Esme knocked on the door of Alice's new room and then waited a few seconds. She heard Alice softly tell her she could come in while at the same time slowly opening the door to the woman who would be housing and taking "care" of her for the next three months. Esme took this time and looked around the room she had set up for Alice. It was originally her 8-year-old son Edward's room, but that had changed right after she had gotten the phone call from Victoria not three weeks ago asking her if she and Carlisle would keep Alice for three months, moving Edward to a room on the third floor where his piano was located so that he could use it at his will.
She had planned on doing so this summer anyways, and converting this room into a sewing/crafts room, but the arrival of Alice had changed and hastened those plans. Esme didn't mind though. She loved that her home was overflowing with children. It made her heart full.
The phone call really had come as a shock. She hadn't heard from Victoria since college, and had been even more shocked when she had been asked to take in her old friend's 14 year old daughter for three months. She had not even known Victoria had a child to begin with, and being asked to keep the girl was a shock. A complete and utter shock.
"Alice, how do you like your room?"
"It's fine. Thanks," Alice said, looking around the room for the millionth time since she had come into the room. The truth was, she actually loved the room a lot. It was so different than what she was used to, with her mismatched thrift store furniture and, most recently, wood paneled walls that no amount of posters could ever hide.
All of the furniture in her new room was made of a dark walnut: the bed, dresser, and desk. The furniture even smelled new, so Alice expected Esme had either recently purchased it, or it had never been used.
Three of the walls were light pink, while the last wall, where the window was located, was dark brown. The trim was white. The curtains and suede bedspread were light brown; the carpet a cream color. It looked like something Alice would have picked out herself, given the chance. She had never been given that choice though. Her mother was not one to care about how her bedroom looked or even if she was happy about it.
"Your mom told me that you liked pink."
"Yea, I do," Alice said, surprised Victoria had even known and a bit embarrassed for being fond of a color she expected most toddlers to enjoy. It had always been her favorite color, though.
"Well, why don't you get unpacked before supper? Do you need any help?"
"No. I can get everything," Alice said quietly. She had been thinking about unpacking already, but was dreading it. Who wanted to unpack? She honestly didn't mind living out of the boxes, but obviously that was not going to be an option to Esme if she was already wanting her to put things away.
"Ok. Alice, I hope that you feel at home here. I hope that you feel like you can ask me or Carlisle for anything."
Alice merely nodded. She doubted she would talk to them much. At least she wouldn't if she could get away with it. As much as she liked to talk, she didn't care to talk to many adults.
"Alice, I am going to start supper; Carlisle and the boys will all be home soon, so you can meet them at supper except for Jasper. He is spending a few days with his mother while she is in town. Rosalie should be home soon as well. Try to unpack everything so that we can store the boxes after supper."
"Ok," Alice said as she watched Esme leave her new room. Boys? Rosalie? So did Esme and Carlisle had children? Alice quietly wondered to herself why her mother had not told her. Maybe she should have paid more attention to her surroundings on her way up to her new room earlier. Surely there would have been pictures somewhere, had she thought to look for them. She honestly hadn't even thought to look for photos though and she wished she would have now.
Alice looked around the room — a room that was much larger than her old room had been — and at the boxes that were stacked against the farthest wall. Fifteen haphazardly packed boxes. All of her stuff had been sent from the old apartment because her Mom had said they would find another one when she got back. She had put all of her stuff in storage, along with the furniture from Alice's room. There was no sense in paying rent on an apartment no one would be in for three months, according to Victoria.
Most of Alice's stuff had been sent early. Her laptop was already set up on the desk. Her mother had marked the box that had held her computer equipment so that it would be ready when she got here. She liked to look online at fashion designs and had a program on her computer to create and sketch her own. It was the only thing of value she really had. One day she would be able to freely design her own line. She looked forward to it.
Alice slowly put everything else away like Esme had told her to do. She knew that within a week the room would look lived in, and there would be things on the floor. Clothes would be thrown around the room, making it look like her closet had thrown up. She would probably even have a glass or two on her bedside table. She absolutely hated cleaning with a passion and was not exactly tidy on a good day. Victoria had given up ages ago with trying to get her to clean her room.
She just didn't want Esme to be mad at her before she had even met the rest of the family. Not that she really cared, but right now she didn't have the energy to argue with anyone. Which was funny, since most of the time her energy was limitless. Right now, though, she felt mentally exhausted and utterly confused by the whirlwind of activity that had occurred around her over the past three weeks — when she had been told she would be staying here for months.
It didn't take her long to put everything up, even though she did have a lot of stuff that had already been sent and plenty that she had brought with her. She unpacked her clothes, CDs, books, and her speakers she was able to hook her phone too so she could listen to music when she wanted to without earbuds.
