Chapter 2 - Trying To Make An Impression Part 1
Frustration seemed to be a reoccurring theme for Rosalie. Frustrated that she wasn't any closer to finding more out about her mate. Even more frustration over the fact that whenever she saw her mate she seemed to freeze up, which doesn't sound as bad of a problem as it actually is. With every interaction that she's had with her mate, which is 6 and counting. Her freezing up has lead to her mate avoiding her, because she either can't say anything or when she finally can speak Rosalie is clipped and sharp with her words. That has resulting in her mate thinking that she hates her, and that just shatters Rosalie. Which has led to where she is now, holed up in her room going over every interaction she's had with Amber so far.
The first try was only 2 days later after a lot of practice and pep talks. With a plan in place Rosalie strutted into the front doors of the Sere Squadron's lobby with a bag in hand. Pretending to be a bit lost and looking around for any sign of her mate. After wandering around for about 10 minutes she did find someone, sadly it wasn't who she wanted so desperately to see. It was Carlisle and he was very confused when his eldest daughter dejectedly shoved what he was sure was an empty bag into his hands. They had a quick conversation at vampire speed where Carlisle discovered that the bag was indeed empty and was only apart of a ruse that Rosalie had come up with to visit her father in order to hopefully run into her mate again. Rosalie's hardened facade crack quite a bit when Carlisle explained that Amber wasn't anywhere near the school at the moment. Amber and some of the other sere specialists had taken some of the sere candidates out early this morning to some of the training grounds. Apparently sere candidates were people who were training to try and become sere specialists. According to Carlisle it's not uncommon for a sere candidate class to reach a 70 percent or higher drop out rate.
When Carlisle realized how crushed his daughter seemed to be after learning about this information he promised that he would let her know as soon as he sees her mate and try and stall her so she would be able to conveniently be there and hopefully make some head way with trying to get closer to her.
Understanding that this was the best offer she was going to be able to get, Rosalie hugged her father and with a soft thank you and a kiss on his cheek, she left.
Rosalie decided to try and drive around and see if she could pick up her mate's scent. Knowing full well that she wouldn't be there, but hoping to gain some insight into Amber's life. Rosalie found a lot of scent trails to places like The Commissary (a military grocery store), The BX (a military version of wal-mart), the golf course, and the bowling alley. Sadly this didn't tell Rosalie a lot of information. About 2 hours later Rosalie received a text message, but didn't want to get her hopes up. She did almost hit a tree when she saw that it was a text from her father stating that she needs to come to the sere clinic. It serves her right for using her phone while driving.
-Meanwhile back at Carlisle's Office-
Carlisle heard the radio call from his office about several injured people headed to the sere clinic. He didn't think anything of it. That is until he recognized the voice of Amber Becole. He was an anxious mess waiting the appropriate amount of time to be able to show up. Sometimes being a vampire can so tedious. When he finally arrived at the front of the clinic after hearing the commotion, he was briefed about the situation. Apparently while some sere candidates where being shown how to repel off the side of a cliff, they didn't follow all of the directions. Thankfully their ropes saved them from plummeting to the ground; sadly the 2 sere candidates have a nasty case of cliff rash. In the corner of the room he saw Amber harshly yelling with another sere specialist about "the stupidity that occurred" according to Amber's description. Thanks to his enhanced senses he could see that Amber had a nasty gash on her neck and some significant cuts and scrapes on her arms.
Carlisle knew that his first order of business needed to be to text Rosalie. He did not want to be on the receiving end of her anger if she found out he delayed in contacting her.
Thankfully he was able to assess and take care of the injuries of the 2 sere candidates fairly quickly. While he was doctoring his patience's he was able to gather what had happened thanks to his eavesdropping. The 2 sere candidates had not followed the directions when trying to repel down the cliff and they collided. This resulted in them almost becoming disengaged from their ropes. Thankfully Becole was the instructor on the cliff wall as a safety precaution. Sadly that resulted in Becole doing everything she could to keep the 2 candidates safe and still on their ropes. Ending with Amber being pretty torn up by the cliff's wall.
