Disclaimer – Stephenie Meyers owns it all.

Chapter 29 - Emancipation

We found a hotel to put Charlie in while the rest of us made arrangements to move into our new home. He watched out for the cars and the U-Haul while we went to the attorney's office. The streets were somewhat narrow, and I for one was glad that we didn't have to maneuver Emmett's Jeep through them. Edward was having enough trouble with his Volvo as it was. Even though we didn't have an appointment, the attorney who worked on our home closing, Rich Samuels, Esq., insisted on meeting us. The receptionist led the four of us into a conference room where he joined us after several minutes.

He was an older gentleman, appearing to be in his early 60's or late 50's. He was graying around the temples and was clean shaved. He appeared to be about 5 feet 7 inches tall and weighed about 180 pounds. He was wearing a light gray suit with a red tie. I could hear Alice suck in her breath as she took notice of that combination. He walked with a slight limp on the left hand side, but didn't use a cane. He had an air of authority about him when he entered the room. He walked up to Edward with his right hand extended. Edward met his hand and shook it. "Rich Samuels, and you are?"

"Edward Cullen, and this is my wife, Bella."

"Good to meet you, Bella. And, you must be Jasper Hale, and you must be Alice Hale," he said shaking hands with each of us in turn. "I must say, I was certainly shocked when I heard from your attorney, Mr. Jenks, that you were interested in the old Hawthorn place. That place has been on the market for several months. It is so isolated that most people don't even look at it, and you want it sight unseen. I certainly advised the Realtor for the Hawthorn estate to accept your offer for the place even though it was considerably less than the asking price. And in cash. My word, when Mr. Jenks advised me that he would be sending me a wire for the money, my heart almost stopped right there. Where, may I ask, did you four, young adults, for lack of a better phrase, ever get your hands on such a large sum of money. You understand, I must be satisfied that the money was not illegally obtained."

Edward laughed. "No offense, Mr. Samuels, but that is the furthest thing from the truth. Our families are from Alaska. We came by our money the old fashioned way. We inherited it. Our forefathers managed to stumble across one of those gold mines in the wilderness up around Denali where our extended families still live today. The mines set us up pretty well before they played out, Mr. Samuels. You haven't seen a fraction of the money that we have at our disposal. Some of it is here in the U.S. Banking system; some of it is here in the U.S. Trading system, but most of it is in international accounts, not touchable by anyone but us."

"Wonderful. If you ever have need of a financial planner, please, you know where to find me," he said.

"Thank you. I will keep that in mind. I do have a legal question, however. You may be able to help me."

"Certainly. If I don't know the answer, I can find it out for you."

"Well, in Alaska, we were considered emancipated just because we were married. I tried to look it up on the internet, but was unable to find applicable state law in New York. We are going to need to enroll in High School as soon as we get settled in the house, and unfortunately, our parents are no longer with us. That's part of the reason that we married so young. Our parents were killed in an automobile accident. Instead of becoming wards of the state, we convinced the judge to allow us to marry instead, thus emancipating us. What is our status here in New York?"

"I don't believe that New York has a specific law concerning emancipation of minors. Hold on, and let me get my partner in on this conversation. She deals exclusively with Family Law." He reached over and punched a button on his intercom. "Ramona, could you see if Zoe is available to come in here right away. It is important. Thank you."

Less than two minutes later, there was a knock on the door. Upon being told to enter, a tall, thin, red headed woman who stood approximately 5 feet 10 inches tall and weighing 120 pounds entered the room. She looked to be about 33 years old and was in great shape. She had curves within her curves. "You needed me, Rich?"

"Yes, Zoe, let me introduce you to our newest clients. This is Edward Cullen and his wife, Bella. And this is Jasper Hale and his wife, Alice. They just bought the old Hawthorne house. They have a question that I believe is right up your alley. They have just moved here from Alaska. Their parents were all killed in a car accident, and instead of becoming wards of the state, they convinced the judge to allow them to marry, thus emancipating them according to the laws of Alaska. They are moving here, alone, and need to do the usual things to establish residency, including registering for school, but obviously, they don't have parents or a legal guardian. I didn't remember any emancipation laws for New York. What do they need to do?"

"Well, there is no emancipation law for the state of New York. Marriage automatically emancipates a minor child. The problem is that most adults don't know that. They are going to have problems getting the power turned on, and the cable hooked up, and so on because you have to be over 18 to do those things, and I'm guessing that none of you are 18 yet." We shook our heads, no. "The easiest thing to do would be to write a Motion for each of you recognizing that you are emancipated based on your married status and have it signed by the Youth Court Judge. Do you happen to have your marriage licenses with you, by chance?"

