A/N: Okay, so I was able to update sooner than I thought. Ten chapters, woohoo! I can't really give an estimate on how many chapters there will be to this story but there will be a lot! Without further blabber, I present to you, Chapter 10!
Disclaimer: For the tenth time, I do not own the Twilight Saga. Get it through your head! LOL
CHAPTER 10:
ELLA'S POINT OF VIEW:
"JINGLE BELLS! BATMAN SMELLS! GET YOUR ASS OUT OF BED!" Emmett sang, bursting into my room and waking me from a peaceful sleep. I shot up out of bed and landed on my butt. Emmett was laughing like a donkey and I wanted to hit him so badly. Such a rude awakening. He would pay for this. I grabbed my glass of water that was beside my bed and threw it at his face. Perfect aim. It hit him right in his big mouth and the water got all over him. There was barely any on the floor. He stopped laughing immediately and looked down at his soaked shirt.
"Ella! Look what you did! I was only playing with you," Emmett whined.
"Serves you right," I said.
"What is going on in here?" Mom asked, appearing in the doorway.
"Ella threw her water at me!" Emmett complained.
"Only because he woke me up singing a messed up version of Jingle Bells!" I defended.
"It was a joke!" Emmett insisted.
"It still wasn't nice!" I yelled back.
"Enough you two! Emmett, clean up this water and leave Ella alone to wake up and get dressed. I've had about enough and the day has just barely started!" Mom said. I could almost see the frustration coming off of her.
Emmett cleaned up the water and broken glass and left me alone. I got dressed in a Christmassy outfit since we were decorating and baking cookies today and went downstairs to eat a doughnut that Mom had got from the store. Even with the rude awakening, today was actually off to a good start. I doubted it would stay that way though.
"All right, everyone get in the car. We are going to find a tree," Mom said.
"Oh there's one over there," I said, pointing out the window.
"I mean one from the tree farm," Mom clarified. I already knew that.
"People actually farm trees?" Alice asked, amazed.
"Yes, Alice. Are we going to go or just stand here and talk about it?" Mom asked.
"Go!" we all shouted.
"Then get into the cars. Grouping boys and girls. Edward you're driving the boys and I will drive us girls," Mom instructed.
"Aw, why does Eddie get to drive?" Emmett whined.
"Because I said so," Mom said firmly.
"But he drives like a grandma," Emmett complained.
"Do not!" Edward said.
"Do too!" Emmett insisted.
"Do not!"
"Do too!"
"Do not!"
"Do too!"
"DO NOT!"
"DO TOO!"
"NO. I. DON'T!"
"YES. YOU. DO!"
"Enough!" Mom shouted and pushed them out to the garage.
It didn't take long till we were at the tree farm, arguing over which tree we should get. We all had a different one selected. The one I chose was massive and fluffy. Its branches were perfect and the needles even looked soft. It was absolutely perfect in every sense of the word. It screamed 'Christmas'.
"I have an idea," Mom said. "Everyone choose your second favorite and then once we choose, we will say the one we picked second and the tree with the most picks, we will get," Mom said.
I chose Rosalie's. It was similar to mine, but smaller and less fluffy. In the end, we took my first choice home. Everyone but Jasper had picked mine. We put the tree in Emmett's monstrous Jeep and went home. The boys wrestled it through the door to the main floor living room and into the stand that resembled a tree stump. There was just enough room between the tip of the tree and the ceiling for the star. It was kinda ridiculous since we had really high ceilings but I liked it. It was beautiful and grand, just like everything else in the house.
We spent the afternoon decorating the tree. The theme was silver and gold and a little bit of deep red mixed in. We used warm lights giving the room a cozy feeling. It was a nice contrast to the Winter Wonderland outside. We were finishing up when Dad came home from work. He said it looked great and the tree itself couldn't have been more perfect. I told him that I picked it out.
"Would you like to do the honors, Ella?" Mom asked, holding out the star.
"Sure," I said.
Daddy put me on his shoulders and stepped onto the ladder so I could reach. I stuck it at the top and let the cord fall behind. Edward plugged it in and it lit up. It shimmered and sparkled so beautifully. Dad put me back on the ground and we all stepped back to look at the masterpiece. Our Christmas tree was complete.
"All right! Time for cookie baking!" Mom announced.
Everyone but me, Mom, and Dad scrambled outside.
"What's that all about?" I asked, confused.
"They don't like the smell of the foods used for cookie baking. Even though we don't eat, I make Christmas cookies for the hospital staff that have to work Christmas Day," Mom explained.
I turned to Dad.
"You don't have to work Christmas Day, do you?" I asked.
