Library - (n.) a building or room containing collections of books, films, and recorded music for people to read, borrow, or refer to. Also where people meet other people apparently

000

Seven days in a week. There are only seven days in a week, and Emmett thinks it is Sunday, the (technically) first day of the week. He always finds it strange that the week began on what he perceives to be a lazy day. Saturdays and Sundays are for doing whatever needs to be done. The weekdays are for school.

He looked it up once and discovered that it's just one of those, weird things that only certain countries participate in. Like the metric system versus the standard system; the rest of the world versus the U.S., Burma, Liberia. In this case, only the U.S, Canada and Japan consider Sunday as the first day of the week.

Still, it's something interesting to think about.

And that is pretty much it. That has been it for the past few decades. The days go on, all after the other, identical almost, except for the obvious things. Out of all of his siblings, he quite enjoys attending school. There are certain limitations (of course, of course) but he legitimately enjoys the atmosphere of most high schools.

But more than anything, it's the learning that he enjoys. Of course, of course, the material gets boring after some time, but that's why pursuing another degree and field of interest is all about. But that is a story for another time.

Right now, he's focusing his attention between a pixie fairy that is fluttering about, and the sad, moody, broody, musician. He watches his mate on the bed as his lips twitch and quirk at the last of his mental comments. He does this a lot for Edward. That is, narrating certain things in his head, as though he's shooting some sort of narrative (their lives) and there's an active audience (there is). Emmett, with his scattered and ever curious thoughts and feelings, somehow manages to ground Edward and make him focus on him and him only to tune out the rest of the world.

So he keeps up a running commentary on everything pretty much. And right now he's wondering about his original point of thought - the library. Yes, he got off track but now he's back to wondering. If it is indeed Sunday (it is), then the library closes early today. Then-

"-that means that Alice should hurry the hell up."

"Patience is everything, dear brother."

Oh shoot, he hadn't meant to say that out loud. Edward's quiet snickering makes him turn to observe him. Emmett is sitting cross legged on the bed, near the edge. The red-haired telepath is just laying on the bed, legs bent over the edge, one hand behind his head while the other is playing around with the pillows. He's facing the ceiling, occasionally opening his eyes, but mostly he's content to view the world through Emmett's eyes.

Earlier, Alice had come bursting through -

("Alice! What if we had been doing something?" is Edward's slightly hysterical voice. Drama queen that he is. Emmett is the something in this hypothetical scenario, he thought smugly as his mate is sitting upright now. They had been laying on top of Emmett's bed, side by side, talking. Or rather, Edward was talking and responding to his thoughts.

"You weren't."

"But what if?"

"I would've seen it."

A scowl. Edward knows that what he is thinking is not what is going through Alice's mind. She would've based her observation on her decision to come bursting in, rather than their decisions for certain stuff.

"Besides," Alice continues, unperturbed in the slightest, "this is important and I need to borrow Emmett." She turns towards Emmett, "Come help me pick an outfit. We're going to the library!" And that had been that.)

- demanding that they make a day trip of the library. Emmett wouldn't turn down a trip to the library. He knows what people think of him - a loud bear of a muscle jock. And while that is true, to some extent, he also enjoys quiet time, though that is only partly due to Edward's influence.

Either way, they are in Alice's room after she dragged Emmett off the bed; that was no easy task for any mortal, therefore is must've been of utmost importance. Alice is still somewhere inside her walk in closet, not lost but Emmett imagine that she must be, what, with all the clothes and everything. Most of the rooms have walk in closets but Alice's is extra big.

It's Edward's voice that breaks the silence, "Can't you go with Rosalie?" He almost sounds whiny, but not quite, just on the verge of it. It makes Emmett smile amusedly.

"Nope!" Alice's own sugar sweet saccharine voice says much too happily. She sounds louder as she exits her closet. "Rose is going on Thursday."

She sounds normal now and Edward sits up, looking at her attentively, studying her. He still observes her as she makes Emmett choose between different outfits. Thursday. Rose. Why is this important? Edward works to keep his face neutral and not frown as he contemplates what that sliver of not-distracted thought means. Apparently he fails because his mate pecks his cheek. Though cheek is debatable as it is more below the eye and right on the cheekbone.

