This chapter is really short, but I have a few chapters backed up, so I'm just gonna post a bunch right now :D
Edward:
Alice burst into the house like a hurricane knocking down the door, and made a beeline to Bella, who was trying to watch TV with a few discarded books tossed around her.
Jasper sensed my confusion as I picked one of the many books off the floor.
She kept trying to read, but got frustrated every time. Eventually she turned on the TV, but she hasn't really been paying attention to it, he explained.
She was paying attention to Alice, now, and honestly, she looked a bit scared. Alice was practically dumping the bags of new clothing onto the sofa and accosting Bella with them.
"I saw that you'd really like this one, if I could convince you to just wear it once," she lied, holding up one of the expensive dresses. "And this one is from Italy! It's technically last season, but it was one of the best things from last season, so I thought you wouldn't mind. And here we have–"
"Alice!" Carlisle cut her off. "Bring it down a notch, you're scaring the girl.
"No I'm not!" Alice protested. She turned to Bella. "Am I scaring you?"
Bella looked like a deer caught in the headlights, and she glanced frantically between Alice, Carlisle, and me.
Alice sighed. "Fine." She dropped most of her many clothing bags on the sofa and said, "Here you go. Put on whatever you like." She could see Bella putting on jeans and a tee shirt again, and she scowled. She took the remaining bags and ran off with them. "Rose! You'll do a fashion show with me, right?! I see you agreeing to it!"
Rosalie met her on the stairs, excited and grinning. It pleased her to no end that Alice was showing a preference for her over the girl, and for the first time, I realized that under all of Rose's anger was insecurity. Everyone was accepting and helping the girl, and Rose felt as though the new sister was overshadowing her place in the family. Sure, it was petty, but I was glad Alice had seen to buy Rose new clothes. She just needed to be reminded that the family cared about her, too.
Hey Edward, Emmett called out, greeting my attention. I turned to acknowledge him. Are the clothes you guys got for Rose hot? He asked excitedly.
I rolled my eyes at him, but nodded.
"Hey, wait up, Rosie! I wanna see this fashion show!" he yelled as be bolted up the stairs and followed the girls into his and Rose's room.
Bella was apprehensively riffling through the clothes Alice had left for her. She looked worried for a while, but the concern vanished from her face when she found something. She pulled out the regular, mid-wash pair of jeans Alice had begrudgingly gotten for her. Then she excitedly dug deeper until she found one of the Prada tee shirts.
With her treasures in hand, she ran off to the bathroom to change. A minute later, she was back. She looked so comfortable in the new clothes, it had almost changed her as a person. Her shoulders weren't trying to close in on themselves, and she was standing straighter. Her expression was relieved, and when she caught me looking at her, she smiled at me like she knew I had been the one to talk Alice into buying her the clothes.
Alice, though upstairs, had been keeping an eye on Bella's clothing choice, and was promising to fix her fashion sense soon enough. I didn't think there was anything wrong with her fashion sense. I thought she looked amazing.
Bella returned to the sofa and stated stuffing the rest of the clothes into the bags Alice had flung them out of. Suddenly, I remembered the books I had gotten for her. I placed these bags on the sofa with the others, and Bella looked up at me warily, perhaps afraid that I had more clothes for her. She looked at the bags and noticed with green pattern on them, and her eyes shot back up to me hopefully.
I smiled at her, and pulled one of the books out of the bag. Wuthering Heights. "I didn't know what you liked, so I just grabbed some of the usual suspects." I held the book out to her. She grabbed it excitedly and examined it for a moment.
She clutched the book to her chest and looked up at me like I was an angel from heaven. "Thank you," she said, and the words were so heartfelt and sincere, I felt like an angel.
I beamed at her, so glad I brought some light into her life. "You're welcome."
Bella immediately dove into the volume I'd delivered to her, and I pulled out the copy of A Midsummer Night's Dream that I'd gotten for her, just so that I could stay on the couch with her, even with the wall of bags between us.
Brace yourselves for the chapter dump!
Also, can I just say, I really didn't like how stuff happened with Rosalie in the books. I know she was being silly and petty, mostly, but you would think that her family would have her back in some measure at least! So that's what I've done here (and it will happen again in later chapters): People being even mildly nice to Rose, and Rose being more open to her family.