Reading Twilight So You Don't Have To: Chapter Twelve
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve: Balancing
Picking up where we last left off, Jacob Black and his father, Billy, just saw Edward with Bella. Charlie arrives home, and the scene should be fraught with tension as we wait to see what Billy will do with this new information, but it's remarkably bland. Charlie comments about Jacob driving even though he's too young, they both help Billy out of the car, the Blacks invite themselves over to watch "the game" because their TV broke, and Billy embarrasses Jacob by saying he wanted to see Bella again, and she at least has enough decency to feel guilty about leading him on at the beach. Bella then turns to the womanly task of feeding the men-folk.
Jacob takes the opportunity to chat up Bella while she's cooking, and turns out, he didn't see Edward, although he's questioning her about the guy she was with. When she confesses it's Edward, Jacob actually doesn't seem bothered by it, even laughs at his "superstitious old man" father.
I like Jacob. (Not for laughing at his father, but for being good-natured about her being around another guy instead of doing the possessive thing the rest of them do.)
Bella is still nervous that Billy will "rat [her] out" to Charlie, although I'm not really sure why it's a big deal if Charlie knows she's been hanging with Edward. He's spoken well of the Cullens and even got mad at Billy for dissing them the last time they spoke, so why all the cloak-and-dagger? In the end, he doesn't give her away, so... another nothing.
The next day, another breathless ride to school with Edward, wherein she goes on and on and ON (to herself and us, not to him) about his perfectly perfect perfection. "I couldn't imagine how an angel could be any more glorious. There was nothing about him that could be improved upon." ::retch::
Then it's back to questioning her, and he's shocked--SHOCKED, I TELL YOU--that she doesn't have much of a dating past because, OMG, she's BELLA and ALL THE BOYS WUV HER!
He breaks it to her that he's leaving school early so he can go hunting so as to be all full and junk before being alone with her tomorrow (the not-going-to-Seattle date). He tells her he'll go to her house, get her truck, and leave it at school with the key in the ignition, even though she thinks the key is in one of her pockets buried in a pile of laundry and she doesn't tell him where it is. As for the hunting trip, he's going with Alice who, apparently, is the only Cullen who is okay with him dating dinner Bella. There's a little tense glaring thing with his sister Rosalie, then some more emo brooding from Edward about how it would be better if he could just leave her alone, then Alice comes over and we actually get to meet one of the Cullens other than Edward and the doctor. But all we get is a description, an introduction, and she's off again, because she's not Edward or Bella, and therefore of no interest.
They say their good-byes, which is so painful because OMG, she won't see him again until TOMORROW, and of course there's his usual warnings to "be safe" and not to trip over anything and kill her fragile little self.
Another terse interchange with Mike, who's still jealous even though he's dating Jessica, and she lies to him about her plans for the next day, then her horrible Edward-less half day is FINALLY over and she goes out to the parking lot to find her truck, as promised. With a little love note. "Be safe." She gets home and tries to figure out how Edward got in when the house was locked exactly as she left it, and the laundry where she'd thought her key was was exactly as she left it. Oooooh, mysterious.
More lies... she calls Jessica specifically to tell her that the date with Edward was canceled and she would be staying home. Seriously, I don't get what all the lying and secrecy is about. Why is she sneaking around to see him? Has anyone other than her ten thousand suitors expressed any problem with Edward?
Oh, here's a bit of surprising insight from Bella. "[S]ince I'd come to Forks, it really seemed like my life was about him." No, duh! But no hint from either Bella or the larger voice of the author that this is in any way a bad thing. The only "tiny" worry she had about this is wondering how much it would hurt if it "ended badly." Well, if by "ending badly" you mean he eats you, then it's probably gonna hurt a lot, Bella. Oh, wait. No. She means in the regular relationship way of a bad break up. Yeah, that would probably hurt, too. But that's the only thing that could possibly be wrong with a young girl making her entire life revolve around a boy. That it might end badly.
Okay, when the Big Day finally arrives, we finally get an answer to why Bella feels the need to lie to everyone. Because she doesn't want him to be in trouble if she doesn't come home.
Yep. You read that right. She is going out alone with him, even though he told her she was irresistible to him (in the eating kind of way) and that it would be hard for him to control himself when they're alone, and it isn't that she trusts him, it's that she doesn't care. Better to die at his perfectly perfect hands than live without him.
Now there's a message you want your pre-teen and teen girls learning. Better for your man to KILL YOU than to be without him. AND you should go out of your way to protect HIM should he actually kill you.
Isn't that romantic?
More gushing about his godlike perfection, and how he's too good for her. (Because we all know that guys who want to KILL YOU are too GOOD for you.)
He takes her to the woods, they walk for "several hours" (really?) to a gorgeous meadow. And there, he steps into the sun to reveal...
Nope. We have to wait for the next chapter. Oh, the suspense!
