"I'm so sorry Mom," Bella said quietly, twiddling her thumbs and hanging her head as the two made their way back home.
"I know you are honey, but we need to figure out what happened." Renee answered sympathetically.
"I don't know." Was all Bella could respond with. In truth she had no idea, she was nervous, perhaps that played a part in it, as soon as the shop clerk asked if they needed help, all hell had broken loose. Bella had her back to him and had been quiet startled by his voice, that caused the nails to start flying around, the panic from the nails led Bella to start flaying her arms around trying to stop them but in her upset state it did nothing but make more things fly off the shelves.
" I don't know either Bella, but it's quite clear you were not and are not ready to be out in public!" Renee wasn't trying to be harsh but she herself was living a nightmare, she had witnessed her mothers murder. Watched her only care give be killed just because the wrong people knew about her powers and she did not wish any of this on her own daughter, fear fueled her decisions on how to raise Bella whether it was the right way or not.
"Do you think that doctor and his family could help me?" Bella asked hesitantly.
Renee frowned and checked her rearview mirror trying to make sure they weren't being followed, she was taking several unnecessary turns trying to throw anyone off there trail as well. In her mind, you could never be to cautious.
"Bella, I don't want you to go near those people. The Volturi are known to lull people into a false sense of security. For all we know they are part of Volturi. You need to remember and understand your own grandmother was betrayed by people she thought of as a second family. We don't know them and I have no intention to find out if they are good people or not." Renee's voice had become strained, tight with emotion. She started to drive a bit more erratic and hurried to make it home growing more and more edgy.
"But," Bella paused, trying to gather her thoughts, "What if they are good people, what if they really can help me."
"Enough Bella!" Renee hollered. Bella jumped in shock and proceeded to accidentally cause a stray bicycle left on the sidewalk to fly passed the car.
"AHH Jesus Bella, you need to control yourself!" Renee exclaimed as she swerved away from the projectile object.
Bella nodded as she lowered her head. She had been so excited to finally be allowed to go to town, before everything went horribly wrong, this experience, while nerve wracking, had been a true joy, they had gone to a bookstore, a wonderful glorious bookstore filled to the brim with a wealth of knowledge and places for Bella to dream of. Books were her escape, when she wasn't working on the lessons her mother assigned her, she was tucked in her room reading about the outside world. When she was younger she liked to think of herself as Repunzel. In fact, when she was about six years old, she declared one day, much to her mothers amusement, that she would be growing her hair out and no one was allowed to cut it. That lasted only nine months before even Bella's stubborn side gave in. Her hair would get terrible knots and poor Bella would spend a good hour every day in tears as her mother worked through them. At the store, Renee had let Bella look through the books for a good hour or so before deciding they had better move on to the local clothing store, she was please Bella was doing so well, though it was clear from the girls shaky hands that she was still nervous, and on edge. She didn't want to take any chances of staying in one place too long. If something did happen, it would be easy for someone to recognize them if they had been there all day. Renee was sure as the day progressed her daughter would calm down more and relax but the opposite seemed to happen. When they left the bookstore Bella kept her head down and started to fiddle with her fingers, and bite her lip, both nervous habits she had picked up from her mother. That should have been her first clue to scrap this idea and head home. Her second clue appeared at the clothing store, while Bella was aimlessly wandering up and down the clothing racks looking in awe of all the different clothes, Renee had called out to her, causing her to jump and in the process making a rack of clothes spin around several times. With a frown on her face, she ushered her daughter out of the store quickly and headed towards there final destination, the hardware store, to pick up some potting soil and seeds. As they quickly walked down the sidewalk, Renee had tried her best to calm her daughter but the frustration in her voice did not go unnoticed by Bella. It made her feel miserable and unsure of herself. She stomach held a sinking feeling in it as they opened the door to the store, she was sure she was going to screw up.
