September thirteenth. I sighed as I watched the glowing digits on my alarm clock flick past midnight. Today was not going to be easy – Bella didn’t exactly relish the idea of turning eighteen. Last night had not exactly been a piece of cake either. Bella had begged me to stay with her through the night, like most nights, but Alice had commanded me to aid her in preparations for Bella’s birthday party. It was not wise to go against Alice’s wishes – she had a strange tendency to get what she wanted in the end. I heard gentle feet nimbly dancing up the stairs and bubbly, excited thoughts spilled over into my mind.

Absolutely perfect! Alice exclaimed. She’ll just adore these roses! I, for one, knew exactly how much Bella was not going to enjoy the mountains of pink roses that awaited her, resembling hostile cotton candy threatening to take over the living room.

Oh well. I would have plenty of time to deal with the ensuing battle later. For now, I closed my sleepless eyes and slipped into a quiet reverie. I thought of Bella, my Bella. My beautiful, darling, seductive, albeit accident-prone, Bella. I smiled quietly to myself at the memory of her clumsiness. If only she wasn’t quite so…breakable. The painful recollection of her lying in a hospital bed in Phoenix threatened to shatter my serenity. I returned to more pleasant thoughts.

After what seemed like an impossibly short time, my mind caught wind of Alice’s thoughts and my eyes flickered open. Lost in visions of Bella, I hadn’t noticed the dark night sky slip into a familiar, cloudy gray. Almost time for school – almost time for Bella. Downstairs, after wading through the sea of pink and into the garage, I opened the door of my silver Volvo and slipped inside. Alice, naturally, was already seated in the passenger side, her eyes bright with excitement.

“I can’t wait for this afternoon! Oh, she’s going to love her gifts, even though she said she didn’t want any. I made her a gorgeous cake…I hope she likes pink….Wow, this is the first birthday we’ve celebrated in decades, Edward! Aren’t you excited?” Alice babbled, tripping over her words as her mouth worked furiously to keep up with the torrent of thoughts in her mind. As I pushed the car ever closer to ninety on the slick and winding roads, I had to admit that I was happily anticipating giving Bella her present and wishing her a happy birthday. Or not. Whatever made her happy. I expertly tuned out Alice’s gleeful chattering and turned my focus to getting to Forks High School on time.