A/N – Someone said they missed me writing any notes…well, here one is! Really, thank you to everyone who is reading this and sending me such lovely and supportive comments and reviews. There are a lot of tough moments and issues in this story, and it means a lot that people are taking Emmett and Alice to their hearts and caring about what happens to them. They still have a lot of hurdles in their path, but I do promise a happy ending (eventually). So one again, thank you for reading and for all your reviews and comments – I appreciate every single one. I'm going away for Easter tonight, so have this chapter in the meantime and enjoy your own Easter weekends!

Chapter 20 – Big and Scary and Beautiful

In the morning I tell Esme about the success of the pull-ups and thank her again for organising it that I don't have to wake up in wet sheets. "And Alice told me she thinks you're the nicest lady in the world."

"Oh, that's great," Esme says with a giggle. "I didn't want to push her into wearing them, but it will make for less laundry and it's probably a lot nicer for you to not be waking up in a wet bed. Once I explained all that to her she was pretty agreeable to buying some and giving them a try."

"The only reason she didn't wear them all the time is that they're so expensive," I say honestly. "And she didn't always wet the bed either, so Momma…she didn't, um…" My voice trails off. I don't want to talk about Momma's reaction to Alice's bed wetting. "Anyway, thank you. I mean, hopefully she doesn't need them much longer, but for the time being it'll make things easier."

Alice and Edward come and sit up at the table, and Esme hands everyone a smoothie. "I'm driving you to school this morning, so I can come and pay for a gym uniform," she tells me, standing behind Alice and beginning to brush her hair.

"I don't mind not having one," I say quickly. "Ms Blake let me play in regular clothes the other day."

Esme shakes her head and gathers Alice's hair into a ponytail. "You have to have one. There are sometimes second-hand ones available so we'll check on that, but we'll get you a new one if we need to."

Carlisle leans towards me and says, "You really should stop worrying about us buying you things. We're only buying you what you need, and I promise you that we have the money to do it, and we're happy to do it too. We can get a reimbursement from the department for some expenses, or even apply for grants to help cover costs if it comes to that, so it's really not something that you need to think about, okay?"

I mumble something non-committal and shrug; I hate feeling like I owe them so much.

Carlisle laughs a little. "Really Emmett…it's fine. Just try being a kid for a while, and let us worry about it."

Easy for him to say.

Carlisle heads off to the hospital, and Esme, Edward, Alice and I take the Mercedes to school. Alice clings to me as I follow Esme to the front office, and I hope that she leaves without making a scene like we've had the previous couple of mornings at home.

The gym uniforms are in a storage cupboard in the nurse's office, but there aren't any second hand ones that fit me. It's a down side of being so tall. Esme doesn't even blink as she pays for a new one that costs more than any other bit of clothing I own. How can a t-shirt be so expensive?

"I want to see your classroom," Alice says, still gripping the leg of my jeans.

"Okay." I look at Esme to make sure it's all right. "If you promise you won't make a fuss when it's time to go home you can come and see my locker and my homeroom, okay?"

"I wish we had lockers at my school," Alice says when I show her how to use the combination lock. "This is so cool." She spins the dial on the lock.

"Well I have to get to homeroom," I say, "I'd better put all my stuff in my locker so it'll be safe…" I push Alice into the locker and start closing the door, grinning as I hear her gleeful shrieks.

"No, you can't shut me in!"

"What? Why won't this door close? Maybe I just need to push harder…" I lean on the locker door, careful of Alice's fingers hooked on the edge.

"Emmett, let me out!" Alice is laughing like a loon. "Let me out!"

"Hi Esme."

It's Rosalie's voice. I turn quickly, letting go of the locker door so suddenly that it flies open and Alice falls out at my feet. Rosalie is standing there with her books, smiling in amusement.

Esme hugs her. "Hi Rosalie honey, how are you?"

I scoop Alice up from the floor and set her back on her feet. "Whoops! There you go…next time no hiding in lockers!"

"You get in!" Alice pushes ineffectively against my leg. "It's your turn!"

Rosalie giggles. "Go on then, Emmett, get in."

I'd do most things to make Alice happy, but folding my oversize self into a locker in front of Rosalie Hale is not one of them. I stand up straight and tug on Alice's ponytail. "Nope, I'm way too big. Are you ready to go home now so I can go to class?"

Alice stubbornly shakes her head. "No. You said I could see your classroom."

Feeling vaguely ridiculous, I let Alice accompany me across the hallway to the classroom door. "Here."

"Oh." Alice looks unimpressed. "That's boring. There's no posters or computers or a class pet or anything."

I laugh. "Welcome to high school. Now the bell is going to ring in a minute, so I have to go in and you have to go home with Esme…remember, you promised you wouldn't fuss!" I crouch down and she nearly knocks me over with the ferocity of her hug. "Good girl…I love you Monkey," I whisper into her ear.