"Yes ma'am, we do. Would you like them now?" Jasper asked.

"Now would be great," Zoe said.

"Keys," Jasper said, and he reached up and caught them as Edward tossed them to him. He walked out of the building and returned a few moments later with both of our marriage licenses. He tossed the keys back to Edward. "Here you go, ma'am." He handed the marriage licenses to her. She inspected them, confirming the names and the dates.

"Oh, you had a double ceremony! How sweet!" she exclaimed. "I always wanted that with my sister." She went over to a copy machine and made several copies of each of the licenses. Then she pressed a button on the intercom. "Ramona, could you please come in here and bring your notary." We waited for several minutes, and then a small, plump woman knocked and entered the room. She had a notary stamp and a book. Zoe asked for her to certify each of the copies that she had made as true copies. Ramona wrote something on each of the copies of our marriage licenses and then she did her notary thing to each one of them. Zoe handed Jasper the original copies back. She then took one copy of each of the licenses and gave the others to Jasper. "Keep these. You may need true copies in the near future. This will save you some time."

"Thank you," Jasper said as he put them into the folder with the originals.

"Now, if you will all just take a seat, I'll be right back." She left us in the conference room with Rich.

"Rich, you said that we were buying the old Hawthorn place. Is it already vacated?" I asked.

"Yes, it is. Would you like the keys? There is no reason that you couldn't take possession of it right away. It isn't as if we were waiting for a loan to go through or anything like that."

"Yes, we would. We are sitting on a U-Haul full of furniture at the moment, and we would love to go ahead and get it unloaded," I said.

"I'll be right back." He left the room and returned thirty seconds later with two keyrings. "This is the key to the front door, and this one is to the garage door. Here are two garage door openers. Here is a key to the garage that is away from the house. And this keyring has the keys to the mother-in-law house. I believe that it also has a key to the boat house on it as well."

"Thanks," Edward said, taking one set of keys and tossing the other one to Jasper. He took the set of mother-in-law keys and tossed them to me. I wasn't expecting them, and I almost dropped them. The others laughed at me when I fumbled them, but I managed to get a hold on them finally, and I put them in my purse for Charlie.

After about thirty minutes, Zoe came back into the room holding 4 sheets of paper. She said, "Follow me. You don't mind a little walk do you?" None of us did. We followed her out of the building and around the corner to the Tompkins County Courthouse. We entered the building and followed her up the stairs to the Family Courtroom. She told us to wait outside, so we leaned against the wall while she entered the courtroom.

After ten minutes or so, she opened the door and motioned for us to come with her. We walked into the courtroom and saw several people sitting down looking somewhat annoyed. She motioned us to follow her into what appeared to be the judge's chambers. We followed her inside the room and stood in front of the desk waiting for further instructions.

"Hi, I'm Judge Little, have a seat, please." There were only two seats besides the one that Zoe was sitting in, so Edward motioned for Alice and me to sit. We did and thanked them. "Zoe, here, has brought these motions before me to declare the four of you emancipated minors. Do you understand what that means?"

"Yes, sir," we all said, basically together.

"One of you explain it to me, please."

"It means that we are considered adults in all respects. We are responsible for ourselves, for our own support and upkeep, so to speak. We are responsible for a roof over our heads, food, clothing, school, insurance, transportation, medical and dental care, utilities, maintenance and upkeep of our home, and any and all unforeseen eventualities that may arise," Edward said.

"And you believe that you qualify for emancipation because, why?"

"Because we are married," Edward said. "In Alaska, that was enough of a reason. We qualified based solely on the fact that we were married."

"And what do your parents think of that?"

"Our parents are dead. They were killed by a drunk driver in a car accident a month before we were married. The youth court judge in Denali knew our families. He knew our parents and us. He knew that they would rather us go ahead and get married which was already in the plans anyway. We were just going to wait until we finished high school to do it. He knew that our parents wouldn't want us in some foster home. We had the means to survive. We come from some old money. Between that and the life insurance money and the settlement from the drunk's insurance, we're set for life, so, he married us when Alice and I turned 16."

"I'm sorry for your loss. Do you have a bank statement or something that shows your bank balance so that I can establish your ability to financially care for yourselves?"

"No sir, but if you will allow me to use your computer for a couple of seconds, I can show you our savings account balance. Will that be satisfactory?"

