3. Chapter 3

Thanks again to the lovely TwiDi for the beta job. She rocks, I hope she knows that :0) Any mistakes are part of my 2020 rewrite.

Disclaimer: I no own Twilight, if I did I'd live in a bigger house.

Chapter 3

August 29th (move in day)

The Cullen family was coming to move in today. So, I decided it would be a good time to reacquaint myself with Charlie. Emmett agreed and went with me. We were still protesting against this whole change for three main reasons. One, it was too quick. Two, we knew hardly anything about Dr. Cullen and his family. And third, strangers were moving into our house and we only had one extra bedroom. So far, no one talked about the sleeping arrangements, so I assumed the twins would be sharing a room. Even though they were of different genders, I guessed they were really close and didn't mind. That and the fact they were saints, as it was often alluded to by Carlisle on multiple occasions. I was so sick of hearing how smart and loving and giving his kids were. Emmett had a theory they were either Stepford kids or on some good drugs. Aunt Esme didn't put up a fight when we left the house, just smiled and reminded us dinner was at six.

So, here I sit in my Dad's house listening to him and Em watching some pre-season college football game, while pondering all the changes in my life. The wedding was September second, and I was the maid of honor, with Alice as a bride's maid. That really pissed off Rose. This little nothing of a girl was a bride's maid; a girl we hardly knew was taking Rose's spot, in Rose's mind. Emmett and I just nodded and agreed. Mainly we were scared that Rose would hurt us if we didn't agree with her. Emmett was a groom's man and Edward the best man. Jasper had no issues with this and just laughed at Em when he got fitted for his tux.

"TOUCHDOWN!" The guys screamed in unison and high-fived.

"Go team," I meekly let out and they both laughed and went back to watching for the extra point kick thingy. Shit, even though Emmett was on the team and he made me go to the games, I still had little to no clue about all the technical terms or what was really going on. All I knew was Emmett was on the defense and spent most of his time tackling the other team's quarterback, so much so he was being scouted by colleges. He refuses to attend one without me. "Package deal." He would remind me when I argued and I knew if it was reversed, I would do the same.

Noticing the guys were running low on snacks I ran to the kitchen to make some more of that nacho dip they liked so much. As I waited on the microwave to ding, my cell went off. Rose. Hmm, "Hey, Rose, what's up?"

"Bella, after you and Emmett finish the whole bonding thing with daddy dearest, get your asses over to my house, I have a little gift that will let those fucking interlopers know where they stand!" She sounded both seething and excited. The girl was nuts with a devious mind, but I loved her crazy ass.

"K, Rose, you know we can't misbehave too much, right? Esme will kill us and the Cullens will get some fucking sainthood medal and the key to the city or some shit." I grumbled back.

"Bahhha!" I heard in the back ground, with snorting and grunting.

"Hey, Jasper," I said a little louder. Only Ken doll would be snorting and grunting at the same time. It was worse when he was drinking and he'd snort, grunt and spew either from mouth or nose depending on how much he had to drink and how hard he was laughing. Boy was the hottest fucking Steve Urkel snorting clone I had ever known.

"Hey, baby bear." He laughed back.

"Speaking of bears, big bear and papa bear want their nacho dip, so is there anything else Queen Rose and Jester Jasper before I run to feed my men folk?" I lamented sarcastically, trying to sound all proper and British.

"No, you're free to go." She laughed. Laughing back, we all said 'goodbye'. And grabbing an oven mitt, I got the dip and returned to aforementioned men folk.

"Em we gotta drop by the Queen's house before going to meet the Cullens, Rose has a welcome gift for them."

I winked over Charlie's head and Em knew Rose and her evil genius brain was up to something and Charlie was just Charlie thinking the best of us as usual. "Well, that's mighty nice of Rosalie, guys." He smiled kindly at us and we gently agreed holding in the laughter for the ride to the Hales' house.

