Chapter 2

Well this was awkward. We had almost been running at full vampire speed. I was on Edward's back holding some of our ice cream balloons and Alice and Rose were alongside carrying more. Emmett was furiously trying to clear his face of the sticky mess it had become. Edward slipped me off his back and slid his arm around my waist.

Charlie looked very, very confused. However he was not the only one confused. I was just as confused as to why he was here with Carlisle and so before Charlie could overcome his shock and start asking questions I asked one first.

"Why are you here, Ch-dad?" whoops I had almost called him Charlie. That wouldn't have gone down well.

He mumbled "I was just talking to Doctor Cullen and he suggested that I come back here and we could continue our discussion."

Huh? What on earth were they talking about? Oh, right. They only had one thing in common. "Why were you talking about us?"

"We weren't talking about you two." I glared at him. "Alright, alright. We were talking about you. We were just chatting about your relationship with Edward. Nothing big…"

"What about my relationship with Edward, dad?"

"Oh, not much. Just how you were….progressing."

"Progressing? Oh." My face flooded with heat. "Dad", I whined "Our relationship is definitely not progressing in that way. So now could we please stop talking about that."

"Oh yes, there are actually more pressing matters at hand" he said, slipping into his Dad mode, "such as what on earth are you children doing?"

"They were harassing me Chief Swan. You should arrest them." Emmett whined with a pout that looked rather genuine. However we knew better but unfortunately, Charlie did not.

"Harassing you, how?" he asked,

"They're throwing ice-cream balloons at –" Emmett complained.

"Ice cream balloons?" Charlie interrupted.

"yes. Ice cream balloons. Water balloons filled with melted ice cream."

"Grow up boy. I would have thought you could take that." We all burst into laughter at Emmett's shocked face. He pouted, his manly fearlessness insulted.

"I'll be leaving now then. Be back home for dinner, Bella." Charlie warned as he got into his cruiser.

"Yes, dad." I replied. I hadn't spent much time with Charlie lately. It would be nice to have dinner with him.

As soon as Charlie's car was out of sight Emmett lunged for the ice cream balloons trying to get some ammo to pelt us with. When he realised there were none left, he lunged at Edward instead. Edward dodged him the first time but Emmett eventually caught him off guard and the two boys wrestled on the floor for a few minutes before suddenly stopping.

I wondered why they had stopped until I saw the state of Esme's roses. They were crushed and she would be too. A few seconds later I realised their second reason for stopping as Esme's car pulled into the driveway. She had been shopping in Seattle for the day. Getting out of her car she took one look at her ruined roses and the guilty looks on her son's faces, before shaking her head sadly and taking her shopping bags inside. Emmett and Edward followed her inside, eager to apologise.

As soon as they were gone Alice turned to me and said "Remember Bella, Saturday morning 8am sharp. You have a lot of Christmas shopping today and Christmas is less than a week away. If you are not awake and ready I will come and wake you up again. You remember how that goes don't you…" she paused to let her threat sink in as I shuddered.

The last time Alice woke me up had not been one of the best mornings of my life. She had jumped on my bed, dumped water on me before proceeding to drag me out of bed to the bathroom and brushing my teeth for me. I would definitely set my alarm early on Saturday. She gave me a completely innocent smile as Edward walked out of the house to drop me home.

BEEP. BEEP. BEEP. BEEP. What was that annoying beeping sound? Ah, right. It was my alarm clock. Eyes still closed I pulled my arm out of the blankets and reached for my alarm clock to shut it off. my arm waved about in the air for a few minutes before finally hitting something solid and I quickly set it to snooze. I tried to fall back asleep but there was something at the back of my mind, nagging me. Some serious reason why I shouldn't be sleeping in on this glorious Saturday morning.

There was a loud knock at the door and i suddenly remembered why I should be awake. Looking over at my alarm clock I sighed. It was only quarter to 8. Wait a second... I had set my alarm for 7:45 so why was it going off earlier? That sneaky little pixie. She must have snuck into my room at night. I was going to kill her. Another knock at the door reminded me that there was someone at the door. I finally rolled my way out of bed and trudged downstairs. When I opened the door Alice looked me up and down. "Why aren't you dressed?" she asked.

Testily, I replied "It's not 8 yet and I only just woke up."

"Hmph. You have got to get better at this waking up early thing. "

"No I don't."

"Yes you do."

"No, you have to get better at being on time not 15 minutes early. When you say 8 you're meant to come at 8, not quarter to 8."

"Nah. If I came at 8 instead of quarter to 8 you would probably still be in bed and then we would become late. So chop, chop go shower and get dressed. I'll just occupy myself for a few minutes."

Her last statement scared me more than anything. Alice occupying herself could not be a good thing. So I rushed upstairs to get ready.

20 minutes later we were in Alice's bright yellow Porsche speeding down the road. I still didn't know what Alice had done to keep herself occupied but she hadn't mentioned anything and truthfully I was scared to ask. I had vague ideas of what to get everyone…well everyone but Edward.

Alice was having great fun dragging me around the shopping centre. By noon I had bought something for everyone but Edward and I was really hungry. I tried to tug Alice towards the food court but being a vampire it was kind of hard for me to take her anywhere she didn't want to go. About half an hour later she was finally ready to get me some lunch.

On our way to the food court I saw a book shop. There weren't many good bookshops within an hour's drive of Forks so I was really excited. Dragging Alice inside (she actually came, it was amazing!) I started looking across the shelves. I picked up a few books and made my way to the register. Just as I reached the register something caught my eye. It was a leather bound journal. It had an antique look to it but it was still beautiful and it was perfect. The perfect present for Edward, finally. Paying for everything I walked out of the shop to meet Alice. After we had finally had lunch Alice and I headed home.

Alice made sure to drop me home rather than bring me back to the Cullens. Emmett was still a little put after our ice cream prank and would have probably tried to peek at the presents we got him and spoil the surprise for everyone else. At home I quickly hid the presents in the back of my wardrobe with my other presents, to wrap later.

I didn't know what Edward did to occupy himself when I was asleep but I was hoping that he wasn't snooping through my wardrobe. If he was that was more than a little creepy and he would be incredibly sorry. Suddenly the front door opened and I rushed down the stairs to see Edward walking in. The front door was always locked but Edward knew where the spare key was kept. At night he used the window but otherwise he used the front door. It made him feel more … honourable, I guess.

"Have a good day with my sister?" He asked with a smile.

I groaned. "I would have if she hadn't come to wake me up early."

He laughed. "Well that's Alice for you. There's not much I can do to stop her unfortunately. I've never understood how someone that small could be that annoying."

"That's true," I agreed, "However I did end up getting present for everyone." His face lit up and he made to go search my room for the presents. The Cullens were decades old, even a century in Edward's case but at times they could act very much like little children. Edward especially.

"NO PEEKING." I ordered, "And no reading Alice's mind."

He looked suitably chastened and pouted. So cute, so hard to resist… NO! I shook myself out of it. I had to keep him away from the presents.

After cooking dinner, with Edward's help, sort of… the kitchen was my domain not his (despite his cooking skills). HE HAD NO RIGHT TO ENTER MY DOMAIN. He had to leave me something to be better than him at. Stupid super-good-at-everything charming vampire, who was so totally easy to falllllllllll in looooooooove with…damn.