Renesmee's POV-
The Cullens and I spent about another hour in the training room messing around. At one point, even Alec loosened up enough to join us and fight against me. I could tell he was taking it easy though because he could have easily used his power and cut off any of my senses. I would take it though because it was better than nothing.
I wasn't sure where my father had disappeared to, but I became hopeful when Jane informed me that Aro made plans for she, myself, Alec, and the Cullen "children" to explore Volterra. This week, the town is having a special celebration in the form of a street fair, which Jane mentioned we would be going to after exploring the city. Seeing as most of the time Volterra is sunny, I didn't think that exploring the city would be an option, but it just so happens that today is one of the few days that it's overcast.
I didn't feel like changing my outfit from this morning, so while the Cullens were getting ready, I ate a small lunch in the kitchen. I couldn't wait to see all the different kinds of food they have at the street fair. As I was eating lunch, I couldn't help but notice the dull ache in the back of my throat. I knew what that meant. In the next few days, I'd have to go hunting. Maybe the Cullens would like to go with me. I had noticed that even though their eyes were still gold, they were growing darker.
I was still eating the spaghetti I had made myself for lunch when Alice and Jasper joined me in the kitchen.
"Hey Ness. Did I mention before that I love your outfit today?" Alice asked me. I blushed and gave her a polite smile.
"Thanks. You're outfit looks great today too." She was wearing dark jeans, a maroon blouse, and a black leather jacket complete with a grey scarf around her neck. Jasper chuckled. I wasn't sure why. I figured it wasn't important.
"Is everyone almost ready to go?" I asked. Alice shrugged a little.
"I suppose. I think Rose should be ready soon. I can't imagine it would take Emmett any longer than her." Alice told me. I grew sad. For the second time today, my father's name wasn't mentioned when I asked about the family. I could see that Jasper was picking up on my sadness and I tried to get rid of it, a task not easily done.
"What about Edward?" I ask. Jasper smiled a bit.
"Ed never participates in any of our family activities anymore. I assume he's not going." He told me. My sadness returned. I was looking forward to spending time with everyone today. "…Unless maybe you could convince him otherwise." He told me. I grew a little more excited and he tried to hide his smile. "I'm sure he'd be more likely to listen to you than any of us." He added. I was surprised by his words.
"What is that supposed to mean?" I asked curiously. Alice and Jasper looked at each other as if they were communicating in their minds. They were hiding something from me. Did they know?
"Nothing really. It just seems like…Well he's different with you. Somehow in a matter of 24 hours, you've managed to begin chipping away at his hard exterior." Alice told me. I could feel my heart race at her statement.
"You give him hope." Jasper told me. "I mean, he'll never actually admit it, and he's still consumed mostly with sadness and anger, but there's a tiny little bit of hope." Jasper made a tiny gap between right thumb and pointer finger to show me that there was a little bit of hope. Alice chuckled at his antics. I stood up from the table, throwing away what was left of my spaghetti.
"I'll see what I can do." I exited the room, walking toward Edward's room, where I assumed he was at. I passed Emmett and Rose on my way there. They asked what I was doing, so I explained, and Emmett wished me a sarcastic "good luck".
I made my way down the long hallway and stopped in front of his door. I took a deep breath and lifted my right hand to knock on the door. Before my hand came in contact with the door, it flew open.
"What do you want, Renesmee?" He asked me. I was still surprised about the door flying open before I knocked. I wondered how he knew it was me. "The fluttering heartbeat gave it away." He told me. My confusion must have been written on my face because it had already been established that he couldn't read my mind. He was staring at me, waiting for me to ask my question.
"You should come to explore the city with us." I told him confidently. He raised an eyebrow.
"No thanks." He said and began closing the door. I caught it and he looked annoyed.
"Hold on! It'll be fun. There's lots of cool landmarks and sites! And after exploring the city, there's a street fair with lots of fun stuff like games and rides and tiny little shops." He opened the door back up again.
"That sounds dreadful." He told me. Gosh, he's just as stubborn as my mother. No wonder I'm so stubborn. There was no way around it! He began to close the door again and once again I stopped it.
