3. A 'Nice Surprising Surprise' For The Family

February 2010

Astoria, Oregon

Amelia

"They'll like you," Harry told me for the millionth time. We were sitting in the back of Carlisle's Mercedes, as he drove up a long driveway at about twice the speed he should have. Surprisingly, for someone who came across as such a gentle person, Carlisle drove like a bloody maniac.

I was, of course, worrying about how their family would react to me. I mean, what were they going to think when Carlisle and Harry brought some random newborn home? What if they didn't like me? What if they were angry at Carlisle and Harry for bringing me here? What if they thought that I should have been left to die?

"They'll like you," Harry said again. I knew he could sense my self-doubt. He had explained in more detail about how his talent worked during the long twelve-hour flight between Britain and America. It had been weird to leave Britain, when I knew I was never going back, at least not for a long time. Carlisle and Harry had explained a lot to me during that flight, giving me extra information about vampires that hadn't been given to me in the first explanation, where they had simply been trying to get me to believe them, and stop acting like a, as Harry put it, 'goddamn idiot'.

They had explained about the rules, the need for secrecy, and some weird bunch of vampires called the 'Volturi'. (I hadn't missed the way both their voices had hardened when they said that name.) They'd told me about the unique way in which their family lived among the humans. Repeating high school, now there was something to look forward to - I think not. They'd told me how Carlisle had managed to overcome his bloodlust to become a doctor, about Renesmee who was half-human, and Jacob who was a shape-shifting wolf.

They'd told me pretty much everything I'd asked about, and more, except one thing. After Carlisle had explained his past, I had asked about Harry's, but all he would tell me was that someone other then Carlisle had created him, and that he had found the Cullen family and joined it. I could tell there was more to the story then that, but I could also tell he didn't want to share. Having learned to ignore my curiosity after last time, I let it drop.

Harry and I had formed somewhat of an unspoken truce on that plane flight. After remembering that he had been the one to ask for me to be saved, I had felt guilty about being so petty to him when I had returned from my shower. He was clearly sorry for having shouted at me. Now I'd like to think we were becoming friends of some form or other.

The car stopped outside a large white house.

"Wow, posh!" I exclaimed.

"Wait until you see inside. Nobody does interior design quite like Esme," Harry whispered to me. In the rear-view mirror I saw Carlisle smile up front, clearly having heard Harry's compliment about his wife.

I could hear other voices too, from inside the house.

"Oh come on, Alice, what's the surprise?" a male voice asked enthusiastically.

"Didn't you hear the car pull up? They're back. We can finally find out what exactly the 'nice surprising surprise' is," another male voice said.

"Oh, Carlisle's home!" a female voice said happily. I recognised it as the same voice from the phone that I had thought belonged to Carlisle's wife, which would make her Esme.

"It's a very nice surprising surprise, you'll see," a second female voice trilled mysteriously. I recognised it as the voice of the woman called Alice, which I'd also heard on the phone.

"See, Alice already likes you," Harry whispered to me from across the backseat. As I recalled that Alice was the psychic, I found myself wondering what it was she had seen. Then almost instantly I realised she was referring to me. I must be the 'nice surprising surprise'. She called me nice; she must like me. Harry smiled at me, I wondered if my sudden optimism had caused a change in my 'minor personalities', as he called them.

Carlisle was already out of the car and was gathering some stuff from the boot. I was still seated in the back with Harry. Self-doubt had crept back over me, replacing my brief optimism.

"You have to meet them some time," he said gently to me. He was right. I would have to meet them all eventually if I was to stay with this family. Please let them like me, I hoped, as I opened the door and stepped out, crossing my fingers. I'm not particularly superstitious, but it was an old habit and it brought me some comfort, maybe because it felt like at least I was doing something to help myself, even if in the back of my mind I knew it wouldn't make a difference.

Instantly I felt something small and solid around my waist. I almost jumped backwards until I realised it was someone hugging me. She let go after a few seconds.

"Nice to finally meet you," she chimed happily.

"You must be Alice!" I said. She was quite small, less than five foot, with short sticky-up hair and an almost pixie-like quality to her. She was beautiful, of course, with the pale skin that all vampires share and the golden eyes that all 'vegetarian' vampires share, or so I'd been told. I liked her instantly. She was one of those people whom you like instantly without really knowing why.