Still, he returns the favor quickly on Emmett's unsuspecting cheek and Alice lightly yells at him to stop distracting her helper. Finally, finally, she narrows down her choices before she stills. "No!" At Emmett's alarmed face, she continues, "It's going to rain! Very lightly but still. I have to choose something else."

Emmett sighs dramatically and flops backwards onto the bed. And here he was, all excited for a baseball game, but no.

000

Finally.

Thank the lord, and whatever other deity there is. And there's lot. Alice Cullen is done. She emerges from her closet in a faintly floral and flowy sundress. Thrown over her arm is a cardigan and she dips back in quickly to produce an umbrella.

Emmett cannot believe how long that took. Actually he can because giant unnecessarily filled closet but still. He decides to voice his concerns. "Okay. Done, finished. Finito. What am I going to wear and please, please, don't take so long…" It's rare that Alice chooses to dress them up outside of impromptu modeling sessions. He acquiesces this time because he feels that it'll be faster this way. He hopes it'll be faster than Alice's turn.

"Brother dear, such little faith in me. I already know what you're going to wear, silly." She disappears briefly and reappears holding some clothes for Emmett to wear. "Here. Hurry up!"

She vanishes around the doorframe. He turns to match Edward's gaze on him. Could this have been why he muttered hmm's and ahh's and no's? Before either of them could speak, Alice's head popps around the door frame.

"No funny business, we've gotta go, go, go." She only slightly feels bad for interrupting their time together but this is of the utmost importance. The life changing kind. She sees Edward nod curiously at her thoughts and again, she recedes from view.

She practically glides down the stairs, and right into the living room. She finds Esme reclined against the armrest of the couch, reading. Alice hugs her around the shoulder and plants a kiss on her cheek, while also scanning the pictures on the book. Unsurprisingly, it is an architectural book.

"Ideas for your client?" If Esme hadn't wanted a challenge with their modern behemoth of a house, Alice always thought that she would've gone with either a Victorian or Tudor style for their home.

"Yes. Going somewhere, dear?"

"Mhm. Just to the library. I'm dragging Emmett along."

"Ah. Well, I doubt you'll have to try very hard." She flips a page. She leans her head back slightly into Alice, "Call if anything." The pause is only barely noticeable. Sometimes, just sometimes, she forgets that her teenagers are more than independent. That they've got their own lives. Still, she always offers her assistance, that's just her motherly personality it seems.

"Mhm!" Alice nods and departs with another kiss to the cheek just as Emmett is coming down the stairs. She's glad. Esme's the only mother she's ever known, since waking up in this new world, new life. She can't remember any of it; there's just a black hole amongst the constellations of connections in her brain for that time, and though it frustrates her, she doesn't dwell on it. Instead she focuses on how happy she is here, surrounded by caring and occasionally annoying vampire siblings and wonderful parents.

"Okay, good, finally, let's go!" And they walk into the garage to take the car. Rosalie's there, working on her latest project. She merely gives them a small wave as she adjusts the volume on her speakers, one hand clutching a tool, the other on the volume knob. Alice doesn't recognize it as her usuals so she suspects it might be a playlist Edward has made for her.

They get into one of their many cars, none of which are very inconspicuous, and set off to the library.

Until, Emmett remembers to get their bookback and Alice has to park in front of their house.

Now, all set, they set off to the library in their less than conspicuous car.

000

As she predicted, Bella arrived at the library in about half an hour. Not bad, she mentally congratulates herself.

Despite this library being the smaller of the two, she can see that it is two stories tall. And many more stories are inside. It almost reminds her of the one back home. She's excited to see the interior and there's a noticeable bounce in her step as she approaches the building.

Being inside a new and unfamiliar library is an odd feeling. She desperately wants to go right to a familiar section and look through the books. However everything seems alien to her. She should get a map of some sort, one that has the Dewey Decimal system on it. Even from her standpoint near the entrance, she can see that there are numbers on the aisles. That makes it slightly easier.

Damn, she probably looks like a tourist just standing here. Or even a newcomer. She'd rather not get noticed, and would much rather prefer to blend in.

Thankfully, there's the reception desk a few meters in front of her. Somewhere to the left of that are the checkout scanners. At least she knows where the most important stuff are.

