A/N: Yay, the 2nd chapter of Always With You! Once again, I must warn you of possible OOCness in some characters, and repetitive words and phrases. Very sorry about that!
Oh, and this is not the actual show. This chapter is before that; the scene of the show will be in the next chapter, which I'm working on right now.
Disclaimer: I wouldn't have a disclaimer if I were Stephenie Meyer. But I'm not, so I do. So therefore, these characters are not mine. How sad.
Chapter 2- Impatient Waiting
19 minutes later, thanks to Edward's lunatic driving, we were in Port Angeles.
As soon as we had parked, Alice grabbed my hand and flew out of the car. Of course, I stumbled, being the clumsy human that I was. But yet again, I was saved by the cold arms of Edward. Breathless, I looked up into his twinkling, golden eyes. He smirked down at me.
"Careful, Miss Swan. I'm sure you don't want to fall and break your neck and ruin Alice's grand plans for the day."
As sarcastically as I could (which wasn't very sarcastic, considering that I was drowning in his topaz eyes), I replied, "Thank you, Mr. Cullen. I will most certainly heed your wonderful and sensible advice."
He smirked again as he released me, and then quickly reprimanded Alice on acting more human. I was relieved, to say the least, that Edward was telling Alice to slow down. At least there was one less death situation I'd be stuck in- flying along with an overexcited, running vampire. I beamed. How many times could my angel save me?
But as soon as Edward was done, Alice tugged on my hand again. "Bella," she whined. "We have 5 minutes or we'll be late! And we still need to buy tickets! Hurry!" She began half-dragging me- almost human speed, but not quite- into one of the several identical buildings on the street.
"Wait," I objected. "How do you know this is the right building?"
"Because," Alice replied, rolling her eyes, "that big sign says so." I looked to where she was pointing, and saw a large poster advertising the event right by the door. Oh.
"The Wizard," I muttered. "What an original name for a magician."
Alice ignored me, intent on getting to the ticket booths in time.
Somehow, while I'd been ogling at the poster, the rest of the Cullens had caught up with us at the ticket booths, even while moving humanly. Then suddenly, all other pairs of human eyes- except mine- started staring at us. Or rather, the Cullens.
"Eight adult tickets please," Carlisle swiftly requested of the lady selling tickets. However, she just stood there, wide eyes scanning over everyone in our group. We all saw very clearly when a tiny line appeared between her eyebrows as she looked me over. I blushed, once more embarrassed by my more-than-obvious ordinariness.
But the lady then seemed to remember what she was supposed to be doing, for she finally gave us out tickets, though she moved as if in a trance, eyes, glazed over. I snickered quietly. I knew that feeling very well myself, thanks to one particular male Cullen.
The male Cullen in question swooped me up into his arms as we passed the ticket booths; I was sure my heart skipped many beats. "Bella, I know what you're thinking, and it's not true," he said seriously. "You are beautiful. You just don't see yourself clearly. So please don't go thinking those degrading thoughts." He chuckled, then had to set me down- people were staring. I was sure my face was bright red by now, with his affectionate words.
As Alice rushed us inside, I looked around to see what age group most of the audience belonged to. Although there were many small children, I was pleasantly surprised to see that there were also quite a few adults. Hmm. Maybe we wouldn't stand out that much after all.
How very wrong I was.
It seemed as if every eye were upon us as we walked down the aisle to our seats in the front row. I sighed, knowing that I definitely should be used to this reaction by now...but I wasn't. Even without reading their thoughts like Edward did, I could tell they were all baffled by my presence. I could practically hear it in their minds myself. 7 gorgeous people...1 not- so- gorgeous person. How odd. What's she doing with them? I scowled. It was certainly no fun being considered ugly compared to the Cullens. Edward again, seemed to sense what I was thinking, and wrapped a strong arm around me.
"Bella, you sit here," Alice directed in her bright, vibrant voice. A few people turned to see who was speaking in such a beautiful voice. "And Edward, next to her. I'll sit here, and Jasper..." she continued seating everyone in certain seats.
"Alice, does it matter that much where we sit?" I asked teasingly. But I sat down nonetheless. There was a good view- I could see the entire stage from where I was sitting. Alice had indeed chosen a nice spot for me.
Wait...I suddenly grew suspicious.
"Ok Alice. What'd you do to these seats?" I stood up again, carefully examining mine.
She put on her innocent face, complete with wide, persuasive gold eyes. "What do you mean, Bella? What could I do to them? They're public property. I can't vandalize them or anything," she responded with graceful ease.
Hmm. Good point. It wasn't like she'd put a giant spring under my seat or whatever. But still...there was something in those topaz eyes that made me stop before I sat down again...
