Carlisle POV:
Esme was having girl time with Kate for part of the day and then she was going to have girl time with Carmen, so I left her alone until she called me. I didn't want to be the obsessed moron who always called his girl friend to check up on her. She would think I was weird for doing that. When Kate was gone doing girl stuff with Esme, after breakfast, Jasper and I got on our track pants and long t-shirts and played one-on-one with our basketball hoop and an old ball that still had enough air in it. Sometimes, I let him win because he was smaller than me, and sometimes, he let me get lucky. I wanted Esme to let me get lucky...most of the time, I was helping him practice his basketball skills. He wanted to impress Alice by throwing the ball in the hoop over his head backwards, because James could do that easily. He also wanted to make a shot one-handed and I told him, "Little buddy, there's no chance that ball is gonna go right in every time, no matter how good you are,"
"Carlisle, I wanna beat him," he pouted.
"She's only eight years old, man. She doesn't care about sports. All she likes is Barbies,"
"Yeah, but she's gonna want a real man when we get to middle school. Come on, I only got three years to practice,"
"You are a real man-a real boy," I corrected myself. "You're true to yourself and you never give up,"
We played for a good thirty minutes until Dad finally rolled out of bed and said it was time for lunch. After the soup and sandwiches we had, we shot some more hoops and then, Jasper threw the ball so hard against the backboard and thought it would go in when I told him, "Aim for the square," and the ball bounced into the street and then back up onto the sidewalk. We chased after it until we finally came to a long, narrow sidewalk. It disappeared from our sight.
"Hey, give us our ball back!" Jasper shouted.
A little blonde girl wearing a pink dress emerged from the trees. She was holding our ball and she gave it to Jasper.
"Thanks, Rosie," he said, smiling.
"No problem. Who's this guy, Jazz?"
"My brother, Carlisle,"
"I'm Esme's best friend. Nice to meet you,"
She shook my hand. "Nice to meet you too,"
"Rosalie! Get back inside this house! What did I tell you about talking to strangers?" a man's voice barked.
"Sorry, Daddy! Bye, guys, I gotta go," She rushed out of our view, and we went back to our house.
"Carlisle, that house is haunted! Somebody died there. That's what Alice said. Actually, Emmett told us all that,"
"Does he know who died?"
"He says it's Rosie's daddy, and Charles is her stepfather. But that makes no sense, because she says her daddy died a long, long time ago in New York,"
"It's probably just a rumor. You know how Emmett is,"
"Well, the girls are really scared to go near there. Ali always crosses the street with her mommy when she's about to pass the house. Angie and Bella are even more afraid than Ali is. One time, Ali insisted she wasn't scared when Emmett, Mike, Tyler, Eric, and I dared her to, and she went up there to ring the doorbell and ran away screaming because she saw the ghost! All the middle school kids, Kate, Garrett, Emily, Sam, Leah, Jacob, Seth, Kim, Jared, Paul, Rachel, Rebecca, Quil, and Embry, say that we're just being stupid kids, but it really is haunted! Eddie doesn't want Bella or Angie going near that house and after Ali ran away screaming, nobody wants to anymore,"
"Dude, how do you think Rosalie feels about you kids ringing her doorbell and running away? Do you think she wants to be known as the girl who lives in a haunted house?"
"We think she's cool and brave to be living in that house,"
"That's good, but it's rude to go up to a stranger's house and ring their doorbell, probably bothering them, and her parents are probably getting annoyed with it. Maybe that's why they don't go out,"
"But we need spies!" he groaned.
"Esme's been in the house. She can tell me if there's anything creepy about the place, okay?"
"Okay!" he agreed.
We continued playing until Kate came home with Esme. Kate joined us for a little while and Esme walked to Carmen's house with her sleepover stuff. I really liked the way she walked with her little ass going side to side...
"Katie, we went to the haunted house! My ball went all the way down there and Rosie got it for me,"
"Ooooh, it sounds so scary," Kate said in a fake deep voice. "Little bro, you can be so weird. Rosalie's a nice girl. Leave that house alone. What's it done to you?" She ruffled his hair.
"Ali ran away screaming from it,"
"That's because you dorks made her go up there for twenty bucks which none of you has,"
"She saw a ghost!"
"Ghosts aren't real,"
"They are too! She saw a figure in the window and it was dark and he had a uniform on! Mr. Hale's ghost!"
"Shut up before I pummel you!" Kate and Jasper pretended to fight and then I had to separate them.
"Oh yeah? If you're so sure it's not haunted, why don't you go there and see for yourself?"
"No way! It's not nice. I don't wanna bother Rosalie,"
"You guys, cut it out," I said, rolling my eyes. "It's not haunted and it's rude to invade someone's property like that,"
"Katie's scared,"
"No, I'm not! God, I'm tired of this stupid baby stuff!" She stomped back into the house.
