If something in quotes is italicized it's probably in Spanish. There's a key at the bottom if you need it.
Please be warned that Bella uses some unappealing language – and not just swear words. This is in no way a reflection on my own feelings or views. Unfortunately she's a naïve and ignorant teenage girl sometimes.
Three chapters. Updates on Fridays.
How can two people, born in the same one-wing county hospital, raised in the same neighborhood, attend the same schools be so inherently different? Beyond musical tastes and clique membership. Something more basic, more fundamental to the human being.
Over a hundred billion people that had ever lived and walked this planet and no two were the same. Not even close. Bella wanted to know how that was even possible. Especially for two people who – for all intents and purposes – shared so much in common.
Maybe it was divine intervention. Maybe something had gone awry in one of their families, generations ago – like a massive butterfly affect – and here they were today. Much the same when it came down to numbers and demographics, but so inherently different.
Maybe it was a genetic fluke. Accidents happen, right? Who says the chemicals in our bodies don't miss something every now and then. But when they make a baby, that missed piece becomes permanent and changes who they were into who they will become.
Or maybe, as Bella was wont to believe, two people can be so different just because. For the simple reason of meeting others who would be different from them, and learning a thing or two they didn't know they'd ever been missing.
Maybe that's why they were so different. Simply to learn from each other.
"Miss Swan?" she heard an irritable tenor sound from behind her. Her shoulders sagged in defeat and she felt her eyes compulsively roll to the ceiling. She painted a pretty smile on her face and turned on her squeaky Vans.
"Yes, Mr. Banner?" Bella faked coy. Pretending she was not currently standing in the backroom of the science department where the hazardous stuff was kept. Where students were strictly forbidden. She pretended she was not in an off-limits zone, standing in a puddle of water and frog piss, holding an empty terrarium as the last 'ribbit' hopped out the window behind her.
"Are you a PETA advocate now, too?" he replied acidly. He was trying to not to lose it – Bella could tell. By all accounts, Mr Banner was actually a pretty damn good teacher. Which is why her series of disciplinary infractions had steered away from him. She liked the guy. She think he's been waiting, though, knowing it's only a matter of time before her teenage wasteland lands on his doorstep.
That day was today.
"Follow me, Miss Swan." He crooked a finger and did an immediate about face. Bella plopped the terrarium on the ground and slogged after him. It was lunch period and the halls were rather empty. She knew Mr. Banner had duty in the café today. That's why she chose today. This wasn't a simply act of defiance. She really felt bad for those little toads. That's why she tried to be subtle about it just this once.
The two entered the Administrative Office and Bella plopped into a chair in the waiting area while Mr. Banner headed into Principal Greene's office.
"Good morning, Bella," Mrs. Cope greeted her without a movement from behind her copy of Good Housekeeping.
"Morning, Mrs. Cope," Bella sighed. Only a few weeks left in this hell-hole and she'd spent more time in this very chair than anywhere else. Bella Swan sat alone these days. They gave up calling Charlie her sophomore year. Now he just called in for weekly reports.
She was wondering whether or not they'd burn this chair or have her name embroidered in it after she graduated but was interrupted by a banging on the glass behind her. She flipped her head up and caught Jasper Hale's curly blonde mop in her periphery as he tapped the glass with his keys. She got up and stepped outside. Mrs. Cope didn't even flinch.
When Bella got out to the hallway, she forcefully shoved him back – using all her one hundred pounds of brute force. "What the hell?" she growled as he stumbled half a step. The boy was a full foot taller than her – she really had no chance at roughing him up, but he humored her.
"Belleza?" he tried to calm her down. "What's wrong?"
"You, Jay. You were supposed to keep an eye on Banner for me today. Remember?" she whined.
"Sorry gorgeous," he shrugged with that charismatic grin. "Newton was making me an offer I couldn't refuse."
"Well, thanks – Don Jasper," she curtsied gently, "because you screwed me over."
"Pobrecito," Jasper pouted at her. He plucked a daisy from the pocket of his flannel shirt and tucked it behind Bella's ear in her wild auburn hair. "You'll survive."
He planted a kiss on her forehead and tossed his keys in the air. "I'm out. Call me when they parole you. I'll come get you."
"Bitch," she called to him halfway down the hallway.
"The one and only," he chuckled and waved without turning as he slipped out the door. Bella growled to herself in irritation.
Jasper Hale had been her best friend since second grade. He was her first sleepover, her first kiss. The two shared beds and secrets and food and head colds and awkward moments. Bella was at his house when she first got her period. He was sitting next to her when he got his first public hard on for their seventh grade algebra teacher.
