-Obviously, I do NOT own Twilight. Or Harry Potter. I merely make their characters bend to my will. Dance, puppets!-
Summary: Edward Cullen was the hottest guy in school. No one was immune to his charms, not even quiet Izzy Swan. When a storm strikes, Izzy unexpectedly ends up getting a closer look at Edward. Maybe she wasn't as invisible as she always thought. Nothing can be easy though. When the storm dies down she is sent to live with Charlie. Eventually Izzy accepts that she will probably never see Edward again. A piece of her heart will never let him go, but can she learn to live without him? Or will she get a second chance at love that got away?
All human, alternate universe. Rated M for minor violence, adult themes and to be on the safe side.
Storms Remembered
Chapter 1:
The air in the gym was stifling, thick with moving bodies. Colored lights swirled over the mass swaying to the beat, dancing through the thick mist spewed out by a rented fog machine. Outside, the largest rainstorm Southern California had seen in a decade poured down. Streaks of lightning illuminated the high, narrow windows. Nobody could hear the thunder over the deafening music, but it rattled the building every few minutes.
As I sat on the bleachers huddled into my light sweater I wondered for at least the hundredth time why I had let Jessica talk me into even coming to the dance. I don't dance! I can't even walk over a flat surface without finding something to trip over. Expecting me to do something as graceful and coordinated as dancing would be hazardous not only to me but to anyone unfortunate enough to get in my path. Jessica was just plain determined and promised she wouldn't leave my side the whole time. That was, until she spotted Mike about ten minutes after we walked through the door and I hadn't seen either of them since. Thanks, Jessica. Really. I could have been home safe curled up on the sofa in my sweats with a mug of hot chocolate and a good book. Even working on my essay assignment. Instead I was sitting on the hard bleachers in a short, shiny dress Jessica had stuffed me into and counting down minutes until the torture was over. It was all too loud, too close in here. In another hour Lauren said she would give me a ride home. She was the only one with a four wheel drive that could handle my half mile long steep dirt driveway. I shifted impatiently and waited, scanning the crowd again to see if Jessica and Mike had emerged from whatever broom closet they had wedged themselves into yet.
Across the room a mop of wild bronze hair caught the sparkles cast by the disco ball. Ah, yes. That's why I agreed to come to the dance. Edward Cullen. Beautiful in every way and completely out of my reach. Deep emerald eyes, that untamed hair, perfect ivory complexion and the chiseled features of a Greek god. Everywhere he went heads turned. As a sophomore, he was already on the varsity basketball team. Game attendance had at least doubled when he made the team. It wasn't just that he was gorgeous, but he was smart too. He could keep up in my honors and AP level classes. It just isn't fair for that much raw talent to be given to one person. I would have liked to be able to say I was immune to the mass hysteria. But I'll admit I spent way more than my share of time ogling the boy quietly from behind the pages of my latest book. We lived in different worlds but I could still enjoy the scenery.
Where Edward was beautiful, I was completely plain. Boring brown hair, brown eyes and an unremarkable figure. I passed through school like a ghost. I was certainly pale enough to be one. People I had been in classes with for years couldn't remember my name. It did not surprise me that Edward Cullen never looked my way either. My one true close friend, Angela, had moved away a year earlier so it was not uncommon for me to go days without speaking much to anyone. Jessica and Lauren hung around with me sometimes, when it suited them, but I was not under any false expectation that they would be there if I needed them. They just weren't the type.
I wondered sometimes what his type was. He could have had almost any girl he wanted, but Edward Cullen did not date. Not that that stopped the girls from trying. Skimpy clothes and flirty giggles followed him around everywhere. Tanya, the prettiest cheerleader in school, had even tried asking him out after trying unsuccessfully to get his attention for a month. She was shameless. I would have been embarrassed for her if it wasn't so funny. Tanya was never single for a month. Boys competed to impress her almost as much as the girls tried to get Edward to notice them. It didn't work. Edward turned her down with a simple, polite "No, thank you" just like everyone else that tried. He was untouchable. There was some speculation that he might be gay until Seth tried asking him out. I had never seen Edward blush that deeply; he turned almost as red as I do. He was still nice about it though, adding that he wasn't gay at the end of the simple rejection. Not that it stopped everyone from wondering, but it did quiet the rumors.
A brilliant flash of lightning struck just outside, blinding over the dimly lit party. Thunder clapped so hard the building shook and a shower of sparks hissed outside. A tremendous crash immediately followed. Abruptly, the lights and music were cut off. The silence only lasted a second. Several girls screamed from the dark as the teeming mass of my classmates moved on the floor below me. Shouted questions filled the air. I clutched the bleachers and looked to the windows high above, where orange shadows flickered.
