Saturday
Esme POV
It's Saturday. One day and one night. 29 hours and 47 minutes until I can see my family again. Its 8:13 in the morning and the children are all still asleep. They were all exhausted when they got home last night. Camilla had been out to the cinema with her friends for the first time in her life. The boys each went to a party at their friends' house, which was a first for them too. Gerald had watched a football game on their decrepit TV, but he seemed happy. And I'm guessing that was a first for him too. The renovations for the McClain's house are almost finished. There are a few last minute things left to do, but they will be finished by this afternoon. I had plans for the day, an actual 'family day', unlike those that Lulu had conducted – made up of housework and then board games and a stroll around central park. I planned to include something that each of the children enjoyed, and I knew seeing his children happy would be enjoyment enough for Gerald. I started on making pancake and waffles, requested by the children. The smells of the cooking food woke the children and they tumbled down the stairs still half asleep.
"Good morning," I said cheerfully as they all took a seat at the breakfast bar.
"Morning Esme."
" I have some fun lined up for you all today," I told them.
"Really?" Bert asked excitedly. "What are we doing today?"
"I thought I'd make it a surprise," I said.
"Oh Esme, please, please tell us," Camilla begged.
"You're forgetting I've been raising eight children, so don't think you're getting it out of me that easily," I said grinning at the three children seated in front of me. "But I promise you all that I've included something for everyone. Now go get dressed so we can leave," I said.
They all hurriedly finished their food before racing upstairs to get dressed for the day. I was glad that today was exactly how the weather forecast suggested. Overcast, but no rain expected, which meant that we could do what I had planned. By just after 9 o'clock everyone was ready and in the car and Gerald was driving us towards our destination. I had of course told Gerald what I planned today and he was absolutely pleased with my ideas and was currently resisting his children's attempts to trick where we were going out of him.
"Please dad," Camilla begged.
"Nope, sorry kiddo," he grinned into the rearview mirror.
"Children, you'll find out soon enough," I said.
Immediately, all three of them looked out the windows trying to determine what we were headed towards. Gerald found a car space in an all day parking garage a few blocks from the train station that would take us directly into the city.
By the time we were in the city and standing outside the first venue I planned to visit today, Bert's jaw was slack until Mark nudged him and his mouth split into a grin.
"Really Esme?" he asked.
"Really." I confirmed. He flew into me and gave me the biggest hug I had ever received from a human.
"Thank you," he said.
"It's my pleasure Bert. But we have a few other places I want to get to today, so we won't be here for too long," I said.
"That's fine, I've always wanted to come here," he said.
"I know, I found the brochures in your pocket when I was doing the laundry," I smiled.
We entered the building and were greeted by a tour guide almost immediately.
"Welcome to the Museum of Modern Arts would you like a guided tour or would you prefer to look around yourselves. I nodded to Bert and he decided on a self-guided tour and we spent the next two hours following him around as he explained many of the art pieces to us in great detail and with a catching enthusiasm.
We only toured around a section of the museum, but when we had finished, it was 11:30 and we had to leave to make it to the next place on my list. We traveled on the subway again and this time, the children figured out rather quickly where we were headed.
"Yankee stadium?" Mark asked hopefully.
"Yes," I confirmed and Mark let out a whoop of delight, causing everyone in out cart to turn towards us.
"Awesome, awesome, awesome," He said. "Thank you so much Esme," he said sincerely.
"It's absolutely fine Mark, I'm glad you're excited," I told him.
"I am," he assured me.
As we drew nearer to the stadium, it was obvious that Mark was not the only excited one to be seeing a baseball game. Gerald was striding along with a big grin on his face.
We found our seats in the stadium, they weren't the best, but were pretty decent considering how late I bought the tickets. Mark and Gerald enjoyed themselves immensely, Bert watched on in mild fascination while Camilla and I watched for a short while, before she told me all about her karate lessons that she had attended this week and was hoping her mother would let her continue when I left.
At some point, Camilla and I bought food and drinks for everyone and I was forced to down a few sips of a soda and a mouthful of chips. The others hardly noticed my lack of food intake though, while they ate hotdogs and were immersed in the game and Camilla watched a movie on my iPad.
When the baseball game was finished at about 2:45, we still had plenty of time for the last place I had decided on for Camilla's enjoyment. We rode the subway for the third time and when we arrived at our destination, Camilla let out a very loud high-pitched squeal.
"Oh, thank you, thank-you, thank-you, so much Esme, this is so cool," she shrieked.
"It's fine, Camilla. I must say I'm quite excited to be here too," I told her.
