Chapter 21: Surprise!
Disclaimer: S. Meyer is the proper owner of the Twilight characters. Curro, Paco and friends are mine.
The next day, the last of the vamps was on her way back home. Sam, Paul, Embry and I escorted the ferocious little monster to the airport. We weren't gonna take any chances with her. We all held our breath until the airplane's wheels lifted off the runway.
We eagerly turned, to begin the hike toward our waiting vehicle.
After a few steps, Embry let out a whoop as the air left his lungs. "Man, I've never been so glad to see anyone go in my life. That woman has to be the biggest witch dead or alive. She wouldn't even talk to us—kept counting the chinks between the logs. Can you believe that? We'll have to fumigate the place to get rid of that freakin' vampire stench too!"
"Count yourself lucky," Paul countered. At least she stayed in one spot. That Demitri wore me out. I was chasing his tail practically every hour. He had Jared and me running around the forest like a couple of frightened stags. I got so frazzled, I had to go see Rachel for some horizontal stress relief."
"Hey, watch it—that's my sister you're talking about."
"Oh get real, everybody knows about us. They don't care—do you guys?"
Ever watchful, Sam stepped in. "Maybe we don't care, but Jake does, so show him a little respect."
Shaking his head and rolling his eyes at me, Paul responded. "I don't know what you're getting upset about. Rachel's my imprint. I love her with my whole heart. I'm absolutely nuts about her."
Why couldn't the guy keep stuff about my sister private? You don't see me talking about every little detail of my love life—not that there's that much to tell . . . "Yeah—well, just remember that."
We reached the car ten minutes later and thankfully would be back to La Push in about an hour.
On the way home, I brought up an idea I had for Friday night. The response was very enthusiastic, after all, we wolfboys will find any excuse to party.
The conversation turned to what we were gonna do with our free time now that the pests were gone. I knew what I was gonna do—hit the books hard—no doubt about it. I was tired of waiting for Bella to come back from school every stinkin' day; I wanted to be at the college with her. We could eat lunch together, go to classes together, canoodle between classes together. Sigh . . .
While I was fixing my supper, it finally hit me like a ton of bricks—Jane was gone. Intellectually, I knew it, but I don't think it really registered 'til this very minute. They were all out of our hair forever. I could proceed with my plans for this Friday, uninterrupted.
I got a good night's sleep, and in the AM, called all the pack members to remind them about tonight. You know how guys are—we don't mean to—but yeah, we forget things sometimes. Okay, ya' got me—we forget things—a lot! Anyhow, everything was set. My only task left was to drag Bells over there.
Meanwhile, things at the Cullens were going well. Everyone was feeling safe and blessed tranquility reigned. At 3 o'clock, there was a knock at the door. Esme answered it and a UPS driver was standing there with a huge, flat rectangular box. She thanked the man and brought the package into the house. Curious, she looked at the markings on the carton; there in bold script was the return address of Felix Morelli.
Edward was the first of her family to come downstairs. That was obvious since he was privy to her thoughts even as she was reading the words. Alice, Jasper, Emmett and Rosalie were quick to follow. It wasn't often that they received a mysterious package from Volterra, and they were anxious to see the contents.
They all stood there expectantly as she ripped away the cardboard. Stunned silence hung in the air as Esme uncovered . . . drum roll, please . . . a life sized portrait of their former guest.
Breaking the quiet atmosphere, Emmett guffawed, "Nice likeness, huh?"
Esme turned her head this way and that, scrutinizing the picture—a thoughtful expression playing across her face.
Rosalie looked absolutely appalled. "You're not seriously thinking about hanging that monstrosity in here are you?"
Edward smirked, and nodded his head at Rosalie. Yes—she was—most certainly.
Esme scowled at Rosalie's remark. "It would be rude not to. This is a gift and we wouldn't want to appear ungrateful, would we?"
"I reckon we could leave it out in the garage," Jasper suggested.
"No thank you," Rosalie snapped. "That's my sanctuary out there. You know I like to tinker with my car; that helps me unwind. That awful thing glaring at me all the time would defeat the whole purpose. It would make me nervous!"
Edward couldn't imagine Rosalie ever being nervous—irritated, yes—impatient, sure—but nervous—not on your life.
All eyes slowly passed to Alice.
"Well, don't look at me; I don't see it hanging anywhere—yet." Why did they always think she had all the answers? It was hard being the designated prophetess of the coven.
Esme finally sighed and commented in a tired voice, "I'll find an appropriate spot for it. You can all go back to whatever it was that you were doing."
Emmett wiggled his eyebrows. "Come on, Rose," he whispered as he led her by the hand to their bedroom.
The crowd dispersed and Esme went to work hanging the painting in the game room.
That evening, Esme heard loud laughter and a thumping noise coming from that very room. On investigation, she was amazed to find her family engaged in an inventive activity. They had placed a transparent overlay on top of the portrait. On it was painted a target in permanent marker. Each one of them, in turn, was in the process of throwing darts at the portrait.
