I'm so glad everyone has taken a liking to Ava. My goal was to make her a little different. :)
I hope everyone likes this chapter!
Let me know your thoughts!
Ava absent-mindedly glides her slender fingers over the piano keys, playing whatever song came to mind. Her homework is scattered across the floor, untouched. It is mainly math homework and math is her weak point. Just looking at the long equations brought on a headache.
Her piano is positioned under her window. When she sits down to play she has the perfect view of the forest line further down in her backyard. When she looks out the window right now all she could see is her own reflection due to the tall lamp shining brightly next to her beloved instrument.
She has her hair in two French braids running down either side of her head. In the morning she is hoping to get nice hair waves. Although her hair is already had a natural beachy wave, she is hoping to get more defined waves.
Her earlier attire is now abandoned for a simple, loose, night gown. She always found it the most comfortable to sleep in. Long sleeves and tight clothing are way too hot and restricting when she slept in her opinion.
Her bed is in the middle of her room, the cushioned headboard pushed up against the cream colored walls. Underneath her bed lays a soft white rug that stands out against the dark hardwood floor. Above her bed and hanging on the wall is a painting her grandmother created just for her before she passed.
It is a beautiful painting, her favorite piece of art. The painting has a lone deer standing in the middle of a grassy meadow. The amount of detail and time put into the piece shows off the morning dew on the plants and the sun rays peaking through the tall evergreen trees in the distance, even the light fog. The painting holds a beautiful loneliness to it, something she could relate too.
Next to her bed is a white birch side table with a drawer, and a mini bookshelf underneath that. It is custom made, she kept her sheet music there. There is a T.V on the opposite wall across from where the painting is hung. There isn't any cable hooked up but she was fine with that, she normally watches DVDs anyway.
She is in the middle of playing Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata when her mom opens her door. She turns the page in the book leaning on her music rack to provide the next line of notes in case needed, and looks at her mom in the reflection of her window, not stopping from playing the piece.
"How was it on your way home?" Her mom asks, leaning against the door frame. She is still dressed in her work uniform. Ava eyes look away from her reflection and back to the Piano keys.
"It was fine." She answers. Her mom smiles. "But Embry was unneeded."
"It was getting dark out Ava." Her mom tries reasoning. Ava starts pressing down harder on the keys. Her eyes are as hard as stone.
"I know but I've been out in the dark before, lots of times with you knowing, and it never was a problem."
"I think he likes you. He looks at you like you are the sun in his life." She teases with a cheeky smile.
"So what? I don't like him." She replies, glancing at the musical notes.
"Are you sure? When you first seen him the other day you both were googly eyed. It was like love at first sight." Her mom has a teasing smirk on her face now, no longer leaning against the door frame.
"You of all people should know that love at first sight doesn't exist." She blurts out, not thinking. As soon as the words slip from her mouth the room grows silent. No more music echoes and no more words are being exchanged. Ava turns around in her seat and looks at her mom's downcast face. Ava sucks in a breath and went to stand. "Mom I—"
"Do your homework Ava." Her mom speaks in a quiet, languishing voice. She turns and exits the room, closing the door behind her.
Ava stares at the door and settles back down in her seat. She places her elbows on the piano keys, causing out of tune notes to sound out and buries her face in the palms of her hands. That was a low blow and she knows it. As soon as those words came out of her mouth she regretted them.
She uncovers her face and looks down at the homework scattered at her bare feet. Bending down, she gathers all the papers into a neat stack. She gets up and takes her binder out of her book bag that was on the floor by her bed and put the papers in it. Then she shoves it back in her bag and walks back over to her piano to close the book. She brings the fall down to cover the white and black keys.
Her eyes peer out the window as she turns her lamp off, giving her a clear view of the world outside her house. It is rare here to see a clear night sky. The stars are visible along with the moon, brightening the sky. After admiring it for a while, she brings her curtains over the window and collapses on her bed.
More and more guilt washes over her the longer she lays there and thinks about her words. Her mom didn't deserve that. Rolling over onto her stomach, she crawls further into her bed and snuggles up under her comforter. She yawns a large, jaw stretching yawn, and pulls a pillow to her chest. Her eyes close and brown, chocolate eyes flash behind her lids causing her to snap her eyes back open.
