My first fic, I hope you enjoy...
Disclaimer: SM of course owns all her characters etc, they're just a great vehicle for this story I've had in my head for forever.
Through the Beta process it has been brought to my attention that there are many an Australianism in the writing - more than I actually thought! Definition of terms will be at the end :)
Thanks to Flibbertigigdet and HEAR for your BETA work!
Far From Home
Prologue:
The next morning I woke up to something hard and scratchy under my cheek. With bleary eyes I pulled back to focus on the offending object. A blue booklet lay on my pillow, understanding dawned on me, and I buried my face in my other pillow, muffling my curse, "Shit, Emmett!"
And now I had to deal with this. I dressed in my Mavi jeans with a long sleeve white tee with my favourite Billabong hoodie with pictures of trees and birds and rabbits on it – I would need something to cheer me up today, and my favourite clothes from home were probably going to get the best result.
I went downstairs to have breakfast with Charlie and start what I knew was going to be the first long day of many.
"Morning, Bella." Charlie was already at the table eating and reading the paper.
"Hey, Charlie." I went about getting some porridge together.
Once I was sitting down with my steaming bowl, Charlie looked up from the paper to the clock. Here we go.
"Emmett should probably get up now."
"Um, I think Em's already up, Charlie."
"Oh? I didn't see him this morning."
"Yeah, I'm pretty sure he left before you got up."
"What, like for a run?"
"No."
"Well is he already at school?"
"I doubt it."
"That doesn't give me a lot, Bella. Where is he?"
"I don't know." It was the truth. I had no idea where Emmett was, I just knew he wasn't here.
Charlie gave me a look that told me he did not believe me at all and went down to the basement to check on Emmett. I kept eating, knowing he would find nothing.
Emmett was gone, and who knew when he would be back.
"He's not down there," Charlie stated on his return. "Where did he go, Bella?"
I looked up from my breakfast to look Charlie in the eye.
"Walkabout."
"Uh, what?" His confusion evident on his face.
"He's going through a bit of stuff at the moment, Charlie. He'll be back soon."
"Like when?"
"When he's ready."
"But where did he go?"
"I have no idea."
"Are you positive about that, Bella?"
"Seriously Charlie, if I knew where he was I would tell you."
"I gotta go to the station and put a notice out." He was grabbing his jacket from the peg on the wall.
"No! Charlie, please. He's just gone for a bit to sort himself out. He'll be back, I swear."
"You expect me to just sit here and let him disappear without looking for him? What kind of guardian would I be?"
"The kind he needs right now. Or rather, doesn't need."
Charlie pegged me with a stern look. "What do you mean?"
"It's his birthday tomorrow."
-
Chapter 1
"Hey, you still there, champ?" My brother, Emmett, was waving his hand in front of my staring, but not-seeing eyes. My eyes snapped back into focus, finding a worried look on his face. "Hey, you all good?"
"Yeah, sorry. Spaced out there for a sec. Where are we going now?"
"Through Customs, then to the transfer desk."
"OK." I should really have been paying more attention; this was tough on him too, but he was awake and getting us where we needed to go.
Urgh, the flight from Melbourne to LA seemed to suck the life right out of me. I had moved off the plane through Immigration barely registering anything, and only aware enough of my surroundings to answer the immigration people's questions, although most of them Emmett answered for the both of us.
And we were only just over half way! We still had to fly to Seattle, then some other town and then another hour or so drive... the thought of the sheer distance we were from the place we loved – home, the only place we really wanted to be – made me start to panic, and we weren't done yet! Shit! My breathing started to accelerate.
Best not to think of it. Just keep walking with Em. Wherever he was, that was where I needed to be. We're all the other has left now. I tried to calm myself out of my slight panic attack over the ever-expanding distance we were from home – and still to increase – by taking Emmett's hand as we finished getting through Customs. I barely let go of it as I moved with him through the airport to the transfer desk like a zombie, handing them our paperwork to get to domestic.
