Through the Many Rooms
Momma and daddy were out hunting for the rest of the day. Alice, Jasper, Emmett and Rosalie had joined them. I had been hunting with Jacob the other day, so I didn't need to go with them today. Carlisle and Esme were home watching me with Jacob. Carlisle was upstairs in his study reading as he normally did. Esme and I were making some dinner for Jacob. Rare steak with a twice baked potato and homemade macaroni and cheese. Daddy had taught me how to make it a while ago. And Jacob had said he'd liked it better when I cooked for him.
Daddy still wasn't comfortable with me being alone in the kitchen yet. He knew I was more fragile than the others. My skin was hard, but not impossible to cut. I had learned that the hard way. I'd pounced a large cat and it had scratched my back. The wound healed quickly, but it still hurt and momma had to hold her breath while Jacob helped me. I had been on strict 'no sharp objects' for a long time after that. Even now, daddy wouldn't let me do anything that involved cutting. Normally that involved cooking, but making macaroni didn't require any sharp objects, so that was allowed. Esme handled making the steak and the potato.
Jacob was sitting at the kitchen table watching us cook. He laughed whenever I was stirring. I turned around to face him when he laughed.
"What's so funny Jacob?" He kept laughing lightly.
"Watching you stir is fun. When you're stirring, it's like your whole body is trying to spin too." I gave him a smug smile.
"Maybe it's because I'm just that awesome." Jacob's laugh became a loud bass sound and Esme began to laugh too.
"You're right Nessie. That's what it is." I smirked and got back to what I was doing. I was standing on a really high stool so I would be able to reach what I was doing. I had grown a lot in the past few months, but I was still no taller than 3' 4". I didn't even reach Jacob's hip when I stood next to him. It was about the same for Emmett and Jasper. I was close to their hips, but not quite there yet.
After I finished mixing the macaroni and cheese, I put it in the oven to cook with the potato. Esme had already done everything she needed to do to the steak, so now she had to wait until the right time to start cooking it. After about a half hour, Esme started cooking the Steak. Jacob had moved to the living room to watch a game that was on. I stayed in the kitchen and watched Esme cook. I wanted to be sure to know exactly how to do it when I was finally allowed to do this myself. When Esme finished the stake, everything else was done too.
"Jacob, your dinner's ready." I didn't need to say it very loud. He didn't have the TV on loud at all. He left the TV on and walked over to the kitchen. We all took the food to the table and sat down next to him. Esme excused herself from the table and went upstairs to where Carlisle was. I watched Jacob eat his food. He noticed that I was just watching at him eating. He grinned at me and I smiled back.
"You want any? I feel bad having you just watch me eat." I sighed. I was sure I wouldn't like it, but I thought it would be better to at least try it.
"Okay. I'll try it." Jacob smiled at me and I smiled back. He cut up a piece of his steak then handed me his fork.
"Help yourself." I took his fork and put it in the piece of stake that he had cut for me. I smelled it first. The smell wasn't unbearable, but it wasn't good either. I put the piece in my mouth and chewed. With that chew, I was searching for a napkin. When I found one, I spit out the piece of stake into the napkin. That was revolting. "Was it that bad?"
"Yes, it was." He chuckled. I just looked at him, trying to get the taste out of my mouth.
"Would you still try the mac-n-cheese and the potato? Maybe those will taste better. If you can live off of human food, there's got to be something that you'll like." I sighed again and took back the fork he offered. I tried the macaroni and cheese first. It was Jacob's favorite. One bite and I hated it. I did swallow it this time. Then I took a bite of the potato and got the same reaction. I just starred at Jacob. He laughed again.
"Stop laughing. It's not funny." He tried to stop his laughing but wasn't doing a very good job of it.
"I'm sorry Nessie. The look on your face was priceless." He continued to laugh and I smacked his arm. "Ow." He still didn't stop laughing. He continued eating his food when he finally stopped laughing. When he finished, I helped him clean and put away the dishes that he used. "So, what do you want to do now?"
I thought about what we could do. There were a lot of things to do in the house, but I didn't feel like doing any of them. After a few seconds of going threw everything that was an option, I thought of something.
"Everyone has a lot of cool stuff from every generation. Do you want to explore?" He chuckled.
"You mean go through everyone's stuff?" I nodded my head.
"As long as I ask, Esme and Carlisle won't mind. In fact, Carlisle might even tell us stories about some of the things he has. And I'm sure that Alice and Jasper won't mind if we look at some of their things. Alice even told me that Jasper still has his army uniform." Jacob gave me a weird look.
