Chapter 10 - Shopping

The next morning I was getting ready for school when I was surprised to find a knock on my door. I opened it cautiously to find Alice standing on my porch, a bright smile on her face. "We realised that your truck is still at the school, so we're here to give you a ride." She explained. Behind her I saw the others, all sitting in a bright red convertible BMW M3, with the top down.

I grabbed my bag, and quickly closed and locked the door. "Thanks guys." I said as we reached the car. "I really appreciate it." I said, genuinely touched as how nice they were.

"No worries Bella," Rose assured me as I jumped over the side and into the back seat next to Alice and Jasper. "Your house is on our way to school anyway." She continued as she put the car in gear and headed to school. "In fact, if your truck ever breaks down, just call us and we'll pick you up." She offered, turning to give me a smile, the car never wavering from its path, even though her eyes weren't on the road.

I smiled back. "Thank you. When we go to Seattle Rose, you're going to have to show me what your baby can do." I said.

She laughed, "Let's just say that the ride to Seattle won't take very long," she winked.

We arrived at school, and I tried to ignore the stares, whispers and gawking that I got when the other students saw me get out of Rose's car. I was very thankful that Rose's car was so ostentations, because many of the guys that had been staring soon realised what kind of car we had gotten out of and promptly forgot about me as they raced over to get a proper look.

In the meantime, I subtly escaped to my first class.

I was proud of myself as lunch came, having successfully managed to avoid Mike all morning, and having given Jessica non-answers about the Cullens throughout our Trig lesson. Unfortunately, all good things must come to an end, and as I walked into the cafeteria Mike once again latched onto my arm, "Bella, baby, why don't we have dinner together tonight?" He asked. "Call me baby again and you'll be wishing you never did." I warned "Let me show you just how beautiful you are baby." He tried to purr "First of all you sound like like a lawn mower and act like a lost puppy. Second I see Not the brightest crayon in the box, are we now?" I snarled "I like when You play herd to get." he said still sounding like a lawn mower " And just as much I like the noise you make when you shut the fuck up and don't ever touch me again Mike." I said the venom in my voice unmistakable.

His eyes flashed with determination. "Come on Baby, you know you want to go out with me." He stated arrogantly, " do you have to practice being stupid or doesit just come naturally?"I asked "Stop playing hard to get."

I gritted my teeth to stop myself from throwing him through the window. " "I know that everyone is allowed to act stupid once in awhile, but you're really abusing that privilege and I'm only going to say this once Mike. I. Do. Not. Like. You. We're on two different levels." I said slowly, stressing every word, my voice deceptively calm.

Mike's hand was still on my arm and I shrugged away I'm disgust. "Ding, hey did anyone hear that? I think that was the elevator because she's not on my level!" he shouted to the whole cafeteria and they laughed " Wipe your mouth, there's a little bit of bullshit around your lips."I replied "more like your come which you can have he honour's" he said so the whole school could hear and laugh. I angrily stated "You're like the first slice of bread in the packet, everyone touches you but no one wants you and I'd HAPPILY like to state that The deeper you dig your lying deceit hole, the farther your lying ass will have to climb out of it. It's not the lie that bothers me. It's the insult to my innocence that I find offensive." he was shocked for a minute and tried to say something else but I interrupted "I'd also like to say YOU'VE officially MADE an ENEMY of Me! and no one wants that." I said voice calm yet heavy with seething rage making it even scarier and he tried to apologise but I said "People lie, actions don't" The whole school stared shocked for a minute and and started cheering and chanting my name and I grined when a large, cold white hand came down on his shoulder. He shivered turning to face to owner of the hand. I grinned at Emmett, who was Glaring pissed at Mike. I saw a quick flash of proudness in his eyes as they caught mine, before he turned his cold angry stare back to Mike. "Listen Mike," he growled menacingly, as he straining to keep in control. "If you ever talk to Bella again, or even come near her again, I will personally remodel your face so bad that the army couldn't even make out who you are." He was now shooting daggers at Mike and he was now visibly shaking. "Do you understand?" Emmett asked in a loathing tone

Mike nodded before turning and running out of the cafeteria. Emmett and I managed to make it to our table before bursting into laughter, and we were soon joined by Jasper, Alice and Rosalie, who had watched the whole exchange with amusement, anger, and disgust. "Thanks Emmett," I said when we finally calmed down. "You're like the awesome big brother I never had." I commented. He looked pleased but still pissed at Mike

"I can see why you were so eager to escape from Newton yesterday. I probably would have killed him." Rose remarked, her disgust of Mike evident in the way she sneered his name. I simply shuddered in disgust and nodded. In my rush to get away from Mike I had forgotten to get any food, so I just snagged stuff off the others trays. They weren't going to eat in anyway. They looked at me, surprised, but I just shrugged at them. "I'm too lazy to go up there and get my own stuff, so I hope you guys don't mind sharing." I said.

