Bella's POV

"Emmett, sit down!" My mom called into the backseat.

I lifted my head from resting against the window to see my older brother leaning out the window, his entire torso exposed to the wind. He sank back into his seat. "Sorry, Mom."

"Seriously, Emmett. You're seventeen. When are you going to grow up?" I rolled my eyes.

"You know, I once read a birthday card that said that growing old was mandatory, but growing up was optional. So, never!"

I rolled my eyes again.

"Bella, Emmett, please! I'm trying to sleep!" Alice shouted from between us. We had been shouting over her for pretty much the entire trip to Forks.

I had lived in Klickitat County for my entire life with Emmett, Alice, and my mom. My dad, Charlie, had left when Alice was just a few months old. I was two at the time, Emmett was three.

We knew Mom had an e-dating account, and we knew she was talking to a rich doctor on the other side of Washington, but none of us suspected that we would have to move in with him without ever meeting him or his three kids.

"Okay, so Mom, can you please, like, at least describe Mr. Cullen so we have at least some clue of who he is?"

"He's a doctor for the local hospital in Forks. He has three kids, but one of them is adopted. The oldest one, Rosalie, is eighteen. Jasper is sixteen, and the youngest one who's adopted, Edward, is fifteen. They're all very smart kids. And they appear to have a lot of money."

"Mom, everybody has a lot of money compared to us. We're dirt-poor."

"That's not true, Bella," my mom scolded. "We just use our money wisely, as opposed to buying luxury sports cars for anyone of driving age. Even Edward has a nice-looking Volvo. Rosalie has a red convertible of some sort, I don't know what, and I'm not sure what Jasper drives, but I'm sure it's expensive."

Alice folded her tiny arms across her chest. "So they're rich. Great. You know, I think the only reason you like him is because he's a doctor and he's rich. Do you even know him? Do you know if he's a nice guy?"

"I'm sure he is. He's a doctor and he has an adopted son. That says a lot."

Alice and I both just shook our heads, and leaned back in our seats to fall asleep for the rest of the trip.

Rosalie's POV

"Rosalie! Jasper! Get in here!" Carlisle called us into his study. He didn't call Edward's name, as usual. Edward already knew whatever Carlisle wanted to say.

"Yes, Carlisle?" Jasper held the door open for me as I walked in to see Carlisle.

"I have important news to tell you. I'm in love."

"That's great, Carlisle! Who is she?" I smiled.

"Well, you see, I met her online. She has three kids and they're moving in with us." He frowned in thought.

Edward's head popped through the door. "Do you want the mattresses in our rooms and the beds in theirs?" He paused. "Yeah, okay." He zipped back out of the room.

Jasper's eyes widened. "They're human."

Carlisle nodded. "Uh huh. We'll need to edit our style of living. They'll need to believe that we sleep, eat, go to the bathroom, and all that. It's difficult, but we can manage, I'm sure."

I crossed my arms over my chest. I was not sharing my house with some human bitch and her three little brats just because Carlisle thought he loved her. We had all made a lot of sacrifices for Carlisle, but this was the last straw.

"Rosalie, calm down. You have nothing to worry about. Edward will set up their beds on the opposite side of the house from us." Jasper was, of course, sensing my annoyance. I calmed down against my will.

I caught the silent but I will from his tone. "It'll be all right. We can find a way to hunt often, right, Carlisle?"

"Of course, of course." He nodded fervently. "Now go help Edward fix the house up."

Alice's POV

As we pulled into their driveway and stepped out of the car, the front door opened and a god-like man walked out. His skin was very pale, like mine and Bella's, and his hair was a rich golden blonde. He extended his arms.

"My dear Esme! So good to see you! Are these your kids?" He smiled, a full set of gleaming white teeth shining through his pink lips. So this was Carlisle. Wow, my mom really knew how to pick them.

Mom hugged Emmett and me to her sides as Bella pulled away from us. "Yup, this is Alice, Emmett, and Bella is standing behind me. Bella, say hello to Carlisle."

She gave a short wave and continued reading. She was one chapter away from the end of Wuthering Heights, and she had already read to book at least ten times.

"Well, let me get my kids. Rosalie, Jasper, Edward! Esme and her kids are here!"

Emmett's jaw dropped, as did mine. Bella briefly looked up from her book to see what we were looking at.

To say that Carlisle's children took after him would be an understatement. Rosalie's hair matched her father's in color, and it was full and long like no one could achieve. Her body had that look every teenage girl strives to achieve. But Jasper was what caught my attention. He had a bit more of a tan than his father and sister, but his perfect skin and his perfectly sculpted muscles entranced me.

Rosalie mumbled something to Jasper, to which he nodded and smiled.

The other son, the adopted one, Edward, walked out then. He was also very attractive, but he seems shy and reclusive, and he stared at us, making me very uncomfortable. He also had a very fair complexion, but his bronze, tangled, "I just woke up" hair didn't do anything for me. He stared at Bella some more, but she didn't notice.

