Chapter two
"This place is a dump!" Rosalie said, standing in the doorway of the youth hostel.
She struck an imaginary pose, one hand on her hip and the other waving an imaginary cigarette. "What an unbelievable dump!"
She was doing her Bette Davis routine. I'd seen it many times. It wasn't all that good, but who was I to criticize the queen of Fork's High?
Every high school must have its reigning beauty, just as every wolf pack needs a leader. And that's what Rosalie Hale was. Queen. Leader. Golden-haired goddess. She ruled the best, the most exclusive clique in school. The one everyone wanted to be a part of, but which included only the prettiest, most popular girls, like Rosalie and Jessica Stanley and Angela Weber.
And me. I was in the group now. Lucky me.
Are you proud, Jake? I'm doing it only for you. You always used to say that living well was the best revenge. I miss you, Jake.
Jessica Stanley pushed me aside in her eagerness to follow Rosalie into the lounge of the hostel. She always seemed to hang onto Rosalie's coattails. Maybe she figured some of Rose's glitter would rub off on her if she stood close enough.
"It's not that bad, Rose," she said. "We're only going to be here for one night before we leave for Eclipse Island anyway."
The hostel was a two-storey wooden building. It was unpainted, both inside and out, and the boards had turned a silvery grey with age. It was built in a simple rectangular shape, like an old army barracks, and looked as if it had been here, at the head of the river, for a very long time.
A small private college owned the hostel and rented it out to school groups and hiking and canoeing clubs. From the looks of things, we were the first – and only – group to stay there this season. I could see a thick layer of dust on the stairs leading to the top floor, and some of last fall's leaves that had blown in from the porch still littered the foyer, in front of the check-in desk.
There was no clerk or receptionist at the desk. A large sign, propped against the wall, told us where to find the caretaker and urged us to leave the building as clean as we found it.
That wouldn't be hard, I thought. Even my room at home is cleaner than this.
Rosalie was right. It really was a dump.
In the lounge Jessica plunked her cosmetic case down on a vinyl-upholstered chair that had a large rip in the seat. I could hear all her make-up bottles rattle and clink.
Naturally Jessica would have to bring a bag full of cosmetics on a week-long trip into the woods. God forbid she be caught without her pink glitter eye shadow.
Jessica was as gorgeous in a brunette, dark-eyed way as Rosalie was stunningly blonde. You had to be good-looking to run in this crowd. I know. It took a major make-over – hair, wardrobe, body, contacts – for me to make the grade.
But for all her looks and charm, there was a streak of bitchiness in Jessica that lay, only barely submerged, just beneath the surface.
Somewhere, somehow, I'd offended her. Maybe it was because my dad was the chief of police in Forks and had cautioned her a couple of times over under-age drinking, or maybe it was because my family was reasonably wealthy, unlike hers. Or maybe because, although I was basically a 'geek', I'd managed to crack the inner sanctum, the holy of holies, the 'in' group.
I always had to be on my guard against Jessica. The girl must lie awake nights thinking of ways to dump on me. And the worst part of it was that she always caught me by surprise. I'd always promise myself the next time she said something bitchy, I'd be waiting for her with the perfect reply – something witty and cool. Something that would make her think twice before messing with me. But it never happened. She'd say something bitchy, and while I was trying to figure out a perfect comeback, she'd give me that smug smile of hers, and I'd know she'd beat me again.
I heard heavy footsteps on the porch and turned to see Emmett McCarty stagger through the door, loaded down with a bulging backpack and a huge ice chest containing some of the perishable food we would be needing for our week of roughing it on the island.
It was a heavy load, but Emmett had the muscles to carry it.
Over six feet tall and ruggedly handsome with dimples that made every girl swoon, Emmett was, without a doubt, the most popular guy at Forks High. He was captain of the football team, president of the student government and all around nice guy. All those assets, of course, made him the perfect partner for Rosalie Hale.
I didn't think Rosalie was as crazy about Emmett like he was about her. Rosalie was a junior, as I was, but Emmett would be graduating next year. I had asked her once what she would do next year with him off at college. Would she miss him?
