AN: Hello again! OK so this is chapter two, Elli meeting her guardians and stuff. It also includes a shopping spree like all of these types of stories do! ^^
Disclaimer: I do not own the twilight series.
Chapter 2
Elli's POV
The plane was short and uneventful, I just read one of the many books that made up a huge fraction of my luggage. The books were the only possessions I had remaining from my father, the rest had been taken with the house but I hadn't been able to let go of his collection. Reading had been our favorite thing to do together, we read anything we could get our hands on but mostly we loved the classics. The afternoons we spent silently reading together were some of my fondest memories of my Dad.
I got to the Seatle airport reasonably late so I was a bit drowsy but meeting my new guardians quickly solved that problem. I spotted the young couple holding a white piece of paper with my name in caps written on it with a big smiley face underneath and walked over to them. The woman, whose name I remembered to be Karen looked around nervously until she spotted me, then she started smiling widely and waving me over. She had strait black hair and caramel coloured skin, she was very beautiful. I felt a stab of jealousy when I saw her gorgeous skin; I could never tan, I just burned. The man beside her, Pete, was calmer but still smiled warmly at me even though he looked a bit embarrassed about his wife's excitement. He had light brown hair and was quite tall. Another aspect to be jealous of, I didn't even reach 5 feet.
At first I was taken aback by their enthusiasm, they were that excited to see me? A small voice at the back of my head answered: Of course, they've been waiting for you to join their family. That thought gave me the courage to put a smile on my face as I reached them.
"He-hello," I greeted, stuttering, but at least I had volume for once.
"Hello Elli," Karen whispered, her eyes starting to shine with tears, and next thing I knew, she was hugging me. I was taken by surprise, but quickly returned the embrace before she stepped back.
"Sorry, I just, it's just, I'm very happy to meet you finally," She sputtered and I felt my heart go warm.
"It's very nice to meet you both too," I answer.
"It's our pleasure" Pete says, speaking up for the first time, "How was the flight?"
The conversation flowed easily as we retrieved my bags and headed out to the car to my surprise. They were amazingly welcoming and open towards me and didn't seem to mind whatsoever that I stuttered a bit. I kept up with the conversation until I drifted off to sleep in the car, Mother occupying my dreams.
"Elli, we're almost home" A strange mixture of my mother's and Karen's voice called out. I looked up blearily and spotted Karen's face lit up with laughter.
"Y-your hair Elli!" I blinked and glanced into the rear view mirror, groaning when I spot the hay coloured bird's nest that had formed on one side of my head.
"It always does that," I complained under my breath, earning another bout of laughter from Karen.
"We're here," Pete announced as we drove up the driveway. I heard myself gasp.
The house was beautiful, with red bricks and a porch in front. It reminded me strongly of the house I had lived in when my Dad was alive, causing my eyes to water.
"Do you like it?" Pete questioned, I nodded slightly in response.
We got out of the car and Pete insisted in carrying my suitcase inside for me. It was a good thing too, considering that the moment I walked through the front door I got run over by something big, black and fluffy.
"Wha-?" Was all I was able to say before it started attacking me with dog kisses.
"Oh my goodness I completely forgot about Monty!" Said Karen as Pete helped me get out from under the dog. "I'm so sorry Elli, are you alright?"
"I'm fine, I like dogs," Just not ones that were bigger than me.
"He seems to like you, that's for sure," Joked Pete while giving me a hand up.
We headed up to my room, Monty following close behind, and I felt them gauging my reaction as I took in the house. I guessed quickly that it was an older house but it had been renovated recently and was quite modern and beautiful, the rooms a mix of old and new. I took my time looking around before reaching my room, and found myself at a loss for words when I opened the door. It was huge, with two big windows on either side of a queen sized bed that fit comfortably in the space.
"We haven't started decorating yet, we wanted to wait for your input," Karen explained, referring to the white walls. I hadn't taken notice, blown away as I was by the size of the bedroom.
"Oh, it's fine like this" I reassured her quickly, it was already so much, as I greedily took in the wall of book shelves opposing the windowed one.
"Don't be silly!" she exclaimed "Here, I'll give you a hand with your hair,"
"I think I'm going to head to bed now," Pete said with a smile, heading out the door "good night ladies,"
"Night Honey," She replied with a peck on the cheek.
"Good night," I said while returning the smile.
"Have you got a brush?" Karen asks, turning to me.
"I think so," Sure enough, I found easily once I opened my suitcase. I spotted Karen taking in its contents and furrow her brow.
"That's not a lot of clothes" she referred to my limited wardrobe, I had never really had the money or the motivation to ever really form a proper one.
"I usually wore my uniform back home, I don't have it anymore but I'll make due," I explained.
"Not a chance," She said with a wide smile "Tomorrow is a shopping day!"
"You don't need to worry about that,"
"I want to," she said simply, I didn't argue "come sit."