Both woman were shaken out of there musings as they turned into there drive. When Bella was just a baby they moved from their average suburban home in the middle of town to a large piece of land at the edge of town, right by Charlie's favorite fishing hole. It was the perfect location for them. Charlie, who and grown up in Forks was known to be the an avid outdoors men not a single person had questioned the move when the gossip had spread around there small town. It was no secret that on his days off, the chief of police could always be spotted in his row boat right in the middle of the lake. The other perk was Charlie would always make the excuse his wife and daughter preferred to go to Port Angles for shopping since they lived so close to the border. And with Renee being a teacher no one questioned their family's choice to home school there daughter rather than send her to the towns mediocre schools.
"Why don't you take your new books upstairs Bella honey while I talk to your father and start dinner. You don't need to help me tonight, I think with all the excitement today you could use some rest." Renee said as they exited the car.
Bella didn't even reply, instead hurrying inside their cabin like home and darting up the stairs, not even pausing, or looking in his direction, she gave her father a quick wave as she passed.
Charlie, who was on there front porch sitting in his rocking chair, gutting the fish he had caught that morning looked from where his daughter had been to his wife in confusion.
"Went that well, huh?" he said. Bella was usually just like him, few words needed to be spoken, but he had been sure that Bella would have been gushing like a true teen age girl if she had experienced a good time out in the real world.
"Let's just say, if I called it a bad experience that would be an understatement." Renee huffed as she sat in the neighboring rocker. "I don't know what went wrong she did so well at the bookstore and then we walked to the clothing store and it was all down hill from there. I'm going to have to go to Spokane or somewhere equally as far from now on!"
"Oh come on now Renee, I'm sure it wasn't that bad," Charlie tried to reason.
Bella, who had been listening through the open window of her room sighed and wiped the tears from her eyes, she hated that she had disappointed her mother and didn't want to hear or think about her fathers reaction when she told him about the hardware store disaster or the Cullens. She climbed off her bench under her bay window and walked to the bathroom splashing cold water on her face to calm herself. As she walked back into her room blotting her face with a hand towel a noise by her bookshelf cause her to gasp and drop her towel, her hands went up and books went flying off the shelves landing on her intruder. But before she could find her voice to scream, the man who had been assaulted with her precious books stood up and looked at her with a giant smile.
"Now that was pretty bad ass!" He extended his hand towards her but Bella didn't take it, she just stood there frozen in shock and fear with her lips quivering. "Hey now, please don't cry, I'm not going to hurt you, promise. We just wanted to make sure you were alright.
"How…how did you get in here?" Bella asked trying to steady her shaky voice, she was slowly creeping towards the door, getting read to bolt down the steps towards her parents, but something was pulling her to talk to this gigantic boy with short brown hair and an inviting dimpled smile.
Emmett just smiled wider at her and plopped down on her bed, making himself at home, "You're parents window was opened, I'd hoped it was your room but when I climbed up the tree it was obvious it wasn't, though, it wasn't too hard to find your room." He paused a moment, quirked his head to the side and chuckled a bit, "You know, if you were going to tell them I was here you'd already be down those stairs so why don't you come over here and talk to me instead of creeping backwards, you're not as stealthy as you think." he said with a wink.
Bella couldn't help but turn a dark shade of red ,she really thought she had been doing a good job of getting farther away from him.
"I think I'm fine right here," she said as she crossed her arms over her chest. "What do you want from me? How did you know where we live?"
"Nothing, like I said, we just wanted to make sure you were alright, you seemed pretty shaken up. And I followed you, Why'd you look so scared and start freaking anyway? Did someone scare you? Threaten you?"
"No, nothing like that…It was my first time into town, I was just nervous, and I really didn't want to mess up. When I get nervous, well…my talent tends to act up." she whispered, hanging her head down, "and now my mother will probably never let me go back."
"Bella? Is everything alright? What was that loud crash?" her mother called from the bottom of the stairs.
"Um, I'm fine mom, just a little wound up, I knocked some books off the shelf." Bella turned her attention back to Emmett "I think you had better go, I…I don't even know your name, and my mother doesn't want me to be around your family."
