Chapter 1: Pink Pal's Part
Glowering over to Edward, who was seated comfortably in the armchair beside the blazing fire, too occupied in Alice's latest crime novel to shift his attention to the aggravating noises occurring, Bella scrambled to her feet.
For the previous three or so hours, she had meditated to clear her pressured mind of the topic of Christmas. Everyone was coming over to their house this year, including the Jacob and his clan, and Bella had been provided with the delightfully exhausting job of cooking the Christmas dinner and stringing up all the glitzy decorations…such fun!
What would Edward be doing all of this time? Reading Alice's latest crime novel. How Bella felt tempted to tear that controlling book from his grip, and dispose of it in the fire! Of course, being such close friends with Alice, she could never do such an atrocious thing…or could she?
"Mum! Mum! Come on! I want to open my presents now!" squealed a fuming Renesmee, from behind the vibrating door.
Heaving her chest in provocation, Bella drifted over to the daunting door handle (daunting, as it would lead her to thousands of unsatisfied shouts aimed directly at her). Upon creaking it down and flinging the door wide open, almost knocking Renesmee into the opposite wall in the process, Bella was overwhelmed at the candy-coated smell of fine chocolate.
"Renesmee, is that chocolate I can smell? Oh no, you didn't…" she groaned, slapping her forehead with her hand. Grinning unconvincingly innocently from ear to ear, Renesmee nodded, her chestnut eyes glittering in the dim light.
"Oh yes I did! Well, I was hungry! Where did you get it from? Can I have some more, please?" she pleaded, flicking her wine-coloured nightie from side to side. Bella could feel her face turning as red as Renesmee's nightie!
"No, you certainly cannot! Renesmee, that chocolate was for the Christmas cake I WAS going to make for everyone today! Ugh, come on, let's go and get this opening presents over with!" grumbled Bella, grabbing a jumping-with-joy Renesmee.
"Yay! Presents! Presents! Presents!" chanted Renesmee, as she and her mother swiftly made their way towards the sitting room.
The voluminous Christmas tree-of course-carefully picked by Alice herself, was glamoured-up with multi-coloured, star-shaped Christmas lights (curtsy of Alice), with an eye-catching, golden star set on its top (you would never guess…how did you know it was Alice).
Beneath the attractive pine tree, was a swarm of varied-in-shapes-and-sizes presents, all neatly wrapped in different coloured wrapping paper with miniscule bows to top it off…basically, the stereotypical sight a child would see. On the other hand, Bella saw only stashes of knitted clothes crammed inside boxes.
"Wow! There are even more presents than there was last year!" breathed Renesmee. Bella tried to smile a convingly thrilled one.
As expected, approxiamately eighty per-cent of the presents were specially for Rensemee, and Bella just lay across the leather sofa nearby, listening to Rensemee reading all of the labels attached to the presents out to her, and watching her literally chew-up the wrapping to get to the prize within.
Rensemee received several tops covered in girly patterns, a necklace with a silver chain and stained glass heart hanging off it, three Barbie dolls *Bella rolls her eyes*, and a colouring book with free felt-tip pens included *Bella expected to do a lot of washing-up the carpet this year*.
Finally, after what seemed like centuries passing by in the blink of an eye, Edward entered the room, looking as wonderfully laid-back of ever.
"Daddy! Daddy! Look what I've got!" piped Renesmee, picking up her presents one by one and showing them off to Edward, who just stood there nodding and saying, "That's lovely! Remember to thank him/her when he/she comes later!" more times than Bella's throbbing head could take.
"What's the matter, Bella? You look like you've just come back from going on a long run!" laughed Edward, as he and Bella strode into the dining room. Bella shot a death glare at him, expecting him to shut up, which is exactly what he did.
"Well, I don't know why, as all I will be doing today is cooking all the turkey and vegeatbles for the Christmas dinner, baking the Christmas cake, finishing putting up the last of the decorations before the guests get here, and finish wrapping up everyone's presents! That can't be nearly as difficult as sitting and reading a book all day!" exclaimed Bella, her cherry-red eyes flashing.
"Oh…I'm sorry, Bella. It's just that, I'm not very good at cooking, or cleaning, or even wrapping presents…I'm not good at much, to be honest!" apologized Edward, looking ashamed.
Bella smirked. "Well, why don't I teach you, then?" she suggested.
Edward's pasty face turned whiter than it already was! "W-W-W…w-what?" he spluttered, stumbling backwards in horror.
"You heard me! So, what are we waiting for? Let's get started! The guests will be here soon!" said Bella, dragging him over to the oven.
After explaining countless of times how to switch an oven on, Bella started wrestling the bulking, succulent turkey, while Edward battled with the knife to skin the carrots.
With Edward helping her, Bella was sure that all of her set objectives for the day would be achieved! Plus, it was quite amusing watching Edward tackle and curse at the vegetables, even though he was holding the knife wrong, despite being corrected a dozen times!
Meanwhile, Renesmee was dressing-up and doing voice-overs for her Barbie dolls, when something suddenly stole her attention.
Peering suspiciously out of the window, Renesmee clapped her hands in excitement and darted to the dining room, where Bella and Edward were still busy preparing the dinner.
"Mum! Dad! All my Uncles and Aunts have arrived!"