Zayden POV
I have waited for this moment my whole life, thinking it could only happen in a dream and here I was, living the moment. I was in the airport; clutching to my suitcase tightly while staring at the family I've never even knew existed before summer came along. Everyone looked better in person; the pictures just did them no justice. Dad was grinning while waving frantically at me, with Aunt Alice and Grandma Esme on each of his sides. Grandpa Carlisle was behind them, smiling softly alongside Aunt Rosalie.
"Hey, kiddo!" Dad greeted, taking my suitcase from my sweaty palms and dropping it onto the cold tiled floor. He scooped me up into a bone breaking hug.
I have finally found my father.
After fifteen years of unanswered questions and awkward discussions, I found him and God, this is probably the best moment in my whole entire life. I was pulled away from my special moment when I realized I couldn't breathe at all.
"Dad, can't…breath…" I gasped in between breaths.
"I missed you so much, Lex! You're never going to camp ever again!" He grunted. After managing to break every bone in my ribs, he put me down on the floor and started to stare, along with every other of my new family members. Well, isn't this awkward?
"What?" I squeaked.
"Honey, what's wrong with your voice? It sounds a bit rough. Are you okay?" Grandma asked, concerned by placing her hand on my shoulder.
"There was a flu going on in camp." I lied smoothly but refusing to meet their eyes. Instead, I squinted my eyes to see the clock hanging above the ticket counter. It was already noon.
"Don't you want to give us a hug? We haven't seen you for three months and all we get from you is a flu?" Aunt Alice pouted. I chuckled and lunged myself towards me.
"God, you're heavy." She coughed but still smiling. I smiled back and launched over to Grandma.
"We missed you so much, sweetie." She whispered in my ear. Tears started to well up in my eyes. Lexie actually managed to change me into a girl! I wiped the tears away with my arm sleeve. Grandma let me go as I headed over to Grandpa who had his arms extended out for me to hug.
"How was camp?"
"It was a life changing experience." I smiled before launching myself towards him for a hug.
"Really?" He chuckled. "I was hoping for 'fine' or 'it was alright' but life changing? It was really that good, eh?"
"Yeah, it was. I learnt a lot of things from camp." I said as I released my grip from him.
"Like what?" Dad asked. I learnt all about you guys. I wanted to say but I knew I couldn't without blowing my cover.
"Like," I paused, thinking of an excuse. They didn't know what happened or what I learnt in camp, I can just lie. "Like, I learnt that they have great reception in the woods." Technically, that wasn't a lie.
"They do?" Aunt Alice asked, with her eyes widened.
"Yeah, they do. Five bars." I said, remembering the time I answered the phone call from Dad while Lexie was at the nurses' cabin. I turned around to find Aunt Rose looking at me with a weird look on her face.
"What?" I shrugged my shoulder.
"You seem different." She wondered out loud. It caught the others' attention. They all turned to face me with a cocked eyebrow and a head tilted sideways.
"You cut your hair short." Aunt Alice chimed.
"No, it's not that." Aunt Rose said before presuming her previous form.
"She's taller now." Dad thought. He wrapped his arm on my shoulder and his other arm on Aunt Alice's shoulder before pulling us close to his chest. "See? She's even taller than Alice!" He laughed as Aunt Alice smacked him on the head with a pout.
"True but that's still not it." Aunt Rose shook her head. Damn, she's determined. I better do something before she finds out her niece is actually her nephew.
"Grandma!" I whined. I even sound like Lexie for a minute there.
"Oh, leave the poor girl alone." Grandma shook her head at her children. I turned to the three of them with a smirk.
"She told on us." Dad chuckled. "I can't believe my own daughter told on my parents!"
"Come on, sweetie. Let's go home. You must be exhausted from your flight." Grandma said with a smile.
"Yeah, I am." I yawned. "I couldn't sleep on my way here."
"Why is that? Jetlagged?" Grandpa asked next to me as he and dad picked up my suitcase..
"Yeah, sure." I answered too quickly, earning a few looks from them. I shrugged it off and walked to dad's car.
Okay, so I lied a little.
I wasn't jetlagged at all. I was excited. Intensed. Worried. Content. Most of all, I was scared. I was scared for myself. I was scared for Lexie. I was scared for our plan. What if instead of bringing our parents back together, they might drift apart even further?
As I sat in the passenger's seat of dad's Volvo, a million and one thoughts ran through my head but only one stood out.
Can we pull this off?
Lexie POV
The mansion was bigger in real life than in the picture. It looked small, then. Tiny even but as I stood here, gawking at the huge house in front of me, I felt like Thumbelina. Just looking at the neighborhood made me feel so small. As you go further into the street, the bigger the house grows. It was mortifying. For me, at least.
"Hey. You okay?" Uncle Jasper asked from the trunk of the car. He was trying to pull out my suitcase.
When I first met him, I was nervous and terrified. These voices in my head, my conscience I presume, kept yelling 'Don't slip!' or 'You got this.' over and over again. But instead of helping, the voices were just psyching me out. I kept thinking that maybe, just maybe, I might slip or maybe that I don't have this.
There were thousands of ways how I could slip. I might've used my real voice instead of Zayden's. Or I might forget to wear my wig after a shower. But Zayden was right, Uncle Jasper did calm me. There was something about him. He had this effect on people. A calming effect maybe? I wasn't so sure. Yet.
"I'm fine." I croaked, trying to make my voice rough.
"A little help here would be nice." He asked for help. I rolled my eyes and headed over to the end of the car to help him pull out the suitcase. My hands went to the handle and pulled. And pulled. And pulled. Stupid thing wouldn't budge.
"Camp made you soft." He teased from the sidewalk.
