Chapter Text
The Day had finally come. Renee had gone too far and Isabella couldn't overlook it this time.
Oh, Izzy liked Phil well enough, don't get her wrong. He was by far one of the better matches Renee had found and the fact he was employed was a major upgrade from the last guy. Renee was the problem in this. She had just announced at breakfast that she wanted to travel with Phil when he goes to his baseball games 'cross country. She had told 'Bella' that she needed to make more money so that she could take care of the house while they were gone.
Izzy could count five major red flags in this conversation alone. But the major one was the fact she had not even asked Izzy if she wanted to come or even if she was going to be okay on her own. That was the final straw. Renee could keep her life here but Izzy was not gonna be locked with her.
When Renee left with Phil to a couple’s spa later that same morning Izzy immediately called up her father Charlie, (Affectionately nicknamed Chucky by her) and filled him in on what was going on and what Izzy had planned for it. Unsurprisingly he was over the moon with the plan and started to add little changes here and there to make it even easier to pull off.
Even though Renee had tried to distance herself from her life in Forks, Izzy never really minded the town. Sure the rain got annoying after a while and the drowned cat look never really looked faltering on anyone but Izzy loved the woods and the fact that her Dad built her a tree house was still awesome to this day. Izzy loves the sun and will never forfeit it forever but in the grand scheme of her plans she knows that leaving her beloved desert behind is worth it.
After all, spending two years in a backwater town won’t change her that much.
Jasper was not having a good day. The morning started with Edward and Alice in an angry mood, lashing out at each other once again. Their relationship is a constant argument and weird sexual tango that only they know. Jasper despises it with a passion. Their mixture of emotions are consistently bombarding him and giving him migraines. While this has been normal for them for the last few decades, the fact that Charlie wasn’t in town to help ease his migraine was grating to say the least.
Jasper trusted Alice enough to follow her for a few decades at this point but even he has his limits with her Flights of Fancy. So when he first met Charlie it was like a much needed breath of air in a musty room. His emotions were muted and almost always calming to Jasper. Living with a bunch of ‘livewires’ made Charlie the only one in town to seem to have an actual head on his shoulders. As such Charlie Swan was Jasper's favourite human in this little backwater town.
While Charlie always felt a flash of fear when looking at the clan but he never let it bother him too much and just treated them with the same respect as others used to extend back in the day. Endearing him to Jasper all the more and the few times Jasper managed to be near him, without his teeth itching, he always felt a sense of comfort coming from the man, so different from his clan. Charlie claims that he was born in this town and has never left for anything other than shopping trips so when Jasper was told that he was travelling to the airport today he was intrigued and a little frustrated.
'What could he be doing there?' Jasper wondered as he walked on the roof of their house.
Everyone had gone hunting to prepare for the school day tomorrow and the empty silence below was a blessing to him. Trying to work though his own emotions was already hard enough but add on to the emotions of his current clan and he'd never get anything done. Charlie and he weren't that close socially and the few times they did talk Charlie was always feeling content with his life so Jasper couldn't really figure out why Charlie would by going to an airport of all things. It was times like these that Jasper hated his vampiric upbringing, while Maria was wonderful for pushing his powers to the extent they are today she was never one for teaching self restraint, Leaving Jasper a wildcard to everyone including himself.
"Maybe he finally got tired of this place? It wouldn't really surprise me. I've even been getting bored in this place." Jasper mused aloud.
"You could start some drama again, that always gets you in a mood at least. Get your mind off of the chief."
Jasper didn't have to look down to see Esme smiling at him. Her emotions were in a teasing range but he could tell she didn't really mean anything by it. Turning towards her he settles his emotions and readies for the rest of the clan. Even though they have lived through many times and have grown mentally, their emotional control is absolute trash. Always a headache for him.
"Who said anything about the chief?" Jasper asks back, never one to let a tease slide without a comment. "I was just musing, nothing more."
"I know that you're confused about Charlie's rush today so I asked around, he'll be back late tonight but I did figure out why he left." Esme soothed. Jasper looked towards her eagerly.
Esme gave a little giggle at the picture he painted, like a puppy, and motioned down to the house.
“Come inside and I'll show you what I found. I think you’ll be very interested.”
And with that Esme jumps out of sight. Leaving Jasper even more confused.
'Esme felt excited and slightly playful. She rarely ever gets like that. What did she find and what did it have to do with Charlie?'
Joining the rest of the clan inside the living room Jasper turns to Esme expantly. She just smiles and clicks on the flat screen television. It blinked onto what looked like a punk/grunge band on MTV. Everyone was confused. It seemed like it was near the end of the song anyway and no one in the clan really listened to this genre of music.
