Hmm… another 100+ hits and still not a single review. I know it wasn't the greatest chapter, but I needed to wiggle a few things in there: Poms, Mike, the fact that Em, Jazz, and Ed are on the football team, and I really wanted to heat up Edward and Bella; more of a filler chap really, sorry! So please read and review!!
-And once more… I'm a person who can write, but I don't own Twilight :(
Again I awoke in Edward's arms. The other four had slept in Alice's room, so we were alone. Edward was playing absentmindedly with my hair. When he saw my eyes were open, he grinned.
I kissed him softly. "Good morning."
His reply wasn't as groggy: "Happy Sunday, love," he whispered.
Groaning, I looked at the clock. It was just after nine in the morning. That would explain why I was so tired- a lousy five and a half hours of sleep. As I sat up and stretched, I remembered the geometry homework Miss Mildar had assigned us. I slumped back into the bed just as Edward's hands moved under me.
With me in his arms, he walked down to their kitchen. This morning, I made blueberry pancakes with the leftover berries from the other night's meal. When I was done eating, I got my backpack from Edward's room and started on my homework. Edward and the other four, who had been woken by the smell of the blueberries, did the same.
I came to the last problem in my book and, for some strange reason, I couldn't remember how to calculate the area of a Pythagorean. I looked over to Edward who was reading in the living room a few feet away and yelled, "Edward!" He didn't even glance at me. "Edward, how do you find the area of a Pythagorean?" When he still didn't answer, I screamed even louder, "Damn it, Edward! Help me!"
He started laughing then, so hard he fell off of the couch. After "regaining his cool", he came over, looked at my problem, and wrote the answer in a matter of milliseconds. He walked back to the couch and started reading again.
I stared at him. "What. The. Hell?!"
It didn't take very long for me to need more help on the same problem, but this time, I asked Jasper. The problem took him a few seconds as well, but I said nothing but thanks.
The rest of us (except Edward who had finished his homework in study hall) worked silently for a while. Emmett surprisingly finished next.
"Come on, guys," he whined. "Hurry up."
"What's the rush?" Jasper wondered, not looking up from his history textbook.
"I wanna go downstairs-"Edward cut him off.
"To that shithole? I mean, it's still trashed from the party."
"Oh. Then to my room so we can practice our amazing new band stuff…. Work faster!"
"Yeah," Rosalie agreed. "We all know how long it takes Jasper to warm up his voice." She and Emmett snickered.
"Not true!" Jasper yelled.
"Ugh! That's a lie, Rose," Alice added, defending him. Rose just rolled her eyes.
After I finished my stupid geometry, thanking God that it was the only thing I had left, I walked over to the couch with my book in hand.
Alice looked up. "Bella, that's not what we're reading in Lit."
"I know," I answered. "Sure, we're reading The Tale of Two Cities, but I still want to read another book."
"What is it?"
"Which one?"
"Huh? I mean what you are reading now." she asked, confused.
"Other than that dumb city book, I'm reading Sense and Sensibility and the Cirque Du Freak series." I grinned.
"Again, Bella?" Edward spoke up.
"So I've read the books more than a few times... nothing wrong with that."
"Nerd. Who'd want to read about vampires?" Emmett snorted. I stuck out my tongue and proceeded to read my Jane Austen novel.
At long last, the other three finished and we started up the stairs. We walked to the soundproof music room Esme had installed when Jasper, Emmett and Edward started rocking out, but Emmett always referred to it as his room. His real bedroom was just that, a place for him to sleep and sleep only because of his nonstop drumming.
When Emmett got his new drum set, he put his old one in the music room. Everyone else followed his lead, putting their old but still working instruments in the room. Edward, though, had a nice grand piano and keyboard that was less than a year old in it. There were four microphone stands, and Edward had a mic for each of his pianos. I took one stand and then Jasper and I stood in the corner, not wanting to be seen or heard.
"Okay, remember what Lori taught us," Jasper said quietly. "Cowboy on a fire truck, bobsled, and swingy talk." Lori was our voice teacher; we took a half hour lesson back to back so we just had the other sit through them.
"Rose and Alice should warm up too," I thought out loud. "Do you just want to have everyone do this?"
