A/N: I own nothing Twilight, SM does. I only have my movie stub my copies of the Twilight Saga.
Prologue
I couldn't stand it anymore! Phil, "The Mooch" as I had personally named him, was now living with us. My mom, Renee, was absolutely thrilled with this fact. For the longest time, since my parents had gotten divorced when I was 7, it had just been the three of us, my mom, my older sister Beca, and myself Isabella Marie Swan but I preferred just being plain old Bella.
We had moved from Forks, Washington to Phoenix, Arizona to be closer to my mom's family after the divorce from Charlie, my father. Beca had been 12 at the time and she totally took care of me most of the time after the divorce. My mom thought she was old enough to babysit me but Beca mostly just tortured me and hung out with her friends.
When Renee and Charlie had been married it had been like living in a nightmare. They fought nonstop about everything. Charlie was the local Police Chief and Renee was a nurse at the local hospital but she was bored with small town life and wanted to live where she could as she put it 'bask in the sun'. In Renee's mind the whole world revolved around her. She was completely oblivious to the feelings of those around her. Renee had told Charlie that Forks was boring and that their marriage that had started as a fiery inferno, had been completely drowned by all the rain that the little town of Forks drizzled upon its inhabitants nonstop. Renee and Charlie had met while she was in nursing school and had gotten pregnant with my older sister, Beca, so Charlie being the responsible guy that he was of course asked Renee to marry him. He absolutely adored Renee. Renee thought that being married to a cop would be exciting and that they could finally leave Forks for a more entertaining locale, when she finished school.
But Renee just said she felt trapped all the time, first by Forks and then by Charlie. She left Charlie once when Beca was 4 years old but came back, when her money quickly had run out, and then the mistake happened, me. Having another baby just complicated Renee's life even more and tied her to Charlie and Forks once again. By the time I was 7 Renee had had enough. She had met a guy who was a radiologist tech at the hospital that was moving to Arizona and decided that moving with him back to her home state of Arizona was the perfect out to leave Charlie and the small town of Forks behind.
Arizona wasn't so bad if you loved to bake in the sun and then freeze your butt off at night. The thing with the radiologist tech didn't last long. He was just a way for Renee to get closer to her family in Phoenix, where she could try to relive her younger days. She partied too much, drank too much, and then the string of boyfriends started. But none of her relationships ever lasted long. She either got bored with them or she liked them so much she smothered them and they left her. Renee was like a chameleon in a relationship, she tried to be whatever the guy she was dating wanted. So who knew what she was really like on the inside, since she was always trying to please the new guy of the month.
Beca and I were left pretty much to our own devices, since whenever Renee wasn't working she was out with a guy. Luckily Beca and I had each other even though I pretty much aggravated her most of the time just by being the little sister who always shadowed behind her. I tried so much to be like Beca all the time, to please Renee, which always pissed Beca off even more, since this meant I was always trying out her clothes and makeup, which on me just always looked ridiculous.
Renee respected Beca more than me, 'the mistake'. Beca was beautiful and popular. She always had an endless stream of friends and admirers, was creative, and was a wonderful dancer, where I was just uncoordinated, frumpy, quiet, and shy. My shoulder length hair never did what I wanted it to, I had too much of Charlie in me, while Beca looked like Renee. My dull brown hair and chocolate eyes of course came from Charlie, while Beca's beautiful light auburn straight hair and blue eyes were totally like Renee.
When Beca moved out after she graduated from high school to go away to college, I was totally left alone. Renee was ecstatic that Beca was going to school in LA because that meant she could visit and go shopping at all the cool LA stores. I was left in the hell that was the burning desert of Arizona with Renee and her endless string of boyfriends.
By the time I was a sophomore in high school, I had found one of my callings, music, completely by accident. My school counselor, Mrs. Landers, had heard me singing to myself one day as I left the almost empty high school one day. I was always humming to myself, that was nothing new but when Mrs. Landers heard me singing to myself she practically dragged me down to the choir room to exhibit me in front of the choir teacher Mr. Franklin. I felt totally silly being put on display to sing for Mr. Franklin. I couldn't sing! I could never do anything right. But of course I did it because what else could I do. Mr. Franklin said I had real talent and from then on I was one of the Choir kids. In my high school in Phoenix there were a number of cliques, the jocks and cheerleaders (always cool), the geeks, the stoners, and then there were the Band kids and Choir kids. I had never fit into any of these categories, so I had always just been a loner until Mr. Franklin heard me sing.
