Chapter:3
"Big Billy's Party Time Fun? I'm not sure how comfortable I am with doing underage strip –O-grams," I said with a snicker, turning the card around in my fingers. There was a clown holding a bouquet of balloons on the front.
"Bella," he chided. "You remember my friend Billy Black? Well his company supplies characters for kids' birthday parties. You dress up like a princess, or whatever, and go to the party for an hour and get paid in cash."
"What would I have to do at the party?" I asked, with my eyebrows furrowed at the thought. I wondered if I was to be expected to sing or something awful along those lines. I could dance pretty well and thanks to all the gymnastics lessons I had taken as a kid, I could do a neat backbend and a handstand.
"I don't know, honey. What do princesses do?" he murmured.
"I'll call him tomorrow and see what the deal is." I slipped the card into my purse.
When I returned from shopping, a very familiar voice was chirping excitedly in the kitchen, immersed in conversation with Charlie.
"Bella…you're here!" Alice screamed, throwing her tiny arms around me. We hugged excitedly, rocking back and forth.
"Hey Alice! I missed you," I replied warmly, stroking a silky lock of her long dark hair. She looked exactly the same as she did when she we were twelve…exactly. Well, except that she had much bigger boobs now.
"I missed you too!"
"Bella, what the hell happened to your face?" Charlie interrupted. I automatically touched my fingers to the bridge of my nose, which had apparently begun to bruise.
"Oh, a two by four hanging out of the back of a pickup truck his my face." I shrugged and as if it were no big deal. He opened the freezer, handing me an old bag of peas. Charlie then excused himself, saying that he was heading out to Billy's and that he would be home for dinner.
"You look so different! Your hair is so long." She grabbed a lock of my hair and tugged on it. "Wow, I'm so glad you're here. Are you ready for school tomorrow?"
"Excited, and nervous. Hey, do you and Rosalie still hang out with Jess and Lauren?"
"Eww, no. They're way bitchy and totally slutty now. Well, Rosalie is kind of a slut too, but don't ever tell her I said that." She giggled. Her laugh was intoxicating and I had to chuckle right along with her.
"What am I going to say, 'Oh hey Rose, haven't seen you in five years, you look great and I heard you a whore?'" I asked. It wasn't such a big surprise to me that Rose had turned out that way. She had always been gorgeous; tall, thin, blonde and well endowed. Even in first grade, the boys were ogling her. I remember in junior high school our gym teacher used to stare at her chest when she played basketball. Rose had always liked to be the center of attention.
"Your car is freaking awesome! I can't wait until it's sunny out and we can drive around with the top down like in the movies. I still don't have one. My dad says I'm not ready to drive because I don't pay enough attention to the road, but he's totally wrong. Still, I don't have enough money saved for the one I want, and I refuse to drive around in a piece of junk," she said, helping me unload the bags of groceries. "Do you think that I could get a ride to school from you? Rosalie was driving me, but she always complains that she has to drive a million miles out of the way to pick me up, and then sometimes Edward and Jasper give me a ride but I hate riding with them because Edward drives too fast and sometimes he freaks me out, but I didn't mind so much when Jasper drives because I looooove to like, stare at him, but he barely knows I am alive." Since we were little, Alice did this rambling thing when she got excited. It could get annoying at times, but she was so cute that most people tended to tolerate it.
"Sure, Alice, I'll drive you. Who's Edward and Justin?"
"Edward and Jas-per," she corrected. She pointed her thumb in the direction of the big brick house down the block just as Charlie had earlier. "Jasper and Edward Cullen. They are step brothers, and they live with Carlisle and Esme Cullen. Oh, and Emmett. He's their older brother."
"So why does Edward freak you out?" I leaned into the refrigerator to place a carton of eggs on the shelf. Charlie hadn't cleaned his refrigerator in like, oh, five years. It smelled like feet.
She said in a whisper, "He has issues. I personally think he might be a psychopath. He barely speaks to anyone and he only hangs out with Jasper and Emmett. He doesn't date either. There is some speculation that he may be…gay." Alice gave me a wide eyed knowing nod.
"So just because he's quiet and allegedly gay means he's a psychopath?" I whispered back. It seemed like a very big assumption.
"No, he's … just Edward. You'll understand when you meet him. Though some of the girls think he's just a rich snob who thinks he's too good for anyone in Forks, but that just makes him more desirable, you know?"
"So are Jordan and Ernest shy, gay psychopaths too?" I asked.
"Jas-per and Em-mett," she enunciated. "Is there something wrong with your memory?" She handed me a loaf of bread from the table. Actually, the Prozac I took to assuage the panic attacks sort of made things cloudy at times, but I was not about to reveal that morsel of info unless absolutely necessary. Letting people know you are taking meds for anxiety wasn't necessarily the best way to start off.
I rolled my eyes. "Sorry. Jas-per and Em-mett. Do they have issues too or is it just Ed-ward?"
What the hell kind of names were those anyway?
"No, they're normal. Jasper is so cute and he's kind of quiet too, but not standoffish like Edward. Jasper dates a little, but not much. He is more of a flirt. Emmett is very popular and he plays like, every sport there is. Rosalie has a major thing for him. She has definite plans to officially make him her boyfriend by Thanksgiving."
"That's very ambitious of her. Hey, do you want to eat dinner with us? We're ordering pizza," I asked her…..