He sighed. "Sure."
"All rightey then," I said, clapping my hands and pushing Jasper to the front and center of the room. They looked at us but said nothing. "Warm ups. Now." They set down their instruments, Emmett getting off of his, and walked to stand in front of us.
Jasper looked at me to continue. "We're starting with shaking it out. You can't sing, or play, with a tight and stressed body or voice. Good. Um now, stretch your arms up and bend over and touch your toes. And slowly uncurl." I looked at all the faces and decided to explain how to do the swingy talk.
I sighed. "Okay, um, swingy talk is talking in your head voice. This is your head voice…" I demonstrated it. "And this is your chest voice…. We're breaking the barrier so repeat after me: my, what a beautiful day it is. I had fun last night." We only did that for a minute because it honestly wasn't the most important one. "Do you want to skip the bobsled and fire engine?" I asked Jasper. He nodded.
"The sport?" Emmett asked.
"No," I responded, laughing a little. I showed them what it was, and they looked at me in shock. "Yeah, that's why we didn't do it." I was drawing a blank then, not remembering anything else.
"The diaphragm," Jasper recalled. "It supports you in breathing when you sing. The longer you can hold it, the more air you get." He poked right below his ribcage, showing where it was, and said that that's where the diaphragm is located. "If you practice every day and sing a lot, like me and Bella, it should be rock hard." Mine was, his was, but our teacher's was freakishly solid- she'd let us touch it before.
"Can I feel it?" Alice asked in a sultry voice. I giggled but she walked over and poked him in the diaphragm. "Oh my God. It's tougher than Emmett's abs!"
"There's no way." Rosalie shook her head and came over to poke mine; honestly this was getting kind of weird. "Holy chicken nuggets, it is!"
"Told ya."
"Enough of the belly poking," I snapped, but laughed. "So we're all going to have, I guess you would call it a popcorn conversation. Find your diaphragm, toughen it, and poke it consistently. I'll time you- we can all say whatever we like, just don't try to make it too long, and all the while you diaphragm has to be tightened." It was easy for us, but probably a lot tougher for the others.
Alice was begging to start, so we let her. "So, like, I could shop forever and ever and ever and ever and ever and ever and ever." She stopped when I gave her a look. "But shopping is my life and it just makes who I really am. And, like, Jamba Juice is amazing too! Ah, I could get a Caribbean Passion every single day, but then I'd probably get sick of it. Dang it! Okay, the diaphragm just… all right. I'm good again." She sighed and nodded for Rose to start.
We went around in order for just over five minutes. That was pretty good for their first time.
"Edward," I said. "We need you to do the piano warm ups for us. The Louis- Louis and me-ah. Please and thank you." He walked over to the keyboard and we followed him. I'd had him practice them with me so he knew exactly what to do. He placed his hands in the middle C whatever the heck it is position and started.
Jasper and I went in harmony. "Louis, Louis, Louis, Louis, Louis." we sang. Edward sped up and went to lower keys and we were technically moving all over the keyboard at different speeds. Jasper showed the others how and we all practiced it for a minute.
"And then this is how you do the me-ah one." It was similar to Louis- Louis but ranged their vocals more. "Me- ah, me- ah, me." Edward moved up. Strangely, everyone got that warm up to pitch perfection.
"Okay. Now we can practice."
"Yes!" Emmett jumped in the air and fist pumped.
"Uh, guys?" Edward laughed once. "We don't have any songs."
"Well then, we could just play a Lion-"I started.
"NO!" They yelled.
"Fine," I scoffed playfully.
"What about a Beatles song? Maybe Let It Be?" Emmett asked. "Can everyone play- slash- sing that?" We nodded.
"But it's so old," Rosalie complained. We looked at her so she let it drop. She snapped her fingers impatiently. "Alice, you and I can sing the chorus- Bella, you, all of it. Edward, go." He moved to his grand piano from the keyboard.
"Wait!" I exclaimed suddenly. I ran to Edward's room, got my guitar, and made it back. Everyone was staring at me. I shrugged and said, "Edward, play your piano, man." He went and as I started singing, I strummed my acoustic guitar.
When the time came, Jasper did the electric guitar solo to perfection.
