Chapter 2: New Beginnings

"Az," Edward said calling me out of my nap in the backseat of the Volvo. "We're here."

'Oh, goodie. I can hardly wait.' I thought as I sat up and rubbed the sleep out of my eyes. It was early evening as we headed down a dirt driveway that was still smooth and easy to drive down, night was just sitting in full.

Edward shot me the slightest of glares in the rearview mirror. 'Can you at least try to cut back on the sarcasm?'

'No promises.' I replied as I stared out the window. That was an unspoken rule that he and I had since we had to deal with each others' thoughts- we tried not to cause the other pain because of what we were thinking. Our driveways were usually tree-lined or had a forest between the main road and the house, but this one just had a field… a lot of field in fact, since I couldn't even see the house from here.

'Are we there yet? Are we there yet? Are we there yet?' Ady's voice ripped into my mind. She never had respect for mine and Edward's gift.

'Just ignore her.' Edward said trying to keep my thoughts of trying to rip Ady limb from limb and chuckle while I watched her piece herself back together, but that plan wouldn't work. I didn't have as much strength as the full vampires did, but I was stronger than a human. The only thing that I shared with my vampire family as a whole was speed. I was just slower than Edward, but somehow faster than Alice. That was something that none of us understood.

"There's the house." Bella said nodding up ahead. God only knew if she knew what was going on between the two of us, since neither of us could read her mind freely.

I looked up at what would be my new home. It was beautiful, but they were all beautiful. This one was three stories high, white with rustic red shutters, had a porch that looked like it wrapped around the whole house, and of course, large windows. It seemed to rise up out of nowhere among the surrounding fields that were apparently on small hills, and behind the house, stretched a dense forest. As we pulled up to the house, I could hear a river that seemed to be really close, and I could see a barn that was half hidden by the house. We were probably using the barn as a garage.

"So… What do you think, Aislynn?" Bella asked as we got out of the car. I looked up at the house as I held my sketch pad.

'Should I tell her the truth?' I had to stop myself from turning and smirking at Edward.

'No.' He replied flatly, clearly not seeing my humor.

"It's alright." I replied with the slightest of smiles.

"You'll be used to it in no time." She said, but cast Edward a glance that all but said that she knew that we had said something to each other.

I looked around at the others as they piled out of the other cars: Mom, Dad, Ellie, and Seth were stretching, Carlisle and Esme were already walking toward the house at a human pace, I just caught the last glimpse of Alice and Jasper as they disappeared into the house and lights started coming on a second later, and Emmett and Ady were laughing at something that I had missed as Rosalie rolled her eyes, in which case I should probably be thankful I had missed it.

"Aislynn," Esme was by my side before I had turned to look at her again. I smiled at her: it was impossible to be mean to Esme. "I hope you don't mind, dear, but we set up a few of your things already."

"It's alright, I understand, and I trust you and Alice." I said smiling. She was walking on egg shells with me and it honestly made me feel bad that she was so concerned about what I thought.

"Oh, it wasn't Alice and I…" Esme cast a glance over at my parents, both of whom had anxious thoughts about what I would think, but they were carefully avoiding direct thoughts. Great. They were all acting like I was about to have a meltdown, just what I wanted as a house warming gift.

"Oh…" That was all I could manage to say. It wasn't helping at all that Edward was trying to analyze how I was analyzing everyone's thoughts. He stopped suddenly after I thought it was annoying. I kept smiling, but Esme glanced from Edward to Mom to Carlisle, and then back to me. Just lovely, now I had to think of something to say! "I'm sure it's fine. What floor am I on?" I didn't have to ask, I could smell my things out if no one dragged me to my new room first, but I figured it was best to keep the conversation going.

"The top." Dad called from where he and Mom stood between where we stood and the front door.

"Third." I said to myself as I took a step toward the house.

"No, the top." He repeated. The confusion in my green eyes must have been amusing or something because he smiled brightly at me. "You'll see, Azzie."

"Sure, sure." I said in a casual way. I heard Bella chuckle softly behind me. She always did that when I acted like my father for reasons that Edward had attempted to explain to me and I had just thought it was stupid.

'Hurry up and find your room!' Alice ordered from inside the house. They were all getting anxious again.

"What's going on?" I asked looking around at all of them, but they weren't giving a thing a way in their thoughts. My curiosity had finally got the better of me and I headed into the house. It was now all bright since Alice and Jasper had apparently turned every light on in the whole place. The white furniture that we had had in the last place was now replaced with all new things. There were hardly any differences other than the style. The floors were wooden: a rich, deep mahogany that shined like it had just been polished. All the downstairs rooms seemed to break off from this large foyer; they must have had a wall or two torn down to create the "open" feeling that all of our houses had. The staircase, rather grand looking and in the same mahogany as the floors with a thick red carpet on the steps, sat at the far end of the foyer. The only other carpet that I saw was to the right: a large area rug that had a complex, yet pleasing to the eye, pattern in red and gold was in the living room. I caught a small glimpse of the kitchen as I headed for the stairs that were about in the middle of the first room; it looked large and had white tile rather than the hardwood floors and the cabinets looked like they were made out of cherry.