Chapter Thirteen
Quick Links:
Why I'm doing this | Preface & 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 16.2 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | Epilogue |
Discussion Questions
Chapter Twelve: Balancing
Picking up where we last left off, Jacob Black and his father, Billy, just saw Edward with Bella. Charlie arrives home, and the scene should be fraught with tension as we wait to see what Billy will do with this new information, but it's remarkably bland. Charlie comments about Jacob driving even though he's too young, they both help Billy out of the car, the Blacks invite themselves over to watch "the game" because their TV broke, and Billy embarrasses Jacob by saying he wanted to see Bella again, and she at least has enough decency to feel guilty about leading him on at the beach. Bella then turns to the womanly task of feeding the men-folk.
Jacob takes the opportunity to chat up Bella while she's cooking, and turns out, he didn't see Edward, although he's questioning her about the guy she was with. When she confesses it's Edward, Jacob actually doesn't seem bothered by it, even laughs at his "superstitious old man" father.
I like Jacob. (Not for laughing at his father, but for being good-natured about her being around another guy instead of doing the possessive thing the rest of them do.)
Bella is still nervous that Billy will "rat [her] out" to Charlie, although I'm not really sure why it's a big deal if Charlie knows she's been hanging with Edward. He's spoken well of the Cullens and even got mad at Billy for dissing them the last time they spoke, so why all the cloak-and-dagger? In the end, he doesn't give her away, so... another nothing.
The next day, another breathless ride to school with Edward, wherein she goes on and on and ON (to herself and us, not to him) about his perfectly perfect perfection. "I couldn't imagine how an angel could be any more glorious. There was nothing about him that could be improved upon." ::retch::
Then it's back to questioning her, and he's shocked--SHOCKED, I TELL YOU--that she doesn't have much of a dating past because, OMG, she's BELLA and ALL THE BOYS WUV HER!
He breaks it to her that he's leaving school early so he can go hunting so as to be all full and junk before being alone with her tomorrow (the not-going-to-Seattle date). He tells her he'll go to her house, get her truck, and leave it at school with the key in the ignition, even though she thinks the key is in one of her pockets buried in a pile of laundry and she doesn't tell him where it is. As for the hunting trip, he's going with Alice who, apparently, is the only Cullen who is okay with him dating dinner Bella. There's a little tense glaring thing with his sister Rosalie, then some more emo brooding from Edward about how it would be better if he could just leave her alone, then Alice comes over and we actually get to meet one of the Cullens other than Edward and the doctor. But all we get is a description, an introduction, and she's off again, because she's not Edward or Bella, and therefore of no interest.
They say their good-byes, which is so painful because OMG, she won't see him again until TOMORROW, and of course there's his usual warnings to "be safe" and not to trip over anything and kill her fragile little self.
Another terse interchange with Mike, who's still jealous even though he's dating Jessica, and she lies to him about her plans for the next day, then her horrible Edward-less half day is FINALLY over and she goes out to the parking lot to find her truck, as promised. With a little love note. "Be safe." She gets home and tries to figure out how Edward got in when the house was locked exactly as she left it, and the laundry where she'd thought her key was was exactly as she left it. Oooooh, mysterious.
More lies... she calls Jessica specifically to tell her that the date with Edward was canceled and she would be staying home. Seriously, I don't get what all the lying and secrecy is about. Why is she sneaking around to see him? Has anyone other than her ten thousand suitors expressed any problem with Edward?
Oh, here's a bit of surprising insight from Bella. "[S]ince I'd come to Forks, it really seemed like my life was about him." No, duh! But no hint from either Bella or the larger voice of the author that this is in any way a bad thing. The only "tiny" worry she had about this is wondering how much it would hurt if it "ended badly." Well, if by "ending badly" you mean he eats you, then it's probably gonna hurt a lot, Bella. Oh, wait. No. She means in the regular relationship way of a bad break up. Yeah, that would probably hurt, too. But that's the only thing that could possibly be wrong with a young girl making her entire life revolve around a boy. That it might end badly.
Okay, when the Big Day finally arrives, we finally get an answer to why Bella feels the need to lie to everyone. Because she doesn't want him to be in trouble if she doesn't come home.
Yep. You read that right. She is going out alone with him, even though he told her she was irresistible to him (in the eating kind of way) and that it would be hard for him to control himself when they're alone, and it isn't that she trusts him, it's that she doesn't care. Better to die at his perfectly perfect hands than live without him.
Now there's a message you want your pre-teen and teen girls learning. Better for your man to KILL YOU than to be without him. AND you should go out of your way to protect HIM should he actually kill you.
Isn't that romantic?
More gushing about his godlike perfection, and how he's too good for her. (Because we all know that guys who want to KILL YOU are too GOOD for you.)
He takes her to the woods, they walk for "several hours" (really?) to a gorgeous meadow. And there, he steps into the sun to reveal...
Nope. We have to wait for the next chapter. Oh, the suspense!
Chapter Thirteen
Quick Links:
Why I'm doing this | Preface & 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 16.2 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | Epilogue |
Discussion Questions