Forever Young

Chapter 16

I wondered if I had a party dress. What made it special? Maybe it was fancier. 

Bella put a hand on Nessie's shoulder, moving her on to the porch so she wouldn't be in the way as the door to the house was locked. "This is a children's party," Bella told her. "Not a formal gathering. You'll be playing and running around, and most likely eating some messy food. We don't want your nicest dress getting ruined, Honey".

The logic made sense to me- I knew that if there was any chance of me getting dirty or ripping my dress, I would probably end up finding it. But Renesmee still seemed to be in a bad mood. I wasn't sure if it was because of the party, or if she was just having a whiney day.

"Jake won't even be there," she complained, as she climbed into the back seat of the car. 

That explained her bad attitude, then. Jake had been the reason she was okay with going in the first place.

"He will be there," Edward corrected. "Just later in the day. He promised to be there around the time the cake is cut".

He turned to look at me, probably overhearing my thoughts. I had never been in a car before. I hated it- it looked like  a giant metal box. Why couldn't we just run? There was a good chance that I would jump out of the car and just make my way to the party myself. 

"Carlisle," Edward called, his eyes still on me. "Can you bring Renesmee's old booster car seat, please? I think it would benefit Camellia."

Car seat? But the car already had seats.

Carlisle looked at Edward, and then at me. "Edward, as long as she's in the back seat and buckled, she should be big enough to-"

"Not big enough to stay seated, though, it seems," Edward interrupted. "She wants to jump out of the car and take off into the woods by herself. Rather than setting her up for a spanking, let's just get her strapped in safely."

And so Edward the tattletale strapped me into a seat that buckled between my legs and over my chest. 'Strapped in' felt like the perfect term for the situation. There was no way I would be able to get out of the seat myself. While I was pretty sure the bright red button for the buckle between my legs was how I opened that strap, I had no idea how to undo the one across my chest.

Nessie was looking over at me when the car started to move. She leaned over and touched my hand, using her power to communicate silently with me.

'You shouldn't have been thinking like that,' she told me. 'I haven't used that booster seat since I was small. Now everyone will see you in it. I'll try to help you out of it as soon as the car stops, so the pack doesn't see, okay?'

I nodded, trying to smile at her. But I wasn't really worried about the pack seeing me. My focus was on the fact that I was in a giant metal box that was only able to drive down roads. If we had just run, not only would we be going faster, but we would have been able to take a more direct route through the forest.

 "Don't you touch that booster seat, Renesmee," Edward scolded from the front seat. He turned to look at us. "You almost broke the chest straps last time you tried. I will take care of it when we get there."

His attention shifted to me. "There is nothing wrong with a booster seat, Camellia. This is your very first car ride. And we chose to take the car because it's less conspicuous. If someone pulls up to the house, we need to be able to explain how we got there. And Esme did some cooking, as well, that we brought along for the party. This is a far easier way of transporting it."

I nodded, looking out the window. Hopefully we would get there soon. I hated staying still.

The drive took significantly longer than my first trip from the wolves to the Cullen's area. We had to wind around the forest instead of working with it. I was tempted to use the wind to try and push the car faster, but Edward's warning glance shut that idea down quickly.