(REWRITTEN!)
Stay with me guys because it only gets more wild from here! :)
"Let's hope it's a good one. Without any fear."
December 24, 2008
The door slams and Bella winces at the loud crashing noise. She steps into the kitchen of her mom and dad's house and surveys the Christmas decorations. Tyler, Bella's dog, struggles on her leash and Bella finally unclips the poor girl from her lead. Tyler tears through the house and out into the snow covered yard to take a well deserved pee break. Since she had been in Greece for more than a month, Bella, as soft-hearted as she is, felt guilty leaving all her pets alone for another week with a pet sitter. So she had piled all seven of them into her tiny red Chevy and made the long trip from her flat in Toronto to Aberdeen and Forden in Montreal. And you can bet it was a hell of a trek with four cats, a squirming, barking pit bull, and a bearded dragon all crammed into her tiny car. It is nine in the morning and already, Bella wants to sleep for a door slams and Bella winces at the loud crashing noise. She steps into the kitchen of her mom and dad's house and surveys the Christmas decorations. Tyler, Bella's dog, struggles on her leash and Bella finally unclips the poor girl from her lead. Tyler tears through the house and out into the snow covered yard to take a well deserved pee break. Since she had been in Greece for more than a month, Bella, as soft-hearted as she is, felt guilty leaving all her pets alone for another week with a pet sitter. So she had piled all seven of them into her tiny red Chevy and made the long trip from her flat in Toronto to Aberdeen and Forden in Montreal. And you can bet it was a hell of a trek with four cats, a squirming, barking pit bull, and a bearded dragon all crammed into her tiny car. It is nine in the morning and already, Bella wants to sleep for a year.
Setting the two huge cat carriers on the ground, Bella opens the latch and the kittens wander out. Keith, Bella's big Savannah, rubs his cheek on her clothed leg gratefully. Bella leans down and gives him a good scratch behind the ears.
"There's a good kitty," she coos. "You hungry?"
The answer to that question seems to be a resounding yes; especially from Ringo, her perpetually hungry grey tiger cat. He meows and butts her ankle with his head.
"Yes, Ringo, okay."
Bella scoops some cat food into four bowls and Ringo eagerly weaves in and out of her feet as she walks into the laundry room. She sets down his bowl first and he immediately buries his face in the mush.
"You're a dork," she says fondly.
Keith wanders in and Bella wonders for a moment where her other two furry children are. Then she hears the jingling of her girls' favorite toy and she hums in acknowledgement.
"Nix!" Bella sings. "Luna! Food!"
That makes them come running. Bella wanders back out to the kitchen and looks at her bearded dragon.
"Tolkien, want a snack?"
She gives him a few bits of black fly larvae, along with a bit of basil and bok choy which are his favorites. All the animals get bowls of fresh water and then Bella puts the larvae in the fridge with a hastily scrawled message reading: TOLKIEN'S BUGS. NOT FOR HUMANS with a sketch of a skull-and-crossbones. Last time she had come home with her lizard, her little sister Emilie almost had one of Tolkien's live crickets. She thought the container held cheesy crackers and needless to say, Bella thinks Emilie has yet to stop screaming.
Tyler walks back in with snow all over her paws and bits of mud following behind her. She goes to her water bowl and laps it up thirstily, splashing the liquid every which way. Bella makes a mental note to make sure she cleans the floor before her little brother Ryder slips and breaks his head open. The kid is clumsier than a newborn foal on roller skates. The ugly, old-fashioned phone on the wall starts to ring and Bella maneuvers carefully around the puddles and mud to answer it.
"Hello?" she says.
"Hey, little sis!" her brother Jace says happily. "Are you ready for the yearly Anderson Christmas Bash?"
It's been a while since Bella has heard his voice and she smiles. They had only been communicating through text because Jace had been busy, almost busier than Bella had been. He sounds out of breath, she notices, as though he just finished his hunt. Bella almost laughs as she pictures him all sweaty with his heavy, grunge style bangs flopped over and into his eyes. He's probably covered in blood- some his and some the werewolf's he had been hunting. Bella casually leans against the counter and tuck the phone between her shoulder and her ear.
