Chapter One / The Town
Charlie drove me home at a depressingly fast speed, the Welcome to Forks sign hit me way before I was ready, and I couldn't help but regretting my decision to move back to Forks immediately.
"You okay over there, Bells?" Charlie noticed my sudden stiffness, regarding me curiously with one eye while the other was on the road. I guess over the past three years his awareness to people's emotions had increased, because three years ago, Charlie never would of noticed my body stiffening, or maybe he did, he just didn't want to ask.
"Yeah, dad." I gripped onto the bottom of my seat as a looming brown building came into my eyesight, "I'm just fine."
The first thing you noticed when coming into Forks, other than the mist and the woods, was Forks High School. A two-story building with just enough room to fit four hundred students and a small faculty, and also the place I'd been having nightmares about the past three years.
"It's good to have you back home, even if you don't want to be here." Charlie said after a few minutes of silence, shocking me so much I couldn't reply immediately. But by the time my mind had processed his words, we were home.
Home being the same place my mother Renee had stormed out of fifteen years ago trying to find herself, I couldn't exactly remember her leaving, but from how much crap Bree had talked about her and the stories I'd heard about that day, I knew enough to know it wasn't peaceful.
"Go on in." Charlie said when I tried helping him grab my two suitcases out of the trunk of his police car, "I've got your bags. Just go make yourself right at home."
I knew arguing with him would be pointless, so I let myself in through the old red front door, and ignoring the main floor, dashed my way up the stairs to my old bedroom.
It was just how I'd remembered it, painful, filled with too many memories.
My room was painted a pale purple color I'd loved as a kid, but the paint was peeling around the edges, something Edward had always sad "added character" because he watched too many home designing shows with Esme. My bed was full sized, centered between two bedsides tables covered in dusty photographs from a happier lifetime. My eyes lingered on the one closest to my bed, one with three smiling kids, two girls with dark hair and a darker skinned boy with chubby cheeks.
A sharp pang filled my stomach, I instinctively reached out to the picture frame and threw it on the floor before kicking it under my bed, I never wanted to see it again.
"Bella." Charlie suddenly was right outside the door, three suitcases had somehow been lugged up the stairs behind him and he was standing there, looking at me with this sad look that made me know he'd seen me kick the picture frame.
"Thanks." I grabbed my suitcases from him and rolled them in, trying not to meet his sad expression.
"Anytime." He said after a few seconds of awkward silence, and then without saying anything else I heard his heavy shoes clomp down the stairs, and the backdoor swing open a few moments later.
Sighing, I laid down on the bed, tearing at my old beat-up and way too young looking comforter, and starting messing around in my suitcases.
I hadn't packed much of my old stuff, only what I knew I'd miss. In Phoenix I'd tried to change myself in an attempt to be happy, I'd had my third kiss with a boy I'd actually liked, I'd replaced my hoodies and jeans from Forks for skirts and frilly blouses-courtesy to Renee for buying me cute clothes- and had gone out every other weekend with girls I'd actually labeled decent enough to be friends with. But that was states away, and I was back to being jeans and hoodie Bella now.
I decided, after close inspection, that the only thing I liked about this room now was the tall white bookshelf by the window, where my precious babies laid, unread for so long and just begging me to open them again. The writers names floated off the page and nestled themselves into my heart, Bronte, Austen, Twain, Shakespeare. For a second I forgot that I was back in the very place I'd cried about visiting for the past few years and was submerged in the thought of cuddling up in the living room by the fire and reading.
That was, until the sound of a downpour hit the roof, and I remember where I was. Forks, Washington. The rainiest place on the west coast, and my imprisonment until I could graduate and head out East for a change.
I unpacked slowly, taking my time to sort out old things from my room I no longer wanted, and ended up with shoving a huge pile of stuff either too old, dusty, childlike, or painful to look at in the back of my closet and let out a deep sigh of relief when I realized it was all gone, and that my room was almost completely bare of character now. I wondered what Edward Cullen would say about that. I hadn't heard from him since I'd returned here once after moving to see the baby, and after that, silence.