"Let it be, let it be," I sang. "Whisper words of wisdom, let it be." The song ended, sadly. Edward kept playing, but it was a different song.
I smiled. "Hey Jude, don't make it bad. Take a sad song, and make it better. Remember to let her into your heat. Then you can start to make it better." Sure, the song was seven minutes long, but hey, it's fun. I took my guitar slowly off my shoulder, pulled the mic from its stand, and sat down on Edward's piano bench next to him. Alice grabbed a tambourine and started tapping it on her side, making us sound just like the Beatles. It was pretty cool, actually.
They all joined in when it got to my personal favorite part: "Ohhh! Na na na na, hey Jude. Na… na… na na na na na. Na na na, hey Jude." Emmett covered the extra parts ("Jude, Jude, ah Judey Judey Judey Judey. Ow!")
Flipping the switch on my mic, I grinned and set it in my lap. "Wearesoamzing!" I screamed, forcing the sentence into one word. "But I want to do a faster song."
"Let's stick with the Beatles for now, though," Jasper recommended.
"Lady Madonna anyone?" Edward wondered. He began playing and I grabbed my electric guitar so Jasper could have the bass part, moving back to the microphone stand.
"Sweet idea!" Emmett yelled randomly after we hit the last notes. He sprang up from his drum set and ran to the walls. He grabbed a marker and started writing on the staff lines. The walls looked like a blank sheet of music running all the way around the huge room, and they were dry erase and magnetic, so if you randomly came up with a song it was easy to write it down.
Edward turned away from him and started playing a John Lennon song.
"Imagine there's no heaven, it's easy if you try. No hell below us, above us only sky. Imagine all the people, living for today. Imagine there's no countries, it isn't hard to do. Nothing to kill or die for and no religion, too. Imagine all the people, living life in peace. You may say that I'm a dreamer, but I'm not the only one. I hope someday you'll join us and the world will be as one…."
"Earth to Edward and Bella," Emmett sighed, cutting us off. "There's no time for harmonizing; I'm working on a masterpiece." We rolled our eyes and continued with another song. It skipped around through songs like Love Song and Bohemian Rhapsody. When we began playing the Queen one, Emmett had reached a block.
"Wow," I said sarcastically. "A whole two lines."
"Hey, it's the best he could do with all that noise in the background," Rosalie hissed in the same tone as me.
"Hey, girls, shut it!" Alice was shaking. "I want to play Bohemian Rhapsody like no one else."
"I beg to differ," Edward disagreed.
They finally got their way and we played through numerous songs- ranging from Jump (which Edward played in a mind blowing way on the keyboard) to ABBA. And after a few hours, we were laying on the floor, wondering which songs we could play that we hadn't already.
Almost as if planned, the boys' and my stomach rumbled at the same time. I laughed and stood up.
"I'm going to make some lunch if you don't mind, Edward," I declared knowing that this was his house.
"Be our guest." He flashed his heart- stopping crooked smile.
"Any suggestions?" I need a few ideas.
"Italiano," Alice giggled.
"Um, how about spaghetti?"
"Sure."
We walked down to the kitchen together and that was when we noticed the time. It was already 6:00. At night! Bang goes our lunch plans. I was going to have to make dinner, I guess.
Emmett's hands flew to his head and he screamed, "Oh my God. We missed lunch!" He ran around screaming "Oh my God" for a while, so the rest of us buried our faces in our hands. "Bella!" Emmett stopped abruptly. "You'd better make a lot. I'm going to eat double now."
"Then we'll have a pizza and spaghetti buffet!"
"Jasper, I thought I was the one cooking." Unless he wanted to help….
"We'll help you, love," Edward said sweetly.
"You'd better. At least with the pizza."
"Ohh! Ohh! I have dibs on the rolling of the dough" Emmett was raising his hand like a moron.
I got all the ingredients for the pizza from the pantry and fridge. The boys rolled out the Pillsbury dough while Alice, Rosalie, and I chopped the veggies and sausage and shredded the cheese. I was the only one, besides Edward, who knew how much sauce to put on so we divided the cans up. Emmett wanted to sprinkle the cheese, and he did that next. Alice, Jasper, and Rosalie spread the toppings out over the pizzas. Somehow, all three pizzas managed to fit in the oven. I set the timer and then grabbed a pot for the spaghetti.