Their house was as immaculately clean, not a speck of dust anywhere. It was rather plain, but Mom could fix that up easily. She loved interior design almost as much as I loved fashion. That reminded me of how I would need to help Edward. His fashion sense was way out of whack. Rosalie was the only one with true fashionista abilities. Jasper's clothes were nice, and they looked good on him, but I knew I could have fun dressing him.

"Edward. Would you mind showing them their rooms?" Carlisle's voice interrupted my thoughts.

Edward nodded and started up the stairs, motioning for us to follow. "For privacy reasons, you will all be on the second floor, and we will be on the first floor. Carlisle does have a few rules regarding privacy. No lock picking any doors and no pranking your stepsiblings. I was told to tell you all that."

Bella and I glared at Emmett, who shrugged with a deflated expression.

"I think that's it. Isabella and Alice will share a room, Esme gets her own room, and Emmett gets his own. All right, see you at dinner." He fled down the stairs.

As we were unpacking our stuff, Bella sighed. "I wish Mom wouldn't rush into stuff like this. We barely know him or his kids. And that Edward boy's a creep. Mom always calls me Bella, yet he called me by my full first name Isabella. Where would he have gotten that from? And he referred to his adoptive dad as Carlisle, not Dad. It makes me wonder."

I laughed. "Yeah, well did you notice how hot Carlisle and his biological kids are? Emmett's jaw practically unhinged when Rosalie walked out."

"And yours did with Jasper. Don't think I missed that. But he is way too old for you, let alone that fact that he's going to be your stepbrother soon."

I rolled my eyes. "B, just because you can't find love doesn't mean Emmett and I can't. Who cares that he's three years older than me? He is downright gorgeous."

My older sister shook her head. "Too old, too old."

Emmett's POV

The first time I saw her, I knew I was in love. Her perfect waist-length sunshine hair fell in beautiful waves down her back. Her beautiful hazel eyes begged for love, and her perfect DD chest bounced softly as she walked out of her house. Her flawless skin almost glowed under the soft light from behind the clouds.

She mumbled something to her brother, and as her rosy lips parted, I felt a familiar tug in my jeans.

I cursed under my breath, hoping Rosalie wouldn't notice. I looked behind me at my younger sisters to confirm they hadn't noticed. They would never let me live that down if they had. Bella's nose was buried in a book as usual, but Alice's eyes were glazed over as she gazed upon Rosalie's brother. He had that lean muscle a lot of young teenage girls liked back in Klickitat, but he seemed afraid of me, like he was resisting beating me up to get to Alice or Bella. But I wouldn't let that happen. I would devour a guy like that faster than he could say, "No."

The brother, Jasper, smirked. This was going to be a fun new brothership.

Carlisle's POV

"I can't hear her, Carlisle," Edward confided that night. "It's like she doesn't think."

"She was reading, Edward. Maybe she wasn't thinking. Can you hear her now?"

He closed his eyes and cocked his head to the right, listening to whatever he could. I could physically hear Bella, Emmett, and Alice discussing the move, and I knew he could as well.

"No, only her voice. No thoughts. But judging from her conversation with Alice, she doesn't approve of us. She thinks I'm a creep, Jasper's a pedophile, and Rosalie's a slut. They don't even know." He laughed.

I nodded with a grin. They were practically necrophiliacs themselves. I wondered how long we'd be able to keep the secret.

"Not long," Edward answered. "We'll have to hunt every day to maintain our eye color. And I suppose it's easy to pretend to sleep, but food times get tricky for you, me, and Jasper. Rose can pretend to be bulimic, I suppose. You hear me, Rosalie?" He didn't need to yell. We could all hear each other from across the house at a normal speaking level.

"Yeah, I hear you." Her response was loud and clear. "You guys could just puke silently. They wouldn't know."

I heard Jasper laugh. "And I'll try not to hurt them. But Alice and Bella are in their teenage years, and Esme's still young. You three know how that affects me." We all knew he was referring to the monthly bleeding, something we hadn't worried much about in ages. I had no issue with blood; blood was something I worked with everyday at the hospital. Edward wouldn't have an issue. He wouldn't do anything in fear of disappointing me, something that even drinking a little human blood wouldn't do. I could never be disappointed in my eldest son.

Edward smiled. "Thanks. And Rose has never tasted human blood, so she shouldn't have an issue either. But Jazz'll be okay. He can go on extended hunting trips during that time if he pleases. I've found that a mother and her daughters are often very-well synchronized in that respect." He paused to listen to Jasper's thoughts on the idea. "He's hesitant to do that. He wants to become close to Alice, for reasons he's not sure of. She's fourteen, Jazz, as you well know. You're, what, 268? At least Rosalie should still be alive now. She's young enough to be Emmett's great-grandmother. You're nine generations away from Alice."

I heard Esme approaching the door to my study. "Quick, act human and shut up."