[ Chapter Seven—all summer long ]

   The movie was bright with comedy and modern themes. I could not remember the name of it, but it had Rebel Wilson and Liam Hemsworth which gave it an automatic pass in my opinion. Plus, it was pretty funny.

The Cullen's living room was huge and still proved to amaze me even after six weeks of living here. However, out of everything in the living room, the couch and flatscreen television was a toss-up between which was my favorite. The couch because it was incredibly comfortable and the television because it was huge, had surround sound, and the best coloring I had ever seen.

I was currently snuggled in a warm blanket at the corner of the couch wearing my pajamas—which were admittedly less than modest—but it was summer, could you blame me? Sure, Maine was nowhere near as hot as Arizona, a great change, but it was far more humid here.

Not to mention naturally being warmer than average did nothing to help cool me down.

Summer with the Cullens had been a blast, they were a true family that I felt wholeheartedly a part of. Growing up, the closest people I had to siblings were Bella and Drake, but Bella wasn't around after the age of three and Drake was too much of a best friend to truly be a brother.

Of course, Bella and I were back to acting like sisters the day after I arrived, Edward became that annoying older brother (even though I was physically older), Emmett was... well he was an ass... a fun ass though. Alice was one who watched pointless reality television with me and shopped till we dropped. Jasper—while we were not the closest—was kind to me and gave me helpful advice on how to handle Emmett often.

Rosalie—pretty sure she still hated me—but she was basically the bitchy older sister I never wanted.

Then there was Jacob, the loveable shapeshifter who joked around with Bella, Renesmee, and I. Renesmee was nearly as close to me as Bella was. Seeing as we were the closest in age, we bonded with almost everything, plus she was the only one I was really able to hang out with outside of Cullen Manor during sunny days.

Though—and I tried to make this a point to all of them—that nowadays with all the body glitter and makeup products going around, they would probably be fine walking around while it was sunny out. I mean, and again this is only a theory, but they could low-key walk around sparkling and use the excuse of it being makeup.

When I told them this, Emmett burst out laughing and Rosalie proceeded to scold me on how ridiculous that idea was. Carlisle, while he was much kinder about it, said that he didn't believe his superiors at the hospital would approve of him walking around adorning "body glitter" and treating patients.

Then again, Carlisle himself was one of the higher-ups, there was only one person higher up to him.

Overall, the Cullen's refused to take me up in the idea. Though, I think Alice would do it, but Jasper won't let her.

Anyway, another plus-side with Nessie was that she preferred human food over blood, so we made it a point to try every restaurant and fast-food place in town. Apparently, in the years they had lived in Fort Fairfield, the Cullens insisted on either cooking or giving Nessie animal blood for sustenance—and as she put it—it sucked ass. Therefore, despite Esme being sweet in offering to cook for us (we still took her up on it, of course) Nessie and I made it a point to eat out often.

We were both only grateful that our supernatural genes made gaining weight nearly impossible. Nessie was also excited over the fact that she had a new hiking and beach buddy that wasn't Jacob, though Jacob still joined us most of the time.

Carlisle and Esme were my parents 2.0, they were the type of parents anyone dreamed of having. While they would never replace my birth parents who raised me, they were a damn good substitute, especially seeing as I now had more in common with them since we were all supernatural.

Over the course of the summer, nearly every day had been an adventure. A week after I had arrived, Emmett came up with the brilliant idea of testing my strength against theirs via arm wrestle. Esme and Carlisle were both against it, believing that I could get hurt; however, I surprised them by beating everyone except Emmett and Jasper in an arm wrestle. Jasper and I were close strength, but Emmett, unfortunately, beat me every time, something he never let me forget.

Carlisle, Esme, and Rose refused to participate in arm wrestling, but I had beaten Edward, Bella, Renesmee, Jacob, and Alice easy enough. Racing them was a whole other issue, Edward was by far the fastest and I never even came close to touching him. Bella was a close second to her husband with Jasper and then Alice coming after. The only ones I was able to truly keep up with while running was Esme, Rose, and Nessie.