"Wait! Just last night you were sad because you couldn't remember the last time you'd seen your family sincerely happy." I told him. I could tell that he was listening now. "Well this could be a perfect opportunity!" I practically begged him. He ran one of his hands through his already messy bronze hair. I suppressed a smile because I often find myself doing that too.
"Nobody wants me to come, Renesmee. I'll just make everyone else miserable." He told me. I shook my head immediately.
"Oh hush! That's not true. Jane was acting like a whiny bi—brat when we were at the mall the other day, and everything was fine." He didn't look convinced. "If anything, I'm sure your family would just be happy to be spending time with you." At least I would be. He sighed heavily.
"Renesmee—" He started.
"Please?" I subtly batted my eyes at him like I would when I was trying to persuade my mom to do something. He groaned and grabbed his jacket, walking down the hall toward the kitchen. Success!
For about five hours, we all explored the city. There were numerous landmarks around that I was dying to show everyone. My father remained fairly reserved throughout our little adventures, but it was still nice to know that he was here. I had forgotten my camera, so I had to resort to taking pictures on my phone. It was inconvenient, but it worked.
As soon as I took the pictures, many of which contained the Cullens, I downloaded an app that required a password to view specific pictures within my camera roll so my mom wouldn't accidentally stumble across them. I think the app was designed for teenagers that had the intention of exchanging scandalous pictures, but hey, if the shoe fits, wear it!
As the day went on, I could see Alec loosening up to the Cullens, which made me really happy. Jane was civil, but she was just as stubborn as me. She wasn't going to give in and be nice to them. My mother texted me periodically throughout the day, asking what I was doing. Each time she texted, a feeling of guilt ran through me and it was clear that Jasper noticed each time. I was sure he was going to say something, but he never did.
After exploring the city landmarks, we all walked to the street fair. It was about six in the evening when we got there, so it wasn't dark yet. The first bit of the street fair was filled with all sorts of venders, selling lots of cool things in their little mini shops they set up. There were lots of different sorts of shops, so it seemed that there was stuff for everyone.
As we began nearing the center of all of the action I could hear my stomach growling, and Jane insisted that I get something to eat. I got a corn dog, much to Jane's dismay, and we all kept on exploring.
There were lots of games set up around the center of the fair. There were rides too, but nobody thought it would be a good idea to have me spinning outrageously fast on a ride so soon after eating. I complied and we stuck to the games.
My favorites were the ring toss and a spinning wheel game because none of the others seemed to have an unfair advantage over me with those. It was hilarious watching Emmett grow increasingly angry that he couldn't get the rings to smoothly land over the coca-cola bottles. It made it even worse when I got two in a row, earning myself a medium-sized stuffed monkey.
We tried out an assortment of other games, but most of those followed a specific pattern—I sucked and the rest of the Cullens were brilliant.
"Don't feel bad, Ness. At least your better than that guy." Emmett looked up toward a teenage boy that had surprisingly large muscles. He looked like he was trying to impress the pretty girl on his arm by winning her the large inflatable crown as a prize. He failed miserably, and looked extremely embarrassed. I felt bad for the poor guy, but I couldn't help smiling.
As it grew darker, we moved away from most of the games and started heading down a road that had more little venders and music playing farther down the street. I found a few cute things I liked, but after I noticed Alice secretly purchasing everything I said I liked, I stopped looking. About halfway down the road, it diverged into a wide open area that was currently being used as a dance floor. I laughed as Alice and Rosalie immediately started dancing happily as we neared the crowd of people dancing. Jasper looked hesitant. Meanwhile Emmett started busting his moves, causing me to burst out laughing.
"Come on, Renesmee!" Alice shouted over the music, pulling Jasper toward her. I shook my head.
"I think I'm just going to go get a water from that stand over there. I'll be right back." I told them before wandering off. I ordered my water and thanked the vender before turning around and coming face to face with my father.
"You aren't planning on dancing are you?" He asked me. I let a smile escape from the side of my mouth.
