Asteraceae

FIFTEEN

"Carlisle Cullen, father of those five right here." The man had stuck out his hand for a handshake, and the most Joshua could do was stare at it, eyebrow raised, with his own crossed behind his back. The man expected for his class to be visited last, expected to be alone for at least a good half an hour considering his classroom was in a building behind the main building, but he wasn't. There was a family already waiting for him, five teens, and two adults that stood with smiles on their faces.

"Joshua Kim, pleasure to meet you." reluctantly he had shook his hand, not bothering to smile back at either of them, "didn't expect for someone to be waiting for the doors to open." to be waiting for him to arrive. He was early to the event, and with that thought he imagined he would have time to grade a few of these quizzes but saw the family of pests that threw his schedule off again.

"We apologize, the children had stayed back to wait for the two of us." Or stayed back to see if he would show up.

"And I wanted to give your book back! Thank you for letting me borrow it." The black book was presented, a small smile appearing on his face, as he took it back.

"Enjoyed it I presume?" The book was placed firmly underneath his armpit. Their hands had met for just a second, though the sparks were still ever so present.

"Loved it, so interesting to read about." Did that smile mean she was getting somewhere, she had moved to look at Edward before remembering the guy couldn't read his mind, so now all she had left to do was glance at Jasper who she was certain could feel something when the man looked at her.

"I'll have to lend you another novel." He was a bit bemused that a vampire seemed to love reading about another vampire, but he wasn't going to think too hard about that. The girl had long since proved herself to be different from all the other bad apples, and whatever she did in her immortal life shouldn't be anything different from what she considered normal.

"Well than Mr. Cullen, should we discuss your children while your here." He had nothing ill to say about them, they kept to themselves, and what only mattered was that they stayed far away from him, the scent of death ominously following them around like flies to shit.

"Of course, any problems? Their usually good kids, but we don't mind reminding them to behave themselves." Esme had grinned, the man was surely a looker and if she was still human maybe a part of her would feel a bit giddy to be in his presence.

"Nothing like that." He waved them inside, "their all such good children, and I was wondering who had raised them so well behaved." He glanced over at Emmett, the vampire only had a problem with being a bit too loud when he laughed but that was nothing compared to the other students that preferred to scream instead of talk.

"Not even my dear boy Emmett?" Carlisle looked, a small smile present on his face.

"Besides his loud personality, he's doing just fine in my class also." He had chosen to sit at his desk, digging around for the signup sheet the two parents could write on, "I'll much prefer to hear him laugh than some of my other students talk." He also ignored the hands that dropped on his shoulders, the only person daring to touch him being the annoying little minx that had recently plagued his life.

"I see, he still shouldn't be so loud." Carlisle grinned, "I also do apologize about what happened to your grandmother. I was working around them when you came in with the ambulance." He could remember those brown eyes staring into his, those same eyes as years before matching the similar cold gaze that a man he once he had.

"Mother Kim? I appreciate the concern, but I knew her time was coming anyways." Even if he was the one to bring it a bit closer, "my other siblings couldn't come and attend to her, so I did." More like they didn't even know she existed up until now, he was sure to give a few of the properties away. He had no use for so much land, and he was sure a few of them would appreciate the houses that rested on land they frequented.