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Hello there, here's chapter 4! I got it all written on the plane and some on the bus to the village. Roght now I'm in the city at a café for tourist. I love wifi!

There are no pics up yet for this chapter but I'll try to put them up soon.

Thanks

KAG

XOXO

So, here I was in Esme Cullen's kitchen on the first morning alone in Forks, Washington, eating the most delectable blueberry pancakes I have ever eaten and probably ever will eat, is pretty good for my first day don't you think? Well, I do and if you don't go fuck yourselves.

"So Em, let me get this straight, your second last name is Cullen, but you're not actually related to any of the Cullens?" I ask, we were sitting in the living room watching Saturday morning cartoons, after filling ourselves to the rim of deliciously fluffy pancakes and milk. "How exactly does that work?"

Emmett was laying flat on his back on one of the big couches in front of the very large flat screen TV that hung from the wall above the fireplace, while trying to explain to me this part of him that seemed to me, at least, very personal though he looked fairly relaxed so my guess was that he trusted me enough or at the very least was trying to form some type of friendship bond between us, which was find by me, since I had no friends here at the moment.

"Yeah, when I was about 6 months old give or take a few months, my mother or should I say the woman who let me borrow her womb for 7 and a half months, high-tailed it out of both my father's and my life with some sorry ass excuse that she was not cut out to be a mother or some shit, so my father Eric McCarthy took it upon him to take care of me and raise me though being a man he lacked in a few aspects, like teaching me manners and how to use the table wear in those fancy restaurant where they put too many forks and spoons to eat with, and the proper way to tie a tie knot, which I still don't know how to do. Well, whatever, so when dad couldn't do does things he called in reinforcements, the Cullens or better said Esme Cullen to help him out. Esme being Esme agreed readily to help him and she became my mom for all intents and purposes and Carlisle became a second father, so much so that when daddy McCarthy was on business trips I was often found here and even when he was not on business trips I was often here after school and for meals that daddy McCarthy more often than not joined. As I grew older we all became like one big family, so on my 16 birthday when most dudes asked for a car I asked for a name change. Instead of being Emmett Matthew McCarthy Haywood, I would be Emmett Matthew McCarthy Cullen so I would be officially one of the Cullen family members without giving up the McCarthy part. Esme and Carlisle were trilled and gave me there full approval but Daddy McCarthy was harder to convince, after having him talked to Carlisle and Esme feeding him steak he said 'yes' and the next day I was a Cullen. That was about 2 years ago and let me tell you being a McCarthy Cullen has its perks."

I didn't speak for a while, trying to process all that he had said to me, how could a nice person like Emmett be able to tell me all this like it was the most normal thing in the world, shouldn't he be angry at life? At his mom for leaving him and his father, I know I would be pissed off at the world if something remotely close to what his mom did to him ever happened to me ,but then again each person was different, right? Maybe he had gone to therapy or something since he didn't seem to hold any hostility or anger toward the situation…

A big warm hand on my knee brought me out of my retrieve and I was thankful, because if I kept analyzing this in my head I would drive myself mad.

"Cool it, Belly Bean," said Emmett with his hand still on my knee in a comforting manner, "It doesn't bother me at all telling you the story of my last name, I've had 18 years to deal with it and I really don't care anymore. It made me a better person."

I looked at him confused, had I spoken my thoughts out loud, again? I should really get my mental filter checked out, was there even a test for that shit? "Aren't you mad at your mother for leaving you?" I ask, not wanting to pry, but just plainly curious.

"Nah," he replies simply, "I found a better mom, Esme."

I grin at him and he grins back. "Well, that's enough corny shit for the rest of the year, don't ya think?"

"Yeah, want to play Guitar Hero?"

"Sure, why not? Bet you I'm going to win." I challenge.

"Bet ya, I'm going to kick you scrawny little ass, Belly Bean."

"Whatever you say, Emmy Bear." And with that we both race towards the basement/ game room to play the day away.

A couple hours later, I heard the purr of a car or should I say 3 cars come to a stop and the door slamming shut.

"Looks like the rest of the peeps just got here." Emmett said putting pause to our 5th or maybe 7th Guitar Hero game. So far I had won 3 games on expert while Emmett had won 3 and the current game that we were playing looked like he was going to win it. "Want to go meet them?"

"Um, I'm not sure…" I answered a little worried. What if they don't like me? Or what if they aren't as nice as Emmett is? God, I am such a little kid. "Sure, why not?" After all if they don't like me they could go suck it.

"Follow me then, young grasshopper." He said in a horrible Master Shifu imitation.

So I did as he said and followed him back upstairs to the foyer, where 2 beautiful teenagers about my age stood. Both of them seemed terribly familiar ,the girl was tall not as tall as Emmett or the boy standing next to her but definitely taller than me I would say about 5,7, with long wavy golden blonde hair almost the same shade of blonde as Jasper thought hers was lighter, a statuesque figure that would make any girls self-esteem drop to -10 below ground level, and her eyes were a amazing shade of blue almost violet, that's when it hit me, Rosalie Lillian Hale, Jasper's cousin. I had met her a while ago on a trip with my mother to California in a Center for Anorexic teens my grandpa donated money to on the day I joined him for his rounds with the woman in charge of the center. Her parents Michael and Lillian Hale had put her there after her condition had become too much to handle and of course when the press had started speculating about her weight lost, we had become close friends over the months I spend in California that summer. And when I went back the next summer with Jasper to introduce them, the surprise was on me when Jasper told me that Rosalie was his cousin. After that summer, Rosalie was let go from the Clinic and her parents moved back to Texas, I think. We lost touch after that.

