"Happy birthday, today you are the center of the universe."
000
The day is but hours new and night is just yielding its celestial grip on the sun. Deep orange streaks are visible from the gaps between spread out clouds. This is what Esme Cullen sees from her position in the kitchen. She moves to make some coffee and is nursing a fresh cup minutes later. She waits.
Predictably, she hears confident footsteps coming closer. A metal spoon clinks against a mug that is soon placed next to hers. She turns around finally, eyes catching on the unmade tie on Carlisle's shoulders. She grabs the ends of it and pulls her husband closer.
"Oh, honey. You know I tie it better than you do." There's a smile in her sentence, gently mocking. She begins to make his tie, hands moving slow and methodically.
"Has it ever occurred to you that I tie them awfully on purpose?" She looks up into his gentle blue eyes and stills her actions.
"All these years?"
"All these years."
"How sweet." She finishes his tie and accentuates the action with a kiss.
"Only for you."
She shakes her head playfully but leans against his sturdy shoulder anyways. They watch the sun rise gloriously, before it should get covered up by wandering stratus clouds. They pick up their warm mugs and drink occasionally. It's a peaceful moment, one that is only broken by Carlisle's watch beeping some minutes later - a reminder of work and the passing time.
There's a quick exchange of coffee kisses and he's almost out the door, when she stops him. There's a puzzlement in his eyes that lingers even after Esme looks through one of her folders and brings him a paper. It's a sketch, with red eyes. He inspects it more closely.
She points to the paper in his hand. "Keep an eye out. This is the best description I could get from the hiker that was injured."
"Of course." Now he leaves. She fixes up a second cup of coffee and debates about waiting some more. She moves to the table, back to where her folders and papers are located. She tidies it up but leaves the sketch on top. The original is somewhere in the police station, to be photocopied presumably. This one is a copy for her portfolio, or so she had said. She had only colored in the eyes once she had gotten home. Without a doubt, this man is a vampire. And if the whispers down the police corridor are any indication, he wasn't acting alone. Still, she'll make sure that the others know to be on the lookout. At the very least, they now know what one of the nomads should look like.
Alice comes down some time later, eyebrows drawn. She approaches Esme and takes her mug to steal a sip of it. Her eyes are flickering rapidly at something unknown to Esme and the older woman wonders if she's searching for something in particular.
She stares, fascinated, as Alice's eyebrows move once more and she takes on a frustrated look.
"Looking for something, sweetie?"
"Ye- no. No," she takes another sip of Esme's coffee and sticks her tongue out before handing it back. She walks to one of the cabinets and reaches up on her tippy toes to reach her favorite mug. Fridge is next, milk already being pulled out. She speaks up once her coffee is to her liking, "Maybe."
She flops down on a seat next to Esme, too distracted by something to bother with her usual grace. She places the coffee gently in front of her, handle to the right. She takes long sips from it before she drops her cheeks on her hands, gazing unseeingly at the tan swirls of her beverage.
"It's just something I'm looking for. The problem is that I'm barely getting hints of it and I can't tell if it's a time thing or something else. It's starting to give me a headache looking for it." Alice eventually elaborates after some time. She finally seems to lose some tension she didn't know she had. The frown is gone, her shoulders drop, she smiles at her mother, though she rubs at her nape tightly before moving up to her temples.
"Maybe you shouldn't look for it, then."
Coffee gone, she drops the mug in the sink and pulls Esme up from her seated position. "Better now. What's for breakfast? Who is that?"
The matriarch explains the sketch to her most recent daughter. "There isn't any breakfast yet but you're welcome to help."
And help she does. Alice has an idea for a sort of spread so she begins to pull stuff out of the cabinets and pantry. Esme takes to cutting up fruit. They remain engaged in their tasks until Alice closes a cabinet door particularly hard. Esme turns around to see what's up and finds Alice in the middle of a vision.
Before she can approach, Alice lets out a yell, "No!"
Instantly, Esme is alert and alarmed. She moves to her side immediately asking, "What is it, what's wrong?"
