Stay in school, kids, stay in school. Don't be like Sunny and constantly keep ditching. You won't like all the makeup work.
I also hope that everyone is having a good New Years so far.
*More information, along with credits and disclaimers, can be found below.
Chapter 3:
Forks, Washington
The End of October, 2002
The hallway was its usual scene. The jocks were hanging out against the lockers, the cheerleaders had blocked off an entire section, and the rest of the population was trying to get by. Stoners hung around too, just doing whatever the hell stoners do. A girl from art class zoomed by, practically hitting everyone with her swishing backpack.
And Sunny still hated being the new girl.
The cafeteria was just an uproar of noises and smells of floor wax and something that definitely wasn't real food.
She found a spot at the far end of the cafeteria, almost away from everyone else. The table did give her a nice view of the forest, though. She took out her prepaid phone and flipped it opened. She dialed the number scribbled on the first page of her notebook. It was a shot in the dark, but Sunny hoped that Rob hadn't switched phones just yet. She had missed talking to Anna, one of her only best friends. It sucked that she didn't like to use their telepathic connection more often. It was a hell of a lot easier to get in touch with everyone that way.
She was especially tired of trying to remember different phone numbers after so many months. It was just easier if she wrote them down. At least, that's what she had told her uncle when he had found a mountain of crumpled up paper in her trash can. He of course got on her case about that. She apparently wasn't being safe enough.
He had told her to use her head more often and then never brought it up again. Domestic harmony, thy name was Sunny.
The phone continued to ring in her ears. Once. Twice. Three times.
They weren't home, or they were out on a date. They were doing something besides picking up the damn phone. She thought about skipping again, this time just because she didn't want to be there. Her uncle would be pissed, though. She would then get another lecture on how school was important and how it was even more important for her to blend in. If she dared to point out that she would never fit in, she would just get another lecture on how she was her worst enemy by holding herself back.
Just because she could literally suck the life out of anyone at any given time for any given reason didn't mean she had the right to skip school. Not one bit. Even if a girl's life at was stake, she was still expected to get a full seven hours worth of useless education.
Some education. She knew that majority of smaller towns didn't always have the best resources for their advanced students, but Sunny was easily passing her most challenging classes. She wasn't sure if that was an all around good thing.
Her uncle could never complain about her grades, though. She was always an A+ student who made honor roll every year. Aunt Whitney was apparently the same way despite her teenage rebellion years that followed her into college which was initially the reasoning behind her dropping out. That was where she had met Uncle Finn, and even though Aunt Whitney left, he had followed through with his education and graduated. It seemed almost impossible to imagine her uncle as a gawky young adult, but she'd seen pictures.
Uncle Finn's mother had been big on pictures.
After what was probably the twentieth ring, Sunny closed the phone and shoved it back in her bag. She chewed on her thumbnail, that hurt like hell, wondering what Anna and Rob could possibly be doing. A scrape was still healing on her left knuckle from her locker. Other girls didn't have temperaments that got so out of control that they needed to physically hit something. Other girls didn't have to scrape up their bodies for the sake of keeping it cool. That had been yesterday, and it had gotten bad. She had to go to the nurse's office and lie about how she accidentally closed the locker on her hand.
Sometimes it was hard to tell where the lies began and where the truth ended. She was use to the bullshit posturing needed to be normal. There was so much to keep hidden from the world that she had grown accustomed to lying straight through her teeth without any issues.
She tried Anna and Rob one last time.
The phone just kept ringing.
"Fuck it," she said under her breath. She was just so over today. And she was pissed that the vending machine had ate her dollar.
She sat there for a second, though, staring at the phone in her hand. It was like sensory overload. She could actually smell the damp wool from students' clothing and the wetness left from the rain on the concrete and laminate floors. Even the smell of every person who passed by her table of one was getting to her. The swishing and squishing sound that came from four hundred and sixty-four shoes was driving her up the wall, and the food wasn't helping matters. It was an average school smell. It was pretty much the same in Maryland and San Carlos, but just like every other school, Forks had its regional differences with its own unique smells.
The crowd noise that was still growing hurt her ears and made her headache feel like a migraine. She was hungry, and she didn't have time to pack herself a lunch since her uncle had wanted her up and out the door at a certain time (her alarm clock had gone off late), but the thought of elbowing her way through the line, then hoping no one would steal her table—yes, she had declared it as hers—was just too much of a hassle.