Edward was one of the older brothers of my good friend, Alice. One year my minor and the baby of the Cullen clan, she was the only person from Forks other than my father I'd kept in contact with, and the one person I was looking forward to seeing.
After cleaning out the painful things it was easy to unpack. Two of the suitcases were clothes, which consisted of jeans, sweats, yoga pants, Bears hoodies, a couple cute blouses I'd tagged along, and three dresses I couldn't part with that I figured I'd wear at least once up here. I suppose some of the girly Bella had hidden on the plane ride up here and never left me, after all. My last suitcase was the smallest, and the most personal one. From it I grabbed my little black notebook I kept hidden safer than the Holy Grail, a couple books I'd brought from Phoenix, a picture collage frame my friends from Phoenix had put together as a parting present, and a single necklace hidden in a sock that I couldn't bare to look at yet.
By the time I was done unpacking and cleaning I was exhausted, and it was getting late. Downstairs I could hear Charlie clanging away in the kitchen, and despite my eyes only being halfway open, and tomorrow being my first day back, I forced myself to change into sweats and a wife beater before making my way downstairs.
"Are you okay, dad?" I peered cautiously into the kitchen, wary of what Charlie could be doing in here by himself. And being shocked at the outcome.
From the oven I smelled something delicious, and I noticed rolls on the table, along with a pitcher of sweet tea.
"Fine, Bells. Why you asking?" He turned from the stove to look at me curiously, his thick eyebrows scrunching up high on his head.
"I'm not used to seeing you cook." I admit bashfully, "You never did when before I moved."
He shrugs, turning his attention back to whatever he's cooking. "I had to live by myself. After the baby your sister moved into an apartment with that boy. And you moved with Renee. I had to learn to take care of myself."
Something behind my eyes starts to sting, and I slowly realize that I'm tearing up.
"Its all good though." He says casually, like he doesn't realize that he's hurt me, which he probably hasn't, because he's still focused on his food, pork chops, I see suddenly. "I'm a grown man now, it's about time I learned how to fend for myself."
I smile faintly. "You can take on criminals, but you couldn't cook food until you were middle aged."
He winks at me quickly, his lip turned up in a smile very much like my own, and I can see why Renee would of fallen in love with my dad back when she was young and threw caution to the wind.
In the end Charlie shares his pork chops with me, making small talk here and there, never lingering on a subject too long before changing it. Its like he's trying to figure out what he can and can't talk to me about.
"Are you excited about seeing Alice tomorrow?" He asks out of the blue, going from a conversation about Phoenix's baseball team to my old friend suddenly.
"Kind of." I shrug mid-bite, "I miss her. Nobody in Phoenix could match her spunk, and she's the only one I've kept up with from Forks."
"She's still spunky." He smiles, and I remember how much Charlie loved Alice when we were kids and she'd spend all her time over at my house. She was like a third daughter to him…
"And how are the three brothers?" I cant help but asking, my mind thinking of an old busted teddy bear I'd seen laying in the corner of my floor upstairs, the only thing of my old life I hadn't thrown in the closet.
"They're good." Charlie says after chewing more slowly than usual. "Emmett, he's probably going to college for football. He's a linebacker, and one of the best I've seen at his age and level in my life." He grins widely, like Emmett's his own son.
"And the other two?" I press on, wondering about the oldest triplet brother, Edward.
"Edwards good too," this time he talks with a mouthful of food. "When he's not in trouble with those La Push boys, ever since Aro died there's been a rivalry between the La Push teens and Forks." I slowly see Charlie change from dad to police chief in just a few seconds. "You heard about that, right?"
I nod.
"Sam Ulley- Billy's nephew. Got into some fight with Aro in a club in Port Angeles and killed em', got a knife out and stabbed Aro straight through the heart like you'd stake a vampire." Charlie shook his head in disgust. "A damn shame too, Aro, while he wasn't someone I'd approve for you, he was a good kid. Just graduated college and everything, then Sam goes and messes it all up just over a bar brawl. Shame."
"And what's that got to do with Edward?"
"You know what Bella. Aro was like Edwards role model, he was the prom king for Forks his senior year, and when he died, all of Forks got offended. And when Sam got locked up, all of La Push got offended too. Since there's been more fights in Forks than there is at an MMA fight. Edwards usually in em too, always trying to save James."