"Is that what you want?" Emmett asked.
"Of course, my parents know what's best for me, they keep me safe." Bella said surprised that this boy even had to ask. Bella was starting to worry, her mother had said the Volturi would try to turn her against everything she ever knew, they would lead her into a false sense of security, make her question what she knew to be true. In a period of less than five minutes she had held her first conversation with someone who wasn't family. Bella literally thought she might pass out from an anxiety attack if he didn't leave soon and yet she was desperate to have someone to talk to. She quickly came to one conclusion, she was an extremely confused girl right now.
"I see, well Bella, I'm sorry for scaring you, but I gotta say, it would be pretty sweet if we can hang sometime. I'm sure I'll see you at school. Maybe you'll see I'm not one of the bad guys, none of us Cullens are."
"Wait, how did you know my name?" Bella questioned, "and I don't think we will see one another, I don't go to the school around here."
"Uh, your mom just said your name," He replied looking at her like she had a few screws loose, "I'm Emmett Cullen by the way. Why don't you go to the local school? Is it shitty or something?"
Bella shook her head, " No, I'm home schooled, I don't really have a clue if the schools around here are poor or not."
"Wow," Emmett said his eyes widening, "That's gotta be pretty lonely. No friends, never leaving the area. Gotta say it sucks to be you." He chuckled shaking his head. "You got a phone?"
'Yes, It's down stairs, but you can't use it, my mom is down there!" Bella uneasy with a stranger in her room and wished Emmett would leave, but on the other hand she had to say, it was nice to talk to someone.
Emmett tried to hide his laughter, " No, I mean a cell phone, you know so I can give you my number."
"No, who would I call, I just told you I'm home schooled, today was my first time going into town, not just that town but any town. I don't leave my home, and I don't need your number." Bella was feeling herself getting irritated, first this guy breaks into her home, makes himself comfortable on her bed and now he is laughing at her, and it seems as though he wont leave. "I really think you need to leave, my mom will be finishing up dinner soon."
Emmett just nodded his head before looking out the window leading to the back yard. "You got a piece of paper?"
"Of course, why?" Bella said walking over to her desk and pulling a sheet out.
Emmett grabbed it from her and picked up a pen that was in her pencil holder.
"Here's my number, my brother's numbers, Jasper and Edward and my sister's; Rosalie and Alice's numbers." He said as he quickly jotted down their information. "You call us anytime you decide you want to be a rebellious teenager and break out of here for a little while."
"My father's the chief of police, what makes you think I wouldn't get caught sneaking out?"
Emmett shrugged an even bigger smile breaking out on his face. "Cause you've got a mind reader, psychic and superman helping you. Catch you later Bells!"
With a smile and a wink he jumped out of her window. Bella shrieked and ran to the window but by the time she got there he was no where to be seen, leaving a very confused Bella to question her sanity. She looked around her pale purple room, a room that had been her sanctuary for as long as she could remember, it was calm and peaceful in this room, coming in here always helped make her feel that way as well. But now she felt anything but. She was trying to make sense of what had just happened. Did she just imagine this Emmett person? She quickly walked over to her desk and found the paper Emmett had left with the phone numbers on it, at least she had proof she wasn't completely crazy.
Dinner was a quiet affair in the Swan household, Charlie and Renee had gotten into a heated discussion when Renee brought up the hardware store and the confrontation with the Cullen's. While Renee was quick to assume the worst, Charlie wasn't ready to write them off as evil minions for the Volturi.
Forks was a small town and word had traveled like fire about the new family moving in. It was rumored they had moved eight times in the last ten years. Six of those moves had been in the last year. He had heard all sorts of fabricated speculation, the craziest being they were all secret agents on the run and the most normal of them being a few of their children were trouble makers, Dr and Mrs. Cullen were just trying to find a good, safe place to raise there children where they wouldn't continue to get into trouble or the wrong crowd. The doctor had taken a job at the urgent care facility in town so naturally Charlie had run a back ground check on him and his family. He didn't want any trouble in his safe town.
