I'd like to thank my Beta of Extreme Awesomeness, elusivetwilight for bearing with me and helping me with some problems (i.e, verb tense...which is one my major faults.) Now go and give her some love. Her story is called The Rain Season and it's freaking amazing. Also go and check out Meds by Mojo Pen. It's another great one.

Disclaimer: What if I told you I was Stephine Meyer in disguise? Did I have you going for a second there? No? Well, I'm not.


I'm trying to find
A place I belong
And I suddenly feel
Like a different person- The Child is Gone by Fiona Apple


|September 16, 2009|


We got Mickey D's from the hospital cafeteria for lunchand midway through my Big McHeart Attack burger he dropped a bomb on me.

"Isabella. Bella, I'd like to bring you home with me as a foster child."

I'd been dreading the moment when someonesaid this to me, had nightmares about it even.

He continued, "I have three adopted children and I'm sure they would love to have a sister. My wife, Esme, and I,have been thinking about youfor awhile. I adopted all of my children, the very same way, they were patients here and we decided to adopt them."

So what, this guy was like, a collector of kids or something?

"Ah…" I said intelligently.

"Just let us try it for two months. If you are unhappy, you can come back here until something that better suits you comes along," he pleaded, this was all beginning to sound quite sales-pitch-y. Like, I was waiting to hear someone say, "Adopt now! Pay later!"

Then I remembered Jill's depressed look when I told her I didn't want to live with her, she had been the only one who stuck it out with me through months of physical therapy. I didn't want to do that to someone else, but I still surprised myself by saying, "Yes."

He smiled warmly, it was very dad-like and now that I noticed it he wasn't really that young, he just aged waybetter then my 'dad'. "Okay we'll go pack your things. Then at ten o'clock I'll drive you back to my home."

"My stuff is already packed. Jill airmailedall my clothes to the hospital, they're sitting in my room in three suitcases," I squeaked, still reeling from the fact that this guy wanted to adopt me.

"You didn't want to unpack anything?"

I smiled, "Well I've been in a hospital for the past year or so and they tend to be pretty strict about you wearing a gown-apparently this place is pretty formal," I joked lamely-covering the real reason why I hadn't unpacked. Most of my things were riding things and I didn't want to re-visit any memories.

"Well let's get you back to your room and unpack you some normal clothes," he said.

The next morning, as promised, Dr. Cullen dragged me out of the hospital and took me to his car a sleek, shiny, and black Mercedes. I got in, feeling uncomfortable in my jeans, Converse, and tee-shirt, after living in a hospital gown for a year anything would feel uncomfortable to you.

"So my family and I live in a small town named Forks, you heard of the place?" he asked, while driving.

"No," I answered dryly and continued to look out the window.

"Okay. As I told you I have three children; Alice and Edward who are seventeen as well, and Emmett who is eighteen. They go to Forks high school. The goal would be, if you agree to stay we would enroll you as well," he said.

Apparently he thought that would make me happy, butI suppressed a groan. The last time I had been in school I was twelve. Once I was competing in major shows all over the country, my grandfather had me take lessons with a private tutor.

After about a two hour nap Dr. Cullen woke me up as he pulled into a long, heavily wooded driveway. The driveway ended in a circle with a large sprawling white mansion and behind the house was various outbuildings connected by a wide gravel path. Dr Cullen pulled up right in front of the house's porch. He opened the door for me, along with him and my cane I slowly and steadily climbed the stairs to the white-washed porch. He held open the door for me and said, "Head straight in-they're all waiting for you."

I walked into a very large, open pale living room, there was a plasma TV mounted to a wall and a small circle of couches and over sized arm chairs around it. I headed that way, with Dr. C behind me. Butterflies flittered in my stomach.

On the couch was a petite woman with soft wavy, caramel hair and a warm smile. "Bella," she said getting up and enclosed me in a hug; I stood there awkwardly.

"Mom," a deep, booming, bass voice said, "don't smother her!" The woman, Esme I assumed, released me and stepped back to sit on the couch giving me a clear view of the speaker.

It was a very large, bodybuilder type-guy, "Hey I'm Emmett!" he boomed.

I gulped, "Em stop. You're scaring her," a soft soprano voice said. I turned my head to see a short, pixie-like girl, not more than four feet tall,with short spiky black hair. "I'm Alice," she said.

Then a musical velvet-like voice added dryly,"Hey I'm Edward-the only sane one here." I turned to study the speaker; he was a tall boy, who looked about my age, with tousled bronze hair and sparkling green eyes. He was truly stunning.

I blushed deeply as Dr. C said, "Everyone this is Bella. I'm quite proud of her already for her amazing accomplishments in her PT." He then whispered for my ears alone, "I made sure they all knew about the accident so no awkward questions about the cane-they might act like savages sometimes, but they are polite."

Alice reached behind her and pulled out a tiny silver bag and handed it to me, "Here. We got you a little homecoming present," she said smiling hopefully.

"You didn't have to do-" I stopped as I pulled out the object. It was a braided piece of black hair-not hair-tail- wrapped with dark hunter green ribbons. It was Jazz's tail hair with our colors braided in.

I began to cry and stumbled with my cane to get out of there. I needed to escape. I had no idea where I was going but headed for the grand staircase that was the focal point in the room. I made my way halfway up it but, my cane caught and I slid all the way back down on my stomach. I was crying so hard for loss of my horse and my dignity.

Someone knelt beside me, I didn't look up to see who, "God Bella, I'm sorry- we're sorry," Edward's voice said, "We didn't know it would upset you. Do you want to some help getting up?"

Knowing I was tomato red, I chocked, mortified, "Thanks."

I grabbed his outreached hand and he pulled me up. Dr. C. handed me my cane.

"Nice Chucks," Edward said his eyes locked on my shoes.

"Thanks," I said pleased he used the same terminology for the ever-popular Chuck Taylor All-Stars. They were basic black except for the toes had different pieces of tack drawn on them.

I looked up at his face, his green eyes unreadable, "You want me to-"

His sister, Alice, interrupted, "Hey Bella you want me to show you to your room?" she asked kindly.

"Erm… yea, sure thanks," I said. She graciously helped me up the stairs, as her family looked on.

"I was so excited when Carlisle told me that he and Esme were going to be your foster parents. You try growing up with Edward 'Sullen Cullen' and Emmett, team captain of every possible contact sport," she prattled on.

"Oh."

"Well I really hope you choose to stay- we can go shopping, you can meet all my friends- a grand total of three, I might add- and we can do loads of stuff," she was definitely a chatterer. Me? Not so much. We stopped in front of a door at the end of the hall. "My room is on yourleft, Emmett is across from you, and Edward's room as well as Carlisle and Esme's master bedroomare on the other end of the hall," she said and then gestured with both hands to the door in front of us, "And this is your room!" she opened the door with an Evana White-like flourish.

I walked inside. The walls were plain white-"You can do what you want with the color later," Alice said. In the middle of the room was a double bed, the back facing wall was all glass, a beautiful view of the woods, the floors were hard wood, against the glass wall was a white antique make-up table that could be used as a desk if I wanted to, and there was a walk-in closet, and my own private bathroom. It felt like way too much for me. The richness of room made me feel small and unworthy.

I stood there for a while and finally Alice broke the awkward silence, "I'll leave you to get settled then-I'll bribe Emmett to carry up your suitcases and stuff." She then flitted out of the room like a lithe ballet dancer. I sat on the bed and then lay I knew it I was asleep.


Well? Yes Edward arrived...sigh. There wasn't much action was there? It's slow, yeah. But it will pick up, I promise.

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