Mary's back! Sorry about not updating. Ohkay… So I had Mononucleosis and Cytomegalovirus forever and I, obviously, wasn't feeling that great, which was why I didn't update. Plus I went to Disneyland like two days after I got over it. Forgive me if I can surpass the urge to write while I have a fever.
Most of it is filler, as I needed to get something out, and I wanted to let you know that I wasn't like… dead or something. I don't own.
Ch. 8
Recap: Something was going on here, and I, Isabella Marie Swan, Fourteen-year-old private eye, was going to find out.
I walked down the stairs and into the kitchen, where Alice was peering into her mother-of-pearl compact mirror, messing with her hair, and touching her face.
"Who're you trying to impress?" Alice quickly stuffed her compact mirror back into her pocket and blushed. If you knew Alice, you knew it was pretty hard to embarrass her. I was surprised when she looked up at me and said, "I don't know what you're talking about." I had meant it as a rhetorical question, and she knew it.
"Nobody is coming over that you aren't related to, and the only guy here is –" Oh, land. I didn't know why I hadn't seen it before, I had been through this with Alice before, and I recognized the signs.
"You totally love him!"
"Like I said, no idea what you're talking about…"
"Yeah, sure. Whatever you say, Alice."
"You still don't believe me!" she whined. I feigned innocence and said, "Sure I do, Alice!"
"Bella!" she whined, again.
"Admit it! You like him!"
"Fine! I like him, okay?"
I grinned. "Perfect."
Alice rolled her eyes, but then her expression changed as she asked a question. "You don't suppose…"
"What don't I suppose?"
"Well, he doesn't, like, like me, right?" For some weird Alice-y reason, she looked… hopeful. Like she didn't want him to like her.
"I don't know. Anything's possible, I suppose," I shrugged. "Why?"
"I don't know… I just, if he did, I wouldn't know what to… what to believe."
"What do you mean?"
"I mean… Would he be just lying to me, like to make a fool out of me?"
"What? Alice, you don't really believe that he'd do that! Even if he didn't like you, I'm sure he would let you down slowly, instead of shoving you off the cliff."
"Well, yeah, but I… I don't know!!" she wailed.
I had had enough. Slowly, I walked over to the stairs and yelled, "Jasper! Can you come down here for a moment?"
"Bella!" she hissed into my ear. "What the hell do you think you're doing?"
I shoved her away, and said, "Just wait a second, okay? I'm not going to clue him in, I swear."
At that moment, Jasper came down the stairs and said, "Clue me in on what?"
I glanced at Alice out of the corner of my eye, and saw that she was without an expression.
I stuck my tongue out at Jasper and said, "You very well know that I just said that I wasn't going to say, Jazz." He shrugged, and said, "Ah, well. Worth a shot, right?"
"In your dreams."
"Well, little sister, what do you need?"
I gestured toward the table. "Sit, and I'll ask you." I saw Alice getting up to go into the living room, so I added, "You too." Alice groaned audibly, and so I walked over to where she was standing and whispered in her ear, "Alice, don't worry. I swear you will benefit from this."
"Okay, so what do you guys need?"
"Well, Jazz," I said as I sat down, "We – that is to say, Alice and I – we're kind of having a guy problem."
Jasper mockingly rubbed his chin. "Well, what is the name of this guy?"
I thought for a moment, and said, "His name is… Well, let's call him… Steve." I offered. Steve. What a bland name. (A/N: I love the name Steve. It rocks. xD)
"Steve? Huh… Well, what's wrong, Alice?" he addressed only her.
"Okay, well… This guy is really cute, and considerate, and I like him, like a lot. And I don't know what to do, because I want to ask him if he likes me, but what if he doesn't? I'm like super confused!" Alice wailed, and buried her face in her hands.
Jasper was being all loving again. Unlike some other brothers, he was listening and not… laughing. If I wasn't his sister, I would probably like him, too.
My phone pinged, letting me know I had a text. I opened my phone, to look at who was interrupting me, and I was surprised to found it was Jasper. I opened the text and it read,
Do I know this… "Steve?"
I thought for a minute. Should I tell him? Or would he just… laugh at Alice, like she was so worried about? I shook my head, and then decided that he wouldn't do that.
