Hey, it's me. The girl who hasn't updated in a few months. But a few days ago I got a new, working laptop and here I am, and I present to you chapter 8! It's shorter than usual, but it's here. And I apologize in advance if I have gotten any facts about Christianity and the Bible wrong, please tell me and I'll fix it.

LISTENING TO:
Florida Georgia Line – Anything Goes (basically just the whole album)

CHAPTER 8:

"All the kids are in bed and we've got time to ourselves. This rarely happens anymore, since they're all older and go to bed later now." Esme sat down on the couch beside Carlisle and smiled at him.
"That reminds me, there's something I would like to talk to you about." He put his book down and turned to face her.
"What's up?" She pulled her legs up beneath her.
"Aiofe." Carlisle rubbed the tiredness from his eyes.
"What about her? I thought you like her." Esme frowned.
"I do, but I'm just worried. You seem to be really close to her very quickly. I'm just worried that you're forcing yourself upon her, and I don't want her to be uncomfortable."
"What? Me? What about you? You're the one trying to hug her at every opportunity, and giving her everything." Esme stared at him.

"Okay, you're right. Were both guilty of coddling her." He sighed and rubbed his face again.
"No, we've done this lots of times. Adopted a new child into our family, and we know from experience that being awkward around them and letting them be shy means they take longer to settle in. We need Aiofe to trust us quickly, in three months she'll have her baby and she'll need up to help her to look after it. She won't trust us properly if we don't just treat her like we treat the rest of our children from the start." She crossed her arms tightly over her chest.
"Yeah, you're right. It is better for her if we just treat her the same as the others."

"I told you. That's all I know about Christmas. It's a religious holiday, specifically Christianity. At Christmas time Christians decorate their houses with trees, they sing carols and give each other presents. Christmas is about celebrating their God's birthday." Aiofe leaned back in the chair and looked at them. Emmett was trying to remain serious and Carlisle looked almost upset. He stopped rubbing his temple and looked up at Aiofe.
"That's not really what Christmas is about. It is, technically, a religious holiday. It is from Christianity. But almost everybody celebrates Christmas, apart from people who strongly believe in other religions. Have you never celebrated Christmas with your father?"

Aiofe shook her head. "Please don't call Joseph my father, it just sounds wrong. Joseph always said Christmas was for religious people, and since we weren't religious then we didn't celebrate it. But when I was little, with my brother, I think we did. I don't really remember, I don't think we ever did anything grand, just a few presents, big dinner. I can't remember having a tree or anything."
Carlisle looked at her sadly. Emmett stared at her before cracking a small smile. "Aiofe, this Christmas is one you're going to remember, I'm going to make sure you have a wonderful day." Carlisle turned and smiled at him proudly.
"I second that. Aiofe, I want to show you that Christmas is special and good and fun. But I want you to understand what it's all about. It is a Christian thing, so what do you know of Christianity?"

Aiofe stopped chewing on her lip long enough to answer. "It's a religion. They only have one God, called God. Their place of worship is called a Church, and holy book the Bible. They celebrate Christmas, as their God's birthday. And they celebrate Easter, by eating eggs. It's the most popular religion and most schools follow and teach Christian beliefs to the pupils."
Carlisle nodded slowly and Aiofe watched him carefully. "Okay, you're mostly right. I'll explain all of this to you. Christians do go to church, typically on Sundays, but they can worship anywhere, and they don't all go to church. They go to Church not only to pray, but to socialise, to seek guidance, to celebrate, and to learn about the teachings of God. People can also learn about the teachings of God from the Bible. The Bible says that God created the world and that he made everything in it perfect, and humans he made in his own image because we're special. We are the stewards of the world, we have a special purpose and we look after the world for god. But have you heard of the story of Adam and Eve?"

Aiofe shook her head and leaned forward on the table. Carlisle cleared his throat and told her the story of Adam and Eve. Aiofe frowned. "But how is that relevant to Christmas?"
Carlisle smiled and cleared his throat again before speaking. " So it is believed that we live in a state of sin, and sinners go to Hell. So this is where the nativity story and Jesus come in. Revelation is how God makes contact with us, there are a few different types of revelation, one of which is supreme revelation. This happened when God come on Earth in the form of Jesus. Do you know the nativity story?"
Aiofe shook her head again and watched Carlisle eagerly. Emmett was turned in his seat beside Carlisle so he could listen. Carlisle smiled at them and told them the nativity story.