Alice's eyes fill and her lip wobbles, but Esme says a cheerful goodbye and then takes her hand and leads her briskly away.

I give a sigh of relief and drop into the closest seat, feeling a little jump of happiness in my belly when Rosalie takes the chair beside me.

"Is that your sister? How old is she?" she asks.

"Yeah, that's Alice…she's five."

"Did she transfer to Camden too?"

"No. She's in first grade at the public elementary school." I fiddle with my planner.

Rosalie curls length of hair around her finger. "You can tell me to go away if I'm asking too many questions," she says bluntly. "I don't want to bother you."

"God, no!" I blurt out. I look up quickly, and our eyes lock. Hers are dark blue, and staring into them feels like falling. "I don't…it's not that! Ask as many questions as you want!"

Rosalie laughs a little breathlessly, and she doesn't look away. "Are you sure? I do like to know everything about everything."

God, I want to touch her…the long hair falling over her shoulders, the slightly pink roundness of her cheek, that perfect bow mouth curved up in a smile…this feels crazy. My teeth graze across my knuckles, but I don't bite. "I don't mind."

"Can I ask about this then?" Rosalie's fingers brush across my back of my hand, sending a peculiar ripple of pleasure up my spine. "The tape? Do you do MMA, or just street fight?" She raises one perfect eyebrow.

I laugh self consciously, feeling the heat of embarrassment burning my ears as I lift the edge of the tape. "Neither. My knuckles are just a mess, so I'm covering them up." I hesitate for a moment. I don't understand why I want to open up to this girl, but the fact is that I do. "I have a really gross habit of biting the skin over my knuckles when I get stressed…there's been a lot going on lately."

"I would hate to have to transfer schools in the middle of the semester. And whatever happened to cause you to move in with the Cullens is probably pretty difficult." Rosalie looks at me steadily. "I'm not trying to pry or make you talk about it. But I know they do foster care so I'm guessing that that's how come you're there."

My stomach knots with a feeling of shame that I know I shouldn't be feeling. "Yeah," I say with effort. "We're at the Cullens through foster care. Alice got sick and went to hospital just the other weekend – Carlisle was her doctor – and they wouldn't let us go home after that. Alice still isn't totally well, so she's staying home with Esme right now instead of going to school."

"I'm sorry," Rosalie says simply. "Having to live with a different family and change schools all at one time would really suck."

"Yeah…it kind of does." I grin at her, suddenly feeling lighter.

It's so hard to say the words foster care and admit that we're not allowed to live with our mom at the moment! Acknowledging that there's a problem at home is something that I have never, ever been allowed to do.

You keep your mouth shut you little shit, you hear? If I hear you've been whining to anyone, there'll be worse for you then, understand?

Do you want them to take her away? Because that's what'll happen if you talk about what's none of their business…people won't understand, and they'll take her away and you'll never see her again, and it'll be all your own damn fault. Is that what you want?

In my head I can still hear them saying it. But the truth is that Alice getting sick has pushed back that wall of secrecy and brought some of the dark, shameful things out into the light…and the worst things that I was always afraid of didn't happen. Alice and I are still together, and even Momma seems motivated to change.

And now there's Rosalie, and whatever this is that's happening between us. Something that feels big and scary and beautiful all at the same time…something that makes me feel like anything could be possible.

"It's hard," I say with a slow smile her way. "But…it's not all bad."

Community groups are held after lunch on a Wednesday and for the time being I'm assigned to assist Mike Newton and Ben Cheney to run a game of wiffle ball in the gym.

"So what is this all about?" I ask a little doubtfully, watching Ben drag a bag of plastic bats out from the equipment room.

"Supposedly leadership and role modelling," Ben says, dumping the bats in a corner and fetching a box of wiffle balls and a stack of orange cones. "Building strong school communities…that kind of thing."

"And the teachers getting an afternoon to do their own thing," Mike adds, dribbling a basketball out of the equipment room and shooting from the free throw line. He falls dismally short.

The gym door bangs open and Rosalie's friend Vera, the short one with the pink hair, comes in wearing a cheerleading uniform. "Oh, well done! No wonder you're teaching baby baseball instead of basketball!" She laughs mockingly and grabs for the ball, tossing it into the basket with confident ease. "See, that's how it's done."

"Vera, are you going to help or what?"

I look up hastily and see Rosalie backing into the gym door, dragging a big plastic crate behind her and trying to keep a laptop bag and some speakers balanced on top of it.

"I'll give you a hand." I say, moving quickly across the gym. I hand her the speakers and the computer bag and grab the crate, trying not to ogle her – Rosalie in a blue and yellow Camden cheerleader uniform is something really worth looking at. "Where do you want it?"