Well, yeah. He lives inside of you or whatever.
Two minuets later, it pinged again.
Does that mean what I think it means?
If you're thinking that Steve is you, then yes. Do you like her?
No more answering pings came after that. Jasper was talking to Alice, completely unaffected by his newfound information. He was giving her advice, like, "Just be yourself – Steve should be able to get to know you, Alice." He smiled. "Talk to him for more than five consecutive minutes."
They were talking and discussing some other things. I smiled; Alice was already following his advice. She had discovered a lot of things about him that even I did not know. They were discussing first boy/girl friends, and Jasper had said, "You know, I've never really had one…"
Rosalie interjected from up the stairs. I hadn't even known she was in hearing range. "What about that one chick who called you all the time last year?"
Jasper shuddered. "Thanks for the reminder, Rose. Amelia Greene. I picked her books up for her when her arm was broken, and she immediately thought we were 'going out.' I didn't get any time to do homework or anything during that five day period."
Alice raised her eyebrow. "Why didn't you let her go before that?"
He shrugged. "I just thought it would be so… cruel, of me to do that. But then, I had told her, 'Look. If I did like you, I wouldn't be trying to hang up on you all the time. I wouldn't be trying to get out of conversations, I would be starting them. Understand?'" He shuddered again at the memory.
We were talking and laughing together, watching the clock tick on. Finally, somebody knocked on the door. "Oh, crap! Is it that time already?" I said as I stood up to answer the door. But before I got out of the kitchen, Edward and Emmett were already standing in the hall, grinning.
"Way to wait for me, gosh," I muttered.
"What was that, Bella?" Emmett asked, amused.
"Er… Come in?" I offered, shrugging my shoulders.
"Right…"
I stood aside, letting Emmett and Edward through. They both had two liter bottles of soda in their hands.
"What's this?" I asked, raising my eyebrow. Food was to be provided by me.
"Not food, if that's what you're thinking about," Edward teased.
"Obviously. Well, put all your junk on the kitchen counter." I stuck my hand in my pocket to pull out a deck of playing cards.
"SPOONS!" Emmett yelled from the couch. We all laughed. Slowly, everybody migrated their way into the living room, sitting in a large circle on the carpet. Everybody was laughing and talking, mingling. This was one thing that I loved about our two families. Everybody was always welcome to come and talk to one another, no matter whom or what the age difference was. We were all good friends.
Jasper shuffled the cards, and we played.
Two hours later, we were sitting on the floor, laughing. More specifically, laughing at Edward.
We were playing, and I suddenly realized that I had a set of four sixes. So I had grabbed a spoon. (This is how I play it.) And then immediately after that, everyone followed suit. But, Edward didn't know that they were gone, as he was concentrating on getting another four. "Where is that flipping four…" So we were passing cards, staring at him, waiting for him to look up. And then after maybe fifteen minuets, he must have gotten that four, because he looked all excited for a moment. That is, until he looked at the center of the circle.
"Crap! How long have you been doing this to me?"
I teased him, saying, "Is Edward paying attention now?"
He cleared his throat, and stood up. "We should start talking about the lot."
Everyone groaned, except for Rosalie and I. She said, "Edward's right. Now that we have our stuff," she elbowed Alice in the ribs, "we need to get back into the game."
We all got up off of the floor and sat down on the couch.
"So… What's happened?" I asked, and Edward stood up.
"Well… We've made progress. People are starting to notice us, or at least pay more attention."
Jasper said, "Yeah, that's great and everything. But what about action?"
"We're working on that!"
"Yes, but how?"
Edward didn't seem to know.
"I think we need to have a fundraiser," Rosalie said.
"Good idea, Rose. Bake sales are always fun," I said.
"Yeah, but not everybody here can bake…"
"Enough people can. We can get mixes if that's what it comes down to."
"Okay, so that's what we'll do?"
Emmett sunk down in the chair, and Rosalie smacked him on the arm. "Grow up. It's not hard to bake, you know," Emmett rubbed his arm where her arm had hit it. He mumbled, "Easy for you to say…"
"Well… I think that's enough business for today!" Jasper said, clearly relieved. Who knew baking could be such a bad prospect for boys?
Emmett started shuffling the cards again, and I grabbed the spoons.