If she went home, and her uncle was there for lunch, she would get a lecture. If she went home and he wasn't there, she would just have to put up with her aunt who worked from home. If she went through English and art class that afternoon she would go crazy, even though those were two of her favorites subjects and made her day slightly more enjoyable. And forget about the waste of time those elective classes were. She was positive that she had been given all the ones that no one wanted to be in. Not to mention that she was stuck in classes with jackasses now.
But none of her classes taught her anything real. She would rather get in her car and travel around the continental U.S.—going to art shows, places where people were just real and raw, and get together to explore the rest of the world.
She had met real people in California. The type you find in the hole-in-a-wall bar and drink the nastiest alcohol the place had to offer. She had felt her fair share of burning her throat as people cheered her on. She went to interesting places, too. Like the one bar where there were ram horns decorating the walls, and the owner looked like the grumpy old troll who lived under the bridge. There were many nightclubs with strobing lights and techno music running from the base into her sneakers. But there were also quaint suburban areas where the people were kind and everything was organic. A woman use to sit out on the front porch of her store every morning with a stack of newspapers next to her. The food was also amazing. There were places like that all over—where everyone had a set place but were happy about it.
If you were willing to pay, though. Experiences like that didn't come as free. Sometimes it was with money, other times with information. Then there were the times when company was the toll.
It was worth it.
It was always worth it at the end of the day.
Those experiences made up so many of Sunny's times, memories and had lodged a good thing in her soul.
She wondered if she would ever find a place like that in Forks. A good place to plug in. Those type of watering holes were hard to spot in a town like Forks, but Sunny was positive that she would be able to find one. Her ability had a lot to do with finding them so easily since her grandmother use to have her play "what hand is it in"—that game where you shut your eyes and try to guess what object she had, and which hand it was in.
But finding a place to get away sounded better than the bullshit lectures she'd get at home instead. So Sunny turned and went down the hall, towards the gym doors that led to the track and soccer field. She could make a shortcut out of the forest if she followed the one trail because besides the roads that led to everywhere in town, the forest also led to almost everywhere, too. She still had that extra twenty her aunt had slipped her that morning, and it was more than enough for her to get a large hot coffee at the local café. That way no one would bother her while she tried to chase her headache away.
It was still cold, but by now it was downright freezing. The chilled air felt like a solid slap in the face and only made her headache worse. It even took her breathe away with every inhale. Sunny walked with her head down to avoid the stinging of her eyes and squinted them at her knit-trimmed ankle combat boots. Her nose immediately started to run.
What a fucking choice. Skip school and freeze my ass off, or stay where it's warm and kill some poor girl.
"Hey! Hey, new girl!"
Even though it definitely wasn't a teacher, Sunny kept her head down and posture the same. Footsteps still walked over dead leaves, crunching behind her. She wiped her running nose on the sleeve of her jacket. She almost wished that it was a teacher because then she could easily come up with an excuse and be on her way.
"Hey! Slaughter!" The voice was male.
Sunny groaned at her luck. Bullies usually didn't bother with her. She was that invisible and strange that people wanted nothing to do with her. But when she did turn around she planted her feet and squared her shoulders. Just because people hadn't messed with her in the past didn't mean it would be the same as before.
She barely recognized the boy who was jogging up to her. He was African American. They shared history together, or maybe it was biology.
He was tall, almost too tall. His brown rain coat flapped around his thighs. He flicked the collars up, protecting his slightly pink dusted cheeks from the nipping cold. He seemed to be in good physical shape; he didn't even wheeze once he reached her. His eyes were a dark brown, nothing too special. Sunny figured he'd age well the older he got.
He wasn't in that funny in between stage most people their age went through. He was pretty sturdy and well put together. Someone got the good draw of the gene pull.
Sunny waited. Finally, he spoke. "Want some weed?"
"No." Hell, yes. She took a closer look at him and saw that his nose and cheekbones were at war. They almost made his face look younger than what he was, but there was no doubt that he was sixteen.
