Chapter Twenty Three: A Little Princess

Disclaimer: I do not own Twilight.

~ O ~

EPOV

Today, Saturday February the 19th 2011, was the day that Isabella Marie Swan was moving in with Edward Anthony Cullen. AKA, yours truly.

Cue girly screams of excitement. Never ever tell anyone that I screamed like a girl. I will possibly deny it. We can't let anyone call me a girl now, can we? Otherwise, Bella would be going out with a girl.

Oooh, awkward.

I had spent the entire morning, since 4am, cleaning up my house so that when everyone arrives to help move Bella in there will be no mess anyway.

Time to go through my checklist.

Remotes locked away in the cabinet underneath the television – check.

Second closet and two drawers cleaned out ready for Bella's clothes – check. Yes, I have two closets. What? I like clothes.

Toilet seat down – check.

Clean sheets, pillowcases and a new comforter on the bed in OUR room.

The spare room cleaned out so that Bella can have her own study/office so she can do all of her business operations paperwork from home – check.

Beer and meat in the fridge for when we've all finished moving in and rearranging the furniture – check.

I heard voices coming from outside and suddenly the front door burst open. "Honey, I'm home!" I heard Jasper yell from the entrance.

The next voice I heard was my fathers. "Now, now Jasper. I think those story that your father told me about is true."

"Dang it, I'm not gay!" Jasper huffed as he stamped his foot.

Alice slinked up to Jasper's side, wrapped her right arm around his waist and peered up and him. "Honey, it's okay. As long as you promise to live in denial for the rest of your life where you come home and make love to me every night, then I'm totally fine with you being gay."

The rest of the family erupted in laughter.

Jasper turned and glared at all of us. "I hate you! You're all ruining my life... except Alice!" he cried before he ran outside and sulked in his car.

Everyone in the room laughed for another five minutes before we buckled down to work. Alice, Rose and Bella were carrying boxes that were to be placed into the bedroom, spare room that would be Bella's office, and the bathroom.

The men were in charge of rearranging the furniture. Bella and I had compromised with what furniture we both wanted to keep. The rest we would combine into a storage unit.

My mother burst open the front door around midday holding a bucket of cleaning supplies in her hand.

"What do I owe the pleasure of your visit, dearest mother?" I asked her.

She just looked at me and waved a toilet cleaning brush.

"You men. I came here to clean up the bathroom so that it's suitable and up to Bella's living standards," she smiled while waving the brush in my face.

Ah mum. She's always been obsessed with bathrooms.

Bella rushed over to her. "Thank you Esme. Would you like some help?"

Mum shook her head. "Oh heavens no, dear. I did buy you a house warming present though."

Bella yayed and jumped up and down until my mum produced the present.

A fluffy purple toilet lid cover and a matching fluffy mat that wraps around the toilet base.

"For you my dear, so that your feet won't be cold in the morning when you use the toilet and so that when the toilet lid is DOWN it matches!"

All four of the women laughed and talked quietly to each other. No doubt comparing toilet lid covers. Weird.

Emmett came up to me and clapped his hand on my back a few times. "Dude. You have a purple toilet."

"I know," I replied.

Carlisle clapped the right side of my back. "Son, it's okay. I have a rainbow toilet."

Jasper smirked. "Now who's the gay one?"

I imitated his smirk. "Only with you Jasper. Wanna help me move the bed? I could use some help," I wiggled my eyebrows suggestively at him.

He huffed and went to grab a beer out of the fridge.

I peered into back into the living room and saw the ladies were comparing techniques on how to get rid of stains from the carpet.

I sighed out loud and shook my head. Men were better company. I went back into the kitchen where Emmett and my father were polishing silver and you'd never guess what they were discussing.

How to best polish silver.

Perhaps cats are better company? Now where's my fluffy orange cat? It's time to feed him some lunch.

-oo-

Alice, Rose and Bella were organising the DVD collection, adding in Bella's to mine, while Emmett, Jasper, my father and myself were drinking a beer on the back pork, making sure Esme didn't burn any of the meat.

Yes, a woman was cooking the barbeque. But none of us argued with my mum. She's the cook and always will be the cook. Even Emmett, a chef, won't argue with her!

All of a sudden I heard Alice squeal. "Bella, I had forgotten that you owned this!"

"Me too!" Rose piped in.

"Same here, until I was packing up my DVDs the other day," Bella stated.

The men, myself included, cocked their heads to the side in order to listen to their conversation.

"Can we please, please, please watch this today after lunch?" Alice asked Bella.

I could hear Bella sigh. Yes I know what her sigh sounds like. "Alright, but only if it's alright with Edward."

I voiced my opinion. "Honey, of course it's alright. It's now your home too."

"Guess that answers your question, Alice," I heard Bella laugh and Alice cheer.

