Vanity and Patience: A Rosalie Hale & Emmett Cullen Story

Chapter 1: Mirror Mirror

Preface:

Dressed head to toe in ivory and white, my stomach filled of butterflies as I looked for the one thing that mattered the most, and crowds parted amongst the sea of people to allow me a glance. My chest filled with warmth where my heart once beat.

As I turned the corner, the sight of it grew more detailed, and my heart ached for its loveliness. For its light. I grinned, my eyes never leaving the sight, and I was overcome with a tidal wave of emotions and memories.

The dreary clouds of my fruitless, lonely existence parted to make way for the beams of sunlight. Every heartache and disappointment I experienced—every day of laughter and smiles, all came to this very day. Everything that happened to me happened to bring me to this very moment. And even if—buried deep down inside of me—I did want the impossible, and longed for a human life, this breaking moment overshadowed such a desire. I knew that within my immortality, and in this eternity, I belonged to that which stood before me.

All of my patience had manifested into the reward of this one great moment.

It was like a magnetic force that drew me down that silk draped walkway, as I positively floated in all my beauty towards my future.

My destiny.

Where I belong.

Chapter 1: Mirror, Mirror

It was a rainy day in early September of 1935, in the most southwestern point of the state of Virginia. Amongst the Blue Ridge Mountains and surrounding thick forests of the Shenandoah Valley sat the small town of Appalachia where my family and I just moved to last year.

From my desk, I stared out the window, watching streams of water running down its glass planes. I sat in a classroom full of my fellow classmates as the teacher, Mrs. Klinger, lectured us on the Revolutionary War. It was the second week of yet another year of high school. I was a senior. It was another mundane day at school.

My adopted brother, Edward, a junior, was in the same World History class with me. I caught him shifting in his seat from the corner of my eye, He sighed out of boredom from the lecture. I pursed my lips, thinking that it was unfair that I had to share a class with him, given we were in different graduating years. As if it wasn't enough that I already had to live with him, it was ridiculous that I had to take the same course with him as well. This senior level class of mine was an advanced placement course for him, being one of two overachieving juniors in the class. Just my luck.

Exhaling, I tuned out the lecture and stared out the window. As the clouds moved, a very dim grayish glint of sunlight shed through the rain as I caught a glimpse of my reflection in the window. My, my, Rosalie Hale, you look wonderful, I gushed to myself. My pale, ultra-white complexion was flawless and luminous, causing my full, rose-red lips to turn up in a small smile. It seemed every angle of my face was cast using the ancient mathematic theory used by the Greeks and Italian Renaissance in art known as the golden ratio, leaving me with the bone structure of a goddess.

I realize I was perceived as vain, but my looks were the very source of my pride and, quite frankly, I didn't really care what people thought.

My wavy golden hair flowed down to the middle of my back as I chose leave it down that morning, with some locks framing the face that I was blessed with. Despite the constant rain, I held on tightly to my umbrella as I went into school that morning, effectively shielding my hair and face from getting wet. I didn't want my makeup to run, but I knew there wasn't much on my face to ruin in the downpour anyway. Really I only needed some blush on my cheeks, a slight dab of lipstick on my lips, and a touch of mascara on my long, full curly lashes that framed my gloriously large eyes.