Once I was up the staircase, I headed down the hallway; the floor once again was hardwood. The doors that lined the hall on both sides were also made out of mahogany. I was starting to see Esme new theme in wood… At the end of the hallway on the left side was a set of double doors; that had to be Carlisle's and Esme's room. I took the right end since it had more doors and I could see an iron-looking spiral staircase at the end of the hall. The doors here were open and I could tell whose room belonged to whom. The first one was Ady's on the right side of the hall: the walls were white with black and white pictures hanging on them (some of nature scenes and one that I had painted) and black leather furniture. For all of Ady's childish behavior her room was very grown-up in style. Next, further down the hall and to the left was Emmett and Rose's room, not that they would be using it much… but anyways, it was simple; pale blue walls and white furniture, no bed. The last room near the end and back on the right side was Mom's and Dad's room: this was the first room on this floor was the only one that actually needed a bed, the color scheme was brown and deep green that gave it a woodsy feel, and several of my paintings that had different places around La Push and Forks completed the theme. It was clear where Mom and Dad felt most at home.

I headed up the spiral staircase at the end of the hall, but was a little confused when it kept going after the third floor. 'The top,' is what Dad had told me, so rather than go see what everyone else's rooms looked like I kept going up the stairs. I could hear the rest of the family moving around down on the first floor and a few, namely Alice, Jasper, Ellie, and Seth, were slowly coming up the steps. They were trying to give me enough to get up to my room before they headed to their rooms on the third floor. Apparently, Edward's and Bella's room, Alice's and Jasper's room, Seth's room, Ellie's room, and Carlisle's office/library were the only rooms on the third floor.

I stopped dead when I reached the top of the stairs. There was no door to my room, once I got to the top of the stairs… I was just there. It was about the size of the others' rooms, but only because the ceiling was slanted. The far wall was just glass and in the middle were two double doors that opened on to what looked like a small balcony that was just big enough for my easel and a stool. A bookshelf that spanned the length of the left wall was full of books. Some my old ones and others new: at a glance I spotted a couple of new medical books (clearly from Carlisle), a few paperbacks in the corner of one shelf that looked like romance novels that I'd never touch (from Ady and Rose probably, but it was the thought that counted!), several hardback fantasy novels (most likely a combination of Alice and Bella). My bed was in the right corner near the glass wall, it was already made up with my purple and brown striped comforter. In the other corner near the glass was my slanted art desk… that had a new set of paints, pastels, and pencils sitting on it. Also a good sized group of canvases were leaned against it. The other walls were solid white and a single sheet of paper was taped on one on the right. I walked over to it, not really sure what to expect after all of this.

Aislynn,

Remember to let your gift flow. Enjoy.

Esme

Were the only words on the page in my great grandmother's graceful curving letters. By this point I was about ready to cry. They had all gone through so much trouble to make sure that this unfamiliar place felt like home to me. It made my heart ache and I wanted to let the tears that were building up in my eyes to fall, but I didn't. Only Edward would know that they were tears of joy, and Mom and Dad were on their way up here right now to see if I liked my room and I just couldn't let them see me crying. I stared up at the ceiling at the point where the two slanted sides met at the top to try and hold the tears in. I turned and faced the staircase once I had myself under control to wait on Mom and Dad to arrive. This was my worst mistake seeing as that was when I spotted my music stand with a good sized pile of blank sheet music on it and violin case on the floor next to it. On the top of the top sheet I could make out another note, but this time it was in Edward's calligraphy:

Az,

I replaced your strings. Music is always a good out let for emotion.

Edward

That did it for me. The tears came back just as Mom and Dad made it to the top stairs. 'Oh, God! She hates it! What did we do wrong?' Mom worried as her face feel and a pained look entered her wide brown eyes that showed her emotions perfectly. 'Ummm… maybe we should get Jasper up here…?' Dad thought and that made me laugh a little bit, but it sounded more like a sob because I was so choked up. Mom rushed forward and wrapped her arms around me like when I was still little and had just tripped and cut my knee wide open.

"Whatever you don't like we can change it, Aislynn…" She said softly.

"It's not that… I just… I can't believe that you all… everyone went to so much trouble over me." I said as I tried to calm down again. I was just being stupid getting worked up about all of these.

"Well…we were all worried about you, dear." Mom started to explain. "And Jake came up with this idea and of course once Alice got a hold of it, it sorta mutated…"

Dad was rubbing the back of his neck awkwardly as he looked down at us. "You do like it… right?"

I nodded and managed to break out of Mom's iron grip to go hug him.

"Thanks, Dad."

It always made me feel special or more loved when Dad just thought of me… which usually didn't happen without Ellie getting equal in return. I still wasn't sure if I'd ever be able to call Berea, Kentucky my home, but I knew that this house would be my home because of all of my family members.

'Whew. At least she's not crying anymore.'

"Dad…"