Everly sighed dramatically up at the ceiling, her head falling back down to eye her daughter, "I'm not going to tell you again. Eat your breakfast, Kit."

Kit frowned, continuing to push her eggs around, "No. I'm not hungry."

It was Monday morning and she was the only one at the table with her parents. She had spent her weekend, with her cellphone off and curtains closed in her room. She had cried some more, then pulled herself together for her annual weekend tea party with Indigo, then returned to her room to "study." In reality, that consisted of lots of laying there and lots of sleeping. She hadn't even showered until 9:00PM on Sunday.

This morning, breakfast conversation was all about Indigo's first soccer practice that had been on Friday. She had been great, Kit thought. She was so cute in her little uniform and it was fun watching her with Melody. All the little kids were precious and it was nice seeing all the other parents and siblings there.

"Kit-

"I don't understand," Kit interrupted her father and placed her fork down, "Why I can't stay home? Why can't I have one day?"

"Because you've already had days," Everly responded, sounding tired, "Your grades are plummeting and if you don't have enough attendance then you're not going to graduate and you'll have to repeat the year."

"I don't care," Kit grumbled childishly.

"Yes you do," Everly said. She pointed her fork at Kit's plate, "Eat your breakfast."

"I'm not hungry," Kit repeated. She wasn't trying to be difficult, she really wasn't hungry, feeling a severe lack of appetite.

Everly, fed up, snapped, "Kit, stop pouting because you're not getting your way. You're not three years old!"

"Everly," Blake gasped, appalled.

"You have to go to school," Everly continued, "It's the law. Besides, I don't want you getting any further into the habit of avoiding your problems."

Kit pushed her plate away. She wanted to cry and hid her hands under the table to scratch at her wrist.

Her father sighed loudly, but she didn't look up at her parents. If she looked at them, then she would start to cry and she was so sick of crying. Crying didn't solve anything and only gave her a headache. She had no idea what she was going to do when Emmett picked her up.

"Well, Kit, I'm going to your school, today," Blake told her gently, "And I'm going to talk to your principal."

"That's great," Kit said shortly with the smallest of shrugs, "Can I be done, now?"

"Did you check your blood sugar?" Blake asked.

Kit shook her head. For the past few days, she had been lazy about checking it.

"Can you do that, please?" he asked patiently, "And at least take a few bites. You need to eat."

Kit slumped back in her chair and folded her arms across her chest.

Blake leaned towards her and in a low voice said, "Not eating isn't going to fix anything. Tell me, what's skipping breakfast—what's that going to do for you?"

"Ugh, I don't care!" Kit raged, pushing away from the table. She didn't look back as she turned on her heel, face crumpling as she stormed up to her room.

She closed the door and fell face down onto her bed, a small sob escaping right when the doorbell rang. She gave herself another moment, then furiously wiped her tears and hurried into the bathroom. While she knew Emmett probably heard her, she didn't want him to see her like this. Not again.

She turned on the tap and bent over the sink to splash cold water on her face, then drank straight from the tap before she peered at her reflection in the mirror, water dripping down her face.

'Get it together, Kit,' she chided herself, 'Please, please, just stop being like this. Just be normal for one day.'

She stood on the brink of something she couldn't describe, but she never said a word. At least, until Friday. It was so unbelievably hard for her to talk about her problems. She didn't want to sound whiny or ungrateful or annoying, but it seemed like that's all she had accomplished while trying to keep that secret.

She felt empty and unhappy. Even in a moment of happiness, the negativity left its residue, waiting to come back full force and rear it's ugly head. She didn't know what to do with it.

'I need to talk to Carlisle again,' she decided and racked her brain for a time she could see him without listening ears. She could go after school. Not today because Emmett was picking her up. Tomorrow?

' I can't go to his house after school, everyone will be there,' she blotted her face with a towel, 'And I can't just show up at the hospital. I should probably call him.'

Her cheeks colored at the thought of speaking with the doctor again. What would she say to him? What could he do besides offer her help? Carlisle had already mentioned that he could recommend a therapist or treatment. He was a doctor, not a…a—she didn't know what the word was, but there was only so much that he could do.

"I don't know what I'm doing," she moaned, covering her face with her hands.

