Chapter 8:
The 'Mum'
After Esme left we all went back inside and cleaned the house one last time before Kiera arrived.
It was eerily quiet. Everyone seemed to be thinking about what it'd be like living without Esme for an entire month, not to forget with a human. Well at least that's what I was thinking about, after all I can't read their thoughts unlike my husband.
Once we'd finished cleaning we all went to our cars, we weren't supposed to be home upon Keira's arrival.
Edward, Renesmee and I went in my Ferrari red Ferrari F430, which Edward gave me as the 'after car' for our wedding.
Emmett and Rose took her candy apple red BMW M3 Convertible. Alice and Jasper where in Alice's Dakar yellow Porsche 911 Turbo. Whilst Seth, Leah and Jake where in Jake's cherry red 1986 Volkswagen Rabbit and Carlisle was in his own shadow black Mercedes S55 AMG with Eleazar and Carmen. Tanya, Kate, Garret and Nahuel took Emmett's Boston University red Wrangler-style Jeep.
***
As I stepped out of the luxurious limousine I kept my eyes closed.
Since the limousine began driving through the woods, I was dreading the living conditions I was sure to face in the next month.
That many children with only two parents, it's bound to put them into a financial crisis.
They wouldn't be able to afford a decent house whilst feeding all those mouths; do they even wear clothes?!
What am I thinking? I've gone mad, calm down Keira. Of course they'll have clothes - the benefits they receive surely will cover those costs. How else will all those children go to school...
Oh dear, they don't go to school!
What have I landed myself in?
"Mrs Delany. You can open your eyes, we've arrived." Said my driver, barely suppressing his laughter.
Oh no. I'm going to live in a shed, a card board box, a, a swamp!
None the less, I had to face my horrid reality.
"Are you sure it's safe? There aren't any bears going to attack us because the family stole their honey and are keeping it hidden in their shed, I mean home?"
"It's perfectly safe." My driver confirmed. "It's gorgeous. I wish I could live here."
That's odd. Did he just say he wants to live here?
"I know what you mean, wait until you meet the family. This will look like a completely natural house in comparison." chuckled another male voice close by.
Scared of him possibly mugging me I opened my eyes.
Forgetting everything else I gawped at the enchanting house before me, if you could call it that. It's unlike anything I've ever seen. It's stunningly beautiful and absolutely indescribable. So welcoming. Yet it looks very expensive and homely at the same time.
"This is where they live? Where I'm going to be living?" my voice came out kind of hoarse.
"Uh huh. The inside only gets better." the voice said, I managed to tear my eyes off of the building and turned towards the source. A camera man.
With that I stepped towards the house and went up the porch steps and opened the door. The driver would bring my bags.
The interior was simply sublime. Everything seemed to compliment each other. Even the grand piano and the stereo in the main room.
It was very open plan. Probably so that Esme could keep an eye on everyone, with so many of them they had to get up to a lot of mischief. The Piano surprised me though. Who would play it or rather how long would they expect to keep the piano in one piece? Someone must use it since the leather seat, whilst new, looks like it gets used. How would they even be able to hear the piano over the loud, heavy, influencing music the teenagers blast throughout the house on that stereo?
As I walked around I saw a leather binder with a family crest on the front.
I assume that's my manual then.
I'll come back and look at it a bit later, once I've explored the upstairs a bit.
Upon going up the stairs I saw what must be a artistic recreation of dozens, of what appeared to be, graduation caps hung on the wall. A large, heavy looking, wooden cross hung on the corridor of the second floor.
"Surprisingly tidy for so many children, though I suppose they were ordered to clean the house. I doubt they cleaned their rooms properly though." I said into the camera.
As I walked throughout the house I by-passed a total of twelve bedrooms. The house has eighteen occupants so the children must share. But I didn't see bunk-beds anywhere during my fleeting exploration.
"Obviously they can't afford to buy all the children their own beds as they must share beds." I raised my eye brows at the camera and pinched my lips to convey I'm not impressed.
I then went back into each bedroom I passed individually. They all had at least another two doors leading somewhere else and another door leading outside onto a balcony. I opened one of the two doors, inside was a large bathroom, fit for a King and Queen. I hurried back out and entered the other door. It was a closet.
