Disclaimer: I do not in any way, shape, or form own Twilight, New Moon, or Eclipse. Stephenie Meyer does.
Chapter Nine
"Strange and Eventful"
The car finally slowed about five minutes later, though I didn't see a house, just a brick building. The building wasn't small, but it wasn't very large either, it looked like an apartment.
"What is this place?" I asked curiously, I knew all of the Cullen siblings couldn't fit in that one house. Comfortably, at least.
"This is just the back garage; the house is about two hundred yards west." He pointed to the left of him, and I could barely make out the outline of something, but I couldn't see it entirely because all of the trees and vines were blocking everything in view.
Edward closed his door and strolled beside me as we walked through the thick forest and suddenly something occurred to me. "Wait, back garage, as in, you have more than one? How many cars do you have?" I thought about the large building, it was at least able to hold five cars.
Edward chuckled beside me and answered, "Well, Rosalie, Carlisle, Emmett, and I have one and Esme and Alice both just acquired one recently, so about six, not counting the other two collectives I have." I felt my eyes widen, my family only had three cars, Christiana's, Henry's, and mine. Edward must have seen my eyes widen because he then added, "But our other garage is really pretty much Rosalie's; she likes to fix up cars. It's her hobby."
"Oh." I said, though the thought of beauty queen Rosalie being able to fix cars was a little funny to think about.
We walked slowly for a few more minutes and I was beginning to see the house very quickly. After we had walked a few yards, Edward removed a vine out of the way and I caught sight of a beautiful, three-story mansion. It was made of red brick, with a few concrete bricks every so often. There was a balcony right above a large red door and many windows. The front of the yard was all nicely kept, the grass was a vibrant green and nicely trimmed, and the gravel in the driveway was all raked and didn't overlap on the grass at all. I spotted a small building on the west side of the house; I guessed it was Rosalie's garage. There were bushes and some small trees outlining the pathway to the door and around the front of the house.
It was the most beautiful house I had ever seen.
I stood, awestruck, staring at the building for a few seconds before I became aware the Edward was watching my face, half amused and half worried about something. I finally looked away from the house and asked. "What?"
"Nothing," He shook his head and started walking towards the mansion. "Coming?"
I nodded reluctantly, wanting to push the conversation further, but I let it go for the moment. I would get my chance to question.
I followed him to his doorway and he opened it slowly, letting me go in first. It was as beautiful as the outside, all the walls, carpeting, and tiling was done in light colors. Works of art were hung on the walls and vases of different assortments of flowers were around the room. I could identify every single one of the flowers, though, I noticed, there was one vase that only held a single freesia. There was a large plasma TV on my left (it actually looked like the new one Henry and Peter were waiting for to come out, and I guessed that it might be) with a game station underneath it, there was a white loveseat in front of the TV and two matching armchairs next to it. On my right there were three loveseats – light blue, light yellow, and a pale tan – and three, white, matching armchairs in a semi-circle. There was a black grand piano between the TV and doorway and three bookshelves on the eastern wall, but, I guessed, those weren't the only bookshelves they had in this mansion.
I looked straight ahead again and noticed that the entire Cullen family had arrived down the dark wooden staircase and were now looking happily at me. There were two other people that I hadn't yet met, but I guessed they were Edward's "parents" – Carlisle and Esme. The golden-haired male was smiling calmly at me, but the caramel-haired woman was smiling at me excitedly, it looked like she was a minute away from jumping up and down in excitement. The rest of the Cullens were there, all smiling at us.
"Hello." I gave a little wave, embarrassed that they were staring at me like I was supposed to dance around the room or something.
Esme ran up to me quickly and had enveloped me in a hug in less than a second. "Oh, Bella, I'm so glad to see you again."
"Um…nice to see you too." Was all I could say. I'd never met this woman, I'd only heard about her. But, then again, it seemed there were a lot of people I'd met that I didn't remember.
"Oh, I'm sorry dear. How rude of me, I should've remembered," The woman said, flustered. "My name is Esme, and this is Carlisle." She signaled to the blonde-haired male and I smiled at them both, happy to know that my guessing was right.
The room was quiet then. The Cullens continued to smile at me as if I was a long lost pet, which was making me feel uncomfortable. I felt like I was under a microscope and they were the scientists, examining and studying me. Edward seemed to be reading the minds of his family, having silent conversations with them.
Thankfully, Alice was the first to notice my unease.
"Come on, Bella," She sang while she ran up to me and grabbed my hand, smiling brightly. "Edward and I will give you a tour."
"Okay." Was all I was able to say before I was almost literally dragged into the next room, Edward following with an amused look on his face. I was tempted to stick my tongue out at him, but I was barely able to stand up straight with Alice's constant motion. I quickly tucked the information that Alice could move even faster than a vampire when she was excited about something in my mind.
She showed me the rooms I had first seen when I walked in, then quickly moved into their dining room. It had a beautiful, polished, dark oak table with eight chairs surrounding the table. A few pictures were also on these walls, and an unnecessary china cabinet was in the corner. Even with no memory of my past, I knew the dishes in the cabinet were from, at least, the mid-1920s. She quickly ran me through Jasper's library, probably suspecting I would want to spend most of my time there.
Alice then dragged me into their unused kitchen. Everything looked sparkling brand new, as it should. The counters were a spotless cream colored marble, the cabinets were a light wood, and the stove was a sparkling white. Even if they didn't need the kitchen, they made it very beautiful.
After she had shown me the kitchen, Alice ran me back into the front room, where the rest of the Cullens had gone, and up the dark staircase. It was an even more beautiful sight when you looked at the downstairs from the top of the stairs. Alice started pointing out all the doors.