She had just laughed. "I'm sure I'll find somebody to help me pass away the lonely hours, Bella," she'd said. "You know that saying – 'men are like buses, there is always another round the corner'."
"Where do you want all this stuff, Rosalie?" Emmett asked. "We'll be loading it in the canoes tomorrow morning."
"Mr and Mrs Banner haven't gotten here yet," she told him. "Let's just put everything in the middle of the room and sort it out later."
"Are you sure we brought enough food?" Angela Weber asked. Angela was a tall, sandy-haired jockette. Although she ate like she was one of the guys, she never gained an ounce. There wasn't much meat on her bones, but what was there was artistically arranged.
Angela was one of the more likeable members of the group that was heading for Eclipse Island. She hadn't made any efforts to get into Rosalie's little clique. Just the opposite; she couldn't have cared less. Angela was pretty, athletic and headed for Washington University when she graduated next year, financially backed by a generous swimming scholarship. She didn't need to be a member of the in group in order to feel good about herself.
"We have more than enough," Jessica told her. "Unless Bella" – she looked at me slyly from beneath her thick eyelashes – "goes on one of her eating binges."
I'm thinner now than I used to be. I was never really fat, but I did trim down some recently. I never realized Jessica had ever noticed me before I started hanging out with Rosalie. I guess she had, and now she obviously was not about to let me forget my chubbier days.
I glared at her, and she smiled. When would I learn to smarten up and ignore her when she yanked my chain?
"Where are Edward and Mike?" Rosalie asked.
"They're locking up the cars and bringing in the rest of the gear," replied Emmett. "You know Edward. They guy needs to loosen his panties a bit. I told him we could leave some of the stuff out there overnight, but he's nervous about someone sneaking around in the dead of night and ripping us off."
"Well, we all know Edward has problems with his nerves," Jessica said.
"What do you mean?" I asked.
Rosalie and Jessica exchanged glances.
"Don't tell me you believed him when he said he went off for a couple of weeks last fall because his grandmother was sick and they thought he was going to die!" Rosalie said incredulously. "Honestly, Bella, I thought you were smarter than that."
"You mean that's not why he was gone?"
"Duh. His grandmother is as healthy as a horse."
"So where did he go?"
"Are you serious?" Rosalie asked. "You honestly don't know?"
"No. I mean, yes, I'm serious. I don't know."
"He'd been really depressed for weeks. You must have noticed."
"I really didn't know Edward very well then, Rosalie. We only had one class together.
And I wasn't noticing much those awful days last fall. That was when Jake…died. Jake, my first, my best, my only friend. We'd just discovered we were more than friends, that we loved each other when….when it happened.
"Well, trust me, Bella," Rosalie was saying. "He'd gotten himself into this awful depression where he just kind of moped around all the time. It seriously got on my nerves."
Trust Rosalie to make it sound like such an inconvenience to her, I thought.
"Anyway," she continued. "It got to the point where his parents took him away to a hospital, where they gave him pills and treatment and stuff. He's pretty much okay now."
"We hope," Jessica said with a nasty laugh.
"But what was his problem?" I asked. "What was he depressed about?"
Rosalie suddenly became very busy sorting through the bags Emmett had piled up in the middle of the room.
"How would I know? That's his business, Bella, not mine."
Rosalie was hiding something. Something about Edward. Knowing Rose and her self-centred attitude toward other people's feelings, it was obvious she had been involved somehow in Edward's emotional breakdown. If she wasn't, she would have had no problem airing Edward's dirty laundry.
Mike Newton stuck his head through the door and called out, "Hey guys. If you're fooling around or smoking anything funny, you'd better cut it out. The Banner's van is coming up the drive."
We'd come in two cars – Rosalie and Emmett, Jessica and Mike in one, Angela, Edward and I in the other.
Mike was Jessica's boyfriend. He was athletic and popular, but not particularly smart. He couldn't be, not when he thought he was the luckiest guy on the planet to be sweet, sexy little Jessica's main man. And yes, there was just the slightest hint of sarcasm in that sentence.