"Yes, that would be sufficient."

Judge Little scooted his chair away from the computer and allowed Edward to move in front of the keyboard. He brought up one of the international banks and pulled up one of our bank accounts. "This is one of Bella and my accounts," he said, indicating the screen.

Judge Little looked at the screen. "That is definitely sufficient. Did you say that is one of your accounts?"

"Yes sir. We have several others. That is actually one of the lower amounts." Then he started making some other keystrokes. "This is one of Jasper's and Alice's accounts."

Judge Little leaned over and again looked at the screen. "Again, this is absolutely sufficient. You, too, have other accounts?"

"Yes, they do. I generally handle all of the finances for the four of us. We also have a good bit invested in the stock market, and we have several more local accounts as well."

"Well, it seems that you have more of a handle on what it means to be an adult than most adults do. I'm going to sign these motions. Consider yourselves adults in the state of New York."

"Thank you, sir," Edward said for all of us.

"Zoe, can you get these posted so that they can take a copy today. I have a feeling that they need to get some issues taken care of so that they can move into their new home. Where are you moving to, if I may ask?"

"Um, the old Hawthorn place," Edward said.

"Oh, wow, that place. Don't get me wrong, but why would you want to live out there? It is so isolated, out there in the woods and on the lake and all."

"That is exactly what spoke to us. We did a lot of camping with our Dad's. We loved the wilderness in Alaska, and we were hoping to find something to approximate it here. That is as close as we could find. We love to hike and camp. Most weekends we won't even be in the house," Jasper said.

"You have to be careful. Snow storms blow up mighty suddenly here. We might get a couple of feet of snow overnight on occasion. Camping out isn't always safe."

"Um, not to sound like a know-it-all, but we were raised in Alaska. We camped out in subzero weather in twenty feet of snow," Edward said.

"Oh, yeah. I guess a couple of feet of snow won't bother you guys that much, will it?"

"No, not that much," I said, giggling.

"Well, it has been a great pleasure meeting all of you. I'm glad that you picked our town to move to, and I hope to see you around again, though not in this office."

"Our sentiments, exactly," Edward said. We turned, after shaking his hand, and followed Zoe out of the room. We left the courtroom and went to the office in the hallway.

"Can you get these filed expeditiously? Judge Little wants copies to go with these guys like now." The clerk looked up from what she was doing. She looked at us with a grimace on her face, then seeing Edward and Jasper, she smiled.

"Sure thing, Zoe. What Judge Little wants, Judge Little gets." She took the papers from Zoe and looked at them. She took them to a book and stamped them. Then she took them to a copier and made copies of each one. Then she brought it back to where she started and marked the copies with something that looked like a notary stamp, but I had a suspicion that it wasn't. She handed the copies to Zoe who thanked her. Zoe turned and walked out of the hallway, and we followed her again. We walked back to her office.

When we entered the door, the receptionist paged Rich who came up front immediately. "Did you get it taken care of?" Zoe shook the papers in her hand. "Great job, Zoe. Great job. I knew that you could do it!" She handed him the papers and left us alone with him. He looked over them and ushered us back into the conference room. He motioned for us to sit down. After we sat, he said, "I hope that you don't mind, but I took the liberty of calling in a few favors while you were gone. I spoke with the power company, the utility company which includes water and sewage, and the gas company. All of them have changed the accounts over into your name, Edward. They will just add all of the initial fees to the initial bill."

"Thank you, but we will still have to go by those companies because we have to have the receipts in order to change our driver's licenses and to establish residency for school admission," Edward said. "How much do we owe you for the work that you've done for us today for the emancipation declarations?"

"Consider it a gift from us to you," Rich said.

"No, we will pay our way. We don't want to be beholden to anyone," Jasper said. "Tell us what you charge per hour."

"Zoe bills out at $250 per hour," Rich said.

"Then we owe you $500," Edward said, pulling out his wallet and counting out five, one hundred dollar bills. He handed them to Rich and asked for a receipt. He gave us one, and we took all of the paperwork and left the office.

We drove to the nearest service station, and I got out and asked for directions to the power company. Neither Edward or Jasper would admit that they didn't know where they were going. Edward followed my directions, and soon we were pulling into the power company. Jasper and Alice were more interested in each other than in coming inside, so Edward and I went in to get the power hooked up. We were directed to an office and once there, we were motioned to take a seat, as the employee was on the phone. As soon as she got off of the phone, she asked us how she could help us.