Her mind was going a million miles a minute and if her thoughts were visible, they'd be a giant explosion that would destroy all of Washington State. It hurt, all the thoughts, and she couldn't make sense of any of them. With the thought process, came all these emotions that she didn't want to feel.

"It's too much," she groaned into her hands. She only wished to stay home and sleep all day.

'I need to pull myself together,' she repeated and took a deep breath, 'Don't overthink because daddy's going to talk to the school and then we'll see what happens. Okay, okay…' she inhaled again and removed her hands fully from her face.

She braced her hands on the counter, turning her head when there was a knock at the bathroom door. She figured it was her father or her mother, coming to either scold her for her outburst or give her a quick pep talk before she went downstairs to go to school.

"I'm coming, I'm—" she tilted her head all the way back when she opened the bathroom door, "Emmett?" she hadn't expected him, "Um, hey?"

"Hey," he greeted her with an easy grin, "Surprise! Your parents sent me up here. What's going on?"

"I…" she stuttered, then paused. It was always about her and her drama. She felt like she needed to tell him, but she didn't want to burden him anymore than she already had. She had yet to tell him everything of her appointment with Carlisle.

"I…" she said again, "I don't know."

She stared at Emmett and he stared at her, in all likelihood, waiting for her to elaborate. There was a lot she could have said, but it was also a lot to pick from. She fought to differentiate the most important thought and opened her mouth so say something, but no sound came out.

"Um, I'm sorry," she finally managed with a slight shake of her head, "I'm all frazzled," she shook her head again and touched her forehead with an awkward laugh, "Gosh, I can't think straight."

"I kind of figured," Emmett chuckled, "You know you're not wearing shoes…?"

She looked down at herself, shocked. She wore a long-sleeved light khaki blouse with a daring v-neck cut that buttoned up and had a ribbon tied around the waist. She wore it tucked into a pair of high-waisted jeans. She had been dressing more simple lately in hopes to draw less attention to herself. She would forgo accessories except for her grandmother's locket.

There had to be something, she figured. That had drawn Lauren and the others girls towards her.

"Oh," she mumbled. She wiggled her toes, "Goodness, I'm barefoot."

She went to her closet and looked around for a minute until she found the pair she was looking for. They were chocolate brown faux leather double strap Mary Janes with pointed closed toes and a two inch heel.

She slipped them on and buttoned the two straps, turning to Emmett when she was finished. She smiled when she saw that he had her bag slung over her shoulder.

"Do these look okay?" she asked him.

"They look perfect," he said with a one-sided smile.

Kit giggled when he wrapped an arm around her back, pulling her forward to kiss her. When they separated, she noticed the huge grin on his face and she couldn't help but smile back.

"What?" she asked. He was so cute.

"We're going out tonight," he announced cheerfully.

Her eyebrows lifted. This was the first she had heard of that.

"We are?" she asked him, "Tonight?"

"Tonight," he confirmed with a nod, "I already got the a-okay from your parents downstairs."

She blinked, then smiled and bounced on her toes. That sounded wonderful. No school drama or talks of anything negative. Just her and Emmett.

"Yay!" she declared with a giggle, "Is this the special date you talked about?"

"Yup," he popped the 'p', "And before you ask where I'm taking you…it's a surprise."

She scrunched her nose, a little disappointed at that, but she had expected it coming from him. Emmett Cullen, she had learned, was big on surprises.

"Okay," she agreed easily.

"I'll pick you up at six o'clock?" he asked.

She nodded. She was glad to have this to look forward to. It was going to be a rough day. She could tell by the invisible weight she felt pressing down on her hunched shoulders. Her father would be going to the school during lunch. She had requested that Blake try and not be seen. People already talked about her to her face and she didn't need anyone talking about her behind her back. The whispers about her clothes had stopped within her first month at the high school.

"Perfect," she answered him, then leaned in for a hug.

They stood like that, Emmett holding her and she tried to press herself closer, wanting comfort without having to ask for it. She didn't have long for them to be together like this. How much time had passed since Emmett had come into her room? Any second, her father would come storming up the stairs.

"Y'sure you're all right, baby?" she felt Emmett speak the words into her hair.

"Yes," she said through a sigh, "I just don't want you to let go, yet."

He chuckled, "Want me to carry you downstairs?"

"I'm thinking about it."

