Disclaimer: I do not own anything from the collective works of Stephenie Meyer's Twilight Saga

Daily Dose of Petulance

The two weeks that followed were hectic, to say the very least. Shortly after the arrival of Louisa's father was the arrival of their furniture. Mr Collins was under the impression that, if kept busy enough, his eldest daughter would not be able to find any sort of trouble to get herself into. Louisa, therefore, was charged with the task of being his girl Friday, and run every single errand that he could possibly imagine.

"Why can't you send Dot?" Louisa complained after her father informed her that she would need to return to the home improvement store for the third time that week. "I'm sure she can pick out… paint rollers, just as easily as I can."

"Dot doesn't have her driver's license."

"She has a bike, doesn't she? Besides, it would be better for the environment if the car wasn't used. Decrease the amount fossil fuels used and reduce our carbon footprint and all."

Mr Collins light grey eyes, so very much like his daughter's, peered over the top of his reading glasses. "If you are that concerned about the environment, you may take your bike, I won't stop you," he replied in a steady voice. "Just as long as you hurry; the store will probably be closing soon."

"It's raining outside." Because of course it was. That's all it did in this town.

Mr Collins gave Louisa a serene smile. "Then perhaps the car will be more comfortable."

Louisa scowled at her father before turning and storming into the kitchen. She knew that it was useless arguing with her father— he wasn't one of the best lawyers in Tacoma for nothing.

Dottie, who had wandered into the kitchen, gave her sister an apologetic smile. "I would go with you," she murmured to her irate sister. "But Daddy needs my help starting dinner."

Louisa rolled her eyes. The day Stephen Collins needed help in the kitchen was the day that she quit solving mysteries. Well, at the moment, Louisa has stopped solving mysteries, but it was really more of a sabbatical, rather than a retirement. She would be back to it soon enough. The blonde pushed away the wave of guilt at that thought. She had promised her father and her sister that she would stop, after all, and that wasn't to be taken lightly. Louisa would go and get the paint rollers, and whatever other small, inconsequential thing her father asked her to get. Her father was only trying to protect her, after all.

Still, all of that constant back-and-forth driving was annoying, so she allowed herself to fume for the rest of the day at the injustice of her situation. Or at least until dinner. Her dad's cooking was really good.

No Stone Left Unturned

At least it wasn't raining on the first day of school, Louisa thought grimly when her alarm woke her up at some ungodly hour. It was days like this when she wished that she would invest in an actual alarm clock, instead of using her phone, just so that she could have the satisfaction of hurling it at a wall when it woke her up.

Louisa dragged herself out of bed and stumbled through her morning routine. Dottie, who could practically see a dark cloud of general irritation emanating from Louisa, brought up a cup of coffee and braided Louisa's hair. She even went so far as to pick out Louisa's outfit when she noticed her sister had dozed off. Looking at the chosen clothes, Louisa concluded that Dottie was under the delusion that they would need to dress well in order to make a good first impression.

"It's not like we haven't met the entire town already," Louisa groused. Still, she pulled on the dark skirt and green woolly jumper that Dot had picked out for her. At least this school didn't require uniforms.

Louisa allowed her sister pull her down the stairs and into the kitchen, where their father had was waiting with two plates of pancakes. Louisa was sure that her father had made a comment about making them a "special breakfast" for their "first day of school," but she was too focused on pouring herself another cup of coffee.

"First day of school pictures," he chirped excitedly. He was smiling, but Louisa knew that he was just as miserable as she was at the thought of it. A rush of nausea filled Louisa's stomach as her father pulled out the old camera after they finished eating, ordering them outside with their backpacks. Dad had never taken their first day of school pictures. Only Mom.

Louisa grit her teeth in an effort not to cry as her father had them pose on the front stoop. All she could think about was how incredibly unfair the whole situation was. How could her father even think that this was a good idea? He was always gone by the time they left for school. Mom would have them pose for pictures with their backpacks, before all four of them piled into the minivan and drove to school. This wasn't right.

A sense of normalcy. She could hear the words almost as if the therapist had spoken them to her, instead of her father. Kids need routine.

"Do try to smile, Louisa," Mr Collins said, exasperated. "I would like a nice picture for your first day of school."

"What's it matter? It's going to suck anyways."

"Thank you for my daily dose of petulance, darling. Now that you have that out of your system, please smile."

Dottie rolled onto her tip-toes so that she could whisper into her sister's ear. "The sooner you do it, the sooner it will be over."

It took a few tries, but Louisa was finally able to arrange her features so that they didn't look like she was about murder someone. The next thing she knew, her father was pulling her into a hug and wishing them a good day. Then the sisters were sitting in the car and Louisa was pulling out of the driveway.

