Today was also a very special day. On this day eighteen years ago, I, Mary Alice Swan came into the world. I was so excited. I couldn't help but wonder what I was going to get. The main thing that I wanted was clothes. A girl could never have enough clothes. I could also use something to put them in like a second dresser but I don't think anyone would be getting me that. I didn't know if I had space for them either. Besides, I could always put the overflow in Bella's room because she didn't have very many clothes. I couldn't help but wonder if I should buy her more clothes, but I didn't know if she would wear them.
I hopped out of bed and into the shower. After I was done, I got dressed and headed downstairs where Charlie was seated the table. He had apparently tried to make me waffles and failed miserably so there were a dozen donuts out instead. I couldn't help but smile at his failure. I was a little surprised that he had even attempted it and I knew that I needed to at least applaud his effort. I was still glad that I wouldn't have to eat it though because I didn't want to have any stomach problems.
"As you can see, I still can't cook." He commented. I giggled a little when he said that. I was pretty sure that he was trying to be funny anyway.
"It's fine, Dad, I'm okay with donuts." I remarked as I took one. There was glazed. There was nothing fancy about them, but sometimes the best things were the simplest. I didn't know who first said that but they had to be pretty smart.
"So do you want your presents now or later?" He asked. I couldn't help but wonder if he had gotten me some clothes, but I wasn't sure if I could trust him to shop for me.
"If you have them now, I would love that." I replied.
Charlie pulled a camera and a photo album from behind his chair. Okay so he didn't get me clothes. That was still probably for the best. He could have given me money so I could get my own clothes, but I supposed that all gifts were valid.
"They're from both your mother and me." He said. "She thought it would be a good idea for you to make a scrapbook of your senior year."
"Ooh that's a great idea." I said as I hugged Charlie. I wanted to take some pictures of me and Bella, because contrary to popular belief, she did show up in pictures. I still didn't have very many pictures of them. "Thanks."
"You're welcome." Charlie said awkwardly. He still wasn't great at being a dad, but I knew that he was trying his best.
After breakfast, I went outside and saw my truck. That was another thing that I wanted for my birthday: a new car. But those were expensive and I didn't want anyone to spend that much money on me. So it looked like I was stuck with old rusty. It sputtered a bit as I started it.
"Oh quit whining." I told it. I was glad that no one was around to hear that. I turned on the radio even though the only station that I got was this news station. Apparently there was a story about missing hikers. I was pretty sure that it was just a coincidence because I didn't think that James would come back to town with the Cullens still around.
I pulled into the parking lot noticed my group of non-Cullen friends. I did find it interesting that Jessica was still friends with Mike but I think there was some sort of code that the head cheerleader had to be friends with the quarterback no matter how terrible of a person the quarterback was…or how terrible of a quarterback he was. I was pretty sure that there wouldn't be any NFL players from our school.
"Hey Alice, it's the big day." Jessica replied. Did she know it was my birthday? I was pretty sure that I hadn't told her. I probably should have told, but I kind of just forget. "Cheerleading tryouts."
"Yeah." I mused. I debated telling them about my birthday. Jessica was really the only one that I wanted to know, except for maybe Angela. I kind was only friends with Eric, Mike and Tyler because they always hung around Jess and Angela.
"I can't wait to see you in one of the uniforms." Mike commented.
"You know I have to actually make the squad. and I still have a girlfriend." I reminded him. I looked to the rest of them. "Will somebody hit him?"
Eric complied. I was a little surprised that he actually did it.
"Hey could you guys stand together. My mom wants me to make a senior year scrapbook." I requested. It would probably be a good idea to get some pictures that didn't have the Cullens in them. There really wasn't that much to make a scrapbook with.
"I take pictures, I'm not in them." Angela complained as Eric pulled her close. I quickly took the picture.
"Oh look Bella's here." Mike announced. I turned to see Bella's car pull up. I couldn't hide my smile upon seeing her.
"Well talk to you later." Jessica said as I walked over to see my girlfriend.
"Happy Birthday, Alice." She said as she hugged me lightly. I kind of wished that we could fully embrace but I knew that couldn't happen until I was a vampire. She still wasn't clear on if she was going to do that soon or not. It might be a good idea to wait until I finished school.
"It is indeed." I replied with a smile on my face. "I'm older than you now."
"No you're not. I'm at least 100 probably older." Bella replied. I couldn't help but wonder if she had ever found anything related to her birth. I didn't know if it was really that important to be honest.
