Bella had finished packing for the sleep over in the morning and the bag sat on the end of her bed, but she had free time to kill, because Alice wasn't picking her up until after dinner. It was actually clever of Alice, a way to get out of a real meal with her, and Bella was fine with that.
Bella slept in as much as she could, which after Charlie finally left the house for work and stopped making noise worked better. Alice wanted a real sleep over, and from what Bella knew about those there wasn't much sleep involved. It was important to stock up for a long night.
She'd spent a few hours working on homework and felt like she was finally up to date, other than the art portfolio, but she couldn't expect to whip that out quickly. She was pacing herself for that class and it wasn't something the teacher expected her to catch up on, just keep up on. Her portfolio wasn't required to be as big as the other students, since she missed half the semester. She might try to complete it anyhow, because the other classes weren't much of a challenge, other than math, and it was starting to get monotonous retaking these classes. Art was new.
With homework finally as it should be, Bella had time to just relax again. Her Anita Blake book was getting good. Bella had been buying those regularly ever since she'd read the first one in December. It was a long series, and it had surprised her by how hot it had gotten over time. Without the internet, Bella may end up having to find other books to read and she was starting to consider the Mercy Thompson series as well, since the same writer might have the same heat. It was a nice substitution for her missed internet browsing. Bella glanced up to make sure she did have the next book in the series as she stretched her neck out. She'd been reading for hours. Her one bookshelf, and that wasn't going to be enough long term, was filled with this series and one or two other unrelated books. Normally she used the library, but if the thought the book was good enough she bought it, because she would re-read it.
"Bells?" Charlie's voice called up even as he was opening the door. Apparently it was almost dinner time.
"Yeah, I'm up here!" She called back and got up, setting her book back down on the bed, open to her page.
"I got Chinese." He sounded pleased and Bella just shook her head. Chinese sounded good, and he wasn't expecting her to cook, but those cooking lessons for him were going to have to start soon. Bella was willing to cook dinner half the time, it seemed fair, but he shouldn't fill the other half with take out. Maybe Bella would have time to look over a cook book or something this week and find a couple easy recipes to try and teach Charlie.
It was no shock that Alice's timing was perfect. As soon as they were done with dinner and Charlie took control of washing the dishes, there was a knock on the door.
"I got it." Bella told him and opened the door to a beaming Alice standing on there. Alice looked really happy, and just that made Bella smile at her.
"Are you ready?" Bella moved out of the way so Alice could come in.
"Hello Chief Swan, nice to meet you." Alice spoke over Bella's shoulder and turned to see Charlie had moved to the kitchen doorway to see them.
"Charlie, this is Alice." Bella didn't even bother to hide her smirk at his slightly shocked expression, which he covered admirably a second later.
"Nice to meet you Alice. You kids have fun tonight." He nodded at them and then moved to return to the kitchen. That was a conversation with him; he didn't talk much unless he knew the people.
"Where is your stuff?" Alice turned to her.
"On my bed." Bella started for the stairs. She thought she'd just go get it, but Alice followed her up.
"What's this?" Alice took the book and flipped it over. Bella felt her heart sink just a little as the playful joy in Alice dampened. "Anita Blake Vampire Hunter?"
"I don't know why they call it that, it isn't really about that." Bella rolled her eyes while trying to not give this conversation any weight at all, even though it was clearly a concern for Alice. Bella reminded herself that it was just a book and she better not act like it was anything more than that, or that vampires were anything more than that. "She raises zombies for a living and works with the cops a bit." Bella shrugged and picked up her bag, but Alice had put the book down and was now moving toward her bookshelf. Oh, this was not good.
Bella put her bag back down and sat on the bed as Alice looked over her small book collection. "I don't see any of those non-fiction books you talked about."
"Most of my books came from the library, I don't spend my money on books too often." Bella was thinking as quickly as she could, but there was only one idea coming to mind. She got up and walked to the bookshelf, pulling one of the more recent books from the shelf and flipped through it looking for a steamy scene and then opened it to a page she'd read a few times.
