AN: So, the plot bunny attacked me one day sitting in traffic. The whole story's kind of funny, ask if you want to hear it. However, if would not leave me alone until I started writing it, so, I caved and it's been a lot of fun so far.
First and foremost, I need to thank Shae and Brie for prereading and generally just being awesome, and Cara for betaing for me. Without these wonderful ladies this chapter would be a mess!
Also, trust, not SM, don't own anything you recognize. I just like to play with them.
Enjoy!
"Wow, I can't believe we're really here." Bella said, looking out the car window.
"Yes, Bella, you keep saying that. It doesn't change the fact that we really are here." said Rose, without even looking up from filing her already perfect nails.
"Rose, I know your entire purpose in life is ensuring everyone around you thinks you don't care about anything, and normally I love that about you," Bella started off sweetly, "but right now, I am trying to enjoy being in a new country for the first time. So, I swear to God, either keep the bitchiness to yourself, join me in my excitement, or get punched because the 'I don't give a shit' is getting on my last fucking nerve right now. Let me be excited, damnit!' she finished with a slight glare.
Raising one perfectly arched blond eyebrow, Rosalie looked at Bella and didn't say a word.
"Yeah, I know," said Bella bring a hand up to make air quotes with "You're 'significantly less than impressed with my tone.' I don't care right now."
"Whatever" came Rosalie's response, with a slight huff, as she tossed her long blond hair back over her shoulder.
Looking back out her window, Bella took in the sight of the beautiful city she found herself in. 'Studying abroad was definitely a good idea. This is going to be such a great semester' she thought to herself with a slight smile.
The girls were headed towards the apartment they were going to be living in the next semester. Possibly the next two if they decided they wanted to stay all year. The school they'd be attending did their study abroad program a little differently, and gave their international students the option to stay on a second semester if they so chose. The streets the were traveling were of that old time, well cared for state that you found in the truly magnificent old European cities. The buildings lining them were older than either girl dared guess, made predominantly of stone, and both girls found them utterly charming, not that Rosalie would ever have admitted that.
"I don't care what you say Rose," Bella said after a few minutes of awed silence on her part, and feigned bored silence on Rose's, "This city is absolutely gorgeous."
~YNK~
"Ok" Bella called from another room in the house Rose had yet to explore, "You have to admit Rose, this is a bit more than you were expecting for our apartment here."
Standing in the living room taking in her surroundings, Rosalie didn't respond. Standing by the doors to the porch as she was, Rosalie could see almost the whole living space because of the open floor plan. The living room had a large picture window on one wall, that caught the morning sun. On that same wall was a huge leather couch with matching chairs on either side angled into the corners. The wall across from it was dominated by the TV that was hung on it. Looking straight ahead she could see the dining room and beyond that the kitchen. Both were light and airy, with massive windows in the dining room, and sliding glass doors in the kitchen which lead out to a patio with a wrought iron table and chairs and potted plants everywhere.
"Well yeah, of course it's more. This is a freaking house, not the apartment we were told we'd be placed in." She shouted back, still looking around the room. "I can't believe this is campus housing Bella," she continued a few minutes later. "This place is gorgeous. There's just no way this is part of the dorms, it's way too nice. I keep expecting someone to come knocking on the door telling us this is the wrong place and we need to leave."
Poking her head around the corner of the door at the other end of the room, Bella gave Rosalie a quick grin and said "Well, then we better enjoy it while it lasts, hadn't we?"
"That's the kind of attitude I like to hear." a new voice said, floating towards them from the front hallway, which lead into the living room, and further into the house as a whole.
Bella shot Rosalie a furtive "who the fuck is that?" glance before leaning back out of the door to head up the hall towards the front door. "Hi, um ..." she started before stopping, not really knowing what to say.
Heading out the door near her towards the hall herself, Rosalie gave a soft sigh before saying "I suppose you're here to tell us that we were given the wrong address and this isn't really where we'll be living all year."
With a soft laugh and a slightly confused look on her face, the girl said "No, actually, I'm Alice. I'm the third girl that's going to be living here with you this year. And, oh God, I totally know what you mean about this not being where we're really going to live all year. It's completely amazing. I hope you don't mind that I did a bit of decorating before you arrived, I just couldn't seem to help myself." All of this came out a bit fast, so that it took a second before either Rosalie or Bella were able to comprehend it enough to respond coherently.
"Oh, uh, no that's fine?" said Bella looking slightly confused. "Wait, what? I'm sorry can you repeat that again slower?" and then without actually waiting for a reply continued. "You're Alice, our third housemate? I'm Bella and this is Rosalie. And whatever else you might be inclined to do or say, do not, under any circumstances, ever, call her Rosie."
