Disclaimer: All characters, places, and anything familiar from the Twilight Novels belong to Stephenie Meyer and Summit.


Time

"But time
Keeps flowing like a river
To the sea"


The days went by in much the same manner. Following the same routine. At school Bella hanged out with them during lunch. Lauren ignored her every time. There was something about her that gave her a weird vibe; she just couldn't quite put her finger on it. Mike always seemed to be hanging on her every word and Lauren didn't think Jessica was very happy with this new development; still Jess tried to make Bella a part of their group. She didn't know why Jess even bothered.


When classes were over for the day she took her time by her locker making sure she had everything in her bag. By the time she was heading to her car she saw a commotion by Bella's truck. It appeared that Tyler Crowley almost smashed Bella to bits. She heard someone near her say that the pavement had some ice and when he took a turn he lost control of his van. Lauren saw Jessica standing near Tyler who seemed to be ok. Just as she reached her car Jess mouthed a 'call you later'. Lauren just nodded, not wanting to get involved in all the drama.

She drove home and went strait to take a shower. Later while she was in the middle of finishing her Calculus homework her cell phone rang.

"Jess," she answered on the second ring, "What the hell happened?"

Jessica related everything to Lauren, down to the very last detail, "—and they took Bella to the hospital, but she's fine," she said, "Edward Cullen pushed her out of the way."

"Seriously?" she was a bit skeptical. Who would have thought he'd come to her rescue. Then again the fact that they didn't socialize with anybody didn't mean they would let somebody get hurt.

"I know, I think she was shocked as well," she sounded really exited, as if it was some sort of prize to be rescued by a guy, "Poor Tyler kept apologizing all the way to the hospital."

"It wasn't really his fault," Lauren said remembering how Tyler — even though he looked fine — was as pale as a ghost in the parking lot.

"I told him that, but he wouldn't listen," she whined.

Just then she heard her mother opening the door downstairs.

"Listen Jess, I'll talk to you tomorrow at school," her mother was home early which was rather unusual. "Mom just arrived."

"Ok, I'll see you at school," she said.

Lauren closed her phone and went downstairs still thinking about Tyler. He must have felt really bad about what happened. Then her thoughts turned to his appearance. Even then he looked kind of cute and she liked guys that played sports. She admitted — if only to herself — that she may have had a bit of a crush. Walking into the kitchen she all but forgot about Tyler, kissing her mother on the cheek she went to the sink to wash her hands.

"How was your day honey?" her mother asked sitting down at the table.

"It was ok," Lauren eyed her mother, looking for any sign and not finding any that would clue her in on why she was home early. She took two plates from one of the cabinets and placed them down on the table, "Though there was an accident in the parking lot after school."

"I heard," she finished placing the silverware, "Something involving Chief Swan's daughter."

"Yeah, Tyler almost hit her with his van," Lauren told her mother as Annie came to set the food on the table, "Dr. Cullen's son pushed her out of the way."

"Poor thing, she was very lucky he was near," her mother said with a wistful smile after taking a bite of food, "Carlisle was the one who took the case when she arrived, Chief Swan came a while later to take her home, I've never seen him look that worried in my life."

Yeah poor thing, she thought icily. They ate in silence while her mother went through some case files. She kept thinking what Chief Swan might have felt when they told him about the accident. She wouldn't wish that on anyone even if she loathed his daughter. She knew quite well the grief that came after losing someone you loved dearly. Her mind drifted through memories of her daddy and grandfather, making the pain flare through her chest. It was never really gone; it was just living below the surface like a river, ever constant. Everyone told her that the pain would go away eventually. She was still waiting on that one.

After she finished dinner she went straight to her room, homework forgotten. She was so distracted that trying to finish it would be near impossible. She hadn't realized how extremely tired she was until she eyed her bed. She changed into a pair of cotton pants and a loose t-shirt and went to sleep replaying memories she thought were long forgotten.