Rosalie would not be happy with this outcome at all. Which was proven when she burst through the open door with her eyes wide and sweeping the room for any threats. Regrettably I was in the middle of cleaning and bandaging Amber's wounds. I quickly explained at vampire speed that her mate was fine and what had happened. Sadly that did little to calm my daughter, especially after she smelt her mate's blood. For the benefit of Amber I quickly re-laid what had happened, while keeping patient confidentiality of course. Amber embarrassedly looked at the wall when I explained that thanks to her the 2 candidates would be just fine, as I was bandaging her last wound. Amber hops off the table and shakes my hand while saying "thanks Doc, I appreciate the help with making my Mummy dreams come true." As she holds up her arms wrapped up in gauze. After chuckling I turned to Rosalie and ask her if she has met Amber yet. Knowing full well that they had. Amber turns to the both of us and smiles stating "Yes, I have had the pleasure. It's nice to see you again, Rosalie." Rosalie awkwardly didn't say anything, but after a few seconds finally nods her head. Thankfully Amber doesn't seem too offended, that is until Rosalie actually opens her mouth. Unfortunately Amber had no way of knowing that Rosalie's mating instincts at seeing her mate bleeding and injured were at play, because it would have soften the blow of what Rosalie has to say or more accurately shriek at her. My daughter all but demands to know why Amber thinks falling off a cliff is funny. At Amber's confusion and utterance of "no one fell off of a cliff", Rosalie was already talking over her and making accusations of Amber's irresponsibility, carelessness, and just plain stupidity that got her wounded. Within seconds Amber's chest puffed out and her eyes hardened. With a calm but firm authoritative voice said "I honestly don't care what you think of my intelligence, Ma'am, but don't you ever say to my face that I was being irresponsible. The safety of every student and every sere candidate is in my hands, and that is one responsibility that I will NEVER shirk. And as for my wounds….I've had worse as my scars will attest to. Now if you'll excuse me I have to go check on my class." Amber goes to step around us and out into the hall, but not before thanking me one more time for taking care of her students and herself. Then promptly leaves my office with two stunned vampires in her wake.
After the family was filled in on what had happened and were informed that Amber will indeed be alright, Emmett and Jasper took it upon themselves to try and smooth over any hostility that Rosalie's mate may still hold towards their sister.
Thankfully the boys had "conveniently" run into Amber the next day at the commissary. They said that they tried to explain to her that Rosalie doesn't deal with worry well and sometimes that worry and concern can express it's self in a negative way. The boys also urged Amber not to take it personally and that she should feel special, because Rosalie doesn't usually care about anyone outside of the family. The news gave Rosalie some hope that she didn't completely ruin her chances with her mate before they even really had a beginning.
-Line Break-
Rosalie decided to be more careful when she planned their next encounter.
From the intelligence and snooping that the whole family took part in, they were able to gather enough insight for Rosalie to form a plan.
Apparently, her mate was a bottomless pit and a sucker for food. It reminded the family of the wolves back in Forks. Which led to the women of the Cullen family holed up in the kitchen all of Sunday trying to come up with the perfect dish. They have narrowed the possibilities to a baked good, because according to Alice's observations Rosalie's mate had a big sweet tooth. The old saying of sweets for the sweet had all the women giggling.
It was Jasper that finally came to the rescue with the idea of a pecan pie. According to him it's the perfect thing for a Texan.
By Tuesday afternoon the Cullen women had baked 8 pecan pies and were headed to the sere school to deliver them to the kitchen. Thanks to Alice's timing using her visions and Carlisle's insider information they knew that Amber and a few of the other sere specialists were headed to the kitchen at that very moment. Esme decided to get the last 2 pies out of the car while Alice and Rosalie greeted Amber and her colleagues.
The vampires didn't need enhanced hearing to notice when the pack of sere specialist were getting close to the kitchen. From the group's laughter and loud talking they knew that Scott, Kevin, Jake, Tom, Mike, Kyle, and Amber were the one's approaching the kitchen. When they finally entered the room the whole group seemed to stop for what seemed like minutes, but it was closer to about 6 seconds. Rosalie and Alice couldn't blame the humans; after all stumbling onto to vampires without notice ahead of time can be very disarming.
One thing that the Cullen have noticed about this unit is that unlike other humans all of the sere specialist seem to snap out of the glamour stupor caused by the vampires unique beauty a lot faster than they have seen any other humans.
Jasper and Carlisle have theorized that it has to be related to their special training. As Jasper has stated before, 'Sere specialists are a very special breed'. Which seems to keep being proven to the Cullen's.
Once the group had entered the kitchen Alice and Rosalie greeted everyone, though Rosalie's eyes were practically glued to Amber as she walked around the kitchen and grabbed some food out of the pantry. Once everyone was in the room Alice took the lead and explained that they had baked them several pies, which seemed to excite everyone. Rosalie's heart warmed when she noticed her mate was also excited. Tom was the closest to the cupboard so he grabbed some plates and silverware while Scott got out a cutting knife. Kyle turned to Alice and asked her "what kind of pie?" and with her normal exuberance replied "pecan pie". Everyone responded with enthusiasm, well everyone but Rosalie's mate. Rosalie was making sure to memorize every movement and what she had hoped would be joy that passed over her love's face. Unfortunately her mate didn't react at all upon hearing the words pecan pie. While the rest of the guys dived in with vigor over the pies all saying different complements and assurances that the pie was delicious and lots of thank-yous thrown in, Amber continued to pull snacks out of the pantry and onto the counter next to Rosalie. After some calming breaths that had more to do with the fact that she was inhaling her mates scent more than anything. Rosalie finally softly asked Amber if she could get her a piece of pie. That's when Amber politely declined and said "no thank you ma'am, though I do appreciate the offer as well as the time and effort that it took to make them." Rosalie must have looked confused, because Amber decided to elaborate. "I'm not a fan of pecans. I'm actually kinda picky about nuts. I don't really like the taste." Almost as an after thought she smiled and said "well, except walnuts".
