Disclaimer: I do not own Twilight or a shark ring
Hey again, thanks so much to everyone who reviewed on the last chapter! I forgot how much they made my day XD I was going to wait a bit before posting this but it was already written so I didn't see the point of delaying it anymore. Enjoy :)
Chapter 14: Bananas!
"NO!" Rosalie's face was frozen with a mortified expression, which resembled that of mine and Alice's as we heard the laughter coming from the pool. No ordinary laughter.
"Giggles of pure evil!" Alice smacked her hands over her mouth, flinging open the door of the swimming pool. Aro was perched on Emmett's shoulders in the main pool, an inflated ring in the shape of a shark around his waist, while Jasper was having what seemed like a staring contest with an annoyed-looking Caius. Marcus was draped over Edward's shoulder in the Jacuzzi...asleep.
"Emmy look!" Aro squealed, as he caught sight of us in the doorway.
"What are they doing here!" Rosalie was incensed.
"Their aunt had to get something from the shops and she figured it would be easier to leave them with us, seeing as how good we were with them last time," Jasper sighed, breaking away from Caius' glowering. Just then, Alec walked out of the bathroom and jumped into the pool.
"Oh hey, Alice!" He grinned up at her. I guess the hero worship hadn't worn off yet. Alice smiled back half-heartedly. I hadn't noticed Jane sitting on the elevated platform by the pool, sulking as usual.
"Would you pwease just come in?" Caius was definitely irritated. Then again, when was he not? "It's weally cowld wid the door open."
"Sorry, Caius." I mumbled as we made our way over to the pool.
"Yay, more food!" Aro squeaked.
"What do you mean?" I jerked at the touch of the cool water, so decided not to go in just yet.
"I shark-wider dur!" He rolled his eyes.
"A shark-rider?" Rosalie raised her eyebrows. Emmett shook his head warning her not to question Aro. "Oh, a shark-rider! Of course they exist. What happened to riding dragons?"
"My dwagon's bust 'member? And, sharks are way faster in water. Emmy's my new shark."
"Is he now?" Rose smirked at him.
"Show her how scawy you are, Emmy!"
"Errm...sure." Emmett growled. Rose and I struggled to stifle our giggles.
"You wubbish shark, Emmy." Caius sneered. "Shark's don't woar!"
"They don't?" Aro was starry-eyed at this revelation.
"No, they wip people's heads off." Caius grinned at Aro's terrified expression.
"Hey, Bella! Fancy holding Marcus for a while?" Edward looked at me pleadingly from around Marcus' mop of hair. Could this inhuman being really like me?
"Sure," I slipped into the Jacuzzi beside him almost too eagerly.
"Thanks, Bells." He carefully lifted Marcus from his shoulder and placed him in my hands. The kid didn't stir. It was just then that I noticed Edward was topless. Well, of course he was topless. We were in a swimming pool! I concentrated on the child I was holding to keep me from going insane. I noticed he was looking incredibly nervous as well. I hadn't gotten Edward down as the kind of guy to uncontrollably fidget. He couldn't keep still for a second. With a smirk, I considered whether or not this was to do with me.
"Aren't we meant to keep him awake?" I asked, trying to make conversation.
"I tried, he just keeps dropping off again. It's the warm water." Edward smiled sheepishly. "I was going to take him into the other pool but Caius keeps splashing everyone."
"Can you pwease just take these off!" Caius moaned, perched on the edge of the swimming pool.
"No, I can't take your armbands off," Jasper sighed. "You can't swim."
"I can!" He insisted, trying to bite the orange bands.
"Yeah, right."
"Ugh! Can't you just get me back ones? I hate owange!"
"We don't have any black ones, unfortunately. If you don't want to swim, go sit by Jane." Jasper was losing patience.
"No! Don't sit next to me!" Jane was outraged. Caius stuck his tongue out at her.
"'Kay I bored now." Aro slumped onto Emmett's head.
"What do you want to do then?" Emmett swung him around and let him float on the water awhile.
"Errmm...err...I want...I want to...I want to get out." Aro finally decided.
"But it's only been half an hour..." Alice groaned.
"Can we pwease just go?" Caius stalked off to the bathroom. Alice held her arms out for Marcus. "I guess I'm going to have to give them a shower then."
"You're way better with them than we are," Rose admitted.
"Fine."
"Jeez, kids are so annoying!" Edward laughed, climbing out of the Jacuzzi a few minutes later. The triplets' protestations were loud enough for us all to hear. I waited a little before following him - I didn't want to make out that I was bored so quickly without him. Even though that was obviously true.
"You were no better," Emmett pointed out.
"What's that supposed to mean?"
"I remember when you were four, you were a right pain in the butt." Emmett sprayed water all over Edward as he got out of the pool.
"Oh yeah, and how can you remember that? You're only a year older than me."
"Oh, I remember - it's hard to forget! You were forever moaning and you were so protective it was crazy!"
"Protective?"
"No one was allowed to play with any of your toys..."
