward being too distraught over his mate's reaction to him, he sat silently as Carlisle talked to him and Esme went to comfort her. As Esme slowly advanced on her and crooned to her in a soft voice, Jasper sent waves of calm over them all.
"Alice, didn't you see any of that at all?" Edward growled at her. She defended her actions by saying that she knew nothing of the sort until Bella's wild mind was settled on an animal, and that she had no prior knowledge of which animal Bella would come across first.
The arguing match was soon broken by Jasper's laugh and Esme sweet giggle. Esme had reached Bella and drew her into her arms as they sat on the ground amid the bits of torn moose flesh. She didn't seem to mind as an over-satiated Bella smeared blood from her face and hands all over Esme's clothes. She was crooning happily to a content Bella as Jasper's calm waves hit them. When Esme's face lowered to kiss the top of the girl's head, she had let out a tiny sound. A human would never had been able to make it out, but the vampires in the clearing had no trouble with it.
"Did she just…did she just purr?" Jasper slapped his knee as Bella did it again and caused everyone except Edward to laugh.
Alice danced around them all, spreading her happy giggles and making even Bella laugh as they realized that, just like a newborn, Bella would be easily entertained and easily comforted. Esme, unable to help herself with her newest child cradled in her arms, bent her head to kiss Bella's again and there again was the sound of contentment, louder this time. Bella's eyes closed, and she moved her head closer snuggling further into Esme's embrace.
"Oh sweet one, it's not me that you really want right now. It's Edward, your mate." Esme tried to gently pry Bella's hands from around her as she made eye contact with Edward so he would take over comforting Bella. It had happened time and time again after that and for months until Bella regained control over her body. Whenever she was kissed, whether it was Esme's motherly pecks, or Edward's more ravenous ones, Bella's body let out a purr, causing most everyone who heard it to laugh.
After years of training her new body to react how she wanted it to, she was surprised when Esme's light peck in the dining room caused an involuntary purr to escape from her. She looked up at her startled.
"Bella, did you just purr?" Esme looked down at her with concern as she patted the top of Bella's head.
"Did I?" Bella asked confused as she shook herself from the story she was writing. "I'm sorry Mom, I was just so caught up in my writing that I wasn't paying attention. Since I missed English yesterday I have to turn this in today." Bella took her schoolwork the most serious, trying to keep up with her sibling's years of gained knowledge.
"Are you sure you feel up to going to school today Bella? You could stay home with me if you want to. Even your father said it might be traumatizing to send you today, and he'll agree with me even more after I tell him that you're starting to purr again. No one would blame you if you wanted to stay home." Esme still kept a careful eye on Bella as she gathered her books around her.
"No, I'll be alright. Besides, the last thing I want is the school making a big deal out of this. You know I don't like the attention. Please don't tell daddy about the purring. I don't want to upset him or Edward." Bella quickly hugged her mother running to go change clothes for school.
Carlisle entered the room as quickly as Bella had left it, and at nearly the same speed. His centuries old body showed no signs of aging and he was just as fast as when he was just changed, well, maybe just a tad slower.
Carlisle greeted his wife with a very deep, very long kiss. After they broke apart he questioned her. "Was that Bella?"
Esme, still recovering from the depth of her husband's devotion nodded slowly. She raised a hand and placed it over her husband's unbeating heart gently to make sure he was still dead. "Carlisle, try not to let Edward read your mind right now. But, Bella purred at me." Concern was evident on her beautiful face.
"When?" Carlisle's mind began reciting an article from a medical journal as Esme answered.
"Just now. She was reading over her English paper and as I was asking her how she was doing and if she wanted to stay home from school today I kissed the top of her head. She purred. She pretended that it was no big deal but, Carlisle? She only does that when she's upset about something. She didn't want me to tell you or Edward. Are you still blocking him out?"
"Yes. Maybe yesterday bothered Bella more than she's letting on. Maybe she just doesn't want us to know about it. Do you want me to talk to her?" Carlisle placed his own hand over Esme's hand, still resting gently on his unmoving chest.
"Maybe we should just keep an extra close eye on her. If she didn't attack him yesterday when her emotions were showing, I don't think she will today. I'll talk to Alice and ask her to keep a close eye on Bella, well, closer than normal." Esme looked knowingly at her husband, both of them very aware of Alice's bond with her younger sister.
The laughed together lightly and Carlisle shook his head. "Remind me again why we had sextuplets?" His statement caused his wife a fit of laughter as they thought back to the joke that Emmett had played on them when they had first moved to Maryland. As their children left out of the house for their school day, Carlisle reached around his wife on their porch and mischievously whispered that they should go work on her infertility issues. As they watched the last car disappear down the driveway, that's exactly what they did.