Esme still felt victorious about something, Jasper couldn’t figure it out but looking at Edward he knew she was thinking about him. Edward wouldn’t look towards him. A surefire sign Edward was thinking/hearing about Jasper and it was amusing him. Jasper still couldn’t figure out where this conversation was going. Or what it had to do about Chief Swan. Just as he was about to ask what this all was about the announcer's voices cut through the living room.
“ And that was the lovely Izzy Swan and her schoolyard band. This was their entry to our school lotto draw last month. Winning the 1st prize and putting their band on the map.
A short-lived one to be sure as everyone in the band was in their last month of school and were about to split for careers and places unknown. ”
The second host did a double take and pointed to the female in the picture. A skeptical look on his face.
“ There is no way that girl ain’t jailbait Rodney. No way in hell. ”
Jasper and Rosalie wrinkle their nose at that. People only ever call people jail bait if they were looking at the body first before the age.
“ You’d be right about that Kyle. Miss Isabella Swan is a bit of a wild card in that bunch. Being one of the youngest to graduate university here in phoenix arizona she had pretty high marks in the regional S.A.T. Scores. ”
“ What’s a brain like that doing with this lot then? ”
“ Apparently Isabella was getting bored in the brainiac world and decided to try her hand in the arts. When we had asked her why she was not in the universities doing more courses there since she has the time she simply replied with, And I’m quoting here Kyle, A direct quote.
"There is only so much frat boy cologne and Sorority girl cheering you can take before you can feel your own brain start to rot.’
What a way to answer that question. Am I right?"
“ Dang! She said that?! She's feisty. ”
“ Yeah, Apparently she is going to move in with her dad for a year or two before trying to get a job or anything though. Good call I’d say-
Esme clicked the tv off and spun around to the rest of the clan with a smirk that just screamed ‘I know something you don’t know’ and Jasper felt his unease return steadily.
“I had heard Charlie was going to pick up his daughter from the airport today, So I did some digging and found that online. She was a very good student and Charlie was very proud of her. Apparently she will be here for two whole years. With her background and what little of her attitude I found online I think she is going to stir up quite a ruckus here in town. I thought I’d give everyone a bit of a heads up, you moreso Jasper. The townspeople haven’t really had any new gossip recently so their emotions might be running a bit high.”
'When are they not? I was not all that bothered with the emotions in town as they had a way of becoming background noise for me. What worried me was the feeling of smug satisfaction coming off Esme. What was she so smug about?'
“When do you think she’ll be in school then? She seems like a blast!” Emmett gushed.
Rosalie lightly smacks the back of his head. Her sweet contentment was making Jasper's skin crawl, He cursed his power a little every day. Moreso now as he didn’t want to feel the love of another couple right now. Love just wasn’t on his path right now.
Jasper slipped out the window as the clan started to speculate and in Emmett’s case, placing bets on the town's folk reactions to the new addition. Now that he knew Charlie wasn’t leaving town Jasper had to admit that the prospect of another person in town might be nice. If only to get the public to stop staring at his clan so much. He knows that vampires were beautiful as a hunting technique and it helped him out in the past but having to feel hormonal lust for his new ‘brothers’ was not good for his appetite.
The funniest thing about this whole thing is that the family believed that the Swan girl would be attending high school with them. Proving to Jasper he was the only one really listening to the clip. Jasper didn’t know what she would be doing in town since there really wasn’t much else here, especially for teens so her moving here had to have another reason. Jasper couldn’t wait to unwind the mystery of her. It probably not be all that interesting but at this point he’ll take anything he can get.
Besides how interesting can one human be, really?
“HOLY FUCKING SHITBALLS!! CHUCKY SET THE CAR ON FIRE AND THROW ME ON IT”
Charlie couldn’t help laughing at his little Imp of a daughter Izzy. Shaking like a leaf yet running towards him like a bat outta hell, Shouting out to him not caring of anyone else around them. Her hair, dyed bright pink and with a blue pattern to make a ‘raccoon tail’ was the only thing Charlie really saw as Izzy jumped and clutched onto him in a tiny bear hug, Her body still shivering. Holding her tight to himself Charlie bent to collect her luggage she had thrown onto the floor, Frowning at how low quality the duffle bag was in, He payed a good childcare payment. His little girl should have better shit then what he was seeing. The Duffle bag seemed to be the only luggage Izzy had.
‘That can’t be right. She said she was going to bring all her clothes. Where is the rest of it?’
After placing the ratty bag in the trunk of his police cruiser Charlie put Izzy into the passenger seat and handed her his thermos filled with Hot Chocolate, which she clutched onto and gulped down with a frenzy. Charlie placed his snow jacket on her and went around to the driver seat, hopping in just as she finished up her drink.
Charlie knew that Izzy would be complaining as soon as she put the cup down so he threw the car into traffic quickly, if he hadn’t he would not hesitate to laugh at her antics.
He was so glad she was back with him.