Esme's sense of decorum was awakened by the crass nature of this game. "I am so disappointed in this family—especially you, Edward. I would have at least expected more proper behavior from you."
Edward hung his head in shame.
She continued her tirade. "How disrespectful! Felix is a member of the Volturi elite—our governing body, whether we agree with their policies or not.
"I want everybody out of this room, now! And hand me those darts—all of you."
She extended her hand and they placed the darts one by one in it, as they paraded by with their apologies. When the room seemed to be emptied of the perpetrators, she looked around to be sure that there were no prying eyes. Esme stared at the portrait and in one quick movement threw a dart directly at Felix' nose. That one was followed by one to the right ear and another to the left.
As she finished the last shot, Carlisle crept up next to her. He had just arrived home from the hospital. "Whatever are you doing, sweetheart?"
Startled, she whipped around to face him, blocking his view of the painting.
"What's that in your hand?" he asked.
Darn—caught in the act. With lightening speed, she immediately swung her hand behind her back to hide the darts from his view. "Nothing!" she quickly answered. "Let's go to the living room, and tell me about your day." She took his hand with her empty one and led him toward the door. She reached out to the pool table beside her, dropping the darts onto the felt surface. Whew, that was close . . .
So, I was at the Clearwaters'. Bells and I were doing a geography project; getting a feel of the landscape so to speak. All right, so we were letting our hands do a little exploring. We didn't go into any uncharted territory though, if you get my drift; I was already too excited about my surprise tonight. No sense in adding fuel to the fire, right?
I looked over at the clock, and Bells noticed. "Going somewhere," she asked.
I hoped my little white lies wouldn't show in my face. "Yeah, I promised the guys I'd go back to Hanson's Barn. I need to help them clean up the mess The Volturi Three made last Saturday." I tried to look despondent.
"But I hardly got to see you today," she pouted. There was that cute bottom lip again.
"Okay—you want to come with me?" That was a no-brainer.
Her face lit up. "What do you think?"
"Well, don't just stand there. What are we waiting for?" I grabbed her hand pulling her toward the door. "Let's go!"
We drove out to the barn. It was dark, so I got a flashlight out of the glove compartment. I put my arm around Bella's waist to help guide her. The last thing I needed right now was for her to trip over something and fall flat on her face—besides, I loved that little face.
When we arrived at the Barn's entrance, the lights suddenly flicked on, and a swarm of people ran out of hiding, yelling, "Surprise!"
Bella jumped in fright and grabbed hold of me. When she realized what was happening, she tipped her head back, and looked up at me with chocolate eyes that were spilling over with love.
"Happy Birthday, Bells," I said, grinning like a fool. I gave her a big passionate birthday kiss.
The place erupted with applause, hoots and hollers. Bella was red from her neck clear up to her hairline.
"You're such a sneak," she asserted through her tears.
Eric started up the music, and the dance floor began to fill up. Even Charlie and Sue were out there dancing, which I'm sure made Bells happy.
Out of the corner of my eye, I spotted Curro. Who invited him? Don't get me wrong, I really like the guy, and appreciate all he did for me. But jeez, did he have to wear those pants again—you know—the ones that were sprayed-on? He was ruining our women.
He also brought along his band of gypsies—who apparently had no problem getting dance partners. I was surprised there wasn't a stampede of women trying to get to them.
I noticed poor Mike sitting in the corner, seething. He was watching Jessica dancing with Paco—aka, PACMAN—seeing as he devoured all the women in his path. Mike had daggers shooting out of his eyes, heading in Paco's direction. Paco didn't seem to notice though; his attention was obviously focused elsewhere.
Bells actually let me dance with her tonight—she seemed to be enjoying it too. In fact everyone seemed to be having a great time—even Mike, since Paco found another partner.
An hour slipped by, and Eric turned off the music. Curro and his entourage were in the corner warming up their guitars. Then, it was Flamenco Fury all over again.
Each of the men showed off their dance style, to the clapping and guitar strains of their buddies. The men in the audience were astounded; the women went wild. The show lasted half an hour—then Curro and his band of home wreckers had to leave once again for another gig in Sappho. Leah left with them, after wishing Bells a happy birthday and giving her a big hug.
The party ended at around 2:30 AM. Bells and I were ready to collapse, so I left the mess and took Bells home. The pack and I would return tomorrow to clean up the dregs and cart home the musical equipment. It was nice of the vamps to leave us the decorations and the rest of the party stuff. We pretty much put it all to good use. Just goes to show ya', there's a silver lining in almost everything—in this case it was pure gold!
A/N: Well, I couldn't let all the vampire's decorations etc. go to waste, now could I? I think there's only one more chapter to go, and to quote Jasper(or Chad), I'll be calling a calf rope on that one, sad but true. . .