A pudgy face and curly blonde hair pops in mind when I think of James Cullen, and I wonder what that little boy would be doing in so many fights.
"I see what you're thinking, Bells. James has changed a lot since you left; he's met drugs from Seattle and gang members with guns. He's not safe, there's always one runt in the litter, Carlisle and Esme's just ended up being a boar."
The rest of our dinner we talk about lighter subjects, like what classes I'm signed up to take, and how Mr. Stanely caught his wife with her massage therapist a year ago. I soon find myself in bed, relaxed, and listening to the rain. Trying to not think about how terrible tomorrow may be.
/O/
In the morning I'm woke up by a loud honk from outside my window, and being introduced to my 'new' car. And old beat down burgundy truck Charlie's bought me, and it takes less than five seconds for me to fall in love with it. Its not new, but it has a lot of character.
It's the middle of fall here, so I settle on dark skinny jeans, and a gold ¾ sleeve length blouse that looks nice along my dark hair. Paired with riding boots Renee bought me before I left Arizona, and a swipe of lip-gloss, I'm good to go. Its not until I'm driving to school do I realize that I'm about to face my fears from the past three years. And hear all the rumors and news about what's happened in my departure about Bree or whatever else, I cant help but take a deep breath and try to prepare myself for what's to come today.
I park in the shadows of the parking lot, trying to avoid whatever attention I can manage, and successfully sneak my way into school without confrontation. My first place to go is the attendance office, and on my way I spot a small group of familiar faces huddled in the schools main lobby. And from a vantage point of hiding beneath a jacket I'd slipped on to face the rain, I let myself stare.
There's Alice Cullen standing proud and small beside the only blonde Cullen boy there is, James. Alice has cut her hair short and spiky, and is dressed in a dark charcoal sweater dress and pumps that add four inches, she's gorgeous, in a Tinkerbell turned Goth turned classy kind of way.
James looks exactly like Carlisle now, gone is the small frail boy, and here is a six foot man with curly blonde hair that falls below his ears, smooth pale skin, and the same blue eyes as his sister. He's dressed much differently though, in dirt covered sneakers, jeans, and a Forks High School Baseball hoodie.
They're standing with Jasper Whitlock and a blonde with a huge rack that has to be one of the two Denali sisters we grew up with. No Edward, though. Its not till I realize this, that I realize that he's the only one I was looking for in the first place.
"ISABELLA SWAN IS THAT YOU?" I'm interrupted from my thoughts of Edward Cullen by his little sister flying from one side of the room to mine in a matter of seconds, and suddenly she's in my arms, grasping for dear life.
"Hey pixie." I smile into her hair, feeling grateful that the first person to notice me was Alice and not someone I didn't care for. Her shout does attract the attention of everyone else in the lobby, however. Tons of heads stop and stare our way, and I know that as soon as I'm out of sight, the rumors will start.
"You're back!" Alice has tears in her eyes, and I hope she has waterproof eyeliner on. "I mean, Charlie told my parents you were coming back in the fall, but I didn't know it was today. Why didn't you tell me?! I just talked to you last week!"
"Alice, breath." I smile although she can't see it, my heads still pinned against her neck from her bear hug. "I wanted it to be a surprise for you."
"Well it is!" she shouted, jumping from the hug and stepping back to stare at my outfit. Her expression unreadable until after a few long seconds she meets my eyes. "You're wearing jeans on your first day back."
I raise an eyebrow, which only makes her expression grow angry.
"Bella, I thought you told me you tried in Phoenix."
"Alice," I gesture to my outfit, "I did try."
"Sure you did." She sniffs in disdain; "I'm taking you out shopping soon,"
"Oh Alice, leave Chimes alone." Two new bodies come behind Alice and I look up to see Jasper and James. My two blonde saviors.
"Nice to see you two." I can't help but smile at the boys. "You've both grown up so much." Its at this moment that I realize Alice isn't even complaining about being told to leave me alone, she's grown silent and almost still beside me, suddenly finding something interesting in the floor tiles.