"Do you need any more help, Bella?" Edward asked.
"Nope. Go play I Spy while I finish." He rolled his eyes but walked to his bedroom, the two other guys following him. Alice and Rosalie took out the stash of Star magazines from the living room and sat on the tall counter, their legs swinging down a few feet off the floor.
"Ugh. No surprise. Paris Hilton made the Worst Looks of the Week page," Alice scoffed.
"Look at her outfit!" Rose pointed to the heiress and they burst out in hysterical giggles. "It's like she robbed Mary Kate and Phoebe Price at the same time!"
"Boho meets bright pink bubblegum half see-through prom dress." Wow, epic fail!
The boys came out then, with a big Christmasy looking book in Edward's hands. They sat down and opened to the first page. Emmett and Edward were mumbling something about finding a Santa while Jasper started intently at the page.
I shook my head and broke the pasta into the boiling pot of water; I sprinkled some salt in the water before stirring it. Every second, a page would turn, making it mostly silent except for the boys' quiet curses and rejoices and my girlies' hysterical giggles or gasps.
"Damn it!" Jasper yelled suddenly.
"What is it?" I asked.
"We can't find the ant, and we've been looking for like an eternity," Emmett replied.
"Stupid ant!" I laughed.
"Gosh why'd you have to be like that you dumb gay ant?!" Edward freaked. "Just die in a hole for all I care. Dead. In. A-"
"Ooh I found it!" Emmett interrupted. The boys clapped their hands and started cabbage patching.
"Okay, so what are you guys doing? Seriously." I really wanted to know why they had stressed their brains so much.
"I Spy." Edward looked up at me and grinned. I laughed.
I set the parmesan cheese and a bowl of heated sauce out for the pasta and the Cullen's extra large plates. Jasper helped me take the pizzas out and put them on the counter with a knife to cut out the slices. We all put what we wanted on our plates and sat in the living room in front of their 72 inch T.V. How to Loose a Guy in 10 Days was on so we decided to watch that. We laughed a lot and by the end of the movie, almost everyone had nearly choked on their food at least once. Some more than others.
"Oh my freaking God!" Emmett roared. "She named his member Princess Sophia!" We all collapsed on the floor, laughing our heads off.
"All right, peoples," Alice said once we regained our breath. "It's nearly eleven at night and we have school tomorrow."
"To the bedrooms." Emmett pointed his finger at the ceiling and stood up. I walked over to him and winked, giving him our signal. We held our imaginary swords, pointed forward at the staircase in the foyer; we ran straight for the steps screaming "For Narnia!" at the top of our lungs. Again we all fell, laughing. We had way too many inside jokes.
"Emmett, we need to stop watching Disney movies," I said. "For our sake."
He chuckled. "And for Prince Charming's sake, too." I- as well as the rest of the teenagers in the room- gave him a look saying something along the lines of shut the hell up.
"Come on, let's go," Edward grumbled.
"Right," Emmett said in an Irish accent, smirking. "Where are we going?"
"Em, what did we say about quoting Disney-"Rosalie started.
"Ah, ah, ah! That's not a Disney movie. It's Fellowship of the Rings."
"Okay… nothing having to do with Lord of the Rings either."
"Who said that anyway?" Rose wondered.
Edward, Jasper, Emmett's, and my jaw dropped.
"Pip. Pippen. The little red- head hobbit," Jasper retorted, astounded.
"I'm tired and I just want to go to bed," Edward growled.
"Hey, Mr. Grumpy Gills," I said. "You know what you gotta do?"
"I don't know what you gotta do," Edward answered, a smile tugging at his lips.
I sucked in a deep breath. "Just keep swimming, just keep swimming…." And that was when I was tackled by two blonde twins and a spiky haired pixie.
I stood at the kitchen counter, trying to make my breakfast. I sighed and then yelled, "Oh come on! Damn it, you stupid thing! Why the hell can't I open this? OPEN UP YOU JELLY MONSTER!" No one had come to help me so I decided to call for them. "Edward, Emmett, help me open the jelly!" Still nothing. I pulled and hit it and pulled on the seal some more when… yes! It came off. I started doing a happy dance, but tripped on the air and fell. Sighing again, I picked myself up and spread the Smuckers on my toast.
