As the cool spring breeze hit me, I threw on my light jacket on my walk from the Studio back towards the dorms. I had spent a large portion of my afternoon craned over my drafting table, working, so I was looking forward to laying horizontally on my comfy bed for a good long while.
It was the middle of the week, and everyone was off doing their own thing, which suited me just fine; I'd had too much on my mind these days anyway. Rosalie's strange behavior was stuck in my head. At this point I was almost sure she at least knew about the Twilight League. What other reason would she have acted the way she did back at Jasper's the other day? And she 'kept stuff' at his place, that much she had admitted to, so the third robe could definitely have been hers.
But then again… her actual words had struck me. "No, just a slight altercation. I almost got in a lot of trouble for—," What? What could have happened to make her not want to live in the same building as League members? What did she almost get in trouble for and with whom?
I'd gone through the possibilities many times, and I'd come to the same conclusion; Rosalie knew, but it was certainly possible that she didn't actually get in.
Or almost didn't get in.
"Bella!" I spun around as I heard Rosalie's voice call out from her red BMW that just pulled up next to be. Speak of the devil…
"Hey Rose!" I walked up to the open driver's side window and leaned down to talk to her, "What's up?"
"Not much," she answered, "I'm going into town now to get a few things I need, and you know how Alice gets mad every time anyone goes near a shop without her, but I can't find her anywhere. Know where she is?"
I shook my head, "Have you called her?"
Rosalie rolled her eyes at me, "No," her voice dripping with sarcasm.
I laughed, "OK, so she's not answering her phone? I don't know, do you want to check the dorms?"
She shook her head, "I checked already. Anyway, I have to go into town and the stores will close in a couple of hours." Rosalie's tone was sounding odd… "Hey!" She said suddenly, "Why don't you come with me?!" The cheeriness in her voice was off … something was up.
I stared at her for a few seconds, trying to read something in her face that would tell me what she was up to.
"Hello? Bella? You awake?"
I nodded, "Yea, listen, thanks Rose, but I'm kinda tired and my back is killing me from hunching over all afternoon."
Rosalie put the car in park and stepped out, her face still holding the unbefitting brightness so uncharacteristic of her usually poised nature. When Rosalie was excited about something, she expressed it in the most gracefully cool way I'd ever seen, she was never this exuberant. Outright excitement was more Alice's domain. "Come on," she said taking my bag. "It'll be fun! And I really don't want to go alone."
Something was up, but I couldn't place it, and truthfully, whatever it was, I was too worn out to care right now. "Rosalie, I'm really not in the mood to go shopping." I said honestly. "Alice is probably having dinner or something."
"No, I checked, she's not at the dining hall either. I can't figure out where she disappeared to." She successfully took my bag from me and threw it into the backseat of her car.
Oh, Alice disappeared again? I thought to myself as I gave in and followed Rosalie to the car, Probably League stuff agai—
Wait a minute. I stopped in my tracks as things began to make sense in my head.
If Alice was unreachable now, then she was undoubtedly doing League stuff, but if Rosalie couldn't find her that meant Rose wasn't in the League.Oh, I was almost sure she was involved in it somehow, I mused to myself as I shrugged and followed Rosalie to the car, walking around to the passenger side door. I could barely get my mind around the thought; Rosalie was not a member of the Twilight League.
So then, the third robe in Jasper's room didn't belong to Rosalie? Then who—
Hold it! My eyes widened as my brain wrapped itself around Rosalie's strange behavior. Let's see, Rosalie is being overly cheery, and she just happens to not know where Alice is, after she almost let something slip last night… This couldn't be a coincidence.
"Bella, are you just going to stand there or are you getting in?" Rosalie called through the open window.
I was still standing outside the car door, but I didn't move to open it. "Rose, what did you say you needed to get?"
She looked at me curiously, "Just a few things I need to pick up."
"Like what?"
"I have a list."
"Which includes?"
She sighed impatiently, but took out a tiny piece of paper from her jeans pocket, "Batteries, ligh—"
"I have batteries at the dorms. Why don't we go get it and then the rest of the stuff we can get tomorrow?" I kept my tone innocent, as I tried to extract more information from her.
Rose's voice was getting a certain edge to it, a sure sign of impatience, "I need a specific kind." She put on the fake cheeriness again, "And it'll be fun! Won't you please come with me?" She asked sweetly.
My spidey-senses were tingling; something was definitely up. Rosalie was never pushy about anything; she was usually astonishingly independent and confident, never needing anyone else to do what she wanted. She could do it herself. So why…?
Unless…
What if Rosalie was in fact in the League and she was just trying to throw me off the track? After what happened at Jasper's the other day, it could definitely be possible… I mean, Jasper and Joshua knew I was onto them by now … and, of course, so did Alice. And it just didn't make sense that Rosalie wasn't in the League, she was strong and determined enough to have completed any mission they threw at her, no matter how difficult it was, plus she certainly did have all the qualities they required in their members.
Something had to have happened while she was pledging … the details of it, I wasn't sure of yet. But Rosalie was in. One way or another, she'd gotten in, and now she was doing their bidding by trying to throw me off the track.