"When was Jasper ever in the military? How could he pass the physical?" I giggled.
"He was human when he joined the army. Besides, it was the confederate army, so I don't think a physical would be too hard to pass back then if they even had them. Think about it Jacob, we're talking about a time when getting shot in the leg or arm meant immediate amputation." He chuckled.
"Okay, I see your point." He paused for a moment. "So Jasper used to be in the confederate army huh?" I nodded.
"You never knew that?" He shook his head.
"Why would I know that? Jasper and I don't talk." I giggled again.
"I don't know. I just thought maybe daddy told you." Jacob rolled his eyes but did so with a smile.
"Yeah Nessie. 'Cause you know that Edward and I are the best of friends and talk about everything with each other. The only reason Edward knows so much about me is because he can read my mind. And as far as I'm concerned, that's cheating." I laughed. I never thought of it that way. While I was laughing, Jacob patted my head gently. When I stopped laughing, he ran his fingers once through my hair.
"So do you want to explore?" He grinned.
"One condition." I looked at him wearily. What condition about something like this could he possibly have? "We stay far, far away from Emmett and Rosalie's room. I shudder to think what those two have hidden in the depths of their room." He started laughing lightly to himself. I didn't know what he was laughing about, but I didn't feel like asking.
"Okay. We won't look for things in their room." He grinned at me and patted my head one last time. "Let's go through Esme's and Carlisle's room first." I jumped from the table, took Jacob's hand, and dragged him with me up the stairs. Carlisle had no doubt heard everything that Jacob and I were talking about, so he would have said something if he didn't want us going through his things.
When we got to the right floor, we ran to the right room and opened the door. The room was very clean. Nothing was out of place. They never slept, so their bed was never messed around with. The first place I went to was their closet. I knew that Esme was born in 1895, so that ensured that she had lots of cool things lying around.
Jacob followed me to the closet and stood next to me when I opened it. There were several clothes in the closet as expected, but some of them were in bags. In the back of the closet was the biggest bag. I went to that one first. Jacob followed closely behind me into the closet. When I got to the bag, it towered over me on the hanger and the zipper was too high up for me too reach. I looked behind me at Jacob. I gave him my sweetest smile and turned him to puddy in my hands. He smiled back at me.
"What do you want me to do?" He pretended to be annoyed, but I knew better. He couldn't hide the smile he was forcing back. I pointed at the bag behind me.
"I would like you to unzip this bag for me so I can see what's inside it please." He chuckled lightly before going to the bag to unzip it. When he zipped it down low enough, I took it and unzipped it the rest of the way down. When I finished unzipping the bag, Jacob ran his hands along the hanger and pulled the bag out of the way. What he revealed was a breath taking dress. It was long with a train that seemed to go on for miles. It was a silk dress that was covered by a layer of intricately floral designed satin. The satin covered the neck and made long sleeves. The dress was stunning. It was similar to what momma's wedding dress looked like, only this one was older, somehow more demure. It was Esme's wedding dress.
"It's a really pretty dress." I nodded.
"It is. I can only imagine how beautiful Esme looked in it. Daddy always told me that she was a happy bride. She would have been a blushing bride had she been able to blush. Daddy was the best man at their wedding. I think daddy said that the wedding was extremely small, kept amongst only them. Esme's ring is gorgeous too." Jacob made a light laugh.
"Yeah. That thing is huge. I think she'd sink to the bottom of the ocean wearing that thing." I giggled. It was a beautiful ring. It was the same old style as mommas. Daddy told me the ring momma wore had been my grandmas. I touched the fabric, picturing me wearing it. I wouldn't look nearly as beautiful in it, but I still pictured it.
After staring at the dress for a few minutes, Jacob took me out of my trance. He touched his hand to my shoulder and gently squeezed. I turned around to face him and he smiled kindly at me. The hand that had touched my shoulder moved up to caress my cheek with its fingers.
"Anything else you want to look at?" He continued to smile sweetly at me. I smiled back. I looked around the closet looking for boxes that might have things in them. The only boxes that I saw on the floor were opened and filled with shoes. I looked up at the shelves and saw another line of boxes, though these boxes were larger. I pointed at the largest box that was in there.
"Take that box down." Jacob did as I told. He reached up to grab the box and brought it down to the floor. When the box was on the floor, I opened the lid to it swiftly. The box was filled with pictures and cards. In the corner of the box there was a smaller box. I smelled what I was sure was candy. I opened the box. In it were several heart shaped butterscotch candies. Underneath the small box was a small bag. It was a pink bag that was crocheted to perfection as were the little red hearts that kept it tied. I closed the box that held the butterscotch and put it back into the box.
