In Which I Tolerate Eclipse: Chapter 16 -- Epoch · 2:52pm May 24th, 2018
Going straight from philosophical musings on possible identity shifts through transhumanism to a teenage girl moaning about what to wear. What a great segue.
Yes, on the day of Bella’s graduation and subsequent party, she doesn’t have anything to wear. Cue Alice climbing in through the window with clothes for Bella. You know, I kind of wish more authors used seers like this, doing casually helpful things at exactly the right time they’re needed. On her good days, Alice is relentlessly amusing. However, a casual comment from Alice causes Bella to put two and two together: the vampire who broke into her room is associated with the Seattle newborns.
…It took her this long to figure that out?! The first moment I heard about a vampire visiting Bella and vampires in Seattle, I was like, “Are they connected?” How many vampires do the Cullens think are out there?
So. The vampire who snuck into Bella’s room did so to get her scent and show it to the newborns. It was also a test, to see if they could avoid Alice’s vision by doing things she wasn’t watching for; she was on the lookout for someone murdering Bella, not a break-in. I wonder which murderous vampire out for Bella’s blood named Victoria it could be? Alice agrees to keep as quiet about this as possible until after the graduation ceremony, to keep the other Cullens from freaking out. Naturally, with Edward’s mind-reading, this poses a problem, but she’ll make do. The ceremony goes smoothly enough, although Bella notes that Edward’s giving a confused look to Alice as he walks to take his diploma. When she meets him afterward, Bella asks him what was up with Alice.
“She was translating the Battle Hymn of the Republic into Arabic, actually. When she finished that, she moved on to Korean sign language.”
Bella decides that, with the ceremony over, she can come clean and explains everything to Edward as quickly as possible. However, he doesn’t take this well and goes into shock. At least, he behaves like people going into shock do; I don’t know if vampires are biologically capable of shock. Bella eats out with Charlie, but says she wants to leave early, supposedly to help Alice set up her graduation party. She meets Edward outside the restaurant, who’s managed to get his feelings under control and apologizes for freaking out. He vanishes as soon as Charlie exits.
As Charlie drives Bella to the Cullens’, we get a decent character moment between the two that probably would’ve been better if Bella didn’t spend so much time treating him like shit. Charlie admits he feels like he doesn’t do everything for Bella that he should, like he’s failing as a father; Bella denies this, saying he’s a great father (THEN STOP TREATING HIM LIKE CHEWED GUM) and he’s just experiencing post-graduation pessimism. And he also redeems himself a little over the punching incident:
“I never thought I needed to teach you how to throw a punch. Guess I was wrong about that.”
“I thought you were on Jacob’s side?”
“No matter what side I’m on, if someone kisses you without your permission, you should be able to make your feelings clear without hurting yourself. You didn’t keep your thumb inside your fist, did you?”
“No, Dad. That’s kind of sweet in a weird way, but I don’t think lessons would have helped. Jacob’s head is really hard.”
Charlie laughed. “Hit him in the gut next time.”
“Next time?” I asked incredulously.
“Aw, don’t be too hard on the kid. He’s young.”
I did say a little. Charlie, is Jacob forcibly kissing Bella okay or not okay? You want her to be able to protect herself against it, but accept the possibility of it happening again because “he’s young”? Can’t you at least go up to him and say something like, “Jake. I like you, okay? But if you’re going to kiss Bella when she doesn’t want you to, I’m going to get pissed. And you don’t want to piss off a cop. Just take it a little slower.”
When they arrive at the Cullens’ house, they find that Alice has wrapped a bunch of trees on either side of the drive with twinkling Christmas lights, to help partygoers find their way. Charlie drops Bella off and she walks towards the house, afraid of what she’ll find.
Clinginess Meter: 21
You know, if the characters thought a little, tried to look beyond the immediate context, this book probably would’ve been over in three chapters. “Hold on. A vampire broke into Bella’s house. There’s a vampire in Seattle. Maybe the two are connected?” (By the way, even though it’s pretty obviously Victoria, we still don’t “know” that she’s behind the newborn army.) I struggle to think of what would happen if Bella and Edward were put into an actual mystery.
Waffle about uselessly and/or rack up the Clinginess Meter while other people did the work. They'd spend a few moments as suspects before the investigator decided that those two couldn't kill time.
4868361
"Like, zoinks, Scoob, these people are even more clueless than you and me!"
"Reah!"
"At least Scooby Snacks can motivate us!"
Someone has danced this dance before! :D