As I stepped further into the closet the lights came on automatically, it was massive. Probably as big, if not bigger than the entire bathroom and bedroom itself. Walking further into the walk-in-closet with the camera man in tow I looked around a bit, not touching obviously, that would be rude. When suddenly I saw some male shoes on one of the many, many racks.
Why are the male shoes when this is obviously a girls closet? There are too many dresses and skirts on these hangers not to be a girl's.
As my mind was processing this I ran back out into the bedroom and looked around.
I'd ignored the actual room itself before, now it seemed vital.
There were Swords and other authentic looking war objects on some of the walls. Along with lots of photos of models I've never seen before. Most of them had strange golden contacts in their eyes and they looked absolutely sublime. There was jewelry and fashion magazines on the desk though, it was official.
"How could they let boys and girls share a room?! That's just sick making them sleep in the same bed together. This is incest!" I yelled in horror at the gruesome discovery.
Once I hastily exited that room I went to check the others. The rooms were all co-ed, even the master bedroom, with an exception of four rooms.
One was a girl's room and the other a boy's room. The other two seemed unoccupied. One had flowers, Lilies, in a beautiful crystal vase on the nightstand. It must be the room meant for me.
With that I turned and left to go read the manual.
"Dear Keira, welcome to the Cullen family. My husband is Carlisle, he's a doctor at the local hospital. So he doesn't always have a lot of time to spend with the family, when he does have time he joins in with the family fun. We've adopted all of our children and as you may have guessed during your house expedition most of them are couples. We don't mind as the couples aren't related to one another biologically. Some of our children still have their previous last names, as they wanted to keep them. None the less we love them all equally, we think of them as our own and they are seen as Cullens. The couples are as follows: Bella and Edward, Rosalie and Emmett, Jasper and Alice, Renesmee and Jacob, Eleazar and Carmen, Garrett and Kate, Tanya and Nahuel and, obviously, Carlisle and I. Seth and Leah are siblings and the only ones not in a relationship."
My panic over incest calms down a bit whilst reading that, though it's still really weird. Instead of pointing out that they are still like siblings and living under one roof I continue reading.
"This brings me to the next thing you ought to know. They've all had a tough past and therefore need their space occasionally. Hence we let them go wherever they please, as long as they tell someone where they're going. Despite that rule there are few others we enforce, them being: No truth or dare, fighting and wrestling are only permitted outside the house, whoever makes a mess cleans it up and if someone breaks something they must replace it."
I looked up shocked into the camera, "How do they expect the children to behave properly? I mean they even allow them to fight one another." I said exasperatedly before continuing.
"We believe they are old enough to make their own decisions and therefore don't enforce any bedtimes or such schedules. If you need to get a hold of one of them whilst they're gone, simply phone them and ask them to come here. I doubt you'd have time to read all of the manual if I were to write in detail about all of my family members. So I will attempt to sum it up briefly. As you will soon get to know them anyway."
This ought to be good, a summery of all her family members. I hope it helps.
"Firstly, be cautious around Emmett, he loves to pull pranks on others, although the others aren't inexperienced in pranking either."
Let the circus begin ...
"They are just less likely to prank you without reason since they don't know you. Having said that, Rosalie doesn't take all that kindly to new people. She doesn't trust easily due to her past. This reminds me – don't ask any of them about their pasts, if they wish to talk about it they'll open up the subject themselves. Anyway, back to what I was saying before. Renesmee is biologically related to Bella, which is why there's a running joke for years now that Bella is her mum, as she often acts like one towards Renesmee. We don't mind as we understand Renesmee is very close to Bella and they went through a very tough past together. Since Bella is with Edward he tends to act the dad to Bella's mum for Renesmee. Renesmee often calls them mum and dad and sometimes calls her siblings aunt and uncle because of the running joke. It has been going on for as long as they have lived with us."
That's just abnormal! Then again what should I expect of people who let their children run wild?
"The couples are all very protective of their partners, but they are all very protective of one another anyway. We are a family, we look out for our own. A word of caution, you pick a fight with one of them, you end up fighting the lot."
Bye bye circus, hello zoo...
"All the children go to Forks High-school. I clean, cook, garden and generally look after the house although the children's bedrooms are theirs so they look after those themselves."