"Not if I can help it." I told him honestly. I did like dancing, don't get me wrong. I just kind of…look like a chicken having a seizure. I chuckled at myself.
"Why not?" He asked. I started walking back toward the crowd of dancing people. I shook my head, smiling.
"I have to admit…I'm not very good." I blushed. I could still feel him looking at me. I looked up and saw him smiling. He was actually smiling. "What?" I asked.
"So you're not very good at dancing, yet your having a ball for your birthday?" He asks. I shook my head.
"That's different."
"How so?" I search my head trying to think of an answer.
"Well, first of all, ball music isn't this quick. I'm less likely to trip over myself…And at a ball, you dance with a partner, so it doesn't matter if I suck because I can just follow their lead." I explain.
"I find it hard to believe that you can't dance. You're very graceful." He adds. A burst of laughter escapes me when he says this.
"Me? Graceful. Oh, no no no." I look up at him smiling. He looks as if he's thinking and a few seconds later, he speaks again.
"Can I ask you something?" I stop walking and look over at him. He looks pretty serious.
"Go for it. You're on a roll." I smirk.
"Why did you insist on me coming today?" I stopped and tried to figure out how to answer that.
"I don't know." I told him. He raised his eyebrows at me. I shook my head. "Maybe I just like spending time with you." I told him. He looked confused and I felt a cold hand grasp my wrist pulling me. It was Alice pulling me to the dance floor. I groaned internally and decided to just give in and dance with everyone. It wasn't so bad. Emmett twirled me in circles as I laughed. I could see my father standing alone, still looking confused. It worried me a little, but I soon forgot about it as I focused on dancing with the rest of my family.
Edward's POV-
She likes spending time with me? Why would she like spending time with me? I've been nothing but rude this whole time.
I watched as Emmett twirled her in circles, the curls in her hair bouncing beautifully as she danced. She was beautiful. I could admit that much. At first I had found her big brown eyes and her rosy pink cheeks dreadful as they reminded me so much of Bella, but now I couldn't stop looking at her, finding comfort in her soft features.
I couldn't deny that she made me feel different than any of the other vampires I'd encountered before. Not in a romantic way. No. Nobody would ever replace my beautiful Isabella in my heart. I don't know how to describe how she made me feel.
All I know is that when I was with her, the pain that had been weighing down my cold dead heart since the minute I left my Bella…it seemed to go away, at least for a little bit. I almost felt happy.
I'd never admit it, but she had been right about today. It was worthwhile to see my family so happy. They had all taken Bella's disappearance pretty hard too. They all loved her, but my idiot ass messed everything up. I could feel the pain start to flood my heart again and tried to rid myself of it by looking up at my family and the beautiful girl that had captured everyone's hearts…even mine.
Author's Note:
I guess not even Edward Cullen can resist the charming nature of the beautiful Renesmee.
I hope you all liked this chapter. I had a good time writing it, especially the end with Nessie and Edward. I just love those two!
I've been thinking and I pretty much know the general direction that I'm going with this story, but there's still a few ideas that I'm bouncing back and forth between, so I'll probably just list them as polls at the end of the next few chapters.
The biggest question I'm trying to decide right now is whether or not Edward should know that Renesmee is his daughter before he leaves Volterra. What do you guys think? Help me! These are my ideas, but if you have any other thoughts, please share. You can either review or vote for your choice on my profile page!
1. Edward will know that Bella is Renesmee's mother and that Renesmee is his daughter before he leaves.
2. Edward will not know of Bella being alive or being Renesmee's mother before he leaves, nor that Nessie is his daughter.
3. Edward will find out that Bella is alive and that Renesmee knows her, but he won't know of their relationship.
4. Edward knows that Bella is Nessie's mom. He doesn't know that Nessie is his daughter.
As far as whether or not any of the the other Cullens should know, I got that under control. I just need your help with Edward.
Hope you all enjoyed! Thanks to everyone who reviewed, favorited, and/ or alerted! You all are fantastic! Until next time, Taylor.