Sadly Amber mistook the look on Rosalie's face from Rosalie's own self loathing towards herself for not only not knowing enough about her mate and the fact that she made something for her mate that she doesn't like, for a loathing of distain for the fact that Amber refused to eat the pie. So Amber excused her self as fast as she could and told her friends that she would be back later as she walked out of the room. With Rosalie looking helplessly down at the pecan pie in front of her.
Rosalie didn't know how long she stared at the pie for but it must have only been a few minutes, because she was soon wrapped up in a one arm hug from her mother. Having heard everything and getting the rest of the interaction from Alice via a quick text message, she tried to comfort her daughter the best that she could. Esme was also disappointed that she had missed another opportunity to meet Amber.
After berating herself for the next week for her lack of language skills and the insufficient knowledge about her mate's preferences that resulted in her mate's unhappiness Rosalie decided to try and do something special for her mate.
-Line Break-
The next encounter was Emmett's idea. Apparently Jasper, but especially Emmett has been getting pretty close to Amber. Hence why Emmett knew that Amber would be at the ballpark today hoping to join in on a spontaneous baseball game. After talking with Esme, she decided to bring orange slices to her mate for an impromptu snack. Not before confirming that her mate liked oranges though. Thanks to Esme they had both cut up enough oranges to feed both teams and then some.
Later on that afternoon Rosalie and Emmett headed for the park where Rosalie hoped beyond hope that she would finally be able to make some head way with her mate. What Rosalie didn't plan on was being absolutely stunned at seeing her mate. Amber was on the side of home plate stretching and swinging her bat around getting ready to go up to bat. Rosalie was not expecting her mate to be in shorts and a t-shirt. She should have known, but even knowing could never prepare her for seeing more skin of her mate than she has been able to see thanks to the military uniform that she always sees her in. Not only was it the muscle that you could clearly see, but also the raw power that her mate exuberated that had Rosalie going weak in the knees. Rosalie heard the crack of the bat connecting as she witnessed the baseball soar over the fence wall. She was too wrapped up in her hormones to realize that she wasn't clapping or shouting in victory, but thankfully Emmett had them both covered with how loud and vigorously he was yelling.
Rounding 3rd base and headed towards home is when Amber finally heard and saw Emmett jumping up and down. She smiled and waved as she touched home base. She was congratulated by her team then excused herself once the game resumed to come over and see them.
Rosalie didn't realize how close Amber and Emmett had become, so when Emmett swept her up into a huge bear hug and swung her around she couldn't help but feel a little jealous. Even though with her enhanced senses she knew by both of their scents that there was no attraction. That did nothing to quiet the jealousy that was raging through her though. Thankfully Rosalie was able to rein in and keep her jealousy suppressed. When Amber finally was put back on her feet is when she noticed Rosalie. What stumped Amber was the fact that Rosalie thrusted a container into her hands. Amber was so shocked that she just stared at it and then finally shook it. Still thoroughly confused Amber opened the container and smiled when she realized that it was oranges. "Thank you so much, I've actually been craving these. Oh sweet they're even cut up already." And then proceeded to snack on a few.
Everything was going so perfectly, that is until Rosalie's brain short circuited when she saw her mate eating in a way that Rosalie can only think to describe as sensual. Rosalie's pretty sure that her mate could sneeze or read the phone book and she would swoon over her.
Rosalie scrambled to come up with something to say, but all that came out was "It was Esme's idea". That made Amber remember the look of distain that Rosalie had given her over the pie last week. Amber figured that the oranges were Mrs. Cullen's attempt at an apology for making a pie that she didn't like and Amber realized that Rosalie was the one to bring them, because it must be a form of punishment and so that she could apologize or make peace. She would suspect that Rosalie was to make sure that there are no hard feeling after the two of them had had some harsh words over the few times that they have met.
Amber realizing all of this and understanding the need for everyone to be able to get a long, especially in a unit like theirs. She did what she had to do to help the situation along so she put aside her feelings and helped to mend their differences by saying "thank you, I will be sure to thank Mrs. Cullen the next time that I see her". Realizing that she needed to get back to the game she excused herself and went back to the dugout.
What Rosalie failed to realize is that her mate had decided the best thing to do is to ignore her. Of course she would be polite and talk to her, but only when necessary. Which was proven with their next two encounters.