Chapter Nine:

Gone and Then Back Again

Edward Anthony Swan

If I thought school was boring, I evidently didn't think about what being home alone with nothing to do was like. I had almost no homework, and finished what I did have real quickly. I would have tried to cook for Charlie, but my cooking skills were limited to oatmeal and salad. And I had a feeling that Charlie wouldn't want either one. So, instead I ordered pizza from the nearby Pizzeria and sat down to stare blankly at a TV show that wasn't even relatively interesting to me. But I watched it anyway, trying everything I could to get Bella Masen out of my head.

I should have known that it wouldn't work.

I wanted to help her, but there was no way I could do that without knowing what was wrong to begin with. And of course she wouldn't tell me, someone she just met. Her sister Alice seemed to know something that nobody else did, but I couldn't just go up to her and ask, "So, do you want to tell me why your sister hates me?" That would be just plain weird. I would have to talk to her at school tomorrow, if she was even there. She looked really sick at lunch, like she was about to throw up, though there was probably nothing in her stomach to throw up because she hadn't ate lunch.

That was another strange thing I noticed. Only three out of the five actually had trays with lunch on them, and while Alice had shredded her bagel into little tiny bits, Emmett and Rosalie hadn't even touched their food. I got the feeling that they didn't eat that often.

Eating might have done Bella some good, she was so pale. Sickly looking, almost.

When Charlie got home from the station, we ate the pizza together and watched a little bit of a college football game on TV before I announced that I was tired from school and wanted to get an early start in the morning. Really, I just wanted more time to think about Bella Masen.

That night, I didn't get much sleep. I couldn't, what with the fierce wind blowing against the house and the rain pounding on the roof. Charlie's faint snores echoed down the hall to me, only adding to the incessant noise. These were the reasons I could not sleep, or so I told myself. The truth of it (though I didn't want to admit that she was on my mind that much) was that I was thinking about what Bella Masen might have been doing at that exact moment. At first, I imagined her studying in her room, then reading a book. Then I thought about her sleeping on a beautiful bed of satin, though of course nothing could compare to her perfection. I felt like Mike Newton in my fascination with her, the moonlight playing across the side of her beautiful face and neck as she slept.

And finally, as my alarm rang and I shut it off without a fight, I thought of her eyes opening, those wonderful topaz orbs, the light of dawn brightening her face and her pushing back the covers of her bed to get ready for another day. Why was I thinking like this? There was no way that Bella would even consider me like that, she was to perfect for someone as plain as me. And yet I found myself wondering as I stepped into the shower if she would be there at school today, and hoping that she would be there, at that table come lunch, and then right next to me in Biology.

I ate some of the leftover pizza for breakfast, not even bothering to heat it up. I wanted to get to school as soon as possible this morning, something that I never wanted to do, and never even considered doing, especially here in Forks. But I knew why I wanted to do this, wanted to go to school, eager for it. This thing or person rather, was named Isabella Masen.

As my truck rumbled into the student parking lot, filled with countless cars from the student body, most of older models like mine, I found myself automatically searching for the dark blue Audi that would signal the fact that one of the only people that I had met in Forks High that I had liked was here. I was disappointed when I found no Audis, but immediately brightened as I saw a very ostentatious red M3 convertible across the parking lot from me. That looked like a car that the Cullen's would drive, even if not entirely ideal for the weather of Forks.

Class breezed by easily, and even Lauren and Jessica left me alone for the most part. Well, not entirely true, but it wasn't like yesterday at least. Lunch rolled around, and as I entered the room in which the entire Forks High collectively had lunch, my eyes scanned the lunchroom for any sign of her. I knew that if she was here today, she would be by now. I was late, and as my eyes found her table, I felt my heart plummet to the depths of the earth.

She. Was. Not. There.

In fact, they only people at that table were Emmett, Rosalie, and Alice.

For a fleeting moment, I thought that maybe Bella had been sick and stayed home, but that wouldn't explain why her brother Jasper was missing too. There was no feasible explanation for her absence, and if Jasper had gotten sick as well, why hadn't everyone else in the Cullen family?

My day suddenly darkened, how could I have expected everything to be perfect? It was crazy to think that the female population of Forks would leave me alone and Bella would be here. My luck wasn't that great.

And as if on queue, the moment I sat down at the table with Mike and Ben, Jessica began chattering away non-stop. This day just kept getting worse and worse. It wasn't soon enough that the final bell rang and I literally ran to my truck.

The Cullen's were already gone, and I drove home, already thinking about reheating the pizza from last night for dinner. To my surprise, Charlie's cruiser was already parked in the driveway when I got home, and I walked in, calling to him to tell him that I was back from school.

I found out that Charlie had taken half the day of so that he could get to know me better. I had to give him credit, he did try. After a few minutes of talk over the left-over pizza about sports, Charlie brought up my truck. "So, how do you like it?" he asked awkwardly. It was clear that he was worried I didn't like it.

I reassured him. "It runs great. The guy who worked on the engine did a wonderful job."

Charlie suddenly burst out laughing. "Ed, it wasn't a guy who did it—it was Billy's daughter Rebecca. You know, from the La Push Reservation?"

