Oh. My. Goodness. I have officially hit the 100 mark in reviews! Have I mentioned how much I completely LOVE YOU GUYS? Okay, for my extra special fans, you get an extra special super long chapter, and the next chapter should be pretty long too. Love you guys sooooo much! I think that's a good present :D!
I woke up early the next morning, so I would be ready to be out the door by the time Edward arrived. Since I wasn't bringing my own truck, I didn't want to be rude and late. I put on a brown sweater and a pair of long dark jeans along with black ballet flats. Hopefully this was dressy enough for dinner at the Cullens. I grabbed my bag and went down the stairs to the front door. I flung it open and quickly stepped out, locked it, and then ran straight into Edward Cullen.
"What the…? You were not there two seconds ago." I said, looking up at him indignantly. He smirked.
"You're right. I wasn't there two seconds ago. I'm very fast." He said, with that obnoxious smirk on his face. I glared at him. Stupid vampire abilities. "Shall we go to school?" He said, crossing his arms and raising his eyebrows. I rolled my eyes and strode past him toward the car.
"Let's go." I said flatly, getting annoyed with him by the moment. I wasn't a morning person to begin with, and he wasn't exactly increasing my less than good mood. By the time I was halfway to the car, he had already opened the passenger door for me. "Thanks." I said. His ever-present smirk grew even larger, if that was possible.
"No problem." He said, throwing in an annoying wink. I glared. I should have brought garlic. That probably would have shut him up. I shut the door and he got into the driver's seat, and started the car and began driving to school. "So…" he started, obviously trying to ease the tension. The obnoxious jerk seemed to have retreated in embarrassment. Good. I didn't like that side of him at all. It was barely tolerable. "Are you nervous to meet Esme?" he asked awkwardly. I thought before answering.
"Not really. She sounds really nice from what you guys have told me about her. I'm kind of psyched to meet her actually." He genuinely smiled, all traces of the jerk smirk gone.
"She's wonderful." He said. "I honestly have never met a more caring, nurturing, maternal, and loving person. She looks after all of us like we were her own children." His eyes took on a different light when he was talking about his family, although he did that so rarely, that I didn't usually see this side of him. It was more boyish and innocent; much different than the persona he tried to convey at school. I let a smile slip out, glad that he was finally getting over being a jerk. Well, for the time being anyway.
"I can't wait to meet her." I said. He smiled.
"Neither can I. She'll just love you. She's heard so much about you; from Alice, from Emmett, from Rose…" I nodded. Alice was quite a chatterbox, so I was sure that Alice had said some stuff about me to Esme. We rode the rest of the way in silence, but luckily, since Edward drove so fast, it was a short drive.
"Thanks." I said, getting out of the car. He nodded. "I'll see you at lunch." I turned and walked over to Angela and Jess, the both of which who looked like they had just been slapped in the face.
"Why did Edward Cullen drive you to school today?" Jess demanded, her hands landing immediately on her hips. Her eyes were wide and I sighed. Lovely. I got to be questioned before school.
"He picked me up so it would be easier for me to come over his house and have dinner tonight," I explained. "It's really not a big deal."
"Not a big DEAL?!" Jess said, her jaw dropping. "You're going to Edward Cullen's house. For DINNER. Why didn't you tell us about this, pray tell?" I rolled my eyes. Jess was a good friend, but she was melodramatic sometimes. Luckily, Angela stepped in next.
"Bella, why are you going over their house for dinner again?" I sighed and ran a hand through my hair.
"Well everyone wants me to meet their mom, and since I've met most of their family, I figured why not?" Angela nodded.
"That's reasonable." Jess spluttered, but she couldn't form an understandable sentence before the bell rang. "C'mon Jess." Angela said, pulling Jess with her to her next class. "We'll see you later Bella!" She called. I sighed. Well that was easier than I thought it would have been at least, I amended in my head. The first few periods went by in a blur. I wasn't really focused on anything that we learned; I was focusing on the fact that I would meet the famous Esme.
I was worried if she would like me or not, but I thought that from Edward's description, she sounded like a really nice person. So hopefully, she would like me. Lunch came before I knew it. I stood in line with Alice, but when we arrived at the table, Edward was missing.
"Rose, do you know where Edward went?" Alice asked, and Rosalie flipped her hair.
"Edweird went to one of the music rooms, I think. Or maybe to the Volvo. I wasn't really listening. He was talking about finishing his song." She then turned her attention to Emmett, and they gazed adoringly into each others' eyes. I decided to ignore them. Alice looked worried, and sat down nervously next to Jasper.
"I hope he's all right," she said, her eyes focusing off into nowhere. Jasper slipped an arm around her waist.
"Honey, he was fine. From the emotions I got from him, he was just suddenly hit by inspiration, that's all. And you know how he gets when he gets in his writing moods." This all went over my head, but I nodded along, and pretended I knew what was going on. Alice chattered away the entire lunch period, and before I knew it, I was heading off to Biology, alone. I entered the classroom, and saw Edward at a desk, an exuberant smile on his face. I didn't know what he was so happy about, but I didn't know whether or not I should ask.
"Happy about something?" I asked, and he nodded eagerly.
"Finished a piece of music." He explained. "I haven't been able to compose a piece for a while." He was almost glowing, and he was slightly bouncing up and down. He reminded me of the little boy personality I had seen from him earlier today. I had to say, I liked him a lot better when he acted about seven, then I did when he was acting his eternal seventeen.
"That's good then," I said, chuckling slightly. Mr. Banner appeared in the room, before we could have any more conversation.
