Disclaimer: I don't own any of Stephany Meyer's characters, or works of fiction. There will be several pieces of "Twilight" writing throughout this story, mixed in throughout my writing. Since this is a recreation of "Twilight" in my own writing, I'd like to keep the story as accurate as possible.
*Bella's Point of View*
My mother drove my sisters and I to the airport with the windows rolled down. It was seventy-five degrees in Phoenix, the sky a perfect, cloudless blue. I was really going to miss this weather. I was wearing my favorite shirt — sleeveless, white eyelet lace; I was wearing it as a farewell gesture. My sisters and I wouldn't be enjoying the hot Arizona sun for a long time. Our carry-on item was a parka.
In the Olympic Peninsula of northwest Washington State, a small town named Forks exists under a near-constant cover of clouds. It rains on this inconsequential town more than any other place in the United States of America.
It was from this town and its gloomy, omnipresent shade that my mother escaped with my sisters and I when we were only a few months old. It was in this town that I'd been compelled to spend a month every summer until I was fourteen. For my sisters Hayley and Marie they continued going to visit our father throughout the years. In fact Hayley would spend the whole summer at Forks. These past three summers, my dad, Charlie, vacationed with me in California for two weeks. The time we spent together was brief and mostly awkward, but I knew it meant a lot to Charlie.
"You know, you girls don't have to do this." My mother said, for probably the hundredth time today. My mom looks like me, except with short hair and laugh lines. But the one that probably looked the most like my mom was Hayley. She had all of our mother's features, even her soft baby blue eyes. The only difference was that she kept her hair long and always in a constant state of loose curly madness. While Marie looked the most like Charlie.
"I want to go," I lied. I'd always been a bad liar, but I'd been saying this lie so frequently lately that it sounded almost convincing now.
"I can't wait, Forks is such a beautiful town." Hayley smiled brightly.
Unlike me, Hayley was really excited about us moving. She has been in constant contact with Charlie for the past few days. Apparently Charlie had ended up selling the house we were born in and moved into a bigger home, just to accommodate us. This lessened my initial apprehension. I only hoped there was more than one bathroom. Sharing a bathroom with my sisters would be a disaster.
"You've been awfully quiet Marie, are you thinking about changing your mind?" Mom said looking back at her from the rearview mirror.
Marie was usually really quiet, it wasn't odd behavior coming from her. She kept her nose in her book, silently flipping through the pages. I had to admit, she did seem a little tenser than usual. I could tell by the way she clutched tightly on her book.
"No mom, I'm not changing my mind," Marie said quietly, not pulling her eyes off the page she had been analyzing for nearly ten minutes now.
"Then what's wrong dear and don't tell me nothing is bothering you. I know my girls better than anyone."
Marie shifted the book down to glance at our mother. "I guess I'm just a little worried… about leaving you behind."
"You girls don't need to worry about me. I know I can get a little scatterbrained at times, but I have Phil now, he will keep me straight." She reassured us.
"If you say so," Marie sighed, before turning back to her book. Her body seemed to relax a little bit.
We reached the airport without much trouble, but this would be the hard part. Saying goodbye wasn't something I'd ever get used to. I worried about Rene just as much as Marie. But I knew this is what would make her happy in the long run.
But in this situation it was especially hard with my mother getting so emotional. She embraced each one of us tightly, tears sliding down her cheeks. "Tell Charlie I said hi." She sniffed
"We will." Hayley said with a warm smile.
"I'll call you all soon," she insisted. "Just remember if any of you want to come home you can whenever you want — I'll come right back as soon as you need me."
But I could see the sacrifice in her eyes behind the promise.
"Don't worry about us," I urged. "It'll be great. I love you, Mom."
With that the three of us boarded the plane and waved goodbye to our beloved home. It's a four-hour flight from Phoenix to Seattle, another hour in a small plane up to Port Angeles, and then an hour drive back down to Forks. Flying doesn't bother me; the hour in the car with Charlie, though, I was a little worried about.
Out of the three of us, I'd say I was the least connected with Charlie. It wasn't because I didn't want to be. Personality wise, Charlie and I were very much the same. We lacked the social element that my sisters just naturally had. Our conversations were a bit awkward. I never really knew what to say to him.
Charlie had really been fairly nice about the whole thing. He seemed genuinely pleased that we were coming to live with him for the first time with any degree of permanence. He'd already gotten the three of us registered for high school and was going to help us get a car.
He was waiting for us at the airport, and greeted each of us with open arms.
"It's good to see you all. How was your trip getting here?" He asked as he helped put our luggage into his police cruiser.
"It was awful dad, it took forever to get here." Hayley sighed, stretching a bit before climbing into the front seat of the cruiser.
