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Bella sat by Edward's side in the Cullen home. They didn't speak much, just enjoying each other's company after so many months apart. A few others were in the living room as well, but everyone was doing their own thing. When Bella noticed the deep, somewhat distressing look on Edward's face, she spoke up.
"What's with the face?" she asked, reaching a hand up to smooth out the wrinkle that had appeared in between his eyebrows.
"I'm going to kill Valeria," he declared. "Or at least push her out a window."
It wasn't a serious threat, of course, and Edward's tone was more whiny than harsh.
"Any particular reason today or just because?" Alice asked. She had been quietly leaning against Jasper's side as he and Emmett watched the football game on the tv. "It doesn't sound like she's doing anything annoying."
Those with supernatural hearing tuned into Valeria, who was up in her room. Based on the faint sound of a brush dragging across a canvas, they could deduce that she was painting. It wasn't uncommon for Valeria to blast obnoxiously loud music or a movie she had seen fifty times while working, but at the moment, she was being rather quiet, not even talking to herself as she went.
Edward sighed and rubbed his forehead. "It's her thoughts." The mind reader always claimed that one day, the youngest vampire would give him a headache despite that not being possible. "She has been singing that stupid Shia LaBeouf song on a loop in her mind for the last thirty minutes at least and it keeps getting louder."
Emmett snorted, not even bothering to look away from the tv. "At least it's not like when she was thinking about that song from the third Shrek movie that the frogs sing."
"And she didn't know all the words," Bella recalled, smiling.
Edward had frustratingly explained how for a whole hour, all he heard was Valeria singing in her mind, "say live and let die," followed by the dramatic 'duh duh's that came after before starting all over. He was so annoyed that Alice had actually gotten a vision of him running all the way to Canada and staying for two weeks to get away from her. Carlisle put a stop to his escape plan rather quickly.
Edward loved Valeria, really, he did. But with her constant, nonstop, chaotic thoughts, the need to constantly be doing something, and the attention deficit disorder that made it difficult to keep her focused on one task or topic, Valeria had Edward's — and Alice's, but she controlled it well — patience wearing thin often. Edward was an introvert who preferred the quiet, peaceful moments in life — two things that Valeria was not.
"Well, nothing says 'we're a normal, happy, human family' like a little sister that makes you want to rip your hair out," Bella joked. Truthfully, she liked the side of Edward that came around when Valeria was involved. It made him seem more human.
Valeria made all the Cullens seem more human. There was something about their interactions when she wasn't in the room that was stiff, too quiet. When surrounded by the family of vampires, Bella often felt like the odd one out. Perhaps it was only because of the copied gift of humanity, but Bella had always felt most comfortable around Valeria. And yes, that included Edward who had intimidated her for the longest time.