She was at her old house in Seattle. It was her fourth birthday and her father hadn't arrived yet. She was already in her pink pajamas and her mother was trying to put her down to sleep. Lauren remembered being quite upset because she wanted to wait for her daddy to get home. Suddenly she looked up and there he was standing by the doorframe of her room with a big smile on his face and a pink tricycle with a big white bow on top in his hands. She ran up to him while he laid the gift on the floor. He took her in his arms and spun her around, then held her tightly, whispering 'happy birthday Penguin' and placed a kiss on the top of her head 'I love you so much'.

Lauren woke up gasping. The images of the dream still fresh. It had been a long time since she had one of those dreams. Probably since before she came back from Appleton two and a half years ago. She took a deep breath shaking her head and gave her room a once over as if to make sure she wasn't dreaming anymore before heading to the bathroom to get ready for school.


Lauren hated the girl's choice spring dance. She wasn't looking forward to it, inviting a guy to a dance was not her thing. Jessica was contemplating about asking Mike today, though he seemed to be waiting for someone else to invite him. I'll take three guesses, she thought with sarcasm. She didn't want to be anywhere near Jess when she found out. It will probably become a blood bath she grimaced.

It turned out she was right — well, not about the blood bath part — or at least she was almost sure she was right because Jessica asked Mike and he turned her down, but everyone knew that he still didn't have a date. So Lauren supposed he was waiting to see if Bella asked him. What a total waste of time. The day was going by too slow for her liking. She wished she could go home already. She thought about faking some type of illness but then decided against it because they would probably call her mother and she never got away with anything with her mother being a doctor and all.


Finally, she skipped all the way to her car, she was so ready to head home. She got out of her usual spot and realized that there was a car jam in the parking lot. She shifted the car to park and waited, tapping her fingers to the rhythm of some song that was playing on the radio. She was mentally going through a list of guys she could ask to the stupid dance. At the moment Tyler was at the top of the list. He was funny and really good-looking. He was also taller than her, high heals included, and he was slightly built, she thought with a smirk, that's definitely a plus.

It appeared she invoked him because he was getting out of his new car. She heard his parents had to sell the van in pieces. She realized where he was heading. You got to be kidding me she fumed. Why was he going over to Bella's truck? Lauren was suddenly filled with dread, she remembered Jessica saying something to her earlier about some of the guys wanting to ask Bella to the dance. It looked kind of desperate since the girls where supposed to be the ones that had to ask the guys, not the other way around. But it hadn't even crossed her mind that Tyler would be one of those. Lauren hoped she was just being paranoid.

Tyler walked back to his car with a disappointed look on his face. Oh no. If he did ask Bella then he was definitely off the list. Still she had to make sure that he actually did ask Bella. She wasn't planning on being anybody's second choice. Ever. It was enough coming in second place to her mother's love for her job.

Finally the cars stared moving and she drove home. When she got there the house was empty. Why am I not surprised? She looked around contemplating whether or not to make herself something to eat but she had lost what little appetite she had on her way over. She settled instead on watching a movie while she tried to do some homework.

She was so absorbed watching A Knight's Tale that she almost missed the house phone ringing. She ran to answer it.

"Yeah?" she asked while still keeping an eye on the TV.

"Guess who I'm going to the dance with?" Jessica's exited voice came through the phone.

"Hello to you too Jess," Lauren replied, her voice dripping with sarcasm.

"Aha yeah, guess who I'm going to the dance with?" God, it was like speaking to a deaf monkey. And was she really asking her that? She was probably one of the most obvious people on the planet.

"I don't know Jess, Mike?" she just heard a squeal and moved the phone away from her ear. She wasn't fast enough because now she was hearing a slight ringing. Jessica kept squealing and talking a mile a minute. Lauren was having a very difficult time trying to understand what she was talking about. Then she heard her mention Tyler.

"What about Tyler?" Jessica stopped mid rant. Lauren hoped she wasn't going to tell her that he was going with Bella.

"You should ask him," she said, "He still doesn't have a date and I already told Angela to invite Eric and she said that it was a great idea and that the six of us should go together."

