A Drop in the Ocean

The next morning I awoke with a refreshing look on life, one I admit I’ve never had before today. Maybe it was the fact that I had something so amazing that I was looking forward to? I wasn’t for sure.

I rose up in the bed and stretched very much like a feline would, the multiple bones in my back cracking which rejuvenated me to a certain extent. I was anxious for something and it was more than obvious what that something was: Jake and I were going to go on an official date tonight.

I whirled out of bed and changed out of pajamas into what I believed was proper attire for today. Almost jogging down the hallway, I went into the kitchen and began to pour a bowl of cereal. This room was usually desolate since I was the only person in this house who ate anything other than blood, unless you count the occasions we’ve had wolves over…or Grandpa Charlie. As I poured the bowl of cereal, I suppose my family heard the commotion and found their way into the room.

“Morning, sweetheart,” Mom said as she walked across the room and wrapped an arm around my waist to kiss the side of my head. “Morning,” I replied and poured the milk in my cereal. “You seem chipper this morning,” commented my Father as he came into the room and just somewhat I narrowed my eyes at him: obviously I was chipper.

“Hmm, I didn’t notice,” I said with a small grin, swiftly moving to the table and sitting down to eat breakfast. “Anyone brought in the news--,” my question was cut short as Uncle Jasper came into the room with the newspaper, placing it down on the table in front of me. “Thanks!”

It was a morning habit that I read the newspaper; when I was younger, my parents would quiz me about how much I’d read and how long I could retain it. I learned to read by reading the newspaper, truly. One could learn a lot by just learning to read. It seemed everyone in this household enjoyed the morning newspaper. I began to scan my eyes over the front page but before I could get anything read, I was brought out of my reading trance by my Aunt Alice’s voice.

“Good morning everyone!” The always happy Pixie beamed as she danced into the room, wrapping her arms around Uncle Jasper from behind. The two of them were such a perfect couple. I could only hope one day that Jake and I could be as much in love as they are. It seemed everyone in this house had a wonderfully beautiful love story except for me. Then again… I was the product of a wonderful love story.

“Oh my, Ness, what are you doing in those old clothes?” My Aunt Alice questioned and I dribbled milk from my mouth somewhat as I looked at my clothing, raising a brow. I had been startled that someone would call my outfit ‘old.’ It was almost as bad as Alice calling it ugly. I swallowed the mouthful of cereal and glared in her direction. “They aren’t old; they look just fine…don’t they?”

“You always look fine, but they’re not new enough; not for a date tonight, especially your first date! Now, I had a vision and you were wearing the cutest outfit in the world and Jake will just love it or at least he totally did in the vision. We’ve got to go look for it! Hurry, hurry, eat!” Alice coaxed and I rolled my eyes. It was way, way, way too early for Alice’s happy-go-lucky attitude, even if I was chipper this morning in the words of my Dad.

“Is the outfit really worth my time, Dad?” I questioned my Father, knowing he could read Alice’s mind. He put his hand to his forehead somewhat, a smirk on his lips as he shook his head just slightly while a soft laughter came from him. “It’s… appropriate, I suppose. It’s very Alice, so we’ll see if you actually like it or not.”

“She will love it, Edward!” Alice said; she was beside me in the blink of an eye which didn’t startle me whatsoever. Alice was a very antsy waiter, so I could hear her moving her little Pixie body, clapping here and there, smoothing out her jeans and whatever else she could possibly do that nonchalantly meant to be hurrying me along.

I hurried although it was never quick enough for the perfectionist Aunt of mine and finally I finished my cereal, standing from the table to proceed to run about the house and gather the things I needed to go shopping with Alice. Grabbed my purse, found a jacket, and then put on makeup in the bathroom which took like two minutes; tops.

“I guess there’s no chance of me reading your mind and seeing what I look like in this outfit, right?” I questioned Alice as we headed to the garage to take the sleek black car into the bigger city to shop. “Absolutely not,” she put her foot down about it as we slid into the car and it roared to life, the garage door going up and Alice speeding us out of the garage.

Sometimes I wish I could just read a person’s mind like my Father…hear their thoughts so to speak instead of it only happening when I touch somebody. I felt like my gift was too much like Aro’s of the Volturi, in having to touch a person for it to be activated. Aunt Alice’s gift wasn’t activated by touching, neither was Uncle Jasper’s ability to control emotions or Mom’s shielding ability.

“What are Jake and I doing in your vision?” I asked Aunt Alice and she shook her head, “it’s a surprise. No more questions about the vision Ness,” she said as her nimble little Pixie fingers reached over and turned us on some music to preoccupy us on the drive towards Port Angeles.