Aiofe frowned. "So Christmas is Jesus' birthday? Is he so important that he has holidays on his birthday hundreds of years later just because he was God's son?"
Carlisle shook his head. "Jesus is important because of the things he did in life. He was sent to Earth to help humankind. He performed miracles and taught people many lessons. He cured people and taught people about morals. He helped us to learn how not to sin." He told them about the deeds Jesus performed in his life and about the first time he died and the story of Easter and about how he finally died. He told them that when Jesus died it saved humans from their sins and that meant they didn't have to go to Hell. When he was finished he looked up at Aiofe.

"So that's why Christians have crosses? Because Jesus died on a cross and it's a big symbol. And that's that Christmas is about?"
Carlisle nodded and pulled the chain from around his neck up to show Aiofe the silver cross hung on it. It reflected the lights from the lamp in the corner and from the kitchen light shining through the hatch.
Aiofe smiled and drummed her fingers on the table. "Okay, but that doesn't why people decorate their houses with trees."
Carlisle smiled. "Why don't you come to Church with me on Sunday, Aiofe?"
Aiofe shrugged. "Sure, it could be interesting."

Aiofe was curled up on the couch with the big, musty smelling book of Burns poetry when Esme appeared beside her and shook her shoulder to get her attention. Aiofe looked up at her and blinked. "Aiofe, come on upstairs and see this. I've finished your bedroom, well, I still have to move a lot of your things in but I thought you would want to help with that."
Aiofe grinned and put her book down on the arm of the couch. She grabbed the arm and used it to pull herself up before following Esme up the stairs. Esme stopped outside the closed door to Aiofe's room and stepped back. "You go first."

Aiofe grabbed the door handle and pushed the door open. She walked into the room and grinned. The wood floor and the beams above her shone, the fairy lights around the bed glinted and twinkled. The bedclothes were stacked on the bed, which stood on an iron frame with an intricate headboard. Aiofe walked over and sat on the bed. She ran her fingers over the little metal leaves and branches on the headboard. Esme sat down beside her. "Do you like it?"
Aiofe looked up at her. "I love it."

Esme grinned. "Why don't you help me make the bed and then I'll get your brothers to bring your books up from the garage? I thought you would like to arrange them on your shelves yourself so you can get them how you like them."
Aiofe nodded and stood. They worked together to make the bed with fresh smelling, dark brown bedclothes. Aiofe couldn't stop smiling. "You know, I'd never slept in a double bed until I can here, the first night it felt really weird to be in a big bed and I didn't know if I was supposed to sleep on one side or in the middle, or if it didn't matter." She laughed.
Esme smiled at her. "Stay here, I'll go and get your brothers to bring your books up."
Aiofe made to follow her. "I can help."
Esme turned and held a hand up to stop her. "Aiofe, no. You're not lifting any heavy boxes. That is not allowed. Stay here and tell the boys where to put the boxes when they come up. Why don't you explore your room some more for a few minutes?"
Aiofe nodded and went to see what the En Suite was like.

She walked down the step and into her bathroom. The room was small, with a sink under the window to her left, a toilet to her right and a standing shower in the corner. Behind the sink was an array of holders containing toiletries. Aiofe wondered back out of the bathroom. She noticed a door she hadn't seen before. She opened it but it only led to a big cupboard. There were a few things in there, a few pairs of shoes, her jacket, a dustpan and brush an lots of shelves. She closed the cupboard and noticed the deep windowsill she had been sitting on when Esme was painting was now covered in cushions.