"Alright boys and girls, today you guys get a lazy day. We're going to watch a movie on the exciting life of a cell." Half of the class cheered. He continued. "And you guys also have to fill out this worksheet." Now the other half of the class groaned. He rolled his eyes. "Come on guys, it's not that bad, I promise." He passed out the papers and shut off the lights. The video was beyond boring. I almost fell asleep, but I was able to keep myself awake by doodling on the corner of the worksheet that he had given us. I had filled it out quickly, already knowing most of the answers. After the dreadful movie was over, I went straight to Gym. This woke me up a bit from the movie we had just watched in Biology. We were playing soccer, one of my worst games. As it was, I slipped on the ball when somebody passed it to me carelessly, and I landed straight on my butt. Ouch.
I made my way out of the locker room and found Edward waiting outside of the Gym.
"Ready?" He asked, dangling his car keys, and I rolled my eyes. He appeared to have gotten over his little boy moment. Too bad. I nodded and we made our way to the car, where Alice was waiting. "Alice…what are you doing here?" He asked, confused at her sudden appearance. She smiled.
"I'm coming back with you guys. Jazz got a ride with Emmett and Rose, so I decided to wait for you guys. Plus," she sniffed. "You get so much more time with Bella than I do. It's not fair." I rolled my eyes.
"Like a whole forty five minutes makes that much of a difference." Edward muttered under his breath. Alice pretended to not hear him.
"So Bella!" she exclaimed. "Do you want to ride shotgun, or do you want to ride together in the backseat?" I laughed slightly. Alice was ridiculously hyper.
"I guess I'll sit with you in the backseat." I said
"Yay!" She jumped up and down slightly and clapped her hands. I shook my head at her. She was ridiculous. One of a kind, certainly. But she was also ridiculous. "So where were you today at lunch, Edward?" She asked as we began to drive to their home.
"I was finishing my piece." He said, focusing only on the road.
"Oh." She said. She then ignored him altogether and focused on me. "Bella, I can't wait for you to meet Esme! And you are going to LOVE dinner! We made it especially for you!" She beamed excitedly.
"That's awesome!" I said. "But what are you guys going to have?" Alice rolled her eyes.
"Please Bella, we hunted last weekend. We're nowhere near thirsty." She said, as if I should have guessed that. Edward attempted to stifle a snicker, and he failed. Alice chattered on for the rest of the ride, until suddenly, she clapped her hands together. "Bella! Put your hands over your eyes! I want you to wait until we get to the house for you to see it." I didn't really understand why she wanted me to do that, but I did what she said. Finally, she announced that I could take my hands off of my eyes. I gasped. The house was stunning. It was half made of glass, half made of a deep warm wood. It was set into the forest, and was about three stories tall. There was a little flower garden to the side of the doorway leading to the front of the house, and it looked private, quiet, and peaceful. "What do you think?" Alice asked excitedly, practically bouncing around the car.
"It's stunning." I managed to get out. She smiled.
"Come on, let's get you to Esme!" She dragged me by the arm towards the door.
"Don't rip her arm off Alice…" I heard Edward mutter under his breath as he stuck his hands in his pockets, and he sauntered toward the door. As soon as we reached the door, it was opened by a woman. She had shoulder length caramel colored hair that had a slight amount of wave in it. She looked to be in her thirties, and she was wearing a slightly ruffled white blouse with a navy blue skirt that ended near the top of her waist along with navy heels. She was very beautiful, and she smiled warmly at me.
"Welcome to our home, Bella." She said, extending her arms toward me. "I'm glad that I finally get to meet you!" she said happily. I went forward and greeted her with a hug. We embraced quickly, and she then took a step back and looked at me. "Why, you're simply gorgeous! I'm surprised Edward didn't mention this, what with all he's said so far. How could you forget the fact that she's beautiful, Edward?" Esme chided Edward as he looked at the floor.
"Mom…." He said, his eyes glued to his feet. If it weren't for the fact that he was a vampire, I was sure that he would have blushed if he could have. She tsked. Lucky for him, Alice came to his rescue.
"Mom, why don't we get Bella something to drink? After all, she's probably thirsty, and that should tide her over until Carlisle gets home." Esme nodded.
"Right this way dear!" she said, and went off in the direction of what I guessed to be the kitchen. She opened up the refrigerator. "What would you like?" my jaw dropped slightly. The fridge was stocked, from twelve different types of soda, to five types of juice, along with bottled water, and milk.
"Um…can I have a glass of milk please?" I was shocked at all the drinks that they had in their fridge. Esme cast me a sheepish glance.
"Sure thing hon. Sorry, we didn't know what you'd like…so we went a bit crazy. We don't get a lot of 'normal' visitors often, as I'm sure you can guess." She smiled. I smiled in return.
"I understand completely. Thank you for having me over." Her smile grew wider.
"Oh Bella, you don't know how much I'm thankful for you to come over. It's time that they met some other kids, who actually know about the secret." She nodded confidentially. "Everyone's quite taken with you. Especially Edward. You're practically all he talks about. I'm afraid I embarrassed the poor dear though…" her voice trailed off as Edward entered the kitchen.
"Mom? I was just wondering if I could give Bella a tour?" Edward asked uncertainly. Esme hopped up.
"Definitely! Let's get going!" She was ready to go, and we walked into the front room, and then the front door opened and Carlisle entered.
"Hello Bella," he said courteously. Esme smiled, as did Edward.
"Hello Dr. Cullen." I said. He smiled.
"Please, please, call me Carlisle. Let's sit down." He motioned to the sofas nearby in the front room. We sat down, and just began talking, and getting to know each other. Soon enough, Rosalie and Emmett joined us, along with Jasper and Alice. I really was beginning to like Esme, the more I was getting to know her. So far, the evening seemed to be off to a very good start.