Disclaimer: I do not own the characters of Twilight. Stephenie Meyer does and she is oh so very awesome for letting me play with them. Thank you.
Top of Form
Move
All of the women had left a few weeks ago to prepare things at the new house. We were moving to another boring rainy town in the middle of nowhere. Forks, Washington was not going to be one of my favorite places, but it was where Carlisle took a Chief Surgeons position and where the rest of us 'kids' were going to be enrolled into high school.
I wasn't happy about going to high school, but it was high time we packed up and moved to a different location. We weren't taking anything from this house, only the few items that were deemed necessary. Everything else could and would be replaced. Alice promised me that she would have my music collection already in my designated room when I got there. She wasn't normally one to break a promise so I had high hopes to at least salvaging that part of my existence.
Emmett was excited about the new possible hunting possibilities, bears were his favorite and they supposedly hibernated a few minutes run away from the new house. It's all he could think about, which was doing nothing for my resolve, he kept making me hungry.
"Emmett, could you think about something else?"
"No man! I can't wait to get there, dude Rosie said that I could go hunting as soon as I got there."
"Emmett you are such a child sometimes, you know that right?"
Emmett just shrugged his shoulders and lifted another box of Esme's china to load into the Jeep with him. I sighed as Jasper bounced down the stairs and landed next to me. He shook his head at Emmett as Carlisle walked down the stairs with a few of his medical books.
I felt the clap of Jasper's hand over my shoulder as a smile crept upon his face. I looked at him through the corner of my eye as I took a step towards the front door. We were pretty much ready to leave; the girls had taken Rosalie's Mercedes and Carlisle's Mercedes leaving us to drive the Jeep and my Volvo to the new house.
"Hey man, I am riding with you."
I stepped out of the front door and looked at Jasper, I figured he would be riding with me instead of Emmett, they got along great but no one but Carlisle could really stand to be in a vehicle with him for too long; especially when he was as over excited about the move. Jasper would go crazy from his emotions and I would lose my mind from his thoughts.
I nodded my head and briskly walked to my car unlocking the doors so that Jasper could get in. He had this bad habit of changing the radio stations around while we were driving, he'd never let just one song play through its entirety. I needed to make at least one rule if I was going to be stuck in this car with him for a few hours.
"Jasper…dude, do me a favor; if you are going to mess with the radio stations at least let a song play through before you change the station."
"But what if I decide that I don't like the song."
"Then you're going to listen to it."
"You're going to make me listen to a song I may or may not like?"
"You can always ride with Emmett, I'm sure Carlisle won't mind my rule."
"I can't ride with Emmett."
"And why can't you?"
"His emotions man, he's all excited…and not just about bears. It's disgusting."
He didn't need to say anymore, and I really didn't want to tell him that Emmett's only thoughts had really been about bears, and he's completely right that is just disgusting. I wondered if Rosalie knew how bad his bear fetish really was but decided that it was a subject I never planned to touch on.
I put the car into gear and followed Emmett out of the drive way. I knew where we were going, but I decided to follow instead of lead. Things for vampires used to be very territorial, and well from I am told they still are. I didn't want to take a chance on being in someone else's territory breaking some unwritten rule. Carlisle assured me that we would not come across those types of problems that as a species the vampire clans had evolved. I trusted him, but I didn't trust that all vampires would be aware of this new unspoken treaty.
"So man, I am trying to think of a way to surprise Alice, do you have any ideas?"
"If you are thinking of a way to surprise Alice then you have already ruined the surprise. Just give it up man, unless it's spontaneous she knows."
Jasper's lips scrunched up as his thoughts began trailing along ways to spontaneously surprise her, I let out a short chuckle and looked at him, and he couldn't be serious could he?
"Dude, you can't think about ways to be spontaneous…it's still a plan and she'll know."
"Well what the hell am I supposed to do then?"
"Stop trying to surprise Alice maybe? It's pointless she always knows."
Jasper immediately turned the radio up and slumped further into the seat, I could see his eyes watching the passenger side mirror as his thoughts counted the trees we were passing. I sighed and shook my head wondering how high up he would count before he'd give up and start trying to think of a way to surprise my sister again.
With each new city that we moved to and each new town that we passed I wondered if I would ever find that dirt road again that would lead me to Bella. The images were blurry in my mind but even with that flaw she was still perfect.
I reached my hand over to the radio to adjust the volume as Jasper's phone began ringing in his pocket. It didn't take him two seconds to recognize Alice's ring and pick up the phone immediately. He was so whipped by her that it wasn't even funny anymore. I doubted that love could ever make me jump through hoops like that, but then again this was Alice we were talking about…and anyone who knew her jumped through random hoops to keep her happy.
I listened to Jasper has he acknowledged whatever Alice was saying but I couldn't keep up with how fast she was talking through the buzz of his cell phone. It amused me to know end how the average mind functioned with the rest of an individual's body. Alice would obviously say something, then Jasper's mind would think the response; his head or hands would move in acknowledgment seconds before his mouth even uttered the words.
It completely fascinated me to watch other people interact with each other, with my gift it was also for me easily determine how much of the truth someone was holding back in the conversation. A lot of the times information that may be important to other individuals was not exactly deemed important to the person speaking… so they wouldn't even include it in the conversation. It was as if there mind mentally jumped the context when forming the words that it spoke.
"Stop staring at me like that Edward."
