Disclaimer: I do not own Twilight or New Moon or any characters of Stephenie Meyer.
Chapter 2 (Edward's POV)
Today I would begin my job. As a stable hand. I still couldn't get over them doing this to me. At least my brothers and sisters had a say in their jobs. I ignored my family as I ate my breakfast, still mad at them doing this. Carlisle was actually here for once, but he was staying quiet. I quickly ate and was about to leave where I didn't even know where I was suppose to go. How idiotic of me. I walked back in and saw Carlisle about to walk out. He saw me and stopped.
"What's the matter, Edward? You're going to be late if you don't hurry." He said softly, not wanting me to blow up on him.
"I don't know where to go." I said as toneless as I could.
He took a deep breath and said, "Come on, I'll show you were to go." He said a little louder over his shoulders, "Swans, right?"
"YEP!!!" Emmett's voice rung through the house.
"Alright then, it's a long drive. I'll show you to their driveway and see you off there, otherwise I'm going to be late too." We walked outside and got into our cars. As I drove my Volvo, I realized that I knew nothing about farming. We never had any animals and I usually just went outside to listen to music on my IPOD. We lived outside of town, but not on a farm. It was a secluded part of the forest. After about twenty minutes, driving on the back roads around the outskirts of town, he slowed his car to a halt. I wasn't for sure if this was a driveway or a dirt road. It had nice, white fencing on both sides of the road, but there was no house in sight.
Carlisle got out of his car and I rolled down my window to talk to him. "Now, I know you don't want to do this, but please, don't take it out on this family. They've gone through a lot and they don't need anymore hard times to go through. They don't need you arguing and getting out of work." He sighed, giving up the hard exterior he was trying to use. "Edward, do this for me if not for anyone else. This family needed someone and your just on temporary basis. Now that Esme is going back to work, you have to go back to school—"
"WHAT!!!!" Esme? But how was I supposed to go to school. I've always been homeschooled! "Why didn't she tell me?"
"Which part?" He looked a little uncertain.
"BOTH!!!" Why was she even going back to work? Carlisle made enough money. Plus, the whole family would be gone to work. Nobody would ever see each other.
"She wanted to Edward. She needs something to do. And now that she's back at work, she can't home school you and Alice anymore. So, in two weeks, you'll be going to school where the rest of your siblings go." He leaned back, waiting to hear what I would say. Or scream.
But all I said-and I said it quietly was, "Why didn't anyone tell me?"
"They were supposed to last night." He said, answering my question. But they didn't. All they did was make a joke out of my job. I took off, not even realizing that I did. I was half way down the drive way before noticing it. I looked back in the rearview mirror, but all I saw was dust. I could finally see the house. It was magnificent. Even better then ours. It had several buildings around it and I could see machinery everywhere. As I followed the driveway around the house and to the back, I saw someone sitting on the back deck. I got out of my car, parking it next to a very old looking truck, and walked up to the man on the deck.
He stood up and met me half way. He gave me a smile and shook my hand. "Hello, I'm Charlie Swan. You must be Edward Cullen."
"Yes sir, I am." He clapped his hand on my shoulder and asked me if I knew anything about farming. "No sir, I don't."
"Enough with the 'sir.' I'm not your boss." Before I could ask who was, he started taking me on a tour of the farm. He showed me the shop, I was surprised how organized it was. And clean. The rest of the buildings were like that too. He briefly told me of the horse barns, and showed me where they were. But that was it. They were far from the house, on the east side. We went to the biggest building, the barn, I guessed from the structure.
When we stepped in, I could hear someone upstairs, in the barn attic, moving around. Charlie noticed my gaze, but didn't answer the unasked question.
"Now, this is where you will mostly be working. Since you don't know anything about farming, we'll just give you the basics. The feed bags are over in one corner. The big container over in the other corner holds the feed for the calf-feeder. The small hay bale's are up in the attic. The tractor will be in here whenever we aren't using it. The tools are in here, at least the one's we use often." Charlie said, showing me the huge barn. I looked at the bag's, thinking they couldn't need that many. There must have been a hundred bags!!