Though, during a full moon, I was proud to admit that my speed increases by a thousand making me just as quick as Edward. My strength also increased causing me to be able to level Emmett if I tried, or so I've heard.

The full moon had come around approximately a week ago, and alike to every other full moon I had been through, the animal took control and I was unable to remember anything about it. However, the Cullens certainly had a lot to tell me seeing as they watched me the entire full moon.

Now, I had seen Jacob in his wolf form on multiple occasions, so hearing Bella tell me that I was triple Jake's size as a wolf was impressive. Apparently, my fur resembled my hair in that it was the same chocolate color. The next thing to surprise me was when I was told that I was actually relatively calm as a wolf and that I had not done more than lounge around the forest or play with Jake during the full moon. Yeah, I guess I really liked Jake in his wolf form during the full moon (another thing Emmett was constantly teasing me about).

Carlisle believed the calmness was simply a me thing as according to legend (and the Volturi) the Children of the Moon were known to be volatile and vicious during the full moon. That was the whole reason the Volturi went after them.

Of course, Emmett had been all for trying to rile me up and wrestle me during the full moon, but the others stopped him saying that it was, 'stupid and you'll die if you try.'

Other than the full moon, I was also surprised at myself as I had only smoked pot once while being here (and that was at a party Nessie and I went to). The Cullens were both a distraction and a good influence.

"What are you watching?" I was ripped from my thoughts at Nessie hopping over the back of the couch her eyes glued to the television. "Oh! This is that Rebel Wilson and Liam Hemsworth movie, isn't it!"

"Yep," I smiled at my cousin's daughter, Nessie wasting no time forcing her way under the blanket with me.

"Move over, I've wanted to watch this movie for a while but no one else wanted to," she explained just as Jacob entered the room, moving on the other side of Nessie.

"That's because no one likes rom-coms," Jacob groaned, seeing what was playing.

"Yeah, well no one likes you," I quipped causing Jacob to flip me off with a sarcastic smile.

"Back at you,"

Soon, everyone had returned from hunting and suddenly the couch was filled with Jasper, Alice, Emmett, Bella, Edward, and even Rose, all of us watching the last few minutes of the movie. As soon as the end credits started rolling, surprise surprise, Emmett had something to say.

"This movie sucked ass!"

"Thank you!" Jacob threw his arm at Emmett as Edward and Rose agreed with him.

"You suck ass!" Nessie yelled at her uncle, myself nodding along. "You just don't like it cause there wasn't a pointless explosion!"

"True!" I hollered, Bella nodding along as we all suddenly got into a heated debate about whether the movie sucked or not.

It was not until Nessie, Emmett, and I actually stood up prepared to brawl over it that Bella stepped between us.

"Jasper!" We all snapped our heads to Jasper who was attempting to sneak out of the room, the southern vampire cursing when our attention befell on him. "You're the deciding vote!"

Jasper's honey eyes widened at the look Alice was throwing—practically daring him to say it sucked—and he slowly walked back toward us.

"...It wasn't bad..." he finally admitted causing Alice, Bella, Nessie, and I to cheer while Emmett proceded to call Jasper a traitor and wuss for not agreeing with them.

It was only when Nessie flicked Jacob on the back of the head and Jacob placed a slobbery kiss on her cheek in response that I snickered.

"Still can't believe you imprinted on her when she was a baby," I shook my head remembering when I was told that information about Jake and Nessie.

Edward was still sour about it.

Everyone went silent, Bella grasped my arm with an exhausted look on her face. "Please don't get them started—"

She was not able to finish her sentence because Jake turned on Edward so fast with this type of cheeky grin that just screamed he was about to say something to wind up Edward. "Well Eddie knows, I couldn't have his wife so I took his daughter..." Nessie face palmed herself while Edward wasted no time in tackling Jacob to the floor with a war cry.

