Chapter2 –High Diving–
Life. Is. Not. Fair.
"C'mon, Paul, the swimsuit looks so cute!"
Life. Is. So. Damn. Not. Fair.
"Why don't you wear it, Quil?" I snapped.
"Nah, I wish I could, but I've gained weight enormously last Christmas," he sighed theatrically. "Beside, you are the lucky one to participate in high diving."
I cringed slightly at the reminder. "If you like high diving so much, I'd happily switch with you," I offered.
He grinned. "No, no. The glory is all yours, brother."
"I'm gonna give you glory!" I growled; my hands balled to fists.
"Come," Quil challenged, waving me to him with his free hand – the other one was holding a bag; the provoking pink fabric of the swimsuit shined throw the thin plastic. His face was gloating with smugness.
Sam cleared his throat loudly. "No fights here. The trees also have the right to live. Besides, we're already late, so hurry up."
Quil pouted. "Oh, too bad, Paul, isn't it?"
"Yeah," I growled. I would make sure to pay him back for this.
Sam sighed and shook his head, probably reading my intentions, but he didn't say anything about it, he didn't want to loose more time. Finally, we phased and took off.
The bloodsuckers were already there – their ugly fetidness contaminated the entire area. I wrinkled my nose in disgust and growled quietly.
Behave! Sam ordered, before we stepped out of the dark woods.
The first thing I saw was a big blue-white striped box at the other side of the little free spot that was encircled by trees. Bella and the pixie were standing in front of the weird box, arguing. Edward was the only one who greeted us though it was just a simple nod. He stood behind Bella, his hands laid protectively on her shoulders.
"I'll say it one last time," Bella said in a low threatening tone. "I'm not going to wear that thing."
"Oh, c'mon, Bella. Don't be such a baby. It won't hurt," the pixie argued. She was holding a little purple bag in her hands that reminded me painfully on Quil's pink one.
"Alice," Edward sighed. "Please."
"Don't go there, Edward," she snapped, a triumphant grin decorating her tiny face. "We both know that you'll enjoy the view."
Vampires couldn't blush, but Edward's embarrassment was engraved on his face.
Touché! Quil howled with laughter.
"Edward is my husband," Bella defended him. "He's allowed to stare."
The pixie's grin grew wider. She lifted the bag, holding it in front of Bella's nose.
"But not in public!" Bella screamed embarrassed.
The pixie made a heartbreaking pout, her eyes big and watery like those of puppies'. I have seen that trick on enough girls, and sometimes even boys, to know what she was trying to do. She was playing the guilt-card. "It took me three days and nights to come up with the design," she said, sobbing. "Not to mention all the detail work with the pearls …" –a long heavy sigh; darn it, she was good– "All wasted … who cares …"
Bella frowned skeptically.
"She's telling the truth," Edward stated, looking hugely astonished.
Bella bit her lips while the pixie started repeating "a waste … all wasted …" again and again like a mantra. Even I felt kind of bad for her. Bella didn't last long either. A few seconds passed, then she surrendered." Fine, Alice," she sighed in defeat. "Give me that thing."
The pixie's face lit up instantly. "Oh, Bella, you'll love it!"
"Sure," Bella groaned and disappeared into the box. –Ah, it was the changing room.
I rolled my eyes. Vamps.
Female vamps. Quil added.
"They are girls," Edward defended his wife and his "sister". "It's within their nature."
"Alice won," the boss-vamp commented, appearing at Edward's side. "I guess I shouldn't be surprised."
The pixie smiled brightly, showing a row of pearl-white teeth.
Man! Leah's voice came from the cliffs, where she and the others were waiting for us. Are you having teatime up there or will you get started before we die here out of boredom?
"The others are slowly becoming impatient," Edward informed the Doc.
Slowly, Quil echoed between his snickers.
Carlisle nodded. "Fine, then I'll explain the rules now. –Bella?"
"Yes, I'm listening," her voice came from the changing room; she sounded angry and worried.
"Good," Carlisle started. "The rules are easy. All kind of acrobatic stunts are allowed, except for perilous things. All participants have three turns. The judges – those are Billy, Sue, Old Quil Alteara, Esme and me – will give points from 1 to 10. Like the official Olympic rules, the highest and lowest score will not count. The winner is the one with the highest total of scores."
He looked at us interrogatively, asking us whether we had understood everything. Sam, Quil and I nodded uniform.