"You really think I should ask him?" Lauren kept thinking that he probably wanted to go with Bella and she wasn't planning on embarrassing herself. She may not be a shy person when it came down to talking to guys and was actually very popular, but she didn't handle rejection very well.

"Yeah, he really likes you," she said offhandedly followed by more squealing. He really liked her? Now that was a big fat lie. He was just like the other guys at school. Watching the new girl's every move, even the ones that already had girlfriends. But still it was either ask someone or stay home. And Tyler was one of the good-looking ones. She guessed she just answered her own question.

"Guess I'll give him a call later," Lauren wasn't really looking forward to it. Jessica kept talking but Lauren's mind was miles away. She interrupted Jessica telling her some lame excuse to get off the phone. Lauren hanged up and sat down in the living room. Heath Ledger forgotten for the moment. She was contemplating on whether or not to call Tyler right now. Or should she just ask him at school? Did she really want to go to the stupid dance in the first place?

Her mind made up she headed to the kitchen and grabbed a can of soda from the fridge. She took the phone and went back to the living room. She dialed Tyler's number before she lost her nerve. He answered on the second ring. She invited him to the dance and he said yes. No use beating around the bush. They talked for a while about nothing in particular.

After she hung up she went back to the kitchen to find something to eat. She was hungry now that she wasn't a ball of nerves. She ate a bowl of cereal in the kitchen counter, when she finished she rinsed the plate and left in the sink. That should keep her hunger at bay until dinner. She decided to go upstairs to the library and went about finishing some homework. After a while she thought that she needed to clear her head a bit and settled on going for a run down the trail in the forest. She grabbed a pair of pants and a sweatshirt, changed, grabbed her ipod and went out the backdoor.

Nothing. That's what she was thinking at the moment. That's why she took to running sometimes, to think about nothing. She figured that maybe if she ran for a while that she would be to exhausted to dream at night. It had been working since that they she dreamed about her father. She hoped it worked. She knew that her dreams weren't nightmares, just memories of a time when she was happy, carefree, and above all complete. They were good memories but they also brought out the pain. Even when it was always there, it was as if it was muted somehow. But when the memories came to the surface so did the pain. So she really hoped it worked tonight.

She finished the trail in the woods and headed back to her house. It seemed that while she was out running Annie left a plate of food for her. It looked like her mother was taking an extra shift again. She ate in silence and then went upstairs to take a shower and went straight to bed. She didn't dream anything that night. Or maybe she just didn't remember.


Lauren woke up the next morning feeling well rested. She went through her usual routine of getting ready for school. When she was done she gave herself the customary once over in the mirror. At least she looked better than yesterday. Feeling quite pleased with herself she headed downstairs to the kitchen. She said good morning to her mother and Annie and sat to eat breakfast.

"At what time did you get home last night?" she asked her mother while she finished pouring milk on her cereal.

"Quite late," her mother said while she read the newspaper, "Some nurse messed up some charts and they gave a patient the wrong antibiotics, which he seemed to be allergic to and caused him to go into cardiac arrest, but we got him stabilized after a few minutes."

"I'm glad everything went ok," she once thought about becoming a doctor like her parents but keeping a cool head in those kind of situations wasn't her thing. She probably would've broken down crying hysterically closely followed by a nervous breakdown. She was definitely a drama queen.

After she finished breakfast, she wished her mother good luck with her patients and went to the foyer to grab her coat and car keys. She got in the car and drove to school. She wondered why her mother always — well almost always — took extra shifts when they lived in a small town. It wasn't as if there was extreme traffic at the hospital for her to take the extra hours. And when she actually was home she was usually going through case files. Deep down she guessed that either she needed to stay occupied or she just didn't want to spend time with her own daughter because she was a reminder of what she'd lost.

