(Alice’s Diary) Games

Dear Diary,

Today everything was made official! Renee’s much-anticipated phone call went as smoothly as we had all hoped, and she’ll be in Forks in about two and a half weeks from now for the least surprising “surprise visit” ever.

Since I knew the phone call would come today, Bella had insisted on staying inside and waiting for Charlie’s confirmation that he’d delivered his lines. This led to an interesting revelation, which actually came from Nessie, of all people – it’s still a bit unnerving to hear a child who appears to be a toddler articulating her thoughts about as well as, for example, Bella at age 17. In fact, the more I observe Renesmee, the more I see it – she is already exactly like her mother in so many ways! Their personalities are just similar enough that they understand one another perfectly, but don’t clash, the way you see sometimes in people who are too alike.

Anyway, what happened was that Seth was hanging around the house, supposedly doing homework while in reality watching the game Emmett had playing on our huge TV screen. Some silly event that had already happened, and they both already knew the outcome, but they were watching it anyway. Men! And, being a huge, gangly teenage werewolf, he was kind of in the way … not that it was difficult to avoid tripping over his spindly legs, it was just a bit annoying. (I won’t even go into the stench – they say humans can get used to anything, but believe me, it’s not true of vampires. We may be more familiar with the smell, which has become permanent at this point, but it never gets less revolting. At least the interiors of our cars haven’t been compromised … yet!)

So those of us who were also in the living room were a bit limited by Seth’s sprawling mess of books, papers, and limbs, which covered most of the sofa, coffee table, and carpet in that immediate area. To pass the time, I suggested we play some sort of game. We Cullens own just about every game ever invented … we do have a lot of time on our hands after all. But as usual, there was some concern about Edward and myself cheating, as they mistakenly call it. Well, there really is no good way to avoid my talent, aside from pitting me against a werewolf, but Renesmee immediately wondered why her mom didn’t just put her “shield” over the other players to keep Edward out of their thoughts. DUH!

And so for the first time ever, Edward would be able to play against my brother and sister without hearing their thoughts. He looked way too pleased about it, but you have to understand, the guy’s been excluded from almost all the games played over the last few decades. I, on the other hand, would still be excluded, unless we found a game that involved split-second decisions, or just pure luck. So Nessie went off to investigate the closet full of board games in hopes that I could join the fun. Such a sweetheart; again, so much like Bella!

Well, in case you were wondering, card games are the only good options when one of the players is psychic. I couldn’t control which cards I was dealt, and the decisions are generally made pretty quickly, if there are any involved in the game at all. So we ended up in a kind of loose circle, Jazz, Rosalie and I facing Bella, Edward and Nessie, while Rose dealt the cards and explained the rules to Ness. Um – should I describe the game we played? Eh, that would take a little while, and there’s more important stuff to get to.

So anyway. There we were, sitting cross-legged on the floor (or, in Nessie’s case, lying on her belly) playing cards, when suddenly I saw a quick glimpse of Chief Swan pulling up to our house in his cruiser. Automatically, I glanced outside to gauge the darkness in the vision against the amount of light currently visible. Not long, maybe … ten, fifteen minutes? I thought, responding to Edward’s total inability to wait for a verbal explanation, the way everyone else had to. Sometimes I feel like Edward and Jasper’s talents are rubbing off on me – it’s easy to imagine how a member of my family is feeling or what they’re thinking based on what I know of them. And Edward in particular is very, very predictable in those ways.

Speaking of my brother … he was now giving me a Look. Oops. Did that sound insulting? “Didn’t mean it like that!” I sang, surprising Rosalie, who had been plotting a clever move (it would have worked, too) and hadn’t noticed my distraction.

Now everybody looked at me, and I stifled a giggle at the look on their faces – all different variations on the same theme, one with which I am very familiar: long-suffering impatience. “Well, we can’t all be mind readers!” I reminded them with a wink in Edward’s direction. “Okay, okay. It’s nothing, just that Charlie will be here in about ten minutes.”

Bella leapt to her feet, the game instantly forgotten. “Charlie’s coming here? Now?” Her eyes swept the room, first one way, then the other. I was sure that we hadn’t left out our giant, neon-colored copy of Vampire Ethics: When to Bite and When to Suck, but it was nice to see that she was taking her role as a Cullen seriously, covering all the possibilities so we wouldn’t be exposed.

Jasper and Edward were watching her with approval, too. “Bella, your eyes are still a bit … amber. Perhaps, the contacts?” Edward suggested, waving toward the bathroom. Bella nodded, spun, and disappeared. (And by the way, amber is not the right word for it. Even though I’d already seen it in Jasper and myself when we first changed over to the vegetarian lifestyle, the murky orange shade of Bella’s irises still grossed me out a bit. It’s just not flattering on anyone, even a gorgeous immortal!)

Apparently my thoughts were offensive to Edward, so he punished me by suggesting that I heat up some human food for Charlie and Seth. I wrinkled my nose at him but decided not to argue, since he’s still a bit touchy about humans around Bella – not worried about the humans’ safety, just anxious about Bella’s pain. Prancing into the kitchen, I opened the massive refrigerator doors, and randomly selected some nasty-smelling stuff to microwave. Then I heard a familiar engine chugging up our driveway.

Ugh, I need to put this thing down. I’ve gotta go wash the grease and wet dog smells out of my hair before Jazz and I go out – we’re going to visit a quiet beach that we’ve become rather fond of, and watch the night sky transform into the sunrise. I’ll describe Charlie’s visit tomorrow!

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