As I sat on the plane that was taking me from blissful sunny, dry Phoenix Arizona in the middle of a hot August summer to it's polar opposite, wet, rainy Forks Washington, I replayed the day's events through my mind. I had finally moved out of my mother's house, and had gone off to live with my father Charlie. I wanted to spend my last two years of high school with my dad, since I hardly ever saw him, and I didn't want to be a third wheel to my mother and her new husband. I didn't mind at all, it was not about her at all, it was me wanting to go out in the world and explore. At least, that's what I told her.
Truthfully, my mother was never home, and it was straining her to have to choose between me or Phil, her new husband. And after all the years she had single-handedly spent raising me, who was I to intrude on the happiness she so thoroughly deserved? And plus, I might be able to get closer to my father who I only saw once a summer. Although, it had been a number of years since I had been in Forks in all of its damp glory. As the plane flew over the landscape, and began to slightly descend, I saw a change in the scenery that I had observed while we had left Arizona's long dry tan and yellowed earth to Washington's green bunches of plants. The sign to fasten seat belts flashed annoyingly constant as the stewardesses came out to remind us yet again how to fasten our seatbelts if we had somehow forgotten after the first time they had explained it to us. In all truth, I knew my annoyance at the stewardesses wasn't really because of their concern for the passengers' safety, I was more so anxious about seeing my father again, and actually living here in Forks for the rest of my high school career. I took a deep breath and prepared to meet my father at the baggage claim, where we had agreed to meet.
I stood on my tiptoes with my beaten up simple black suitcase to see where Charlie was. Finally, I saw him in his Forks' Town Sheriff uniform and rushed forwards. He enveloped me in a hug and greeted me. "Welcome Bells. It's good to have you back." I smiled in and hugged him. It had been too long since I had last seen Charlie, and even though I detested Forks, I did like seeing him.
"Good to see you too Dad." We slowly left the airport and got through the parking lot to Charlie's police cruiser. I groaned mentally at the cruiser. People tend to notice law enforcement vehicles, unfortunately for me. I wanted to blend in at this school, and of course, in a small town, nothing blends easily. Like adding a drop of food coloring to a pitcher of water, one small thing makes a big difference that no one fails to notice. As we drove along, Charlie tried to find out what had changed since we had last seen each other.
"So…how was school this year? Anything interesting happening?"
"Um, nothing really… I finished AP Bio and passed the exam. Nothing much outside of that." Life in Phoenix was pretty normal. Sure I had lived with Mom, which never proved to be dull, seeing as she always got these wacky ideas, but other than that, nothing really happened.
"Any boyfriends?" he asked innocently while looking straight ahead. My cheeks flushed with embarrassment.
"Uh no Dad. No guys. At all."
He was left without knowing exactly what to say, so he just said, "Oh." My social life had pretty much started and ended in Phoenix. I had a few friends in class, but I didn't go out of my way to hang out with them or anything. I kept to myself most of the time, much to my mother's dismay. She was always encouraging for me to get out of my shell. The rest of the conversation with Charlie improved after that awkward question though. We talked about the weather (it was rainy, of course) and then Charlie went on a little tangent on how much I've grown since he had last seen me. By the end of that conversation, we had reached the house, and I dragged my bag up to where my bedroom was and began to unpack. Charlie had offered to help me, but I had my own special way of organizing things in my room, so I politely declined and he went to watch the tail end of a game on the TV.
I finished unpacking in about 15 minutes, and smelled something burning, and rushed downstairs. In a town with this much water, the house couldn't have possibly caught on fire, so I had no pressing worry, but you never knew. As I followed the scent, I came into the kitchen, where Charlie was attempting to make fish of some sort. I opened a window to let out a bit of smoke that had gathered from his 'cooking' as he turned around, surprised by my sudden appearance.
"Bells! I was just making supper." I suppressed a laugh.
"Um Dad…do you want me to cook? I learned how to a while back and we can have pan-fried fish instead of lox." He grinned and nodded.
"There's more fish in the freezer, it might be best to start from scratch. I'm not the best at domestic stuff..." his voice trailed off. I hurried forward and dumped the fish in the frying pan in the trash and got some more fish out of the freezer and into the pan. I added seasoning to it; lemon juice, salt and pepper, and a hint of garlic salt, and slowly cooked the fish. As I left the fish on the stove to cook, I searched the pantry for a decent side to the fish and settled on a bag of rice. I grabbed a pot and boiled some rice in it and as soon as it was done, strained it and put it in a bowl with a topping of butter. I flipped the fish onto a platter after checking to see if it was thoroughly cooked and put it on the table along with the bowl of rice. Charlie, who had been observing this silently, grabbed silverware, dishes, and glasses and began to set the table. He poured himself a glass of milk, and then I poured myself one as well. He took a bite and his jaw dropped.
"Bells, this is amazing. It's much better than what I've ever made anyway. Where did you learn how to cook like this?" I shrugged.
"Mom had a phase where she wanted to be able to cook like everyone she saw on Food Network. So she signed us both up for cooking lessons. I found that I kind of liked it so I took over cooking in the home. She's not exactly the best chef, but I still loved everything she made." I smiled at the memory at her botched recipes, like chocolate covered asparagus tarts and orange gravy with potatoes. Charlie turned his attention to the food, devouring it like he had never eaten before. Suddenly, the phone rang, jolting him out of his focus on the food. He jumped out of his seat and picked it up.
"Hello? Oh hey Billy. Oh it's ready already? Great. We'll be there in twenty minutes, okay? Great, see you then." I raised my eyebrow as Charlie took his seat again. "We're going over to the Blacks' after dinner, Bells. You remember them, right? You played with his daughters a while back during the fishing trips. Anyways, they're gone now, but he has a son about your age. You guys can hang out while we go there for a while. You don't mind, do you?" I smiled. Charlie was so eager to see his friend and presumably show him how his daughter had come back home and how much I had grown up. I couldn't possibly say no.
"Sure dad. I just have to clean up after supper and then we'll go right away."