When we got to the gate lounge I shook myself and decided to take charge. I grabbed the bags from my brother.
"You go to the loo and when you come back I'll go and then get us something to eat." He nodded and took off in the direction of the toilets.
On his return he threw himself into the chair, making the entire bank shake violently. Scared the crap out of the guy on a laptop who glared at Emmett when he recovered.
"Oh, sorry!" he exclaimed. Like a bull in a china shop, I thought. He barely knows his own strength.
I came back to him with a stir-fry and some boiled rice.
"Christ, their coins here are ridiculous. No fifties, but they have quarters. This is one," I said, holding up the coin. "Here is a ten," holding up the tiny silver coin, "and this is the five!" the coin was bigger than the ten. "Oh and they have one cent pieces here as well. No one and two dollar coins though, it seems. Oh yeah, word of advice, don't bother trying to add up your purchases, it changes at the register." He looked at me, confused.
"What? What do you mean it changes? You sure you just can't add, Bells? You are a bit out of it." He grinned at me.
"Up yours, sunshine, I can add! They put the tax on at the till; they don't include it on the price! I just had an argument with the lady."
"You did not," he stated, looking at me, trying to determine if I was telling the truth.
"I really think I did," I said, not looking at him and taking a bite of my stir-fry.
"Well, take it easy, tiger. Things were always going to be a bit different here."
I hummed my indifferent reply and we ate in silence. I took our boxes to the bin and I saw Em trying to get comfortable on the seats. We still had close to two hours to wait.
"You can't sit there like that, Metty, you're going to be uncomfortable enough on the plane. Here." I grabbed our bags and headed over to the section of the wall of the lounge where there were no chairs and sat with my back against the wall. I got comfortable with my legs stretched out and I put the bags to one side. "Stretch out, get comfy and here's your pillow." I tapped my thigh with my hand.
"Awesome, cheers." He was on the floor in a flash and very soon breathing evenly. I grabbed my scarf out of my bag and put it in between my head and the wall. Feeling a bit sleepy myself, I put my hand and arm over our bags before closing my eyes. Yep, great protection, but whatever.
I woke with a small start about forty minutes later and the lounge had gotten a lot busier. I alternated between dozing and people-watching until it was almost time to board. Getting a dozy Emmett on the plane was entertaining, but once again I crashed almost instantly after take-off.
I wasn't entirely sure how we managed to get to our final plane... but I was pretty sure it involved Emmett running with our bags and me following, holding onto the back of his top. We were now at the luggage carousel, getting our jumpers and jackets out of our carry-on, layering up, feeling the lower temperature in that part of the building. We stood there, wrecked beyond belief, holding hands and facing opposite directions. Em was watching for our luggage and I was on the lookout for our Uncle Charlie.
"Think Chuck will come get us in the cruiser?" Em nudged me and asked with a cheeky wink.
"I think that's the only car he's got, nuffy." I smiled tiredly at him. He was trying to keep my spirits up, but I was just so ready for this trip to be over. We had been going close to twenty-six hours and I was done.
We had our bags and started to make our way to the chairs near the exit when I saw him.
"Uncle Charlie!" I called, before he could go any further in the wrong direction. His head whipped around, his look of concern only fading a little when he took us in.
"Hey, how you guys doing? How was the flight?" He gave me a light hug and Emmett a handshake with a pat on the shoulder.
"Long as hell," Emmett replied. "I want to sleep for a week. Aeroplanes are not comfortable."
"Hmm, especially not when you're as big as you are. How tall are you now, boy?" Charlie was looking him up and down.
Emmett grinned shyly. "Six foot four."
Charlie let out a low whistle. "And you've got your fathers shoulders."
Em exhaled a breath through his nose quickly and lowered his eyes, a tight smile on his face.
Charlie's grin dropped and he grabbed my bag. "Let's get going home then, okay?"