Sunny took a step back, ready to turn on her heel and continue on walking. The guys energy was soothing enough, and the colors were a mix between oranges and greens. But that didn't mean she wanted him to stick around. If her uncle could see her now, he'd have a fit if he knew that she was trying to blow the poor kid off.
Apparently all I need is one normal friend.
Sunny didn't think that was ever going to happen.
The guy dug in his pockets and pulled out a crumpled up bag of weed. He then fished out a pipe. He put the two together and held it out to her. "You want a hit?"
What. The. Fuck?
Sunny stared at him like he had two heads. Hadn't he heard what people were saying about her? Didn't he listen to a word the blonde girl whispered in his ears whenever she got the chance to hang off of his arms?
"No, I don't," she said like she was talking to a little child. What she wanted was a hot coffee, a cream cheese bagel and a quiet place to sit and collect her thoughts. She wanted people to stop looking at her like she was some kind of alien. All she wanted was to be left the hell alone. "Did Renner give out homework?"
He shrugged. He took a drag on the pipe and exhaled through his nose expertly. He didn't even hack his lungs up.
"Banner," he said when the smoke had cleared. So they shared biology together. "I don't think so. The guy doesn't believe in it so he tries not give any."
Thank the Lord for teacher's like that.
Sunny stood there with no real purpose. She didn't have anything to say so she settled for a shrug. "See ya."
"Are you skipping?" He quickly fell into step with her, ignoring the fact that she obviously didn't want to talk to him. "You don't stay in school much."
"There's no point in dealing with it."
"I know a few places. You play video games?" He took another hit. Sunny could finally smell it. "I'm Tyler."
I don't care. "Cool." She looked down at her boots. He waited patiently for her to respond. "Sunny."
"Sunny," he repeated. "Like Sonny and Cher, or You Are my Sunshine, Sunny?" She told him it was like the child's nursery rhyme. "I like it. You're new. 'Bout a month now. Welcome to Forks."
Sunny almost snorted. Wasn't someone an observant fellow? She tried to come up with some way to ditch him as they crossed the soccer field, neither one caring if they were caught. He was kind enough to shorten his strides out of respect for Sunny's shorter limbs. Even though his aura was the furthest from being a threat, she still sized him up since she hadn't found a way to get rid of him. She gave herself the best chance of winning in a fight. While he was tall and had a decent amount of mass to him, he didn't look much like a fighter.
She could hear her father, uncle and aunt now screaming in her head as she entered the forest with a kid she didn't even know. She continued to check his aura, also making sure that she was in control of herself. It made her headache worse, but she dipped into his mind a few times just to double check. Then she also kept a careful watch of his hands. He seemed like he was an okay kind of guy. At least she could kill him at the drop of a hat if he tried anything.
He tried again. "Where are you from?"
"Maryland." She didn't know why everyone was slightly fascinated by the answer. It was only a two days worth of getting there by car.
She never mentioned California, though. That wasn't information that she cared to pass on. People didn't really want to get to know her anyway. They were just interested to see if she would live up to their expectations within the two seconds of speaking to her. And, by now, anyone could take a wild guess that she never lived up to anyone's.
"Baltimore?" He guessed. She nodded her head. "Yeah, you sound like a Baltimorean. How are you liking Forks so far? And the weather? It's gonna snow soon."
Sunny rolled her eyes. She had been told on multiple occasions that she sounded a bit southern, and at times Scottish, but no one ever really picked up on her lingo and sayings.
"Thanks for letting me know." The sarcasm oozed from her mouth effortlessly.
"No problem. It snows a lot during this time of year."
Sunny glanced over in his direction and found him smiling at her. It wasn't creepy, or suggestive—it was a God's honest genuine smile. His hair was tied up into dreads, which actually suited his proud, baby fat face. His pudgy, wide nose was putting up a good fight against the miserable cold. And he wasn't wearing gloves.
He never stopped smiling, and it slowly compelled Sunny to twitch the ends of her lips. "You're fingers are turning blue."
He beamed at her. She saw that there actually flecks of gold in his brown eyes, framed by thick, long lashes that girls would kill for. Boys always got the best lashes even though they never did anything with them.
"I, uh, left them in the janitor's closet." His smile turned crooked and there was a silver of something mischievous in his eyes.
"I hope she was worth it. They'll fall right off."
