Darling readers, can you ever forgive me? i know, it's been so long since i updated, but school has nearly overwhelmed me. I'm afraind, it will be like that for sometime as well. The next time i will be able to update isn't until Dec. 18, the day before Winter break down here in Miami.
So, if i'm lucky, i might be able to post two chapters for New born, and 1 for Twilight's Reign. Depending on if i have time to write. So, without fourther ado!
Discalaimer: (picks up phone and dials) Hello? Yes, Stephanie Meyer? hi, i was calling to askif i could perhaps borrow Twilight for a little while? oh, they're on vacation? I see, then . . . (SOB) i'll NEVER get them. They've been on vacation for 6 MONTHS!!!
"Bella, would you like to watch a movie?" I asked the small girl, who was strangely fascinated with the swaying boughs of the trees in the forest. It had been noticed by all of the household how taken Bella was with such simple things like the moon and stars. Or birds chirping and flying through the air. There was an incident this week where we thought we had lost Bella. We looked for her in the house, calling her name, but it dawned on us with horror that perhaps she had ventured into the forest. We all raced out, searching for her.
We found her an hour later, 15 miles from the house, watching the ripples of a small pond each time she dipped her fingers in. She also clutched a bouquet of an assortment of wildflowers native to Washington. We were so relieved that we all just crumpled to the floor by Bella, watching her watching the pond and her reflection with childlike amazement. Afterwards, she thrust the flowers at Edward giving off a curious emotion. Esme and Edward were more than happy to identify the flowers, and were greatly rewarded with one of Bella's supernova smiles.
Now, I held out three choices of movies for her to pick so the family could watch. I saw her deliberate between the two, her emotions confused and frustrated.
"What's the matter Bella? You don't like these movies?" I asked her, trying to understand. She shook her head, but her expression told me it wasn't the 'no' I thought she meant. She shook her head to tell me, no, I'm not saying that.
"Well then? Haven't you ever seen these movies?" I prompted her. She shook her head, this time a direct 'no' to my question. My brows briefly furrowed before I realized the stupidity of my question. Bella lived in a basement her entire life; of course she wouldn't have seen these!
I smiled at her. "Well that's alright, I suppose I'll just choose a movie, okay?" I selected Cinderella and popped the DVD into the player. In an instant, everybody had congregated into the living room, snuggling up with their mates, except for Edward who had joined Bella— who was on her stomach, her feet swinging in the air— on the floor by our couch, propped up on his elbows.
Save it for the photo shoot Rico Suave. I jeered at him mentally, and Edward just casually grinned at me, tilting his head so he could look at me, saying cheerily, "Jealous." We both laughed, and waved off the other's questions by claiming it was a private joke. Alice pouted next to me, and I knew without a doubt I would be telling her what had transpired between Edward and I. Whoa, wait . . . . That sounded kind of wrong there . . .
We were only half paying attention to the movie. We were all more focused on Bella's reactions to the movie, which, like her, left us confused. What I mean by that is . . . It looked like Bella had no idea what was going on in the movie at all. We originally chalked it up to her having never seen these movies but, something didn't sit well with me about that. When we finished Cinderella, I asked Bella if she wanted to see another movie. Still giving off vibes of confusion, she nodded her head quickly, almost absentmindedly. I switched Cinderella with Sleeping Beauty. As the movie progressed, it was amusing to see Bella's chagrin grow as she saw that the princesses in both movies were fair blonde beauties.
I leaned down to Bella's ear. "Don't you fret little one, there's a brunette princess too, just especially for you. Her name is even similar to yours."
Edward, dutifully following my lead like a proper big brother acted like he was whispering conspiratorially with Bella, even though he knew we could hear him and said, "And personally, I think that one's the best princess of them all." Bella's giggled— a sound like tinkling tiny bells— when Edward gave her an exaggerated wink behind his hand.
Are we pathetic for being whipped by just the sound of her laugh? I pondered, thought he thought was directed at Edward. He shrugged, nodding his head. We laughed, and the family gave us bemused looks, not bothering to ask what was happening. They knew that 98% of our conversations were meant for our ears— or rather, minds— only.
I returned my attention to Bella again when she grasped my fingers in her hand. Her hand was so small; she couldn't hold my entire hand. She was a very small little girl, even for a 15 or 16-year-old. Then again, she was only 5'3".
"What can I do for you little lady?" I asked her. She pointed to something on the screen, the noble steed of Prince Charming. Didn't she know what a horse was?