"Fire!" someone screamed. Seconds later, the fire alarm was pulled. The backup generator flooded the room in pale, flashing red light. Screams mingled with the deafening screech of the alarm. The doors were flung open as everyone pressed towards the exits.
I stood and looked around the crowds frantically, looking for Lauren or Jessica but couldn't spot either of them. By the time I made it to the bottom of the bleachers I could hear teachers yelling over the noise, trying to keep everyone calm. It wasn't doing much good. The crowd pushed and shoved their way through the doors, scared and desperate. I waited, shaking against the wall on the bottom step, for a gap to open in the line so I could get out. Finally, most of my classmates made it outside and I climbed down into the eerily swirling fog machine mist.
The dark parking lot was filled with students darting through the rain to their cars, honking horns and screeching tires. A few small groups of stragglers crowded under the awning searching for their friends and gesticulating wildly as they spoke with wide eyes. I began to weave through the crowd, hoping Lauren or Jessica had waited for me.
Another deafening crash shook the earth, sending several people running away from the building into the rain. I ducked, covering my head with my hands as I crouched beside the wall. All around me, people moved and voices swirled but nobody stopped.
The screech of sirens cut across the roar of other noises as the fire engines arrived with flashing lights and a blaring horn. Heavy, booted feet ran past me. They disappeared around the back of the gym.
Teachers and fire fighters began directing traffic and herding students off school grounds. I heard that the fire was the old oak tree that had stood behind the gym since the school was built. It had been struck by lightning and come down. Luckily, the fire had not spread to the building. Soon, nearly everyone was gone. The commotion began to die down. Only one fire engine and a few teachers stood around surveying the damage and sending the last students home. A scuffed pair of brown shoes almost passed by where I sat.
"Izzy?" Mr. Greene asked. "Izzy, what are you still doing here? You should get home." I looked up to him, slightly dazed.
"Lauren left. I came with Jessica but I couldn't find her, and then I couldn't find Lauren either. She was my ride. And then everyone was leaving but I can find them anywhere, and she was supposed to give me a ride home, and so I was waiting, then there was that crash, and everyone is gone. Lauren was my ride, but she left me." Right, rambling. Someone, please, find the off switch.
"Is there anyone you can call?"
I thought about it. Was there? Renee could be home. Possibly. She might even be sober enough to drive. Stranger things had happened. Then again, I could grow a tail and begin speaking Latin.
"Maybe my mother, but my cell died." I followed Mr. Greene to the office to use the phone there and tried dialing the home number. Then my private home phone line. Then Renee's cell phone. I left a quick message on her voicemail, not expecting her to ever get it. She could rarely even find the thing, and when she could it wasn't charged. If I found it and charged it for her then she still didn't know how to use it.
"Two lines down and one no answer," I told him numbly. Of course. A tree had probably taken down the power and phone lines to our house. That's what happens when you live in an area with above ground lines surrounded by eucalyptus trees in a storm. Eucalyptus drops branches bigger than small trees. I'll never know why people plant them near homes. Renee thought they were whimsical and fresh. It made her feel like she was living in the Outback, she claimed. Leave it to Renee to pick a house built into a mountainside and surrounded by kamikaze trees that want to kill you when they get watered.
"Is there anyone else you can call?" Mr. Greene asked. I shook my head.
"I don't know anyone else's number, they were all in my phone." I shuffled my feet uncomfortably and stared at the heels Jessica talked me into wearing. Perfect. Five miles in a downpour with thunder and lightning in the middle of the night was enough without even trying to add in walking that far in heels. Maybe I could just sleep on the floor in the gym.
The office door slammed open, startling me. I jumped and let out an undignified little squeak, then immediately blushed. I hoped, just for a second, that Lauren or Jessica remembered they were supposed to give me a ride home and came back to look for me.
No such luck. Adonis himself stood in the doorway, his bronze locks flattened and dripping with rain. The white shirt of his suit was plastered to him, sticking to his toned physique like a second skin. I couldn't help it, I looked. Ahh, perfection.
He coughed lightly and I quickly averted my eyes, feeling my blush grow hotter. Great. I had probably passed any shade of red and moved on to purples now.
"Coach sent me down to tell you the fire is out," Edward told Mr. Greene. "The last fire engine just left and Coach said to tell you he's going home too."
"Right," Mr. Greene confirmed. "How are you getting home Edward?"
"Esme is going to come get me. I was supposed to ride home with Emmett but I stayed to help Coach get the bleachers put away. I just have to call her."