The blush wouldn't go away, but she held the book out for Alice to read that page. "Read this." She spoke more quietly. Alice's eyes moved over the page, and Bella noticed it didn't seem to take very long at all. "Anita gets turned into a succubus after a few books and she HAS to have sex. She feeds on sexual energy." Bella smiled just a little as Alice looked up at her. "What's not to love?" She was doing her best to minimize the vampires in the books.
"So these are pretty steamy?" Alice smiled and shook the book in her hand. "Can I borrow?"
"Sure, you need to start with the beginning though, or it makes no sense." Bella moved to grab the first three books off her shelf, all while thinking this was surreal. She was letting a vampire borrow her vampire books. And it was best to not even talk about vampires with Alice.
"Do you read a lot of vampire books?" Alice asked and she was speaking just a hint softer. Bella looked up and thought the smile looked a little faked.
"No, not at all. Just these, and it's more about zombies and were creatures." Bella smiled her own fake smile. "I like stories with strong female characters, the wait for the man to save you type of women make me a little sick. You're responsible for your own safety, and bonus points to any female character that saves others as well." Bella tapped the back of the stack of books she was bringing for Alice to borrow. "I like these books because Anita kicks ass."
"And has sex." Alice teased, making Bella's blush come back. The sex in the books actually detracted from the story, at times, but now she was going to have to sell the steamy part to avoid the vampire part.
"The sex doesn't start right off the bat. There are a few books before that, but I promise these are good." Bella handed Alice the books. "Three at a time, I don't want you hogging them all."
"What else do you read?" Alice glanced around the room, but there weren't any other stashes of books.
After the panic of dealing with this conversation, Bella couldn't really think of another title, or other books. Her mind was stuck for a bit. "Um, Harry Potter, some Dragons, I like fairies." She nibbled on her lips as she struggled. "Gods, oh, and Piers Anthony, he had a great series with Death and Time and God." She had no idea what it was called at the moment though. "Even Satan, he made a great Satan, not all evil like people assume."
Finally Bella realized that she could turn that on Alice. "What do you read?" It turned out that when Alice wasn't reading fashion magazines, she read historical romances.
"Maybe you won't like Anita." Bella pretended to reach for the books to take them back. "She isn't weak and stupid." Alice shifted her body so Bella couldn't take her tiny stash away.
"No, you already gave these to me." Alice smirked at her. "And my books aren't full of weak and stupid women." Her voice dipped down a little, "And despite what you might think people have been having steamy sex for a very long time." It sounded very good, the way Alice said it, and that made Bella blush.
"Come on, let's go." Alice took the bag Bella had packed with one hand and held the books in the other. Bella found herself just following the small vampire out of her house.
Once they got to the house, Bella made sure to grab her bag quickly, so she wasn't just following along and she went with Alice to her room to drop it off. Bella dropped her bag on top of Alice's bed. She hadn't really been sure what to pack for the slumber party, but she should be fine with what she had. Alice was grinning at her way too intensely, and Alice looked at her like a child eager to play with an amazing new toy. It was just a little scary how quickly she switched into excited mode.
"You brought pajamas right? I made sure to buy some for Rosalie and I." Alice asked while looking at her bag. "What else did you bring?" Bella easily caught that the vampires probably didn't have any before this, but she ignored it and watched an impatient Alice hovering over her bag.
"Nothing all that interesting. I don't have much." Bella told Alice and sighed while she unzipped the bag to let the little vampire go through her things. It wasn't a big deal and Alice was so beyond curious, and so cute, about what Bella was starting to think was her first slumber party that it was easy to want to humor her.
"You really need new underwear." Alice muttered and Bella found herself blushing. She hadn't expected that thorough of an investigation of her stuff. "Jockey?"
"I like them." Bella defended her choice and pulled a pair out of the small vampire's hands to stuff it back into the zippered part of her bag. "No special hassle to wash them, and no one was going to be seeing them, but the girls in gym class and they," Bella gave Alice a slight frown, "know better than to look."
