Disclaimer - I don't own any of Twilight : (

EPOV

We were finally ready to relocate.

We had been in Mobile now for 5 years, I could barely pull off a 23 year old. We had initially meant to move here on the pretext of going to college, but when I found Bella, I didn't feel the need to pull myself away from her for hours a day, not any of us did. Instead we had decided to play a family of adults.

I suppose it may have seemed a little odd, seven adults living together, only surviving off Carlisle's salary. From the thoughts I gained from the people in town, they'd summarised that we inherited a lot of money, and we were living the life of luxury. The thoughts were especially spurred on by Alice continually shopping, walking through the mall at least 3 times a week, arms laden with designer shopping bags.
It didn't really matter what they thought, as long as they believed we were human, we didn't really care.

Bella was almost 5 now, we wanted to relocate so that we could start high school again as she started Kindergarten. Esme insisted on Bella going to school and having a normal life. I agreed with her, she had spent so much time around us already; she needed to make human friends. We were headed to the rarely sunny town of Louisiana in New Orleans.

Alice and I were going to start as freshmen, just going into Highschool; I could scrape by as a 15 year old, where as Alice was more than comfortable playing a 14 year old. She was just so tiny she could pull it off easily. We wanted to start as young as possible so we could keep Bella at one school for as long as possible. If she were to remain living with us, she couldn't finish off all her school years in New Orleans, but she could make a start. When Bella was ready to start Highschool we would relocate again, and again Alice and I would be able to join her as freshmen.

It meant matriculating a lot earlier than we would usually do, but honestly none of us cared. We were all happy to do it, even Rosalie, who absolutely loathed Highschool, because it meant we would be able to stay with Bella keep her happy and human. We all loved her so much, it was worth it.

Alice, Jasper and Emmett had already been down to set up the house in Louisiana. It was similar to the house we had here, secluded, with a huge forest surrounding so we had plenty of sustenance.

Rosalie and I were sitting in the Volvo with Bella secured in the backseat, Carlisle and Esme were driving the last of the things from the house down in one of the hired moving vans, and our cars would be delivered some time next week. I was a little nervous to leave my vanquish in the hands of some strangers. The initial plan had been that Rosalie would take the Volvo with Bella and I would drive my vanquish down to the new house, that plan had crumbled to dust this morning as Bella ate breakfast.

"Edward" Bella chanted to me in her sing song voice, between mouthfuls of porridge.

I had been upstairs sorting out my CD collection.

I felt my legs carry me immediately downstairs to her.

"Yes, little one?" I asked her, as Rosalie entered the kitchen and started brushing Bella's hair.

"Rosalie, you could wait until she's eaten her breakfast" Esme scolded, walking into the kitchen. It didn't seem to bother Bella, she was used to being mothered by all the females in the house, she didn't take her eyes away from mine, and her hand didn't falter as she scooped the spoon into the ball for another portion of the white, sloppy goo. I could hear Esme's thought's, she couldn't hold back the reprimand, but her eyes softened as she saw the way Rose doted on Bella. I saw Rose smirk, she knew from Esme's tone that she wasn't really angry with her, she apologised anyway.

"Sorry Esme" Rose said with a pout that would have rendered Emmett into a pile of goo. "I just wanted to be ready to leave as soon as the moving van arrived.

After Bella finished her breakfast she pulled out of Rosalie's arms and ran towards me, jumping mid stride. I pretended to stumble when I caught her, she pushed her hands to my neck giggling, and showing me her giddy delight in her thoughts.

"Can you please play my CD in the car, the new one we bought last week?" She asked me with perfect articulation. She was so clever, I swelled with pride, she was so grown up for her age. I thought it may have something to do with living in a house full of vampires bursting with knowledge in every area. I saw the CD cover she had in mind, "My first Nursery Rhymes". She would sit on my couch for hours and listen to the classical music I played.