“If you know exactly what the outfit looks like though, are you still going to make me try on every outfit you stumble across and think is cute?” I questioned my Aunt. She was absolutely a shopaholic and she enjoyed dressing me up—she had my entire life, not to say that the other women of the house didn’t—but Alice especially did.

“Of course, that’s half the fun. Just because you’re wearing one outfit in my vision doesn’t mean I might not buy you five or six…hundred. It’s shopping, Renesmee, be excited!” Alice smirked rather largely. If she weren’t driving, I could envision her now clapping her hands and jumping up and down excitedly.

You’d think as a sixteen-year-old (shhh, looks-wise) that I would be ecstatic to go shopping and enjoy trying on this and that but after nearly five years of it…it got exhausting. You have no idea the extent that Aunt Alice goes to! Maybe it was just the fact that I was so annoyed not being able to find out about the vision that I was being such a downer about shopping, because I am a woman after all and women enjoy shopping no matter what.

I put the downer attitude aside and listened to the music playing, gazing out the window quite a bit as we drove into Port Angeles. “I think it’s going to be raining by the time we head home. I hope that doesn’t ruin my evening with Jacob,” I pointed out as we got out of the car outside of the mall. Being a vampire, I could smell the rain coming.

“I’m betting it rains before then,” Alice said softly as she took an umbrella out of the trunk of the sleek black car. “Just in case,” she commented and the two of us walked into the large mall together. I had been to Seattle, of course, which had an even bigger mall but…since Forks didn’t have one; it was refreshing to come to Port Angeles every now and again.

Now that we were here…I was sort of looking forward to shopping, updating my wardrobe. Especially now that I had someone to impress, someone to actually try and be pretty for. I came from a family of vampires who could wear potato sacks and were still beautiful…but for some reason, vampires always tried to outdo humans on everything, especially wardrobe and beauty in general. That’s why our house was so exquisite, now that I really put some thought into it.

Thinking about it though, part of me was disappointed in the fact that I sounded as if my wardrobe wasn’t good enough already. ‘Updating my wardrobe,’ I was very thankful for what I already had. I’d never ‘gone without,’ like some humans; we’d never had ‘money woes’ like some humans. Part of me wondered what it would be like to live like that…to worry about buying an outfit because you might not have that money to pay next month’s rent.

I quickly shook those thoughts of my head; it wouldn’t do me any good at all to dwell on things like that today; especially not at this very moment. I could only imagine what my Dad would say if he could hear the way I’d been thinking the last few minutes.

“This store first; they always have the prettiest things,” said my Aunt Alice as we walked into a rather pricy store. I remembered back to what I had read in my Mother’s journal from when she was human, what she recalled of it and how she would have never had the money to spend in a store like this. Apparently she only came in this store when shopping with Jessica who had quite a bit of money.

Apparently most clothing gifts that Aunt Alice, Aunt Rose, or Grandma Esme gave to my Mom when she was human came from this very store. Even though it was ritzier, I felt a bit of an attachment to the place for that reason.

My Mom didn’t have this kind of money; that was of course before my Mother was inducted into the Cullen hall of fame—being a Cullen meant having money. In a way, a person would be very lucky to be a Cullen although Aunt Rose talks sometimes that this isn’t the life she would have chosen for herself. But if she’d have chosen anything else: she’d be dead, I remind her. It wasn’t like she had the option of ‘get better as a human and return to a normal life’ after what had happened to her.

That’s why Carlisle turned her—he only turns those who have no other choice and only those who didn’t choose to die in the first place. Carlisle turned Dad because of the Spanish influenza, at my Dad’s human Mother’s insistence. Then he did the same with Grandma Esme.

He turned Aunt Rosalie after finding her lying, bleeding out in the street after a horrendous gang-rape. Emmett was turned after a brutal bear mauling that he wouldn’t have survived. Aunt Alice and Uncle Jasper were already vampires, of course, when they found Grandpa Carlisle. Then there’s Mom… maybe she’d still be human if it weren’t for me.

She had been very dead-set on becoming a vampire though and I guess I can understand why. Mom and Dad have forever to be together now…and they’re always saying, forever will never be long enough.

As I remind Aunt Rose, without being a vampire: she wouldn’t have the great love story she has with Uncle Emmett. I looked at everyone in our house as so very lucky because they all had lovers…this enchanting love story that’ll never end. Even with Jake, the story will eventually end. Wolves don’t live forever I don’t think.