"Bella, don't you think it's time to return attending school. Go get some teen life inside you." Charlie forced a smile. "The doctor said it would be a good thing to do; your leg has healed, and it might help you regain some of the things you've forgotten."
She sighed, and thought over his proposal.
He mirrored her depressed look, "I'm worried about you. Every day, I see you isolated from the rest of the world. You need some blood pumping through those veins. Go see some of your friends."
"What friends?" she whispered. He questioned her, and she repeated, "What friends do I have? I don't remember them. I have nothing."
"Pity an old man's heart." She saw her father clearly for the first time after her return. He stood with his shoulders hunched as if he carried invisible weight. His eyes drooped with a melancholy look, and stress filled his pained expression.
She gave in.
"Alright, I'll go tomorrow."
He smiled with a slightly less stressful demeanor, and pulled her into an embrace. She forced a smile in response, her eyebrows tense with reluctance. She tried her best to hide it.
:O:
As she steadily drove to school, she couldn't shake the feeling that someone was watching her, from behind and from the sidelines. She swore shadows moved behind the thick trees of the forests that surrounded her. When she mentioned her paranoia to Charlie earlier, he told her she was looking too deep into things. He also suggested possible bears. Despite his conviction, she knew it was something else. It was on the tip of her tongue.
She shook her head, running a hand through her hair, getting rid of her feelings of uneasiness. She parked her truck in the parking lot, and decided to plunge head on into that (teen) society that had moved on without her.
She quickly walked into the school building, her eyes glued to the ground in attempt to avoid the eyes of the passing students. When she received her schedule at the office, she found that some of faces and rooms she passed were familiar. A slight nostalgia filmed her eyes.
On her journey to one of her classrooms, a boy with pale blond hair and blue eyes stopped her.
"Bella, you've returned. Where have you been?"
She struggled to remember his name, but found none that matched his face. "I had a bad fall, so to speak, and it resulted in some problems."
"I hope you get better, Bella. Be very, very careful; you were a klutz from day one, after all." She nodded as she noted his presence was familiar as well, just as familiar as how he carried himself.
"Mike," a bright, cheery girl matched her happy voice. "We have to head the other way," she pointed out as she bounded towards him. "Hi, Bella," she greeted her before they both left. Unfortunately, Bella failed to remember either of their names.
:O:
She took a seat at a table in the corner of the cafeteria and closed her eyes. The smell of bland foods filled the room as the chatter of students grew louder. She found that if she relaxed and closed her eyes, letting the world move around her, things started to feel… remembered. But the feeling similarity and comfort would fall away when she opened them, leaving her susceptible to wounds.
She scanned the cafeteria and its students, an empty table on the other side having caught her attention. She wandered over there, feeling that it was a more mental warm area.
"Are you broken up about him? It was a pretty abrupt move, after all, unless you guys were trying to make some long-distance thing work." The same happy girl stood next to her.
"Broken up over who? Someone moved?" Bella asked in all honestly.
"That's the spirit. Forget all about him." She smiled.
"Oh," Bella realized, "Would it be Edward?" Her mind flashing back to boy who had stayed with her in the hospital, and who also visited when she was discharged from the hospital but wouldn't allow him to talk.
"Who else it be? Okay, well, I'm gonna go eat." She turned to leave, "See you later."
As she walked away, a name left Bella's mouth, 'Jessica.'
"Hmm?" Jessica turned around, but Bella smiled and waved it away like a mistake.