Esme had told her Mom that they had wireless internet in their house, so she turned her computer on and got on the internet, checking her mail quickly.
That was when she heard a child cry out. She looked towards her door, startled. She got up and walked towards the cry.
She followed the cry into a soft yellow and pink room, and saw a baby in a crib, standing inside of it, holding onto the side rail, a onesie with little pink dinosaurs all over it. The baby had caramel brown hair that matched Esme's own.
This might not be too bad if she got to play with a baby.
Downstairs, Esme heard Bella crying and started up the stairs, as Bella was not a patient one when she woke up. When Esme was halfway up the stairs, however, Bella stopped. That was unusual, as the baby very rarely ever stopped crying until she watched her mother walk into her room to comfort her.
When she got to Bella's room, Esme was surprised to see Alice playing on the floor with Bella. The 14 year old girl, with so much attitude, was gone. The little girl who was playing with Bella actually looked happy. She looked so young, without the angry lines on her face. She was quietly talking to Bella as Alice tickled Bella's stomach. Bella was smiling at Leah, giggling even.
"She likes you, Alice," Esme said. Alice jumped and slid away from Bella.
"I'm sorry. She was crying. I came to see what it was."
"What do you mean? What it was? Did your mother not tell you that Carlisle and I had a small child? Bella is only a year old; she is our youngest," Esme explained as she watched Alice shake her head.
"No. Mom didn't tell me anything, except that I was going to live with you for three months. Mom and I don't talk much," Alice replied, never looking up from the floor.
"Oh, well, in that case, Carlisle and I have Bella, whom was a delightful surprise because we thought we could not have any more children; and, then we have Rosalie who is 16, Edward, who is 8, and Jacob who is 13. Edward and Jacob were both adopted when they were quite small. We also have two frequent visitors, Rosalie's boyfriend, Emmett, and my nephew Jasper. Emmet is 17 and Jasper is 15, nearly 16."
"Okay," Alice said, standing up and dusting of the non-existent lint off of her pants. "I am going back to my room."
Alice walked past Esme. Already her hard demeanor had returned and those angry lines were creased into her face.
Esme had a feeling that she was going to have many ups and downs with her new surrogate child in the months to come.
Esme went over to Bella and picked her up.
"Why don't we go watch television in the living room while Mommy fixes supper, BellaBug?" Esme asked, ticking her baby.
Bella laughed.
"Pooh!" She shrieked in a fit of baby laughter that was music to Esme's ears, as Bella said one of the few words she had recently learned.
Esme was at the kitchen counter cutting up vegetables for supper and watching Bella, who was in her pack and play in the living room watching Winnie the Pooh and playing with her toys, when Carlisle Cullen walked into the kitchen and wrapped his arms around her from behind. Carlisle kissed Esme lightly on her neck, and then nuzzled her neck with his nose and slowly licked her neck up to her ear with the tip of his tongue, knowing that if one of the kids walked in they would not be able to see what he was doing. Esme let out a girlish giggle as she dried her hands on a nearby towel.
Carlisle, with his brilliant blue eyes and dazzling blonde hair, was the love of his wife's life. She loved him more than she thought was possible to love a man, and would do anything for him, as he would for her. Esme turned around in his embrace and began kissing her husband.
"Gah! Mom! Dad! Why ya gotta kiss like that?" Edward Cullen whined as he walked, sulking, into the kitchen and sat at the 10-person kitchen table. He threw his baseball glove on the top and crossed his arms over his chest, an obvious pout settling on his lips.
Edward had a halo of bronze ringlets around his head and bright blue and gold eyes to match. He was a mischievous little boy who was often stuck on his Mama's hip unless she was getting on to him. Then he would try to hide in his father's study. He still thought that his mother was oblivious to the fact that he hid in there, even after so many years. If only he knew the things his mother truly did know.
Esme passed Carlisle a look that asked, 'Are we still having trouble accepting the new addition to our family?'
Carlisle nodded slightly; just enough that his wife could see his action, but not their son.
"Edward, sweetie, what is wrong?" Esme asked. As if she didn't already know.
"Nuthin," Edward mumbled. Esme stepped away from Carlisle and looked down at her son.
"Edward Anthony, you can try to lie to a lot of people, but you know better than to do so to me. You have never once been able to lie to me and get away with it, why try? Now, why don't you tell me what's wrong," Esme told her youngest son.
Edward looked up at her and sighed.
"You gave her my room," He said, almost too quietly for Esme to hear it.
It was Esme's turn to sigh. They had been back and forth over this situation with Edward several times, but apparently they were going to have to do it one more time. She truly didn't understand his reservations, as he had known he was getting a new room this summer regardless. It had merely happened on a time frame not of Edward's choosing, much to his disdain.
