BPOV
"Will we get to see the girls who are leaving before they go," one of the girls asked Bean as we were on our way back upstairs.
"No," he said. "Mr. Cullen is in his office with them, cutting them their checks right now. Ernie is collecting their things from their rooms and they are leaving straightaway."
"That's fast," I whispered to Alice.
"There's no reason for those girls to linger around," Alice said. "As for me, I'm glad they're gone. They're obviously not the right girls to be competing for the Bachelor's heart."
Marcus handed each of us a slip of paper on our way out. "Your time slots have been recorded, so don't even think about trading," he warned.
"What's yours say," I asked Alice.
"I'm in the group that's first to go," she said. "And you?"
"Ten-thirty to eleven. I'm last."
"That's good," she said with a grin. "That means that you'll get to transition right into your alone time with him. Good luck," she called as she met up with her group.
Heidi directed the first group of girls to follow her down a hallway that wrapped around to another part of the house. "Hurry," she kept repeating. "You're only wasting your own time with him by moving so slowly."
Bean and Marcus guided the rest of us into our respective groups. I only recognized one girl who was assigned the same time slot as me.
"Hello, Maria." I tried to sound pleasant enough. We were obviously both unhappy to be sharing a time slot together.
She rolled her eyes and turned her nose up at me. She turned to go stand next to the woman with long red hair who was staring so evilly at me earlier. Her loose curls cascaded down her back, the front pinned away from her face with a darling feathered clip. She wasn't seething at me this time, but rather smiling to be in company with someone she preferred to be around as Maria approached her. She looked rather beautiful when she wasn't angry.
They were joined by the one with blond hair to her chin, and they turned away from the rest of us to be more exclusive. They whispered quietly while turning to look at me from time to time.
"Hi," came an excited, high-pitched squeal from behind me. "I'm Jessica!"
"Bella."
"Yes, um…" She waved the other two girls over.
It was glitter-hair and neon cheetah-dress from earlier. They looked better now that they were wearing exquisite gowns that they didn't pick out themselves. One of them might have overdone it with the neon pink, lime green, and bright yellow eye shadow palette.
"This is Ocean and Loveapple," Jessica said. "They're in the Saffron Room with me. Is there anyone from your room in our group?"
I paused a moment, absorbing the fact that Ocean and Loveapple were their real names. "Just one," I finally answered. I nodded toward Maria.
"Ouch," Jessica laughed. "She scares me. I sure am glad she's not in my room!"
"That's pretty kyuuuule," Ocean said. She sounded as though her thoughts were floating above clouds.
Did she just say kyule in the place of cool?
"Well, it's nice to meet the three of you," I said, grateful that I had someone to pass the time with.
"Totally," Loveapple agreed. "It's like, so truly nice to meet you, too, Bell-uuuuh."
We managed to blow nearly all of the time together talking about absolutely nothing. These three had at least one talent: they could say loads of words and not actually mean anything by any of them. Our entire conversation had come no farther than when it had started when Heidi came to announce that it was our group's turn to spend time with Edward.
We were guided down a long hallway as Loveapple continued to jabber on. "I think that we should totally, like, name our group the Rainbow Moons!"
Was she five?
"Why would we name our group," I asked.
"Teamwork," she said. "Duhhh!"
"Gahl, Bella," Ocean said. "Don't you know anything about teams? Every team has to have a totally kickass name, otherwise it doesn't even matter if they win or not." She rolled her eyes in a nineties valley girl way.
"Oh, right," I said, trying not to laugh.
I heard Maria and her two pals chortling as they overheard Loveapple's idea.
"So retarded," I heard the redhead whisper loudly to Maria and the blonde.
"Helps our chances to win," I overheard the blonde say. "If he associates her with them then he might think she is stupid, too."
They laughed as they looked back at us, then turned around and whispered some more. I tried to listen in to determine if they were plotting anything. I hoped that I could gather intel on the mean girls and share it with Alice. Maybe we'd have to come up with a battle plan of our own?
"Don't you agree, Bella," I heard Jessica say.
"Sorry. What was that?"
"Don't you agree that Garfield was a TV show before it was a movie?"
"No," Ocean said. "Garfield was a movie first."
"Yeah, it was a movie," Loveapple said, sounding as though her two cents was the authority on the matter.