I took out the little bag and opened it. This had little caramel pieces in it. I heard someone come into the room with me and Jacob. I turned around to see Esme. She just smiled at me. She walked over and sat next to me near the box full of things. She made a sigh when she saw what I was holding. Jacob sat down on the other side of me. I brought it slightly closer to Esme.
"What's this from." Esme smiled.
"That was the first Valentine's Day gift that I've ever given Carlisle . I was sixteen when I gave that to him. He had been my doctor when I had broken my leg. He gave me that small box of candies in return." Esme's face sort of became sad when she said this.
"Why are you sad?" She snapped her head back at me as if waking from a trance.
"Oh. Well, you see honey, I was still human when this all happened. I had loved Carlisle, but I didn't know how he felt about me, or if he would even feel for me at all considering how young I was. But as it turns out, my age was the least of his concerns at the time." She giggled lightly. "But he realized that I was becoming too attached to him, so after he gave me that gift, he left."
"He left?" She nodded.
"Yes. They claimed that he had run off to New York for a job offer he had received. I didn't end up seeing him again until eight and a half years later when I came to Chicago. I was trying to escape a bad marriage and save my baby boy. His name was Carlisle." She turned to the box and started searching through it. In no time she took out a tiny picture with her holding a small, beautiful, dark haired baby.
It was obviously Esme in the picture. But I could tell this was when she was human. Her features weren't as flawless in the picture as they were now. The little boy looked so much like her, but had more of its father in him. She was in the hospital in this picture. I looked back at Esme with a smile on my face.
"He's so cute. Where is he now Esme?" Her face became pained. I immediately regretted asking. She looked like she would cry if she were able.
"He died. He was only two months old. He died of SIDS. That's actually how I was reunited with Carlisle. I had thrown myself off of a bridge in a fit of grief. I'd finally had a baby, only to have him taken away from me. Carlisle found me still alive, recognized me from years before, and saved me." I looked at the picture again. Esme had a glowing smile in the picture. Her face was somehow slightly empty, but she looked happy. Jacob didn't say anything. He probably thought it better to not say anything. I gave the picture back to Esme so she could put it back in the best manner. I looked into the box and saw several pictures of people I didn't recognize.
I picked up a handful of the pictures. One was a family photo with what I assumed was a younger Esme with two people at her side. Another looked like it was a school photo. Another picture had people in it that looked oddly familiar. I turned to face Esme.
"Who are all these people?" She smiled warmly. First she took the picture that had her in it.
"This is me with my mother and father." Esme looked like her father, without a doubt. She had the man's heart shaped face, but his hair appeared to be darker than her mother's. I assumed that she had her mother's hair.
"Did you and your mom have the same color hair?'
"Actually no. My hair was a unique color compared to everyone in my family. My mother's hair was a light brown. Mine is more of a caramel color. That's why I got caramel for Carlisle for our first Valentine's Day. He always told me that my hair reminded him of caramel. His eyes reminded me of butterscotch, so he gave me butterscotch candies." She giggled lightly. I showed her the picture with a large group.
"Is this your family too?" She smiled and shook her head.
"No. That's my class picture. I'm right here." She pointed to the close center of the picture. She had a shy smile in the picture. There was a man standing really close to her in the picture. I pointed at him.
"Who's he?" Her face changed again. I didn't recognize this face. It was hateful. It was such a strange face to see on Esme.
"That was my first husband. Charles Evenson. After Carlisle left, I ended up marrying him a year and a half later. He was my son Carlisle 's father. Carlisle was the only child I'd had that had lived to be born. I'd had several miscarriages because of Charles. He was abusive." That explained the look in Esme's eyes when I had mentioned it. I put the picture down, not wanted to talk about the man anymore. Esme's face was enough to let me know that he wasn't worth talking about.
I looked at the final picture in my hand. It was another family photo. But it was different people. The little boy looked so familiar, but I couldn't think of why. The boy looked more like the woman in the photo. She had a straight nose and so did the father. The father was a lot taller than the mother. She had a beautiful face. The father had a five o'clock shadow that flattered him. The little boy was adorable. I showed the picture to Esme.
"Who are they?" Esme laughed lightly.
"That's your father and his parents." This took me by surprise. I looked at the picture again. I couldn't believe I hadn't seen it. It was so obvious. The little boy had a stunning child like face. His father was a handsome man with a charming smile and the mother was gorgeous with a smile that could break hearts. Jacob leaned over to look at the picture.
