A/N: Hello, everyone! Again, I'm sorry for the late updates, but I've had a really stressful last few weeks. I was doing Drivers Ed., skating and a dance show. I had pretty much no time.
Now, this story is nearing the end! This is day five, and there are only seven, which means about 5 or 6 more chapters (I'll probably combine the last day into one). And I'm hoping to finish this before the summer because I'm going to ITALY!!!! and hoping to get a job as well. So if it's not done by July, I wouldn't expect another update until probably the end of August.
Here is chapter ten! I hope you enjoy the fun little event that happens in this one!
Disclaimer: I don't own anything. But Linda. She's mine.
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Day Five: The Cullen's Home
Linda Walling was sitting in the expensive kitchen of the Cullen's enormous house. It was about 5:30 in the morning and she was completely exhausted from the fiasco that took place only hours ago. She could feel her eyelids heavily drooping but she couldn't sleep. The anxiety of the coming day was too much to allow for any kind of rest. Linda had been awake for almost an hour, unable to sleep at the new she received just before going to bed last night. No one else had been told of the news. She would have to be the one to tell everyone else what the Trading Spouses people had told her; she was hosting a dinner party.
Linda had never enjoyed these types of get-togethers. She was a homebody. Her favourite place to be was at home sipping a warm cup of tea and reading a book or watching House, her favourite T.V. show. Stating it simply, she hated crowds and she hated cooking. She never cooked anything from scratch. Ever. Although she was sure they had noticed, probably being used to gourmet meals everyday, every meal Linda had made for the Cullen family had come out of the microwave. Pasta, meatloaf, even breakfasts came out of the freezer and were heated in the microwave. But now she was cooking for other people. Surely, if they were the Cullen's friends, they were also very classy people. And it would be extremely embarrassing to herself and the Cullen's if she made a microwave dinner for the party.
Linda sat in the chair and rubbed her temples, trying to push out all of her anxiety and fear and hatred of hosting parties. She didn't hear the silent footsteps of the vampire entering the room.
"Are you okay, Linda?" Carlisle asked in a kind and concerned voice. "You look a little tense."
"Oh, I'm fine." Linda replied, a little startled. It unnerved her how the entire family could move around the house in complete silence. She didn't know how it was possible for anyone to move around like that, let alone a whole family. She was completely ready to go home. This house was too perfect, the family to rehearsed, and that kind of environment make her a bit distressed and uneasy.
Carlisle shrugged and let the subject drop. He was rather sure she would tell him what was making her uneasy or Edward would. He tried his best to look like someone his age would. It was still early, about 6:00 am, but he knew Linda was awake and he figured the 'character' he was playing would be up this early. He started a pot of coffee he would pretend to drink and grabbed the morning paper.
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The children started emerging about three hours later. First was Alice, followed by Jasper and Bella. Then Edward. Rosalie and Emmett came downstairs a while later. Linda had never made any sort of food for the kids, she was much too consumed with her own thoughts of the upcoming horror. She decided it was better to get the news over with soon and called the family into the dining room with the expensive antique table.
"Good morning, everyone," she greeted, "I was given some news late last night that I found a little bit shocking." Linda knew she was over exaggerating the story just a little bit, but she couldn't help it.
"Shocking?" Asked Carlisle.
"Well, the T.V. show people want us to host a dinner party for a couple of your friends. You know, for me to get to know more of the people you know. Do you guys have anyone in mind we can invite?"
The seven Cullen's looked awkwardly at each other. The thought of inviting anyone from town was probably a bad idea. It would be little bit strange because no one was that close with anyone else and it might start people talking again. None of them knew what the best course of action was. There were so many different possibilities, so many things that could go wrong if the wrong thing was said. They all sat awkwardly in the dining room until Emmett broke the silence.
"We could invite Tanya's family."
There were seven pairs of eyes trained on him. One, Linda's, looked relieved. She really wasn't sure that they actually had any friends and was extremely relieved that they did. The other six looked incredulous. It would be just lovely to bring another five vampiresinto the house that already had one uncomfortable human. Of course, Tanya's family were 'vegetarians' as well, but it would not help Linda's state of mind to have five more 'strange people' in the house.
"That sounds lovely," Linda replied, "Do they live here in town?"
"Um, no ,actually. They live in Denali, Alaska. But it wouldn't be difficult for them to come down here."
Linda nodded. She wouldn't want this family, that was apparently the Cullens' only close friends, to have drive or fly all the way down to Forks just for one dinner with the stay-in mother. It seem rather extreme, and not to mention expensive, for them to come all those miles. It was just one dinner.
"Are you sure that's necessary? It is a long way to come for just one small dinner. Are you sure you don't have any other friends in town? I'm positive it would cost this family a fair amount of money to travel all the way down here."
