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I pulled up in front of the house after the trip down the long driveway and smiled at the house. I had barley taken the keys out of the ignition when I was suddenly ripped from the driver's seat and bear hugged.
"Emmett!!!! I'm happy to see you too but unlike you I've still got to breathe." I told Emmett with a big grin on my face.
"I've missed you and so has everyone else. I just wanted to be the first to greet you before Rosie steals you." He replied with a large grin.
"Emmett, put her down and let her come into the house, NOW!" Rosalie shouted at Emmett from the front door.
I immediately felt my feet hit the ground laughing because he's still whipped. I grabbed my purse and flickered to the front door step in front of Rosalie. We grinned at each other and threw ourselves into a hug.
"I've missed you." She told me.
"I missed you too. We really need to see each other more often." I replied softly.
"Come inside before Alice explodes with excitement and Esme is excited that you're here." Rosalie grabbed my hand and proceeded to drag me inside the magnificent home. "You stink like wet dog worse then you usually do. What have you been doing in La Push, rolling in the mud with those mutts?"
"Ummm…." I didn't know how to answer this. Rosalie had never been a fan of shape shifters but tolerated my family for my sake. I really didn't know how she would react to the fact my singer was a shape shifter, especially one from a pack that she loathed.
"Rosalie, please refrain from making comments on our guest's scent." Esme said with a soft smile and held her arms out for a hug thankfully saving me from having to answer the awkward question before I was ready. "It's wonderful to see you again Mia, it's been too long."
"I missed you to Esme; I love what you've done with this house. I'm planning on building a house on Phil's land; can you please help me with the design? I'll be lost without you." I really did want her help, plus it gives her an architect project which is something that she's always up for.
"Of course dear, I would be glad to help. I have so many ideas; I'll draw a few up for you and let you pick your favorite design and then we'll go from there. We'll do nice big windows so that the sun can shine through, big open rooms," Esme mumbled to herself as she walked away towards what I'm guessing was where her office.
"Esme never changes does she?" I turned to Rosalie with a big grin.
"Nope, still the most loving and caring women in the world with a flair for house design." Alice suddenly appeared beside me. She has a bad habit of doing that so it didn't startle me but if Paul thinks I need a bell he needs to meet Alice.
"Hey Alice, how's the stock market been to you lately?" I laughed at my own joke.
"Great, you should see all of my new clothes. I've been trying to update Edwards's girlfriends clothing but she's a no go and keeps complaining. But I've been sneaking into her room and slowly replacing her clothing." She told me with a big grin.
"Maybe you should ask before you randomly steal peoples clothing. Not everyone has a talent for fashion that you do and not everyone wants help. " I admonished her; I felt the need to because she is my junior by a few year (okay a few centuries but who's counting).
"You haven't seen the disaster that she was before I got a hold of her. She's still not up to par but she's getting there with my help. I just hope that she's more receptive to my expertise once she's changed." Alice said with a wishful look.
"Edward is still with a human? The one that you where telling me about when you came for a visit last fall?" I asked Rose.
"Yeah, I still don't like it. I don't mind her becoming my sister but she doesn't realize what she's giving up by becoming one of us and I don't think she's doing this for the right reasons. She made us vote on her human status after the whole Volturi thing that I told you about, I voted no and I still vote no. I explained that I wished that someone had been able to vote no for me." Rosalie told me with a sad look.
"Sweetie, maybe she's so love blind that she's not seeing the big picture. When I meet her I'll talk to her more and see if she's has the right motivation for the change." I gave her a look that let her know I felt her pain and gently squeezed her hand. I know how much Rosalie regretted all the human experiences she wasn't able to have.
"You'll get your chance to meet her in 27 minutes. She's coming with Edward for a visit. Bella's been grounded for a while now, because of the whole Volturi thing and she's just been released on parole. From what I see, she needs my help and I have the perfect outfit for her." Alice informed me before she flitted her way upstairs.
"Alice better be careful, eventually this Bella is going to be able to extract revenge for all the dress up and she's going to have Newborn strength. If what I've heard and seen is true, nobody changes that much during the transformation." I told Rosalie with a giggle.
"Alice isn't even that bad, Emmett's the one that's going to be getting his ass kicked by her. He keeps making sex jokes just to see her blush." Rosalie was really starting to perk up now as we hooked arms and walked slowly into the living room.
"Where's Jasper I haven't seen him yet?" I asked.
"He went hunting because Belle is coming over and he wants to be full for when the human gets here. He should be back soon." Rosalie explained.