She's like their maid! At least they have to do their own rooms. They probably need prodding to do even that though.
"Apart from that I occasionally do some interior decorating. I must mention that the children sometimes look as if they are in pain, this is completely natural. They're remembering something unpleasant from their past."
Apparently they could sound even crazier... Just my luck.
"The people who live in the reservation by La Push often come over to our home, we tend to think of them as extended family. They, like Sue and Charlie, are always welcome to stay at our home, when they feel like it."
What? The family wasn't big enough for you yet already?
"The children should explain it all in more detail if you ask them. Now, onto our 'routine', the children get up and leave for school by themselves during the week. I tend to make pancakes or some sort of warm breakfast in the morning for whoever eats it by six thirty. I do the laundry, clean, tidy, garden and do what I like for the rest of the day, at half past three I make them dinner, although some of them may already have eaten elsewhere or aren't hungry. I just make it in case they haven't yet eaten. Don't worry it never goes to waste. If they've all already eaten someone calls the extended family. Those who're hungry come and eat, we rarely have left overs so you shouldn't worry too much about that. On the weekends I do the same as we never eat as a family, we try to be as flexible and accommodating as possible."
"She's running a hotel, not a house!" I exclaimed in outrage no longer able to hold it back.
"I feel the need to warn you before you meet Alice, she is a shopaholic and fashion orientated. She may inquire that you allow her to do a make-over on you or something similar. Having said that our children tend to be friendly, respectful and polite, if at times loud."
I don't doubt that your troubled kids will be loud. However friendly, respectful and polite? I highly doubt it.
"You will experience what I'm going on about yourself. It's not the loud you would necessarily expect from teenagers. Hope you enjoy your stay, Esme Cullen."
***
I was dreading meeting the new 'mum' as we piled back into our cars.
We'd gone to the mall as there wasn't really anything else to do. It cheered us all up a bit. We all went into the game shop and bought a few new games, as well as buying more new clothes, since we were already there.
At least it meant the girls wouldn't drag me there for emergency shopping when I had plans of going hunting with Edward and Emmett that night. That was unfair. They got mountain lions and I had to try on 2,341 clothing items.
We pulled up to the house within minutes and parked our cars in the garage.
Keira was watching us all drive into the garage.
Her hair was auburn colored and straight. With eyes of an Irish green color.
However what really got me was the condescending look towards us, even though she wouldn't be able to see through the tinted windows. It was irritating me majorly.
She hadn't even met us and already decided what we were like. Just like it is everywhere we go. Usually it's not as bad as if we're stuck to the bottom of their shoes though - unlike now.
Once we all exited our vehicles Jasper asked Edward what was wrong.
"She thinks we flash our money into other people's faces and get everything handed to us on a silver plate by Carlisle and Esme ..."
"Who does she think she is? If we want to drive our cars it's got nothing to do with her, our personalities have nothing to do with what we drive." Rose huffed.
"Come on, we'd better go introduce ourselves. Rose, remember you promised Esme you'd try. Be nice."
With that Carlisle lead us out of the garage.
Edward and I where in front of Jake and Renesmee, whilst everyone else was in front of us. I held Edward's hand and glanced at our daughter behind us. She was looking nervous and clinging to Jake's arm. I caught his eyes and an agreement was formed between us. No matter what happened, no one was going to hurt her, in any shape or form.
We entered our home, Keira's eyes, were enormous as she first laid eyes on us. I could barely control an eye roll.
Now she stops comparing us to the piece of gum on the side walk all of a sudden, wonder what could have made her composure change so suddenly. I just can't put my finger on it...
"Hello, I'm Carlisle Cullen." Carlisle said whilst stepping forwards, he held his hand out for her to shake. "It's nice to meet you."
Edward obviously doing as Carlisle asked him to in his thoughts said "I'm Edward Cullen, I hope you had a nice journey." Once she shook Carlisle's outstretched hand.
Thankfully we'd all warmed our hands up in the car by holding them against the heating.
"I'm Bella Swan and this is Renesmee." I introduced us, this way we weren't lying about her last name.
