Audrey's POV
I stood up and flattened my skirt, even if they are crazy no need to look bad. I walked to the door and opened it. Outside I was a black Mercedes. There is no possible way that all eight of their children could fit in there. I looked down the driveway and saw no other car coming.
I looked back to the Mercedes and saw a man getting out talking on the phone. He had pale blond hair and was unnaturally pale. I assumed he was the father.
"Rosalie," he growled. "I don't care if Alice said there was a sale, you need to get here now!" From his voice you could tell it was an order. I smiled, you must respect a man who can give a direct order and have it followed.
I looked and saw that three other people had gotten out of the car. One was a boy with reddish hair, he was extremely pale like the father. He walked up to the girl with brown hair, who was also pale, and took her hand, kissing her. I frowned, so they really were dating, this was disgusting. The girl smiled at him then looked to the other boy who had gotten out. I noted that he was muscular and had black hair and tanned skin.
The father slammed his phone shut and turned to the boy. "They should be coming back now," he told the boy.
The boy with reddish hair nodded then looked to me. "Hello," he smiled. "I am Edward Cullen."
The father, noticing me for the first time, took a step forward and held out his hand. "Hello, I'm sorry for all of this, my children," he paused, "had a disagreement." The man smiled at me. "I am Carlisle Cullen."
So he couldn't control his children, that was a notch down for me. "Audrey Steele," I told him, ignoring his hand. "Are these all your children, Mr. Cullen?"
He shook his head. "No, the others should be getting here soon," he smiled. "And you can call me Carlisle."
I shook my head. "No, I would rather be professional, Mr. Cullen," I told him. No need to get close with someone who you're here to save.
"Well in that case, it's Dr. Cullen, Mrs. Steele," Dr. Cullen corrected me. I nodded. At least he had a good profession.
Suddenly, a silver Volvo pulled into the clearing. Once it was parked a blond girl got out of the driver's seat. She tossed a set of keys to Edward. "Thanks for letting me borrow your car Eddie," she smirked.
Edward growled. "Making me stop for gas and then kicking my girlfriend and myself out of the car is not considered letting you borrow it!" He yelled at the blond girl.
I got a better look at the blond girl. She was inhumanly beautiful. Her hair was a pale blond color and her eyes, like the rest of the Cullens, were gold and her skin pale. Either way she was a beautiful girl. She shrugged at Edward's suggestion and walked to the truck of the car.
"Don't get your panties in a twist, Eddie boy," a large muscular boy said to Edward, messing up his hair. The large boy had curly black hair and seemed like he could be in his twenties. Why was he acting so childish?
"Do not touch me!" Edward snarled at the boy.
The boy snorted and rolled his eyes. "I'm not going to rape you Eddie boy," he chuckled before turning to me. The boy ran up to me and pulled me into an embrace. "Hi! I'm Emmett and you must be my new mommy!" He yelled as he proceeded to break my rib cage. After I thought this Emmett almost immediately let go. "Sorry," he muttered looking down at his feet with his arms behind his back. He truly reminded me of a young child that had just done something bad. That was not what an adult should be acting like.
"You shouldn't be behaving like a child," I snapped. "Chin up, back straight, make eye contact."
Emmett looked up at me confused and just shook his head. "Whatever," he muttered, walking off towards the blond girl with a confused look on his face.
A small, might I say, pixie-like girl came skipping up next to me, shopping bags on each arm. "Hi, I'm Alice, and I'd like to talk more but I need to get my clothes up to my room," she smiled at me the looked back. "Come one Jasper," she called before skipping into the house.
I looked back and saw "Jasper" with an armful of shopping bags. They covered his face so I couldn't see him. He walked passed me and followed Alice into the house. I turned to the blond girl. "How much did you two buy?" I asked as I saw her arms full of bags and Emmett also walking out passed me with an arm full of bags.
The girl shrugged. "I'm not sure, maybe a million dollars worth, then of course there was a sale so most likely more," she said to me coldly.
I turned back to Carlisle. "How dare you let these children spend so much money on useless items!" I snapped at him.
Carlisle sighed. "Perhaps we should go into the living room and get to know each other," he suggested. I simply nodded. I must know more about this crazy family.
Edward's POV
We all sat in the living room in a strange awkward silence. No one wanted to speak to this strange lady first, not even Carlisle made the attempt to speak. I decided I would break the silence so this would not go on forever.
"Hello, as I'd mention before, I am Edward," I told the new mother. "It is nice to meet you, I hope we can get to know each other."
That seemed to snap everyone back to the situation at hand. Carlisle decided to speak. "How rude of me," he said. "Let me introduce you to my children." Carlisle turned to us, pointing as he said our names.
The lady nodded. "My name is Audrey Steele, you may refer to me as Mrs. Steele," Mrs. Steele said.
Emmett blurted out, "Why are you so uptight?" at the same time Alice said, "Could you tell us about your family?"
He's going to make this worst for us than it already is! Alice yelled at me in her head. I chuckled, she really was mad about what she saw happening next week.