"I see nothing's changed then," Alice winked at him, bringing the kids out from the shower. Edward glared at her.
"Yeah, he used to be exactly like Caius."
"Nu-uh!" Caius objected. "Eddie's ginger."
"AUBURN!" Edward's eyes bulged.
"Wuh-ever..."
"See! So similar!" Emmett guffawed. "Aw damn!"
"What is it now?" Edward walked up to the door behind him, Caius on his back.
"Aw damn!" Caius cursed.
"You really need to watch what you say around the kids," Alice scolded. It was raining outside, yet again.
"I love rain." Jane cackled.
"Yeah, well we aren't all the spawn of the devil." Emmett sniggered, running down the pathway towards the cottages.
We decided to pile into number 12 since the adults were in 10 and it would be easier keeping the kids occupied with the Wii again. Alice, Rosalie and I went to shower in my cottage while the boys kept an eye on the kids. Once we were all ready and the kids had been fed some chips, Alice suggested playing a game of 'bananas' to pass the time.
"Not again!" Edward moaned.
"Yeah, you always come up with weird shops none of us have ever heard of before," Emmett added.
"You guys are good with cars!" Alice drew eight columns along three pieces of paper.
"How do you play?" Rosalie asked.
"Well, you've probably played before just under a different name. You have seven categories and someone does the alphabet in their head. Then, for whichever letter they land on, you find something beginning with that for each category."
"What are the categories?"
"Cars, shops, fruits or vegetables, famous people, countries or places, animals and films or TV programmes." Alice named each of the columns, the last one being 'total.' "You get five points if you have something the same as someone else, ten points for something different and twenty points if no one else has an answer but yours is valid. First person to finish shouts 'bananas' and everyone has to stop."
"'Kay I want Rosalie on my team!" Emmett grinned as she sat on the side of his armchair.
"That means I get Jasper!" Alice jumped onto the space on the love seat next to him.
"We'll beat them easy," Edward assured me, shuffling up the three-seater. I guess I was on his team then, not that I was complaining.
"What about us?" Alec frowned.
"Yeah, and us?" Aro looked like he was going to cry.
"Fine, Alec and Jane are on our team," Alice gestured for the twins to sit in front of them. "Rose and Em get Aro and Marcus, so Caius goes with Edward and Bella." I heard Edward curse under his breath. "Stop moaning, you always win anyway so it's only fair you get the smallest team."
"That wasn't what I was complaining about," Edward mumbled as Caius slumped in-between us.
"I wanna do the alphabet!" Emmett sat up.
"As always...start." Alice prompted. "Stop."
"G." He stated and the competition began. Edward needed little help as he scribbled furiously on the paper.
"Famous person?" He looked up at me.
"Errm..."
"Godzilla!" Caius whispered.
"Godzilla's not a person." Edward rolled his eyes.
"Georg Listing," I grinned, before explaining, "Tokio Hotel's bassist."
"Ookay, then." Edward finished within a matter of seconds and he let Caius shout 'bananas.'
"What!" Alice huffed.
"Rules are rules," Edward smirked. "Stop writing."
"Fine," Emmett dropped his pencil in resignation. We proceeded to exchange answers and after spending five minutes explaining to Emmett why a 'guana' was not a bigger version of an 'iguana,' we totalled our first round scores as 75. No one else had an answer for the last category and Alice's team had also picked 'goose' for an animal.
"I'm doing the alphabet next," Jane said flatly. She landed on 'Q', which was typically annoying, but we still managed to get 50 points at the end of it. The inclusion of the triplets had proven to be useful after all because they had an infinite knowledge of children's programmes, though Marcus slept for the majority of the game. To no surprise, our team won by a clear lead – well, Edward won - and Renata arrived at around six to take the kids back to their cottage. The boys settled down to watch some action film they'd rented out from the reception, Alice was baking a few cakes for tomorrow and Rosalie was reapplying her make-up so I decided to go for a walk around the grounds.
The grass had finally dried up from earlier but the smell left by the rain lingered in the breeze as I strolled by the mini-golf course. I curled up again by the oak tree and relished the rare peacefulness; I'd hardly had any time to myself lately and it was nice to leave the surreal world in which my life involved the Cullens for a while to return to normality. The moment reminded me very much of the first night I'd sat here five days ago: the night I had fainted in front of Edward Cullen. It hadn't even been that long - not in the grand scheme of things - yet so much had changed! This time a couple of months ago, I would never have dreamed that such a thing could happen. Ok, maybe I had dreamed it – there were few hypothetical situations I'd had which didn't involve Edward – but not once did I ever believe they could actually exist. I smiled, taking a small, tattered green book out of my jacket pocket. My diary. I'd been re-reading some of my previous entries over the last couple of nights; they amused me greatly. I opened it to a page that had been folded over at the edge.
