A/N: Sorry it took so long...but I think this is one of my longest chapters! Enjoy
Disclaimer: Twilight and its characters belong to Stephenie Meyer
You don't know how glad I was that it was summer. I mean, going to school was such a normal thing, and staying up all night and then trying to keep a normal conversation going with Mike or Jessica was extremely hard. It felt as if I had to two lives. But luckily, it was summer, which is also good for vampires since then not many people see them with their radiant skin.
Today, the Cullens family made a plan to drive down to Oregon, just outside the border of Washington. There is a lake there, which is very deep, so no one goes in it. That is, except for us vampires. It is very secluded and right off of Nehalem River. So, as the Cullens started hauling their bags into Emmett's huge jeep, I wasn't surprised to see Rosalie carrying four bags for herself. We were only going for two days, but she somehow managed to find four bags-worth of clothing. Wow!
Of course, I had insisted in only bringing one small suitcase with about three outfits, but Alice insisted in at least two suitcases. So, yesterday we went shopping. Actually, we wouldn't be the right term. Alice did most of the shopping as I stood behind her, making sure there was no going into that horrible Cops and Robbers store. She had bought two swimsuits, three new shorts, and two new sunglasses. Which would have been at an okay price at Target, but we went to all designer stores. My swimsuits: from Juicy Couture, my shorts: from Abercrombie and Fitch, and one of my sunglasses from Chanel, the other from Gucci. The receipt overwhelmed me as we came out of each store. And each time, I had told her this was unnecessary, but she didn't take it.
Edward hadn't come with me, which was a disappointment. But the thing that had bothered me most was what Rosalie had said:
It was the day before we were going to the lake, and this was the day Alice decided we should go shopping. And to not be rude at all (and a hopeless attempt to be friends with her) I offered to ask Rosalie to come.
"Don't you think it would be fun?" I giggled in a fake way to Alice. She didn't know me well enough to see my fakeness. We both walked over to her room and knocked on the door.
"Who is there?" Rosalie's beautiful voice called.
"Me!" Alice said and stepped inside the room. I had stayed at the door, not wanting to intrude on her.
"What do you want?" I had heard Rosalie's mean voice ask Alice.
"Bella and I were wondering if you'd like to come to the mall with us? Bella needs some new clothes, seriously!" She giggled; I could see she had been trying to get Rosalie to get into the girly mode also.
"No, are you kidding me?" Rosalie said in a clear voice. She wasn't even whispering! "I would never go anywhere with that…that…" She trailed off, trying to find a suitable name to call me. That was when I had stepped into view, hoping not to hear the rest of Rosalie's explanation.
"No." Rosalie said finally, giving me a look that had made a shiver go up my spine.
"Rose, you don't have to be so…" Alice had started, but saw that she wasn't paying attention. Rosalie had gone back to sitting in front of a mirror, looking at her flawless skin.
"Come on, Bella, it'll be fun with just us!" Alice said excitedly and pulled me out of Rosalie's room.
That had made me so mad, that I thought I was going to go up to her and scream. But I hadn't, of course. When Edward had asked me what was wrong, I had said nothing. He had obviously heard Rosalie's mind when she was talking about me and wondered what I had done to set her off. And for that matter, I had no idea. What had I done? Hadn't she been jealous that I was human and she was not? Now that I'm vampire, all hate and resent should be gone, but maybe there is more? Maybe Rosalie had kept it out of her mind, hiding it from Edward. The only thing was, how was I going to find out what she was hiding…
---0---
As I sat in Edward's lap, bouncing up and down as Emmett took us on some unpaved back road to the lake, I looked at the window, not seeing the familiar glowing green of Forks. Now, there was rock and dust everywhere. Alice was on Jasper's lap on our right, and Carlisle and Esme where sitting next to each other, on our left. And the funny thing was, we were not uncomfortable at all. This car had so much room, it was hard to believe!
After much bickering, Rosalie had managed to get a seat in the passenger side, next to her husband. I looked at the back of her head, her golden hair falling gracefully over her shoulder. I felt a pang of jealousy, but that feeling was soon rode away once I heard Edward's voice near my ear.
"We're almost there." He informed me, snuggling me closer to his body. I leaned back, making our faces right next to each other.
"I love you." He whispered so quietly, I wasn't sure if he said it. I turned to see his face, which had a small, impish grin on it. I chuckled.
"Me, too." I said and kissed him on the cheek. These next two days would be heaven!
Finally, we got to the lake. It took a second for everyone to unload their luggage into three small cabins that I was guessing they built. Rosalie and Emmett had one cabin, Carlisle and Esme had another, and Alice, Jasper, Edward, and I shared one cabin. It confused me why Rosalie got her own cabin, but I really don't care right now. The beauty of the lake was amazing. It wasn't too big, but when I looked down, I couldn't see the bottom. Around it was a thick forest with Evergreens and other towering trees.