"Okay, then I'll go back to the others at the boat. We will give you the signal to start when we see you both at the cliffs. –I'd like to suggest ladies first, or would you prefer to start, Paul?" he demanded friendly.
I shook my head fiercely. I'm fine with that, more than fine.
"Bella, do you mind to begin?" Edward asked his wife through the striped fabric-wall.
"O-kay …" Bella answered vaguely.
"Then, everything is clear. –Good luck, the two of you," he wished us and disappeared.
It was awkwardly silent then, well if you ignored Quil. He bombarded me with all kinds of crazy "advices" for the upcoming competition.
Hey, hey! What about this one? You make an inrun, jump as high as you can, and make pirouettes –and don't forget to use your tail too– and then wave with your ears to the referees before you then dive into the water!
Like a giant living borer?
Bingo!
Do you seriously expect me make a fool out of myself, Quil? I growled.
Oh c'mon, Paul. It's a great idea, you know it is! Leave it to Quil to laugh about his own jokes.
If you really have so much fun at this, why don't we switch the disciplines? I offered hopefully again.
He made a sound that was supposed to show deep thoughtfulness, but I knew that Quil was anything but thoughtful. Hmm… I really wish to… but such a last-minute-thing will cause too much trouble…
For whom?
Dunno. He shrugged; his face seemed to be demanding for a good punch. Good luck man! And don't forget to smile! It's a happy athletic game after all. Then he vanished behind a few trees joining Jacob and Embry at the cliffs.
I was just about to follow him to teach him a lesson –a very good lesson– when Edward suddenly gasped loudly.
Why the hell did they gasp? They didn't even need to breathe for crying out loud! I turned around and- had to suppress a gasp myself.
Darn it! Why did these bloodsuckers have to look so damn good?
Bella was wearing a dark-blue, almost black, swimsuit, which hugged her pale skin perfectly. Shining white pearls were lined in an elegant but simple pattern, flashing in the daylight like diamonds. On either sides of the suit was a white stripe, which led to two straps, tying to a ribbon at her neck. The pixie staked Bella's long mahogany hair to a tight bun with thousands of hairpins –of course, with matching white pearls–, she had to stand on a footstool to reach Bella's head.
"Bella," Edward had finally found his voice back after clearing his throat. "You look gorgeous."
She looked like blushing. "Thanks."
The pixie had finished Bella's hair and jumped from the footstool, examining her masterpiece with a satisfied smile. "Admit it. I'm good."
Bella sighed defeated. "Yes, Alice, you're good. Sometimes."
The pixie made a sneering sound. "Philistines," she pouted and left the scene, obviously acting offended.
However, Bella fell for it. She threw Edward a pleading glance. Her husband obeyed with a sigh, he wished her good luck with a swift kiss on the forehead and left behind Alice, calling her to wait for him.
Bella looked after them for a minute, then she took a deep breath. "Are you ready?" she asked me.
I nodded. Sure, I've been ready to make a fool out of myself since the day I got that damn lot. Let's get started!
Of course, she hadn't heard my sour comment –the translator had gone to calm the psycho– so instead of commenting on my bad mood she stepped to the cliff, with me following her reluctantly.
In the far distance –almost impossible for normal human eyes to spot– was a shiny, very expensive looking, white yacht. Man, those vamps really must be rich; Jake had told us that they had bought it just for this occasion. Billy, Sue, Old Quil and the two vamps were standing at the railing. I wondered how the three human judges could see a thing from this distance, but then I noticed a little bronze dot next to them. Nessie was playing the spyglass, nice idea.
The doc's wife raised a hand slowly and then let it fall down abruptly – the signal to start!
I took a few steps back while Bella walked forward, her bare foot tips right before the deep, deep abysm. She stretched her arms like a bird, ready to fly, I heard her taking a deep breath, then she jumped. She flew a few meters higher, her body stretched, then the upper part of her body folded together, her forehead almost touching her knees, her arms spread like a pair of wings. She kept that pose for a few seconds before she unfolded her body again to dive into the dark-blue water with barely any splashes.
Applause flooded the cliff and someone –I guess it was the bear-guy– shouted "Encore!" followed by a loud "Ouch". Edward still didn't like to put Bella and cliffs together, I suppose.
While the applause was still echoing in the bay, the referees were busy with judging Bella's jump. Old Quil was the last one to see what had happened exactly with Nessie's help, then the points were announced on a giant illuminated panel – gosh, where the hell did they get all that stuff!