Esme walked over to the table and pulled a chair up close to Edwards.
"Sweetheart, look at me. We have talked about this. The only other room in the house that is big enough to be a bedroom is the one with your piano in it and we were moving you into that room this summer anyways. We could have put Alice in that room, however. Now, would you rather her be in there, where you would have to get her permission to play your piano, or would you rather be able to play it whenever you like?" Esme asked the little boy.
He sat there for a minute. This surprised Esme. Edward loved his piano, and when they had bought it for him two years before, he had slept beside it for nearly a month.
"Edward Anthony, answer your mother," Carlisle said softly, also a little surprised that he was taking so long to answer.
Edward looked up at his dad and sighed.
"I am excited about getting a new room."
"Then honey, what is wrong?" Esme asked him, taking his small hands in hers.
"Mama, you don't have to share a room with Jacob while you are finishing my new room! Jacob is always playing football and doesn't always take a shower every night like he is supposed to do. He smells like a wet dog! His room is never clean…"
"Edward! Jacob is your brother and I will not have you talking about him like that," Esme scolded lightly. "I know that you like things a little cleaner than Jacob does. But it is only for a few days. I have been working on your room, and you will probably get to move into it the day after tomorrow," Esme finished.
Edward looked up at her, trying hard not to cry. But, tears glistened in his eyes, so he just nodded and looked down at the floor.
"Edward, two more nights. Then you will have your room. But you will get along with your brother. Understood?" Esme asked him. He nodded sullenly.
"Edward, why don't you go upstairs and get ready for supper. Your mother and I will finish cooking, and everyone else should be here soon," Carlisle interjected. His son sometimes had the tendency to lose his temper, and he knew that his wife had already had a long day, so a tantrum did not bode well for their son.
"Okay, Dad," Edward said, getting up and running up the stairs.
"Walk, Edward," Esme yelled after him. All they needed was for him to slip and fall down the stairs because he thought he had to run everywhere he went. Those were a set of stitches no one wanted, especially, since Edward had already had stitches twice from falling on the stairs.
Before she could move back over to the food she was preparing, Carlisle snaked his arms back around her waist again.
Once again, she twisted in his arms and moved around to face him; she snaked her own hands around his neck and planted her lips firmly on his.
"Mom … Dad … get a room," Jacob snickered as he walked in the house. He laughed when his parents both turned towards him and both raised their eyebrows at him. Jacob had been their first adopted child, and the hardest since he was Native American and part of the Quileute tribe. Carlisle and Esme had known his parents before they were killed in a car accident, but the tribe had not wanted the boy to go to a family outside of the tribe despite his biological parents naming them his guardians in their will. It had been a nasty battle when the boy was only a year old. Jacob favored his Quileute parents — he was already nearly as tall as Carlisle, his black hair cut short, but spiked in the front. He remembered nothing of the custody battle for him, thankfully, and Carlisle and Esme made sure he knew where he came from. They spent time on the Quileute Reservation every year so Jacob would know his heritage.
"Shut up, dog breath," Rosalie said, following her brother into the house. She threw her car keys on the table and her book bag by the garage door.
"Jacob, Rosalie," Carlisle warned. Jacob looked down, but Rosalie stood her ground, gazing fiercely at her father.
Rosalie had the same blue eyes that her father had and wavy blonde hair that reached her behind. She was tall and thin, and in the eyes of everyone, beautiful. But she preferred to be seen as fierce and smart.
She was their first biological child, and was very spoiled. Her problem was that she had her father twisted around her fingers like a yo-yo string, and knew exactly how to dangle him around when she wanted something, much to Esme's dismay at times. It was not exactly easy wrangling her eldest in at times, especially when a pout made her daddy melt in her hands.
Which was probably one of the reasons that she thought Rosalie would get away with failing her Algebra class, however, it had only gotten her sent to summer school, which she was still not happy about. But, as both her parents had put it, how could a child receive all A's in every subject, and then receive an F for the first time in her school career in Algebra?
"Daddy, you don't know what he did," Rosalie batted her eyelashes, and stuck her bottom lip out a little.
Esme stifled a laugh and stepped between her husband and daughter.
"Rosalie, we are not even going there …" Esme sniffed the air and winced.
Yes. She knew what Edward was talking about now. She also now suspected what Rosalie was going to say.
"Jacob, honey, you need to go and wait in your father's study. He needs to talk to you about something," Esme said quietly, sending a smile at her son.
Jacob ran upstairs without ever looking at his mother or father; he simply wanted to get away from his sister before she told on him for trying to blackmail her on the way home. She had gotten even madder when he threatened to do something to her car. Rosalie was funny about her car, and had already been mad that she had to wait for him to get done with football practice before she could go home from Summer School. He wouldn't have really messed with her car. He didn't have a death wish, and that was a sure way to die quickly, if not from Rose, from his parents.