The walk to the cruiser was silent except for our joint exclamation of "Frick!" upon getting outside. It was bloody freezing.
When Emmett saw the car he met my eyes and grinned – the cruiser. Charlie was the chief of police in his and Mum's home town of Forks. Mum had finished high school and decided to take a gap year before college and go travelling. Meeting Dad in a backpackers in far north Queensland – that was it, she never left Australia, except to visit Charlie and our grandparents when they were still alive.
Charlie had come to visit us three years ago, two years after his promotion. We decided chief of police was stuffy and too much of a mouthful, so we had dubbed him 'Top Cop Chuck'.
The drive to Charlie's was silent, that is, until Emmett started snoring. I couldn't sleep now; my body was past that. I sat and stared out the window. It was raining lightly and everything was so green. Not just green, but crazy green, like 'they must have painted it because plants and grass can't get this green' green.
We drove through the small town of Forks, businesses along the main street all seeming to support the few industries the town had. Logging seemed to be one of them... or maybe that was just the preferred decor and design? I didn't know... Mum may have told me but I was too tired to try to remember right now...
I shook Emmett's shoulders from the back seat. "We're in Forks, sleeping beauty."
By the time he properly woke up Charlie had stopped in front of a two-storey, white-painted weatherboard house. It was pretty and I could picture us coming home to this house after school. It would be okay.
We spent the afternoon setting up our rooms: me upstairs, across the landing from Charlie's and Emmett in the converted basement. It was a good set-up and I could tell Em liked his arrangement.
After dinner we hung out with Charlie in the lounge room, watching him flick through sports channels, never settling on anything. I wondered if this was his usual or if he was nervous about having us there with him. I continually kicked Emmett when his eyes would close. We weren't going to bed until at least nine-thirty pm to avoid jet-lag.
As we got up to finally say goodnight and go to bed Charlie spoke up.
"About school. I've signed the two of you up already. I hope you don't mind. Tomorrow is Friday, so you probably don't have to go, but they will be expecting you Monday."
"Cool, thanks, Charlie," Emmett said, while I nodded in agreement.
I dragged my feet upstairs, quickly brushed my teeth and was out before my head hit the pillow.
I woke suddenly, disoriented, in an unfamiliar room. Realising where I was I worked to calm my heart rate. I grabbed my phone to check the time, ten am. The house was silent; Em would still be asleep. The thought made me lonely and I didn't want to be in that room by myself anymore, so I grabbed my hoodie, chucked on my Uggs and went downstairs to the basement.
Emmett was sprawled over his entire bed. I moved over to the edge of the bed and prodded his shoulder.
"Move over, you big ape." I tried to roll him over.
"Bugger off. Go to your own bed," he replied groggily.
"But it's two stories away!" I whined.
"Well why aren't you up there in it?" He still hadn't moved from his downward starfish.
"Because then you're two stories away," I said quietly. He tilted his head and opened one eye to look at me. He groaned and rolled over to make room for me.
"Thank you!" I kicked off my Uggs and jumped in, snuggling under the covers and finding Em's calves to warm my feet.
"Frick! Get those away or I'm sending you back upstairs," he growled out. I laughed evilly and removed my ice-block feet. They were perpetually cold, even in summer, so the weather here was not going to be my friend.
"What time is it?" he asked, breathing a sigh of relief, his arm flung over his eyes.
"Ten."
"Too early."
"I know, but I woke up. We should probs get up at twelve, though. Don't want to completely stuff our body clocks."
"OK. No talking 'til then."
We settled into a comfortable snooze for the next two hours. At noon I annoyed Emmett until he got up. We had some brunch and decided to walk into town to check it out. Trip didn't last very long. Not only was the town not overly big, but the extended glances we were getting got old very quickly.
"Looks like we're big news in a small town, Rooey." My smile at his use of my favourite AFL player as my nickname turned to a grimace as the information sunk in.
"Tops," I said dryly.