The door opened and Emmett came in, carrying two cardboard boxes. He put them down beside Aiofe's bed. "Hey, Shorty. How many books do you need? There has to be over twenty boxes in the garage. I can't believe I didn't notice them before. Anyway, I'll be back." He gave her a little wave and jogged out of the room.
Aiofe walked over to the boxes he had put down and opened one. She pulled the books out and stacked them on the floor so she could see the titles. She was halfway through pulling the books out of the box when Jasper appeared with two more. He smiled at her. "Are you expecting a delivery?"
Aiofe smiled and he put the boxes down. "Thank-you."
She shrugged. "No problem. Here, I'll help you unpack them. Just stack them like that?"
Aiofe nodded. "Spines facing out so I can read them and put them on the shelves in the right order."
He smiled. "It's funny, how everyone has their own system of how they like to organize their books. Everybody likes them laid out differently. Some people it's in alphabetical order by author's first name, author's last name or book title. Some people have different systems entirely. I like to organize my books by subject. It's an easy thing to do, since they're mostly on history or psychology."

Aiofe nodded. "I have a system, but for some reason I don't like telling people. It's weird."
Jasper smiled when he opened one of the boxes. "Do you just have a copy of every book Tolkien ever wrote?"
Aiofe felt a blush burning her cheeks and she looked away. "Maybe..." She laughed nervously.
He chuckled. "Lord of The Rings is great. I love those films. I've never read the books though. I always wanted to but I never got around to it."
She looked up at him. "I've never seen the films. The book is great though."
He frowned. "I thought it was three books?"
Aiofe shook her head. "Nope, not originally. It was written and first published as one." She pointed to a huge, beaten hardback in the corner of the box. Jasper pulled it out.
"This looks really old." He turned it over carefully in his hands.
She nodded. "It is. Most of my books are old, some are really old. I've got a few in one of the boxes that are over a century old. A few of those are world history books that I've looked in to find out about something but I then realised that, as far as the book is concerned, it hasn't happened yet."
He grinned. "Wow, that sounds really cool. Would you be willing to show me that book?"
Aiofe nodded. "When I've sorted them all out I'll show you it."

Emmett came back into the room with more boxes of books. "Jazz, you're still here? You slacking?"
Jasper shook his head. "No, I'm helping Aiofe to unpack the boxes too." He gestured to the stacks of books.
Emmett grinned at Aiofe. "Do yo want me to unpack these boxes for you?"
Aiofe shook her head. "I can manage. Thanks for offering though."
He nodded. "Okay. Hey, I never really looked the last time I came up but this room is really cool. It'll look great when you get all your books up."
She nodded in agreement. "Yeah."
He smiled at her before jogging out of the room again. Jasper picked up the empty cardboard boxes before following Emmett out of the room.

Aiofe was putting the last few books on the shelf when someone knocked on the door. Aiofe put the books down and wandered over to the door. She pulled it open and Esme smiled at her. Aiofe stepped aside and motioned for her to come in. "Hey, sweetie. I'm back from the store and I got some things for you." Aiofe noticed the carrier bags Esme was holding.
"I was just finishing sorting my books." She pointed the the wall of bookshelves, now laden with hardbacks and paperbacks of all colours and ages. Esme smiled.
"It looks great." She put the bags down on the bed and opened one of them. She pulled out a box and handed it to Aiofe. "A bedside clock. In the other bags I have for you are some clothes and some more little things for your room."
She pulled something colourful out of the bag, "And I got you these." She grinned as she handed Aiofe a few pairs of multi-coloured stripy toe socks. Aiofe looked at them and grinned. "These are great!"

Aiofe's phone buzzed from it's place on the bedside table. Aiofe put the socks down and placed the clock on the table. She sat down on the bed beside the bags. Esme sat down beside her. "Aren't you going to see why you're phone's going off?"
Aiofe shook her head. "It can wait. I'm talking to you right now, not the phone."
Most of the other things in the bags were clothes. Pyjamas and some jeans. Esme looked over. "Is that clock on the right time? Is it really past midnight already?" Aiofe leaned over and picked up her phone.
"It's quarter past midnight on my phone. Is the clock right?"
Esme nodded. "Can't you tell if the clock's right?"
Aiofe blushed. "I... I um... I can't read analogue clocks. I don't know how." She looked at her phone. She had a text from Paige.