"What I don't do for love," Mike said, with a mock leer in Jessica's direction. "Imagine, a whole week in Mr Banner's company."
"Yeah right, Mike," Angela said. "We all know why you've come on this trip. You're hoping to get Jessica alone in the deep, dark woods."
Jessica sniffed indignantly, but I could tell she was pleased. Mike might not be the most intelligent guy in Forks, but he was a jock, and there were, literally, dozens of girls at Fork's High just waiting to get their hands on him.
"What happened to Edward?" I asked Mike. "He's not planning to stand guard over the cars all night is he?"
Mike rolled his eyes and waggled a finger in my direction.
"Aha! Just as I suspected, Bella," he joked. "You're getting your freak on for Eddie-boy. Poor guy, he doesn't stand a chance now."
"Whatever, Mike," I said, turning away slightly to hide my growing blush. "Just because I asked a simple question, it doesn't mean I … that Edward and I are …"
"Of course not, Bella," Jessica put in silkily. "We all know perfectly well that you aren't or, shall I put it more bluntly, haven't with any guy, much less Edward Mason."
I thought of Jake, and how close we'd been. Jessica, in spite of all her bragging, would never know anything like that.
If it's true that time heals all wounds, why do I still feel this terrible pain when I remember Jake?
I wandered over to the grimy window and looked out.
Edward was on the top steps of the porch, talking animatedly with the Banners. He was extremely attractive, much more than Emmett and Mike I thought. He wasn't as muscular as they were but still had a gaggle of girls fighting over him at Fork's High.
I bit my bottom lip as I continued to watch him, slightly fascinated at the way the sun kept hitting his hair, making it shine like copper pennies. I wondered what it would feel like to run my fingers through it ….
As if he could sense me watching him, he suddenly stopped talking and, looking across to the window where I was stood, smiled and waved.
I awkwardly waved back, my cheeks ablaze with embarrassment.
I knew why Edward had come on this trip. He was eager to get some academic credits to make up for the time he'd lost by his absence last fall.
Mr Banner was head of the science department at Forks. Every spring break he took a small group of students on a camp-out to an island in a remote part of the state. The purpose of the expedition was to study the flora and fauna of the heavily wooded island, and Mr Banner was always generous in giving extra science credits to those making the trip with him. A week on Eclipse Island and a decent written report were enough to ensure a minimum grade of B- in science.
The reason the girls – Rosalie, Jessica and Angela – had come on the trip was the same as Edward's. Grades. And they had begged me to come with them – well, Rosalie and Angela had begged me – because science, along with English, are my strongest subjects, and they thought I could help them on the island and later with their reports.
"Please, Bella," Rosalie had urged. "I really have to go on this thing. If I screw up my grades and don't get accepted by any of the really good colleges, my parents will kill me."
"Please come, Bella," Angela had added. "All that swimming practice this semester hasn't left much time for homework. I might lose my scholarship if I don't maintain a high grade average. I can really use this extra credit."
Emmett and Mike's reason's for coming were more than a little obvious.
First, there was the excuse to be with Rosalie and Jessica day and night. The night part was what really intrigued them. And second, it sounded like their kind of fun. Canoeing down the river. Roughing it in the woods. Not having to shave, or even bathe. It was their idea of a real he-man holiday.
The trip, as explained to us earlier by Mr Banner, would begin with a long canoe ride down the river, then onto a smaller, narrower river, which in turn, would empty into Shadow Lake, a dark, cliff-rimmed lake in which Eclipse Island was situated in the centre.
A senior couple, Alice Brandon and Jasper Whitlock, who'd been on the trip the year before, told us, "The island's pretty bleak. Very spooky. There's an old abandoned cabin there that you'll be staying in. it used to be a hunting lodge ages ago. You'll be roughing it, all right. Believe us, you'll earn every single credit Mr Banner gives you!"
And so here we were, at the jumping-off point for the trip: a hostel at the head of the river, where we'd spend the night before we started out early the next morning.
Alice and Jasper had warned us we'd be roughing it.
It was rough, all right.
It was a killer.
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