"Smelly!" yelled Emmett from the front porch. This wasn't the usual custom, it sparked my curiosity.
"Smelly, I need you!" Emmett continued, "Jasper says th-" but he stopped talking as he noticed that I was listening in. Much to my annoyance, he finished his question in Jacob's ear. To whatever he asked, Jacob raised his eyebrows and chuckled.
"How should I know?" he laughed even harder.
"Oh that's right, you innocent people wouldn't know. How boring," Emmett pouted as we walked back to the house. Then he turned to me, "I can't wait until you're old enough to understand."
"Understand what?" I asked. I hated not knowing things I had the feeling were important.
"That's enough out of you," Daddy said before Emmett could say anything else. "Be nice to my child." Before I could protest and ask what was up, I let out a yawn.
"Time to get you home?" Daddy smiled at me.
"Nessie, don't fall asleep yet!" I heard Alice say from inside. "We have to show you something!"
"What? What?" I ran inside. Alice flew down the stairs toward me. She took my hand and steered me back up the stairs going top speed.
"Edward, you come too!" she yelled over her shoulder.
"About time," Daddy said.
Daddy wanted to see too? This made me even more curious. Alice ran me to the entrance of her room.
"Okay, Bella. One, two, three…ta-da!"
Momma stepped from behind the door in a gorgeous dress that Alice obviously just finished. It was made with a deep blue, flowing fabric. It hung just off her shoulders, sloping down into a deep neckline. The bottom opened in the front at her knee, and draped toward the full length back. The cloth hung around her elegant body, making her look very tall and thin. Momma had to be the most beautiful woman in the world.
"Momma," was all I could gasp.
"My thoughts exactly," Daddy whispered behind me. I looked around to see his expression. He had the look on his face that he often gave Momma. He was looking at her as if she was an angel come to bring him to celestial glory. I was used to this look, especially since they gave it to each other several times a day. I was also used to what was coming up next. Daddy stepped forward and wrapped his arms around Momma and leaned down to kiss her.
"Should we leave them alone?" Alice whispered to me. But I stayed where I was, looking at them express their love for each other. I never really gave their kissing much thought, especially since everyone else kissed all the time. It was nice. I smiled. Eventually, they broke apart.
"I'm going to change and then we'll go, ok Nessie?" Momma said to me.
"Ok," was all I replied.
I woke up suddenly in the middle of the night. Aw man, it was nature calling again. I looked at the clock. It was almost 3 am. I was mostly out of bed when I smelled something. It was kind of like blood only… gross. Not appealing at all. Oh well, I had more pressing matters. I got up and ran to the bathroom. As I was doing my business, the smell only seemed to get worse. At first I didn't care. Then I looked down…
"MOMMA!" I screamed louder that I ever had in my life. I was so scared I was shaking all over. What was going on? Did I have some kind of strange illness?
Momma was in the bathroom in half a second, my shaking hands touched her face. I asked her what was wrong with me, and what this was.
"It's ok, Nessie," Momma replied, "let's get you cleaned up and then I'll explain everything."
This gooey blood, or whatever it was, was all over my underwear and even my pajama bottoms. It had even dried partly down my legs. Momma cleaned me up with an alcohol wipe and then ran to get me some fresh underwear and pajamas. When she came back, she carried something with her as well. She got a small, long object out of a wrapper.
"This is going to feel strange, but it will stop the blood from getting everywhere again. Lift your leg up a little bit."
If she wasn't my mother, I would have freaked out. She stuck this little thing up a hole I hardly knew existed. She was right about one thing at least; it certainly felt strange. It gave me a weird sensation that made me want to spontaneously burst into giggles. After she was done, I finally got changed into clean underwear and pajamas. Then she led me by the hand back to my room and sat me down on my bed.
"I'm sorry I didn't tell you about this before. I just wasn't sure when the right time was. I mean, you grew up so fast." She told me. Did I sense a hint of regret in her voice? "It's a bit of a long story, but it has to do with how we make children."
That was random. I touched her face and asked her to tell me. Momma took a deep breath before she began…
"Oh," was all I responded.
"Do you understand now? Does all that make sense?" she asked me. I told her I understood.
"Do you think you can get back to sleep?"
I looked at the clock. It was 3:30. I was too tired to talk, so I just touched her face and told her I was tired.
"Ok," Momma leaned over and gave me a hug. "Sleep well." I didn't really respond, so she just left the room.
I lay down on my pillow, running the last half-hour over in my head. It all seemed so out of the blue. The most interesting part was when Momma tried to tell me in a calm matter how good it felt. I could see the smile trying to escape her lips when she told me that doing the deed was so…breathtaking that sometimes people went kind of crazy during the process. She told me it was similar to drinking your favorite type of blood- you kind of forget everything else around you.
And then I remembered: loud banging coming from Momma and Daddy's room. It took all of my effort to keep the hysterical giggle that burst out of my lips quiet.
I had to take a moment to convince myself that the previous evening had actually happened. I saw the world from an entirely different perspective. Momma and Daddy were nice enough to pretend not to notice the dazed look I had on my face all morning. It was still on my face as we entered the big house. I looked around at everyone's faces. These strange facts that I had only discovered last night they knew all along. So odd…
"What's the matter with you?" Emmett asked.
