A/N:

My apologies for this very late chapter. Real life got in the way. Amber and I will hopefully be able to update this story regularly. She hopes you enjoy it. :))

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Chapter 12: Mix Up

"Are you full, Nessie?" Grandma asks as she stands up, brushing off the snow on her pants.

Grandma, Grandpa and I caught deer for lunch - they each took down two while I only caught one - and we just finished burying them in the snow. Deer isn't as delicious as caribou but it's a lot better than yucky human food. I'm so happy that my grandparents didn't make me eat any macaroni and cheese or chicken nuggets or drink any milk for lunch.

I stand up and copy exactly what Grandma does. I like to copy her a lot.

Grandma smiles at me while Grandpa is crouched on the ground. He's busy patting snow, making sure it is packed tight. So no animals will find the remains of our lunch.

"My tummy is happy." I answered her question.

"Are you sure?" Grandpa stands up too. He puts his arms around Grandma but his kind golden eyes look at me. "Sweetie, I want to make sure you are well fed since we must go into town."

"I promise I am." I say very seriously as I pull up my shirt, stick out and pat my tummy that fills very big.

Grandma nods her head. "Looks like a full tummy." She smiles.

"I see," Grandpa lets go of Grandma and sits down on his knees in front of me. He puts one hand on my tummy. "Well, I do say. That deer was big and it looks like it will keep you full for a while."

"Yup." I say.

Grandpa nods his head. All of a sudden he makes his hands into crab claws to play Tickle Crab. I giggle as he tickles my tummy and I flop in the snow. Grandpa makes a snapping sound and he tickles me, he can be so silly sometimes. I hear Grandma laugh as the tickling goes on.

"Mr. Tickle Crab wants to know if you're still hungry." Grandpa asks as he tickles me.

"I'm not. I'm sure." I say between laughter.

Grandpa keeps tickling as Grandma asks the same question again. Laughing from all the tickling, I give my answer that is still the same. I'm full. Very full.

Ever since I almost bit the mailman back when we lived in Forks, Grandpa and Grandma make sure I am very well fed before I go out into the human world. Even though it was an accident and nothing happened they always ask me a million and a zillion times if I am full. But what almost happened in Forks wasn't my fault, the mailman smelled very yummy and I was only three years old, I couldn't help myself. I didn't know any better.

It happened on a day that Grandma, Grandpa and I were waiting next to the mailbox on the dirt road that leads to our old house. We were waiting for a package that my other Grandma, who I don't know very well, had sent me for a very late birthday present. We stood on the side of the road next to our large mailbox, waiting forever for the mailman to get there and when he did it was a different letter carrier than the person who usually brought our mail. When he got out of the mail truck to give us my big box that had a mini Claw Machine in it, I noticed right away that he had a delicious flavor that smelled very sweet, a hundred times better than candy. I never smelled a human that smelled so yummy before. When he handed my package to Grandpa I tried to let go of Grandma's hand and bit the mailman on his leg. He was wearing shorts and it would have been easy to sink my teeth into him. But that didn't happen.

Right away Grandma stopped me by picking me up and scolding me. The mailman gave us very strange looks and Grandma and Grandpa played it off that I was pretending to be a puppy. After all, I was wearing a Dalmatian costume and the mailman believed them because human kids don't bite people but dogs do. But that didn't make the mailman any less scared of me. He jumped in his truck really, really fast and drove down the road even faster.

After that incident Grandma and Grandpa took me home and gave me a long talk about why our family doesn't bite people even when they smell yummy. They also always make sure I am very full when we go out, so full like that my tummy feels like it's very big and going to burst, just like it does right now. That's so I don't accidentally bite someone because then our secret from the humans would get out and they would know that we are vampires and that would be very, very bad.

"Ready to go to town?" Grandpa asks as he stops tickling me. He stands up and helps me up too.

"Why do we need to go to town?" I ask, trying to catch my breath. Tickling made it very hard to breathe .