8.0 / 8.0 / 7.5 / 8.0 / 9.0 – minus the highest score 9.0 and the lowest score 7.5 Bella achieved a total of 24.0.
Not bad, and the jury was strict, though I bet that the two women weren't very objective …
Bella cleared the field –or water– for me and I stepped to the abysm, and yes, pun intended. Chill, Paul … all will be fine …
Don't dare to screw it up! Jake and Leah shouted almost uniform, agreeing on the same thing for once.
SHUT UP! I snapped back before I saw Esme giving the signal and jumped. Yeah, I just jumped, normally jumped. I thought it was okay, I mean, that was the only possibility to keep my dignity. However, the judges thought different though.
6.5 / 6.5 / 7.0 / 7.0 / 8.0 – total: 20.5.
From the cliffs behind me, different voices shouted death threats at me.
Oops …
Oops?! Embry echoed with frustration. He ruins everything and all he says is "OOPS"!
I'll kill him, Leah muttered to herself. I'm so gonna kill him!
The others babbled all quite the same, only Sam didn't say a word. Instead, he just sighed long and deeply. Somehow his silent disappointment was even worse than the other reactions.
Damn it.
I swam to the beach, haunted by my great buddies' scolding and threats. Yeah, we really were brothers, and how much they loved me!
Bella was already standing at the cliff again, backwards to the water, preparing her next jump. The signal fell; she jumped. She made two pirouettes while her head wandered down toward the sea, in the last second before hitting the water the pirouette turned smoothly into two somersaults and then dived without the tiniest splash into the water. The whole performance took less than four seconds. How did you put all of this crap into four freaking seconds?!
The referees were stunned, too. 9.0 / 8.5 / 8.0 / 9.0 / 10.0 – 26.5 plus the points from the last term: 50.5.
Not good… Especially not when there was an army of very angry wolves standing behind me, all ready to lung for my throat.
Without me noticing, I was already standing at the abysm again, my head perfectly blank. Crap! What to do? What to do?
Esme gave the signal.
Crap, crap, crap, crap, crap!
I jumped and –driven by desperation– I did the first thing that shoot through my head.
Quil's giant living borer.
6.5 / 7.5 / 4.0 / 9.0 / 10.0 – 23.0. Wow, I even got ten points! Too bad that they didn't count.
What. The. Hell. Was. THAT?! Leah shouted, her voice showed that she wasn't sure whether she should laugh or kill me.
Umm … that was … something new… Seth commented, unsuccessfully trying to cheer me up. And the thing with the ears was kind of … er … nice …
Beside the two Clearwaters, it was amazingly quiet, all speechless. Not sure, whether I should see this as a good or a bad sign I got out of the water and back up to the cliff, while Bella got ready for her final jump.
So, she had 50.5 points and I had 43.5. If she got a score of 23 at most, I'd still have a chance to win this game. If I do a really good jump now of course and if Bella makes something wrong and if the jury wouldn't watch too closely and if they have mercy with a poor little wolf like me …
Those were way too many "if"s – but a wolf may dream …
Oh. My. God. Someone's thoughts –it sounded like Jake– interrupted my calculations and I turned my attention back to the game.
My mouth fell open. Bella was standing at the cliff again, but this time not on her feet like usual – no. She was standing on her hands!
I was dead … hell, I was so dead!
Esme gave the signal. Bella "jumped". She flew through the air as if she had wings on her back, her body forming a slight sickle while she drew ribbons and other patterns into the sky. And for a third time her pale cold skin made contact with the dark cold water without any splashes.
10.0 / 9.5 / 8.5 / 10.0 / 10.0
Okay, now it was official – I was a dead wolf.
Well, there was no help, I guessed. She was good and had deserved it. I respected it. However, losing the game didn't mean that I had to loose my dignity, too. With the last pride I had, I went to the abysm a third time and jumped.
hey guys!
yeah, we know - this had taken loooooong but, hey! we made it after all - that's worth a round of applause isn't it?
if you've not noticed yet: this chapter was written in PAUL's POV - it was really fun! (wolves 4ever! xD)
to the points Bella and Paul get: it's always rowed in a special way... the first is always Billy's, the second Old Quil's, the third Sue's, the forth Carlisle's and the last one is Esme's - we guess this will make a few things clearer for you =)
well, we've already started the next chapter ... but that doesn't have to mean anything - we'll TRY to upload as soon as possible!
please review in the meantime!
-Mulan&Sylvia-