Chapter-by-Chapter: Twilight, Chapter 11

I've had a bit of a break from these review posts recently but I'm back on track now.

When we last spent time with Bella and Edward they were officially going out and had gone somewhat public at school. They ate lunch together and everything. Edward also read everyone's minds to find out what Bella was saying about them when he was away from her. Because that's not weird or stalkery at all.

Now we're onto Chapter 11: Complications.

What Happens?

Bella and Edward are virtually joined at the hip for the rest of the day. The next day Edward sets out to question Bella incessantly in order to learn everything about her. They're having fun until Edward takes her home after school and Jacob and Billy show up after he's left.

Thoughts as I read:

Obviously it was never going to be plain sailing for Bella and Edward. I wonder what the complication will be? Knowing Bella she'll fall over something, and knowing Forks the complication will be rain. Normally I wouldn't think that these things would be classed as actual complications, but in this book I'd say this could be right on the money.

In Biology they're getting to watch a video. Perhaps the complication will be that the VCR doesn't work, that seems to be par for the course in high school classrooms. The lights go out and Bella has an uncontrollable urge to get physical with Edward:

And then, as the room went black, I was suddenly hyperaware that Edward was sitting less than an inch from me. I was stunned by the unexpected electricity that flowed through me, amazed that it was possible to be more aware of him than I already was. A crazy impulse to reach over and touch him, to stroke his perfect face just once in the darkness, nearly overwhelmed me. I crossed my arms tightly across my chest, my hands balling into fists. I was losing my mind.

Or you've already lost it?

Of course we don't find out what they were watching because Bella can't focus on anything but Edward.

He raised his hand, hesitant, conflict raging in his eyes, and then swiftly brushed the length of my cheekbone with his fingertips. His skin was icy as ever, but the trail his fingers left on my skin was alarmingly warm – like I'd been burned, but didn't feel the pain of it yet.

So she's off to Gym without him. I did call her falling over. Let's see if I'm right.

Reality didn't fully set in until I was handed a racket. It wasn't heavy, yet it felt very unsafe in my hand. I could see a few of the other kids in class eyeing me furtively.

Hehe. Okay, so maybe she won't fall over. Seeing her accidentally launch her racket at someone would be all kinds of hilarious though.

Bella gets paired with Mike and can't help but notice how easy it is to talk to him. That would be unlike Edward who has mood swings so often that you don't know what's going to happen next. Oh, and Bella does manage to hit herself on the head with the racket. I think I should count that as being half right.

And now it's suddenly occurred to me that the complication might be the rest of the Cullens hating on Bella. I imagine that would throw a spanner in the works of their relationship.

Back to Mike and Bella, the former is telling the latter that he doesn't like the way Edward looks at her. He mentions that he looks like Bella is something to eat; does he mean like a mountain lion or a bear then? I'm not sure what happens next because Bella seems to think that she and Mike have had an argument but it barely seemed like a conversation. Then she starts panicking about whether the Cullens know that she knows about them:

Did they know that I knew? Was I supposed to know that they knew that I knew, or not?

Got that?

Outside Edward has been reading Mike's mind so he knows how Gym class went. Way to violate people's personal thoughts, Edward! Bella is understandably annoyed about this but Edward wins her round by promising to let her drive on their Saturday excursion. He tells her that he won't be leaving his car at her house and that she's not allowed to ask any more questions so we don't get to learn any more.

As usual, they start talking about something and I have no idea what they're talking about. Oh, right, I've got it, it's about Bella being there when he goes hunting. Going with him is not a good idea because he might get carried away and eat her. We can live in hope.

They have a little moment before Bella heads into the house and Edward tells her that he'll be asking questions tomorrow. Can he not just read the minds of all her friends again to get answers that way? Once Bella goes to bed she (surprise, surprise) dreams of Edward, except she doesn't have the best night's sleep.

Next day Charlie wants to know just why Bella doesn't want to go to the dance and Stephenie Meye gets a wee bit profound:

It must be a hard thing, to be a father; living in fear that your daughter would meet a boy she liked, but also having to worry if she didn't. How ghastly it would be, I thought, shuddering, if Charlie had even the slightest inkling of exactly what I did like.

That was quite deep for this book.

Once again Edward is there to take Bella to school. Aw, he thinks she looks tired. Oh and he didn't sleep either. Obviously. I imagine that would make a sleepover with him a bit awkward. Or creepy. What would he do? Just watch her sleep?

And now it's time to get some insight into Bella. The big revelation is that she varies her favourite colour depending on her mood and if you want to know what her favourite colour is, look at what she's wearing. Today it's brown which she misses because everything in Forks is too green. I think I'd rather be somewhere green and leafy instead of somewhere dry and brown.

The CD she got from Phil (oh come on Stephenie Meyer, just make up a band name instead of being all vague about it) is also in Edward's collection. This clearly means that they're meant to be. They also talk about books a lot but we don't get to hear the answers, or questions for that matter.

He'd been flinging questions at me with such speed that I felt I was taking one of those psychiatric tests where you answer with the first word that comes to mind.

Has she had many of those tests then?

Her current favourite gemstone is inspired by the colour of Edward's eyes. For a moment she worries about his reaction when she mentions his eyes going black but it's okay, or as okay as it gets when you have to be careful about being honest with your boyfriend. Seriously, this should raise some major red flags for this relationship!

We actually get the line 'Biology was a complication again' and I'm starting to wonder if this is the only complication we're going to get in this chapter. It's not a huge complication and the class is just a repeat of the previous one. The main difference being that in Gym afterwards Edward doesn't speak to Bella.

After school Edward pumps Bella for more information. Again I can't help but wonder if perhaps Stephenie Meyer is describing somewhere she knows because as Bella describes her home we get way more description and detail than we do at virtually any other time. It actually feels like she's describing a real place.

I'm just getting into the conversation when they are forced to stop because Charlie should be home soon. Why didn't Bella invite Edward inside to chat instead of the pair of them just hanging out in the car? Am I the only one who finds that weird? Edward also namedrops the book title here as well. Twilight is his favourite time of day and Edward has another of his little deep moments before they're interrupted by one of those complications again.

When it appears that someone is coming, Edward virtually kicks Bella out of the car and speeds off. A moment later Jacob shows up with his dad, Billy. It's obviously that Billy knows something about Edward and Bella.

I can see this becoming a complication.

As I often find, sometimes its hard to know what Edward and Bella are actually talking about. We did get to learn a little more about Bella in this chapter so I suppose that was something. Now we know she's pale, clumsy and one at least one occasion her favourite colour was brown. I also felt like this chapter was trying a little too hard to actually be about a 'complication'; 'Interrogation' might have been a more fitting title.

And as usual, here's some questions raised during the chapter:

• Just what complications are we talking about here? Just some guy showing up who knows Edward's secret.
• Is the complication a faulty VCR? Nope.
• Will the complication be Bella failing something because she's just thinking about Edward all the time? No.
• Will the complication be the Cullens hating Bella & encouraging Edward to dump her? Unfortunately not.
• When Edward looks at Bella like he wants to eat her, is he actually picturing a mountain lion or bear?
• Why does Edward want to question Bella so much when he can just read people's minds to find things out?
• If Bella and Edward slept together, what would he do while she slept?
• Has Bella had much experience of psychiatric testing?
• Why didn't Bella invite Edward into the house, rather than sitting outside in the car?