[Authors Note: I obviously do not own any of the characters (Except the characters I made) created by Stephanie Meyer.]
Fate is such a strange element. You make one slight change and everything is vastly altered. If I had known what was to come if I returned to my home town, I wouldn't change a thing.
Love is worth the pain, however excruciating it may be.
Two weeks before school, my mom convinced me to go school shopping, so here we were at the mall, in a store I would never voluntarily go into. "Isn't this the cutest thing?" My mom was holding up a sparkly pink V-neck shirt that said "2 hot 2 handle". I was just about to say how much that shirt made me want to puke my face off when I saw her.
Her pale skin was practically glowing. Her strawberry blond hair cascaded down her back and her eyes could put an emerald to shame. She was with four other equally beautiful people, two boys and two girls. She looked at me and for a second I couldn't breath. Time stood still and the world went quiet. She looked away and the spell was broken. "If you don't like it you could've just told me." It took me a while but I remembered that I was in some stupid store trying not to barf on the pink mess my mom had in her hands. "The last time I wore pink I was a baby." I told her.
My parents have been divorced for ten years and I'd been living with my dad up until two weeks ago. His job required him to move around frequently and I couldn't deal with being the new girl again. "How about instead of giving me an attitude, you actually talk to me for a change." She dropped the unfolded shirt on the arm of a nearby mannequin and walked away (Hopefully to find a less offensive shirt). Neither one of us spoke the whole way home but when we finally got there, I went to my room, took my moms advice and wrote her a list of my likes and dislikes. I was just about to put the note on her dresser when she walked in. I handed her the list and left.
The next day I woke up to the smell of apple cinnamon pancakes. I got out of bed, walked to the bathroom and stared in the mirror. I desperately needed to wash my face and my hair was a mess but my stomach thought it was in charge today. "I made your favorite." She put a plate of pancakes down in front of me and went to the fridge. We ate in silence and occasionally Renee would ask me about something on the list and I would try to explain it with out making her feel bad about not being there for me. I spent the next two weeks watching TV in my own little world and writing my mom another list.
"Have fun!" My mom dropped me off in front of the local high school and sped off so fast I could see the outline of the car. There were a couple of minutes before school actually started, so I went inside to find my locker. It was right next to the boy's bathroom and of course some cocky guy I assume would try to hit on me every chance he gets. I'd been the new girl enough times to know that making friends wasn't easy, so when lunch rolled around, I sat alone on the grass and ate my lunch.
"Demo..."
"No buts, you have to do this."
I turned around to see who was speaking gibberish. Two girls were sitting not too far from me. One of them was wearing a pair of cat ears, a knee length skirt, a lacey top and ballet flats. The other girl was wearing a pair of flared pants, a V-neck shirt and four inch heels. The cat eared girl looked my way and said "Is that all you're eating?" The girl who scolded her earlier playfully smacked her hand. "Sorry about that, she has no filter." I just shrugged my shoulders and went back to my meager lunch.
I went through the rest of the day trying to be invisible and I guess it worked too well because none of my teachers remembered my name. I was waiting for my mom to pick me up after school when the cat eared girl and her friend sat down on the bench across from me. One of them pulled out a bag of chips and as if on cue my stomach growled. The cat eared girl laughed and tilted the bag toward me. I grabbed a handful and they introduced themselves.
"My names Tabitha Keener and this is Rae Monroe."
"I'm Bella Swan."
Rea's mom picked them both up and I waited hours for Renee. I was halfway done with my English homework when she finally showed up. "Sorry I'm late." She dropped a brown paper bag in my lap. "What's this?" I opened it and the heat from the food almost singed my eyebrows off. "It's an after school snack. How was school?" She asked. "Good, I meet two girls after school." I opened the wrapper, the bun was soggy and there was ketchup on the veggie burger but I ate it with out complaint. I was half listening to music and sort of doing my homework, but it was an impossible to focus on either one of those task when I couldn't stop thinking about her. I was still obsessing over her when I was lying in bed, trying to fall asleep. I turned over and almost had a heart attack when I saw her crouched down in the tree outside my window. I blinked and she was gone. Was I imagining things or was that mysterious girl stalking me. I was standing by Rae's locker when I saw her again. "Who's that?" I asked her. She took a break from decorating her locker with ancient wrapping paper. "They are the Cullen's. The red head is Annabelle, the big guy behind her is Emmett, the blond next to him is Rosalie, the over joyous girl is Alice and the guy holding her hand is Jasper." Tabitha popped up in front of me and stuffed something in my mouth. "What..." Tabitha shushed me and told me to chew.