Oh she thinks she's so slick! I thought to myself, hiding a grin. We'll just see about that. "OK, well then I just need to get something at the dorms."
"No, come on Bella," She said suddenly. The smile was suddenly back on her face, "I mean, the stores will close in a couple hours and I want to make sure I leave enough time for everything I'm looking for."
I couldn't be positive about what was going on yet, but I had a good idea. A damn good idea.
All I needed now was proof.
Rosalie seemed to want two things in particular: first she wanted me to stay out of the dorms and second, she wanted to make sure I didn't associate her with anything Alice was doing.
Fine, I thought. I'll play along… but I was sure as hell not going to make this easy. At some point, I would get the truth, of that I was sure. "Fine," I said, getting into the car. "Do you want me to try Alice's cell phone again? Maybe she'll pick up."
Rosalie shrugged, "Sure, but she probably won't answer again. That girl is always disappearing."
Ha! Nice touch, Rose. It seemed I wasn't the only one in need of acting lessons. She was right though, Alice didn't pick up. "So what's Emmett up to tonight?" I asked casually.
"Um…" she said, paying more attention to the road than to me, "I'm not sure. Probably at the gym or something."
"And Jasper?"
She shrugged again, "Probably studying."
"Did you call him?"
"Why would I call him?"
"Because he probably would know where Alice was. Those two are attached at the hip, like you and Emmett are. It's a bit weird that you're not sure what he's up to…" I pondered out loud.
Irritation crept slowly into Rosalie's tone, "I'm not their keeper."
"Did you check Jasper's place?"
"For what?"
"For Alice."
"Oh, yeah, I did."
"So then you did see Jasper."
"What?!"
Choking back a laugh at her easily ignited aggravation, I responded as though nothing was up, "You said he was studying."
"I said he was probably studying. And no, I didn't see him, he wasn't there."
"Where do you think they could be?"
Rosalie sighed out load, her fingers flexing over the steering wheel as I questioned her relentlessly. Sooner or later, she'd have to crack. "I don't know." She said in a deadly whisper, before reaching over and turning up the radio to a high volume.
Like music would stop me. A thought struck me suddenly… if I couldn't trip her up with questions, then I'd annoy the truth out of her,
Oh this was going to be the best shopping trip ever.
I reach over to the radio dial and flipped through the stations, "You don't mind, do you?"
She shook her head, "No, put it on whatever you want."
I switched it to AM and found the perfect station: It was two men talking extremely fast while commenting on a horse race.
"This is what you want to listen to?" She looked at me with an incredulous expression.
"Yes, I like horses… Oh Silver's in the lead! … Now he's not … he's coming back! … Hi-Ho Silver!" I yelled loudly, bouncing uncharacteristically in my seat and turning up the volume to a deafening roar.
But the horse races lasted about fifteen seconds before Rosalie turned it all the way down. "No way." Her voice like a whip, "Something else. Anything else."
I shrugged nonchalantly and flipped through more radio stations. "Oh this is good!" A country song was blaring through the speakers. I recognized the song as one my Dad played for my Mom to get her to laugh, about a man who loved fishing so much he couldn't stop long enough to keep his wife from leaving him. It was the most ridiculous thing I'd ever heard.Perfect!
"You like this?"
"Yea! Its a love story, between a man and his fishing … and the woman who almost got in the way. Well I love her … but I love to fish," I sang along obnoxiously with the lyrics, clutching my hand to my heart, pretending to feel the man's pain as Rosalie sat there in utter disbelief, "But today she met me at the door, said I would have to choose … if I hit that fishin' hole today she'd be packin' all her things and she be gone by noooooon…" and here came the funniest part of the song, "Well I'm gonna miss her … yea, when I get hooome…"
Rose tightened her grip on the steering wheel as I turned up the volume once more. "He chooses fishing over his girl?" She asked, horrified. "That's ridiculous."
I made sure to continue singing completely off key and loudly, masking my laughter. "I'm sure it will hit me when I walk through that door tooonight. Ya I'm gonna miss her- Oh, lookie there, I've got a biiiiiiite."
That last line put Rose over the edge, "Oh, will you just find something normal?!" She snapped, turning the sound back down.
"Oh, you didn't like that?" I asked, cocking my head to the side innocently, "Alright then." I turned back to the radio and switched it until I found a song we both recognized. It was a classic rock station, currently playing Every Rose Has Its Thorn. "Rose, this one's for you! Eeeeevery rose has its thorn," I sang out again, purposely out of key, "eeeevery night has its dawn… Rosalie," I stopped singing and turned to her, suddenly serious.
"Yes Bella." She said shortly, apparently her patience wasn't to be tested now.
"Doyou have a thorn?"
"WHAT?!"
"Well the song says every rose has it's thorn! And you're Rose. Haha! Get it?" I said gallingly before I resumed singing, "eeeeevery cowboy sings his sad, sad song. Come on, Rose, sing along!"
"No. Thank. You." Her voice was drenched in venom. "How about we stop listening to the radio for a while? I have a headache." She turned off the radio.
"Whatever you say," I said happily, ignoring her aggravation. "So where do you think Alice is?" I immediately fired off another round of questions.
"Oh jeez!" Rosalie groaned loudly, throwing her head back in frustration.