"So where's our book and the new additions that you wanted to show me?"
Our book is pictures of us from when we became friends. The first few pages of pictures in the book are from when Rosalie was still human. It's a ritual for us that about once a year we go through our book. Everyone normally runs from the room whenever we drag out the book because they've all heard us do this so many time I think they all probably have all the stories memorized. It has some really interesting pictures of us, some are amazing and we both look great, some not so great especially the ones from the 80's. I really hate the pictures from the 80's and think that we should burn them all, shoulder pads and big hair is not me, but Rosalie won't allow me to touch them. Rosalie says that if nothing else they remind us never to dress that way again and it gives everyone a good laugh. Some of the pictures are so old that they've been preserved but are still starting to yellow around the edges, some include members of either family but most are just of us; I can't wait to see the ones that she's added.
"So what are the new pictures of?" I asked her.
"There are some from last fall when Emmett and I visited you in New York. There are some old ones that I found while I was looking at some newspaper articles from before my change and found some pictures of us in the society pages. They were from when I was engaged but they don't include him." Rosalie hissed out the last part.
"Let's see!" I tried to distract Rosalie from her thoughts of the monster.
Rosalie opened the book and we looked at the pictures of us from when Rosalie was human. There is a great picture of us leaning against the fence early in morning all dressed up for school. Rosalie was naturally beautiful as a human that was only enhanced when she was changed. My favorite picture has to be the one from her coming out ball. We had purposefully dressed like complete opposites, Rosalie in a lighter colored dress, if I remember correctly it was an ice green color and I dressed in a sapphire blue dress. We both had our hair done in tight bob curls which was hard to do because we had both had long hair but refused to cut our hair short which was the style at the time. I loved how innocent we both look in this picture and had it turned into a painting back in the 70's and had given Rosalie a copy of the painting for Christmas one year. She turned the page and showed me the new pictures that she had found in the newspapers that showed us all dressed up and having a great time at different events that where held around Rochester that year. There was a depression going on but you'd never know by looking at the pictures of us. I had a future seeing mother and Rose's father was very lucky so neither of our families had a problem with the stock market crash and we had only really heard about it but never saw it. Those times with Rosalie helped me regain my innocence which I will be forever grateful to her for. We slowly flipped through the pages of the book pointing, laughing and reminiscing about different events that took place.
We were only up the 50's when I felt a blip on my radar coming from the direction of the river and knew Jasper was back.
"Jasper!" I yelled enthusiastically and launched myself at him as he came in.
"Hello Mia, happy to see me? Wait don't tell me because I know how you feel." Jasper said with a straight face.
"You know it's kinda creepy when you say it like that." I laughed at him and Jasper joined in.
Jasper comes across as the most reserved of the Cullens but there are so many reasons for him being this way. He was changed into such a volatile environment were he not only had to live it but had to feel the emotions of those around him that I'm sure would have made a lesser man collapsed. Once you get to know him he is completely different person to be around. He jokes, he bets and he almost as bad as Emmett but he's smart and tends to keep himself out of the trouble the Emmett seems to cause without trying. I know Jasper has had a problem around humans especially with his slip last fall but he's been doing better and has finally stopped beating himself up about it.
"How have you been?" I asked.
"Better and I'm slowly trying to be around more and more humans. It's never good when you want to eat your brother's mate. I even went with Alice to the mall the other day and made it three hours before I had to stop breathing."
"So you had to not breathe for what, like 8 hours?" I quipped.
"I'm not that bad!" The pixie yelled from upstairs.
"Yes you are!" Esme, Emmett, Rosalie, Jasper, Edward and I yelled at the same time from different parts of the house and all started to laugh. Edward had arrived right after Jasper had gotten back from hunting and was still in the front entrance.
"What did I miss?" I heard a human voice ask.
"Everyone is making fun of my shopping habits." Alice ran down the stairs and gave Bella a quick hug. "Come upstairs, I have the perfect outfit for you."
"In a minute Alice, I want to introduce Bella to our guest." Edward said.
They walked into the living room and Bella's eyes got big when she realized that the guest was a female and looked human. It probably also didn't help that I had curled back up on the couch beside Rosalie and we were leaning on each other with Jasper was sitting on my other side.
"Hi Bella, I've heard so much about you, I'm Mia." I quickly got up to walk over and gave Edward a quick hug then put out my hand which she quickly grabbed.
"You're not like the Cullens are you? You're not warm enough to be a werewolf. Are you human?" Bella asked. Everyone giggled at her assumptions.