She gave me a hug, much like Bert had and we then headed towards through the entrance to Central Park Zoo. We spent the afternoon looking at all the animals and I bought the children an ice cream about half an hour before the park was due to close. The children were all devastated when we were ushered out at 5:30, but Gerald promised to bring them back again soon. It was still quite light, and a little too early for dinner, so we decided to walk around central park to fill in time.
We were all having so much fun that Gerald and the children hardly noticed it was getting darker, until I told them we should probably leave for dinner. We arrived at the restaurant and both Gerald and the children were looking around in awe. Gerald had told me earlier in the week that he and Lulu had never taken the children to a restaurant before, instead just a diner or cafe in their neighborhood. Apparently, Lulu was opposed to fine dining experiences and she told Gerald that restaurants were 'no place for children'. We were shown to our table and hand menus. The children had no idea what most of the foods on the menu were so Gerald and I ended up explaining what they were. The highlight of the dinner was Camilla's reaction to what 'sweetbread' was.
When we eventually got back home, everyone was exhausted and went to bed without a fuss, including Gerald. I went to my room as well and sat on the bed and suddenly realized that I only had 16 hours and 42 minutes until I would see my family again.
Bella POV
We had all congregated in Alice's room last night to discuss what we were going to do today.
…
"So, I know what dad is planning for tomorrow," Alice said. "But it all relies on whether we can apologize properly for our behavior tonight."
"Well, what is it?" Rose said.
"Tut-tut, not so hasty," Alice said. "Dad wants us to acknowledge that strip poker is not appropriate for Ness to participate in."
"Well that's kind of obvious, what else do we have to do?" Jasper said.
"That's it," Alice stated, simply.
"That's it?" Jake asked skeptically.
"Yep, that's it," Alice confirmed.
"That seems too easy, is what dad's planning really sucky?" I asked.
"No, it's pretty cool actually," Alice said.
"Dad," Nessie whined. "What's Alice thinking, what is it that dad has planned for tomorrow?" She begged.
"Edward, don't tell them," Alice said. But he was never one to resist the look Nessie had on her face.
"We're going to a carnival tomorrow," he blurted out.
"Awesome," Emmett said. "There are so many things we can do to piss Lulu off," he said excitedly.
…
When morning came and Lulu and Carlisle were in the dining room drinking coffee and each reading a newspaper in silence, we all entered the room, marching as if we were headed to death row. We stood in a file and Alice stepped forward as our spokesperson.
"Dad," she said. "Lulu," she added as an afterthought.
"We have all spent the night contemplating our actions last night and we have all come in here to apologize for our behavior and we understand that what we were doing was wrong and completely inappropriate. We know that strip poker is definitely not appropriate for Nessie to be participating and any future strip poker tournaments we decide to have, we promise make sure Nessie is not in our presence," Alice ended our group apology and looked up through her eyelashes to give the impression of innocence and sincerity.
Carlisle was silent for a few moments as he glanced at each of us. There was an almost imperceptible smile playing on his lips that would probably not be noticeable to any human.
"Alright children. I understand that was very difficult for all of you and I accept your apology. Because you apologized without me having to ask for it this morning, I had a talk with Lulu and she agrees," A quick glance over at Lulu and the scowl etched on her face, told me she most definitely was not in agreement, "that as a reward, we will all be spending our family day at the carnival in town," Carlisle finished.
We all made the appropriate sounds of surprise and delight and five minutes later, with Emmett and Nessie both chanting "Its gonna be awesome," over and over, we were sent to our rooms to get ready for the day.
Rose POV
I don't know what Carlisle was thinking when he decided it was a good idea to set us loose at a carnival. And the look on Lulu's face this morning when he announced where we were going clearly said, I think this is a bad idea. Maybe he didn't like the vile woman as much as we did. Whatever his reasoning, we were all excited and had a few ideas lined up for today. When everyone was dressed and ready for the day, it was only three arguments, a broken clothes hangar and an hour later.
We all piled into two cars again, Emmett, Bella, Edward, Ness and I in the jeep and Alice, Jasper, Jacob, Carlisle and Lulu in Carlisle's Mercedes. We made it to the carnival at 10 o'clock and we are all pretty excited.
Carlisle had us lined up in a row against the cars and was waiting for Emmett and Ness to stop chanting. With a sharp look cast their way, we were all silent and waiting for Carlisle to talk.
"Children, I have a few ground rules," Carlisle began. "Firstly, you are to stay in pairs."
"Do we get to choose our partner?" Nessie asked.
"Fine, whatever. Secondly, You will all act the age you are, do not act like six year olds. That means you Emmett," Carlisle said.
"Dad, I never act like a six year old. Why are you blaming me? Edward and Jasper and Ness act like six year olds too," Emmett whined.
"Emmett, blaming your brothers and your 12 year old sister just proves his point," Bella pointed out.
I gave her a quick wink, to let her know that I was planning to start an argument.
