Cakewalk
Disclaimer: Of these do I own, a home, a carriage of blue, a goodly dog, and many fine silks awaiting to be put to the seamstress' hand, but of Twilight, I own not.
Summary: Bella has to make three cakes for the senior class fund raising fair and Esme helps! Family fluff insues!
Author's Note: Sorry this one took a bit. I have my own little rule; I need to write one chapter of my other story in order to write one of this one. Writing over 5,000 words in a drastic attempt to sound sort of like John Milton while still trying to make your point understandable to most people without them running to the dictionary every three seconds or having to read the entire story out loud? Not easy. But I did it! I hope…
Chapter 11 – not, this story isn't filing (I couldn't help it, sorry!)
I stood there with Alice on the front porch for a bit watching the two boys. When they got like this they were no longer her husband and my boyfriend, they were boys. Jasper was taking direct aims at the center hole of the board and getting the hackeysacks through the clown's mouth with ease.
I'd be lucky when they moved the line up from 100 feet to 20 to even hit the board at all. I'm sure most humans could at that distance at least hit the board, but knowing me, I'd let go of the hackeysack too quickly have it fly into the woods and accidentally kill a bird or something. I'm not entirely sure if that would be a good thing or a bad thing around vegetarian vampires.
Edward had one of the hackeysacks too. He was bouncing it like it was a soccer ball from one knee to the other, on his head, over his head, and then kicking it back again. The little cloth square filled with probably dried peas or who knows what kept bouncing around Edward's form and I couldn't take my eyes away. Well, until Alice caught me and giggled. Then I looked down and blushed.
I wished I didn't because the next thing I heard was a smack. I turned around to see Edward standing there, the hackeysack he had been playing with in his hand and Jasper looking at him. Edward looked to mouth the word "oops" from here but he might have said it. With that, Jasper lunged at Edward.
Alice, right next to me, sighed and sat down on the front porch steps, putting her chin in her hands. I was terrified. What if Jasper hurt my Edward? What if Edward hurt Jasper? I bit my bottom lip, worried. Alice just sighed again, exasperated. "They'll be fine, Bella. They are just being boys," she told me, clearly annoyed but not worried. She patted the step next to her and I sat down.
"You'd think after sixty years of this they might actually get bored of trying to antagonize each other," Alice muttered before turning to me. "Once they are done fighting," she started before turning to the white blurry cloud of the two wrestling in the front lawn. I wonder if they'll put the lawn back together before Esme or Carlisle sees it…. "And not breaking the throwing game!" she shouted at the wrestling pair only to turn back to me and shake her head. "Then I'd like for you to try it, okay?" she asked sweetly.
"Alice, you know I can't throw. I'll…break something or destroy something or…," I stammered. Alice cut me off.
"Isabella Marie, I've already seen it and you'll do no such thing," Alice stated; it was rather weird to hear that much authority coming out of such a little person.
"Fine," I sighed. "But if you've already seen it, then why do I have too…" I started when Alice suddenly grabbed my hand to pull me up.
"Come on, they're finished being boys," Alice told me. She pulled me towards where they had just been wrestling. The yard was a little bit messed up but not nearly as bad as yesterday.
Alice bounced over to them, as both were finishing dusting themselves off. Grass stains were all over Jasper's jeans but I couldn't see any on Edward's since he had on his black denim. "I got her away from Esme and Carlisle for exactly 32 more minutes," Alice said happily.
Edward looked up and smiled at me. "Hello, Love," his velvety voice said just above a whisper as he walked over to me. "Hi," I said back, my own voice sounding a bit raspy to my ears.
"Do you two mind?" I heard Jasper grumble near us. I turned to look at him, wondering what the heck he was talking about until I felt Edward smirking for two feet away. Oh yeah, that whole emotional thing. Got it. I blushed again, not sure if my previous blush ever went away.
"Bella's going to help us figure out the right distance for this game," Alice chirped. I groaned.
"Bella," Alice warned.
Edward smirked again. "Don't worry, Love," he said as he began to toss a hackeysack back and forth from one hand to the other. "I doubt even you could hurt anything around here with a hackeysack," he told me smiling.
My eyes narrowed at him and I gazed past him at the surrounding forest. "I don't know. Are there any birds around?" I asked. Jasper and Edward both laughed at that.
Alice, on the other hand, clearly exasperated, went and grabbed one of the hackeysacks from an old wooden bucket nearby. "Just try it, Bella," she told me.
I took the seemingly innocent looking square of yellow calico cloth that looked oddly familiar and felt a little off. What had they put in these things? I trudged up to the board and stood where I guessed twenty feet was from the board.
