Announcing our engagement was a blur. Of course every one of the Cullen's were excited by the news. Alice began making plans right away for a wedding in the winter. "You'll look absolutely fabulous in a snowy wedding!" She exclaimed proudly. Everyone assured me that it was best to let her have her own way.
Charlie was another story. I forced Edward to tell Charlie even though I was sitting right next to Edward on the couch. I'd never been so scared for my father's health before that day. One minute he was his normal healthy shade of pink and the next he was purple. Edward rushed to get him his favorite beer from the refrigerator and once Charlie calmed down, he appreciated the gesture. Though, I frowned at both of them thinking that alcohol was the cure-all for Charlie's problems.
I left the living room, to start preparing a healthy dinner for Charlie when he started lecturing Edward on taking care of his "baby girl." I kept catching glances from an annoyed Edward since I left him all alone to fend for himself.
My "friends" at school were a whole other issue. We had originally only told Angela and Ben about the engagement, knowing they would keep the secret. However, what we didn't count on was my father saying something to Jessica's mother at the bank. And just like her mother, Jessica had the gift of gab and told everyone at school. After of course she and Lauren told everyone that I must be pregnant. I rolled my eyes at how unoriginal they were.
Those that were happy for me and Edward though, occupied my time enough that I didn't actually realize how much time had passed until our guests started arriving. I was amazed to see the different clans that hated the Volturi enough to come together to witness the fall of Aro and the guard. It would have been such a fascinating sight, except that most of the ones that Rosalie and Emmett recruited drank human blood, and we had to constantly remind them to hunt outside of a 300 mile radius of Forks.
It only took two weeks for all of our guests to show up, the first ones being the Denali's of course. All in all there were a total of twenty vampires that came to join our band. Carlisle spoke with Sam and the elders every other day to inform them of the expansion of our family, hoping that it would help improve relations between us and the pack. I thought it was a false hope.
With our little army compiled, that meant that there was only one more thing to do. Graduation approached Forks High School fast. The entire school population was abuzz with electricity. Despite the recent scandal that my engagement proposed, Jessica and surprisingly Lauren seemed excited to wish me well for life after graduation. Jessica hinted that she would like to be in the wedding. I told her with much certainty that wasn't going to happen. Alice loved the face of confusion and rejection that Jess pouted with for the rest of the week.
Thursday was the dreaded day of the archaic celebration of adulthood. Edward thought it was especially funny that I found graduation archaic even though he's gone through more than me. I guess he was right, after all this was only my first graduation human or vampire.
Last minute preparations were underway of making sure everything was ready for the arrival of the Volturi. Billy assured me that there was some type of playoffs or World Series on t.v. and that it would be easy to lure Charlie to the reservation to keep him safe. I still worried that should the wrong situation occur, the Volturi wouldn't hesitate to take him out, along with everyone on the reservation.
Edward helped me secure tickets to a concert in Port Angelus to give to Ben and Angela. We passed it off to them as graduation tickets, not knowing that besides my father, they were the only humans that I felt the strong need to keep safe.
Alice bought me a black dress that stopped just above my knees for graduation. I protested but it was no use.
"Alice, please tell me in what parallel universe would I even wear this?" I argued.
"The one where you're a vampire and you get to walk gracefully on that stage and get your first diploma."
"Alice, I'm supposed to be Bella Swan, not Bella Cullen. Bella Swan is a clumsy human who trips over everything. She doesn't wear dresses like these or the matching shoes either!"
"Well today you do, and today you will make me proud. Besides, no one will notice if you don't trip today. They'll be too engrossed about the event to care. And besides, it'll look great with what you're getting soon. Trust me." Alice flitted out of the bedroom window before I had a chance to argue another valid point. I loved her dearly, but she was an annoying little pixie.
"Bella, honey?" I had heard Charlie coming up the steps, and opened my bedroom door to greet him before he knocked.
"Yeah dad?"
"Your mother sent these up in place of her not being able to make it today." Renee had found out that she was three months pregnant and didn't want to take a risk by flying. I opened the box that Charlie handed to me, and was surprised to find Grandma Swan's pearl necklace. She had given them to Renee for her wedding to Charlie. After the divorce, he insisted that she keep them for me.
"She wanted to give them to you in person, but you know, obvious reasons." Charlie took the necklace from me and spun me around so that he could put it on me. "There it looks nice with that dress. You look nice Bella."
I smiled thinking of Alice's last comment to me. Never bet against Alice.
I grabbed the yellow gown and cap from my desk and followed Charlie to the police cruiser. Edward agreed with me that we weren't going to push Charlie's heart too far and we would meet at the school. Afterwards, me and Charlie would follow the Cullen's to their house for a quick dinner. Esme was making a simple dinner that would be easy to bring back up. Charlie was suspicious about why I didn't eat.
Emmett and Jasper made bets to which of their wives could puke the most dinner up. Whoever lost the bet, had to pay up $100,000 and couldn't have sex for a month. I suspect that the guys did it to make sure that Rose and Alice didn't skip out on dinner, but what they didn't realize was that Alice and Rose had a plan. To teach them a lesson, Alice was going to let Rose win, allowing Emmett to think he was going to be getting some a month longer than Jasper, but Rose was going to make him sleep outside. Alice was going to keep the money for another shopping spree.
Charlie drove to the school in silence, which I didn't mind. I was much more concerned about tomorrow than graduation. If just one thing went wrong, Forks would be a scene of war. I prayed that would not be the case.
