My Multiverse Trip

Who else? I thought to myself.

"Hey, Dad, welcome home."

"Thanks." He hung up his gun belt and stepped out of his boots as I bustled about the kitchen. As far as I was aware, he"d never shot the gun on the job. But he kept it ready. When I came here as a child, he would always remove the bullets as soon as he walked in the door. I guess he considered me old enough now not to shoot myself by accident if only he knew I had guns and weapons in my gate that would put that little glock to shame.

Speaking of weapons my shadows had made it to Fort Knox earlier today it was now the stake out time. Then I"d have my 8000 ton golden problem solver oh yes. let me put it this way a fully loaded legal semi truck weighs only 40 tons so I"d be throwing something like 200 semi trucks out of my gate and cannon like speeds then problem solved. that"s how you waste money my friends.

"What"s for dinner?" he asked warily. My mother was an imaginative cook, and her experiments weren"t always edible. I was surprised, and sad, that he seemed to remember that far back.

"Steak and potatoes," I answered, and he looked relieved.

He seemed to feel awkward standing in the kitchen doing nothing; he lumbered into the living room to watch TV while I had dipsy finish cooking. We were both more comfortable that way. She made a salad while the steaks cooked, and set the table.

I called him in when dinner was ready and dipsy was gone, and he sniffed appreciatively as he walked into the room.

"Smells good."

"Thanks."

We ate in silence for a few minutes. It wasn"t uncomfortable. Neither of us was bothered by the quiet. In some ways, we were well suited for living together.

"So, how did you like school? Have you made any friends?" he asked as he was taking seconds.

"Well, I have a few cla.s.ses with a girl named Jessica. I sit with her friends at lunch. And there"s this boy, Mike, who I get along with. Everybody seems pretty nice."

"That must be Mike Newton. Nice kid - nice family. His dad owns the sporting goods store just outside of town. He makes a good living off all the backpackers who come through here."

"Do you know the Cullen family?" I asked hesitantly.

"Dr. Cullen"s family? Sure. Dr. Cullen"s a great man."

"They... the kids... are a little different. They don"t seem to fit in very well at school."

Charlie surprised me by looking angry.

"People in this town," he muttered. "Dr. Cullen is a brilliant surgeon who could probably work in any hospital in the world, make ten times the salary he gets here," he continued, getting louder. "We"re lucky to have him - lucky that his wife wanted to live in a small town. He"s an a.s.set to the community, and all of those kids are well behaved and polite. I had my doubts, when they first moved in, with all those adopted teenagers. I thought we might have some problems with them. But they"re all very mature - I haven"t had one speck of trouble from any of them. That"s more than I can say for the children of some folks who have lived in this town for generations. And they stick together the way a family should - camping trips every other weekend... Just because they"re newcomers, people have to talk."

It was the longest speech I"d ever heard Charlie make. He must feel strongly about whatever people were saying.

I backpedaled. "They seemed nice enough to me. I just noticed they kept to themselves. They"re all very attractive," I added, trying to be more complimentary.

"You should see the doctor," Charlie said, laughing. "It"s a good thing he"s happily married. A lot of the nurses at the hospital have a hard time concentrating on their work with him around."

We lapsed back into silence as we finished eating. He cleared the table while I started on the dishes. He went back to the TV, and after I finished washing the dishes by hand - no dishwasher - I went upstairs unwillingly to work on my math homework. I could feel a tradition in the making.That night it was finally quiet. I fell asleep quickly, exhausted.

The rest of the week was uneventful. I got used to the routine of my cla.s.ses. By Friday I was able to recognize, if not name, almost all the students at school. And my fort Knox heist was a success I was now an owner of an over 4000 ton giant golden ball that was worth 420 billion dollars. I spent hours firing it in the kingdom to both the shock and awe of the fellows who stayed there they were gobsmacked at how much it would sell for and even more dumfounded at what I was using it for Sirius and James thought it was the best prank ever robbing America twice I now technically owned 112% of America"s gold lol by the way the proper weight was over 9100 tons of gold it was like throwing a house but heavier. if you let it sit it kinda just collapsed on itself starting from the bottom so i bought a little levitation stand so it could rotate around and not get messed up it made it look extra smooth and shiny too.

Amanda Cullen didn"t come back to school.

Every day, I watched the rest of the Cullens entered the cafeteria without her. Then I could play plants vs zombies while the rest of the kids talked. Mostly it centered around a trip to the La Push Ocean Park in two weeks that Mike was putting together. I was invited, and I had agreed to go, more out of politeness than desire. Beaches should be hot and dry.

My first weekend in Forks pa.s.sed without incident. Charlie, unused to spending time in the usually empty house, worked most of the weekend. Had some crazy s.e.x with fleur to break in my new bed and body and punish her for all the naughty mental messages she would send me more on that later though then I cleaned the house, got ahead on my homework, and wrote my mom more e-mails. I did drive to the library Sat.u.r.day, but it was so poorly stocked that I didn"t bother to get a card; I would have to make a date to visit Olympia or Seattle soon and find a good bookstore. I wondered idly what kind of gas mileage the truck got... and shuddered at the thought. This is why we need arc reactor power cars but those were like hundreds of millions to billions I didn"t have. I was at like 13mgp.