Earlier in the week she had insisted that she needed her own CD collection to be a big girl; I noticed this want of hers had formed after I showed her the CD collection I had in the large cupboard that held my books. I had taken her shopping last week to buy some CD's of her own. It didn't matter if we already had them; this was something that made her happy, Alice had tried to buy her children CD's but I think she mostly looked for covers that matched the ones in my bedroom, and before she put any CD in the shopping cart, she asked me if it was good. Of course Alice had slipped a handful of CD's in that had nursery songs on them. I gave her a pointed look,

"What?" She'd asked a bit defensively. "How else will she be able to join in with the songs at school if all she knows is Claire de lune Edward? Plus I know Emmett will love them." I laughed at that.

"Just Emmett, Alice?" She smirked a little and stuck her tongue out at me.

On the way home Alice had played the Nursery Rhyme CD and sung 'Twinkle, Twinkle',

"Edward?" She called to me while still singing the song. "Please just sing a verse, for some unknown reason the girl seems to think you have good taste in music and she copies your every style. If you show her you like it, she'll admit she likes it, and I know she does." Her tone was begging me at the end.

I huffed a little before joining in with Alice, I knew I had to sing it, Bella needed to be able to fit in with the toddlers at school, I didn't want her to be anymore singled out than she would be when people associated her with us.

Bella cracked a smile when she heard me join in, I could see her little eyes swimming with excitement through the rear view mirror, she burst into song, as if she's been holding it in. I adored how the child in her shone through no matter how insistent she was that she was a 'big girl' and too grown up for baby things.

I was brought out of my musings when I heard Bella singing "Twinkle Twinkle little star" Her voice was so sweet, like a little angel; it brought a smile to my face listening to her.

"Sure I can sweetie" I instantly replied. I knew she wanted to drive with me so I didn't hesitate to answer.

I heard Rosalie laugh, "I'll go take care of the vanquish then shall I?"

I didn't bother to respond I knew she was going to organise to have it delivered along with the rest.

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That's how I ended up driving across the states singing "Twinkle Twinkle little star" for probably the 8th time this week.

Rosalie had been laughing at me mentally since Bella had asked me to put the CD on.

She was remembering the time Alice had pleaded with me to put in a Pop Princess CD she bought from the Mall on the ride home. I had vehemently insisted no garbage was ever to be played in my car.

"No Rosalie, please." I begged her as I saw the forming of a plan start in her mind.

This seemed to confirm her suspicion as she smirked and swivelled in her seat to face the toddler.

"Bella sweetie" Rose called.

"Yes Rosie" She answered with the sweetest smile I've ever seen in my very long existence.

"Alice has a wonderful CD you would love, it's called Pop Princess, it would be perfect for you, maybe Edward could let you play it on his sound system." Rosie informed a now delighted looking Bella.

"Really Rosie? Wow. Edward is that one a good one, do you like it too?" She looked at me and I just couldn't be the one to disappoint her, she clearly wanted to listen to the CD.

"It's one of the best, of course we can listen to it." I answered her with a bit of a forced smile while thinking of ways to get revenge on Rosalie.

"Can you just not say no to her?" Rosalie questioned me. She knew I didn't like to disappoint her, but that wasn't a problem, none of us did, we all loved her so much. Rose was trying to find a time when I had let Bella down, or told her no. It didn't seem like she was having much luck.

"I really don't think I can, it goes against my instincts". I whispered, I felt like I was confiding a secret to her. She nodded a little, then stopped her musings and sang along to the next song with Bella.

We pulled into the little car park that came with the new house a little while later. It really did look beautiful; Alice and Esme had really outdone themselves with this property. I couldn't really call it a house; it looked more like a mansion, or a palace.

I glanced at Bella who was fast asleep, she was smiling. I felt my insides buzz a little, feeling glad that she was dreaming happy things.

Rose noticed where my attention had drifted off to.

"I got her Edward, you empty the car." I nodded at Rose and quickly got out of the car. I heard the pixie before I saw her. She came bouncing down the front steps smiling; she pulled a bag out of my hand and thrust a CD into its place before turning and winking at Rose. I looked down to see a bright pink cover with the slogan, 'Pop Princess' emblazed across the front in what looked like diamantes. I groaned a little for the girls benefit before smiling on the inside. Maybe the music ought to be classed as criminal but the thought of Bella's smile, made me smile anyway.