While one of the Cullen kids had quite a bit of speeding tickets under his belt they all seem to squeaky clean. Charlie could see how those kids could have gotten into trouble however, most of the places they had lived were in big cities where it would be easy for a child to fall in with the wrong crowd. He hadn't thought much more than that about it. At least not until Renee divulged that Carlisle claimed his children, all of them had special powers. She ranted on and on about how suspicious it was that they showed up in this town and how none of the kids looked like they could be related. In her mind they were Volturi related, posing as a family to trying to trap the Swans. Just like the James Laurent and his "wife" had tricked her mother.
"Maybe we shouldn't jump the gun Renee, they could be telling the truth," He tried to reason.
"This is our daughter's life we are talking about! How can you be so calm! Don't jump the gun? That's just great Charlie, why don't we just invite them to our home and while we are at it give them a key so they can come kidnap our child and kill us in our sleep too!"
"Now just wait a minute, don't you dare imply I don't care about this family! I have sat by and watched you keep our daughter locked in this home her whole life. She doesn't know how to act around anyone and I'm sure that played a part in today's mishap. In two years she will be eighteen, free to do whatever the hell she pleases. She could decide to walk away from this haven you've created and we won't be able to do a damn thing to stop or protect her! You think there a threat, I hear you, but don't you think, if they have kids who are capable of being out in the open we could learn something from them? Don't you think that maybe, just maybe Isabella would benefit from being around some other people, and who better than people like her. Hell we could benefit from being around other parents dealing with the same damn thing!"
Renee knew that Charlie was making sense, but Bella had to get her stubbornness from somewhere. She didn't want to admit he had a point. Her issue with the situation stemmed from her passed, the phrase, "history repeats itself" played over and over in her mind as she tried to think of something to say.
"Well, I guess we will just agree to disagree Charlie," she reached in her purse grabbed Carlisle's card and flung it at Charlie, "Here's his card, call him if you want a new best buddy, but you leave Bella and me out of it! Don't you even think about bring them to my home!" She yelled as she grabbed the fish and stormed into the house to prepare dinner.
Yes, the tension was thick around the dinner table, no one looked each other in the eye, as they ate in silence, Bella was the first to excuse herself, pausing in front of her door and saying a quick prayer that no unexpected guest would be inside waiting for her. She threw the door open and stayed in the doorway surveying her room before cautiously before entering. Never in her life had she been afraid of her room, she wasn't one of those children who ever worried about the boogie man under her bed or a monster in her closet but tonight, Bella went to bed with all the windows locked tight and the light on.
Not far from the Swan household, just about two miles in fact Emmett entered his family home to be bombarded with six expectant faces all wanting to know the same thing. Where did these ladies live, was there more of them, was the girl alright, what took Emmett so long and most importantly did he notice anything suspicious.
Before they could start voices their questions, Emmett held his hands up in a surrender type motion. "Her name is Bella."
"We know that!" Alice said exasperatedly as she rolled her eyes.
"She is home schooled, she said this was her first time going to town, like any town, like ever! Oh and she is one scared shitless little girl with a wicked power!" Emmett said with a light laugh. "Now can I grab some food please? All that running and leaping high towers got me starving!"
Everyone rolled their eyes, Emmett had always let his superman status go to his head.
"How do you know all this Emmett?" Jasper asked.
Edward was more than pissed to see images of Emmett in this girls room, he was furious to see Emmett sitting on her bed and became enraged as he saw Emmett give her his phone number and offer to sneak her out of her house.
"You what!" he bellowed before Emmett could even finish relaying his story to the family. Once again his brain had run faster than his voice and the rest of the Cullen clan were left confused as to Edwards outburst.
"I said to check her out, follow her home, not sneak into her room, flirt with her and then offer to run away with her!" He yelled at his brother. Jasper started to laugh at him as everyone but Alice, who had a knowing smirk on her face continued to stare in shock and confusion.