But, Jacob had seen her making out with Emmett, quite passionately, and their parents were unaware that his older sister and her boyfriend did stuff like that in public, especially at school. They had been dating for a year, and before that had been best friends since they were toddlers, but everyone knew that it would not going to go over well if they were caught making out on school property and Carlisle and Esme found out. Emmett's parents could not possibly care less, as they spent very little time with him as it was, even Jacob knew that. Emmett ate supper with them every single day.
Back downstairs Esme turned to look at her daughter.
"Okay, Rosalie, I know what the problem is. Edward has already complained about it. Your brother is just going through a change and probably does not even realize it yet."
"Mom, how can he not realize that smell?" Rosalie wailed. Carlisle took that as his cue to leave and started to head towards his study to discuss his oldest son's oncoming puberty. It would be better than staying in the kitchen with his wife and daughter while they discussed things of this matter — whether he was a doctor or not, those type of conversations never went well with his over dramatic daughter.
"Rosalie, everyone handles puberty differently. Need I remind you of two years ago?" Esme asked, turning towards the counter to start making the burgers that had been left when Carlisle had come in the house. If she didn't finish soon, she was going to have a hoarde of hungry children on her hands. She had, at least, finished cutting the onions, tomatoes, and lettuce for the burgers.
"Mom. That is so not the same," Rosalie hissed, slightly embarrassed that her Mom would even bring that up.
"Rosalie Lillian Cullen, it was no different, that I can promise you," Esme said with a stern look toward her daughter.
Rosalie sat down at the table and glanced at her Mom, thinking about her own experience two years before.
She had been taught all about the things girls go through when puberty strikes. Esme had talked to her about them from her tenth birthday on, and if she ever had a question she knew that she could talk to either one of her parents. However, when the fateful day arrived that Rosalie Lillian Cullen would become a "woman," she had thought she was actually dying. She had been at school, and had become hysterical. The school nurse had had to call Esme to come and get her, because she would not tell them what was wrong with her. It had taken Esme several hours to calm her daughter down.
Esme laughed silently at her daughter's silence, knowing she was thinking about that fateful day she had started her period and thought she was dying.
"One day you will realize that I am often right. Now, why don't you come and help me. I have to get supper finished, and I am sure that Alice is probably wondering what is taking so long for supper to be ready."
"Oh! Mom, I'm sorry. I forgot that she was going to be here when I got home from picking up Jacob from football practice!"
Esme smiled at her daughter. Rosalie had also had mixed emotions about Alice coming to stay with them, but for a completely other reason than Edward. In fact, even when Bella had been born, and everyone had found out that she was a girl, not a boy, Rosalie had cried. She had been the only daughter of Carlisle and Esme for fourteen, nearly fifteen years at the time; she sure didn't want to share the title with a baby. Now, though, Rosalie loved Bella and usually watched her when her parents needed her, too. Bella probably loved her big sister most after her parents, though Esme would never tell the children that.
"Well, give her a little space, okay? I have a feeling that she might have a little bit of trouble adjusting to life in our house."
"Why?" Rosalie asked, looking up at her mother with curiosity.
Esme glanced at the stairs, then back at Rosalie.
"She is not used to living with this many people, nor living as you do. She has not grown up the way you have."
"What do you mean?" Rosalie asked her mother, generally interested in the reasons this strange girl could have for not adjusting well to her family.
"You live a very structured life, Rosalie. All children your age are not used to it."
Rosalie stood there for a minute and thought, trying not to bristle at being called a child. Then she glanced back at her mom and laughed.
"Oh! You mean that she isn't used to living with the rules that you and dad make us follow. Or, rather, you think we fol … um … yea," Rosalie's eyes grew twice their normal size.
Esme raised her left eyebrow at her child as she continued cooking the burgers in front of her.
"That you think we should follow so that we do not make huge mistakes that some teenagers make," Rosalie said with a bright smile.
Good save you little angelic looking brat, Esme thought happily. She felt herself smile, though she tried not too. Esme loved her children more than anything in the world. Even if they did often have a way of finding trouble, she could not imagine it any other way. As badass as Rosalie thought she was, Esme knew better. While some rules were broken, Rosalie tried her best to follow the rules her parents set for her and her siblings.
"Rosalie, dear, why don't you go introduce yourself to Alice and tell her supper is nearly done? And on your way back in here, will you bring Bella in and put her in her high chair, please? I am already running late, and am I correct in thinking that Emmett will be here for supper?"
Rosalie blushed before saying anything.
"Um, yea. He will be here. I will go meet her and get Bella after," Rosalie said, practically running for the stairs.
Something was definitely up with that, but at the moment, Esme knew that she was going to have to let it slide.