"Instead of blaming my boyfriend, maybe you should control at your own. Who is it that always provokes Emmett into wrestling?" I glared at her
"Well Rose, maybe Edward wouldn't be provoking Emmett if he didn't make it so easy. Not to mention, Jasper's always meddling with everyone's emotions," Bella yelled.
"Hey, keep Jazzy out of it. Besides what about Jake, he's always causing trouble and then he usually gets one of the other guys in trouble," Alice screeched.
"Yeah that's true," I said and all of us rounded on Jake and he coward behind Ness.
"Don't you dare use her as a shield," Bella advanced on him and he backed away until he hit the Jeep.
"Children, that's enough," Carlisle said sharply. "Your behavior shows that you all act like six year olds and I will have none of it today. The second one of you mucks up, we're all going home."
"Is that it, can we go now?" Nessie begged.
"Almost. I have bought all of you an unlimited pass, so I don't want to be nagged for anything. I have also decided that I will be keeping tabs on you, so we will meet next to the entrance gate at 1:30," Carlisle said.
"So, can we go?" Alice asked.
"Alright, nothing stupid please," Carlisle reiterated and we all took off, at human speed, in the direction of the rides. Eve though we were allowed to split off in our pairs, we all decided to stick together as much as possible because it was easier to do pranks when we were in a big group. We all decided to go on the rollercoaster first.
"I'm sitting up the front!" Emmett yelled.
"No, I am," Ness squealed and tried to wrestle her way in front of him, which was highly amusing to watch.
"What about me? I want to be up the front too," Jake said.
"Me too, I want the front seat as well," Edward and Jasper said at the same time.
"Fine, because none of you can agree, Bella and I will sit at the front," I said and we both pushed through to the front while the rest of them stared at us in shock.
"Are you sure Bella?" Edward said. "Do you remember the last time I took you on a rollercoaster? Do you remember what happened when we got off?"
"I don't actually, and I was human then. I will not throw up after this ride," Bella hiss at him.
"Rose, babe, aren't you worried about your hair getting ruined? I wouldn't mind taking your place," Emmett said hopefully.
"Don't even think about it buddy, Bella and I are up the front, you can all sit where ever else you want to," I warned.
They all grumbled but agreed and before we knew it, we were piled in and listening to the boring operating tell us the rules.
"Whatever dude lets get this show on the road," Jacob yelled and the disgruntled man glared at him, but moved towards the levers and buttons and switches. As soon as we were pulled up to the top of the incline and the cars were about to go down Emmett yelled at the top of his lungs;
"Oh my God, my safety harness is loose!"
Just then the ride took off and shoot down the slope.
I whipped my head back in time to see all the color drain out of the operators face as he frantically pressed buttons and switches in an effort to stop the ride.
When he succeeded, the ride slowed to a stop and began to move backwards up the slope and then back down the incline until it was back at the start.
When the operator made his way towards Emmett to fix the harness Emmett breathed a sigh of relief.
"Oh hang on, the harness is fine, I was just looking at this bit," he said.
Emmett held up the tail end of the harness that you pull to make it tighter.
"It's okay sir, I wasn't going to fall out. We can go again now," He told the operator seriously. There were a few humans behind us that groaned with the operator and I turned around to face them.
"Shut it you lot, isn't safety more important than ruining your little ride. Besides, we get to go again," I snapped at them. The stupid humans all shrunk back into their seats and stopped whining.
I turned back around in my seat and started laughing with Bella. "I wouldn't terrorize them if it was so fun," I admitted.
All in all the ride was average, all of us, except maybe Nessie and Jake, get bigger thrills when we are wrestling with a bear or lion and this ride was nothing in comparison.
We walked away from the ride and when Nessie saw the spinning teacup she was sold.
"Please, please, please can we go on it?" She begged us.
"Really? The spinning teacups? What about that one?" Emmett said pointing at a ride that was currently spinning around upside down.
"I still want to go on the spinning teacups," Nessie said.
"I'll take you Ness," Jake promised.
Eventually, Nessie, Jake, Bella, Edward and Alice went on the ride, which left Emmett, Jasper and I standing around, waiting.
We could hear Nessie's peals of delight as the operator for this ride spun their teacup around and her subsequent groans of disappointment as the spinning began to slow. Everyone else just looked bored.
"Emmy was right, this ride is lame," Ness grumbled.
Emmett, delighted at being called right for the first time in his long life, decided to help Nessie out.
"I'll make it more fun for you Ness," he shouted out. As their teacup came closer to the operator spinning them, Emmett leaped up beside him and gave a giant shove to the teacup – gently for him, otherwise he'd break it – and the started spinning faster than it was before.