"Bella isn't having a birthday party!"
It takes the matriarch a few seconds to properly take the statement in but when she does she lets out a quiet oh my god. She facepalms to stomp out the bubbling urge to laugh hysterically. Removing her hand from her face, she observes Alice as she is semi lost in a vision again. Not finding that super helpful, she instead replays Alice's yell and she thinks it better matches a scandalized yell then a call for danger. Finally Alice's ringed eyes focus once more and she pouts.
It's a full on pout. Esme sighs fondly but pointedly reminds her, "Not everyone likes to celebrate their birthdays, Alice."
"It's a tragedy!" She has mostly given up on trying to convince them to celebrate their birthdays annually. Every year is apparently too often for everybody in the family, especially when Alice is just itching for an excuse to throw a party. The best Alice could make them compromise with is a sort of staggered schedule that resulted in a different person being celebrated every year. Having never known about her human life, Alice's favorite activities are decidedly human ones. Birthdays should be a cause for celebration! Another way to break up the monotony of forever.
"What is?" Emmett says as he walks into the room. He's clueless about what he has just walked into. He continues towards the fridge, sparing only a glance at the electrical appliance as he takes a cold water bottle out of it. He looks curiously at the duo in the kitchen and the mess that's starting to build. But there's also the beginnings of food. However, he goes towards what caught his attention in the first place, the paper on the table that was obviously left out for some important reason. It's basically begging him to come over to check it out, be nosey.
"Bella isn't celebrating her birthday!"
"Is this th- wait, what?" Emmett looks up at Alice's confounded face.
"That's what I said!"
He continues to stare at her, narrowing his eyes and deliberating on what to say, which thing to focus on. They are equally important so the choice only takes a second more than usual. "Is this the nomad?"
"I do believe so, considering what the poor girl says she saw."
"Damn. Family meeting?"
"Not really. I've just been telling everyone as they come and go. Seems easier."
"Makes sense," he shrugs. With his questions now answered, he turns back to Alice and takes in her slightly distressed expression, "so no birthday for Bella?"
"I don't know! No! All I saw was Chief Swan ordering a birthday cake but nothing more than that! Searching for more is only giving me a headache. Mother! I am taking a nap!" She declares dramatically before stalking up the stairs to her room. The breakfast seems to be temporarily forgotten but luckily Emmett is there to help Esme.
Emmett continues to stare after her. "Didn't she just wake up? I could've sworn she did." He's actually not entirely sure about his last statement. Their rooms are all sound proof and most of them are careful to keep some sort of background noise going to keep the others from accidentally eavesdropping. The only exception would be the music room, in which the doors are usually left open to allow the melodies to float through to fill the rest of the rooms.
Esme shrugs and picks up where Alice left off in their earlier preparation of breakfast. Between the two of them, the table is soon filled with a spread of breakfast foods. Emmett digs in and finishes his piled up assortment before Esme gets a chance to even start.
"I'll go get Edward in a bit," he says as he drops off his dishes at the sink to wash them. A door opens and closes. A quarter to nine, Rosalie comes down and picks up her own breakfast of yogurt, a bagel, and chopped fruit, the last of which she packs in a container for a later snack between her classes.
She pecks Esme on the cheek and punches Emmett's shoulder before she disappears in the direction of the garage. He had hidden one of her tools the day before.
Jasper comes down shortly afterwards, looking highly amused. Alice must've shared her birthday laments with him before napping. Despite not being twins, Jasper unknowingly picks a very similar morning meal to Rosalie's. Esme watches with no small amount of joy as he eats his breakfast. With Esme's outpouring positivity and a breakfast he can stomach, his day is definitely starting off right. Though he does think of hunting later in the afternoon. Is that cheating?
Another door opens but doesn't seem to close. Esme goes to wash her dishes in the sink.
He chews thoughtfully as he examines the sketch. Now that they know who to look out for a warning is in order should any of the Cullens run into them. The only piece of information that relaxes Jasper slightly is the knowledge that his coven outnumbers theirs.
