It's ya girl, back with another chapter! Don't really have much to say except I've gotten back into Animal Crossing hardcore and my island remains a mess and I'm actually having a crisis over it. Please save me from this pain. See y'all... whenever my writer's block stops kicking my butt. ~Shaymie

What's taking Raymond so long?

I tugged on my sweater sleeve anxiously and frowned at the downpour of rain. My brother was supposed to have been here an hour ago. I even tried calling Emmy, but she wasn't picking up her phone. I didn't want to be stuck here all day, but I didn't know what I could possibly do. I couldn't walk home like this. The rain was coming down so hard that I could barely see more than a foot in front of me.

There was a small part of me that was terribly scared that Raymond was going to leave again, that he wanted nothing to do with us. After all, he had only found us by accident. He had a whole life back in England. Granted, he didn't have a girlfriend anymore, but he had a house. A job. Friends. There's no way he'd throw all that away for us. No, he would probably just check on us for a bit and then leave. It wouldn't be the first time he's done it.

"Sierra?" I squeaked as a deep voice came from behind me and turned around to see... Emmett Cullen? I felt my face grow hot as I remembered what Alice had told me. I knew it was a joke. Out of all the guys in this school, Emmett was definitely the least likely to ever have a crush on me. Unless she happened to be talking about Edward, but he seemed to have a thing for Bella Swan.

What if him talking to me right now was part of Alice's prank? There's no way someone as pretty as him would want to hang around me. And besides, Emmy had told me to be careful being alone with a Cullen. We didn't know what they were, and that made them dangerous. We had just moved here, but I know that Emmy wouldn't hesitate to pack everything up and leave if there was any danger to me.

"I, uh... Saw you standing here by yourself. Are you okay?"

"Why are you here?" My cheeks flushed as I realized how rude that sounded and quickly backtracked. Curse my terrible social skills! "Sorry, I didn't mean it like that! I meant why are you still at school? Everyone else is gone."

"Senora Ramirez gave me detention. Apparently I was 'messing around too much' in class." Emmett rolled his eyes-which were gold, the same color as Alice's, another odd thing about their family- and smiled at me. I felt my heart flutter and wanted to slap myself. What had gotten into me? I don't get crushes like this, especially not on guys like Emmett, who may or may not be human. No, definitely not human. I felt myself take an involuntary step back and shivered as I stepped out from underneath my cover. My back was immediately drenched by the pouring rain.

I was so conflicted. Part of me wanted to be loyal to my sister and get away from Emmett as quickly as possible, but there was another part of me that just knew he wasn't dangerous. His expression shifted to one of confusion, and he took a step towards me. I took another, bigger step back in response. I was now completely in the rain and my bangs were sticking to my forehead.

"What's wrong?" The gentle tone of his voice was enough to make me feel like an idiot, but then I caught sight of his muscles and his eyes and my heart started pounding. Even if he didn't want to hurt me, the fact was he was something unknown. And I've had enough of the unknown for a lifetime.

"I..."

"There you are, Sierra!" I turned around and saw Emmy running over to me, umbrella in hand. Her eyes narrowed when she caught sight of Emmett. She wrapped an arm around my shoulder protectively and pulled me underneath the umbrella. Our brother pulled the rental car in and smiled apologetically through the window, though his expression shifted when he saw Emmett. He seemed almost... confused. Emmett looked a bit nervous.

Before I could question it, a sneeze jumped out of me, breaking the strange tension. Raymond looked away from Emmett and back towards me, concern on his face. Emmy opened the backseat of the car, shoving grocery bags aside, before helping me in. The car was exceedingly warm, which I was grateful for. I shrugged off my soaking wet sweater and looked out the window at Emmett, who was looking a bit like a lost puppy. Looking at him now, I noticed that he was holding two umbrellas. Had he come over to offer me one?

Emmy kept glancing at me when she thought I wasn't looking. I just knew that she was mad at me for talking to Emmett without her there to protect me if something went wrong. If she would just give him a chance, she'd see that he wasn't dangerous. I couldn't say the same about the rest of his family, but he didn't seem to hate me or want to kill me. Unlike Edward, he didn't stalk me at the library, shooting me angry looks whenever I happened to glance his way.

"What the hell was that?" Emmy asked after several minutes of silence. Her back was tense as she turned towards our brother furiously. "Why did you act like you knew him, Raymond?"

"It's... complicated..."

"I don't think things can get more complicated, Ray. I can set things on fire and make people do whatever I want. Sierra can petrify people if she makes eye contact with them. How much more complicated can things get?"

"Can we please talk about this some other time, Emerson?"

Emmy huffed and crossed her arms, looking out the window angrily, not that there's much to see anyway. I don't know how Raymond can see anything with the rain pouring down like this. How does he manage to stay so calm? I hated when it was so dark that I couldn't see anything. Maybe it was just my paranoia, but I swear I can see things moving around in the dark. I know most girls my age don't sleep with a night light, but I didn't feel safe without one.

The rest of the drive was spent in a tense silence. It felt like it took us forever to get home, but Raymond was taking his time driving. The rain had slowed to a drizzle by the time we got home, and Emmy didn't even wait for the car to stop before she was storming towards the house. Raymond sighed as he parked the car in the driveway.

"You should change out of those wet clothes before you get sick." He helped me out of the car with a sad smile on his face. "I'll handle the groceries."

"But-"

"I've got it, Sierra."