Rosalie Hale

Chapter 10 – Evaluations

It was getting rather annoying. Not very many calls were getting through. Not even after we took Carlisle advice in settling for being foster parents. They hadn't even scheduled interviewed or checked out the living environment. I had a burning hunch that it was because of Emmett and my "age."

I finally asked Carlisle and Esme. It was clear that this was getting nowhere. I asked him if he would fill out the paperwork and the two would be the legal foster parents, and Emmett and I would do most of the looking after it. Even in a city this big, people knew and respected Carlisle, and they all adored Esme. They might bother to actually read the paperwork past the age space.

Sure enough, interviews with Carlisle and Esme were scheduled, and Alice could see that they had decided to check out the living arrangements unexpectedly. Fortunately enough, thanks to Alice's warning, we were prepared, so we didn't have to pull Bella and Edward off of each other into some decent brother-sister formation every time the doorbell rang.

When there was only ten minutes left before the inspectors would show up, I began to panic. Alice saw everything going fine, but she's said so many times that the future can change. And in a game with this many players, too many things could change. I was so impatient for everyone to move to their places that it felt like they were all moving at a human speed. They probably were, but that was most likely because they had a much better perception of time than I did. They knew that there was no hurry. I couldn't tell the difference.

So when they came, the house looked nothing like it normally would. Not like the normal environment would be bad, it would just look a little awkward. Everyone was downstairs, for once. And there was actually food properly stored in the pantry and fridge. The authenticity came from Edward's knowledge of food storage from watching the food network (he had gone through a phase of trying to cook for Bella), and Carlisle's knowledge of what improper storage caused food poisoning.

The only faking we did about the way we interacted was turning down the love just a wee bit. The city was however big enough that everyone only knew who we were. Not that four of us were dating (Edward and Bella were still waiting on that). Only our school knew that. And that was only because of Jasper and Emmett's popularity due to helping the football team actually win.

Bella and Edward were still inseparable; they were just in a more reasonable sibling position. Bella was lying on the sofa on her stomach with her feet kicking in the air. Her check was resting on a relaxed fist and she was writing in a notebook. Edward was in the recliner next to her. He had the typical teenage boy look, refusing to use the footrest and instead throwing his legs over the other arm of the chair. He was pretending to read a book (or actually reading it for all I knew. Either way it was at a human pace), his head could easily be turned to speak with Bella if he so chose.

Emmett and Jasper were kick boxing on the latest edition of the wii (unlike Edward, Emmett had finally grown bored and impatient after all these years). The two of them competing was normal enough that there wasn't much adjusting necessary. Alice was sprawled on the floor with a magazine. Jasper and her relationship had always been more subtle than the rest of us, so it was easily manageable for her to hide any more than sisterly emotions for him. I was busy clicking away on the internet, mostly on youtube. Humans were so funny. I was also doubling as Emmett's cheerleader. Like I said: it was normal enough.

The doorbell rang and nobody jumped. Esme was washing the "dirty" dishes, and Carlisle got up to answer the door.

They inspectors, or whatever you would call them (I hadn't paid that much attention since Emmett and I had never gotten this far) looked relaxed after Carlisle re-introduced himself and Esme, and they saw our cooperative positions. It was time for the show to begin.

Edward casually picked a little playful fight with Bella.

"Why do you get the entire couch, anyway?" he inquired.

"If you're so uncomfortable, why don't you actually use the footrest?"

He stealthily leapt from the chair onto Bella in a way that was almost, but not quite, conspicuous. They kept their fighting playful, in no way at all implicit. Finally they "noticed" they were being watched, and Bella kicked Edward off of her. The two of them looked up and smiled innocently.

"This is our first adopted, yet youngest son, and our most recently adopted daughter. They're pretty competitive with each other, as you can tell. But they get along great," Carlisle explained. I chuckled, pretending to laugh at my video. If only these people knew how well they got along.

Edward stood up first, offering his hand to Bella, proving to the men that they could cooperate. Bella took it without hesitation, and, once on her feet, extended her hand to our interrogators.

"Isabella, well, Bella," she introduced, shaking their hands.