“How is the world okay with this temperature! This is a ‘batten down the hatches’ kind of day so why is there so much traffic and people here?!”
Charlie had to bite his lips in order to not outright laugh at her knowing that would just set her off even more and he wanted to see how long she could go on for. Plus he tended to laugh with his whole body and that would be very bad with the whole Driving dealio.
“Hey Chucky? Why is the sky shaking its dandruff on us?”
Charlie glanced out the window and noticed the light flurry of snow coming down on them and just smirked. He knows that Izzy just wanted to make him smile. She knew about snow.
“Well my little Imp” Charlie started to say in a bit of a baby voice. Izzy punched his arm and glared but that had just made Charlie glare back half-heartedly. “ That's because it is starting to snow again.”
“What!! Noo! Don’t want more snow! It's cold enough already. Make it stop!”
Charlie looked at Izzy pouting in the corner of his eye and just guffawed at her for not only the lovely image she made as she was being swallowed by his jacket, her face red from the cold and her arms being crossed in an attempt to both be warmer and to showcase her unhappiness. Her lip was even pushed forwards a bit to complete the look. And for how ludicrous her request was. Reminding him again how she was when she was little.
“I’m so sorry Imp but I can’t do that, it's not fair to the world” Charlie wheezed at her, playing along.
“Fuck the world. I’M COLD!” And with that final declaration Izzy buried herself deeper into her dad's jacket. Smiling to herself where Charlie couldn’t see her where she could listen to her dad's laugh in the warmth she had inside the thing. Izzy wasn’t really all that upset to be honest but if playing the fool will stop her dad from asking the questions she could see in his head right now, and the gloomy expression off his face that she saw brewing at the airport she’ll dance the fools cabernet.
“Why don’t ya put on some of your music for the drive Izzy? We won’t be getting into town for at least another hour or so.”
“You won’t mind?” Izzy said with a puzzled look, popping out the jacket to look at him.
Charlie felt his heart get just a little more heavier at the look she gave him. Renee is quickly getting to the top of his shit list. And merely smiled at Izzy and gestured to the cd player. Izzy smiled a mile wide and dashed to her Walkman case on her hip, flicking through her collection, missing the sad smile her dad sends her way before focusing back on the road ahead.
Izzy quickly put a Bowling for Soup album in and cranked the volume, already starting to sing along with it. Charlie was surprised at the band as it is one that he has heard of. So just as the chorus started he jumped into singing with Izzy. He wished he could bottle up a memory because the look she gave him will warm him up for years.
He can’t wait for what these next two years have to offer.
Jasper can admit to himself and Rosalie if she asks. That the Chief of police singing his heart out to a punk song in his cruiser about ‘getting beat up by a girl’ was not what he was expecting to witness on their ‘family’ grocery trip that evening. Everyone else that was outside the store was staring slacked jawed at the scene at the stop sign. The cop car was blaring music and Charlie was singing his heart out with the brightest smile Jasper had ever seen. A nudge by his elbow had Jasper glaring up at Emmett.
“Who is sitting beside him? Do ya think it’s his kid?”
“Nope, it's his new dog.” Jasper deadpanned him before rolling his eyes and going back to his staring. Well tried to but when he looked back his eyes caught onto the other person in the car. Her glare was not really that effective when Jasper took in the rest of her appearance. Wild pink hair looking mused, being swallowed up by a jacket and freckles spotting all over her nose and cheeks, it was like being glared at by a kitten. She stuck her tongue out as the car drove off, leaving a bewildered Jasper on the wayside.
‘Cute’
Jasper froze up when he heard the sharp intake of breath Edward had taken. A second later Jasper knew he would have to kill his brother before he told his wife anything. Edward just smiled wide and dashed away, back into the store to gush to his wife, Jasper in hot pursuit behind him.
Emmett shook his head and finished putting away the bags and locking the doors of their cars. Emmett was always thankful to the clan for giving him a second chance at life and all but sometimes the days blended together so whenever anything new happened Emmett was always the first to dive headlong into things, this newcomer was already shaping up to be a fun new thing to the year.
‘I hope she doesn’t scare easily, it will be boring if she did’
Izzy was already dead on her feet so when her dad finally pulled into his driveway and turned off the car Izzy was begging him to carry her upstairs cause she didn’t want to move. She was not expecting him to really carry her much less swung over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes. Squealing and squirming wasn’t really helping to get her to a bed but she didn’t want her dad to think she would just roll over and let this injustice stand.
Laughter was pouring out of the house for the rest of the night as Izzy managed to get her dad into a small game of tag which somehow ended with Izzy tucked in tightly in her bed inside her childhood room. Izzy was still giggling and making demands for breakfast the morning and Charlie was promising the moon and stars if she would just sleep. A few minutes later both inhabitants were dreaming of what the next few years would have to offer.
After all, Years had a funny way of catching up to ya.