~0~

"What do you think?" Rose asked as both Emmett and I looked at the shirts she handed us. One read Baby Bear, one read Big Bear. This was just part one of Rose's 'You're Not One of Us' mission for the Cullens. Both were in matching black with white writing and on the back it said Team McCarty/Swan. Part two was the attack of photo evidence. Having raided her vast supply of fifteen years of life with us, she pulled tons of pictures together to show how united we all were. Mainly, they all seemed to somehow show Emmett being over protective of me as usual. Framed and ready to mount. Rose even had a plan on how we could talk Aunt Esme into letting us put them up. Guilt trips Rose claimed always worked.

"So, basically I look at my Mom and claim this is a way for me to still feel at home in my own home type bullshit?" Emmett asked already in his Big Bear shirt. Hell, he already planned on wearing it for the first day of school. Crazy loveable cousin.

"Yep. And, Bella, you just look slightly sad and supportive. Rubbing Em's arm in support and giving small smiles like you do when he's had a bad day." Rose smiled evilly. We all knew Rose was no help unless it was in something sexual when Emmett had a bad day. Most of the time, she'd hit him on the back of his head and tell him to stop pmsing.

"K, I can do that." I smiled shyly. I kind of felt bad about doing this, but then again, Emmett and Rose said if we didn't lay the rules out that we didn't want them here right away, they might try to stop us from stopping the wedding.

Opps! Did I forget to mention 'Operation Save Esme'? As far as the four of us were concerned, no one in our family was getting married in the foreseeable future. My Aunt was clearly being manipulated by the pretty boy Doctor, while still dealing with her grie over the loss of my Uncle. So, there is a carefully thought out plan that will go into effect as soon as we complete the 'You're Not One of Us' mission. Seriously, we need to stop letting Jasper and Rose name these things.

Slipping into the downstairs powder room in the huge Hale house, I changed into my freaking Baby Bear shirt. Will that nickname ever leave? Couldn't it just say Bella Bear? NOOO… it had to be freaking baby. Walking back out, Rose took our picture for posterity and sent us on our way home.

In the jeep, Emmett stopped two blocks from the house and took my hand. "We'll get through this together, Bells." He was sincere and the gleam in his eyes reminded me of how he looked before he went on a football field, determined and warrior like.

"Together," I said firmly and squeezed his hand back. After a moment of sitting in silence, drawing strength from one another, Emmett finally started the jeep back up. 'Here goes nothing' I thought.

~0~

We knew Carlisle had his children's cars shipped with his own, however, the sight of a bright yellow Porsche and a silver Volvo alongside the sleek black Mercedes made my stomach drop. Fucking rich! Not just a little rich, but fucking full fledge loaded rich. That played in my mind as I looked down at my simple Gap jeans and Old Navy flip flops and of course the handmade insult shirt. Yeah, we were really going to have the advantage.

"Shit." Emmett moaned looking at the cars. He rubbed his jeep's dashboard, "It's ok, Sassy, Daddy still loves you." He told his jeep. That guy and his jeep, what the fuck? I mean really, it's just a car. "Let's do this, Swan." He jumped down, came around and lifted me on to his back. Apparently, we were going in piggy back.

"Lead on, 'Captain my Captain'." I told him sarcastically. He busted out laughing. Holding our other gift from Rose, we finally made it up the walk and into the house.

It was kind of anti-climactic walking in with no one actually in the house. Apparently, they had gone to pick up some dinner in Esme's car and would be back soon. At least that's what the note on the fridge told us. After all that plotting and planning… nada! No one to see our perfect solidarity entrance… No one to see our shirts… No clue as to what these strange kids looked like. I was hoping ugly and covered with acne. Emmett was hoping for alien looking pod people.

Dropping onto the sofa I noticed that none of the furniture looked different. Everything looked the same, and if you could get past the cars in the driveway, you could almost make yourself believe this was just a dream and nothing had really changed. Almost.

"Be back in a minute, Bella, I need to put my cell on the charger." Em kissed my forehead and took off up the steps. Sighing just to release all my pent-up energy, I grabbed the remote and turned TV on to a rerun of NCIS. Damn that Tony, now there's a man. Getting lost in the mystery of a Marine who was murdered by a jealous friend, I watched as Gibbs and crew solved the case and tried not to gag too much when Ducky was doing the autopsy. Blood, yuck.

