"Bella, can you stay for a minute, please," Mr. Banner asked.
Bella Swan moved away from the door with a sigh and went back to biology class.
Mr. Banner was one of her favorite teachers, and she already guessed what he wanted to talk to her about two months before the prom.
"Tell me, Bella, are you okay?" - Mr. Banner asked, looking at her carefully and kindly.
"Yes, Mr. Banner, I'm fine," Bella said, biting her lip.
"It's just that lately you've become withdrawn and you look upset all the time," the teacher continued.
"Everyone gets nervous before school ends," Bella shrugged.
"That's what I wanted to talk to you about. Miss Cope says you won't going to college this year," Mr. Banner said anxiously.
"Yes, Mr. Banner, I've decided to take a year to think about my future," Bella said, wishing the teacher would leave her alone. She was very grateful for Mr. Banner's concern, but she did not want to open her heart to him. She was used to dealing with her own problems on her own. How had Sheila Cope found out that Bella wasn't going to college this year? How hard it is to live in a small town like this, where everyone knows everyone else and everyone is always prying into everyone else's business.
"You could go to a good university. Even if your parents don't have any money, you could get a great scholarship," Mr. Banner said.
"Thank you, Mr. Banner. But I... I just haven't made up my mind yet, you know?" - Bella mumbled.
"I thought you liked biology and chemistry," the teacher said, and Bella nodded:
"Yes, Mr. Banner. I really like biology. And chemistry. And literature. And history," Bella sighed. - But studying all the sciences at once can't be a profession, can it? And I have no idea what I want to do in the future".
Well, she finally confessed to Mr. Banner one of her problems.
"But You seem to have had career guidance classes," Mr. Banner shrugged his shoulders at her confession.
And his surprise was understandable. Bella knew that she had always seemed practical, farsighted, and prudent to her teachers, and she was more mature than most of her peers, but suddenly she was criminally careless about something as important as her career. After all, even those Forks High School students who didn't expect to get decent scores on the graduation test were determined with their futures, and only Bella Swan didn't live up to his expectations.
"Yeah. And it turns out I can be pretty much anything," Bella sighed.
"But you can go to college without a certain major and pick one later," Mr. Banner reminded her.
"Yes, I know. But I don't like uncertainty," said Bella, who didn't want to have to officially admit when she got into college that she had no idea what she wanted to be. "And besides, students like that aren't treated well everywhere. And in a year, I'll know exactly what I want".
"What do your parents say?" - Mr. Banner asked, and Bella sighed even harder.
Parents. That was her second problem.
When Bella realized she wasn't ready to decide on a college this year, she'd arranged with Charlie to work in his buddy's store for a year and take a closer look at the options available to her. After all, her SAT scores were valid for five years, and next year she could easily get into any school she wanted. She had read that many high school graduates in other states did so, and she wasn't the least bit worried about it. Until suddenly her mother came back to Forks to get her father a formal divorce.
And then all hell broke loose. Charlie, who had seemingly never thought of his wife for two years, suddenly seemed to lose his mind. He refused to divorce Renee on her terms and made such claims on her that they were forced to take her to court, like some Hollywood stars. Renee ended up living in their house for five months, guarding her share of the property, and turning Bella's long-established life into chaos and confusion.
When she remembered that she happened to have a daughter, Renee began to actively pry into her life. And when she found out that Bella wasn't going to enroll, she made a scene, accusing Charlie of being the reason her daughter had no ambition and would rot in the middle of nowhere forever.
Charlie immediately tried to convince Bella to become a lawyer, which was his dream all along, and he'd even found some cool college that would get her into the best law school in the country. For that, he was willing to spend all his retirement savings.
Renee, on the other hand, insisted that her daughter become a financier. After all, her fiancé Phil's broker was making such good money! And both of them didn't care what Bella wanted. And Bella knew for a fact that she didn't want to be a lawyer or a broker.
"They trust me completely on this," Bella lied.
"Well, I hope you've really thought this through," Mr. Banner said. - 'If you ever need my advice, come to me anytime".
"Thank you, Mr. Banner," Bella said with sincere gratitude, and finally left the office for the corridor, where her best friend Angela Weber had been waiting for her the whole time.
"What did Mr. Banner want from you?" - Angela asked when she saw her friend.
"He asked about my plans for the future," Bella replied, and Angie nodded understandingly-they'd discussed her problems many times before. "Angie, are you sure you want to take a year off, too? "
"I'm sure," Angela said. - I mean, I'm still hoping to talk you into taking art and humanities together at Berkeley".
"You know, I think I'm ready to give up now," Bella sighed. "I'd rather go anywhere to get away from my parents. I'm not sure I can handle a year in this crazy house anymore".
At that moment, they saw a crowd gathered in the hallway and came over to see what was causing such a commotion in their boring provincial school. As it turned out, the reason for the pandemonium were men in uniform, handing out brochures and offering to take pictures with a cardboard Marine in full dress uniform.
"Bells, they're army recruiters," Angela exclaimed and pulled Bella by the sleeve. "Come on. We have trigonometry in five minutes".
"These aren't Army recruiters," Bella said, stepping closer to the booth. "These are Marine Corps recruiters.
"Is there a difference? "- Angela shrugged.
"Of course there is. The Marines are so much cooler than the Army," said Bella, who had heard that more than once from her father, a big fan of the war movies they used to watch together.
She was looking at the booth with interest, displaying all the glorious pages of Marine Corps history, from its founding to the war on international terrorism.
"Don't you want to be a Marine?" - she heard a woman's voice and, turning around, saw a woman in her thirties in uniform, who smiled at Bella amiably.