Edward finally comes out of his music room, looking a bit tired. He slows his walk momentarily when he makes eye contact with Jasper. He gives him a nod of acknowledgement when he feels slightly less tired and gets caught up on the nomad situation. He doesn't bother to look at the sketch, instead choosing to sit down at the table gently. He inspects the selection at the table before glancing downwards to study his fingers. His fingers should feel sore from the long practices he's been having but they don't, for the most part. There's a slight lingering pinkness but hardly a callous in sight (yet) from the guitar strings digging into his fingertips. Such a curious thing, vampire healing. He didn't bother to sleep last night, too caught up in his musical progress. He runs his hands through his hair, mussing up his (for once) flat hair. He pours himself a cup of coffee from the french press on the table.
"So who's birthday is coming up soon?" Jasper speaks up quietly. In all her excitement, Alice forgot to actually specify who when she was explaining her headache to him. He has a very strong suspicion as to who but some confirmation would be nice nonetheless.
"Isabella Swan," supplies Edward, who had heard the crestfallen thoughts of Alice. "Bella," he corrects after he gets second hand (third hand?) flashbacks of the girl correcting other people at school. He picks up a spoon and uses it to dump sugar into his coffee, stirring irregularly once he feels that the little crystals have dissolved completely.
Another minute passes by as they both enjoy their respective drinks. "Have we met her?"
"You know, I don't think so…" Edward thinks back closely to the last two and a half months of school. Surely he's seen her in his classes? "Do you have any classes with her? She sits next to Rose in our biology class."
Jasper opens his mouth and slowly closes it. A few seconds pass. This time he has an answer. "Just history. Uh, US history to be exact. You should have less classes with her anyways. She's a junior. Aren't you supposed to be a 'senior'?"
He uses air quotes when he says it and Edward mimics him. "Yes, I am a senior. Therefore you should give me your lunch money, you junior."
Jasper throws a grape at him before he can think too long about the action and give Edward a mental heads up. It bounces off his forehead just as Esme walks past them. She stops momentarily at Edward's gasp before snickering and moving on. She does give them a light warning about making sure to clean up any messes. Edward stands up quickly, chair scraping momentarily and Jasper tenses, ready to defend against any and all food attacks.
Instead Edward retreats to the kitchen, taking his mug with him. Jasper exhales a short laugh.
000
Bella for her part, spends the rest of the weekend intermittently thinking about Rosalie (that's the first sign). Not about anything in particular, but mostly about how much fun she had yesterday. Hanging out with friends is fantastic and she needs to do it more, but she's becoming aware that there is a wonderful difference between hanging out with Angela and hanging out with Rosalie.
She feels like she's constantly talking herself out of (over)texting the other girl. She throws in a joke or two between texts and wonders if she facepalms like Angela does. She wants Rosalie to facepalm and scoff at her dumb jokes but more importantly, Bella wants to see that in person. She resolves to save her best jokes for later use. Bella is sure to ask about their homework just to have an excuse.
The week starts anew, homework gets turned in, and then it's Wednesday within a blink of an eye.
Her morning starts off with an attempted assassination from Spoons. At some point during the past few weeks, Spoons realized that Bella wasn't leaving like she usually did after summer break. Since then, he's increased his bursts of affection towards Bella and she loves it. Except today, when there's black fur in her mouth and she wakes up sputtering. Spoons meows indignantly, as though she has messed up his precious sleep and not the other way around.
It's a little earlier than when she usually wakes up but Bella gets out of bed anyways. She can hear some signs of life in the kitchen and goes to investigate. She shuffles downstairs and comes across Charlie cooking. That isn't unusual, but it is unusual in that Bella normally wakes up after her dad leaves for work.
"Morning kiddo, you're up early." He's whisking something and facing away from her but she feels heat in her cheeks when he points out the obvious.
"Uh, yeah. Spoons was sleeping on my head this morning. We've got a weird cat," she says as she leans against the pass through counter to get a better view of what he's doing. "So… whatcha cooking?"