"My bet is on Jake," I murmured to Emmett who disagreed.

"No way, Eddie has this in the bag,"

"Five bucks?"

"Hell yeah," we shook on it before Jasper came between us rolling his eyes.

"Five bucks says Bella wins," he spoke in a knowing tone causing Emmett and me to furrow our brows in confusion.

"What—?" The thought was never finished as Bella stomped up to Jake and Edward who were bitch fighting on the floor.

In seconds, Bella grabbed Edward by the back of his shirt hauling him away from Jake's body. Jake quickly jumped up, growling at Edward who was hissing and baring his teeth.

Like I said, this was a true bitch fight.

"Both of you stop it, right now! Do you have any idea how upset Esme and Carlisle will be if they get home only to find you trashed the place?" Bella's hands were on her hips, a fierce glare directed at both her friend and husband.

"Like I said," Jasper smirked as Emmett and I grumbled while handing him five bucks which he pocketed immediately, "Bella wins."

"If we're bringing up old weird things, we should all remember the time Edward used to watch Bella sleep," Emmett randomly commented causing Edward to glare at him and me to simply give Edward a strange look.

What the hell?

Rolling her eyes, Bella turned to me. "Ignore all this, maybe we should ask just Jackie the question we were supposed to ask before the movie happened?"

I sat back down on the couch as everyone went quiet, myself quirking a curious brow.

"Ooh, I like questions, what's this one about?"

Nessie scoffed as I placed my legs over her thighs, but she did not push them away.

"Want to join the coven?" Alice piped excitedly.

I only raised my wrist which had the bracelet with the Cullen coven insignia branded on it. The same bracelet which led me to the Cullens in the first place.

"Thought I was already a part of it? I mean, you gave me this at your wedding," I addressed Bella who shrugged.

"Well yeah, but we mean officially, you know? Moving in with us? Chances are you're not aging, so people are going to begin to notice in the next couple of years," my cousin explained causing a specific thought to drift across my head.

I had not realized it before, but if I truly was not aging then I technically was not even nineteen. Technically, I was physically eighteen and would be forever.

However, joining the Cullens was an idea that admittedly appealed to me greatly. They were the family I had always wanted and it seemed I fit in with them better than I would anywhere else. Plus, the full moon would never be an issue again as they were perfectly capable of watching and dealing with me during it.

But then real-life hit me, what would I tell my parents? Not to mention all the money they spent to get me to college, and Drake.

Living with the Cullens permanently—as much as I wanted to—was something that would need to wait just a little bit longer. However, another much darker thought spiked, wasn't it was a risk for the Cullens to add me to their family officially?

"That is a huge risk for all of you to take," I said firmly, I was not normally serious, but this was situation that was a matter of life and death, "I don't want to be the cause of you being implicated."

Rose scoffed, "just knowing you is enough of a cause for us all to die."

I ignored her. Just months ago, I had no worry about life or death, my biggest issues were what I would be wearing for my next Instagram post. Now, posting on Instagram was not a luxury I had in fear of someone seeing the signs of me being a werewolf, now I had the fear of death over myself and everyone I cared about.

"It's a risk we're all willing to take," Bella spoke immediately after Rose, everyone chorusing in agreement causing my heart to swell.

"Not me," Rose rolled her eyes, but her words were once again ignored.

"Shouldn't we wait for Carlisle and Esme?" Edward said.

"No! That'll take too long," Alice complained causing Nessie to sigh.

"Grandpa and Grandma will be upset once they hear we did it without them," she spoke offhandedly, I decided to speak my mind before another argument could befall on us.

"I would love to be apart of the coven, and the fact that you guys are willing to take the risk for me is touching, truly. However, I need to finish college first, Mom and Dad paid too much for me to drop out now," I explained with a smile causing everyone to grin as well.

I had essentially said yes, I just needed to finish three more years of schooling and I was good. Nessie pulled me into a tight hug causing me to laugh.

This was the start of something big.