Choir became my safe haven during high school in Phoenix. I could lose myself in the music and eventually I got a bit more comfortable with people paying attention to me, while I sang. I always had stage fright, but once I got started, I was in a whole different world and I could forget being lonely and forget about my caustic relationship with Renee.
That's when Renee met Phil. He had just come back from the Middle East. He had been in the Army Reserves and he had known Renee when they were in high school. Apparently Phil didn't do much of anything except for being in the Reserves. He lived off the money his family left him but you'd never know he had any money because he lived like a pauper. Renee was totally taken with him. They had hooked up at a bar, never a good place to meet a guy in my opinion. And then he just never left. He hung out at our house all day and just watched TV until Renee came home. Renee thought he was so cool because Phil had a boat that he would occasionally take to Lake Pleasant, and he owned a share of an airplane.
I just thought of Phil as 'the Mooch' because he never did anything to help Renee around the house and he didn't work. He never helped with the bills. He never did anything but Renee. He was obnoxious and never thought twice about saying a cruel remark. He drove me crazy! I would come home from school and Phil would of course be there with all 5 of his TV's going at once. I swear he had ADD or something! All the TV's were on different stations. He never finished any house project and he always left a mess wherever he was. Renee would complain about the kitchen being a mess and yell at me to clean it up but I would be dammed, if I would clean up after that mooch!
One day I was in my room practicing a song for Choir and Phil walked by my door that was slightly ajar, as he walked by he yelled "I wouldn't quit my day job if I were you!". That was it! I had to get out of here. I couldn't stand the way Renee acted around Phil and how she morphed into what he wanted her to be and I was totally done with living in the house with Phil there too.
That's when I called Beca. She had graduated with a B.A. in Graphic Design and was still living in LA. Beca and I had become closer after she had moved away. She had met Phil on one of her visits home and hated Phil as much as I did. That's when she suggested that I just move in with Charlie in Forks. I was stunned that she would even suggest it.
We had never been close to our dad, Charlie, and he had never been much of a part of our lives growing up after the divorce. Renee had been forced to send us to visit him in Forks once a year until Beca complained about it one year when she had started high school. She didn't want to leave her friends for the summer. And that was the end of the visits to see Charlie. I had been 10 years old. Charlie would send the occasional birthday card and call on a holiday but that was about it aside from the check that he would religiously send to Renee every month for child support. When Beca turned 18, Renee had called Charlie and bitched on and on to about how the child support would shrink. Charlie being the good guy he was just kept sending the same amount he always had even though Beca was 18. I never understood why Charlie would be so nice to Renee after all the crap that she had put him through.
Beca told me that Charlie would be thrilled to have me living with him and that he was lonely. I couldn't believe what I was hearing. That's when Beca told me how Charlie had called her once she started college and offered to help her with tuition and expenses. Renee didn't care how Beca got to college and certainly didn't help her financially once she left for school. Beca and Charlie had gotten closer, since she had moved to LA even though it was only over the phone. She said she would call Charlie and take care of it.
Now I was moving. I was excited and terrified at the same time. I barely knew Charlie but I knew it couldn't be any worse than living with Renee and Phil, so I had agreed.
After Charlie talked to Renee, I never heard the end of it. All Renee would talk about was how she was going to lose the child support payment. Everything was always about her. She didn't care if I was leaving. I was 'the mistake' after all. I was positive that she would be glad to have me gone. And I was thrilled at the thought of getting away from Renee and Phil. The only thing I was going to miss about Phoenix was Choir. I wasn't even sure if the high school in Forks even had a choir program but I didn't care. I had to get out of Arizona!
©Neonapple
Melting Heart
Edited: 03/08/2009
Prologue