Disclaimer: Twilight isn't mine.
The Unscrupulous Council
Deep As Bathtubs
AN: There has to be consequences involved in having a child living nomadically for eleven years. And this is where it has hit her self-esteem. Hope readers enjoy.
Chapter 3
Bella had spent the better part of two hours watching Seth Clearwater playing videogames and Leah Clearwater acting emo listening to emo music writing in her emo journal. Who even knew what her problem was. She had eaten, drunk lots of water and bored herself silly. She wasn't used to sitting around. She had started pacing sometime ago. She quietly migrated to the backyard and decided to see how quickly she could climb the house.
Being permanently broke, unable to afford so much as a bike or even a skateboard to pass the time she had had to be more inventive. She'd learned parkour from runaway teenagers starting when she was nine years old. She'd hang around outside while Renee found odd jobs to keep gas in the car and food in the their stomachs. She wasn't an expert by any means, but it was a cheap adrenalin rush. One of the few things that she could afford to do. She had also found other cheap thrills to keep her entertained, but this one had held her attention longest.
She looked around to make sure that no one was watching. Then she took a run to kick up off the shed back to the house and pop vaulted to the roof. She almost didn't quite make it and had to muscle-up the rest of the way. Standing on the roof she wanted to kick herself. Bella decided to try again and see if she could do it in two motions. She lached down to the ground and rolled once safely into her landing. She took another run at the shed kicking off and pop vaulting to the roof of the house. She didn't quite make it but was closer this time if only a little disappointed that she had to muscle-up onto the roof.
"For a human, that's pretty cool." Leah's voice was glib. Bella yelped in surprise almost falling off the roof. Leah snorted in response. They eyed each other quietly.
"I've seen this on MTV before. I think they called it Freerunning." Seth commented. Bella frowned but then shrugged. Did it really matter if they didn't know she preferred parkour? It didn't. She jumped off the roof landing the on the ridge of the shed. She catwalked long the ridge before jumping down to the ground. So much for her quiet and alone practice time. She slipped between the siblings bodies and returned indoors for more boredom. It's not like she could play with them. She couldn't compete with werewolves.
"Bella, you like cheap thrills? I have one for you." Seth spoke behind me. She turned to look at him with curiousity. Leah and Seth grinned at each other.
"We've got a live one here." Leah said.
"Mom, we're taking Bella out." Seth yelled as Leah led the way out. Bella followed her but Leah moved fast, to make up for Leah's speed, instead of running down and around the path, she speed vaulted over the low fence. The rest of the distance was simply a road. She ran almost at a sprint to keep up with Seth and Leah but soon had to accept defeat and slow down. She knew she wouldn't be able to keep up with them, but she didn't want to be accused of being slow even for a human. They had been running up a hill near the coast line that didn't seem to end. After a few miles, they finally slowed to a stop.
"Jump!" Leah yelled and then ran a cliff ledge before leaping over the edge. Bella's stomach dropped. Water? She had no idea how to swim. Seth quickly caught the look on her face.
"You don't like heights huh?" Bella rolled her eyes. As if. She took a deep breath and opened her mouth for the first time since her mother died.
"The deepest body of water I've been in was a bath." Seth smiled.
"You can't swim?" Bella huffed. What did he think? She learned how to swim in a bathtub?
"Do you want to jump?" Seth asked me. She wondered why he would think she would jump. She didn't want to drown.
"I'll do the swimming. Do you want to jump?" He asked her again. She hide her smile. Of course she wanted to jump. He held out his hand. She hesitantly took it. She thought to herself that he had better not drown her or she'd haunt him. Together they ran for the edge and threw themselves away from the edge. Bella was decidedly more afraid of drowning than she was of the sensation of falling. Her brain flew into overdrive imagining Seth leaving her in the ocean to drown. She was so scared of drowning her breath was sucked out of her and she fell silently. Just as she sensed she was about to hit the water, she felt Seth pull her over him so that his body hit the water first. Hitting the water from this height was so much harder than she had imagined. It felt more solid than liquid. It was freezing. She felt her body being pulled back up fast but she was a good distance under water. She didn't know how to open her eyes under water and didn't know how much longer she would be under for. Panic his her and she took a breath to scream underwater. Icy cold liquid spilled into her lungs. Seth broke them through the surface to find her coughing up water and looking a mess.
