In a way, moving from phoenix offered some benefits; like getting out of the scorching heat, that my body was unable and not made to bear. This was clear, as the window beside me rolled down and the urge to stick my head out of it, along with my tongue was, ah, quite strong to say the least.

This move meant securing some comforts that I grew up with, like constant rain, wind and overall bad weather. Of course, this 'bad weather' offered a comfort only the town Forks could give; a reminder of my home country, Ireland and what it had to offer.

The little town could not hold back my mom's best friend, Renée. The restraints lessened with each day she spent there when she married Charlie. The dark days, the lack of amenities and the same old people? It suited her for a while, she said. Until it did not.

I glanced at Bella from the corner of my eye. "So, Forks, tell me all about it."

"Oh, you know," she said, letting a stretch of awkward silence ensue.

"No Bella, I don't," I said, keeping a straight face. "Otherwise I wouldn't have asked."

Her cheeks reddened. "Right. I haven't been there in three years, because Charlie came to visit us during the summer, but- it's a small town."

"A dreadful town," Renée added, pursing her lips. "I don't understand why you want to go back there, Bella."

"Yeah, Bella," I said, agreeing with Renée, only to annoy her. By the look of it, I succeeded, as she pursed her lips. "Why do you want to go there?"

Renée looked at me. "And you, Skyler, what would your mother say?"

"To get out of the sun before I became a replica of the devil."

"...That does sound like her," Renée said, with wide eyes. "Exactly like her, actually."

Bella scowled in the front seat, but of course, her mother did not notice. Renée hardly noticed anything about her daughter. They looked alike, with the same coloured hair only Renée's was shorter. Their eyes too, shared the same shade of brown.

Their personalities, however? Opposites.

Living with them for a short three months surprisingly showed quite a lot about their relationship. Renée wandered through life, helpless and very unknowingly, dependent on her daughter. She would get the shock of her life when she lived with just Phil.

Their eyes even gave an insight, with Renée's eyes wide, hopeful and playful. Then there was Bella's. Well, you could say that day to day living sucked the life out of them, all the fun portions anyway, leaving them dull and responsible looking.

In other words, boring.

"I want to go," Bella lied, scrunching her nose up as she always did when she lied.

"I get it," I said, holding back an eyeroll. "You want to spend time with Charlie."

Renée's face darkened at that, forcing my eyes to roll. "Tell him I said hi, Bella."

"I will."

"Skyler, I'll send some of your parents' things to Charlie's," she said, then turned her attention back to her daughter. "Whenever you want to come home, if you're homesick or if the living situation is not what you expected, come home."

Bella nodded, still not looking her mother in the eye. "Yes, mom. I promise."

I tried my best to hold my face carefully blank, something I had a lot of practice in. Bella sounded like this move was on the same level as a bomb exploding in the middle of a highly-populated city, or like death itself could not equal its sulkiness.

She had options, her parents were alive and well. All her life she lived with Renée, but she could have made the effort to see her father on a regular basis when at a sound enough age, but she had not. For that wasted opportunity and time, I resented her.

As soon as we stepped out of the car, Bella was brought into a hug and I grabbed the suitcases from the boot to occupy my time.

I met Renée's eyes over Bella's shoulder. Her eyes expressed relief. No longer did she have to put up with the orphan, the daughter of her best friend. The daughter of her dead best friend and her husband.

That was fine by me. I never liked her. Also, the cold never bothered me anyway.

She could go and play happy families with Phil.

The one thing I did like about Bella, was the fact that she did not feel the need to fill the silence with mindless chatter. On the four-hour plane ride to Seattle, we kept mostly to ourselves.

Unsurprisingly I was the one to break the silence. "So, you're actually doing this."

"No," she said, lowering her gaze to her hands. "We are. I'm sorry for dragging you into this, but I want my mom to be happy. Happy means Phil."

"Being a mom means putting your kid's needs before her wants, Bella."

Her jaw clenched. I waited and waited for her to reply, but she did not. Just like I expected, she was never one to get into confrontations or speak her truths. It was not shyness or anxiety, I knew that for sure. I just could never get into the mind of Bella Swan.

For some reason, I just wanted her to just explode with profanities. Anything other than the usual mind numbing answers she gave.

Charlie agreed to take Bella in no problem, Renée however decided that if he was willing to take Bella in so easily, that he must take me too, to get to see his daughter.