"You can't just stuff things in her mouth. She's not used to you yet." Rae scolded.
"I like it, what is it?" I asked her. "Mochi, now you can easily be converted." Tabitha said. "Converted to what?" I asked. "Taby Love's all things Japanese." Annabelle walked passed with her posse in tow. Tabitha caught me staring and said "That is never going to happen. Their group is invitation only and they rarely party." Now that I knew her name, it escalated my obsession to near stalker potential. To make matters worst, Annabelle was in three of my classes. I couldn't even focus on what Mr. Allen was saying because I was staring at her. He must've noticed that I wasn't paying attention because he slammed the yardstick he was holding on my desk. "Why don't you tell us the answer to the question on the board?" My brain took forever to pull out of Annabelle land and I jumped a couple seconds too late. The whole class turned to stare at me and I actually stuttered.
"Look, our favorite show is on!" The show Rae was referring to was some guy striking out with Annabelle. It was lunchtime and I was hoping the pervert trying to get in her pants would make her forget the social faux pa I'd committed in class. "I think she's into girls." Tabitha said. "This isn't one of your dirty books." Rae pointed out. "There not dirty and if this was one of my books Annabelle would fall madly in love with Claire Brighton." I had no idea what they were talking about but I was really curious about that dirty book. "What's so dirty about it?" I asked her. Tabitha unzipped her backpack and pulled out a book with two girls holding hands on the cover. "Don't open it."
Rae's semi ominous warning made me want to read it out loud just to gross her out but I decided not to. I opened it and the first thing I saw was a picture of a half naked woman trying to undress a blushing, inexperienced girl. According to Tabitha it was called yuri and there's a similar genre called yaoi. I started reading it and ended up asking Tabitha if I could borrow it. I was still reading it when the principal walked in started his weekly monitoring duty. He just so happened to be behind me when I got to an ultra steamy part (The student was having a not so innocent dream about the teacher). Luckily for me I had time to put it away while he was staring at the board.
I was standing in the forest, it was snowing. A snowflake fell on my white glove and stained it red. I blinked and it disappeared. I turned around and saw Annabelle standing by me holding an umbrella. "What a lovely day for a stroll." She said. She grabbed my hand and we walked until we got to a house. We went inside. The Cullen's were sitting at a table drinking tea. "You're back!" Alice got up and pulled two chairs over to the table. Rosalie asked for more tea and when it was being poured I noticed that it was blood red. "Would you like some?" Alice asked me. Annabelle tipped the teapot before I even answered. I got up and started to leave but when I got to the door Emmett was standing in front of me. "Let me go!" I yelled at him. Emmett let me pound on him for a couple of seconds, grabbed me and carried me back to my seat. "Try some, it's good." Annabelle forced the cup to my lips and I woke up. I was so scared and confused I didn't sleep for the rest of the night.
Mr. Allen decided to surprise us with a pop quiz and I ended up falling asleep while I was writing my name. The Bell woke me up and I was hoping Mr. Allen didn't notice but I wasn't so lucky. "I can't believe that A. hole gave you detention just for falling asleep in class." Tabitha was holding the pink paper in her hands and criticizing his sloppy handwriting. A drop of water fell on the paper, shortly after that that it began to pour. Everyone ran for the cafeteria while the Cullen's pulled out umbrellas and casually strolled toward the building. I silently willed the rest of the day to pass by extra slow but father time had other plans.