"Grandma has a few errands to run and we must go with her." Grandpa explains with a smile.

Feeling like I am missing something because I don't remember them talking about going into town - unless they had talked about it when I was climbing trees. That was before our hunt. I look up at Grandma. I do my question face by making one eyebrow go up.

"I need to go to the grocery store." She explains. "I plan on cooking two special dishes for breakfast on Thursday and I would like to buy everything ahead of time. And besides the grocery store, I also need to go to the craft store."

Hearing that Grandma needs to go to the craft store doesn't surprise me. That's one of her favorite stores. The other is Home Depot. She loves to spend lots of hours in the Garden aisle, I like to go with her and play with the garden gnomes. But at the thought of going to the grocery store because Grandma is going to cook something special I feel scared and stand as still as a statue. I don't want to know what horrible human food she's going to make me eat.

"I don't think I want to go to the grocery store." I say in a small voice. "Can I stay home?"

I hope they say yes. Then that way no one will be buying yucky human food for me to eat because I can't stay home by myself, since I'm not old enough. That means they would have to stay home too and no one will be going food shopping. Problem solved.

"You want to stay home?" Grandma and Grandpa speak at the same time. They give each other a funny look then they look back at me.

"Yes please." I say very hopefully.

"How come?" Grandpa wonders. "You usually enjoy going into town."

That's true. I usually get very happy when we go somewhere but not today. Not the grocery store. I don't want to go there. I don't say anything.

Grandma comes over to me, she lends down in front of me. Her golden eyes look into mine as she puts her hands either side of my face. "You look very sad, sweetheart. Is there a reason why you want to stay home?"

I nod my head.

"Will you please tell us so we can understand what's wrong?" Grandpa is standing next to me with his hand on my shoulder. "If we know what is wrong we can help you."

I don't want to say what's wrong. I don't really know how. Worst of all I want to cry and don't know why. I wish Daddy was here so he could read my mind and explain what's wrong since I can't.

I'm half human and everyone thinks I'm supposed to like human food but I don't. None of it tastes yummy to me but everyone makes me try new food anyways. It doesn't matter who it is or where I go, someone always wants me to try some type of food. My vampire family always makes me try lunch, Grandpa Charlie and Sue make me try fish when I visit them. Even Jacob, his dad, and Leah make me try food when I visit them, which isn't often since we live so far away and I haven't seen them for a long time. But still, I remember it all. And even Seth has made me try candy when I see him.

Even the few times that I've seen my Grandma Renee and Phil, they made me try strange things like passion fruit, broccoli, lima beans and kale smoothies. That tasted awful. Even when Grandma takes me to what Mommy and Daddy call a playgroup, the people there make me eat yucky applesauce and goldfish crackers and drink apple juice that doesn't taste good. I just can't get a break from yucky human food.

Grandma and Grandpa ask me what's wrong again. Instead of saying anything I sit in the snow and start to cry. I really don't want to eat any more nasty human food and I don't know what Grandma is going to make me eat on Thursday or why she's picking that day to make me try something new. More tears fall from my eyes onto my cheeks and into the snow.

With my hands covering my face as I cry with no words coming out, I feel myself being sandwiched in between my grandparents. Immediately I feel safe, warm and loved by them.

"Shhh, it's okay." Grandma says in a sweet voice as she rubs my back.

"Sweetie," Grandpa says softly. "Can you show me what's wrong?"

I sniffle as I move my hands from my face. Looking at my grandparents through my blurry eyes as I keep crying I notice that they look sad because I am crying. I try to stop crying. I don't like to cry. When my tears aren't falling as fast I put my hand to Grandpa's cheek and show him all of my bad memories about every time I had to eat yucky human food and didn't like it. When I'm done I then do the same to Grandma and show her the same thing that I showed Grandpa.

"Now I understand the confusion." Grandpa says very quietly, patting my shoulder. He sounds like he's talking to himself.