"Weird name, weird cat. I'm making french toast. It's not everyday my daughter turns 17. Happy birthday, Bells." He presents her with a stack of freshly made french toast and pulls out a similar stack for himself that she didn't see earlier. He gives her a bear hug and a kiss on the head combo.
"Thanks Dad!" She says once her feet are back on the ground. She takes a good look at this cinnamon and powdered sugar delight before she drowns it in syrup. Charlie does the same. They clink their forks together and begin to dig in. Spoons comes down some minutes later, meowing loudly for food. How dare they not have his food bowl ready.
Charlie feeds Spoons and says, "Well, that's my cue. What do you say to lunch after school?"
"As long as there's dessert!"
"Well, you certainly don't get your sweet tooth from me," he jokes.
"Sure, sure..."
"Have a good day at school, I'll see you later."
Bella takes her dish to the sink, gives Spoons plenty of affection, and returns upstairs. She gets dressed quickly and prepares her backpack for the day. Snacks, homework. She's startled by her phone ringing and makes a mad dash towards it.
"Hello?" she says before placing the phone between her shoulder and head. It's an awkward position but she really needs to untie her shoelaces.
"Bella, honey! Happy birthday! I just thought I'd call you before I go to work. I miss you so much, I wish I could celebrate with you."
"Thanks mom, I miss you too. Uh, that's okay, you'll see me in a couple of weeks. We can do something then?"
"Of course we can. Something big!"
Bella frowns at the thought of what her mother could possibly be planning. "How about small?"
"And loud!"
"Um. We can figure out the details later."
"Right. Well, do you need anything? I was going to send you some birthday money later today after work but do you need extra money for winter boots? Or something for school?"
"No, I'm okay mom. Thanks. I bought boots this weekend actually."
"Oh, you'll have to send me a picture. Shoot, is that the time? I have to get going, but have a fantastic day, sweetheart."
"You too, mom."
The call ends and Bella finally manages to put on her right shoe. Bella checks the time and decides she might as well leave. Once she reaches the school's parking lot, she thinks it might be better to stay inside her truck. At least it's warm inside and the seats aren't soaked with morning dew. She takes a moment to think about today.
Wednesdays aren't particularly great days but in Bella's mind, they are rather nice. Tolerable. The halfway point of the week. What is even better than a normal Wednesday is the fact that her birthday falls on a Wednesday this year. She thinks it's the perfect day to have a birthday, especially during one's high school career (if it can even be called that). Everybody has plans on Fridays, therefore restaurants and shops probably have more clientele. She would complain about the potential traffic, if it weren't for the fact that she's not even sure if Forks has bad traffic. Thursdays are too busy due to the loads of assignments that are due Fridays.
Wednesday is a perfect day to have a birthday, she thinks, quite satisfied. With that, she rummages around her backpack in search of the current book for English. She's not particularly fond of Shakespeare and wants to make sure she understands the text properly.
She delves in, wondering why she's torturing herself on her birthday. There's a sharp knock on her window and Bella drops her book. She twists awkwardly to retrieve it from where it landed near the pedals. She looks out the driver's window but doesn't see anyone. Instead, she sees Angela making her way to the passenger's side from the front of her truck. She's carrying something but Bella can't make out what it is. She tries the handle and waits patiently until Bella unlocks it. Angela sits down and offers a large frozen coffee to Bella, whose eyes bulge at the size of the drink. Oh, hell yeah.
"Happy birthday Bella!"
"Thanks, Angela. That looks delicious."
They hug across the central console, awkwardly because Bella's backpack is in the way but that doesn't stop them. They sip at their drinks and make idle chit chat until Angela says,"You know, I don't think we've ever celebrated your birthday. You and me, or anyone else here. You're usually gone by July or August."
Bella takes a long sip, catching some bits of chocolate chip and delights in her inability to get a brain freeze. She ponders about that little detail. "Well, I'm here now."
"That you are, that you are," Angela drawls out. She's already thinking about her surprise plans for the afternoon.