Unfortunately for me, as I sat there engrossed in my show, the others had made their arrival. And I heard a distinct snort-laugh behind me after I sighed, "Tony". What can I say, dream guy. Hottest guy on the planet, in my opinion.

Or at least it was until I turned around after hearing a soft chuckle and looked into the greenest eyes I'd ever seen. Pale like his father with wild-sex hair that made you want to latch on and ride the shit out of him in the strangest, sexiest bronze color. Tall and well-built. Maybe just a smidge under 6'3 and built like a sleek quarterback, ala Tom Brady's body. Yeah, umm… I figure if Em's gonna make me watch it, might as well check out the eye-candy. He put my beloved Tony to shame. I was looking at a real-life sex-god, and he was looking at me like I was something on the bottom of his $200 sneakers.

"Umm… hi," I croaked out. "You startled me; I didn't know anyone was behind me." I tried to brush off my stunned expression as being scared not turned-on.

"Yeah, well I figured I'd better let you know someone was here before you and 'Tony' decided to have some quality time." Smooth velvet, sexy as shit, and insulting as hell. He just basically accused me of getting ready to masturbate on the living room sofa. Hell, I haven't even masturbated yet, let alone do that here where anyone could see.

"Umm… what?" is all I could push through my now building rage and the lyrics to "I Touch Myself" that started playing in my head when I looked at him, when Emmett came in followed by Esme, Carlisle and a very short dark-haired girl.

"Edward, I see you've met Bella." Esme smiled warmly and put a hand on his shoulder. He smiled warmly back at her. And when he smiled, I swear I almost took off on a dash to my room to change my panties, it was that damn good.

"Bella, this is Alice." Alice looked at me in the same manner as her brother had. Apparently, the Cullens thought I was some sort of leper or something.

"Hi." I gave a short smile and used all my strength to be polite, when all I wanted to do was run to Emmett and cry, or grab the sex-god and find a room to lock us in for a few days.

"Hello, Bella, I just know we are going to be great friends." She plastered on a fake smile, used a sugary sweet voice and gave me a quick insincere hug. Bitch, And damn it to hell the parental figures fell for it, Em rolled his eyes and the sex-god lifted a perfectly sculpted eyebrow at his sister, as if to say well-played.

"Edward, Alice… meet Emmett," Carlisle told his kids, pointing out my cousin.

"Hey." Em ground out while shooting eye-daggers at the evil pixie bitch faking sweet and light.

"Hello, Emmett." The sex God stuck out his hand and Em shook it looking like he wanted to crush him instead.

"Oh, my goodness, those shirts are sooooo cute!" Alice gushed and I turned tomato red. Damn Rose, making plans before knowing the opponents. Damn insincere short biotch.

"Thanks. Em's girlfriend got them for us." I mumbled again.

"Rose is such a thoughtful girl." Esme said sincerely. At least she thought the shirts were cute.

"Should we eat, kids?" Carlisle asked looking at all of us.

"Yes, Dad we have to feed the bears." Alice giggled, running up to hug her dad, like a freaking little pampered princess.

I noticed that her twin, Edward, didn't say another word. He just pinched the bridge of his nose and followed his skipping sister into the dining room. Em shot me a look that said 'dining room'? We generally only used that for Thanksgiving and Christmas. The rest of the time we used the table in the kitchen. How many other changes was this family going to bring, and what kind of deal did they have with the devil to make them all so freaking good looking?

~0~

"I still feel so bad that the movers were delayed by that accident." Esme patted Alice's hand and gave her a warm smile. Sitting at the dining room table, with Esme on one end Carlisle on the other, we drew our division lines. The Cullens sat on one side of the table, Em and I on the other. Automatically showing our loyalties, yet never saying a word to the other side of the table unless forced to. We had to endure the story of why the Cullens belongings had yet to make it here. Maybe I should point out that the freak accident was a sign that they should have never come? The truck had gotten stuck under an overpass that it should have never attempted to go under. Stuck there for five hours before finally getting out. The company had to bring in new drivers for it and delaying them another six hours. At this rate, maybe Em and I could get them out of here before the stuff even arrived. And really, a whole truck load of stuff? Where were they going to put it? The house wasn't really that big.