"Me?" Bella wondered.
"Yes, you are. Or don't you know that women can serve in the Marines, too? " - the recruiter looked at her cheerfully and pointed to the poster behind her - "Women can become Marines, too. "Take the booklet. The Marine Corps is the best way to start your adult life right now! "
"Thanks. I'll be sure to study it," Bella said as she took the booklet from the recruiter's hands.
"Believe me, it's really cool! " - The woman slapped her on the shoulder and switched to the next potential recruit, and Bella stared in amazement at the cover of the booklet-it had a picture of a Marine girl with a rifle in her hands, beautiful, strong and confident: just like Bella Swan dreamed of being.
"Would anyone really agree to that? " - Angela smirked as they stepped away from the booth and continued on their way to the study. - War - it's awful! Bella, what did you see in there that was so interesting?
"What... what are you saying?" - Bella shook her head, completely engrossed in studying the booklet. - Yes, yes, war is terrible... "
"But you don't think so, do you?" - Angie asked, evidently noticing Bella's fascination with the combat vehicles and rifles depicted in the booklet.
"I just remembered what I used to really like," Bella said, looking at her friend with burning eyes. - I really liked shooting! "
"Bella, you can't seriously enlist in the Marine Corps! - Angela exclaimed when Bella shared her new plan of action the next day.
"Why not? - Bella smirked. "It solves all my problems! For one thing, I could leave home right away, and I wouldn't have to look for money to live and rent somewhere. And secondly, it's something I'm really interested in. When I went hunting with the Clearwaterers, I was a great shot. Even better than Leah and Seth. "
"But you quit shooting," Angela reminded her.
"Yes, I did," Bella nodded, remembering why she'd stopped going hunting with the Clearwater, and then pushing the memory away. "But I was a teenager then.
"You're only eighteen now! " - Angela mussed her already disheveled hair even more in excitement. "What kind of a Marine are you? You're... you're...
"Nerd? A gray mouse? - Bella sighed. - Yes. And I'm tired of being like that. Tired of everyone deciding everything for me all the time! I want to do what I want to do. And now I want to be a Marine! I already signed up for the test, but I need your help, Angie."
"What kind of help? - Angela looked at her sadly, who clearly disapproved of her best friend's idea.
"I need your car. I'll tell my parents I'm going on a field trip, and I'm going to take the test myself," Bella said, and Angela sighed:
"I'll drive you myself. You could probably use some moral support."
"Thank you, Angie! - Bella hugged her friend tightly. - I'm so glad you're on my side".
"I'm always on your side, Bells," Angela smiled. - Even if you're up to something stupid".
"Will you both be taking the ASVAB? - asked a guy in a military uniform at the entrance to the MEPS testing center, where Bella and Angela had arrived early that morning after lying to her parents about a trip to the Seattle Museum of Art.
"No, just me," Bella muttered in a shaky voice. As they drove to the testing center, Angela, instead of cheering her friend on, was so scared her that she was no longer at all sure she wanted to be a Marine. But her innate stubbornness wouldn't let her turn back, and Bella was a little more confident:
"My name is Isabella Swan. I'm from Forks High School.
The guy nodded and, checking the lists, told her the number of the auditorium for the test.
"Good luck, Miss Swan," he smiled at her. "And don't worry so much. If you have brains, you'll pass the test. And if you have no brains, the recruiters will take it for you.
Bella looked at him with surprise, and the guy laughed:
"Just kidding!"
Bella gave a forced chuckle and staggered into the auditorium, scared to death of the tests to come.
She listened half-heartedly to the organizers' explanations, she was so shaken with excitement. However, Bella had already read so much about the test that she knew the rules by heart. Within three hours she had to answer one hundred and twenty-five questions from nine sections - general knowledge, arithmetic, mathematics, electronics, and other subjects, revealing the level of development of the recruit. A minimum score of thirty-one was required to win a contract.
Bella was generally confident in her knowledge. But she wasn't going to answer the test questions too well. On the recruitment forums she had read that those who scored above 65 and even higher than 80 on the test, are sent to all sorts of specialized troops, service in which the service can be considered military only formally - for example, to engage in data analytics or maintenance of complex technology. That didn't suit Bella at all.
After all, then she would remain the same cowardly nerd without an opinion, which she was so tired of being. She needed a specialty, as close as possible to the real military service, where they would make her a new person - strong, brave and confident, like the girl on the cover of the booklet. And bookworms are not needed in such specialties. So she needed to score a good average on the test. That's what Bella had been preparing for a few days, and she really hoped she would succeed.
"So what's next? " - Angela asked her as Bella walked out of the MEPS building, even less sure of herself than when she walked in.
"I have to 'go on a field trip' again next week," Bella said as she climbed into the car.
"Are you going to have another exam?" - Angela looked at her like a stern mother at an unreasonable child, and Bella smiled:
"No. A physical exam and physical fitness tests.
"Physical fitness tests?" - Giggled Angie, who knew exactly how much Bella hated everything to do with school sports.
"Yeah," Bella sighed. "I definitely won't have to pretend to be weaker than I am on these tests".
"But if you fail these tests, they won't offer you a contract, will they?" - Angela spoke hopefully, but Bella immediately dispelled her dreams:
"The recruiters said that if my health was good, they'd train me in the recruiting depot to meet all the standards.
"You know, Bells, if they're really willing to take recruits like you into the Marines, then the Marines are in big trouble," Angela said, and as Bella turned to pinch her painfully, she laughed happily, "Just kidding!"
"Angie, you're... you're the best!" - Bella laughed and hugged her friend tightly. "Let's go home. Now all we have to do is wait".