None of the six vampires knew what to say next. Of course there was a small liability issue with bringing five more vampires into the house. But it would be rather strange if all of a sudden the mysterious family of eight invited a group of people to dinner whom they regularly ignored. It would make Linda much more comfortable to have human beings around her, rather than vampires, but it might start some people talking if they were invited into a house full of rumors. There was no better course of action in this situation, everything had its issues. A tense moment passed in the household before Bella spoke.
"We could invite Jake and his friends."
No one could deny that this came with its benefits. The wolves already knew everything about the Cullen family, there would be no fear of blowing the secret if they were invited. In addition, for the first time since Linda had come to Forks her food would be enjoyed. But this plan also came with a downside. Even though the main issues had been worked out between the wolves and the Cullens, there were still some hard feelings. Jacob was still slightly angry will Bella for deciding to change and especially angry with Edward for performing the change. Most of the other wolves were more or less neutral on the subject. None had cared for Bella the way Jacob did and therefore were unable to completely sympathize with him. They couldn't completely see why he was so struck by Bella's decision to change. They thought he was being melodramatic.
"Do they live close?" Asked Linda. She was much too concerned with saving Tanya's family all the money it would cost to come down here than to notice the increased tension in the house.
Of course the vampires did not hold anything against the wolves. They were well within their right to greatly hate the Cullens. The Cullens were just glad they didn't have to immediately flee the state. They would completely understand if the wolves denied their invitation, and extremely surprised if they accepted. It wouldn't look too good if they called their 'friends', who, in turn, denied the invitation, but if such should happen, they always had Tanya's family as a back up.
"Yes, they live in La Push, the small Indian reservation not far from here." Carlisle replied. "Maybe you should call Jacob, Bella."
Bella nodded and left the dining room while pulling out her small silver phone. She quickly dialed the number once she entered the living room. It rang three times before a deep voice answered the phone.
"Hello?"
"Jake?" Bella replied.
"Bella?" Jacob sounded genuinely surprised for a moment before turning ill-tempered. "What do you want?"
"Well, I know I'm in no place to ask this of you, and I completely understand if you throw this back in my face, but would you and the rest of the pack like to come for dinner? Alice signed us up for Trading Spouses, and we need to have a dinner party for our friends, but we don't really have any friends in town . . ." She trailed off.
There was silence on the other end of the line. Although Jacob hated what she had become, he couldn't actually bring himself to hate her. He really didn't want to deny her anything, but there was no way he could promise that the pack would attend.
"I really don't know, Bella. I can't speak for the pack. I'll see if I can round anyone up, but I'm not making any promises."
"Thank you so much, Jacob!"
"Yeah, I'll call you back soon."
Bella waited anxiously in the living room. She was worried for what she would hear from Jacob. The odds were stacked against him. The wolves were not the Cullens' biggest fans. She was lucky to even get Jacob to agree to ask the rest of the pack.
It was about ten or fifteen minutes later that jacob called back. Surprisingly, with good news.
"Seth, Quil, Embry, Sam, Jared and Leah will come."
"Why Leah?"
"Seth. She doesn't want him coming without her. Anyways, when do you need us?"
"About six o'clock? And thanks again, Jacob."
"Yeah, no problem."
Bella hung up the phone and returned to the dining room.
"Seven of them are coming. I told them six o'clock. Is that okay?"
"Yes, that's fine. I'm glad we found someone to come! I'll get started soon."
"Do you need any help?" Edward asked.
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At precisely six o'clock p.m., there were three quick raps on the door. Linda quickly washed her hands of any grease, and made her way over to the door. She jumped slightly when she saw Jacob's looming figure standing several feet taller than her. Behind Jacob were six more people. Each of them, except Seth, looked rather wary. Their eyes shifted anxiously around the room, only focusing for fractions of a second on each object.
"Hello! I'm Linda, the new mom." Linda stuck out her hand as a welcoming gesture.
"Jacob." He said taking her hand in his oversized one. "And these are Quil, Embry, Leah, Seth, Jared and Sam."
"Oh, it's nice to meet you. Wow, you're hand is really warm. Were you holding your palms on your radiator or something?"
Linda knew she was rambling. But that's what she does when she gets nervous. It was always something she hated about herself. She had tried to stop. She even took classes at the local community back in Atlanta to help with her 'problem', but it didn't help. She still rambled and she still hated that she did.
"Alrighty, well why don't you guys take a seat in the living room and make yourselves at home. Me and Edward are almost done with dinner."
Jacob nodded and led the procession into the living room where Carlisle, Emmett and Jasper were already seated. Leah, Jared and Sam refused to move to far from the door and Quil and Embry would not sit. The just near the entrance to the living room looking slightly constipated. Jacob and Seth took a seat on the immaculately white leather sofa. Nobody spoke. An extremely awkward moment passed in the living room before Carlisle finally spoke.
