Chloe –Alice–
When I crossed the doorway Alice danced in front of me, smiling directly into my face.
"Hey, Chloe. I'm Alice. Would you like me to show you the house?"
I blinked in surprise. "Sure," I said, smiling back at her. "If it doesn't bother you."
"Not at all," she assured me and took my hands into hers. She was as small as I was, but her height didn't seem to disturb her happiness at all. "Come, come," she sang and pulled me with her. When we left the kitchen I heard Emmett's chuckle behind us.
"The living-room," Alice said and waved towards a big room with white couches, a big television and an elegant black piano.
"Wow," I whispered, stopping in front of the instrument.
"Do you play?" Alice asked.
I shook my head. "No, I never had the chance to learn it."
"Edward can teach you, he's pretty good," she suggested.
So Edward the mind-reader was also musical talented. Interesting. I wondered what kind of abilities than fortunetelling Alice had.
"That would be nice." I nodded, smiling. Alice smiled back and pulled me to the stairs, continuing to sing her "Come-come-song".
"Rose's and Emmett's room… Carlisle's office… the bathroom… and over there are Esme's and Carlisle's room together with Edward's room. And this is my room," Alice announced, her eyes shining with delight when she yanked the door open.
I blinked in surprise.
At the other end of the room stood a small, slender girl with honey-like hair. Her skin was pale, her eyes dark-red. It took me a second to notice my own reflection in the big mirror that filled an entire wall of the room. Under the mirror was a toilet table, filling the wall like the mirror did. The table was covered with lipsticks, mascaras, nail polish and other make-up implements; each kind in different colors and shades of the rainbow, ordered tidily in a row in front of the mirror.
The room looked like the make-up-room of a famous model – no – it looked like the dream-make-up-room of a famous model. I doubted that there was missing anything here to help turning every ordinary girl into a beauty queen.
"Don't be so shy, just come in." Alice pulled me into her room when I didn't move an inch. That wasn't because I didn't like the room – I hadn't decided whether to like it or not yet – I was just frozen by astonishment.
She placed me in front of the mirror which reflected the light from above and made everything brighter. She took a few steps back; her eyes didn't leave me once. She looked at my face, my body, my arms and legs; studying every inch, each single hair of mine, her eyes were shining with satisfaction.
"Perfect," she sighed, her voice filled with joy.
I just wanted to ask her what was so "perfect" when she jumped behind me, pushing me towards the door.
"Go on, go on," she sang, didn't giving me a break for just saying "beep".
She pushed me towards a door that I remembered as the bathroom and opened it. She gave me a sturdy push that made me trip into the shiny white, giant bathroom.
"Take your time and relax," she said. "I'll get you a bathrobe." And with that she closed the door, dancing away with a cheerful melody on her lips.
I stood there frozen.
What was I supposed to do here?
Then I saw the big white ceramic bathtub.
Oh, right, I was in a bathroom so maybe I should take a bath.
For the first time of about two months I looked down at my clothes.
My once dark-green shirt had gained several mud blobs and looked like one of those protective mimicry shirts. And my jeans were also more brown than blue. My boots hadn't change their colors, but that was because they had been dark-brown from the very beginning.
I unzipped them and took them off. I looked down in disbelief. My jeans were bluer than I thought. The parts which were plugged in the boots were clean from any mud, so my jeans were now parted into two accurately divided halves, one mud-brown and the other lapis lazuli blue.
The door opened again.
"Here's the bathrobe for you," Alice said and hung something baby-pink on a silver hook. I could see how she was fighting a smile.
"Take your time," she said again and left the room.
I sighed and opened the faucet, filling the bathtub with water. I didn't care whether the water was warm or cold. It was clean which meant that it would make me clean, too, and that was all I wanted now. I took off my clothes, leaving them on the ground, and sank into the fresh water.
"Ah," I sighed, closing my eyes, completely satisfied for the moment, and led myself sink to the ground of the bathtub. It was so nice to be underwater, so silent and peaceful. If I had been able to fall asleep, I probably would have. I could feel how the water stroked my skin, made me feel lighter with every crumb of dirt that was washed away from my body.
I didn't know how long I had been lying there – ten seconds? Thirty minutes? An hour?
Sometime I remembered my new friends who were waiting for me downstairs and I came out of the water.
Without looking I took one of the colorful glass bottles and put some of it on my head. The smell of bamboo filled the air; it felt like I was back in China where I had been travelling around when I heard the stories about the Cullen family. I washed both my hair and my body with that bamboo-shampoo, feeling cleaner with every new soap bubble that stroked my marble-like skin.
When I was finally done the water had gained a slight shape of brown and I – completely clean and smelling like bamboo – slipped into the bathrobe Alice brought.
I was just looking down at my dirty clothes, wondering if I should throw them into the water to take a bath too, when someone knocked on the door.
"Can I come in?" I heard Alice ask.
"Sure."
She opened the door and saw me staring at my old clothes.
"I'll take care of those," she offered.
"But they're all I have," I said. I was pretty sure that she was going to through them away.
"Don't worry," she said, smiling wildly again. "Rose and I got you new clothes. She's in my room waiting for you. Just go. I'll be there in a sec. – Here." – she handed me my little bag – "Do you still need it?"
I nodded. "Thank you," I said and took it. For the last time I looked at the mud-covered clothes which followed me through the Pacific Ocean and half Asia, then I left the room.
I went directly to Alice's room. I knocked twice and opened the door when a female voice said, "Come in."
Rosalie was sitting on the lavender carpet, ordering colored bags and boxes
"Come over here, Chloe," she said gently, pulling back her long golden hair and pointed at the place next to her. I obeyed and kneed down beside her.
"What-," I began.
"These are part of our crop from today's shopping tour. The once over there are for Bella," she explained and pointed at two bags and a box on a small violet couch a few shades darker then the carpet. "These here are for you."
I looked back at the things in front of us. I counted ten bags and four shoe-boxes.
"But…" I gasped. "But… I mean… Thank you, but… that's really not necessary. I don't need so much. A jeans and a shirt are enough."
Rosalie chuckled and shook her head.
"Why haven't you got started yet?" Alice asked reproachfully when she entered the room. She took a rather small bag compared to the others and handed it to me.
"Here you go."
I took it with hesitantly and looked inside. I sighed in relief. There was just white underwear in it, nothing too special, although they had a few laces and frills too much if they asked me. But they didn't and so I just put it on without any objections.
"Good," Alice smiled and began to empty the bags. "Let's continue."
My eyes got wider. The clothes were all made of silk or satin, with a lot of ribbons and fills. They were very elegant, too elegant for my taste. I would have never bought something like that. I preferred practical things, like long trousers with bags or skin-covering shirts in dark colors. These clothes here were either bright pink or sunflower-yellow.
"Er… thanks," I said breathlessly, still staring at the strange clothes. "I guess the darker colors like blue or green were sold out, correct?"
Rosalie chuckled. "That dog was kind of right. She is a second Bella."
Alice pouted. "What a waste." She sounded offended.
"Sorry, Alice," I said quickly. "It's just that… well… these are not the kind of things I usually wear. I'm just surprised."
She smiled again and clapped her hands once. "Then, it's time to change it."
I wasn't sure why, but somehow I had a misgiving about Alice's other special ability.