"It's nice, isn't it?" Edward whispered. We were now on the porch of the cabin, looking out to the lake.
"Yeah, it's amazing." I whispered back. He put his hands around my waste and hugged me from behind. We stood there for what seemed like hours until Alice started calling our names.
"Bella!" Alice screamed.
"I'm right here!" I yelled back, kind of irritated I couldn't spend eternity with Edward and only Edward.
"Oh!" She smiled as she ran lighting fast to the bottom of the stairs, "We are going swimming, come on!" Right then she ran so fast that even my keen eye didn't see her. She jumped into the lake, making a small splash. Then I saw Jasper jump in, making a bigger splash, and then I saw Emmett jump. Now, if I thought Jasper's splash was big, I obviously hadn't seen Emmett's. It seemed that he made the whole lake ripple as he jumped in. Everyone was laughing and that's when I saw Esme and Rosalie sun bathing. I wonder, do vampires get tan? I don't think so, but I would have to ask.
"Go get your bathing suit on, I'll meet you in there." Edward said, nodding toward the lake. I nodded and went into the room, trying to find the suitcase that held my two swimsuits. I found them easily, but then I had to decide which one to wear.
One was light yellow, with red polka dots on it. It made me think of the song that goes, "She wore and itsy bitsy, teeny weenie, yellow polka dot bikini." It was just the normal bikini kind, thankfully not the string bikini one, like Alice had thought I would like. No way! Then my other swimsuit was a dark shade of red. It was much more…sexy…I guess you can say. It was exactly the same style as my other, but the dark red had sparkles all over it and swirls of different shades of red on it. I decided to go with the polka dots. I went to the bathroom (which is totally unneeded in a vampire cabin) and changed.
I came out with a towel on, feeling a bit self-conscience.
"Come on!" Alice motioned toward me. She was splashing water at Edward. And from what I could see, it was impossible that her little hands had made such a big wave over him. My mouth dropped as Edward was drenched with water. How could Alice do that? But then he did the same thing. A HUGE wave, taller than me, started towards Alice. She screamed with joy and shielded her face.
"Bella, are you coming?" Edward asked impatiently, trying to shield the next wave coming from Alice.
"Um…" I said quietly, stepping back onestep towards the door.
"Ugh!" Edward yelled and started running towards me. And even though I have seen Edward's chest numerous times, I was still amazed. His perfect muscles were tight at his stomach. His white skin looked surreal with the image of the lake behind him.
"Bella?" Edward asked, and I noticed he was close to me now.
"Yes?" I asked in a dazed voice.
"Do you want to come in?" Edward asked, I heard the smile in his voice. But I didn't need to hear it since it was plastered hugely on his face.
"Yeah, but…" I said, not sure why I had not wanted to go in the first place. Edward blew all my troubles away. He put his hand on the small of my back and led me to the lake's edge. I dropped my towel slowly and walked into the water. It was warm! Not hot or burning, but a pleasant warmth. I then dived into the lake, not making a splash at all, like the others. When I resurfaced, I heard Edward growling. I spun around and saw him advancing on Emmett, baring his teeth.
"I didn't mean it! I'm sorry!" Emmett pleaded. I wonder what happened…
"Are you ready for some fun?" Alice said behind me. I reluctantly turned around to see her smiling. "Rosalie, Esme, do you want to play?" She said in a normal conversational volume.
"I don't want to." I heard Rosalie whisper to herself. This whole hearing-things-far-away was a very good tool sometimes.
"Of course!" Esme smiled and jumped up, walking human pace into the water. We separated into teams. I was with Edward and Esme and the other team was Emmett, Jasper, and Alice.
"You know what?" Emmett asked loudly to Edward.
"What, Emmett?" Edward replied in a bored tone.
"We are going to beat you! We are going to beat you so bad, it'll be hard to walk!" He yelled and splashed a huge amount of water toward Edward. Edward just shook his head and ran his fingers through his drenched, golden hair. I was starting to not like Emmett's competitive side.
"Hello darling." Edward said, smiling at me. We kept walking forward, the water getting deeper and deeper to the point I was treading water. "We made this game up a while ago. There is a ball, and then we pass it around, making sure the other team doesn't get it. And every time you pass to your own teammate successfully, you must swim to the bottom of the lake and touch the ground…"
"Yeah! And no cheating!" Emmett interrupted.
"Well I know you think we will be cheating since we will get down and back up so fast!" Edward smiled at me before making the come back. Emmett smiled a wicked grin, sending shivers up my spine. We were defiantly going to lose. Playing against Emmett's huge body, I wasn't sure if I could even see past him!
