Disclaimer: Don't own nothing but the plotline.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Chapter One: The Return to My True Home
I packed my bags almost two weeks after what had happened, heading back to Forks, Washington. It was the place I had been born and had spent the first ten years of my life. Before Renee, my mom had left my dad, Charlie.
I had told Renee and Phil that I needed a change. I needed to get away from Phoenix, Arizona, where I had spent the last almost nine years with Renee and Phil, Renee's husband of three years. I needed to return to Forks, where I felt was the real home I was missing.
It was the beginning of February, starting the sixth month of my senior year of high school. I would be transferring to Forks High, a school that shockingly had a total of three hundred and fifty eight students. Now it was three hundred and fifty nine.
Renee had told me, as I waited to board the plane to Port Angeles airport, that I was welcome to come back home whenever I felt like it. Yeah. Home. Phoenix, Arizona – although it was nice to see the sun – was beginning to feel a little… well, big.
I told her that I needed to be in Forks. To make sure that dad wasn't killing himself from starvation – Charlie was known to be a not so good cook. The limit was scrambled eggs and bacon, and even that was pushing it.
I hugged Renee good-bye and handed my plane ticket to the ticket checker. She smiled at me and I was allowed to get on the plane. I turned around and waved at my mom, smiling.
As I sat back in my seat on the plane, I thought about all the people I was going to be seeing in just a few hours. Alice, Rosalie, Emmett, Jasper, Carlisle, Esme, Charlie… and Edward. I smiled. How I missed. I couldn't wait to see them again. To hug Alice tightly, and to hear Emmett roar with laughter at my klutziness. I was born a klutz.
According to Edward, I wasn't able to walk across a flat surface without finding something to trip over.
Edward. I missed him. A lot. It was weird. I was missing him slightly more than the others. I hadn't seen him since we were ten. Alice, him, and I were the same age – eighteen – while Jasper, Rosalie, and Emmett were a year older than us.
Alice, I assumed was probably with Jasper now. As boyfriend and girlfriend, I mean. And Rosalie and Emmett probably were to. They all had crushes on each other in middle school. They were all adopted by Carlisle and Esme. So was Edward.
But Edward didn't have anyone to like. Well, he did propose to me in middle school, and I have to admit we did like each other in middle school and elementary school. But how would I know if he was dating someone? I had been gone for almost nine years.
I felt a pang of jealousy. The last time we had seen each other was when I was about to leave for Arizona. All the Cullen's had gathered at the airport to see Renee and I off.
I turned to Edward to say good-bye to him, and I found I couldn't. It was devastating, leaving your life-long best friends behind on one side of the country, when you're leaving to move to another state.
"So, uh, bye." Edward said, and I could see him mentally kicking himself at what he had said. He looked nervous about something.
Before I had the chance to say anything, he pulled me to the side, and I thought at first that he was going to kiss me. But instead, he pulled something out of his pocket and handed it to me.
In my hand was a necklace. It was a silver chain, with a silver flower dangling. I smiled and looked up at him. It was perfect, coming from him.
"It's a necklace," he said, looking down at his feet and stating the obvious.
"Thanks, Edward. I love it. You don't know how much this means to me," I said, putting it around my head. At lay a couple inches below my collarbone. I loved it. I would never take it off.
I could see Edward blushing. I smiled.
"Well, I paid fifty cents for it. I got it from one of the change things at the grocery store," he said.
I laughed. "Thanks, Edward. I love it." I hugged him.
"It means that I'll never forget about you, even though I might date someone else. But I would dump her if you ever came back," he said. I looked at him. Did he like me?
I chuckled and hugged him again just as my mom called for me to come, as the plane was now boarding. I could feel the tears come as I waved one last time at my favorite family, the Cullen's, and walked to my mom.
I was pulled out of my thoughts as a steward came and asked if I wanted anything. I told her no, but thank you anyways for the offer.
Again, I leaned my head back, pulling my CD player out of my shoulder-bag I used for school. I put the headphones on and turned on Debussy, my favorite classical music.