"It wasn't that bad," Marie muttered, rolling her eyes at Hayley. "Hayley is just still upset that she forgot the school outfit that she picked out, back in Arizona."
Hayley shot an annoyed glance towards Marie, but decided to end the conversation at this point. Those two were always fighting, I just stayed out of their bickering, if I got involved in it, I would end up fighting as well.
Charlie knew by now that the best course of action would be to change the subject. "I managed to find a good vehicle for you gals to drive to school."
"That's great, what kind of car is it?" I asked, watching as we made our way through Forks. It was already raining, and the thick cover of clouds almost gave the illusion that it was later in the day than it actually was.
"Well, I found a really cheap car. My neighbor's daughter decided it was time for her father to give up driving. To be honest I think that he should have given it up years ago. The man is in his nineties." Charlie chuckled.
"Don't leave us in suspense dad, what kind of car is it?" Hayley asked with an eager expression.
"It's a jaguar," Charlie commented with a sheepish glance to each of us.
We all exchanged looks with each other. By the expressions on my sister's faces they appeared slightly hopeful.
"What year is it?" Marie asked with a raised brow.
"Well it is in really good shape, it runs, it will get the job done," Charlie started, now keeping his eyes firmly on the road. "I think they said it was an eighty five."
"That's ancient." Hayley giggled, shaking her head.
"We really appreciate you buying us a car dad, are you sure you don't want us to give you any money for it?" I said looking at my father's somber face.
Charlie wasn't comfortable with expressing his emotions out loud. I inherited that from him. "No, I won't take your money, I just want you girls to be happy here."
We all exchanged a few more comments on the weather, which was wet, and that was pretty much it for conversation. We stared out the windows in silence.
Forks was beautiful, of course; I couldn't deny that. Everything was green: the trees, their trunks covered with moss, their branches hanging with a canopy of it, the ground covered with ferns. Even the air filtered down greenly through the leaves. Although I would never admit it out loud. The rain was enough to ruin any good qualities about this place.
Eventually we made it to Charlie's new house. I was pleasantly surprised by the size of it. There surely would at least be a second bathroom. The house was in a very remote part of town, it looked like the house was completely swallowed up by nature. There were several acres of forest wrapping all around the property. I liked that, it gave a sense of privacy that you could never get in a city.
"This place is stunning, dad, how could you possibly afford it?" Marie asked as well, all got out of the cruising and began carrying our luggage into the house.
That was a valid question, there was no way that a chief of police made enough money to afford a house like this.
"I can't explain why, but the man that used to own this property sold it to me for nearly nothing. He is a very nice man, you will be attending the same high school as his son." Charlie explained, getting a couple of our bags and walking them inside.
"What's the guy's name? If we run into his son we can make sure to thank them." Hayley asked as she looked around the room. Her eyes landed on the beautiful flowers blooming in each of the windows. "Whoever decorated this place has some real style. I know you're not the one that did all this dad." Marie said with a chuckle.
"You're absolutely right, I didn't do a thing, I just moved my things in. Our best doctor in town had owned this property, Carlisle Cullen. He has a bunch of kids that will be at the school. Be sure to be kind, they aren't really a popular family."
"Why aren't they popular?" I wondered. You would think that a wealthy family in this area would be treated like royalty.
"Oh well they are all pretty shy, they mostly keep to themselves. The people in town spread a lot of rumors, don't listen to them, Carlisle's kids have never given me any issues, not even a traffic ticket." Charlie explained while neatly placing some of our luggage at the bottom of the stairs. "Why don't you girls get settled in, I'll order some pizza."
"That sounds awesome, thanks dad." Hayley grinned widely, before snatching up her things and heading straight up the stairs. There was no doubt in my mind that she wanted to be the first one up there, so she could pick the best room. Typical. Marie noticed at the same time as me what Hayley was doing, so she quickly followed after her, picking up her things as well.
I couldn't care less which room I got, I was more interested in hearing about the strange residents of Forks. The Cullen family had piqued my interest, I wanted to hear more. I decided to take a seat in the living room and wait for Charlie to come back after making his call for the pizza. I distracted myself by looking around at the various artworks that hung on the walls. Each painting was very modern and full of emotion.
Charlie slowly reappeared into the living room, looking between my pile of luggage and me. "Is something wrong Bells?" I couldn't help but notice his look of concern.
I was quick to reassure him, I didn't want him to think that I wasn't putting my things away because I had changed my mind. I'd never want to hurt Charlie like that. "I'm still really tired from the long journey, I just want to relax for a minute before settling in."
Charlie seemed relieved by my words and offered me a warm smile. "No rush, take your time." He lightly let himself flop down on the arm chair to the right of the couch.