Now that I was closer I could see the board clearly. The board had a clown painted on it holding two balloons. A small hole, just slightly bigger than the hackeysack, was where the clown's mouth was. Other holes, getting bigger as you got out from the center of the board –the mouth-, were placed randomly around the clown. One was through his hat, another through the balloons. I looked at the clown and blinked. "Umm, guys?" I asked and turned around to face them. "Is that supposed to be It?" I asked. I remembered It the clown from when my Mom had been in a Stephen King phase when I was about 7 or 8. I'm probably the only kid that didn't find the clown the least bit scary.
"Why? What's the matter with the game?" Jasper asked.
"I copied it exactly from the internet!" Alice complained. Edward just looked at me curious.
"Which site on the internet Alice?" I asked, curious. Something told me it probably was a Halloween or Friday the 13th site that was devoted to "scary" haunted houses.
"It was just someone's blog and they said they made this for a festival in their town and that it was really popular. Why?" Alice asked. The other two were also growing in their curiosity.
"When was the blog entry dated, Alice?" I asked.
"November 2, 2006. Why is that important?" she demanded, growing impatient. Jasper moved to put an arm around his wife, a slight smile to his face. He must have been reading my amused mood and guessed that something was really funny about all this.
"Alice…." I sighed. "November 2? Two days after Halloween? I bet that was a Halloween Festival," I told them before looking back at the board. Yeap, definitely It. I really want to add speakers to it and have random phrases come out through the board like "We all float down here!" …but that wouldn't help Edward and Alice out at all given that most of the student body is already scared of them. Making them terrified wouldn't help much.
Alice looked at me for a second. "Wait, is that supposed to be scary?" she asked, pointing to the board.
"Yeah, it's It," I told them, again. All three vampires looked confused. "You know? Stephen King? It?" I asked.
Some hint of realization came across their faces. "I don't remember him being quite that descriptive," Edward mused as he gazed between me and the board.
"He wasn't, I don't think," Jasper agreed, pinching his chin in thought as he looked at the board too.
"No, no," I sighed, getting slightly frustrated. I know they watched TV. We were all watching Battlestar Gallatica just last Friday! All three eyes immediately returned to me. "The movie! Didn't you ever see the movie?" I asked them.
"No," all three answered at various times.
"That looks exactly like the movie clown. That's probably why it was popular at what was most likely a Halloween festival. You'd get to throw stuff at It," I told them. Realization dawned on all their faces. Edward bit back laughter, Jasper looked amused, and Alice's little mouth formed a small "o".
I looked at the board again. "I remember when I saw it at Megan Bedell's 10th birthday party sleep over," I mused out loud, not really meaning too. Megan had allowed me to pick a movie and I loved It because I thought it was funny. A serial killer clown that tricked kids into going into the sewers? Sewers were wet and gross and I didn't understand why anyone wouldn't immediately run to their Mom at the time and tell her that some guy was in the sewer outside trying to lure them down. It seemed stupid which made it funny, to me. Apparently, not so to the rest of my fifth grade class at the time. Two of the girls had to go to "counseling" for the next couple of months and everyone else had nightmares for a while afterwards. When the school counselor asked me about it, I told him I exactly what I thought about it. He didn't bother me much after that.
Edward slipped his arms around me. "Was the movie frightening?" he asked me, kissing me on my temple.
"Huh? Oh ummm…no. I was the one that picked it out," I muttered, remembering the whole ordeal. Few of the girls would speak to me after that.
Edward stood perfectly still, his arms wrapped around me. Jasper was trying to hold back a laugh and failing miserably. Alice just looked at me. "If it's that scary, why did you want to watch it?" she asked.
"Well, I didn't find it scary," I muttered. "Just everyone else did."
That's it. Jasper lost it and started to laugh. "Of course you wouldn't," he said between laughter. Edward growled lightly at his brother.
Alice sighed again and walked over to the board. "I'll repaint it with something else," she said.
"Yes, something that won't start the Addams Family jokes, please," Edward teased lightly. Alice growled at him.
"What's the matter with the game, guys?" I heard Emmett say as both he and Rosalie walked over. I smiled at both of them.
"Bella says the game is too scary," Jasper informed him, most of the traces of laughter gone from his voice.
"Aww, Bella, scared of clowns?" Emmett grinned.
"No, Emmett. I didn't think the game was too scary for me. But everyone else might have a problem with a painting of Stephen King's It for the stupid fair," I informed him from the safety of Edward's arms. I watched as Alice carried the board away to the back of the house to repaint it. I wonder what she would paint over it. Maybe I should double check it. I don't want her to mistake Jason for a hockey player or something….
"Stephen King?" Emmett asked, now looking more confused than amused. "Like that guy that writes all those horror novels and all?" he asked.
"Yeah, those things you never read," Jasper teased which got Emmett to charge him …which involved another wrestling match on the front lawn. Edward quickly pulled me back a few dozen yards so I'd stay out of the way.
