Alice and Jasper's heads shot up. Why did I get the feeling that they both knew what I'd dreamed? If they did, why was Alice acting so distressed? It was the stupidest dream I'd ever had. Alice, Jasper, the Cullens…vampires? Impossible. Vampires didn't exist! Everyone knew that! They were just myths! But…I did have a strange feeling that the Cullens were something. I didn't believe they were bad—obviously not—the Cullens were the nicest people I'd ever met. But they weren't normal. They just couldn't be normal. I hadn't noticed I'd started hyperventilating until Alice wrapped her stone arms around me. It was only then that I realized I couldn't feel her heart beat. Maybe she wasn't as distressed as I thought she was, despite the expression on her face.
Suddenly, Alice seemed more composed. As if on cue, so did Jasper.
"What was your dream about, Jasmine?" he asked me.
So I told them.
"Oh, was that it?" asked Alice. She giggled a bit.
"Yeah," I confessed. "I know, it was a bit stupid."
"No, no," Alice assured me. "It's fine. I would've been scared too."
Her face was so sincere, I knew she wasn't lying.
"Yeah, to think that you're living in a house full of evil would've really scared me, too." Jasper rubbed my back. "No worries."
"I hope the others aren't mad at me for waking them," I said.
"No, they're fine with it." Alice's face was stern. "You should…uh…go to sleep now. You need rest."
She leaned forward and kissed my cheek. Jasper pecked my forehead and swept out the door with Alice.
The sunlight woke me up in the morning. The back wall had sunshine pouring through it and into the room.
"Goody! You're up!" Alice was swirling through the door and was on the bed next to me a second later. She hugged me. "Good morning!"
"Morning, Alice," I said, returning the hug.
"Are you hungry?"
"No," I lied. I didn't want to impose but my stomach growled like an angry bull dog. Alice raised one eyebrow.
"Okay, maybe a little hungry," I admitted.
Alice laughed a bell-like laugh and put her hand and mine. She lifted me off the bed and ran me downstairs.
"Where is everyone?" I asked.
"They all went hiking," she replied. "We're all very outdoorsy but Jasper and I stayed behind to be with you." She smiled.
"Where is Jasper?" I asked.
Alice shrugged. "Outside, I suppose. He likes to take pictures of the forest in the mornings…." Her voice trailed off.
"What's for breakfast?" I asked.
"What would you like?" she asked.
That threw me. I had never eaten more than soup—with the exception of last night—so I wasn't sure what a normal response would be.
"Um…I'm not sure," I admitted.
Alice laughed again.
"Do pancakes sound good?"
"Delicious," I said.
Alice went into the kitchen and I took the liberty to look out the large window-slash-back wall.
The forest did look lovely in the morning, I could see why Jasper would've liked to be out there and why the entire Cullen family enjoyed hiking. The entire scene looked beautiful. Then, I saw Rosalie come through the trees and it all became a scene from Cinderella. Behind Rosalie came the rest of my adopted family. Even Renesmee had woken up early to go into the forest with the rest of the family. I hoped they would ask me to come one day. I knew I'd love to…
"Breakfast is ready!" Alice called from the dining room, interrupting my evaluation.
I walked over and sat down. She placed a large plate of food in front of me and I quickly started eating. It was delicious!
"Aren't you going to have any?" I asked when I noticed Alice was just watching me.
"No thanks," she said. "I already ate."
"I assume the other have eaten too?" I asked nodding my head toward the living room. Alice nodded.
"Good morning," said a deep voice.
"Hey, Jazz!" Alice was already up and out of her seat next to me and in Jasper's arms. "How'd the…photography go?"
"It was nice. There were lots of animals out. I got some really good shots."
There was a lie somewhere in the conversation. I just knew. I didn't know where or how, though.
Jasper and Alice sat down on both sides of me and we started to talk.
"So," I began. "What's your family like?"
"Well," Alice answered. "Where to begin…"
"How about Rosalie and Emmett?" I suggested.
"Well Rosalie has the most…tenacity out of all of us," said Jasper. "She's really something…"
"Alice said she was your…twin? Right?"
"Yeah, she's really nothing like me though."
"No, actually, I'm a lot better." This was a new voice. A voice coming from the door of the dining room. I looked up to find Rosalie, Emmett, and the entire Cullen family piling into the room.
