The Wedding

Rhythmically and memorized, I stroke my hands across the keys, playing a very familiar tune, practicing, although I have no need to. After about twenty weddings, one can grow bored of the traditional songs. When Alice walks out to the top of that staircase, I will change the tune to Wegner's traditional march. Bella's cue is to be a sudden fanfare in the song that trills through the music.

Esme did wonderful with the food and such, as did Alice with the decorating. The two make a wonderful team when it comes to festivities.

Alice finally got to reuse the graduation decorations, which I know she was glad about. On top of the lights lining the driveway, she threw some large white bows to finish it off. To be honest, it looks better than it otherwise could. Inside, Alice got around to getting many flowers, including freesia, orange blossoms, lilac and roses. The place is sparkling clean, but then it is always clean. She managed to get a hold of pew seating, which I could believe she would want, with it being very traditional and all. It does go with the wedding better than any folding chairs would, though. Alice added many embellishments to the decor also, perfecting it to the best of her abilities. Esme didn't do as much interior decorating, but more cooking.

For someone who doesn't eat people food, Esme makes a wonderful chef, much better than I ever will be, taken I ever have the patience for it. I seriously doubt I will ever try cooking though, not because it is boring, but because I do not eat people food. Our entire coven does not. We survive on animal blood, which isn't as good for us a human blood, but it keeps us fed and strong enough, because, like i said before, we are vampires. The Denali coven also chose our lifestyle and survives only on the blood of animals. So i do not think that i will attempt to cook human food anytime soon, unless it is necessary, which i could not imagine it would ever be once Bella is turned.

There is one table full of human food dedicated to vegetarians, our little joke, which Esme tried to incorporate into this festivity. The other table is for the people who do not cut meat out of their diet, but their definition of meat is different than ours, so we altered that to their benefit. There were exactly twenty dishes on each table, plenty for the humans to choose from.

Esme also helped Alice prepare the stage, however. The alter is in the middle, a stunning white Italian marble center table, surrounded by a flower-petal covered floor and large white bows that hang from it on all four sides. Draped four feet over the alter and suspended from the ceiling are curtains of fine, silk fabric and are arranged in such a fashion, that it draws the attention back to the alter itself.

The wedding begins, and soon Alice, the bridesmaid, walks coolly and confidently down the stairs in her lovely silver waterfall-type dress. It really was a mistake on Bella's part to only have one bridesmaid, and a vamp one at that, instead of two or three at the least. If she did, she would look much more coordinated as she walked down the stairs in that beautiful wedding dress that should not be tainted by her. But unfortunately, it is being fouled by her; she's wearing the gorgeous thing and it does, but should not, look stunning on her. Its long train does not help her however, that is for sure. Though it does add an elegant touch to it all.

Bella does well with her footwork throughout the entire wedding, which definitely was not expected. I thought she would trip at least once, being as clumsy as she is. Predictably, she was blushing the entire time until reaching the alter, where she practically leaped toward Edward.

I roll my eyes at her, and her eager enthusiasm, and feel a slight shove from behind. Smiling, I rip some wood under Alice's bench off, where no one would notice, and chuck it toward Emmett, who is on my left, all within an eighth of a second, faster than any human could see.

I can feel his laughter shaking the floor, although he does a wonderful job disguising it, keeping a straight poker face while Esme pointedly looks at us, telling us mentally to shush. No human could feel the vibrations, nor see the little incident, no matter how near they were, and so I saw it unfit for Esme to shush us. The song I am playing for the wedding was not interrupted in the slightest, it is in fact flowing quite smoothly, and so Esme has no authority over my actions in this situation.

I assume that according to her, our behavior was not giving the Denalis a good impression of us. I disagree, however. After having made a first impression quite a while ago, I think that the Denalis would know us well enough to be able to predict our actions, therefore no impression being made.

Composing myself, I finish up the song with a soft trill on the piano. The priest, Rev. Weber, Angela's dad, says the simple, traditional vows. Edward and Bella had asked him to trade the line "till death do us part" for the more appropriate "as long as we both shall live."

When Bella says "I do", her crying silently does not help the words to escape her lips. I cannot be sure that any of the humans actually heard her say it, although I heard her loud and clear, and sounding very tearful with happiness. Edward's voice soon rings out in an, "I do", much louder and clearer, moments after hers. Traditionally, the bride and groom kiss a short kiss, but in this case, they are kissing for quite a while, and then Edward is trying to softly pry Bella off of him. It is riotous to see how… remorseful she is to have been pulled from him. Bella stands, teary and still holding onto Edward, in front of the crowd, looking as though she is elsewhere in that mind of hers. She smiles and nods robotically when people start rushing forward, greeting and celebrating the newly wed husband and wife.

Slowly, I touch the last key on the piano, and then walk to the front of the room to congratulate Bella and Edward, just to be polite. Emmett is smiling hugely and matches his pace to mine.

