Chapter One

Me and The Pixie In The Park

Sleep at the park, wake up, go to work, go back to the park and sleep again. That was it for a regular day in my life. I didn't do much except what I can to survive. I'd never deviated from that daily schedule. Not since I ran away from home.

Then I met Alice.

"Hey, wake up."

That was the first thing I heard awaking from my slumber. The voice was extremely loud and high pitched so it was hard not to notice it. Plus, I had been shoved off of the bench and onto the hard cement pretty roughly. Not the most enjoyable way to start off the day.

"Oops, my bad." The voice again.

I looked up to find a little girl with spiky black hair staring at me curiously.

"Hi," I said.

I'd always liked children and this girl was just so cute I couldn't help smiling. There was just one thing somewhat strange about her. I never saw kids wearing high heels or make up at that young an age. What kind of parents did she have that they would let her wear those things? But I had to admit she did look pretty good in her red blouse and blue jeans.

Getting up and rubbing my sore butt, I rearranged my messenger bag strap so that it crossed my chest. When you have to carry it around with you all day you tend to look for ways to get more comfortable.

"Hi, I'm Alice. Why were you sleeping on a park bench?" the little girl said pointing to the bench with her over sized hand bag.

"I'm Isabella and I was tired so I thought why not?" I answered, taking a look at the Seattle skyline above the trees. It was pretty early and there wasn't anyone around. Again, what kind of parents leave their children alone like this? What if some sicko had found this little girl?

"Are you lost?" I asked her. It probably wasn't very smart to try and help this girl get back home. That could take a while and judging by the position of the sun, I only had a few hours till I had to go to work at the cafe. Maria wasn't going to be happy.

She shook her head no. "Are you lost?"

I chuckled at that. "No. Just homeless." She'd probably forget about this meeting in an hour so what could it hurt to tell her about my life? I sat down on the bench to rest in preparation for the long day ahead of me. Then, weirdly, Alice started pacing. She looked conflicted.

"Are you okay?" I asked.

"Yeah, just thinking."

She continued her pacing, muttering things like, Dad would let me if... But Edward... Esme would like her. But...

"Alrighty then." I dug around in my bag for my breakfast then realized I'd eaten my last granola bar last night. Guess I'll have to starve for the rest of the week. My stomach protested but what could I do? I was broke.

I'd been too preoccupied by my stomach's growls to notice that Alice had stopped pacing and had instead sat next to me on the bench.

"Wanna play twenty questions?" she asked.

I thought on that for a moment. I had time to spare and it might as well be spent in company rather than with just a rumbling stomach.

"Sure."

"Me first. What's your favorite color?"

"It changes but I think today is... red." I guessed she was bored. Kids are prone to that.

"What's your favorite pick me up food?"

"Peanut butter dipped Oreos." Even though I haven't had any in years and people thought it was gross.

"Ooh, I like those too! Okay, do you like your parents?"

I hesitated at this one and suddenly I wanted to hit something or cry.

"No, I don't." I answered, managing to stay calm.

"Why not?" she honestly seemed interested. She probably had very caring parents and couldn't comprehend anyone being horrible to their children.

"Lots of reasons I guess. They were never really nice to me." I felt a stab of pain at the thought of my childhood. Always being called 'That kid,' and never being able to call them mom and dad. It was always Charlie and Renee. Renee always screaming at me, Charlie never saying anything to me unless it was about his needs. Those daily slaps in the face. They were memories I didn't like to dwell on too much, if at all.

To change the subject I asked her about her parents.

"They're pretty great." she said, smiling brilliantly. "They're my adoptive parents but I like them."

"What happened to your real parents?"

"They died when I was really young. Car crash. I hardly remember anything about them except that my mom used to smell like Jasmin perfume."

"I wish I'd been adopted." I commented. "Guess I'm not as lucky."

"Sure you're lucky. You met me didn't you?"

"Yeah, you're not so bad."

"Thanks. So what are you going to do today?"

"Go to work."

"Where do you work?"

And that was how it was for a while. She asked me questions and I answered. I guess it was kinda like therapy, only it didn't cost me anything. God knows I can't afford a real psychiatrist. But Alice was fun to talk to. Kind of like the little sister I wish I always had.

"You should come home with me!" Alice declared suddenly. Yes, right out of the blue. I've dealt with kids before and they were very impulsive so I tried to let her down gently.

"Won't your parents mind?"

Alice scoffed. "Why would they mind? I pay my rent so I can bring whoever I want home with me."

"They make you pay rent?" Unbelievable. Her parents make her pay rent! That's so mean! She was deluded if she thought that was great parenting.

"Yeah, but it's not that much and my brother Edward does it too, so no big deal."

Of course it was a big deal! She has to pay to live with her parents. And her brother too! Children shouldn't have to pay for that.

"Fine, I'll come with you." I really wanted to give her parents a piece of my mind.

"Great! Let's go. I parked car over there somewhere."

A car. She drives a car. How irresponsible can her mom and dad be? And I thought Renee and Charlie were bad.

"You're very mature for your age." I told her, as we walked out of the park.

She frowned, "How old do you think I am?"

"Eleven?"

"What!" Alice shouted, rounding on me. "I'm not eleven!"

I guessed again. "Twelve?"

"Twenty-one."

My eyes turned into giant dinner plates at that. "You're kidding right?"

"No," she pouted, folding her arms.