"My name is Edward Cullen, and we've just purchased the Old Hawthorn House. We need to get the power for it and for the mother-in-law house turned on in our names. Mr. Samuels called ahead."

"Oh, yes, Edward Cullen. My name is Stephanie." She held out her hand, and Edward shook it. She took out some papers from a folder. "He said for me to just bill the change over fees on your first statement. You didn't need to drive all of the way out here."

"We need the receipt for establishing residency for driver's license and for school. I want to not only pay the deposit, but to put some money on the account. I like to pay the account ahead of time so we don't have to worry about having to make it in every month to pay on it. We tend to function on a cash only basis when possible."

"That is unusual. May I ask why?" Stephanie asked.

"Well, we find it hard to over spend that way. If we don't use credit cards, then we don't over spend, and I've never been a fan of checking accounts. No offense to the local banks, but a one decimal point error can ruin your credit. So, we just stick to cash transactions." He took out his wallet and started counting out some money. He gave her $4,500. "At $450 per month, and I'm assuming that the power bill shouldn't be that every month, this is ten month's worth. That should get us pretty well into next year. May I have a receipt?"

Stephanie looked flabbergasted. She took the money and recounted it. Then she took her receipt book and wrote out the receipt. She handed it to Edward. Then she had him sign the contract for power at our new home. She handed him a copy of the contract. "Thank you, Mr. Cullen for your business. Don't hesitate to let us know if we can help you in any way."

"Thank you, Stephanie." He took my hand, and we walked out to the car. Alice and Jasper were still engrossed with each other. "Would you like for us to take you back to the hotel so that you can pick up Charlie and start unloading the U-Haul and get him set up?"

"Sure. We can do that. No problem," Alice said. Edward turned the car around and took them back to the hotel where Charlie was ever protecting the U-Haul.

"Great news, Dad. The house is already vacant, and we can go ahead and move in. Alice and Jasper are going to take you out there while Edward and I finish hooking up all of the utilities. They are going to unload the U-Haul and start getting you settled in," I said going up to him and giving him a hug.

"That's great, honey! I can't wait to get settled in. I hate hotels!" Charlie said. He climbed into the cab of the U-Haul and cranked it up, waiting to follow Jasper and Alice to our new homestead. I stayed with him while Edward went inside to pay the bill.

When he came back outside, he gathered with Jasper and Alice and me. "How much money do you still have on you?"

Jasper took out his wallet and counted his money. "I have just over $1000."

"Is that enough, or do you want me to get you some more?"

"I think that it is plenty. After all, you are the one that is taking care of setting up the accounts. They are all going to be in your name, right?"

"If that is okay with all of you. It just makes sense to keep it all under one name. That way, it makes less of a target for them to find us."

"Yes, it is fine for me. I kind of figured you would do that since you are the one that deals with our finances anyway."

Alice broke in. "That's fine with me, too. I figured the same thing, and I have about $800. I'm good."

I looked at him and couldn't help but give him a kiss. "I have $1000 in my wallet. That's plenty. Besides, I'm always with you."

"Okay, I'm going by the bank. I need to get some more. I plan on paying everything in cash here. No credit cards for anything. Please destroy any that you are still carrying. If you need anything that you would normally pay for with a check or a credit card, please get a bank note for it."

"No problem. I don't want to be found by anyone either," Jasper said. "I do want to get a PO Box though, for my journals."

"Yeah, no problem. If they try to contact the journal to get your forwarding address, we are screwed anyway," Edward said.

We gave hugs all around, me ending with Charlie. Then we split to do our own things. Edward and I went to the bank nearest our home. We walked in together, hand in hand. We asked the teller for the accounts manager, and we were directed to a young man in an office off to the side. His door was open, so we walked to his office and knocked on the door. He stood and motioned us inside. He introduced himself as Greg Anderson, and Edward introduced us as Edward and Bella Cullen. He motioned for us to take a seat, and we did.

"Mr. and Mrs. Cullen?" Mr. Anderson asked. Edward nodded. "You just look so young to be married. Well, Mr. Cullen, what may I do for you today?"

"Mr. Anderson, my wife and I, and our siblings have just bought the old Hawthorn place. We're new to town, and I believe that this bank is the closest one to our new home. We need to establish a relationship with a financial institution, and not knowing the reputations of any of any of the banks in this town, this seemed a good place to start," Edward said.

"Well, we are glad that you chose us to do business with, Mr. Cullen, and I can assure you that we do have a well deserved fine reputation. What exactly can I assist you with?"

