Wandering Home
By: MKT3
Chapter One: Atypical
I was not your typical Arizona girl. I wasn't a cheerleader or a volleyball player. I didn't like wearing a bathing suit…ever, and I never had a tan. Tanning was never in the cards for me; my skin was extremely pale, all I ever did was burn. My hair was not highlighted, my teeth were not perfectly straight, and I didn't (thank God) say 'like' between every other word I uttered. I read, a lot, and didn't usually have much to say. I never really quite fit in with the people in Phoenix no matter how hard my mother Renee tried to make things otherwise.
Of course, everybody loved Renee. I always believed that the few friends that did come over to my home really came because they wanted to hang out with her, not me. That was okay with me; really, Renee was a lot of fun. She was like a teenaged girl in a thirty-something's body; she loved shopping, gushed about 'hot' actors, and squealed about things that excited her. Let me tell you, she got excited about an awful lot of things. That was why I loved Renee; she was always happy, excited, and hopeful. It was very nearly impossible to turn down her requests when she got excited enough to squeal about it. That was also why I followed her around Phoenix; participating in just about all of the amateur exercise and art classes the city had to offer.
The natural balance of my complacency and her constant, forward-movement made us a good team. She kept me from spending entire weekends holed up in my room reading. I would miss her excitement and the motivation she provided; I was certainly never bored with Renee. I sighed, twisting the ring on my index finger, as I gazed through the elliptical window of the jet, watching the city of Phoenix shrink to doll size then map size before it disappeared beneath the clouds. I would also miss the heat, the warmth of Phoenix. I know I said I didn't like to wear bathing suits, but that doesn't mean I didn't like the sun. I loved the sun, the warmth of it always made me feel at home, like I was wrapped in a comforting blanket.
As I considered the things I was leaving behind, I tried to come up with some positives about my new home. Forks had never been my favorite place; I was always cold here, and damp. I always felt like I would never be warm and dry again when I went there every summer to visit Charlie. Charlie, he was a positive. Though we never really knew how to talk to each other, things were always comfortable between us. We had very similar personalities; we never had to pretend to be excited about something or make awkward small talk. Charlie and I could just be together and that was enough for both of us.
It had been years since I had actually been to Forks. Charlie stopped forcing me to go when I was probably eleven or twelve. Instead he would come to Phoenix and visit me; he always joked that he got his 'quota of sun' for the whole year while he was there. I simply couldn't imagine not seeing the sun for all that time.
I supposed I would fit in better, physically at least, with the students at Forks High School than I did with those in Phoenix. It would be normal to have pale skin, and I could avoid wearing a bathing suit for the larger majority of the year. It's not that I disliked my body; it's just that, well, next to the tanned skin and toned bodies of the other girls…I always looked comparatively sickly. Sickly is definitely not a good look. I simply was not an athlete. Renee tried to get me to play soccer, softball, and even signed me up for ballet class as a kid (I've never figured out what she was thinking…). Each one of those activities resulted in further humiliation and instilled in me a hatred of all things sports. Childhood scars run deep.
That thought made me laugh and rub the pad of my thumb across the scar on my left wrist. I had been seriously traumatized as a kid when I was, momentarily, pinned beneath a tree. Jacob, my best friend in Forks (and my father's best friend's son) and I had been playing in the woods near his house. He was climbing trees and taunting me, trying to get me to climb with him. I, of course, refused; I was not about to allow myself to fall out of a tree. I was a sensible and self-aware person, even then. Hanging from one of the very thick tree branches up ahead, Jacob swung down to tease me some more, when we heard a loud crack. My head shot up at the sound; as my eyes searched for the source, I saw Jacob swinging awkwardly on the branch. I realized that the huge branch he was hanging on was about to break. Wanting to do something to prevent Jacob's impending fall, I rushed over to him.
While I stood beneath the tree, searching for a way to get Jacob down without hurting him; the branch finally cracked and gave-way. With my natural lack of coordination, I tripped trying to get out of the way and landed, with a huff, at almost exactly the same moment the tree limb did. I was fine, generally, but my arm was trapped between the tree and the muddy ground. Jacob, who had landed gracefully on his feet as the branch came down, tried to lift the branch, but it was much too large for him. He was only about seven at the time.
I yanked and pulled at my arm in a panic, until Jacob finally ran to get Charlie. Luckily, I hadn't broken any bones but I did need stitches in my wrist. The doctor told me I probably wouldn't have needed those either, if I had just stayed still. Jacob felt horrible about my accident and spent the rest of the week waiting on me hand and foot, trying to make up for my injury. I never blamed him; he couldn't change the fact that I was hopelessly clumsy.
Jacob was another positive about Forks; although, I supposed, that depended on whether he was the same as he had been when we were kids. Teenaged boys tended to be irritating to me (I didn't find crude jokes or their rude idea of 'flirting' attractive in any way); hopefully Jacob wasn't the same as the rest of them.
I wasn't looking forward to living in Forks, but I was determined to make the best of it. Renee deserved to spend some time with her new husband, Phil, and I refused to let myself get in the way of their time together.
When I arrived in Forks, it was raining, of course. Charlie had taken the day off of work to pick me up. Charlie, Renee, and I had decided it would be best if I came to Forks a couple of days early; so that I could get settled in before I started school after spring break ended. I was kind of dreading my return to school, being the new kid was sure to draw unwanted attention. It was Wednesday, so at least I had a long weekend to get myself mentally prepared for a new first impression. I sighed at the thought as Charlie and I lugged my suitcases into the house.