Jasper meant the world to Bella and they shared absolutely everything. They were highly involved in each others' lives. Though not in a way that most kids at Forks High thought. He would buy her tampons when she was crippled on his couch with cramps. She showered him down when he got rip-roaring drunk. They had this barrier-less symbiosis. They had no secrets.
And Bella therefore knew him to be a flaky bitch. Maybe it was just his nature. If you needed him for something important – he was there. But if you wanted him to get you a bag of Cheetos while he was up or make a copy of a lab assignment? Forget about it. Boy was a scatterbrain.
"Miss Swan?" Bella's thoughts were derailed by Mr. Greene's tired voice. She shook her head and trudged past Mr. Banner and Mrs. Cope into his office. She shut the door and flopped unceremoniously into the middle of three chairs.
He was looking over her file. She didn't know why. The man had it memorized. Hand wrote most of it himself. He didn't acknowledge Bella's entry for a moment.
"All right, Miss Swan," he began dropping the file down. He propped his elbows on the desk and leaned into his hands. "What's the story?"
One of the nice things about Mr. Greene – despite his constantly doling out 'disciplinary consequences' Bella's way – is that he always asked her side of the story before the gavel crashed down. Granted, she was totally breaking school policy every time but she supposed the 'asking the student' bit was good when a sticky situation rolled around. It lead her to believe he was at least a fair man.
"I set some lab frogs free."
"Way I hear it you set five hundred lab frogs free."
She shrugged, "More or less."
"You know we provide a computer software option to those students that don't feel comfortable with a live dissection." He leaned back in his chair waiting for Bella's reply.
She rolled my eyes. "That's not the point Mr. Greene. They're still going to get killed. I can slice a frog open without squealing like a girl, but it doesn't mean I should. If I don't – someone else will."
"That does not," he slowly shook his head, "give you license to enter a restricted area. You could've been injured." He continued before Bella was able to interrupt. "I'm going to offer you a deal, Miss Swan. Your academics are in good standing and I have no reason to keep you here after a few weeks from today when you graduate. I can, however, make your remaining time here… unpleasant."
Bella didn't like the sound of that. "This is my final offer. You still have not completed the requisite community service hours for graduation. I propose you pick between working as a food service aide or participating in the Forks High PAL program in the Special Education department in order to fulfill that. Of course this should also help your sudden and unerring humanitarian feelings."
"You want me to sling chop suey in the café or work with the speds?" she asked incredulously.
"Special Education, Bella. I'm afraid you'd find your vocabulary not well received. That is my final offer. And as per school mandate, you would not be allowed to any extracurricular events or activities and will serve a biweekly office detention."
She scoffed and leaned back in her chair. She was getting off pretty easy, actually. She didn't go to anything this school sponsored and one hour per week staring at a wall? Not too shabby. But this community service bull? Not so much.
"It's that," Mr. Greene explained, "or you return for the fall semester next year to complete the credits. And you don't get to walk graduation this spring."
Fan-freaking-tastic. Bella had shit she wanted to do with her life. There was no way in hell she would be coming back to Forks High in anything less than chains if she had anything to say about it. She was not about to let Principal Greene strong arm her into an additional semester here.
Bella's desire to work in the café was equivalent to her desire to juggle skunks. The middle-aged ex-cons that worked back there were creepy enough when you had the food service island between you.
But the sped kids? She'd be covered in body fluids all day and be stuck playing with rubberized equipment.
But it was better than being jumped in the walk-in freezer.
"Fine," she grunted. "I'll work with the speds."
Mr. Greene handed Bella a manila folder. "Here's all the information regarding the Forks High PAL Program. That is the program and policy all student volunteers fall under. You'll find a waiver that needs signing by you and your father. Rules and regulations – which, I warn you, are strictly adhered to – regarding behavior, dress code and what not. The mission and goals as well as the program handbook."
She took the thick folder, feeling her lip curl as he listed off all the crap within that she'd have to read this weekend.
"Now," he continued on as he checked his watch. "There's about a half hour left before this period ends. Why don't you head down to the Resource Room and introduce yourself to Mr. Molina? He runs FHPP."
"I guess," Bella rolled out of the chair and headed for the door. She couldn't really argue at this point. The man wouldn't graduate her. "It's been a slice," she saluted Principal Greene as she left.
The Resource Room it was. That was the room where the kids went to chill out. Like some of the kids that we had in Chorus or gym classes – there were even a few in her American Government class and one boy in her Physics class. But when they got upset or whatever and started flipping out, the paraprofessional with them would escort them to the "Resource Room". Bella had never been in there but it was painted in her mind like a padded room. And now she was going to pay a visit.