"What do you think I am?" I decided to be playful.
"You look human, and you're about the same temperature as I am. Your eyes are violet that I've only seen once before but that was blue contacts over red eyes. Are you wearing contacts?" Bella was trying to get the facts straight.
"No I'm not wearing contacts, I have perfect vision and this is my natural eye color as odd as it is."
"You seem human like me but it doesn't make sense if you are. Jasper never likes to be close to humans and yet he was sitting on the couch next to you."
"My blood holds no appeal to him or anyone else here." I don't know if she's going to get it.
"You seem really close to Rosalie, and she can't stand humans." Bella was grasping.
"It's not that I can't stand humans, Bella. I just don't want anyone else to lose their life to become like us." Rose told her with a pointed look.
"I'll give you some help; there are more Mystical beings in this world then the ones you've been introduced to. You, I believe, only know of Vampires, Shape Shifters, and Children of the Moon." I hope that helps her.
"So there are things like Witches, Fairies, and Pixies and stuff?" Bella asked.
"Yup, and many more Mystical beings that you haven't named are in this world. The populations of some groups are decreasing and most people don't remember the old tales so the majority of the humans don't believe in any of these." I responded.
"I'm sorry if this is rude, but can you just tell me what you are?"
"You don't want to guess anymore? It's hard to guess if you haven't met one before. There are so many myths in the human world as you know from hanging out with Vampires that it's hard to sort fact from fiction." I told her.
"If I have enough time I might be able to figure it out. I figured out what the Cullens are, and I figured out what that a friend of mine is a werewolf." Bella told me.
"You figured it out with help from the mutt." Edward told her.
"Are you freaking crazy, you're friends with a werewolf? Edward did you not tell her the danger of consorting with Children of the Moon. Bella please listen to me. When a werewolf is in their human form they are fine but once they have changed they are nothing but blood thirsty creatures with no semblance of their humanity. Nothing will stop them from stalking and killing their prey, and if you happen to be with the werewolf when they change, you are their prey and you as a human can't stop them." I yelled at her in a panicky voice and took a step towards her to shake some sense into her.
Edward grabbed Bella, pushed her behind him and growled a warning at me.
"Watch who you growl at Leech or you'll have a very long night of pulling yourself back together." I snapped at Edward, as I felt my eyes flash before Rose placed a hand on my shoulder to help calm me down.
"I've seen him change into his wolf form before and he has never hurt me. He's protected me from another wolf in his pack. His pack isn't like you describe, his pack keeps people safe, and they don't kill anyone besides Vampires and they don't harm humans. The Cullens also have a treaty with the pack." Bella explained trying to diffuse the situation.
"Are you talking about the Shape Shifters in La Push?" I was confused now.
"Yeah she is that's why even though I'm concerned for her safety it's not a huge threat." Edward explained.
"Well I can understand that most of those shifters are young and don't have complete control yet so they can still shift at the slightest provocation. Has no one explained to the child the difference between shape shifters and werewolves?" I asked.
"No, and the shifters think of themselves as werewolves. I think we've cleared up any misconception on Bella's behalf though. Maybe you can get someone to explain to the pack what they actually are?" Edward said trying to be calm now.
"Sure I'll talk to the Alpha and clear it up." I responded.
"Excuse me, but I'm just curious where you get off calling me a child? We're about the same age." Bella was getting a bit pissy.
"In appearance only we are. I'm the oldest in this house at the moment. The only one older is Carlisle, I'm almost 300. Well my Mom's older but she looks about the same age as Carlisle."
"Great another person that doesn't age while I waste away into old age. What are you?" Bella asked.
"I'm a Witch. I'm sure it was a weird to walk in and see someone that is appears human all buddy-buddy with Rosalie and Jasper, especially considering they are the two most reserved of the family around humans. As I told you before my blood has no appeal for them and even if it did they couldn't get to it anyways. My skin is impenetrable to Vampires or any other mystical being beside another Witch." I explained.
"That's interesting." Bella was back to having wide eyes again.
"Would you like to come and look through our scrapbook with us?" I heard Rosalie hiss behind me, "Shut it Quito, we've got a new victim."
"Sure, what's in your scrapbook?" Bella with a quick terrified glance at Rosalie, I guess that Rosalie hadn't always been the nicest to the poor human and Bella looked like she wanted to try and bond with Rose no matter what torture she had to endure.
"Rosalie and I have been friends since before her change, so they are pictures of us starting in the 1920's and the most recent is pictures of us from last fall." I explained.