They came to the opening of the forest where the path was. Frost was already coating the bare branches and fallen leaves that made the trail look like some sort of fairytale setting. The mist rolled down from the mountains. When they ducked under the branches that hung close to their heads, the brick building started to disappear until they could no longer see it.
Tyler snorted as he took another drag. The smoke almost seemed to freeze due to the frigid air before it evaporated. "Oh, it was worth it."
"I bet," Sunny said cheekily as she stepped over a tree root.
"Maybe I'll show you sometime." He shot her a wink over his shoulder. Taking precautions because she didn't know the guy from Adam, Sunny found that he was just messing with her. No harm, no foul. "You never said if you liked to play video games."
"I've never really played."
"I'll show you," he said. That damned smile still hadn't left his face. "Life in Forks can be pretty boring without a friend."
Sunny almost tripped over her own two feet as his words brought her back to the shitty reality that was her life. She couldn't have a friend—she didn't need a friend. Besides, she already had Anna and Gabriel. They were her best friends, and they were all she needed. Having a completely normal friend was just stupid. It was also asking for trouble. And she wasn't going to be stupid, not this time around. She would keep her head down and mouth shut, and hopefully she would graduate without any bumps in the road that made her center of attention and be on her way into the world.
"Thanks, but I can't." It wasn't a complete lie, but Sunny still couldn't help the guilt that bubbled up in her. He was just trying to be nice. But there was someone like him at every school—hoping to make a friend out of the new girl. "I have to go see my therapist today."
She stressed the word therapist as much as she could without looking mental. She hoped that the little bit of information would set him off, making him realize that there was something wrong with her. She hoped that he would then run back to the blonde female who was attached to his hip and tell her what he learned. Then, if all went right, as it should in the cosmic law of high school hierarchy, the blonde would have everyone informed that Sunny was seeking professional help for some sort of trauma that she would most likely makeup, but the gossip would spread faster than any wildfire in history. Then, and only then, would everyone finally see Sunny as a freak and leave her the fuck alone.
But Tyler decided to flip the script on her.
"That's cool." He didn't even sound curious. He just kept smiling and his aura never changed. Sunny dipped into his mind again and was completely shocked that he didn't plan to tell anyone. "There's always next time. But you shouldn't be walking in the woods alone. Mountain lions and bears sometimes get too close."
Tyler continued to move along, merrily smoking as he went with the leaves crunching under his shoes.
Absolutely gobsmacked, Sunny had no choice but to follow him into town.
.
The Licensed Professional Counselor and Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist Loren Lynnfield was nothing like Sunny had expected. He had insisted that she call him Loren, as he did so with all his teenage and adult clients. It was one of his ways to build rapport the fastest way possible with whoever he was seeing. His office was roomy and warm; it almost reminded Sunny of an apartment instead of one of the many rooms that the building supplied by renting the space out. He had about five degrees lined up on the wall, all facing Sunny. The furnishing was nice so business must've been going well enough for him. He had no wife or children. Sunny took note that he didn't have a wedding ring, and there were no pictures of any kind sitting on his desk, or hanging up on his walls. She then wondered at how effective he was at marriage and family counseling. His desk was completely clean, not a single paper or pen in sight. He didn't even have one now.
They had gone through the mandatory introduction of exchanging names, pleasant greetings—he had looked her in the eye and said, "Pleasure to meet you, Sunny,"—and with Loren giving a brief description of what she could be expecting. And then a bit of small talk occurred.
The small talk was very brief to give Sunny room to take the small conversation in whatever direction she liked. Throughout the pre-session talk, Loren observed and inferred Sunny's state of mind: happy, sad, phlegmatic, excited, etc. And since it was her first session, Loren noted the sort of first impression she was making on him. He already noticed a few problems—poor eye contact, low energy, an anxious demeanor—but didn't mention it at that point. He did make a mental note to raise the issue at an appropriate time, though.
He asked if she wanted anything to drink. Sunny took the offer and asked for coffee. He made it fresh right there with her watching.
Sunny took refuge on the sofa as she was instructed to make herself at home. Loren passed her her cup of coffee and took his seat across from her, and the moment that she had been dreading was beginning.