I relaxed a little; maybe I really could fit in with this family.

I was instantly put on edge again when Alice was dragged back away from me by a blond male vampire, who stepped in front of her and looked at me menacingly, like he thought I was going to attack her or something. He was making it very clear what would happen if I did. The fact that he was covered in what appeared to be bite marks did nothing to temper this violent image of him.

I felt Harry move closer to me. I was surprised by how comforting it was to know he was close.

"Jasper, you overprotective fool, she's not going to hurt me," Alice said to her protector. Jasper – so that made him her husband. He was the one who could manipulate emotions, I recalled.

"She's a newborn, Alice," Jasper hissed. They way he said it was like an insult. What did that matter anyway? It wasn't like I was going to attack her – I liked Alice.

"Jazz, chill. Do you sense any aggression coming from her?" Jasper looked at me quizzically.

"No," he replied confused.

"Trust me, she's not like a normal newborn," Alice told him cheerfully.

"Appears nobody is nowadays," he muttered to himself.

"Trust us, Jasper, you've never seen anything like this before," Harry said from beside me. His voice was very close. Jasper simply glared at me. Well, at least his wife appeared to like me.

"No really, Jazz, you haven't," Alice said chirpily. Then she disappeared into the large white house.

"Jasper. Emmett. This is Amelia," I heard Carlisle say.

Looking around me, I saw a muscular vampire was standing in the doorway watching the scene with interest. He seemed relaxed, unfazed by the events unfolding in his front yard. Carlisle stood by the back of the car, and I assumed the vampire in his arms was Esme. They were both also watching Jasper and me with interest, unlike the muscular vampire however, they both looked worried and cautious.

By the time I'd taken all this in Alice was back, holding a red drink can. Time for the freak show again. Happy as I was to have a way around the whole blood sucking part, I wished I could do it without being gawped at. I suddenly felt empathic with zoo animals.

"Alice, what are you doing?" the vampire in the doorway asked. "I still don't get why you specifically requested Esme buy a large multi-pack of Coke and a bag of teabags on her last shopping trip. Seriously, lil sis, I think you're finally losing it."

"Wait and see, Emmett. Wait and see. Have you not learned to never bet against me yet?" Alice said to him as she threw the can of Coke at me. I caught it with ease - got to love vampire reflexes - and opened it. Then, concentrating on the drink and not the staring vampires, I took several gulps.

"Aaah! Refreshing!" I said. If they were going to stare than I might as well give them a show.

"WOAH, what the FUCK?" Emmett shouted. My feelings exactly mate.

"Emmett, language," I heard Esme scold for somewhere to my left. Oh she's going to love me.

"Told you it was a surprising surprise," Alice giggled. "Now let's get you out of that 'supermarket bought' outfit," she said, grabbing me and pulling me towards the house.

"Told you!" Harry whispered in my ear.

Twenty minutes later, I was dressed head to toe in designer clothes. Alice, it seemed, was impossible to say no to. Carlisle had been right; in one of the Cullens' spare rooms, which was apparently going to my room now, there had been twenty (I counted) boxes of designer clothes. All bought by Alice, for me. It was overwhelming that someone should do that for me, especially considering I had never owned an item of designer clothing before. I had tried to persuade Alice that I couldn't accept them, but her reply had simply been, "you're my sister now, you better get use to designer clothes". The fact that she had called me her sister made me much happier then any designer clothes could do. She already accepted me as part of her family. She thought I belonged here.

I was stood looking out of the large glass wall in the Cullen's living room, taking in the amazing scenery with my enhanced eyesight (no need for contacts anymore), and wondering what the hell to do with myself next. Everyone had drifted off upstairs: Carlisle with Esme, Alice with Jasper, Harry and Emmett to their respective rooms. I had been informed that the other five Cullen family members were visiting a place called 'Forks' and would be back in a few weeks or so. I had resisted the temptation to ask if they were also going to be stopping at 'Spoons' on the way back, seriously though what a stupid name for a town, then again, I come from a country with a town called Cockermouth, so who I am to say anything.

Great, more people I had to try and win over and have gawping at me like a freak.

"What's up world's freakiest vampire?" a booming voice asked me. I looked up to see Emmett smiling at me. I briefly wondered whether I should be offended by his nickname for me. Probably not. It was, after all, the truth.