Jared's making curry for dinner tomorrow.
It's really good and not spicy (as we have
Grace). He always makes lots, so I was
wondering if you want to come over for
dinner? Xxx

Aiofe showed the message to Esme. "That sounds nice. You can go if you want. I'll drop you off at her house if you want to go. You'd have to get her address."
Aiofe nodded. "It sounds like fun. Thanks."
Esme smiled at her. "Aiofe. It's late and you're tired. Why don't you make some use of your new pyjamas and get some sleep?"
Aiofe picked up the pyjamas. "Okay."
"I'll give you some help if you need it. But you're free of the sling now so you should manage better than yesterday. How is you arm?"
Aiofe pulled her jeans off. "It's fine. It doesn't really hurt anymore. I'm starting to get used to the cast. I can do things again."

Esme cleared the things from the bed and put them away while Aiofe got changed. When Aiofe came back from brushing her teeth she sat down on the bed beside her. "Alice told me earlier to ask you if you would be up for letting her do your hair tomorrow morning for her college homework?"
Aiofe tapped a rhythm on her bump. "Yeah, that sounds like it could be fun. Do I have to get up early or anything?"
Esme shook her head. "When you get up just go to her room. Go in your pyjamas probably."
Aiofe blinked. "In pyjamas?"
"Yeah, so you don't get your clothes wet."
Aiofe stared at her. "Why would I get wet?"
Esme smiled. "If she wants to wash your hair, it's going to have to get wet."

Esme helped Aiofe into bed and said goodnight to her before going back downstairs with the empty carrier bags and a smile.

Aiofe's eyes fluttered open. The room around her was unfamiliar and it took her a moment to remember where she was. She smiled and sat up. Sunlight streaked through the curtains and lit the room in a golden glow. It looked different in the daylight than it had last night. Aiofe grinned as she looked around. The room was bigger than any bedroom she'd been in, it even had an en suite, and it was hers.

Aiofe realised she was rubbing circles on her bump again, she couldn't remember moving her hands to touch her stomach but they were there. Junior kicked against her hand and she laughed. She started tapping on the side of her protruding stomach to try and get Junior to kick her hand again.

She pulled herself up from the bed and walked over to the window. She pulled the one of the curtains open and looked out. She was high up and she could see for miles. Hills in the distance, topped with snow. Trees covered the land in front of her like a great lake. To her, it was beautiful. Aiofe tucked her hair behind her ears and suddenly remembered. She was supposed to go to Alice's room. Her hand was shaking slightly. She couldn't tell if she was excited or dreading it.

Aiofe wandered down to Alice's room. She could hear voices inside. She reached up and knocked on the door. The door swung open and Alice appeared. She smiled. "Aiofe! Come on in." She ushered Aiofe in. Alice's room was very pink. Rosalie was perched on the white desk. Aiofe smiled at her, but she merely nodded at her and turned back to Alice. "I've got to go, I promised Esme I would help her start to plan things for Christmas." She slid off the desk and walked out of the room.

Aiofe leant on the post of Alice's bed and fiddled with edge of her pyjama shorts. "I can't help but get the feeling she doesn't like me very much."
Alice shook her head. "She's just jealous of you."
Aiofe stared. "Jealous? Of me? Why would anybody be jealous of me?"
Alice sat down on the bed. "Rose loves children, she's great with them and adores them. But you know how we're all adopted? Carlisle and Esme don't look for children to adopt, most of us he found through his work and they decided to adopt us. Rose was one of those cases. She had been in an accident, and orphaned. But she was injured quite badly. Due to those injuries she lost her ability to have children. So she's jealous of you because you get to have your own baby, she was jealous of Bella when she was pregnant too, but she got over it then, and she will do so again. But don't let on that you know about the accident or anything."
Aiofe nodded, she moved and sat down beside Alice, rubbing soothing circles on her bump. Alice smiled at her. "So how is Junior?"
Aiofe's face lit up. "Junior's grand. Growing a lot, kicking me a lot."
Alice picked up a bag from on the floor beside the bed, she placed in on Aiofe's lap. "I got you some hairbrushes."

Aiofe opened the bag and looked in. "Why is there multiple?"
"Different brushes do different things. And there's only three, not that many. That one is a comb, the long, point bit on the handle is for partings."
Aiofe frowned. "A parting?"
"Yeah, the line where your hair parts." She pointed the the parting in Aiofe's hair. "See, you have a side parting."
Aiofe nodded. "Okay, I get what you're talking about now."

