Wife Swap: Cullen and McClain

Handbooks

Esme POV

The week had flown by so quickly. When I first found out Emmett and Alice had signed me up for Wife Swap I was angry and nervous. When Alice said Edward had agreed to do this I was completely shocked. Not Edward. He would never allow this sort of thing to happen. He was the sensible one, the mature one. Then as the time went by, I felt excited. This could be good for me; for us all. It was an adventure. Alice had assured me that it would be cloudy and raining the whole week in New York. I had just heard the sound of tyres turning from a smooth gravel road, to an uneven dirt road. The camera men would be here within five minutes.

"Alright, everyone, the camera men are here. Come down here now and get ready for them," I called. A car pulled up outside and there were footsteps and finally the doorbell rang. Carlisle wrapped his arm around my shoulders and we went to answer the door.

"No more funny business, act human from now on," Carlisle murmured softly.

I reached out and opened the door, a young man looked at me and his jaw dropped.

"H-h-h-h…" he stuttered as he looked at me.

"Ernie, get a move on," I heard lady's voice say. She walked up the steps and when she saw Carlisle her chin dropped slightly as well. It seemed that she had better control over herself, as she quickly looked away and said,

"Hello, I am Wendy and this is Ernie, we are from Wife Swap; we will begin filming in an hour when your car arrives to escort you out. Until then we'll set up and get ready.

An hour went by and everything was set up and I was about to leave. The driver of my car was lugging all of my six suitcases into the trunk.

"Alice, how much did you have to pack?" I asked. Originally, I was going to pack my own clothes but Alice nagged until she finally got her way.

"It's okay, I only packed the essentials." She assured me.

"Okay, I'll see you in two weeks," I said and began to hug everyone good bye. I saved Carlisle for last and he gave me a hug that would defiantly crushed bones if I were human.

"Now, how are you going to behave?" I asked.

"As good as gold," They all said as if they were reciting the alphabet.

"What do you do if your new mum flirts with dad?" I asked the girls.

"Scream rape until her eardrums burst," Alice, Bella and Rose answered immediately.

"Good, boys no wrestling in the house and so help me if I get back and anything is broken, you will all be in so much trouble." I said. "I'm going to miss you, have fun," I said and I sat in the back of the large car.

"Bye mum," I heard them all say. I shut the door and a second later the car was moving.

The car trip had been okay, it was the plane trip that was utterly boring. When I had finally arrived in New York; I watched as the car drove around the streets. I watched as the houses got shabbier and shabbier until the car stoped outside an extremely old and dirty looking house.

"Well, this house could certainly do with a face lift," I said to the camera. I looked at the house. It was a small two storey house with a small unkempt front garden. The paint on the house was peeling and I could just see the pale blue paint the house used to be. I turned the doorknob and it was unlocked so I opened it. It opened slowly and it creaked loudly.

"Well, I guess no one is going to be able to get inside without being heard," I said. "It will keep burglars out," I said smiling. I had entered a small room with an old dirty couch and the smallest, oldest television I had ever seen. Judging by the dust, it was rarely ever used. I walked around the house and I found that each room in the bottom storey was as small and old as the first. The last room I found was the kitchen. I noticed a few sheets of paper and I sat down, picked them up and began to read.

Hello, my name is Lulu McClain. I have three children; Mark, Bert and Carmella. Mark is 18 years old and is a senior at the local high school. Bert, 16 is a sophomore, also attending the local high school. Camilla is 13 years of age and attends junior high in year 8. All my children are active participants in many clubs and activities. Mark is involved in basketball, hockey, water polo and debating, Bert participates in Football, archery, wrestling and is also a mathlete, Camilla is a cheerleader, plays netball, tennis and chess. My husband, Gerald, is an architect and is very strict and organised. I myself am a housewife.

I have many values and we attend church every Monday, Wednesday and Sunday evenings. I believe that children should be seen and not heard and that they should only speak when spoken to.

Everyday I do groceries, volunteer at the retirement village in the morning and then I volunteer at the animal shelter in the afternoon. At three pm sharp I pick up the children and take them to their various activities. Depending on the day we will then go to Church. When we arrive home we eat dinner together as a family and the children must finish all their homework before they go to bed at 10pm for the boys and 9:30 for Camilla.

We have a dress code in our house that must be obeyed at all times.

- Shirts must be buttoned up to the neck and the sleeves cannot be shorter than the shoulder and the shirts must not be tight fitting or revealing.

- Boys must wear long pants and girls must wear a dress or skirt that cannot be higher than the knee.

- Boys should have neatly combed hair and the girls must wear their hair up in a ponytail or a bun at all times.

The children have various jobs around the house that must be completed each morning before school.

There are schedules on the pantry for further instructions,

Thankyou,

Lulu.

When I finished reading I realised that I had not said a word.

"This woman sounds horrible. It looks as though she treats her children like slaves and they don't even have time to be children because of their schedules. I hope I can let this family loosen up a little," I said to the camera. And the dress code, I thought. I was positive that everything Alice had packed for me would be breaking it. I decided to take a look upstairs. I made my way up carefully and the first room I came to was a bedroom. The shelf was filled with books and trophies. I closed the door and looked into the other rooms. All three bedrooms were very similar, very bare and not one of them had anything interesting; no posters, nothing. I made my way downstairs and as I reached the living room, the doorbell rang. It was time to meet my new family.