"Well, most of our banking needs will be withdrawal of money from our existing accounts. We exist on a cash only basis, foregoing credit cards and checks. In exchange for allowing us access to our accounts on an unlimited basis, I am willing to transfer three sizable accounts to your bank," Edward said.

"That is a very unusual request, I must say. Usually, our savings accounts carry a limit of four withdrawals per quarter before a penalty is assessed. You may want to consider establishing a checking account and just not order checks. Withdrawals from those accounts are not penalized," Mr. Anderson said.

"Checking accounts do not carry the interest income associated with savings accounts, though. I will be taking a penalty already by moving these accounts into your financial institution. I think that once you see the size of the accounts, you will be willing to work with me. If you aren't, then we will try the next bank," Edward said.

"May I look at the accounts before I make my decision?" Mr. Anderson asked.

"Of course," Edward said. "May I have a piece of paper?" Mr. Anderson handed him a piece of paper, and he wrote down three account numbers. In vampire volume I asked him which three accounts he gave him. He answered me that he gave him one of ours, one of Jasper's and Alice's and one of our combined accounts. Mr. Anderson took the three accounts and pulled them up one by one. He wrote the figures on the piece of paper. The first account had $20 million dollars in it. The second one had $18 million dollars in it. And the third one had $73 million dollars in it.

"We will have no problems accommodating your needs, Mr. Cullen. How soon will you authorize the transfer of these accounts?"

"Immediately. If you can draw up the necessary paperwork, then I will sign for the transfer of all three accounts. In addition, I need to withdraw some money from three other accounts today. We have utilities to take care of for the new house."

"Certainly." Mr. Anderson began typing something that looked complicated at the computer. Edward just sat there watching everything that he did. After thirty more minutes, he printed several papers and handed them along with a pen across the desk to Edward to sign. Edward picked up the papers and read them. Then he signed them in the appropriate blanks. He handed them back to Mr. Anderson who then stood up and shook Edward's hand. "Welcome to our family, Mr. Cullen, Mrs. Cullen. If you would follow me, we will arrange for that withdrawal now." We followed him into the lobby of the bank and past the line that was waiting for the next available teller. He motioned to the teller who was working the window to come to the next window which had a closed sign on it. She apologized to the woman whom she was serving. Then she walked over to the closed window.

"Yes sir, Mr. Anderson. How may I help you?" she asked. We could hear the grumbles of the people who had waited patiently in line for their turns. Some were asking who we were. Others were complaining that we should have to wait in line like everyone else.

"Peggy, this is Mr. Edward Cullen, and his wife, Bella. They have just opened three accounts with us, and they would like to make a withdrawal. Flag their account that there will be no penalty for any number of withdrawals." Turning to Edward, he asked, "Do you need those new account numbers, Mr. Cullen?"

"No, Mr. Anderson, I memorized them from the account sheets that you had me sign to transfer the accounts. I don't think though that the accounts have had time to transfer funds. I will withdraw the funds from other accounts. I assume that there will not be a problem with that transaction?" Edward asked.

"Of course not, Mr. Cullen. Peggy, withdraw the money from whatever account numbers that Mr. Cullen gives you. There will not be a transaction fee today or any day that he or his family comes in to access any of their accounts," Mr. Anderson said.

"I understand, Mr. Anderson. It is nice to meet you, Mr. Cullen. May I have the account numbers, please."

"May I have a piece of paper?" She handed him some withdrawal slips and a pen. He wrote the account numbers and the amounts to be withdrawn on the slip of paper and handed it back to her.

"Are you serious?" she asked. Edward just looked at her. She typed the first account number into the computer. Her gasp was heard throughout the bank. Then she typed in the second and the third account numbers as well. She turned back to Edward and stared at him. "You're serious. You want to withdraw this much money in cash?"

"Do you have a problem with the withdrawals?" Edward asked in a low voice.

"I don't have that much in my drawer. I'll have to go into the vault," she said.

"Are you not trained in that procedure? Should you request the assistance of another, more senior teller?" Edward asked.

"No, yes, I mean, yes, I'm trained to carry out the withdrawal."

"Then is there a problem with the accounts? I do believe that the account numbers that I gave you have adequate sums in them to cover the withdrawals."

"Yes, more than adequate."

"Then would you please complete the withdrawals. My wife and I have several more stops today before the close of business."

