Reading Eclipse: Chapter 17 (Alliance) AND Chapter 18 (Instruction)

The song for these chapters is I Will Follow You Into The Dark by Death Cab For Cutie

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Starting a new semester of school is like being in a capsizing canoe: you’ll survive if you hold on tight, but everything else with you will immediately get washed downstream. I didn’t do much last week besides school and attempting to get a haircut only to find they were closed (as evidenced here) but I’ve finally gotten things back in reasonable order to start reading again, with special thanks to Martin Luther King and whichever wonderful person made it a celebration day off school

Bella is getting to her party, and of course Alice hasn’t skimped on the decorations. I can’t help myself from trying to imagine what odd and unusual music Alice was planning to play at the party. Knowing how old she is, she might have ventured way back into old Gregorian chants or organ music; or perhaps something of this variety:

Words Cannot Express This Band's Awesome

This Is Very Scary

But then again, I think the survival of the partygoers is of some importance.

Jacob Black has a whole lot of guts to show up at Bella’s party — regardless of the fact that she punched him the last time they saw each other. Him going in to the Cullens house is almost as dangerous as me walking into the lair of a hunger-compulsive lion who particularly dislikes plaid. I don’t blame Jacob in the slightest for taking along an entourage. As far as the werewolves know, the Cullens might be keeping wolf-sized stew pots just for this very occasion.

It’s so tense in the Cullen’s house, it’s easy to forget that it’s actually a party. There’s a fight just waiting to break out in there, whether it’s between Jacob and Bella, or Jacob and Edward, or Jacob and Alice, or Jacob and Jasper (notice the connecting factor of these?). Where is Charlie when you need a police officer around to keep the peace?

Oh I know. He’s busy making music for Alice’s music education:

Okay, YES I googled Worst Albums Of All Time

Then, the unthinkable happens. It only takes a second for it to work out, because Alice can see things happening — the moment that Jacob even considers working with them, she sees that as their future, and at the same time, sees that as their way of defeating the army of newborns. Of course, I couldn’t just leave it there, so I continued straight on into Chapter 18 (Instruction) to see what was about to happen!

For some odd reason, the scene with the Cullens and Bella all gathered in the baseball field at night is one of my favorites so far. It’s just captivating, imagining this dark place lit by moonlight, the eyes of the Cullens and the werewolves glimmering under the open sky as they gather to make plans. I don’t know what it is about this place, but I can’t help feeling like this baseball field has always been the place where things are calm and quite — just before the storm hits, and everything goes spiraling out of control.

It’s almost a bad omen, that they gather in this baseball field. The last time I remember this place, they were playing a game minutes before James, Laurent and Victoria arrived for the first time. Now, are they coming to this baseball field again, only for the tides to turn, and for their plans not to work as perfectly as they think?

Alice, of course, is still one of my favorite Cullens (Carlisle better watch out, because my favoritism for him is quickly being replaced). I don’t even know what it is anymore. I think after seeing Alice in the film, and being able to actually see the way she moves and fights, has given me a new outlook on her so that I can almost see just how powerful a fighter she is. She’s almost like a stealth fighter, where each move is precise and calculated, and she never wastes time hippety-hopping around when she can get her fighting done in a few swift motions.

Then Alice tells Bella to Just Be Good. Since when has Bella ever ‘just been good’? Those three words fall so far from Bella that one might hear them sobbing in the distant fog on a cold December night.

It worries me somewhat that with the vampires giving such wonderful instruction courses on how to defeat their species, the werewolves might start getting ideas. Why would anyone show their mortal enemies exactly how to kill them? It’s like giving the United Coalition Of Burglars a grand tour of your museum, complete with displays of your hollow air vent system, alarm control panel and ring of keys. Granted they’re showing how to fight newborns, but I’m sure there’s some key tidbits that might be used against the Cullens in the future.

I like how the vampires and the werewolves have made some type of treaty and are working together in this way. It seems like there really is a tiny amount of change coming over them: the fact that they are even working together means that they’re moving in the right direction to perhaps one day not want to murder each other. In the words of Edward: “To think it’s come to this, though! Trusting werewolves!”

Question for the comments: Which of these Cullens is your favorite: Carlisle or Alice? Or which one would you rather have on your side in a fight?

——NOTES——

- I just added one of my songs as a free download on Youtube. Go check it out!

- Still working on the Robert Pattinson contest. Sorry it’s taking so long!