"Wow." That was all Jacob said, and then he leaned back to where he was. Esme laughed lightly again.
"This was daddy and his family?" Esme nodded her head.
"Yes. This picture was taken in 1910 I think. Your father was nine." She pointed at my daddy. "Edward Anthony Mason," she pointed at the man, "your grandfather, Edward Anthony Mason Senior," she pointed at the woman, "and your grandmother, Elizabeth Kozłowski(Kozwovski) Mason." I looked back at Esme.
"Daddy's polish?" Esme laughed lightly again.
"Yep. Polish and English. From what records show, Elizabeth and her family came to America when she was just ten. Carlisle remembers her having a light polish accent. His father was born here. They both worked in Chicago most of their lives. His father worked in one of the meat packing plants and his mother worked in a shoe factory. That's how they all got sick. The Spanish Influenza was a breeding ground in those meat factories." I shuddered.
I looked at the picture a little longer. They looked so happy in the picture. The man and the woman were standing close together in a loving manner, each of them having a hand on one of daddy's shoulders. Daddy was wearing a cute little hat and wearing a small suit. The man was wearing a similar suit. And the woman was wearing a lovely, old fashioned dress.
"Does daddy remember them?" Esme shrugged.
"Not very well from what Carlisle tells me. Elizabeth had this with her in the hospital. This is the only picture of them that Edward has. Everything else was lost to tax collectors and robbers." It was such a shame. I would have loved to have seen more pictures of them. After looking at the picture a little longer, I put it back into the box. I dug further into the box. There were several pictures of people that I couldn't recognize and occasionally did recognize.
When I got the bottom of the box, I found a large portrait. I tried to pull it out gently. Esme ended up helping me get it out. It was an old painting. There was a man and a woman in the portrait. The man looked serious with dark hair and an elderly look to him. The woman had the same serious look on her face. But her hair was extremely fair and her face was young, no older than her late teens.
"Who are they?" Esme took the picture and laid it upright against the box.
"They're Carlisle's parents. It's his only picture of them. Most of the pictures in this box belong to either me, Rosalie or Jasper believe it or not." I looked at the pictures again. I had thought that Jasper never saw his parents again after he was changed. Esme pointed at the people in the picture. "That's his father, Father Blaine Cullen. This is his wife and Carlisle's mother, Adelle Bakersfield Cullen. This picture was made when they were married." Adelle. Pretty name, but she couldn't be very old. Certainly much younger than Blaine.
"How old were they when they got married?" Esme reached into the box to look for something. She finally found what she was looking for. It was an announcement. It looked like a newspaper from the 1800's.
"It says that Blaine was 49 and Adelle was 16." Jacob snorted.
"That's not gross." His tone was sarcastic. I laughed.
"It wasn't uncommon at the time for people to marry that young back then. Truthfully, if my mother had allowed it and my father had his way, I would have been married to the banker in town. The man would have been 52 by the time I was eighteen." Jacob snorted again. I poked him teasingly and he shut up. I looked at Esme.
"Was it an arranged marriage?" Esme shrugged.
"Probably. Carlisle never knew that much about his mother. His father always told him that she died giving birth to him but Carlisle doesn't believe that."
"Why wouldn't he believe that?"
"Because Carlisle's father was an extremely harsh and judgmental man. According to what Carlisle remembers, Blaine and one of his friends had been speaking about it one time. His friend had recently been engaged to a young woman. Blaine had told him to be careful of devilish women. He said that his wife had been one. After hearing his father say that, Carlisle began to believe that his father had killed his mother. He never did bring it up to him though."
"Why would he kill his wife?" Esme sighed.
"Carlisle believes that his father had accused his mother of being a witch, because she had a fascination for the human body. Carlisle had found her notebook when he was young. But Blaine didn't want anyone to know about it, so he murdered his wife and made it look like she had died giving birth to Carlisle. That's what Carlisle thinks happened. Whenever people ask though, he always goes with the story his father told him. He doesn't like people to know about this, but he won't mind you knowing." Esme smiled sweetly.
I looked at the man in the picture. Whenever I saw old pictures like this on the internet or something, the men and women always looked bitter no matter what. Blaine was no exception. But Adelle was stunning. Her face seemed to glow. She had stunning blue eyes and her fair hair looked thick and full even in the painting. Her blue dress emphasized her body's perfection and her smile was gorgeous. She seemed to be truly flawless. Carlisle looked so much like his mother.
"Carlisle looks so much like her." Esme smiled again.