She shook her head and looked at the screen again. Then she looked behind her to the teller who was working the drive through window. "Becky, I have to go into the vault for a moment. Would you come out here and watch the front?" A young woman, who I presumed to be Becky, came out of the enclave where she had been holed up and stood by the front desk. Peggy got some keys from behind the desk and signaling the security guard, walked up to the vault. She opened the door, and they both stepped inside. Several minutes later, she and the guard stepped back outside of the vault. She came back to the window that Edward and I were standing at. She had a stack of wrapped bills. They were made up of $100 bills, and each wrapping was $1000. She counted out twenty of them, and double checked the count, and then she handed them to Edward. Then she counted out seventy more of them, double checked her count, and handed them to Edward. Finally, she counted out another one hundred of them and double checked her count. She handed them to Edward who thanked her. He put the money into the packet that he had brought into the bank with him. Then we walked out of the bank and got into the car.

"Edward, did you just withdraw $190,000 dollars?" I asked him once the doors were closed.

"Yes, twenty thousand from Jasper and Alice's account, seventy from our account, and one hundred from our joint account."

"Why so much?"

"We have to buy furniture, everything from our bedroom set to a refrigerator. We need linens, shower curtains, everything to set up a fake household. I also want to buy Charlie a vehicle of his own. He needs to be able to get around without having to ask us for transportation."

"Oh, I guess so."

We made a trip to the gas company and to the water company. Then we went to the cable company. It seemed that we lived too far out of town to get cable, so we went to the Direct TV company and ordered satellite tv for both the main house and Charlie's house. We scheduled installation for the next day. Then we went to the phone company. We didn't get a phone, but we did set up a DSL line for our computers. We also set up a DSL line for Charlie's house, though we didn't think that he would ever use it.

That done, we went back to the house. Alice and Jasper had everything unloaded and placed into the correct room. They had started in Charlie's bedroom and were assembling his bed when we arrived. "Why don't you guys take the U-Haul to some distant town and trade it back in. We'll finish setting up in here. Take a little time to be together. Remember, though, that we don't have any furniture for our house. We need to go shopping soon, hopefully today," Edward said to Alice and Jasper when we joined them in Charlie's room. They agreed, and soon they were off.

"Dad, will you come up here, please?" I called out. He grumbled, but he came to his room. "Exactly where do you want the bed to go?"

"Where ever you think that it will look the best, Bella. I trust you to make the room look good." He turned around to walk out, and I grabbed his hand and pulled him back into the room.

"Where do you think you are going? This is your house. You should at least help a little."

"Well, you guys seem to have everything under control. I didn't want to seem to get in the way," Charlie said.

"Well, you're not in the way. Which wall do you want the bed on?" I repeated. He pointed to the wall on the left side of the window. Edward and I moved the bed against that wall. I pulled out a clean sheet set. "Here, Dad. Make yourself useful and make your bed." Then I unpacked his hanging clothes. I unpacked his hall closet, and Edward and I started setting up his guest room. By the time that Alice and Jasper got back, I was putting the finishing touches on his kitchen. Edward had set up his den the way that he liked it. Alice and I made quick work of the dining room. We had Charlie unpacked and ready to function in less than half a day. He would have to go to the grocery store to stock his kitchen, but he could do that on his own.

There were still a couple of hours before the end of the business day, so we all loaded into the Volvo and headed out again. We drove to the nearest car lot. Charlie looked around us in wonderment when we all got out of the car. "Don't you have enough cars?" he asked.

"Yeah, Charlie," I said, "but you don't. Let's look around for something that you can drive. I know that you are partial to trucks."

"I don't need a truck, Bells. I get around pretty well on my own."

"We are living out pretty far from town, this time, Charlie. You won't be able to just run here and there the way that you've always been able to. You need something to get around in. Let's just look, okay. Let's see if something catches your eye."

Edward and I walked over to the truck section of the car lot. Edward stopped in front of a Chevy Silverado. Charlie walked up to it. He looked inside of it. At that point, a salesman walked up to us. He started talking to Charlie about the truck. I could tell that Charlie liked the truck. He asked some questions about it. Then Edward asked some questions about it. The salesman looked back and forth between the two trying to determine who the truck would be for. Charlie finally asked the most important question in his mind, how much was it. The salesman quoted him a price of $43,000. Charlie shook his head and started to walk away.

"We'll take it," Edward said. "How quickly can you have the paperwork drawn up?"

"Well, you'll have to complete a credit application, and then we'll have to get the application approved by one of the finance companies," the salesman began.