"I'm pumped," Bella answers. "Wanna make a bet on which insane behavior Jordan will partake in this year as the number of drinks he has increases?"
"Okay. I'll bet 'Destructive or Potentially Hazardous Recreation of Stunts He Saw on Jackass,' " Jace replies.
"And I'll bet 'Singing Shitty Songs from the '80s."
"What's the wager, Jingle Bells?"
Bella chews her lip in thought. "I'll give you $5 whenever he does one of yours and you give me $5 for one of mine."
"And if we even out?"
"One game of poker and one game of pool. If we tie, we keep playing. Deal?"
"Deal."
"Good. So when do you think you'll be home?"
Jace kind of groans. "Probably around five. This hunt has been a killer."
"Yeah," says Bella, chewing her fingernail. "Hunting can be a bitch."
"Why don't you just tell mom and dad that you don't wanna do it anymore? Why be that miserable?"
"Jay, how did you even know that's what I meant?"
"I've known you since you were writing letters to me in your shitty translated English, Jingle Bells," Jace says.
Bella rolls her eyes. "And you think mum would just let me walk away?"
"It's your life. She's already accepted that you're a witch. You don't have to keep doing this whole 'proving-i'm-not-evil' thing that you are," he says.
There's a bit of silence. Bella absentmindedly tugs on the hair tie around her wrist, letting it snap back onto her skin with a satisfying sting.
"Right?" prompts Jace.
"I mean, yes. But mamma si arrabbierĂ ," Bella whispers. "E non sono male."
"She won't get mad, Jingle Bells. And she gets that you're not evil," Jace says patiently. "Look, don't even say anything. Just go off the grid. Don't take any cases. I know she's half crazy with monster prejudice, but a monster you ain't."
"Thanks Jay. You know you're right."
"Aren't I always?"
"Depends on the situation."
Jace snorts. "Anyway, can you tell mom that I'm bringing a few buds over to the party? And that we'll probably need more booze."
"Hunters?" Bella hums.
"Yeah, hunters. Look, I gotta go. See you tonight?"
"Yeah, see you. Bye."
She hangs up the phone, slides off her shoes, and goes up the stairs two at a time to find the rest of her family. She hears the shower running from her parents' bedroom and knocks on the door. It opens and Bella's dad stands there. He grins his sly grin and Bella smiles right back. Holding out his arms, he gathers his daughter up in his arms.
"Bella!" his Southern drawl is the best sound in the whole world, "Well, how are you doin'?"
"Amazing, now that I'm here. How are you?"
"Amazin', now that you're here. I can't wait to hear about your trip. Was it nice?"
Bella nods. "But not as pretty as Uncle Barry's ranch."
That makes her dad laugh heartily. "That's my girl."
She wraps her arms tighter around him and buries her face into his shirt. He smells like pipe tobacco, that strange typical Texas man cologne, and pine. It's a comforting scent to Bella. After her real biological parents had died and the Anderson family (who had known the Rossis for years, despite living almost across the world from each other) took Bella in, the very first person in North America she had hugged was Robert Anderson. And even though she wasn't his real kid, she was his daughter. This whole family was her real family. A mishmash of adopted and biological kids. A crazy, wild, Southern, half hunting family. Bella wouldn't trade them for much of anything.
"Can you tell mum that Jace is bringing a couple hunting buddies over?" asks Bella. "And that we probably need more whiskey?"
"I'll give her the message. If only you get everyone outta bed and gettin' 'em to help. We got a lot to do."
"All right," answers Bella.
"Love you," her dad says, kissing her on the head. "Nice seein' ya, kiddo."
"Love you too, Dad."
Her dad retreats back into the bedroom and Bella moves on to wake her siblings up. The first door that she sees is covered in clothing ads, nail polish swatches, and a hockey poster. Her little sisters' room. Darien and Dublin. Bella pounds on the door loudly.
