Chapter 7:
Once You're a Cullen, You Gotta Live Like One
A week had past and Jasper had gotten somewhat used to A.C. I've gotten more close to her too. I was used to the braided pigtails and how she would always wear the same exact thing as me. Yet, I still can't find the place where she hides her clothes. The only thing that I didn't get used to was her eyes. The dark gray wasn't an easy thing to forget. Jasper and the others can't even get used to them either. That's how unique the dark gray tint is.
As I was sitting in my room, a vision came over me. There was supposed to be a lot of thunder. No rain though. Just thunder. Just lots and lots of thunder. And you know what that means…
"Carlisle! Esme!" I yelled as I ran down the stairs. "There's going to be thunder tonight! Can we play baseball? Please?" I was jumping up and down from all of the excitement in me.
"I don't know…" Esme said.
"Please? We never did it in a long time!" I said.
Bella and Renesmee came up to us.
"Alice, what if something bad happens? Remember the last time you guys played?" Bella asked.
"Yeah but you were still human," I said.
"What happened last time?" Renesmee asked.
Bella shook her head. "Nothing."
Carlisle looked at me. "Is anything going to happen?"
I paused for a minute. I skipped the baseball scene since I can't see Renesmee and she would be there. Finally, I was at the part where we're all home. "We'll all come home safe and sound," I said and put a huge smile on my face.
"Then it's settled," Carlisle said. "Baseball game at six o' clock!"
At six, we all ran to the baseball field (it was actually a large meadow). A.C. and Renesmee were always a pace behind us since they weren't fully vampire. Once we were finally at the field, Carlisle already had our baseball bats and the bases were ready. Jacob, Leah, and Seth were there in human form. Jacob and Seth were shirtless.
"Don't you guys own a shirt?" Edward asked them as him and I walked up to them.
Jacob laughed and so did Seth. Leah handed me a bucket that had a whole bunch of baseballs in it that we were most likely going to ruin thanks to our strength. I handed the bucket to Carlisle and we started the game.
Our team names were Team One and Team Two (how original). On Team One was Carlisle, Edward, Emmett, Renesmee, and me. Team Two had Esme, Bella, Rosalie, Jasper, and A.C. Even though we're on different teams, A.C. and I wore the same outfit: black long-sleeved shirt with a white button-down baseball shirt on top of it that we both left unbuttoned, black knee-length capris with white knee-length socks, and black converse. Team One had sky-blue caps while Team Two had navy blue.
Team Two got to bat first. Lucky me, I was the pitcher. Renesmee had first base, Edward was outfield, Carlisle was catcher, and Emmett… Well let's just say that he was somewhere out there laughing like a lunatic like he usually does.
Jacob went up to Renesmee and kissed the top of her head. "Good luck," he said. Jacob went farther away from us along with Leah and Seth and sat down to watch our baseball game.
The thunder started. "It's time," I said with a smile.
Jasper was up to bat first. On the first pitch, he hit the ball. The clang made by the ball and bat was deafening to humans. Edward tried getting the ball but he missed. Jasper ran past first and second base. Edward picked up the ball off of the ground and threw it to Emmett. Only thing is, by the time I caught it, Jasper already hit home plate five seconds before.
One point for Team Two.
It was Esme's turn to bat. She struck out all three possible pitches. So did Bella and Rosalie.
"Team Two has three outs. Time to switch," Carlisle said.
"What?" A.C. yelled. "Oh, c'mon! It was my turn!"
I went up to her. "Good luck," I said and I kissed her forehead.
"Yeah, yeah, you don't mean it," A.C. said and we both started laughing.
A.C. was pitcher, Jasper was catcher, Esme was first base, Bella was outfield, and Rosalie was third base.
"This will be easy," Emmett said.
"Why?" Renesmee asked.
"Because someone who isn't full vampire is pitching. Her strength won't be as forceful so it'll be way too easy to hit the ball." Emmett laughed. "Thanks to that, Team Two is going down!"
I smacked his shoulder.
"I heard that," A.C. said.
"Well, at least she can hear like a full vampire." Emmett started laughing even harder.
Emmett was first to bat and he got a homerun. Edward and Carlisle also got homeruns. Once it was Renesmee's turn, she had trouble figuring out how to hold the bat. From behind, I grabbed the bat and showed her how to swing. She giggled and kissed my cheek. A.C. pitched and Renesmee missed the first two. At the third pitch, she hit it but she was safe at first.
Then it was my turn. Jasper snickered and I laughed. A.C. looked straight at me with determination. Once she threw the ball, I swung the bat and the ball went flying! Renesmee ran as fast as she could with my closely behind. A.C. was chasing me with the ball. Renesmee hit home plate and I was close to it. Finally, only five seconds after I was safe at home, A.C. tagged me.
"Alice is safe!" Emmett yelled excitedly.
I looked at A.C. and she wasn't smiling. I smiled anyway.
The game went on for too long. We all wanted to quit but Emmett wouldn't stop unless a team reach fifty points. It started raining on us and A.C. and Renesmee were about to pass out from running around all day. The score was forty-nine to forty-nine. Ties take forever to break.
I was up to bat and A.C. wouldn't move.
"We don't have all day!" Emmett yelled.
A.C. glared at him. She stood there for a minute until she surprised me. I tried hitting the ball but sadly, I missed.
"Strike one," Jasper said.
I couldn't get up to strike three. If I got up to strike three, then my team would have three outs. We don't want that to happen.
A.C. threw the ball again but I didn't even see it until the last minute.