"I'd like to make a recording of the session for you. Clients find it valuable to listen again to sessions, but I didn't want to do that without your permission. Is that okay? And do you want me to make an mp3, which I'll email you, or even an audio cassette?"
Sunny didn't mind the recording. But she didn't want or need a copy of it.
He pressed the start button. "I've just had the pleasure of spending the last hour or so reading and meditating on the new-client questionnaire you sent me. Great, and I have a bunch of questions."
"Great," was the only response Sunny could muster and it definitely lacked conviction.
"How often do you meet up with friends?"
Sunny blinked. That hadn't been the question she was expecting. Weren't therapists supposed to go for the nitty gritty aspects of one's life?
"Not much," she offered to say. "I'm still new in town."
Loren nodded his head, thoughtfully.
He didn't miss the fact she didn't mention if she had made any friends at all. "That's right; you recently moved in with your aunt and uncle. Tell me, Sunny, do you feel like you can really talk with your family?"
"I don't know, I guess. I don't tell them everything, but we're all pretty open to each other. Sure, we all have our secrets, but it's never anything major."
She grew up in an open household where she was encouraged to speak her mind. She was use to people being loud and opinionated. But, at the same time, she was sixteen years old. What teenager didn't go through their own stage of keeping secrets from the paternal figures in their life because they somehow conjured up the ridiculous thought that they would never understand, even though those adults went through exact same things? She was being truthful about not keeping anything major a secret. Ever since her mother's death, Sunny's family had been practically close to another, sharing every bit of detail of their lives that they could. She thought that they were sometimes a little too close, especially when too much information had been shared.
"Is there anyone who you feel really understands you and is close to you in your family then?"
Sunny started to shake her head. There was no way that anyone in her family could truly understand her. Her father and Aunt Whitney had tried for years, though. They wanted to make her feel less alone in the world and make her see that there wasn't anything wrong with her, but nothing ever worked. Sunny always reassured them that she was fine. They shouldn't worry about her so much, that she could take care of herself; and years down the line, they started to believe her. So she continued to put her brave face on and kept her tormenting thoughts and feelings to herself. The only one who saw through it all was her uncle. He had always been the one to call her out on her bullshit. He always didn't have the best approach, and lacked certain bouts of empathy, but Sunny always knew that he was coming from a place of love. That she was always sure of it.
"Well…." she paused, cutting Loren off from asking his next question. His eyes encouraged her to continue her sentence. "...my uncle and I are pretty close."
He didn't ask about her parents like she had thought he would. "Do you feel like he understands you?"
"To a point."
"And that point would be…."
"We both know how to fake a smile."
Loren exhaled slowly, nodding his head. His face morphed into a deep understand of some sort. But he looked genuinely pleased to be making progress. "Tell me about it."
And so she did. She talked about her aunt and uncle; how, five years before she had been born, they were expecting their first child and how different her uncle use to be. Everything was fine—perfect, in fact, until the day of the delivery. No one had suspected a thing, there were no signs of anything that could've possibly went wrong. But when her aunt had given the final push, the baby hadn't been crying. The umbilical cord was wrapped around its neck so tightly that the doctors couldn't get the scissors wedged between it in time. But it was pointless to try and save the child; the infant had been strangled to death by the cord all the while her aunt had been pushing. The baby had been black and blue, bloody and covered in substances similar to mucus. After the child had been cleaned off, everyone had gotten a chance to say goodbye. Sunny had been told that the infant was ice cold to the touch, stiff, and just dull in complexion. All the life was truly gone from the poor child who hadn't even started life yet, and from that point on, her uncle was never the same.
Then Sunny had been born. December 26th, 1986 at 12:57 P.M. had been a good day for them all. Finally, a baby had been born after the tragedy, and after so many years of her parents trying. Her aunt had quickly taken to her, but it had been her uncle who kept his distance. Sunny could recall countless times throughout her childhood when her uncle had openly expressed his interest of staying away from her, or simply not showing up at all. And Sunny hadn't told anyone about seeing and knowing their emotions, or reading their thoughts until the physic at the fairgrounds who happened to be the real deal like Sunny, had opened the can of worms. Ever since she was a child, and after her mother's death, Sunny learned to be convincing enough so her father wouldn't fret over her too much. He needed time to grieve, too.