"These are your pajamas?" Alice asked, pulled the shirt and shorts out, and inspected them.
"I walk around Charlie in my pj's Alice, you want to tell me they should be sexy now?" Bella raised an eyebrow in challenge and caught Alice stopping herself from talking.
"Wow, you won." A deeper feminine voice spoke from the doorway and Bella looked over to see the blonde vampire watching them with amusement. Rosalie leaned against the doorway and crossed her arms, while staring at Bella. The hint of a smile faded and the blonde spoke slowly. "You're trying to steal Emmett away from me."
"What?" Bella's eyes widened and her mind went to the talk Charlie tried to have with her when she got back from her Saturday with Emmett alone. Charlie had been convinced this conversation with Rosalie was coming, and Bella had been so sure it wouldn't. "I wouldn't, I mean I can't." She stammered as she watched Rosalie move to step into the room and toward her.
"He had so much fun Saturday he wouldn't stop talking about it." Rosalie smirked at her and Bella felt like she would be able to breathe again, soon, if Rosalie backed away from her a bit. God, was that her scent? The blonde was beautiful enough to not need a draw like that, but she had it alright. Bella took a step back when Rosalie looked like she wasn't moving, and shifted her focus around the room.
Bella managed to convince Alice that a movie came first, so they made their way downstairs to see the dvd library. Bella's eyes widened as she took in the collection. "My god." She whispered in shock, it was extensive. Both women with her chuckled at her.
They sat on the couch, surrounded by too much junk food, and Bella looked over to see Alice giving her a hopeful look. "Can I do your nails while we watch the movie? " It sounded like a movie scene itself, but Rosalie was behind Alice giving Bella a meaningful look.
"Sure." Bella understood. This was fulfilling some fantasy of Alice's and Bella felt her heart warm at the sweetness of it all. "But no pink."
"We need to change into our pj's." Alice grinned and put the movie on pause. Bella had to shift her focus quickly, because Alice was moving too fast, way too fast. Bella focused on the tv and did her best to chuckle at the way the preview had a man's face contorted on pause.
"It's not even seven." Bella told Alice, while staring at a paused television. "It's a little early for pj's." She'd looked away fast enough, almost, but Bella still found herself reeling at the speed Alice achieved. It was the first time she'd seen a vampire really do something a human couldn't, that wasn't just talking quiet. Alice was the one that messed up the most and usually in her house, so Bella was going to have to be extra careful tonight.
"Bella?" Rosalie rested a hand on her thigh, her voice concerned and Bella knew it was because her heart was moving too fast. Her mind raced to come up with a cover for this one as she slowly looked up at Rosalie.
Bella whispered, as if to make sure Alice couldn't hear her, but she wondered if Alice had already left the room or if she froze once she realized what she'd done. "She's not coming out in a teddy or something is she? I mean, she knows that isn't appropriate right?" Her face had to be red, because she was embarrassed as hell with the cover she'd come up with, and wished she hadn't had to say that to Rosalie of all people.
She could see Rosalie relax and the meaningful glance sent over her head, but Bella kept her head down as if she weren't noticing all of that. Alice was in trouble for messing up, but the reassuring voice Rosalie used to tell her that Alice had perfectly appropriate pj's for the night made Bella relax. She'd almost messed that one up as badly as Alice had.
They did change into their pj's and Bella stole the blanket off of Alice's bed, because she was sure she'd get cold at some point and it was better to plan ahead. When she sat back down on the couch, Rosalie shook out the blanked Bella has wadded up into the corner and gently draped it over her. "This is what you wanted right?" the blond asked her gently and Bella could only nod. The way Rosalie had shook the blanket out and practically tucked her in was odd, and so gentle. Bella almost felt like a well loved three year old and she didn't know what to say about that. She did her best to tear her eyes off of Rosalie once the blonde turned to take the chair by the couch and grab the remote.