Bella sips languidly at her coffee, feeling her teeth get colder and colder, enjoying the sensation like an absolute psychopath. However, even she is not impervious to the cold and she eventually shivered.
The school bell rings in the distance and Bella suddenly remembers an important detail. She stops Angela before she can exit her truck. "Hey, um. Do you mind not telling anyone? That it's my birthday?"
"Of course not, but maybe I should've bought you a smaller coffee," her best friend adopts a thoughtful face, wondering if the coffee could be a potential clue for someone overly observant.
"Nooo… Can't be suspicious if there's no coffee cup," Bella brings a finger to her temple before pointing at the other girl with a mischievous grin.
"Bella, no," Angela frowns immediately.
"Bella, yes."
000
The next time Bella is inside her truck, once school has ended, she is surprised. Getting to the inside of her truck is normal and straightforward. It's the inside that's out of place. Bella sits on the driver's seat and is about to shove her backpack in the other seat when she sees that she cannot do that. She gets vaguely paranoid all of a sudden and cannot for the life of her remember if she locked her truck that morning. She leans over her bag and picks up the paper bird first. She gently unfolds the origami crane to read the writing on it and looks for a signature. She finds way too many of them. Surprisingly (or not?) the majority of the writing is in Alice's handwriting.
Hi Bella!
We were just going to leave you a note on your windshield wipers this morning but then we realized that your truck was unlocked. So two birds one stone, we locked it up and we also left some things here for you. Juuust in case we went home early. Happy birthday!
The paper is signed from Alice, Rosalie, and Emmett but the signatures are all over the place. It seems as though Rosalie attempted a neat signature but that was crossed out by a green pen, which corresponded with Emmett's name trying to take up more space. It was ultimately eviscerated by Rosalie's purple. There's little birthday themed doodles and hearts at the bottom, the majority of which are in orange. There are three distinct doodles however. Some sort of half circle, a truck, and what looks like a tumbleweed, all in their distinct colors.
It's terribly endearing and she needs to figure out how to get the paper back into its bird form again. She takes a picture of it and sends it to Alice.
How did you know it was my birthday? I'm keeping this forever by the way! Turn it back to a bird!
She gets a reply within a few seconds, complete with an explosion of emojis: Happy birthday! Esme and I saw your dad at the bakery section a few days ago. We kinda assumed, hope you like your presents!
The bakery section? Interesting. If her dad was trying to keep that trip a secret, it's out of the bag now. She hopes for both of their sakes that it's a small cake. The last line reminds Bella that there are still unidentified parked objects on the passenger's seat. She picks up the beanie first and is awed when she realizes it's a crocheted beanie. She figures it must be Alice's half circle and wonders if she made it herself. The very top of it is yellow and gets progressively darker until the bottom of the beanie is red. It reminds her of Phoenix and Bella sniffles, surprised at the sudden homesickness. She puts it on immediately and uses her truck's mirror to see how it looks. It's perfect.
She glances over and it turns out that the tumbleweed is not a tumbleweed at all, but instead a glow in the dark sphere of some kind. She pulls on it to pick it up and it expands. It shrinks down to a more manageable size when she pushes it. Very cool. The last thing is a piece of paper that almost looks like a coupon but unlike any coupons that Bella knows of, this one simply says 'Truck repair.'
Before she can question it further, she receives two simultaneous texts from the other two siblings wishing her a happy birthday. Alice must've told them that she got their note and presents.
She sends off a THanks! But what's this thing called? to Emmett and she gets an instant response: It's a Hoberman sphere! He's the greatest inventor of all time! :O
Her scant knowledge of history tells her that that is debatable but then again, this toy is pretty wicked. He might be onto something. She hesitates on what to send to Rosalie for a minute.
Thank you but what does a truck repair coupon entail?
Exactly what it says.
That's incredibly vague :(
:)
:/
:)
Bella laughs at the aggressive smiley face. I knew you were staring at my truck a little longer than usual. You know, maybe I should've been more suspicious when you doodled a truck in bio
Who says that was your truck?
