50 States in Fifty Days
Chapter One- The Suggestion
"Bella, Bella, Bella!" Emmett bounded into the room where I was curled up next to Edward on the bed. I blushed a bright red that a tomato would have envied and sat up.
"Geez, have you ever heard of the word privacy, Emmett?" Edward shot at his brother, putting his arm around me, "You know how Bella is!"
My cheeks attempted to return to their normal color as Emmett made a pouty face. "Nope, that word is not in my personal dictionary", he smiled cheerily.
"That's a shocker…" I replied as I stepped, or rather tripped, over a pile of dirty laundry and landed next to Emmett.
"Oh would you shut up for a second, I've got an idea!"
"Oh no…. not another one of your famous ideas…" I sighed.
"What's that supposed to mean?" He paused, "Oh never mind, I don't care, the point is, this one isn't dangerous… Or it isn't the way I planned it, and I'm sure Edward will take care of anyone who puts you in danger." He pointed to me.
"Emmett, just tell us the idea already!" Alice chirped from her position at the door frame. She dragged him over to the staircase and pointed into the living room. "Everyone's waiting to hear it down there, now go."
I followed, Edward trailing behind with Alice, and sat on the couch, legs crossed, waiting quite impatiently for Emmett to begin one of his devious plans.
He wasted no time, practically yelling, "So, here's what we do. We go to each state in the world and hold a contest pertaining to that state… Like if there was a state that was all about the production of bricks, we would have a contest as who could lift the most bricks or something!"
He smiled, but before anyone could say anything continued, "We go to each state for one day, and if you have time, you are allowed to return here to get extra supplies if needed. Obviously, there will be nothing Bella the human cannot physically do involved in the contests. We will be separated into teams, by couples: Rosalie and I, Jasper and Alice, Bella and Edward, Esme and Carlisle.
"We will travel the states in alphabetical order, starting with Alabama. Now, any questions or positive comments?" He finished with a big exhale of air.
I raised my hand lightly but before I could ask anything, Rosalie cut in.
"That is SO much worse than I thought it would be, Emmett…" She said with her eyebrows raised and one hip cocked.
"Hey, I said positive comments! Now, Bella you had a positive question?" He raised an eyebrow.
I lowered my hand and bit my lip, "Um, a fifty day trip…? That seems a bit long to me…" Hoping Emmett would take my uncertainty seriously.
"Well, you can go by here every now and then if you can travel fast enough, and check in with Charlie. You'll have everything you would have regularly and we'll stay at hotels at nighttime."
I nodded, half-satisfied, assuming someone would turn his idea down like always, and we would go on with our regular lives.
"Well I've got to say you've planned this out a lot, haven't you?" Jasper chuckled.
"Of course! I always do! What do you say, my peoples?"
Alice shrugged, "I'm in. Sounds fun!" Well that wasn't a surprise…
Emmett looked around the room with glee, almost as if he was a six year old in a candy store. I could just imagine him in a beanie with a propeller, holding an over-sized rainbow lollypop. The image in my mind, I nodded, "Okay, I'll do it."
Edward looked at me in shock as Emmett clapped, "Okay, who else, who else???"
Jasper conversed a bit with Alice; It seemed as if a playful argument was going on; Before he smiled, "Alright, alright, I give in."
It was down to Edward, Rosalie, Carlisle, and Esme.
Esme made a motion showing that she and Carlisle were neutral on the subject, and they would wait for Edward and Rosalie's opinions.
Rosalie rolled her eyes and folded her arms, "Whatever…"
Edward looked at me with concern, "Nothing dangerous, Emmett?"
He saluted, "Anyone who does anything that could harm Bella will be disqualified and you will have permission to rip their heads off."
"Oh, I'm soooo scared now…" Jasper said with a playful smile, toying with Edward's short temper.
He growled and faced Emmett once again, "Well, I guess we can give it a try…"
Emmett bounced a little as he ran up the stairs to pack and I half-smiled at Edward, who was grabbing two large suitcases from the closet, one navy blue, and one lime green.
I began to roll the navy case towards the stairs, weakly attempting to heave it up the first step, when it became weightless quite suddenly and I turned around with a smile. "Thanks…"
Edward grinned back and continued up the rest of the steps, rolling the cases into the bedroom.
I threw as many shirts, pants, shorts, ponytail holders, bras, and socks into my bag as I could then pulled on a pair of black converse low-tops and walked into the bathroom almost running into a smiling Edward, already waiting with a bag of my needed grooming supplies. I stood on my tip-toes and lightly kissed him on his frozen lips.
"You ready?" boomed Emmett from the first floor, shaking the entire house.
I jumped, startled, but after recovering, flew down the stairs in a rush not wanting to encourage the wrath of an impatient Emmett.
Carlisle was opening the trunks of our four team cars when I got to the garage; the Jeep for Emmett and Rosalie, the Cadillac Guardian for Esme and Carlisle, the Porsche 911 Turbo for Alice and Jasper, and the Volvo for Edward and I.
Minutes later, everyone was finished, Rosalie the first to speed off, Emmett yelling with his head hanging out of the window, "Bye suckers!!! First state's Alabama, meet you there!"
I groaned, and put myself into the car, settling for a short drive. This was going to be… very interesting.