She pit-stopped at her locker and dumped the manila folder into her backpack, reminding herself that she'd actually have to bring the backpack home this weekend.
"Isabella!" she heard a singsong voice as she clicked the metal door closed.
"Mary Alice!" she trilled back in a saccharine voice.
She stopped in front of Bella. "Don't call me that," she said pointedly.
"Back atcha, babe," Bella smiled. "Shouldn't you be in AP Calc or Quantum Physics or what have you?" Alice Cullen was a jack-of-all-trades. She was a scientific genius and somehow still found a way to defy all brand of stereotypes and regulations. One day she was a rocker with leather pants and a Nirvana tee, but she could slip on a pencil skirt and a demure cardigan and have tea with the Women's Club. And the next day she'd pull a fire alarm to postpone a history exam.
Alice enjoyed making people wonder. She liked the transience of being able to recreate oneself every morning. As if the outfit or attitude someone put on could shift an entire population's perception of them. For a long time she thought she was lost, that she liked mixing things up so much because she couldn't find her niche. By the time Alice reached high school she just realized she didn't have a niche. She liked to move around and she was comfortable being different every day.
She transcended boundaries of style, class and age with a sort of effortless grace. She was an enigma.
And as a result, Bella's boy Jay had been carrying a torch for her since freshman year. They had all been friends since Alice's family moved in at the beginning of ninth grade but Jasper hadn't yet mustered the pluck to ask her out and take the next step.
"Psha!" Alice flicked her hand. "I'll give those self-righteous science geek males one day to function properly in their own element. I'm headed home. Party tonight? My family will be gone."
"Sure," Bella agreed, "but head along without me. I have to go talk to Mr. Molina about serving time with the sped kids."
Alice quirked a brow at Bella.
"Punishment for setting the bio lab frogs free," Bella answered her silent question. "Jay spaced and forgot to keep an eye out for me."
"Ah," Alice nodded in understanding. "Well, play nice. It's a great group of kids in there."
"I'm sure," Bella replied acidly.
"It's true," Alice continued as she began down the hall towards the same door Jasper had used. "They're not all vegetables or something. They're a lot of fun."
"And Bella?" she called as she clicked the door open. Bella turned from her locker and waited. She smiled lightly and rolled her eyes. "Don't call them speds."
"All right, Isabella—"
"Bella," she interrupted Mr. Molina out of pure habit. She smiled politely – she could be mature when she wanted to, "Please?"
"All right, Bella," he amended, "We'll have you start on Monday. Come in during your independent study? That should average about an hour a day."
"Okay."
"Unfortunately," Mr. Molina sighed glancing behind her into the students in the resource room, "your PAL isn't in today. Otherwise, I would've liked to introduce you. He's not fond of crowds or new people, so we like to phase him into new situations."
"Understandable," Bella nodded. "I can just stop by for a while on Monday? I don't want to make him feel uncomfortable."
"That might be a good idea. Stop by and we'll play it by ear then."
"Jay?" Bella called into the receiver as she sat on the curb. "It's me. Come pick me up?"
"Belleza?" he sounded surprised. "Skipping class? Qué tonta."
"El burro hablando de orejas! Jasper Hale!" she chastised him. "I speak better Spanish than you. Don't call me stupid. Now come and get me."
Bella vented to Jasper all the way to Alice's about her gross punishment. He finally killed the engine in front of her house. "Zee?" he used her longtime nickname. He was the only one she allowed to use it. It was his secret weapon. He was about to unleash a torrent of previously hidden knowledge and wisdom. Because that's what Jasper did. Sometimes Bella swore he was way older than eighteen.
Bella rolled her head on the seat and stared at him. Waiting.
He glanced down at her, read her expression and smiled. "Why don't you take the opportunity and enjoy it. You're going to hang out with a bunch of kids that are friends no matter what they wear. They help each other because it's the nice thing to do. They're purely happy a lot of the time for things we take for granted. They have an uncanny ability to find humor and joy in everyday occurrences. Bask in it."
Bella was still mad at him for bailing on her today so she was less than receptive to what she would later admit was another Jasper Hale Pearl of Wisdom.
She opened the door and glanced back at him. "On Monday, when I'm covered in piss, spit or puke – I'm using your shower." He shook his head as she hopped out and pulled away from the curb.
Alice's party was going well. Until she got a phone call.
"Ahh!" She ran at Bella screaming, limbs flailing as she mixed drinks behind her bar.
"Alice? What is it?" Bella asked as she ducked below for another glass.
"My parents are coming!" she wailed, clonking her head and arms down on the bar.
"What?" Bella screamed startling the few tipsy kids further down the bar.
