"That's Emmett's football team picture from two years ago." Esme explains, pointing to the wallet-sized photo on the refrigerator. Jasper ignores them and shoves a forkful of salad in his mouth, crunching loudly. "They almost made it to states that year."

"That's cool. Where was this taken?" Rose asks, pointed to a picture of Esme, Carlisle, Edward, Emmett and blond haired teenage boy on a beach.

"That was in Florida. We have a timeshare down there. Every August we go down there for three weeks."

"Wow, that's awesome! Isn't that cool, Jasper?" Rosalie turns to Jasper, hoping to at least get a smile out of him. He just shrugs his shoulders.

Esme pats Rosalie on the back. When Rose looks at her, Esme just gives her a small smile before going to sit at the dinning room table with Jasper.

"So what do you like to do?" Esme asks. Jasper gives her a disgruntled look before shrugging again.

"He likes being outside." Rosalie says and takes the seat on the other side of Jasper. Esme reaches across the table and puts her hand on top of Rosalie's.

"Let him answer for himself, honey." She tells her sweetly. Rosalie scrunches up her eyebrows and nose, but does as she's told. "So you're more of an outdoors person?"

"I guess." He murmurs.

"Do you hunt?"

"I use to." He keeps mumbling, looking down at his food.

"Well, we own fifteen acres of the woods on the east side of the house. Maybe you can teach Carlisle how to hunt. There's a lot of deer in there."

"I don't like guns."

"So you must like to hunt with a bow and arrow."

"Never shot a bow."

"Oh." Esme gives a slight nod, and even though she has more questions about how he can hunt without a gun or bow, she gently changes the course of the conversation. "So what other activities do you like?"

Jasper shrugs again.

"You like camping." Rosalie interjects. Esme gently squeezes her hand to remind her to let Jasper talk.

"Is that so, Jasper?"

"Only with my Dad." Jasper huffs, gives Rosalie a harsh glare and pushes his chair back. He stands and, without a word to Esme or his sister, stomps his way to the steps before running upstairs. Rosalie sighs.

"I'm sorry. He's not taking this very well." She tells Esme.

"It's okay, dear. It's always hard to adapt to a new home."

"I swear he's a nice boy. He's just dealing with some crap right now."

Jasper can still hear Rosalie talking as he makes his way to her room. Why the hell is she so determined to make him talk to Esme? He doesn't even want to be here, and she knows that. He just wants to go back to Maria's.

He slams the door and crawls under the covers. He fishes his cell phone out of his pocket, flips it open and tries to remember the last time Maria put minutes on it. He can't remember exactly when she did, but when he finds her number and presses the 'call' button, the phone rings. And rings, and rings, and rings. Maria doesn't answer, and he's sent to her voice mail.

"I wish you would answer, Maria." Jasper says quietly. "Can you please just tell me what happened? Text me, call me, anything."

He snaps the phone shut and buries his face into the pillow. Maria's house is where he belongs. Not here. She's what he needs.


"I thought Dad and Emmett were going to take the bed upstairs!" Edward huffs and pouts to Esme.

"Edward, he's working later than expected. Please just do as he asks." She tells him nicely. "And I'm sure Jasper will like to be able to rest in his own bed soon."

"Then why can't he take it up?" Edward mumbles and shoots a glare at Jasper, but he turns his angry scowl towards Esme when sets her hand on his shoulder.

"Knock it off, Edward Cullen, or you'll be answering to your father when he gets home. He won't be happy to hear you gave me and Jasper a hard time." She scolds him quietly, but Jasper and Rosalie still hear.

Jasper only pays half attention to what Esme and Edward are saying, though. He's more concerned about that big brute, Emmett. He's drooling over Rosalie, and Jasper's disgusted by it. He sizes Emmett up before deciding how to handle this. Emmett's at least six foot tall, and his arms are as big around as Jasper's head. In a strength match, Jasper doesn't stand a chance. His cropped dark brown hair and deep green eyes make him look too old to be going to high school, even though he's only nineteen. His tee-shirt is tight and shows off his abs as he moves, which just conflicts Jasper even more. His lusty look and flirty tone towards Rosalie is not something her little brother approves of. But what can Jasper do while glaring from the table? He clenches his fists as Emmett reaches up to brush Rosalie's hair out of her face.

Emmett doesn't even pay attention to Jasper, though. He did say hello and introduced himself when he got home, but he couldn't resist the beauty of a girl in front of him. Rosalie's body caught his attention first. Her hourglass figure, her thick ass, her full breasts. She's tall, too. Emmett loves that. Her blond hair is thick and wavy and long and he can already imagine running his hands through it. And those blue eyes of hers. And he's sure she's flirting back with him. She sure is giggling an awful lot. He knows it's probably not right to be flirting with a girl who could possibly be his sister if his parents decide to adopt again, but damn, she's a knock out!

Edward, on the other hand, doesn't recognize the positive side of having these two new people in his home. All he cares about right now is the fact that he has to carry up the box spring and mattress. His Dad and Emmett were suppose to do this. Besides, why can't Casper or whatever his name is do it? It's obvious to everyone that Edward's not as strong as Emmett. At five foot five, Emmett towers over him. When standing next to his brother, the little visible muscle tone Edward has is horribly overshadowed by that meat-head. But Edward hard the upper hand on Emmett in anything other than muscle and charisma. Edward's set to graduate a year ahead of his classmates, and Emmett's already a year behind graduating high school. Edward and Emmett can be in the same class learning the same thing, but Edward will pick up on the material faster than Emmett. He can explain things better, he can teach things better, he can learn better. He knows that, but Emmett doesn't recognize that. Emmett sticks out. Edward doesn't. With brown colored hair and regular brown eyes, Edward tends to blend in with the crowd. And when Edward struggles to carry the big, bulky mattress and box spring, Emmett will laugh and tell Edward that he's scrawny or weak or wimpy. And that's the last thing he wants to happen in front of these new kids. Even that weird blonde boy.