"Sorry, I couldn't tell." I blushed, sheepishly, feeling incredibly stupid. All that time I had been talking to her I'd thought she was a little girl. Honestly, she was so small. But if she was twenty-one, what I said about her being very mature for her age was completely wrong. She was very immature for her age.

Alice sighed, seeing my face, "That's okay, I get that a lot actually." She gestured for us to keep walking, nearly hitting me with her purse. "So how old are you?"

"Twenty-one in September."

"Really? That's in like two months!"

"Yeah, but I usually don't do anything." We'd finally arrived at the street and my eyes caught a shiny canary yellow porsche, ogling it.

"Like it?" Alice asked, grinning as she opened the door. "I bought it last year but it still runs pretty well."

"It's very...er, shiny." was all I could say.

"Don't just stand there, get in." she motioned to the passenger seat.

I hesitated. Like I said before, I'd been thinking Alice was a little kid so I'd just been humoring her when she said "Come live with me!" That and I wanted to shout at her parents for making her and her brother pay rent. I didn't think I'd ever actually be living with her. But it was too late to turn back now.

So I did what she said, carefully opening the door so as not to scratch it or something. Never before had I been in a car this expensive. I'd had my monster of a truck a few years back but it had died and I didn't have any money to get a mechanic. Heck, I didn't even have enough money to buy an apple pie off the dollar menu at McDonald's.

"You might want to buckle in," Alice suggested, giggling evilly.

"What do you mea-AHHH!" I screamed as she peeled out with such speed I didn't even have time to think about putting on my seat belt. "Slow down, Alice! Slow down!" But Alice was too far gone to listen to my screeching. We swerved through traffic and I screamed as we nearly hit an ice cream truck. Steeling my self for impact at every turn, I shut my eyes until Alice's voice chimed. "Isabella, we're here."

I slowly opened my eyes, and saw that we had indeed stopped. The city was gone and in its place was beautiful country as far as the eye could see. Oh, and there was a white house, too. A very big house it was with several floors and windows.

"Come on, Isabella," Alice tugged me out of the car, with such surprising strength I fell onto hard cement. Again.

"Sorry." she apologized. Again. "I do that a lot don't I?"

"Mhmm," I said, still awed by the beauty around me.

"Let's go! Let's go!" Alice pushed and we entered the house.

As impossible as it seemed, the inside was better than the outside. With every room Alice showed me, I noticed how well furnished and coordinated everything was. Nothing here was out of place.

Except for me.

"And this is our kitchen." Alice spun around and around gesturing to all of the shiny stuff.. How she didn't get dizzy I'll never know. I tripped just watching her. While I was on the very nice floor, I saw a giant man wearing an apron looking down at me.

"Alice, who iz dis?" he asked in a french accent.

"Oh, this is Isabella. Isabella this is our chef Pierre."

"Bonjour," I said, standing up too quickly and almost falling over again had it not been for Pierre grabbing my hand.

"Be more careful, mon amie," Pierre said, steadying me. "Don't want to 'urt such a beautiful face now would we?"

I blushed at that. No one had ever said that to me. Ever. And I had never expected it. I mean I wasn't the prettiest color of the rainbow. Really, I wasn't even in the rainbow. I was the dull brown-eyed brunette with strangely pale skin always wearing rags. I actually began to wonder if Pierre was blind.

"Pierre, make us a giant celebratory banana split please." Alice smiled, taking a seat at the island in the middle of the kitchen. "Come on, Isabella, sit."

"What ar' you celebrating, Alice?" Pierre asked as I sat next to Alice. He quickly dished out a six scoops of ice cream, covered with caramel, chocolate, sprinkles, nuts, bananas, strawberries, pineapple, whipped cream, and a cherry on top. I had to say a banana split didn't count as a healthy breakfast, but it was better than starving for the rest of the day like I always did. So instead I accepted the silver spoon and dug in with Alice and Pierre.

"Isabella is staying here with us and this is really good Pierre." Alice spoke between mouth fulls.

"Oh really?" Pierre looked towards me. "Iz 'zat true, Isabella?"

"Of course it is!" Alice interrupted before I could even have a say. "Why wouldn't she want to live with us?"

"Alice, I met you like half an hour ago." I stated as I spoon fought Alice for the cherry on top. Needless to say she won.

Alice spit the cherry stem into the trash can. "So?"

"So I could be some psycho killer waiting to kill you in your sleep! Or what if I decided to come here just to steal your stuff? I'm a very poor person you know."

"I know you're not a psycho killer or a stealer. Please, give me some credit." she scoffed.

I turned to chef Pierre. "Does she do this a lot?"

"Do what?"

"Bring home absolute strangers for no reason."

"Oui."

Alice said, "Isabella, you are not a stranger."

"Like I said I met you like half an hour ago and that makes me a stranger."

"Who says?"

"I don't know! Pierre, am I a stranger?"

"No, I don't think so."

"Pierre!"

"What do you want me to say?"

"I want you to knock some sense into her!"

"No, we already tried 'zat years ago. Didn't work. Besides, do you not want to stay here with us?"

I sighed and shook my head. "No."

"But why?" Alice and, surprisingly, Pierre whined.

Again I sighed. "I'd just be a bother. And even though you guys think I'm not a stranger, or a danger to you, that doesn't mean you didn't bring me here to kill me. This could be the remake of the Texas Chainsaw Massacre! You know only in Washington."

We all looked at each other for a moment. Then burst out into a laughing fit.

"Well, who is this?" a voice asked.