"He really does. He has his father's ears and nose. Everything else is from his mother." Esme took the picture and moved it to the side. I dove into the box again, looking for things to look at. I took out a handful of pictures. One was a picture of Jasper in full uniform.
"Why did Jasper keep these? Wouldn't he have disregarded this stuff when he changed?" Esme took the pictures and looked through them.
"He had. These are all the pictures that his parents had. Jasper was with Maria for a long time. But when he left, he ended up in Texas and came across his old home. Jasper can tell you the story when he gets back. It's a really sweet story." She brought one picture to me. "They are his mother and father. These are all photos of either his parents with or without him, or pictures of family or friend's estates. Evidently, he'd had a friend by the name of Timothy Graivel who's father had owned a great deal of tobacco fields all over Texas." She showed me a picture of Jasper with another young man standing next to what I assumed were slaves.
"Was Jasper's family rich?" Esme shook her head.
"No. But Jasper's the one that knows the story best. Ask him when he comes back. He'll be more than happy to tell you the story. It's a good thing he took his mother's diaries or he'd never have remembered any of those stories."
"Are they in this box?" Esme nodded.
"He has the diaries in his room but everyone's pictures are in this box." All the other pictures were individual pictures from vacations they had taken or other family photos.
"When is he coming back? I'm really curious." Esme giggled. As if on cue, Jasper and everyone came back from their hunting trip. I took Jacob's hand and dragged him with me down the stairs. Daddy had read my thoughts and told Jasper what I was coming downstairs to ask him. When I got downstairs with Jacob behind me, he was giving me an amused smile.
"You want me to tell you childhood stories?" I nodded my head and ran over to him. Jacob stayed close behind. When I reached Jasper, he lifted me onto his shoulder and walked us up to his and Alice's room. Alice followed behind.
"You'll love these stories, Nessie. Some of them are really funny." She looked at Jasper with a big smile and Jasper smiled back. When we got to their room, Jasper sat me down on their bed and went into the enormous closet. Jacob sat down next to me and Alice sat on the other side of me.
"What is it with you people and walk-in closets?" Jacob said this with fake annoyance. He and Alice had become friends. They weren't colorful friends like him and Rosalie, but they were still friends. Alice smiled.
"Well, Jacob, I enjoy the finer things in life and I like to always have a closet full of clothes." Jacob laughed.
"And when you're rich you figure, 'Why the hell not'." Jasper laughed out loud from the closet. I laughed too. Alice just gave us all a pouty face. We didn't wait very long before Jasper came out of the closet with a large box filled with little books. Jacob was the first one to talk.
"So where's your uniform." Jasper smiled and went back into the closet. He came back holding his confederate uniform, looking just as clean and polished as the day he got it. He hung it on the door and left the room for a moment. He came back holding a few of the pictures that I had been looking at earlier. Jasper handed Jacob the picture of him in his uniform.
"I joined the army when I was eighteen. I went through the ranks quickly. The uniform I have was the most recent one I had gotten before I died. I had reached an officer's position within a few short years." Jacob looked at the picture for a moment before handing it back to him.
"Why'd you fight? You don't strike me as the kind of guy that cared about the rich man's slave." Jasper chuckled.
"In all truthfulness I really didn't. It was the principle of the matter for me. As far as people having slaves was concerned, I was indifferent. I was more upset about the North being so pushy."
"Did you ever own any?" Jasper shook his head.
"No. We were too poor to afford any. According to my mother's diary, she didn't want slaves, anyway. 'Just more mouths to feed' as she had put it. My friend Timothy had them though. His dad owned a lot of land throughout Texas and he grew Tobacco." Jacob nodded his head and handed the picture back to him.
"Why'd you keep all of these? I thought newborns didn't care about this sort of stuff." Jasper nodded his head.
"They don't. I didn't get these until I left Maria. Peter, Charlotte and I had been in Texas and we ended up passing my parent's home. My mother had aged significantly since the time I had last seen her, but I knew it was her. My father had died years before I'm assuming. I stayed there watching her until she died a few months later. When she died I took all the pictures and her diaries. Thanks to her diaries, I have a wide array of childhood memories."
"Like what?" Jasper looked at me. He had an amused smile on his face again. Jasper took out one of the diaries and turned to a page.
"This entry was dated in April of 1852. My mother was angry at me because I had tried to fly." Jacob laughed and so did I.
"You tried to fly?"
"Yeah. I had seen a bird flying or something and decided I wanted to fly too. I made some wooden wings for myself, climbed to the top of my house and jumped off trying to fly. Needless to say, that didn't end well." We were all laughing. It seemed hard to picture Jasper ever being that careless, even if he was a child.