Detention was nothing like they portray on TV. There was no bad boy wearing a leather jacket, the teacher who was supervising wasn't sleeping, there were no goody two shoes girls terrified the bad boy would look at them and possibly in-pregnant each one of them and there was no hard core girl gang carving their names into their desk.
There were three other people in the room and one of them was Annabelle. I was transported back to my weird dream and I fainted. I opened my eyes and everyone in the class was crowded around me. "What happened?" I asked. I tried to get up but Mrs. Stein stopped me. "You zoned out and fainted." Annabelle said. For some reason Annabelle was keeping her distance from me. Did she not like me? Another student slowly helped me up and Mrs. Stein asked Annabelle to help me get to the nurses office. "I can get there by myself." I told her. I stood up and almost fell again.
Convinced I was a burden to Annabelle, I kept quiet when we were in the hallway.
"My names Annabelle, what's yours?"
"I'm Bella Swan." I answered.
"Your mother works with my father."
That was the extent of our conversation. She sat me down in front of the nurse's office and left. I didn't see Annabelle for two whole days. I was worried about her, was she sick, was she stuck in bed with mind numbing cramps? I wasn't eating, I couldn't sleep (Not just because of the weird dream) and I thought maybe I was infatuated with Annabelle. I could barely contain my excitement when Annabelle finally came back. "I think someone has a crush." Tabitha teased. Tabitha had somehow turned her locker into a pigsty in six days and I was helping her clean it out before school started.
"My stupid brother is taking a break from college and he was hogging the bathroom all morning!" We both looked up at Rae. She was a mess, her usually perfect hair was in a bun, the shirt she was wearing had multiple stains on it and she was wearing two different socks. "Jason's back!? Was he in his boxers, did he get a haircut, is he still with Franken boob?" Tabitha asked. "Yes, no, no and it's complicated. Gross, I can't believe you have a crush on my disgusting brother." Rae answered.
Even though we had that brief conversation last week, I was still convinced that I was a burden. I stayed out of her way, or at least I tried to, which was impossible when teachers were constantly pairing us together. Mr. Allen changed our seats around and I ended up sitting next to Annabelle. Mrs. Stein put us together for a science experiment and Ms. Davis put us in a group of four to study Spanish verbs. When lunchtime rolled around, I had overdosed on Annabelle. "Maybe it's the universe trying to get you two together." Tabitha informed me. Tabitha was just about to take a bite of her sandwich when Annabelle started walking toward us. "She's actually going to talk to one of us!" Tabitha was severely overreacting. Annabelle may be beautiful and smart but she was no big deal (Who am I kidding, she's amazing).
"You forgot your notebook in science class." Annabelle said when she reached our table. Our hands touched and hers were really cold. "Mrs. Davies had the AC turned up." She said it loud enough for only me to hear it and walked back to her group.
My mom was late picking me up from school and I was almost done with my English homework when I saw Annabelle walking out of the building. She walked to her car, opened the door and turned around.
"Is anyone coming to get you?"
"My mom, she's late."
"Do you want a ride home?" She offered.
Being in Annabelle's shiny new car was so surreal. I was so nervous that I might say something stupid I only spoke to Annabelle to give her directions. When she got to my house, I got out of the car and lingered for a little while. "I was thinking maybe..." Annabelle cut me off. "I don't think that's a good idea." I closed the door and before she left she said we shouldn't be friends. I was so confused. I had never felt this way about a girl before. I wallowed in my self pity until my mom came home. "Guess what I brought?" She was standing in my doorway and there were no bags in her hands so I assumed she was wearing it. "Is it a new necklace?" I really didn't care and I was trying to finish my homework but she made me guess five more times before she dragged me outside. There was an old red truck parked in the driveway.
"What's this?"
"Your first car, I feel better knowing that you have a way to get to and from school with out relying on me."