I vaguely remembered fishing trips over there with a guy two years older than me named Jacob and his twin sister Rachel. But Rebecca…Rebecca… "You mean the girl that always tagged along with Jake and Ray whenever they went somewhere?"

Charlie chuckled. "That would be her."

Rebecca was a year and a half younger than me, I had never really seen her—I had always hung out with Jake because back then I thought girls had cooties. Obviously I didn't think that now, okay fine, maybe a little. But it was Jessica and Lauren that made me think that.

"Wow, I mean, she did wonderful work on it. You'll have to have Billy tell her for me that the truck is great next time you see him."

"Well, Ed, you can tell her yourself next Tuesday. Billy's TV broke last week, and I told him that he could come over to watch the big game. Rebecca will be with him, he's in a wheelchair now, can't drive for himself anymore."

"Oh, okay," I said, surprised. I would get to meet her in person, after about five years. This should be interesting. "Um, dad," I said awkwardly. I wasn't use to calling him dad, "I think I'm going to head to bed early, I didn't sleep well last night. You know, school and all on my mind." It was a pitiful lie, but Charlie didn't question it.

"Don't worry, I'll clean up."

That night was subject to yet another night of thinking about Bella, though this time I dreamt of her. The exhaustion of not sleeping for thirty-six hours finally got to me, and around midnight, I fell asleep.

The next school day only led to more disappointment, as did the one after that. Bella and Jasper still hadn't come back, and the Cullen siblings were currently feeding the school some story about how they had gotten the flu, and Dr. Cullen had isolated them to make sure the rest of the family didn't get sick as well. I didn't believe it—if anything Bella should have been suffering iron-deficiency, not the flu. Or else every one of the Cullens would have been sick because they were in close proximity to her and Jasper before her 'symptoms' showed and I should have been getting sick as well, considering that I sat directly next to her in Biology, and she probably would have breathed on me. It just didn't make sense, though the rest of the idiotic kids here accepted it.

The weekend went by agonizingly slow, with nothing to do after I washed both mine and Charlie's clothes and the sheets. I then proceeded to vacuum the house and clean all of the appliances. It was very unlike me to do these things, but it was better than sitting around staring at the ceiling (which I had already memorized during my sleepless night after the first day of school).

Monday passed by with Bella and her brother still MIA and I seriously began to wonder if the Cullens had committed a double-homicide and were covering it up. But then Tuesday rolled around.

I knew something good was going to happen because my alarm clock was waging a war with me again. I know, funny how if the morning goes wrong, the rest of the day is okay. My twisted luck was just absolutely crazy. So as I removed the battery from it again (Charlie must be replacing the battery each morning before he left) I hummed to myself a jolly tune for once, not so gloomy despite the pouring rain. I ran out of cereal and the milk had gone bad overnight, and then I discovered a hole in the heel of my shoe. Yup, this day was going to be good (no sarcasm there).

I reached the school lot, the rain suddenly deciding to lighten as I stepped out of the tuck, almost not doing an once-over of the cars, not expecting the one I was searching for to be there. But then, BAM! Right before my eyes was a dark blue Audi, just two spaces down from my own red truck. I mentally cheered and pumped my fist. I could see a few people looking at me strangely, but I didn't care. BELLA was here, she was HERE! I smiled and had to restrain myself from skipping into class as my natural high continued through out first period and into second. Even Lauren, the most self-absorbed person on the planet noticed my change in mood, though of course she didn't say anything. She had started to lay off the 'stalking of Edward Swan' and became interested in Tyler, who as ever was oblivious to her constant flirting with him.

Jessica on the other hand was a different matter. She was practically breathing down my neck in Spanish and followed me only inches behind me to lunch, chattering as usual. Lord, that girl could talk! And so fast that probably only another girl could have understood her. No wait—scratch that. Not probably, but definitely. Didn't she ever get the idea that maybe people didn't want to hear her talk? Apparently not, gossiping must have run through the family. I mean, Jessica's mom, Mrs. Stanly, was the town gossip.

I managed to shake her off as I got into the lunch line. Lauren still had a hold on what Jessica ate at school, which was ridiculous, since both were as thin as twigs. If Renee had seen them, she would have tried to force feed them her macaroni, and trust me, that would not have been pleasant for either of them. It was as I was paying for lunch that I finally saw Bella Masen for the third time in my life, though it felt like the first again. She was leaning against the back of her chair, looking particularly uninterested as she stared at the ceiling. Her beauty was indescribable, and I wished that I could get closer to look at her, but knew that I couldn't. At least not now. There seemed to be an invisible barrier between the Cullens and the rest of the world in this cafeteria. Something that separated them from us. It was as if time froze inside the Cullen's little bubble, and nothing could penetrate it.

But that didn't matter now. All that did matter at that moment was that Bella was back.

I knew today would be a terrific day.

Okay, it's finally up. Chapter Nine. Thank you for all the reviews! You guys are all so wonderful, and if it weren't for you guys this wouldn't even been close to finished! See, I stayed up to one in the morning to finish it.

Don't forget to review and vote on my poll! I am going to be closing it probably on Monday, so you'll want to vote soon.

Signed,

V.H.