"It was a comic strip first," I said, trying to prevent them from arguing any further with one another.
"A what," Loveapple asked.
"A comic strip," I explained. "You know, the funnies in the paper?"
"What paper," Ocean asked. She looked bewildered.
"Never mind," I insisted.
We were led through two large double doors.
"Good luck, ladies," Heidi said.
We entered a spacious, round library. There were built in shelves from floor-to-ceiling, which must have been twenty-five feet high. At the very opposite end of the room were floor-to-ceiling windows. In the center of the room was a round rug, not covering the dark wood floors completely. A pair of couches faced one another, and a glossy black grand piano stood askew behind one of them.
Edward was sitting on one of the couches waiting for us to join him.
"Hello there," Maria said in her played up, seductive Spanish accent.
"It's so nice to see you, Edward," the blonde interrupted. She nearly pushed Maria out of the way to get to him.
Edward looked at her like he was familiar with her.
I took a seat so that I was on the other couch, directly across from Edward. The other girls tried to pile in around Edward.
"I don't think we're all going to fit, ladies," he laughed politely.
Loveapple and Jessica reluctantly sat on my couch, one on either side of me.
"So, ladies," Edward began. "How have your evenings been so far?"
"So much better now that I'm here with you," Maria said, snuggling up to him. She put one hand on his knee and gave it a squeeze.
"I've never been in here before," the blonde said. Did she already know him?
"I have," Victoria smiled playfully.
"Have you all met one another," he asked us.
Loveapple raised her hand like a schoolgirl, waiting for Edward to call on her. He wondered what she was doing at first, and then nodded at her.
"I'm Loveapple Smith," she squealed.
"And I'm Ocean Jones!"
"Great," Edward said with a polite smile.
"Bella, do you know the other girls?"
"I'm Victoria James," said the redhead.
"I'm Jane Volterra, of the Roman Volterra Enterprises," said the blonde.
"And you already know that I'm Maria. Maria South."
"Bella," I said.
"The one who got it right," Edward added. He smiled at me. It gave me goose bumps.
"I didn't think it would be fair to put my ribbon on you, silly," Jane said, slapping Edward's arm playfully. "Our father's do business together. I knew it was him all along."
Her explanation made my insides crumble. Edward already knowing Jane gave her an advantage that I could never get.
"And Victoria, do your father's do business as well," I inquired.
"No," she said with a single laugh. "That's not how Edward and I are acquainted."
I wanted to press her with more questions, but I didn't want to appear to be rude.
"So maybe we could go around and each say something interesting about ourselves," Edward offered.
Loveapple stood up. "I'm not wearing any panties," she shouted.
Victoria rolled her eyes.
"That makes it your turn, Bella," Loveapple instructed.
I felt Edward's eyes on me. Everyone was waiting to hear what I would say, and I felt so nervous all of a sudden.
"I like to go fishing," I said. It was the first thing that popped into my head. I wished I could go back and come up with something more impressive to reveal.
"That is very interesting, Bella," Edward commented. "Do you live near a lake?"
"I live next to an ocean," I said.
"Ooh, that's my name," Ocean said excitedly.
"Which one," Loveapple asked. "The Atlantic or the Red Sea?"
"The North Pacific," I answered.
The mean girls were snickering at Loveapple's question.
"How far north," Edward asked.
"I live in a small town called Forks. It's between the Olympic mountains and the Pacific Ocean beaches."
"Do you ever go hiking," Edward asked.
"Sometimes. But you have to be careful which trails you pick. I'm not a super experienced hiker, and the woods are really thick. I wouldn't want to get lost in them."
"Have you ever been eaten by a bear," Ocean asked.
"Excuse me," I asked, unsure if I heard her correctly.
"She obviously has never been eaten by a bear," Victoria scoffed.
"How do you know," Ocean argued.
"Jessica, how about you," Edward asked.
"My favorite colors are pink, purple, and a light shade of blue, but totally not baby blue. I have, like, five cats or something. I don't know. I think one of my cats is a slut. She got out and might be pregnant, so I might actually have more cats growing inside this one cat, so like, I might have up to ten or something like that cats."
"Oh," Edward said, nodding his head. "So, you like cats, then?"