Rose, looked at me from head to toe as if trying to see if I presented a challenge to her, of course I didn't I had plain brown hair that was wavy at the ends, a pair of chocolate colored eyes, a nice toned body thanks to the school's track team, and maybe a nice rack I did have at least a nice handful of boobs, while she was tall, blonde and all around perfect figure, if I didn't know about her past I would have said she was absolutely perfect and just gifted with genetic awesomeness, but, hey, I knew better.

Finally she spoke, "What are you staring at bitch," She said, okay maybe she doesn't remember me, "come her and give me a hug." An award winning smile flashed on her face.

I laugh and side step Emmett to give her a big hug. "Missed you bitch" I said after parting the hug.

"I know me too." Emmett and the other guy where standing mouth opened wide and openly staring at us, I guess Rose is still not one for openly affection but hey I was her best friend and she was my girl best friend.

"What just happened?" Emmett asked Rose and me.

"Well, a few years ago before I moved here …" Rose started to retell the story on how we became friends while still having one arm around my shoulders. That gave me time to check out the guy who came in with her. He was tall 6, 5, muscular but lanky, had a gorgeous head of messy reddish brown hair, intense green eyes with specks of gold, and a strong jaw line that you could just kiss…wow there cowboy, I had to reel myself in before I jump the dude.

"So, you met my Rosie, during her dark ages, and haven't seen her since, well 'till now at least?" Emmett asked, taking me out of my not so PG-13 day dreams.

"Yeah, pretty much." I said tuning into the conversation again. "So, are you and Emmett together?" I asked, not having missed the peck on the lips between them.

"Uh-huh" Emmett said looking very proud of himself and grabbing Rose from the waist.

There was a throat been cleared in the background breaking up our mini-reunion, and guess who it was? Yes, that's right it was the mysterious Irish looking, dude.

"Hi, um, Edward Cullen", the Irish dude said to me, extending his hand out, "You must be Bella Swan."

I took his hand and shook it, "Yes that would be me." Something about this guy was extremely familiar, I had seen him somewhere I just knew it, and there was just something there that was making the tension in the hand-shake unbearable. So, I abruptly let go of his hand and tried to play it cool.

"So, um, found any pot of gold recently?" I asked Edward, out of nowhere. Goddam it, I had no verbal filter what so ever.

Emmett and Rose were laughing their heads off behind us, but weren't doing anything to help me ease the awkwardness, traders.

"Excuse me; do I look Irish to you?" Edward said clearly amused at my lack of verbal filter.

"No, but your ears do look awfully pointy." I said chuckling a little at my own reply. By, now Emmett was beet red form all the laughing he was doing, while Rose was clutching her stomach and leaning on Emmett for support.

"Really. But you're the awfully small one." He said with a condescending pat on the top of my head.

"Maybe you're the abnormally tall one." I snapped back. "I'm normal sized not, small"

"In what world?" he said chuckling, now, "Midget-o-polis or Bite Sized-Ville"

"God, you're infuriating!" I yelled. I had only met him less than an hour ago and he was already on my 'Shit List'.

"Ditto, midget." He smirked. That smirk I had seen it somewhere else, I just knew it, thought when I had seen it, it had been more of a crooked grin than a cocky grin. Where had I seen it? When had I seen it? More importantly where had I seen him?

Then it hit me.

"Do you still find it, difficult to play Coppin?" I asked with a smirk of my own. I saw how his jaw tighten and his eyes darken I guess this was still a rough subject for him. He had messed up his presentation at the last Julliard summer concert I had gone to because of a few or maybe a lot of missed notes, when he needed perfection to win.

"Do you still mess up and get nausea when playing in front of a crowd?" He said "I heard through the grape vine you don't play anymore? Is it true?"

I felt my own jaw tighten and tears start to form in my eyes, he had not heard that 'through the grape vine' I had presented my resignation to the board of Julliard's music summer program and he knew it was because of my stage fright problem.

"I heard that you also don't play anymore." I answered, it was true after I left the program for some mysterious reason he pulled out also.

He simply nodded turned around and left. God, I hate him.

"What was that about?" Rosalie asked eyeing me suspiciously.

"Yeah, dude, I haven't seen him so worked up since me and Rose did the horizontal tango on top of his piano, last spring." Emmett said, earning a slap upside the head from Rose.

"Too much information, guys." I said trying to side track them from the subject.

When Emmett said that he was going to change so we could go out to eat lunch I knew that he had let it go, but one look at Rosalie I knew she was on to me and I needed to get out of there before she could start trying to get info out of me.

"I need to go, change into something more comfortable." I said heading towards the door. "I´ll be right back."

"I'll get to the bottom of this 'thing' you have with Edward, Bella. I'm dead serious." Rosalie said holding me to the door with her gaze. "Don't be late." She said and strut away to the kitchen probably to greet Esme. And like a bat out of hell I flew to my house to change.

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