Alice picked up a piece of paper and read it. "Okay, before we start. Do you consent to me taking before and after pictures?"
Aiofe swallowed thickly. "You have to take pictures on me?"
Alice nodded. Aiofe chewed on her lip. "I don't know. Wouldn't people... judge you for having a little sister who's..." She pointed to her protruding stomach.
Alice blinked. "Aiofe, if you feel self-conscious about getting your photo taken because of your bump that easily solved. Come on. I'll show you." Alice got Aiofe to stand in front of the white wall. "I only need photos of your hair, Aiofe. So if you don't want all of you in the photos, it's okay." She took photos of Aiofe's hair from the sides and back and put her camera down.

"I'll have to take more photos later. A few as we go along, and some after. Are you still up for helping me?"
Aiofe nodded. "I want to help you."
Alice grinned. "We could have a girls day. After I do your hair I could do your make-up and paint your nails, and you could do mine if you want. I could even wax your legs if you want." She pointed at Aiofe legs. Aiofe blushed.
"I can't help it. I tried to shave them, but Junior got in the way and I couldn't reach." She could feel her face burning.
Alice laughed. "It's okay. I can wax them for you, it's alright. I'm good at it, I do my own, and Rose's. I've even don Esme's a few times. What do you say? A girls day?"
Aiofe shrugged. "Sure."

Alice washed, dried and straightened her hair. And after marvelling at how much longer it was than they had though, she had put it up in a pleated hairstyle and taken the photos she needed.

Aiofe was sitting on the counter beside the sink in Alice's bathroom. Esme was sitting on the closed toilet lid and Alice was rummaging through the cabinet in the corner of the room. She came pulled a box out of the cabinet and brought it over to the sink. Esme stood up and walked over to the sink. "Aiofe, you don't have to let her do this. It will hurt."
Aiofe shrugged. "I'll be okay."

Alice put a waxing strip on Aiofe's leg. It was warm. Aiofe wondered how much it was going to hurt when she pulled it off again. She felt that cold, gut-wrenching feeling of dread seep over her. Then Alice ripped it off. It wasn't anywhere near as bad as she had been imagining. "Is that it?"
Alice smiled. "That's that bit done. There's a few more to do. It won't take too long."

Aiofe turned to Esme, who was smiling. Alice appeared beside Aiofe. "Mom, Aiofe and I were going to do make-up and nails after this. Would you like to join us?"
Esme blinked. "Aiofe, I didn't know make overs were you kind of thing?"
Aiofe shrugged. "It's something I've never done before, I decided to give it a go to see if it is something I like. So are you joining us?"
Esme nodded. "Okay, I'll join in. I never thought of it before, but Aiofe, would you like me to get you some make-up next time I'm at the store?"
Alice looked up at them again. "No. I'll take Aiofe to get her some make-up if she wants some. It'll be fun. I can help her choose." She looked at Aiofe. "What do you think?"
Aiofe nodded. "That could be fun."
Alice grinned. "Mom, would you be able to get your liquid eyeliner for the make overs? I've run out."
Esme nodded. "I'll fetch it in a few minutes."
Aiofe frowned. "We should invite Rosalie to join us. Wouldn't she be upset if she found out we were doing this without her?"
"She would. I'll ask her if she wants to join us. I'll be back in a few moments." Esme jogged out of the room.

It was times like this Aiofe wasn't overly happy about being pregnant, and certainly wasn't happy about being uncoordinated. She wanted to run, but running was probably out of the question. There were stairs on her route. Definitely no running. She was very conscious of the fact that they were waiting on her. She walked briskly down the hall. She was almost back to Alice's room. But what if Esme was angry at her? She was doing what she had been told not to do. Aiofe looked at the unnecessarily large bar of chocolate in her hands.