"That's remarkable that you've managed to capture all of that." Bella said as I sat back down beside Rosalie and guided Bella down on my other side. Jasper had gotten up and moved to the other side of the room when Bella had walked in.
I pulled the book into my lap from the coffee table and went back to the first page. Edward gave a sigh and walked over to his piano and started picking out a tune.
"Edward I'm not going to eat her, if you are going to be in here you can listen to the stories. We don't need back ground music." Rose snapped at him.
"I'm going to go find Emmett, do you know where he's hiding?" Edward grimaced. I closed my eyes and looked for Emmett's aura on Edwards's request.
"He's in the garage, he ran there as soon as Rose pulled out the book. Take Jasper with you maybe you guys can have a wrestling match." I suggested.
Edward and Jasper exchanged a glance and then quickly moved out of the room.
"Now we can get back to our book. The first picture is one from our finishing school. It's a class picture and that is where Rose and I were introduced. I was pretending to be younger then I was, with the help of a spell of course. My story was that I was from out west and had been sent to live with an Aunt and Uncle in the east to attend a proper finishing school. My Aunt was actually one of my younger sisters but she looked older so the story worked. It was a nice change for me because I got to act normal and carefree for the first time in a long time. My first day there scared the hell out of me but a nice girl, Vera came and introduced herself to me and introduced me to her best friend Rose. The three of us became good friends." I started the stories.
"Here is a picture of the three of us on a class outing to the park. Most of these memories are a bit blurry for me but Mia has told me stories that have helped keep some of these memories alive. Vera got married when we were really young so then it was mostly Mia and I that did things together after that." Rose continued, I don't think she really cared who listened to our stories. The next picture was newspaper clipping of Rose and me standing facing a large fountain with our hands on our hips and a disgruntled guy in the fountain. "Mia's family got us invited to all sorts of parties. This is one memory that I did remember without Mia's help. The guy was getting fresh with Mia and she was trying to push him off of her, so I helped and he ended up in the fountain. Do you remember the head line?"
"Yup, Railroad Heir makes Big Splash at Johnson Ball. I don't think he ever lived that down." I dissolved into a fit of giggles, and was joined by both Rose and Bella.
"This is our favorite picture in the book. It's from my coming out ball, which was very common for the more affluent young ladies to have during that time. Mia actually commissioned it to be painted and I have one of the two prints upstairs. I'll have to show it to you sometime." Rose had undeniably forgotten some of her hostility towards Bella.
"Is this the first picture after your transformation?" Bella almost whispered, I think in hopes that it didn't upset Rose's good mood.
"Yes, this was the day that I found out what Mia was. I didn't know before then and after my transformation she came to find me and explained all about what she was. At that point it was the only good thing that I could find in being a Vampire." Rose said.
"It made it easier for me that she was now part of the Mystical world. I couldn't tell a human about it, so once I had aged to a point when people start to question my age I have to move, just like the Cullen's do. I was so happy that I was able to keep a friend instead of just disappearing from people's lives without warning." I explained farther for Bella's sake.
"How did you know that she had been turned?" Bella asked.
"You would need more information about witches, and I'm not going to get into that on our first meeting. You can ask Edward about it later if you would like and he can fill you in. I have an extra gift that allows me to find people, so when Rose disappeared without a trace or ransom demand I decided to look for her. I was very shocked to discover that her aura was changing and she was surrounded by the auras of three vampires. I went to the house where she was changing with every intent on destroying the vampires that had killed Rose." I started to explain.
"What made you change your mind?" Bella was curious.
"Carlisle of course, that man is a born mediator. Carlisle knew what I was when he saw my eyes flashing, and he got me to listen to his explanation before I destroyed him, Esme and Edward. He told me how he had found Rose dying and could not let her parish. I waited beside Rose until she woke up and once Carlisle explained her new life and got her to hunt I sat down and spoke with her."
"How did you die? I know it was similar to something that almost happened to me but I don't know any details." Bella turned to Rose.
"You shouldn't know the details and we will leave it at the fact that I was dying." Rose snapped, I think it might help Bella understand more about what made Rose so bitter, if Rose told her story but I know now is not the best time.
I quickly turned the page and launched into more stories before the situation could get any more heated. We had made it to the 80's and Rose was back to laughing and smiling again at the atrocious outfits when Bella's stomach started to rumble. I looked at the clock and realized that it was almost 7 o'clock.
"Are you hungry?" I asked Bella.