And it had been her Uncle Finn who was able to finally make her cry. She held every single one in, fooling her father and Aunt Whitney, but she could never fool her uncle. And at the same time, he knew her so well that he took her back to his car and just let her cry. He didn't say anything, he didn't even offer her comfort, his presence was just enough to know that he was there as she bawled her eyes out until there were no more tears to cry. That day had created some sort of unspoken bond between the two even though they butted heads more than ever now.
"You look up to him," Loren said after she had finished. His eyes looked her up and down, analyzing her in a way that made her nervous. "And his opinion is very important to you."
Sunny didn't like how he gathered all that from her depressing story. Now she knew how others felt when she hinted at what was on their mind. And that was the strangest part of it all, Sunny couldn't hear a thing from Loren's thoughts; not even a tiny whisper. It was locked down like Fort Knox.
But she didn't want to think about that. She was here to get things off her chest, not pile new issues to the ever growing list. "He's my Jiminy Cricket even when I'm not asking for his advice."
"That's good," Loren said. "We all need someone to get us to second guess ourselves."
"Really? Aren't you supposed to say that others influencing you is bad or something?"
"There's something you should know about me: I don't always follow the conventional side." Sunny stared into his eyes. They seemed to be bottomless.
"That's good, I guess," Sunny said softly. Feeling suddenly bold, she said, "I'm not the most conventional person."
Loren's brows went up. "Then you and I are going to get along swimmingly."
Sunny desperately wanted to know what he was thinking. It wasn't very often that she came across someone she couldn't read. And while it usually never bothered her since it was nice feeling normal around someone, she couldn't help but feel the itch that pricked the back of her mind. She didn't like feeling opened and vulnerable to someone who she couldn't even get a solid read on. She had learned that she couldn't just go off of people's auras alone. Some were skilled at faking an emotion so perfectly that it surrounded their being, shadowing their true one completely.
So, she watched his eyes instead. He didn't say anything for a moment. Then, slowly, he reached out and powered off the recorder. Sunny's eyes never left his.
"Do you like poetry, Sunny?" He asked suddenly.
She shook her head.
"It's therapeutic for the soul. Especially for those who have a harder time expressing themselves, reading poetry can have a similar positive effect as writing it. It allows one to see into the soul of another person, see what is weighing on their minds and on their hearts, and can open doors to feelings that are sometimes suppressed until that door is opened. Reading can shine a light on all those dark and hidden crevices of the heart and mind once thought permanently closed off to the world."
Sunny's snort came out like a small huff. "I don't think poetry is for me." She didn't need another form of seeing into other people's souls and minds.
"I am learning a little—never to be sure—To be positive only with what is past, And to peer sometimes at the things to come; As a wanderer treading the night; When the mazy stars neither point nor beckon, And of all the roads, no road is sure."
"Who's that by?" She wondered. It sounded beautiful, especially coming from Loren's deep timber voice.
Loren smirked at her, triumphant and pleased with himself. "That's your homework for tonight. Find out the author and name of the poem, read it, and then I would like for you to tell me your interpretation of it when you we see each other again."
Sunny made a face of displeasure.
Now she was getting homework from her therapist, too?
This blows.
Responses:
IWishUCouldGoAway: Sunny won't have too many canon friends. I gather that it'll be around one or two. As for the OC friends, Sunny will always be close with them, always. But who knows? Maybe Bella will become something of a friend to her in the future. We still have some time to go before the romance begins, and for the Cullens to move to town!
FriendlyNeighborhoodHufflepuff: Thank you so much! And Sunny will be a poor Sunny for quite some time unfortunately.
Information/Credits/Disclaimers:
—All characters and events belong to Stephenie Meyer and to the publisher, Little, Brown and Company. Events from the movie(s) belong to the production and distribution companies.
—Anna and Rob are characters from L. J. Smith's Dark Visions Trilogy. It was published in 1994–1995 by Simon & Schuster.
—This will not be a crossover, but L. J. Smith's characters will make an appearance from time to time.
—Everyone knows who Jiminy Cricket is, right?
—The poem recited is the second stanza of Carl Sandburg's (1878–1967) Experince.
—This chapter was not overlooked by a beta.
If you liked this chapter, please review and favorite this story. It would be very helpful to get the next chapter going.
Until next time.