Rosalie rolled her eyes at her husband and walked over to me and Edward. "The clown looks like the one from the book?" she asked, curious.
"I'm not sure about the book but he looked like the one in the movie. It really frightened all the other girls in my fifth grade class," I told her with a shrug. No need to mention how Alyssa and Christy went through two months of counseling because of the movie I picked out.
Rosalie raised her eyebrow at that. "And not you?" she asked. I sighed. It figured. I didn't have to have Edward's ability to know what they were all thinking. Of course it wouldn't scare me, as far as they could tell, nothing scared me…except for Edward leaving. The possibility of that terrified me to no end.
I felt Edward kiss the top of my head. I was safe. Edward was here with me and so was the rest of his family. Nothing else mattered other than that. Not the Volturi, Victoria, the newborns, Lauren, or this stupid cakewalk. All that mattered was I had my family here.
"No, I thought it was…funny," I muttered, looking down, my arms automatically covering Edward's. I could almost hear Rosalie roll her eyes. I did hear Emmett laugh while still fighting with Jasper.
"Funny?" Edward asked, gently letting me go. He was suddenly looking at me, curious again. I shrugged.
"Bella," he warned. He didn't like when I didn't answer his questions given that he couldn't just snatch the answer from my mind unlike everyone else. Rosalie stood there, curious too I guess. I looked back down at my shoes, a blush starting to creep up.
I knew it was hopeless not to say anything. Edward would just dazzle the answer out of me anyway so I spoke up. "It just seemed ridiculous to me," I started. Edward pulled my chin up so I could face them. Emmett and Jasper had finished fighting now and joined the semi circle around me. I sighed again.
"I mean, what kind of kid would even think of going down into some cold, wet, gross sewer because some clown lived down there? Why didn't the kids just run away?" I told them. None of them said anything for a couple of seconds. Then Emmett burst into hysterical laughter, followed by Jasper and even my Edward. Rosalie shook her head and smiled at me.
Alice came back over at that point and looked at everyone. "What's so funny?" she asked.
"Bella!" Emmett said between fits of laughter. I huffed at that. Yes, yes, it's perfectly hilarious that the person that spends most of her time around blood drinking vampires or, sometimes, around werewolves, doesn't get why the kids didn't just runaway from the clown. After all, isn't that what Edward always expects me to do? Run away from his family, screaming? Of course, that won't happen, ever. I loved Edward too much. I'd much rather die than ever be without him again.
Alice smirked. "Come on, Bella. I need to make sure that the picture I'm going to do for the game is okay this time," she told me, taking my hand and leading me up to the house. Edward followed a hackeysack back in his hand as he tossed it back and forth lightly.
Even with Alice's grip on my hand, I still managed to trip on the top porch stair. Edward caught me, an arm around my waist. "Really, Bella," he teased. Once I was upright again, he kissed me on my forehead. Alice then continued to lead me into the house and over to the computer.
"Now, I thought about just doing all balloons since I think those are safe but they don't look nearly as fun as painting a face so who do you think we should paint?" Alice asked as she sat down at the computer.
"We?" I asked, worried. I wasn't exactly good at painting. I wasn't bad but I knew better than to ruin Alice's hard work.
"Me and Edward, Bella," she said, exasperated. "Now, who do you think we should try to paint?" she asked again.
"Ummm, Voldemort?" I more asked than answered. It was the first thing that popped into my head. After all, they needed someone that people would want to hit but not someone that might have been responsible for childhood traumas for a good portion of the high school.
"Voldemort? Isn't he supposed to be scary, Love?" Edward asked as Alice typed something into the computer.
"Well, yeah, but he's not terrifying like It was," I tried to explain.
Alice closed her eyes and reopened them a few seconds later. Edward nodded at her. I guess Alice had a vision and Edward saw it too. "Voldemort it is! Thanks, Bella" Alice told me.
"Sure, sure," I told her. I wondered when the white cake would be done so that Esme and now Carlisle and I could ice it. Or, I guess, put icing on it. From what little I knew, you rolled this type of icing out and laid it on top of the cake. You didn't just slap it on. I still preferred the slap on kind….mistakes weren't nearly as noticeable.
Edward moved closer to me. "Do want to go check on the cake?" he asked, amused.
"Yes, I think it should be done by now," I told him.
"One minute and 13 seconds," Alice piped up. We both just looked at her but she ignored us.
Edward took my hand, gently spun me around to face the kitchen and then placed his hand on the small of my back. The only thought going through my head as Edward led me to the kitchen was that I really hoped Esme and Carlisle didn't get upset with me when I would, inevitably, ruin the cake.
Author's Note: So, out of curiostiy, how many of you had nightmares due to the clown, It? :-) I used to watch that and Polterguise for fun when I was like 9. I hoped y'all liked this chapter. More Esme and now Carlisle in the next one!