"We feed half the cows one day and the rest the next. This happens once a week. We have spilt up the cows into different fields. My daughter, Bella, will be showing you around. She's the one you hear upstairs. Probably cleaning up. In case you haven't noticed all the cleanness of the buildings are because of her. She has to have things in order." He chuckled. Then frowned and sighed. "She doesn't take things to lightly, and I don't want to hear anything bad happening. I had to fire the last guy for trying to take advantage of her. Good thing I gave her a shot gun for her birthday." He bit his lip while I widened my eyes. He couldn't be serious. Could he?
"Um, I-I. Don't worry sir, I won't." I tried to stutter out. A shotgun? What if--
"I thought I told you not to call me that!" He said, laughing.
"I'm sorry. I just forgot. I won't—"
"OH!!! You should have seen your face!!! That was the most hilarious thing I've seen in awhile!!" He burst out laughing. "When I said that part about the shotgun! OH!! My god, that was hilarious! Your face lit up like a dead firework." He said, chuckling. Then he stopped, now serious again. "She does have one. Just to warn you. But I do want you to take her serious. I don't want to have to hear if you've been slacking off."
He looked gloomy now, but continued on. "Not that she would tell me. But I know if Carlisle raised you, you'll be great." His expression changed to one of gratefulness. "Your parents have done a lot for us, and for that, we thank you. Especially when I had my stroke just a few weeks ago. Thank you for doing this Edward."
"It's no problem." I immediately knew why I was working now. I was the only person--male--available in our family to work. And Carlisle was probably the one to volunteer me, not Rosalie or Emmett as I originally thought.
"Now, about my daughter, she'll work you into the ground. If you don't do something, she'll take over. Don't let her. She's doing enough things at the moment." He took a deep breath. "We used to have a few more workers here, but they quit about a month ago. Then, a few friends of the family helped, but they go to school. And now after my stroke, Bell's is the only one working. I can't step outside the house according to your father." He turned to me, serious. "Don't tell him I did, though."
As he talked of his daughter, I could only picture her of this rough, big muscled girl with a shotgun. She wouldn't smile, only have a set jaw on her, she'd be tough looking. She would whip---
"Uh-oh, here she comes." He said, worry coloring his tone. His face looked afraid but with a bit of awe in it. And of course, fatherly love dominated all of his features.
I saw one boot, then two appear on the ladder, coming from the attic. As they moved down, more body showed. When she reached the bottom, I could only stare. She was nothing of what I envisioned. She had tan skin, not the fake tan what girls (and some guys) get at the tanning bed. This was a more deep tan. Her hair was a deep chocolate brown, the same color of her eyes, which drew me in. She looked angry as she saw us and immediately came over to us, not even noticing me, just watching her father.
"You aren't supposed to be out here, Dad!" She said, putting her hands on her hips. I noticed that she had gloves on and she had bits of hay sticking to her clothes. "You know the doctor's orders, you aren't supposed to get out of the house for another two weeks!"
"Bella." He said, it sounded like he was in trouble. And trying to get out of it. I bit back a smile at the two figures in front of me. Charlie was looking for a way out and spotted me. "Edward here needed a tour and I didn't want to bother you, so I—"
"Fine." She grabbed the front of my shirt and pulled me over. I stumbled, not thinking she had the strength to do that. "I'll give him the rest of the tour. You" she pointed at him, "Go back into the house."
Surprisingly, he followed her orders, but not before shouting, "Bye, Edward! Good Luck! Hope you make it to the end of the day!" He turned around at the door. "And if you do, we have supper waiting on the table for ya."
"I'm not that bad!!!" Bella said loudly. We both heard his chuckle as he went to the house. She turned to me and just stood there looking at me. Assessing me. Sizing me up to see if I was good enough to work for her.
"So. Any questions before we begin?" She asked, probably to break the silence.
I was so nervous, that I said the first thing that came to my mind. "Where's your shotgun?"
As I realized what I said, I closed my eyes, hoping it was just a dream. I opened them when I heard Bella laughing a lovely laugh and saw a beautiful smile on her face.