Alice sat beside her and tugged on Bella's legs to put them in her lap, before pulling part of the blanket off Bella's feet. Bella did her best to get comfortable with her back resting against the couch arm instead of the back and with her feet in Alice's lap. She could feel the coolness of Alice's hands on her bare feet and Bella couldn't help but shiver a little at the touch, the cold, and the intimacy.
"Are you cold?" Alice's face fell a little and it actually hurt to see that.
"No one's ever done my nails before." Bella muttered, and looked at the small hand holding one of her feet. "I don't know if I'm ticklish." She was completely ignoring Alice's concern about her being too cold to touch Bella's feet. Technically, in this body, that was all true.
"I'll be careful." Alice smiled at her and started to open the bright red polish she'd had. Alice didn't have anything from the blue family, which Bella would have preferred so they'd settled for red. "Try not to squirm though, or I'll mess up the job."
It was a movie they'd all seen before, some romantic comedy, so it wasn't something they all were paying all that much attention too. Bella found herself watching Alice work. Alice was working very slowly, as if trying to carefully get the polish on just so. She could occasionally see hints of Alice saying something quietly to Rosalie. Bella let them have their plotting, for all she knew they were trying to figure out how to cover up the fact that only Bella was going to sleep tonight.
…..
Bella woke up, which was a surprise because she didn't remember falling asleep. She remembered a few movies and the make over, and Alice's disappointment when Bella washed the make up off, but it was getting late and she expected to sleep soon. They then put another movie in, and that movie she didn't remember the end of. Bella shifted and opened her eyes.
She was still on the couch, covered with the blanket. The tv was on softly, and the other two were watching it. Well, they were kind of watching it, because Alice had a book in her hands as well.
She moved the blanket and sat up. That had Rosalie looking over at her. "It's okay if you want to sleep. We just weren't tired yet."
"Oh, yeah." Bella rubbed her eyes. "Bathroom." She stood up and she was a little wobbly, which was perfectly normal for someone waking up, but Rosalie was by her side rather quickly, holding her arm to steady her. Bella gave the blonde a small smile. "I'm fine, I just need the bathroom." She managed a full sentence and then started around the couch to find it. "Sorry I fell asleep."
"That's okay." Rosalie told her.
Once Bella was done she went back out to the main room and sat down on the couch, tugging the blanket around her. "What are we watching?"
"It's a Sex in the City marathon, but don't you need to sleep?" Alice asked quietly, as if still trying not to wake her up, even though Bella was awake.
"I can do it in stages." Bella answered. "I'm good for now, and this looks good." She had no idea if it looked good, she just didn't want to disappoint the vampires by sleeping the entire night. It was what she'd do for humans who wanted a sleep over as well, and Bella had already planned naps for when she went back home after this.
She was ten minutes into the movie when Bella let out a huge sigh. "Oh please, she'd be better off with one of her best friends. They need to pair up and leave this loser in the ditch."
Alice started chuckling. "So your happy ending is Mr. Big gets dumped and Carrie Bradshaw goes gay?"
"Who should she go gay with?" Rosalie was teasing her and Bella blushed and refocused on the tv, as if selecting.
"I think she'd look good with the redhead." She couldn't say she'd seen a few of these shows before, because seriously how much could she have seen in the nine months of memories she was supposed to have. She thought of Carrie's three friends, Miranda was the best of the lot. She wanted off this topic. "Did you buy any ice cream?" She asked Alice. Alice looked pleased and got up to get the chocolate for her.
"We already ate ours, while you were sleeping." Alice added and Bella found herself amused at the cheating, they weren't even pretending to eat anymore, just claiming she missed it.
Fifteen minutes later Bella was still working on the ice cream, because the Cullen freezer worked very well and she'd had to wait for it to thaw a bit. "If you could sleep with any movie star you wanted to, who would it be?" Alice asked, and it was like she was going through a sleep over script.
"Alice!" Rosalie objected and glanced at Bella. "Not everything is about sex." It seemed like Rosalie wasn't sure Bella wasn't going to get 'ideas' from this.
"It's just a game Rose." Alice pouted and Bella really felt bad for her. This sleep over was way too important to the little vampire.