She laughed and gave herself another moment before she reluctantly let her arms fall to her side, politely taking her satchel from Emmett's large hand.

"Let's get this show on the road," she proclaimed, letting Emmett wrap an arm around her waist, "What have you been up to?"

"This and that," Emmett said, making Kit scowl.

"What does that mean?"

He shrugged, "Nothing really changes. I kicked Jazz's ass in 'Call of Duty 2.'

Kit's nose scrunched again. While watching TV, she had often changed the channel or covered Indigo's eyes when the violent advertisements came on.

"Oh, and we'll be going out of town soon," Emmett informed her as the descended the stairs, "The whole family, I think. Next weekend."

Hunting, Kit realized. Emmett's eyes had darkened and were almost black, the shadows beneath them pronounced. She had never seen them like that.

"Okay…" she trailed off, when she saw her parents and swallowed thickly. Oh yeah, school.

"Bye, honey," Blake went forward and hugged Kit.

She stood there, "Bye."

"You can't let the bullies win," Everly said, trying to be positive, "Today's going to be fine."

"Mhm," Kit hummed. The weight increased on her shoulders and she felt…low, "I guess."

"You," Blake pointed at Emmett, "Can you remind her to check her blood sugar, please?"

Emmett gave him a two-finger salute, "Yes, Sir."

Everly and Kit recited their usual goodbye mantra, Kit with a little less enthusiasm as she left, walking ahead of Emmett and getting into the car.

"That was tense," Emmett commented, buckling into the driver's seat, "You and your parents fighting?"

"No," Kit gasped, looking at him, "No, it's been a rough couple of days. It should get better soon."

'I hope,' she added silently while turning to speak to Emmett, "Will you tell me more about 'Call of Duty'?"

Emmett looked at her suspiciously, "Huh, what about it? Do you want me to teach you how to play?"

In all reality, Kit didn't want him to teach her how to play. She didn't like video games and this one in particular sounded boring and too violent for her nature. But Emmett liked them a lot and while she couldn't be sure they would be her favorite thing in the world, she wanted to know what Emmett found so appealing about them. There weren't many things that he liked that she could fully participate in and she wanted to do that. Who knew? Maybe they would grow on her and she would like them.

"I do," she confirmed, "Do you have to start with the first one to play the second one or does it not matter?"

"If you don't care about the plot, it doesn't matter, but I have to teach you chess first," he said, tapping his fingers on the steering wheel, "We keep putting it off. I can bring the chessboard over at night and we can play before bed."

Kit liked that idea. It sounded like a nice way to pass the time on nights she couldn't sleep, "That sounds lovely!"

She reached over and Emmett removed one hand off the steering wheel to hold hers. She squeezed. She was so blessed to have him in her life and extremely grateful. More than she could ever express. She wished she could tell him, but was worried it would sound weird. She didn't want him to think that she was clingy or anything.

"You know what I was thinking about?" she asked Emmett out of the blue.

Emmett pouted a little, "I can't read minds," he told her, making her laugh.

"No, I know," she chuckled, "My sister was watching another soccer game and there was some kind of advertisement for a baseball game. That's what I was thinking of. When can we play baseball again? But…er, without the…extra guests?"

Emmett's booming laugh shook the car and Kit used her free hand to grab the car's sill. She had to pull her other hand away when it started to hurt from Emmett's skin temperature.

"You want to play baseball again?" he asked disbelievingly, "You mean, you're not traumatized?"

"I don't think I'm traumatized," Kit said, unsure and blinking with wide eyes, "I don't know, but I liked the beginning. Being the referee with Esme and Bella was nice."

Emmett eyed her again, the corners of his eyes crinkling with amusement, "That's my girl. Soon, maybe. We'll have to wait for a thunderstorm, but you're so busy."

'Say something flirty!' her mind screamed at her.

"Not all the time," she blurted. So much for being flirty, "No, you're right, I'm so busy," she paused to sigh, but thought of something else, "Huh. OH!" she gasped loudly, "I forgot to tell you!"

"Tell me what!?" Emmett demanded, forcing the same amount of excitement in his tone.

"Oh my gosh, I can't believe I forgot to tell you," Kit rambled, suddenly excited, "I got the perfect gift for my dad for his birthday!"