"Edward. Please no Ed or Eddie. I've always hated that," Edward announced, gripping their hands as well. "C'mon Bella. Let me show you how to play the piano and have it sound good."

Bella scowled at him.

"Hey, we can't all be Mozart," she replied coldly. She had been catching on well, though, faster than any human could have. But her own resistance kept her from becoming great. She could do so much of what Edward could do now. As much as she loved Edward just for being him, while she had been human, the fact that he was a vampire had always thrilled her. Now that she was just as thrilling, she enjoyed keeping these personal talents separate, like the piano. Especially the piano, because of that one song, that precious lullaby.

"Down there is Alice," Carlisle continued as Bella and Edward walked away. Alice glanced up slightly and waved. "Pretending to beat each other up are Emmett and Jasper," each of the boys raised their hands when their own name was called, never taking their eyes away from the screen. "On the computer there is my oldest daughter, Rosalie," he concluded. I turned my head, smiled, and waved. I sighed deeply before returning to the computer. This was it.

Edward began to play some jazz on the piano. Alice looked up, "surprised" to hear her favorite song, and jumped up to join him and Bella at the piano. Despite trying to kill Emmett through the video game, Jasper set of a comforting wave through the room. I was sure one of the notes on our evaluation would be something like "gives off good calming energy. Literally." I turned off the video off and logged on to myspace. Bella had been encouraging us to be a little bit more social. She had never connected well with people in Phoenix, so being torn away from actual friends left her wanting to make new ones here. So far I was doing well. Seventy six friends within a week of my profile's creation, all whom I'd known from school. There were still more requests when I logged in as well.

"From here you can just call me Mr. Swan, please. Now what kind of siblings would make you turn off your music just to play their own?" All music had stopped at this point. I knew I didn't have to breathe, but I ended up hyperventilating anyway.

"I like hearing Edward play," I managed to gasp.

Living in a big city, we had all grown very much desensitized. None of us had noticed any familiarity with his scent…but this was Charlie. We were now officially and royally fucked. There was no way we could hide anymore. Unless Carlisle acted quickly, we couldn't do anything. Leaving wouldn't help this time. It wasn't a suspicion in this case. He knew us. And being a police chief (or ex-police chief now, I guess) he was probably going to release a nationwide search if he ever pieced together why his daughter, who he had just seen completely unchanged, had never been able to send more than an email or phone call.

"Excuse me, Mr. Swan…" I stood from the computer. I walked to the piano. "Upstairs. All of you. Now. Emmett, Jasper! You, too, come on!"

As soon as we were around the corner, we were all running. Not making a sound, just running. Up both flights of stairs into the third-floor room that we had been planning to turn into a bonus room, especially if this foster thing had worked out. Now it wouldn't.

By the time we were in the room, Bella was glued to Edward's side.

"This is bad," was all she could blurt out.

"Edward? Does he know it's us?" I asked. Why? Seriously, I already knew the answer. After all, she was his daughter.

"Yes. He doesn't recognize you Emmett, Jasper or Esme as much. Charlie really only saw you guys at the wedding and around town here and there. But he knew Carlisle because, well everyone knew Carlisle, and Bella had a tendency to land herself in the emergency room a few times. They spoke a while when Bella was in the hospital in Phoenix, when he couldn't stop thanking him for saving her, so he recognized him the instant that Carlisle opened the door. Alice and I were next on the most recognized list. We were always over. Bella was the dead give away, and of course she was one of the first that he had seen," Edward announced.

"What is Carlisle doing about it?" I wondered.

"Nothing," Bella replied, slightly calmer now, thanks to Jasper. "I told Carlisle to stall on my way up here. He said he would keep Charlie busy with touring the house. But we had to hurry up here…" she left us hanging there. For some reason she broke free from Edward. None of us dared to follow.

Author's Note: I won't be able to get online for about a week (haha, that's summer for you) But I will be writing in my notebook every chance I get and I will type and post them as soon as possible. Chapter 11 is almost done already and I'm not even close to dry of ideas...I just have to find a way to get them all to fit. Have a twitastic week people!