"No, Sugar Plum Princess. I only work till seven on Christmas Eve and then I'm home till January third. I usually go back on the twenty-ninth but I want your first Christmas and New Year with us to be a special one. I want to be here for every minute of it," Dad said with a smile. I hobbled over to give him a hug. Man, was I tired of hobbling.
"Okay! Let's go make cookies!" Mom cheered impatiently.
We followed Mom to the kitchen. She and Daddy got out all of the ingredients while I just stood there, unsure of what to do. I didn't know where anything was and I'd never made cookies before. I was planning on talking more than helping; I'm good at talking. It was the twenty-second of December and I was dying to know what at least one of my presents was. Maybe while they were making cookies, they would be distracted enough that I could get a few answers from them. That thought was crushed when Mom told me to start mixing the batter.
"I measured out all of the ingredients. Put the dry stuff in the mixer and the wet stuff in a separate bowl. Mix the wet stuff and then add it to the mixer and turn it on. Your Dad is getting stuff out and I am going to go see if I have any more cookie cutters," Mom said and left the room.
I put all the dry stuff in the mixer and then mixed the wet stuff in a separate bowl. I turned on the mixer, realizing too late that I forgot to add the wet ingredients. It went everywhere but mostly managed to cover Dad in powder. It was all over him from head to toe. I started laughing hysterically. Dad didn't move. Mom came back and gasped at the mess, then looked at Dad and giggled.
Dad then decided that I would look better with chocolate syrup on my face and squirted it at me.
"Hey! The powder thing was an accident!" I said, wiping my face off with the back of my hand.
"So was squirting the chocolate syrup. I must have grabbed it too tightly," Dad said with a smirk.
"Yeah right!" I said, licking the syrup off my hand.
"Carlisle! Take Ella to the bathroom and clean her and yourself up. I will clean this up mess and make new batter. You can come back for the cutting out," Mom said.
DR. CULLEN'S POINT OF VIEW:
I took my daughter into the bathroom and set her on the counter. I wet a washcloth and gently started wiping off her face. She couldn't seem to look at me with a straight face. A glance in the mirror told me that if I wasn't the one covered in batter, I would be amused too. I was, to a point, but I was worried about that limit again. I knew that this time it had been an accident but it still reminded me of the other times. Esme couldn't stop me this time. I decided to give Ella a warning.
"Ella, I know that this time it was an accident, but your messing around with me has become quite extreme and frequent. I'm talking about the whole cat fiasco and mall incident. From the start you've been a smart-aleck and a jokester. It's all right to do that once in a while but not all the time and certainly not as extreme as you have been. I feel like you should know what the limits are before it gets too out of hand. For example, the mall is the most extreme you can go, and I'd appreciate it if you wouldn't do something of that level very often. The vampire cat was way over the limit and that is not acceptable. I don't expect that you would do it again but that level of joking is not tolerated. You're smart; you know what is acceptable and what is too extreme. I expect you to use your knowledge of that," I lectured.
She was quiet for a minute. She sat there with her head down.
"I'm sorry Daddy," she apologized quietly.
I pulled her chin up.
"It's all right, Sweetheart. I wasn't scolding you; I was giving you a warning so you don't get in trouble in the future. I'm not mad or disappointed. I'm telling you what is okay and what isn't. That's one of my responsibilities as a father, to guide you in the right direction," I told her softly.
I kissed her forehead and patted her hand.
"Are you going to help Daddy get cleaned off since he helped you?" I asked in a hopeful voice.
"No!" she snickered, and ran out the door. That kid.
ELLA'S POINT OF VIEW:
I ran back to the kitchen, basically blowing off Dad's lecture. I was still going to do my plan for insanity. I was sure that I would get into trouble for keying Dad's car, but I didn't care. It would be fun. Trouble was fun. When I got back to the kitchen, it was clean and Mom was already rolling out the cookie dough. I would never get used to vampire speed.
"Do you need me to help with anything?" I asked in my sweet little girl voice. Maybe if I got on Mom's good side, I wouldn't be in so much trouble for doing mission number five. It would take place tomorrow.
"Not yet. I just need to roll this out and we can form the cookies. You can help with that if you want. Once they're baked, we will decorate. Where's Daddy?" Mom asked as she rolled out the dough.
"Still trying to clean off all the powder," I said with a smirk.
"Think he thought of just changing his clothes?" Mom asked.
"Probably not," I laughed.
"Thanks for the idea!" Dad called.
"See?" I said.