The next day I was prepared to ignore cruel laughter and jeers like "1953 called, they want their car back." As soon as I pulled into the parking lot and got out of the car Tabitha and Rae ran towards me. "Your mom got you a car!" Tabitha was lovingly staring at it like she wanted to do unspeakable things with my car. "It's not that big of a deal." I was lying, on the inside I was jumping for joy. "Your mom's a doctor. She could've got you a better car." I hadn't known Rae that long but from the look on Tabitha's face I could tell she wasn't usually this judgmental. "Stop it, your hurting Roberto's feelings." Tabitha said. "Who's that?" Rae and I were severely confused. "That's what I named your car." Knowing that at least one of my friends liked my car made me like it even more.
Annabelle was solving an impossible problem and I was pretty sure it was invented to make people like me cry. The bell Rang and I followed Annabelle into the hallway. "Annabelle." She stopped walking and turned around. "I know you said we couldn't be friends, but I was wondering if you could tutor me." "Sure." We agreed to meet every Friday at six. "Annabelle and Bella sitting in a tree, k-i-s-s-i-n-g. First come's the love, than come's the inability to marry, than come's the baby thanks to a sperm donor in a baby carriage!" Rae and Tabitha were mercilessly teasing me about my "date" with Annabelle. "It's not a date. She's just helping me with my math homework."
Friday was two days away and I was really nervous. In preparation of my tutor I was possibly in love with, I cleaned my room multiple times, scrubbed the house until it was spotless, vacuumed every carpeted room and mopped the hardwood floor in the kitchen. I was in my room getting ready for school when my tidy sense started to tingle. I ran downstairs and saw that my mom was just about to put her coffee cup on the table with out a coaster.
"Mom, use a coaster!"
"You know you could be a little nicer to the woman who gave birth to you."
"You were just my storage unit for nine months, my father raised me."
For the rest of the day, the need to apologize to my mother was constantly nagging at me. Charlie and Renee constantly fought the few times they actually got together, so I completely understood why she didn't visit that often. "Here's volume 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6." My addiction to You and Me=We was the only thing that got through my gloomy armor. I handed volume 1 back to Tabitha and started reading volume 2. I had completely forgotten about Annabelle coming over to tutor me so when her car pulled into the driveway, I was very confused. She rang the doorbell and I remembered why she was here. I looked down at what I was wearing and ran back up the stairs. I bumped into my mom on the second to the last step and explained the situation. "So you want me to get the door and have an awkward conversation with your tutor while you change your clothes." The doorbell rang again, I ran upstairs and Renee went to get the door. I brushed my hair, changed my clothes and hid every volume of You and Me=We in my closet. I failed miserably at my attempt to gracefully walk down the stairs when I tripped and fell into Annabelle's arms. As soon as we got to my room, she started talking about math terms someone of my limited knowledge couldn't possibly comprehend. We finally took a break when Annabelle realized that I was partially brain dead.
"You're welcome to stay for dinner." We were in the kitchen and Annabelle had turned down my mothers multiple offers of food and beverage. "I can't stay long, I promised I'd be home at a reasonable time." Renee picked up a cucumber and in the process of peeling it, she cut herself. Annabelle covered her mouth and backed away from the counter. "What's wrong?" I asked her. I should've been worried about my mom but for some reason I was more concerned about Annabelle. "I'm fine. I just get squeamish when I'm around blood." She ran upstairs, got her backpack out of my room and left. I was really confused by Annabelle's hasty exit but I didn't mention it for the rest of the month.
"How are things with Annabelle?" Rae asked me. We were all sharing Tabitha's huge lunch and she was trading a question for a rice ball. I was enjoying every second I got to spend with her but there was no way I was telling them that. "I'm passing algebra." I told them. Tabitha handed the container to Rae, to pass to me but she withheld the food until I told her one more thing. "Did you tell Annabelle that you love her?" Tabitha asked me. "There's nothing to tell because I don't like her like that." I was so deep in denial. I might as well have been in Egypt. I continued to have that weird dream and for the first time I noticed Annabelle wasn't wearing a coat. I told Tabitha and Rae about it the next day. "Are you sure that's the only dream you've been having about her?" Tabitha was being her usually perverted self and I was slowly turning into her clone thanks to You and Me=We.
