Alright, it's a record for me, two updates in one day. Amazing, but I won't be updating for a few days (maybe) because my birthday is monday and I'm turning fifteen! There is something you must KNOW for this chapter to make any sense. Kings Island is an amusement park (a very fun one) in Cincinatti Ohio, home of the brand new (and totally awesome) diamondback. The Littles' home is 20-25 minutes away, The Swan residence is about three and a half hours away (in this story only). E and B's relationship doesn't exactly start at the end, just FYI, he's just being a gentleman, Edward does, however, learn a bit of it in the next chapter (after this one.)
Peace out!
Sam
The next morning, when I did wake up, the house was perilously silent, like the world had ended. One by one, I took the trash bags of my stuff out to the porch, having difficulty lifting them on my own, knowing Lili could have lifted them with ease.
My mom came outside, I'd expected her to be tearful, but really now, who was I kidding, "Hannah wants to see you, she doesn't want to be here when the social worker comes." I nodded and walked up to her room, knocking softly on her door.
"Come in." She was hoarse, when I opened the door it was worse, her eyes were red and puffy, she looked like she hadn't slept all night.
I smiled weakly, "Han, babe, you look like hell."
She laughed, then cried, "I know you won't change you mind about this, but will you please keep in touch? Everyday? I really do love you Bell."She traced her fingers on her comforter awkwardly, our family was never one to express much emotion.
I hugged her tightly, "Of course, every hour between 10 am and 10pm I'll text you, I promise."
Hannah hugged me back, "Love you Bells."
"Love you Han." I buried my face in her shoulder for a moment.
Our mother's voice floated upstairs, "Isabella! The social worker's here!"
"Coming mother!" I jogged downstairs, a catlike woman was standing in the doorway, cringing slightly at my parents piercing stares, "Hello." I tried to smile politely.
She smiled tentively back, noticing my eyes were less harsh than that of my biological parents, "Hi, my name is Mrs. Little, you to say goodbye to your parents, I'll give a moment, meet me outside!" Despite her quiet and cattish looks, she was quite upbeat, she stepped outside.
"Well, Bye guys." They didn't answer or stop me, I stepped outside and shut the door behind me, it hurt a little to leave, but I did.
Mrs. Little stood by a shiny Audi coupe, "You didn't say goodbye to them? They're your biological family honey!"
I shrugged, "I did, they were the ones that didn't answer me ." Mrs. Little sighed, so I relented, "My sister and I said goodbye this morning, we're twins, I have a cell, we'll keep in constant contact." That seemed to appease her enough.
She nodded and motioned for me to get into the passenger seat, "You'll like Care Home, you can do whatever you want, you have the choice between homeschool with me, or going to Oaks High, the other teens and younger ones are nice." Mrs. Little smiled, and I smiled back tentively, allowing an ounce of excitement within myself.
I shoved my earbuds into my ears and turned my ipod to my feel good playlist, "lullaby" by the spill canvas started playing, it was a good three hour drive to Care Home.
Sleep came over me as piano music drifted through the earbuds, Mrs. Little shook my shoulder, "Bella! Bella, it's alright, it was just a nightmare."
"Weird." I rubbed my dripping eyes, "I don't remember dreaming." My cheeks were wet and my eyes burned fiercely.
Mrs. Little smiled gently, "We'll be there in about thirty seconds anyway." I sighed and wiped my face, I probably looked like hell.
We pulled into the driveway of a huge house, it had blue shutters and white pillars. Mrs. Little helped me carry my bags upstairs, my room was blue, small, and simple, but I liked it."Is this okay? It was originally a boys room, but we can change it if you want."
I smiled, shaking my head, "It's perfect." She smiled and left me to be alone. I sat on the bed and wrapped my arms around my knees, sighing.
There was a soft, swift knock at the door, "Come in." A girl with straight black hair and a kind smile walked in, "Hello, I'm Bella."
She smiled, "Angela. So your new here huh?" I nodded, "Mr. and Mrs. Little are great, you're very pretty, I'm sure you'll be adopted soon."
"Don't most people want babies, or little kids? I'm sixteen, no one wants someone my age."
Angela sat on the bed next to me, "There's always hope, some older people want calm kids so they can still take care of someone, but not deal with the preteen weirdness." She looked up at me, "It's always possible that they find some distant family members, or a kind family with teenagers that wants another."
