Author's note- A little family fun.
Disclaimer- I own nothing of the Twilight series, no copyright infringement is intended.
BPOV
It took me a total of three seconds to scan through every channel available from the satellite dish. Edward was to my left, his nose in a disgustingly fat volume of Latin script. I heard the whirring of vehicles' engines and the tiny pings the rain was making against the windshields as my siblings returned from school. Seconds later a tiny sprite had her arms wrapped tightly around my shoulders.
"Oh, Bella. I'm so so sorry." Alice's eyes were filled with sadness as she peered up at me. "This was my entire fault. I should have been more thoughtful about it…more careful."
I just patted her shoulders lightly and assured her that things were fine. Although on the inside, my heart felt like it was being stabbed with hundreds of needles whenever I thought about it, one for every family who could have lost a child.
"I'll make it up to you!" She sang. I immediately began to dread the next words out of her mouth. "We'll go shopping and you can pick out every single thing that you want!" I practically felt the color drain out of my already pallid face.
"No. No. No." I shook my head in defiance. "Please let my favor be a 'get out of shopping for free' card."
"But Bella…" Alice whined, "Christmas is coming up." I'd already prepared my speech for this situation. Glowing with assurance I relayed my rehearsed debate.
"Alice we have over a month to prepare for that." I retorted, guardedly folding my arms across my chest. I couldn't imagine a nightmare worse than Christmas shopping with Alice…except perhaps a hallway full of children. And at this point? I'd probably relive my first day of school.
"A month isn't nearly enough time for Christmas!" She cried, apparently exasperated. I opened my mouth, preparing the next line when a welcomed ally trotted in.
"Alice leave the poor girl alone, we've all witnessed where your shenanigans leave us." Jasper smirked as he strode into the living room, wrapping an arm around his pouty wife.
"Don't blame me for wanting to buy great presents for my family." She huffed in response. I rolled my eyes and sank further into the couch, becoming engrossed in the mindless reality show on TV.
"You cheat!" Emmett commented as he plowed through the front door. "You like buying presents because you know whether or not people will like them!"
"So?" Alice sneered, a wicked grin in place. "It's still fun to find the item in the first place."
"Cheater, cheater, animal eater." Emmett gasped and burst out laughing at his own immaturity.
"Don't hate me 'cuz you ain't me." Alice returned, complete with an arm circling through the air and a pugnacious jut out of the hip. She then continued to strut from the room. Jasper clapped his hands over his face, shaking his head. My mouth felt open in complete disbelief as I stared at the empty space that my sister had previously filled.
Had she really just said that? Emmett was rolling on the ground, quaking with laughter. Rose walked through the front door and grimaced at her squirming husband before skipping up to their bedroom.
Jasper gave me a sort of worried look and then scurried out to track his wife down.
I'd have to thank Jasper and Emmett later for getting me out of that. Edward twisted his arms around my hips and pulled me down onto his lap. The living area was again empty other than us two, which suited me just fine.
"You're still upset about earlier." He whispered into my ear. Why was he so good at reading me? I sighed loudly and lied.
"No I'm not. I'm fine," I flipped around and saw him scowling at my obvious fib. "Boy scout's honor." I held up my hand and placed another over my heart.
"Don't lie, Bella." Edward persisted, stroking my cheek with his palm. "That crease between your eyebrows has been there all day, and I love you much too greatly to have not noticed it." I cast my gaze downwards, avoiding the warm copper eyes that could make me cry. And I didn't even have tears anymore.
"Bella, this doesn't make you any weaker than the rest of us." He comforted, twirling a piece of my hair with his fingers.
"I could've killed those kids Edward."
"Well we all could have, Bella." A strong finger lifted my chin up and I was forced to meet his smoldering eyes. "But this existence isn't about what could have happened, it's about what did or did not happen." He wrapped his arms around me and pressed up against my chest. "You didn't hurt any of those students, and I don't think you would have."
"Why are we doing this?" Rose exclaimed, rolling her eyes as Jasper and Emmett arm wrestled across her lap.
"Because I thought a family game night would be fun." Esme said softly, placing squares of blank paper and a couple of pens on the center coffee table.