"Chief Swan." Edward greeted when he caught up to us.
"Edward! Congratulations on today. I'm quite sure your parents are proud about today and of course Dartmouth."
"They are sir. And we can't wait till winter break to come home for the wedding." Edward no doubt paid for Dartmouth to accept my application late.
"I understand your father accepted a position at Cambridge University in England."
"Yes sir. Esme and Carlisle are leaving in three weeks. They'll be sure to mention it when you come over for dinner tonight."
"Oh dagnabit, I kind of forgot. My deputy called out, Bella, I'm so sorry. I won't be able to make it to dinner. There will more than likely be a few people that get out of hand with the celebrations and everything."
"It's okay dad. Just remember I won't be home tonight. Me, and Alice, and Rose are doing wedding stuff this weekend." That is if we ever got around to it.
"Edward what are your plans?" Charlie looked at my boy- err fiancé suspiciously.
"I'm going camping with my father and brothers. You should come with us sir. It'll be fun." I looked at Edward like he was crazy.
"No, that's alright. Me and Billy will be fishing in the morning and then we're going to watch the game on his new HDtv." I laughed knowing that Billy bought that t.v. just for tomorrow. What better way to entice Charlie to stay for the game than with high definition. But then again, as long as there was a ball involved, Charlie wouldn't need too much convincing. "Maybe next time though."
I shuddered thinking of my father out in the woods with a bunch of vampires. But then I found the image slightly funny. The thought of four male vampires bonding with one human in the woods, as human as they could manage. There were possibilities.
"Dad, I'm sure it can be arranged one day. It'll do you some good to hang out with Dr. Cullen and Edward. We can pick a weekend before we leave for school. We can get Billy to Tivo the game if there is one that weekend."
Edward's jaw dropped at my suggestion as Charlie considered it. 'Serves you right for suggesting it in the first place.'
"I'll consider it Bells, that's actually a good idea." I smiled into my father's face before he helped me into my robe.
Edward kissed me on the cheek before gliding over to where Mr. Banner directed him to sit for graduation. I grabbed my seat a few chairs down from Jess and looked back towards Angela. I gave her a quick smile before turning back in my chair when the commencement started.
Eric Yorke was our valedictorian and drabbled on about new beginnings and such. I couldn't help be moved, and wondered what emotions I'd be feeling if I was still human. I knew good and well I'd be scared out of my mind knowing that the Volturi were arriving in just a few short hours.
Eric's voice was unusually annoying, now being amplified across the football field, but I didn't let that interrupt me. I closed my eyes and saw my plan working out the way it was designed in the first place. Tomorrow was going to be a piece of cake. I was still nervous though.
My name was called over the speaker and I heard a thunderous applause from the crowd. I looked over to find Charlie sitting next to Billy and Jacob. I was calmed when I saw their faces connect with mine and returned a smile that they each shared with me. I was unclear if they were here to congratulate me, or for appearances for Charlie. At least I knew that if something happened to me, they would watch over Charlie.
After a few words from the Assistant Principal, everyone threw their caps in the air. I hadn't heard the announcement so I just took mine off and watched it drop to the ground.
I rushed over to Angela who was already in an embrace with Ben.
"Bella! Congratulations!" She pulled out of her hug from Ben to give me a hug.
"Thanks, congratulations to the both of you too!" I replied.
"And thank you for those tickets, the seats will be amazing. I wish you and Edward and Alice could come."
"Yeah we were thinking of getting tickets too, but with Alice leaving for school early and Carlisle and Esme leaving for England soon, we wanted to get everything situated for the wedding before we really ran out of time." I couldn't believe how easy lying was getting to be for me. I was starting to get worried about that.
"And besides, I'm not really fond of that band. They use too much guitar." Edward said behind me. He shook Ben's hand and gave Angela a congratulatory kiss on the cheek. "Hopefully we'll be able to see each other before we leave off to school?"
"Yeah we should try to hang out sometime." Angela said before her parents swarmed in on her.
"Yeah, maybe." I whispered, following Edward's lead to my father. The Denali's were standing next to Charlie, carrying on about being family friends with the Cullen's.
"Bella! There's my girl! Did you see Jake and Billy?" Charlie was excited about the graduation more so now that it was over than before.
"Yeah it was awfully nice of them to come see me off."
"Alright now have a good weekend Bells. Have fun." Charlie gave me a hug and a kiss on the forehead before he headed over to the cruiser.
"Love you dad." I called after him and he waved back at me.
"Well I guess I'm all yours. Esme will be disappointed that the food she cooked was for nothing."
"Yeah, but our guests will be able to return from hunting earlier, and she can always wrap the food up, and give it to Charlie. Besides we'll have some work to do with the wolves anyway.
Alice wanted to hunt so it was just me and Edward driving to the Cullen's. I was contemplating the next day. Alice's last vision of the Volturi arriving showed that it was just before noon when they entered the baseball field. That left Charlie plenty of time to get over to the reservation and Angela and Ben were safe from any stray vampires. My plan was going to work, and once the dust settled, the vampires I once loved would be ruined and I wouldn't need to pretend anymore.
A/N: Okay I cleared all of my projects early, and I had plenty of time to write since my internet was down for a bit. My loss is your gain because Chapter 22, 23 and 24 are complete. But I think I'm gonna hold on to them for a bit. 24 may be the last chapter though, so enjoy the rest of the story while you can!!! Don't forget to review, the more you review the faster I would put chapter 23 out. Love you guys!!
Jshai