With another spurt of laughter, Alice replied "Ok, great. After I did it I realized that I had roommates and I couldn't just randomly go about decorating without their input. I just got in the zone while I was setting up my room and it just sort of flowed out here into the halls, you know? Bella? Is that short for Isabella? Although, I'm sure you prefer Bella since that's how you just introduced yourself to me. Rosalie, hi. It's so nice to ... Wait" finally pausing to take a breath Alice realized what Bella had said last to her and looked back and forth between the brunette and the blond a few times and then questioned, "Why should I not call her that? Just so I know, I totally won't if you don't want me to though so don't worry. Can I call you Rose then, or do you prefer Rosalie?"
Arching an eyebrow at the small, fast-speaking girl in front of her, Rosalie finally spoke. "Damn you can talk. Where do you store all the oxygen for it, you're damned tiny? Yes, you can call me Rose, but only because I'm giving you permission to do so. The no to Rosie is because Rosie just screams of some Southern Belle, in her ridiculous, pastel colored debutante dress, and as you might have guessed, I am no one's idea of a debutante. Either that or some mid-to-late forties waitress working in some crap-tastic small town diner, which I am also clearly not. And yes, I am still pissed at my parents for saddling me with this idiotic name. Though I can at least admit that it's better than Jennifer, or Brittany, or one of those other overused 1980s girls names that would have just made things even worse for me in the stereotype department."
With a slight laugh, and a roll of her dark brown eyes, Bella told Alice, "As you see, this isn't a pet peeve of hers at all. In fact she's completely thrilled with it." with no small amount of sarcasm.
"Bite me, smart ass" was Rose's oh, so eloquent, reply.
"And she claims she's not a debutante? With such witty repartee I just don't see how she can't be. It just adds so nicely the already perfectly coiffed blond hair and lovely blue eyes." Alice laughed, with a slight smirk.
"Ya know what?" Rose said with a satisfied look on her face, "I think you and I are going to get along just fine Alice."
"Awesome. So, ladies, how do you feel about parties? Because I happen to know about what's supposed to be a 'hoppin' one not too far from here if you're interested?" Alice asked, looking between the girls to see what their faces would give away.
"Sounds good to me, and I've never known our little debu-not to turn down a chance to party." Came the answer from Bella. "So I propose, you let me and Rose get a bit more unpacking down Alice, and in say two-ish hours we'll all meet in the kitchen to grab something quick to eat before we head out. How's that sound to you two?"
"Fine with me." came Rose's reply as she turned to head to the stairs so she could find her party clothes.
"Sounds like perfection." chirped Alice. Then with a slight smile, "Hey Bella, not that I don't have complete faith in your ability to do your own hair and all, but, would you mind letting me do you hair tonight? I have this idea that could look totally awesome."
By way of answer, Bella gave her a skeptical look while running a hand through her long brown, slightly wavy hair, prompting Alice to reassure her, "Of course, you'd have total decision making power. So if you didn't like it we could change it. What do you think?"
Still with that same skeptical look on her face, Bella said "I have final veto power?" to which Alice shook her head vigorously. "Ok, sure. Worst case scenario here, we just tear it apart and start over." Bella acquiesced with a slight sigh.
"Lovely. Go find something cute to wear, and then meet me in my room after you shower. See you in a bit!"
~YNK~
From her position behind her, Alice was trying to explain her hair idea to Bella using nothing but her hands to attempt hold all her hair in the position she wanted it. "So, you see what I'm thinking? Most of it will be up like this, and this part will be twisted here and ..."
Out of nowhere, from the direction of Rose's room came what sounded like a loud growl, a door slam, and then someone stomping towards first Bella's room and then Alice's upon discovering Bella to not be in her own. Alice gave Bella a wide eyed look through the mirror and asked "Um, what exactly is about to come storming into my room? Should I prepare to do battle with some kind of wild animal? Perhaps the kracken? Do we know where Captain Jack and/or Davey Jones are?"
Laughing, Bella reassured her "No, that's just Rose. She's probably annoyed because she can't find just the right shade of eyeshadow to match her top and wants to pillage our makeup stashes in search of it. Don't worry it's nothing. Although if necessary, I think Captain Jack's brother, the Pirate King, Keith Richard's character? would be the safest way to tame the beast."
With those words, Bella turned towards the door expectantly with an amused look on her face. "She's predictable too. Watch. Three. Two. One ..."
"Isabella fucking Swan! I blame you for this!" Rose yelled from the doorway she had just blasted through.
Bella just raised her eyebrows at her, as if to say "Oh really?"
"Yes, don't give me that fucking face. If you hadn't decided that what was quite possibly the easiest breakup in the history of the whole damned world necessitated traveling halfway across the globe, to 'random-assed-European-country', I would not currently be searching for my favorite party heels. They would be right in my closet where they belong, not in some random fucking box somewhere in this house." Rose told her with no small amount of annoyance. "I swear, you and Embry were perfectly amiable. You still fucking are. It's not like it was the breakup from Hell or something. Then I'd at least get this insane urge to reinvent yourself, but God the only difference between you two now and two months ago is you've stopped having awkward sex with your best friend. So, YES, I do blame you. Now if you'll excuse me I need to go find shoes because someone can't be happy in her own damned country. You're just so ... ARGGGG!" With that, Rose stormed back in the direction of her own room to resume her search for said "party heels"
"Wow."