Five minutes later the dough was flat and Dad was back wearing a new set of clothes. We began to cut out stars, bells, trees, and gingerbread men. Next came the decorating. It took about an hour to decorate all six hundred cookies. Four hundred were going to the hospital and two hundred were staying here. Two hundred cookies all for me. Yippee!
Everyone came back as soon as the mess was cleaned up. Figures. We all had a good laugh about my mixer accident and they said the cookies looked great. Emmett played with the gingerbread men until I got so annoyed and bit the head off the one he was holding.
"And you call me a monster," he muttered, and gave me the rest of the cookie.
We put all the cookies that were going to go to the hospital in boxes and stuck them in the freezer. We put mine in Mom's huge Christmas tree cookie jar. They barely fit. Once it was all put away, we all went into the living room to talk until I had to go to bed. I went to sleep excited for my mission that would take place tomorrow.
DR. CULLEN'S POINT OF VIEW:
Ella went to bed and the rest of our children went different ways. Esme and I were left in the living room admiring the tree. We cuddled on the couch in silence. Even in the dark, I could see the snow falling. Everywhere you looked, Christmas was there.
"I had a little discussion with Ella today," I admitted. I decided keeping my talk with Ella a secret from my wife was probably not the best thing to do.
"What about?" Esme asked, her eyebrow furrowing.
"I decided to give her a warning on her little shenanigans," I said.
"What did she do this time? I wasn't aware that she did anything," Esme said.
"Well, she didn't. The mixer thing was an accident but that reminded me of everything she purposefully did. I told her what the limits were and that she would be in trouble if she passed them," I told my wife.
That didn't go over so well.
"You lectured her when she didn't even do anything wrong?! I told you to wait until she was healed and did something! Now the child thinks that she can't even make mistakes! Carlisle, why" – I cut her off.
"I did it because I was reminded of what she had previously done! I told her that I knew the mixer thing was an accident and gave her examples of what she did before I lectured her. I told her that it was a warning and she was not in trouble. I know you told me to let it go but I couldn't! What if she does something that could expose our family? The Volturi would be after us for sure! I knew you wouldn't hear and" – she cut me off.
"So you did this behind my back. You knew full well that I wouldn't be able to hear it and you took advantage of that? How am I supposed to trust you with the children if you go and do things I told you not to behind my back? I am not happy right now, Carlisle. I want an explanation as to why you did this when I told you not to," she said. She was definitely not happy.
"Esme, I didn't mean to upset you. I did it behind your back because I didn't want you to stop me or get upset. You tend to be a little overprotective of our children, Love. I felt that it would be good to warn her and set limits before she got herself into trouble. I just want to prevent things that could cause problems," I told my upset wife.
"So you deem Ella as a problem," my wife sniffed.
"Now you know that's not true. By problems I mean exposing our secret or getting herself in trouble with other people," I clarified.
"I still wish you wouldn't have done that," Esme said with a sigh.
"I know and I'm sorry. I won't do anything like that again if I don't have your approval first," I vowed.
"Good. How did Ella take it?" she asked.
"She looked a little guilty and upset for a minute. I told her that she did nothing wrong and that it was just a warning so that she wouldn't get in trouble in the future. I told her it was all right and rekindled her happiness. She ran out of the room with a smile so I take that as a positive sign," I said.
"You seem to know what you're doing. Somewhat, anyway. I'm sorry I questioned your parenting abilities," she said.
"And I'm sorry I did something you told me not to behind your back," I replied.
We sat there for the rest of the night until about three in the morning, when we decided to take it to the bedroom.
ELLA'S POINT OF VIEW:
At six a.m. I snuck downstairs out to the garage. I made it there unnoticed with Dad's keys in hand. I smiled to myself as I dragged the key along the side of the Mercedes. I then hid in a cabinet to watch the fireworks. After about ten minutes, Rosalie came out.
"Ella, wherever you are, this is your best one yet!" she said and went back inside. I thought it might be a trick, so I changed my hiding place.
Not long after, Jasper came out. He sighed and went back inside. I changed my hiding place again.
At seven o'clock, Dad came outside, took one look at his car, and fell into a heartbroken puddle on the floor. He didn't move. I felt guilt wash over me. I knew Dad loved his car, but I didn't know he loved it THAT much. I had the urge to go over and hug him. MUST RESIST! Despite my better judgment, I ran over to Dad and gave him a hug.
"Daddy, are you okay?" I asked.
"You fell for it, you actually fell for it," he said, sitting up.
I decided to run.
"We will talk about this when I get home! THIS IS NOT OVER!" he yelled as he pulled away.
Mission accomplished.
I went back inside and went to the kitchen where Mom was making pancakes.
