03 | light, rosalie hale

13.

ALICE was still very much hell-bent on throwing the graduation party for Bella, Elexia, and Melody's first ever graduations. Bella was the least on board with the whole thing—and not just because she hated parties—because she just thought it was ill-timing to be celebrating graduation when there was a newborn army of vampires out there, waiting to pounce. Alice's argument was that they were just sitting around, waiting, so they 'might as well celebrate the good things.'

As for this newborn army—whenever they decided to attack—Jasper thought they still needed help when it came to taking them down with the least amount of casualties. Tanya's family had said no, so they were looking at other options. Carlisle was trying to get in contact with some old friends, and Jasper was looking for Peter and Charlotte—wherever they were these days. He'd even briefly—though reluctantly—mentioned talking to Maria, but no one really wanted that; contacting Maria would be for complete emergencies, life or death.

Jasper was going to have to give his family members a crash course on how to defeat newborns, which would be... interesting, to say the least. Elexia knew they all needed it—desperately. Carlisle was smart, and strong, he would fare well in a fight and learn fast. The same went for Edward. Rosalie was fierce and would do anything to protect her family members. Amethyst was protective like Rosalie, but in a more sneaky, calculated way that would be very helpful in a fight. It was Alice, Emmett, and Melody that Elexia worried about. Alice was just so... dainty, Emmett was unbelievably strong but never thought before he did things, and Melody was just too sweet.

Bella had proposed the idea that she should be turned, to add an extra set of arms—and a newborn on their side, along with Melody. But Edward and Alice shut her down, saying that they didn't have enough time to make her 'helpful.' On such short notice, she wouldn't be able to control her instincts, which would, in turn, make her easy to take down. Melody had been a vampire for a little over three months already, so while she still had the immense newborn strength, she was more controlled and considerate when it came to her impulses.

They didn't know exactly when this newborn fight would be happening, but it surely would be way too soon to train a newborn Bella to actually be significant in a fight. So for now, they decided to focus on parties and what they could control.

Alice had invited a ridiculous amount of people—somewhere around seventy—but Renée, Bella's mom, had canceled at the last minute because Phil, her husband, had broken his leg during a baseball game—it was a significant enough break that he couldn't really function much on his own, so Renée going across the country wouldn't be possible, and it wasn't like he could just come with her.

Tomorrow was Gaia's first birthday, while on the topic of parties. Elexia and Rosalie were both trying to avoid thinking about it as much as possible; they both immediately got emotional every time the words one and Gaia were mentioned in the same sentence. But they did set up a cute little party for her, with help from Alice—of course; there was no party thrown in Alice's vicinity that she didn't at least have some kind of input in planning.