I turned my head back to the road in front of me a little embarrassed that I had been caught staring at Jasper. I had already told him about my strange fascination with the way the mind works, and he normally just ignored me but I guess this time I might have been staring a little too long.
"Alice said they ran into some people, she wasn't too sure on what they were exactly, but she said they looked like giant wolves. We all have to sign some kind of treaty saying that we won't go on their land or bite any of the humans in the area."
I chuckled at that, why was Alice or the rest of the girls worried about some dogs? They couldn't be near as strong or as fast as we were…so what was the point in signing some stupid treaty? It's not like I planned on feeding on a human, but the whole idea seemed a bit ridiculous.
"And why are we worried about them?"
"Alice said that there was some girl with them that threatened to expose us for we are if we didn't."
"And how do they know what we are?"
"I don't know man, but I'm a little worried, Alice said that she didn't see them coming…and everyone's future blacked out when they came in contact with them."
"What? That's ridiculous; Carlisle needs to check her head when we get there."
"Look man, I think we should just sign the treaty and ignore it."
"You cannot tell me Jasper that you are not curious as to what these wolves are."
"I'm curious, but it worries Alice."
I rolled my eyes deciding that if Alice was not on board Jasper wasn't going to budge on the topic either. I would need to talk my sister into finding out more information with me in order to get Jasper to play along as well.
We sat in silence the entire rest of the trip to the new house. I would say that I was surprised at how large the house was, but I knew better. Esme had designed the house herself and I had seen the smaller replicas of the house inside her mind, so the large glass windows that covered an entire side of the house and the plush white furniture that decorated the inside wasn't much of a surprise, it was expected.
I walked into the house carrying one of the many boxes of Esme's china and set it down on the kitchen counter. I was curious as to what everyone's thoughts were on the recent encounter they had but no one was thinking about it. I was also fairly certain that this was done on purpose for me and me alone.
"Alice, where are you?"
"Over here Edward!"
I turned around to see Alice standing at the base of the stairwell looking at me curiously. She wasn't smiling but she didn't appear to be sad. I assumed that meant that she was in one of frantic design modes that Esme and Rosalie encouraged.
"What's this I hear about a treaty?"
"Oh the papers are on the dining room table if you could sign them tonight Esme and Carlisle will be taking them over tomorrow."
"Alice, I get the strangest feeling everyone is not thinking about this incident for a reason."
"It's literally all in your head Edward. There's nothing to worry about, we stay away from them…they'll stay away from us."
"Then why are you humming the German alphabet?"
"Because I already know what you are planning and you're not getting anything out of me. Stay away, it's not that hard to do; especially for you…you don't even like new people."
Alice turned on her heal and headed back up the stairs before I could ask her anything else. I stuck my hands in my jeans pockets and decided to take the stairs one step at a time perfecting my 'human' walk in preparation for the mundane tortures of returning to high school.
As I reached the top step I looked down both sides of the long extended hall way hearing my family moving about in their own rooms setting up the usual things, like clothes and beds that would never be slept in. I was about to turn and knock on the door that I heard Alice's voice coming from to ask her which room was mine when she yelled out from her room, "Last door on the right."
It was convenient that she knew what I was going to ask her before I asked her, and saved a lot of my time with having to even ask the question. I noticed the rest of the family's slight annoyance with our silent conversations but figured what did they expect? She was my sister after all. We shared a bond that was permanent and unbreakable on a level that even I didn't think could exist.
I headed into the last door on the right and looked around, the carpet was white. There was no bed because well, I had no reason to have one. In place of a bed was a black leather couch tucked away against one of the windows. Several boxes were left for me to unpack, many of them labeled music. I opened what I assumed to be my closet door and noticed that I didn't recognize any of the clothes in there. I sighed as I muttered Alice's name and closed the closet door.
I began organizing my music on the shelves that littered the room by year, then genre, and then by how much I actually liked them. It was tedious and time consuming which is something I needed to get me through the night. I enjoyed my solitude and often spent time alone hiding in my room reading Carlisle's old medical journals.
I flipped open one of the boxes pulling out the music and setting them all on the floor to be separated after I got the boxes out of my room. It would make things more functional if I at least got the trash out of the way first.
After I had cleared out the first three boxes there was a knock at my door coupled with the thoughts of Alice and Jasper, "Can we come in Edward?"
"If I said no would you come in anyways?"
"Probably."
"Then come in."
I stood up and turned to face the door as Alice danced her way in followed by Jasper. Alice carried a small alarm box that she set up next to my couch and began fiddling with the buttons.
"Alice what do I need an alarm clock for?"
"School silly, I'm setting it for the time that you should start getting dressed…it'll be just like old time Edward."
"Accept you won't be jumping on my bed telling me to get up."
"See to you, it'll be better than old times."
I turned my head to see Jasper smirking at the thought of Alice jumping on a bed and mentally cringed. I glared at him which only made him laugh out loud. He wasn't concerned or worried about what I thought, he had my sister and to him nothing else in the world mattered. Not even my own personal sanity.
"Ok Edward, now I have a feeling that this school year is going to be great for us…all of us. So please dress decent, do you need me to show you how to use your closet?"
"No Alice, I think I can figure out how to dress myself."
Alice shrugged her shoulders as she moved to Jasper's side. His arm wrapped around her shoulders as her hand came up and was gently placed over his stomach. I often wondered if that's how Bella and I would look if we had ever had a chance at a life together.
But I guess that was something I needed to not think about anymore. She probably didn't even exist.