"I'm not a baby!" Jasper exclaimed, folding his arms across his chest.
"If you wanna be a big kid and impress Alice, convince your friends that it's not right to sneak into people's privacy,"
"I will,"
As the day wore on, the guys, Charlie, Eleazar, Peter, Liam, Billy, and Harry, came over to play some video games with me while Jasper played with their siblings, or in Charlie's case, kids. Kate was taking care of Maggie and Claire, the babies. We could hear Jasper and Emmett playing football and Angela, Alice, and Bella playing Barbies.
"I'll be the mommy. You be the babies," Alice was saying.
"But you're always the mommy!" Angela protested.
"She's older," Bella insisted.
"Alice, not so bossy!" Charlie yelled. "She's getting to be just like her mother,"
"How is Renee, by the way?" I asked.
"She's okay, but she's dying for this little girl to come out. I'm wondering if Cynthia will be girly like Alice, because Bella is a tomboy and sides with Emmett the most. Alice forces her to play Barbies and always fixes her hair. I've never seen Bells in a dress unless we're going to church or a wedding,"
"Our ladies are having a sleepover," Eleazar said, wiggling his eyebrows. "I wonder what Carmen's doing right now. Liam and Charlie, you guys are so lucky...I want to make a baby with my lovely Carmen,"
"You're still in high school," Peter reminded them. "I want to go all the way with Charlotte too, but we have to wait til we're out of college,"
"Dude, Charlie-boy got Renee a bun in the oven when she started freshman year! And Liam did it with Siobhan when they finished high school!" Billy said, and all the guys hooted and hollered.
"You're not getting any with Sarah," Harry teased Billy.
"You and Sue?"
"Damn, she'd have my head if I ever tried,"
"What about you, Carlisle? Who's the lucky lady gonna be?" Charlie asked.
"Oh, guys, I dunno..." I wanted to say Esme, but I was afraid they would tell their girlfriends or wives, and those girls would spill my secret to the girl of my desires.
"Come on, man, spit it out," Peter slapped me on the back.
"I'm not ready for a girlfriend. Shut up, boys,"
"All right, whatever. I can't believe your old man's not even here," Eleazar said, smiling.
"Man, he's working on religious freak stuff. Why, you wanna go someplace?"
"I can take us all out for Taco Bell!" Charlie announced, and all of us cheered.
"Kate, are you okay being home by yourself for a couple of hours? We boys are going to Taco Bell,"
"Dad's home working. Go have fun, bro,"
"Alright, watch the kids outside,"
"I will,"
We came outside and started getting in the car when we saw a motorcycle zoom by right where Emmett was trying to retrieve the ball. The wheels missed his fingers by inches.
"Emmett, watch out!" Jasper screamed.
"Ugh, stupid motorcycle!" Emmett whined, running back to the front yard. Charlie and I walked over to where the boys were tossing the football.
"You guys okay? Son, you are so lucky you didn't get hit by that damn thing. Go in the backyard now," Charlie tossed the football over the fence where my backyard was, grabbed Emmett by the shirt and dragged him into my house. I yanked Jasper by the arm and led him to the house and slammed the door after they told us they were fine.
"Kate, make sure the boys play in the backyard or in the house!" I shouted. "Emmett almost got ran over by a motorcycle!"
"Okay, Carlisle! Jasper! Emmett! Get over here now!" she growled.
"Crazy asshole, scaring my kid like that," Charlie grumbled as we got back in the car. "That would have been a story to tell Renee, especially with her being pregnant and hormonal. 'Oh, dear, by the way, Emmett's fingers broke off when he tried to save a football that fell in the street,' The screaming and sobbing would be too much," he shook his head and drove off. We each got three tacos with chicken, sour cream, rice, beans, and salsa, and they were so good! How I imagined Esme tasted. The guys all grunted in approval as everyone wolfed it down.
As we drove home, we saw the girls walking down the street, so Charlie slowed down.
"There's my Renee," he said as all the guys whispered their girlfriend or wife's name. I only thought of Esme's name in my head.
Suddenly, they stopped in front of the mysterious house. Rosalie's father was saying hello to them. Casually, I rolled down my window to hear what Esme was saying. I wanted to hear her lovely voice.
"We're fine, Mr. Evenson,"
That was it? He kept talking to them, so I listened harder.
"Oh, um, Carmen, Renee, Charlotte, Siobhan, Sue, and Sarah,"
That's when they ran away.
"Even they're afraid of the house? I thought only the kids were," Peter said, confused.
"They're not afraid of the house," Liam contradicted him.
"What are they running away from? Charles doesn't seem that scary," Eleazar told us.
"We'll have to ask them later. I mean, you know how women are...maybe they're on their PMS," said Billy.
"My wife definitely is," Charlie chuckled.
"Possibly they had to go to the bathroom," Harry said, making all of us roar with laughter.