When the plane landed in Port Angeles, I smiled looking out the window. It rained. Goodbye flimsy clothing and hello comfortable.

Bella nodded toward the police cruiser with a passive face. The man with unruly black curls and a strong moustache leaned against the driver door, with his arms crossed.

"Hey, Chief Swan," I greeted as we came closer to the car. "I just want to say thanks for, well taking me in. I'll get a job and-"

A hand found its way onto my shoulder. "Kid, you're not paying a cent."

"Chief,"

"And it's Charlie to you," he interrupted once more. "Your dad always did have manners, I think that's what caught your mom's eye."

A slow smile formed on my face. "He bowed to her, then fell."

"Right, the staircase." Charlie nodded, his eyes glazed over for only a moment. "I remember now. Drunk as a skunk, he was."

The memories or in my case, the memories of the story of my parents first meeting fell away as Bella coughed and shifted in place awkwardly.

Charlie's eyes widened as he took in his daughter. He eventually gave her a one-armed hug.

"Bells," he said, his eyes lighting up. When he let go, she stumbled and he caught her. "Wow. You really haven't changed much. How's Renée?"

"Mom's fine. It's good to see you too, Dad."

I started to get the bags into the boot as they caught up, albeit awkwardly outside of the car. The reunion was cut short and not exactly sweet, as Bella and Charlie both ended up lugging some luggage into the back seat of the car moments later.

"This is more of your territory, huh Skyler?" Charlie said, after fifteen long minutes trapped inside the car. "You're not so used to the cold, Bells. You'll need to wrap up plenty warm."

"Mom took me clothes shopping before we came," Bella said, fidgeting with her fingertips. "I'll be warm."

Charlie glanced at me through the mirror. "What about you, Skyler? Are you set?"

"Yeah, I'm good. Just brought along my old clothes as well as the ones I bought for Phoenix."

The drive continued in silence, I could not help but notice, Charlie kept glancing at Bella every other twenty seconds, always chewing on his lower lip. What else was I supposed to do, but count how many times he did this? Considering I sat squeezed against the luggage in the backseat.

Twenty-eight times he did it, in case you were wondering.

Bella noticed at number twenty-two and ended up shifting her face, so she looked out the window and avoided making eye contact with him, which did dishearten the guy, but did not stop him.

"I found a good car for you, really cheap," he finally said, after building up his courage for half an hour. "I think you'll like it."

Bella faced him, her interest peaked. "What kind of car?"

"Well it's a truck," he corrected, smiling half-heartedly. "A Chevy."

"Where did you get it?"

"Uh, Billy Black, from at La Push," he answered, shifting in his seat. "Do you remember him?"

Bella looked thoughtful for only a second and shrugged. "No."

"He used to go fishing with us during the summer," Charlie prompted.

Bella's forehead creased as she tried to remember and it took all I had not to scoff. She spent many times fishing with Charlie and evidently his friend. That was the only time she spent with Charlie and it made me restless thinking she could not recall those memories.

Were they not the memories you would replay over and over again? Since they were the only ones with her father. They were precious.

"I don't think so," she mumbled in response.

"He's in a wheelchair now," Charlie continued, shrugging. "He can't drive anymore, so that's why he sold me the truck."

"What year is it?"

I almost laughed at Charlie's twitch in his chin, shifting his moustache, but the fact Bella drilled him like this made me cranky.

"Well, Billy's done a lot of work on the engine, it's only a few years old really."

I brought my face between the chairs. "So, if it goes plop, you got your engine guy."

Charlie grinned at me. "Exactly."

Bella did not look appeased. "When did he buy it?"

"In 1984, I think," Charlie muttered.

"Did he buy it new?"

"...Holy interrogation, Batman, take it easy," I accidently let slip. Maybe not because the look on her face? Priceless.

She looked shocked for a second before slumping back in her chair and ran her fingers through her hair. Charlie continued to look nervously between us, until I pointed toward the road. He appeared to like the distraction of, you know, driving.

Charlie cleared his throat. "It's a gift for you Bella, uh, and since Skyler's joining us, I figured you would both need a ride of your own. You don't want to ride the cruiser with your old man, not all the time at least."

Bella mouthed, 'Wow, free', then smiled. "Thanks dad, I was going to buy myself a car."

Charlie blushed scarlet. "Well you can save your money and spend it on whatever you kids want. I just want you to be happy."

"I appreciate that."