"Are we time traveling in this one?" Bella asked, thinking about Marlene Deitrich. Something about the elegance these vampires always exuded reminded her of the old movie stars.
Rose huffed, but Alice just grinned. "Anyone past or present."
Bella blushed and glanced around, so she wasn't looking at either of them for a moment while she screwed up a little courage. "Well, Marlene Deitrich was pretty hot."
Alice blinked a few times and then her grin became a little wicked. "Oh really? So your mind immediately went to Marlene?"
"Well, I mean, there are others." Bella felt like taking back her words at that moment. She could see Rosalie giving her an assessing look as well, but it was giddy and evil like Alice's.
"And are ANY of them actually men?" Alice asked her and Rosalie wasn't really objecting to the questions anymore.
"Some." Bella felt like her blush was probably easy for the vampires to smell at this point. "Dean Cain." She offered one up, an admittedly rare, male on her list. She'd thought he was pretty hot as Superman.
She could see Alice opening her mouth up to ask more, and Bella gave her a small glare. "Your turn." Was all she said, and she crossed her arms in front of her. She was not playing interrogation, this was supposed to be equal here.
Rosalie gave Bella one more look before turning to Alice. "One of each then." In that moment Bella felt grateful and almost tearfully happy at how quickly the vampires just accepted it. She'd put her neck out and it was okay, they weren't going to let her feel odd. Alice frowned, clearly deep in thought, so Rosalie turned to face Bella. "Julie Newmar and Brad Pitt."
"Oh," Alice said as soon as Brad's name was out. "Angelina Jolie and, ugh, I should pick an older star like you two did." She paused for a bit, before her smile grew with confidence. "James Dean."
After that Bella did wonder at how easy it was for Rosalie to come up with a woman's name, it was much easier than Alice, who had clearly cheated and just picked the one that came to mind after Rosalie said Brad. Half of the women in America would probably say Angelina if they had to play this game.
…
"Hey sleepyhead," A soft voice spoke near her and Bella opened her eyes. "You slept through breakfast, but we saved you some." Rosalie told her and Bella blinked her eyes and glanced around the main room. She was sleeping on the couch again, but it was daylight out. Daylight in this house was very daylight, with the wall of windows.
"What time is it?" Bella managed to sit up, but the help of Rosalie's hand on her shoulder was nice.
"It's eight." Rosalie told her. "There are some pancakes left." As if any were missing, Bella thought with some amusement. She followed Rosalie into the kitchen to see Alice washing a few dishes. More elaborate, they were pretending they'd really eaten.
Two sets of golden eyes stared at her as she brought the first forkful toward her mouth. Bella did her best to ignore that, but it felt odd. The pancake tasted okay and she noticed Rosalie relax a little when Bella didn't just spit it out, so she found the cook. Esme was supposedly away overnight with Carlisle and the boys were supposedly camping. Bella knew everyone else was taking this time to hunt and to give the girls the privacy Alice wanted for an 'authentic' sleep over. It was a little sad Esme couldn't figure out a way to make it so she could stay as well, but Bella knew it would be odd, and since no one realized Bella was in on everything, they weren't going to do odd. Besides, Esme had been playing the mother for so long, Bella wasn't sure Esme could turn it off.
"I say we do make overs today, because then you'll get to keep it on for the day." Alice offered with a smile. "If we didn't get pictures, last night's work would have been completely wasted."
"I don't know about that. I still have nice red toes." Bella glanced down at Alice's bare feet as well. "And you're still pretty in pink." She'd painted Alice's toes too. They were cold little toes, and Bella joked about cold feet in her back after she fell asleep, which made both vampires more comfortable looking when Bella didn't make a big deal or ask questions. "I'm not doing anything special after I leave tonight, except catch up on sleep."
They both frowned at that, so Bella had to continue. "I heard there was never much sleep at a sleep over, so I made plans to take a nap today." Their frowns eased and after Bella ate the last bite of her breakfast, Alice took the plate to wash that as well.
….