"Hey, you can't be up here. Authorized personnel only," the operator said angrily
"I would have to be up here if spun the teacups properly, maybe I should take over buddy?" Emmett suggested.
"Get down right now, or I will have you escorted out," the operator threatened.
"Fine, jeez, I was only trying to help," Emmett whined as he walked back to us. When the ride was over, we walked around trying to find something else that we would all enjoy and it was proving difficult. Eventually we settled on a few rides and before we knew it, we had only five minutes to make our way back to the entrance to meet Carlisle and Lulu.
When we got there, Carlisle was waiting patiently, while Lulu was tapping her foot in annoyance.
"You children are two minutes late," she said.
"Lulu calm down. I'm surprised they remembered to show up at all," Carlisle said.
"Yeah Lulu, we make the effort to stop having fun to come and see your ugly face, and that's the thanks we get?" I snapped at her.
"Rose that was uncalled for. Apologize now," Carlisle said.
"Fine, I'm sorry Lulu," I said in a sickly sweet voice.
"I accept your apology Rosalie, but I think you should stay behind with me while the others leave for 10 minutes,"
"Good. Now I want to meet you all back here at 5 o'clock, which is when the park closes. Everyone can go, except for Rose," Carlisle ordered. Everyone walked of slowly and waited at the ride closest to where we were for the ten minutes I was in "time out". When it was up I stalked away, with out a good bye, except to Carlisle at vampire speed, and joined the others.
We walked around; focusing on the smaller attractions and games and Emmett, Jasper, Edward and Jake won all us girls a giant stuffed teddy bear each on the Hi Striker and then we all had a turn on the ring toss that Nessie, Alice and Bella won, while the rest of us 'missed' a ring or two. Jake bought three sticks of fairy floss, two hotdogs, a giant soda and a giant pretzel to snack on while we walked around the park until we arrived at the swing carousel and we were all pretty excited to have a go on it, mostly because we knew Lulu was close by, and we could easily freak her out. We were all situated on the chairs, all of us occupying outside chairs in a row and as soon as we started moving, we undid the straps holding us in, until we were ready to stand up when Lulu was in view. The chairs began to pick up a little bit of speed and were starting to get higher and higher. Now we were just waiting on Lulu.
"Alright, she's in position now," Edward said. "Everyone up."
With that, we all stood up on the chairs and it wasn't long before we heard Lulu scream. As the ride spun us out of her view, we sat down again quickly before Carlisle arrived to see what the fuss was about. When the ride ended, we all walked off and in the opposite direction of Lulu when she followed us angrily.
"What the hell were you thinking?" she seethed.
We all slowly turned around. "Well, we were thinking 'hey it's a swing carousel, that different to a normal one, lets see the difference'" Bella said scornfully.
"I am no talking about your choice of ride, I'm talking about that little stunt you all just pulled," Lulu said angrily.
"What stunt, all we did was try to swing it up more," Emmett said confused.
"Don't you dare try to fool me. I saw you all stand up on those things," Lulu snapped.
"Children, did you?" Carlisle asked us all.
"Dad," Jasper whined. "Why would we do that when you said 'don't do anything stupid' we're having fun and we don't want to leave like you said you'd make us if we mucked up."
Carlisle knew what we did, he wasn't stupid, but this was a perfect way to make Lulu think she was going crazy and seeing things.
"I believe them, Lulu I'm sure you were just imagining things," Carlisle said, playing along.
As we all walked off, we could hear Lulu muttering under her breath.
I was not imagining things, and those children are out to get me.
We rode on every single ride, except the kiddy trains we weren't allowed on because we were older than eight. We ended the day right before closing with the funhouse. We all entered as a group and it was more amusing to watch the humans stumbling around and falling over than going through it. The spinning barrel was by far the most interesting though, watching Jacob attempt it and almost falling on his face. When we made our way to the entrance to meet Carlisle, we were all laughing at Emmett's impressions of Jake falling and tripping and it was just as funny as watching Emmett imitate Bella when she was a human.
By the time we got home, it was dark and we all entered our own rooms, eagerly awaiting tomorrow when Esme would be coming home.
It was 3 o'clock in the morning when Alice stuck her head in Emmett and I's room and told us to come to her room for our final secret meeting.
When everyone was there Alice leaned in closer and said;
"I know how we can make Carlisle and Lulu take us with them to the parent's meeting."
Hey everyone. I just want you all to know that this chapter involved a lot of Creative license. I've never been to New York so I have no idea where anything is, and even though I did a bit of googling some things may not even actually exists. And the whole carnival thing, I don't really know any protocols those workers have to follow or even what carnivals have because the biggest one I've been to is a school fete with the hurricane.
Shout out to my sister who gave me some ideas though – thanks kiddo
Please read and review, I hope you all enjoyed it.