"It hasn't been the same without you," James pulls me in briefly for a hug and I cant help but smell his baseball hoodie and realize what Charlie was talking about, the smell on James is a smell I know from Phoenix when the band kids would sneak out behind the band room during their free periods and smoke weed. And my unlucky soul got stuck in the middle of it because my sophomore year I'd wanted to try band out for once, and realized that I want musically talented, and didn't wish to hang out with a bunch of stoners.
"Yeah, we've missed you Chimes." Jasper pulls me to his side next, "The four boys couldn't handle Alice without you, if you hadn't of come back, we'd of all had grey hairs by her in the next few months."
I laugh, looking over at my small friend to find her face flushed and angry, this is new.
"Come on Bella," she pulls me away from Jasper a little too harshly, and glares daggers up at him, only making him grimace. "Lets get your schedule."
I shoot a curious glance at Jasper before following Alice into the crowd that's formed in the lobby, following her towards the office. Some of the faces are familiar and some are not, and from my starring around I meet a pair of familiar eyes momentarily on the stairway leading to the upper level. Cold green eyes that hold no emotion, cold green eyes that I know like the back of my hand. Edward Cullen.
"What was that with Jasper?" I ask Alice when we're safely in the office, waiting on the secretary to notice us.
She shrugs, and the past few conversations I've had with her flood my mind and I remember something Alice once told me two years ago late night on the phone.
"You still like him, don't you? Even after everything?"
Alice doesn't answer me, but the way her body stiffens gives me all the answers I need.
Jasper and Alice were soul maters from the beginning, but it was and always has been Jasper who hasn't realized that. He dated a girl from La Push named Maria for two years until Aro's killing, when the two towns split and the tension arose. Maria chose the wolves, and Jasper remained loyal to the people of Forks. And in other words, Maria broke Jaspers heart. Since Jaspers been colder, more distant to the others, especially Alice, and she doesn't know what to do to bring the old Jasper back.
"Mrs. Cope." Alice finally gets the secretaries attention, "This is Bella Swan, do you remember her? She's here to get her schedule."
Mrs. Cope looks up from her desk and smiles at me widely, "Of course I remember the little Swan! Why you look so much like Bree, so pretty. I have your schedule somewhere in the desk." She digs around her desk, a big wooden thing that's probably been here since the school was made, and eventually comes up with a slightly crumbled piece of yellow paper and stares at it momentarily.
"First class is English with Mrs. Taylor, have a great first day, Bella!"
It turns out that Mrs. Taylors Advanced English class is two classes down from Alice's, so she drops me off at the door and wishes me luck, with a mysterious twinkle in her eye that makes me wonder if something's going on.
I walk into a small class of less than twenty, a big difference from what I was used to in Phoenix, and meet Mrs. Taylor, a middle aged woman who says I look exactly like my sister- great- and nods me to the back of the room where the lights are off and there's no windows. I look at the only seat beside me to see a lone black book bag of my missing table partner.
Mrs. Taylor doesn't make me introduce myself, which I love, and goes straight into talking about some Greek drama I've already read. Its thirty minutes into class when a new knock makes her stop, and a fowl look covers her face when she peers out the doors window.
"You came to class just to drop your bookbag off then leave, Mr. Cullen? What do you have to say for yourself."
But Mr. Cullen doesn't say anything at all. Edward walks by Mrs. Taylor without acknowledging her, and for a second just stares blankly at our table until he realizes its me, and then my brain fully realizes that it's him, Edward Cullen in the flesh.
Like James and Alice, Edwards grown. He's grown well.
He has to be at least six foot, and his tall body is filled out with enough muscle to make him look fit, but not enough to make it overdone. His hair is even wilder than I remember, but the old curls it used to have it gone, now its just wavy and a red-brown mess on the top of his head. His jawline is the main character of his face, and attracts my attention even before his cold green eyes I'd met earlier on the stairway. He's dressed in dark jeans and a black button up shirt with the sleeves rolled up to his elbows, he's a dream, a blessing. And suddenly he's sitting beside me without saying a word. My childhood best friend doesn't even acknowledge me.