Her grandfather once told her that she was the female version of her dad, that if she looked at his baby pictures they could pass off as twins. But still it was no excuse for her mother's avoidance. Didn't she know that she needed her? That she had lost loved ones to? She was the kid in this farce of a family; her mother was the one that was supposed to be there for her — buying her anything she wanted wasn't a demonstration of love — her mother was supposed to take care of her, she was supposed to know when she felt down and depressed. That was long gone. Once upon a time her mother noticed those kinds of things, now she was barely ever home. And people wondered why she acted the way she did.


When she arrived at school Jessica cornered her as she got out of her car.

"Did you ask Tyler to the dance?" she all but shouted.

"Yeah and he said yes," Lauren held her head high still feeling her cheeks grow hot. Why did she have to yell? She had enough with people talking about her because she was rude to them. This was just giving them free ammo. Again she wasn't paying attention to a word Jess was saying. What was she babbling about now anyway? She tried to focus.

"—Port Angeles together," she was now looking at Lauren waiting for an answer. Oops.

"What about Port Angeles?" she was really trying to listen while they walked to first period.

"I said, we should go dress shopping to Port Angeles," she repeated with an annoyed tone.

"Where you even listening to a word I was saying?" oh she was mad. What exactly did she expect when she went on one of her tirades? It was hard to concentrate when she was talking.

"Yeah, just lost it for a bit thinking about what kind of dress I should wear," That should keep her entertained, Lauren sniggered. Jessica just squealed. Yep, totally worked.

Lauren let her babble away. Down the hallway they caught up with Mike and Eric; they were talking about how the weather this weekend was supposed to be clear and sunny, with no rain in sight. They spotted them, Mike said something to Eric and then came over.

"Hey, we're getting a group together to go to first beach this Saturday, you guys in?" he beamed at them. Mike was like a puppy. He got exited over everything and it took little to keep him happy. Lauren remembered when they dated those brief months back in freshman year. Although it was a mutual breakup, towards the end she felt suffocated. He was just so happy all the damn time. It was ridiculous because it was that part of his personality that drew her to him in the first place. In the end that was what killed the relationship. Maybe she was just making excuses. Or she sabotaged something that could've been good for her on the long run. She gave Mike a once over and gave a slight snort. Breaking up was definitely the right thing to do. He was always so happy — like a puppy — and was also as easily distracted by new shiny toys — again just like a puppy.

Jessica was looking at her with a pointed look. Damn she zoned out again.

"I'll think about it," it wasn't hard taking a guess just by looking at Mike's questioning face, "I have to ask my mom and it still depends on the weather," Lauren thought a trip to the beach would be nice, as long as Mike didn't invite Bella.

English went by in a blur. She and Jessica walked out the classroom and heard Mike and Eric talking to Bella about the trip, and she reluctantly agreed to go. Oh no. Then again why should she stop hanging out with her friends because Bella decided to go? Bella didn't even like them. When she sat with them during lunch she would always get the vibe that she didn't want to be there. Lauren still didn't see what was so special about her, because even though Jessica said that she didn't like her, she still tried to be her friend. Color me confused.


Lauren arrived at the cafeteria and sat down at their usual table. Jessica and Bella were the last to arrive. Today Bella looked distracted, well more so than usual. Then Jess leaned over and whispered something to Bella that made her eyes bug out, looking around wildly. Then Jessica whispered something else to her, Lauren was trying really hard to listen in but Jess decided now was the time to speak in hushed tones unlike what she did when Lauren arrived at school in the morning. Suddenly Bella got up, said she needed to know what he wanted and gathered her things form the table, leaving like a bat out of hell. What the… She looked to where Bella was heading.

This has to be some kind of sick joke! She went to sit with Edward Cullen, who for the first time ever wasn't sitting with his family. She thought that maybe the whole school was in shock. Everyone was watching them quietly with some sort of sick fascination. Again she thought about what was so special about her?

The day went by faster than she had predicted. After lunch period the school seemed to come alive with gossip. From how the new girl got to sit at lunch with one of the Cullens to how she fainted in Biology because she couldn't stand to see blood. She's such a weakling. All in all it seemed that recently everything revolved around one Bella Swan.