"I have a hard time imagining you doing something like that." Jacob said through his bass laugh.
"Truthfully so do I. But my mother goes into everything with immense detail, it's hard not to believe it. That's not even the worst I've done according to my mother's diaries."
"What have you done that's worse than that?" Jasper's smile became reminiscent.
"Well. According to mother's diary, there had been a neighbor that I had that Timothy and I didn't like. We used to tease and torment him every chance we got. She wrote that we've thrown tomatoes at his house, gotten his donkey drunk on whiskey, we've sneaked bee hives into his house, painted his fence blue, let rabbits loose into his crops, put rattle snakes in his house, and a whole number of other things."
"I'm sure he adored you." Jacob and Jasper laughed.
"Oh yes. He loved us. We even kidnapped his dog once." I gave Jasper a weird look. "He had gotten himself a hunting dog. Timothy and I used to like rabbit hunting, so we kidnapped his dog. We had him for two months before mother found him and made us give him back. Our neighbor wasn't too happy about that."
"Gee, why would he be made at you for stealing his dog?" We all laughed again. Jasper told us his many childhood stories that he's read from his mother's diaries and showed us the few pictures he had of his family and of his friend Timothy. "Was Timothy in the army too?" Jasper shook his head.
"His father was able to get him out of it. Timothy wasn't fighting material anyway from what little I remember of him on my own. He was a very polished boy, not meant for fighting on his own." Jacob rolled his eyes.
"Figures." After talking to Jasper a little longer, He had finished talking about his many childhood shenanigans. After the long story telling, I took Jacob to the room that was on the third floor. It had been daddy's room. Most of his stuff was back at the cottage, but the stereo and his CD's and other small things like that were still in his old room. The room was illuminated by moonlight. Jacob turned on the lights. One of the first things I saw was a book that had in golden letters 'Forks High School 08'. It was daddy's yearbook. I took it out from its spot on the bookshelf and began looking through the pages. I sat on the bed to get more comfortable. Jacob sat next to me.
"Awesome. I love looking at yearbooks." We searched through all the school events and teams. Then we got to the class pictures. The first section we looked through were the freshman. There were about eighty of them. There were a little over one hundred sophomores. When we got to the junior's pictures, I saw daddy's and Alice's picture, but I didn't find momma's.
"Why isn't momma in here?"
"Bella hadn't come to forks until late into the second semester. She wouldn't be in this yearbook." When we got to the senior's section, there were one hundred and ten seniors. I saw Rosalie, Emmet and Jasper's pictures. I went back to the section for the juniors. There were people in the yearbook that I recognized from the pictures of momma and daddy's wedding. I ran downstairs with the yearbook to find momma.
Momma and daddy were downstairs in the kitchen. They were playing chess. Daddy had a frustrated look on his face. Momma made a move. Daddy thought about what move he could do next. Momma had a huge, smug smirk on her face.
"You know, Bella, you're the only one to ever beat me at chess." Momma laughed.
"Because with me you can't cheat." They stared at each other for a moment before daddy started laughing. Momma joined him shortly after. I walked over to momma and laid the book on the table.
"Who are these people?" Momma looked at the pictures I was pointing at.
"The one with light brown hair is Jessica. She and I had been sort of friends. During senior year we stopped talking and she stopped liking me I think. That is she did until she got invited to the graduation party Alice forced me to pretend I was hosting." Daddy chuckled.
"If the circumstances at the time had been better, you would've had fun." Momma gave daddy a playful glare.
"I wouldn't have." She looked at another picture I was pointing too. It was a girl with long, fair hair. "Don't worry about her honey. She's not really worth talking about."
"What was her name?" Momma sighed.
"Her name was Lauren. She never liked me, so I never liked her." This seemed strange.
"Why didn't she like you?" Momma rolled her eyes.
"I think hate is the better word in her case. It was stupid. She liked this guy, Tyler," momma pointed at a picture of a guy in the yearbook, "but he had told everyone that he and I were going to prom. She got mad at me over it and went out of her way to make my life difficult." Momma sensed I was going to ask why. "It's not important. Don't worry about it Nessie." I shrugged and looked through the junior section a little more. When I got to a certain page, momma stopped me. "She was a good friend of mine."
Momma was pointing to a picture of a dark girl. She had a sweet smile and soft features.
"Who was she?" Momma smiled lightly.
"Her name is Angela. She was the only person that I really considered my friend. She was there for me when I needed her to be and she never pressured or pushed me to give her more information than I was willing to give the way Jessica did. Jessica was more interested in gossip."