Edward came out then, fully dressed with wet hair. "What did you need, Bella?" he asked.
"You couldn't have come five minutes ago," I huffed angrily.
"I'm sorry, Bella," he apologized. "I was busy."
"Hmm, that's what they all say."
"Hi, Bella," Alice chirped, taking a bite of my toast.
"Alice, I just spent five minutes trying to open the- oh whatever." I slapped my fingers to my head and she flashed me her teeth. I blew her a raspberry in response.
"Mornin' everybody," Jasper said rubbing his sleepy eyes. Rose was right behind him, not saying anything.
"Hey," we moaned, still tired.
"Where's Emmett?" I asked.
"He's still taking a shower," Rosalie answered groggily.
"Mkay. Um, we need to leave in less than ten minutes."
When it was time to leave, we piled into Rosalie's BMW and the boys in Emmett's Jeep.
My homeroom went by fast, but Miss Mildar's and my science classes went by slower than ever. I had no study hall since I decided to take French instead and gym was of course a nightmare- we played volleyball. Lit and history were the most fun because Alice was in both with me, so that made three straight periods with her including lunch. At long last, though, the dismissal bell rang and I nearly ran to my locker. Edward was already there, with his backpack and my locker open.
"What are you doing here?" I asked, putting my books in my locker.
He shrugged. "Mr. Adams let us out early since he had to leave a few minutes before the period ended."
"Lucky," I groaned, rolling my eyes. "In history, we kept going on and on about how the Civil War something or other." I pulled the black messenger bag from my locker and slammed it shut. Edward trailed behind me as I sped to Jasper's locker, which we always met at since his was closest to the door.
"Hey, Bell," Jacob said after stopping me in the hall. "What's the rush?"
"Hi, Jake." He was my father's best friend's son and was a freshman at our school. "Just going to meet some friends. Probably go home and practice."
"Cool. Um, Billy wanted me to ask you if…." Jacob trailed off then, unsure of what to say. "Well, let's just say he doesn't trust me home alone while he's on vacation in Canada- some fishing trip with Harry Clearwater. And he wanted to know if you could take in me and Seth for a day or two after school."
I snorted. Billy was pretty protective of his son, as was Harry. "What's wrong with Leah?" She was Seth Clearwater's older sister.
"Are you kidding me? She refused to do anything but drive us to school in the morning. She's working on some stuff for the Senior Prom with her friends, too, after school and you know Billy about us being alone. At home. Unsupervised."
Laughing, I looked at Edward. He nodded and the three of us walked to Jasper's locker. Edward pulled me to his side, wrapping his arm around my waist. But he always got like that when we hung around other boys, especially Jacob.
"Uh, hello, Jacob," Alice said once we arrived. She and Jasper had been talking when we came up; Emmett and Rosalie were, well, making out. He had her pinned against the lockers and was trailing kisses all over her body.
"I take it it's been a long day for them," I guessed, gesturing at Emmett and Rose. Jasper nodded spastically, probably dying to get out of that zone.
A cell phone went off then, a Linkin Park ringtone, and then I saw Jacob answer it.
"Yeah," he mumbled into it. "We're over at Jasper Hale's locker. It's by the aux gym. 'Kay. See ya." He turned back to us and said Seth was on his way.
When the sandy colored shaggy haired 14- year- old arrived, Rose and Emmett had stopped and Edward had filled the other four in on the plan. We all drove back to Emmett, Edward, and Alice's house, the extra two boys riding in Emmett's Wrangler Jeep.
The original six of us dropped our backpacks and jackets on the mud room floor and walked straight for the music room while the two freshmans timidly sat their stuff down and trailed behind us.
"Okay," I called loudly. "Singers in that corner, musicians in the other. Jasper, um, go over with Emmett and Edward. Girls- with me." Rosalie, Alice, and I did shortened versions of the warm ups and the other corner produced music scales. I picked up my acoustic and strummed it a little bit, preparing myself.