"I'm Alice," she said whilst bouncing up to her to shake Keira's hand. "Hopefully you'll have time for a girly day." She turned towards us and leveled Edward with a stern look. "That means, Edward, you can't follow us because you want to make sure that Bella is feeling alright. Just to see her in a dress." The others snickered whilst Edward sent a glare her way, but he was unable to conceal his smirk.
"I'm Jacob, this is Seth and that's Leah." Jake introduced the members of his pack.
"Typical alpha." Leah said under her breath quietly enough that Keira and the camera wouldn't hear.
"Hello, I'm Eleazar and this is Carmen."
"I'm Kate and this is Tanya, Garrett and Nahuel."
"I'm Emmett, and this is Rose."
"I'm Rosalie." Rose replied, clearly she was having difficulties with being 'nice'. Not that I blame her, Keira is rather judgmental from what I've seen so far.
"I'm Jasper, don't mind Rose, it takes a while for her to warm up to new people." Jasper informed Keira, whilst pulling Alice close to him once more.
"Shall we take a seat in the living-room?" Carlisle asked, we all started heading in that direction much to Keira's obvious surprise.
We all sat down in our various places, suddenly Emmett and Alice both jumped up and ran out of the room.
"Where are they going?" Keira asked baffled.
"They went to get the shopping out of the cars, so that we don't take it to school tomorrow by accident." Edward replied calmly.
"How are you feeling Keira?" Jasper asked, supposedly oblivious.
"I'm alright. I have to ask, who did the interior decorating of your house?"
"Alice and Esme did the interior decorating of our home themselves." Carlisle told her, the longing in his voice for Esme was already audible.
Renesmee went up to him and gave him a hug for comfort.
"Thank you, I needed a hug. I miss Esme already." He sighed.
"It's only been a day, not even that. You'll be just fine." Keira said aloud when she saw Carlisle and Renesmee hugging.
"Don't talk to him like that!" Rose demanded, Emmett came around the corner almost immediately and pulled her into a restraining hug.
From the shocked look on Keira's face I assumed she didn't realize she'd spoken aloud.
"You don't know anything about Esme or any of us. So don't pretend that we are going to be alright when we all miss Esme already. She's a wonderful, caring, loving, funny, beautiful and gentle person. You have no right to disrespect Carlisle by talking to him like that." Rose seethed.
Coming up at a loss for words Keira repeatedly opened and closed her mouth like a guppy-fish. Eventually she went with "Haven't you been taught to respect your elders?"
A collective chuckle went through us all, everyone apart from myself, Jake, Seth, Leah and Renesmee was her elder.
"We were taught that you must respect those who are respectful to you. If someone who's my senior decided to mug me I'm not going to respect them simply because they were born before I was." I retorted.
With that I stood up, held out my hand to Edward and walked away with him. I could hear the others disbursing as well.
"Meeting in my closet," Alice whispered.
Five minutes later we were all assembled in her closet, Carlisle included.
"We ought to teach her a lesson." Rose fumed, still mad about Keira.
"We should give her a fair chance first." Carlisle reasoned, "she might miss her family, after all I'm not away from all of you. No matter what she said so far or what she was thinking we promised Esme we would try, so let's give her another chance. None of us truly know her, she could be really nice once you get to know her better." With that he stood up, sent us all a pointed look and left.
"Alice?"
"Well, I see us pranking her, so she must have done something to aggravate us. I say we start planning revenge and collect ideas and wait until the time comes. For the time being we can keep our promise to Esme."
"It will also make her look bad if she insults us again without reason." Renesmee said, "especially since she has to go by Esme's rules so she can't be rude or tell us off about anything as long as we stick to the rules and try to be nice."
"I think I'll cook today," I volunteered, Alice had a glint in her eye as she said "I'll help".
Once this was decided we once again scattered.
"Keira, have you already eaten?" I asked politely.
"No, but I suppose I ought to go cook as Esme always does the cooking." With that she got up from the couch and headed to the kitchen with us.
"Not always, it depends if someone volunteers or not." Alice defended.
"Who would volunteer to do a chore that's not theirs?" Keira asked incredulously.
"We all do occasionally, it depends really, I sometimes cook with Esme or by myself. Alice sometimes does the laundry, we all pitch in when we feel like it or Esme needs a break."
"Have you already eaten today?" Alice repeated the original question.
"Not yet." she sighed.