"Where is she now?"
"She's going to the University of Seattle. So is her boyfriend Ben. I think I'll actually look her up next time she's in town. I haven't seen her in so long." Jacob pointed to a picture of a fair haired boy that was in the junior section.
"Well, if it isn't Mike Newton." He chuckled lightly.
"Who?" Jacob was the one to explain first.
"I met the kid twice I think. The first time we ever actually spoke was when Bella asked everyone to go to the movies with her as a huge group. Everyone ended up ducking out, so it was just me, her and Mike. He got sick at the theatre. Bella ended up getting sick too. That was the first night I had ever fazed." Jacob laughed. "That was one wild night wasn't it Bells?" Momma laughed lightly.
"Yeah, it really was. I wouldn't call it good though. I didn't see you for two weeks after that." Momma and Jacob shared a quick look that I didn't recognize.
"I know Bells, and I'm sorry about that. But I did make it right in the end didn't I?" Momma grinned a little.
"Yeah. I guess so." After momma and Jacob shared their friendly moment, I looked back at daddy.
"I saw the pictures that you had of grandma and grandpa." Momma looked confused, but daddy knew what I was talking about.
"You did, huh?" I smiled and nodded. He was grinning back at me.
"Do you remember much about them?" Daddy shook his head.
"Not really. I only remember that my dad and I used to work in the same factory. If I recall correctly, I had been working in that factory since I was eight." I had a shocked expression.
"They hired you at eight?" Daddy laughed lightly at my expression and nodded.
"Yeah. Truth be told, a child was cheaper labor than an immigrant. And my dad already worked there, so he had put in a good word for me. I remember hating that job. But it was the only job I was able to get. All the other jobs were being taken by cheap immigrants. And I was too young to legally join the army. My mom wouldn't hear of me joining the army regardless." Momma was still looking at daddy.
"You have pictures of your parents?"
"Just one. It's a family picture that was taken when I was ten. I'll show it to you later." Momma smiled and nodded her head. I looked back at daddy, and he laughed at what I was about to say.
"I always thought you were English."
"My father was. My mother was Slavic. Polish." Momma made another face. Then she laughed lightly.
"You do learn something new every day." Momma and daddy started laughing. I smiled at them both. Momma, daddy and I looked through the yearbook a little longer. Momma told me what little she knew about them, and daddy told me everything they've ever thought (all that was appropriate of course). When our discussion was over, momma and daddy got back to playing their game of chess. Daddy was wearing his frustrated face again. I could watch momma and daddy play chess all day. It was funny watching daddy get frustrated because he couldn't plan ahead like he could with everyone else.
The only thing that was funnier was watching daddy and Alice play chess. The whole game is played in their heads. The whole game was spent with them glaring at each other, planning their next move based on what one is thinking and what the other decides. And it always ends with one of them yelling forfeit. It's better than any sitcom in the whole world.
I let momma and daddy play their game in peace. Jacob and I went back upstairs to daddy's old room to put the yearbook back on the shelf. I heard Jacob whistle at something. I looked to face him. He was looking at daddy's shelf of CDs.
"Edward has a lot of music." He noticed a section in particular. "Hot damn." He took out a few CDs. They were a whole bunch of eighties CDs and a Korn CD. "I never thought Edward was a fan of these guys."
"Who?" Jacob looked at me like I was nuts.
"You've never listened to any of these have you?" I shook my head. He sighed. "Shame on Edward. He has everything from the eighties. And I can't believe he has Korn and Slipknot. I prefer Korn, but Embry practically worships Slipknot. He plans on dragging me with him to a concert they're having this summer."
"Do you think daddy would let me go?" Jacob just laughed.
"I think he would throw you into a fire first. Slipknot swears in their songs a lot. You know how desperate he is about protecting your fragile little mind." We both laughed. It was true. Daddy was over-protective. But I didn't mind at all. It meant that he loved me. "Why do you think you and Emmett don't spend a lot of time together?" We laughed some more.
"I never took you for a heavy metal type." Jacob shrugged his shoulders.
"I like just about everything. It all depends. I love eighties music. Billy listened to it non-stop when I was little. The only person Billy is a huge fan of that I never liked was Bruce Springsteen. I only like his song Thunder Road. Other than that, I hate his music. I think I would have been a great eighties teen." I giggled.
"What year were you born again?"
"December 7, 1991. I just turned eighteen a short time ago." This actually made me upset.
"Why didn't you say anything? We could have celebrated it together." Jacob gave me a look.
