My first clear memory is not an entirely pleasant one. I was six years old and my somewhat annoying younger brother, Connor, was two. All of us (me, my parents, and Connor) packed into the car with only the vague explanation of going to visit "an old friend of mom's". Normally, I would have peppered mom with questions for the entire ride, but I noticed she seemed tense. And dad was beyond tense; he looked like he was about to clench his jaw so hard, he would crack his teeth. I knew when it was a bad idea to push things.
The drive seemed to take forever. We passed into Forks and I became slightly annoyed. I didn't see why all this drama was exactly necessary if we were just going to visit Grandpa Charlie. I had kept quiet for a half hour, which was probably a personal record back then, so I blurted out, "Why are you guys so grumpy if we're just going to visit Grandpa?" The words shattered the tense silence and mom turned around, worry clearly showing in her eyes.
"We're not visiting Grandpa," she said quietly. This made dad tense up again, which made me roll my eyes once mom couldn't see me. We passed through Forks, making me wonder how long this drive was going to take anyway, and turned onto a private drive. As we neared the impressive white house at the end of the road, I vaguely noticed both dad's and Connor's noses wrinkling. I sniffed, trying to catch whatever was bugging them. Everything smelled all right to me. Maybe it was a boy thing.
We parked at the front of the house, and I saw several people standing on the porch. As we got out of the car, I got the distinct impression that dad didn't like these people and that Connor was afraid of them. Wimp. I walked right up to the biggest one, the tall one with brown hair, and stuck out my hand.
"Hi, I'm Allison. Sorry my brother's a wimp." He started laughing as I took his hand, which was weirdly cold, and shook it. He couldn't seem to stop. So I just rolled my eyes and listened as mom introduced me to the seven "old friends". There was Emmett, who was still laughing at me, the jerk, and Rosalie, the stuck-up looking one. Then there was Jasper, keeping his distance from us, and Alice, who was barely taller than me. Carlisle was the older-looking blond and Esme was the sweet, motherly one. Finally, there was Edward, who was kind of creeping me out. He kept staring at us and looked…dead. There was no other way to put it really. I couldn't help noticing the awkward looks between him and mom. I also noticed he was the only one alone. My nice side got the better of me and decided I should make sure he doesn't, I don't know, jump out a window or something. I'm really not sure what I was thinking, but I knew he needed someone to snap him out of whatever funk he was in.
So, when we all came into the giant house, I automatically went over to him. "So, what's wrong with you?" I asked bluntly. He just stared at me, but at least he didn't seem quite so out of it. He stayed frozen in that position though. It might have just been me, but it looked like he wasn't breathing. Okay, now he was really starting to annoy me. So I subtly waved my hand in front of his face and pointedly said, "Hello?" He shook his head a little, as if to clear it and mumbled, "Sorry."
Something was really messed up with Edward, but I really could care less what it was right now. He was sitting here moping while the rest of his family was enjoying themselves. I bit my lip and wrinkled my brow in concentration. What could I do to distract him from his problem?
"Do you want to race?" I asked. I felt triumph when I saw the ghost of a smile cross his face. I tugged on his hand, "Let's go!"
