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Chapter Ten – There's Safety in the Clouds
It had been a long time since any of the Cullen children had gone to school. The three left behind had tried to return but it was too hard – they could not concentrate on their schoolwork and were constantly obsessing over what was happening at home, people would not leave them alone; the Cullens were the hottest gossip and everyone wanted to know the latest developments. James had not been overly concerned with Nessie's education while chaining her up in the basement.
Esme and Carlisle decided to yank the kids out of school. They took them to Italy where a score of private tutors caught the children up during the summer – being rich had its advantages.
"What are we going to do?" Esme asked Carlisle. They sat on a bench in the garden, watching as their children run in the Italian summer sun. The garden was huge, spotted with trees and bushes, flowerbeds everywhere that were a riot of colour. It was Nessie's favourite place – no walls, no chains, only light and colour and freedom. She could run for as long as she wanted and never hit a boundary.
"I don't think it would be a good idea to take Nessie back to Alaska. She hates the place now."
"I know," Esme remembered the screaming fits of the week before they had left for Italy. Everything reminded her of James – not just the kidnapping and the weeks of darkness, but the months of abuse, too. In that city, in that state, she could not escape and she could not move on. James had been taken to the local asylum. Nessie's therapist kept trying to encourage Nessie to see James to aid the healing process. The one time she had, James had screamed that he would kill her so she could never leave him. Three hours later, the Cullens were on a plane to Rome.
"We could move. Move house, move city, move state," Carlisle said.
"I think we'll have to," Esme sighed and leant against Carlisle who wrapped his arm around her and tucked her head under her chin. Her baby was hurting and Esme did not know how to stop it.
"Somewhere on the mainland. Somewhere where we can just drive if we want to," said Carlisle, remembered what Nessie had said about feeling trapped in Alaska – not part of the landmass proper, the only ways out of Alaska was in a plane or through Canada.
"Have you got anywhere in mind?" Esme asked, leaning back so she could look at her husband's face.
"I was thinking somewhere sunny, like California by the sea, or Texas – she won't feel fenced in there."
"Emmett could play football if we went to Texas," Esme said. "It's a big deal down there – he could play professionally. But ..."
Carlisle stroked her hair, "but..."
"We already lived there. Me, Edward and Nessie already lived there will Charles for a number of years and ..."
"...and the best way of getting a girl over her abusive boyfriend is not by reminding her of her abusive father," Carlisle finished.
"California, though, that's a nice state – Nessie could see the whole ocean. We could buy a boat and take her on it, anytime she wants."
"California, though ..." it was Carlisle's turn to hesitate.
"What?"
"That's where Elizabeth left us. She loved the glamour – I only went there because of her. I hate big cities, I like towns; I was raised in towns."
"Me, too. So let's live in a town, somewhere by the ocean."
"Somewhere miles from the nearest city. Nessie would like that – being lost on the outskirts, away from crowds."
They talked it over with their children. Washington State was the nearest Nessie would go to Alaska, and since they wanted to keep up their relationship with Grace and the Taylor kids the Cullens did not want to move to the other side of the country. Aro and Sulpicia were all for them moving permanently to Italy, but Esme and Carlisle were against such a huge upheaval – a move was necessary for the whole family, but half the world away was a little extreme, even for Nessie.
Given how much the whole family loved the outdoors, the Cullens wanted a house in the Olympic Peninsula which gave great opportunities for mountain climbing and camping. They found a small town by the name of Forks that had beach on one side and mountains on the other. Even better, they found a house, a mansion, outside of town. Huge rooms, wide open ones filled with light. The house was surrounded by acres of lawn and trees. The house had a wraparound porch on the first story, perfect for simply sitting and being for a few quiet hours.
There were four stories altogether. The first was the usual rooms – kitchen, downstairs bathroom, dining rooms, living rooms. The second and third floors had a multitude of rooms with no designated purpose, though some did have en suite bathrooms; these were taken as bedrooms. Emmett and Alice ended up on the second floor, while Carlisle and Esme, and Edward had rooms on the third. Nessie had been wandering the house for a while when she found a staircase separate to the main staircase that wound from the first floor to the third. This staircase was at the end of the corridor and led up to its own passageway. At the end of this short passage was a single door. Opening it, Nessie saw a room that ran the whole width and almost half of the house, the other half being taken up the heating and water units. There were no dividing walls; the only walls in the room were the outer walls and these were divided by large bay windows. There were skylights in the roof as well – this room got more light than any other.
She walked up and down the room slowly gazing around the room, a smile forming on her face – the first in four months. The room was silent, suddenly broken by Styx's Renegade. She jumped and snatched her phone out of her back pocket.
"Hello?" Nessie asked.
"Nessie, where the hell are you? We've been looking for you for half an hour!" Emmett was about as anxious as he ever got and the worry rang in his voice.
"I'm in the attic – Em, I've found my room and it's perfect."
"Oh, okay," Emmett was over his concern – unlike Edward who would have sulked for the rest of the day. "Er, how to we get there?"
"Staircase at the end of the third floor corridor leads to another passage. At the end is a door, that's where I am." Nessie snapped the phone shut. She stood under one of the skylights and watched the ever present clouds move across the sky. Why was it that state lines boxed her in, but low cloud cover made her feel safe? Invisible boundaries made her want to run, but natural ceilings made her want to stay. Maybe because they reminded her of the blankets she played under as a child – soft, fluffy shields from the harsh reality of the world.
That was where she was when her family walked in. Emmett whistled at the sight of the huge room as the whole family looked around. Esme and Carlisle walked over to Nessie and put their arms around her. They looked up to see what was making the gently awed expression on Nessie's face. All they saw was precipitation. Nessie saw safety.
"So, what do you guys think?" Carlisle asked, turning to the other children.
"Definitely the nicest house," Edward observed. "There's space for a music room."
"I was thinking we could put the piano on the dais in the living room," Esme said. "There are too many rooms downstairs. I was thinking we could knock out most of the walls to give one big space. What do you all think?"
"We'll leave it to you, Mum," Alice said. "You're the expert after all."
"Nessie?" Nessie turned to her mother. "Are you sure you want this room? It very nice, but you are kind of cut off from the rest of the house."
"This is the floor furthest from the basement," Nessie said, barely any emotion at all in her voice.
No one suggested she choose differently after that.
It took a while to get everything together. They had left so quickly that their furniture was in Alaska but their clothes and personal belongings were in Italy. Aro and Sulpicia once again flew over to America to bring over the rest of their belongings – they had spent the last six months traipsing back and forth and Carlisle was beginning to worry about the toll it was taking on the elderly couple. They were in their eighties and the jetlag had always affected his grandmother particularly badly.
Esme went back to Denali to have the furniture shipped to the new house. Everyone else cleaned and stocked the house with food while waiting for the furniture to arrive. Esme got home about three hours after the furniture did. The bedrooms were sorted out but they stored the rest of the furniture in one of the outbuildings while they had builders knock down most of the walls on the first floor leaving only the powder room, kitchen, dining room and the one big room. The outer wall was removed and replaced by a single sheet of glass with a descending metal shutter.
Finally, a month after they moved in they finally finished the house.
They were enrolled in school just in time to start the school year at Forks High School – Nessie as a sophomore, Alice and Edward as juniors and Emmett as a senior.
But they were not the only new students. They were joined by the Hale twins, Rosalie Lillian and Jasper Whitlock, who were also seniors, from Texas.
Dun dun dun DUN! More characters! Hmm...how will the Cullens respond to the Hales? Like we don't all know!