"That's a horse. Not sure what the breed is, it is a cartoon after all," I joked, but she must not have gotten it. She carried on, pointing to the dress Princess Aurora had on.
"That's a dress." I said cautiously, trying to figure out what was going on. She rolled her eyes, annoyance spiking at me. Like she was trying to say, I know that silly!
"Well then what are you asking for, what?" She pointed to the pink dress, and then to Alice's shirt, which was also pink . . . wait a minute; she wanted to know what pink was?
"That's the color pink." I said, more than a little perturbed. Edward had risen on to one knee, also becoming distressed. He walked to the television and paused the movie. He pointed to Prince Charming's sword.
"Bella, do you know what this is?" he asked her warily, and then his face twisted with concern when she shook her head no. He picked up the DVD case for Cinderella, and pointed to the carriage.
"What about this?" He asked, and she shook her head, her annoyance growing. Suddenly, it dawned on me, and I groaned with frustration, and Edward buried his face in his hand, a feral growl coming from his chest.
"What's wrong?" Esme asked, alarmed by Edward's growl. I shook my head, subtly looking at Bella and indicating that I didn't want to have the conversation while she was awake and in the same room. It would make her feel uncomfortable.
"Bella honey, shall we go look for some flowers?" I turned to Alice when she spoke, and understood her intentions immediately when I saw the sadness in her eyes. She had already seen this conversation.
"That's a good idea Alice. Just be back before sunset?" Carlisle agreed, looking at Edward and me speculatively. While Bella and Alice trooped out into the forest, the rest of the family moved to the dining room. We only used that room for family conversations, and this was one of those important times.
Carlisle, who had reclined at the head of the table, threaded his fingers together. "Alright, boys, what seems to be the root of your vexation?"
Edward and I glanced at each other dubiously, asking the other silently who would explain. Edward decided it would be him.
"At first, we noticed Bella was confused the entire time while watching Cinderella. We originally chalked it up to her never seeing it before. But then, during the second movie her confusion increased, as did her anxiety. Jasper figured it out first, and what popped into his mind made absolute sense! I couldn't believe we didn't see that coming. Bella pointed to Prince Charming's sword, and asked what it was, and Jasper answered. Then she asked what color Aurora's dress was. At first it was like, how could she not know what pink was? But then jasper figured it out. Bella has been living in a basement. All she knows is darkness. The only color she understands is black. And, if you all would remember the letter, the couple had to teach Bella about trees and all that. So, how could we have expected her to know what pink is? What a sword is? It makes sense now, looking back and wondering why she is so fascinated with the sun. So taken with the forest. She has never seen the sun. She hadn't felt the sun on her skin before."
For a minute, all you could hear was a shocked silence. We all sat stone still— too still. Esme broke the chain when she raised a trembling hand to her mouth.
"O-Oh. I never . . . I didn't realize that it would be that way. . . how could we not have known?" She spoke brokenly. Carlisle pulled her into his side, rubbing his hand gently up and down her arm.
"We never considered it. We are too used to this freedom we have, too accustomed to the fact that humans can at worst be rude and crass, but never monsters like that. The only one who does . . ." His eyes darted quickly to Edward, who caught this with a grimace. All our eyes did. "At any rate, this needs to be considered in a new light. We must assume that Bella knows very little if anything of the outside world. As a result this summer will be spent educating her on not only the proper way of living as a human, but the finer points of being a vampire, as far as we are able to."
"I believe the best way to do that would be to assign her teachers. We could each teach her something." Edward offered.
"That's a good idea Edward. But, don't you think we ought to give her some sort of assessment, to see where exactly we should start from. I say this because, you know, I could swear I see Bella looking at your office, Carlisle, with what looks like a bit of interest and wistfulness. Like she wishes she could go in there and borrow a book. If she understands us, is it not safe to say she can already read? Perhaps her previous caretakers taught her, and instructed her in other subjects well; they were just never able to continue her instruction because they had to let her go." Esme said the last part with a distasteful grimace, like she didn't exactly believe the words in her own mouth.
"You know, I noticed that too. She would sometimes pace in front of Carlisle's office when he wasn't there, then flit to the door like she was about to open it, and then flit away down the stairs." I added, realizing how right Esme was in her observation.
"Flit? Since when did we use adjectives to describe how someone walks?" Carlisle asked with a raised eyebrow.