"I gave her the talk last night," Momma said.
Emmett stared at me for a moment, and then burst out laughing.
"Aw, baby Nessie is a big girl now! She got the TALK!" he guffawed.
"She took the news better than you did, Emmett," Daddy said.
"I never heard that story," Momma smiled. I noticed Emmett didn't look as embarrassed as I thought he would.
"He received the talk shortly after being changed," Daddy began.
Oh boy, this was going to be good, I could tell. I sat down to get more comfortable. Momma and Daddy sat down too.
"Emmett got over his newborn phase in about a year, just like most of us. Since he wasn't focused on blood so much, he was focusing on Rosalie a lot more." I saw Emmett's eyebrows jump at Rosalie as Daddy said this, and Rosalie smiled back slyly. Daddy continued, "So Carlisle decided perhaps he could tell him how he could express his love for her more fully."
"Probably the worst mistake I ever made," Carlisle laughed.
"What happened?" I asked.
"They wouldn't stop!" Daddy laughed. "It was really gross!"
"Even I could agree it was gross," Esme added. Everyone laughed, especially since Esme usually never admitted stuff like that.
"So how did Nessie take the news?" Rosalie asked.
"Rather like I did when I first heard it. Calmly, like a normal person." Daddy replied.
"Really now?" she asked skeptically, "That's probably a lie."
"What? That I took it well, or that she did?"
"Both."
"She giggled a little bit," Momma said, "but other than that, she was fine." I tried to hide my smile as I remembered what I thought was so funny.
"What was so funny, Nessie?" Rosalie asked.
"Nothing, really," I didn't want to embarrass anyone.
"It wasn't anything that funny," Daddy added.
"Ooh, why so defensive, Edward?" Rose smiled at him. "C'mon, Nessie, I'm dying here."
"No, I don't want to," I said with a blush. But of course that only made everyone more curious. Even Jasper chimed in—uh oh.
"You can tell us, Nessie. They owe you anyway for not telling you this stuff sooner," he said staring deep into my eyes, using his especially smooth, silky voice.
"Well," I smiled, unable to resist Jasper's manipulation, "I was glad to find out what all of that noise coming from their room was."
As comprehension dawned on everyone's face, the entire room burst into laughter.
"And here I was thinking you two were so 'in control'!" Emmett said through his guffaws, "Who would have thought you were a couple of wild people!"
"At least we don't destroy dozens of houses," Daddy pointed out.
"That's just a symbol of quality," Emmett responded.
"Or overcompensation," Jasper chuckled.
"Hey! I'm not the one who needs compensation!"
This conversation was getting weird. Luckily, Daddy saved me.
"Would you guys give it a rest? Nessie only got the basics last night, her head has exploded enough."
"Oh, yeah, you're still technically innocent, huh? Sorry, Nessie," Emmett apologized.
"I'm sorry too, Nessie," Jasper added. "I couldn't help it, the curiosity in the atmosphere was just too much."
"Ooh, I have a good change of subject!" Alice chimed in. "Nessie, I had an awesome idea for a new dress. Come with me!"
I jumped up and ran up the stairs with Alice, happy that she had something less weird to talk about.
I saw Jacob coming from the windows in Alice's room. Even though I had been completely absorbed in creating the new dress Alice designed for me, I abandoned the project immediately when I saw him coming.
"Yeah, yeah, I know where I fit in the grand scheme of things. I'm just so darn special," I heard Alice mumble. But I ignored her, she wasn't that mad anyway. I wanted Jacob. I jumped off the bottom steps right into his arms, where he gave me my favorite big-bear-hug.
"Hey, Nessie!" he said, still squeezing me.
"Hi, Jake," I said, refusing to let go. After a moment, he chuckled.
"How long do you think we could stay like this?" he asked.
"Forever," I said.
"Ok." He started walking toward the living room to where everyone else was, carrying me the whole way.
All of the guys were watching some game on TV. Well, laughing at it was more like it. Being a part of the supernatural brings about a level of cockiness with it. They were criticizing a guy who supposedly ran like a politician when Jacob came in, still holding me. They started to yell out "Smelly" as usual, but stopped when they saw us.
"Smelly, what are you doing with my niece?" Jasper asked.
"Ya, crazy Smelly, put her down," Emmett said.
"No," I shook my head to their surprise. So naturally, Jacob didn't let me down. He just sat down on the couch with me on his lap. Emmett and Jasper chuckled.
"Interesting position you've got goin' there," Emmett laughed. Daddy chucked something at his head so fast I didn't see what it was.
"Oh, I guess you didn't tell her about that, huh?"
"What happened?" Jacob asked, confused.
"They gave her the talk last night," Carlisle explained.
"Ah," Jacob said with more understanding, "how did you take it?" he asked me.
"Fine," I said, "I guess it made sense."
"I remember when I first got the talk," Jacob smiled. "I freaked out at first because I thought it was gross."
"Man things will be a lot more fun when you two aren't innocent anymore," Emmett grinned at me and Jacob before Daddy launched himself at him. But I didn't pay much attention to wrestle time, I was thinking about what Emmett was trying to imply. Me… and Jacob…? He… and…me…? Nevermind, I don't think I'll think about things like that.