Moonlit Haze (Twilight 2)

Chapter One – Just another day

Basically my own story but the characters and some of the details are from twilight because I needed a story to put it under.

My life has always been below regular so I didn't expect anything new when I moved from England to the huge states of America. I've lived with my mum all my life since my dad dies before I was born in a teenage knife attack. This was one of the many reasons my mum decided to move us. She couldn't afford England either, I tried to help earn money but the most I could get was £7 a week for my paper round –even when it was in the middle of winter and I needed chains tied to the wheels of my bike just to keep me up right-. I had no reason to protest, I only had 1 family member living in England who actually kept in touch, my granddad who died from cancer 2 months ago. I wasn't a very social, loud or popular person so I never had anyone to call my friend and so the start of a new life sounded just fine to me.

Our small, 2 bed roomed house in Leicester had never seemed like much of a home, but I felt safe in it so I called it my sanctuary as I hid me away from the world and I could just watch time go by. I got ready to leave earlier than my mum to prepare myself. I started packing a week before the big move so I knew I wouldn't forget anything. I found out there wasn't really much point because it only took me a day and over the next few days I was unpacking my clothes again to wear, I didn't plan very well, but then again I never do.

But it was now the big day, the moving vans had left for the airport 3 hours ago. I didn't think it would be so hard to leave, I mean nothing happy had really happened to me here but the tears still fought their way to the surface and ran down my cold cheeks. I took a last look out of my bedroom window onto the crowded street below before I jogged slowly to my bedroom door and shut away my past forever. Without a word –as I knew I couldn't speak and cry at the same time- I jumped as fast as I could without tripping down the stairs and straight out of the front door to the blue Ford Mondeo waiting for me outside. My mum, Renee was just getting into the car; she read my face in less than a second and squeezed me against her left side. I let a few salty tears ruin her new red blouse.

"Sorry Bells, we have no choice, it's for the best, and you know I wouldn't do this to you if there was another option."

I sniffed loudly before reassuring her that I was okay, even though I could tell she read me like a book.

"I'm fine mum; I just don't do well with goodbyes"

She took a quick glance at my expression and nodded before starting the engine of the car. I couldn't bear to look at the house but I forced myself to glace at it through the back window as we left the street. After all this was my only home in this country, I had grown up her, and now it was like the end of a life, my life, but didn't that mean the start of a better, happier life?

We sat in silence until we finally hit the motorway and my mum decided to make conversation, she didn't like awkward silences at all.

"So how did your friends take the news then? Were there many tears when you wished them fair well?"

Of course my mum had never met any of my 'friends' because she worked until 1am. She assumed I was the most popular girl in school and had a great bunch of friends who tagged along with me all day and had little girly discos when it came to the holidays, she was wrong, but who was I to change what she wanted to believe? Even if what she thought was the complete opposite and I had no one, I wasn't ever going to let her down. I spent my time researching and reading in my own fantasy world and the only thing I used my mobile for was to hear my mum's voice on the answer phone when I felt slightly lonely or I had a particularly bad day at school. I had never fit in at all, even when I was younger and I used to just sit and build Lego towers by myself. I didn't seem to mind much back then, well of what I can remember anyway. When I started secondary school everything changed, girls became groups of orange (due to the layers of foundation they used) bullies. Boys went around all day with their trousers half way down their asses and stunk of smoke when ever they came within a 10 metre radius of me. Knife crimes had gone up, and of course this had made mum anxious so she made me carry a rape alarm and pepper spray everywhere I went. By year 9, when I was 14, I knew 10 girls in my year that were pregnant, but of course no one would come near enough for me to get pregnant so I had no worries in that department.

I kept myself to myself, only talking when spoken to, making me an obvious target for bullying. I had lost count of how many times I had been locked in the toilet all day, or had my bag turned inside out into a bin. I didn't turn my computer on anymore due to emails from certain girls in the school who had broken in to the student information draw one lunch time just to get my details and try to threaten me. My looks didn't really help me either; I mean I wasn't pretty or 'fit' as the guys called it now.

I didn't wear make-up because I had no one to go shopping with and I just left my hair down to cover my face from the world. I had longish frizzy, mouse brown hair that had no real style to it as we didn't go to the hairdressers too often and it couldn't be described as curly or wavy so it was nicknamed 'the bush look' by my mum. Hiding under my hair, I had small lips -I guess this was because I never used them-. My nose was quite sharp and point –the reason for many of the nicknames given to me over the long, hard years-. My eyes were big, light blue always had been, "as big and blue as the ocean" my granddad used to say. No one had a clue where the colour came from; the rest of my relatives had strong hazel colour eyes. My eyes had never changed, event he size and they were the only feature I didn't completely loath -even if the did give away my feelings for the whole world to see on a plate-. I had a small white scar on my forehead that I had gained from walking into a metal pole when I was younger and cut it open slightly.