We stopped at the newsagent's to get some supplies for school and then retreated back to Charlie's.
The weekend was pretty quiet; we mainly stayed around the house, only venturing out to check out the school - twenty-five minute walk, easy.
Sunday night I had a horrible thought.
"Em!" I yelped, sitting up straight in my seat on the sofa. Both he and Charlie jumped at my exclamation.
"What? What's wrong?" He looked as panicked as I felt.
"What on Earth am I going to wear to school tomorrow?"
"Are you kidding?" His look was incredulous.
"No," I said in all seriousness. I scrambled up from my sitting position. "We've always had a uniform! Crap!"
I bolted upstairs, only stumbling once in my haste, a bloody miracle in itself. Throwing open the doors to my wardrobe I began to calm a little. I had several pairs of jeans that would suffice as a uniform, some decent jumpers – mainly hoodies – but in this place they may actually serve a purpose. I supposed the t-shirts and everything I would put under them wouldn't really matter all that much, because in my three days I had yet to wear anything less than three layers.
Much relieved I went to share the good wardrobe news with the lads. They were suitably attentive to the situation, meaning Charlie shook his head and Emmett theatrically put his hand over his heart as if to calm himself and breathed "Oh! Thank God!" Smart arse.
Lying in bed that night the nerves began to take over. A new school. I had never been to a new school without a whole year-level being in the same position as me. I wondered what it would be like. The campus itself I wasn't too worried about. It was a small campus; how confusing could the school be? But what would the classes be like? What would the kids be like? Would it be like in the movies or books with the horrible class system, the political hierarchy?
Whatever it was, it would be different. Different from home.
It still didn't feel real. It sort of felt like Em and I were just visiting and we were going to school to fill in the time.
It's not like I didn't know that wasn't the case. I knew we were here for the better part of at least two years. I knew Mum and Dad were gone forever and not coming to join us, or waiting for us to return home. I knew all of this; it just didn't feel that way. I supposed that would come when we settled into a routine.
Thinking of Mum and Dad I couldn't help but get upset and the tears were instant, choking up my nose and throat. Lonely. I chucked on my 'visiting Emmett' clothes and snuck through the now quiet house down to the basement. I started my way down the dark basement stairs.
"Metty?" I called softly.
"Hey, Boo." His voice was clear; he was nowhere near sleep.
I groped my way through the dark to his bed and sat on the edge.
"This is pretty shit-box."
"I know," he stated simply. And I knew he did.
"I miss the parents," I whispered, the tears coming back in full force and making themselves noticeable in my voice. Emmett sat up in bed and hugged me to him.
"Yeah, me too." We sat in silence for a bit, hugging and me sniffling. "We'll get through it, Boo. You know the plan: Get legal, finish high school and back home for uni."
"Yep." I tried to get myself under control, sitting up a little straighter and breathing more evenly, letting the hug end.
"You want to stay here tonight? Or you good to go back?"
I seriously had the best brother in the world. He could be incredibly annoying for sixteen hours of the day, but then he pulled through with those moments.
"I'll stay for a bit, but I'll go back. I left my electric blanket on." I smiled at the last part; I couldn't live without my electric blanket.
"Good girl." He chuckled.
I kicked off my Uggs and snuggled under the covers. We talked quietly about school the next day and went over the subjects we each wanted to do. After a while we were silent. When I felt sleep coming near, I said goodnight to Em, donned my Uggs and went up to my toasty bed to fall asleep soon after.
Definitions:
Only a couple this chapter:
Walkabout: Kind of hard to describe. Indiginous Australian term, sometime in their life an aborigine goes on walkabout to discover more about themselves, family, tribe history, etc. Used colloquially as someone who disappears without notice.
Jumper: In Aus this is a sweater/windcheater
Backpackers: Youth Hostel
AFL: Australian Football League
Shit-box: Basically is a different version of shithouse - it's used interchangeably with shit as an expression.
Hope you enjoyed!