"Considering that everyone was worrying about the Volturri at the time, I doubt anyone would have cared. Besides, there's always next December." He smiled at me, and I sighed. I was a little peeved at him for never bringing it up, but I would make sure that Alice helped me get back at him for never telling me. I was suddenly curious about his sisters. I had only met Rachael, but I knew he had another sister.
"What about your sisters." Jacob smiled lightly.
"Rebecca was born April 10, 1985 and Rachael was born on March 12, 1987." I walked over to the CD shelf were Jacob was standing and looked at the CDs that were on the shelf I was level with. The CDs I saw on my level were a wide collection from the forties and fifties. He even had stacks of forty-fives. "Do you think Edward will mind if I steal these and burn them onto my own CDs?" I giggled.
"As long as you ask him and not me, I don't think he'll mind." Jacob chuckled. He snatched all the CDs that caught his eye and walked downstairs with them, me following close behind. Daddy already knew what Jacob was going to ask. He didn't even get to the kitchen before daddy answered him.
"I'll let you borrow those only if you promise not to damage them. You break them, you buy them, you hear me?" I giggled. Jacob rolled his eyes.
"Yes, Edward. I know. They'll be in perfect condition when I return them. Hell, I'll even spit shine them for you when I'm done, what do you say?" I kept laughing. Even daddy chuckled lightly.
"That won't be necessary Jacob." Jacob laughed lightly. He went to the TV room where everyone else was and rested the CDs on a counter. Jacob sat in the last available chair. I sat on his lap and laid my head back on his shoulder. Jacob kept one arm around me to keep me up. Everyone was watching the news. I snatched the remote from Emmett.
"Hey." I smiled. I looked through the channels trying to find something good on. I eventually found something that looked entertaining.
"Oh my god, I love Invader Zim!" Jacob was the one who said this. I looked at him. Everyone except Emmett rolled their eyes.
"What's it about?" Jacob was grinning from ear to ear.
"It's the only cartoon worth watching these days. Everything else is really stupid. It's about an Alien that wants to destroy the world. He has an enemy that goes to his school that knows he's an alien but no one believes him. And he has his side kick who acts as his dog. His name is Gir. He's everyone's favorite character." I immediately knew what he meant. Gir was adorable and hysterical. Jacob and I watched Invader Zim for about an hour before it went to something else that I didn't feel like watching. I went through the channels again trying to find something good. There was nothing good on it seemed. Any good movies that were on were on the last five minutes of the movie. There was nothing good on Demand either. I caved and gave the remote back to Emmett. He put on his cocky smile and changed it back to the news.
We watched the news for a few hours before I started getting drowsy. Jacob's scent was surrounding me and his heartbeat was loud and strong. It was really comforting. Like listening to a lullaby. My eyelids were getting really heavy, and Jacob's arm was the warmest blanket anyone could ask for. Daddy and momma walked into the TV room.
"Jacob, Nessie's getting tired. Bella and I will take her home." Jacob stood up from the chair and readjusted me on his shoulder so that my face was now resting on his shoulder and his arms were holding me securely up.
"I'll take her. You two seemed really into your game." Jacob chuckled, causing a warm vibration to go through his chest. It was incredibly soothing. I already had my eyes closed, on the verge of falling asleep.
"All right Jacob. Bella and I will finish our game and be back to the cottage after that." After nodding at daddy, Jacob started walking. I felt the breeze when we were outside, but then I was covered by a jacket. It had daddy's scent on it. I realized it was still raining outside. When I felt the rain hitting the jacket, Jacob began jogging back to the cottage. It didn't take long for him to get us back to the cottage. When we got there, Jacob took me straight to my room. He took the jacket off of me and gently nudged me with his chin.
"Don't fall asleep yet, Nessie. You still need to get into your pajamas and such." I groaned and forced myself to open my eyes. Jacob rested me on my feet. I rubbed my eyes. When my eyes were completely open, I walked away from Jacob and into the bathroom to wash my face and brush my teeth. Jacob waited for me in my room. When I was done cleaning and had on my pajamas, I walked back into my room where Jacob was sitting on my bed.
"Are you leaving?" Jacob nodded.
"As soon as Edward and Bella get back. But I'll be here again tomorrow." He smiled and I smiled back. I walked over to my bed and hopped in. When I was lying down, Jacob pulled the covers over me.
"Night Jacob." Jacob kissed the top of my head.
"Night, Nessie." He kept his hand on top of my head and combed through my hair gently. His scent and his heartbeat surrounded me and made me drowsy again. I was asleep within minutes.