"Dublin! Darien! Got up! I'm your wake up committee and it's Christmas in less than twenty-four hours! We got a lot to do!"
A groggy Darien slips out from the cracked door.
"Do ya hafta knock so loud, Bella?"
Darien looks tired, like she hadn't slept in days. Probably, Bella assumes, because they had started playing a brand new season of her favorite show (Project Runway Canada) at ten at night. Then again at one in the morning. Darien watches them both just so she can, quote 'learn everything I possibly can about design!' End quote.
"Well, hello. Nice to see you too, kid. Is Dublin up yet?"
Bella flips on the light and narrowly misses getting hit in the face with a pillow. She gives her fourteen-year-old sister a wide smile.
"Dublin Reese! How are you?"
"Tired."
"Well, get up and do something! Then you won't be!" Bella says cheerfully.
"Gosh, you're annoying sometimes," Dublin mumbles, but she climbs out of bed anyway.
"Hey, I missed you too!"
Satisfied, Bella knocks on the next door and it takes merely a second before both of her littlest sisters are standing there. Emilie gives Bella a huge smile, her natural hair a halo around her head. Next to her stands Isla, who gives Bella a look that screams 'help me!' Her eyes are covered by the ugliest blue eye shadow that the world has ever seen and a bright red blush paints her cheeks. The entire bottom half of her face is also enveloped in a brown lipstick. Bella grimaces.
"Is, what is all that about?"
"Well, we've been up for a bit, so I decided to let Emilie do my make-up," answers Isla, as though she regrets this.
"Oh," is all Bella can manage, "It looks good, Em. Lovely job."
"Thank you!" she shouts. "See, I told you so, Isla!"
"Emilie, this shade of blue isn't even found in nature!"
"So what? Know-it-all!"
"What did you just call me?"
"Know-it-all! Isla's a know-it-all!"
"Shut up! You made me look like a clown!"
"I didn't!"
"Did!"
"So didn't!"
"So did!"
"Guys!" Bella yells. "Calm down! Emilie, it's not nice to call Isla a know-it-all. And Is, humor Em, okay? Please you guys, it's almost Christmas. You don't want Santa to skip our house, do you?"
"NO!"
"Good. Can you get dressed and go downstairs then?"
"YES!"
Bella laughs. "Thank you."
The girls' door closes again and Bella hears little whines and a few muttered argumentative words as they fight to see who gets to use the bathroom first. A daily battle.
"Is that my gorgeous sister I hear?" a voice says in Bella's ear.
Bella jumps in surprise and turns around. Her sister Jessa is right next to her and the two girls squeal as they see each other. Bella grabs her older sister up into a fierce hug and they both jump on their toes excitedly.
"How are you, Jess?" Bella asks.
"Good. So good. How have you been?" replies Jessa.
"Ugh, tired. But I'm glad to be home. I forgot how lonely it is living with pets that can't talk to you."
"I hear that. Gemma and I have been having to split up and take separate hunts. Monsters are just swarming the earth lately. It's exhausting! And I miss her when she's gone."
Bella nods sympathetically. "I know. I hear you, sis."
"But," Jessa continues, "Things are getting pretty serious. I met her parents last weekend. Maybe we'll get married."
"I hope you get married." Bella pauses, "Speaking of weddings, where's Winter?"
Bella's seventeen-year-old sister Winter is one of those mushy romantic types, constantly writing this weirdly deep poetry about love and heartbreak. She's been planning her dream wedding since she turned eight. And the song she'll dance to with her new husband is between "With You" from the musical Pippin or "Tonight" from West Side Story. Winter is a musical theater geek through and through.
"She's still asleep," Jessa says fondly. "I guess rehearsals run late even if it's almost Christmas."
"Want to go wake her up?" says Bella mischievously.
"Hell yes!"
Giggling, the two (entirely adult) sisters run into the room that Jessa, Winter, and Bella share. They open the shades to let the light in and Bella hops up on Winter's bed as Jessa turns on the speakers as loud as they can go. Lucky for them, the song that comes up is "Blitzkrieg Bop" by The Ramones and Winter quickly wakes up with a bit of wild flailing.