Jasper brushed his slightly damp hair out of his face. It was drizzling outside where he walked, heading back towards the high school cafeteria. He had been in the bathroom, hacking up the lunch that sat like a rock in his stomach.

"No. Why can't I go with you?"

The honey blonde faltered in his steps, then stopped all together. He knew that voice, though it was clogged with tears.

"Because, Kit," that was Blake, Kit's father, "We talked about it this morning and all weekend. You cannot miss anymore school. That's unacceptable."

A wave of anguish hit Jasper. So hard, that he had to clutch his chest. He felt the emotion at the same time he heard her let out a sob.

"But I don't want to stay here!" she wailed.

Her sobs were suddenly muffled and Jasper had to guess that Blake had hugged her.

Kit considered herself decent at hiding her emotions from others and perhaps she was, but not with him. He knew. He could feel the depression that was always there—so thick that it made her feel empty. He felt how erratic her moods were starting to become. Pain flowed out of her every pore. She was sad, depressed, humiliated, and angry all the time, even if she refused to acknowledge it.

He supposed it didn't matter. Because whatever emotion she felt, they no longer had any substance behind them. They were flat and drained, like a used tea bag.

Like the rest of his family, he was aware that Kit was being bullied at school, but he had no clue why it would make her distraught at this particular moment or why her father was here.

"Don't ever let them see you cry," he heard Blake tell her, "You don't let those kinds of people see you like that. You can't let them intimidate you."

That only appeared to make Kit cry harder and Jasper gritted his teeth, sucking in air that he didn't need. He should have tried to calm her or walk away. He had no business eavesdropping like he was.

Kit was a right sweetheart. He supposed that they were friends, though it had never been spoken aloud. He had liked her emotions around the time when they had first met. He liked how blunt she was about their kind. He could tolerate her scent better than others and Alice adored her just like Bella. It also helped that Kit had gone face-to-face with Peter and Charlotte. Sometime after they left, they had actually asked about her.

He recalled some of the conversation he had had with her back in the hotel room in Phoenix during Spring Break. He had said, during that time, that if Kit continued not to eat that she would have an appointment with his father and he had been right. Her anxiety was worse and he was still concerned. Even more so than when he had admitted it back in the hotel room.

With that in mind, he knew he couldn't stay for long. It was too painful for him. He wondered if he should say something to her. He wasn't going to ask if she was okay. Coming from him, that was a stupid question. He knew Kit wasn't okay and not only due to the fact that she was bawling her eyes out. She hadn't been okay for awhile and her emotional state kept deteriorating.

He heard Blake's breath leave his body in loud frustration and then he said, "You can't miss anymore school Kit, seriously. I want to take you home with me because you look like a mess and I hate seeing you so upset, but if you miss anymore school, you might have to repeat the year and you don't want that. Julliard remember? You and Willa and Jessi, right? Together."

Jasper left. He had no business listening to this conversation and his gift could only take so much, especially when it came to the more negative emotions and those who felt their emotions more intensely than others.

When he returned to the lunchroom to sit with his two sisters, he was greeted with a scowl from both of them.

"There you are," Alice kicked his chair out for him to sit, "I was starting to worry!"

He smiled easily at her, "I'm okay, darlin'," he took her hand, "I took a small detour."

Rosalie flicked an eyebrow up, "Oh, yeah?"

Jasper's eyes darted to Rosalie, then back to his scarred hand that held Alice's. Rosalie completely resented Kit and Bella. Anytime someone brought up their names, she scoffed, rolled her eyes, hissed or pretended to gag. It was ridiculous and there was no point to it. By now, Kit and Bella knew too much. Either they died or became vampires and Jasper knew that Bella was leaning heavily towards the vampire option.

"Yeah," he supplied in his Southern twang.

At exactly 6:00PM, Emmett pulled into Kit's driveway. He had forgone the usual silver car he drove with Kit and had borrowed Carlisle's car.

He wanted this to be a special night. Having no desire to completely torture Kit anymore than she already was at school, he had absolutely no plans to take her to prom in late May. She would hate it and he would probably hate it, having gone to a million proms, already. Though Rosalie was hinting that she wanted to go and he was thinking of taking her.

Emmett usually dressing more casual, had decided to wear a white button-up under a black v-neck sweater with dark pants and black shoes.