I sat beside her and she proceeded to slowly untangling my hair, somehow she managed to do it nearly painlessly. I looked at Monty who had insltalled himself at the end of my bed and pondered on the relationship that would form between me and my guardians while they let me stay with them. I didn't think I would ever really consider Karen my mother, her age made me think more of an elder sister or an aunt. In any case, I could already feel some sort of bond, she was such a lovely person I couldn't help but adore her. Pete was the same, though he did remind me vaguely of my dad...
"All done! I'm thinking we might swing by the salon too tomorrow, just for a trim,"
"Thank you Karen" I said quietly, climbing into bed, making sure not to disturb the sleeping giant.
"Any time sweetie," She smiled tenderly back at me before leaving the room.
Being an early riser, I woke up around 7 the next morning to Karen's great joy.
"This is great, I didn't want to wake you up but this way we can get a head start!" She exclaimed when she spotted me coming down the stairs followed by the dog.
I ate and got dressed quickly before heading to the driveway, it wasn't raining to my surprise. Karen stepped out of the house and stopped me to look my outfit over: loose jean shorts and an old purple sweater and she sighed.
"Oh well, you'll have to change before going to La Push tonight," she said dismissively.
"La Push?"
"It's a Native-American reservation near here," Pete explained while getting into the car, we followed.
"It's where I grew up and both my younger and older sister still live there," Karen furthered "we're eating at the younger ones, Emily's, house with a few family and friends. Everyone's really excited to meet you!"
I gulped as the car left the driveway. Who exactly was "everyone"? I had been doing great with Karen and Pete so far but I didn't want to push my luck...
We dropped Pete off at work, which I learned was a medical research facility, before making our way to Port Angeles. All the way there Karen fired questions about my virtually non-existent taste in clothes while creating her mental plan for our shopping spree. We were looking for a parking spot when I suddenly heard her squeal at an impossible octave.
"The new shopping mall is finally open! Oh my gosh they've been working on it for over a year and we get to visit on opening day! What luck!"
We did a bit more than visit, that's for sure. First thing we did was go to the salon and I got my first haircut in over a year, meaning the hairdresser took quite a bit off. My hair went from halfway down my back to just pass my shoulders; he even gave me bangs, which I really liked to my surprise. For the rest of the day my hands kept gravitating towards my hair, or should I say lack of, but it felt nice.
We visited so many stores, inside and outside the confusing new building and I eventually gave up on trying to make sense of Karen's "battle plan". Sure enough though, by the end of the day I had all the clothes I could ever possibly need, adding up to more than I had ever owned in my entire lifetime.
"Karen, this, this is too much!" I stuttered for the hundredth time that day as we packed the car.
"What don't you like them?"
"Of course," actually, she somehow managed to choose things that I didn't even realised I liked but I adored once I tried them on."It's just, you guys are already giving me so much..."
"That's because we have fifteen years of spoiling to make up for!" she smiled. "We want you to be happy."
We got seated and started our trip back home, we were halfway there when I had summoned enough courage to ask about something that had been thinking about since I got news of my adoption.
"Karen, why did you choose me?"
I knew she understood what I meant; I could see it in her eyes as she glanced at me quickly before facing the road again. It was a few moments before she answered.
"I suppose it may seem unusual," she pondered, almost talking to herself "When Pete and I got married we were so looking forward to starting a family and when we learned that neither of us could conceive we looked to adopt a young child so we could still take part in his or her upbringing. But when we heard your story, we felt you needed a new beginning without having to let go of your past completely, and we thought we could provide you with that, so we decided to. I guess it's as simple as that."
We settled into a peaceful silence for the rest of the ride and I felt calmer than I had in weeks.
Pete was already home, preparing a gigantic salad for the dinner while Karen and I lugged the day's finds into my room, which were all thoroughly sniffed and inspected by Monty. Then she took over half an hour to pick out the outfit.
"It needs to be perfect!" she insisted "we've got plenty of time."
She settled on a high-waist, mid-thigh brown skirt with a white tiny pink polka-dotted short sleeved shirt and dark blue, elbow-length cardigan. Finnaly, a pair of pastel pink toms, the same color as the polka dots, for shoes.
"Lovely yet simple," she approved once I had it on "come, I'll do your hair and don't say I don't need to because I never miss a chance to create my perfect pigtails, alright?" With that she added low and stylishly messy pigtails to complete the ensemble.
With that we hurried into the car and soon enough we were parked in front a cute cottage-style home with the loud chatter of thirty-odd people coming from its backyard. My breathing started to get quick and shallow just as Karen left the car, but Pete paused and turned when he heard me.
"Don't worry," he reassured "it may be a bit overwhelming at first but they're all really nice."
"Uh-huh," my breathing wasn't getting back to normal.
"You'll be fine, I promise." With that, we got out of the car and headed to the back of the house.
AN: So that's it and don't worry Seth's coming up in the next chapter! Let me know how it is, please review!
Thanks for reading!
pepper-rabit