It was Friday and I was desperately trying to understand whatever Annabelle was talking about but I couldn't stop staring at her face. I could smell her mango lip gloss from where I was sitting and it was impossible for me to concentrate. "What is the radius of the circular cylinder on the right?" The answer was on the tip of my tongue but I was so sure that I was going to embarrass myself so I kept quiet. She started to explain it again and that's when I dropped my pencil. It rolled toward Annabelle and we both leaned forward to pick it up. Our faces were inches apart and if either of us had moved any closer I would've accidently gotten my first kiss. We stared at each other for five seconds, my mom burst through the door holding a plate of pizza bagels and we both bolted up right. "I figured you two would be hungry so I brought you a snack." She put the plate down my desk, stood there and stared at us. Did she know about the moment we almost had? My mom was the only buffer between me and my strange feelings for Annabelle and I was hoping she was going to be standing there a little bit longer. The phone rang and she ran downstairs to answer it. Annabelle handed me my pencil and we continued the tutoring session.
It was Saturday and we were at Tabitha's house watching anime on her Netflix account. "Hitori kiri kurayami no naka kimi no namida no imi wo shita." Tabitha was singing along to the Blood Plus beginning theme and swinging her faux katana dangerously close to our faces. "I think she's had too much sugar." I nodded my head in agreement to Rae's comment. She turned around and alternated pointing her sword at both of us. "I heard that and it's so not true."
Tabitha went back to the main menu and clicked on Mayo Chiki. Three episodes and two bags of candy later we were laughing like hyenas. "I can't believe her clothes just fell off!" I was super shocked at how vulgar this was but according to Tabitha this was tame compared to High school of the dead. That night I dreamt I was a deer frolicking in the woods. I heard a branch snap and before I could react something grabbed me and sank its teeth into my neck. I started struggling but kept getting weaker and weaker as time passed. My spirit rose up from the once majestic creature and I saw the face of my attacker. It was Annabelle but her red hair was blond like Rosalie's. The look on her face was familiar to the one Jasper made on a on a daily basis. Her hair was cut short like Alice's and she was wearing Emmett's clothes.
I woke up clutching my neck, the phantom pain from the deer subsided seconds after I opened my eyes. I got my laptop out and started watching episode four of Mayo Chiki. I fell asleep halfway through episode twelve and when I woke up the next day I had keyboard imprints on my face and the computer screen was black. I was on the fourth step when my dad walked through the front door. I jumped over the few remaining steps and hugged him. "What are you doing here?" "Is that any way to greet your father?" My mom walked down the stairs, went into the kitchen and poured herself cup of coffee. "You're early. You said you'd be here next week." He squeezed me one last time and let go. I braced myself for the barrage of angry words to assault my ears and to my surprise, Charlie tried to hug Renee. My mom kind of dodged the hug, he tried again, she dodged it and he settled for a handshake. The frozen tundra between my parents unexpectedly thawed out and I was drowning in a sea of anger and confusion. They were acting like love struck teenagers. Why did they decide that now was the appropriate time for them to get along? I purposely avoided them for the next two days, hording snacks when they were sleeping and staying in my room all day long.
Wednesday morning I was sitting at the table noisily chewing my Cinnamon Toast Crunch in a failed attempt to drown out my mother's voice. "I was thinking maybe next week we could have dinner at Giorgio's." Renee had a hopeful look on her face like she just knew I was going to respond. I swallowed the last of my breakfast, drank the milk, put the bowl in the sink and walked out the front door.
It was lunchtime and Tabitha was waving volume 10 of You and Me=We in front of my face in an attempt to change my mood. "What's wrong Bella?" Rae asked me. I reached out and tried to grab the book but Tabitha snatched it back. "Tell us what's wrong than I'll give you the book." I reluctantly told them about my dad visiting and how angry I was that my parents chose now to get along. She gave me volume 10, 11 and 12 and I spent all day reading them. We were taking a break from the huge packet of homework "Henrick the tyrant" had forced on us when I noticed Annabelle's lip gloss. "That's a really pretty color you're wearing." She looked up from her phone and pulled an empty tube of lip gloss out of her pocket. "Too bad it's empty. This would look really good on you." She looked up, turned toward me and said "I have an Idea." She slowly leaned forward. My heart was beating so fast I was almost afraid it was going to pop out of my chest. She gently brushed her lips against mine, evenly distributing the rose colored moisture. She pulled away. I opened my eyes and saw her staring at me.
