Authors Note: My intention with this fanfic is to have a female character somewhat like Bella in the situation she's in, but more realistic to her age, and to be a little more intelligent (for instance, not jumping off cliffs) and independent. Also, only the vegetarian vampires sparkle as an effect of their vegetarianism (I find the sparkling thing so wrong.) The vampires who feed from human blood will experience pain and eventually combust.
I finished the last of my packing, all of my clothes were snug in the brown trunk that had been a family heirloom. It had antique postage stamps spread all over its leather surface, stamps from countries like Spain and the Philippines. According to my mother, my great grandmother travelled all around the world after her husband died young death in World War Two. My grandmother was born to another man great gran met in England, clearly, my great grandmother must have been seduced by the infamously alluring English accent.
Our family history was rather boring until great gran started her world travels, I wished that I got to meet her, but she passed away before I was born. Great gran was one of those family members whose stories would be passed on from generation to generation. She was a family legend.
One of my favorite stamps on the old trunk was one of a place called Volterra in Italy. Now, that was somewhere I intended to go someday. I looked up photographs online, and it was a beautiful place. A shining sun, a beautiful fountain in the middle of the town square, the large extravagant Volturi Manor that loomed and protected Volterra, and of course the ever so active marketplaces. Volterra was very much alive the way I saw it, it seemed to me like a perfect place to retire.
Volterra was different than my home of Olympia Washington. Olympia, like other parts of Western Washington, rained constantly during winter and spring. But like Volterra, Olympia was great, especially downtown. There was always something to do in downtown. Shopping, eating, live performances, going down to the docks and allowing yourself to be immersed by the beauty of the harbor.
I was slightly sad, I was going to leave Olympia. My mom had a rather long business trip in China that could take several months. She didn't want me on my own for too long, so she decided to have me live with my dad.
My dad, Frank Ward, was the Deputy Officer in Forks Washington, a small, run down logging down near Port Angeles. It was also near the Olympic rainforest, a place I intended to go...again, and possibly several times during my stay here.
Forks was a very boring place if you were a very boring person my dad always told me. I had to agree with him on that one. There was plenty going on in Forks. One of those was homework, another one of those was the reservation.
My dad was friends with members from the Quileute tribe, as was I. I spent most of my summers on the reservation. My best friends there were Quill and Embry, we always got into crazy shenanigans, especially on the fourth of July. They always got hold of the best (and illegal) fireworks, and if people wanted a good fourth of July, then you had to head down to La Push beach.
Last Summer, I was shocked to see that Bella was back in Forks. I didn't get to talk to her sadly, she was busy with some pretty boy. It wasn't until I had dinner over at Chief Swan's house that I learned the pretty boy was Edward Cullen. I was shocked, I had always perceived Edward as the antisocial type.
The Cullen family moved to Forks a few years or so ago, I had only met Carlisle directly when my dad got a broken arm from a car crash. Carlisle was a perfect gentleman, but he made me weary. Carlisle was one of those too perfect men, smart, handsome, wealthy, best at his job, helps all his kids with homework, probably has a smoking hot wife and she probably ends up having ten orgasms a night or something, I mean, seriously, this guy must have had some sort of disturbing thing he was covering up.
Hopefully, I wouldn't be seeing Carlisle this year, not just because he wigged me out, but also the fact that I didn't want to see anyone I cared about ending up in the hospital. My dad reckons that being the Forks deputy officer, that it would be a long time before he ended up with anything more than a paper cut.
" Elizabeth! We're going to be late!" My mom hollered from downstairs. I closed my trunk and I grabbed my purse. I thumped my way downstairs and ran out the front door that wasn't far from the foot of the stairs. I put my luggage in the car and ran back inside to grab my breakfast, a banana.
My mom stood in the kitchen, she was dressed sharply for her business trip. She wore a sleek black blazer and pencil skirt, a white collared shirt, and a pair of sexy, yet smart black pumps that made her a couple inches taller. She was working a pair of earrings on, desperately trying to kept her very curly red hair out of her way. She was obviously annoyed with this whole ordeal, you could almost see the pits of hell begin to burn in her blue eyes.
Mom finally triumphed with placement of her earring, making a complete pair of two sparkling silver stud earrings. She looked over to me and gave me a smile. She walked over and had me hold some envelopes for her while she made sure all the downstairs lights were off.
" Alright. All the lights are off. We are ready to go. Are you excited Elizabeth?" My mom asked. I nodded. She laughed, it was her skeptical laugh. " I know it's going to be hard, it's your senior year, and you're starting in the middle of the year, but, I am sure that you will make plenty of friends at Forks who aren't Quill and Embry." My mom counseled as we walked out the door.
" I know Bella, the chief's daughter, but she has a boyfriend she is really serious about, I mean scary serious about." I replied. My dad told me stories about how messed up Bella was acting when the Cullen family left six months ago. She tried falling asleep in a forest, she was screaming at night, and she then ran off to Italy without letting Chief Swan know beforehand. My dad, who didn't like Bella's mom very much, said that allowing Bella to live with 'that irresponsible fool' was a bad idea and would screw Bella up.
We had ourselves buckled in and mom had the car started. She was going to drive me up to Forks before she went to the airport. She turned the radio on and was scrolling desperately for something.