Rose carried Bella into the house after feeling her shiver a little. I scurried behind; hovering over Rosalie's shoulder, checking Bella was okay.

I walked into the hallway and almost dropped the bags; Carlisle and Esme were stood at the bottom of the stairs.

Esme took Bella out of Rosalie's arm with the attention of settling her in bed. Rose scurried off with the intention of having some fun with Emmett. I quickly shot out of her mind instead focussing my attention on Carlisle.

I couldn't really understand how they'd beaten us, there was most of the house to pack away, and the van certainly didn't go as fast as my Volvo.

Carlisle laughed at my confused expression.

"We only set off half an hour after you took Bella. It's surprising how much quicker you can get things done when you don't have to worry about a toddler running around." He continued to smile.

Ah right, they will have easily beaten us if that was the case. We stopped at a little restaurant for at least 2hours. It didn't usually take so long to feed Bella, but trying to get her to sit still and eat when there was a playground outside seemed quite a difficult task for Rosalie. Especially since I was encouraging Bella to go out and play. One of the times I'd actually picked her up and ran outside with her myself, she'd grabbed my arm and showed me what she wanted, who was I to refuse? It's safe to say that I got scolded by Rose, she reminded me of Esme.

In my defence, Bella wasn't similar to stone like the rest of us. She ought to be able to stretch her legs a little.

"Is Bella okay?" Carlisle asked. Immediately putting an end to my day dreaming.

My thoughts shot to her shivering outside as my body started to carry me up the stairs. I didn't know where her room was yet, but the pull of her heart beat would lead the way.

"Edward, stop!" I heard Carlisle mentally sigh. I turned mid step to face him.

"I just wondered why she'd fallen asleep so early when she was so excited to see the new house, I would have thought she would have kept herself awake not matter how tired she was." He told me.

Oh that actually made more sense. I'd spent the whole day with her, I knew she was fine.

"She found a park when we stopped for food. It took Rosalie and me a couple of hours to pull her away, so she was completely worn out when we finally got back in the car." I informed him.

"Uh huh" Carlisle responded with a knowing look. "And you actually tried to pull her away from something she wanted to do?"

I smiled at him but didn't contradict by earlier story.

"Well go and unpack your things and settle in, we need to have a family discussion tonight." I nodded and wandered up the stairs. I knew what we had to talk about; Bella had never been left alone with humans before. In fact I don't really think she's ever spent a lot of time in her life without a least a member of our family with her. We even checked up on her when she slept.

I was a little nervous, but at least the kindergarten she was attending was connected to the Highschool we were attending. You started this school at 5years old and didn't leave until you were 18. It made this place the best choice for us to go in my opinion, and I had voiced my opinion quite loudly until we decided to move here.

Our other choice had been Forks, Washington; it offered the best cloud cover and the least sunny days. Maybe we could relocate there when Bella was finally old enough to join us in Highschool.

I knew the best thing for Bella would be for her to go to school. She needed to go to school, so I would make sure that she could go.

This house had for floors, it didn't take me long to get used to the layout.

The first floor was the entrance hallway that led off to the kitchen, dining room, living room and bathroom.

The second floor had 2 wings that led off from the staircase, the West wing held my room and Bella's room, joined by a little sitting area. It had a sofa, and my sound system, and a lot of Bella's toys. Alice heard me walk though into Bella's room, she had a big double bed at this house and she looked completely lost in it. She was so tiny, there were safety rails surrounding the four poster bed, they made me feel a little better she wasn't the most co-ordinated of humans. The bed had beautiful gold hangings that flowed down to the floor. It looked a bed fit for a princess.

"Figured you wouldn't mind sharing your space with Bella, even if you won't with the rest of us."

I saw a horrifying vision in Alice's mind of me doing some strange moves, that involved pointing my arms and spinning around, to a horrid girly beat. It went from horrifying to wonderful when I saw Bella doing the same dance, stood across from me. Her face was a vision of beauty, she was laughing so hard because of me, and because of something I was doing. I felt a sense of pride take over me as I walked into the East Wing, of our floor.