Out of the corner of her eye, Louisa could see Dottie fiddling with her seatbelt. She knew that she should be a good big sister and offer Dottie words of comfort or encouragement, but the words felt like hot rocks trapped in her voice box. How could she even give solace to her sister, when Louisa herself was just as upset? She couldn't say that it would be okay, because it wasn't. She hated feeling so useless.

Louisa reached across the centre console to grab her sister's hand and gave it a small squeeze. She could practically feel her sister's own sadness as acutely as her own. There were no words that she could say that would make her sister feel better, no matter how desperately Louisa wished. She didn't believe in filling the air with useless words, so she remained silent and offered Dottie what little she could: the reminder that Louisa was there and just as miserable as she was.

When the Collins sisters arrived at Forks High School (Home of the Spartans!), Louisa briefly stopped the car in front of the office and ordered her sister out of the car. "You deal with the schedules," Louisa ordered. "Find me in the parking lot when you're done." She didn't even wait for Dottie to reply before peeling off.

Completely accustomed to Louisa's surly personality in the morning, Dottie sighed and wandered towards the red brick building behind her. Despite it being early September, the warm gust of air that assaulted her was a nice surprise as she entered into the main office. Maybe those that had lived in the Pacific Northwest all of their lives would have grown accustomed to the cold rain, but Dottie had always found the wet cold dreadful.

Students were starting to trickle into the office, wanting to get their schedules before the morning rush. Dottie headed to the line labelled 'A-H'. She gave her and her sister's names to a woman with dyed red hair, flushing when the woman let out a shriek of happiness, "It is wonderful to finally meet you my, dear, so glad that we have two new Spartans!" It was a good thing Louisa had gone to park the car, Dottie thought as the woman in front of her hummed merrily while flipping through a file folder for their schedules. Lou hated morning people.

With class lists and school maps in hand, Dottie spun around to leave, only to walk straight into what she first assumed to be a wall. The girl-that-actually-wasn't-a-wall looked down her nose at Dottie, obviously insulted to not only be mistaken for an inanimate object, but actually touched. Dottie wanted to stutter out an apology, but the words seemed to die in her throat. The girl in front of her was heartbreakingly beautiful: her long hair was closer to gold than blonde and her piercing amber eyes seemed to freeze Dottie where she stood. She was tall too — even taller than Louisa, who had a good four inches on Dot. But whereas Louisa had the stringy, fragile look of someone who had grown a lot in a short period of time, the girl in front of Dot looked confident and strong, as if she could easily run ten blocks after a purse thief and beat him up. In heels. This girl was easily the most intimidating and awe-inspiring person Dottie had ever met (Louisa not included, of course).

"May I help you?" The girl drawled after several moments of Dottie's awkward gawking had passed. When Dottie shook her head, still slightly dazed, the girl's impassive expression shifted to one of annoyance. "Do you mind moving? You're holding up the line."

Dottie blushed fantastically before stammering out an apology and stepping out of the way. The girl didn't acknowledge Dot any further and brushed by with a flip of her shining hair. Mortified, Dottie scurried towards the door, relieved that there had been very few people in the office at the time to witness the encounter. She had almost made it to the door when a hand stuck itself in front of her and halted her hasty retreat.

A lanky boy with reddish hair and a desperate need of a tan had stopped her.

"Oh, hello," Dottie said, feeling slightly out of breath. "Edward Cullen, right?"

Edward gave her an easy grin. "That would be me. And you are Dorothy Collins?" When Dottie gave him a slow nod, he continued. "I would like to apologise on behalf of my sister. She can be rather…" Edward's eyes flicked up and Dottie turned to see the blonde was standing behind her, glaring at Edward. "Anyway, it was lovely to see you again. Have a pleasant day, Miss Collins." And in a fashion similar to two supermodels exiting a runway, Edward and his sister left the office.

After a few moments of collecting her scattered thoughts, Dottie realised that her heart was pounding painfully against her ribs, making it difficult to breathe. For a fleeting second, she felt as if she may faint. Knees shaking violently, Dottie managed to drag herself out of the suddenly stifling office and into the light drizzle that had started to fall. She slid down to crouch against the red brick wall, trying to calm herself. Was this what a panic attack felt like? It was lucky that they had come so early, or else her new classmates might have seen her little break down. No one was around, for which Dottie was incredibly thankful for. When Dottie felt composed again, she headed to the parking lot. It was also fortunate that Louisa was such a mess in the morning. The last thing she needed was her big sister worrying about her.

No Stone Left Unturned

By the end of second period, Louisa had woken up enough to remember that Dottie had seemed upset when she returned with their schedules. The younger girl had tried to hide it, sure, but now that Louisa had emerged from her zombie-like state, it was almost pathetic that she hadn't picked up on her sister's rather obvious distress.

Perhaps Dot was worried that they would be attending a co-ed school? After all, their previous school was all girls. The added safety net of a uniform was also taken away at Forks High School (Home of the Spartans!).