"Perfection." She said forcefully pushing me onto my back. I gasped when I felt her teeth graze my neck. She had one hand on my waist and the other was underneath my skirt, gently caressing my upper thigh. She moved her hand higher and slipped her finger into the waistband of my underwear. She bit down a little bit harder, almost drawing blood. I bit my lip to stop myself from making any noise. She suddenly stopped what she was doing and quickly got off of me. "We can't...I...I have to go." She rushed out of the room and three seconds later my mom walked in holding a bowl of popcorn. I hesitated to wash my face because it meant removing the evidence of my first kiss, then I saw a pimple and scrubbed my face until it turned red. Later on that night, I found Annabelle's empty tube of lip gloss under my bed. Annabelle had pulled another disappearing act and I didn't see her for three whole weeks.
I still had a bruise on my neck from that one intimate moment we had and every time I got a glimpse of it in the mirror, I blushed. I was coming home from Tabitha's house when I saw my dad walking out of my mother's bedroom with his shirt off. I had been silent for far too long and my pseudo calm demeanor started to crack. "I can't believe you would do this! You had ten years to try and get along and you choose now to do so!" My mom took forever to put her robe on and then she actually tried to comfort me. I stepped away from her outstretched arms. "Don't touch me!" I ran down the stairs and out the door. I could faintly hear my mother calling my name and instead of stopping at the end of the driveway, I kept running until I got to the woods.
I didn't stop until I got as far away from my parents as possible. Not only did I not know my way around the wilderness, I had made things worst by going way too far into the woods. I stayed where I was and took my phone out of my pocket. One bar, two bars...None. Of course the stupid thing didn't work when I actually needed it. I heard what sounded like a wounded animal and I walked toward the noise. I had barely taken five steps when I saw someone hunched over a bloody animal carcass. I took one step forward and tripped on a protruding tree root. I tried to get up before the person saw me but I wasn't so lucky. She turned around and I almost went into cardiac arrest. My weird dreams suddenly made sense. Annabelle's a vampire! "Please don't kill me! I promise I won't tell anyone!" She had blood all around her mouth and it was dripping from her chin. She stood there for a couple of seconds and then she offered me her hand. I grabbed it and she helped me up. "I could never kill you, you're my beloved."
She started to explain everything. "You and your family are vampires and you move to a different place every couple of years so people won't notice that you haven't aged?" I repeated. We were sitting in the grass far away from the bloody animal carcass Annabelle had just drained. She was busy licking the blood off of her hand so she nodded her head in response. "How can you come out during the day and not burst into flames?" Annabelle stood up and walked over to a place where the trees weren't stopping the sunlight from coming through. The second she stepped into the light, her skin sparkled like thousands of tiny diamonds. "You're so beautiful." I stood up and walked toward her. "You're seriously not scared of me?"
"Why would I be?" She used her super speed to run over to a tree and climb it. "I'm a blood thirsty monster you can't run away from. Everything about me attracts the very thing I could call prey if I wanted to." I blinked and she was by my side again. "You won't hurt me, you said so earlier." She grabbed my arm and lifted it to her nose. "You have no idea how amazing you smell. Your blood... It's so tempting. I want to drain every last drop but at the same time I want to protect you." We spent the rest of the day together. Annabelle answered all of the questions I had and she even told me a couple of things I didn't ask about. It started to get dark and she walked me back home. As soon as I walked through the door, my parents got up from the table and started scolding me.
"Where were you?"
"We were so worried about you!"
"Promise us you'll never do that again."
I had no idea who was saying what and I was super high off of the endorphins from earlier that I momentarily forgot I was mad at them.