I had a sudden and completely random epiphany, "Do the Little's have a piano?" A tune was beginning to form in my head, something that happened at compeletely random times.
"Yeah, come on." She hopped of the bed and dragged me downstairs, in the navy painted living room with a pale wooden floor, sat at center, the most gorgeous grand piano.
I ran my fingers along the ivories, without pressing the keys down, it was a black grand, "It's beautiful," I smiled at the sight, "Is it okay if I play it?"
There was a rustle from the couch, an old man, whom I correctly guessed to be , put down a newspaper and stood, "Of course it is Bella." He stood behind me when I sat down and began to play the tune running through my head, "Is this an original?" I nodded, "It's very good."
Laughing a little when I missed a note, I smiled at him, "Thank you." My eyes cast down when I thought of my father, "I wasn't allowed to play much back home, one of the reasons they let me go."
Mrs. Little came up, "Girls, go get the others, Dinner's ready, And Bella? You may play whenever you want honey." I nodded my thanks.
Angela led me upstairs, taking me to the first door on the right, "This is Mark's room." She knocked, a tall, asian boy opened the door, "Mark, this is Bella," We shook hands, "Mrs. Little wanted me to tell you dinners done." He grinned and ran past us.
We walked through the hall, knocking on all the bedroom doors, there was Carlie's room, Janice, Bryan, Dylan, and Hailey. Dylan trailed behind us, the others were already eating. There were three more places set, each had a plate of what looked like dumplings. We sat down, the others were discussing school, I ate and listened in silence until, that is, Mrs. Little nudged me, "Bella, I made some phone calls, and found a relation of yours, a Jasper Hale. Do you remember him?" I shook my head, "Jasper's your age, he was adopted by another family, the Cullens. They were thinking of coming tomorrow, and maybe, adopting – you. Is that okay?"
I shrugged, "I guess I should at least meet them, my mom talked about them a few times, Jasper sounds nice, she spoke quite highly of him." I stared at my mostly empty plate, "May I please be excused?"
Mr. Little smiled at me, "Of course Bella." It took everything I had to walk at a normal pace, and not run from the room. I walked slowly upstairs and sat on my bed, curling into my familiar impenatrable ball, thinking. I didn't think I could handle living with a family like my biological one again, I couldn't, I wouldn't.
I fell asleep fully dressed, but didn't sleep deeply, I was far too worried about to tommorow.
Someone was shaking me gently, "Isabella, everything's fine, it's just a nightmare!" A boy with curly blond hair was kneeling on the floor next to the bed.
I scrambled away from him, wiping my eyes, according to the wetness there, I'd been crying again. "Who are you?"
The boy smacked his forehead, "OF course you wouldn't recognize me! I'm Jasper Hale. Your cousin."
"And you already know my name, but I prefer Bella."
Jasper stood, "Okay, I'll leave you to get ready, the rest of my –our- family should be here soon for breakfast, then we'll take you somewhere fun." He left.
I stood shakily, dressed quickly in my usual attire, a tshirt and jeans, and yanked a brush through my hair, then stumbled from my room. Jasper wasn't anywhere in sight so I walked to the piano, just as I started to play Jasper walked in, "You play?" I smiled at him, "You're very good."
My fingers stumbled at his comment, no one, especially not family had ever said something kind about my playing, I stopped. "Thank you." My eyes got wet for the third time since I'd gotten here.
He seemed to sense my distress, "What's the matter?"
Wiping my eyes, I muttered, "Just thinking about my family, it's nothing. I guess I miss my twin sister a bit more than I thought I would."
He winced at something, but nodded, which was when I noticed six people standing under the arch in the living rooms' door way. "Uh, hi."
Jaspers cold hand touched my arm, "Bella, this is my family, Carlisle and Esme, our adoptive parents," he motioned to a pale, blond man and carmel haired woman. "Rosalie, Emmett," A blonde who could've been a model, and a curly brown haired boy built like the hulk, "Alice, and Edward." A small, pixie - like girl and a tall, bronze haired boy.
The thing that immediately struck me was that they were beautiful, all of them, even the boys, and that they all had gold eyes. Jasper walked over to Alice, wrapping his arms around her waist and resting his head on her shoulder. The oldest woman, Esme, walked forward and hugged me, I froze for a second before hugging her back, "Hello everyone." I attempted a smile.