8th December
Hello, it's me again! Well, of course it's me. Who else would be bothered to write every single day in this god-forsaken thing? Hehe...anyway, today was extremely interesting. More interesting than usual, that is. It was lunchtime and I was wandering the school corridors with Angela, hoping that I might bump into Edward again – no change there. I mean, I know he knows about me now and after that stupid thing in the field he knows what I look like but I can't help it. It's not my fault there is nothing better to do at lunch and come on, there's no way I'm joining mosaic club! Yeah, so we were just heading towards the hall when guess who I should see strolling up with his brother Emmett...yep. He was wearing this black Slipknot T-shirt (-sigh-) and he was all hot and sweaty, fresh from playing rugby. It must have been a pretty full-on game because he was smothered in mud and his hair was all messed-up, just the way I like it!
I grinned to myself as I turned over the page. He did look pretty amazing that day, especially when he did the next part...
So, I just kinda stood there like an idiot gaping at him like I usually do, conveniently forgetting that things had changed now and he waved at me! He – Edward Cullen – put up with the botheration of lifting his right hand as he walked into the changing rooms to wave at me...ME! Then of course, I remembered how the rest of them had humiliated me last week and that Edward knew I was his obsessive stalker so I almost died and Angela had to practically slap me to stop my hyperventilation. But now that I think about it, it's not such a bad thing. For that one moment, I must have crossed his mind and that's enough for me. I must have looked like a complete idiot ogling him like that but I've been more embarrassed before. Anyhow, I should probably go now, gotta get up early in the morning. Not that I mind, I always have something to look forward to nowadays. Oh, and the other big news is that I've found out his middle name is Anthony! Don't ask me how – I have my freakish stalker-y ways! It suits him I guess...Edward Anthony Cullen. It's so...I dunno...gentlemanlike? Anthony. And if you rearrange his initials it makes 'ace'...and he's definitely that. Ok, that had no significance whatsoever. Forget I said that. Anth-ony. Edward –heart-
I'd completely forgotten that was his middle name. "Anthony..." I wondered aloud.
"What?" I slammed my old diary shut and jerked my head around. How long had he been there?
"Errm...nothing," I mumbled. "I said...err...ant on me. I thought...there was an...ant on me. It's...errm...gone now." I laughed nervously, keeping my eyes on my lap. Why did I have to be such a bad liar? Looks like there had been no improvement after all. He must have found this incredibly comical. Edward sat down beside me - a lot closer than expected - without a word. "So, what happened to your movie?"
"I've seen it before," He shrugged. "Got bored. What have you been up to?"
"Nothing really, I just wanted some air." We sat in silence for moment, unsure of what to say. I hadn't felt this uncomfortable around him since the first night either.
"Bella?" I turned to see him looking down at me, eyes intense.
"Yeah?"
"Errm...I was wondering..." He trailed off, staring at his hands again. I decided to wait. "Well, err..." He was biting his lip now. This was definitely not normal behaviour for him. What could be so hard for him to tell me? "Ermm...are you cold?"
"Huh?" I hadn't noticed I was shivering. "Kind of, it's no big deal." Suddenly, my breath caught as I felt his arm wrap around me and he pulled me towards him. His skin was pleasantly warm against me but the contact only helped to increase the goose bumps on my arm. I inhaled deeply, trying to steady my nerves. It wasn't like we hadn't been this close before – I'd fallen asleep on top of him only a couple of days ago – but this time we were a little more conscious. Of course, I was dangerously close to losing that too, especially if I didn't regulate my breathing soon. I realised then that somehow, I'd managed to move so that my head rested on his shoulder. If he'd noticed, he hadn't shown it. Edward just sat there, as serene as ever, never loosening his grip around me. Naturally though, a moment of such serenity in my life was always short-lived. A high-pitched squealing resounded from behind us. Edward immediately let go of me and we spun round so see Alice standing a few metres away.
"Sorry!" She gasped. "It's just that...I thought I saw a duck!"
"A duck?" Edward asked incredulously, helping me up.
"Err...yeah."
"And what would a duck be doing all the way over here?"
"It could have waddled over from the river..." Alice suggested, rather unconvincingly.
"Actually, it has happened," I admitted. "Last year Rose and I opened the door and there were about twenty of them blocking the way – we'd left some old bread outside."
"Yeah, see!" Alice grinned. "It's totally possible."
"Whatever," Edward rolled his eyes, stalking towards the cottages. Alice gave me an apologetic smile and then began bouncing up and down, clapping her hands in glee.
"Come on." I grabbed her hand as we made our way back.
"You'll let me organise your wedding won't you?" She pleaded with me.
"We'll see..." I sighed, then smiled. "But Rose'll want a say too."
"Naturally."
"And I'm not wearing pink."
"Of course."
"Neither are you."
"WHAT!"
"It'll clash with my red cheeks."
"Ah yes."
Okies there's chapter 14, hope you guys liked it. I couldn't resist putting the Volturi back in, sorry XD PLEASE review, i'd love feedback on this chapter - particularly because of all the cheesy (vaguely romantic) stuff lol. I'm not quite sure if I write it effectively enough. I'm about half way through writing the next chapter so I probably won't be able to upload it as quickly as this one, but I've done enough procrastinating so I won't be too long. Thanks for reading!
xx