Renee and Esme reach Bella and Edward first, since they are nearest to the stage. Renee is crying, but not at all silently, while at the same time laughing with joy. Esme is calm and smiling hugely just like she always is, but if she could cry, I bet she would be. Renee throws her arms around Bella, joyful. When she reaches Edward, she also hugs him too. I am very surprised that she did, wasn't she wondering why he was so cold? No matter, I suppose she did not notice through her joy. Esme also hugs them both, congratulating them as we approach.

Emmett slaps Edward on the back, "Congratulations bro! And good job and congrats, Bella! It wasn't as hard as you feared, was it? And you did not fall once!" Emmett pulls Bella into a huge bear hug, lifting her off the ground a bit. I elbow him lightly, telling him to bring it down a notch. Most of the humans around us were staring. Bella blushed and thanked him, but seemed distant.

"Congratulations Edward… Bella." My voice is full of false excitement, but still noticeably hesitant. I hug Edward and then I lightly put my arms around Bella. She seems very surprised by the action, but still quite distant. I have no doubt that she is thinking about being "Mrs. Cullen" and how good that sounds.

I reach for Emmett's hand, and we head toward Tanya and Kate, who are probably waiting for Carmen and Eleazer before they greet and congratulate the bride and groom. I paste a smile on my face, "Hello Kate, Tanya. Wonderful wedding, isn't it?"

"Hello Rosalie, hello Emmett. Yes," Tanya replies after a moment's hesitation, "it is wonderful. It's lovely that Edward finally found someone… close to perfect for him, isn't it? And who did all of the decorations? I suppose it was Alice with her wonderful designing skills?"

I look over to Alice, who flashes Tanya a pleased and enthusiastic smile. She is busy hooking up wires for the sound system with Jasper.

"Of course it is, Tanya. Who else besides Alice has those types of skills?" Emmett says. He looks over to Alice and mouths, 'you can thank me later'.

"No one I suppose. Listen," Kate speaks up, "Irina's absence isn't meant to be taken with spite. She truly is sorry for the way she is acting; we can see it in her. We are apologizing on behalf of our sister and her rude actions. Could you forgive us?"

I shrug, "No need to apologize, we understand. And so you know, no one has accused her actions of being rude or spiteful. Not yet anyway. So, yes, we can forgive you. Where did Carmen and Eleazer disappear to?" Quickly, I change the subject, so not to stir up more hurt feelings. I only said what I said because I knew that if I said what I wanted to, Carlisle would never forgive me for being so rude to our only extended family.

Kate says, "You know, I was wondering that myself. It is interesting that they just disappeared like that... Did Jasper get a car? I saw one in your garage that I did not recognize."

"You mean the Mercedes Guardian? The big black car that is missile proof, is tinted so dark that human's cannot see inside, and hasn't come out into dealerships yet? No, that is Bella's. She is so lucky!" Emmett exclaims.

Tanya's eyes widen, "That monstrosity is Bella's? I knew Edward was protective of her… but not that much so." She mused.

Smiling, I say, "Edward thinks that she is much too fragile. And so he bought her that car as a replacement for her old truck, just until she becomes… stronger. Then he has a new car for her, after she is stronger, though he has not told any of us what it is. I'm sure Em will peek at it soon enough though." I grin widely at Emmett, knowing that I am right and that he surely will do so soon.

"But why separate cars for before and after?" Kate ponders.

"Edward is definitely too overprotective of her, although I can see why. She has a tendency to fall into death traps of the worst scenarios. Anything she does is life-threatening. Take James' tracking her for instance. It was rotten luck that brought the events to happen, the wind blew and so he knew she was human. It was worse that he already was a tracker instead of just a roamer like the other two." I elbow Em in the ribs; quite a few humans were listening in, "Anyways, and then when we had to leave for that period of time, it was nearly as bad, but that time she was unintentionally doing it to herself." Emmett says.

"That poor girl… it is quite unfortunate Edward, isn't it, if he is trying to keep her alive until she becomes… stronger, as you said. I now see the need for a missile-proof car, not just good old fashioned bullet-proof." Kate sympathizes.

Smiling at that, I clench Emmett's hand a bit tighter and say, "Well, we have plenty of time to catch up later, so enjoy the reception. It was nice to see you both again. Tell Carmen and Eleazer that we hope to get the chance to talk with them also. We're going to go help Esme out with setting things up."

I tug Em along with me and head toward Esme, hoping to hold true to my word and get out of talking to the humans.

"Emmett, you talk way too much," I whisper under my breath, knowing he can hear me, "there were at least four humans listening into our conversation and you obviously gave them the impression that we are very different. Just be glad that they weren't anyone close to Bella or we would be in real trouble."

Em grins and bends down to kiss me lightly, calming and reassuring me, and then pulls me with him as we weave in and out of the crowds, looking to help with anything we can.

~xxx~

Soon enough, the entire wedding ends. All the guests wave and say goodbye to the newly wed couple. Holding hands with Emmett, we, too, wave our goodbyes and wish them a good time on their honeymoon as they drive off in the car to Isle Esme.