How It All Goes Down
- Edward drives Bella home, where she finds Billy and Jacob Black waiting for her. Edward decides to leave and come pick Bella up later for the baseball game.
- In private, Billy tries to confront Bella about Edward, but she shuts him down:
[Billy:] "You seem…well informed about the Cullens. More informed than I expected."
I stared him down. "Maybe even better informed than you are." (17.52-53) - Billy and Jacob leave.
- When Charlie comes home, Bella tells him about Edward over dinner. (Well, not the part about Edward being a vampire.) Charlie doesn't take it all that well:
"You are going out with Edward Cullen?" he thundered. […] "He's too old for you," he ranted.
"We're both juniors," I corrected, though he was more right than he dreamed. (17.112, 114-115) - Edward comes to pick up Bella, and Charlie meets him, amazed that Edward's getting Bella to watch baseball.
- When they leave, Edward takes Bella to a secluded field in the middle of the woods. The Cullens are playing baseball on a far larger diamond than Bella expected. The large field is necessary, though, because they super-strength allows them to bat incredibly hard and run inhumanly fast. They can only play ball on stormy days because they hit balls so hard that it sounds like thunder.
- Bella watches from the sidelines, along with Esme, who acts as the referee.
- The fun and playful spirit of the game comes to a sudden halt when Alice has a vision (she has the ability to see the future). A nomadic group of human-eating vampires passing through has heard their game. They want to play and will be arriving in just a few minutes. This spells bad news for Bella.
- Edward is incredibly worried:
"I'm sorry, Bella," he muttered fiercely. "It was stupid, irresponsible, to expose you like this. I'm so sorry."I heard his breath stop, and his eyes zeroed in on right field. He took a half step, angling himself between me and what was coming. (17.342-343)