"This is Esme's study, Carlisle's study, Carlisle and Esme's room, and over there is the balcony…" She pointed to a small hallway from across the large opening.
"Do you mind?" I asked hopefully and when she nodded happily, I quickly walked over to the window and pushed it open, climbing cautiously through.
The forest looked very peaceful from the balcony's view, inviting and serene, while a soft breeze swept through the leaves, waving the branches softly. I smiled to myself, feeling completely at ease as I felt the breeze flow against my face. I slowly and reluctantly moved away from the ledge and back through the window into the house. Alice was smiling happily at me when I came back in.
"Do you like it?" She asked happily.
"Yes," I replied, "It's so peaceful and nice when you look down onto the forest and everything. You can keep going now."
I motioned her to continue the tour, and she grabbed my hand and pulled me up the staircase again, onto the third story.
"This is Jacqueline's room, Rosalie's and Emmett's room, Jacqueline's studio, mine and Jasper's room, and finally, Edward's room." She gave a motion to the last door at the end of the hall, the door was the same dark oak as the rest, and I could hear soft music coming from behind it. Alice kissed my cheek and gave me a small wave before she walked into her room across from us. "I'll see you later."
"Bye." I said before tapping lightly on Edward's door. He opened it immediately, smiling his crooked smile when he saw it was me. I smiled and gave a small wave. "Hello."
"Hello." He opened his door all the way and invited me in, which I gladly accepted.
His room was made up of a lot of browns. The carpet was a light tan, as was the walls, but in a darker shade. There was a dark, chocolate brown, leather couch and a matching armchair in the corner. There were two desks, both at either sides of the room, one was stacked with what looked like school books and papers while the other was covered with what looked like hand-written music. There was two bookshelves on the wall to my left and about fifteen rows of CDs on my right.
Pictures were hung up on the many walls and when I went to look at them, they were all of the same things. They all included a happy, dark-haired girl, a few of them were black and white, but most of them were in color, and, I could see, the girl was a pretty human. Not a flashy type of beauty that so many movie stars and models were famous for, but a nice, quiet beauty. The girl had ivory skin and, as I looked closer, I could tell her hair was the same shade as Edward's furniture, a nice chocolate brown.
Most of the pictures included Edward, but some were of the girl alone. Posing in front of a small, two-story house or a rusty, old, candy red truck. She was smiling happily in each, but she looked even happier, if it was possible, when she was posing with Edward.
"Who's she?" I asked curiously, the face seeming faintly familiar. I saw out of the corner of my eye, Edward walk beside me and gaze at the pictures for a moment before answering.
"That's
you." The words were simple enough, but didn't seem right. This
young girl couldn't be me. Yes, there was a familiarity, but this
girl looked so much happier and joy-free than the picture in my ID.
Like her personality had changed drastically in the days in between.
"You
see these three," He continued, motioning toward one which
included him and me in front of truck, another in front of the small
house, and another in front of a school. "These were some of the
pictures in you wallet."
"Really?" I asked curiously, wondering why he had kept and framed the pictures. Surely they didn't mean that much to him? "Do you have any more pictures of us?"
"Yes, I do. Let me get them." He said with a small smile on his face. He walked over to the desk covered with music and opened a small drawer that was hidden so it looked like a part of the table. He pulled out a rather thick looking scrapbook and brought it over to the couch where I had sat down.
"Thanks." I said, but before I could open the front cover, a mix of music floated through the walls into Edward's room, overpowering the steady jazz rhythm he had been playing easily. "What's that?"
"Jacqueline mixing two of my CDs together, most likely." He chuckled, then saw my confused expression and explained. "Her studio is right next to here; she takes different CDs, usually some of mine, and mixes them together. Then, she makes recital pieces for the local dance studio with the music. She enjoys teaching people the steps, then watching them dance to her music."
I smiled, "That sounds like an enjoyable pastime."
"Maybe she'll show you sometime." He said, and then opened the front cover of the scrapbook for me. "Go ahead."
I turned to the next page to see a small, blank, title page. "Why is it blank?"
He simply shrugged. "I could never think of a title for it."
I nodded, about to say something, when Alice's bell-like voice called from the other side of the door. "Edward, time to get ready for school!"
I hastily checked my watch, only to see that we only had about half an hour until school started. "Oh, crap."
"What?" Edward asked curiously.
"I have to go; I promised Christiana I would be home in time for school. I have to go, I'll see you later." I set the book beside me on the leather cushion and quickly got up. I walked out of Edward's room and down the stairs until I reached the main level.
"Bye,
Bella! I'll see you soon." Alice squealed as she kissed me on
the cheek, before letting me run out of the house and through the
forest to the high school's parking lot, where my car glinted in
the now lightening sky.
I quickly
got in and rushed back to the house, only to be greeted by an
annoyed looking Christiana, her hands in her jeans' pockets.
"Sorry, I lost track of time. You guys go on without me; I'll
get a late note."
"Okay, we'll meet you there." I heard her say as I ran into the house and up our staircase. I reached my bedroom quickly and randomly pulled out something from my closet. I quickly put them on and looked in the mirror, the jeans were torn slightly at the knees and the shirt was a tight, long-sleeved, black shirt. I quickly pulled on some black and white tennis shoes and ran down the stairs.
Man, was I having one strange and eventful week.
Author's Note: And I will try to update as soon as I can. There is a picture of the Cullen mansion up on my profile also, so be sure to check that out! And remember, Review! Lol.
Lots of Love,
Laine