"Are you okay?" Seth asked. She struggled to take a breath in with water still in her lungs.
"She sure screwed that up." Leah asked, half interested.
"She talked up on the cliff. She said the deepest water she's ever been in was a bathtub. I'm not sure what's wrong with her now. Nothing bad happened." Seth was pulling her to shore with Leah following lazily alongside him.
"She told you she can't swim. I'll place bets that she panicked and breathed water. She's coughing up water. Dumbass." Once on shore Bella fell on all fours coughing and pluttering still. This settled it. She would never go into the water again. It was a death trap. Stick to riding on the top of trains. Bella and water would never been friends. Once she had recovered her breath, she headed back towards the Clearwater home.
"Why doesn't she know how to swim?" Seth asked Leah. Leah looked at him incredulously and then rolled her eyes before following begrudgingly after weak girl.
"I'm sure she had a Y to go to every week while living on the run for as long as she can remember. Hell Cat!" Leah said sarcastically.
When they got back she took a shower and sunk into the hot water using liberal amounts of soap, shampoo and conditioner. It was magical. Soon there was a knock on the door. Leah and Seth were waiting. She rinsed conditioner out of her hair thoroughly and got out and dried herself off. She pulled out clothes from her back pack and gagged out at the clothes. She decided showing less of herself and her personality was the best thing she could do right now. This was not the time to show her crap fashion sense. She'd never claim to be stylish. But she had grown accustomed to castoffs and knew how to make do. Entirely new outfits just weren't her forte.
She sat in Seth's room and pulled out her beaten up old walkman. She only had old skool punk tapes. Dead Kennedy's, Bad Religion and a bad copy of Rage Against the Machine. Renee certainly hadn't focused on their feminine side over the years. They made it through life day to day. Sometimes they settled into a city scape for a few months or towns for a few weeks. But Renee was set on keeping them moving. Never so much as risking putting Bella in school. With Renee's instruction, Bella's reading was her best asset at about a sixth grade comprehension level, she had done well all things considered. Reading came naturally to her but she didn't tend to read in her free time. Her second best skill was math. When it came to money, it was important to know when someone was ripping you off. The rest of Bella's education came to a dead halt. Bella was keenly aware of her lack of education.
They talked about her entering school tomorrow. For the time being she was supposed to be going to La Push because they didn't know how long she would be staying down here. Dread filled her being. She never brought it up around Renee. Months ago she recalled a waitress noticed Bella's secret at a place Bella was washing dishes. The woman had looked at her like she was the dumbest being on the face of the planet when she couldn't multiply five by six. She remembered the moment she choked on her humiliation.
"It's a good thing you're pretty honey. Don't go looking for love, you're not smart enough. Find a rich old man, get a ring and wrap your legs around him. That's honestly the best advice you're gonna get." And those words had haunted her ever since. It wasn't the first time Bella's intelligence had been insulted. She'd heard it enough times for so many years that she believed it. She had dreams of herself grown up looking like a Kelly Bundy with bleached blonde hair. She fought it the only way she knew how. She avoided all things overtly feminine and she took care of herself. She appreciated looking young for age for as long as possible. But the day would come when she was no longer a minor and she'd have to make her way in the world. She didn't want to be homeless like her mother. She wanted a life. But what jobs could she qualify for? She had tried waitressing once but had been outstripped by her lack of math skill once the numbers reached higher numbers. She might have figured it out, but she had frozen in panic that she might get it wrong in front of anyone. Which of course meant that she didn't get a chance to get it right. She would always take the legal option. But how many legal options did she have?
When they asked her about school at CPS, she had told them that she could read and count and that her mother had given her some instruction and that she had attended some school. But she had misled them. It was much worse than they realized. Tomorrow, everyone would find out just how stupid she was and the thought of it was enough to make her cry. They had already found out that she can't swim and Leah had made it clear that she thought Bella was an idiot. She planned to hide in the washroom for the duration of the school day. For now, she listened to California Uber Alles by the Dead Kennedy's and took slow calming breaths.