"Would you like us to make you dinner? Jake, Renesmee, Seth and Leah still haven't eaten either. I could make some lasagna, or something else if you'd prefer as it's your first night with us." I calmly said with a smile.
"But the manual said I should be cooking."
"How about we all three cook it together then?" Alice suggested, I smiled at her and we linked arms with a startled Keira whilst going to the kitchen.
"So what would you like to eat?"
"I don't really know, I don't really cook much but I know the basics as my husband has his own restaurant." she replied.
"Oh, we know! I hope he likes his present, and the rest of your family too." Alice grinned.
"How do you know that? And how could you possibly know what to get my children?"
"We called the producers and asked them if we could have your children's names and ages and know your husband's job and that kind of stuff, at first they didn't really want to because no one normally knows about the other family before the switch." Alice began.
"But after we put them on loud speaker and promised we weren't going to tell Esme and that we wanted to give Esme presents for them in a bag, because she'd feel like she's intruding otherwise. They agreed." I continued. At Keira's panicked look of panic I quickly reassured her that she wasn't intruding. "Don't worry that's just Esme, she's the type of person that loves to give others joy, so she always feels better when giving a gift to others when going to their home and seeing their faces light up. It makes her feel more confident and comfortable."
"Oh, alright then. Well as you probably already know that I'm an accountant then."
"Actually they didn't tell us anything about you because you were going to live with us." Alice chimed in.
"Not true, they told us her favorite flower after Renesmee broke down in tears because we wouldn't know what to get you as a welcoming gift." I reminded Alice.
"You mean to say you bought those beautiful flowers just for me?" she sounded shocked.
"No, we didn't buy them. Rose and Tanya collected them fresh from our garden themselves this morning before we left, we have so many that the couple in your room won't be missed too much."
"So what shall it be for dinner?"
"I don't know, what do the others like?"
We laughed and chorused as we simply said "Food".
"Honestly they eat almost anything. Renesmee is the most particular about her food form those four but she likes most things. Just not olives, pickles and mayonnaise." Alice rolled her eyes and smiled fondly.
Just as she was saying this Renesmee entered the kitchen.
"No one but them and the Quileutes like those, their absolutely disgusting and shouldn't even be produced as it's not real food anyway." She scrunched up her nose and sat down on one of the bar stools.
"What's not real food?" Leah asked as she and Seth joined the conversation.
"Pickles, olives and mayonnaise." I said. "So what should we make?"
"Lasagna!"
"Spaghetti!"
"Cheese and Leek soup!"
They all shouted in unison.
"Alright. I'll look what we have here and Keira has final verdict as it's her first night." I said.
With that I moved to the pasta cupboard.
"We haven't got any Spaghetti noodles left, and we're out of Bailey leaves anyway so we can't make a Lasagna or Spaghetti... We'll need to check the fridge for leek and mushrooms though for Cheese and Leek soup. Apart from that we've got all the ingredients." I said.
Alice opened the refrigerator. "Got them."
With that I collected all the other ingredients and placed them on the work surface next to the mushrooms and leek.
Alice and I then went over to the sink and washed our hands. Keira seemed to realize that we were capable and willing to cook ourselves as she sat down on one of the bar stools next to Renesmee.
"So, what do you do Keira?" Renesmee inquired.
Obviously we already knew from Alice's visions but because we were going to send presents anyway we needed to leave proof that we found everything out through the producers.
"I'm an accountant."
"Do you enjoy doing your job?"
"It's alright I suppose, I get to help stop people and businesses from going bankrupt by managing their finances and I enjoy being able to evaluate new businesses and how efficiently they work. I hope Esme will be alright doing my job."
"Don't worry Esme might not work in an office but she's really smart, I'm sure she'll do a brilliant job." Leah soothed.
"In other words, stop worrying, you won't get fired." Seth joked, miraculously Keira even smiled.
Albeit weakly, but she still smiled.
Baby steps.
I started chopping the mushrooms whilst Alice was cleaning the remaining ones and the leek.
"How long have you been married to Rob?" I asked.
"For 19 years since last month."
"That's a long time for a modern marriage." Alice chimed in, smiling at her.