"Thank you so much for doing this," he said, the tone of thanks very prominent in his voice. "We really appreciate you coming over here. Anytime you need something from any of us, just let us know."
"We'll keep that in mind." Jacob said, indifferent.
Another awkward and tense moment passed in the house before Jacob spoke again.
"Why did you even need us to come? Couldn't you have asked some of your parasite friends?" The critical tone of his voice was very apparent.
"Well, Jacob, they live in Alaska, and Linda thought it would be too extreme to get them to come down here. Just know that you're doing us a very big favour by coming here tonight."
They continued to sit in silence until Linda came rushing into the living room looking very excited, very proud and very oblivious to the tension.
'It's ready everyone!"
Linda was not someone to get overly excited. Being a mother of two had left her permanently exhausted her. She only got excited for events that were very deserving. And this one was. She and Edward had been working on this dinner for hours and he was extremely talented. She had learned more about cooking in the last few hours than she had in all of her high school Home Ec. classes combined. They had prepared some truly extravagant dishes together and had bonded quite a bit in the experience. She was very pleased to say that she had gotten to know him quite a bit. She learned that he loved music and played the piano. He enjoyed running quite bit and liked playing baseball with hi family. Overall it was a truly wonderful experience.
The seven guests warily left the living room and proceeded to the large dining room. They stopped short when the saw the extravagant meal before them.
There were four kinds of vegetables at the table. All prepared in the most delicious looking style. There were the creamiest looking mashed potatoes in a large blue bowl, steamed carrots, cauliflower and broccoli placed beside a large bowl of cheese sauce. A wonderful, steaming fresh baked loaf of bread was placed at the end of the table. Beside it was a plate of small pastries filled with cheese, egg and ham. And in the very middle of the enormous table were five Peking Ducks and a juicy steak, surrounded with lemons, limes, pineapples and some other garnishes. It all looked extremely delicious and the guests could not last long before they quickly seated themselves and proceeded to dig in. The Cullens and Linda, who was obviously pleased with the reaction, sat down much more slowly and all took portions as well.
"So, Jacob, how old are you?" Linda sled in an attempt to get to know him better.
"Seventeen." He replied while shoving a forkful of vegetable and potatoes in his mouth.
"Oh, wow, only seventeen? I thought you were at least 20."
Jacob nodded and continued to fill his mouth.
"How did you guys meet the Cullens?"
A brief, awkward wave hit the table. Nobody knew what to say to that question. There wasn't a really answer anyone could give. For the first time everyone stopped eating and froze for a second before Carlisle spoke, calm and collected.
"I've known Jacob's family for years." He said pulling some truth. He had, indeed, met Jacob's great grandfather. "We met shortly after we moved here and then we were introduced to his close friends."
The meal continued much the same. The guests did little talking. Only speaking when spoken to, and the Cullens tried to avoid conversation to help make them feel more comfortable. Linda continued to ask questions in an attempt to learn more about the Cullen family and their friends, but her questions were mostly received with lies. Neither family wanted to give away any crucial secrets.
After the five Peking Ducks and the steak were gone, Linda brought out four pies in four different flavours: apple, pecan fudge, pumpkin and blueberry. And allowed the guests to further stuff themselves.
When both dinner and desert were finished the group moved to the living room for short, tense, guarded conversation. It was not long before Sam concluded that they should better be going.
"We should probably head out now. I know we all have somewhere to be early tomorrow and I don't want us to be too restless." He said with a pointed glance at all the wolves.
"Oh, yes, of course. I'm so sorry I kept you all so long. I had a lovely time. I hope you all did, too."
"We had a wonderful time. Thank you very much for the superb dinner."
Linda saw all of them off and after curt 'goodbye' from each of the Cullens the wolves departed from the house and headed home.
"Well, that was just wonderful you guys! Thank you so much for your help in the kitchen, Edward! Those boys and girl are so lovely. I'm very glad we had them over."
Silence passed through the house. It was not awkward, nor was in tense, It was a restful, relieving silence. They had made it through another night without letting out any deadly secrets. There were only two more nights they would have to keep up the charade.
"Alright, I'm going to bed. I hope you all have a wonderful night. I had a great time. I will see you all in the morning."
Linda walked up the impressive staircase with a slight smile on her lips. She had made it through another night in this foreign house. She was almost home, but she couldn't keep from wondering if she would miss this quirky family.
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A/N: Well, I sure hope you enjoyed that. I sure enjoyed writing it. Again, I'm really sorry for the slow updates, but I have to be in a real writing mood.
But school is done for me now so hopefully I'll be able to update more often.
Drop me a line and tell me what you thought. Your reviews warm the cockles of my heart!
Until next time,
tanis ann