"God, fuck!' she yelps. "You scared the shit out of me!"
"Morning, my sleepy sister!" Jessa says.
"Did you have lovely dreams about Chris?" adds Bella.
Winter smiles sleepily. "No. But he did give me this after practice last night."
She holds up her slim arm and on her wrist sits a charm bracelet with a feather charm hanging from it.
"A feather quill!" Bella says. "Like Shakespeare!"
"Good old Billy Shakes. It's really nice, Win."
"Thanks, guys. Chris is really great," Winter gets a dreamy look on her face. "He may be the one."
Jessa and Bella share a look of panic. Winter is sharp though and notices this.
"I was joking!" she says quickly.
Bella wipes a bit of pretend sweat from her brow.
"Oh, whew."
"Really had us going there, Win!"
"I was just going to say that you'd have to get married in Mississippi or something."
"No. I mean, come on. We haven't even been dating for half a year yet. And college is just a few months away. Who knows what will happen?"
"You'll find a glorious man at uni?" Bella says, draping an arm around her sister.
"Oh fuck, I hope so."
"Although you don't go to college to find a boyfriend," continues Jessa, flopping down in Winter's other side.
"She's right," Bella agrees. "School before... School before what?"
"Tools?" suggests Winter.
"That's right. School before tools!"
"Education before fornication?"
Winter wrinkles her nose. "That one doesn't work as well, Jessi."
"Somehow I like it better though."
"Oddly enough, me too," Bella says.
The bedroom door bursts open and at full speed, in sprints Ryder. He launches himself at his sisters, yelling 'incoming' before almost landing entirely on Bella's chest.
"BELLA BELLA BELLA!" he cries excitedly. "YOU'RE HOME!"
"How'd you guess?" she says, ruffling his hair.
"Ringo came to say hello. He meowed at the door until I let him in!"
"Still hyper, I see," Bella says.
"Try living with him," Winter says.
"Hey!"
"Sorry Ry, but it's true," Winter says. "You and Atticus make one heck of a duo."
"What's a 'duo?'" he wonders.
"A group of two," explains Jessa.
"Oh," he says seriously. Then he's back to hopping crazily on Winter's bed. "Bella, how was Greece?!"
"It was really nice, Ry. I'll have to tell you all about it."
"And when do I get my gift?"
"Tomorrow," answers Bella. "When it's Christmas."
Ryder pouts. "Boo."
"It's in less than a day, Ryder. You can do it."
"Don't know if I can," he sighs.
Bella ruffles his hair again. It's the softest thing in the world and she loves it.
"Go get dressed, you dork. We've got things to make and cookies to bake."
"Presents to wrap and cocoa to lap!" Ryder croons, running back out of the room.
"Good one!" Winter hollers after him.
"Lights to string and decorations to bring," Jessa muses.
"Ooo, candles to light and letters to write!" says Bella.
"Hmm, my turn?" Winters says. "Okay, how about bells to jingle and folks to mingle. Your turn, Jessa."
"Santa to come and carols to hum."
"Bella?"
"Stockings to hang and gorgeous people to bang!"
Winter snorts. "You ruined it."
"You really did," agrees Jessa.
"You guys are boring," says Bella. "I'm going downstairs."
Her sisters each wave at her playfully as Bella gets up off the bed. As she's walking down the hall, she hears a muffled thump and an indignant Winter saying 'ow!' as though Jessa had pushed her out of bed. Shaking her head, happy to be home, Bella makes her way to the kitchen and sees a few of her younger siblings mulling around.
"Dublin and I are picking out music!" Emilie says matter-of-factly.
"Fine with me," Bella says.
"And I'm going up to the attic to find the stockings," says Isla.
"Bring tissues. It's dusty."
"Got it covered."
"Okay," Bella says, "DC, do you want to make cookie icing?"
