Carlisle

Renesmee got home from her first day back at school today, and she would not stop talking about it for about 3 hours straight. She would talk to Jacob, Violetta and I the most, because we were always listening. Esme had disappeared to my office for some peace and quiet.

I was surprised Violetta was even downstairs. It had taken me 2 hours to get her to finally speak, and another 3 to get her to tell me absolutely everything. It was mostly about her suicidal and self-harming behaviours over the past few months, as we never talked in detail. Some of it was just thoughts in her head, and how she felt she was fitting in here.

She eventually admitted that she was happy here, and I had talked to her about contraception with Mason and everything she didn't already know. It wasn't as awkward as either of us expected it to be.

Renesmee finished talking about her school day for a while, but decided to add one more thing, "Vi, you should totally come this year. Grandpa can make sure we're in all the same classes and I found a really nice group of people."

"Are they nerds?" Violetta asked.

Renesmee stared at her, "Cheerleaders and jocks."

"Forks doesn't have cheerleaders and jocks, it has nerds, and bigger nerds, and sometimes people who are completely useless and have no friends what so ever and you end up being friends with them because you feel bad. Also, there is always that one girl who never talks to anyone else because she fears their judgment on her or is terrified of them seeing her bruises, and she sits in the back corner of every classroom and in the darkest corner in the cafeteria and just waits for the bell so she go back to the prison she if forced to call home."

"We're you the girl who sat at the back and in the dark and waited for the bell?" Renesmee asked hesitantly and quietly.

Violetta had explained that all to me today as well, I officially knew everything, or everything she could bear to reveal. There were several tears throughout the day, but she had pulled through strong and was still socialising.

"Yes, I was." Violetta replied quietly.

Mason was sitting beside her and looked a little misplaced, like he didn't know what to do.

Esme interrupted by running down the stairs, "Oh my god! Carlisle!" She was holding her book in her hand. A high pitched noise escaped her throat as she ran up behind me. She dropped her head to my shoulder and held the book in front of me.

"Sorry for interrupting…" She said.

"No problem, I appreciate it." Violetta smiled.

"What is it, Esme?" I asked.

"Have you read this?"

"Yes…multiple times…"

She stood up, "Why have I never seen you react to it?"

I looked at her in confusion.

"Oh my god, read the last paragraph." She held the last page open to me. I read through it and when I looked back up at her, still confused by her reactions, she was gone.

I looked to the ground where she was laying with her arms around her knees, holding them to her chest. Another loud pitched noise left her.

"You sound like a dying baby dinosaur or something…" Tanya said.

"Esme, I don't understand what all the fuss is about…"

"Carlisle, that is the single most adorable and heart breaking ending to a book ever."

"Heart breaking?"

"I don't know what to do with my life anymore, except to read it again. My chest literally hurts because it is so god damn cute."

I fought the smile forming across my lips. Esme was acting adorably to this. I didn't get it, personally, but I assumed she had formed some sort of bond with the character or something."

"No, Carlisle. She is of the female species, and she just finished a very…intense romance book. I don't let Bella read them because of this." Edward motioned to Esme who was still on the ground. She rolled over and made yet another high pitched sound.

Everyone was staring at her in confusion and amusement.

"I can't even deal…" She said quietly to herself. "Why aren't you that cute?"

"Hey, I could be like that if I wanted…" I said.

"What book is it?" Violetta asked.

"Life's Endless Love." I said.

"I don't believe I've read it."

Esme snatched the book from me in a whir and handed it to Violetta, "Start now. Oh!" She disappeared up the staircase and came back down a seconds later, handing another 3 books to Violetta, "And these."

Violetta, now surrounded my books, glanced at me with a slightly scared looks and smiled at Esme, "I'll get right on it…"

"Good. I have to go find another one." Esme disappeared again.

"I now have 4 books to read on top of the other one I am currently reading and your wife is scaring me."

"I can confirm that never once have I seen her act like that after reading a book, even a romance…" I said.

Everyone broke into laughter after a few seconds of silence.

"I think you should get started, that'll take forever to get through, plus the one you're already reading…" Jacob said.

"A week at the most, if I'm committed." She said.

"You're kidding me, right?"

"No." She shook her head and looked at him in confusion, "Is that not normal?"

"Do vampires have increased reading speed as well or are you all just crazy?"

"Hey, I read slower than you do." Emmett said, "Actually, I don't read…like, not at all."

"No, that's not true; you read smut all the time." Rosalie said to him.

"Oh, yeah I do to. I read a really good one the other day—"

She cut him off, "Oh hun, I really don't want to hear about it."

He sat back, "Fine, I'll just demonstrate later…"

"Oh, gross!" Renesmee threw a pillow at him. He connected his fist with it before it hit him or Rosalie.

"Behave." Rosalie said to him. He tried to hide his smirk. Jasper laughed and hung his arm around Alice.

"Oh! I forgot to tell you. There is one girl at school…"

"Let me guess, total bitch and already hates you?" Violetta asked.

"Correct. Her name's Lauren."

"Is that just a bitchy name or a coincidence?" Bella asked.

"What?" Renesmee asked.

"I had a bitch named Lauren."

"Ah, Lauren." I thought back to the days were Bella would come here crying because of Lauren. "I hope that girl has gone nowhere in life…" I said it casually with a smile.

They all laughed at my sudden sentence of hatred.

"She's actually doing alright. Better than I am." Bella said. "She's moved away, but she was coming back down to see her sister and niece a few weeks ago and asked if I was in town to catch up. I told her we were out of town…"

"That's my girl." I smirked.

"I totally would have caught up with her. Why didn't she ask me?" Alice asked.

"She hated you." Edward laughed, "And Rose. More than she hated Bella."