Carlisle smiled, "It's great to meet you Bella." The big one, Emmett, ran up and grabbed me in a nearly bone crushing hug,
"Uh-Emmett –" I gasped.
Edward put a hand on Emmetts shoulder, "You're hurting her." He dropped me immediately.
"Sorry Bella! Are you alright?" He asked as I doubled over, wrapping my arms around my torso.
Edward guided me back to the piano bench, "You okay?"
Slowly I unwound my arms and took a deep breath, "Yeah, I'm really sorry, I shouldn't have reacted like that, I'm fine."
He smiled, "Emmett tends to forget his own strength." Edward looked at Carlisle, "Are we ready to go?"
Carlisle nodded, "We'll get Bella some breakfast on the way." He looked at me, "We're planning on taking you to a theme park near here, it's called Kings Island. Is that okay?"
I nodded, "We don't need to stop for breakfast, I'm not very hungry." I was far too nervous for food anyway.
Carlisle smiled, "You can ride with us, Emmett and Rosalie are driving driving seperatly. " I nodded, and we walked out to a black SUV. Alice and Jasper crawled into the back seat, snuggling close together, Edward and I had a foot of space between us.
Five munutes into the trip my phone started ringing, "Oh, Sorry." I went to turn it off.
"No, go ahead." Esme smiled sweetly.
I smiled by way of thanks, "Hello?"
"Hey Bells, how are you?"
I grinned, "Hey Han! I'm good, I'm with Jasper, that dude mom used to talk about, and his family. But how are you? It's only been a day and I miss you."
"I miss you too! Mom's been crying, but other than that things are good, sorta the same with mom and dad actually, that kinda sucks, doesn't it? I'm in Cincinatti, we have a tourny game down the street from Kings Island tomorrow, the teams going to the park! It's gonna be awesome."
"You're kidding right? The Cullens are taking me there today! " The Cullens and Jasper looked at me, I went bright red.
"Well, I'm right across the street, could I come with, you think?"
"Let me ask.." I put my hand over the reciever, "Carlisle? Is it okay if my sister meets us there? She's at the hotel across the street, she has a tournament tomorrow, and she wanted to see me…of course I totally understand if you'd rather it was just us –"
Carlisle laughed and nodded, "Of course she can come."
My smile widend, and with it, Esme and Carlisle's, parked and walked up to the ticket line, a familiar body slammed into mine, "Bella!"
"Han!" I laughed and we walked over to the Cullens, keeping our arms wrapped around each others waist, "Guys, this is my biological twin, Hannah, Han, this is our cousin Jasper, Alice, Emmett, Rosalie, Esme, Carlisle, and Edward." I pointed out each one.
"Good to meet you." Carlisle shook Hannah's hand and smiled, "Twins huh? You two look quite a lot alike." We nodded, hugging again, the only differnce between us was that Hannah had blond hair, and I was a brunette.
The majority of the day was spent riding roller coasters and bumper cars, by ten pm, we were heading out to the parking lot. As we walked, Hannah started to sing softly, "Now the time has come to say, goodbye."
I smiled at her, "Very soon tomorrow will be here."
Then together, "When I think of all the times that we've been through, I'll remember you, through the years."
Hannah – "Through the years, you'll live within my heart."
Me – I'll recall, the laughter and the tears."
Together – "Now I wish, you all the best that life can give..I'll remember you, through the years."
"Love you Han."
"You too Bells, I'll call you." We hugged, I stopped a tear before anyone could see it.
Jasper wrapped an arm around my shoulders, "You okay?"
Slowly, I nodded, "I'll have to get used to it, thanks Jazz. I have a question though, why'd my mom like you so much?" I twisted in my seat to look at him as Edward climbed into the captain seat opposite mine.
Jasper looked thoughtful, "My dashing good looks, charming wit, gorgeous golden locks?" Even Carlisle and Esme cracked up at that. "Honestly Bella, I have no idea, and to be true, your mother frightens me a bit." We smiled widely at each other.
A yawn escaped before I could stifle it, "Why don't you sleep Bella? It's been a long day." Carlisle smiled gently, "We'll wake you when we get back to the Littles'. With any luck, we can take you home tomorrow!"
I nodded and started to turn on my side, unthinkingly towards Edward, "Here!" He handed me his folded jacket.
"Thank you." I muttered, turning bright red and squeezing my eyes shut. Alice snickered in the backseat, be fore I could turn to scowl at her, I was fast alseep.