"I'd love to," Darien says, "Anything specific?"
"Red, green, and white. Otherwise you've got free rein."
"Cool."
"Ry, what do you want to do?" asks Bella.
"Oreo cookie truffles!" he says immediately.
"Oh, good idea! Atty, can you help me with the pizzelles?" Bella says.
Atticus agrees, smiling a big, gummy smile, pleased to be helpful. Bella ties on her favorite apron (the one that looks like a Rsvenclaw house robe) and finds her baby brother an old t-shirt of their dad's. She helps him slip it over his head, finds him a stool, and they get to work on the pizzelles. A treat and tradition that Bella had brought over from Italy, pizzelles are Italian waffle cookies. Her family in Italy used to flavor them with anise, but here with the Andersons, anise isn't a preferred flavor, so Bella uses vanilla instead. Her new adoptive parents had even found her a pizzelle iron when she moved overseas.
"Sugar?" Atticus says, bringing Bella back to reality.
"Oh, right. Yes, we need sugar. One cup and a half cup. Can you bring me them, Atty? The half cup has a number one and then a little slash and the number two."
"Okay," says Atty.
Atticus is three-years-old and for some reason, is very good with numbers. His favorite birthday present he had gotten was a tape measure. He plays with it constantly, measuring (or trying to) himself at least twice a day. Sometimes he'll make his various family members write down what he's measured. Bella's mum is positive he's going to be an engineer.
"Here Bella!" Atty says, handing his big sister the cups.
Bella turns off the beater, tests the eggs, and takes the measuring cups from Atticus. She checks to make sure he grabbed the right ones. A futile move, seeing as he always did.
"Thanks. Do you want to do it?"
Atty nods vigorously, grabbing the sugar container. With a determined look on his tiny face, he begins scooping little spoonfuls of sugar into the cups. It'll probably take him forever, but that's Atticus. Meticulous to a fault, even at age three.
"Are you guys excited to see Auntie Regan tonight?" says Bella to the room.
"Yeah!" Ryder says, "She'll let us watch Elf and drink hot cocoa with marshmallows!"
"And eat cookies!" Darien adds.
"And peanut brittle!"
"And fudge!"
All of Bella's little siblings go spend Christmas Eve with their Aunt Regan, who lives about twenty minutes from Aberdeen and Forden. She isn't any of the kids' biological aunt. Bella's dad Rob had met her when he saved her from a nasty poltergeist nine years ago and ever since then, Regan has been one of the family. Bella thinks she's incredibly brave to be able to put up with six kids under the age of 16 and give them sugar without going mad.
The party that the older kids are getting ready for had been the brainchild of Jessa. It was a Christmas party for hunters; those still young enough to want to enjoy life or those who have parents that are in too deep and can leave for a week without said parents noticing. Both of the Anderson parents had grown up in hunting families, but have different ideas about it. Tricia, Bella's adopted mother, is a maddening hunter-type woman, wanting all of her kids to follow in her footsteps. So far, she's only gotten Jace to really commit, Jessa to about half commit (but part of that may be because of her hunting partner and girlfriend, Gemma), and Bella to commit even less. Bella's father Rob, on the other hand, wants his kids to lead as normal of a life as possible. He teaches them basic stuff like little spells and protection, but it doesn't go much farther than that. If there's a kid in the Anderson family who doesn't want to have anything to do with the life, their parents don't make 'em. There's no moving around, no major weapons training, and the kids aren't allowed to even go near a gun until they're sixteen years old.
Bella thinks they got lucky that way. She hears awful stories about kids who are left orphaned when their parents were sliced up ten ways to Sunday by a vampire. She hears about kids who have parents that force them to shoot monsters when they're just Ryder's age. She hears about kids who have never attended a school for longer than a month because they constantly have to be on the move. Hunting is not an easy life for anybody, but for kids it's just fucking torture.
You all know what's coming up next! Thanks for reading loves. :) (And if you don't know the song, have you ever even listened to a Christmas station? Because, really. I hear it all the time around the holidays.)