"Oh no Bella, go right ahead. We always get too much to eat anyway." Alice assured me. "In fact, you should just eat off our trays every day; we always get too much and waste it." She said. I smiled inwardly. Obviously Alice had figured out that it would help them look more human if the food on their trays actually disappeared instead of just being rearranged.

"Well if you don't mind..." I said hesitantly.

"Oh no, help yourself," they said. I tucked in eagerly, surprised that they had all managed to pick nice foods. Alice, Rose and I were soon chatting about our shopping trip as I happily munched away. Charlie had been happy that I was making friends and had quickly agreed to the shopping trip as he was planning on going fishing with Billy on the weekend anyway.

That afternoon Alice caught me before I could get to my truck. "Bella you have to come over to our place this afternoon," she begged, "Esme is dying to meet you."

I sighed. Realising I was never going to win an argument against her; I agreed and followed them to their house in my truck.

Calling their home a house was the biggest understatement of the year. It was a huge three storey mansion. I walked in feeling slightly intimidated by the beauty of it.

Waiting near the door was a beautiful vampire with soft motherly features and wavy caramel hair. "Hello," she greeted me, "I'm Esme. You must be Bella, my kids haven't stopped talking about you." She said smiling at me.

I smiled brightly back before stepping closer and giving her a hug. She froze for a second in surprise before lightly hugging me back. "It's a pleasure to meet you Esme, you have a lovely home, and a wonderful family." I said.

"Thank you Bella, I can see why my children all seem to find you so intriguing." She said as I blushed in embarrassment. I mumbled a quick thank you as I looked around the large room we were in.

My attention was immediately caught by the grand piano sitting on a raised floor. "What a beautiful piano." I commented.

"Thank you dear, it's Edward's." Esme explained. "Do you play any instruments?" she asked.

I nodded shyly, "I mainly play the harp, but I can play a few other instruments, including the piano." I informed her.

She beamed at me. "The harp, how lovely, you will have to play it for us sometime." She declared.

I smiled at her enthusiasm. "Unfortunately, I didn't have room for the concert grand harp that I normally play," I explained remorsefully, "and I only have a smaller harp to keep me in practise."

Esme seemed to have the same generosity as the rest of her family, because she immediately responded with an offer, "Oh Bella, you are more than welcome to keep your harp here," she offered. "We have plenty of room, in fact I'm sure it would look lovely sitting near the piano." She gushed.

"Esme, I couldn't impose on you so much," I said, suddenly uncomfortable with the generosity of this family. "You guys have already done so much for me, and I don't know how I'd ever repay you." I explained.

"Nonsense," Esme stated, "We would be happy to have your harp here. But if you really feel the need to pay us back, you can play for us when it gets here."

I decided that I shouldn't pass up this offer, so I smiled gratefully and hugged her again. "Thank you Esme." I whispered.

I was taken on a tour of the house by Alice, before Rosalie took me out to the garage, proudly showing me the collection of expensive cars housed in the super sized garage. One in particular caught my eye. I whistled, "Nice Vanquish ," I commented.

Rose smiled, "It's Edward's," she informed me. I was surprised, it sounded like Edward and I had a lot in common. It was disappointing that I had to be his singer and scare him away.

I spent some more time watching them interact as a family before I reluctantly headed home to start dinner for Charlie.

Thursday was spent with Mike going out of his way to avoid me, something I was very grateful for. Our plans for the weekend were finalised, and we would be leaving in the middle of the next day, before lunch.

One aspect of my day that I tried hard not to think about too much was the incident that happened at lunch time. I had tripped just as I reached our table, and fallen to the ground. Flailing my arms in a pointless attempt to stop myself, I had ended up dumping two trays of food on myself, much to Emmett's amusement, and my eternal embarrassment.

He had continued to tease me about it all day, and after school his final comment made me snap. "Bella, I must say you look good enough to eat!" he grinned at me, "All you need is a little whipped cream and a cherry on top and you'd be perfect." He declared.