After a few really long seconds, she makes the hard decision to walk to the front counter and ask for assistance. She needs a library card and it makes more sense to get it out of the way right now than when she has books.

The lady there is helpful and she tells her that it'll just take a while for her to get her card. Ten to fifteen minutes tops so that's amazing. Bella is also grateful that it's a woman helping her. Men are fine, she just gets really flustered. Maybe it's due to her lack of exposure, she thinks curiously. She did always have a disproportionate amount of girls in her honors classes as compared to boys. It's not that she's complaining about the amount of girls.

Oh, no. Not at all. Quite the opposite, she thinks with a small upturn of the lips.

She ends up waiting 20 minutes just in case the card wasn't ready yet by looking at the rather large selection of movies and tv series and other suchs DVDs. She sees a few movie titles she might want to check out and even a couple seasons of stuff that catches her roaming eyes. She straightens up from her position of tilting her head to view at the titles once the twenty minutes are up.

She picks up her card and is slightly marveled by it. There's nothing special about it, absolutely nothing at all. But she loves its minimalist design. It's a baby blue and white card with the name of the library district. Barcode and phone number in the back, just like all other cards. It even came with one of those tiny keychain cards, which she likes very much.

She tucks it into her hoodie pocket and grabs a map from somewhere. That seems like a good place to start. The lower floor mostly consists of books meant for a younger demographic. Children's books are on one side and next to bigger, thicker fiction books on the left wing of the downstairs. Almost as though the books move up and around in the order of age. She bets that she could probably find the Percy Jackson series here. She loves the series, but she guesses that the non fiction section that she is after is upstairs.

There's some computers to look for the availability of certain books or place them on hold. But she's not looking for a particular title.

She walks up the stairs, admiring the interior. Well, as much as she can while she looks down at the steps. She needs to look at steps and doesn't quite grasp how people can glide and slide up and down steps without looking at them. Thus, her steps are punctuated by a slight pause as she gets from one step to another.

She makes it upstairs and at least the aisles also offer the subject instead of just a decimal number. There's more computers here, the likes of which seem to make up a small computer lab. And there's some couches here and there. And tables too! Wow, this a fucking rad library.

She walks between some tables and contemplates which one she might sit at. She doesn't dare leave her backpack at one but figures she could probably just leave a stack of books on one if she finds any promising books. She can already spot a table that has a few books scattered on in but no occupants. She mentally settles on one a few tables away before more attention to the subjects up here.

It's quiet.

The atmosphere is still, almost in a timeless manner, and Bella finds that she enjoys it. If it weren't for her phone and watch (plus the clocks on the wall), she believes that she could very well lose track of time. There's clouds out, passing by slowly, a stark white fluffy contrast to the light color of the sky.

She paces through the aisles, tilting her head and running a finger across the spines of books to properly read the titles. On particularly interesting sections, she sits with crossed legs on the carpeted floor to glimpse through the tomes. No one bothers her so she doesn't have to awkward shuffle away from someone's path.

She's got a movie on Machu Picchu on top of her mythology and slightly morbid science book. She goes to set them on her table. She picks out a book on the brain that even she's not entirely sure if she'll read and finds another documentary. She sets them on her table.

The tables are mostly on the right side from the stairs, where the manga and teen fiction sections are located. The non-fiction section encompasses most of the left wing. Right in front of the stairs is a water fountain that Bella could refill her water bottles. She only just glanced at it when she reached the second floor.

Therefore, she most likely and probably did not notice the slight drips and drops the leaky water fountain was making on the floor.

Oh, she might've heard it, yes. But being too busy with the books, the sound faded into the silent and quietness of the library.

She's back on her way to eagerly devour book titles and synopses when her right foot just fucking skids forward as she takes that step. Her left hand reaches out first, grabbing nothing but air. Her right hand shoots out only a second after and manages to grip the rounded metallic corner of the treacherous water fountain.

That stops her from falling flat on the floor, but it doesn't stop her body from obeying gravity and its laws and slowly sinking to the floor.

The hand gripped firmly around her elbow does. That is, stop her from falling and sliding further. The hand doesn't even tighten its grip when she starts to stand and pushes against it to straighten up properly.