"And what exactly are we going to play?" I asked, staring questioningly at the parchments.
"It's called the paper game," Alice beamed.
"Creative," Edward mused sarcastically, flipping a piece of paper between his fingers.
"Well you can't play anyways-" Alice regarded the gorgeous man behind me.
"What? Why not?" He demanded, his voice apparently flustered.
"Because you would read everything out of people's minds and win, and it wouldn't be fair." She explained stonily. He may be out but that didn't mean he couldn't help me win right?!
"Fine," he huffed, pulling me closer to his chest.
"And no helping Bella." Emmett warned as my husband sighed behind me. So much for my brilliant strategy.
"Okay here's how you play, I'm going to give you a scenario, for example 'one day I looked under the bed and saw a…' and you write how you would finish the scene on a piece of paper." Alice paused and made sure everyone was still following. "And then I'll read them all aloud and we go around in a circle trying to guess who wrote what."
"And if someone guesses yours correctly?" Jasper questioned, now actually seeming interested.
"Then you're out. And if you guess someone correctly then you get to guess again." Alice finished.
"Hm, I've never played this before…it should be fun." Carlisle mused as Alice shuttled out the papers and writing utensils.
"Alright, here's the sentence. I was on a train one day and opened the overhead compartment to put my suitcase up and gasped when I saw…"
Everyone stared into space for a couple moments before beginning to scribble down responses. Edward and I giggled softly as I completed mine and handed the folded piece of paper to Alice.
She cleared her throat loudly after mixing up the pieces and began to read the madlibs.
"I was on a train one day and opened the overhead compartment to put my suitcase up and gasped as I saw…" She unfolded the first piece of paper, "a cop hat," she opened the next, "a lucky rabbit's foot," and the next, "the future, surprise, surprise."
At this Emmett could hardly contain his laughter as he had just been teasing her about the gift. She gave him a steely glare that immediately silenced him and then continued, "a copy of Catcher in the Rye," and read the next, "a plastic pair of fangs," the next said, "the last passenger's suitcase," she sighed and opened the final piece, "Jasper's latest gift, a pair of lead handcuffs."
Even I had a hard time concealing my humored expression as Alice gave each of us the evil eye for that last statement.
"And now we go around in the circle and guess who wrote what, correct?" Esme attempted to cushion the moment a bit.
"Right." Alice growled.
"Alright," Carlisle started, "let's see here, I think that Jasper put in the cop hat." Jasper dismissed that with a shake of the head and the guessing moved over to Rose.
She wore a poorly concealed smirk and a bit of mischief danced in her eyes as we all awaited her guess. I noticed Jasper quietly tense a bit and felt a sudden wave of artificial terror. As I glanced around and noticed that the rest of the family had felt it as well. But Rose's smile begged to differ, only widening after the jolt.
"I think that Jasper gave Alice that pair of handcuffs and also snuck it into the pile." She snapped. Alice gave her an uneasy smile.
"Oh Rose, ha why would you ever think that?" Alice's voice shook a little bit and I saw Jasper shift uncomfortably.
"Don't play dumb! And don't act like the entire house couldn't hear you last night!" Emmett yelled through booming laughs.
A sudden crack of thunder had me cowering as the couch opposite of us was flipped up into the air. Jasper hadn't found the comment as funny as the rest of us had, apparently.
Jasper and Emmett were nearly invisible as they shot around the bottom floor of the house, swinging, punching, kicking, slicing, grappling, and snarling.
"Boys." Esme murmured softly, demandingly. They, however, chose to ignore this particular request.
"Boys!" She screamed. This time they halted, both of their hair standing up at odd angles and their clothes in disarray. "That is enough." She stated flatly and waltzed up the stairs, followed by an amused Carlisle.
"That game was fun." Rose snickered with a small smile on her lips. She gathered up the pens and papers and headed to the unnecessary kitchen.
"Fun, indeed." A rather soured Alice reported from behind a couch cushion. Another smack of thunder and Emmett was through the back door, revenge bent Jasper on his tail.
My stomach ached a bit from all of the laughter, and I couldn't help but wonder…is there any better feeling?
Author's note- Leave some thoughts if you so wish.