Shooting in the Dark: Second Draft

Dear Reader,

Three weeks of freedom from university has left me with very little to do, so I'm going to try and get back into the swing of writing again. Since this one looked okay I thought I'd start here. There might be a few reworks depending on my time and attention span. Thank you very much to anyone reading this.

Disclaimer: The Twilight franchise does not belong to me. The following story is non-profit. It exists solely for entertainment and education.

Chapter 1

"You can come home any time, okay? Just say the word and you can come… Izzy?"

The warm voice crackled down the phone as I stood up slowly, the floorboards moaning beneath me. Liliac walls. Yellowed lace curtains. This was home now.

"I know, Mom," I said, the words lead-heavy. Did she think I would just leave her for a dad I knew through the post and (if I was very lucky) a weekend in Forks every once in a million years? Gently, I opened the wardrobe door, raising an eyebrow at my father's fashion choices; almost Amish skirts, a purple sweater, and a ruffled dress that I'd have loved the last time I stayed over- six years before. Everything still had a tag, so I guessed Charlie was trying to grease the gears a bit, make things easier. He'd even spoke the last time we talked. Even if he'd got it totally wrong, the thought was still sweet.

"Are you sure? You sound..." The voice paused for a minute, as though trying to translate what her maternal instincts were shouting. Mom was my best friend. She was my only friend. Can you count your mother as a friend?

"Do you want me to say anything to Phil for you?" Letting the phone thud onto the pillow, I rested my elbows on my knees, my hands shoving their way through my hair and twisting strands around my fingers, half wanting to tear them from my scalp. They'd both been so good to me- mad, but brilliant, sort of like a Picasso painting. I hoped the baby would be like that. God forbid it growing up boring like me, I smiled to myself.

I didn't mind leaving, not really. It wasn't like I was leaving all my friends. Saying I wasn't liked was still being generous… Well, it wasn't really I wasn't liked as much as I wasn't seen. The small grains of friendship I had found at my old school hadn't been nurtured into pearls, probably because I was always reading, wasting time, hiding in my bubble or generally being that boring girl in the corner without any friends. It was a part and I played it exceptionally well. Whoever was walking the road to Heaven, I was always just be another pedestrian. In a way, I was free to have fun now.

Pressing the phone to my ear, I took a deep breath. Maybe the room could be homely. I could put photos up. The room was almost alien compared to the last time I'd been here, but I had to admit he'd done a pretty good job of the room- I could still smell the fresh paint. Really, it was beautiful. The moonlight floated down through the window, wrapping my new bedroom in a gossamer glow. Stars glimmered in the indigo sky, clear and fixed as a blueprint for a machine, and a thought hit me like a floppy wet fish. The reason for all my problems in Phoenix was me; I had no friends because I wasn't friendly, I was bored because I let myself become boring, I was hopeless because I never hoped. I was my own stupid creation. Why stay that way?

Thinking about my life turned into the string leading out of the Minotaur's cave- every solution lead to a new solution. Didn't know anyone? The school had a couple hundred students, one was bound to like me at least a little bit. Possibility of getting lost? Ask someone for directions, perhaps it would begin a friendship. Worried about awkwardness at home? It wasn't like Charlie was a bad guy. There must have been something good about him for Mom to love him, even if it fell apart in the end. Frightened about exams? Studying wouldn't hurt me.

Stretching my face into a smile, I raised the phone to my ear again, hoping that now I'd managed to convince my face that everything was fine I could convince my mother.

"It's Forks Mom, not Venus. I'll be fine, honest."