"Well as long as you're particular about whom you choose to marry and think about all of the consequences and responsibilities first you shouldn't need a divorce. Those who are impulsive and rush into marriage are the ones that end up failing. Over time the rose tinted glasses get lifted off of their eyes and they realize that they aren't with the right person for them or that they are unfit for the marital life."
"My mum married after only knowing my dad a couple of years, well three to be exact but they broke up for a year in-between when his family moved elsewhere. They said that they found their soul mates and that it was it for them so they got married. Eventually their hearts stopped beating, so now me and Bella are adopted by Carlisle and Esme." Renesmee told her, I smiled at her.
Keira seemed shocked to hear her speak so lovingly of her past.
"We may have troubled pasts, however that doesn't mean that we don't have fond memories of our past. The past carves us into rough outlines, but in the end we chisel ourselves. We all have to start somewhere." I smile at Keira.
Once all the vegetables were washed I handed the knife to Alice and placed the mince into a deep pot along with the chopped up onion. Using a wooden spoon I stirred it.
"How do you know that you're doing the recipe right? My daughters always need to use the recipe to make sure they don't forget something."
"I enjoy cooking and have done so for years so I've got the recipes remembered." I shrug.
"Bells are you making Cheese and Leak soup? Because it sure smells and sounds like you are!" Jake shouted as he came running.
"No, I'm making veggie burgers." I dead panned.
He simply rolled his eyes and sat on another stool. As Alice and I continued to go about the kitchen, cooking the soup.
"How come Jake, Seth and Leah look like they are siblings?" Keira thought aloud.
"Because we're biologically related." Leah supplied as an answer, at this point Keira must have realized she thought aloud and blushed.
"Renesmee, have you called the school yet and told them that you're not going to tomorrows biology class?" I asked.
"Not yet, I'll go do it now."
"Why wouldn't she be attending the class?"
"Tomorrow we're doing blood testing. She's really particular about blood, she's not herself when other people are bleeding. Bella's the same, no one knows why." supplied Seth.
"And we'd like to keep it that way." I simply said with an unreadable expression on my face.
We lapsed into silence.
"All done. So, how long until you give me and Keira our food before letting the wolves descend upon it?"
"Before you say anything, she's not joking. Those three truly eat as if they're a pack of wolves who've being starved for days." Rosalie said from the doorway with a small smile.
"We're not that bad! Paul's worse." Leah defended.
I simply chuckled and got out five bowls.
I ladled some soup into a bowl and placed it in front of Keira whilst Alice was passing out spoons. I then ladled another bowl filled with soup for Renesmee. Afterwords I gave Seth, Leah and Jake theirs. As Keira was halfway through her portion Seth, Leah and Jake were already asking for seconds, as usual.
"This is really good Bella and Alice. You'd probably be able to open your own restaurant." Keira supplied between spoons.
"You haven't even tasted her best meals yet, nor have you tasted Sue, Emily or Esme's cooking. I think I'm in love with their food." Seth said whilst chewing.
Rose smacked him behind the head and reprimanded him to keep his mouth closed whilst eating. "You're not Paul or Jarred. So you should know how to manage that task by now."
After they finished eating they started another conversation. However I just wanted to be with Edward so I tuned them out and quickly placed the dishes in the dish washer before excusing myself.
"Hello, beautiful." He said from where he was sat at the piano.
"Hello, handsome." He smirked, I rolled my eyes.
With that I went over and kissed him once. Then sat down next to him and leaned my head against his shoulder.
He began playing Claire De Lune, Debussy on the piano.
I could hear Keira asking who was playing on the piano, I chose to ignore it and focused on Edward.
After he was finished I began singing, Flightless Bird by American Mouth and Edward joined in whilst playing the piano.
I could hear our family coming into the room along with Keira, I continued to ignore them and focus solely on Edward's eyes instead.
Soon I forgot all about the others, there was only Edward.
"Can you play something non-classical for once Edward?" Emmett joked.
Edward though seemed to take it as a challenge. He began to move me onto his lap so that he wouldn't knock me off of the seat accidentally. Sometimes I swear he forgets I'm no longer human.
Suppermassive Black Hole by Muse came out of the stereo when Edward turned it on with the remote and he promptly started playing the Piano to it.
I couldn't suppress my laughter at his triumphant, childish grin.