She turns around to see who is attached to that finely manicured hand and is only slightly dumbfounded to see that her savior is a girl several inches shorter than Bella. Not the bear of a guy right next to her, who not only is taller than Bella, but also more muscular. It makes her think back to the comment Angela had made about having handguns.

Whoa. She doesn't even look like she strained herself, helping Bella up. The girl lets go of her elbow and steps back, closer to the boy's side. Her eyes were wide at having watched Bella fall but now it is only her smile that is blindingly wide, charmingly so.

"Hi! I'm Alice, come sit with me and my brother!"

Neither party notices the teeny tiny dent on the fountain sink.

000

When Alice woke up that particular Sunday morning, she saw a vision only minutes later. It was the rare and random kind. The kind where her gift says to her, hey, I still exist, and randomly, annoyingly (she can't control these, few as they are) results in a vision, like an alarm someone forgot they had set.

It was a quick one of her and Emmett simply sitting at a table with another girl. It was swift but she recognized both the room and the girl. That was the library and that girl was the one from the airport. Bella.

Usually these visions are the result of someone else's decisions and it is up to Alice to run through possible scenarios and actions in her head to trigger the event and make it come to life. Considering the mild issue she had last time, she is wondering about this vision and how easily it came to her. Humans don't have the advantage of personally willing the most likely and beneficious scenarios to occur (she does) and they just make a decision. In this case, it is rather simple. It seems easy. All she has to do is go to the library with Emmett accompanying her.

Which led them to this point. Inviting Bella to come sit with them. This exact meeting was not one she had foreseen. Despite the odd circumstances, this was instantly on her list of delightful surprises.

She doesn't get very many of those.

She was leading Emmett back to their table when the girl in front of them had slipped. What else to do than help her up and present themselves to a possible (read: definite) schoolmate?

"Ah. Sure," Bella responds, looking mildly surprised, though her tone indicates a touch of uncertainty. She wrinkles her nose slightly at the sudden scents that are very noticeable when the entire space smells like old and used books. She finds that she actually likes it and briefly wonders what kind of perfume or cologne or whatever they use. "Oh! Thank you. For helping me up and whatnot."

"It's no problem!" Time to take control of the situation. "This is my brother Emmett," she gestures to him and he cheerfully waves a greeting at the girl. "So, are you new here? We haven't seen you around before."

Alice observes the other girl carefully, being sure to commit her features to memory. Expressive dark brown eyes with hair to match. Except that there's mahogany streaks faintly shining through, even under the fluorescent lighting. It's a good thing Alice has excellent vision then.

Alice heads over to their table. She and Emmett stand as Bella collects her small pile of tomes and DVDs to move over to their table. They sit down when she does. It's a decent sized square table that leaves them enough room to comfortable spread out slightly. Alice is across from Bella and all three of them mutually decide that the extra space is for their books.

"Oh, yes. I decided to move with my dad, so here I am."

"That sounds nice. I take it you're going to Forks High? There's only so many school to pick from," Alice drawls playfully. Starting off with the easy and simple questions is the best route to take for now.

"Yeah. I take it both of you are students there?" Bella mirrors the smaller girl's words, looking between the siblings who she now knows are Alice and Emmett. They don't look to be related. Cousins maybe. He's overly tall, and she's overly short. Maybe he stole all the tall genes. They both have dark hair, and maybe the same mischievous features but that seems to be it. Well, they could be adopted so there goes most of Bella's curiosity. Not all of it though. They weren't here last summer, though that could also be due to the fact that she left early that year.

This time it's Emmett that responds, not as loudly as she was expecting, "Oh yeah, us and our siblings. We all go there. You could say we're kind of new. We moved here about a year ago."

"Oh, wow." Bella's eyebrows crinkle slightly as she contemplates this new information. She doesn't know what to ask about first. These guys seem friendly enough and it couldn't hurt to make some friends. She's only got Angela and Jacob. Sure, she somewhat knows the other teenagers she will soon attend school with (mostly from Angela's anecdotes), but that's a small town thing. Everybody knows everybody, or at least knows of them. Acquaintances don't quite count in this headcount.

"Wait, wait, wait. So where did you guys move from? How many of you are there?"

"Canada. Before that, Alaska. Though only briefly," Emmett responds. Whaaaat.