"Is your manager available?" Edward asked.

"Yes, but I can handle all of the paperwork," the salesman assured Edward. Edward walked to the Volvo, and opening the trunk, he counted out $46,000 and put the rest back into the trunk.

"I need to see the manager. I'm ready to purchase the Silverado."

"Yes, sir," the salesman said, leading the way inside. We followed him inside. We stood by the financial office while he went and got the manager.

"Hi, my name is Sam Tucker. How may I help you, sir?"

"I'm Edward Cullen, and this is my wife, Bella. This is my father-in-law, Charlie Swan. We would like to purchase the silver Silverado that you have on the lot. I'll be paying cash. We are in a hurry and would like to expedite the transaction."

"Cash? Oh, okay. We've never handled this large of a transaction in cash. Come into our financial office here, and let's see how we can help you." We followed him into the financial officer's office, and he told us to have a seat. "Bob, this is Edward Cullen. He would like to purchase the silver Silverado that is on the lot. He would like to pay cash."

"Welcome, Mr. Cullen. Let me pull up that vehicle. Okay, the sticker price is $43,000. Tax is 2,350. We'll throw in everything else, like the undercoating and such, for a total price of $45,350."

Edward counted out the money and gave him $45,400. Bob gave him $50 change. By the time that we were finished conducting business, the salesman had taken the Silverado to the back of the lot and had it cleaned up and filled up with gas. He was driving it to the front as we walked out of the building. He tried to hand the keys to Edward, but Edward motioned them towards Charlie who took them with a look of appreciation on his face.

"Don't worry about registering it, Charlie. I'm going to take all of them tomorrow to have them registered," Edward said. Then he gave Charlie $350 and told him to go grocery shopping while we went to look at some furniture. Charlie nodded and gave me a hug. He got into his new truck and left us alone.

"That was a nice thing that you did, Edward," Alice said.

"Well, it's our responsibility to take care of him, now," Edward said. "Okay, let's get some furniture."

We went to the nearest furniture store. We lucked out. Alice and Jasper were able to find a bedroom suit that they liked. They were also able to keep it below the $20,000 that Eward had taken out of their account. We found a bedroom suit that we also liked, and we were also able to stay within our budget. Between Alice and me, we were also able to fully furnish the rest of the house. By the time that we were finished shopping the store was closing. We didn't think that they would be able to deliver anything that we'd purchased, but with a small bribe, Edward ensured that our furniture would be delivered that evening.

While the guys went home to wait on the furniture, Alice and I went to the local mall. There was a Sears as one of the anchors of the mall, so we hit there first. We were able to buy our washer and dryer and a refrigerator. Edward had given me $15,000 to spend on the other things that we needed. We also went to Dillards and bought bedding sets, towels, washcloths, hand towels, kitchen utensils, small appliances, sheets, shower curtains, and anything else that we thought that we'd need for the house. We filled the car to the brim. When we got home, the guys were still unloading the furniture. Unfortunately, the employees of the furniture store were doing the unloading. There were still two trucks to unload after the one that they were working on.

We told them that we knew that they'd worked all day, and we thought that they needed a break. They were agreeable to the break, and we told them to go down to Charlie's house for a little while. I walked them down and asked Charlie if he would get them something to drink and let them hang out for a little while. He agreed to keep them entertained, and with a wink at me, he showed them into the kitchen. I ran back up to the house, and between the four of us, we unloaded the truck that they were working on, the second truck, and half of the third truck before they came back.

Needless to say, they were astonished. Edward just told them that they were extra tired after working for so long today. He offered to let us unload the rest of the third truck for them, and they readily accepted. We told them to go back down to Charlie's house and relax a little bit more, and we would have it unloaded in no time. The next time that they came up, their trucks were unloaded. We thanked them for their time and let them be on their way.

We spent the rest of the night organizing the furniture, and we waited the next morning for the appliances to be delivered and the satellite to be connected. After those chores were done, we gathered the paperwork for all of the cars and went to the courthouse. We stood in line and brought everything that we needed to register the cars and Jasper's motorcycle. We paid cash for the new tags, putting them in the correct names. Then we went to the Highway Patrol Station to get our new driver's licenses. We presented all of the required paperwork and paid the required fees, and before long, we had our New York driver's licenses.

Charlie told us good-bye and told us that he was going to go by the police station to scope out possibilities for a job, and we told him that we were going to register for school. We went to the high school and walked into the office. There was a student at the front desk. She looked at the four of us, her gaze hovering on Edward and Jasper longer than necessary.