Rosalie and Alice looked at each other in shock for a second before their faces changed, "Yeah, that's understandable." Rosalie nodded.

"I would have hated us too." Alice agreed.

"No, it's not understandable. They had no reason to hate you." Jasper said.

They looked at each other again. "I never told him…" Alice said.

"Oh, god we were horrible. I don't think we told anyone."

Esme walked back down the staircase and slumped at my side.

"No luck?" I asked quietly.

"I gave up." She said.

"Wait, didn't tell us what?" Emmett asked Rosalie and Alice.

"Oh…I know what you're talking about. I copped a lot of shit for that." Bella's eyes narrowed.

"Sorry." They said in synchronization.

"What didn't you tell us!?" Jasper asked louder.

"We were really, really mean…" Alice said. She glanced at Esme and I and looked back to Rosalie.

Rosalie was looking at us too, contemplating whether to say it.

"They're going to be pissed with you…" Edward smirked.

"It was in the past."

"Doesn't matter." He shook his head.

"What did you do!?" Renesmee asked.

"We sent her some very rude messages, and we got in so much trouble at school. We had to get Bella and Edward to pretend to be Carlisle and Esme for us…"

Esme and I stared at them, and moved our gazes to Bella and Edward. "You pretended to be us?"

"They were covering our arses." Rosalie said.

"We would have had no arse afterwards if you found out what we said…" Alice added.

I cleared my throat, "I can't even teach you anything from it because it was so long ago."

"It would be like punishing a puppy that has no idea what they did." Esme agreed.

"But, after the messages, the next week was full of all the breaking points for Bella, and the week after that, with another face to face very aggressive warning from me, they stopped." Rosalie said. "I helped."

"You didn't need to send messages, Rose. You can get charged for that." Esme said.

"Charlie was the chief at the time. I'm sure we wouldn't have gotten in too much trouble…" Alice smirked. "Not me, anyway. Charlie knew about your behaviour towards Bella…" She said to Rosalie.

"Yeah, I'm still sorry about that, too."

"And Jacob." Alice added.

"Oh, I am not sorry about that."

"Awh, don't worry Blondie, it never fazed me anyway…" Jacob said.

"…Was…was that a pun?" Rosalie asked.

"It wasn't intended." He laughed, as well as the others.

"You've been awfully quiet today, Mason, and Seth and Leah." I said.

"They're all arguing with each other." Renesmee said.

"Shut up." Mason snapped at her.

"Hey." Violetta scolded. "Don't take your anger out on her."

"She caused it this time."

"If you need to, take it out on me and not anyone else." She said.

"You didn't piss me off."

"Well you're pissing me off!"'

Mason groaned and dropped his head backwards in frustration.

"Teenagers…" Violetta shook her head.

"You're 15!"

"I am well, well over 15…" She smirked.

"How old are you, anyway?" He asked.

"I told you."

"I don't remember…"

"331, approximately. I stopped counting."

"334…" Carlisle corrected.

"Well, there you go. 334." I nodded.

"How'd you know that so quickly?" Mason asked me.

I hesitated and looked at Esme. Only she knew that I was keeping count all this time.

"Wait…Vi, when's your birthday?" Bella asked.

"12th of June, why?"

"I thought so." Bella nodded.

"Why did you think so?"

"Every year on the 12th of June, Carlisle has what we call a 'dark day'. He leaves on the 10th and sometimes takes Esme with him, sometimes doesn't. He keeps in contact with us on the 10th and 11th, but once it's the 12th, he doesn't contact us, and we cannot contact him. Then, he calls us on the 13th and gets back on the 14th." Jasper explained.

Violetta looked at me. The room fell silent and awkward.

"Where did you go?"

"London. You have a gravestone there…"

"Why?" She asked.

"I thought you were dead for 3 years."

"I find it amusing that I was able to follow you around while still keeping my distance for years, and you only ever thought you saw me once. You weren't even sure it was me in Minnesota. Never once, though, did I follow you back here."

"How long did you follow me?" I asked. It was the first I was hearing of it.

"I lost count of the years." She said. "I never followed you to London, either. I figured it may be a bit obvious if we were on the same plane, and if I took a different one, I would have lost your trail."

I nodded. I wasn't really happy with the idea of them all knowing I was grieving my daughter every year on her birthday. I never told them that I had left on that day, either. I wasn't planning to. Esme didn't know that.

Shit. Edward did now.

"That's just cruel." Edward said. "On her birthday?"

"Shut up." My voice warned him before he revealed anything else.

"I'm just saying, it's not really fair—"

"Stop." I cut him off.

"Carlisle?" Esme asked.

I sighed, as I knew I would have to tell her, I just really didn't want to.

"He left on my birthday." Violetta said quietly.

Esme stared at me after those words. "You never told me that."

"It wasn't your concern."

"Carlisle, anything that affects you in my concern…"

"So…what are you going to do next month?" Rosalie asked. "It's June next month."

"Well, I'm obviously not going to London, because she's here." I motioned to Violetta.

Alice's eyes lit up, "Par—"

"No." Violetta cut her off before she could even finish the word, "No Alice."

"Oh come on, it'll be fun."

Violetta's eyes narrowed, "No." She said sternly.

Alice crossed her arms and slumped back, "Fine."

That put an end to this conversation, and moved to the previous one.

"I want to go to school." Violetta said to me.

I stared at her for a second before looking at Esme, who spoke first, "We've talked about this, sweetheart. You don't have to go just because someone else wants you to."

"No, I want to. For me."

I glanced at Edward and he nodded, confirming that she did want to go.

"We can go in and enrol you tomorrow if you'd like?"

She smiled, "Yeah, please."