She pushed the door open and walked in. Esme looked at the bar of chocolate in her hands and raised an eyebrow. Aiofe smiled sheepishly. "Um... I was kind of told not to tell anybody about this, but the truth is, I can't eat it all on my own, I'm not trying to eat it all at once. I just... Please don't be offended, but American chocolate is... very different what the British chocolate that I'm used to and I don't really like it that much." She held out the bar of chocolate.
Alice patted the space on the bed beside her in invitation. "I won't be offended as long as you bring that over this way."
Aiofe sat down on the bed and put the chocolate down beside Alice. Esme spun around the on the desk chair to face them. "So Aiofe, tell me. How is American chocolate different and, in your opinion, inferior, to British chocolate?"
Aiofe blushed. "I... Um... Well, British chocolate is creamier, it melts in the mouth more. And I prefer the flavour, it's slightly different. Sweeter."

Esme laughed. "I'm just teasing you. When we go to Port Angeles to go Christmas shopping I'll take you to the British sweet shop and let you get some things."
Aiofe's face lit up, "There's a British sweet shop?"
Esme nodded. "Yeah, Carlisle likes to go there. He gets lots of things that he liked when he was younger and makes everybody taste them."

There was a knock on the bedroom door. Alice threw a pillow over the chocolate and ran over to the door. She pulled it open to reveal Rosalie and Bella. Alice ushered them in excitedly before sitting back down. Esme smiled at them. "Bella, what brings you here?"
"I'm here with my husband. He's finally clearing out his old bedroom." She sat down on the bed.
Alice pulled the cushion off the chocolate. "Why is he only doing that now? Mom has been asking him for ages."
Bella shrugged. "I think it has something to do with all the CD's he still has in there."
Esme snapped a piece of chocolate off the bar. "And where's my granddaughter?"
Bella took some of the chocolate. "She's at her friends' house."

There was another knock at the door. Alice sighed. Esme smiled. "I've got it." She walked over to the door.
"Mom, hi. Do you know where I can find Aiofe?" Aiofe couldn't see who was at the door but she recognised the voice.
Esme opened the door fully. "She's in here. Come on in."
Edward walked through the door carrying a box. "Hey Aiofe, I've got a stereo and speakers here if you want them for your room? I can give you a few CD's too if you want?"
Aiofe nodded. "Okay, thanks."
Edward moved to put the box down but Esme stopped him. "Do you expect your pregnant little sister to carry a heavy box up a flight of stairs? Why don't you take it to her room. When you walk in there are some empty shelves to your right, you could put it on one of those for her."
He nodded and walked away with the box. Esme sat back down on the desk chair. Aiofe chewed her lip. "You didn't have to get him to do that. I could have carried the box."
Esme looked at her. "Aiofe, don't you remember what I said yesterday? You are not to lift heavy things. That stereo is big and heavy and there's no way I'm going to let you try to lift it."

Aiofe was rubbing circles on her bump again. Esme smiled at her as the door opened. Paige's face broke into a smile when she saw them on the doorstep. "Hey, come on in and out of the cold."
Esme shook her head. "I am afraid I can't stay. I have to get home and make dinner for my other children. Is it okay if I come back for Aiofe around eight?"
Paige nodded. "Eight's fine."
Esme smiled and patted Aiofe's shoulder. "Just text me if you want picked up earlier, Sweetie. I'll see you later."
Aiofe waved as she walked away.

Paige grinned at her. "It's freezing out here. Come on inside. I'll introduce you to Jared, and his niece. We're last minute babysitters tonight since his sister had to go somewhere." She shut the door behind them. Aiofe took her jacket off and hung it up on one of the hooks on the wall. She followed Paige into the kitchen where Grace was sitting on the counter with her arms crossed. "No daddy, it has to be a weal one!"
A deep voice came from through another doorway to the kitchen. "A wheel? What do you want a wheel for? Are you saying we should use a wheel instead? Should we steal one from mummy's car and put it on top of the presents?"
Grace shouted in the direction of the doorway, "No daddy! A weal twee!"

A tall, muscled man followed the laughed through the doorway. He stepped over the child gate, arms laden with food. "A wheel tree? What's that? Do we steal all the wheels from mummy's car, pile them up and make a wheel tree?"
Grace glared at him. "No daddy!"
The man nodded. "You're right. That would be silly. It would squish all the presents! Gracie, I only asked you if you wanted a real tree or the pretend tree for Christmas, why are you talking about wheels?"
Grace shook her head. "No daddy! A weal twee! A weal twee, daddy!"
The man laughed. "There you go again, talking about wheels. What are you talking about wheels for?"
Grace turned to Paige. "Mummy, help. Tell daddy no. Tell daddy a weal twee."