"I'm so screwed… They're only a half hour away… What if—" At this point Bella stopped listening. This called for immediate action. They had a half hour and the party had only been going for two. They just might make it.
"Jasper!" Bella shouted, peering over the moving tide of humanity that had gathered on Alice's first floor alone. She saw a blonde head peek up from the crowd. Bless him in all his six foot two inch glory. He found Bella's face and she shouted over the voices and the music. "Evasive Maneuver Twelve!"
Bella wasn't sure he'd hear her over the din, but he gave her the thumbs up and disappeared. She looked down and found tiny little Alice balling on her own bar. "Alice, it'll be fine," Bella reassured her as she began to clean up. "Bar's closed boys," she glanced down at the few kids still sitting. They groaned but slid their glasses towards her.
A moment later Bella saw Jasper come in the front door. He slammed it loud enough to overpower the chaos of the party. There was a brief silence and Jasper yelled, "COPS!"
There was a rush like a flood and the students of Forks High poured from every door. There was the metallic thud of car doors and the grind of asphalt as they all made a break for it.
The mass exodus took five minutes.
"Alice!" Bella shouted – which was now largely unnecessary because only her, Jasper and Alice were left in her house. "We have twenty-five minutes." She picked her tiny shoulders up off the bar, "We can do this. Jasper – you get the yard. Alice – upstairs. I'll get down here. Go!"
Alice nodded and peeled up the stairs. Jasper was already gone.
With five minutes to spare, Alice ran outside and down the block to dump the suspicious trashbags in Jasper's trunk.
Jasper met Bella in the foyer – as she replaced all the breakable stuff from under the sink – and informed her that the yard was set. The back door shut and they heard Alice. "We're all set, but—" she didn't get to finish because the heart stopping tinkle of keys and footsteps on the porch sounded.
Jasper and Bella looked at each other wide-eyed. Jasper was two feet from imminent death. Bella and Jasper could see Dr. Cullen's shadow through the frosted glass. They knew he'd be okay with Bella there. Alice and her were friends. Sleepover. It's fine. But when you threw in Jasper Hale – who had more random ER visits stemming from illegal or just-plain-old-stupid activities – you had a problem.
Bella opened the broom cupboard in the foyer, placed a firm hand on Jasper's chest and shoved.
"The fuck?" he muttered as he fell in.
"Sh!" Bella indicated with her index finger as she shut the door. She skedaddled to the living room where Alice was turning on the TV. Bella could hear the lock turning as she vaulted over the back of the couch and landed safely beside Alice. They managed a fist bump as the door swung open.
They did it. As long as Esme did not intend on cleaning at 10PM they'd be set. God willing, they'd all go upstairs quickly and poor Jasper wouldn't sustain too violent an allergy attack from all the dust he was currently inhaling.
Esme and Carlisle Cullen stepped through the front door with their son – and Alice's brother – Edward. Carlisle didn't look unhappy, but he was visibly tired and Esme looked tense or stressed. Edward just stared at the floor and as his mother opened her mouth to speak to him he stormed loudly up the stairs.
Alice and Bella were watching from the back of the couch as Esme dropped her hand and sighed. Carlisle put his keys on the counter.
"Back so soon?" Alice asked. Originally she was worried about getting caught having a party. But Alice knew her family would only have ended up returning for a less than an appealing reason. Her anxiety over getting caught shifted to an uncomfortable knot of tension in her stomach.
"Yep," Esme sighed. "Nothing too bad. We'll have to try again next month."
Bella had been watching the stairs where Alice's brother had disappeared. In all aspects that Bella could easily see, the two were polar opposites. Alice was small, she had dark hair and dark eyes. She was bright and had a radiant personality. She loved meeting new people and talking with them.
Edward – though Bella had only really been introduced to him a few times – was the yin to Alice's yang. Where she was small and dark Edward was big. Just about six feet tall, he had red-brown colored hair and bright green eyes. The same as Esme's. Bella had only met him those sparing times because he was a lot shier than Alice. When Bella was over, he kept to his room except to eat or watch TV. And then, he was quiet.
Bella was never forced to salvage a conversation with Alice. She was great with people. Edward, not so much.
But for all their differences, Bella could see Alice following her brother upstairs with her stare. She was highly attuned to his shifts in mood and attitude.
Carlisle explained that he had to head to the hospital early the next day and would be heading upstairs. Esme followed with a silent wave.
"Bella," Alice said quietly turning back towards her – not meeting her eyes, staring at their feet bunched on the couch. "Do you think you could help Jasper out? I'm going upstairs for a sec."