"So, are there any other interesting people here in town?" I tried to keep my tone nonchalant.
"Well… other than the Cullens there is another family… They are quite similar. Very socially awkward and withdrawn from the rest of the town. The Zoldik family." He said with a thoughtful look coming to his face. "The Cullen's and the Zoldik's aren't really on the best terms. They never had been."
"Do you have any idea why?"
"There are a lot of theories, the general consensus is some kind of deep seeded family drama." He said, shrugging his shoulders.
"Family drama," I repeated. "Do you mean the Cullen's and Zoldik's are related?"
"Well it was never confirmed, but both families look so similar, I could believe they are related. Very pale and they have all the same eyes"
I was beginning to get very curious about these two families. I didn't know why. Maybe I was just trying to cling to something to motivate me to give Forks a chance.
"Well, I better get my stuff put away," I said with a sigh. I couldn't think of anything else to talk about. So I had the perfect excuse to make a clean exit. I gathered all my luggage and made my way up the stairs.
At the top of the long staircase I took note of the layout of the entire second floor. At the very end of the hall was the master bedroom, at the opposite end of the hall was a bathroom. There were two rooms, side by side on the right side of the hall and two on the left.
Slowly I poked my head into the first room, taking note of Marie sitting at her window seal, a cigarette in her hand. She glanced up at me, putting the cigarette to her mouth and taking in a long breath of smoke. "Is there something you need, Bell?" She said as she blew the smoke out the open window.
I really wish Marie would kick this bad smoking habit. I wasn't sure how it started, but I had a suspicion that her ex-boyfriend got her started.
"You know if dad catches you smoking in his new house, he is going to flip out." I said with a frown.
"Well as long as you don't tell him, he will never know." Marie said with a sigh.
"I thought you were trying to quit."
"I am, this kind of thing takes time. Just you wait and see, I'll be able to quit by the end of the week." She said with a grin. There was an emotion dancing in her chocolate eyes, I couldn't determine what the emotion was. But I let it go.
"Alright well, at least spray some air freshener in here, before dad smells that smoke. I said and slowly backed out of her room.
I now moved to the hall directly across from Marie's. I was hoping the room would be empty, but as I stepped inside I found Hayley on the edge of her bed, painting her toenails a bright cheerful yellow.
"Is the pizza here yet, I'm starving." She asked, focusing intently on her toes.
"Not yet, I'm guessing you picked the best room." I said, rolling my eyes.
"Of course, I have more clothes than you and Marie combined. I needed the room with the biggest closet."
I shrugged my shoulders, not at all denying her claim. She really did have the most clothes. I didn't care how big my closet was, just as long as I had somewhere to put my clothes, I was happy.
"Alright, well, I'll let you get back to doing whatever you're doing." I said as I walked out of her room. From all the years of living with Hayley, I knew that when someone entered and exited her room, you had to close the door behind you. I wasn't sure why Hayley was so obsessive about having her bedroom door shut at all times. But I respected her wishes and closed the door on my way out.
"Thank you." I heard her call through the door.
I guess I could pick from the remaining two rooms. At least I had some options. The first room I went to was much smaller than Hayley and Maries. It was nearly half the size. I looked around for a very brief moment, before deciding completely against this room. It was much too small.
The next room was ideal. It was large, there were multiple windows and the very best part, there was a personal bathroom. I couldn't have been happier about that. If Marie would have noticed this, there was no doubt in my mind that she would have picked this room. I must have been lucky.
I took my time, packing away my things.
One of the best things about Charlie is he doesn't hover. He left me alone to unpack and get settled, a feat that would have been altogether impossible for my mother.
It was nice to be alone, not to have to smile and look pleased; a relief to stare dejectedly out the window at the sheeting rain and let just a few tears escape. I wasn't in the mood to go on a real crying jag. I would save that for bedtime, when I would have to think about the coming morning.
When the pizza arrived my sisters and I all went down to sit at the dining table, with Charlie to have our first meal together, in what felt like ages. I forced a smile on my face through it all. I joked and laughed and tried to keep my thoughts away from Phoenix and my mother. Hayley seemed completely content, in a pure state of bliss. I envied her ability to stay so positive. Marie was putting on a good show, just as I was. I knew she was missing mom already.
Time seemed to pass sluggishly, I pretended to yawn and put a tired look on my face. Marie did the same. The both of us excused ourselves from the table and made our escape back to our rooms. Hayley stayed with Charlie and we could still hear their laughter and conversation from upstairs.
I knew that I probably wasn't going to get very good sleep tonight, but I had to try. The bed felt strange, foreign, but comfortable nonetheless. At some point I drifted off into sleep.
Did you like this first chapter? What are your thoughts so far? I'll be updating this story soon. Thank you for reading!