Disclaimer: SM
owns all
A/N: I thought a little comic relief would be called for
right about now.
Chapter 8
Bella
won, of course. Emmett's hand smashed through the glass table with a
loud crash that echoed throughout the house.
"Uh-oh. You woke
Renee and Nessie up." said Alice. Everyone laughed quietly at
Emmett's loss, and watched as Renee and Nessie came down the stairs
together.
"What was that crash?" Renee asked.
"Hey,
Mom. We were arm wrestling."
"Oh. Who was?"
"Emmett
and I."
"Oh."
"Bella won. The crash you
heard was the coffee table breaking as Emmett's arm went through it."
Edward laughed.
"Emmett is the strongest one in the family.
Or... used to be." said Alice. "Bella can give him a run
for his money." she added, laughing.
"Or dignity."
Edward said, still chuckling.
"Uh-oh. You made a bet with
her, didn't you, Emmett?" Renee asked. He nodded. "And now
what do you have to do, because you lost?" she asked.
"He
has to take you around Forks and introduce you to everyone in
town."
"That's it? Bella, I thought you'd have been more
creative than that."
"Oh, I was. He has to wear a dress
while doing so."
"Oh, Bella honey, that's
cruel."
"That's funny!" said seven voices at once.
Emmett just sulked in his defeat.
"Can I help pick the dress
that Uncle Emmett has to wear, Mommy?" asked Renesmee.
"Of
course you can, Nessie."
"And, of course, we'll need to
get some heels too, Mommy."
"You're right."
"And
some makeup, and a handbag, and we can do his hair pretty. And, paint
his nails, of course."
"She's as diabolical as her
mother." laughed Alice.
"Yes.
She certainly is. She's well developed, but she still enjoys kids'
games. Last week she convinced me to play horsey."
"What's
horsey?" asked Carlisle, Esme, Alice, Rosalie, Jasper and
Emmett, together.
"You know. I get down on my hands and
knees. She climbs on my back. Then I crawl around on the floor like
that for a while until she gets bored." The Cullen clan burst
out laughing. Bella remembered making both of her parents play that
when she was little.
"Hey, Mom, do you want to come see the
cottage?"
"Oh. Yes. I'd love to!"
"Bella,
how are you going to get her over the river? She can't jump like we
can."
"I'll carry her on my back." Renee looked at
her daughter in shock and confusion.
"Come on, Mom. Climb up.
I'll show you something really cool." She did so. Bella was
about to atke off running but Edward spoke to Renee.
"If you
get dizzy easily, you might want to close your eyes." Renee did
not do so, and Bella knew her better than that, so Bella took off.
She ran out the door, around the back of the house, and jumped over
the river. She stopped there. Her mother climbed off her back,
looking thrilled.
"Bella, that was amazing."
"Yeah.
Isn't it?" But Bella was occupied, thinking about something she
had heard just after leaving the house.
"She's acting
strange." said Alice.
"Her emotions are going to be a
little haywire for a few days, maybe a few weeks, while she tries to
figure out how she's feeling, and separating it from how she wants
to feel." replied Carlisle. Renee, of course, was not able to
hear this conversation, because she did not have sensitive vampire
ears. Bella lead her mother to the cottage and grabbed the key. She
unlocked the door. She let her mother step in before her. Her
mother's eyes took in the full beauty of the house. She stopped
searching when she spotted the fireplace and the huge
bookshelf.
"There are A LOT of books here."
"Well,
it's good for something to do after dark."
"What do you
mean?"
"We don't sleep. We CAN'T sleep. Ever."
"Wow."
They had made their way down the small hallway. "So, then, why
is there a huge bed in your room? If you don't sleep, then what do
you...? Ooooh. Wait, never mind, I know." Bella smiled. Her
brain used to be slow like that sometimes, too. She then showed her
mother Renesmee's room, as the last stop on the tour.
"But,
Bella, there's no bathroom."
"Oh, I know. We don't do
that either. The bathroom in the main house is for cases when you or
if Charlie ever came over. And, Rose likes to look at herself in the
mirror and remind herself of how beautiful she is." Bella rolled
her eyes.
"Oh."
"Yeah. Well, shall we go back to
the house, then?"
"Yeah. Okay."
"Come on,
climb on my back."
A/N: Now, in this chapter, as you saw from the first sentence, I kept it that Bella had never lost the strength of a newborn, even though she's been a vampire for a few years now. I thought it would make the story a little better.