"Yes, tell us about your husband and children?" Carlisle piped in, knowing Emmett's question would be overlooked.
"Dr. Cullen, I don't see the need to do so," Audrey said. "I am here to improve your family's lifestyle, not the other way around."
"Isn't the point of this for us to help each other?" Bella blurted out. "Shit," she murmured after she realized what she said.
"Young lady! That is not the language a teenager should be using!" Audrey shouted. "I demand you apologize!"
Bella became angry. "Look lady, I will not apologize for what I said! I live in America, which means I have freedom of fucking speak!" She yelled at Audrey. Wow! I never knew my love had that in her.
"Young lady!" Mrs. Steele turned to Carlisle. "Control your daughter Dr. Cullen!"
"Excuse me!" Bella said. She stood up from beside me and put her arms over her chest. "I am eighteen and therefore a legal adult! I will respect you, but to get that you have to respect me and my family!" With that Bella stormed out the door. A second later we heard a car peal out of the garage and when I looked out the window I saw her Ferrari rolling down the driveway at top speeds.
"Go Bella!" Emmett yelled, throwing his fist in the air to cheer on his sister.
Mrs. Audrey sighed. When rule change comes that girl is going to anger management classes, She thought. That only caused me to laugh. I'd love to see her force Bella to go to anger management, that would truly be a sight.
Esme's POV
The door opened. A middle aged man with black graying hair walked in. He had on a suit and was holding a briefcase. Behind him were three girls.
I smiled and stood to meet this family. "Hello," I greeted them. "I am Esme Cullen."
The father nodded, ignoring my hand. "I am Greg Steele and these are my three daughters, Ashley, Amy, and Anabelle," he nodded to the girls behind him, not even bothering to say who was who.
I looked back. I'm assuming that the tallest one was Ashley, the oldest. She had was maybe 5' 10" and had extremely curly black-brown hair with tan skin and dark brown eyes. She looked at me with a huge smile on her face that reminded me of Emmett. I offered her a smile.
"Hello Esme, I'm Ashley," she offered me her hand.
"It's a pleasure to meet you Ashley," I smiled, shaking her hand. Her father gave her a disapproving look. I looked to the other two children. One was 5' 8" and had white blond hair with blue-green eyes and pale skin for a human. She kept a frown on her face and looked anywhere but at me. "Are you Amy?" I asked.
She looked at me for a second then gave a sharp nod and looked away again. I took a step back. This girl, Amy, seemed off, as if she was trying to scare me. I will admit that she did surprise me, and made me double think about talking to her, but she didn't scare me, she just made me more worried about her. It made me wonder why she was like this. I decided that I must figure it out.
Finally I turned to the last girl, Anabelle. She was 5' 6", a lot shorter than her sisters, and had her fathers black hair. It was wavy and went down to her shoulders. Her skin was neither as tan as Ashley's nor as pale as Amy's, it seemed to be somewhere in the middle. The girl looked up at me with big brown doe eyes that reminded me of Renesmee. Anabelle offered me a smile and a soft "hello."
I smiled at her. "It is nice to meet you Anabelle, I hope we have a chance to be friends," I told her.
Greg cleared his throat, causing everyone to look up at him. "Well, I will have to be getting back to work," he told us. "Girls, get your chores done and help Esme with dinner. I will be home at six." With that said he walked out the door and back to his car.
Once the car was out of sight I turned to look at the three girls. "So, what would you like for dinner?" I asked with a huge smile on my face. I may not be the best cook but I knew a few recipes.
Anabelle looked at her sisters. "I'll help her make dinner tonight," she whispered. Oh, I realized that she must always speak softly like this, poor girl.
Amy just nodded and left the room as quickly as possible. I heard a door slam upstairs and frowned. What was wrong with this girl? Ashley stayed behind and looked at her sister. "You sure Anny?" She asked. "I could just make dinner and you could go read one of those books of yours if you like?"
Anabelle offered Ashley a smile. "Thanks, but I don't mind," she looked to me. "I want to get to know Mrs. Cullen a little better."
I offered the young girl a smile as Ashley said, "Okay." She hugged her sister then stormed up the stairs. My smile widened as I saw how the girls seemed to be so close, it was sweet.
"So, what would you like for dinner?" I asked her as we walked into the kitchen.
Anabelle pulled out a pot and put some water in it. "I'll make pasta," she said. "You can just sit if you like, that's what my mother usually does."
I frowned. "I don't mind helping," I said.
But Anabelle shook her head. "This is our week Mrs. Cullen. I don't mean to sound rude but that means you are supposed to go by our rules, correct?" She offered me a small smile to show that she wasn't trying to be rude at all.
I simply nodded and sat at the island in the center of the kitchen. "So Anabelle, tell me about yourself? What do you like to do?" I asked, wanting to get to know the shyest Steele girl.
Anabelle shrugged as she put the pot on the stove and turned it on. "I love reading," she smiled. "My sister, Amy, often writes stories of her own and lets me read them. But I do adore reading almost any book."