But that didn't make much sense. Dottie was never bothered much by changes like that. There had to be another explanation. Unfortunately, Dottie was not in front of her, so Louisa couldn't figure out exactly what was wrong. She would have to wait until lunch. Until then, she would come up of the perfect segue into such a topic which was, admittedly, slightly more interesting than calculus, and infinitely more interesting than her new classmates.

Okay, almost infinitely. That Joseph Bowman in her history class was incredibly attractive.

But Dottie was absolutely most definitely her top priority.

Louisa got her opportunity right before lunch when she spotted Dottie pulling her lunch box out of her locker. Blood sugar slightly low and hangry. Louisa would need to tread carefully.

"How were classes so far?" Louisa asked, materialising next to Dottie.

Dottie jumped, startled but smiled when she saw her sister. She allowed Louisa to take her lunch box and followed her sister into the lunch room, chatting animatedly about her new classes. The two sat at an empty table and Louisa handed Dottie her food. Perhaps this wasn't the most sociable of moves for two new students, but the sisters were more than happy to just eat their lunch together.

New friends could wait, Louisa thought. Family is much more important.

She watching Dottie carefully, looking for any signs of upset. At first glance, nothing seemed wrong with Dot, who was casually nibbling on celery sticks. Well, there were only so many ways once could actually consume celery sticks, but Dot somehow managed to make it look like she was putting on an act.

Or maybe Louisa was in mystery withdrawal after five weeks without a case. It was hard to tell at this point.

"What class do you have after this?" Louisa asked, biting into an apple.

"English."

"I have Spanish," Louisa grumbled. She didn't personally have any problems with Spanish, but both sister had been learning it since they were in kindergarten. Louisa was by no means fluent, but she could easily be dropped in, say, Guatemala, and have no issues communicating. Taking a beginner's level Spanish-class would be useless.

"I have that last period. It should be an easy A," Dottie supplied with a small grin. Dottie's Spanish was even better than her sister's. Watching Spanish soap operas did wonders for fluency.

"He just doesn't want me to take Russian." She wasn't positive of course, but got the impression last week when they were deciding their classes. Louisa was pretty sure that her father would be more than relieved if she would move away from anything to do with Russia.

Dottie rolled her eyes at her sister's antics. If anyone could find a plot in a completely innocuous situation, it would be Louisa. "Forks doesn't even offer Russian courses, Lou."

Louisa watched Dottie de-crusting her PB&J for a moment. "Speaking of classes, have you had any with the Cullens yet?" Louisa asked, hoping to catch her sister off-guard.

Dottie froze for the briefest of seconds before continuing to peel the crust off her sandwich. "I haven't. Why do you ask?"

Louisa ignored her sister's question and leaned forward in her seat. A flush was starting to crawl up Dot's neck. "Then what do the Cullens have to do with this morning?"

"Nothing. I ran into Edward and his sister when I went to get our schedules." Dottie's response was even, almost rehearsed. Dot's blue eyes never left her grey, but something felt off to Lou. Dottie was definitely hiding something.

"Then why did one of them upset you? Which one was it? Edward? He seemed decent enough, but I promise I'll kick his ass if he was mean to you."

"No, Lou. He didn't do anything wrong. Nothing happened."

"It's not nothing, Dot," Louisa reached across the lunch table to grab onto her sister's hand. She could feel her anxiety welling up in her chest, as if she knew that something was dreadfully wrong. If only she could figure out what was causing it. "Did you have a panic attack?" Panic attacks weren't something that Dottie had ever suffered from, but the younger blonde had been through so much in the previous nine months that it wouldn't be all that surprising.

"I'm completely fine, Lou." Dottie gave her sister a smile, relieved when the tension in Louisa's shoulders seemed to loosen. A flare of affection rose up in her chest as she watched her sister lean back in her seat, suddenly very aware how lucky she was to have an older sister that cared so much for her happiness.

"You would tell me if you weren't?" Louisa asked, picking up her own sandwich and taking a bite.

Dottie nodded, a few stray curls falling into her face. "You would be the first to know."

Louisa was silent for a few moments. "So what did you and Edward talk about?"

The younger Collins sighed in exasperation. "Does it matter?"

A grin stretched across Louisa's face. "I'm instinctively inquisitive."

"More like naturally nosey."

And as if some sort of gate had opened, the two sisters bickered good-naturedly for the rest of lunch.


"Out of suffering have emerged the strongest souls; the most massive characters are seared with scars." – Kahlil Gibran


A/N: Well, there it is. Leave me a review and let me know what you think, yeah? The Cullens will be a little different in my story; their personalities will be more or less the same, but they will be more like vampires in legends, rather than Meyers-verse. Because this is fanfiction, and I can do what I want. -CheckAlexa