Lulu POV

The trip to Oregon was long. I thought about my children mostly. I thought it was a bad idea to enter this show but Gerald had convinced me it was fine and that it was a good opportunity for all of us. I had decided that it would be a good idea to enter this show as a way to help other families in need. I wanted to make a difference in the world and helping a depressed family would be a great way to do this. I thought that this family would most likely be poor and have no structure and the children would be very deprived and corrupted. It was my chance to help them see the real world. I had never left my children for more than two days at a time, and to have to leave my perfectly behaved and well dressed children to take care of children I didn't know would be difficult. I hoped that these two weeks would go quickly.

I looked out the windows of the car and realised we were passing the last houses in the town, I wondered if the driver was lost. All of a sudden the driver turned onto an unmarked dirt road. This road went for five miles and soon pulled up outside a large house. I stared in amazement. It was huge; at least three storeys high. I opened the car door and ran quickly to the porch to get out from the rain. I turned the key and opened the door. I walked inside to see the house a gleaming white, with antiques and priceless artworks hanging on the walls; originals no doubt. This house was so clean and open. I began looking around the house and I found a kitchen. I saw a few sheets of paper and I picked them up.

Hello, my name is Esme Cullen. Together with my husband Carlisle we adopted eight children. Eight children; how does she keep this place so clean, she must be cleaning all day.

My children are; Edward 17, Rosalie and Jasper who are twins 18, Emmett 18, Alice 17, Isabella (or Bella) 17, Renesmee 11 and Jacob 21. All my children are well behaved and very mature even if they don't always show it. The children attend the local high school and are juniors and seniors. Renesmee, the youngest is home schooled by myself and Jacob stays home with her. All my children are together Bella and Edward, Alice and Jasper, Emmett and Rosalie and Renesmee and Jacob have a special bond although they do not share a room as the others do. What? They allow their children to date? And stay in the same room together?Even if they aren't really related, it is still immoral and disgusting.

My husband Carlisle is a doctor and works at the local hospital. He works extremely long hours and if he is not at work he can be found in his office. What a father, by the sounds of it he never sees his children and leaves everything for her to do.

I work part time as a garden designer for magazines and part time as an interior designer. I believe that children should have freedom and should be allowed to make mistakes; as long as they learn from them. I do all the cleaning, laundry and groceries. We never eat meals together, I just cook it and they come and eat when they feel hungry. She does everything around the house? It sounds like these children are spoilt. I hope I can teach them a few lessons and teach them the proper way of life.

I advise, for your sanity and my own, that you keep Rosalie away from Jacob and watch out for Emmett and Jasper. They are both jokers and love a good laugh. Because of her past; Rosalie will take some time to get used to you and I can assure you that you two will not get along in the beginning.

Esme.

Eight children. I couldn't shake that thought out of my head. I decided to take a look around the rest of the house.

I wondered around the house and I made my way up the large marble staircase to the second floor. I walked along the corridor and found four doors. The first door I opened, I saw a room with one entire wall filled from the floor to the ceiling with CDs, record, CD players and anything musical. On the opposite wall was a collection of books, mostly classics. In the middle of the room was a large metal bed with gold covers. I noticed as I walked into the room, there were two other doors. I opened them both and one led to a closet as big as the bedroom. The other door led to a bathroom with a large spa bath, shower and vanity table. I left that room and made my way to the next. This room was the same dimensions as the other only the room was filled with photos and rifles that looked like they were real antiques from the war. The closet in this room was bigger than the other one. How many clothes do these people need? The next room I went to was similar to the other rooms instead there was a large mirror covering half a wall and a large king sized bed in the middle of the room. The floor had a large rug on it, a cherry red while the bedspread and curtains were a range of browns and beige. I left that room and went to the last door on this floor. I opened the door and saw the biggest room I had ever seen. I realised that this was the master bedroom and I closed the door in a hurry. I walked up the stairs again and saw two doors I opened one and it was smaller than the others and was hot pink and reds. It was evident that this was a young girl's room. The last door had a large sign on it reading: Get lost Blondie on it. I opened the door and saw the biggest mess imaginable. There were clothes all over the floor and posters were covering every inch of the walls. I realised that all the posters were of cars or motorbikes. I could smell something funny and I decided that investigating further might not be the way to go. I left the room and headed back downstairs. I waited in the lounge room for the family to arrive. I had already looked around the house briefly so I decided to entertain myself until the family arrived. I walked out of the house and made my way to the garage. I opened the side door and saw four extremely expensive and fast looking cars and a large motorbike. I noticed two empty spaces.

"Wow look at all these cars," I said in shock. "I only have one and it is thirteen years old," I said. "This family is obviously very spoilt and the children are used to getting whatever they want," I said.

The family was supposed to be here at six o'clock and it was six thirty and they were still not here.

"This family is clearly not organized. I do not agree with a lot of their rules and I can't wait until it is time for rule change," I said.

I waited in the living room and finally; at 7:15. I heard the cars pulling up in the driveway. It was time to meet my new family.