
Now, I admit, I keep the air conditioning on pretty cold upstairs; my family called me The Polar Bear (yes, really) when I was a teenager, back when I reigned supreme with my Thermostat of Terror on the upper floor of the old house. And in this house, once again, I have full control of The Upper Realm, and I command a chilly kingdom. But we were downstairs in the kitchen at the time, which meant that the AC wasn't even on because we were having a "cold snap" (for May) of 65 degrees.
"What? This is Alabama. If you can't even hack it here--"

"Oh, whatever! You're from" --I grabbed the packing box she'd arrived in-- "MINOOKA, ILLINOIS."

And then she fell over. Yes, clumsiness comes standard with The Littlest Bella.
Bella Facts:
Isabella Marie Swan
Date of birth: September 13, 1987
Status: Human
Special abilities: Accident prone and attracts bad luck
Yes, those are her abilities. Although they did leave out mental blocking and power whining.
(As a side note, Edward's stats on the other side of the box have at least been spell-checked this time.)
"All right, let's go upstairs--"

"Mm," I said. "Actually, I was going to try to sneak you in as unobtrusively as possible. The blonde with the shield, I'm pretty sure she wants to scratch your eyes out. And watch out for the one in the corset if you see her around, she'll cut a bitch. And by bitch I mean you."

I pointed to each of the guys, none of whom had noticed us yet:





"And they're all twice your height," I added.

"Well, I do happen to know someone just your size, if you'd like to meet him--he won't bother you or anything, but if you'd at least like to be acquainted with someone on the same eye level as you..."

Suddenly I felt sorry for her. "Look, one of the girls has some winter stuff she's not wearing right now, I'll see if she can share."
So of course Lyra came bounding over, wanting to meet the new girl--who was standing on the file cabinet, tapping one foot impatiently while she shivered.


(Okay, I'll give that one to Bella: that really was a weird question. Non-question. Whatever.)




Fortunately she fell onto Lyra's winter coat, which was obviously too big for Bella--it was longer than she was tall--but the gloves kind of fit, maybe, in an oven mitt kind of way, and Lyra's cap gave her a babushka kind of look.


So while the girls were busy getting bad impressions of each other, I sneaked out to grab The Littlest Edward--but he was already there, peeking around the door frame.
"You don't have to talk to her just yet," I whispered. "No pressure. She wants to play it low-key for a while--"

"I didn't tell her anything, I just said there was someone else her size. She wasn't the least bit interested in meeting anyone else, even after I pointed them all out," I said encouragingly.

"Well? What do you think?"

But I never heard what his original impression of The Littlest Bella was, because just then, the air conditioning kicked in.
Oh God. Somehow, that had totally slipped my mind.

"I know, I know. Freesia, or maybe lavender. Even though freesia and lavender smell nothing alike."

I sighed. "Think you can handle it?"

"Oh, at least give it a shot and try to talk to her! Or just WAVE. You spent hours in the cabinet with Clarice!"

"Well, you better make your move quick, because you've got competition," I said, jerking my head.
I'd felt him behind us even before I turned to look, and it was not a good feeling. I'd told myself that we would be okay, that she wouldn't tempt Tonner Edward--The Littlest Bella didn't have luscious rooted curls; she wasn't showing any skin, not even a wrist; and she was crankier than even I'd expected. But apparently she had one hell of a flavor wafting out there into the hall, because when I turned around,


The last thing I heard as they tumbled out of sight was a tiny huff from the file cabinet: "Oh, that is so mature."
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