"Love them. Like, totally, I super love cats. I would totally be a cat if I could. When I was in, like, sixth grade, or maybe it was third or something, like, I totally wrote an essay on how when I grow up, I'm like totally going to be a cat."
"What college do you have to go to, to get a degree in being a cat," Loveapple asked.
"Like, duh," Ocean interrupted, rolling her eyes. "I'm sure it's like, a vocation training program or something like that."
"I'm not a cat, though," Jessica said.
"Maybe someday soon, though," Loveapple said, giving Jessica's hand a pat. "It's important to follow your dreams."
Edward turned to his right. "Maria?"
"My family owns many luxury hotels in Mexico and South America. I am set to inherit quite a large fortune, and I have a degree in Business."
"Very accomplished," Edward said, flattering her.
It was now Jane's turn. I was curious to see what she would reveal, given that she and Edward seemed to already know one another well enough.
"Edward doesn't know this, but he was my very first kiss."
"No," he said. "That can't be true."
"It is," she giggled. "Back when I was ten, remember? We kissed on the Fourth of July at our dads' business party. Don't tell me you forgot."
He looked uneasy. I hoped he had forgotten.
"No, of course not," he said. I prayed it was a lie.
"Something interesting about me…" Victoria muttered loudly enough for us all to hear. "Hmm…"
"You think on it a minute and we'll come back to you," Edward said.
"And cut me away from my rightful turn?" She tried to look calm and playful, but I could tell from her eyes that within, she was a raging tempest.
"I'm sorry, go ahead, if you have something to say," Edward offered. He looked like he wasn't at all happy to have her around.
"I think I should take this time to add that I'm an inventor, too," Ocean said.
"An inventor," Edward asked.
She nodded her head. "Uh-huh. I invented clips that you put in your hair and they have longer hair than you have and they make all of your hair look like it's really long."
"Hair extensions," Edward asked. "You invented them?"
"Yeah! I thought of that when I was, like, six or something. And then it came true!"
"I see," Edward said delicately.
Victoria looked angry that she had been interrupted, and all for this.
"And what's more," Ocean continued, "I feel in my heart like I should point out that I'm actually wearing less underwear than Loveapple."
"What?!" Loveapple stood up quickly. "That can't even be a scientific fact because I'm wearing zero underwear!"
"Well, I'm wearing less than that," Ocean argued.
The girls continued to squabble back and forth while Maria grabbed Edward's knee again and inched her way up.
"Whoa there," he said, taking her hand and setting it in her own lap. "Girls!" He tried addressing Ocean and Loveapple a few times, but they were yelling too loudly to hear him. He wasn't willing to raise his voice too much at them.
"Oh, yeah," Loveapple questioned Ocean as she took the bottom of her own dress and pulled it over her head. "Are you wearing less than this?!"
"Yeah!" Ocean was about to pull her dress up too when Edward stopped her.
"There's no need for evidence, Loveapple. You may put your dress down." She took his advice, then sat down.
"Well, I think our time is up, ladies. I will see you all again at midnight."
We all got up and turned to leave. I was almost through the doors when I heard him say, "Not so quickly, Bella."
I could feel that he was smiling as he said my name. I relished how the tips of his fingers felt as he took me by the shoulder to turn me around.
"You get to stay here with me," he stated.
He closed the double doors as the other girls made their exit, and then he turned around to face me.
"I've looked forward to seeing you again, Bella."
XXXXXXX
A/N: Ocean and Loveapple were so much fun to write for! I included some of their old dialogue, and added a little something new.
In the past, readers have asked how it was that I came up with these two names. The fact is that I went through a long list of names that I thought might suit them, but I was so worried that they might be some of my readers' names, and I didn't want anyone to think that I thought their names fit a pair of idiots like these two, so I came up with some wilder names. Loveapple – I don't think a soul in the world is named Loveapple! I imagine that someone out there might be named Ocean, which is a pretty name, but I feel it's uncommon enough to assign to this particular character.
They were only ever meant to be static characters placed for humor, but I think I'm going to give them a little more time in the spotlight in the Second Edition.
As ever, thank you for reading! I hope you'll enjoy the story. It won't be quite the same as last time. I have a lot of new material to add and so I'm sure that even if you've read it before there will be many new things to experience with this pair of lovebirds!
-Stephanie