Mr. Greene nodded. "You should call her, then. It's late. We should all be getting home." He turned back to me. "Izzy, are you sure there's no one else you can call? A neighbor, maybe?" I hunched my shoulders and shook my head. We had never lived in one place long enough to make many family friends. Renee was too flighty for anyone to take seriously. And I wouldn't call Phil for help, not for anything. Charlie, maybe, but I had no idea how to reach him except that he was far away. Probably still in Washington. He had stopped trying to call after Phil talked to him two years earlier.
Edward talked quietly on his phone while Mr. Greene paced behind his desk. I slumped in one of the waiting chairs and wished to be almost anywhere else.
"Esme is on her way," Edward told us, sliding into one of the other waiting chairs. "She'll call when she gets here."
A strong gust of wind rattled the windows, pelting them with icy rain as the storm continued to rage outside. The pale backup lights flickered. We sat in silence just listening to the storm.
"What are we going to do with you, Izzy?" Mr. Greene wondered. "I suppose I could give you a ride home. Do you live far?"
"Out in the hills. We're a mile off the paved road though, only four wheel drive."
He hummed lowly. Everyone knew Principal Greene drove a tiny Mini Cooper. If Renee had chosen a house in town like everyone else that would work fine. A Mini Cooper would not make it to our place though. It would be bogged down in the mud and stuck before we got halfway there.
"Esme is driving Emmett's Jeep," Edward offered. "Maybe we can give you a ride?" He ran a hand through his hair, scattering drops of water across the floor. I glanced up at him. He looked almost nervous. Maybe he just felt like he had to offer. I obviously had run out of other options. He probably didn't really want the creepy silent girl in a small car with him.
His phone beeped before I could answer. "Esme is here," he told us. "I'll be right back." He was out the door in a second, disappearing into the sheet of falling rain. Seconds ticked by. Edward ducked back in the door. "She says it's fine, come on!"
I turned wide eyes to Mr. Greene. "Have a good holiday break!" he called, waving me out the door and looking relieved. I mutely followed Edward towards the parking lot. Walking in high heels is not a very good idea for me. I have no idea why I thought running in the rain would be. Five steps out the door I stumbled. I would have fallen flat into a puddle if Edward hadn't caught my elbow. It was the first time he had ever touched me, and felt like sparks danced across my skin. Or maybe that was just the freezing cold rain beating down on us. After the second slip he wrapped an arm around my shoulders. I knew it was just to keep me from falling, but still – it felt nice. The top of my head barely reached past his shoulder.
Esme had pulled the Jeep right up to the curb out front. Emmet's Jeep was enormous, the kind you need a ladder to get inside of. Edward opened the front passenger door for me and pointed to a grab bar next to it. I looked for a step to climb up. The bottom of the door was as high as my waist! Where was the step? There's no step! The bolts where it should have been were there. The step definitely was not there. I asked Edward over the rumbling engine, but could tell by the confusion on his face that he couldn't hear. I pointed at the missing step. He shrugged apologetically, then quickly swooped in and scooped me up around the waist, lifting me into the seat and closing the door.
"Edward!" the woman in the driver's seat scolded as he climbed into the back. It was much quieter with all the doors closed. "You could have warned the poor girl!"
"Sorry," he mumbled, looking sheepish. "I forgot the step is missing on that side. Izzy, this is Esme. Esme, Izzy."
"Nice to meet you dear," Esme smiled warmly. She was petite, with waves of caramel-colored hair and a heart shaped face. She looked nothing like Edward, or Emmett. I decided she must be his step-mother, since he called her by name.
"You too, Mrs. Cullen."
"Please, just Esme. Mrs. Cullen makes me feel old!" She chuckled, and I saw Edward roll his eyes dramatically. "Now, where are we taking you?"
I gave her directions for the first couple turns and we rolled out of the parking lot into the vacant streets. The roads were littered with branches and scattered debris. When we started getting into the hills the branches got larger. Not even halfway there a large tree had come down, taking out the power lines as I had expected, but also blocking the road. The only road going to my house. An emergency sign with flashing lights had been put up to warn drivers the road was closed. Esme coasted the Jeep to a stop. I stared forlornly out the windshield at the giant trunk. It was far too big to even consider moving by hand, even if it wasn't on top of downed power lines.
"Well…" she murmured. "Looks like we won't be going this way. It's late honey; how about you stay with us tonight and we can figure it out in the morning?"
It took me about two seconds to consider my options. Walking over two miles in heels and a dress, in the middle of a torrential downpour with thunder and lightning, without a sidewalk, where I could be flattened at any time by falling trees. No, not walking home. Returning to an empty school. Also not a great idea. Or spending the night at the home of Adonis, and maybe, possibly getting to spend a little more time around Edward before the two week long school holiday. "Okay," I quietly agreed. I couldn't know that that one word would change my entire life.