All American Rejection: Jacob/OC

Chapter 1: Broken on the bedroom floor

"I don't understand how me being down there is supposed to change anything dad. She just got her heart broken; she's going to fall apart for a while." I slid down into my middle splits, looking at myself in the studio mirror. I laid my chest flat to the floor and made sure to keep the cell phone against my ear. Madame La-Laree had worked us extra hard today. She wanted us to be the best; at least four of her students every year went on to become principle dancers. 'Pull up, turn out, ribs in, smile' it was a mantra all of her students knew well.

I could hear my father, Charlie Swan, sigh on the other line, "She's comatose Lynn, it's been two months. This isn't normal." This was his fifth call over the last few weeks. My sister, Isabella Swan, was going through a hard time because her boyfriend had left her in the woods. Bella and I were eighteen months apart but we had only lived together until I was fourteen. Then I got accepted into the Idyllwild Arts Academy in California. Bella stayed with our mother, Renee, until Phil got an offer traveling for minor league baseball. Then she exiled herself to Forks, Washington to live with our dad, Chief of Police, Charlie Swan.

I ran my fingers through my bun that was coming apart. "Okay, well our fall break is from 19-27 this month so if you can book me a ticket I can fly out tomorrow." After working out some details I hung up the phone, grabbed my dance bag, and left the studio to go pack.

The flight from California to Washington took roughly two hours, then a forty minute flight from Seattle to Port Angeles. I felt gross, stiff, and tired. I spotted Charlie by my suitcase when I got off the plane. "Hey dad…" I wrapped my arms around him and breathed in the familiar smell, he always smelled like peppermint and gun powder. "Hey Abby-Lynn, how was your flight?" I shrugged. It took an hour and a half car ride in the police cruiser to get from Port Angeles to Forks. I slept almost the entire way.

"She's still at school, I threatened to send her back to your mom but she freaked out on me. I'm out of ideas; you guys were always close maybe you can talk to her." I didn't bother telling my father that I stopped hearing from my sister in May, we used to email and text back and forth all the time. We used to facetime every night so we could keep up with each other's life. The last I heard from Bella she was going to prom with Edward Cullen, her boyfriend. Obviously it went downhill from there. I walked in to my old childhood and smiled, it looked exactly the same. The same worn furniture and yellow cabinets, the kitchen chairs that didn't match, and the antler end table lamps. The staircase wall was covered in school pictures of me and Bella up until last year.

"You guys will have your own rooms, but…" He rubbed the back of his neck. "…only one bathroom..." I finished for him. "Don't worry dad, I remember, it's okay." I set my duffle bag on my old bed. The walls were still ballet pink, covered in tacked up old pointe shoes, and past competition ribbons. There was an old white desk and a hot pink chair under it. There was one window that was behind gauzy white curtains, I could see the wood line from my window view. The corkboard was still covered in old pictures, me and Bella, Bella and Jacob, Jacob and I, dad and mom and Bella and I, the pictures ran off the corkboard and were starting to be taped on the wall. Dad left me to unpack; I put all my clothes in the oak pine dresser and set my apple laptop on the desk.

I figured before I did anything else, I should go see my sister. I walked across the hall and knocked softly on the door, "Isa…Isa…it's me Lynn." I pushed the door open slowly. She was sitting in a rocking chair looking out the window. I walked up to crouch down in front of her, "Isa...Hey…can you hear me?" I spoke softly trying not to spook her. She turned her head to face me and her lifeless eyes lit up slightly, it was a start.

"Lynn?" Bella stumbled out of the rocking chair and hugged me on the floor. "What are you doing here?" I squeezed my sister tight; it felt good to see her again. Even if the circumstances were anything but happy. "Dad was worried about you; I'm here for fall break."

We spent all night talking; Bella stumbled through everything that had happened to her while I've been in California.

"You were bitten by a vampire?" She regaled me with the story of the tracker, James.

"Jasper attacked you?" I heard all about her 18th birthday and the paper cut incident.

"Then he just left?" Edward had told Bella that he didn't love her anymore and then left her in the forest.

Needless to say, I was completely shocked. Bella sighed from the bed. We had both crawled into her bed somewhere around 2am. "I'm not supposed to tell anyone about the Cullen's." I squeezed her hand, "But now that they're gone, I doubt it matters. I'm sorry I didn't tell you before."

I could only stay until the 27th. Then I had to fly back to California for school. It was the hardest thing I've ever done to hug my sister goodbye at the airport. I clung to my sister, "I'll be back down for winter break…I promise." Bella nodded into my shoulder and I waved goodbye.

"Un de mes étudiants les plus prometteurs me quitte!" Madame La-Laree cried. I had made the decision to leave Illywild Arts Academy and move back to Forks to be with my sister. There wasn't a lot that I learned from my parents, but I did learn that family comes first.

"I'll leave next week for winter break, but I won't be coming back. Je suis désolé" I hugged my favorite teacher goodbye. Mom had put Bella and me in ballet classes when we were little, Bella hated them, but ever since my first recital ballet had been my life. I lived, breathed, and drank ballet. I didn't know what I was going to do without it, but ever since my last call with my sister I wasn't entirely sure she should be left to her own devices.

I was stretching on the floor of my dorm room, my side splits: One legs on the ground, the other balanced on a chair. I was working to achieve hyper extensions and over splits. I was looking at Pinterest on my phone when the screen lit up 'Bella calling'. I slid the green icon over to answer my sister, "Hey Isa what's up?" She was breathing heavy on the other line, she sounded too excited when she replied, and "I heard his voice Abby! I heard his voice." I held the phone a little past my ear since she was yelling. My sister was in love with a vampire, so I wasn't sure if I should be happy that she was hearing from him or not. The week I came back to school, I looked everyone in the eye. Multiple pairs of red eyes haunted my nightmares. My sister had opened the floodgate to an entire world that I had not known anything about; sometimes I wish I still didn't.

"So he called you?" I sunk down deeper into the floor.

"No, I was on this motorcycle with this guy at a bar, and when I went over there. It was like I could almost see him, he was telling me to go back. He was trying to keep me safe; he told me I was being reckless, that I was breaking my promise." Ah, of course, the promise he held over my sister's head: don't do anything stupid. I highly doubted he had any right to ask her of anything in his position; his adopted brother almost killed her. I instead focused on the motorcycle part.

"You went on a motorcycle with a complete stranger? Are you okay? Are you nuts?"

I figured if my sister was going to keep doing reckless things, I should at least be there to make sure she didn't get herself killed. I packed the last of my room up, hugged my dorm mate goodbye, and made the second trip from California to Washington. This time for good.