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That Girl
1 Sunny Day
God, it was beautiful today. That was not a statement that people got to say very often in the small town of Forks, Washington. It either rained or looked like it was about to rain just about every single day of the year here. But today....today was nice. The sun was out, it was clear, a blue sky and no clouds. Not yet, anyways.
And, it was a Saturday to boot! I had gotten up early and Mike had driven his car over and we had washed our cars, side by side, in my driveway. We listened to music and had our normal chit chat about school, which girl he wanted to ask out this particular week, and normal family stuff.
Mike Newton had been my next door neighbor my entire life. Our parents had been friends in high school(good old Forks High), and after college, they had all moved back to their home town. The houses that we lived in were the houses that our parents had bought and moved into when both of our Moms were pregnant with us. So, quite literally, Mike and I had known one another since even before we were born. Our parents had been really good friends, and Mike's Mom gave birth to Mike 2 days before my Mom had my sister and I. For quite a long time, we had 1 big birthday party for the three of us. We had all of the same friends since we were in the same school, and Forks was not big enough to have more than 1 class for each grade in elementary school. For me, Mike was the closest thing to a brother that I would ever have.
Mike had felt more for my sister, though. He and Catherine were very much in love. Always, it seemed. Even before they were old enough to know the meaning of the word, Mike and Catherine were always together. Our parents were thrilled. Everyone was happy.
"Hey Care! Remember when my Dad tried to teach you to drive a stick shift?" Mike yelled, laughing already at the memory.
His Dad had been the only one of our parents who had a manual transmission in their car. Well, not a car really, a huge 4 wheel drive truck that easily could have been entered into one of those Monster Truck shows. So, he had volunteered once all three of us had mastered the automatic transmissions to show us on his truck. Mike and Catherine had easily mastered it. (didn't they always?) I, on the other hand, had successfully plowed down two small trees and ended up in complete embarrassment and tears and swore that I would just have to always have an automatic car.
"Yeah, ha ha ha! Go ahead and laugh at the last girl ever allowed to drive the truck!"
"Yeah, you've got that right. Dad never even let my Mom drive it after that crying fit you had in the middle of the street!" Mike said. He got quiet then, remembering the day. We had all just turned 16. Mike and Catherine had gone out on a date that night, and he didn't know it, but I knew that had been the night when they both lost their virginity. Catherine had told me that they had talked about it, and they had decided they were ready. It wasn't really much of a shock. After all, they had been dating one another forever. Everyone knew they were in love. I think most people assumed they had already done it. Everyone assumed they would one day get married and probably live in one of our houses, and Mike would take over for their family's store.
That next day, Catherine had told me all about it. I didn't ask for any details, it was too gross to think about Mike in that way for me. To me, he was a big brother, not a lover. But Catherine was completely in love with him. She was literally glowing when we woke up the next day and got dressed. She told me about the night while we got ready, we were going shopping with our Mom. I said the required ohs and ahs and smiled and I was genuinely happy for her. At least one of us had a boyfriend.
So, after telling her to calm down and get that stupid grin off of her face, we walked downstairs.(I was afraid our Mom would guess that something was up right away, but she didn't say anything other than asking about the date and did they have fun.) I guess I was the only one who could see the difference in Cath, but then, I was her twin. We always knew when things were good or not with one another without really needing a lot of words.
We were going to Port Angeles for the day. My Mom decided we needed new boots and I needed some new running shoes. Of course, we knew we would not stop at boots. Catherine mentioned casually that Homecoming would be soon, and maybe we could look at dresses. My Mom was all over that suggestion. Nothing pleased her more than shopping for her girly girl daughter for a Homecoming dress.
Mom asked if I thought I would need a dress, too? That was her nice way of letting me know that she would love to buy me a dress, but she wondered if I would ever wear it and actually attend a school dance. I hadn't been to any of them yet, and my plan was to keep my record clean. None of the boys in school were anything more than friends to me, and they seemed to feel the same. And really, that was OK. I had a lot of good friends and we had some really good times together. It wasn't like I was lonely or anything.
Mike and Catherine always included me in their plans. I didn't always go along with them, of course. (case in point the night before! lol). I told my Mom that I probably wouldn't need a dress, and she said , "OK, honey...you just let me know when that changes." My Mom and Dad had given up on me wanting to date. Of course, I don't see how any boy would ever measure up next to Mike Newton, in their eyes, anyways. He was their future son-in-law. They probably already discussed wedding plans between themselves, the two Moms, at least.
Catherine and I played rock, paper, scissors for shotgun. Yes, I know...childish. But, we could happily agree on stuff if we did it this way, so it was very common to see us from across a room at school or at home suddenly shooting out our hands in one of the three shapes. People would just sort of laugh and then go about their business again.
Cat won that day. So, I climbed into the back of the Suburban and got comfy for the hour long ride to the city. "City" may have been stretching the truth a bit, but it was the closet thing to a city compared to Forks. It had a few department stores, a few restaurants, a movie theater, and a nice waterfront area.
We started the drive to Port Angeles. Mom asked us about things in school, Cat answered most of the questions. She asked me about the track team schedule and when and where were the meets that she and Dad and Cat could go to. I was the only girl on the school's track team. I had always liked to run, and once I entered Forks High, mysteriously the Calculus teacher and track coach, Mr. Berns, knew all about me. I finally got it out of my Dad that he had spoken to Mr. Berns and told him how much I liked to run and wouldn't it be great to get Carolyn involved in a school sport? That conversation had happened over the summer before we started 9th grade, and Coach Berns had me all signed up and ready for practice on day 1.
I wasn't all that upset that my Dad had done it. I would have liked to have known about it beforehand, but really, track was my favorite part of school.
We only had 6 members, and four of the guys had been friends forever and the other one had moved to Forks the previous year. He was really quiet, but he was a great long distance runner and he and I trained together the most. Well, that sort of implies that we actually spoke to one another. We didn't. It was more of a, "hey, want to do a 5 or a 10 today?". That was Emmett's way of asking did I want to run 5 or 10 miles and whatever I decided was fine with him. I'd answer, and then once we were ready to go, pretty much nothing was heard from either of us except for the occasional grunt or slurp from me as I drank water or dodged a rock or something in my path. Emmett never drank water, he hardly seemed to break a sweat. He never had trouble pacing his stride to go right over rocks or holes in his way.
Too bad Emmett Cullen did not know I existed beyond the track team. Too bad he did not know I was in love with him.