"Calm down Edward," Esme try to smooth as she turned to Emmett. "Let me get this straight, you broke into her home?"
"Well," Emmett started as he scratch the back of his head, " I climbed through her parents window, I guess if you want to get technical then yes. But in my defense if they didn't want strapping young men climbing into their house they shouldn't have left the bedroom window open."
"Shut up Emmett," Rosalie glared, she wasn't to please with hearing Edward describe their conversation as flirting. Jasper whipped his head around to Rosalie raising an eyebrow to her, challenging her with his knowledge of her jealousy ,and trying not to laugh at all the different emotions running ramped in the room.
" Okay, and did you flirt with her?" Carlisle asked, trying to get everyone back on track.
"No, that's Eddie boy over there going psycho I just tried talking to her. that's all." He defended himself, shooting his own glance in Rose's direction. While the whole exchange had gone unnoticed by the parents, all of the kids picked up on the message he was trying to convey at once. "She said she doesn't go to the local school and that her mom home schools her. They don't ever let her leave it sounds like. Today was her first experience out in the open, ever. She doesn't have even have a T.V. in her room! Talk about sheltered. She has a shit ton of heavy books though. Her dad is the chief of police, she doesn't want any of our numbers and get this doesn't have a cell phone, but I did give her all of our numbers, told her it would be sweet to hang out sometime and told her that if she ever called we would break her out. I didn't offer to run away with her as Edward put it though. I just think she would be pretty awesome to hang out with. So can we keep her mom, can we bring her home and have her live with us?"
"God Emmett she isn't a puppy, she has a family!" Esme replied shaking her head at her ridiculous son.
"But Alykat had a family and we kept her!" He argued.
"That's different my parents didn't care, they pretended I didn't exist and kept me locked up! It was a blessing for both of us to have left." Alice defended.
"Emmett, wasn't there something else you forgot to mention." Edward said pointedly through gritted teeth.
"Huh? Oh, yea, and her mom forbid her to be around us and thinks we are Volturi, Bells may or may not be afraid of that as well." Emmett said with a shrug before biting into an apple.
"Yes, I figured as much with how hostile her mother was, I wonder if they have already had a run in with them. I wouldn't get to comfortable in the house yet, living here may not be as safe as I thought." Carlisle mused rubbing his face trying to figure out what to do.
"We'll see her again, I've seen it." Alice revealed. "Edward and Bella will be quite good friends." She added with a sly grin
Edward scoffed at the idea and began his protest. "That's not going to happen Alice, how can you be so sure she isn't one of them, that they all aren't one of them trying to trick us."
"Son, it just doesn't seem likely. They have lived here their whole life it sounds like and Jasper said he felt genuine fear radiating off both of them." Carlisle tried to reason.
"If you want some proof, I could take you over there Eddie boy, you can listen in on them, they aren't too far away."
"That sounds wise, mind you, I don't want you to get as close as Emmett did, lets leave the family in peace for now. Even though you can't hear Bella's thoughts you told me you could hear her mother's. Surely if they are involved you would be able to hear it for her as well." Carlisle agreed. He normally wouldn't be okay with his sons in the woods at night, but this was extenuating circumstances and Emmett could fend any wild animals off. While Edward would be alerted to any humans in the area by their thoughts. "Keep your phone on you and on vibrate though."
Edward stubbornly stayed at the Swan residence hiding in the shadows of the tree for several hours. Even though it only took about ten minutes of listen to inner turmoil in Renee's head for him to sadly agree with his family. He was extremely put off ,however, that he couldn't hear Bella's thoughts or even dreams. He had never come across a single person who's mind was blank to him and this greatly upset and confused the boy. Emmett had long since given up on trying to get his brother to go back home and had almost decided to leave his brother there when Edward turned around looked at Emmett with pure frustration and sighed.
"Fine, we can go back home, but just because they aren't Volturi doesn't mean I have to like her." He spat and walked ahead of his brother down the newly created path to their house.