"Well, there's our parents, Esme and Carlisle. Then there's Edward, who was adopted first. Rosalie and Jasper are Esme's niece and nephew, they're twins. And then there's us, distant relatives of Carlisle's or something." She waves a hand flippantly, not bothering to go beyond that in detail. That's already enough details. Not quite lies, but not quite the entire truth either. "And some of us are dating. It's not like we grew up with each other but I know that it's weird to some people.."

It's almost phrased as a question and it takes Bella a second to see that Alice is looking to where she stands. "Oh, well, that's cool," she shrugs. "At least you didn't have to look very far. Love is love."

"-is love," Emmett finishes and reaches out to fist bump her. She narrows her eyes at him slightly in thoughtful contemplation when he says this. She looks at his hand before placing her palm over it. Then she makes a fist but wait for him to reciprocate her earlier action. She beams when he does so. She likes this one.

Then her brain interrupts to remind her of his earlier statement. "Wait, so Canada? Alaska?"

Books are ignored. Which Bella would ordinarily think is just tragic. However, she learns a lot about these amiable teens. She likes them. She actually looks forward to seeing them around school. They don't exchange numbers, she forgets too but assumes she'll see them around; it's a small town after all.

Their ongoing conversation, ranges from all sorts of topics. From Bella's mythology and biology books to Emmett's physics and astronomy books. They are still talking when Bella receives a phone call.

Bella squirms and initially checks her front pockets out of habit. She pulls her phone out of her back pocket triumphantly, muttering something about her ass vibrating. Her words make both siblings laugh, though they are quick to tone down the volume. They are in a library after all.

It turns out the library is due to close in about half an hour and Charlie had called to see if Bella wants him to pick her up. He saw the note she had left, thankfully. She does.

She picks up her stuff and reaches out to give them firm handshakes. She once read a tumblr post about handshakes at the end of each adventure, and since then, that's kind of been her thing. She tells them that she will see them around, it is a small town after all. And Emmett replies that they are here often enough, which is true.

She leaves and walks downstairs to go check out her things. Once they are properly in her backpack, she waits outside. The weather is lovely. The sly wind brushes against her cheeks and she's glad she brought her hoodie for the afternoon weather.

000

It is Monday afternoon, after she's watched the two movies that she rented, that Bella realizes that she never did end up getting more than two books. Which is utterly shocking. She goes to the library the next day and is not surprised at all when the pattern repeats. She is waved over by Emmett and Alice going up the stairs as she is about to approach the movies.

She decides that she doesn't mind. Not at all, actually. This is nice, really nice. So the tiny trio talk and talk the day away. From the most random topics and tangents to some serious stuff. To catching up and trying to recommend places for Bella to go.

She still does not tell them that she's been here every summer since she was a tiny pipsqueak because the topic does not quite come up again. And it's really amusing to her.

She likes her newfound friends.

And Bella again does not get any additional movies or books.

She thinks about it Wednesday night.

(She's already told Charlie about the friends she made. She mentions Alice and Emmett but only recognizes their parents' names.

"Oh. Yeah, and his wife. Real nice folks. Doesn't matter what anyone else says, they are the nicest and most generous people. could have a job anywhere and he chose rainy old Forks. Good for us, I say!"

She blinked, slightly stunned. Bella has questions of course, like who wouldn't like the Cullens? But that's the most she's heard her dad speak about this. That's his version of a passionate rant so she nods and passes him what she made for dinner.)

And it looks like she's going to the library again on Thursday.

Like the previous times, she meets up with Alice and Emmett. Only this time, she walks up the stairs and goes to sit with them in what she is now calling their table.

"Hey, Bella." They chime simultaneously. Definitely related.

"Hey, guys. Why so early today?" If Bella thought she could pick out some materials today by coming slightly earlier, she is dead wrong. She loves her books but the novelty of this makes her not care about not checking any out again.

"Oh, our sister wanted to come today." They conspiratorially move closer together and point out their sibling to Bella. Bella can't tell much, the other girl is facing away from them. The only things that she can tell are that she seems to be blonde, and maybe a little on the tall side.

"Rosalie, right?" She remembers thinking that there's two girls to the three boys. And since Alice is here, it's obvious who the other sibling is. Honestly, she's kinda surprised she didn't forget any names.

"Yeah, good job. Go make yourself known, use that dork charm!"