"It's alright, Esme, we brought enough clothing and some of the more personal items with us in our cars. We'll be fine for a while." Edward assured her with a genuine smile and a tender voice that did all sorts of wicked things to my insides.

"Edward's right Esme we're professionals at roughing it." Alice told my Aunt, and it took all I had not to snort. I wasn't big into fashion, but even I could tell that their clothing was designer. "Dad takes us camping all the time and the rule is you get one duffle. So, you have to fit all of your must have personal items and the basic necessities into it. And sleeping in a bed instead of a sleeping bag is a step up."

"Honey, don't worry, the kids are fine. Anyways most of it was going into storage until the new house is finished." Em and I both jerked to look at Carlisle.

"What new house?" Em growled through a mouthful of pizza.

"Emmett, chew with your mouth closed, darling." Esme scolded gently and turned a little red. "It was supposed to be a surprise. Carlisle bought the old Wentworth place outside of town. It is being restored and redesigned. It's his wedding gift for the family." She tried to explain.

"It has more bathrooms, and having so many females in the house, I know we'll need them." Carlisle joked gently. Emmett was still scowling. "And more space in general. I'm having a pool and a gym put in." He offered looking at Em who was turning red in the face. Did this guy really think that was going to bribe my cousin?

I knew the Wentworth place; it was a three-story mansion set deep in the woods. I went there once with Aunt Esme when old Mrs. Wentworth was still alive. The place was at least eight times the size of this house with way too many bedrooms and a freaking formal and normal dining room. It had been nice but intimidating in its size and grandeur.

"Speaking of space, Dad." Alice hinted. What was this evil pixie up to?

"Carlisle," Esme said in a sad undertone. Something was up. My Aunt looked unhappy and the Cullen kids looked way too evil and happy. However, their father's face mirrored my Aunt's.

"Spit it out!" Emmett told him. He was so red he was looking purple. I reached out and grabbed his hand and squeezed it tight.

"Emmett, Bella when Edward and Alice agreed to move here it was under the promise, they wouldn't have to share a bedroom with anyone. They both enjoy their privacy too much and since they were giving up everything for me, I felt that one request was not unreasonable." Dread filled my tummy. "At the time, Bella, I honestly did not know you lived here. I thought you just spent a lot of time at the house and sometimes spent the night. The subject never came up before today, when Esme was giving the tour and she pointed out Emmett's room and Bella's room and just the one spare bedroom. When the new house is done this will no longer be a problem, you will have a room that will always be yours, no matter what," he told me, looking sincere and kind. However, my heart was breaking. Damn Cullens.

"Bella…" Esme was grabbing for my hand as I stood up and ran up the stairs. Picking up my duffle bag, I shoved clothing in it. Grabbing my iPod, Em had gotten me for Christmas, in there and my favorite pillow off my bed I ran back down the stairs to find Emmett threatening to kill everyone.

"Em, would you drive me to Dad's?" I asked gently, placing my hand on his back.

"No you're staying here," he said stubbornly.

"No, Emmybear, I'm going to Charlie's house." Reaching over to hug him, I was pulled into a bear hug.

"No, here. That's final. You can stay in my room I have no problem sharing." He told me.

"Emmett, I am not sleeping in your room. That freaking bed of yours barely holds you." I joked softly, ignoring the sarcastic look from Edward, like he wouldn't be surprised if I did share Em's bed. Sick perverted dirty-minded sex-god-looking assmunch. "I'll walk if you don't take me," I threatened him because I needed to talk to him alone and I needed to go to Charlie's.

"NO!" Em yelled.

"Bella, someone else can drive you." Carlisle protested.

"Bella sweetie, you don't have to run off." Esme rushed over to hug me in Em's arms.