"I didn't know that I was dating a grandma." I remarked.
"I don't think I had any children but if I did it's possible I have great grandchildren actually." She responded. It could have been possible that Bella had kids. She had been in a mental institution. I wished that there was some way that we could recover her missing memories.
We began to kiss or make out or whatever you want to call it.
"We need to get to class." Bella said. "Wait someone's here."
I turned and looked to see Jacob. I couldn't help but wonder what he was doing at our school. Didn't he have to be at his own school?
"Alice" He greeted happily
"Jake." I said as I hugged him.
"I'll give you a moment." Bella remarked as she walked slightly away. I couldn't help but wonder if she felt a little bit jealous. She really had no reason to be jealous because I didn't like Jacob like that. I was pretty sure that I didn't like guys at all.
"So why do your arms keep getting bigger every time I see you?" I asked. "You know steroids will make your testicles smaller."
"I'm just filling out." He replied. Was he lifting weights on the reservation? "If we hung out more, it wouldn't seem so drastic."
"I was busy a lot of the summer." I lied. Well, I was busy and Bella really wasn't allowed on the reservation.
"Well what are you doing this weekend?" He asked. I looked over to Bella.
"Are we doing anything this weekend?" I asked her.
"I'll get back to you on that." She answered as she headed inside. We really didn't make a lot of plans in advance. Part of it was determined by the weather forecast in case there was a random sunny day.
"So, I got you this." Jake responded as he handed me this strange object. "It supposedly catches bad dreams, and your dad told my dad it was your birthday."
"You know, I kind of think you should have remembered on your own." I replied as I began to walk to class. I wondered if he was just going to skip school. "I'll call you!"
We walked to English class where we were watching Romeo + Juliet. Not only were we reading the play, but we were also watching the Leonardo DiCaprio version of the movie which really was only based on the movie, the same 10 Thing I Hate About You was based Taming of the Shrew. I also couldn't help but think about Heath Ledger and how much I missed him. We lost a good actor too soon.
"You know Romeo's kind of a wimp." Bella whispered to me.
"Yeah, I know but he's passionate at least." I commented.
Then the teacher turned the lights on and asked Bella to repeat to the last few lines of the movie. God he was such a dick. Fortunately, Bella pretty much knew the play by heart.
Later in the hallway we were approached by Elena and Jasper.
"Happy Birthday" Elena said as she handed me a box. I opened it and inside was a beautiful dress. I was so happy that someone had finally gotten me some clothes.
'Yes someone finally got me clothes' I cheered mentally. I then remembered that she could read my mind.
"I thought you would like it." Elena remarked. "So I'm thinking you should come over tonight. I have this party planned and wear the dress."
I felt really happy but somehow still calm…wait a minute. I didn't want to be calm at the moment.
"Jasper!" I scolded as I realized what he was doing.
"Sorry can't you have you jumping up and down." He replied.
"It's true. Half the school already thinks you're crazy." Elena added. They probably thought that I was crazy for dating the resident emo girl, even though I knew that Bella wasn't emo. People just thought that she was. I didn't think that she would be able to listen to that music.
I stuck my tongue out at them, took my dress, and walked away with Bella.
"So, are you going to watch me at cheerleading tryouts?" I asked my vampire girlfriend. I wanted to show off my moves to her.
"I probably should." She replied. "I need to make sure that you don't get hurt."
I rolled my eyes at her as I walked to class. I was not going to get hurt.
Later in the day, I headed out to the field for cheerleading tryouts. Bella was sitting in the bleachers. Jessica had told that in being her best friend, I was pretty much going to get a spot on the squad as long as I didn't suck. I went through my routine and was pretty sure that I didn't suck. I went to the locker room to get changed and decided to talk to Jess for a little. Like I said, it was good to interact with my non-Cullen friends.
"So am I in?" I asked. I wanted to know. It would be a good birthday present even if she didn't know that it was my birthday.
"You are so in. You could have been a complete stranger and I would have let you on." Jess replied. "So I hear it's your birthday today. You doing anything?"
"As a matter of fact, the Cullens are throwing me a private party at their place." I responded. I couldn't help but wonder how she had found out, but she was big on a lot of the gossip and someone had to have seen Elena giving me a gift. It was also possible that Charlie had told her. It probably wasn't worth asking her how she had found out.