"Fairies don't walk; they flit and flutter, and dance and float and glide. That's what Bella does. She can never walk." Edward explained with an exaggerated tone of patronizing. We laughed at his air of teasing. So rarely was Edward ever in a mood to tease and banter with the rest of us. When he did feel the occasion warranted his wit, it was a refreshing thing indeed.
"Back to the matter at hand." Carlisle stopped his laughter with a sharp playful glance at Edward.
"We need to assign Bella teachers—" Carlisle was interrupted when his cell phone rang. He flipped it open and put it to his ear.
"What is it Alice?" Carlisle asked into the phone. We could all hear Alice's excited squeal and Bella's peals of laughter.
"I want to be Bella's current events teacher!" Alice screamed into the phone. Carlisle wrenched the phone away from his ear, blinking rapidly as he shook his head slowly. Slowly returning the phone to his ear, he cautiously replied, "Of course, Alice, no one else would be better suited for the job. I must ask, however, that you not limit her education to the latest line of Prada."
Alice huufed, grumbling she knew that already. I chuckled at my love's antics. I paid attention when my love's voice became panicked.
"Argh! Bella, no! Get down from that tree, you'll slip and fall!" Alice shrieked. We all tensed and Carlisle said sharply, "Alice get Isabella down from that tree!"
"I know tha— Ahh!"
W heard the phone from to the ground and"oof!" comes from Bella.
"Alice did she fall?!" I said loudly into the phone.
"Yes, but I caught her." Alice's relieved voice floated somewhere far away from the phone. Bella's peals of laughter echoed loudly, and I sighed exasperatedly. This girl was a thrill seeker.
Edward, we have to keep her away from Emmett. I thought tiredly to him. He nodded wearily agreeing with me.
"Alice bring her home." Esme said worriedly.
"Already on my way." Alice replied, then the line cut off. She hung up.
Before Alice came home with a happy Bella strolling in after her, we had decided Bella's teachers.
Edward would teach her music and literature, Carlisle would teach her science, Esme would teach her art and about the plants and trees. I would teach her history, and Alice would teach her about the modern world as it went on today. Rosalie would teach her math, and Emmett, Edward, and I would teach her how to fight.
"We're home!" Alice said cheerily. We met them in the living room, and Carlisle checked Bella over for any injuries. Bella giggled when Carlisle's hand floated over her sides just under her ribcage, and one the soft skin of the bottom of her forearm.
"Ticklish, are we?" Carlisle smiled, and the rest of the family grinned wickedly when we heard this information.
Once Carlisle was done, Bella bounced up the stairs, heading towards the bathroom. Esme took that as her cue to enter the kitchen so she could prepare Bella's meal. Speaking of, we should all go hunting. We didn't get the chance to earlier this week when we found Bella. Has it really almost been two weeks since we found her?
Perhaps we should take Bella with us, to see if she can hunt for her own. It could also give us the chance to see how long she can go without hunting. Since her eyes don't change color, we don't have any indication as to when she needs to hunt, except for if she told us. Bella reappeared in the living room, dressed in blue shorts and a tank top, her hair dripping down her back.
"Oh Bella, come along. We have to dry that pretty hair. You don't want to catch cold do you?" Rosalie asked her, turning back to us and shrugging. Did Bella get sick? Could she? It's unlikely; she still is half vampire, but better safer then sorry . . . As we watched Bella be led back to the bathroom by Rosalie, Esme came out with a plate of food for Bella. I believe its called spaghetti.
We waited for Bella's arrival to the table, and she didn't disappoint when she came whirling into the dining room. Literally, she was spinning around the table. Then she skipped from side to side and gave each of us a huge kiss on the cheek. Edward chuckled when she released his cheek with a smack.
She settled down to eat her food, raising one hand to seep her hair behind her shoulders. Anxiously, we awaited her opinion on the food. She twirled the fork in the spaghetti, and raised it to her lips engulfing the fork eagerly. She took her time, chewing carefully then swallowing. I relaxed when her satisfaction and elation washed over me. I turned to Esme.
"She absolutely loves it." I spoke for Bella, since she was too busy shoving forkfuls of the food into her mouth. Esme sighed happily, her eyes sparkling. We watched with amusement and warmth as Bella devoured the food in what seems like no time, and then raised her plate bashfully, blushing as she indicated she wanted more food.
Esme obliged, and it made us happy to see the two of them so happy. Tomorrow, we would begin Bella's instruction into life.
AS ALWAYS, READERS! REVIEW!!