"Funny." I glared at him.
Suddenly, a loud, booming voice was heard from the front porch.
"Zayden!" Uncle Emmett ran towards me. For a minute there, assuming from his body, I thought the ground was going to shake and everyone else were going to yell 'Earthquake! Save yourselves!'.
"Jesus, Emmett." Uncle Jasper clutched to his chest as if he was suffering from a heart attack. "A little louder please, the deaf woman living on the street next to us couldn't hear you." He rolled his eyes.
"Shut up, Jasper. I miss him, okay? I haven't had a game pal in a long time." He shot him a glare.
"I just played Guitar Hero with you yesterday!" Uncle Jasper exclaimed.
"Yeah but you beat the crap out of me. I need to play with someone who sucks." Uncle Emmett rolled his eyes, like he was stating the obvious.
"Whatever, dickhead. Now come help me with his suitcase. I think it's stuck." Uncle Jasper kept pulling on the handle of my suitcase. It still wouldn't budge.
"Weakling." Uncle Emmett grumbled. I turned my attention back to the mansion in front of me and the whole neighborhood before it was diverted to yet another loud scream.
"Zayden!"
Mom.
I, instinctively turned towards where the sound was coming from with my eyelids closed shut and sucked in a breath. The scream was coming closer and out of no where, I felt like the air my lungs were being pummeled out of me. I peeked open with one eye and saw my mother hugging me.
My mother.
I sighed in the breath I was holding as my shoulders turned to its normal state. I haven't even realized I was this tense. My mother was beautiful from so close. Hell, she was beautiful from ten miles away too.
"And you said I was loud." Uncle Emmett whispered to Uncle Jasper.
"I take back what I said." Uncle Jasper whispered back.
"Bella, put the boy back on the ground." A rough voice was heard from behind her. I would check who he was but mom kept a tight grip on me.
"I can't, dad. My baby's finally home again." She hugged me tighter, swaying me from side to side. So the man before was granddad.
"Bells, he's turning blue." Granddad warned her. She took a swift look at my blue face and placed me back on the ground but not before attacking my face with her light kisses.
"I missed you so much, Zayden." Mom held my face in between her hands softly as if she was afraid I would break into a thousand pieces if she wasn't too careful. A delicate tear slid out of her eye and down onto her cheek.
I wanted to cry with her.
But I couldn't. I wasn't Alexis Abigail Cullen anymore. I wasn't the girl who would cry whenever she watched Titanic or get scared whenever she was left alone in the house. No, I was Zayden Eric Swan, now. Zayden wouldn't cry at a time like this. He was strong. He would try to act like the bigger person he was. Zayden would bite back all he had inside and put on a reassuring smile to show her everything would be alright.
"I missed you too, mom." I confessed. "I feel like I haven't seen you for years!"
"I know how you feel." She sniffed into my wig.
"Don't I get a hug?" Granddad pouted from behind mom. I chuckled and walked over to hug him.
"Did you go fishing this morning?" I asked towards his chest.
"Yes, why?" He looked down on me with a puzzled expression.
"Nothing. You smell like fresh fish." I said with a smile. He, along with mom, Uncle Jasper and Uncle Emmett burst out laughing.
"I don't find that funny." I grumbled.
"Speaking of funny, your voice sounds weird." Uncle Emmett said. "Squeaky, even."
My eyes widened at how observant he is. "There was a flu going on at camp." I lied as planned with Zayden. We both decided that if they noticed our voice sounded different, we could just cover it up with a flu that was going on at camp. We wanted our parents back together; we didn't say we were angels.
"Oh, okay," Mom paused for a second. "Come in, honey. We're going to celebrate you coming home tonight." She smiled. "I want you to meet someone." She took my hand and led me to the door inside.
I could've sworn I heard Uncle Jasper whisper, "This should be good."
After settling down, I decided to take a shower. I was surprised to see how clean Zayden's bathroom was but then I remembered they had a maid, Maria. She, and their butler, Tyler were nice. They really were. You can tell Zayden was pretty close to them. As I walked out of the shower, a knock was heard from outside. I ran towards it and locked the door before whoever outside could even open it.
"Zayden, I just wanted to check up on you." Mom's voice was heard from outside.
"I'm changing." I lied, swiftly.
"Alright then. Come down when you're settled. There's someone downstairs I really want to introduce to you." I could practically hear her smile from the other side of the door.
"Yes, mom." I obeyed, rushing over to the closet in search for Zayden's clothes. That was just too close for comfort.
"Mom, where are you?" I shouted out as I entered the living room.
"Be right back, honey. I'm going to get some drinks." She called from the kitchen. I nodded my head and turned towards the west side of the room to find a blonde man standing in front of the window with a glass of wine held tight in his left hand. He smiled at me and walked closer.
"Well, hello there. Pleased to meet you." He extended his hand for me to shake. I reluctantly put out my hand and shook his hand. He had a tight grip.
"I'm sorry but who are you again?" I asked. Zayden has never mentioned him before.
"I'm Mike Newton. Your mother's fiancé."
I'm ba-aack!
And I'm back with a cliffy! Don't you just love me? Don't answer that.
I know, I know. You probably want to yell the crap out of me for not updating. Thank you for putting up with me. You see, my computer has 48 viruses. Yes, you read it right. 48 viruses. Dued to the viruses, I lost everything. I mean it, all my work-in-progress-stories are all gone. I'm lucky enough to save this chapter in my pendrive. Anyways, sorry if there were any mistakes from this chapter. I'm a little rusty. Plus, this wasn't beta-ed. I just wanted to type it all out. I'm not making sense, am I?
This chapter is dedicated to MadKillerSheeperflyRabbitxD for actually PM-ing me to update.