I grinned. "You sound like one of my daughters. She absolutely loves reading and is often buying new books online," I told her. It was true, Bella loved reading. She would finish a new book everyday and always be at a book store or be online buying new books for her now towering library.
Anabelle stiffened briefly when I said that. "Tell me about your family," she said, quickly changing the subject. "It will be a lot more interesting than my history."
I smiled. "I'm sure you have a very interesting past, but if you want I'll tell you about me children," I said before going into it. I told her about how Carlisle and I adopted all our children and eventually got into each one and their personalities. I told her about how she reminded me of Bella, how they were both shy and held a love for books. I told her how her sister Ashley reminded me of my son Emmett, with her outgoing personality. I even told her about how my children dated each other.
By the time I had finished, Anabelle had finished cooking and her father was walking in the door. Ashley came rushing down the stairs and snuck into the kitchen.
"Go set the table," Ashley sneered under her breath to Anabelle. The young girl quickly nodded and ran off with plates in her hand. Ashley ran over to pot on the stove that held the pasta Anabelle had just finished cooking.
Greg walked into the kitchen. "Smells delicious!" He said to his daughter. He turned to me. "You didn't have any trouble with them, did you Esme?"
I shook my head. "They were angels," I said truthfully. "Anabelle and I were just talking."
Greg looked at his youngest daughter who was walking back into the kitchen to get silverware. He gave her a glare then turned back to Ashley. "Is dinner ready?" Ashley nodded. "Good, I am going to change and I expect dinner on the table when I get back down." Greg left the room.
Ashley sighed. "Can you finish setting the table?" She asked her sister who nodded immediately. "I'm going to get Amy." Ashley left the room as Anabelle finished setting the table. She put the food on the plates and wouldn't let me help when I offered. A few minutes later Amy and Ashley walked downstairs.
Amy glared at me. "I'll make the drinks," she said.
Ashley rolled her eyes. "Mrs. Cullen." I interrupted her.
"Please, call me Esme," I smiled.
Ashley nodded. "Esme, why don't you seat down. We have this," she said.
I simply nodded, seeing as they wouldn't let me help them. I saw Anabelle and smiled at her. She motioned for me to sit next to her. I did.
Amy came in and set down a glass of milk in front of open chair in front of me and a coffee cup at the head of the table, in her father's place. She turned to me with her cold stare. "What would you like to drink?" She asked me.
"Water is fine dear," I said, offering a smile.
Amy nodded and left. Ashley came in and set a glass of what looked like apple juice in front of Anabelle and milk in front of the last empty place. She sat down there and smiled at me. "I'm sorry about Amy," she whispered. "She's always crabby." Anabelle nodded, agreeing with Ashley.
Amy came in and sat down in the seat in front of me, setting the glass of water in my place. I watched her and saw how she was the complete opposite of her family. While her sisters and father seemed to have brown-black hair, hers was a white blond. Also, instead of the brown eyes, like her family, she had bright blue-green ones. I began to wonder if she was adopted.
Greg came in and sat down at the head of the table. He took a sip of his coffee and looked at his family. "You can eat now," he told them. His daughters nodded and began eating there food.
I watched the girls. Anabelle ate as if it was her last meal, Ashley ate a little slower, but still stuffed the food down her throat, Amy barely tough the pasta, only taking small bites and swirling it around her plate. She was eating like me! She ate like my family did when we were forced to. I was surprised but pushed it aside. Maybe she just wasn't hungry or didn't like the food. There are a million explanations for this.
After dinner, all three girls did the dishes and Greg said good night to everyone. I was about to help the girls but Greg stopped me. "No," he said. "This is part of their chores, they need to do them." He looked at his daughters. "If your homework isn't finished by now, it better be by Monday or else," he threatened them. The girls nodded as he went upstairs.
After I heard his door shut, I walked up the stairs and into the guest bedroom. I laid on the bed and waited for the girls to go to their rooms and go to sleep. Maybe three hours later I started to here talking again.
"I don't think so Anabelle," Ashley said.
"Yes! She told me about her family! I'm telling you, it's the people from my book!" Anabelle pleaded.
"Anabelle," Ashley sighed. "Your books are fiction, stop worrying, Esme is not the lady from your book." I heard a door close and assumed Ashley had closed it on Anabelle.
I heard Anabelle sniffle. "Why won't she believe me?" She asked.
"Annie," I'm not sure who said that, but I'm assuming it was Amy.
"Yeah?"
"Don't worry about that," Amy said. "Even if she was from your book it's not as if she would take you with her. You are stuck here just like me. Audrey and Greg aren't letting us leave." Her voice was hard, then it all of a sudden turned soft. "Now go to bed sweetie."
"Okay," Anabelle sobbed. She ran into her room and started to cry.
It made me wonder, what did she mean "the lady from my book"? Could Anabelle know that we were vampires? And what did Amy mean by "Audrey and Greg won't let us leave"? I sighed, hoping I would be able to figure out more about this family in the morning.
Sorry it took forever! I've been focusing on helping out my friend come up with the ending of one of her stories! Please review guys!
Keep on Flying Baby!
-Whip