My apologies, how presumptuous of me. BUt now my truck is insulted that you're not drawing her like one of your french girls
(Rosalie almost gets swept along within this flirtatious line of texting before she deletes her entire message and starts again. If Emmett were there, he would've poked at her hot cheeks. Alice might've tried to wrestle away the phone and hit the send button before Rosalie could delete it.)
Bella watches as the typing bubbles disappear and reappear. I think I speak truck a little better than you do and your truck's shitty radio is a desperate cry for help.
Please let me fix it.
Bella is about to concede when her phone rings and she presses the answer button before she can even check who it is.
"H-Hello?"
"10-20."
"What?"
"C'mon Bella, 10-20. What's your location?"
Oh right. Ever since she could remember, her dad always asked that instead of asking normally. But normal is overrated and she enjoys their inside joke. She lets out an audible sigh of relief before answering.
"Still at school but I was just about to drive home."
"I'll meet you there and then we'll drive over to Carver's. I hope you're hungry."
"Definitely! See you soon."
She texts Rosalie before she can forget. Sorry! Got to go, I'll get back to you on that. Lunch awaits!
The drive to Carver's is just the same as she remembered, and Charlie drives at the same easy speed. The familiarity of it all is relaxing. They enter the cafe and find themselves seated quickly. There aren't too many people currently but a couple more patrons walk in after they do. There's someone typing away on a laptop, breakfast by their side. Another couple sits at the booth, heartily laughing over some anecdote from work. Cora arrives to give them the menu and does a double take. She even reaches for her phone to check the date.
"Well, I'll be. Charlie's here on a Wednesday. What can I get you all?"
Charlie, having long memorized the menu, orders immediately and Bella just asks for whatever he's having. Charlie looks vaguely embarrassed for some reason while Cora finishes writing up their orders.
"Dad, do you eat here every Thursday and Friday?" Those are usually the only days when Charlie works particularly late. Charlie strongly hints that she should order a pizza on those days.
"Just Thursdays, Bella," Cora jokes, "He certainly keeps business coming and the criminals going. I'll be back with your food."
"So, how's school?" Charlie asks once Cora's gone.
"Oh my god, you'll never guess what Mike did today…" Bella starts exasperatedly and recounts her entire day, beginning with her large coffee and ending with coming to the cafe. Charlie watches amusedly as she complains about the boys and how she wishes their 'shiny toy syndrome' would go away already. He hums and nods at the right moments to keep Bella talking while also thinking back to how long it's been since he was in high school and if he had any advice to give.
"Just try not to procrastinate too much," is all he says in the end.
"Ugh, I know. That one's hard but I try. Sometimes you just work better under pressure, you know?"
Their food is delivered some minutes later, two monstrous looking hamburgers and an equally sized pile of fries, and conversation is halted for the remainder of the meal. When Cora comes back with the bill, she's surprised to find a lack of desert.
"No berry cobbler? You're breaking all the rules, Officer."
Charlie lets out a huge sigh to show that he's extremely full. "Not today, I'm afraid. Thank you."
They leave and get settled in Charlie's cruiser. "Alright, old man, you promised desert."
"And it's chilling in the fridge, back at home."
"Oh."
"Yeah, oh. So how much do you reckon we can eat?"
"A lot."
"Good call. But I need to go back to work soon so don't eat the whole thing while I'm gone."
Charlie drives them home and they arrive just as another car is driving down the roadway. It parks next to Bella's truck and they see a figure rummage for something in the car.
"Did you invite Angela over?" Charlie asks once they're both inside.
"Uh, no. But I'll ask if she wants some cake." Bella takes her shoes off and puts them nearby before she leans out the door, "Hey, Angela, do you want some cake?!"
"Sure!"
"She wants some cake, Dad." She repeats unnecessarily to her dad, who is currently taking out a white box from the fridge very carefully. He looks excited.
"Mm. I'm sure the whole neighborhood heard, Bella. We'll wait for Angela to open this cake, I think you'll love it."
Bella scoops up Spoons before he could attempt to climb up her friend's pants when she entered the house. "Hey Bella! Hi, Mr. S. Hope you don't mind."