"Over by those mats would be great." Rosalie nods in that direction and takes a better grip on her speakers, giving me a grin. "I didn't know you'd be here. I suppose you're helping those clowns play wiffle ball?" She nods towards Mike, who is chasing Vera across the gym trying to get the basketball back, and Ben, who is neatly arranging some cones.

"Yeah. Ms Blake asked me what sports I liked and I said baseball…so now I'm playing wiffle ball with a bunch of first graders." I shrug, but I don't really mind. "You're doing cheering then?"

"The first graders will be more mature than Mike at any rate," Rosalie says, kneeling down and starting her laptop. "And yes, Vera and I are teaching some beginner cheering; mostly fourth graders." She gets some music playing and adjusts the volume.

"Hey new boy," Vera says breathlessly, abandoning Mike and bounding over to me. She grabs a couple of the mats leaning up against the wall and flips them down onto the floor. "Don't tell me you're hitting on my girl!" She makes kissy faces at Rosalie.

"The first graders are also more mature than Vera." Rosalie rolls her eyes. "And his name is Emmett, remember?"

"Sure, sure," Vera says cheerfully, grabbing another mat. "Just kidding Emmett; Rosalie's her own agent, finally! Because remember Rosalie, when it comes to Royce we are never, ever, ever getting back together…sing it with me now…never, ever, ever…"

"Do you mind not talking about that right now?" Rosalie says sharply. "You know you don't have to share every thought that flits through your mind, right?"

I catch the quick flash of her eyes my way, gauging my reaction, even though I bet she doesn't want me to see it. There's definitely a history with Rosalie and this Royce guy that could well be complicated, but all I'm taking from this conversation is that it's over. And that knowledge, combined with the way she's been looking at me, makes the whole day feel bigger with the possibilities.

Vera spreads out her hands. "Sorry! But you know….never mind! I'm stopping! Emmett, it's splendid that you and Rosalie are becoming friends," she says to me with exaggerated courtesy, before she sticks her tongue out at Rosalie. "Better, your majesty?"

"You're hopeless!" Rosalie shakes her head and laughs as she finishes cuing her playlist and rises to her feet. She looks over at me with a slightly embarrassed smile. "Like I said Emmett, your first graders will probably be the most mature people in this gym."

"Don't tell me my senior students are behaving badly?" A teacher, a youngish looking woman wearing sports clothes and a whistle round her neck suddenly appears, helping Vera throw down more of the gym mats and push them together. "Can I really not leave you unsupervised for five minutes?" she jokes, before noticing me and raising her eyebrows. "Do I finally have a male cheerleader to help teach?"

"Me? No, I'm just….uh…" Following Rosalie around like a puppy?

"Emmett's new," Rosalie explains, grabbing her ankle and stretching her foot up over her head. "He's going to play wiffle ball. Emmett, this is Miss Shannon, she's our cheer coach and staff supervisor for these community groups."

"Nice to meet you," Miss Shannon says, and then turns as the door opens and I hear the excited noise of a bunch of little kids. "Okay folks, let's get this show happening."

I see Edward as I'm leaving school that afternoon, and I jog to catch up. "Hey, Edward!"

He stops and waits for me. "Hi. I see you got a gym uniform."

Since I wore it last period for community groups and I hate showering at school, I left the uniform on to walk home. "Yeah, I'm playing wiffle ball for community groups."

Edward laughs. "How did that go?"

"Oh, easy…they're first graders, it's like playing with a bunch of Alices." I tug a little self-consciously at the new clothes. "When Esme says she's going to do something she really does it."

"You sound surprised," he comments.

I laugh. "Consistency and follow-through aren't really my mom's good points…I'm not used to this!" I shake my head. "I mean, two weeks ago where was I? And now Carlisle and Esme have me working my ass off in the resource room at Camden and wearing a gym uniform. It's a lot of change."

"That's certainly true."

I glance at Edward. "For you as well though, I guess. Two weeks ago you had a nice, ordered life with your parents, and now you've got Alice and me barging in on your life and messing it up. I'm all up your ass at your school, and Alice is demanding piano lessons and making you build zoos and taking up all your mom's attention."

"I like Alice," Edward says easily. "Why wouldn't I want to teach her to play the piano? And to be quite honest, it's occasionally a relief to have Esme and Carlisle's attention placed elsewhere."

That makes me laugh. "It seems like they should have had more kids, not just you."

"They fostered a lot of kids over the years, mostly for a few weeks at a time, but occasionally for a couple of months. A year or so ago they came pretty close to adopting a little boy, but he ended up going back to his mother and it fell through. That was pretty devastating and they took a break after that…you and Alice are the first ones to stay in a while." He glances at me. "I don't have a problem with it. Remember, they adopted me too – the circumstances were different, but it pretty easily could have been me in foster care."

"Well…thanks," I say uncertainly, and the rest of the walk passes in a companionable silence.

You've made space for me…I think I like you, kid.