Clair De Lune came on and I started fingering at my necklace, the necklace that Edward had given me right before I had left for Phoenix. I had never taken it off. Him giving that to me, it meant the whole world to me. I still remember his nervousness when he gave it to me, and it still made me giggle at the thought. And when he blushed, I thought that the world had ended. I loved to see him blush.
The flight to Seattle was four hours long, but it didn't seem too long to me, as I immersed myself in thoughts of my first ten years with the Cullen's living in Forks.
Where were they now? Were they still living in Forks? Or had they moved on to someplace, thinking that they would never see me again? I hoped that they were still living there, because I wanted to see them so bad, that it made me jittery with excitement that I was actually going to see the most entertaining family for the first time in so many years.
Charlie was excited when I told him I was coming to live with him in Forks. Renee and Phil were moving to Florida, and I wanted to give them some privacy. So I called Charlie up and said guess what, dad. He was going to register me into the Forks High School, so I didn't need to worry about all the transferring.
He told me that he was going to help me find a car so I could get to school easily. Since he was the chief of police in the small town of rainy Forks, he was the perfect way to slow down traffic.
When I told him I was coming to live with him, I asked him not to tell the Cullen's or anyone else that I was coming back. When he asked why, I told him that I wanted to surprise everybody. He chuckled when I told him that.
Four hours later, I landed in Seattle. I boarded a plane that would get me to Port Angeles. Outside, I was your normal teenager who was flying on a plane. But on the inside, I was bursting with excitement: in just two short hours, I would be home again.
As I walked off the plane an hour later, I walked to one of the huge windows over-looking the take off strip. I was glad to see the rain clouds that was covering the early afternoon sky (I had boarded a 7:30 a.m. flight, and by the time I got to Port Angeles, it was a little after 1:00 p.m.).
With my shoulder bag securely across my chest, I scanned the area for Charlie.
"Bells!"
I turned around and saw Charlie. I grinned and walked toward him, with him coming towards me. I flung my arms around him as we hugged each other. "Hey, dad," I said.
The hour long drive from Port Angeles to Forks was a little awkward. Charlie and I don't exactly say much when there isn't much need to say anything. We were quiet by nature, and we were both perfectly okay with that.
Finally, I managed to break the silence first. "So, how is everyone, dad? Everybody still the same?"
"Everybody's fine," Charlie answered.
After a couple moments, I said, "Are the Cullen's still living in Forks?"
Charlie looked at me before staring out at the road ahead. "Yes, they're still here. They miss you, you know. I'm pretty sure that they would be very glad to hear that you're coming home."
"You didn't tell them did you?" I asked.
"No."
"Thanks, dad."
Again, an awkward silence passed before Charlie said, "I bought a car for you. Remember how I said I'd help you find a car?"
I had been putting my straight thin brown hair up in a ponytail when Charlie said this. I let my hair fall back into place in shock. "You bought me a car? Are you serious?"
Charlie nodded, eyes glued to the road. He had never been able to express his feelings. I was the same way. "Yes. From Billy Black. Remember him?"
"Uh, sort of."
"Well, I bought his old truck. It runs really great," Charlie said.
Now I was interested. "What year is the truck?"
"1968, I think."
We were crossing the line into Forks now. "Thanks, dad. I really appreciate it."
I saw Charlie smile. I like it when he smiled. It meant that he still had some of the old Charlie in him. "You're welcome, Bells."
I stared out the window at the town of Forks. It was exactly the way it was when I had left it nine years ago. But the people in it have probably grown older.
As we pulled into the dirt driveway in front of the house I loved so much, I saw a red truck sitting in the driveway. I couldn't believe it. It was awesome!
"Wow! Dad, thanks," I said as we got out of the cruiser, the only car Charlie owned.
"Again, welcome."
We went into the house, Charlie carrying my duffle bag that held all the clothes that were appropriate for rainy weather: jeans, long-sleeved shirts, a couple zip-up sweaters, that kind of stuff. Charlie set it down in the hallway in front of the door, and I carried it up to my old bedroom.