"I'm sorry if I suck." I said to Edward, who was now telling Esme to spread out.
"Don't worry, remember, vampires are good at everything." He reminded me.
"I am always an exception." I muttered to myself and went about twenty yards away from Edward.
"No, go further!" He said.
"But then you can't throw to me, it is way too far!" I said.
"Bella, are you forgetting something?"
I thought for a while, trying to remember what I was forgetting. It was inhumanly possible to throw that far. Wait, inhumanly! That was the key word.
"OOHH!" I said and swam as fast as I could farther out. We were now in the middle of the lake, the deepest part. I looked down and saw pitch black. How was I going to reach the bottom without hitting anything? But before I could answer that question, I heard Esme calling my name, and she had the ball. I swam over toward her, but not too close, and waved my hands up in the air. I saw the small ball flying towards me, a perfect throw right to my hands. I caught it, astonished at my own skill. I looked around desperately and saw that Emmett and Jasper were swimming full speed at me. I looked to Esme's spot and groaned. Get up faster! I yelled internally. But just as I was about to duck from Emmett and Jasper's extremely huge figures, I felt I was air borne, except for two cool hands holding me by the waist. I looked down to see Edward holding me up, away from Jasper's reach. I held the ball over my head, hoping so much that Emmett couldn't and wouldn't knock over Edward. I looked down and smiled at Edward. He smiled quickly back, but he mouthed a word. What was it? I was never good at this type of thing. Was that an "O" he was saying?
I looked at him questioningly and he just scowled, obviously giving up with trying to make me understand. Now, Emmett was lunging toward the ball, missing it only by inches. I looked over to Esme's spot, but she wasn't there. Why was it taking so long? But then I heard her voice, which was behind me. I tried to turn in Edward's hands, but couldn't.
"Turn around." I said very quietly, hoping only Edward would hear. He did. He turned and I quickly threw it to Esme's small figure off in the distance. I jumped out of his arms and dived down. The darkness hit me almost immediately. I opened my butter-colored eyes as wide as they could go and pushed harder. It was getting extremely colder down here, but it didn't bother me. Soon, I felt the sandy bottom of the lake. I touched it with my foot and started swimming back up, hoping I wasn't taking too long. But before I could escape the darkness, I felt hands pull me back by the legs.
"Let go!" I yelled underwater, but the sound was muffled. I tried to see what was on my leg and only saw two slender, white hands. Each fingernail was painted with dark red and each fingernail was perfectly sculpted. I knew immediately who it was. Rosalie.
"Let go!" I yelled again, trying to make my words sound like words under the deep water.
"No, just leave us alone." I heard a bubbly reply, and even though it was beneath water, I knew Rosalie's snobbish voice anywhere.
"Rosalie!" I yelled, knowing I wasn't in any danger of my life, I would have enough air, but I still felt totally pissed. "I'm not leaving! Do you hear me? I love Edward and all the Cullens, even you!"
"No you don't! You just want to make everyone so happy and carefree, but you're just a fake!" She screamed. I felt her hands move up to my waist and turn me to face her. Her pale face scared me at first, but then I saw the inevitable beauty in it. Why did she have to be so pretty? Even below water, her features just looked intensified. Her golden hair was flowing beautifully above her, reminding me of Little Mermaid.
"Rosalie, I don't know what is your problem, but if you don't want Edward mad at you for the rest of eternity, then let me go!" I yelled, trying to find a way to get back to the surface, in my angel's arms.
"Oh, that scares me so much!" Her voice was thick with sarcasm. "I don't care if your precious Edward gets mad at me. I just want you gone, gone forever!"
"I'm a vampire now! I'm not leaving! Ever!" I said, again trying to make my voice sound clear, "I don't understand you." I finally said and yanked my body, with all my strength, out from under her grip. I swam as quickly as I possibly could to the top and when I finally broke through the surface, I took a deep breath.
"Bella? Are you okay?" Edward immediately had his arms around me, kind of swimming for me.
"I'm fine!" I said and started swimming toward the shore, but he didn't let me.
"I heard everything." He said, and I gaped.
"But we were under…" I tried to process how he could have done that.
"It got up here, eventually. Are you okay, seriously? Did she hurt you?" He asked, looking up and down my body.
"Edward," I said, laying my hands on his bare chest, "I'm fine. Don't worry."
He nodded slightly, but he didn't look convinced. We swam back to the shore and he immediately took me to our cabin. He sat me down on the bed and paced the room, looking at me curiously occasionally as I dried off. I kept my bathing suit on because of the nice weather outside.
"Tell me everything." I said simply. He stopped walking and stared deep into my eyes. What had he heard just a minute ago? What was Rosalie thinking?
A/N: Hoped you liked it...I know, Rosalie is a bitch!
Tell me what you think!
kp