"Yeah so if someone can get Edward to take me home that would be great." She responded.
"Did you want to eat with me, this way I'm not the only one eating?"
"Sure, but does Esme have any food in the cupboards?"
"Doesn't matter, come into the dining room and I'll snap something in." Rose and I got up from the couch and Bella slowly followed us into the living room.
"What would you like? Do you have any allergies?" I asked.
"Doesn't matter whatever you feel like having and I have no allergies." Bella eyed me with curiosity. "How are you going to snap food in?"
"I'm a witch, it's a spell."
"Is it real food?" Bella asked, and Rose looked at me and rolled her eyes.
"Of course its real food and I haven't had any complaints about my cooking before."
"Well there was that one time when you tired to make me synthetic blood so that I could have 'coffee' with you. What did you call it, ummm a Lion Latte I think, I'm just glad that we tried it out on Emmett and Edward before I had any." Rose laughed.
"Oh I forgot about that, I'm sure I'll figure out that spell one day. Okay well I've never made human food that made anyone sick." I replied.
"Well that makes me feel a better, I'm sure whatever you make will be fine." Bella said.
"Dinner is divine when you share with a friend and can show your past, a scrumptious feast from the isle of Zakynthos for this need to be met." I snapped my fingers over the dining room table and the room filled with the wonderful scents of Greek food.
"So that's what a spell looks like? It didn't even rhyme." Bella looked very confused.
"It's one of those witch myths that I was talking about earlier. A spell doesn't have to rhyme; it just needs to be a clear statement of my wish. Spells are always stronger when spoken in Latin but for easy ones like this I just say them in English. Dig in before it gets cold." I lowered myself into one of the dining chairs and started to grab from the dishes in front of me.
"I'm out; it smells like shit in here. Come get me from the garage when you're done." Rose told us before disappearing quickly.
"You've been friends with Rosalie for a long time right? Would you mind answering a question for me?" Bella asked quietly.
"Yup, for almost 80 years so I can try an answer your question." I answered.
"Has she always been so cold? I really want her to like me and accept me into the family when I change but she doesn't want me to give up being human." Bella said in a rush.
"Rosalie isn't cold, she is one of the most caring and loyal people in the world once you get to know her. It's not easy to get to know her but once you do and she considers you part of her family no one better threaten you because she will tear them apart. She will do anything for her family and for Emmett, and she has always been that way. If you understood her past you would understand more but I'm not going to share that because she doesn't want you to know yet. Hopefully one day she will be able to tell you and then hopefully you'll understand." I tried not to snap my answer at her because she didn't know any better but I was protective of Rose and no little human was going to get away with calling her cold.
"Sorry. Do you have any ideas on how I can get her to like me?"
"Stay human or at least start to recognize what you are giving up by becoming a vampire. That is the only way that she may start to like you. This life took everything from her and she can never get it back. Emmett helped ease some of her pain but she will never be fully healed." I told her.
My phone started blasting out the Gummy Bear song, and I giggled as I pulled it out to answer it.
"Hello." I said.
"Hey, Rosie says thanks for talking to her but that's enough before you spill all the beans." Emmett replied.
"Okay, I'm done. Bye." I responded before hanging up the phone.
"Who was…." Bella said before the Gummy Bear song started again.
"Hey Emmett." I answered.
"Why the hell is my ring tone the Gummy Bear song?" Emmett asked.
"Simple, it's because you remind me of a gummy bear." I said.
"What?"
"You are soft, squishy and sweet."
"I am not!" Emmett sounded very offended, "I'm all muscle and hard as rock…"
"Yeah yeah," I interrupted, "Bye Emmett."
I hung up the phone and before I had a chance to put it in my pocket Emmett was standing beside my chair.
"Please change my song." Emmett asked.
"No, I like it and I think it suits you perfectly." I replied.
"Please, or I'll steal your phone and change it myself." Emmett tried to be threatening.
"Really, you think you'll be able to do that?"
"Of course, cuz I'm awesome like that."
"If you so awesome get past this," I said with a smile and looked at my phone, "Emmett may look, Emmett may touch, but Emmett may never change his ring tone on my phone as that is my pleasure to decide."
"What did you do?" Emmett asked with a scowl.
"Fixed it so you can do whatever you want but as long as I think the Gummy Bear song is your ring tone, that's what it will be. Here's my phone, try it out." I handed my phone to Emmett.
"Son of a Bitch!!! I can change everything but my ring tone. You suck, here's your phone back." Emmett tossed it back to me with a pout and walked out.
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