I did not know how much longer I could put up with Bella's blandness. Living with Renée took my mind off it for the most part, since she hardly let her child finish her sentences before taking back control of the one-sided conversation.

I ran a hand over the cool window. "It snows here, right? Good sturdy choice for the weather here."

"Oh, yeah. It snows all right," Charlie confirmed, wearing a small smile. "If you're anything like your dad, you'll love it."

I brought the conversation back to the weather, which was wet. Somehow Charlie and I managed to keep up a ten-minute conversation over just that.

I appreciated the effort Charlie made, mentioning my parents and all. Renée never did. Out of sight, out of mind. Or in that case, under the ground, the conversation drowned. The constant reference to them though? That might be a bit too much.

A sigh escaped my lips as we bypassed the greenery. Maybe the air was not as fresh as back home, but that was because I used to live beside the sea. Salty air just made everything that much better. The familiarity of the trees was not lost on me though. It was way better than Phoenix.

Charlie parked the car outside of a small but cute looking house. It looked like a family house. In front of this house sat a truck. A clumsy looking thing that made Bella make heart eyes at it.

"Looking good, Charlie," I complimented the truck. "I like the colour."

"Yeah dad, I love it. Thanks!" Bella added on, grinning at it.

Charlie looked intensely at the truck, avoiding our eyes. "I'm glad you like it."

It took us a few trips to get our bags into our respective rooms. Bella obviously got her old bedroom and I was given the guest room. Walking inside and placing the bags onto the bed, I noticed a few things. The guest room looked somehow personalised.

I twisted and turned, noticing the small things like a bunny rabbit sat on one of the shelves on the wardrobe, small pictures placed on a bedside locker and on the walls. With closer inspection, the result nearly made me cry.

Charlie held a baby in his arms, dressed in a frilly pink dress that covered the baby's legs so it looked like she was mutated. Renée grinned next to him, alongside Billy Black. Then a man with brown hair and a woman with a slightly lighter shade, smiled too.

My mother and father and their closest friends at my christening.

"I never understood why they gave you two god-fathers," Charlie said, from the door. "Just one god-mother too."

I glanced over my shoulder and shrugged. "They were weird like that."

"I'm sorry, Skyler," he said, his voice gruff. "They were the best people I knew. I'm sorry that you didn't get the time you deserved with them. I truly am."

"Me too."

He nodded at me and excused himself, leaving me to unpack and get settled. The frown that had managed to plaster itself on my lips dropped, leaving my face blank. The raindrops on the window just reminded me of the many tears I spent on the memory of my parents. Their death.

No more would fall, I promised myself that after the funeral.

I grabbed the plastic bag filled with bathroom materials and dumped the stuff onto shelves, making sure to leave enough space for Bella's things too, because I was oh so considerate.

"Oh."

I dropped my toothbrush into a plastic cup and twisted around. "Yeah. I know, don't need to make a big deal over it."

"I wasn't," she denied, backing out of the room.

"You were thinking it. Your face is easy to read." I said, moving past her. "One bathroom, three people. It's not a big deal. Just imagine that with students."

"...Students?"

"I went to boarding school, remember?" I informed more than asked and went back into my bedroom. "In the highlands of Scotland."

"So, you're used to sharing," she said, picking at the edges of her sleeve. "Are you nervous for tomorrow? I don't think the school gets much new students."

I dumped all the clothes onto the bed, then faced her. "Not really. I just want to get settled, normalise things for a while."

I sat on top of the bed and brought the leather-bound journal onto my lap. The assumption she would take the action as a dismissal was clearly wrong. I noticed from the corner of my eye, Bella watched it with interest. Too much interest.

She nodded slowly. "Right. I see that with you everywhere you go. Is it a diary?"

"No."

She waited at the door for an answer. "What is it?"

I slowly smiled, watching her body language ease. Then I snapped it shut, making her jump. "None of your business."

That action, she took as a dismissal.

I opened it again and began to write.

Dear Katie,

I'm in Forks. Bella had some obsessive need to make her mom happy or something. Apparently, it's with that guy practically going through puberty, Phil. So here we are, at Charlie's.

I thought I'd let you know my whereabouts, just in case. Burn the page after.

With Love,

Skyler.

Once I finished writing, I placed the pen down and watched with Fascination as black ink formed letters on the next page.

Kay. Geraldine thinks I'm writing secret love letters. If only. Love you too. Xo -Katie.