Ava is awake before her alarm even blasts that annoying sound. The moment it goes off she turns it off and sits up in her bed, hanging her feet off the side. It is freezing. She pulls her comforter tighter around her body and stares blankly at the clock. A yawn escapes her mouth and she rubs her eyes. 6:00 a.m..
She spaces out for a little bit, nodding her head as she fights the urge to enter dreamland and thinks about how badly she doesn't want to go to school. Exhaustion sweeps over her and she nearly falls forward. The clock now reads 6:24 a.m.. A groggy groan comes from her mouth as she stands up, making her way towards her closet.
"Can't believe I stayed up all night…" She mumbles to herself, taking out her braids. Guilt still weighs heavily on her shoulders, and every time she went to close her eyes she sees Embry's brown ones. She can't understand why. That guy is annoying, and hot— No, stop.
Why is she attracted to him? She looks through her clothes, pushing aside clothing that was a definite no. Never has she been attracted to anyone, and it is freaking her out. What she needs was to busy herself with something to distract her disloyal feelings. Like maybe get lost in a good movie, read a good book, or maybe learn new songs to play.
She throws some Adidas soccer sweats on her bed and an over-sized red sweatshirt. Since she obviously didn't have time to wash up, she sprays on some vanilla scented perfume, always saved the day.
After changing into her clothes, gathering her belongings, and sliding on her tennis shoes, she walks downstairs with her book-bag hanging on her back and her skateboard tucked underneath her arm. Her mom already left for work earlier. She heard the front door close while she was lying in her bed like a zombie would in a casket.
In the kitchen, there is some leftover brewed coffee, still warm from earlier this morning. Her mom always left her some coffee even though she didn't drink it much, and seeing that she did today lifted some of the guilt off her shoulders. Maybe she isn't as upset with her as she thinks, even if she isn't upset at all—which obviously wasn't the case—she is still going to apologize. It is the right thing to do.
She grabs a disposable coffee cup and fills it halfway up with the warm liquid her mom had left. She then fills the other half with coffee creamer. It is natural for her to always use so much creamer, it just made it that much better for her taste-buds. Only once had she tried black coffee and never again. She can't drink it black like other people. The bitter taste always makes her gag. She puts a lid over her cup and grabs a Honey Bun out of the basket sitting in the middle of the kitchen island, heading out the door.
She skates down the street while chomping away on her sweet and tasty breakfast, occasionally taking sips of her coffee. Her eyes feel sore from lack of sleep. She might be able to get a nap in during her classes today. Might.
She finishes up her honey bun right when Forks High School comes into view. She gulps down the rest of her coffee and hops off her board, picking it up before she walks through the parking lot. People don't pay her any mind as she strolls through the lot. She doesn't mind. She'd rather not deal with people and be the center of attention. People don't bully her, but they don't make an effort to talk to her like she doesn't make an effort talk to them.
She walks through the front door and throws her trash in a nearby trash can. The sounds of laughter and conversations reach her ears upon entry. She weaves around people until she finds her locker. Her hand grips the round combination lock as she enters her code. After a few mess ups, she opens the cold metal door and puts her skateboard and backpack in there, leaving her only with her giant zip up binder.
This binder is used for all her classes. It saves her the trouble from walking all the way back to her locker between each class. Her gray eyes land on the mirror hanging on the inside of her locker door, and her reflection stares back at her. Her eyes are red, and under her eyes are dark. Overall she looks terrible. With a sigh, she closes her locker and starts heading towards her class.
Ava sleeps through most of her classes with little to no problems. The teachers just simply roll their eyes and ignore her figure slouched over her desk. If she wants to sleep through class and miss information then it was on her. She is nearly asleep in her Statistics class, but this teacher is more strict than the rest.
"Ms. Colt, my class in not to be used for naps." He snaps from the front of the board. Ava groggily sits up and yawns openly. Everyone peeks back at her, either with amused expressions or curious ones.
