02 | earth, rosalie hale

11.

MELODY was over Elexia's house once again. The two girls had somehow grown even closer after their snow day at the beach. They were without Rosalie this time, as she was hunting with Amethyst and Emmett.

The pair of girls were laughing about something from school – Dean Smith from Melody's math class had gone on a whole spiel about how his answer was right and Lilian Nestor was wrong, calling the girl nasty names. Mrs. Persner, the teacher, interjected and told Dean he was completely wrong in front of the whole class.

"Oh, Lexi, you should have seen his face!" Melody laughed out. "I swear, he turned bright red. It was so funny."

"That's what he gets for thinking he's superior because he's a man." Elexia shrugged nonchalantly, though there was still a humorous glint in her blue eyes from their laughing fit before.

"I hear a lot of laughing," Austin said, knocking on the door before opening it.

"Come on in, Dad." Elexia said, smiling as her dad slowly opened the door.

"Hey, guys." Austin greeted the two girls, leaning against the doorway. "Billy Black invited us all over for dinner. Charlie and Bella will be going, too."

"Oh, sounds great!" Elexia beamed at him and then turned to Melody. "You'll meet some more people now, Mel. I'm sure you've met Jacob and Billy by now, but maybe there'll be others there."

Melody nodded reluctantly, nervous to be around new people.

"Hey, it'll be okay." Elexia comforted her friend. "Me, my dad, and Gaia will be with you the whole time. If you're ever nervous, I'll yell that I need your help with the baby."

Melody cracked a smile at that, nodding. "Okay, okay."

Austin smiled gratefully as he watched his daughter. Sometimes he wondered how she turned out so good. He was a mess, and so was Abbie. Elexia had such a big heart and constantly wanted to help people. She was good at it, too. 

"We should probably get going now. Charlie's already there." Austin told them.

"We'll meet you downstairs, Dad." Elexia informed her father, who nodded and closed the door, heading back down.

"Our outfits are fine, right?" Elexia questioned. Melody nodded. The former looked herself up and down. She was in a black, yellow, and white striped sweater and dark blue jeans. Melody was in a delicate, short-sleeved white dress and black stockings.

Gaia was in a plain white onesie, but before going out, they put her in her blue bear suit to keep her warm.

Elexia sat in the backseat with Melody, just for extra comfort. She explained to her that when she was already anxious about something else, her car anxiety got worse.

It took about twenty minutes to get to Billy's house, and when they did, they saw Billy and Charlie on the porch, with Bella and Jacob standing in front of them, hands interlocked.

Elexia turned to Melody with an eyebrow quirked. Melody just shrugged. She truly had no idea what was going on with her cousin and Jacob. He had stopped by their house a few times over the past week or two, but Melody never thought much beyond it. She always thought Jacob was a little too young for Bella.

"Since when the hell did that happen?" Austin muttered as he parked the car. Elexia and Melody chuckled a little bit in the backseat. Austin would definitely be gossiping with them the second they left.

"Hey, guys!" Billy greeted them as they got out of the car and walked to the porch.

Melody requested to carry Gaia into the house, to help her a bit with her anxiety.