Bella looks a little nervous, Alice admits. But she should be fine. This is exactly what she's been waiting for all week, damnit. She can be patient but not all the time. She's giddy almost, but hides it well.

"Wait, wait. Here, if all else fails use this. Now go!" She thrusts a big book into Bella's empty hands. It's not even a thick book but the size of it is about her arm's length. She shoves Bella a little before she can read the title or properly see what kind of book it is.

If all else fails? What kind of comment is that. That makes Bella a little more nervous and that causes random stuff to sprout from her mouth. Like the following:

"Excuse me, Milo, do you mind if I sit here?" She comes around the table's corner, carrying that book close to her chest.

"Milo?" The blonde girl turns to look at this intruder with the too bright smile. Whoa, who even has eyes like that?

An eyebrow twitched and Bella followed it's delicate shape with her eyes before looking back into irises that she can only describe as fucking purple (though in the lighting, she can catch a lavender highlight), offering an explanation. Or rather, another question.

"Or would you prefer Venus?" She asks quietly, seriously almost, were it not for the seriously blinding smile that she's got on. When Rosalie continues to blink and sit in silence with a straight face, the smile drops just a bit and the girl in front of her stammers out an actual explanation this time.

"You know what, ah, I'm sorry if I've made you uncomfortable. That was completely the opposite of what I was trying to do. Uh, Alice suggested that I make myself and my 'dork charm' known. So here's this?" She sits and slides the books over in an apology as she waits for the other girl to say something. Anything. She feels awful now and wants to escape the situation but she's already here and made of a fool of herself. Might as well commit and follow through.

"Gosh you're pretty…" is murmured out and even Rosalie admits that she would've strained to hear it had she been human. If the decibel and the girl's quickly reddening face mean anything, it's probably that she wasn't meant to hear that and that it probably slipped out. And that she's probably regretting coming over, even on Alice's orders.

They came home from the library that Sunday afternoon looking absolutely ecstatic. However, they were tight lipped as to what exactly happened that day. At least until everyone came home to eat dinner. Only then did they explain. And boy, did they elucidate the situation.

Alice had sketched a rough portrait of Bella to demonstrate exactly who this was. Though rough was an understatement. And the situation was made more coherent. They relayed all the information that they already knew, that this Bella girl was staying to finish up her schooling and that the Chief was indeed her father. The decision to stay remained unchallenged.

So Rosalie does something brave. Or stupid. She decides that being friendly couldn't hurt much. Alice and Emmett are already attached. Still, it makes her slightly wary, but she pushes that negative and awful feeling away as quickly as it comes.

So she extends her arm and offers the girl her hand. "Rosalie Hale," she says clearly. She's a Cullen but she won't ever let herself forget her past, no matter the awfulness associated to it.

The girl's smile is back to its brighter-than-the-sun levels. She finds that she doesn't need sunglasses, like she previously thought.

Bella takes the hand and shakes it firmly. "I'm Bella, Isabella swan, since we're being all formal."

" 'All formal?' Fine. Rosalie Lillian Hale."

She smirks, matching the smaller one on Rosalie's face. "Okay then, Rosalie Lillian Hale. Isabella Marie Swan. It's nice to meet you."

"Likewise. Alice and Emmett have talked about you. Lots. Constantly. All the time." She wants to make it sounds irritated and frustrated but she's smiling. It's not even a big smile but it's there, lips and all. The effect is pretty much cancelled out but she finds that she doesn't mind when she hears Bella laugh at her comment.

"All lies, I assure you."

"Oh really? Even the good things?" Rosalie's teasing at this point. She took Rosalie's potentially passive aggressive words and just rolled with it.

"Well, I don't know about those." Bella leans closer across the table, "You'll have to tell me about those."

000

A/N - FUcking finally! I'd like to thank not just the lord, but Jesus too! I was supposed to go to bed already damit. I gotta wake up early but I was on a crazy good roll. Started writing a few days after coming back from Mexico so that was pretty damn great. I literally could not and did not want to put this off till tomorrow and my laptop's almost dead so here it is, good night, read and review and all that. Y'all are amazing, hope you all enjoy this chapter, it was a long time coming. Let me know if there's any mistakes, but it should be fine I think

Orchidluv - glad it's refreshing, this should be too