"Sorry, Mr. Wells." Her voice is croaky as she apologizes. Mr. Wells suddenly has a smirk on his face and waves his dry erase marker in the air tauntingly.
"Ms. Colt, why don't you come up to the board and solve this math problem to wake you up?" He suggests. Ava tilts her head to the side lazily.
"...I don't know how to solve that." She eyes the paragraph lengthed question and equation on the board.
"Maybe you would know how to solve it if you weren't sleeping." Mr. Wells barks, his eyes blazing. She rubs her eyes for the millionth time that day. Yelling is really unnecessary.
"Wells sorry." The "s" at the end of "Well" sort of slips out of her mouth on accident. It was totally unintentional. The class starts laughing and Mr. Wells face starts to turn a dark shade of red in anger or embarrassment, she can't tell.
"Ms. Colt, this is your second strike."
"Sorry..." She mutters.
"Alright class, today we will be doing—" and that's when she zones him out.
Her arms are folded neatly over her chest as she stares out the window. It is pouring down rain making her wish she drove to school, but she finds skateboarding more relaxing. Her phone vibrates against her leg. After looking up to make sure Mr. Wells isn't looking, she pulls her phone out. Her brow arches when she sees she received a text from an unknown number. She taps on the text notification.
'Hey A1!'
Oh yeah, she gave her number to that guy yesterday. His name is… Raye? Yeah. She presses her fingers against the keyboard.
'Hey Broccoli hater.' She sends back.
'Ha! What are you up too?'
'School.'
'I'm at home. :)'
'Sick? Or skipping?'
'I guess you could say skipping.'
He guesses? She shakes her head slightly. Raye sure is an interesting person that's for sure. She shoves her phone back in her pocket, deciding to reply later. A strike three doesn't sound very fun.
Everyone suddenly starts to stand from their seats, shuffling around the classroom. Crap. What were the instructions? She just sits at her desk, looking around completely lost. Her eyes mistakenly lock with Mr. Wells who is looking at her with an annoyed expression. She stands from her seat to make it look like she is doing whatever it is they are supposed to be doing. It looks like people are partnering up. A partner activity is definitely not one of her favorite things. It's not surprising that she is the only one left without a partner.
She just sits back down at her desk, pulling out a Statistics textbook from within to work on it herself. Mr. Wells doesn't comment. In all honesty, he probably wants her to fail this assignment so her can call and express his "concerns" to her mom.
With an inaudible sigh, she grabs some paper and slowly and neatly starts writing down the long questions and equations. Mr. Wells always made everyone rewrite the question so they can understand it better, but Ava thinks it's pointless. She is purposely writing slow so she won't have to do any real work before the bell rings. When it does ring, she wastes no time to exit the classroom and head home.
"Hi mom." Ava greets from behind the dining room table.
She is standing up straight and her hands are resting on the back of a chair. Her mom had just walked through the door. She looks over and is surprised to see dinner waiting on the table.
"I made some chicken and rice." Ava says.
"It smells good. Thank you." Her mom smiles and set the car keys down on the table by the door before walking over. They both sit down and started eating. Ava keeps glancing up at her mom with every bite she takes.
"Spit it out." Her mom laughs. "I know you want to say something."
"I'm sorry about yesterday… that was out of line." Ava apologizes. Her face looks so guilty it would make anyone feel sorry for her.
"It's alright sweetheart. We were both out of line. I shouldn't be pushing people on you. I'm sorry too." She smiles. Ava stands up and walks over to hug her mom, shaking her head as she did. Relief flooded through both of them. They always make up quickly, they were all each other had after all. "This chicken is good, what did you do to it?"
"I added a little bit of extra garlic." Ava sits back down, feeling better than she had felt all day. "It was by accident but it seemed to work out well."
"It's great, keep adding the extra garlic." Her mom speaks through a mouth full. Ava smiles genuinely.
"About Embry…" Ava starts. Her mom perks up at the mention of him. Ava rolls her eyes. She knows her mom won't not stop playing as Ms. Matchmaker. She actually seemed to genuinely like Embry. "Did he ask for our address?"
"Not that I remember, why?"
"No reason." Ava shrugs. She eyes her hands in her lap.
What the heck is going on?