Hello all you lovely readers! This is my first attempt at an all-human story, so tell me if it sucks. Or tell me if I should continue! Enjoy!
"I would advise against that."
I gasped and looked up from my pancakes, that were now drenched in syrup, to see a short, spiky haired girl looking at me with clear amusement on her face.
"The calories, you know," she said in a high-pitched voice. I blushed, and looked down at my pancakes again to see that the syrup was about to flow over the plate.
"Oh," was my clever response. A pale hand reached out with a napkin and wiped at the more dangerously flooded area of my plate. I looked up at the smiling girl, and was shocked when she sat in the bench across from me. She laughed at my expression, and continued speaking.
"So, what happened? Get fired? Someone sick? Die? Bad breakup?"
I just gaped at her, grasping for an answer in my head. "Um, none of the above. I just moved here. I just miss my family…" I trailed off. I wasn't exactly sure who this girl was, but she didn't seem completely sane, in all honesty.
Her tiny features brightened, if possible, and she questioned me further.
"Oh. Why did you come here in the first place? "
Why did she want to know?
"Who are you, anyways? And why do you care?" I asked, annoyed.
To my astonishment, she laughed. She was definitely not completely sane.
"Hi, I'm Alice," she said as she stuck her hand out across the table for me to shake. I cautiously shook it but brought my hand quickly back to my lap. "And to answer your second question, you were drowning your poor, innocent pancakes in liquid sugar. How could I not intervene? I mean really, for the sake of the pancakes!"
I laughed warily. Yes, she was a freak. But maybe a freak was what I needed around here.
"I'm Bella. And thanks for saving my food. Well, trying to," I laughed as I looked down at my ruined breakfast.
"You're welcome, Bella! Now, why are you here? I mean, this is hardly a dream destination town,"
Yes, I knew that all to well. This town was dreary, rainy, and almost lifeless. But it was a new experience, and that was what I was all about these days.
"Foreign exchange program. Except it's all within America. The point is just to know what it's like to live somewhere else," I explained. She took this in with a skeptical expression on her pretty little face, and then sighed.
"So you don't get to go live with some hot European guy? That's a shame," she said acted disappointed. We both laughed and then she continued. "How long are you here?"
"Six months. But I don't think I can go that long without seeing my parents, they'll probably fly in for a weekend on a 'business trip,'" I joked. Just then a waitress walked by, and Alice stopped her.
"Excuse me, can we have two orders of pancakes?" She flashed a grin at me. "It seems we've had a slight accident." I blushed as the waitress nodded and rushed off.
"Now, where were we? Oh yes, why'd you come here? An extra 'A'? It doesn't seem worth it to come here of all places just for a grade."
I shook my head and corrected her assumption. "I could care less about the grade. But I had a slight revelation when I got the papers for the program." She cocked an eyebrow and tilted her head. "My life has been boring, no excitement. This was something new, different! This is a great chance to come out of my shell!"
Alice just looked at me incredulously. "What?" I asked.
"Forks? How is Forks exciting? You should have gone to New York, or LA! I mean, not that I'm not glad you're here. I think we'll be good friends, actually!" She started to get excited towards the end of her speech, bouncing up and down in her seat slightly.
Thankfully, the pancakes made their arrival and I was spared the need to reply to her rather odd speech.
We ate our pancakes in silence for a few while after Alice had reached over and poured syrup on mine with a smirk.
When we were finished, the waitress took our plates and Alice got back to interrogating me.
"How old are you? Who do you live with here? How long have you been here?"
I almost laughed at the rapidness of her questions. I really wasn't that interesting, so why she wanted to know so much about me was baffling. But if she wanted to know, she would learn!
'I'm seventeen, I live with the McCartys', and I've only been here since last night. I convinced the family to let me come out alone; I told them I wanted to see the city. There's not much to see though."
"Hmmm. The name sounds familiar. Do any of them go to the high school?" she asked.
"Um, I think their son, Emmett, goes to the school. But do you go?" I asked. If she did, and I had classes with her, then I was very thankful she had come to me today.
"Oh! Emmett McCarty! Of course, he's on the football team. I'm not really friends with him, though, but I've never talked to him. And yeah, I go there, I'm seventeen too!"
She held up her hand for me to high-five, and I quietly laughed and humored her.
"I hope we have classes together, Bella, we'll be great friends! You have to meet my boyfriend, Jasper. You'd like him, he's kind of quiet, like you."
I caught a glimpse of the clock on the wall of the little diner. "I'd love to meet him, Alice, but I have to go, I promised the family I'd back in five minutes. It was great meeting you, Alice." I gathered my wallet out of my purse and threw twenty dollars on the table.
Alice pouted, grabbed my twenty and shoved back in my purse. She looked at me, still pouting, and said, "My treat. And hand me give me your number!"
I sighed and jotted down my number in a napkin, while she did the same for me. Once we had each other's numbers she smiled and waved before skipping out of the diner door.
She is too weird, I thought.
I looked at the table and noticed that she had left her own twenty dollars. I sighed again and quickly left the diner. It was raining outside, and I was very annoyed. I came from Phoenix, couldn't the rain just stop while I was living here? I hopped in the old blue truck, a loan from Mr. McCarty, and raced to their house. When I pulled in the driveway it was three minutes past the time I had told them, so I rushed through the rain to the door.
I was greeted with the wonderful smell of chocolate chip cookies and the sound of laughing. I peeked in the kitchen and saw Mr. McCarty, Mrs. McCarty, and Emmett lounging in the kitchen, laughing and eating a cookie breakfast. I slowly eased myself out; I didn't want to interrupt their family time.
The room they had given me apparently used to be Mrs. McCarty's sewing room. There was a twin-sized bed in the corner and I little dresser under a high window by the closet. Mrs. McCarty had even bought me a small desk and dragged a chair from the rarely used formal dining room up here. But there was still a collection of thread in the small closet and there were a couple of designs pinned on the walls. I didn't mind at all though, I just appreciated that they were even having me.
I stayed in my room for a couple of hours, reading from my small collection of books that I had brought with me. I had just started Pride and Prejudice for the millionth time when Emmett came and knocked on my door.
"Hey squirt, wanna tour the town?" he asked when I opened the door.
"Sure, I'll be down in a minute," I said. What was there to tour? I tugged my shoes on, regardless, and grabbed a hoodie from my closet. When I got downstairs Emmett was saying goodbye to his mom.
"Oh, bye kids! Emmett, make sure to drive her by First Beach! And show her where The Lodge is, in case she ever wants to go out to eat!" Mrs. McCarty said on our way out.
"We will mom, don't worry, she'll know every grain of sand on First Beach, and be able to recite the menu for The Lodge backwards when I'm done with her!" he joked. I laughed and followed him out to his car, a big green jeep.
"So squirt, I was thinking we could tour Forks first, but since that will take all of ten minutes, we can go through La Push, too. It's an Indian reservation, but that's where the beaches are. A lot of kids go there on the weekends, so you'll need to know where it is."
I hadn't planned on going out too much during my stay here, but I guess I should have. That was part of the experience, right? "Okay, let's go!"
Yeah, this was pretty short, but it's the first chapter. If you liked it review please! I'm not sure if I want to continue yet..