"Yeah, better at being pigheaded," teased Jasper.
"You're just jealous," said Rosalie with a flip of her hair as she took a seat, "that I'm just so much better looking."
Jasper laughed.
"Yeah, I'm really lucky to have her." Emmett put his arm around Rosalie and kissed her cheek.
"Are you and Rosalie married?" I asked. When I realized what I'd said, I bit my tongue. I'd been taught it wasn't polite to press for personal information. Emmett laughed.
"Yeah. Rose made the most beautiful bride. I'll never forget the day I agreed to letting her make me her prisoner."
"I doubt any of us will…" Edward murmured from the left side of the table. He was sitting with one arm wrapped around Bella and the other was hugging Renesmee who was sitting more than willingly in his lap. "I know I'll never forget the day when Bella said she wanted me forever."
"I'm not taking that back, you know," Bella argued as she nudged his shoulder. "It was the best decision I'd ever made. Of course, Charlie would beg to differ." She laughed a musical laugh and everyone joined in.
"Charlie?" I inquired.
"My father," she replied. "Chief Charlie Swan. He's the local police officer. I got married right out of high school and… well… he didn't exactly approve." She laughed again.
"And your mother?" I asked.
"Oh, she and my father are divorced. She lives in Florida with her husband, Phil Dwyer."
"Ah," I said nodding.
"An…er…year later, I had Nessie, my little nudger." She caressed Renesmee's cheek and sighed. "I could swear I'm the luckiest person in the world."
"I feel a lot luckier," Alice argued, playfully. "Jasper changed my life for the better and I'll never regret my decision to be with him for the rest of my…life." I heard Alice's strain on the last word. I couldn't imagine why…
"And Alice is like my personal sun." Jasper hugged her closer. "I couldn't imagine where I'd be without her."
"Carlisle and I have been married for years now." I hadn't noticed Esme until she spoke. "He's made all the difference in my life."
"I could say the same about you." I hadn't noticed Carlisle either. He and Esme were standing behind Alice and Jasper with their arms around each other.
"Wow," I said. "I hope one day I'll be as happy as all of you. Your lives seem like pure, untainted, perfection."
At the end of my sentence, I saw Rosalie's mouth pucker and Edward's face muscles tightened. Something about life had them all uncomfortable. Again, I couldn't even imagine why…
"All done?" Alice asked.
I nodded.
Alice removed the plate from the table and went to the kitchen to wash and put it away. Jasper went behind her and the rest of the Cullens went back into the living room. Esme was the only one who stayed.
"Thank you," she said, holding my hand in hers.
"For what?" I asked.
"For making Alice and Jasper happy," she said. "Alice has really wanted a child for so long and Jasper hates seeing her unhappy. Now that they both have you, I see something new in them. Their eyes have something I've never seen outside Bella's and my own."
"You don't mind that I'm, well, perfectly ordinary?" I simply had to ask. I mean, how did she feel that two of her children were bringing someone who was completely ordinary into their beautiful, inhuman lives? An orphan was basically invading their family! Certainly she had to have some negative feelings toward it. Esme's mouth puckered.
"I'm not quite sure what you mean, Jasmine," she admitted.
"It's just…well…you don't mind that Alice and Jasper are having an orphan intrude your lives?"
Esme laughed.
"Why on Earth would I?" she asked. I treated it as a rhetorical question, mostly because I had too many answers. "You're making them happy and, honestly, I think you're a joy to have around. Jasmine, you're a good person and that's all I'd ever want in my family."
I wasn't sure how she drew so many conclusions from me, but the way her butterscotch eyes—which I was sure were a shade lighter than yesterday—looked into my tainted, blue green eyes, I knew that she was absolutely positive of every word she had just said. Suddenly, I felt loved again. I couldn't control it. I went forward and through my arms around Esme. I heard her gasp and felt the corners of her mouth pull up.
"Thanks…Grandma," I said.
"You are their life now," she said. "Therefore, you are a part of mine."
Who knew how long Alice, Jasper, and the rest of the family had been in the dining room, but I suddenly felt eight more pairs of cold arms wrap around us. Despite the ice-like feeling of the skin, I felt surprisingly warm.
It's the feeling of love, my heart and mind informed me.
And it was, this feeling was pure, untainted, untouched, love.