My mum was used to my clumsiness -even if she was never around to see most of it- and so she took care of me instead of making good friends at the hospital from the amount of visits we would have had to make. I had always been clumsy, I had many bruises on my body from past days when I had walked into a table or fell over my own feet. I knew that there would be many more injury marks to add to my appearance in the future but these were a few from my first life, my England life and some of the memories they carried inside.

"Bella??" my mum had slowed down and was looking at my face, I hadn't noticed I had been daydreaming. My eyes were watering because I hadn't blinked in so long, must have been about 5 minutes judging by the time.

"Oh sorry mum, I was just thinking about…my friends"

My mums' expression softened and she seemed happy to know I was just daydreaming about my so called 'friends'.

So how did they take it then? She asked once more turning her head back to the road and the cars in front of ours. I thought for a moment but then stopped myself from going off onto a different track once again.

"Pretty well I'd say, I told them I'd ring them when we have settled in a bit" I tried to keep my reply as simple as possible, I hated lying to my mum, partly because she knew when I was telling the tiniest porky but mainly because I didn't want to hurt her.

"Oh" she seemed shocked "I thought they would have nailed down the car or started a protest against us moving" she chuckled to herself. I smiled not wanting to say anymore about the situation but as always that was made difficult by Renee.

"So are you going to invite them over in the summer for a week or two? There would be enough room for one or two of them."

"Erm mum, I think the others would get a bit jealous if I only invited two over for a holiday"

She seemed disappointed and stuck with things to say. "Oh, okay"

"I mean I'm sure the house is big enough…maybe ill just invite one round, my best friend" I smiled at her, hoping that that last comment would cheer her up again. It did the trick and at last she changed the subject, but not in the way I had planned for.

"so what about your boyfriend then?" that made me freeze. I just stared at the red light of the car infront of us. I know mum couldn't help acting like everything was okay –because it was in her mind- but boys were kind of a bad spot in my life, they always had been. I gritted my teeth and turned to raise an eyebrow at her.

"You know I don't feel that way about any boys mum"

She grinned "that's code talk for; keep your nose out, isn't it?"

I kept it simple. "Yes" this time I'd change the subject completely. "So where exactly are we moving to?"

"Nice try Bell, I'm still not spilling the beans until we arrive and you can see your new home for yourself" damn it, that went well…not! My mum wanted to keep are new destination a secret, I had no idea why, I mean it couldn't be anything that special, and we were broke.

It was 6pm and we had been on the road for about 2 hours, so I grabbed my blanket, sleeping normally made time past quite easily, unless I had yet ANOTHER nightmare. Like the other night, when I woke up screaming into my pillow, it took me an hour just to stop shaking with fear and loneliness. It wasn't necessarily scary, there was nothing to be scared of, but that was exactly it, there was nothing. I just remember my mum screaming my name as a man in a black cloak took her out of my life, and I had no idea how long for or why. But I had never told my mum what happened, even though I had kept her up with my screaming, but it was just a dream, it wasn't real, that's what I had to keep telling myself. The red light of the car infront gradually faded and darkness filled my head of the bad.

Black, black, black, black, white. A white feather, a white wing, a white bird? It wasn't bird; it was an angel with wings made of snow white feathers that wrapped themselves around the figure hiding within. The angel was hidden enough that I come only see his feet. He was shaking, there was a sharp sniff and I realised that the angel was crying. "w-what's wrong?" I asked slowly passing myself further towards the beautiful creature. But he didn't speak. Closer and closer still, the creature still didn't move. I cleared my throat. "Excuse me" it was as if I was invisible, he couldn't hear me or see me. I bent down and slowly reached out towards the angels wing, so slow, I began shaking slightly but as I touched the feathers of the wings I was filled with happiness, everything seemed bright and my heart was filled with warmth, something I'd never felt so strong before. Those few seconds felt so good, I could have sat there forever just to feel alive. But the air was suddenly filled with black and the wings disappeared and I finally saw the creature for the first time. His body was muscular and pale white dressed in a black cloak which blended into his long black hair. He slowly raised his head and that's when I saw the thing, the monster. His eyes so dark that I felt like I was falling into an endless pit but I still couldn't stop staring. The monster spoke "Bella" his voice was beautiful, but deadly. And out of nowhere he screamed showing a mouth of blood and two pale white fangs glistening, sharper than needles. "Bella" but it wasn't the monsters voice anymore, it was someone I knew. Mum!! "Mum" I screamed wanting to escape from the creature and be safe in my mums arms. "Bella??!!" she shouted again, but the voice was coming from the monster. I was confused, my mum wasn't a monster, it was then I heard the crack of brittle bones breaking. I looked towards the sound to see my mum lying in the monsters arms, pale white…bloodless. The monster dropped the body and stared at me with his piecing eyes pinned onto my neck. I stared at the punctured holes in the neck of my dead corpse of a mother. My mother's voice screamed my name again as my brain was filled with red and the monster leaped for me, my blood.

"Bella??!!"