"I doubt that was it. Let's ask the girls ourselves when we see them again," I suggested. All the guys agreed with me.
The next day, Sunday, was family day after boring old church. Dad took us out for pizza and asked us how we were doing. We said we were fine. It was awkward because the only way Dad connected to us was through church and really, nothing else. If he saw that Jasper was sneaking into someone's driveway, it would be sinful to him. If he heard Kate was dressing herself up for Garrett before she turned thirteen, he wouldn't let her out of the house. If he knew I was in love with Esme and having sexual fantasies about her, he would make me go to confession and cleanse myself of my "sins".
Even though Bella and Angela were younger than Alice, they were taller than her by a few inches. The three of them were playing jump rope near our house while we were getting ready to go bike riding on a trail in the woods. The girls sang as they swung the rope for Alice to jump over.
"Ali and Jazzy, sitting in a tree. K-I-S-S-I-N-G, first comes love, then comes marriage, then comes the baby in the baby carriage, that's not all, that's not all, the baby in the baby carriage is playing basketball! How many babies will you have? One, two, three-"
"You made the song too long," Alice griped, tripping over the rope. "And how do you know if I like Jazzy? You don't even know if he likes me!"
"I do," Jasper whispered to me.
"She does like you, Jas," Kate said, grinning, and Jasper jumped up and down triumphantly. I fist bumped him.
"Well, I wouldn't sit in a tree! They're for boys! Climbing trees is for you, Bella,"
"Yeah, I wouldn't be caught dead in a tree either," Angela agreed.
"You wanna see me climb a tree? Come on!" The three of them ran past our house to Bella and Alice's house and we loaded our bikes in the back of my dad's truck. I sat next to my dad and the kids sat in the back. He turned on religious music and we resisted our groans.
Dad led the way on his bike through the woods, and Jasper went after him. Next was Kate, and I was in the rear to make sure nobody got lost. Jasper had just learned how to ride and Kate didn't ride very often, so I hoped they wouldn't trip.
"It's scary here, Dad. Too many trees, and bumps in the road,"
"Let God lead you, Katherine. He will make sure you're okay," He pedaled faster, and we followed after him. This was good exercise, and we did this for a few hours until we had to rest. We went back to the car and Dad got the picnic blanket out and laid out the food. I helped serve the kids with my father and we ate our peanut butter and jelly sandwiches happily.
After our bike ride, we returned home and had a family dinner. Esme must have been babysitting for Rosalie again because I saw Rosalie's father walk her home. Of course, before going to bed, we visited Mom's grave and in the morning, Dad offered to help me with my driving skills before I got my permit. Well, that was nice of him. He took me to a parking lot at our now closed high school and we switched seats. This was the first time I was actually getting to drive behind the wheel.
"Okay, Carlisle, put it in park and keep your foot off the gas and brake. Now put it in drive and ease slowly on the brake when I tell you to stop,"
I coasted until a certain point when he yelled, "Stop!"
Sometimes, he made me so nervous that I slammed on the brakes, but I never crashed into anything. All my turns were smooth and at the end of the day, he was sort of proud of me, something I wasn't expecting. He even let me use the gas and I loved the feel of driving for real. It wouldn't be long before I got my license since I was almost sixteen. I wanted to be able to drive like all my friends could, and I wanted to blow Esme away with a fancy vehicle and my mad driving abilities. I knew she would love me either way, though, but I wanted her to think I was cooler than every single guy at that school we went to.
"You're a pretty good driver, son," Dad complimented me.
"Thanks, Dad,"
I had a feeling Mom was watching over me and making sure I didn't get into an accident, even though Dad claimed it was God doing all the work.
When I got home, Jasper informed me that Edward saw shadows outside his window when Esme switched beds with him last night. The Swan girls teased the boys about it and said they were always being scared, but Kate said it meant the girls liked the boys when they teased them. Kate also told me that Alice came to our house and kissed Jasper when he was least expecting it, and Bella kissed Edward after seeing her big sister kiss a boy. It was the cutest thing ever.
"Oh, and Emmett wants to rescue Rosalie from the haunted house! Isn't that romantic?" Alice was asking Kate.
"Ali, it's not haunted, but that is very sweet of him," Kate said, trying not to laugh.
"I wanna see him do it! I wanna see him rescue her from the dragon! My brother's a knight in shining armor, and Rosie's the princess!"
"It's not polite," I said, overhearing their conversation and tousling Alice's hair. "Emmett's just a wild kid with a crazy imagination,"
"I swear, I saw something in there!" Alice insisted, her eyes wide.
Kate shook her head and led Alice inside the house, and I followed them.
They've been watching way too many scary movies.
Read and review please! Thank you so much to reviewers LaurenFacinelli, TeamCarlisleandEsme8, that kiwi chick, Just4Me, cuddyannie, JUJU, and k8lin713!