I flushed and glared at him. "I will get you back for this Emmett. You. Will. Pay." I warned. He laughed in disbelief, and I turned away, a plan forming in my mind.

Alice started laughing and muttered, "Oh Emmett, what have you done?" before pulling Rose aside to whisper to her as they walked away. Soon both of them were grinning like Cheshire cats. I took that as a sign that they approved of my plan.

I woke early on Friday, eager to start my day. I rushed through my routine, managing to catch Charlie before he left for work to bid him goodbye and wish him luck for the weekend.

I waited outside, and soon enough Rose drove up in her car with Alice. Emmett and Jasper were in the jeep behind them. I tossed my lightly packed duffel in the boot and climbed in eagerly. Alice was practically vibrating with happiness in the passenger seat. I hadn't packed much, knowing that in all likelihood I would have plenty of luggage coming home.

The morning passed slowly, I couldn't believe how slowly the clock was ticking as I impatiently waited for the bell to go. After what seemed like hours, the bell finally rang, and I rushed out of class and over to the BMW, where a bouncing Alice and a calm Rose were already waiting. Standing beside them was Jasper and Emmett.

We bid the boys goodbye and got out on the road. As Rose had promised, it was a very quick trip to Seattle, and we were soon comfortably seated in first class on a plane headed for Edmonton. I settled down and had a nap on the way there; knowing that once we got to Edmonton it would be non-stop shopping. I also ate a big meal on the plane, pinching food off Rose and Alice and stuffing myself because I had a feeling that they weren't used to stopping for food while they shopped.

We landed and quickly got our luggage, heading straight for the hotel conveniently located beside the shopping centre in our hire car, a blue mustang. We didn't even bother going up to look at our suite, we just checked-in, and left our luggage and car at the hotel before quickly entering the huge mall.

Alice sighed in happiness as we entered, "This is heaven," she declared, before her eyes immediately started darting towards to names of the stores in view. "Ooh, let's go here first," she decided, grabbing us.

I resisted. "Uh uh Alice, our first stop is going to be the camera store." I said firmly.

"Why?" she asked, confused.

"So we can take pictures of all the fun we have to rub it into the boys faces of course." I explained as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. Rose and Alice grinned evilly.

"I like the way you think Bella," Rose declared as we headed for the camera store and brought three digital cameras. We had the assistants take them out of the boxes and set them up for us before leaving the store, shiny new cameras in hand to document our shopping trip.

As I had suspected, Rose and Alice didn't stop in the five hours we were there before the store closed, and I was exceedingly grateful that I had been eased into long shopping trips at a young age or I would have been overwhelmed by their non-stop attitude. Luckily, I had a few tricks up my sleeves from my previous vampire shopping adventures. I took the chance to sit down regularly when we went to different shops, and I carried a water bottle and energy bars with me in my purse.

I fought early with Alice about paying for things. Alice seemed to think she could get away with paying for everything for me, and I stopped her after she sneakily paid for my things while I was still in the dressing room of the first store. At the next store I made sure I was at the counter as our items were totalled up and when the total price was announced I smoothly handed over my black card. "Bella," Alice whined, "I was going to pay for that."

I looked at her fiercely, "Alice, I have plenty of money and you guys have already paid for the hotel and flights and wouldn't let me pay my share, so I should at least get to buy you some clothes." I said.

She looked at me closely, and observing the determination in my eyes she huffed. "Fine," She said, "We'll alternate shops if that will make you happy." She compromised.

I would have been happier paying for everything, but I figured that this was the best deal I was going to get. "Thank you Alice," I accepted.

We had to leave when the mall closed at 11pm, and we headed back to the hotel and into our luxurious suite. We ordered room service and kicked back on the sofas watching TV and showing each other the photos we had taken at all of the stores, laughing at ourselves in some of the outfits we had tried on.

I went to bed early. Tomorrow the shops would be open for 14 hours straight, and I had a feeling that we wouldn't be leaving the shopping centre at all in that time.

I woke early the next morning and ordered breakfast as I got ready. Unsurprisingly, Alice and Rose were already wide awake and eager to start the day, informing me that they'd already had breakfast while I was still asleep. I shrugged as I tucked into my huge breakfast, likely to be the last proper meal I would have in 14 hours.

Before we left though Alice and I got into an argument over shoes, and I was forced to unleash my secret weapon.

