DISCLAIMER: Unfortunately, no matter how hard I wish - Stephanie Meyer still owns Twilight - not me.
A/N: Just a little background info on where I have all the characters situated in their lives at the moment. It will all be explained in time, but just for now:
Everyone is human. Bella is living with Charlie in Forks, Renee and Phil are married. Alice, Edward and Emmett Cullen are siblings, Carlisle and Esme are their parents. Jasper Whitlock and Rosalie Hale are not related.
Pairings same as book: E x B; Em x R; A x J
I know this storyline may seem slightly overdone, but I just couldn't help myself!
I looked at the small plastic rectangle in my hands. There was no way this could be happening. I felt all the blood drain from my face as the room started to spin. Shaking my head slightly I staggered toward the toilet in the corner of the bathroom to sit down. Tears formed silent tracks down each side of my face. I was vaguely aware that I was taking very slow, deep breaths.
How could this be happening to me, the day before graduation. There were literally two days left of high school, ever, and then, dammit, I had plans. All of a sudden I felt an immense amount of anger at the awful plastic rectangle in my hands. Closing my eyes, I let out a small, slightly bitter laugh.
"Now I'm getting angry at inanimate objects," I whispered quietly to myself, "great. I'm going absolutely and unequivocally insane."
I stood up, wiping the silent tears from my cheeks. I knew sitting on a toilet crying was going to do me no good at all. I needed a plan, and, as much as I hated to admit it, I needed help. I walked toward my room with a determined look on my face, I knew what I needed to do. Glancing at the clock which read 6am, I decided to call anyway.
"Mom?" I whispered timidly into the phone. "Mom, I need your help…"
I sat in the living room, waiting for Charlie to open the front door. I could hear him walking up the stairs of the front porch, fumbling with his keys. I closed my eyes and took deep breathes in an attempt to calm down my racing heart.
I had a fairly good idea how Charlie was going to take this news. Not well. Glancing to the corner of the room, where I had placed the three full suitcases I had pack that afternoon, I began to panic again.
"Bells," Charlie's loud good-humoured voice called through the house.
Taking a deep breathe, I answered.
"In here Dad."
Charlie walked into the living room with a smile on his face. Seeing me sitting rigidly on the couch, his smile faltered. I noticed his glance quickly slip over to the bags in the corner. I watched him eye me with suspicion.
"Bella," he greeted again with slight trepidation creeping into his voice.
I took a breathe. It was now or never.
"Dad, I'm pregnant." My eyes widened as I watched Charlie's face turn from pink to red to purple.
Great going Bella, I thought to myself. Blurting it out like that was probably not the best of all ideas.
"Dad?" I asked timidly, "Are you okay?"
"Edward?" Asked Charlie, his eyes turning hard. I just nodded in response, I didn't know how else to answer. Noticing the fists Charlie's hands were starting to form, I jumped in to explain the plan I had formulated with Mom that morning.
"Dad, I have a plan. I talked to Mom."
"You have a plan," asked Charlie incredulously. He moved to sit on the couch opposite me.
"Yeah," I admitted softly. I knew how hard this must be for Charlie to hear, though somewhere in the back of my head I was surprised at how well Charlie was taking this so far. There was no broken furniture so far. "Look, I'm graduating in two days time. I don't want to tell Edward about this." I held up my hand as Charlie started to protest. I had been expecting that.
"Please Dad, I've already decided this, so I'd like for you not to tell him either. Telling Edward would mean both of us giving up any opportunities and dreams we have for our futures." I didn't mention that even with my plan I was giving up the dream that meant the most to me; a life and family with Edward. I didn't think that Charlie was quite ready to hear that.
"Two days after graduation I'm going to fly to Jacksonville to stay with Mom and Phil over the summer. Mom was telling me that Phil's contract with the Suns in Floridais ending at the end of this month, so instead of renewing it, they are going to look at positions in Berkeley or New Haven." I looked at Dad, hoping the reference to a couple of the colleges I was considering would sedate him slightly. It appeared to be working, he was sitting there nodding with thought.
I knew that one of the main things that would be really hard for Charlie to deal with in regards to the pregnancy would be my college education. When I'd gotten scholarships to three of the schools I had applied to I was ecstatic, it all seemed rather inconsequential now.
I sighed at the thought of college. My original choice of the three had been Dartmouth, with Edward. Edward had his heart set on Dartmouth, he was looking to do pre-med, like his father. I quickly counted that choice out now, convincing myself that it would be better for everyone if Edward never knew I was pregnant. UC Berkeley and Yale were both good schools, but I had no preference to either in particular. I'd decided I'd go to whichever, depending on where it was easiest for Phil to find work he liked. It was the least I could do considering he and Mom were about to uproot their entire lives to help me.
"Anyway, I'll live with Mom and Phil, at least until I finish college. That way Mom can help me with, well, everything," I finished, gesturing vaguely toward my stomach. I wasn't quite at the stage yet where I could voice the inevitable ramifications of pregnancy.
"Bells," Charlie asked softly, "are you sure, that, well, you know." Charlie looked up at me to see if I had gotten the gist of his sentence. I hadn't. "Are you sure you want to go through with this?" He finished very quickly, his face flushing.
My breathe caught in my throat. Termination wasn't something that had even crossed my mind since the morning, but I knew as soon as the words came out of Charlie's mouth that I couldn't do it. I decided to be entirely honest with him.
"Actually, it hadn't really crossed my mind as a possibility until just then. But Dad," at this point I tore my gaze away from my hands in my lap and looked at Charlie, "I don't think that I could do that. I don't think I'd have the strength."
Charlie looked resigned as he shot me a small smile filled with pity. I was fairly sure he knew what my answer was going to be when he broached that subject.
"So you're sure right?" He asked quietly, still looking at me in pity.
"Yeah," I answered, my mind going into shock. "I went to the doctor this afternoon after I first spoke to mom." My mind was reeling. Why was Charlie taking this so well? Where was the yelling, the breaking of furniture, the death threats directed toward Edward? Then, as if he could read my mind, Charlie spoke.
"I still want to kill him you know. But I will respect your wishes. I won't breathe a word to anyone. God knows when you have your mind set to something, there's not much anyone can do to change it."
My eyes filled with tears. This was not at all what I had prepared myself for. Anger, disappointment, disgust. Those things I had braced myself for, but love and pity I had not prepared myself for at all. I opened my mouth to speak, but found I couldn't, my throat had been blocked by emotion. I quickly wiped the tears from my eyes.
"Why don't you get some rest now?" Asked Charlie. "I'll speak to Renee, we'll arrange all your flights. You just focus on graduating tomorrow."
I nodded mutely and got up from the couch. As I was about to turn and head to the stairs, Charlie raised himself from the couch and pulled me into a hug. After a moment of not speaking, he pulled away and headed to the phone. Tears once again clouding my eyes I started to climb the stairs to my bedroom, wondering how on earth I was going to deal with graduation tomorrow. I didn't have time to fret over it though, because as soon as my head hit the pillow I was asleep.
A/N: Okay, this is my first fanfic, so please be gentle!
Originally this was just going to be a short prologue, and then the story would skip to 5 years ahead of time, but this chapter kind of got away from me and now I have decided I can't possibly continue without having Bella attend graduation, somehow telling Edward she doesn't want to go away to college with him, etc.
So I think I've decided the story will still jump, but not as soon. Any opinions on whether the story should jump after Bella leaves Forks or after Bella has her baby?