" Oh yes, you told me about some of the things your dad told you. She needs to sort out her priorities." My mom said as she finally gave up on the radio and put in a CD of music she listened to in high school, the good ol' 80's.
" He's too much of a pretty boy too. Like American movie star or model, cookie cutter beautiful." I said. My mom laughed as she backed out of our driveway. The rain began to sprinkle on the windshield and she turned on the wipers.
" Hey, I like plenty of those 'cookie cutter' men. If you don't like those classic looks, what are you exactly into?" My mom asked.
" I honestly don't know." I answered. My mom gave me her 'oh really' look.
" Come on, you can do better than that Elizabeth." My mom said.
" Alright, alright. Hmm, tall is a nice quality. How about…slender, nice voice. Different features, unique ones. Wait, David Tennant." I replied with a smug smile, I was in love with Doctor Who, and I was excited for Ten to appear in season three, what would he do without Rose Tyler? My mom sighed.
" I will never understand you Elizabeth." She stated. " But, I think it's great you'll give the ugly boys a chance too." She said jestingly. I blushed in embarrassment and gave her a small nudge with my elbow. That was a classic mom line.
On the rest of the car ride, my mom and I discussed petty matters and I looked for any animals on the way to Forks that weren't common in Olympia. So far, we saw a skunk, a dead, half devoured skunk on the side of the road. Praise the lord we didn't have our windows down.
You could see the Olympic mountains much closer now, you could see the mountains if you were near the downtown Olympia waterfront. They were always the purest of whites at the peaks, where snow probably glistened like diamonds, the pale lavender gray rock gave a calmer vibe under the glistening snow. My dad climbed those, and Mount Rainier, my dad loved doing things outside, in the winter if he got some decent time off, he and a few buddies would to up to Alaska and go fishing. Fishing was my dad's favorite pastime. I occasionally would go with him, as long as it wasn't raining too hard.
We were approaching Forks now, and it was raining bullets. The clouds that loomed over our heads were darker and thicker than the ones we left behind in Olympia. I could see the Forks Washington sign in the distance as it proclaimed its tiny population. My mom put a hand on my shoulder.
" We're here." She said as her hand stroked up and down the side of my arm. I looked her in the eyes and smiled, though my mom wasn't talking, I knew exactly what she was thinking just my looking into her eyes. Her eyes were like windows to her mind, and she had the capability to close off those windows as well, which was why she was a successful businesswoman.
We drove through the down, it was dreary as always, but it was the kind of dreary I could live with, it was the dreary that made you want to cuddle up by a fire with a cup of tea and read a book. I liked Forks, but I would desperately miss Olympia in my absence.
We were finally here at my dad's house, which was a few blocks from the school. It was a small, white house that was well taken care of in the exterior, the moss was eradicated from the roof, and the paint which my dad applied two summers ago still had a small tad of luster.
My dad was already outside. He was a bulky man of average height, but he always carried himself in a way that made him seem much taller that his five foot eight. He had just started balding, but wore a baseball cap to disguise it. His face was cleanly shaved, not a common sight for him.
When I got out of the car, my dad gave me a bear hug.
" Hey Liz." My dad said.
" How's it going dad?" I asked.
" It's going good now that I got my kid with me." He said, letting me out of the hug, he turned to see my mom. They were divorced, but they were civil. " Loretta." He said, they gave each other a quick hug.
" Frank." My mom said with a curt nod, telling him to stop hugging her. They may have been civil, but they still had a hard time talking to each other without making it awkward. " I trust you have all her medical information, her registration to school is taken care of, and she will have a means to transportation." My mother said, raising an eyebrow. My dad laughed heartily, I went into the backseat of my mom's car and got my luggage and set it by my feet.
" All of those are taken care of." My dad replied. " Speaking of transportation, Hey Elizabeth, go pull that tarp off and then tell me that I'm an awesome dad." He added. My face lit up in excitement.
" No way!" I said, my dad nodded and my mouth dropped. I started running over to the tarp, I pulled it off to reveal a silver Lumina from the 90's that looked in good condition. I was stoked, my own car, finally! " This is brilliant! Thanks so much dad!" I cheered, running back to him and hugged him possibly tighter than he had me earlier.
" Your welcome kiddo. According to the officers at the station, their kids typically don't like to be dropped off at school in a police car, nor do they like to walk in the pouring rain." My dad said with a wink. My mom and I laughed.
" Well, I need to get going, the airplane isn't going to wait for me." My mom said, her arms open for me to hug her. I did, and she gave me a kiss on the cheek. " I'm going to miss you so much. Email me as much as possible."
" I will. I'm going to miss you so much." I said. My mom stopped our hug and opened the car door.
" You better take care of her, you hear me?" My mom said to my dad, pointing her car key at him like a weapon. My dad nodded and gave her a thumbs up. She slipped into the car and drove off slowly. I stood watching until her car was out of sight, she was very careful of going exactly the speed limit around dad.
This was the start to a very small, but probably happy chapter in my life. My hair started getting soaked from the rain, and now putting my hood up would be in vain. I smiled and looked at a few houses down the street, which is where Charlie, and now Bella lived. I would have to go say hi, probably would get to see Charlie, and also Billy Black really soon, I could just sense it was a fishing weekend coming up.