"I can take 'baby bear' home," Edward offered.

"Excellent idea, son, you can get to know each other." Carlisle approved.

"Yeah, ten blocks of bonding," Emmett muttered sarcastically.

"Emmett Marcus McCarty, go to your room, young man. You have been nothing but rude and unreasonable tonight. I am ashamed of you." Esme told her son pushing him off me. I listened as he bounded up the stairs, cursing under his breath. "And, Edward, that was sweet of you. But, Bella, you can stay here, I can make up the sofa for Carlisle and you can stay in my room." I heard the sacrifice in her voice and I knew that in this moment, I could prove myself as sacrificing as the perfect Cullen kids.

"No, Aunt Esme, I'm going to my Dad's. In fact, I can call him at the station and have him pick me up. It would be easier for everyone." I told her putting strength behind my voice trying to prove that.

"Edward, I can drive Bella, it's not a problem." Esme told Edward. She was so sad she looked near tears and I hugged her tight.

"No, Esme, I'll take her," he assured her, picking up my bag from the floor. "Coming, baby bear?"

"Yeah." Waving 'bye' to the others, I followed Edward out to the silver Volvo. It took all I had not to say something sarcastic as he threw my bag in the back seat and opened the passenger side door for me.

"Which way?" He asked and I gave him the directions to Charlie's house. He reached over and hooked his iPod up and began playing Stone Temple Pilots "Creep". Good song. Saying nothing else, he put the car in reverse and took off towards Charlie's.

"Thank you for driving me to Dad's; I don't think Esme could have handled it," I told him quietly.

"Not a problem," he paused and looked at me, "so you're what, fifteen?" and I laughed so hard I snorted. He rolled his eyes at me. Damn sexy fucker.

"Sixteen… I'll be seventeen next month," I told him.

"Wait… you're sixteen? Why didn't you just drive yourself?" he asked stunned.

"Umm… I can't," I whispered, embarrassed.

"Why?" he prodded.

"I don't have a license. I haven't even taken the test for my permit yet."

"Why?" he repeated.

"To be honest I never gave it much thought. Em, Rose, Jasper and Aunt Esme take me everywhere. I've never before tonight needed or wanted to go anywhere one of them wasn't already heading." I answered honestly.

"Ahhh..." He drew out sarcastically.

"What?" I demanded.

"I get the baby bear thing now. You are the baby mascot that they all drag around."

"I am not a baby and they don't drag me around, nor am I a fucking mascot!" I yelled at him. "Like you can talk, you drive a grandpa car." I glared at him, glad that it was dark in the car, so I able to glare at the perfect specimen of man sitting beside me.

"You have a bit of a temper on you." He muttered. "And the Volvo is not a grandpa car. It's a sleek piece of machinery that has phenomenal speed capabilities. Most girls find it hot."

"Well, I'm not 'most girls', grandpa," I spat at him. Though I got the feeling he had the same love for his car that Em had for his jeep. Weird, guys and their cars.

The car remained silent other than the music which went from STP to Kings of Leon "Wasted Time". And I swear I heard him mutter it was his theme song. I pointed to Charlie's house and turned to say 'thanks', but he was already out of the car. Stunned, I unbuckled myself just as my door swung open. Edward reached in to help me out and a spark ran from where he touched me, on my fingers, straight up my arm. He jumped a little, but ignored it. After he shut my door and got my bag off his back seat. I pulled my house keys out and went to reach for my bag, but he just took my keys and walked to the door. Unlocking Charlie's house, he set my bag inside and ran lightly back to his car.

I watched frozen in place as he gave a cocky wave and wicked wink, before pulling out of my driveway. All I could think is fuck my life. Just my luck, my case of unrequited lust would be on Edward Cullen of all fucking people. Going inside I left a note for Charlie to let him know I was in my room. I went upstairs, locked my door and crawled into my rarely used single bed with itchy sheets and finally let loose the tears I'd been holding at bay. My life was changed and I didn't like it. I cried myself to sleep that night, the first time since my Uncle died.