It was in this bedroom that I had cried myself to sleep whenever Renee and Charlie had fought. The bedroom looked exactly as I had left it. The only addition was a computer that my mom had sent from Arizona so that I would be able to e-mail her.
Here, I felt at home.
After I unpacked, I wandered downstairs where Charlie was.
As he saw me coming down the stairs, he said, "I have to go back to the station. I should be home at five o'clock. Is that okay?"
I nodded. "Uh, Ch – dad, is it okay if I go about the town a little? Maybe go stop by the Cullen's house to say hi?"
"Sure, that's okay. Uh, here are the keys to your truck. I'll be back later. Mind yourself, now, okay?" he asked as he handed me the keys and strapped his gun holster to around his waist.
"Okay," I said.
After Charlie left, I realized that I was really hungry, as I hadn't had any lunch on the plane, so I wandered into the kitchen.
I noted that the cupboards were still painted yellow and the same tiles were on the floor. There was the same square table that had three chairs around it. The stove was exactly the same as I remembered it, though it looked like it had age a little.
I opened the refrigerator and found that there was nothing in it. I would have to go grocery shopping tomorrow. How Charlie managed to survive all these years was beyond me at the moment. I found an unopened box of S'mores and Chocolate Chip Chewy Granola bars.
I sat down at the table and ate a lunch that consisted of S'mores Chewy Granola Bars.
After I had eaten half the box – there were twelve in the box –, I got up from the table and got the cloth jacket I had gotten at Aeropostale from my bedroom.
I walked out to my truck, and got in. Starting the engine, I jumped at its loud roar, as if it was being awakened at a time when it didn't want to be woken.
Trying to remember the way to the Cullen's house, I navigated my way through Forks. It was beginning to drizzle slightly, and I couldn't help but feel relieved at the sound of the beating of the rain.
I turned my heater on after a few minutes of driving. It felt nice, the blast of warm air, coming from an old, old truck.
Slowly, I was beginning to recognize the landmarks of the way to the Cullen's mansion that was off to the side somewhere.
I knew I was close to the start of the driveway, and I was glad that the rain wasn't pouring down buckets upon buckets. I remembered that the start of the driveway was slightly hidden by the always green plants that grew in Forks, the place that was probably the greenest place on earth.
When I managed to find the driveway, I was thrilled. My insides were twisting into knots. I was about to see my best friends again.
I turned into the driveway. As I drove into the clearing that was in front of the mansion that was the Cullen's home, I saw that it looked exactly as I remembered it. I was glad. Emmett had managed not to blow the house up with his crazy antics. Maybe he had begun to grow up a little, now that he was nineteen, but I highly doubted it; Emmett would always be Emmett.
I stopped my truck on the right side of the driveway, turned it off and sat there for a few seconds, gathering up courage to go up to the door.
When it began to get cold, I decided that it was time to get the guts and go to the door. I got out of my truck and cautiously walked up to the door, afraid that they wouldn't recognize me, or not want me to talk to them.
Pushing those fears away, I hesitantly lifted my balled fist up to the door and knocked. When nobody answered after the first moment, I pushed the doorbell.
I heard the sound chime ring through the house, and I knew that now they would be know someone was at the door. A few seconds passed before I thought that nobody was probably home. I turned to go. But before I could take even a step, the door opened and I heard a voice that was motherly sounding.
"Hello?"
I closed my eyes and took a deep breath. All I had to do was turn around. I turned around, and found myself facing Esme, the motherly figure I loved so dearly.
"Hey, Esme," I said, a huge smile on my face.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Author's Note: This chapter is longer than the prologue, and I hope you liked it. I have two more chapters already written, and I'll post them after I finish chapter four, which I am currently writing.
What will Esme's reaction to Bella coming home be? And even more, what will Alice's and Edward's reaction be to Bella's return? Well... I already know, but you'll find out soon enough...
So, review and tell me if you like it and if I should keep going or not. I would really appreciate it! And it turns out I probably won't be getting February vacation (thank goodness! Call me crazy, but, from the penname, I like school...) but I'll try to update at least once a week or so. Maybe more. Anyhow, off to post this chapter! NerdyGuRu2