"Just wondering what to do now," I answered truthfully.

"You any good at Wii?" he asked me excitedly.

"I think so," I replied, searching through my blurry human memories. I had played on one with my family. The memories caused a wave of sadness as I thought about my family, and then a wave of guilt as I realised that this was the first time I'd thought about them all day. It was weird that I could remember the amusing name of a town from a news report last year, but was losing memories of my family.

"Amelia, what's up?" Harry was suddenly at the top of the stairs looking down at me. Clearly my guilt over my parents had caused a personality switch.

"Nothing," I lied. The look he gave me clearly indicated he knew I was lying. "What games you got?" I asked Emmett.

"You ever played the retarded knitted cow game?" he asked me. I had to laugh at that.

"Erm…no," I replied.

Half an hour later the score stood at Amelia: 9, Emmett: 11. Harry was sat on the sofa watching and laughing at us and having an ongoing debate with us both about which of us was more competitive.

"Bro, I thought competitiveness was one of my main ones or something?" Emmett asked him, as we started our 21st game.

"It is, and yet she's still nearly as competitive as you," Harry said sounding amused. I ignored them both, concentrating on the game. On screen, Emmett ran into the back of my cow and sent it drifting to the right, I turned my controller left again, but I must have done it with too much force, as the wrist strap broke, and the controller went flying out of my hand. It smashed into a nearby wall with such force it left a dent, and the controller itself smashed into a million pieces.

"Oh shit!" I exclaimed. I noticed that the rest of the Cullens were now at the top of stairs, staring down at us.

"Emmett! What have I told you about being careful when you play on that?" Esme scolded.

"Sorry, Esme," he said apologetically. That's not fair, he shouldn't have to take the blame.

"It wasn't Emmett's fault, Mrs. Cullen, it was my controller that went flying. I'm sorry," I said apologetically. Esme turned to look at me instead; she had a surprisingly soft and tender look on her face.

"It's okay dear, you don't know your own strength yet. And call me Esme," she said sweetly, smiling at me.

"I'll clean that up," I said, I standing up and flitting over to the broken pile of bits. "Erm… I don't know what you're going to do with that dent though, sorry."

"Don't worry about it, and I'll get that," Esme said before flitting off. She came back with a dustpan and brush.

"Go on, Jazz," I heard Alice whisper to her husband. I turned just in time to notice her prod him in the back. He descended the stairs and stopped at the bottom.

"Amelia," he said to me, but he didn't move any closer, clearly keeping his distance on purpose, "I'm sorry for how I behaved earlier."

"It's okay," I said, somewhat shyly. There was something about him that scared me slightly. Maybe it was the battle scars, or maybe just that he was the only Cullen who hadn't exactly been nice to me so far. Or a combination of both.

"She's not going to bite, Jasper," I heard Alice giggle. I giggled too, what a thing to say about a vampire. Jasper walked closer to me. He held out his right hand and we shook.

"Welcome to the family, Miss Amelia," he said politely. Alice danced over to his side. She grabbed hold of his hand before it could return to his side.

"Yes, welcome to the family," Esme said kindly, returning from throwing the broken pieces of Wii remote away. She pulled me into a gentle hug.

"Thank you." I smiled at them both as Esme released me. I noticed my throat was burning slightly again.

"I'm off to get a cup of tea. Would anybody else like one?" I asked. It had been an unspoken rule in my family that you couldn't make a hot drink without offering everyone one. All six of them looked at me like I was mad, and slowly it dawned on me what I'd just said, and whom I'd said it to. "Stupid question right?" They all nodded at me, and then Emmett gave a booming laugh and we all joined in. I had just offered to make six vampires a cup of tea – it was fairly ridiculous.

As always, a big thank you to everyone at Project Team Beta.

A/N: 1) On the off chance that anybody from the town of Cockermouth reads this (very slim I know), I mean no disrespect to anyone affected by the floods last year. However, all the Brits reading this will probably admit that, as serious as the news report was, you had a little giggle to yourself first time you heard the name.

2) 'Retarded knitted cow game' – anyone who owns a copy of Wii Play should understand which game that is.

Anyway reviews are always appreciated. What did you think of Amelia's first meeting with the Cullens?

Don't worry, Edward, Bella, Rosalie, Nessie, and Jacob all show up as well. Just not for a few more chapters.