"Strike two," Jasper said.
I started getting nervous. When A.C. threw the ball again, I swung the bat too late.
"Strike three," Jasper said.
"Switch," Carlisle said.
Emmett groaned.
"Aw c'mon babe, it's just a game," Rosalie snickered. She smiled.
Emmett groaned again and glared at me. Edward saw the sadness in my eyes and patted my back for comfort. As I took my pitching position, Renesmee smiled at me and I smiled back. She gave me a thumb-up.
A.C. was up to bat. This was going to be easy since she always struck out. Poor girl. I threw the baseball. No one on my team paid any attention. That is, until we heard a clang.
My whole team jumped and we saw A.C. run towards first base. Edward missed the ball but picked it up fast. He threw it to Emmett once A.C. reached second base. Emmett threw the ball to me and I raced after my daughter. Surprisingly, A.C. was running faster than me. She was near home plate so I stretched out my arm. A.C. fell to the ground on purpose so she could slide to home plate. I tripped and fell to the ground also. I felt mud splatter on my face as I almost fell on top of A.C. I looked to see where the ball landed. It was hard to see because of the mud dripping down my face. Finally, I saw that the ball was touching A.C.'s shoulder but A.C. was touching home plate.
"Safe!" Jasper yelled excitedly.
Emmett groaned while Team Two started cheering. They won the game.
A.C. stood up. She reached out a hand towards me and I grabbed it. I pulled her down and she landed in the mud. Surprisingly, she giggled. There was barely any mud on her face or clothing. She stood back up. I had a hand reached out to me again and this time I was pulled up into a standing position before I could bring A.C. back down. A.C. started to laugh hysterically once she saw how I looked and she couldn't stop. I looked down and noticed that I didn't have mud just on my face. Everything that was white looked black now. Jasper came up to me.
"Nice," he said with a smirk.
"Not right," I groaned.
"C'mon, it's just mud," Jasper said but he was trying not to laugh.
"But I'm filthy," I said. Being filthy is not my type of thing.
"You're such a girl," A.C. said and everyone started laughing.
Still laughing, Jasper picked me up. We all started running home as Jacob, Leah, and Seth ran the other way.
Once we were home, A.C.'s stomach growled really loud. How attractive.
"Do you guys have ice cream?" she asked.
"Why ice cream?" I questioned.
"'Cause, thanks to you eating so much of it when you were pregnant with me, it's my favorite food," A.C. said. "My favorite is vanilla too."
"There's no ice cream but there is blood in the forest," Carlisle said.
A.C. groaned. She is not a very happy person when she's tired. That's why you're always better off giving her what she wants at night.
With the mud all dried up on me, I picked up A.C. "I'll go with you," I said.
I walked out the door as A.C. rested her head on my shoulder. We ran into a meadow where all the stars were visible. I sat A.C. on the ground and ran after a deer. Within seconds it was dead in my arms. I carried it back to A.C. She looked at the deer in disgust. I sighed and bit the deer so the blood started coming out. A.C. gave up and started to suck the blood out of the deer.
As I waited for her to finish, I lay down on the ground and looked at the stars. If I was stupid, I probably would've started to count them. Instead, I stared blankly at them. A.C. stared at me.
"What are you doing?" she asked.
I shrugged. "I honestly don't know."
A.C. lay down next to me. She gazed at the stars and unlike me, she actually concentrated on them.
"Did you ever find the Big Dipper?" I asked. I started to concentrate on the stars now. "Or the Little Dipper at least?"
"Never tried," A.C. said. She looked at me. "Have you?"
I shook my head. "And I actually tried."
A.C. stared at me for a few seconds longer but then moved her eyes toward the stars again. We didn't say a word to each other for about five minutes. Then, A.C. suddenly exploded with excitement.
"Look!" she exclaimed. She pointed to the sky with her left hand as she sat up.
I pushed myself up a little and leaned on my shoulders. "What?"
"The Big Dipper… it's… it's…" A.C. was too jumpy to get her words out. I stared at her as she tried calming down. "The Big Dipper is right there!"
I looked in the direction A.C. was pointing at. "Where?" I asked. "I don't see it."
"You see those clusters of stars up there?" A.C. asked.
I nodded.
"Look at the top of them and then down at the right. The Big Dipper is going on a diagonal," A.C. explained.
I followed the instructions A.C. gave me. Her arm was back at her side now and she waited for me to find the constellation. When I found it, my mouth dropped in awe. Then I smiled. A.C. smiled too. Right next to the Bid Dipper, I saw the Little Dipper. Kind of convenient don't you think?
"Look!" I yelled. I pointed towards the Little Dipper.
A.C. saw it right away. As she smiled, she said, "Convenient don't you think?"
"Exactly what I thought," I said. I laughed too.
A.C. and I lay back down on the ground. As we kept looking at the stars, A.C. rested her head on my chest. Almost immediately, I started playing with one of her braids. Slowly, A.C.'s breath started getting steadier, letting me know she was falling asleep. I kissed the top of her head and she smiled. Finally, she fell asleep.
A.C.'s scent started to fill up my nose. It was so much better than Bella's human smell. I still can't believe that I smelled like this as a human (minus the vanilla ice cream, strawberries, watermelons, green apples, and raspberries scents). It was amazing how I never attacked A.C. yet to get her blood. Yet, she's my daughter so that's my main reason why I would never do that to her. Also, the Cullens don't drink human blood.
And once you're a Cullen, you gotta live like one.