He went up to the door and lingered. Already, he could hear rustling and talking come from inside the house. From Kit's bedroom.

"Kit, you look fine," he heard Everly chastise with a laugh, "And your hair looks cute. It hasn't been this long in a couple of years."

"I'm growing it out," was Kit's answer. He could hear her heartbeat and smell the blush rising to her cheeks, "…I should change. I'm changing."

Everly laughed again, speaking through the happy sound, "No-ooo-ooo. Honey, you look great! Seriously, if you change one more time you're going to start working up a sweat. You don't have time to change, anyway. It's already six and I bet Emmett will be here any minute."

Smirking, Emmett chuckled and decided to take that as his cue. He went forward and knocked on the door, laughing to himself when he heard Kit gasp.

"Yeah!?"

That was Blake's keen shout and Emmett wasn't sure if that meant he was allowed to walk straight into the house or not. He hadn't been aware that the door was unlocked.

He waited a full five seconds before going into the house and shutting the door. He turned the corner where he found Blake hunched over on the couch typing furiously on a laptop computer. A vein bulged from his neck as his blue eyes, covered by his glasses, darted from the screen to the camera that was connected by a gray cord.

"Hey, Blake h-

"KITEMMETT'SHERE!" Blake roared in one breath.

Emmett blinked furiously, then looked down when someone tugged on his sleeve. It was Indigo and he smiled warmly at her.

"Hey, kiddo," he ruffled her hair, then picked her up. She may be too big for anyone else to lift her, but not for him.

"What's up?" he asked her.

"Daddy took too long to start his project and now he's late," Indigo said with a giggle, "So, he's all crabby."

"I see," Emmett stepped away to let Blake work and went to stand by the door, "What have you been up to?"

Indigo's eyes lit up, "Soccer! My friend Melody is on the team and because we're girls, we wear light blue uniforms and the boys wear dark green and…"

The small Algren talked so fast that Emmett wondered if her tongue ever hurt. Indigo seemed to never run out of breath as she went on and on and on. He didn't mind. Sports were sports and he thought it was cool that Indigo was interested in them.

It was too bad she couldn't come watch him and his family play. She probably would have enjoyed that.

"Anyway…" Indigo concluded, "What have you been up to?"

"Building stuff," Emmett decided to supply. He had been working on building more sports equipment with Jasper.

Indigo tilted her head to the side, smiling mischievously, "What kind of stuff?"

"Sports stuff," Emmett smiled back at her, "Maybe you'll be able to see one day."

He laughed when Indigo scrunched her nose up at him and teased her, "Ya' look like your sister when you do that," he said, to which Indigo was delighted, "Speaking of, where is she? If she doesn't come down, I might just take you with me. We can get ice cream."

Indigo laughed, but then her face fell and she let go of one of his huge shoulders to crook a small finger towards her, beckoning him in her direction.

Dramatic and wide-eyed, Emmett leaned in closer, tensing when Indigo cupped her hand around his ear.

"She had a really bad day," she whispered before pulling back.

She spoke again just as he opened his mouth, "But she doesn't like talking about it because it makes her feel worse, so will you make sure to have a lot of fun—oh and make her laugh-

"Indigo!" Blake warned from the living room, "That's enough."

Emmett frowned as Indigo's face fell even more as her cheeks heated up. It looked like she was going to cry.

He didn't like that. He knew Kit had a rough day. She had left the cafeteria to go the bathroom and had been gone until the last five minutes of lunch. When he saw her, he could tell that she had been crying, but hadn't pushed her. Now, Indigo was only trying to help. She wanted to look out for Kit. She wanted Kit to be happy because she knew Kit wasn't.

Trying to cheer her up, Emmett jostled her in his arms a bit to get her attention. When she lifted her head, he quirked his lips up in a smile.

"Thanks for telling me," he whispered to her, then winked.

One side of Indigo's mouth turned up and she squeezed her eyes shut for barely a second. Her own version of winking.

Finally, he heard footsteps coming closer to the stairs and he pecked Indigo on her forehead, then set her down, giving her a gentle pat on the head just as Kit and Everly came into view, Kit's lip between her teeth.