"Then what's with the whole seating arrangement? A bystander would think something was up!" Saying this, I quickly moved over to Jasper's seat right before he sat down, and plopped myself in it.
"Hey!" Jasper complained. "That's where I was going to sit! Now where do I go?"
I grinned and pointed towards my original seat. He shrugged, but made no furthur comment as he sat down next to Edward.
"Bella!" Alice glared. "Switch back with Jasper right now! That's where he's supposed to sit! You're supposed to be over there!" She pointed in the general direction of Jasper and Edward.
Hah! Caught! I smiled delightedly, proud of my skills. "Ah ha, so there is something going on around here!" I leaned back, wondering what was going on.
Alice must've then pleaded with Edward (who was sitting in his own seat, trying to suppress his laughter) inside her head, for he turned to me, leaning across Alice's empty seat, and murmured softly in my ear, "Bella, let's not make poor Alice angry now. She's already quite distressed as it is." His cool breath blew across my face as he talked, and only half my brain listened to him. The other half was busy trying to get my lungs to take in air again.
Alice glowered at his words, but said nothing.
Edward's pale eyes stared intently into mine, and I sighed in defeat. There was no hope for me against those golden orbs. As I surrendered, he smirked. He'd known he'd win.
"Cheater," I muttered, still dizzy, as I shifted back into my own seat (Jasper had been patient enough to switch seats with me yet again). "There's not fair play. You can't go dazzling people just for your own benefit."
He laughed. "But it's not just for my benefit. I was doing it for Alice." He grinned, then added thoughtfully, "Although I'd much rather you sit here next to me than over there." He kissed my forehead.
I blushed, and wondered how anyone could have such a strong effect on me.
Just then, Jasper jumped up, and announced, "I'm going to go get some drinks."
There was a silence between our group, in which I'm sure all the rest of our eyebrows were disappearing into our hairlines.
"Uh...you realize that...we don't like soda?" Emmett pointed out, carefully choosing his words, lest other humans hear.
"Oh." Jasper frowned, then declared, "I'll get some popcorn for Bella then!" I tried to insist that I wasn't hungry and didn't want any food, but he ignored me, and strode off, leaving the rest of us in an astonished bewilderment...except Alice.
She was smiling a secretive, evil little smile, and I realized that she knew what Jasper was up to. Then I glanced at Edward. Surely he'd heard Jasper's thoughts, and knew where he was going? But his puzzled expression revealed that he was as mystified as I was. I grinned. Props for Jasper- keeping his thoughts away from Edward. Good for him.
Then, in what seemed like seconds (did time really pass that quickly?) , Jasper was back- but he was carrying a small brown bag that was definitely did not contain popcorn. I looked up at him, suspicious yet again.
Rosalie beat me to the question. "What's in the bag? And that's not a popcorn bag...so where's the popcorn?"
Jasper looked down at the little brown sack he was holding, seeming slightly surprised. "Oh, the popcorn. Huh. Must've forgotten. Sorry Bella," he apologized.
I smiled at him to let him know he was forgiven, rather relieved that he hadn't bought anything for me, but I rolled my eyes in disbelief. He'd forgotten the purpose of his little venture? What were modern vampire's memories coming to? This day was getting stranger by the moment.
I noticed Edward shaking his head slowly next to me. "What's wrong?" I asked, touching his icy face. He looked up, and I could tell from his eyes that he was annoyed- and a little bit frustrated. I immediately began to wonder what I'd done now. Was I annoying him by constantly bothering him? I kept quiet, hoping he'd say what was on his mind...and he did, except it was certainly not what I'd been expecting.
"Jasper's keeping his thoughts from me. He's naming all the men that were in his regiment in the Civil War inside his head... and he only does that when he wants to block me from his mind." He frowned and- I assumed- went back to attempting to read Jasper's thoughts. I debated whether or not to tell him that everyone was entitled to their own privacy, but decided against it, as I recalled how stubborn Edward could get at times.
I jumped as the loudspeaker suddenly came on. "Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls," the announcer began. "Please turn off all cell phones and pagers. Also, no cameras and flash photography are allowed. Remain seated at all times..." I grew restless as the speaker went on about the rules and restrictions. This was beginning to sound like an airplane pilot's speech, for heaven's sake! But then I heard her say, "And now, without further ado, here is ...the Wizard!"
And with much applause, the show began.
A/N: ok. So that's the 2nd chapter. Don't laugh at the cruddy name I decided to name the magician. I'm not that good in the field of magician's names. :P
I desperately need to work on increasing the length of my paragraphs. x(
Please review though! And I'll get the 3rd chapter up as soon as I can! Thanks!
-Ara.