"Um, how may I help you?" she asked after a minute of staring.

"We need to register for school," Edward said. "We just moved into town."

"Okay, let me get Mrs. Calcote," she said. She walked into a room off of the main office.

An older woman followed her back into the main office. "Hi. My name is Mrs. Calcote. I'm the secretary. Ashley, here, told me that you need to register for school. Where are your parents?"

"They aren't with us," Edward said. "We're here alone. We can explain in your office."

"Okay, follow me," Mrs. Calcote said, motioning us towards her office. We followed her into the room. There were two chairs, so the guys let us sit. "I must say that this is unusual. We normally have transfer students registered by their parents."

"Our parents are dead. We're emancipated minors. We have legal paperwork here declaring such." Edward took out a copy of the Motion declaring us emancipated and handed it to her. "We're also married. That is enough in the state of New York to declare us emancipated." He took out two true copies of our marriage licenses and handed them to her. "We don't need anyone's permission to enroll in school. We can sign for ourselves any legal documents. Here are our transcripts from our last high school in Denali, Alaska."

"I see. Well, these papers sure seem to be in order. I must say that we've never had married students before. I must impress upon you that the rules in the handbook concerning public displays of affection will apply to the four of you just as they apply to all of our other students," Mrs. Calcote said.

"We understand that. What we do off of campus doesn't follow us onto campus," Jasper said.

"Good. Now, if I can get each of you to fill out these information sheets." she handed us all several sheets of paper to fill out. We filled them out at human speed. When we got to the course list, we talked among ourselves at vampire volume to be sure that we filled out exactly the same courses so that we'd get the same schedule. We decided that it would be easier to stick together through all of our classes than to be separated this time. When we were finished with all of the papers, we handed them back to Mrs. Calcote. She gathered them and looked over them. "I see that you all want to take the same courses. We normally don't put siblings in the same classes. We find that they tend to disrupt class. However, upon review of your transcripts, it appears that you were all in the advanced classes and had top of the class marks. You obviously need to be in the honors classes here, and you have selected the hardest schedule that you could have. Are you all sure that you can handle it?" We nodded. "Okay, then, we'll put you together with the same schedule. If we hear the first word that you have disrupted the classes, you will be moved. Is that understood?" We nodded again. "When will you be starting?"

"I believe that we've taken care of most of our business today. I don't see any reason why we couldn't start tomorrow," Edward said.

"Okay, here are your schedules. The teachers will be expecting you. If you will step out here, I'll introduce you to our principal, Mr. Conner." We followed her out into the main office area. She knocked on a door, and we heard a man's voice tell her to come in. She opened the door and motioned us forward. We walked into the room. "Mr. Conner, I'd like to introduce you to four new transfer students who'll be starting tomorrow. This is Edward Cullen, Bella Cullen, Jasper Hale, and Alice Hale."

We stepped forward and each shook his hand. "It is nice to meet you. Where are you moving from?"

"Denali, Alaska," Edward said.

"Wow, that is really a long trip. Did your parents get transferred?" he asked.

"No, our parents are dead," Edward said.

"Then you are here with your guardians?"

"No, we are emancipated minors."

"Oh, are you sisters and brothers, cousins? What are your relationships?"

"Alice and I are brother and sister. Bella and Jasper are brother and sister," Edward started.

"But she said that you and Bella were Cullens, didn't she? Wouldn't Alice be a Cullen if she were your sister?"
"She was, before she married Jasper. Now she is Alice Hale. The same with Bella. She was a Hale before we got married. Now she is Bella Cullen."

"Wait. You are all married?"

"Yes, sir. We got married as soon as Alice and I turned sixteen. It is the legal age in Alaska. The Juvenile Court Judge who had our case after our parents were killed knew that our parents would rather see us married than in foster care. He was a friend of our families. He knew that we were already engaged, just waiting to finish school before we were to be married anyway, so he signed for us to marry when we were of age."

"Oh, I see. I wonder how that is going to go over with the student body. This is going to be an interesting week at Ithaca High School. Well, I guess that we'll be seeing you tomorrow. Good luck."

"Thank you, sir." We shook his hand again, and we walked out of the office. I hoped that he was wrong. I wanted a quiet life in this new town. We stopped by a Wal-Mart and bought school supplies, then went home to organize them. We spent the rest of the day washing sheets and towels before putting them on the beds and in the bathrooms while also playing video games with the boys. The next day would be our official new start.