"What are we going to watch?" Emmett yelled out from my left.

"The 1995 version of 'A Little Princess'," Rose yelled back. I had never heard of that movie. My mother began sniffling from over near the barbeque. Carlisle went up behind her and wrapped his arms around her waist.

I smiled at their obvious love for each other.

"What's up, buttercup?" he asked.

"N-nothing. I just love that movie. I'm not crying, it's the onions," Esme gave the cliqued excuse.

Carlisle grinned and looked at Emmett, Jasper and I. "Alright dear, whatever you say."

"Barbeques ready, anyway. Come and help yourselves," my mum said as she wiped her eyes on her apron. Emmett, Jasper and I bumped into each other as we raced and fought over who would get the best rissole.

-oo-

The curtains were drawn, the TV was turned on and ready to start, popcorn was made, drinks were poured and seats were chosen.

I was about to press PLAY on the DVD remote when Alice jumped up from her seat next to Jasper.

"Wait, I have to run to my car and get the tissues," she stated.

Emmett lifted up the tissue box I always kept on the coffee table. "But there's tissues right here."

Alice shook her head feverously. "Yeah, but they're not man sized tissues."

"You can get 'man sized' tissues?" I asked.

Rosalie sat up. "Yeah, we found then in the supermarket when we went there to buy a box of tissues before we went and saw My Sister's Keeper. We knew we were going to sob in the cinema and wanted to be prepared."

"They're literally as big as Emmett's hands side by side," Bella giggled into my chest.

Alice dashed out of the house and I took the opportunity to read the back of the DVD case so that I know what the movie is about.

'Sara Crew shares a life of wonder in exotic India with her devoted father. But war draw's Sara's father into the military and Sara is sent to a New York boarding school run byt he strict Miss Minchin, to whom exuberant Sara is a troublemaker. But with courage, imagination and kindness, Sara overcomes her hardships – and changes her life and the fortunes of those around her.'

Sounds like a girl's movie to me.

Bella peered up at me. "It is not! I bet you a hundred dollars that at least one of you 'men' are full out crying by the end of it. Not sobbing crying but at least 'tears running down your face' crying."

I smirked. "You're on."

Rose made the same bet with Emmett and Jasper took it upon himself to make the bet as well, knowing Alice would agree.

Alice waltzed back into the room holding up her box of tissues. She passed them around to Rose and Bella, who each took a handful of tissues. Seriously?

And so the movie began. I must admit, it seemed to be a heartfelt movie. The girls first burst into tears when the girl was tracing her father's face and he said. "What are you doing? Memorising me by heart?" To which she replied, "No... I already know you by heart."

Rose, Alice, Esme and Bella continued to burst out into tears when Sara was told her father had died, and again when she drew that chalk circle around her and cried out for her Papa, and again when Sara says to that evil headmistress, "I am a princess. All girls are. Even if they live in tiny old attics. Even if they dress in rags, even if they aren't pretty, or smart, or young. They're still princesses. Didn't your father ever tell you that? Didn't he?"

It was at that point that I noticed my father was dabbing his eyes with a man-sized tissue. He saw me looking at him. "What?" I just smiled and turned my head back to the screen.

Everything was great until we got to the bit where Sara was crouched down in a corner of the man's house and her father, who has amnesia, was in the same room. The lights flickered on again and she peered up at him. She immediately knew he was her father. However, he did not know she was his daughter.

Sara: Papa?

Father: What did you say?

She jumped up and runs to him, but the amnesia-ridden father attempts to hold her away.

Father: I'm sorry...

Sara: Paper, it's me! It's Sara!

Father: Do you know me?

Then the police and Miss Minchin come wandering in. Minchin tells that Sara has no father and the police drag Sara off.

It is pouring down with rain outside as Sara is being placed into the police van. Suddenly her father comes running out into the rain and yelled out "Sara!" Sara escaped the clutches of the policemen and ran into her father's arms crying 'Papa'.

I reached for a tissue, my eyes betraying my manly hood.

No one in the room spoke up until the end credits had finished. I reached up and clicked the lights on and looked around. All of the women were sobbing still, as well as Emmett. Jasper, my father and I had tears streaming down our faces.

Guess the girls are all a hundred dollars richer.

~ O ~

AN: Who has seen 'A Little Princess'? I own it and manage to cry every single time at the points I mentioned above. Tell me if you have seen it (: The amount of reviews last chapter made me extremely giddy with happiness! By the way, man-sized tissues are real. My friends and I went and bought tissues before we saw My Sister's Keeper. Review your favourite line or part. I love your opinions. I'm so sorry if I didn't reply to a couple of reviews. I found out that I had accidently deleted 2 of them when I was cleaning out my inbox. Silly me! Also, you can follow me on Twitter. I'm xxtwilight7xx.