"Oh okay then." She declared. She seemed like she was a little disappointed that she wasn't going to get to come and I felt bad about it, but I knew there was no way that she could come over. "Guess I'll see you later then."
Later, I was at the Cullen house. I was taking a bigger tour through all of the rooms. We were in Esme and Carlisle's room and I noticed a painting. They looked like vampires, but it also looked like a pretty old painting and they also looked pretty foppish.
"Who are they?" I asked looking at the vampires in the painting.
"The Volturi." Bella stated. I hoped that she was going to tell me more because that didn't really tell me anything. "They are the oldest, largest, and most powerful vampire coven. Carlisle lived with them for a few decades. They don't care for human life but they do enforce the law."
"Vampires have laws?" I questioned. I couldn't help but wonder if there was a big book of vampire laws that they had to keep with them. I also wondered if I would be able to see it.
"There's only one important one." Bella explained. "We keep the existence of our kind a secret."
"So what are you going to do about James?" I asked. I figured that it was probably a good idea to discuss if he ever decided to attack.
"I'll see him coming." Bella said. "You can't sneak up on me. Just like I know that Elena is outside of the door right now."
"Then I guess I don't need to say anything." Elena replied as she walked in. "Come on let's go."
I started out with my presents. I got a laptop from Bella, a necklace from Rosalie (which was really picked by Elena) and a new sound system for my truck from Emmett. I didn't know if I would use it because I didn't really know how to install such a thing. He probably would have been better off just getting me a new truck with a new sound system already installed.
"Can we take a break from presents?" I asked. I wasn't entirely sure what the flavor was, but it looked delicious and I knew that I wanted some. "I really want some of that cake."
I went over to cut myself a slice and I accidentally put my finger in the way. I was glad that I had managed to avoid cutting it off, even though I didn't think the knife was sharp enough for that.
"Fuck!" I shouted in pain. "I cut myself."
The next few seconds were all a blur. Jasper apparently had caught scent of my blood and started to rush at me. Bella pushed me aside and accidentally in the China case as she held Jasper off. Now I didn't just have a small cut. I had a huge gash down my arm. All of the Cullens except Carlisle left at that point. I noticed the anguish on Bella's face. This was not good. Carlisle took me upstairs and began to stitch my arm.
"What just happened?" I asked. I was a little confused by the situation, but I was pretty sure that I didn't have a concussion.
"It seems your blood caused Jasper to go into a frenzy." Carlisle explained. "As you know he hasn't been away from human blood as long as the rest of us."
"How can you stand being so close?" I asked. Also hadn't it been like 50 years since he last had human blood? How long did it take for them to no longer crave it?
"I've always had more resilience than the rest of my family. It makes working in hospital much easier." He said. I wasn't sure how that was possible, but I supposed that it made him a very skilled doctor.
"So what happens now?" I asked.
"If I had to guess, Jasper might spend a few days away from the family." He explained. I hoped that was all it was going to be because I had a bit of a bad feeling about it.
The next day, none of the Cullens were at school. It wasn't a sunny day so I couldn't help but wonder why. I expected Jasper to be gone but not the rest of them and especially not Bella. Now I really had a bad feeling about things.
I drove straight home after cheerleading practice. I noticed that Bella was standing outside of my house.
"Come and walk with me." Bella instructed. Her demeanor didn't exactly look comforting. I hoped that she wasn't going to say something drastic. I was just an accident.
I followed her deep into the forest. I wasn't sure why we needed to be so far away from everyone.
"I'm sorry that I failed you." Bella said. "I should have seen it coming."
"It was nothing." I replied. "It's just a minor injury. It will heal in a few days."
"It wasn't nothing. He could have killed you. I could have killed you." Bella responded. "I've failed you two times too many and both times you've gotten hurt because of it."
"I'm fine." I tried to tell her. I really was fine.
"I've realized you will be better off without me." Bella stated. Was she breaking up with me? It sounded like she was breaking up with me. "I won't look into your future and you can live a normal life."
"I don't want a normal life!" I shouted. "I want to be with you. If you're so afraid of me getting hurt, then make me one of you."
'I can't do that. You don't know what you're getting yourself into." She responded. She walked closer and kissed my head. I couldn't believe that this was happening. How had it gone from so good to so bad so quickly? And also why was she being so dramatic over something that was actually a pretty minor incident. "This is the last time you'll ever see me."
And with that she was gone. I couldn't believe it.
So the first chapter went basically the same but that's where the similarities are going to end. Please don't forget to review.