I was breathing heavily, bright red lights shone in my eyes. "Bella hunny, sorry to wake you but we are at the air port". It was just a dream, a nightmare. The red lights were from the car's queuing infront of us. I was sweating; my heart was beating like a hummingbird so I pushed the blanket off and straightened myself out. What was that about? I nearly jumped out of my skin as the car behind honked his horn.

"Bloody hell!! It's a queue for goodness sake, do you not have patience?!" my mum shouted out of the window to the driver who seemed to be swearing quite a lot at us.

"We have to wait three hours for out flight, so you can have your dinner where you want Bella" I looked at the clock; it was 8pm, id been asleep for 2 hours. Good way to pass the time, too bad I wouldn't be able to sleep again for a while.

"I'm not really hungry at the moment mum" she looked at me wide eyed.

"But you had no lunch, you have to eat something Bella, your not going to turn anorexic on me are you?" she seemed mad, but not red in the face mad, just worried mad which showed that she cared I suppose.

"No mum" I rolled my eyes "I just woke up, I don't eat as soon as I open my eyes you know." She sighed

"Fine, we will probably get some food on the plane anyway, you can have mine, it wouldn't help my stomach once we are in the air"

"Now who's anorexic?" I smirked

"Hey, you know I'm scared of heights, and flying, and…most stuff really" I chuckled at her panicked expression.

"I know mum, don't worry we will be fine when we hit American soil." She took a heavy breath to relax herself and finally pulled into a space in the car park. She just sat looking at her car before giving her steering wheel a tap and climbing out of the car. Mum's car wasn't coming with us, we had brought a new car with a steering wheel on the left side of the car for America but mum loved her Mondeo it was her first car and she never thought she would depart from it.

"Goodbye car" I gave the chair a quick tap and jumped out of the door but as always it wasn't that simple and I went colliding into the car parked next to us. "Oops" there was a scratch on the window "oh dear" typical me really.

"Bella?, what's taking so long, come and help me with the luggage please." I swung to the back of the car and skipped to the boot to help unload the two bags inside, after all the rest were probably already in the air on the way to our new home.

I picked up my green backpack and swiftly loaded it onto my shoulder before making my way towards the entrance of the airport.

"Err bells?" my mum said still standing by the back of the car "the entrance, is this way" she said pointing her knobbly finger in the opposite direction.

"oh!, I knew that" I started walking again, this time, the right way, but I could hear my mum chuckling to herself, it was nice to know she found me amusing. I stumbled along behind her trying to make my way across the tarmac in the dark without making a fool out of myself.

"America here we come!" Renee shouted, causing many heads to turn in our direction.

"yeah, watch out America" I mumbled, Renee laughed loudly and I began to join her but tripped over one of my feet into the back of my mum sending her flying into the entrance of the airport. What an entrance, well that was my karma I suppose.

We made our way to the front desk with many head turned out way once again. The woman standing behind the desk looked up to smile as us but I still saw the look she gave me as she looked at my clothes. I was wearing jeans and my favourite blue shirt on, my mum was wearing jeans also but she looked so much better with her shoulder length hazelnut coloured hair.

"How may I help you?" the lady asked, her name tag said her name was Hannah, suited her I suppose. Hannah was quite pretty with bleach blonde waist length hair and green eyes and her work hat suited her perfectly. Her lips were perfectly shaped but the red lipstick made them look too big for her face.

"We have tickets to America" she leaned over to whisper in Hannah's ear, I'm guessing the location we would be staying at, I didn't see why she needed to try so hard to keep it a secret.

"Your flight will be leaving at 11pm, we suggest you board at 10.30pm threw door 10A, I do hope you have a good time Madame, will you be needing you luggage?" Hannah asked while stamping our tickets.

"Yes thank you, we trust that that is okay?" Renee replied, she didn't like not getting her own way.

"Yes that's fine, you will be asked to place them on a tray before boarding for inspection and weighing."

"Okay, thank you" we turned away towards the stairs with our bags. The airport smelled of pasta and plastic. It was clean but it was the last smell I would remember from England, seemed quite sad to be thinking about smells really. We made out way to the seats placed infront of the boarding doors, we passed a few shops on the way full of magazines and sweets but there was nothing amusing to do here really, I was glad I brought my book with me.

The measuring, weighing and x-raying took ages because the machine was broken which pissed Renee off no end but I think she just wanted to be on her way to America and clear her mind of England. When we finally got to sit down and wait for our plane to arrive Renee fell asleep, bless her, she never seemed tired but she never sleeped and she looked so peaceful. I decided to leave her be and began reading 'Triskelion', my newest book about some strange happenings and that kept me awake for another hour until Renee started snoring in my ear with her mouth wide open.

"Lovely" I whispered to myself while poking Renee. "Mum! Mum!"

She awoke with a start. "Huh! w-what's wrong, what happened?" she blinked a few times, now she looked tired "oh I nodded off didn't I?"

I nodded and looked at the hands on my watch "we'll be boarding in the next hour or two, I'm going to look around, is that okay?"

Her eyelids were dropping again and she yawned slightly "sure sure" she was gone again, sleeping like a baby. Okay, time to check out the shops.