Jasper's skinny like Edward, but his shoulders are wide and his waist is small. His blonde hair hangs about an inch past his shoulders in loose curls. He talks with a southern drawl that Rosalie doesn't have. He never lost the accent after their mother moved them from Texas to Washington. His gray eyes are harsh and strange. They seem to hold an unique combination of hatred, frustrations and secretes. There's something going on in that mind of his that the others can't really pin down. Jasper isn't about to let them know about those secretes or the cause of all his anger. They won't understand what he's gone through. Even Rosalie won't be able to understand. She may have been by his side for everything, but he knows she's practically blind. She doesn't know what he's gone through. She doesn't understand his emotions. Maria, on the other hand, knew everything. She was the person Jasper could run to. If she would just answer her phone.

"Emmett, go get the bed set up. You too, Edward." Esme tells her boys. Edward groans, but Emmett is quick to go to the garage. Moving the mattress won't be a struggle for him, but it will give him the chance to flex his muscles in front of Rosalie. So he bounds through the door in the kitchen the leads to the garage, grabbing Edward by the sleeve of his shirt and dragging him along.

"Rose," Jasper murmurs. Rosalie hurries over and pulls a chair up to set next to him.

"I think they're nice." She whispers with a smile.

"Stay away from that big one."

"Emmett?"

"Yeah. He's got that predator look in his eyes. He just wants to get you in bed."

Rosalie rolls her eyes. Jasper is the last person to be telling her to look out for 'predators'. But she doesn't tell him that, though. If it makes him feel okay to watch out for her, she won't stop him.

"Well, I think everyone else is nice."

"Edward already doesn't like me." Jasper points out. "I'm keeping my eye on Emmett. And don't get too excited yet. We haven't met the doc yet."

"I'm sure he's nice, too." Rosalie says.

Esme glances at the two siblings and can't help but notice the differences between them. Rosalie's all smiles and talkative. Jasper just sits there with a scowl as he watches everyone. But she's dealt with eleven other foster kids, eight of them who came to their home with similar attitudes as Jasper. She knows it'll just take some time.

Edward and Emmett come through the door again with the box spring. Emmett overly flexes his muscles, making sure that he's showing them off when he passes Rosalie. Esme sees this and holds back a chuckle. Typical Emmett.

She notes that Edward is being his typical self as well. It takes him some time to adjust to new kids in his home, especially when he has to share his room. He'll come along, though.

She just hopes Jasper takes well to Carlisle. He doesn't seem like the kind of kid who just accepts whatever rules he's given, and Carlisle has the tendency to come off like a real dictator when explaining the house rules. Rosalie isn't a concern of hers when it came to that.


"If you aren't back by nine, we need a call from you explaining where you are, who you're with and when you plan on being home. Esme and I do have the right to veto your plans, however." Carlisle explains firmly, setting the tip of his pen on a bullet point in the middle of a laminated page. He moves it down to the next point as each rule is explained. "We do not tolerate cursing or disrespectful language. You will be asked to complete certain chores, and if they are not done, then privileges will be revoked."

"Honey, they're not convicts. Lighten up some." Esme tells him. He looks at her with a slight smile before turning back to the blonde siblings at the kitchen table.

"Sorry. I just want to make sure the rules are clear." He says and pushes the paper to Rosalie and Jasper so they can read it over. Rosalie looks it over, but Jasper doesn't even pretend to be interested in it. "They're simple, really. Nothing unusual."

"Seems easy enough." Rosalie says. Jasper rolls his eyes. Carlisle raises his eyebrows.

"Is there an issue, Jasper?" He asks. Jasper keeps his eyes away from Carlisle while shrugging his shoulders. "Rolling your eyes is very disrespectful, and as I just told you, disrespect is not tolerated. Are we going to have problems with that?"

Jasper just shrugs again, and Carlisle opens his mouth again to scold him, but Esme quickly intervenes.

"Carlisle, Jasper had a busy day." She reminds. Carlisle sets his jaw, but doesn't correct Jasper any further. Instead, he takes the list of rules and returns it to the refrigerator door. Rosalie gives Jasper an agitated look.

"Don't look at me like that." Jasper mumbles angrily to her and stands from his chair. He shoves his hands in the pockets of his faded jeans. "I'm going to my bed."

He stomps off, ignoring Emmett and Edward's stairs and dropped jaws from the living room. They know that Carlisle is a stickler for the rules, and doesn't take lightly to being disrespected.

"He'll be better tomorrow. I promise." Rosalie says to Carlisle, looking up at him with big, concerned eyes.

The doctor sighs. His blonde hair reminds Rosalie of Jasper's. Carlisle's is cut much shorter, though. His blue eyes are pale like his skin. He stands about four inches taller than Esme, and even though he's annoyed with Jasper's behavior, Rosalie notices the look of love he gives his wife. Esme puts her arm around Carlisle's waist.

"Nothing we haven't dealt with before." Carlisle assures Rosalie. He gives her a smile before sitting at the table with her. "So tell me about yourself, Rosalie."