Thank you Stephenie Meyer for your genius.
I sat there thinking this was going to be a long week. I could see in everyone's eyes how they felt about me. As each one left the room, they came up and either squeezed my shoulder or placed their hand on my face. Edward stayed and pulled me into his arms. How do I prepare to return home? I looked at Edward and asked, "do you think Charlie will... notice? Will it be too much for him? I don't want him to feel shock in his condition." I was really worried. Edward squeezed me tighter and replied "I think Charlie will look right past your physical appearance and just be happy that you are back. He might wonder, but like I told you before, your changes aren't that significant." Normally, I would take that as an insult, but I heard him thinking about how beautiful he thought I was before and now. I didn't feel like arguing.
I turned my head towards him and brought my lips to his. We kissed, gently, sweetly. I opened my eyes to look into his. They were a little darker than usual. We didn't stop to feed on our little drive. Then I sat straight up on the couch with a look of horror on my face. I jumped up and sped to the bathroom in our bedroom. Edward was beside me in a split second. "What's wrong, Bella?" he was really concerned. I was staring into the mirror. My eyes. I completely forgot about my eyes. I don't think I even stopped to look at them since my change. I sighed, a very loud gush of air from lungs. I turned to Edward and asked "but, all those young vampires last spring... their eyes were so... red." I could see the relief wash over Edward's face. He reached over and placed both hands on the sides of my face. He chuckled as he said "I have a theory about that... we got you on our special vegetarian diet so quickly after your change, and you didn't exhibit the normal blood lust that new vampires have, so I think that allowed your eyes to change much faster than usual." For once, I was quite content to deal with my odd self. My brows furrowed as I wondered what it would have looked like at first. Edward knew what I was thinking, so he said "this is what it looked like." I saw a picture of myself, lying in the hospital bed, thrashing around, Jasper and Edward holding me down. My eyes were bright red. My face..." I stopped reading his thoughts. "It didn't last long dear. It was just part of the change. Look at you now." I turned to look in the mirror again. Then I smiled. We had the same the eyes now.
We spent a lot of time hunting. I wanted to be sure that I was very satisfied before we went back. I wasn't worried about wanting to feed on Charlie, or any other human, I just wanted to be able to concentrate on being myself, or my old self. Maybe it wouldn't be so bad. It will just be for the holidays. Then back to school. I laughed as I thought about this charade we had going. I better be prepared if Charlie asks any questions about my classes. As I was thinking about these things, the projector started up in my head. I quickly jumped to side. When I turned my head to look where I had just been standing, Alice stood there with a look of surprise on her face. Then we both started to laugh. "I saw you coming!" I was thrilled. Edward came around the corner to see what all the noise was about. When we told him what happened, he felt even greater awe for my new found gifts. "I would not want to go up against you two, for any reason." I felt a sense of pride as I imagined Alice and I facing a group of murderous, young vampires. They would be no match for us. After I thought that, I stopped to think about that. I'm getting carried away. That isn't me. I don't go looking for fights. I am going to have to keep my thoughts in check. I don't want to be overconfident.
"Bella?" Alice interrupted my internal dialogue. "Here is your class schedule. Here are your grades for this last semester. You are doing very well, I must say. You got straight A's. Even in Fitness for Life. Won't Charlie be pleased?" As soon as the shock passed, I started to laugh. Of course Alice took care of all that. I will still have to look over my classes so I can make up stories about them if I need to. I hate lying to Charlie, but what's the alternative? I looked over my class schedule and started laughing again. She put me in my favorite classes: Anatomy, Physiology, Zoology, English Literature, Calculus, and of course, Fitness for Life, a freshman requirement. I was set. I turned to Alice and hugged her. "I would like to take Charlie a gift. Do you want to go shopping with me?" Boy, I knew how to get Alice excited. I turned to look at Edward, and he just smiled, waving his hand at me to go. I ran up and pecked him on the cheek, then Alice and I were gone. Alice was driving. I was starting to look forward to our visit. The car slowed ever so slightly as a vision came to our minds. Edward had called Carlisle to tell him we were coming. Carlisle told Charlie. He was so happy. We were all together at the hospital on Christmas Day. He loved the gift I gave him. I felt the car turning. Alice just smiled and said "I know where you can find that."