Kit wore a long-sleeved white shirt under a soft green suspender skirt speckled with white and red knit purl print. There were giant white buttons on the ends to hook onto the wide banded high waist and she wore a pair of faux cork white leatherette peep toe wedge sandals. Her hair, she or Everly had managed to pull into a short french braid with a small green bow at the end. The new hairstyle exposed more of her face.

"Hey there, beautiful," he greeted her as his chest warmed as it did every time he saw her.

"Hi," she said shyly as she hopped off the last step and into his arms, "You look great!"

"You do too," he set her down, "Hello, Everly."

"Hi, honey," Everly said. There was a crease between her brows and her eyes looked passed them all at Blake, "Um, 9:00PM, please."

"Yes, ma'am," Emmett drawled. He had never missed Kit's curfew.

Indigo bounced on her toes, piping up, "Take a picture, take a picture!"

"Aww, I should take a picture!" Everly gushed like it had been all her idea, "Blake come take a picture!"

Emmett snickered when Kit groaned out an "Oh my gosh." He wrapped his arm around her waist. He really liked Kit's parents. They were cool to put it in blatant terms.

"Darling I'm working on something…" Blake responded.

"We need a picture," Everly insisted, "If Emmett and Kit get kidnapped or murdered we're going to need a picture to give to the authorities."

Emmett looked down at Kit, then at Indigo, but neither one of them seemed fazed by this. He knew dark humor was a common theme in this family—something that he was all for and by now, he was used to the way Kit's family said disturbing things with ease.

With an annoyed grunt, Blake safely disconnected the camera from its cord and powered it on.

"Thank you, honey," Everly said sweetly, batting, her eyelashes.

"Mhm," Blake hummed sarcastically, though he kissed Everly on the lips.

"Okay, you two," Blake lazily gestured towards Emmett and Kit, "Get together."

Emmett pulled Kit close to him and smiled at the camera and right when Blake was about to take the picture, he sighed and dropped the camera to his side.

"You didn't take the picture!" Kit accused.

Blake's head dropped down to Indigo and he gave her a look, "Do you see the problem here?"

"Kitty's too short," Indigo declared, completely straight-faced.

"Okay, wow, I'm sorry, can you give me five minutes while I grow a thousand inches?" Kit scoffed sarcastically, "I'm already wearing four inch—ahhh!"

Emmett, who had swept Kit up into his arms, laughed as he looked at Kit and she laughed too, mostly in surprise.

"What are you doing?" she squealed at him, quickly wrapping her arms around his neck, "You know, this doesn't technically make me taller."

Emmett responded by pressing his lips to hers, being mindful that her parents were watching. It was true, she only came up to his chest in this position.

"We need to get going," he said. They should have left fifteen minutes ago.

"Oh gosh, I'm keeping you," Everly covered her mouth with her hands, "And it's your special night. Okay, okay, get going, get going. You see, Kit Kat, this is why I insisted we say goodbye upstairs."

'Ah, now I see where the kid gets it from,' Emmett thought at the speed of Everly's words.

"Bye dadd…" Kit trailed off when she realized Blake was no longer in the room.

"Yes, uh-huh, bye Kit," Blake muttered in a monotone from the living room.

Emmett watched Kit shake her head, then kneel down to say goodbye to Indigo.

"You should be in bed by the time I get back," Kit told her, "I'll see you in the morning, sweetheart."

"Okay," Indigo wrapped her arms around Kit's neck, hugging her tightly, "I love you!"

"I love you too, be safe," Kit kissed her cheek and Emmett held out a hand to help her up.

"See ya', kiddo," he told Indigo, "Nice chattin' with ya'," he winked at her and Indigo blinked back at him.

Taking Kit's hand, he led her out to the car and wasn't surprised when she stopped to stare.

"That's Carlisle's car, isn't it?" she asked him.

"It is," Emmett confirmed with a nod. He opened the passenger door for her, "He let me borrow it. I told you…it's our 'special date'."

He wanted to dart to the driver's side, but walked impatiently at a human pace, getting into the car and buckling his seat belt.

"And you're not going to tell me the special part, are you?" Kit teased him.

Emmett watched her, expertly pulling out of the driveway without having to look.

Kit was so beautiful and Emmett was sure he would never get tired of looking at her. Not only was she beautiful, but Kit was just intriguing. That was the only word he could think of to describe how incredibly unique he thought she was.

He took her hand, "You. You're the special part."