"Let's play with the new games." Jake said once Edward was finished.
With that we all gathered around the TV.
"I'm playing against Bella first!" yelled Jake.
"Winner plays me next!" Emmett added.
Soon there was a order of who was going to play after the previous game had been finished.
The new Mario Cart was intense.
Jake and I were throwing competitive insults at each other.
"You're so slow that turtle just passed by you Jake. Speed up, get with the game."
"At least I didn't just miss that ramp unlike you."
"Of course you didn't, or you wouldn't be in that sandpit right now."
"You almost fell of the cliff again. My dilemma wasn't caused by my driving skills unlike yours."
Throughout this the others were cheering us on in turns.
Once the game was finished. I played against Emmett.
I won by six seconds.
Next was Carlisle's turn.
"Well Bella we all knew that your rein of glory had to come to an end sooner or later." He teased.
"At least it came to an end to a worthy opponent and not to Garrett this time." I snickered.
"Hey! I'm not that bad."
We all burst out into laughter whilst Kate tried to console him. It was hopeless as she was barely suppressing her laughter and Garrett pouted at her, which made us laugh for all the more reason.
Eventually he rolled his eyes and grinned. He was up to something.
Seconds later he jumped up, grabbed the controller and pressed play.
"It's my turn!" Tanya exclaimed in out rage.
"The games already started, do you really want to take over from here?" He smirked, knowing she'd decline.
"No thank you. You're slower than a snail, I'd be at a disadvantage." Tanya fired back.
As Keira observed us all I saw her eyes bouncing from one face to another and then to the screen. I smiled at her as Carlisle and Tanya were throwing insults at Garrett.
"See, we were right. Slower than a cockroach." Rose teased Garrett when he sat back down after having been lapped repeatedly by Carlisle.
"Don't worry, we don't take the insults to heart, they're just part of the fun of the game." Edward told Keira.
She didn't reply as such but her face conveyed she was unimpressed.
"Can I quickly play against you Carlisle? I'm tired so I'm going to go to bed after." Renesmee asked.
"Go ahead Renesmee. You've been up since four this morning. You must be exhausted by now." Tanya observed.
"Thank you Tanya. I'll make it up to you somehow." Renesmee grinned as she reached for the controller.
"Let me pick your clothes tomorrow if you want to make it up to me. I've got this amazing outfit, but it clashes with my hair, but it'd look perfect on you. Please, Renesmee." She begged.
"Okay, okay. You get to dress me tomorrow."
"What? I've been begging you to wear one of my dresses for days and you let her dress you even though you don't know what it is?" Alice said in outrage.
"I'll wear your dress the day after, alright aunt Alice?" Renesmee conceded.
Renesmee won against Carlisle.
She handed the controller to Keira so she'd get to play and said good night to everyone.
"Well I'm off too then. Night everyone." Jake waved and left with Renesmee.
"Come on Seth, we better head of as well." Leah said.
"I'll just play one game and I'll be up as well. Night Leah."
"Seth why don't you play against Keira? Keira do you know how to play?" Tanya asked.
"I don't know how to play these games. We don't have them in our house as their addictive and Rob and I don't want our children to play them."
"Well it's easy to learn and not everyone who plays them gets addicted to them. We're not addicted to video games, but they're still fun." Alice told her.
She then went on to explain the rules of the game and the game began.
Predictably Seth won.
"Don't worry. The more you play these kind of games the better you become." Rose said.
Keira seemed surprised at her sudden kind behavior towards her but kept her mouth shut.
Carlisle sent Rose an encouraging smile causing Rose to smile a bit. Emmett gave her a hug and a kiss on the cheek to show his support.
After several more games the rest of us decided that it was time to 'go to sleep', meaning we retreated into our rooms and occupied ourselves quietly in the moon light.
Edward and I were researching new cars. We'd decided we'd give our daughter her first vehicle for her 21st birthday, she'd been using my black Mercedes Guardian S600 Guard, which was the car I'd received after my brick red Chevy 1953 Pickup Truck had lost its will to live.
Alice obviously knew this which is why there was one parking place in the garage reserved for her car until then it's serving as a parking place for guests.
In total he now had sixteen vehicles in our garage and three empty spaces.