13)Happy birthday!
"I think Alice might kill me if I don't do your hair sweetheart."
Bella groans, she prefers to just put her hair in a ponytail or leave it down, anything that Alice would deem appropriate is just a waste of time according to Bella.
But other than her groan she doesn't complain. Like I said, Bella would do anything to make others happy.
She sits in the chair in front of the make-up table Alice gave her for her 10th birthday, Bella and I call it Alice's table, because… serious? Bella never wanted it, not that she would say that to Alice, she knew Alice was waiting for Bella to spontaneously start obsessing about her appearance and thought she would need it. Or hoped that it would happen. Her visions hadn't given her any confirmation yet.
"What shall we do Bella? Classy, simple, extraordinary?" Bella looks at me through the mirror.
"Eh, simple but stylish?" Bella always seems to ask a question when she makes a decision about her appearance. About things that interested her she's passionate and can hardly (if not impossibly) be moved to reconsider her decisions. But her appearance is something she hardly really cares about, so she always seeks a second opinion. Mine.
"Perfect. 100% you." She smiles at my statement.
I pull two handfuls of hair from either side of her face in a ponytail at the back, pulling attention to the outline of her face. And leave the rest down, allowing it to contrast against the fair skin of her neck. I add a flower hairclip behind her ear to please Alice.
"There what do you think?" Bella turns around with the biggest of smiles and hugs me.
"Perfect. Of course. Everything you do is perfect daddy." I smile hugging her close.
"I guess we better walk. Alice will kill me if I ruin the dress."
Bella looks at me with horror in her eyes. I'm still not able to read her thoughts, but right now her thoughts were clear as day. 'Walk? I'll trip, break a leg, and ruin more than just the dress!' or something along those lines.
"I can still carry you if you want?" Other dads probably longed for the time that they could carry their little girl without her complaining or straining their back. I would have an excuse for a lot of years to come.
"No, it will be alright, I guess." It wasn't always valid, so I wasn't completely safe from the slight sting of rejection when my little girl showed she was big now.
(Ever had someone who you really like decline your help, it's something like that.)
I nod and offer my hand like a gentleman of my time would for a lady like Isabella.
It's a long walk if you go at a human pace to be honest. 2min run means half an hour walk. Sigh.
Alice is still going to kill me, now for being late. Can't do anything right today it seems.
"Dad, what's that?" Not good. Bella only sounds that way, when someone in the family has done something over the top. I look up and… I really shouldn't be this surprised. I was too far gone with my thoughts to catch the sent but still, I should've seen this coming. Of course Alice would find a way to get us there on time.
"Alice planning ahead I presume." Bella nods in agreement.
"Could've guessed as much."
In front of us was a monotracer (it's like a combination of a motorbike and a car).
It's fast and moves very fluently. Exactly what I need right now.
"Alice will be Alice," I say while I hold the door open for her.
"With the monotracer it's only a 10 minute ride. So we'll be there long before the guests arrive."
"Good, then Alice can redo my hair and readjust my clothes." Bella sounds a bit nervous.
"What's wrong honey?" I ask while driving down the narrow path that leads from our house to the road.
"Nothing, I'm perfectly fine." She assures me but I know my Bella. When she says she is fine I start to worry.
"Bella, I know when something is bothering you. And you are definitely not fine," I say using my stern voice. I hate using it but sometimes I have to.
"Fine, it's just… Alice and Rose took me apart a while ago… I'll save you the details but what it came down to is, that apparently I'm supposed to be all grown up now and that… well they were more or less already setting me up on dates with half of town. And I don't…" Oh… I really should pay better attention to the thoughts of my sisters. I get that they wanted to talk with her about… a specific part of becoming a woman. But I had much preferred if they let me handle the… boys part.
"And they did that without your consent?" Bella nods briefly.
"Yeah, I don't think they were serious about it but it was suddenly so much at once…" I nod.
"They were probably just excited about the prospect of dances and gossiping about your first crush. They forgot that you might not be ready… did they go into much… detail…" I'm going to have a parent to child talk about it anyway. But I want to know if they had considered the possibility that I might want to talk about certain things with Bella myself.
"Alice said something about you explaining the… birds and the bees to me later." I nodded in approval.
"Honey, you have nothing to worry about. You'll just find that boys your age will… notice you in a different way then they used to. They'll try to get your attention and perhaps show of a bit… Like on those silly movies Alice and Rose make you watch all the time. They'll try to convince you they're the Romeo to your Juliet, the Heathcliff to your Cathy. They might ask you out for dinner or a movie. When they introduce you to their parents and want to meet me officially you know they're serious. And I'll give you the details later because we're here." At that I pulled up in front of the big house. Above the door was a big banner with 'happy early birthday Bella' and a big 14 in the middle of it. It was suspiciously modest. Bella seemed to think the same and looked warily at the door.
"I'm sure they kept things… fairly reasonable," I attempt to sooth her. Bella doesn't look convinced. I really wish she would be more accepting of gifts and parties. But for some reason she refuses to just let us care for her. Perhaps it is because she has always lived in between the contrast of the very modest lifestyle of her friends in the reservation and the extraordinary life in our family. She understood very well that our extreme wealth wasn't normal and she doesn't like to feel so privileged when she is at her friend's house.
"Come on lets go." I encourage her.
We finally get inside and I feel Bella relax beside me. It's a bid extravagant but to my family's standards it is as modest as it gets. The cake was too big for the number of guest that would actually eat it but if all of us where to eat a piece it would be appropriate. The decorations where beautiful and fitted well with Bella's personality. The blinking Christmas like lights, the soft colors of the flowers. It was perfect, like a scene from a fairytale come to life.
Speaking of fairytales where is that little pixie?
"Finally! Come on Bella, we still have so much to do before the guests arrive."
"Oh, please Alice! I'm already dressed up and my hair is done. Can't you please just leave it alone… for my birthday?" Poor Bella I fear there is no escaping Alice.
"No! It isn't technically your birthday yet. This is an early party! No getting away from me today!" As if Alice would've let Bella escape it was really her birthday today.
An arg… so tired… Gonna post a part 2 another time just really needed to update.