Bella didn't need Alice's specifics to know that she was going to check on Edward. Carlisle and Esme largely left the seventeen year-old "just be" in these sorts of instances. Alice was the only one who could reach him. They would never ask of her something so big – they never wanted to put that type of responsibility on her. But Alice never said no.
"Sure, Al," Bella nodded. "I'll be back in a few."
Alice was gone and silently up the stairs before Bella reached the foyer. She quietly popped the door open to see Jasper – arms braced against each wall, preventing his falling and landing on a pile of feather dusters, one foot in the mop bucket and a yellow glove fallen from the shelf and on his shoulder.
"Sorry," she shrugged at him and offered my hand.
He released his grip from one side of the wall, muttering the whole time, "Besa mi culo, puta."
"Maybe later, pendejo. Let's get you out of here before the good doctor has you arrested, huh?"
"Let's hurry, I gotta sneeze like nobody's business."
The two made it outside, well off the Cullen property and half way to Jasper's car before he exploded in near convulsive fits of sneezing. He actually had to stop walking for a bit because he didn't have any air left in his lungs.
He regained respiratory control and slung his arm over Bella's shoulder as they continued on. "So what's the deal with Alice's brother?" He asked quietly. Jasper, for all his being a bitch, was highly perceptive. He was good with people and read them very well. Changes in tone or mood that were imperceptible to others served as the road map of life for Jasper.
Bella shrugged beneath his arm and wrapped her arms around herself. "No idea, Jay" she shrugged. "Doesn't sound very happy. I don't know much about Edward. I don't see him much."
"Yeah, me neither," Jasper observed. "He was in my Music Theory class… but uh, he mostly kept quiet. Matter of fact, I don't think he said a word the whole time. Always there early though, I could hear him playing that out-of-tune upright in the music room. Guy's pretty good."
When Bella returned to Alice's living room, everything was just like she left it. She wondered what kept Alice, seeing as how Bella had been gone for close to a half hour. Bella figured she was in the bathroom and went into the kitchen and pulled a bag of microwavable popcorn from the cabinet.
She pressed the few buttons and decided to go see if Alice was all right. She began up the stairs, quietly as she could manage. Something about the Cullen house – when it was not full of raging teenagers – just begged silence. It wasn't oppressive or scary. It was rather peaceful, and in this moment – inconvenient. Bella knew where Alice's room was, but not her parents' and she didn't want to wake them. She peeked inside Alice's room – which looked totally undisturbed. Her bathroom door was open, so that idea was scrapped. Even the bathroom off the hall was open.
Bella stalked quietly past the closed door she assumed belonged to Carlisle and Esme. From within, she could hear the dull crackle of the evening news and light talk – but didn't recognize Alice's soprano. Bella reached the end of the hall and still nothing.
She looked up the flight to the third floor. And while it was hardly a forbidden zone, Bella had never been up there on her own and felt rather odd about it. She pulled her reserve, convinced herself to stop being silly and padded up the carpeted flight.
All the doors on this floor were closed, save for the last door on the left. From here, Bella could see light pouring out and moving shadows. Every now and then she caught the air of voices. She began down the hall, still quietly.
"It's all right, it's all right…" she heard Alice's delicate sound. "Would I ever let anyone get you?" There was a shuffling of feet as Alice continued, "Hey… look at me. Sit down with me, please? I know… it's terrifying, but they only mean the best."
"I do not, do not, like it," Bella heard a gruff response. "Why do they make me go, Alice? Why?"
"To help you, of course. To make things a little easier for you."
"I do not get fixed, Alice," was the reply. He sounded upset. "I, I am Edward. I am all right, the way I am."
"Of course!" Alice trilled, "I would love you even if you had another head and purple hair."
"I do not like p-purple…" said Edward decidedly. "What if I looked like Doctor Martin? He, he, he has a big nose."
"Even then," Alice replied. "Though, if you had a big nose, you could smell when Mum's done cooking dinner even sooner…"
Bella didn't continue any further. She slowly backed down the hallway, across the second level and back to the kitchen. The scent of buttery popcorn thrust her back into the real world. The one she left not five minutes ago. The one she felt she'd been gone from for ages. The Cullen house now seemed to her a vortex. The further you climbed up, the more realities changed and slowed.
Bella was hesitant as she took the bag to the couch. She felt more pensive than she normally allowed. She tried to shake it as she turned the TV on.
Alice returned ten minutes later.
The two watched a movie and fell asleep on the couch.
'belleza' = beauty; it's also simply a play on her name
'El burro hablando de orejas' = literally means 'the donkey talking about ears'. Means, 'the pot calling the kettle black' or 'you're one to talk'.
'Besa mi culo, puta' = kiss my ass, bitch.
'pendejo' = jackass/asshole