Grandma holds my hand when my memories come to an end. "Are you crying because you think I'm making food for you to eat on Thursday?" She wipes the tears from my face with her free hand.

"Yes." I nod my head.

Grandma and Grandpa give me a big hug. Then they turn and look at each other. Both of them smile and now I feel like I have missed something.

"Nessie," Grandma says in a gentle voice. "The food I need to buy that I will prepare on Thursday isn't for you. It's to take to MOPS, it's my group's turn to cook this week. All the mommies that sit at my table have to bring two dishes for our breakfast."

"Oh." I feel embarrassed that I was crying over a mix up.

"All better?" Grandpa wonders.

"Yeah." I smile as a thought pops into my head. "I'm going to my playgroup this week?" I ask happily.

I like going to my playgroup. When I go there I get to play with other kids and Grandma goes in with all the other moms. It's fun even though I have to eat a little human food when we go there. But because it doesn't happen everyday I always forget when we are going because we only go two times in one month. That's just the way it is.

I'm told I can't go to school yet because it's not practical because I grow fast, that's what my grandparents said when I asked them. But it's okay for me to go to playgroup and Grandma to go to her Mommy group because it's only for a little while and not all day and Grandma is close by. No grown up at MOPS questions why I grow so fast since Grandma, who pretends to be my mommy, uses the cover story that I have a medical condition that makes me grow super fast. Since Grandpa, who pretends to be my daddy for the humans, is a doctor and knows exactly what to say to make it sound like it's not a lie, everyone believes it.

"Yes, it's this Thursday." Grandma answers my question.

"Yay! I get to see my friends." I hop up and do my happy dance.

I do my happy dance for a little while. I only stop when Grandma announces that it's time to go run her errands because she wants to leave before the kids get back from school. I don't ask why that is, I just go with it.

"Would you like a piggy back ride?" Grandpa asks me.

"Please." I smile.

I don't wait for Grandpa to put me on his back. I jump up all on my own. I lock my arms and legs around him as he wraps his arms around my legs. He walks very fast with Grandma by his side, this fast walking would be running to a human but not to us.

In no time at all we are in our very big garage and getting into Grandma's pink van with very dark windows. The windows are black and protect us from the sun, just like the windows on Grandpa's black car.

Grandma sits in the driver's seat and turns the van on. Grandpa sits in front next to her and I sit in the seat in back of him with all my books and toys that I keep in here to entertain me. While we drive out of the garage Grandpa and Grandma go over the going out rules with me. They remind me that I have to pretend that they are my parents, I have to speak when I want something, I can't use my talent, I have to stay next to them when we are inside stores, no running off and no biting humans. I roll my eyes at that last rule as I grab a book from the seat pocket.

I only tried to bite a human once and never again. Why can't they don't forget that? Everyone brings that up when I go out. I don't like it.

When all of the going out rules come to an end and Grandma turns on the radio and the music comes on. I begin to get an idea. My idea becomes bigger and bigger as Grandma drives on the street that takes us into town.

"Ma and Pa, I have a very important question to ask." I use the names I call them when we are out among humans.

The names Ma and Pa come from a book I once read called "Laura Ingalls on The Banks of Plum Creek." Those are the names the little girl in the story called her parents and I like the way they sound and it's also the ending sounds in Grandma and Grandpa but no one knows that but us. That's because I told that to my grandparents when I came up with these names since I didn't want to call them mom and dad since that's for my parents and I can't call them Grandpa and Grandpa like I usually do. Because the humans would think that's too strange and know something is wrong.

"What's the important question?" Grandma wonders, keeping her eyes on the road.

"Can I have a pet chicken?" I ask. "Please? Pretty please?"

"A chicken for a pet?" Grandpa asks, looking at Grandma. "That's a different request."

"Indeed it is." Grandma agrees.

"Please? I really want a chicken." I say very sweetly.

When Grandpa turns around in his seat to see me. I give him my best please face with puppy dog eyes. The face that I know he can't say no to.

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Thanks for reading. :))

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