Paige gently slapped the man upside the head. "Stop teasing my daughter. Grace wants a real tree. I want a real tree. Jared, this is Aiofe. Aiofe, this is Jared." Paige gestured to the respective people as she introduced them. Jared turned around and stuck his hand out. "It's nice to meet you, Paige and Grace have spoken a lot about you."
Aiofe reached out and shook his hand. "It's nice to meet you too."

Paige took a hold of Aiofe's arm. "Come on, I'll give you the grand tour!" She gestured around them. "If you look around you now, you will see the kitchen. To your right is the doorway to the pantry. And if you follow me we will go to the living room. This is the hallway, to your right is the front door. To your left is the living room and dining room. The door on the right leads to Jared's shop. And here are the stairs, please beware of child toys. Beware of the stair gate. This is the second level of the house. To your left is my bedroom. To your right is Grace's room, to your far right is the bathroom. To your far left is the cupboard and above your head in the hatch to the attic. Also downstairs I missed out the back door, which leads to the garden."
Aiofe nodded. "Jared has a shop?"
Paige smiled. " He's a tailor, he makes clothes for people. The shop is where he works and sells clothes and stuff. It used to be his dad's, but Jared took it over. He's really good, he makes most of Grace's clothes. He can even knit, which is weird."
Aiofe laughed. "He seems really nice."
Paige nodded. "Come on, you have to meet his niece. She's in the living room, she's really cute."

Aiofe followed Paige into the living room. There was a playpen set up in the middle of the floor. A baby was sitting in the playpen, sucking her thumb and watching them. Aiofe smiled. "What's her name and can I cuddle her?"
Paige sat down on the edge of the couch. "Her name's Lucia and go ahead, just pick her up and cuddle her any time you want." Aiofe leant over the side on the playpen and scooped up Lucia. She sat down beside Paige with the baby in her lap, she spoke quietly to her and bounced her gently and Lucia smiled at her and giggled happily.

"You're really good with her. Have you had much experience with children?" Paige smiled at Aiofe.
Aiofe shook her head. "Not that much, children just seem to love me though."
Paige nodded, "It's good. Not many people have that natural talent for looking after children. It'll make things easier for you with Junior."

"Okay. Aiofe's home. Can we find out what the surprise is now?"
Aiofe sat down on the couch beside Alice. She leant close and whispered in her ear. "What's going on?" Alice whispered back.
"Mom and Dad have told us they have something to tell us but it had to wait until you were home as they wanted to tell all of us at the same time. It's something big."
Aiofe nodded. "Is it a good thing or a bad thing, what do you think?"
Alice pursed her lips. "They're smiling. They wouldn't be smiling if they were going to tell us something bad."
Aiofe chewed on her bottom lip and watched Carlisle and Esme carefully.

Carlisle cleared his throat. Aiofe looked at him. "Okay, we said we have something to tell you. The extended family, your auntie and uncle and cousins from Alaska, will be joining us for Christmas. But they're arriving in a fortnight and staying until after the New Year. They'll be staying with us for almost a month."
Her siblings seemed excited and happy about the news, so Aiofe figured it was a good thing. Alice smiled at her. "Don't worry, you're going to love them. The extended family from Alaska are great."

So that's the long awaited chapter 8. Thanks for reading! I had fun writing this for you guys. I'm sorry it's been a while, but it was sort of unavoidable, I'm afraid. My laptop died and I had to wait until Christmas to get a new one. The wait for chapter 9 won't be as long. I can guarantee this because chapter nine is the chapter that I've been most looking forward to writing since I started this story. I have huge plans for this next chapter, some really exciting stuff is going to happen. To throw in a relevant Game of Thrones reference, "Winter Is Coming", for Aiofe it is anyway.

Please feel free to leave me a review, share your opinion, tell me what you want to see happening in the story. Constrictive criticism is welcome.

Skylair xoxo

COMING UP:
- Aiofe meets the extended family
- Carlisle & Esme discover the truth