The elders thought that Leah didn't know what they were planning. She saw Joshua and Quil Sr eyeing her. At least the Alpha was her allie. He had daughters. Leah believed that Billy would never breed with her for stronger wolves. He was old enough to be her father and before Harry died he was friends with her father. At least, that's what she thought. The looks and Quil Sr's slips when she phased suggested that they were still in talks. Why was this even open for discussion? Embry and Sam were sensitive enough to have an inkling of what was happening. She saw them noticing the same things she noticed. She wondered how much she knew? None of them would dare openly bring it up. The three of them were lower on the pecking chain and it would be unseemly to question the elders of all people. They had absolute authority and power over their lives. The one place the elders had never trodden before was their romantic lives. It had been off limits mostly because the elders didn't want to think about it. That is, until Leah phased. The first female werewolf. That was one honour she could do without.
A part of her wished Sam, her ex-boyfriend, would be more than disturbed by the idea. She wanted him to get angry and come to her rescue guns blazing. But he shared worried looks with her and said nothing and thought little of it. Embry at least growled when he first made a connection. Leah wasn't entirely sure what Embry understood. He might know more than her. He might know less. But he didn't like it and he made it clear enough that he didn't like it. Which was more than Sam had offered. Embry wouldn't question their authority. But he wasn't going to slap on a smile and pretend that it was okay.
Leah sat in her room listening to Rise Against. The one nice thing about this babysitting gig was that she escaped patrols and didn't have to share minds with men and teenage boys. Tonight would be all female. She could appreciate that. Maybe Hell Cat wasn't so bad.
Seth and Leah had listened to Bella throw up in the bathroom twice before school. She smelled terrified. Her heart was racing and she was sweating. Seth wondered what it was about school that would frighten her so much. Leah contemplated what a wuss she was living with. No men, no water and now it would seem no schools. Then it struck her. Bella was worried about the water because she didn't know how to swim. What were the odds that Bella had spent a day in school before? As they were walking down the street, she watched Bella walking shaky steps.
"You've never been to school before have you Bella?" Leah, never one to beat around the bush came out and asked. Seth's jaw dropped. Bella looked horrified. "That's it, isn't it?"
Bella walked faster not looking back.
"Can you read?" Seth asked. Bella turned around and glared at him indignantly. He put his hands up defensively.
"But are you reading Dr Seuss or Shakespeare?" Leah snickered. Bella's eyes watered, she flipped them her middle finger and ran back past them back into the house.
"Sensitive, ain't she?" Leah was now downright cackling. Seth glared at her and Leah derisively showed insincere embarrassment for her mockery. How could he not see the hopelessness of the girl graduating and getting into college if she was still reading at Dr Seuss level?
"A member of the pack messed up her life. This isn't her shame. This is ours." Seth said sternly holding fists at the side of his body. "We need to get her to the school and talk to the principal or the guidance councellor. It's one thing if I fail because I haven't managed to keep up with my homework. At least I can choose to get my GED. How will she ever support herself? Now, go get her. If I drag her out she'll freak out." Seth said authoritatively. Leah hadn't seen Seth commit to something like this before. It was touching. She felt she should help so she went along with his order and went back into the house to drag Bella out.
With effort, they calmed Bella down and she walked with them. "What haven't you studied?" Seth asked. Bella was quiet. She didn't know but she guessed it was a lot longer than the list of things she had studied. Leah snorted.
"Bella, I'll ask for the shorter list. What do you know of reading, writing and arithmatic?" Again, she got straight to the point. Bella blushed. Seth didn't take that as a good sign.
"Add and subtract. I was told my reading was at a grade six level. I don't think many people can read what I write." Leah fought to keep a straight face while Seth's jaw dropped. Bella's face dropped and she avoided looking at them again.
"Well, it's good that you can read. Renee taught you that much. What about your times tables?" Seth asked encouragingly. Bella's shoulders slumped.
Leah chuckled. "Bella, we should be taking you to elemantary school not high school. Time to start Grade 1." Seth cringed. Bella felt so defalted that she just emotionally checked out at that point. It was hopeless, she really was going to be Kelly Bundy when she grew up. Watching Bella's reaction, Leah felt a drop of guilt for the young girl and backed off. She was used to the cocky personalities in the pack. They bounced back from any shots she made at them. This kid seemed to be taking it to heart. Leah saw the scavenging seagulls in the parking lot and felt guilt realizing that there wasn't much difference between her and the scavengers at this moment.