Alice seemed to think that my outfit required heels, and upon realising that I had the same shoe size as Rose, had rushed to Rose's suitcases and soon came out dangling a pair of black, dangerous looking, stilettos.

"Alice, there is no way in hell that I am going to spend all day shopping in those heels." I said calmly, "My feet would ache for days after that."

"But Bella, these shoes would look great with that outfit, much better than those flats you plan on wearing."

"Absolutely not!" I replied, looking over her head to mouth "HELP" at Rose. Rose just looked on amused, making no attempt to get between Alice and her goal.

I looked back at Alice and founded her pouting at me, her face looking absolutely heartbroken. "Bella, as a good friend, I only want you to look your best today." She said. "Please wear the heels," she pleaded. "I'm only looking out for you."

I almost caved into her wishes, and I'm sure I would have if I hadn't already been subjected to it by Heidi many times beforehand, although I have to admit that Alice was much better at guilt tripping me than Heidi ever was. I sighed softly, realising I was going to have to show her just how good I was at retaliating against vampires.

I put on my own pout, an almost exact replica of Alice's, "Alice, my feet will be painful if I have to wear them all day," I pleaded softly in a heartbroken voice, "You wouldn't want me to only have memories of being in pain on this shopping trip would you?" I asked, my eyes deliberately watering, tears threatening to spill down my cheeks. Out of the corner of my eye I saw Rose snap a picture.

Alice blinked. "Uh no? I guess not?" she said, making it sound like a question.

Jumping on my chance I wasted no time in hugging her. "Thank you Alice." I yelled, rushing to my room to get my comfortable flats.

From my room I heard Alice, "What just happened?" she asked in a confused voice.

Rose laughed, "You just got beaten at your own trick." She explained.

As predicted we did spend the entire 14 hours inside the mall, stopping only once for a toilet break and lunch before we were off shopping again. With the amount of items we bought, including a few presents for the guys and Esme, I was incredibly thankful that the mall had a service which delivered all of our purchases to the hotel for us, as having to carry that many bags would have hindered us a lot.

As it neared closing time I remembered the one thing I had forgotten to buy before tomorrow, when we would forgo shopping and spend our time at the amusement parks and other attractions located inside the mall.

Just as I remembered Alice piped up, "Oh, I'm glad you remembered Bella, of course we need bikinis for tomorrow. The guys are going to be so jealous when we show them the pictures of us on the waterslides."

I cocked an eyebrow at her and waited for her to realise that I hadn't actually said anything. Rose figured it out first. "Alice," she hissed under her breath, "Bella didn't say anything about getting bikinis."

"Oh, I mean, um, we need bikinis for tomorrow. Rose and I didn't bring any." She said, desperately trying to back track.

"Neither did I," I admitted, pretending I didn't notice anything unusual.

We managed to find some bikinis we liked then headed back to the hotel, where all of our packages were waiting in our room.

We had bought 15 suitcases, and after dinner Alice and Rose slowly began to pack away all of our purchases, ready to take back to Forks, shooing me off to bed with assurances that they weren't tired. I believed them.

Sunday morning was the most fun I had had in a long time. After I watched Rose and Alice gracefully perform many cool tricks on the ice rink, they dragged me out on the ice and taught me how to skate, something I had never tried before. It was incredibly entertaining because Rose and Alice were pretending to be human, and every so often I would fall (my shield kept me from getting hurt), and as they were holding my hands, they would have to fall with me in their charade, making it look like I had pulled them down. This inevitably ended with us sitting on the ice laughing our heads off- them laughing at me and my clumsiness, me laughing at them having to fall with me.

After we got sick of the ice we had a great time on the rollercoaster's, before we stripped down to our bikinis and headed for the water park.

We got a lot of stares as we walked around in our bikinis, especially Rose, who was in a skimpy red string bikini. My blue halter neck bikini, and Alice's purple one were a little more modest, but that didn't stop the guys from eyeing us all hungrily, and the girls from glaring at us with envy.

We took tons of pictures of ourselves on the different water slides before relaxing in the wave pool until it was time for us to head back to the hotel.

Reluctantly we left, upset that we hadn't had enough time to try out all of the other rides, and visit the mini-golf course or the go-karts and the aquarium. We decided that next time we would have to come for a week and bring the guys and Esme, Alice mentioning that she hoped Edward would be back by then.

By midday we were on a plane and heading back to Seattle, Alice's urge to shop momentarily sated.