It held Carlisle and Esme's room and a huge library rather than a sitting area. I suppose since they were the 'parents' they were in charge of the main areas downstairs. I noticed the Bella and I hard the master bathroom in our wing rather than in Esme and Carlisle's. I suppose it would make sense. Bella was the only one of us who had legitimate reasons for a bathroom.

The third floor was similar to ours except, the West wing held Alice and Jasper's room, and a sitting room, but where my room would have been, there was a huge walk in closet. The East Wing held Carlisle and Esme's work studies, and also a new edition that I'd never seen in any of our houses. It seemed to be a studio; I noticed the materials and the manikins before coming to the conclusion that Alice was now designing clothes.

The fourth floor was the best, it held in The West wing, a huge games room, filled with a pool table, computers, chess boards (we rarely played with just one) and my piano next to the all glass walls. Rosalie and Emmett had the East wing, practically the furthest room away from Bella's room, thankfully that meant it was the furthest away from mine too.

I walked back down the stairs to the dinning room and sat at the table, Carlisle was sat at the head with Esme to his right. I took the side at his left across from her and next to Jasper. Everyone in this house used this table as a point to discuss family problems formally, of course with the exception of our very human little Bella.

Carlisle started.

"We need to discuss how where going to handle the situation of Bella attending Kindergarten." We all nodded, our attention fully on him.

"She had been exposed to our kind for 4 years now, she knows what we are, we've referred to ourselves as vampires in front of her constantly. She knows that she's a human, that she's different." Carlisle stated.

"I know". Carlisle pressed on. "We've never had any problems before, but that's because there's never really been any chance for Bella to slip up, the situation has never warranted us to leave a toddler alone with someone who isn't family." It was true. Bella knew we were different to others. She was a smart girl, she knew we acted different around humans, we weren't ourselves like we were with her, but we'd never really told her before that she couldn't tell anybody. She'd so far followed our lead and kept the secret.

"Hopefully we can speak to Bella Sunday night and explain the entire school situation to her. Now I want everyone to keep there own human last name, with the exception of Esme being a Cullen as she is my wife, any questions?" He asked us.

"So" I said picking the thoughts from Carlisle mind. "You're going to say that none of us are related, we were all adopted individually?"

"I thought it would keep things simple enough for Bella, the less lies the better, she views us all as not being related, even though we're a family."

He was right in what he was saying. And we'd never actually acknowledged the fact that Jasper and Alice, along with Emmett and Rose had been married various times, in front of Bella. She just saw the couples as what they were, in love. If Bella mentioned that the couples were together, it wouldn't matter, Jasper would never stay away from Alice at school, and Emmett could barely keep his hands off Rose, so the school would be gossiping about that anyway.

"What if Bella does actually mention the words vampire and hunting?" Rose asked the table. Carlisle attempted to answer but Emmett butted in.

"We can just say she's exaggerating I doubt anyone would believe her anyway, kids always make stuff up at that age." His voice boomed. I bristled at little at the thought of discounting anything Bella had said, especially if it was the truth.

"I don't think that's the best way Emmett, I'm simply going to put my faith in her, I believe she understands enough to keep our secret." Carlisle confidently answered.

"So tomorrow, after dinner, we can move to the living room and discuss this in a comfortable manner?" Carlisle asked us. He silently added. "If she could sit with you Edward that would be best, then we can see what she honestly thinks of what we tell her." Everyone at the table nodded before moving off to do there own things.

I wandered up the stairs to check on Bella, taking up my post on her rocking chair, watching the little angel sleep. I had an inexplicable need to be near her. I didn't

Realise why until later in the night she woke up crying. I shot off my perch on the rocking chair and to her side, pulling her to me. Her little arms shot round my neck and her face pressed into my shoulder. She'd woken up in a dark new place and thought she was alone. She melted into my arms, immediately calmed as my breath washed over her; she was asleep again within a minute. I held her close while I propped myself up against her headboard. I wasn't about to move now, I knew she needed to be here, in my arms to get a good nights sleep. So here I would stay.