"That wasn't as bad as the cat, right?" I asked.
"In Carlisle's book, that's probably the worst thing you could ever do. Serves him right if you ask me," Mom said with a sniff.
"Are you guys mad at each other or something?" I asked.
"Sort of. I told him not to lecture you on what you did before and he purposefully did it behind my back. I'm kind of glad you did that," she said.
"So you're on my side?" I asked hopefully.
"You will not be punished or even lectured for it," she said confidently.
"Thanks Mom. I thought I would have to get the National Guard to protect me from Dad's wrath, but you're equal to if not more than their protection," I said gratefully.
She smiled and set a plate of pancakes in front of me. They were delicious.
"Pancakes bring back good memories," I said.
"They were the first food I ever made you," she said with an affectionate smile.
"That must be why," I said.
I finished and went to tell my brothers and sisters about the successful mission.
"With Mom's protection, you're golden," Edward said.
"Dad won't be home until nine, he's getting it fixed," Alice said with a smirk.
"So what's the next one?" Emmett asked, rubbing his hands together in anticipation.
"Make Mom take me shopping with his credit card. Mom wouldn't deny me anything. It will take place on the twenty-seventh," I said.
"I like it," Rosalie said.
We decided to play chess until lunch. Me against Edward since he couldn't read my mind, Alice against Jasper, and Rosalie against Emmett. One of the many benefits of having an even number of kids. We were a family of eight, which is the perfect number if you ask me.
I colored in my room until dinner. I thought about how after Christmas I wouldn't be so bored anymore. I would have toys and electronics and God knows what else to keep me busy. Mom called me to dinner. I went downstairs glumly. I just wanted Daddy to be home so I could see what this would turn out to be. Nine o'clock couldn't come fast enough.
After a dinner of spaghetti, I just sat in my room again waiting for it to be nine o'clock. Finally, I heard Dad come through the door. I grabbed my crutches and hobbled down the stairs. Hobble, hobble, hobble.
"Ella, go to my study and wait for me there. You and I have a long discussion ahead of us," Dad said sternly.
"Hello to you too," I mumbled.
"Ella! I am NOT in the mood for lip. You are testing very dangerous waters. Do as I say or you will just land yourself in more trouble which, believe me, you do not want to do. Now I will not tell you again, GO TO MY STUDY!" Dad yelled. His patience was very thin if not gone.
"She doesn't have to go anywhere except for where she wants. I don't blame her one bit for doing this. You lectured her yesterday for nothing so you do not get to scold or punish her today," Mom said.
"BUT SHE PASSED THE LIMIT! WE JUST TALKED ABOUT THIS YESTERDAY!" Dad exclaimed in an angry voice.
"But instead of talking to her after she passed the limit, you talked to her before she passed it. You have to let her make mistakes before you intercede or she will never have anything to learn from. Let this be a lesson to you to not jump the gun and not do things behind my back," Mom said scornfully. Boy did Mom not like being disobeyed and mislead. Good to know.
Dad huffed and stomped off to his study. I turned to Mom.
"Thanks, I wouldn't have made it out alive," I said.
"Don't push it now, I won't be able to get you out of it next time," she warned.
"Next time? What do you mean next time?" I asked innocently.
"Not fooling me," she said.
"Dang."
"Get to bed; we are going to the hospital with Daddy tomorrow to deliver the cookies. We are taking separate cars, but I want to get there early before it gets busy. Hopefully no night traumas will happen. That would really mess everything up," Mom said.
"Tomorrow is Christmas Eve. And then it's Christmas! I'm so excited!" I said.
"You should be. This is your first real Christmas and everyone in this house is determined to make it special. This will be a Christmas you will never forget," she said with a smile.
She hugged me then gently pushed me towards the stairs. I went up to my room. took a shower, and got in bed. Delivering the cookies tomorrow would be an adventure. It would be the first time I ever met Dad's colleagues and the first time I'd willingly go into a hospital. It amazed me that in such a short amount of time, my life had took a major turn of events. Maybe I wasn't doomed after all.
A/N: I hope you liked the chapter. Chapter 11 will be up by Tuesday at the latest. I'm trying to do at least one chapter a day but it is kind of difficult to write it, proofread it, and upload it with everything else that I have going on. Please let me know what you think of the length of the chapters. Heaven forbid they be too short but I'm wondering if they're too long. Ideas for the story are welcome and please give it a review! I also started a poll and I'd appreciate it if you would check it out and vote! It will go on for quite a while because I want to finish this story first but I thought I'd put it out there so that when I'm ready, it will be easier to write. Please vote and review this chapter. :)