"Any requests?" Jasper asked.
"Beatles again?" Odd, Rosalie had called them old yesterday. She caught my confused look. "Hey, they're songs are fun."
"Get Back is good," Jasper sighed. "Plus, it's one of the only ones I know besides the ones we did yesterday. Electric guitar, Bella?"
"Yeah, I know it. Pretty simple." He looked relieved and picked up his pitch black bass guitar.
"And, Edward, could you play bass C or lower to bass G on the keyboard in a beat?" Edward nodded.
"Cool."
I completely forgot about Jacob and Seth until I spun around to grab my mic and stand. They looked puzzled. I winked and turned just a little bit more so I faced my band. They moved so they could see everyone and sat against the wall. Tiny Alice grabbed her tambourine and one for Rosalie this time, and waited for our signal to begin. I held up one finger to tell them to wait for a second so I could sling my guitar over my shoulder and adjust the microphone.
"Move it!" Emmett bellowed. He clicked his sticks as he counted off. "And 5, 6, 7, 8." He'd always wanted to do that, so we started on his count.
I was too wrapped up being able to sing and play the already challenging song to notice if we did well or not. But I got a pretty good idea after we finished.
Seth and Jacob's mouths were hanging open like idiots when the song ended. It took them a minute before their brains kicked in, but they started clapping hysterically.
"Bravo!" They whistled. "Well done, well done…. Jolly good show!"
"Thanks," I giggled, blushing a little.
"How long have you been practicing?" Seth wondered.
"Since yesterday. But it was, like, eight hours straight."
"Whoa," they said simultaneously.
"You could be a real band." Jake wiggled his eyebrows. "All you need is a record deal."
"Oh that reminds me!" I suddenly exclaimed, making them all jump.
"What?" Rose asked eagerly.
"I was drinking my Sunny D today at lunch and-"
"I am so jealous!" Seth yelled.
I laughed. "Hey, did you know it's not just orange juice?"
"Seriously? What else is in there?"
"Oranges, tangerines, apples, limes, and grapefruits." True fact.
"Oh, shiznets."
I threw my head back and gasped with laughter. "Why shiznits?"
"Because. My theory is officially wrong." Seth looked upset, but still hilarious at the same time.
"And what's your theory?"
"That Sunny D was pure oranges."
"Oh."
"Bella," Edward interrupted. "What about your Sunny D today having to do with bands or something?"
"Right! Well there's this contest to see who has the best band. It's next year, but still. Steven Tyler, Jon Bon Jovi, and a few other band members will be there to judge the bands. The winners will win a record deal and a sponsor- officially becoming a famous band. And they'll get to perform with Linkin Park."
"That's my ringtone and-" Jacob yelled, jumping up and down.
"Yes, we know," I sighed.
"But, but listen…. It's Papercut so-"
I cut him off again. "Jake, don't pull something. Chill. And that song is from 2000."
"I know. It just doesn't get old."
"Wow."
"But oh my God!" They all yelled. I mean, everyone at the same time yelled this. They seemed to have ignored mine and Jacob's little conversation.
"I think we should enter," Alice said, ecstatic.
"Do you need a manager? To make the band even cooler and for special effects- like shirts and stuff? 'Cause I could totally hook you guys up with none other than the great… me!" Seth smiled.
"I like the way this kid's mind works," Emmett said, pointing at Seth with his thumb.
"What about me?" Jacob looked sarcastically offended.
Emmett brushed him off in a playful manner. "I already know how you mind works."
"So are we entering?" I asked, barely containing my excitement.
"Well if we don't, I think we'd lose the greatest opportunity of our lives," Jasper answered.
I smiled. It was impossible, how amazing my life was. Little did I know, it could turn around within the blink of an eye.
Whoa… that was really hard and really fun to write. OMG AND WHO ELSE SAW THE TWILIGHT MOVIE?!?! Well, wait okay. Yeah I know you probably all saw it. But when you review tell me what you thought of it!!! *waits eagerly for peoples to click that amazing review button thingy* CLICK IT!!.. Please? *pouts like a puppy that puts Nessie AND Jake to shame* That took me a long time to write and it made me put a lot of effort into it.
~Emileigh