"Yeah. I know. Sorry, I really didn't see that coming. She always seemed perfectly excited and willing to come. I didn't know it upset her to be doing this." Bella said, sounding completely confused, and unsure of things.
"Um, so ... what ... um ..." confused sigh "I ... WHAT?" was all Alice could muster.
With a slightly amused look on her face, Bella said "I'm betting this has never happened before. A speechless Alice. I'm guessing you want to know what that was about?" Alice just nodded. "Um, Embry. Ex-boyfriend. We broke up during last semester. Things just weren't there anymore. We loved each other, but weren't in love anymore so we broke up." With a slight shrug, Bella looked back at Alice to see how she was taking this new information.
"Oh, hell fucking no." was the unexpected response she got from Alice. "If you think for two seconds that I'm going to except that Rose came barging in here all crazy blonde for that lame-ass bunch of bullshit you just spouted, you are seriously delusional. Try again, honey."
Blinking in shock at the militant tone of voice that accompanied that statement, Bella complied. "Well, ok yes there's a bit more to Rose's freak out, but that's really all there was to it you know. We were together for years. Since high school. But we realized that we'd gotten to a point where we were more best friends than anything else. So we talked about it, and agreed that we each deserved to be with someone who appreciated us and was in love with us, and, as Embry put it 'thought the sun rose and set by us." Yeah, I know, he was silly, but it was the sentiment. We weren't each other's everything anymore. And, like Rose said, the split was amicable. He's still my best friend. I called him when we landed to let him know we'd arrived safely." Bella told her, looking at her hands which were twisting in her lap.
"I understand all that. I mean that happens, it's not fun, but it happens. What I don't understand is why we just got raged at by Hippolyta, queen of the Amazons." was Alice's response. She had finally calmed down, and had started on Bella's hair, figuring the story would take a while and she might as well use it to get her hair done.
With an appreciative chuckle, Bella responded "No, Hippolyta is because after the breakup I decided I wanted to do something new. I'd always wanted to visit a foreign country, and studying abroad was the perfect answer. I wasn't in a relationship anymore so there was nothing stopping me from doing it. So I started getting information and planning and everything. Rose came home early from campus because she skipped out on lecture or something one day and I had pamphlets spread across our kitchen table trying to figure out where I wanted to go." Pausing to gather her thoughts, Bella glanced up at Alice's reflection, and Alice nodded for her to continue. Once her thoughts had cleared a bit, she continued "And, obviously, she demanded to know what all the stuff was. I told her, we've been best friends all our life. I was always going to tell her, I just wanted to wait until I had everything settled and could answer all her questions, you know. When I finished telling her, she asked where I was going, and I told her I wasn't sure. I was torn between coming here and going to Italy. Rose just thought for a minute and said Italy was a bad option since neither of us spoke a word of it and we should come here since English was the native language. I didn't even think to ask her, and she just decided she was coming. I mean obviously I'm so glad she's here with me, but I never would have asked her to come with me that would have been totally selfish of me. But, it is really nice to have a familiar face around in a situation like this. For all her rough and tumble, I don't give a fuck bullshit, she really is the greatest friend you could ever hope to have, you know. She's always been there for me. She's that friend who will drop anything and everything to be there for you when you need them." Bella finished with a small smile.
"Makes sense. I can see where you were coming from on all of it. And Rose seems like an amazing friend to just up and go across the globe with you just because it was something you wanted to do. Even with just the little bit I've talked to her and what you've just said, she really seems like the kind of friend you want in your corner." Alice said after a few minutes spent absorbing all this new information.
"Oh, that's not the only reason I came" came from the doorway. Looking back, Alice saw Rose was standing there, fully dressed, and had clearly been listening to at least her response. "I mean yes, I came because sister-friend over there wanted to, and I was not about to let her go gallivanting across the world after the end of that relationship, no matter how good it seemed to have worked out. But she wasn't the only one who's always wanted to travel. I figured, if she's going, I might as well join her. Have an epic adventure together. We'd always talked about doing this, and the timing made sense, so here we are."
Bella smiled back at Rose through the mirror, "I really was lucky that you were willing to let me sit with you that day in third grade since I had a Transformers lunchbox."
"Hey, all those other girls were running around with their Disney Princess pink bullshit. I knew a girl who had Optimus Prime on her lunch box wasn't going to be nearly as obnoxious as those little shits were." Rose said with a soft smile of her own. That smile then evolved into a smirk as she continued "Course I was only half right, but it was better than dealing with Jessica Stanley and Lauren Mallory. After all, beggars can't be choosers now can they?"
"Oh whatever, bitch. You know I'm the coolest girl you've ever met" was Bella's laughing response.
"Sure, whatever you say sweetheart. If that had any chance of being true it'd only be because I can't meet myself." Rose laughed. "Now, are you two ready to eat and get out of here, or am I going to have to leave without you?"