"Course not, you're always welcome here. Someone needs to make sure this one doesn't burn down the house."
"Hey! That was one time! And it was toast!" That was uncalled for. She made toast one time directly under the fire alarm and she forgot to check the settings on the toaster. Never again.
"Gather round, teenagers, gather round. We're gathered here today to celebrate Bella's 17th birthday. As such, Bella cuts this magnificent work of art first."
Bella rolls her eyes goodnaturedly at Charlie's attempt to simultaneously hype up and present the cake in a serious manner. He opens the box and Bella gasps slightly, her breath coming out as a disbelieving laugh.
"No way."
The cake is green. It's green. She's never seen a green cake before but it's made even better by the fact that there's tiny frosted succulents decorating the round dessert.
"Is that… Is that aloe vera?" She's smiling so widely, pointing to one of the miniature spiked plants. "Dad, this is so cute!"
"Yeah well… little bit of home while you're home Bells."
Again, Bella feels like she's suddenly developed allergies. "This is the best cake ever..."
Charlie hands her a knife and Angela whips out her phone to capture a couple of photos. They both take turns posing with Bella and her cactus cake. Charlie eats a slice before he leaves the two girls to their devices. Angela hands Bella a wrapped present. It doesn't weigh much and it's fairly thin so Bella has no idea what it could be. She opens the wrapping gently and smiles fondly but says, "Goddamnit, why is everyone trying to make me cry today?"
Angela laughs. "So you like it?"
"Of course I do!" Bella observes the picture in the frame more closely, trying to give it a date. It's a picture of Bella, Jacob, Leah, and Angela when they were children. They are laying on a blanket and whoever took the photo was standing over them.
"How old were we, like 8? 7? You came over to play and then Billy brought Jacob to play with me too while they watched their baseball game, and uh..." Bella trails off, trying to remember why Leah was there.
"And Leah got super annoyed by Seth that day so Billy just brought her over too. I think we played tag and hide and seek, and some other stuff I'm sure."
"Oh yeah, we did. Hide and seek was fun."
"You're only saying that because you always found everyone but you were somehow the last one to be found. I'm still not quite sure how that happened. Every single time."
"Magic!" Bella grins mischievously, "I guess I just had good hiding spots."
A/N 2/5/21 - I have some major announcements. For reference, Bella's bday in this fic is October 20th. I just googled cactus cake and scrolled down a little bit if anyone is curious about what the cake looks like.
I'm not entirely happy with how I've been formatting text messages in this fic and I'll probably edit them all one day but until then suggestions are welcome. An interesting piece of information: Rosalie was dangerously close to texting back, "who says I was drawing french girls? Maybe I like them American."
Onto the major announcements. Yes, I'm still writing this fic. I can't be the only one who genuinely thought they'd actually be productive during the quarantine…. So I was on tumblr (I think) some time ago and came across Carine/Esme, and I've realized that I quite like this obscure-ish ship. I like it enough to change Carlisle to Carine and I might as well edit the rest of this fic because my rereading my stuff makes me cringe sometimes. Another major reason for the change is the backstory potential. That's the only thing changing in my copious character notes. I'm really excited for it.
Before I forget, I can't believe this fic is almost 3 years old! Thanks to everyone who's read it and commented and everything related to that. I read every review! I didn't expect this to still be ongoing after 3 years but it is and I'm having so much fun with it. I hope it shows. I take forever to update but I try to update my bio so that there's proof that I haven't dropped off the face of the earth lol. Last thing, I'm hoping everything will be edited by the time the 14th chapter gets posted (whenever that is…). The other two fics should be updated sometime soon, if anyone's reading those as well.
Also I checked and did some research and as far as I can tell there I can't find any instances of snow during November/December in Forks, WA. I might be wrong but I've been completely baffled. And it's pretty close to sea level? What the heck. I've been bamboozled. Anyways my point is there may or may not be a Halloween/Winter break chapter next before the action happens. I don't regret starting my fic during the summer but man...