My first story. All the characters belong to Stephanie Meyer.
"Bella-"
"Hold on dad, I'll be out in a minute."
"Bella, if we don't get you to the airport in the next hour, you are going to miss your flight. Now come on!"
Silence took over and a couple seconds ticked by.
"BELLA!"
"HOLD ON!"
I heard Charlie groan and then march down the stairs with a bit more force than is usually necessary. I was standing in my room, switching the weight on my legs from foot to foot. A nervous habit that took over for pacing because my room was not big enough for that.
I, Bella Swan, had been accepted to Walden Commonwealth University and had received a 4-year scholarship to study literature. A dream come true, right?
Right?
I had thought so, till I woke up this morning with a panic in me I didn't even know was possible to build up. Instead of cute little nervous butterflies, I had big ugly, stomach gnawing moths. Yeah, moths.
WCU was all the way across the country and deep in the woods of Maine. It wasn't that I would miss Forks terribly. Sure, I would miss my quiet father Charlie. And I would miss…well. That was about it. My two-year career at Forks high school at earned me two friends and a bunch of aquatics. I had moved here when my mother got a new job overseas in England. She didn't want to have to move me to far, so she settled for the states- with my father.
I wasn't sure what was bothering me, either. That was half my panic. It's not like I was the Prom Queen here and was sad about leaving my heaps of friends. So why would me moving across the country where I knew no one bug me so much? It would be just like starting over in Forks like I had to years ago. I guessed maybe it was just because I was literally by myself this time around. At least here I had Charlie.
"ISABELLA SWAN!"
I jumped at my full name. It was reserved for use when Charlie was angry with me or trying to be serious. I took a deep breath, turned and walked out the door and down the stairs. I tried to give my dad a smile, but it came out as goofy line. Charlie rolled his eyes.
"Your suitcases are in the cruiser, just grab your backpack."
He walked out the door toward his car. I grabbed my Jansport yellow book bag and followed him. No use in delaying the inevitable.
We rode in silence for a while. Charlie kept looking over from time to time, shooting me confused glances. I decided to look strait ahead. I mean, how could I explain to him what my problem was when I didn't even know if I had one? And shouldn't he be looking sad? An only daughter going more than 3000 miles away for school should make a dad sad, right?
It's just nerves. Just nerves. I think, I-
"Bella, why do you look like I'm driving you to jail or something? You look like I just made you give away your puppy."
I'm allergic to dogs, Charlie.
"Um. I don't know. Just nerves."
Saying it aloud did not bring the intended relief I thought it would.
"Well, you should be happy. This is a great school. One of the kids I went to high school with went there and loved it," Charlie said.
I turned to look at him. "Really?"
He gave a small, sheepish grin. "Yeah. I mean, I didn't know his name, but I know he loved it."
Ah.
I didn't say anything.
We reached the airport and Charlie helped me check my bags. We made it over to the boarding area just in time. "Third Class seats 1-30 are seating now, Third Class 1-30. Please make your way to the boarding area at this time."
I glanced at my ticket. 29. "Well, that's me Ch-Dad." I looked at him. We stood there for a minute, trying to decide if to hug or not. We weren't really a 'hug' kind of family. He decided to go for it. He pulled me into an awkward, hug, with his hands on my bulging backpack. It lasted for less than five seconds and he let go.
"I'm gonna miss you Bells. Make me proud, alright?"
I grinned at him. "I'll do my best dad, promise."
I turned way from to go give my ticket.
"Bella?"
I looked at Charlie over my shoulder. "Yeah?"
He was silent for a moment, looking as though he were pondering over what to say.
"Be safe, okay?"
Ah, typical dad.
"I'll try to be. Can't say I won't slip on the sidewalk or anything like that," I said, trying to be humorous.
Charlie looked at me for a moment and shook his head with a small smile. "Bye Bella,"
"Bye Dad,"
I gave my ticket to the lady collecting them and walked down the tarmac. A new set of moths was creeping up into my stomach as I made my way to the back of the plane in third class. I got myself settled and took my iPod out of my backpack. I flipped it to shuffle. It seemed appropriate because at that point, just like the song, I didn't know what was coming next.
Self- Torture by Andrew Bird came to me through the speakers of my headphones.
It was going to be a long, long flight.