The next hour goes by without even a glance, and when the bell rings, telling me that its time I go to history, Edward takes his sweet time collecting his things, but doesn't take one second to spare me a glance. I stand to the side awkwardly for a whole minute before accepting hat he's not going to say anything, and storm out of the room before I think too hard about what his silence could mean.
My next class goes by fine, seeing as its with Alice who practically begs the teacher to be allowed to sit beside me, and is almost peaceful till someone asks me what my nephews middle name is an I stiffen up, trying not to think about the baby as Alice answers the question for me.
By lunch I've calmed down, and I sit with Alice at the same table as the other Cullen brothers, including Emmett who hugs me as fiercely as Alice did this morning, and getting a warm hug from Angela Webber and Mike Newton, two of my old friends who welcome me back and sit at the same table as the Cullen's.
I end up squeezing between Emmett and Alice, and sadly am positioned right across and one seat to the left from no other than Edward himself. Who's talking to everyone else, but me.
"Chimes, is there no sun in Phoenix either?" Jasper asks me out of the blue, "Because you're as pale as us. I've never really seen the sun before, but I hear if you stay out in it for too long, you actually get tan." He wiggles his eyebrows at me and makes a point of comparing my skin tone to his own. Same exact tone. Despite the fact that in Phoenix I lived outside along pools most of the day, I've never been able to tan.
"Good one, Jasper." I narrow my eyes at him, "But maybe next time save it for someone with less of a sense of humor, no one here found that funny." I look around the table to see that no ones laughing at him, but with me instead.
Jasper shrugs, leaning back into his seat and nudging Edward beside him, who turns from spinning an apple on the table and raises a single dark eyebrow at his friend. "Edward here thought it was funny, didn't you Ed?"
I look at Edward for an answer but he doesn't give an exact one, he just shrugs and turns back to his apple.
"I didn't think it was funny, Bella." Kate Denali chimes in from Emmett's other side, the same sister I saw in the lobby. And the same one who Alice informed me is in love with her youngest brother. Kate's the younger sister to Tanya, who's a year older than my own sister. But Kate's much prettier in my opinion, while Tanya was supermodel skinny with a blow out hair style and heather colored eyes, Kate's more round, curvier, with golden straight hair and hazel eyes. She also seems nice, but something about her personality doesn't seem feisty enough to deal with Emmett, and the way he constantly overlooks her makes it obvious that I'm right.
"Thank you, Kate." I nod and smile in her direction before looking back at Jasper defiantly, "Swan 1, Whitlock 0."
He smiles good naturedly before returning to his pizza slice, bringing silence back the table. Its not until I see the door of the cafeteria open and an African American kid come pacing in fast for the table that I feel the tension rise, for once, Edward looks up and alert as he approaches. Tyler, I think his name is.
"What is it?" Edward asks when Tyler's within five feet of the table, Tyler stops at his side and bends down to his ear, whispering swiftly into it and I notice that the whole tables tempo has changed. Alice has gone from pecking at her food to starring off into space, and Emmett's starring at Tyler's moving lips like he's trying to read them.
"Very well." Edward murmurs to Tyler when the boys finished talking, his eyes become even colder and more serious. They flicker to Emmett's momentarily for a second in understanding, then to mine cautiously where they widen, like he's just realize that I'm here too, they only linger on me for a second before they move to James, sitting huddled up at the edge of the table.
"What's wrong, Ed?" Emmett asks, starting to rise from the table for a second before Edward waves him down with a dismissive gesture.
"Nothing." He sighs, rubbing against his temples. "Just there's been another fight on the beach, some young middle schoolers got into it, and one of them has a concussion."
"A wolf of a vamp?" James asks, attracting the table's attention down to the blonde Cullen brother.
"Vamp." Edward narrows his eyes, "The boy was just messing around on the beach before some La Push thirteen year old comes up and they start brawling. Someone broke it up after a minute or two, but the boys in the hospital now."
"A minute or two?" I jump in this time, attracting all cautious eyes and one piercing glare in my direction. "How come it took that long? Its still early fall, the beach is still usually packed so someone had to see it happening for a long while. Who was it?"
Its Edward who answers bitterly, starring me in the eyes with such cold intensity it chills me.
"It was Jacob Black."
Something new I'm trying out. Let me know what you think about this!